Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

The rest of the comments were smacking Boebert like she was a piñata.

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

It could be worse. Vance could have said “post-menopausal sows.” Waiting for that audiotape to surface.

Fundamental belief of white supremacy: white people are presumed innocent, minorities are presumed guilty.

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

Hey Washington Post, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” is supposed to be a warning, not a mission statement.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

An unpunished coup is a training exercise.

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

There are a lot more evil idiots than evil geniuses.

One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

The jury literally has a bell they can ring to force Trump to show up on command. Greatest thing ever!

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

“Loving your country does not mean lying about it’s history.”

Tick tock motherfuckers!

Let’s show the world that autocracy can be defeated.

Polls are now a reliable indicator of what corporate Republicans want us to think.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

People are complicated. Love is not.

Somebody needs to explain to DeSantis that nobody needs to do anything to make him look bad.

GOP baffled that ‘we don’t care if you die’ is not a winning slogan.

You are here: Home / Economics / Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Unions Good, GOP… Not

Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Unions Good, GOP… Not

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PSA — Later today:

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218Comments

  2. 2.

    Baud

    As @mviser pointed out at the WH today: hard to have it both ways.

    Clean Observer makes a clean observation. This is stupid analysis. But it’s par for the course in anti-Dem propaganda. The message is, don’t trust them — stay home or vote GOP or third party, but don’t trust Dems with your vote.

  3. 3.

    Baud

    At first, I wasn’t that interested in that tweet about the left’s response, but going back, I see it is Loomis, which makes it more interesting to me.

  4. 4.

    Baud

    Along with treating every bit of news being BREAKING, I dislike the media practice of designating every interview as exclusive.  It’s always exclusive unless it’s a press conference, and if it’s a press conference, it’s not an interview.  Exclusive adds nothing. It’s a completely hollow word.

  5. 5.

    Mousebumples

    Good morning! Reminder that we’re doing most postcards and music tonight. Thread at 8pm blog time (7pm central), I believe.

    WaterGirl has addresses for Ohio (issue 1), as does Postcards to Voters, and there were a few VA postcard options in Saturday’s thread.

    Hope to see you there!

  7. 7.

    Chris T.

    @Baud:

    Exclusive adds nothing. It’s a completely hollow word.

    It’s a plea to the viewer: “Please don’t change the channel!” It’s just phrased as if it’s something desirable, whether or not that’s actually the case.

  10. 10.

    zhena gogolia

    Oh man, there are twelve interesting threads overnight on BJ and I do not have time to read them until later today.

  12. 12.

    satby

    Good morning rikyrah and everyone! Was offline yesterday to drive half way to Lexington, my son drove half way to S.Bend, and we met in the middle for lunch.

    So opening up Balloon Juice to 3 meaty posts overnight and this morning from Anne Laurie was a real treat. Thanks for all the reading, research, and effort to bring us interesting content Anne Laurie! Over the years, it’s been very much appreciated.

  13. 13.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Insisting he would not resign after being indicted on corruption charges, the embattled New Jersey Democratic senator Bob Menendez told reporters that $480,000 in cash found in a safe, clothing and closets at his home was kept there for emergency personal use.

    Well sure, doesn’t everyone keep $100K or 2 laying around the house for emergencies? And gold is the universal language of brib… I mean political donors everywhere. Freedom of Speech! Just ask Clarence.

  15. 15.

    Kay

    Since Trump’s trip is sponsored by the Right to Work Foundation (Right wing elites) and Democrats repealed an anti worker GOP law in MI this year, this would be good context for national media to add:

    LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan, long known as a mainstay of organized labor, on Friday became the first state in decades to repeal a union-restricting law known as “right-to-work” that was passed over a decade ago by a Republican-controlled Legislature.
    “Today, we are coming together to restore workers’ rights, protect Michiganders on the job, and grow Michigan’s middle class,” Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said in a statement Friday after signing the legislation.
    The second-term governor also signed legislation restoring a prevailing wage law that had been repealed by Republicans in 2018. It requires contractors hired for state projects to pay union-level wages.
    Repealing the “right-to-work” law, enacted in 2012, had long been listed as a top priority for Democrats, who took control of the full state government this year for the first time in 40 years.
    Supporters of the repeal poured into the state Capitol in Lansing earlier this month as the House and Senate took up the legislation before approving it along party lines after limited deliberations.

    That should be the context. It’s right on point and 100% factual.

  18. 18.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    I’m listening to the Cassidy Hutchison interview from the Maddow show last night. Maddow is reading an excerpt from the book. Is it wrong that I’m fixated on the way Hutchison wrote her account of Jan 6 in present tense?

  20. 20.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    Yeah, but what if honest reporting causes workers to make different political choices? Isn’t that indicative of bias?

  23. 23.

    Kay

    @Michael Bersin:

    That’s a great speech – thank you. You really don’t hear them invoke Mother Jones a lot, although they all seem to have that Sally Field “union” poster from the movie displayed in locals. The poster is fine but it might be good if their leaders all slipped a little (real) labor history into speeches. It’s fascinating. Better than any movie.

  24. 24.

    BellyCat

    @zhena gogolia: This is apparently a new balloon juice “feature” resulting from Adam flipping out on front pagers posting on any topic other than Russian genocidal behavior during what used to be called “prime time tv” hours.

  25. 25.

    Soprano2

    As @mviser pointed out at the WH today: hard to have it both ways.

    This is such a dumb statement. As I’m always telling people, you have to have both the office and the field workers. One cannot exist without the other. You need the office and the factory floor. And so on. Biden can want both the auto companies and the workers to thrive, because they need each other to succeed. Where did we get the idea that it’s OK for companies to thrive while their workers wither? At my pub, I want more customers both because I need them to succeed and because the servers need them to make enough money to want to work there!

  28. 28.

    Anne Laurie

    @Baud: Whichever network is hosting tomorrow’s second GOP debate (probably Fox again) has to be pissed.

    That *was* TFG’s intention, yes.

    Of course, assuming President Biden does well on the picket line today, I half-expect TFG to throw a sulk & refuse to leave his gilt-plated East Coast retreat.

  29. 29.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: Ugh, after hearing a good story on NPR this morning about the looming shutdown, I heard them say TFG is going to address “UAW members”. Nothing about his visit being sponsored by a right-to-work outfit, or being held at a non-union plant. Ugh…..

  30. 30.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: As conservative politically as MO is, every time the state legislature tries to enact right-to-work the people vote it down.

  31. 31.

    Anne Laurie

    @BellyCat:  No… in my case, at least, it’s just that I’ve been busy IRL during prime-time recently.

    Figure y’all would rather scroll back the next morning to read what I post before dawn then not have me post at all!

  33. 33.

    Soprano2

    @Baud: There are lots of extraneous words that are commonly used. The word “just” is almost never needed when it modifies another word. Same with “really” and “very”, which don’t describe anything. I had an English teacher in high school who forbid us from using those word when we wrote essays. She said if you want to describe something then describe it, don’t say “really big” because that doesn’t convey any actual meaning. I’ve tried to keep that habit to this day.

  34. 34.

    Kay

    @Soprano2:

    That is bad. It’s inaccurate – unless they are doing some nutty twisting to accomodate Trump where he’s  “addressing UAW members” although they are not there. I can go stand on my porch and start yelling and say I’m “addressing” the Queen Of England.

    I really wouldn’t be surprised. He has managed to wrap them around the axle again. They’ll now spend the whole day telling people things that aren’t true.

  35. 35.

    Steeplejack

    Re the Aaron Rupar “Trump is pro-worker” tweets, the CNN reporter cloaks herself in the “some people are saying” Teflon. Urk.

  37. 37.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: It is bad, lazy reporting where they repeat what TFG and his supporters say without checking it. You’d think by now they’d know that you have to check everything those people say because they lie so much. He’s going to a non-union plant on a visit sponsored by a right-to-work outfit but is trying to make people think he’s there to support the union members, and some number of people will fall for it because of sloppy, lazy reporting by the mainstream press. It’s sad how little they’ve learned since 2015.

  38. 38.

    H.E.Wolf

    @Mousebumples: ​ 
    ETA: Thank you to Mousebumples for the reminder and invitation to Postcards & Music for Ohio and Virginia tonight!

    Writing postcards to bring Democrats to the polls for OH’s pro-choice ballot issue may ALSO help Senator Sherrod Brown get re-elected this November Roevember.

    Pro-choice has coattails!​

  39. 39.

    Soprano2

    @OzarkHillbilly: LOL That teacher did help me improve my writing because I was forced to figure out other descriptive words to use. She said sometimes she would get a paper where every descriptive word was “really” or “very”.

  40. 40.

    Betty Cracker

    @BellyCat: That’s not what happened at all. He was pissed about his Ukraine post being squashed immediately, not insisting that it had to remain at the top of the blog during “prime time tv hours.” Also, he apologized for overreacting. Why stir up shit about it?

  43. 43.

    Kay

    @Soprano2:

    Apparently Drake Manufacturing is a non union parts plant. I’d have to look it up to verify they make auto parts and I have a job so don’t feel like it- God knows none of them looked into it although they’re paid to. So I’m not sure they’re even making auto parts.

    Normal people don’t call parts plant operators “auto workers”, someone should tell NPR and CNN. That’s not common usage. Auto workers work at big three assembly plants.

    Even if they were UAW (they’re not) not all UAW are “auto workers” so that’s also wrong. Donald Trump’s ridiculous “team” have bamboozled them yet again because they do no preparation.

  44. 44.

    Elizabelle

    @Betty Cracker:  Thank you for correcting the record.  That is exactly what happened.

    And I am glad to see more interesting posts up, with good links.  Sometimes it’s a desert in here.

  45. 45.

    Kay

    @Soprano2:

    We have a big parts plant here -it’s actually joint Mexican and Japanese ownership – they make seat belt assemblies for Honda and Ford. They don’t call themselves “auto workers” and either does anyone else.

  46. 46.

    Tony Jay

             “Firstly can I just say, if I may, how much I have always had the very greatest personal respect for Joe Biden’s extremely long record of service to the sometimes unpopular cause of moderation – sensible, pragmatic moderation – in politics. Few, if any, public servant still living can peer as far back into the last millennium as Joe Biden can and say “There’s my name” on legislation that, whether it passed or not, always sought to find the right balance, the ‘sweet spot’, if you will, between the twin extremes of conservative traditionalism and liberal idealism. And while, look, let me be straight with you here, all of this concentration on Joe Biden’s advanced age is, in my opinion, something of a distraction, if a well-meaning one, from the real and troubling issues facing the American economy, it’s also something that simply has to be given a proper weight of consideration at the decision making stage of any policy.

    Unfortunately, the impression that will no doubt be given by this somewhat radical intervention into what is already a pretty volatile and crowded industrial dispute, especially an intervention on behalf of what some might characterise, fairly or not, as unrestrained Union Power, it’s well, forgive me for saying so, but it seems to me to be an entirely uncharacteristic error, and one that will only feed into the narrative already popular amongst some elements in the News Media that the Joe Biden of ten, twenty, forty, even sixty years ago, back when he was in his prime, would never have chosen to act so recklessly, and so therefore he must be guilty of caving in to undue influence being exerted on him by more radical elements on the extremes of his Party and his Administration.

    I don’t believe that for a moment, of course, but one of the most important strengths of any successful administration is the capacity to correctly calculate the relative pros and cons of any action vis a vis the likely reaction of a not always friendly Media establishment and trim ones sails accordingly.”

    Excerpted from an upcoming Wall Street Journal interview with an unnamed senior source at the Tony Bliar Institute For Global Change, Leadership and Harmony Between Faiths

  48. 48.

    Josie

    @Anne Laurie: ​
     That is exactly what I do each morning. I go to bed early, so in the morning I scroll through everything that has been posted after that and enjoy reading every one. I may not comment on your late night and early morning posts, but I learn so much from reading them. Thanks for all your work.

  49. 49.

    Elizabelle

    It is concerning how easy it is to dupe the MSM.  They really are pack animals.  I think they interview each other, frankly.

    That CNN “reporter” looks really young, too.  No institutional memory.

  52. 52.

    Kay

    @Tony Jay:

    on behalf of what some might characterise, fairly or not, as unrestrained Union Power

    They love unions until unions actually do something. Anything. Then they have “gone too far”.
    Also – not to be rude but doesn’t his own country have some real problems he could be addressing? Let’s go ask Joe Biden about that fucking mess.

  54. 54.

    What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

    @rikyrah: I mean, gold bars make some sense if you’re going to leave a bunch of wealth stored at your house. They’d survive a fire, and if someone breaks in exactly how much gold are they going to be able to lift compared to stacks of cash? He’s guilty as hell but if I were storing a bunch of wealth at home I think I would choose gold bars for those reasons. Yes, you do have to convert them to cash to spend them but they’re more secure than just leaving cash hidden somewhere.

  55. 55.

    Elizabelle

    @eversor:  I know.  I can’t decide if they get hired for their cluelessness, or they adopt the pose to please their owners and keep their jobs.

    It may come down to a lack of curiosity, which is a weird thing to say about, well, journalists.

    A lot of nepotism in that field, too.

  57. 57.

    What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

    @Soprano2: How is someone supposed to negotiate an agreement between two sides while only meeting with one of those sides? Like, you have to meet with the executives too to mediate.

  58. 58.

    Burnspbesq

    I’m waiting for the UAW to announce a campaign to organize Tesla. Just because I want to see Leon Skum’s head explode.

  59. 59.

    Kay

    @Elizabelle:

    It doesn’t matter if she’s young. If she has a phone she could prepare enough for cable tv in the 10 minutes before she’s on. They’re just not adding any value. I can listen to Donald Trump myself if I want to know how he’s lying this week. He never fucking shuts up.

    We shouldn’t be finding out on social media that the Right to work foundation is directing his speech, or that Drake Manufacturing is non union, or that the attendees will be carefully selected to be anti UAW. Why do we need her?

  62. 62.

    Jeffro

    For those with a subscription (it doesn’t seem to want me to be able to gift a link?  maybe I’m out of gift links?) there actually is a “Here’s what 13 trump voters say – almost none of it good – about trump as the 2024 GOP nominee” in That Paper today.

    These people are remarkably stupid in many ways (read it; you’ll see what I mean) but 10 of 13 of them do not plan to vote for trump next year if he’s the nominee.  J6 is cited multiple times as the reason.

  64. 64.

    Jeffro

    Also good: this link is gifted for some reason, unlike the other one

    Clarence Thomas Should Not Get Away With It

    Great point, Mr. Bouie!

    We have had partisan justices; we have had ideological justices; we have had justices who favored, for venal reasons, one interest over another. But it is difficult to think of another justice, in the history of the Supreme Court, who has been as partisan and as ideological and as venal as Thomas, to say nothing of the fact that significant parts of his life have been subsidized by the largess of some of the wealthiest men in the country.

     

    …In the absence of a Democratic majority in the House, there’s little chance that congressional critics of Justice Thomas could initiate the impeachment process. Still, a steady demand that Thomas either resign or be impeached might pressure him to respond — forcing him to do the minimum and explain his actions to the public. And if stories of misconduct continue to mount, then a call for impeachment could even begin to shift his conduct. If nothing else, a regular focus on Thomas’s corrupt behavior through the lens of congressional action would remind the public that Congress does, in fact, have the power to sanction individual justices.

  65. 65.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Soprano2: She said sometimes she would get a paper where every descriptive word was “really” or “very”.

    It is easy to fall into that trap. Before I hit post on every comment I make, I try to reread it to make sure I don’t use the same word repetitively. I don’t always catch it.

  66. 66.

    Tony Jay

    @Kay:

    Oh, the real Tony Blair has a lot to say in the country of his birth. Unions are too radical, billionaires shouldn’t be taxed, privitisation is the answer to all ills, the usual drivel you’d expect from any Noughties-era centre-right bobblehead. He’s happy that the Nu-New Labour Party is now led by a factional mob that exists solely to enact revenge upon the Party and Electorate that had the temerity to reject His Glorious Self for the so-called sin of dragging Britain into Shrub’s War of The Swinging Balls.

    People from the Tony Bliar Institute sure do sound like him though, don’t they?

  67. 67.

    Elizabelle

    @sab:  Dessert carts.  Yeah, that was clever.  I have the Eeyores pied, and some threads, I just don’t get out of the boat.  Life is short.

  69. 69.

    Kay

    U of Chicago study:

    Unplanned pregnancies halt women’s career progression and result in income losses of 20% five years after an initial contraceptive failure. The detrimental effects of unplanned children are larger for younger women and women enrolled in education. In contrast, planned children have minimal impacts on women’s labor market outcomes.

    They find the following:

    Unplanned pregnancies have substantial, negative, and lasting consequences on the careers of previously childless women. By six years after the initial contraceptive failure, women experience income losses of 20% and the probability of working in an occupation requiring medium, high, or managerial skills is almost 20 percentage points lower than if their unplanned pregnancy had not occurred.
    There is substantial heterogeneity in the impacts of unplanned pregnancy, with larger effects for younger women and for women who are enrolled in education at the time of their unplanned pregnancy.

    Should be part of the antichoice discussion in the US. It won’t be, but it should be.

  71. 71.

    satby

    @Jeffro: J6 is cited multiple times as the reason.

    It’s the reason, along with tfg’s demonization of the FBI and law enforcement, why my cousin the retired FBI agent finally decided tfg was “a scumbag”. To my credit, I didn’t gloat, but a small smirk might have shown up on my face for a second.

  72. 72.

    Steeplejack

    @Kay:

    Inorite. It’s all “keep the spectacle moving,” like they don’t even listen to the content they’re dishing out. Style over substance.

  73. 73.

    MazeDancer

    So excited to see POTUS picket!

    So not interested in Trump’s Scab Supporter event tomorrow. Except to see if any media manage to mention it’s Scab Support.

  74. 74.

    Yarrow

    @Jeffro:

    Still, a steady demand that Thomas either resign or be impeached might pressure him to respond — forcing him to do the minimum and explain his actions to the public. And if stories of misconduct continue to mount, then a call for impeachment could even begin to shift his conduct.

    Wishful thinking presented without a shred of evidence and zero prior behavior from Thomas to suggest he’d do such a thing. Top shelf hopium.

  75. 75.

    BlueGuitarist

    @Soprano2:

    @Kay:

    I guess we’re stuck with it but “Right-to-work” is dishonest*

    Right-to-work-for-less, or -scab, or -undermine-unions, maybe,

    but nothing like “a right to a useful and remunerative job” from FDR’s 1944 second bill of rights,

    it’s not like the right-to-work laws guarantee that if if you can’t find work the government will provide a job.

    *really, very dishonest?

  76. 76.

    Sandia Blanca

    @zhena gogolia: Ha! I retired earlier this year, thinking that now I would have time to do just that. Some days I can, but lately I’ve been lucky to dip into the comments on a couple of posts. Retirement is great, though. Highly recommend if you can swing it.

  78. 78.

    mrmoshpotato

    @satby:

    So opening up Balloon Juice to 3 meaty posts overnight and this morning from Anne Laurie was a real treat.

    Balloon Juice – We Have The Meats!

  79. 79.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Kay: ​ I had a friend who worked at plant that made car seats for the Fenton Chrysler plant, UAW represented. She would have disagreed with you.

  81. 81.

    Elizabelle

    I kid you not, this is up on the FTF NY Times website this morning.  Headline and blurb.

    Americans Are Down on Biden.   Why Does His Party Keep Winning Elections?

    Despite a flood of negative polls, the Democrats have delivered in special elections, which can be a useful gauge of the national political environment. 

    Does anyone want to explain it to our media betters?

  82. 82.

    sab

    @Tony Jay: I just got an alumni magazine from Durham University, and Fionna Hill with her improper (i.e. working class Durham miner’s daughter)  accent is now its Chancellor. Local girl who couldn’t afford to go to the local university even with a scholarship. Tony Blair was shocked by her accent when Clinton introduced them.

  83. 83.

    Kay

    @Steeplejack:

    I just love how they’re covering Trump like it’s 2016 and they have never seen him before. It’s disorienting for a normal person – “wait a minute- did any of that happen?”

    He did this exact same labor union dance in 2016, along with the pro choice dance, and they’re going to cover it as if nothing he did in the intervening years happened. He knows them so well – he relies on them.

  84. 84.

    BlueGuitarist

    @Anne Laurie:

    Figure y’all would rather scroll back the next morning to read what I post before dawn then not have me post at all!

    Yes!
    thank you so much, as always!

  85. 85.

    Kay

    @Elizabelle:

    I saw an issue poll yesterday that surprised me – it had top issue as “inflation” but 1 point below that was Dobbs (anti choice). That’s better (higher ranked) than I would have predicted.

  86. 86.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    @Elizabelle: Does anyone want to explain it to our media betters?

    They should turn it over to their investigative teams.

    It turns out that people view us as morons and don’t trust us.

    Even crazier, those Trump diner folk, the ones we thought were morons. They were playing us, manipulating us into carrying water for them by claiming bias no matter how far.we.bent over for them.

    Scene.

  87. 87.

    BellyCat

    @Betty Cracker: Good to know that apologizing for bullying behavior well after the fact excuses all. Especially in the context of Adam’s “I’m not amused” comment later in his (alleged) apology post.

    Look, I greatly value Adam and his expertise. But the price that is seemingly too often paid is arrogance and an attitude which demands deference.

    The recent issue referred to is not the only time offense was taken by Adam, even if it was the most egregious. It’s a little disturbing that this pattern of behavior is being (somewhere between) condoned and enabled. 

    Your points at the time, BC, about possibly issuing a general one minute earlier pre-post (even if not yet being done, IIRCC), are a genuinely good compromise even if the central behavioral issue is being somewhat overlooked/excused.

    Whether I’m “stirring up shit” or genuinely encouraging more productive and mutually respectful behavior is an open question.

  88. 88.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: I read a book a long time ago about the reality of teenagers and abortion where the writer delved deeply into the reasons why some girls continued their pregnancies and others got abortions. She said education was by far the biggest reason girls got abortions; many parents advocated for it with the reasoning that they wanted their daughter to finish high school and go on to college, and this would be almost impossible if she had a baby at the age of 16. I wish I could remember the title of the book, it was fascinating and educational. She said one reason so many of these girls have babies young is because they are down on the prospect of ever getting married to anyone who has a future, so they figure if they have a baby when they’re 17 or 18 Mom and Dad will be around to help them, while if they wait until they’re in their mid or late 20’s or later they won’t get that help at all. It makes a kind of sense.

  90. 90.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Soprano2:

    There are lots of extraneous words that are commonly used. The word “just” is almost never needed when it modifies another word. Same with “really” and “very”, which don’t describe anything. I had an English teacher in high school who forbid us from using those word when we wrote essays. She said if you want to describe something then describe it, don’t say “really big” because that doesn’t convey any actual meaning. I’ve tried to keep that habit to this day. 

    I really like this comment.

  91. 91.

    eversor

    @Elizabelle:

    I grew up in a wealthy(ish) family in DC so I grew up knowing some of these morons personally.

    They are, as dad put it, professional thong sniffers.  There are groups.  And the cream of the crop are all highly educated socialites that went to the right schools and live in the right zip codes.  That’s all that matters.  Those who do not have that do not matter.  They are utterly sure of themselves despite not knowing shit about shit.  So they all sit in their own bubble and huff their own farts thinking they are important.

    Looking back on it the whole thing was very comedic.  Dad’s friends mostly had Romney level money.  None of them would have been caught dead with a journalist or shown up on the cocktail circuit.

    The media fools are adjecent to a great level of money and power but they aren’t in the inner sanctums.  We’d seem them at church or casual dinners or other bullshit functions as a kid I had to get dragged to.  But they weren’t there shooting clay or throwing boules with the rest of us.

    Dad’s about to die and he was never as wealthy as the rest of his cohort but he was allowed into it.  We were still always “the help” despite being millionaires a few times over but that’s chump change.  But dad and them being war buddies and still serving and making weapons was at least in some way considered a good thing to do.  So you met the press people at public places like church and then everyone ran off to a private estate and joked about them sniffing piss of womens under garments.

    They’re all acutely aware that everyone who does count hates their fucking guts.  They’re also aware they don’t actually have money or power.  Sure they drove a Mercedes to chuch.  Our cohort got driven by a driver in a Rolls.  There were multiple of those.  All matching!

    Dad’s “thong sniffers” may have been crude but it describes situation well.   These fuckers are always sniffing the waste of people far above their station in life and marveling at it.  And despite their praises of the stench of piss the people above them still think of them as people who like piss.

  92. 92.

    Steeplejack

    @Kay:

    And they’re doing it with a gauzy lens that filters out context like: “And after he speaks to the ‘auto workers,’ he will expand on his comment that windmills are killing the whales.”

  93. 93.

    Kay

    @Soprano2:

    I talk with a lot of them. A lot of them believe birth control is “abortion” – I think it comes from conflating the two in fundie churches and Right wing politics. But, absolutely agree. The stories of girls overcoming a young pregnancy and going to college are outliers. The vast majority don’t. Some of it, frankly, is the continued chaos of dealing with the very young fathers. The fact is tying the two teenagers together with a child harms both of them.

  94. 94.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    @Soprano2: I go with “right to mooch” since they’re allowing people not to pay others who are formally representing them.

  95. 95.

    Tony Jay

    @sab:

    In Blair’s world regional accents were something you put on when speaking to the proles, unless you lacked the verbal dexterity to speak proper English, in which case you were John Prescott.

    Snob doesn’t even begin to describe that self-obsessed creep.

  96. 96.

    JWR

    NBC has a news brief sort of program at 12 noon, and yesterday they noted that both Joe Biden and TFG will be joining with UAW strikers. Just like that! Like, both of ’em, walkin’ the line! Whichever bonehead wrote that load oughta have their face slapped. And Hard!

  97. 97.

    Kay

    Sad:

    Librarians in public schools in Charlotte County, Florida, were instructed by the school district superintendent to remove all books with LGBTQ characters or themes from school and classroom libraries.
    Charlotte County school librarians sought guidance from the school district about how to apply an expansion of the Florida Parental Rights in Education Act, better known as the “Don’t Say Gay” law, to all grades. “Are we removing books from any school or media center, Prek-12 if a character has, for example, two mothers or because there is a gay best friend or a main character is gay?” the librarians asked. Charlotte County Superintendent Mark Vianello answered, “Yes.”
    The guidance made clear that all books with LGBTQ characters are to be removed even if the book contained no sexually explicit content. The librarians asked if they could retain books in school and classroom libraries with LGBTQ characters “as long as they do not have explicit sex scenes or sexual descriptions and are not approaching ‘how to’ manuals for how to be an LGBTQ+ person.” Vianello responded, “No. Books with LBGTQ+ characters are not to be included in classroom libraries or school library media centers.”

    Erased.

    Just so you know, the free speech warriors are all working on defending Russell Brand and claiming he is being silenced, although he has a very profitable “lifestyle and wellness” grift and millions of subscribers.
    It’s crickets on any actual state threats to speech. They’re wholly focused on celebrity speakers. Their big concern is there aren’t enough famous misogynists online and/or they’re not making enough money.

  98. 98.

    catclub

    @What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: ​
     

    They’d survive a fire, and if someone breaks in exactly how much gold are they going to be able to lift compared to stacks of cash?

    I will first note that the ‘gold bars’ are likely one ounce bars.
    Second, a $100 bill weighs about 1 gram and 1 troy ounce is about 30 grams. At $2000/ounce that gold bar is 30 grams to 20 for $100’s. Not a big difference. So how much gold can they lift
    compared to cash? pretty much

  100. 100.

    BellyCat

    @eversor: Seems about right. Seemingly also applies to powerful people regardless of wealth (members of congress, judges, police officers, etc).

  101. 101.

    Anyway

    @Steeplejack:

    Inorite. It’s all “keep the spectacle moving,” like they don’t even listen to the content they’re dishing out. Style over substance.

    Whoever came up with “theater criticism” had it right – that’s all the Lamestream media cares about. “Optics” gack.

  103. 103.

    Jeffro

    @Yarrow: Wishful thinking presented without a shred of evidence and zero prior behavior from Thomas to suggest he’d do such a thing. Top shelf hopium.

    As a stand-alone, sure.  But did you read the article?  Here’s how it ended:

    As it stands, though, most congressional Democrats have restricted themselves to making calls for an ethics code. “Justices Thomas and Alito have made it clear that they’re oblivious to the embarrassment they’ve visited on the highest court in the land,” Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said earlier this year. “Now it’s up to Chief Justice Roberts and the other justices to act on ethics reform to save their own reputations and the Court’s integrity.”
     
    This is all well and good. But if Democrats truly want to establish the severity of Thomas’s misconduct, if they want to raise the issue in the minds of Democratic voters, if not the public as a whole, then they should not be afraid to put impeachment on the table.

    If we don’t raise the issue no one will.  If we don’t raise the issue, it’s tacit acceptance of such behavior.  If we do raise the issue and keep pushing…sure, Thomas will probably refuse to do squat (much less resign).  But there are other reasons to push.

    Same thing with Menendez: we should keep calling for him to resign, even if he won’t.  It sends a message.

  104. 104.

    Yarrow

    @sab:

    I just got an alumni magazine from Durham University, and Fionna Hill with her improper (i.e. working class Durham miner’s daughter)  accent is now its Chancellor. Local girl who couldn’t afford to go to the local university even with a scholarship. Tony Blair was shocked by her accent when Clinton introduced them.

    I thought I remembered this. From Tony Blair’s wiki:

    Blair’s father accepted a job as a lecturer at Durham University, and moved the family to Durham, England, when Blair was five. It was the beginning of a long association Blair was to have with Durham

    Maybe there was more to it than just Hill’s accent.

  105. 105.

    catclub

    @Yarrow: ​
      I think a steady demand that Thomas resign, is better than simply ignoring it and saying nothing. Even if there is no resignation.

    Ignoring it implies consent, or that Thomas is just that way and does not know better ( which may be true).

  108. 108.

    Baud

    @catclub:

      I think a steady demand that Thomas resign, is better than simply ignoring it and saying nothing. Even if there is no resignation

     
    I agree, but a lot of our people get frustrated when demands don’t lead to action and turn their frustration inward when Dems don’t escalate the fight. Sometimes all of have are words, and they have to be enough.

  109. 109.

    catclub

    @Anyway: Someone pointed out that is absurdly easy to fool the MSM.  And to fool them into carrying your water.

    If true, how is the progressive side of the aisle strategizing to do that?  Or is it only possible for rightwingers to fool the MSM?

  112. 112.

    Yarrow

    @Jeffro:  Now you’re moving the goalposts. I did not suggest Democrats should not push for impeachment. Nor did I suggest that calls for ethics reforms for the Supreme Court shouldn’t happen. I’m for Democrats doing both things.

    I just think the section you excerpted and I highlighted is wishful thinking at best. Justice Thomas won’t do anything unless he’s forced.

  113. 113.

    Mousebumples

    @H.E.Wolf: Writing postcards to bring Democrats to the polls for OH’s pro-choice ballot issue may ALSO help Senator Sherrod Brown get re-elected this Roevember.

    I’m pretty sure Sen. Brown is up for reelection next year and not this year. But prospective voter contact NOW hopefully gives more opportunities for turnout next year too!

  114. 114.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    it is teed up for them, though. The SCOTUS keeps dropping in polling and the steep drop coincided with the far Right takeover. Some of this getting thru. We see that they’re concerned- it’s why the WSJ has made Alito a columnist.

  115. 115.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: This is of course the aim of all this, to make sure their kids don’t have access to any books with or about gay people. I am absolutely convinced that these parents think if they can keep their kids from knowing anything about gay people, then their kids can’t possibly be gay. They are certain that liberals are “turning their kids gay” and “converting their kids to the gay lifestyle”. They want the school library to be the way it was when they were young, with no books about gay people at all. I say this from personal experience; I went to school in a small town. I didn’t even know what a gay person was until I went to college!

  116. 116.

    Steeplejack

    @Kay:

    We shouldn’t be finding out on social media that the Right to work foundation is directing his speech, or that Drake Manufacturing is non union, or that the attendees will be carefully selected to be anti UAW. Why do we need her?

    All of this!

  117. 117.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Another Scott: Ahhh suck on a horse’s ass, Ghouliani.

    ETA – “we can sue them and win lots of money”

    Oh wait.  That was the orange shitstain bellowing that out of his fat, orange, fascist face in 2015.

  118. 118.

    Yarrow

    @catclub:  I never said I didn’t think there shouldn’t be calls for his resignation or similar. I just think the way it was worded in the excerpt was wishful thinking. I mean, “might pressure him to respond”, “forcing him to do the minimum and explain his actions to the public,”  “could even begin to shift his conduct.” That’s a lot of “maybes.”

    Thomas has zero history of doing such things. Why would he start now? Thomas would only resign if he did it as a compromise to keep from getting impeached (unlikely) or prosecuted for crimes.

  119. 119.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    Agreed.  We shouldn’t drop it as an issue.  I just don’t want to see us start debating whether Dems are feckless because we’re not going all in on a doomed impeachment vote tomorrow.

  120. 120.

    Almost Retired

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: ​
      Narrating in the present tense was all the rage in trial lawyer circles a few years ago, especially in sexual harassment cases. I remember attending a seminar with a mock opening statement to that effect: “He comes up behind her. She feels his breath on her neck….etc.” The theory was that it puts the jurors in the moment.
    It doesn’t. Ultimately, we all collectively concluded that very few attorneys can pull this off without the jury looking puzzled. I don’t like it at all.

  124. 124.

    sab

    @Yarrow: No. It was the class accent difference. Tony Blair doesn’t have much of an accent other than sounding vaguely posh. The class accent distinctions in the UK are shocking to American ears. My family was college educated management, my husband’s family were blue collar high school graduates but we all sound pretty much the same. It is not like that in the UK

    ETA Clinton thought they would get along because both from Durham, as would be likely in the US. But instead there was the accent barrier. I found it shocking because Blair was Labour prime minister.

  127. 127.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    @Baud: Where were Congressional Democrats during the Dobbs decision? They didn’t…do….aaannnnyyythiiinng🤬☠️👿😱💔👈👉👈👉AB🖕👇Start

  131. 131.

    mrmoshpotato

    @SFAW:

    I certainly do. In fact, I think I may have a few million here, depending on how many Monopoly games we have in the house. 

    Enjoy playing Monopoly until the next millennium!  And that’s just one game of it!

  132. 132.

    BruceFromOhio

    With all due respect @mviser that’s the narrative the profiteers want to hear, that “you can’t have it both ways,” that someone has to “lose” in these circumstances. UAW challenges that, and so does Biden. Building EVs with union labor at a profit is not only possible, but highly desirable.

    OTOH glad to see Viser follow up with TFG “at a non-union shop” as these other details surface.

    And while I get the ire for CNN and the like being shitty at reporting the news, I cut the newbies a lot of slack, you get told where to go, what to say and how long you have to say it. Journalism it ain’t.

  134. 134.

    Betty Cracker

    @BellyCat: I never said apologizing “excuses all,” but why make things out to be worse than they were? It doesn’t seem productive or mutually respectful.

  135. 135.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    @mrmoshpotato: Better still, can we give the anchor desk at CNN to some large-mouth bass? I can’t imagine they would do a worse job. And the singing will be fantastic.

  137. 137.

    tobie

    I just read on Mastodon that SCOTUS has declined Alabama’s request to re-hear the Congressional district case. I’m on my phone so don’t have the wherewithal to link. This is very good news. As a lifelong worry-wart, I’ll say, “Phew.”

  138. 138.

    Almost Retired

    @Baud: ​
      “Rudy will come up behind you. You will feel his breath on your neck..” It works in the future tense as well, since it’s inevitable.

  140. 140.

    BruceFromOhio

    @Kay:

     I can go stand on my porch and start yelling and say I’m “addressing” the Queen Of England.

    I can attest this is effective, having addressed many famous people in this manner. Alas, the only responses I get are the neighbors dog barking, and MrsFromOhio telling me to shut the front door. Or something.

  144. 144.

    frosty

    @Sandia Blanca: I retired in 2020 and have spent the ensuing time reading every comment on Balloon-Juice. That’s where my mornings go. Occasionally I look up and consider doing something more useful. Like, maybe, going through the mail and paying the bills.

  145. 145.

    Michael Bersin

    @Kay:

    Cori Bush (D), the U.S. Representative for the district was there, too, and she gave a roof raising speech.

     

    Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D) was there, too (I’m still working on the audio and transcription).

    Democrats show up. There were a number of local and state representatives there. Not very many republicans, if any.

  146. 146.

    Geminid

    Samantha Power, head of the U.S. Agency for International Development, visited Armenia yesterday and conferred with Prime Minister Pashinyan and other officials. She delivered a letter from President Biden to the PM, assuring him of support and aid. Some observers saw Biden’s encouragement for a peace treaty between Armenia and Azerbaijan a tacit admission that the US will not support the autonomy of Artsakh, but that is a moot point now anyway.

    The surrender of Artsakh has saddened and outraged many in the Armenian diaspora, which is estimated as between 5 and 8 million in number (Armenia’s population is 2.7 million). Leaders of the large Armenian American community in Southern California are organizing a demonstration tomorrow at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, site of tomorrow evening’s Republican debate.

    Reporting from Artsakh itself is spotty. There was an explosion at a gas station in Stepankert that caused a lot of casualties among residents fueling up, many for the trip to Armenia. Pictures of the Lachin Corridor between Artsakh and Armenia showed cars packing the roadway. As of last night an estimated 5% of Artsakh’s estimated 120,000 residents had fled.

    Artsakh and Azeri representatives have been meeting in a nearby town to discuss the process of Artsakh’s “reintegration” into the nation that surrounds it. There is also a 2,000(?) strong Russian “peacekeeping” force that is accepting the weapons and equipment that Artsakh soldiers are turning in.

  151. 151.

    Quiltingfool

    @Jeffro: I read that article and commented on it below.

    What irritates me the most is these people have not one damned clue about what Biden has done during his Presidency.  They think Biden is senile; but they didn’t think that about Trump.  Have they never listened to that ferret-headed shitgibbon speak?

  152. 152.

    kalakal

    @sab:

    Local girl who couldn’t afford to go to the local university even with a scholarship.

    Uk university tuition fees weren’t brought in until 1998. Ditto for student grants. She’s a few years younger than me but I’m pretty sure that like me she’d have recieved free tuition and a grant.* Introducing tuition fees and loans was a really nasty & stupid move, there were plenty of working class people at uni before  those bastards fucked it up. Even then it was harder for poorer people, the grant wasn’t that generous, it was equivalent to unemployment benefit which wasn’t lavish. I struggled on it and so did she.

    The real kicker for poor people was you weren’t earning for at least 3 years, this put an immense strain on the family

    The scholarship presumably helped with living costs. Durham was the university but it is pretty elitist, it’s the equivalent of your local university being Harvard. She’ll have had great A levels to get in.

     

    Tony Blair was shocked by her accent when Clinton introduced them.

    This is so true. In the English civil service class is a real show stopper. A very good friend of mine has an accent that makes Hill’s sound like RP ( He’s a full blown Geordie, very working class). He rose high in HMRC but it was made very clear to him after a while that there was a ceiling for him and it had nothing to do with his ability. Blair would have been amazed anyone could rise that high in a civil service with her accent. Just would not have happened in the UK.

    *It may have been that the grant got less generous after i finished in the early 80s, it was definitely getting tough by then with regard to inflation.

  154. 154.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    @Quiltingfool: I’d say Republicans usually win rhetorically because people prefer clear and decisive to nuanced and correct.

    Trump can’t even meet that clear and decisive mark, though. Perhaps there’s something he’s doing that’s perceptible only to the lizard brain.

  155. 155.

    mrmoshpotato

    @The Kropenhagen Interpretation:

    Better still, can we give the anchor desk at CNN to some large-mouth bass? I can’t imagine they would do a worse job. And the singing will be fantastic. 

    How do we keep all of the Billy’s straight?

    Billy 1, Billy 2, like Bananas In Pajamas?

  158. 158.

    frosty

    @Elizabelle: ​@Jeffro: Thank you, but I am sick to death of overcoverage of GOP voters.

    I opened it and didn’t get past the first paragraph. Turns out I don’t care what any of these people think.​

  160. 160.

    Soprano2

    @OzarkHillbilly: Yep, been saying that since he rode down the escalator in 2015. It’s the reason they love him so much.

    I know a lot of people here like to cook; I’m listening to a 1A show about spices that many of you might enjoy. They’re talking about using spices medicinally as well as for flavor. If you check their web site by tomorrow it’ll probably be available. If you do podcasts, it might be available; they’re kind of unpredictable about which shows appear in their podcast feed.

  161. 161.

    Soprano2

    @The Kropenhagen Interpretation: The difference with TFG is that he gave them permission to show the hate openly, rather than having to use coded language or couch it in obscure terms. I like the idea that TFG answered the casting call, because it’s the truth; they’ve been wanting someone like him for a long time.

  162. 162.

    Dave

    @The Kropenhagen Interpretation: He told them more or less explicitly that it is not only ok but fun and good to hate.

    I think there is more to it than that his celebrity. That he is somehow completely full of it and yet authentically full of it in a way that say Ted Cruz or Desantis isn’t.

    Something about the way that he is gilded crap and that sticks it to people they hate is involved.  I should survive long enough (hopefully) to read historical retrospectives on it and I might if he, and his legacy, have been in the rear view mirror long enough at that point.

  163. 163.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Ocotillo:

    Oh, I guess you missed it but, Joe Biden is old and he pulled us out of Afghanistan. 

    Excuse me.  You misspelled oooooolllllllldddddd 👶👶👶😭😭😭.

  164. 164.

    H.E.Wolf

    @Mousebumples:@”H.E.Wolf: Writing postcards to bring Democrats to the polls for OH’s pro-choice ballot issue may ALSO help Senator Sherrod Brown get re-elected this Roevember.”
    I’m pretty sure Sen. Brown is up for reelection next year and not this year. But prospective voter contact NOW hopefully gives more opportunities for turnout next year too!
     

    * * * *
    Yes, you’re correct on all counts! My wits were wandering (and also my ability to read a calendar). :)​​

  165. 165.

    Citizen Alan

    @Jeffro: I will remind everyone once again that Abe Fortas was denied the chief Justice position and eventually forced off the court over a matter of $30k in speaking fees.

  167. 167.

    artem1s

    @What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: ​ 

    I mean, gold bars make some sense if you’re going to leave a bunch of wealth stored at your house.

    Doesn’t matter how much he’s keeping it at home-that’s his business if he wants to stow it in a mattress and not earn interest on it. But the “why” – that’s the rub.
    He could have earned it by posing for nude photos or gambling or anything really. But if he didn’t report it and he’s got it at the house in order to keep it off his bank records, then he’s in real trouble. And he has to account for where it came from eventually – so either he tells the truth or he perjures himself. It’s gonna be near impossible for his lawyers to get him off this time – tax evasion is a lot easier to prove than corruption. And he can’t make a plea deal unless he tells the truth about where it came from, so they probably are going to get him on corruption too this time. He should have paid someone to launder it for him.

  169. 169.

    Geminid

    @The Kropenhagen Interpretation: I need a bigger sample to make more than a guess, but Trump seems to be showing more signs of deterioration lately. I couldn’t say if its physical, mental, emotional or what combination of the three. One thing I’m fairly certain about though is that Trump is under stress now like he’s never been before.

    And I’m kind of certain that Trump is not a very tough man mentally. I deduce this from the way he always talks so tough. I have come to view tough talk as a “tell” that the speaker is in fact not very tough.

  171. 171.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    @Kay:

    Should be part of the antichoice discussion in the US. It won’t be, but it should be.

    The anti-choice people consider this to be a feature, not a bug.

  172. 172.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Quiltingfool:

    What irritates me the most is these people have not one damned clue about what Biden has done during his Presidency. They think Biden is senile; but they didn’t think that about Trump. Have they never listened to that ferret-headed shitgibbon speak? 

    A few years ago, on John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight, they had someone read some of the shitgibbon’s bullshit ranting without the weird ass sing song cadence.  It was even stupider than when it comes out of Dump’s disgusting face.

  173. 173.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    @Geminid: Trump started from a lowrr baseline to begin with. Biden could lose half his current mental fortitude and be better than Trump on his best day. The thought of Trump under emotional stress is making me giggle. No way he knows how to handle that shit.

    @OzarkHillbilly: Oh, I understood. What I don’t understand is why they need his permission.

  176. 176.

    JustRuss

    @Soprano2: It is bad, lazy reporting where they repeat what TFG and his supporters say without checking it. You’d think by now they’d know that you have to check everything those people say because they lie so much.

    The only thing they have to do is cash their paychecks.

  180. 180.

    laura

    @kalakal: Fiona Hill tells Lauren Laverne why she couldn’t attend Durham despite earning a scholarship- her family had NO MONEY for uniforms and other necessities. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0017435

    I love that she chose Ghost Town by the Specials as her first choice.

    Also, this former UAW Member is thrilled that President Joe Biden is going to walk a picket line. FYI, a collective bargaining agreement is mutually agreed upon work rules and a snap shot of the balance of power between labor and management. Labor has every right to demand a share of the wealth they create.

  181. 181.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:

    It’s so weird how they constantly compliment one another “Kristen, you’re a pro” after she recites Trump campaign lines for 60 seconds.

     

    Because it was absolute bullshyt, and I’m glad so many of us ‘ regular people’ called that garbage out.

  183. 183.

    Bill Arnold

    @Soprano2:

    “Right-to-work for less and less”.

    Even that is false; most states, and all “right-to-work” states, are “at will employment” states; employees can be made un-employees at will.
    (Montana is not employment at will but also not right to work.)

  188. 188.

    Paul in KY

    @Kay: That is great! “Right To Work” laws are union killers. Kudos to all who got the evil Orwellian-Named law repealed!

  189. 189.

    Paul in KY

    @Kay: I take it to mean there will be 2 actual ‘UAW Members’ there. Both either racist MAGA fuckwads or were bribed to be there.

  193. 193.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @Kay:

    Librarians in public schools in Charlotte County, Florida, were instructed by the school district superintendent to remove all books with LGBTQ characters or themes from school and classroom libraries.

    Thank you for sharing this. I was going to, but I’m at a Pacific time zone disadvantage. For context, this is one of a growing number of schools where Republicans are banning books with any LGBTQ+ content.

    They want to erase us.

  194. 194.

    Steeplejack

    @Soprano2:

    They want the school library to be the way it was when they were young, with no books about gay people at all.

    Amazing that people still managed to become gay back then!

  195. 195.

    wjca

    @Quiltingfool: They think Biden is senile; but they didn’t think that about Trump.  Have they never listened to that ferret-headed shitgibbon speak?

    At the rate TIFG’s mental capacity is declining (and from a low starting point) I’d say there’s a chance that, around mid-summer, he starts saying and posting comments that lay out what he really thinks of the marks he’s been fleecing all these years.  And keeps doing it, while heads explode.

    A fantasy, perhaps.  But more possible than many such.

  196. 196.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:

    but 1 point below that was Dobbs (anti choice). That’s better (higher ranked) than I would have predicted.

    And they will ignore that as much as possible.

  198. 198.

    kalakal

    @laura: Ah I see now. She’s talking about a private school not university – in the UK school is not university*, in US terms it’s high school . She talks about passing her 11 plus and getting a scholarship to private ( in the UK public) school which are the sort of places such as Eton which are crazy expensive* and where the likes of Cameron, Johnson** etc go. They all offer a couple of scholarships a year as a tax rip off, it allows them to claim to be al charities rather than very lucrative businesses charging their clients 10s of 1,000s a year. And yeah they’d have paid the tuition fee but nothing else which would be hard even for a lower middle class family let alone a poor one.

    The 11 plus (ended in 1976) was a horrible exam, you took when you were 11 or 12 and thereafter you went to a “good” school or one for the rude mechanicals. In far too many cases decided  at the age of 11 wether you would go to university or not. She went to the local comprehensive (public in the US sense) until she was 18 or so, was obviously smart and determined, got good A levels and then on to a university.which would have been free with a grant in those days. Not sure what university she went to but she got her MA at St. Andrews

    * with few exceptions such as the London School of Economics

  200. 200.

    Jeffro

    @catclub:

     I think a steady demand that Thomas resign, is better than simply ignoring it and saying nothing. Even if there is no resignation.

    Ignoring it implies consent, or that Thomas is just that way and does not know better ( which may be true).

    Yup.  Sends a message either way, so why be silent?

  202. 202.

    Jeffro

    @dr. luba:

    I still have lots of gift links left, so here. Why 13 GOP voters don’t want Trump any more.

    thank you!

    It was kind of surprising to see the article in the first place, much less see these folks talk about trump’s many obvious flaws, insanity, and non-starter for them (post J6)

    Just imagine if that was the discussion in more of our snooze media?  “Here’s yet another example of trump’s complete unfitness for office – make of it what you will, GOP”

    (One of my left-leaning buddies put it this way: “I don’t care how many write-in votes Ronald Reagan gets next November…as long as they’re coming from former trump voters!”  TRUTH)

  203. 203.

    Jeffro

    @Elizabelle: Thank you, but I am sick to death of overcoverage of GOP voters.

    I hear you, but this was coverage of an entirely different sort.  =)

    (If it was yet another Ohio diner safari, I wouldn’t have bothered)

  204. 204.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:

    it is teed up for them, though. The SCOTUS keeps dropping in polling and the steep drop coincided with the far Right takeover. Some of this getting thru. We see that they’re concerned- it’s why the WSJ has made Alito a columnist.

    That we were supposed to be ok with them removing body autonomy for half the population, and stripping us of voting rights, and affirmative action. All the while, they’re not only ideological hacks, but, also corrupt moochers too?

    I think the phuck not.

  205. 205.

    Juju

    @Quiltingfool: Some of the Republican voters wanted Reagan back as a candidate. The man was afflicted with Alzheimer’s during his tenure.  Reagan was senile while president and they called Biden senile.

  206. 206.

    Origuy

    This talk about gold bars reminds me of a former co-worker, a Mormon prepper. He had a bunch of gold buried in his yard, along with the required year of food to live on. At one point he went to open his gold stash and discovered that his teenage son had cashed it all in.

  208. 208.

    Paul in KY

    @kalakal: Back in 2009 or thereabouts my mother (born in Warrington) and I went up to the Chicago consulate to get mustered in as a British citizen. The chief of the consulate was a very fine lady from Brighton. Still had her accent, etc. My mon was so happy/amazed that a women (with that accent) had risen so far in the Foreign Service.

  211. 211.

    Soprano2

    I read that NY Times article. Some of them are so close to getting it……but then they say “Joe Biden is senile” because they’ve been watching too much Fox News. No way to reach them with Biden’s accomplishments if that’s the only place they get news from. I was encouraged to see that they don’t care that much about the “woke” crap.

  212. 212.

    Soprano2

    @Geminid: Did you see his insane rant about the NY civil case that starts Monday? If he was so sure he’s innocent and didn’t do anything wrong he wouldn’t be ranting for someone to stop the case.

  214. 214.

    kalakal

    @Paul in KY: Good for her👍

    It’s improving but the upper echelons of Whitehall are still heavily weighted to public school Oxbridge PPEs*

    *graduates of Oxford or Cambridge with a degree in Politics, Philosophy, and Economics

  216. 216.

    Tony Jay

    @rikyrah:

    The real Blair gets paid to say nice things on behalf of dictators and autocrats, so if Biden ever seriously puts the clamps on Bonesaw or Blair’s other clients, I’m sure you can expect to read a genuine piece in the WSJ criticising the White House’s ‘unhelpful rhetoric and dangerous brinkmanship’.

    Until then, we’ll all just have to settle for me putting words in the prissy little fraud’s greedy mouth. 

  217. 217.

    kalakal

    @laura: Heh! Big fan here too, 2 tone ska was really big in the UK in the late 70s, early 80s. My favourite 2 tone band was Madness.

  218. 218.

    Yarrow

    @Jeffro:  In your original comment you quoted one section of the opinion piece (I don’t consider those sorts of things “articles” but perhaps you do). I took issue with what was said in that section.

    You then responded by quoting an entirely different section of the piece, with a different focus, and said Dems needed to keep pointing out Thomas’s ethics issues because if we don’t, who will. At that point I said you had moved the goalposts because the first section of the editorial you quoted and the second section you quoted did not say the same thing.

    The first bit was wishful thinking that if people keep pointing out Thomas’s bad actions he’ll resign. He won’t, in my opinion. The second section said Dems need to keep raising the severity of Thomas’s ethics issues so voters will know just how bad he is. I agree with that. But it’s not remotely the same thing as hoping Thomas will resign if you keep talking about his misconduct.

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