Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

All hail the time of the bunny!

Today’s gop: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

I might just take the rest of the day off and do even more nothing than usual.

I would try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

The Supreme Court cannot be allowed to become the ultimate, unaccountable arbiter of everything.

Sadly, media malpractice has become standard practice.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

Baby steps, because the Republican Party is full of angry babies.

It is not hopeless, and we are not helpless.

Hell hath no fury like a farmer bankrupted.

Dear elected officials: Trump is temporary, dishonor is forever.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

These are not very smart people, and things got out of hand.

“Alexa, change the president.”

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

One lie, alone, tears the fabric of reality.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

SCOTUS: It’s not “bribery” unless it comes from the Bribery region of France. Otherwise, it’s merely “sparkling malfeasance”.

Our messy unity will be our strength.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

Nothing says ‘pro-life’ like letting children go hungry.

T R E 4 5 O N

You passed on an opportunity to be offended? What are you even doing here?

A norm that restrains only one side really is not a norm – it is a trap.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Wodensday Morning Open Thread: The Old Ones Return

Wodensday Morning Open Thread: The Old Ones Return

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Wodensday Morning Open Thread: The Old Ones Are Returning

Probably it’s photoshopped… or is it just somewhere in Britain?

The institution may not always have been in his corner, but Murphy bless the Secret Service agents sweating here…

Hillary Clinton refuses to lie low:

And they’re encouraging The Youth to follow in their giant footsteps!

Elsewhere, noisome monsters stirring in the deeps:


(Yes, as many have pointed out, Eric ‘The Dumb One’ Trump is committing the same form of rampant overvaluation for which his old man just got busted.)

Anyone else getting Dr. Strangelove flashbacks?…

Reader Interactions

166Comments

  2. 2.

    NotMax

    FYI.

    175 kids affected by Maui fires get new bikes, and more available through Krank Cycles
    [snip]
    Bicycle companies Mongoose and Schwinn donated 400 bikes for Maui fire survivors, with Krank Cycles setting up a GoFundMe to pay the approximately $15,000 for shipping and for other bike-related fire relief projects.
    [snip]
    The “community build” event called for people affected by the fires to register and come with tools to help build the bikes.

    About 225 people showed up, and in a little more than two hours, all 400 bikes were assembled — of which 175 were given on Saturday to children of all ages, and some adults.

    Reichert said the remaining 225 bikes will be given to people, with verified Lahaina or Kula addresses, who have requested them. As of Saturday, he had a list of about 1,300 requests.

    He said another container, with 225 Kona bikes, is on its way from Indonesia. The shipping will be less, about $10,000, but import tariffs of 5 to 6% will have to be paid. Source

  3. 3.

    dmsilev

    “Mar-a-Lago is speculated to be worth well over a billion dollars”

    Eric truly is The Dumb One. It’s the penchant for “speculated” valuations that lead to this fraud case being brought. Thanks for admitting it, Fredo!

  8. 8.

    narya

    Thanks to yesterday’s lively debates, I’ve rethought some things (no need to hijack this thread w/ it, just wanted to thank everyone here). Good morning, jackals!

  9. 9.

    hueyplong

    Kind of enjoying watching the Trumps make arguments in public that either (1) they didn’t have the nerve to make during motion briefing or (2) were arguments found wholly lacking in merit by the court.

    You know, kind of like the election fraud stuff.

    It’s a lot of fun watching one of the most litigious pieces of shit to come down the pipe go down the toilet pipe in this manner.

    Maybe Putin will launder $1.5B to buy MAL and “prove” Trump’s point.  If Vlad’s not overly liquid right now, he can pass the hat around to his oligarch friends.  They’re no doubt thrilled with how his Trump gambit is playing out.

  11. 11.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    Interesting article at Axios arguing that income inequality is a major cause of shortfall in the Social Security funds:

    The percentage of incomes subject to the program’s tax collapsed from around 90% in the early 1980s to barely 82% by the turn of the millennium.

  14. 14.

    hueyplong

    @dmsilev: You’ve got to be pretty dumb to limbo under the very low bar set by the cocaine-addled Junior, but Eric pulls it off in a manner that appears effortless.

  17. 17.

    Soprano2

    I heard a snippet of Newt Gingrich saying about Biden going to the UAW “Well, the leaders like him but the blue collar rank and file will vote for TFG”. My first thought upon hearing that was that Newt’s perception of the average UAW member is stuck in the 1980’s, and after watching that video I’m more convinced of that than ever. I’m sure all the former UAW members they dig up today for TFG’s speech (at a non-union plant, I have to give NPR props they say that every time they mention the event) will all fit Newt’s outdated perception of the average auto worker.

  20. 20.

    narya

    @Soprano2: Yeah, when Chris Hayes covered it last night, he DETAILED that it was a non-union plant, that TIFG was invited by management, and that it was supported by a “right to work” group. It was nice to see that kind of coverage.

  31. 31.

    Kay

    @Soprano2:

    It’s around 55/45 D for all union members. I suspect UAW is a little more Right leaning – 50/50.

    The difference is when union leadership endorses they provide “boots on the ground” (out of that 55% of members who support Democrats) so it’s a gain for Democrats that is larger than just the raw vote total. It evens us up a little with Republicans who organize in fundie churches.

  32. 32.

    MomSense

    Not sure if I shared this or not, but I heard from 3 reliable sources who were physically in a position to know, that when Biden gave a 45 minute speech at an event in Maine he did so without any prepared remarks.  No notes and no teleprompter.  And when she was listening to it my friend told me that she knew it was significant but that was confirmed when Heather Cox Richardson quoted from it in one of her posts.

    Yes, Biden is old and not great at delivery  but he knows what the fuck he is doing and he’s doing a great job.

  39. 39.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Baud:

    Based on the mineral rights* alone, I would buy Betty’s home for $53 billion dollars if I was buying property right now.  A shame that I’m not, because I can confidently state that it is worth so much more than that and I would recoup my investment before she had time to move out.

    *Based on my expertise playing Dwarf Fortress, I know that as long as I wall off the caverns to keep out crundles, there are layers and layers of gold and platinum deposits under the Cracker farm that haven’t been officially assayed yet.  A few strange moods to turn those into artifact short swords and I’ll be richer than Elon Musk.

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    I think he’s about as likely to debate as he is to testify in his own trial.

    So, even odds?  He’s going to get real, real testy sitting in a courtroom listening to it repeated over and over how he lost the election, stole documents that don’t belong to him, incriminated himself with his own statements, and made a less than perfect phone call.

  42. 42.

    RepubAnon

    This reminds me of an old joke during the Great Recession:

    A man driving home one day sees a kid at a card table with a sign: “Puppy for sale – $1,000,000 dollars”

    He smirks, and drives on.

    The next day, he drives by – the sign is marked “SOLD.”  Curious, he stops and asks the kid whether he sold the puppy.  The kid replies “Yes, and I got full price!”

    The man says “Someone paid one million dollars cash for the puppy?”

    The kid replies: “We did a structured deal to minimize taxes – I traded the puppy for two $500,000 kittens.”

    On a side note – the court noted that if Mar a Lago was still a residential property, it would be worth more.  However, because of the deed restrictions Trump entered into to lower taxes, such as it being a club and not  residential property, the value was lower.

    The idea of someone actually enforcing a deal against Trump seems alien to the Trump Organization.  Perhaps because, in the past, they could just slip some campaign donations to someone powerful and get them waived.

  43. 43.

    Nelle

    @Frankensteinbeck: I never heard a demand that McCain go away.  Always on the Sunday shows.  And Trump?  They salivate over Trump.  Still irritates me at their dismissiveness…go home and knit, play with your grandchild.  If women have the temerity to age, to look unfuckable, then at least be invisible.  We’ll make you invisible.

  45. 45.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @narya: It’s really great.  Check out the episode where she interviews Michael McFaul about Russia.  They both were keenly aware of the danger of Putin and tried to warn us.  All of the episodes are pretty cool but hearing her geek out on foreign policy with another expert really reminds the listener just how sharp she is.

  47. 47.

    Roger Moore

    Yes, as many have pointed out, Eric ‘The Dumb One’ Trump is committing the same form of rampant overvaluation for which his old man just got busted.

    Not just his old man.  Don Jr. and Eric were also included in the suit.  Don Sr. may be the worst of the gang at exaggerating values, but Don Jr. and Eric signed off on them in their official positions with the Trump Organization.

  50. 50.

    Suzanne

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: My aunt (and her ex-husband and my cousins) had a whole bunch of Shepherds when I was a kid through young adult. I loved them, never had any biting issues with any of them. I have never heard of biting as a breed characteristic of theirs, but the Bidens have apparently had biting issues with both Major and Commander.

  52. 52.

    narya

    I skimmed the judge’s order, and, hoo boy, you gotta worry when a judge quotes Chico Marx in his comments. IANAL, but even I could tell it was scathing.

  53. 53.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Nelle:

    With Hillary, I think it’s that she dared to seek real power.  That she has opinions that men didn’t give her, and asserts them, enrages her detractors.  They want to never hear her speak again, to have her opinions be shunned and unimportant.

  55. 55.

    prostratedragon

    Spare a thought for Judge Engeron:

    In his sworn deposition, when asked “[w]ho were the dozen or so [qualified] buyers that you were referencing in your report, Lawrence Moens replied: “I could dream up anyone from Elon Musk to Bill Gates and everyone in between. Kings, emperors, heads of state. But with net worths in the multiple billions. I don’t know how many people in the world have a net worth of more than $10 billion, but I think it’s quite a number. There are a lot.” […] Obviously, this Court cannot consider an “expert affidavit” that is based on unexplained and unsubtantiated “dream[s].”

  56. 56.

    Nelle

    @Suzanne: Or the dog is very smart about the Secret Service.  Are the bites distributed equally or are certain agents getting the bites?  Are they warning nips or actual bites?

  57. 57.

    narya

    @UncleEbeneezer: She’s amazing. And I once caught Bill on Elvis Costello’s short-lived series  Spectacle, and the things he can rattle off, without notes, blows me away.  So much messaging is dumbed down, or, at least, simplified, but like many of us here, I want the geeky details. I understand the need to make one’s message easily understood, but I also want to be able to dig into it.

  59. 59.

    Roger Moore

    @RepubAnon:

    Perhaps because, in the past, they could just slip some campaign donations to someone powerful and get them waived.

    They argued something pretty close to that in their filings, though they claim it would be a lawsuit to overturn the deed restrictions rather than straight buying off elected officials.  The judge was having none of it, saying the value had to be for the property as it was at the time the valuation was made, not a speculative value based on future changes to its status.

  60. 60.

    Roger Moore

    @Suzanne:

    the Bidens have apparently had biting issues with both Major and Commander.

    The Secret Service has had biting issues with both Major and Commander; it makes me wonder if there are people on the presidential detail who are provoking the dogs somehow.

  62. 62.

    UncleEbeneezer

    I saw a Progressive use the phrase “a Hillary Clinton style Globalist” as a derisive yesterday and it made me want to block them.  Aside from supporting the Iraq War, which, hello…was a mistake that many politicians made (but Hillary at least regrets it now and has apologized for), what exactly does this phrase even refer to?  I’m only aware of some good stuff that Hillary did to try to expand Women’s and LGBTQ rights in other countries/regions and attempts to strengthen diplomacy and encourage Democracy.

  64. 64.

    MomSense

    @Roger Moore:

    Yes, it’s only secret service agents and there are a lot of other people in close proximity to the president. I say look into those agents and see if they are MAGAts.

  66. 66.

    suzanne

    @Nelle: I don’t know the answer to that. The piece I read indicated that there were 11 “incidents” but didn’t characterize them.

  67. 67.

    Jackie

    New attack ad will air nationally, and specifically Michigan. I approve this message!

    President Joe Biden’s campaign is out with a new ad slamming Donald Trump’s record with autoworkers ahead of Trump’s visit to the battleground state of Michigan, underscoring how critical working-class voters will be in the upcoming presidential election, as the country gears up for a potential Trump-Biden rematch in 2024,” CNN reports.

    “The 30-second ad is the campaign’s first to directly attack Trump, the front-runner in the GOP presidential primary race, and will air nationally on cable networks as well as Michigan, specifically.”

  68. 68.

    hueyplong

    @Roger Moore: Marx quote not the worst, but it was the best.  On driving trips we showed our kids Duck Soup so many times they have it memorized and they’re loving it.

  70. 70.

    narya

    @Roger Moore: I saw that! The whole thing seems to be lawyer-speak for “do NOT bring that weak sauce to MY courtroom.” Also: ad nauseam is not a word one wants to see in documents like this.

  71. 71.

    Kay

    @prostratedragon:

    Obviously, this Court cannot consider an “expert affidavit” that is based on unexplained and unsubtantiated “dream[s].”

    It’s so funny if you read it in the context of normal property valuations (which is what the judge uses) because there are rules. You can’t just make it up. Sure, it’s worth “what someone will pay for it” in an abstract sense but judges rely on actual appraisals and valuations and obviously you don’t have to actually sell something to assign a value to it. The property can be valued. We appraise and value luxury or high worth properties all the time. The Trump lawyer bullshit “it is…priceless!” would get you laughed out of every county court in the country. They’re just wasting his time.

  73. 73.

    Roger Moore

    @MomSense:

    I would look formally if they are interacting badly with the dogs somehow.  One doesn’t have to be a MAGA to be uncomfortable around pets and do things that create friction with them.  If that’s the case, those agents need either remedial training on how to get along with animals or reassignment to a position that doesn’t require close contact with the President’s pets.  FWIW, I bet the same agents have problems with Willow, but she’s more likely to hide from humans she doesn’t like than go on the offensive.

  74. 74.

    arrieve

    @eclare: @OzarkHillbilly: @Betty Cracker:

    Not speculated, but I saw yesterday that the dump of a flat I lived in as a child in San Francisco is now a condo selling for $1.2 million. The bedroom my mom slept in, which was a dark, “Harry Potter under the stairs” hole, is now a nursery. Apparently you can renovate anything.

  75. 75.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @narya: She also has a great episode/interview with Gloria Steinem that is wonderful.  A whole lot of mutual admiration, history and Feminism.  She has all these amazing guests and tells them how much she admires them, but of course, they are always like “No, we are the ones who admire you!”  It never comes across as forced and really brings home just how revered she is.

  76. 76.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @arrieve:

    the dump of a flat I lived in as a child in San Francisco is now a condo selling for $1.2 million

    If Mar-a-lago were in Hollywood or Burbank, I’m sure it would be worth a billion.​

    EDIT – @Kay: ​

    They’re just wasting his time.

    The arguments Trump lawyers make are so distinctive that they have to be making the arguments Trump orders them to make. It’s not just that it’s stupid shit, it’s that it’s the kind of stupid shit that comes out of Trump’s mouth.

    His depositions are worse. I remain gobsmacked that he actually put in his deposition for the rape trial that he is so famous that he could rape women and get away with it if he wanted to.

  79. 79.

    Old School

    Since it’s been over a decade since Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State, I was curious why the painting took so long.  It appears there were a few reasons.

    Before the curtain was dropped from her portrait, which depicts the former first lady standing in front of an American flag, Clinton commented that it had been a long time since she had seen the painting “between Covid, between not wanting to finish it during the last administration,” drawing laughter from the crowd of State Department employees and other guests.

  80. 80.

    Baud

    From last year.

    Most expensive home in America lists for $295 million, may head to auction
    PUBLISHED FRI, JAN 7 2022 6:00 AM EST

    Robert Frank
    @ROBTFRANK

    WATCH LIVE

    KEY POINTS

    • A 105,000-square-foot Los Angeles megamansion known as “The One” listed Friday for $295 million, making it the most expensive listing in the U.S.
    • It was built by Nile Niami, who promoted it as the “biggest and most expensive modern home in America,” with an eventual asking price of $500 million.
    • The megamansion was placed into receivership last year.
    • If it doesn’t sell quickly, “The One” heads to auction in February as part of a bankruptcy agreement and will be sold to the highest bidder.
  81. 81.

    Roger Moore

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    If Mar-a-lago were in Hollywood or Burbank, I’m sure it would be worth a billion.

    No property in the LA area has sold for more than about $300 million, so that seems unlikely.  Especially with the deed restrictions, I doubt it would be terribly valuable here; people want housing, not clubs that are legally disallowed from being used as houses.

  82. 82.

    Geminid

    @Jackie: I am glad that the President’s campaign has the money to run ads 55 weeks before the 2024 election. Biden’s campaign operation will be much better funded than in 2020. Then, it was hurting for cash until the selection of Vice President Harris in late July.

  83. 83.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Baud:

    It’s a little weird that only Secret Service agents are getting bit.

    Possible harmless explanation:  The body language of Secret Service agents doing their job right is brusque and threatening and it puts the dogs on edge.  Is there any way to know how previous presidential dogs reacted to them?

  85. 85.

    Tony G

    Back in the late eighties, an old friend, who had recently been discharged from the Navy after spending a couple of years underwater in a nuclear submarine, decided to celebrate his freedom by taking a ride in the New York City subway while carrying a harpoon.  (Since he’s white, neither cops nor civilians paid much attention to him.).   (100 tense young men in a tube underwater for months with enough nuclear missiles to destroy the world.  What could go wrong?  It’s a miracle that the species has survived the atomic age for 78 years.)

  86. 86.

    prostratedragon

    @Baud:  It’s crossed my mind, but if they also bit household staff or office workers I’d expect to hear about it, even if only on the rebound. It would be a shame if the Bidens couldn’t have their dog with thrm.

  89. 89.

    rikyrah

     

     

     

    horse girl gooch (@theblackcowgirl) posted at 11:41 AM on Tue, Sep 26, 2023:
    My equine veterinarian is a Black man. He graduated from Tuskegee 1978.

    He tells me all kinds of stories from his experiences as a Black male vet. I’ll share one now.

    Photo by Chris Facey @Cocobuttrshuttr
    (https://x.com/theblackcowgirl/status/1706710654701175291?t=dj0FeMi4uqZ_lEBN6li4zA&s=03)

     

    horse girl gooch (@theblackcowgirl) posted at 11:41 AM on Tue, Sep 26, 2023:
    Today he told me how he saved a cow farm and how they did not want his services at first bc he was Black. But he was the only vet willing to get his boots dirty.

    Over 3-5 years, he got that herd of cows to the point the cows produced calves over 100+ lbs when ready for market.

  91. 91.

    Kay

    @rikyrah:

    Politico had “when Donald Trump heads to Detroit to address striking auto workers…”

    It’s inaccurate. They got it completely wrong. He’s not even in the right place to do that. I think the Trump campaign fooled them with “address” – the lying Trump campaign wanted to make it sound like he was speaking to an audience of striking auto workers so told them to write “address”, which they all did.

    This is a really bad sign for 2024 coverage. It’s worse than 2016.

  92. 92.

    Mai Naem mobile

    @Roger Moore: especially since Commander was a pup when they brought him into the WH. He should have been completely trainable to not biting etc. And it’s not like there haven’t been dogs in the WH before.

  93. 93.

    Suzanne

    @Frankensteinbeck: That’s more my thought…. the Secret Service obviously gets kinda up in the president’s grill by definition. I can see how a dog who is territorial and protective would find that aggressive.

  96. 96.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Kay:

    It’s worse than 2016.

    No, it’s not.  In 2016 they were letting him call in for spontaneous friendly interviews and watching an empty podium for an hour.  In 2023 the softball interviews are only occasional, pre-scheduled and controlled, and they spend an hour watching for him to arrive at a court house to be arraigned.  Plus the tone of the vast majority of the coverage is now “Is Trump a criminal?” rather than “Is Trump running to the Left?”  The coverage he’s getting now is more like the coverage Hillary got then.

  97. 97.

    dmsilev

    @Baud: I’m too lazy to look it up, but I think that one ultimately sold at auction for a lot less than $300 million. I’m sure it was still vastly vastly more than what any vaguely normal person would ever be able to afford, but even in the fever dreams of LA tip-top real estate, it was overpriced.

    And Trump “speculated” that Mar-a-Lago was worth five or six times more than that?

  98. 98.

    rikyrah

    @MomSense:

    Not sure if I shared this or not, but I heard from 3 reliable sources who were physically in a position to know, that when Biden gave a 45 minute speech at an event in Maine he did so without any prepared remarks.  No notes and no teleprompter.

     

    There’s a TikTok that goes something like this:

     

    ” if you were offered a million dollars to talk for an hour about something  cold, what would it be?”

     

    Joe Biden is a lawyer, former Senator, Vice -President, who has been in government for 40 years and he happens to be a natural people person.

    I’m not shocked in the least that he could talk for 45 minutes with no notes..

  99. 99.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Once again, German Shepards are territorial, bred to protect property. My very good boy Hoss was on the laid back side of that instinct but he could be roused by the unexpected. During my divorce cohabitation with my sister Peggy, I also lived with her 2 GSs Emma and Singer. They eventually pegged me as “family” but if a stranger came onto her property w/o introduction from her (or me) they wigged out quite ferociously.
    One time I met her and family for dinner at a restaurant and she left the dogs in her car. I went out to do something for them (water?) and when I stuck the key in the door there was terrifying moment where I thought they might come thru the glass and tear me apart. Then they recognized me and got all happy doggy.
    I don’t know SS policy on protection in the WH, but rotating new people in could be a problem. Even if an agent knows the dog, if he surprised him by suddenly entering a room he could get nipped.

    Or as @Frankensteinbeck: ​noted, it might be something in their body language.

    They are great dogs, very loyal and lovingly patient with children. It is impossible to know what it is for sure that is setting them off but if I was in a place like the WH, I don’t think I would have a German Shepard.

  101. 101.

    Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg

    @dmsilev:

    This is the thing that most people don’t get – the whole purpose about honesty regarding statements of value is to assure an adequate assessment of risk on the part of lenders.  By overstating the values, he was able to obtain financing at terms and prices that would not otherwise be granted – had he been honest, the banks would have expected higher interest rates, a more rapid payback and more collateral.

    He might SAY that the banks weren’t hurt, but that isn’t true – they’d have made more money off him had he been honest, or decided to decline to lent, keeping their ratios low for more qualified borrowers.

    Also, from a dry aspect, it was really a fraud on the real estate market, and chewed up capital project funding that may have otherwise gone to more worthy borrowers – not to mention anticompetitive (as his competitors would have possibly nosed him out due to easier capital availability).

  102. 102.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: I’m going through having our business valued right now; not exactly the same thing, but probably similar. I cannot believe how much information they wanted! I told hubby that I could of course always just say “Here’s how much I think it’s worth” but if in the future you have a dispute, that’s a problem. Much better to have an outside entity who does it on a regular basis tell you what they think the value is.

  104. 104.

    Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg

    @hueyplong:

    I have to feel a smidge of sympathy for Junior.  Donald worried that he might turn out to be a loser when assigning names, but then the opposite happened.

    Donnie Junior is forever tainted by the loser stank from Donnie Senior.

  105. 105.

    narya

    @Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg:

    He might SAY that the banks weren’t hurt, but that isn’t true – they’d have made more money off him had he been honest, or decided to decline to lent, keeping their ratios low for more qualified borrowers.

    And I believe the judge makes that point somewhere–that the banks would have made MORE money; it’s not that it wasn’t a net loss, it’s that they didn’t make what they could/should have made.

  106. 106.

    Kay

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    The only dogs who came after me as a postal worker were German Shepards. One of them jumped thru a screen and knocked me backwards off a porch. They’re definitely territorial, IMO.

  108. 108.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: At this point I think this bad coverage has to be deliberate. They’ve had enough people telling them over the years that there are better, more accurate ways to cover TFG, yet they continue with this bullshit. It’s not even accurate a little bit! It’s all Republican framing!

  109. 109.

    Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    I was struck by his demeanor during the Kaitlan Collins interview.  When answering tough questions, he looks away and downward, toward the left.

    When people pull that shit on me during examinations, I ask them to do me the courtesy of looking at me when talking to me.

  111. 111.

    Baud

    When asked on CNN about the former president’s trip to Detroit, Fain said, “I see no point in meeting with him because I don’t think the man has any bit of care about what our workers stand for, what the working class stands for.”

    “He serves a billionaire class and that’s what’s wrong this country,” Fain continued.
    Trump is expected to travel to Detroit on Wednesday, where he will meet with current and former union workers amid their ongoing strike against the “Big Three” automakers — Ford, General Motors and Stellantis.
    Fain said it is “pathetic irony” Trump will reportedly hold a rally at a non-union plant in Macomb County, Mich.
    “All you have to do is look at his track record,” Fain said. “His track record speaks for itself. In 2008, during the Great Recession, he blamed UAW members, he blamed our contracts for everything that was wrong with these companies — that’s a complete lie.”
    Fain pointed to Trump’s discussion during his 2016 presidential campaign to move jobs in the Midwest to the Zouth, which he said would “make people beg for their jobs back at lower wages.”
    “And the ultimate show of…how much he cares about our workers was in 2019 when he was the president of the United States,” Fain said. ‘Where was he then? Our workers at GM [General Motors] were on strike for 60 days, for two months. They were out there on the picket lines, I didn’t see him hold a rally. I didn’t see him stand up at the picket line.”

  114. 114.

    RaflW

    Dunno if this has been remarked on in a recent thread: Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who is a mid-high visibility Senate Dem (ran, if briefly, for Prez & is the senior MN senator and Chair of the Senate Rules Committee, and sits on Judiciary & others) has called on N.J.’s plainly corrupt Sen. Menendez to resign.

    Per Star Tribune excerpt I saw:
    “I believe he should resign,” Klobuchar said in a phone interview with the Star Tribune. Minnesota’s senior senator called the conduct documented in the complaint “egregious.”
    “It goes to the core of our job as senators and it’s a violation of that trust,” Klobuchar said.

  115. 115.

    rikyrah

    Republicans in US House hold hearing on Chicago violence that State’s Attorney Kim Foxx called a ‘clown show’

    By Rick Pearson and A.D. Quig

    Chicago Tribune
    Published: Sep 26, 2023 at 6:28 pm

    Republicans who hold a majority in the U.S. House and whose infighting is risking a federal government shutdown by week’s end sought to focus attention Tuesday on a frequent target, Chicago crime and Democratic criminal justice policies, in a field hearing of the House Judiciary Committee.
    The hearing at the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 7 was chaired by Republican Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, who co-founded the far-right Freedom Caucus that is playing a major role in the budget resolution delay. No Democrats attended and GOP panel members posed questions, such as one from Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, asking, “Is Chicago savable? Or, is the city in such a downward trajectory that our only hope is to make sure that these policies don’t spread to other places?”

    “I don’t believe that the answer to these questions comes out of Washington. But I do think hearings like this are really important because, you know, we want to get a sense of what some of the early warning signs are in a community like Chicago, so that the challenges you face don’t metastasize,” said Gaetz. He appeared by video from Washington due to the government spending impasse — the only public mention of the potential shutdown.

    Republicans and those who testified attacked the prosecutorial policies of Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, who is not seeking reelection, Illinois’ enactment of cashless bail earlier this month under what’s known as the SAFE-T Act and Chicagoans for electing progressives to office or not voting at all.

    ……………………………

    Charges that public safety offices have been defunded do not match recent budgets. With the exception of a slight dip in 2021, appropriations to the Chicago Police Department have consistently climbed: the budget has risen from $1.4 billion in 2016 to more than $1.9 billion this year. The county’s combined public safety spending — on the sheriff and various court operations — has also continued to climb from $1.1 billion in 2018 to $1.3 billion this year.

    Republicans also used the hearing as a forum for far-right Rep. Mary Miller of downstate Oakland, who is not a member of the committee, to attack Gov. J.B. Pritzker and other Democrats for progressive policies. Miller, an avid supporter of Trump and a frequent critic of Chicago, held a fundraiser in the city earlier this year at Trump International Hotel & Tower
     

    https://www.chicagotribune.com/politics/ct-us-house-panel-gop-chicago-violence-20230926-kl5eznylsfhrrhhu2yxlgl54py-story.html

  116. 116.

    Yarrow

    @Frankensteinbeck:  The other things is that when an article has a bad headline or a bad section a lot of people really push back. I see a lot of THAT’S NOT TRUE, YOU DUMBASS MEDIA PEOPLE. GET THE FUCKING HEADLINE RIGHT SO IT SAYS WHAT’S ACTUALLY HAPPENING types of responses. Okay, not quite that ALL CAPS loud and often without the profanity but a lot of people are screen capping, highlighting, and otherwise calling them out and demanding they fix it. Sometimes the headlines even get changed.

    That kind of response is different from what happened in 2016 where fewer people pushed back, and there was more of an eye-rolling tone about it. “There goes the stupid media again” sort of thing. This time there’s anger and a demand for doing better.

  118. 118.

    RevRick

    @Baud: The judge didn’t say anything of the sort, but merely noted the huge gap between the tax assessor’s valuation and what Trump claims.

  119. 119.

    RaflW

    @MomSense: I’m noting this “Biden is old and not great at delivery” because I think there’s a lot here. I can’t say this with certainty, but I think what people (myself included sometimes, when I see him reading prepared remarks) view as him being old, is still and always his well-practiced but not really invisible work to speak to normative standards while living with a stutter.

    When he is giving a good stemwinder, or speaking from the heart, or in casual moments, I think: Ah, he sounds fine. No one ever talks about his stutter any more, and in general, this is good and I wish that could remain true. But I suspect his podium speech stiffness that reads as “old” is at least in part his stutter-compensation being misapprehended. By most everyone. Pundits very much included.

  120. 120.

    Kay

    @Soprano2:

    I get fatalistic about it, where I don’t care (because I know there’s nothing anyone can do) and then they do a real days long whopper like this coverage and I’m all mad again. There’s a rigidity I just can’t stand – a stubborn insistence to take the wrong implication from “address” or “addressing” and then just repeating it over and over. I also can’t stand that in the workplace. It pisses me off when people just refuse to think. Trump is cunning. You have to use your head when dealing with him and look for the lie – it’s always there.

  121. 121.

    Baud

    @RevRick:

    It’s true that the judge didn’t do an independent valuation, but the whole decision was about how Trump falsely overvalued his properties.

  122. 122.

    rikyrah

    Niche releases its 10th annual Best Schools and Districts rankings for 2024
    Chicagoland and Austin-area districts top the list of Best School Districts in America
    September 25, 2023 – PITTSBURGH – Niche, the leading platform connecting students and families with colleges and schools, has just published its new 2024 Best Schools and Districts rankings. Now in its ninth year, the rankings include updated data for 94,058 public schools, 30,809 private schools, and 12,192 school districts nationwide.

    While traditional rankings rely almost exclusively on metrics like test scores and academic performance, Niche’s rankings combine user input — ratings from current students, alumni and parents — with quantitative data from sources like the U.S. Department of Education to evaluate teachers, resources and facilities, extracurricular activity opportunities and more. The 2024 Best Schools rankings include 7,375 newly ranked public schools, 1,433 newly ranked private schools, and 364 newly ranked school districts.

    This year, The Davidson Academy in Reno, Nev., has been named the No. 1 Best Public High School in America, up from No. 3 in 2023. Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, N.H., regains the title of No. 1 Best Private High School in America, up from No. 4 in 2023. It most recently took the No. 1 spot in 2020.

    Chicago-area schools take four of the five slots for Best School Districts in America, while an Austin-area district takes the No. 4 spot.

    2024 Best Public High Schools in America

    1. The Davidson Academy (NV)
    2. North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics (NC)
    3. MA Academy for Math & Science School (MA)
    4. Payton College Preparatory High School (IL)
    5. Oklahoma School of Science and Mathematics (OK)

    2024 Best Private High Schools in America

    1. Phillips Exeter Academy (NH)
    2. Princeton International School of Math & Science (NJ)
    3. Choate Rosemary Hall (CT)
    4. Phillips Academy Andover (MA)
    5. Harvard-Westlake School (CA)

    2024 Best School Districts in America

    1. Adlai E. Stevenson High School District No. 125 (IL)
    2. Glenbrook High School District 225 (IL)
    3. Evanston Township High School District No. 202 (IL)
    4. Eanes Independent School District (TX)
    5. Township High School District No. 113 (IL)

     

    https://www.niche.com/about/niche-releases-its-10th-annual-best-schools-and-districts-rankings-for-2024/

  123. 123.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Yarrow:

    There’s plenty of bad coverage and stenography, but in 2016 Trump was almost universally treated as a shiny and fascinating new toy.  In 2023 he’s mostly treated as a fascinating train wreck.

    Coverage of Biden is pretty shit, but I’ll take ‘Is Biden too old?’ over ‘Will Hillary be arrested for her crimes?’ any day.  Coverage of Democratic presidents is always shit.

  126. 126.

    RaflW

    @Soprano2: The press is angry that liberals have tried to correct them. They’re cowed when Republicans attack them, but they have contempt for us. Maybe because we don’t yell “2A remedies!” like the wingnuts do, but I think they dug in and remain shitty in part because we point out how much they suck.

    The other part is a toxic combo of lazy — just pull the needed bits from the press releases & statements — and, papers have gutted the copy desks where a lot of the crap that reporters write used to get fixed (my partner was a copy editor for almost 20 years before making a major career shift. They’ve always a ton of unsung work, but now have to do 3X as much with staff cuts so it’s just f-ing impossible. Which he saw coming and fled.)

  129. 129.

    Steeplejack

    Secret Service colluded with the terrorist group Oath Keepers.

    They deleted ALL their J6 texts.

    They smeared Cassidy Hutchinson as a liar & refused to testify under oath.

    Commander Biden—who bit USSS agents—has done more to hold insurrectionists accountable than the entire GOP. 🐶

    — Lindy Li (@lindyli) September 27, 2023

  130. 130.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Baud:

    I think the worst thing about the But Her Emails coverage was subtle.  The subtext in how it was all presented was that of course Hillary was a crook, but the question was, had she done or been caught doing anything illegal?  That was Comey’s big thing in his first press conference about But Her Emails as well.  He made the results of the investigation sound like Hillary escaped prosecution on a technicality, but was guilty as Hell.

  131. 131.

    ArchTeryx

    @Frankensteinbeck: Screw the chauvinists and misogynists. She has a lot of worthy things to say and she should keep right on saying them. “But she persisted” should be a rallying cry to women everywhere.

  133. 133.

    Captain C

    @Baud: Apparently it wound up going for less than half that.  It seems like the kind of home you would buy if you expected to entertain lots of rich people, and maybe have some of them staying with you for extended periods of time.

  135. 135.

    Steeplejack

    @Suzanne:

    I wonder if the biting is because Major and Commander are in busy environments with a lot of strange humans coming and going. Even the residential part of the White House has to be busier than the average home.

  136. 136.

    geg6

    @Baud: ​
     
    I watched local news both last night and this morning and both times I saw their story on this, they definitely mentioned it. Also, their online posts also prominently mention it is at a non-union plant. I was glad to see this.

  137. 137.

    Suzanne

    @Steeplejack: Oh, absolutely. I would tend to believe that the dogs have reacted in ways that are not unexpected, given a territorial nature combined with a stressful environment.

  138. 138.

    lowtechcyclist

    @dmsilev:

    Eric truly is The Dumb One.

    With those two, it’s more like Dumb and Dumber.  They’re both working hard at claiming the Dumber title, who knows which one will win?

  139. 139.

    Jager

    @Suzanne:

    As a long-time German Shepherd guy, the people who had Commander before the Bidens seriously fucked the poor dog up. I’ve had GSDs since I was a kid, I looked at a beautiful 4-year-old rescue for a friend. Duke had been locked, alone in a backyard most of his life, developed a bad attitude and the idiot owner decided to get rid of the poor dog by tossing him out of a car.  He was a biter and is happily living on a ranch out in the desert now. Duke is comfortable around his new family but, will rip the heart out of a trespasser.

  140. 140.

    Kelly

    I joined REI in 1972 when I was 16 to spend my summer’s wages on a frame pack, tent, rain parka and a down sleeping bag. I still use the down sleeping bag. Had the zipper replaced when it was about 25. It isn’t as warm as it used to be but I don’t camp when it’s that cold any way. The assholes on the REI board are fighting mightily against REI staff unionization efforts. The board election rules insulate the assholes from a direct member vote to electing union supporting directors. Who the hell do the directors think they are?

    https://www.ourrei.com/

  141. 141.

    jonas

    @Frankensteinbeck: I forget if it was here or some other place where someone pointed out recently that a huge number of Hillary headlines in 2015-16 — maybe just at the FTFNYT — contained the word “shadow.” There was never any proof of wrongdoing, just a vague “shadow” over her everywhere. You know, because the media said there was.

    Having blown their load back then on shadow metaphors, it now becomes difficult to cover a candidate who actually *is* under multiple felony indictments for stuff like violating national security laws.

  142. 142.

    jonas

    @hueyplong: Now that the Senate dress code rules have been loosened, Tuberville is free to show up in his Klan robes, which I’m sure he feels much more comfortable in.

  143. 143.

    satby

    @Nelle: We only hear about Secret Service getting bit, not any other staff at all. If the dog was a problem biter he wouldn’t be quite so selective. Though it’s possible the way agents move in with speed to cover the president and family may cause the dog to sense a threat from the agent.

  145. 145.

    jonas

    Taking advantage of the open thread here, I was happy to see the other day that Hunter Biden is suing Giuliani over leaking the contents of his laptop. He doesn’t claim the laptop was his, but that some of the material Giuliani and his lawyer (who is also suing him for unpaid fees, natch) claimed was copied off the hard drive was, and thus stealing it was a violation of federal data protection and anti-hacking laws.  Whether Biden’s hard drive counts as a “protected device” under the relevant statutes, I have no idea, but I presume here that the idea is to force Giuliani to admit where he got this stuff and how they conspired to disseminate it. Any legal jackals know what else a hearing or a trial over this might produce?

  146. 146.

    Roger Moore

    @Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg:

    He might SAY that the banks weren’t hurt, but that isn’t true – they’d have made more money off him had he been honest, or decided to decline to lent, keeping their ratios low for more qualified borrowers.

    The judge makes exactly this point in the ruling.  It’s important to distinguish between Trump not defaulting and the banks not being hurt.  This is a question of opportunity cost, which is tough for a lot of people to grasp.

  147. 147.

    BellaPea

    Lovely portrait of Hillary. I’m going to go out on a limb here and predict that TFG will NEVER have a portrait of any kind featuring his ugly mug hanging in the White House.

  148. 148.

    Roger Moore

    @Captain C:

    It seems like the kind of home you would buy if you expected to entertain lots of rich people, and maybe have some of them staying with you for extended periods of time.

    I think some of the mansions near me are used for something like this.  They’re mostly purchased by ultra-rich Chinese business owners.  One function is obviously a way of stashing money out of the reach of the CCP.  On top of that, these business people are regularly staying here in SoCal for a month or two a year, and they’re bringing key subordinates with them.  It’s obviously much nicer to stay in your own home with your own cook and servants than even a very nice hotel, and given how expensive nice hotels can be it might even be cheaper.

  149. 149.

    Roger Moore

    @jonas:

    Whether Biden’s hard drive counts as a “protected device” under the relevant statutes, I have no idea

    Marcy Wheeler seems to think it is.  Apparently Giuliani and his associates showed they needed to use Hunter’s username and password to access the data, which sure sounds like it was protected well enough to qualify under CFAA.

  150. 150.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Frankensteinbeck: It was one of those “motte and bailey” things– the story they could report on the face of it was a boring one about email server security practices, but the implied tease was that Hillary Clinton was hiding evidence of some lurid terrorist or sex conspiracy that would come to light in a hidden email any minute now. Every “shadow” had that unspoken implied question of “is this it? Is this the big one?” and it really didn’t matter that there was no big one and never would be.

  151. 151.

    Ruckus

    @Tony G:

    One gets used to the isolation. Part of it is that the work goes on 24 hrs a day in the navy, no matter the ship. And even on a medium sized surface ship one does not go outside often because going overboard can easily be deadly and going overboard is a lot easier than one might think. Also living in rather close quarters can easily get on one’s nerves and all navy ships pack a lot into every nook and cranny, so while seeing the sun (or moon) may be nice, not everyone has a lot of opportunity to do that, sub or surface ship. On the ship I served on for 2 yrs our work compartment was at the bottom of the ship, stuffed with equipment, and a lot of electricity around every corner, or was located behind one of the 4 – 1200 psi / 1200 degree boilers. (The generators and the ships propellors were steam turbine driven) From what I’ve seen a nuke sub wouldn’t be bad duty.

  152. 152.

    RaflW

    @Baud: Yep. Any time I get pissed at the NYT (Pinky & Brain voice: “Same thing I do every day”) I ruefully remember that they are still growing their subscriber base.

    Though I’m sure that is in part because liberals, and especially centrists/moderates (which are real out in the wild, though not in elected office) are losing their local city daily papers and want some sort of credible national/international desk.

  153. 153.

    jonas

    @Roger Moore:  It’s important to distinguish between Trump not defaulting and the banks not being hurt.  This is a question of opportunity cost, which is tough for a lot of people to grasp.

    It’s like claiming your drunk driving was no problem because hey, everyone got home just fine in the end. No harm, no foul, amirite?

    Just because no-one got hurt this time doesn’t mean you did nothing illegal.

    What Trump was doing was making it harder for honest applicants to get access to capital by using bullshit valuations to attract it to his bogus business instead. If you’re going to have a functioning economy where people can compete on a level playing field, you can’t have corruption like this.

  154. 154.

    Barbara

    @Roger Moore: It’s no joke.  I know someone who served time in jail for using someone else’s password to access a website without the owner’s consent.   Honestly, it can be a bit harsh depending on the circumstances, but the principle is the same as not having the right to enter someone’s house without their consent just because you happen to find the door unlocked.

  155. 155.

    lowtechcyclist

    @RepubAnon:

    The kid replies: “We did a structured deal to minimize taxes – I traded the puppy for two $500,000 kittens.”

    Could update that into a joke about NFTs.

  157. 157.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Nelle:

    I never heard a demand that McCain go away.  Always on the Sunday shows.  And Trump?  They salivate over Trump.  Still irritates me at their dismissiveness…go home and knit, play with your grandchild.  If women have the temerity to age, to look unfuckable, then at least be invisible.  We’ll make you invisible.

    While I think you’re on the mark about too many men’s attitudes towards women in general, I think this is about Democrats as much as anything.  My recollection is that Carter, Mondale, Dukakis, and Kerry all kinda disappeared from the spotlight for years after their losses.

    Gore was an exception because he (thankfully) wouldn’t shut up about global warming, but he didn’t exactly seem to have a welcome mat rolled out for him by the media.

  158. 158.

    Citizen Alan

    @schrodingers_cat: The infamous “Cokie’s Law” was specifically about how journalists had an obligation to repeat GOP lies about Dems if those lies had already gotten enough coverage to enter public awareness. “It was all anyone was talking about down at the beauty parlor”

  159. 159.

    Roger Moore

    @Ruckus:

    From what I’ve seen a nuke sub wouldn’t be bad duty.

    I would think nuke duty could be really bad in its own way.  The need to keep quiet for weeks at a stretch could be really wearing.  OTOH, I think subs tend to have relatively short deployments that are followed by an equal time ashore, which sounds way better than what tin can sailors get.

  160. 160.

    Roger Moore

    @Barbara:

    A better analogy would be copying someone else’s key and then getting in by using a key.  You can’t argue you aren’t committing burglary because you used a key to open the door rather than picking the lock.  The question is whether you’re authorized to be in that location, not the exact means you used to get there.  Computers are actually less strict than physical property in that regard, because you have to have access controls to claim someone is where they aren’t supposed to be.

  162. 162.

    Old School

    @artem1s:

    So the Trumps are paying property taxes based on $1B market value? Yea, I thought not.

    Meidas Touch tracked down an article from 2020 where Trump had initially challenged a $26.6 million assessment as too high.

    The petition was subsequently withdrawn.

  164. 164.

    artem1s

    @UncleEbeneezer: ​ 
    I see Progressive used all the time to describe people who use the same phrasing as Ron Paul, Berners, and other libertarians when they are complaining about global economics and the banking industry. Hillary raised a lot of money in all her campaigns. These self styled progressives are the ones who want Dems to unilaterally stop taking big donor dollars.

  165. 165.

    Dan B

    @Kelly: I lived for decades just two blocks from the REI store on Capitol Hill.  It was very community oriented.  It seems that the current directors are strict corporate types and / or bean counters.  Sad.

  166. 166.

    Ruckus

    @Roger Moore:

    I was on one of the bigger tin cans, quite a bit bigger than WWII destroyer, called a DDG. My point is that you are on that ship, sub or destroyer and it’s work 24 hrs a day. Sure you might see sunshine, but then you might not. A lot depends on where you are. A lot of miles above the Arctic Circle in winter is just a tad cold and not as much sun as one likes.

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