Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

If you voted for Trump, you don’t get to speak about ethics, morals, or rule of law.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

Republicans got rid of McCarthy. Democrats chose not to save him.

“woke” is the new caravan.

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

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

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

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

I did not have this on my fuck 2024 bingo card.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

It looks like winning debates is a black job!

Hey hey, RFK, how many kids did you kill today?

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

The Giant Orange Man Baby is having a bad day.

“Just close your eyes and kiss the girl and go where the tilt-a-whirl takes you.” ~OzarkHillbilly

The republican caucus is covering themselves with something, and it’s not glory.

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

Sadly, media malpractice has become standard practice.

Speaker Mike Johnson is a vile traitor to the House and the Constitution.

You are here: Home / Elections 2024 / Late Late Night Open Thread: ‘The Case for Chill’

Late Late Night Open Thread: ‘The Case for Chill’

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It’s zero-dark-thirty on the weekend, so I figured I might as well post this before another torrent of news breaks out. Politico no-names interview a Biden insider:

Plenty of Democrats are freaking out over President JOE BIDEN’s chances of winning reelection…

But should they just chill the F out? Yes, says PATRICK DILLON, a Democratic strategist whose wife, JEN O’MALLEY DILLON, is the president’s deputy chief of staff. In an interview, he presented the counter argument to the bed wetters. It’s been slightly edited for space.

Why are Dems constantly hand wringing?

I think it’s a constitutional imperative of being a member of the party. To be a Democrat is to be a worrier.

Does the Biden panic feel any more intense than past cycles?

Honestly, no. I don’t think so. Every time it’s like this. D.C. is full of people who are quite sure how they would run and win a presidential campaign.

So what do you tell the panickers?

There’s a serious facts-based thing, and then there’s a more tongue-and-cheek thing.

I worked on Obama’s reelection in 2012. I remember every single poll in 2011 that had Mitt Romney up [by] 1, 2, 3, 4. We knew then, and we should know now, how not really predictive or useful off-year polls of large samples of just adults or registered voters are.

But it’s like therapists say: Anxiety has a real evolutionary purpose to keep you on your toes and watch out for danger. But too much anxiety is a disorder. When it paralyzes you and you spend all your time ruminating and worrying, that’s not healthy.

What about the people worrying Dems aren’t taking Trump seriously?

Anybody who didn’t expect this to be a close, tough race has got their head in the clouds. That’s how presidential elections in the 21st century go. They are close. They are tough.

One of the most ridiculous things in the whole discourse right now is the idea that somehow Joe Biden and the people on the Joe Biden team — the people that have actually run against and beaten Donald Trump — don’t take him seriously enough. It just sort of defies belief to me.

Isn’t Biden’s age driving all the anxiety?

Democrats find something to worry about no matter what. And I think the threat of Donald Trump is a scary enough threat, a real enough threat, that they would find something to be scared about no matter what…

 
And, a contrasting plaint from a Repub talk show host:
Late Night Open Thread 5

Reader Interactions

143Comments

  3. 3.

    NotMax

    Drip, drip, drip.

    Every day in a court erodes some of you-know-who’s support, bit by bit.

  4. 4.

    Baud

    Isn’t Biden’s age driving all the anxiety?

    No, it’s the media drumbeat about Biden’s agree that’s driving the anxiety.

  12. 12.

    Joey Maloney

    @Baud: To say the least. To this moment, there has been no official statements of any kind from the government. Massive failure not only of intelligence but of leadership.

  14. 14.

    Geminid

    @Joey Maloney: I saw this story just now on journalist Ragip Soylu’s timeline (@ragipsoylu). He posted a report that Hamas had taken at least 35 hostages. I did not take time to read the several articles in the Times of Israel, but this will be quite a shock in Israel.

  16. 16.

    Geminid

    @Geminid: I had looked up Ragip Soylu to see if there had been any repercussions over the US shooting down a Turkish drone over Syria Thursday. It sounds like Turkiye and the US want to turn the page on this incident, and are trying to observe better their “deconfliction” protocols.

    Drone manufacturer Selcuk Bayraktat was philisophical: “The bird is down, but let us remember its flight.”

  18. 18.

    Geminid

    @Geminid: Mr. Bayraktar is an interesting character. In 2004, he left his Doctoral program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology* and returned home to manage his father’s machining company Baykar. The elder Bayraktar started Baykar Technolgies in 1984 as a precision milling company servicing the Turkish auto industry. Now it’s one of the premier military drone manufacturers in the world, and its TB-2 drone became famous in the first weeks of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year.

    In August Selcuk Bayraktar visited the US carrier Gerald R. Ford while it was exercising with Turkish warships in the eastern Mediterranean. Ambassador to Turkiye Jeff Flake accompanied him, and Bayraktar was treated with notable respect: the Ford’s Captain even invited Bayraktar to sit in his captain’s chair on the bridge. In part, this was an effort to “butter up” Bayraktar’s father-in-law, Turkish President R.T. Erdogan.

    Relations between the US and Turkiye have been chilly the past decade, but Presidents Erdogan and Biden seemed to have had a good meeting at July’s Nato summit in Vilnius, Lithuania. These joint naval exercises would have been very unlikely before this meeting, as would have been the August port call at Istanbul by the Mount Whitney, flagship of the 6th Fleet.

    * Turkiye said the drone that the US F-16 downed was being operated by the other M.I.T.- Turkiye’s counterpart to our CIA.

  19. 19.

    Dangerman

    Anxiety? Way too early to be especially anxious about anything. We will have a half dozen or so more shockers before next Summer.

    Trump drops dead or drops out. Serious on the second. The one thing he gives a shit about is not going to jail. If he got wind that he gets a walk if he drops out, he drops out faster than he dropped his pants with Stormy.

    Result: Desantis still not the nominee. Casey leaves him. True love (of being Jackie Oh No). The rest go into WWE Summer Slam style.

    No predictions on Biden.

  24. 24.

    Comrade Scrutinizer

    @Baud:  Apparently a fatalist is anyone who doesn’t work themselves into a lather while doomscrolling through the latest disaster du jour.  I am also getting too old for that.

  26. 26.

    Geminid

    @JPL: Among other items the Jerusalem Post reported that a number of young Israelis were holding a “nature party” near the Urim kibbutz when Hamas fighters showed up and started shooting. It was unclear if the fighters were firing into the crowd or just running them off.

  27. 27.

    AlaskaReader

    @Comrade Scrutinizer: …well that’s not it either.

     

    Fatalism is commonly associated with the consequent attitude of resignation in the face of future events which are thought to be inevitable.

  30. 30.

    Betty Cracker

    The Deace tweet is a reminder that there’s a wingnut discourse universe that mirrors our own in so many ways. They are as convinced that the MSM is wired for Democrats as we are of the opposite and have corresponding theories about why that is. They complain that Repubs never get credit for the good things they do. They grudgingly admire Dem voters’ tendency to fall in line — even when dissatisfied with individual candidates — to advance the broader agenda.

  31. 31.

    AlaskaReader

    @Baud: I’m a bit of a literalist.

    I always wonder about people who set the stage and then claim to have been nowhere near it.

    I thought you said you were too old to worry about anything.

    …

  32. 32.

    Baud

    @Betty Cracker:

    They grudgingly admire Dem voters’ tendency to fall in line — even when dissatisfied with individual candidates — to advance the broader agenda.

     

    This has improved in recent years. Maybe thanks to Trump.

    ETA: FWIW, I can completely understand why the right doesn’t like the MSM.

  33. 33.

    Baud

    @AlaskaReader:

    What I don’t understand is how you got defeatism or fatalism from the absence of worrying.  That’s not literalism. Worrying is not a synonym for caring.

  34. 34.

    Geminid

    @Betty Cracker: Those people are under a lot of stress these days. I guess this is their way of lashing out!

    More seriously, the Democrats’ “tame liberal media” is an evergreen theme for conservatives. “Democrats faling into line” is a newer one, but so is the phenomenon of Democrats falling into line.

  35. 35.

    AlaskaReader

    @Baud: So,? …not worrying is not resignation.

    …hmmm, …maybe, if you want to go with that.

    Worry – to be concerned.  Care – to be concerned.]

    I guess you go with how you like it.  …

  36. 36.

    satby

    @Betty Cracker: the sad thing about that Deace tweet is that he sounds sane. His side is getting more deeply wedded to a completely insane view of the world. The Rs are no party for sane men.

  37. 37.

    Baud

    @AlaskaReader:

    I’ll go with what the English language says about the meaning of those words.

    ETA: In fairness, I recognize there’s some overlap. But that doesn’t make it right to imply one from the other.

  39. 39.

    p.a.

    Is the reporting accurate about the Admin changing rules to allow the border wall build to continue?  If the news is accurate, has the Admin explained its reasoning?

  40. 40.

    AlaskaReader

    @Baud: …and I’ll continue to wonder about your particular interpretive process that manages to bend those definitions at will.

     

    No worries, …right?

    And if there was any ‘implication’, it wasn’t malicious or deleterious.

  42. 42.

    satby

    The case for chill this morning is the weather. 45° with a couple more to drop before it warms up to the mid-50°s today. That’ll goose those lagging fall colors.

  45. 45.

    Tony Jay

    Groggily wake up to begin a pleasantly busy Saturday, starting it off with a mug of Peruvian coffee and a glance through the FTFGuardian’s football coverage for this weekend.

    The main paper’s coverage of most things of importance is generally the quality of crusty white dogshit in a seeded brioche bun, but on the whole it does a better job with sports. Not so much this week, though. The implications of last weekend’s 110% proof refereeing dicksaster at the Spurs v Liverpool game have driven the FTFG’s round ball punditry into the same frenzied cocktail party babble of approved talking points as the rest of the national Sports Media. It’s been garbage hot-take after garbage hot-take for a week, and if they could physically reach out through the page to grab the faces of their readers while screaming “No! No! Don’t look at that! Look at this!!!” they definitely would.

    And God bless ‘em, they’ve come through again with an article displaying in legs-akimbo glory all of the self-inflicted grotesquery of this level of editorially-mandated cognitive dissonance. It’s like the Forde Report or antisemitism in the Labour Party all over again.

    Basically, the decision to award the 2030 World Cup to a trans-continental fusion salsa of Uruguay, Argentina, Paraguay, Spain, Portugal and Morocco is proof of the vast sewer of open corruption that Saudi Arabia’s oil-backed sportswashing project has brought to Football, since at its core it’s a bureaucratic trick to allow FIFA’s greedy College of Cardinals to pick Saudi as the 2034 host, and all of the mindnumbingly inane efforts of Saudi social media warriors to paint opponents of dictatorial nation-state control of world football as lunatic conspiracy theorists and hypocrites is just the kind of water-muddying bullshit you’d expect where this much money is on the line.

    And yet, the author goes on, it is at the very same time just lunatic conspiracy theorising for anyone to suggest that there’s anything in the least bit suspicious about the fact that members of England’s PGMOL refereeing community – a group considered so inept and unprofessional by every other Footballing body that they simply don’t get picked to officiate outside of English leagues – are being paid huge sums to fly over to the UAE, which is the country that owns the team currently sitting on top of the English Premier League table, and officiate at meaningless exhibition matches there only 48 hours before being in charge of a football game back in England that had the potential to see the UAE’s team knocked off the top of the league, a game that was subsequently wrecked by a catalogue of refereeing and Video Assistance ‘errors’ that coincidentally resulted in the UAE’s team staying in first place. Only a conspiracy theorist no better than a Covid-denier or the kind of people who hiss knowingly when they see the Royal Family on TV would think that something as unimportant as money would be needed to explain their litany of Very Important Mistakes when “they’re all just a bunch of inept thickos who, nevertheless, shouldn’t be fired or made to be better at their job” is available as an explanation, and if you say another word then you’re personally responsible for every incident of an enraged parent swearing at a volunteer referee at a kid’s five-a-side game and that makes you a monster!

    It’s an article so contradictory and accidentally revealing that I can only assume it’s author, Barney Roney, scribbled it down with his toes while suspended over a vat of boiling hot cash in the sub-basement of the PGMOL’s Stockley Bridge HQ in the hope that readers who’ve drunk their Peruvian coffee would see it as the cry for help it really is.

    Never fear, Barney, I’m coming to save you!

    After I’ve had another cup of coffee and an omelette, of course.

  46. 46.

    satby

    @AlaskaReader: oh, the dreaded “pile on” phrase comes out to whip a person who disagrees with a statement.  Sorry chum, when someone meeps “pile on” at me I just laugh. Because I’m so old I remember when people could have robust disagreements without whining about being in a minority position. And you’re clearly just trying to start some shit, so phaser now set to ignore. Sayonara.

  48. 48.

    p.a.

    Is the reporting accurate about the Admin changing rules to allow the border wall build to continue?  If the news is accurate, has the Admin explained its reasoning?

     

    Original comment is in moderation: mistyped email.

  51. 51.

    Baud

    @p.a.:

    Accurate. I don’t know all the ins and outs but it’s apparently required by law that they have to spend the money on the wall.

  57. 57.

    Princess

    The news from Israel is incredibly upsetting. It will be good for all the bad people and bad for the good people. Such a tragedy.

  58. 58.

    satby

    @p.a.: The administration attempted to get the money allocated during the Trump administration moved to another project, but were blocked by the GOP. So, following the law that was passed, because that’s what the Biden administration does, they’ve been forced to build a wall and waste that money, as well as the other damage that will cause. And the usual people are criticizing the Biden administration rather than the GOP who forced its hand. Because a lot of lefties wouldn’t mind an authoritarian government either, as long as it’s their team in charge. It’s a sucky situation.

  59. 59.

    Baud

    @Princess:

    I don’t know what will happen, but it should be bad for Netanyahu.  It happened on his watch.

    But then Bush was never really blamed for 9/11.

  61. 61.

    satby

    And in other news, the tfg campaign is now going to attack RFK, Jr. 😂

    The dog caught the car. They spent 2 years building him up. Then they got him to run against Biden. That went nowhere. Then he goes indy, surely a ‘Kennedy’ would hurt a Democrat, right? Now they have to spend money they don’t have attacking their own Manchurian candidate! Ron Filipkowski

  62. 62.

    Baud

    @satby:

    I’ll say, I’m not seeing a lot of wall outrage yet in my small info bubble, and it’s been a few days since the news broke.

    ETA: Hopefully, it can be delayed by litigation until we have a better Congress.

  63. 63.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @satby:

    And the usual people are criticizing the Biden administration rather than the GOP who forced its hand.

    I haven’t watched all of the reporting on this, but I’ve seen several reports across sources, and what I have never seen is an actual elected Democrat criticizing Biden on this issue. I just see the talking head assuring me that “Democrats” are up in arms.

    Edited for clarity…

  64. 64.

    Chris Johnson

    the case for more Balloon Juice morning people chilling on bluesky:

    bsky-social-y6akm-6wwpa

    bsky-social-4ljzs-6sppi

    Last time, I brought Baud! :D

  65. 65.

    Geminid

    The news site Haaretz is maybe the best Israeli source for information on security matters. Their most recent story is headlined, “Surprise Infiltration, Massive [rocket] Barrages Shock Israel: at least 20 Killed, 500 Injured,…” A another story from an hour ago is headlined, “Chaos in Bedouin City: Less than Ten Shelters for Thousands of Residents.”

    Haaretz typically is paywalled, but I could read the second story. Haaretz often does not paywall stories covering Arab matters, in Israel and in the West Bank and Gaza. These stories are often given little attention by the Times of Israel and the JJerusalemPost, which otherwise seem to be sound news sources.

  69. 69.

    satby

    I see the appeals court refused to delay the NY fraud trial, but did delay the judge’s ruling on breaking up the businesses until the end of the trial, which the AG is ok with. Drip, drip, drip tfg.

  71. 71.

    satby

    Now that it stays dark until after 7am EDT, I’m so ready for fall back. Though that will force me to be home by 4pm most of the rest of winter since I can’t drive after dark*. But I need morning light more.

    * the real reason behind early bird dinner specials.

  73. 73.

    p.a.

    In other Israel-related news, the Armenian enclave in Azerbaijan, Nagorno-Karabakh, is collapsing (has collapsed?) under Azeri attack.  Per Jewish Voice for Peace, 70% of Azerbaijan’s military imports are purchased from Israel, and the equipment that has proved so effective used against the occupied territories is now being used against the Armenians there.  Reports of over 100,000 fleeing  to Armenia proper.

  74. 74.

    Princess

    @Baud: yeah. We’ll see whether “he should have been prepared for this” outweighs “we need a strong man like him in times like this.” In hindsight…50th anniversary of Yom Kippur war, last day of holidays, Shabbat…there’s a strong case they should have been more prepared so I do hope it blows up in his face.

  76. 76.

    sab

    @satby: I had never thought about that as the reason for early bird specials, but now that you said so it seems so obvious.

  80. 80.

    eclare

    @sab:

    Same here!  I already don’t like to drive after dark, but part of that is the crime in Memphis.  It really is bad, based on numbers year over year, it isn’t media hype.

  81. 81.

    kalakal

    @satby: In the UK both the BBC and the Guardian are putting it as a deliberate policy choice by Biden

    The administration attempted to get the money allocated during the Trump administration moved to another project, but were blocked by the GOP.

    In a total failure of journalism, rather like over here, they forget to mention that bit. The Guardian has an opinion piece titled “Why is Joe Biden campaigning for Donald Trump?” while the Beeb present it as a broken campaign promise use a classic British press coded  smear ” President Biden and  administration officials  have claimed … “. Neatly helping both the left purity ponies and the Magas over here a bit of help in setting the anti Biden framing

    A

  82. 82.

    Geminid

    @satby: This will weaken Netanahu, I think. With the end of the Me’eretz party’s presence in the Knesset, the four remaining “Zionist” opposition parties are all defense hawks. Benny Gantz’s National Unity party has two former IDF Chiefs of Staff* among its 8 MKs, Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot. Opposition politicians will rally around the PM for now, but when this conflict ends- likely through mediation by Qatar and Egypt- the recriminations in the Knesset will be fierce.

    Netanyahu’s government was not that popular to begin with. His four parties won a 64-56 Knesset majority because two opposition parties- Meretz and the Arab party Balad- fell velow the 3.25% threshold for Knesset representation. The pro-and anti-Netanyu votes were close to 50-50.

    Polls have since indicated that Netanyahu’s coalition would be crushed if a new election were to be held. That’s why the four parties have hung together despite how many of their members can’t stand each other.

    * The post of IDF Chief of Staff is probably the most prestigious in Israeli society. But this does not earn soldiers-turned- politicians any special privilege in the rough-and-tumble Knesset debates.. A Meretz member illustrated this three years ago when she shouted at Gantz, “You are a Trojan Horse who spits in our faces!”

  83. 83.

    Princess

    Sounds like Hezbollah is staying on the sidelines.

    Netanyahu may be damaged but for now he’s won a respite from the protests against his evisceration of the judiciary.

  84. 84.

    Mousebumples

    @Baud: search Airwindows – that’s how I found him.

    I’m @Mousebumples, but I think you’ve already found me.

    I’ve got a few Juicers I’ve sent invites to that seem to be sitting on them? If anyone needs help figuring out how to use the invite code, ask! (i had to Google)

  91. 91.

    RevRick

    “Maybe we just want the show. So the show we shall get.”
    Is Deace so oblivious to the fascist direction to which it’s galloping? If one thing fascists groove on it’s the show, the spectacle. Parades and rallies are their meat and potatoes, because fascism is based in the primitive emotions of fear and disgust ( the flip side of their endless harping on the (blood) purity/superiority of their race/ethnic group).
    Martial music, flags, and emblems of loyalty are essential components of whipping up emotions and identifying members of the tribe. We mock the stupid red hats, but their blood-red color with its imprinted slogan instantly cues others. Belonging is a big part of the appeal, and when the world is changing in ways that you fear, knowing that you’re part of something bigger provides a reassurance that all is not lost. Moreover, the slogan itself has fascist roots. Mussolini, Hitler, and the Japanese militarists all claimed that they would restore national greatness and root out corruption (of blood) and defeat the enemies within and without. {Also true to a lesser extent of Franco’s Spain and Salazar’s Portugal}

    Fascism craves the show and lives for the spectacle.

  92. 92.

    satby

    Finishing the last cup of my French roast before heading out now that it’s dawn. The market has been open for 30 minutes already, but no one rushes there at 7 am to buy soap or lotion. 8 am is early enough. 🙂

  93. 93.

    Geminid

    @p.a.: Almost the entire “Republic of Artsakhs” population of 100,000 has fled to Armenia. One whovfid not is former Defense Minister David Bamayan(sp?), who announced that he was turning him into Azeri authorities.

    British photojournalist Onnik Krikarian reported some interesting comments by Bamayan a week ago. This summer Bamayan participated in talks with Azeri officials th about Artsakh’s “reintegration” into Azerbaijan. Krikorian reported that according to Bamayan, the Azeri’s offered the Armenians in Artsakh autonomy,but Artdakh rejected the deal.

    It sounded like Bamayan thought the deal should have been accepted. After the 44-day war in in 2021, Azerbaijan had reclaimed 7 of the 8 districts of its territory taken by Armenia in the bloody war of 1993. The terms terms of the ceasefire that ended the more recent war required that the 8th district, Artsakh, be disarmed and returned to Azeri sovereignity.

    The 7 districts surrounding Artsakh used to be populated by 700,000 Azeri and Kurds who were driven out by the Armenians in 1993, and now will be repopulated by these refugees.

  95. 95.

    Matt McIrvin

    @satby:

    So, following the law that was passed, because that’s what the Biden administration does, they’ve been forced to build a wall and waste that money, as well as the other damage that will cause. And the usual people are criticizing the Biden administration rather than the GOP who forced its hand.

    Yes, but if you write that but put some of the words like “forced” and “following the law” in scare quotes, it sounds like the administration is lying, so checkmate libs.

  97. 97.

    Matt McIrvin

    I think what gets me is the unreality of the situation–reporters and, seemingly, poll respondents treating this like a normal horse race, when the risk is that goons with guns will bust down the door and kill us all. They don’t have the alarm klaxon screaming in their heads 24/7.

    There’s this idea that we had 4 years of Trump already and things were basically OK then, which of course requires just discounting the last year in which Trump completely fucked up the response to a major global crisis, with the idea that it wasn’t Trump’s fault and doing better wouldn’t have made any difference anyway. Part of it is, I think, this mental slippage that simply associates the pandemic with Biden and the Trump era with the pre-pandemic era. Kind of like the way so many associated the Great Recession and anything they didn’t like about the recovery efforts with Obama. If you fuck up badly enough, your successor ends up owning the crisis.

    And that, I guess, having a bunch of freaks storm the Capitol while trying to overthrow democracy was just a nothingburger since it sort of turned out all right.

  99. 99.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @RevRick: We mock the stupid red hats, but their blood-red color with its imprinted slogan instantly cues others. Belonging is a big part of the appeal,

    For whatever it’s worth, I don’t see all that many of the hats around here these days, and there are fewer flags as well. I hesitate to speculate as to the whys and wherefors. Maybe they are just tired of his banging the begging cup.

  102. 102.

    Betty

    @satby: If they just didn’t spend the money, what would happen? I worry about damage to the habitat and wildlife that has already been affected.

  103. 103.

    Geminid

    @Tony Jay: Was there much of a stir in Brexitannia when Galatasaray F.C. beat Manchester United in their Champions League match? There was a lot of jubilation in Turkiye over the Istanbul team’s victory.

  104. 104.

    Baud

    @Betty:

    I don’t know what would legally happen. But I’m confident all the media would switch to portraying Biden as flouting the law just like Trump would.

  107. 107.

    Yarrow

    @satby:

    But I need morning light more.

    Another reason people move south when they’re older. The warmer weather and the light.

  108. 108.

    Geminid

    @Geminid: Depending on how one defines “Europe,”* Istanbul could be said to be the largest city in Europe and often is, with a population of 18 million. It’s a center for industry as well as Turkiye’s financial center, sort of like New York and Chicago rolled into one. Galatasary F.C. plays its home matches on the “European” side  of the Bosphorus while their rival Fenerhebahce F.C. plays on the “Asian” side.

    * Europe was traditionally said to end at the Hellespont, now known as the Turkish Straits of the Bosphorus, Sea of Mamara, and Cannakale (formerly called the Dardanelles). Istanbul now sprawls on both sides of the Bosphorus and along the shores of the Mamara Sea.

  109. 109.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Betty:

    I know what conservatives put in that list.  The thing is, they’re fantasies.  They believe Trump secured the border, fixed the economy, and made the US respected again overseas after a world that saw Obama as weak and easily tricked.  Oh, and he restored dignity to the White House.  They think Republicans have brought spending under control and defended children and the rights of parents.  They think Republican led states avoided the economic crash of Covid by defending their populations from the liberal hoax and not shutting down businesses.  Oh, and it’s not something Republicans did, but they think it’s critically important to remind everyone of the arson and looting that ravaged cities with Black Lives Matter protests.

    If you do not treat their bizarro world as true, then obviously you are wildly liberally biased.

  110. 110.

    kalakal

     

    @satby:

    But I need morning light more.

    I’m the opposite. As a keen gardener I prefer having as much light as possible after I finish work.

  111. 111.

    Baud

    @Geminid:

    There’s a story in my feed that the Speaker candidates debate on Fox has been cancelled.  Someone is listening to you.

  112. 112.

    Geminid

    Nice try, Annie Laurie. You put a post titled, “The case for chill,” and war breaks out in the Middle East!

  114. 114.

    What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?

    Asked this before and didn’t get an answer previously: Does DougJ cross post NYT Pitchbot to any other social media site? Spoutible, Mastodon etc.?

    I deleted Twitter from my phone and decided whatever twitter alternative he posts to is the one I’ll join.

  117. 117.

    Ken

    @Chris Johnson:

    bsky-social-y6akm-6wwpa

    bsky-social-4ljzs-6sppi

    Could you give a basic rundown on how I would use those on bluesky? Assuming I can use them on bluesky, I don’t have an account yet, and no one has invited me to join (is that still a thing?)

    Also, it’s just because of my day job, but I see bsky-social-y6akm-6wwpa and I think, “why are they posting Kubernetes pod names?” What are those, automatically-generated account names?

  121. 121.

    Mike in NC

    I got transferred to the DC Beltway area in 1990 and quickly learned to despise Chris Matthews, Bob Novak, George Will, and every other Village hack. Moved away in 2007 and it was a great relief.

  122. 122.

    pluky

    @Baud: Considering the women compete in 4 events (floor, beam, uneven bars, and vault), while the men have 6 (floor, horse, rings, parallel bars, high bar, and vault) this is even more amazing.

  124. 124.

    RevRick

    @OzarkHillbilly: Perhaps. But there’s really no nominating campaign going on right now. The GOP “debates” are a joke, because Trump has the nomination sewn up. The test will come next Spring and Summer, when the legal system will be assailing the lawless one, and he is the presumptive nominee.

  125. 125.

    H.E.Wolf

    @Baud: ​
     Definitely not vaccines; though perhaps not this, either. I’d want to see a much larger sample size, a much less obscure journal in which the research was published, and reporting by a less seemingly clickbait-y site. And this is not to be a wet blanket – I look forward to that day! I’m sure it’s coming eventually.

    I do tend to side-eye “big rise in recent decades” reporting, when the reporting fails to discuss changes in *identifying* a given condition.

    I can’t be the only person who had “stupid” or “weird” classmates who – based on their symptoms/behavior – would nowadays be diagnosed with dyslexia, AD(H)D, or autism. I can think of 3 examples (1 of each) in my 6th grade class, back before the Flood….

  127. 127.

    Geminid

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I guess it depends on how you look it. It certainly is not in the interests of House Republicans to take their Speaker fight onto national TV. They have a big enough problem as it is.

    This is the kind of shit that would turn Karl Rove’s hair gray, if he had any.

  128. 128.

    Geminid

    @Geminid: Correction: that would be the Sea of Mamara, not Mamara

    The ancient Greeks called it Propontus, and called the Black Sea Pontus.

  129. 129.

    Ken

    @H.E.Wolf: I can’t find the original, but someone did analyze the data and noted that one “recent” rise in autism tracked with a change in the DSM’s diagnostic criteria.

    Going back even further, the increase in autism in the early part of the last century correlates with a decrease in the number of diagnoses of “feeble-mindedness”.  And has been noted, before that it was children being stolen by the faeries and replaced with a changeling.

  130. 130.

    satby

    @Yarrow: yeah, the south is a hard nope for me. Not a thing about it is attractive to me. Especially the heat

    @kalakal: I’m up between 4-5 most days, so I just go out early in the morning. Mostly to avoid the height of summer heat.

  131. 131.

    satby

    @Betty: the administration would be sued and lose. Congress appropriates funds, the executive branch has to spend according to the appropriations.

  132. 132.

    Tony Jay

    @Geminid:

    Less than there would have been a year ago. Despite the best efforts of fan-pundits who grew up idolising Siralex the Glorious and his teams of serial league winners, it’s pretty much sunk in now that Man Utd are a deeply divided club, badly run from top to bottom, and fielding a disjointed melange of individually talented but massively overpaid players in unsuitable positions under the weak leadership of a conveyor belt of second rate managers.

    Them getting thumped in the Champions League isn’t really a surprise to anyone. And while Galatasaray are not one of the ‘glamour clubs’ of Europe, No one is under any illusions about how hard they are to play against.

  133. 133.

    kalakal

    @satby: I’d do that but where I live the earliest sunrise is around 6:30 and I’m off to work at 7. If I could I’d start work really early and finish mid afternoon.

  134. 134.

    Anne Laurie

    @H.E.Wolf: I can’t be the only person who had “stupid” or “weird” classmates who – based on their symptoms/behavior – would nowadays be diagnosed with dyslexia, AD(H)D, or autism. I can think of 3 examples (1 of each) in my 6th grade class, back before the Flood….

    As someone who wasn’t diagnosed as dyslexic till I was in college, or as ADHD till I was almost forty, you are extremely correct!

    People — many who should know better — forget how recently ‘damaged’ children were, at best, encouraged to drop out of school after the early grades… and, at worst, institutionalized.  (I have peers who didn’t discover they had ‘retarded’ or ‘childhood schizophrenic’ siblings until they themselves were adults.  Sometimes, when the parents who’d been advised Put it in an institution & tell the neighbors it died, otherwise your normal kids will suffer died.)

    When the law says that every kid has to be educated, it’s tempting for conservatives to insist that it’s some kind of chemical / social plot, another liberal ‘failure’.  Even when it’s their own kids / grandkids who benefit from an IED — In my day, we just punished those lazy unruly little bastids till they shaped up, or else!

  135. 135.

    Tony Jay

    @kalakal:

    That’s no more than you’d expect from either of them. The FTFGuardian exists as it is to sell centre-left professionals news coverage that always just so happens to undermine whichever is the most productively ‘progressive’ left-wing party, whether from the Right as they did in the UK or from the Left as they do in the US (and are increasingly starting to do in the UK now that New Labour have adopted Cameron’s policies).

    The BBC, well, the BBC just does whatever it’s Tory appointed management tells it to do.

  136. 136.

    kalakal

    @Tony Jay: Oh I’m not in the least surprised, it’s exactly what I’d expect from them.

    Been enjoying the Tory shitshow in Manc land? Sunak’s making Johnson look like a model of consistency and Braverman needs rabies shots. When you’re too extreme for Priti Patel.

    I did enjoy the comeback attempt by Lettuce Liz. She really is as thick as mince.

  137. 137.

    UncleEbeneezer

    Any argument that a modern election “shouldn’t even be close” tells you that the person uttering it doesn’t understand the reality of US politics and the average American voter.  I made that mistake in 2016 confusing “should” with “would” and really underestimating how many voters would support a complete jackass for a whole host of reasons that are terrifying (they like the bigotry and/or they just don’t really take voting all that seriously).  There’s a saying that “Anger is just fear with no place to go” and I think a lot of the hand-wringing over Biden’s age is, imo, just fear of a second Trump presidency and frustration or inability to reconcile with the reality that there are enough shitty or clueless people that, yes, it will be a close election.  It shouldn’t be, in a better world, but in this one it will be.  It’s frustrating as hell but there’s no getting around it.

  138. 138.

    Tim Ellis

    If you’re a progressive like me, I think we have an especial responsibility to hype up Biden’s accomplishments to our peers. It’s not just that Trump and the GOP are awful and so stopping them is worthwhile on its own (though that is true), but Biden has legitimately delivered more positive progressive change than any President of my life, and it’s not close. But a lot of that gets lost in mainstream media “both sides” coverage and buried under a deluge of propaganda online.

    But I have had a lot of success showing other Millennial socialists and progressives in my network Biden’s actual record and convincing them he’s worth supporting and a vote we can be proud of. They just need to get the facts from people like us.

  139. 139.

    Tim Ellis

    @Ken: Head to https://bsky.app/ and click “create account”. At that point it’ll ask you a few questions, including “invite code”. At that point, put one of those codes in the field to move on. Without an invite code, you can’t yet join Bluesky, just add yourself to a waiting list. But with the code you can join right now.

    Once you’re in, if you’ve ever used Twitter, it’s VERY similar to that. I find once you’ve followed about 50 to 100 people your feed gets quite lively.

    I’m djdynamicnc.bsky.social if you want to connect!

  140. 140.

    Tim Ellis

    @UncleEbeneezer: I had a friend in Detroit who normally doesn’t vote but voted for Trump because he thought it would be funny.

    He’s not a heartless idiot so he feels terrible about it now, but it definitely happened and he wasn’t the only one.

  141. 141.

    Tony G

    My own opinion, for what it’s worth, is that a lot of the reason for the congenital worry and panic among Democrats is that, in the political landscape of the past 50 years, the system really is rigged in favor of the right-wing.  In particular, two major components of the system — the Electoral College and the Senate — are, by design, un-democratic, and therefore favor the Republican Party that represents minority interests.  A commonly cited example of this is the fact that since 1992 — for more than thirty years — Republican candidates for president have won the popular vote only once (in 2004), but there have been two times (2000 and 2016) when Republican presidential candidates have been elected in spite of losing the popular vote.

  143. 143.

    Bill Arnold

    @Bill Arnold:
    Got a little further with Brave, but the code had already been used.
    The UI for bsky signup is absolutely atrocious. It said my handle had invalid characters, but did not say what characters are. valid. It did not tell me the code was used until the end of the process, though it needed to be entered first. It did not actually tell me that the invite code was already used, just that it was invalid and I may have miss-typed (topy/pasted, really) it.
    And the above GET/POST confusion is a sign that b;sky is not ready for prime time.

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