Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Bad news for Ron DeSantis is great news for America.

Cole, when it comes to calico cats, restraint is overrated.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

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

Shut up, hissy kitty!

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

“In the future, this lab will be a museum. don’t touch it.”

Spilling the end game before they can coat it in frankl luntz-approved dogwhistles.

Compromise? There is no middle ground between a firefighter and an arsonist.

“I never thought they’d lock HIM up,” sobbed a distraught member of the Lock Her Up Party.

The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.

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

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

It’s pointless to bring up problems that can only be solved with a time machine.

The new republican ‘Pastor’ of the House is an odious authoritarian little creep.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

Nikki Haley, who can’t acknowledge ‘slavery’, is a pathetic shill.

Biden: Oh no. We’ve upset Big Pharma again.

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

I have other things to bitch about but those will have to wait.

You are here: Home / Politics / Information Warfare / Sunday Morning Open Thread

Sunday Morning Open Thread

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(Well, the tweet sold at least *one* of those tshirts!)
 
Elsewhere… If it weren’t for hypocrisy, Republicans would have no values whatsoever:

Phillip Bump, at the Washington Post, “Does new House speaker really think Biden impeachment push is apolitical?”:

Ten days ago, it didn’t really matter what Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) thought about his party’s impeachment inquiry into President Biden. It had been announced by then-speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) in September and yielded one hearing later that month — a hearing that, by most objective (and some subjective) accounts ended up mostly embarrassing the congressional leaders responsible for running it.

But then Johnson became speaker. And, in the first weekly news conference hosted by Republican leaders since his election, Johnson offered adamant support for the inquiry that has mostly been put on ice.

Johnson was asked his views of the inquiry by a reporter who noted that House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.), one of the leaders of the inquiry, had “suggested that his investigation is winding down.” Johnson didn’t dispute that, framing the lull since the first hearing as a function of conscientiousness, not ineptitude.

He began by insisting that he took the whole thing seriously.

“I was called upon to serve on the impeachment defense team in the House twice under President Trump,” he said, “when the Democrats used it for raw partisan political purposes. And I decried that at each step of the way.”

That’s an interesting presentation, certainly…

“What you’re seeing right now is a deliberate constitutional process that was envisioned by the founders, the framers of the Constitution,” Johnson claimed at the news conference. “This is how they envisioned this to go, not the way the Democrats did it: snap impeachments, sham impeachments and all the rest.”

He went on to insist that Comer and his colleagues were doing an “extraordinary job very methodically and I would say outside the scope of politics.”

This, too, fails to withstand scrutiny…

Where we end up is where we usually end up: Comer hyping a revelation that easily collapses under scrutiny. Comer offering that revelation in part to continue to position himself at the forefront of GOP efforts to impugn the president a year before the 2024 election.

“I’m once again asking for your help to defend my good name,” he wrote in a fundraising appeal sent out this week, “as I delve deeper into the belly of the corrupt beast that is ravaging our country: THE BIDEN CRIME FAMILY.”

If your pitch for money is that you’re the knight in (expensive; donate now!) shining armor battling a dangerous dragon, you have to convince people there’s a dragon.

This is not, I would offer, someone doing an “extraordinary job very methodically,” much less “outside the scope of politics.”

Thing is… Comer is a hardened criminal, but “Speaker Johnson” is a far-right hothouse flower who’s only facing impartial scrutiny for the first time. There’s already a bunch of malformed skeletons falling out of his Shreveport closets, with more to come. And his fellow MAGApublicans may defend him against Democrats (and the good of the country as a whole), but they’re all hypersensitive, touchy about their prerogatives, and itching to recapture the media spotlight.

I’m pretty sure MAGA Mike will still be there for the start of the upcoming Shutdown Battle(s), but I’m not sure he’s got the protective coverage to be there when it ends.

Reader Interactions

182Comments

  1. 1.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Some good news for a Sunday morn:

    A ewe that was hailed Britain’s loneliest sheep has been rescued by a group of farmers from a remote shingle beach in the Scottish Highlands.

    The sheep, called Fiona and wearing a huge fleece, had been stranded at the foot of cliffs on the Cromarty Firth for at least two years, with an animal welfare charity having deemed rescue attempts “incredibly complex”. But five farmers managed to haul her up a steep slope, and now plan to deliver her to a farm park. The rescue mission was organised by Cammy Wilson, a sheep shearer from Ayrshire and a presenter on the BBC’s Landward programme, after seeing media coverage of Fiona’s plight.

    Speaking in a video posted on Facebook, he said: “We’ve come up here with some heavy equipment and we’ve got this sheep up an incredibly steep slope. She’s in incredible condition. She is about a condition score of about 4.5, she is over-fat – it was some job lifting her up that slope. She is going to a very special place that a lot of you know very well, where you’ll be able to see her virtually every day.”

  2. 2.

    Yarrow

    “Speaker Johnson” is a far-right hothouse flower who’s only facing impartial scrutiny for the first time. There’s already a bunch of malformed skeletons falling out of his Shreveport closets, with more to come

    So true. How do these guys think going for the big jobs that come with a bigger spotlight is a good idea? If they’re hiding stuff don’t they know the enhanced scrutiny is part of the deal if they take the job? It just seems so dumb.

  3. 3.

    Yarrow

    @OzarkHillbilly:  Yay! For some reason this story really got to me. Sheep are social creatures that flock. The thought of this poor girl alone for two years was just heartbreaking.

  6. 6.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @MagdaInBlack: Heh. I was taking a break from the world yesterday, so I missed the news until now.
    @Yarrow: To me, it was abusive to leave her there by herself..​
     
    @eclare: ​ You, me, and the rest of the humane world.

  7. 7.

    Geminid

    I drove through Mike Johnson’s district twice in 2019. I was on my way from Atlanta to Santa Rosa, New Mexico.* I did not stop there, and my only memory is of the armadillos I saw lurking in the woods along I-20.

    * a simple route: take I-20 west for 820 miles until just past Sweetwater, Texas and turn right on the road to Lubbock.

  8. 8.

    Ken

    @OzarkHillbilly: Hooray, though the whole thing sounds like the setup for a nasty joke, like the one about the three-legged pig. Something like:

    “She is going to a very special place that a lot of you know very well, where you’ll be able to see her virtually every day: The meat counter at the Inverness Tesco.”

  11. 11.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @Yarrow: That’s a good question. Maybe they think they’ve been under scrutiny already, while they ran for office for instance. They have no idea how intense the scrutiny will be. Also maybe they live in a bubble and think they don’t have anything to hide because everything they’re doing is hunky dory.

  12. 12.

    MagdaInBlack

    @OzarkHillbilly: In the back of my head was the thought that a bunch of farmers are going to get together and go get that poor sheep. And yup, they did ❤️

  13. 13.

    Daoud bin Daoud

    @Yarrow:  Failing upwards is the curse of the white man. Maga Mike is following in the clown shoes of the Orange Obscenity.

  15. 15.

    lowtechcyclist

    Don Lemon says he thinks Michelle Obama is prettier than Melania.

    Michelle Obama is without question a better person, and was a better First Lady, than Melania Trump ever thought about being.

    Tru dat. That she’s also a much more beautiful woman than Melania is an added bonus. Icing on the cake.

    Gotta admit I’m biased – I’ve had a major crush on Michelle Obama for >15 years now.

  18. 18.

    eclare

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    That was one of the points of Game Change, about Sarah Palin’s rise to be the VP candidate.  Someone on McCain’s team (Schmidt?) told her to prepare for scrutiny and bad press like she’s never seen.  Sarah dismissively said the AK press can be pretty harsh, I’m used to it.  I can see MAGA Mike “thinking” the same.

    It’s a very good movie, the cast is incredible.

  20. 20.

    jimmiraybob

    @Yarrow: “If they’re hiding stuff don’t they know the enhanced scrutiny…”

    I think that the obvious answer is that the base doesn’t care.  It is ALL transactional; we give you power in exchange for ……..  Ethics and decency only get in the way.  Look how the religious right treated Carter.  He didn’t deliver and they turned.

  22. 22.

    EarthWindFire

    Making bank off impeachment like the Founding Fathers intended. What’s wrong with you lieberals? Of course that stands up to intense scrutiny.

  24. 24.

    sdhays

    Just think, this is the quality of insight CNN viewers are missing since they shitcanned Don Lemon.

  25. 25.

    RevRick

    One of the things I have started doing is making sure I like the posts cited here on X.

    I know Musk has trashed the place, but abandoning it to the vermin is not an option for me.

  26. 26.

    Geminid

    @Daoud bin Daoud: Santa Rosa is before Albuquerque. I made a left at Lubbock, headed west through Clovis, New Mexico and looked for the right turn to Santa Rosa. Then I picked up takeout chile verde at the Comet II restaurant and headed over to Santa Rosa Lake State Park. They have 10 tent sites on the ridge overlooking the lake. A nice place to camp, but very windy.

  27. 27.

    NotMax

    Linky fix for #19.

    This month only, full first season (13 episodes) of Homicide Hills available on Prime.

    Even if you eschew subtitles, try it; you’ll be hooked

  33. 33.

    CliosFanBoy

    Michelle Obama is prettier than Melania

    She is. Melania looks like the awful human being she is.

  34. 34.

    RevRick

    @lowtechcyclist: While I appreciate your having a crush on the former First Lady, I think that evaluating women on their perceived hotness is a trap. For women, obviously, but also for men, because it reduces all relationships to status objects, including the workplace.

    Oh, and I got to speak to First Lady Michelle Obama on the phone in 2012. The campaign ran a contest for volunteers to see who would come up with the most creative question, and I turned out to be one of the winners.

  36. 36.

    Warblewarble

    Reflecting on the ongoing inhuman slaughter in Gaza, who today thinks Wounded Knee was regrettable but necessary.

  38. 38.

    jimmiraybob

    @Geminid: ​
    @Geminid: ​
     
    One of my favorite stops, no matter what direction I’m coming from, is the Silver Moon Café in Santa Rosa. I’ve also tented at Santa Rosa Lake State Park. And yes, it was windy.

  40. 40.

    Princess

    Mike Johnson is an evangelical which means and lie that serves a purpose he deems godly is fair game. And because he’s an evangelical the fact he says something will weigh as truth with his fellow travellers.

  41. 41.

    artem1s

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    they don’t have anything to hide because everything they’re doing is hunky dory.

    Johnson also strikes me as the same sort of clueless puppet as Pence. From what I’m reading he’s not really likable on a personal level and doesn’t have a bunch of close friends or allies in Congress. He’s operates in a self reinforcing bubble of zealots back home so it’s probably never occurred to him that he’s not as much in control as he thinks he is. He doesn’t realize he’s kept around because he’s got a relatively safe seat, fallows the rest of the pack fairly meekly and is too ignorant to interfere with anything important they want to get done. Making contradictory statements day in and day out is a considered feature in the circles he’s normally running around. He’s never been held accountable for any of his outrageous bullshit. It’s never occurred to him that’s not going to work on the national stage. McCarthy picked him for a reason. Johnson’s getting set up for another MTV. They’ll continue to throw crap at the wall like the rolling CR but in the end, for whatever reason, McCarthy’s money people want the joint aid package passed so it will happen. McCarthy’s gang also doesn’t want a shutdown – or at least they don’t one right now with the holidays coming up.

  43. 43.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Just want to say that Michelle Obama is a beautiful person, thru and thru. Whereas Melania, while superficially attractive (to some anyway), has an ugliness that goes to the bone.

  44. 44.

    Anyway

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    Love the NYC marathon — have been a spectator and cheered friends on many times and its always a fun day The rush of watching the elite athletes in the lead pack never gets old … couldn’t make it this year. Maybe next year…

  47. 47.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @sab: Pretty sure that like me, she can be sheared at any time of year, just not down to the skin. Winter is coming.

  50. 50.

    Geminid

    @jimmiraybob: That’s the windiest place I’ve ever camped. I’ve camped on the Outer Banks on windy days but that New Mexico wind made the winds on the Outer Banks seem like gentle zephyrs.

  52. 52.

    Geminid

    @mrmoshpotato: I-20 jogs south or north a few times, but I could stay on it all the way to Sweetwater. There is a nice stop just west of Sweetwater: the National Womens Auxiliary Air Corps Museum. It’s on an airfield that the WAACs stopped at while ferrying planes from factories to air bases during the Second World War.

  53. 53.

    Frankensteinbeck

    I really don’t give a wingdings which first lady is prettier.

    @Yarrow:

    How do these guys think going for the big jobs that come with a bigger spotlight is a good idea?

    They think they’re the heroes of the story.  It’s a common enough human trait, but it’s a foundational pillar of conservatism and evangelicalism.

  56. 56.

    bbleh

    @Yarrow: @Dorothy A. Winsor: The Republican Party increasingly has become a welter of stupidity from top to bottom, laced through with some nasty but well-deserved cynicism.  There is no reason to expect Johnson — elected from a ridiculously safe district and hence never having encountered any real political challenges — would be either politically savvy or any more intelligent than the majority of his constituents.

    I think one of the reasons being called dumb gets under the skin of so many Republicans is that so many of them actually ARE dumb — visibly, repeatedly, overtly dumb.

  58. 58.

    bbleh

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: @eclare: good for them!  Run it several times — it’s unrivaled for the crowd support, but it’s relatively tough — those bridges are high, and that long slow hill coming back into Manhattan and Central Park is a killer.

  59. 59.

    mrmoshpotato

    @bbleh:

    I think one of the reasons being called dumb gets under the skin of so many Republicans is that so many of them actually ARE dumb — visibly, repeatedly, overtly dumb. 

    Visibly.  “That guy just looks stupid!”

  61. 61.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @artem1s:

    McCarthy’s money people want the joint aid package passed so it will happen. McCarthy’s gang also doesn’t want a shutdown – or at least they don’t one right now with the holidays coming up.

    I’m not sure how much ‘money people’ are involved, but a whole lot of Johnson’s caucus want a joint aid package and a status quo budget.  Johnson’s bargaining position is weak, and I am sure he’s stupid.  It only depends on how fanatically determined he is to not allow the bills the Senate will hand him to be voted on.

    I lay by far the best odds on “He will posture a lot and then fold”, because Republican majorities have been doing that since 2011.

  64. 64.

    Matt

    “Does new House speaker really think Biden impeachment push is apolitical?”:

    Of course he doesn’t.

    The only time a Christianist like Mr. Jackson ever makes a true statement is when they express their bigotry; everything else that drips from their mouth-holes is a lie.

    If I ran this country, fundamentalists wouldn’t be allowed to do anything that requires swearing an oath or agreeing to a contract.

  65. 65.

    brendancalling

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Good luck fellas! Those first few miles are ROUGH (I’ve never done NY, but anything that starts with a run over the Verazano Bridge is tough by definition).

    Coincidentally, I’m in the Bronx this weekend. It’s great weather for a run.

  66. 66.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @bbleh:

    one of the reasons being called dumb gets under the skin of so many Republicans is that so many of them actually ARE dumb

    Their strongly held beliefs are frequently proven to be factually wrong and stupid.  They are seethingly angry about it.  Being right when they are wrong is what ‘elitism’ means.

  67. 67.

    bbleh

    @OzarkHillbilly: @MagdaInBlack: @eclare: @Geminid: @prostratedragon: @Betty Cracker: @evodevo: so a condition score of 4.5 is better than really good, which means she’s well-fed and not sick, so it must have been a pretty decent environment for a sheep, just lonely.  Ergo, only one of two things MUST be true: either she has achieved Sheep Enlightenment and was baa-ing at people to bring them likewise into the light OR she has developed a bottomless hatred for all things human, decided on world domination or destruction, and was baa-ing to tell people they have no idea what’s about to hit them.

    We’ll know which if reports start trickling out of the petting zoo of children going missing.

  68. 68.

    Another Scott

    @RevRick: Neat, and a good point.

    My recollection is that she was the breadwinner when Obama was an instructor and state senator.  She made something like $350k a year as an administrator at the U of C Hospitals.

    [ hobby-horse ] It’s yet another indication that we don’t pay our public servants and elected officials enough.  A past head of the Smithsonian made something like $900k a year.  Reps and Senators barely make $200k.  The President just got a bump to $400k in Obama’s time.  Virginia state Senators and Delegates make less than $20k a year (“they’re ‘part time’…”).

    If we don’t want plutocrats being the only people who can afford to run for office, and we don’t want PACs buying our politicians; if we want highly-trained people with $200k educations to go into public service, then we need to pay them more.

    [ /hobby-horse ]

    Thanks.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  69. 69.

    prostratedragon

    @bbleh:  I’m assuming that once she gets a little comfy in her new surroundings, she’s going to start writing her memoirs. Naming names, and all that.

  71. 71.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Matt:

    Of course he doesn’t.

    I don’t know.  These guys are very good at believing that their way is the right way, period.  End of discussion.  They are battling evil.  How can that be ‘political’?

    They’re also straight up liars because again, lying is morally right if they do it.

    So I’m never sure.

  73. 73.

    Yarrow

    @sab: They are going to shear her. She’ll be well protected at the farm she’s going to. They’ll probably put her in a blanket for awhile after shearing to help her stay warm. That’s what usually happens.

  76. 76.

    kalakal

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Thank you. It’s not quite finished but it looks wonderful already. The house was a fixer upper and the kitchen was a horrible semi wreck. Hadn’t realised how much it was depressing both of us.

  77. 77.

    Yarrow

    FFS, animal activists are protesting outside the farm where the lonely sheep, Fiona, is supposed to be going. They’re protesting outside the farmer’s mum’s house and scaring her. They’re flying drones over the farm to watch what they’re doing. The police have arrived to deal with the protesters. So the farmer has said Fiona is not going there for a moment, which is real shame. She needs care. Fucking animal activists that don’t know what they’re talking about.

  79. 79.

    Anoniminous

    @Geminid:

    Research has shown New Mexico was populated by people who entered the state, encountered windy conditions, and decided to stop until the wind died down.

    We’re still here.

  85. 85.

    Salty Sam .

    @eclare: Such a classic cartoon.

    The entire production team was outstanding, and Mel Blanc was a prolific genius.

    ETA-  I got to see him once when he was doing the college lecture circuit.  He showed clips of classic Merry Melodies cartoons and would voice the character’s lines, live, with a slightly racer script for the college crowd.

  86. 86.

    Geminid

    @Anoniminous: At least you probably have more wind generators now. When I travelled through Texas I was struck by all the wind generators I saw in West Texas. They lined every ridge, and below them were cattle grazing among oil pumps. It was like seeing three stages of the Texas economy at once.

    When I got to New Mexico I hardly saw any wind generators. But I read about the clean power package the legislature had enacted. Governor Grisham made clean energy a part of her 2018 campaign platform.. Now I read that large wind and solar projects are starting to spring up, and the Four Corners coal generation plant is scheduled to be shut down early in the next decade.

  88. 88.

    Miss Bianca

    @Yarrow: There’s a difference between “animal rights” activists and “animal welfare” activists. The former are usually batshit insane – PETA and the like.

  91. 91.

    Salty Sam .

    @Geminid:   I was struck by all the wind generators I saw in West Texas. They lined every ridge, and below them were cattle grazing among oil pumps. It was like seeing three stages of the Texas economy at once.

    Legendary oilman T. Boone Pickens saw the future* and invested heavily in wind power in Texas in the 90’s.

    *(saw the future and how much he could profit from it.)

  92. 92.

    Nelle

    @Scout211: There will be no intelligent or rational reason.  Did God tell her?  That’s probably it.  Her idiot attorney general also endorsed him.  It’s one time that I want to see Trump’s revenge.

  93. 93.

    eclare

    @Salty Sam .:

    Cool!  And some of those cartoons were pretty sophisticated, like “What’s Opera, Doc?”

    You can tell what I did every Saturday morning for years growing up.

  94. 94.

    Nelle

    @UncleEbeneezer: I tried to resist retelling this, but can’t.  In 2008, I was on the rope line with five teenage girls that I pushed to the front.  Obama came through quickly, then Michelle more slowly.  The girls were first and I quickly introduced them to her.  She took my hand in her left hand, then slowly shook each girl’s hand with her right hand, talking individually to them.  It took about five minutes.  So she and I held hands that whole time.

    I did eventually wash that hand.  I was impressed, though, with the way she made each girl feel seen and heard.  They were glowing afterwards.

  96. 96.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @RevRick: I’m definitely a fanboy. I’ve got the hard copy and audio versions of “Becoming” and I never get tired of listening to a couple of chapters in Michelle’s voice.

    One time I called into a party conference call she was leading where the unwashed masses like me were listen-only. When her voice came on in my ear it was magic.

    Yes I have a crush but I have the same feelings about Barack and his voice. We’re the country that put them in the White House for 8 years and that makes me proud.

  100. 100.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    In my continuing adventures of wandering around NYC killing time while my wife is in conference, I have stumbled into the NYC marathon route at mile 23. Wheelchairs went by a while ago and as I read the schedule, the top tier women are due in about 20 min

  101. 101.

    Salty Sam .

    @eclare:  Chuck Jones (producer and huge opera fan) was responsible for all those operatic themed cartoons.  I can’t hear “Ride of the Valkyries” without hearing the lyrics as “🎶 Kill the Wabbit, kill the Wabbit 🎶”

  103. 103.

    Trivia Man

    @Geminid: we were camping someplace outside Vegas, red rock country. Right around sunset we had about 15 minutes of incredible wind. I’m guessing 40-50 mph. Blew away some of our tents and anything not nailed down.

    next year, same place, same thing. We had kind of prepped for it but – that was just a freak! Why would it happen again??

    next year, same place, but we were ready! We suspect it happens every day when it’s hot, some rapid cooling and huge and sudden pressure differential.

    very brief but you better be ready

  107. 107.

    lowtechcyclist

    @RevRick: ​
     

    While I appreciate your having a crush on the former First Lady, I think that evaluating women on their perceived hotness is a trap.

    These are two entirely different things, IME.

  112. 112.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @eclare: That will always be my favorite musical Bugs, maybe my 2nd favorite of all Bugs Bunny cartoons.

    I also love the one where he’s fighting with an operatic tenor.

    When I was a young curmudgeon in training and decided all the Saturday morning cartoons were crap, the Warner Brothers stuff was the only thing I was still watching.

  114. 114.

    Chief Oshkosh

    Just watched Marianne Sotomayor (WaPo reporter; and no, no relation to Justice Sotomayor) and James Fallows (The Atlantic) being interviewed on CBS Sunday Morning (so, a talking head talking to two other talking heads – why didn’t I just mute the TV?). When asked about the different campaign approaches of the two parties, Sotomayor says that, ‘surprisingly,’ Republicans don’t talk about the age of their candidate, but Democrats do. Fallows then provides grandfatherly advice about how the Democrats can finesse “the issue.”

    What utter bullshit. The Republicans don’t talk about Dickhead Donny’s age and actual mental decline because, like every other fucking issue under the sun, reporters don’t harp on candidate age when they “interview” Republicans like they do when interviewing Democrats. Shit, they’ve created a mini-cottage industry on that “story” alone. Neither of the luminaries, nor the CBS talking head, acknowledged any role whatsoever that the MSM plays in creating the narrative rather than just reporting.

    Sotomayor shows herself to be a mediocre product of her times and so lives down to expectations. Fallows should know better, and my previous regard for him has plummeted.

  115. 115.

    Betty Cracker

    @Scout211: I think Trump slammed Reynolds a while back for some perceived impudence, and DeSantis kisses her ass a lot. It’s clear the DeSantis people see Iowa as their last stand, so my guess is Reynolds is putting her thumb on the scale as best she can. Maybe she figures she could be a player if he runs again in 2028 and would be on the short list if Trump drops dead or goes to jail before the voting starts next year?

  116. 116.

    Salty Sam .

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:   When I was a young curmudgeon in training and decided all the Saturday morning cartoons were crap, the Warner Brothers stuff was the only thing I was still watching.

    I went through the same evolution.  And y’know what? We were right!

  117. 117.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @OzarkHillbilly: No, I’m well aware of the deplorables and the Deplorable In Chief. But we’re also still the country that elected Obama-Biden and Biden-Harris, we’re the country that will convict TFG’s orange ass, and that gave Hillary a majority.

  118. 118.

    Ruckus

    @Yarrow:

    Never forget – they are not the sharpest sticks in the box.

    They are not power people because they think power is there to grab all they can, rather than do the actual job. And I’m pretty sure that current day rethuglicans do not understand the actual job in any way, because they really, really want to go backasswards to a time that they think will make life better. And it will for a few and far worse for many. They are conservatives, which means they want to conserve something that actually never existed and was and is crap all on it’s own. They want a country that is wrong, that screws over people they think are inferior to them, when it is them that are inferior to everyone else, because they do not understand – humanity and reality.

  119. 119.

    Anoniminous

    @Geminid: ​
     
    There’s a strong push for wind and solar generation. The problem is our closest markets are southern Arizona and southern California. The reasons are:
    1. Texas is its own protected electric production/distribution area except for El Paso, which is why when down El Paso did just fine

    2. Their rinky-dink under developed power transmission network is maxed, can’t handle any more electricity.

    With the per-mile cost of HVDC transmission lines ranging between $1.17 million and $8.62 million running power the 900 miles from Carlsbad to San Diego is an expensive proposition. Thus we’re replacing other production systems with sustainable systems. At the moment ~35% of in-state electricity use is generated by in-state sustainable generation so there’s room to grow without the expense of constructing new lines.

    I note Jane Jacobs’ road to Wealth runs through import replacement so keeping money floating around NM instead of going to those sons-of-bitching shithead bastards at Peabody Coal Company, aka “Peabody Energy,” is a Good Thing along several different axis.

  122. 122.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Trivia Man: ​
     

    we were camping someplace outside Vegas, red rock country. Right around sunset we had about 15 minutes of incredible wind.

    “We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold.” – Hunter Thompson

  124. 124.

    sdhays

    @Chief Oshkosh: I just got a headline on my Apple News feed from the BBC: “Bored of a possible Biden v. Trump rematch? Here are four ways the election campaign could be turned upside down.”

    Just fuck right off, BBC.

  126. 126.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Not one of these Rethuglican choads should be sitting in the House…they all use their oaths of office to wipe their asses.  Anyone, ANYONE who takes David Barton seriously is unfit to serve in any office under the Constitution.

  131. 131.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @OzarkHillbilly: Good question.

    I think I’m saying that no, I didn’t forget how horrible trump was and is and that we also apparently elected him.

    But I think I’m also saying that no, he doesn’t get to define the entire reality of the US in 2023. He’s only part of reality, not THE reality.

    You may not have been saying that and I’m just arguing with the voices in my head. Wouldn’t be the first time.

  132. 132.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Salty Sam .:

    I got to see him once when he was doing the college lecture circuit. He showed clips of classic Merry Melodies cartoons and would voice the character’s lines, live, with a slightly racer script for the college crowd. 

    Cool.

  133. 133.

    Gretchen

    The scary thing about Johnson is that he thinks he has a straight line to God, and that whatever he wants is what God wants. So if you’re opposing him, you’re fighting against God’s Will. Could that be any more arrogant? Like 1/6 – sure the people voted for Biden, but he’s an abortion loving liberal who God hates, so it’s ok to overturn the election to install God’s choice.

  134. 134.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    So, I stopped subscribing to the NYTimes years ago. I reached the point this morning where I refuse to even browse their front page for headlines.

    This poll-driven trash which supports a narrative the FTFNYT has been pushing isn’t news. It’s dividends on your attempts to make you prophecy self-fulfill.  They don’t even get clicks from me anymore. Nothing.

  137. 137.

    Leto

    @kalakal: can I ask, did you have an architect do the design? Come up with the design yourself? We’re looking at a remodel of ours within the next few years, so trying to get some of that information now on some of the processes.

  138. 138.

    Warblewarble

    With reference to statements by Sec. Blinken. Can anybody please tell what actual steps have been taken against  settler violence. On and before 7th  October , the  IDF has been deployed in support of  settlers,  Palestinian hospitals and schools have  been destroyed ,yet  illegal settlements remain.

  143. 143.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Warblewarble:

    With reference to statements by Sec. Blinken. Can anybody please tell what actual steps have been taken against settler violence.

    None, I’m sure. It’s not something we can jump in and do, and right now Israel’s governance is a dysfunctional mess.

    We send Israel a few billion a year to prop them up, plus there will be more on the way if the Ukraine/Israel/Taiwan/border aid bill passes.  I really think it’s time to tell them that they’d better stop the settlers from rampaging against Palestinians, and keep the water and electricity on in Gaza, or they might find the money spigot drying up.  That’s not gonna happen, unfortunately.

  145. 145.

    bbleh

    @The Kropenhagen Interpretation: lol I reached that point yesterday morning when I saw some subhed about Trump being “irritated” with Engoron’s clerk as though it were newsworthy.  I canceled then and there, despite a $4/month offer to resubscribe.

    Does Maximum Leader’s Irritation
    Suggest Need For Judicial Overhaul?
    A Times panel discussion

  146. 146.

    Anyway

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    What an experience! “Regular schmo” runners have to catch buses at 5:30a in order to line up at the start… and wait for a good hour for their turn! I cannot do the “hurry up and wait” seems so stressful! Being a spectator is more fun.

  148. 148.

    Leto

    @Gretchen: I saw that this morning on Imgur, and it tied together what everyone here was discussing a few days earlier. Just, creepy creepy shit.

    @Anyway: the women’s race was a really good race to watch. Three women battling it out in the final mile, only roughly at the last half mile did they finally start to separate. The men’s race was over early. Still an amazing performance from him.

  149. 149.

    Kay

    @Gretchen:

    I’m fascinated by this because I have been hearing this voice my whole life but didn’t recognize it as fundie – but now thinking of the women here locally who use it – yup.

    Eorlin (sp?) who comments here made a really good point yesterday – how fucked up is it that fundie MEN find the voices and mannerisms of little girls sexually attractive?

    Gross.

  150. 150.

    eclare

    @Anyway:

    Yeah, I did the Peachtree Road Race in ATL once.  It’s exactly like you said, I got up around 5 am to catch public transportation, and then waited at least an hour to start, as the race draws about 50k entrants.  It’s a 10k, people finished before I started.

  151. 151.

    Leto

    @Warblewarble: none; there’s videos posted by both news agencies and individuals over the past year of Israeli’s coming in and just throwing people out of their homes. “This is mine now. Go away.” There was a video posted of an elder christian couple who said Israeli’s came, beat the shit out them, broke the woman’s arm… just because they could and they were mad about Hamas. When asked why they didn’t call the police, and I’m paraphrasing here, the man said, “Why would we? They never respond. They won’t even answer the phone.”

  152. 152.

    Citizen Alan

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: The Fresno-Clovis Marathon was also today. Which was infuriating because the route took it down the main street near my apartment complex and the detour took me nearly an hour to drive a distance that was normally six minutes. Worse, I had just finished a marathon of my own–a D&D session lasting 23 hours that was part of a charity event put on by the local game store. I was dead tired after being up for more than a day and then I had to navigate through the backstreets of Fresno to get home to bed.

  153. 153.

    Citizen Alan

    @OzarkHillbilly: I console myself that it took the combined efforts of the KGB, the FBI, and the NYT to drag Shitgibbon across the finish line in an Electoral College fluke.

  154. 154.

    Leto

    @Anyway: The London marathon is similar. They also have about 50k participating, and they start in waves. First up are the elite athletes, then the semi-pro’s, then basically everyone else. And that everyone else is a very large staggered wave.

    I think it was the 2016 marathon where you had two super unusual things happens. First was at the start of the elite men’s race: a guy slipped/tripped/something, went down, and had a ton of people go over him. He picked himself up, recovered, and I think went on to win it. Second was, same race, they changed the start order. Previously it was wheelchair athletes then women then men. That year they changed the order to women then wheelchair then men. Predictably, by mile 10 I believe, the wheelchair athletes caught up to the women and basically chaos ensued. There was an aide station that all the athletes converged on and a number of the wheelchair and women athletes collided. Just… super poor planning to say the least, as a few of the athletes (both women and wheelchair) had to drop out.

  162. 162.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @Kay:

    Eorlin (sp?) who comments here made a really good point yesterday – how fucked up is it that fundie MEN find the voices and mannerisms of little girls sexually attractive?

    Probably not unrelated to the numerous fundie ministers who get busted for kiddie porn and/or sex crimes against minor. (Joe.My.Old. and beks on the hellsite both keep tabs on this, and pretty much everyday there’s one of them being arrested, convicted, or sentenced.)

  163. 163.

    Geminid

    @Leto: I have worked on renovations but I am no kitchen remodler. I can still recommend getting some 1/4″ graph paper and drawing out what you have and what you want in pencil, then maybe ink. Plan view (from above), elevation, and section.

    This might sound crude compared to using a computer, but it’s worked for me in a lot of construction projects large and small. I picked this up when I was working for a furniture maker.

  165. 165.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Geminid: ​
     

    I’ve done the graph paper thing several times when moving (of course the last time we moved was 1998), measuring each room of the place we were moving into, then taking cutouts of our furniture cut to the same scale and trying out different layouts in different rooms. It’s good to go into moving day knowing exactly where you want everything, rather than having to figure it out on the fly.

  170. 170.

    kalakal

    @Leto: We started out drawing up a floor plan on graph paper. Mrs kalakal who’s a retired artist had very definite views as to what was wanted. Armed with measurements and a basic plan went to places like Lowes etc and got them to come round and do their plans and estimates. Eventually went with a local firm based on their bid and a friends recommendation. we started the planning in February/March. Expect a lot of anxiety and delays.

    Also if you have pets they need to be somewhere safe and secure while some or all of your home becomes a building site. We’ve 3 cats and that was fun

  171. 171.

    Chris T.

    @kalakal:

    Kitchen remodel, nearly done, looks wonderful, been 3 weeks of hell

    How you can get a kitchen remodel done in three weeks I don’t know. Our remodels (admittedly more than just a kitchen) took anywhere from 6-7 months to over a year!

  173. 173.

    randy khan

    Of course Johnson thinks the second impeachment was partisan and unfair – he was in favor of the insurrection.

  174. 174.

    Chris T.

    @Anoniminous:

    With the per-mile cost of HVDC transmission lines ranging between $1.17 million and $8.62 million

    That’s a very wide price range. What leads to the 7-to-8-fold increase? Terrain is clearly a factor (much easier to put in wires on flat solid ground than lumpy crumbly mountains for instance).

  176. 176.

    Yarrow

    @Miss Bianca:  I used “animal rights activists” because that is what the farmer used when talking about what was happening.

    @Steeplejack: Apparently the animal rights group claim they’d agreed with the landowner to rescue and take her to a sanctuary, but then the other group “facilitated a covert operation.” They’re claiming that the farm she’s going to, a “family fun farm” where people can learn about farming and they have play areas for kids, etc., is a “petting zoo” and it was cruel to put her on display and make a spectacle of her.

    That’s not what’s happening, as the farm is closed to the public for the winter so it will be five months before she sees much of anyone outside of the other farm animals and the farmers. But that’s not good enough so they’re protesting and scaring the farmer, his family and the animals with their drones.

  177. 177.

    Chris T.

    @Leto: Can’t speak for anyone else, but for the three remodels I did:

    • The first (and biggest), I hired an architect and a designer. The result was great—it was actually the cover feature story in an architecture magazine!—but I spent way too much and didn’t recover what I put into the house when I sold (semi-forced sale in about 2 years due to change of jobs and locations). This occurred before getting married so Spousal Unit wasn’t involved until later.
    • The second (medium size remodel), I hired someone for assistance in colors and light fixture selection and so on, and some degree of wall-moving. Spousal Unit came up with the fix for the bedroom layout. The cost was much lower than the first one but there was a lot less to do. Recovered all costs at sale, but we were in the house for several more years too.
    • The third (smallest remodel in terms of actual changes but halfway between the other two in price), we hired a sort of all-in-one place, but S.U. already had the design in mind and we mainly needed them to produce the paperwork for all the subcontractors. We put in an elevator ($50k for the unit alone, another $50k for the work to install it), completely redid the kitchen, master bedroom, master bath, and guest half-bath upstairs and did essentially nothing downstairs.

    Generally speaking, you should hire an architect if you are making major layout changes and/or doing a lot of exterior work. Otherwise you don’t really need that kind of expertise.

    We’re still in that last house.

    I have a few personal notes I’ll add:

    • Heated floor (radiant floor heat): totally worth doing in a bathroom, never tried it in a whole-house system.
    • Heated towel rack: not really worth it in the US; 120V systems take too long to warm up. (They’ve been really nice on trips to 240V countries.)
    • Elevator: if you have bad knees / need to use a wheelchair or walker, good idea but very expensive. We had one in the middle house (came with the house, original occupants had someone in a wheelchair). There’s ongoing expense too as you’re supposed to keep a working landline phone in it for emergencies (depends on the code in your area perhaps, but we are supposed to do this). Of course if you’re in a single level flat you don’t need this but the middle house was in the Oakland Hills and was 3 floors.
    • Walk-in (roll-in) tub ready for wheelchair: needs lots of room for door, because the door must swing out, not into the tub. Get one with fast draining because sitting in the water as it drains slowly is not fun. These things are also kind of expensive (and use a lot of water), but for those who need it (Spousal Unit), a luxury that’s difficult to do without.
    • Heat pump (installed in most recent house): better than separate furnace and A/C, but be sure your duct-work and/or ears can take it when the system runs for long periods. The ducting in the current house is noisy (doesn’t bother me that much but S.U. hates it).
  178. 178.

    dnfree

    @Leto: We have done four complete kitchens in the course of our marriage, three of which involved expanding the space.  Make a list of what you want and go to a kitchen place and have them come look at your space.  They may come up with completely different ideas of how to achieve what you want.

    A daughter had a kitchen designer who came up with a fantastic plan.  The deal was that if she bought the cabinets from them the design was free; if they didn’t, the design cost $1500.  The estimate for the cabinets from the kitchen place was something like $30,000, well beyond their budget, so they paid for the design and got the cabinets from Menards for much less.  It was still worthwhile, the design is so good for their space.  Designers have a much better idea of what is available than you have.

  179. 179.

    Splitting Image

    For the Looney Tunes fans here:

    Mel Blanc

    This is a little story by Mark Evanier, who directed one of the Bugs Bunny compilation films they did back in the 1980s. They were mostly cheap cash-ins that were knocked out very quickly, but they did involve hiring Mel Blanc to go back into the voice studio and record the linking dialogue. Evanier tells what it felt like to direct Mel saying “What’s Up Doc?”

  182. 182.

    frosty

    @evodevo: The left turn at Albuquerque is a real thing!

    After the 1937 realignment of highway US route-66, Albuquerque’s Central Avenue became the east-west “Mother Road” through the city. Driving west on Central Avenue towards the city’s Old Town district, the road bends slightly right and northwest to run parallel with the Rio Grande river. The road eventually comes up to a junction, and drivers are faced with choices at the intersection of what are now Central Avenue and Rio Grande Boulevard.

    • Turn right, and drivers are headed away from US-66, northbound towards Santa Fe.
    • Jig slightly left, and drivers continue westbound on US-66 towards Arizona and beyond to the highway’s western terminus in Los Angeles, California.

    https://fotoeins.com/2018/11/19/that-left-turn-in-albuquerque/

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