Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

After dobbs, women are no longer free.

Bad people in a position to do bad things will do bad things because they are bad people. End of story.

If you are still in the gop, you are either an extremist yourself, or in bed with those who are.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

Text STOP to opt out of updates on war plans.

The gop is a fucking disgrace.

How stupid are these people?

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

Optimism opens the door to great things.

Second rate reporter says what?

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

“But what about the lurkers?”

All hail the time of the bunny!

Fear or fury? The choice is ours.

They want us to be overwhelmed and exhausted. Focus. Resist. Oppose.

He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!

If you can’t control your emotions, someone else will.

“Loving your country does not mean lying about its history.”

You cannot shame the shameless.

“woke” is the new caravan.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

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Monday Morning Open Thread: The Season of Diet Sun

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Monday Morning Open Thread: The Season of Diet Sun 1



Our Major Media needs a new pork chop ‘narrative’…
Monday Morning Open Thread: The Season of Diet Sun 2

(Ballard Street via GoComics.com)

Monday Morning Open Thread: The Season of Diet Sun

Reader Interactions

155Comments

  3. 3.

    mrmoshpotato

    “The Press and pundits can keep being surprised as much as they want. But since I came off the sidelines to go toe to toe with Donald Trump, we haven’t stopped winning and he hasn’t stopped losing.”

    I would’ve preferred “and he’s a loser,” but still BAM! POW! to the orange nutsack.

  11. 11.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @mrmoshpotato:

    I would’ve preferred “and he’s a loser,” but still BAM! POW! to the orange nutsack.

    You’re right. Sometimes redundancy clarifies:

    “The Press and pundits can keep being surprised as much as they want. But since I came off the sidelines to go toe to toe with Donald Trump, we haven’t stopped winning and he hasn’t stopped losing…because he’s a loser. L-O-S-E-R.”

  12. 12.

    Kay

    “The Press and pundits can keep being surprised as much as they want. But since I came off the sidelines to go toe to toe with Donald Trump, we haven’t stopped winning and he hasn’t stopped losing.”

    Oh, they’re going to be mad! They’ll be a lot of flouncing and hurt feelings! It’ll be like when they demanded he reinvade Afghanistan and he refused.
    On that point, I follow Amy Klobuchar on social media. She’s very involved in helping refugees from Afghanistan. Just steadily working to bring them in, get them aid. Have you heard ONE DAMN WORD about refugees from Afghanistan since media had their big, phony months long hissy fit about how they cared so much about the refugees?
    It’s like how they stopped giving a shit about email process and procedure the moment they knocked Clinton out. Frauds.

  14. 14.

    lowtechcyclist

    @rikyrah:

    Good morning!

    It’s a bright, sunny morning here in beautiful Calvert County.  Kinda nippy, but it is late November after all.

  15. 15.

    VOR

    Thing is, TFG is only 3 years younger so not really an improvement in that regard. And TFG is the one making gaffes which make you question his mental acuity. Yeah, I wish Biden was 20 years younger but if my alternative is TFG then I’m crawling across broken glass to vote for Biden.

  20. 20.

    p.a.

    @Kay: Have you heard ONE DAMN WORD about refugees from Afghanistan since media had their big, phony months long hissy fit about how they cared so much about the refugees?
    It’s like how they stopped giving a shit about email process and procedure the moment they knocked Clinton out. Frauds.

     

     

    “Closure”: when the media move on to the next shiny object.

  22. 22.

    M31

    “We haven’t stopped winning and he hasn’t stopped losing, and I for one am not tired of it. My new campaign manager, Major the dog, has promised to bite Donald Trump in the balls and piss on his shoe. I’m Joe Biden and I approve this message”

  23. 23.

    New Deal democrat

    I have one bone to pick with the “John Fetterman democrat” tweet.

    If you follow up and go to the Reuters poll, there is majority support for a lot of different, but non-contradictory, opinions, e.g., Israel is reacting as any other country would do under similar circumstances, but also Israel should call a ceasefire and attempt to negotiate.

    But most importantly, the top result in the Reuters polls was that Gazans should be *allowed* to flee to a safe country (which is not genocide), not that Gazans should be *forced* to flee to another country (which under some definitions is genocide.

  24. 24.

    Betty Cracker

    If Speaker Johnson wasn’t a reactionary weirdo with a horrifying political agenda who is 2nd in line to the presidency, I’d almost feel sorry for him: Marjorie “Gang” Greene will make his life a living hell unless Johnson goes the McCarthy route and clutches the viper to his, um, bosom, in which case she’ll just make his life a living hell in other ways. (WaPo)

    “Now the new guy you are told is way better doesn’t want to impeach,” [MTG tweeted], referring to newly elected Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.). “Such progress.”…

    Within 30 minutes, Johnson texted Greene to insist he was committed to the Biden investigations. He told her the news reports were “fake news,” according to a person close to Greene familiar with the interaction, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a private conversation…

    Greene, whose constituents reelected her by more than 30 points last year and who has raised millions of dollars for her campaign and the party, plans to use the same aggressive strategy that she employed against McCarthy when she first entered Congress — publicly pressuring the Republican speaker to move to the right.

    “I represent the base, and I’m not going to be lenient on him just because he’s new,” she said of Johnson. “The same way I was hard on Kevin at the beginning.”

    Now, Greene is publicly pushing a Johnson to create a new January 6 select committee. “Releasing the tapes is not enough,” she wrote on X after Johnson began releasing the tapes this weekend.

    She’s also angry about the recent government spending bill, pissed off about the congressional calendar and furious over the possibility of linking Ukraine aid to border security funds. Best of luck, Johnson.

  25. 25.

    Jeffro

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: oh good, another reason to buy more books!

    (Narrator: Jeffro did not, in fact, need another reason to buy more books.)

    j/k and thanks Dorothy – I’m off to check out the lists!

  28. 28.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Kay:

    Oh, they’re going to be mad! They’ll be a lot of flouncing and hurt feelings! 

    You’ll be able to hear the butthurt from Uranus!  I say “Fuck their feelings!”

  32. 32.

    sab

    My stepkids stopped by yesterday to watch football with their dad. They brought their big goofy dog. Our pitbull was unhappy about that and spent the whole afternoon barking at him with her mouth full of dog biscuits. I was impressed. I didn’t know she could do that with her mouth full. He just shrugged it off and cheerfully ate his own biscuits.

  34. 34.

    Jeffro

    @Betty Cracker: Now, Greene is publicly pushing a Johnson to create a new January 6 select committee. “Releasing the tapes is not enough,” she wrote on X after Johnson began releasing the tapes this weekend.

    “I WON’T STOP UNTIL I HAVE RE-WRITTEN HISTORY!!!  EVEN THE HISTORY THAT THE ENTIRE WORLD WATCHED HAPPEN, LIVE ON TV!  I WILL HAVE MY ORANGE GOD-KING BACK!!”

    Jesus, the voices in that woman’s head must really be something…

  38. 38.

    Scout211

    The “season of the diet sun” gives us the most beautiful sunsets.  I look forward to the evenings here in the fall with so many gorgeous sunsets.

    In other news today, the Appellate Court will hear arguments on Trump’s partial gag order in Judge Chutkan’s court. I will be following the live updates. The ability of a judge to issue gag orders seems like a very big deal to me, but IANAL.

  39. 39.

    Ksmiami

    FYI, the retail expectations are that Black Friday and cyber Monday will be huge. There’s a huge disconnect because the press is innumerate.

  41. 41.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Ksmiami: ​

    @Baud: ​
    I shall endeavor to not spend a nickel on either of those days. I sure as shit am going to avoid Wally world like plague house of horrors that day.

  44. 44.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: Every now and then I hear a story about how some of them are still having problems, or about people still trying to get them out of Afghanistan, but otherwise no we hear nothing about it now. They didn’t really care about it other than as a way to punch Biden.

  45. 45.

    Soprano2

    I appreciate that explanation about sunlight, because I’ve always wondered about that effect. Now I have the explanation for it!

  46. 46.

    RevRick

    Gee, I wonder why this is happening:

    Hyundai just announced that they’re going to raise workers’ pay 25% by 2028.

    This follows announcements by Toyota that they will raise pay by 9-10% starting in January, and by Honda saying they will raise pay by 11% in January.

    For some reason, UAW President Shawn Fain said, “UAW stands for ‘You’re welcome!’l

  49. 49.

    Soprano2

    I’m still trying to come down off my perch of despair after reading Adam’s post about Israel yesterday. I love all the information and knowledge he brings, but I know those posts will always be depressing. They never have any good news for Democrats in them.

  50. 50.

    narya

    According to a recent text I received, venison tenderloin will be back on the menu at Chez Narya (or, as my friend calls it, the Just Bite Me Lakeside Cafe). (The season opened Saturday in Wisconsin.)

  51. 51.

    Tony Jay

    @Soprano2:

    No, silly, you don’t understand. It’s not on the Giants of News Media to do Old Joe’s job for him by grandstanding on behalf of all those people he may or may not have abandoned to the tender mercies of Ho Chi Minh The Taliban in Saigon Afghanistan. By staying silent on the important matter of your elderly President’s absent minded failure to inform the population about what he’s probably got wrong over there, they are, in fact, just being professional and non-partisan. Something they should be commended for.

    Tsk. It’s like some people don’t understand the first thing about the role of the Fourth Estate in a thriving bipartisan democracy.

  52. 52.

    Another Scott

    Meanwhile, … GovExec.com:

    Costs for the backlog of delayed maintenance and repairs to federal buildings have grown exponentially over the past five years, a Government Accountability Office report has found.

    The Thursday report outlined a $22 billion rise in the cost estimates of deferred maintenance and repairs backlogs at four federal agencies from fiscal 2017 to 2022, finding that work originally put off because of funding constraints had swelled as high as 126% for the General Services Administration alone.

    The $22 billion increase in DM&R estimates at the departments of Energy, Health and Human Services, Interior and the GSA —the principal manager of the federal government’s real estate portfolio — accounted for more than 75% of the total civilian increase of $29 billion during that five-year period. The total backlog for DM&R estimates at civilian agencies now sits $80 billion, as of fiscal 2022.

    […]

    Another challenge is the difficulty of managing maintenance for the federal government’s large and aging real property portfolio, which the report estimates includes 58,000 buildings with an average age of 49 years and 96,000 structures with an average age of 42 years at the four selected agencies alone.

    […]

    (Emphasis added.)

    “You can pay me now, or pay me later…”

    That’s just the tip of the iceberg, of course. The Federal Government is huge. There are around 436 federal agencies.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  53. 53.

    Geminid

    @OzarkHillbilly: I’ve only made it to one Black Friday sale but it was worth it. I bought one of those foldable, extendable ladders at Harbor Freight for $149. A heavy, stable ladder that I can fit in the back seat of my car.

  54. 54.

    Another Scott

    @Soprano2: The world is big and complicated.  Lots of good and bad things are always happening.

    KyivIndependent.com:

    The far-right libertarian MP Javier Milei won Argentina’s presidential election on Nov. 19 after a campaign in which he said he would seek to reduce ties to Russia and China, among other policy views that represented a break from the outgoing President Alberto Fernandez.

    Although Fernandez condemned Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, he also said he would not send weapons to Ukraine and declined to join sanctions against Russia.

    Milei gained international attention for his incendiary comments and radical views, such as legalizing the sale of human organs and completely removing all gun laws. He has been compared to former U.S. President Donald Trump.

    At the same time, Milei has expressed support for Ukraine since the beginning of the full-scale invasion. He wore a Ukrainian flag pin in parliament in March 2022 and said, “Those of us who defend the ideas of freedom cannot tolerate or accept an invasion like Russia has done to Ukraine.”

    […]

    FWIW.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  55. 55.

    rikyrah

    @p.a.:

    “Closure”: when the media move on to the next shiny object.

     

    You mean when it was like BABY FORMULA SHORTAGE EVERYWHERE,

     

    and, then, once the Biden Administration resolved the issue,

    they didn’t say shyt about it?

  57. 57.

    rikyrah

    @sab:

     

    I didn’t know she could do that with her mouth full. He just shrugged it off and cheerfully ate his own biscuits.

    Dogs who are chill crack me up.

  60. 60.

    H.E.Wolf

    @Soprano2: ​
     I decided in Jan. 2017 that I couldn’t afford to consume information that brought me to despair, particularly about things I had no personal power to change. It wasn’t healthy for me, and it paralyzed my capacity for action where I could be effective.

    Instead I’ve found small, concrete, positive actions I could take at the personal (very micro) level. In many cases (hello, postcarding and data entry!) I’ve been able to see a small, measurable result from what I’m doing. It has improved my spirits, which has allowed me to continue to lend a hand.

    This is descriptive, not prescriptive. :-) Everyone’s different – this is what worked for me.

  61. 61.

    Geminid

    @Jeffro: Have you been to the Green Valley Book Sale, over in the Shenandoah Valley?. It’s a couple of big buildings full of new,  discounted books. I think that long ago, some enterprising Mennonites started the business in a barn. It opens for six weeks at a time, and right now it will be open until right before Christmas. There are a lot of nice books there of all kinds, and it’s a very pretty drive.

  63. 63.

    Geminid

    @lowtechcyclist: The Green Valley Book Fair is not far from Grand Caverns. That’s my idea of spelunking: a cave I can walk into but not too far, and then walk back out of before I get too claustrophobic.

    The Book Fair isn’t far from Harrisonburg either. I hear James Madison University has a botanical center where people can buy native plants. I need to get over there and buy a Flame Azalea.

  64. 64.

    wjca

    “The Press and pundits can keep being surprised as much as they want. But since I came off the sidelines to go toe to toe with Donald Trump, we haven’t stopped winning and he hasn’t stopped losing.”

    I understand that people, including members of the press, tend to live in information bubbles.  But most of us also have some real world interactions — if only with our families.  And that means we probably have first hand experience with the reality that people age at different rates.

    It beggars belief that so much of of the press would be part of the minority which doesn’t have that experience.  But if they do have that experience, how do they not notice that same phenomena also occurs in the people they are covering?  Anyone looking at, or listening to, politicians (not just Biden and TIFG) has lots of examples of people who are still “acting young” well past 65, and others who “look and act senile” before they ever reach their mid-60s.  It’s pretty hard to miss.  Or should be.

  65. 65.

    RevRick

    @rikyrah: Given that the plants tend to be located in Southern “Right to Work “ states with a long tradition of pitting the working class against each other along racial lines, organizing is an uphill battle. But who knows?

  67. 67.

    wjca

    @Another Scott: “You can pay me now, or pay me much more later…” 

    Fixed that for you.  (Or, to be fair, your source.)

    “Deferred maintenance” is a flat out fraud.  Proposing it, whether in government or in business, should be cause for summary termination.  A forced resignation not an option, not is claiming some weasel words like “reduction in force”; you get the black mark of being flat out fired on your record.

  68. 68.

    Burnspbesq

    Oral argument ongoing in Trump’s appeal of Judge Chutkan’s gag order. You can listen on the D.C. Circuit’s YouTube page.

    i’m not exactly an impartial observer, and we’ll have to see how the Government’s argument goes, but Trump’s counsel is increasingly looking like a pile of smoking wreckage.

  70. 70.

    Poe Larity

    Micro$oft just threw $10B invested in OpenAI out the window and hired Sam Altman to build a competitor.

    Must be nice to have options.

  72. 72.

    wjca

    @Baud: Much of right wing economic thinking is grounded in monkeying around with depreciation.

    Most of my depreciation is reserved for RWNJ politicians.

  73. 73.

    sixthdoctor

    @H.E.Wolf: That’s a very good perspective and something that I’ve tried to implement. Anger without purpose is just poison.

    It’s strange, when I remember to, I say to myself “You don’t have to be angry right now,” and it’s honestly worked. Of course, with 25 years of regular therapy you’d think I’d have a better handle on it…

  74. 74.

    NotMax

    Repeated from overnight thread.

    No need to watch the whole video, but please do go see and hear the measured statements by a citizen who is my new hero (1:49 to 3:54). Link should go to the beginning of the segment

    “There is no right way to do the wrong thing.” Formidable sentiment.

  75. 75.

    Soprano2

    @H.E.Wolf: Maybe I should try some postcarding. I have a pretty full schedule, but it might help me feel better. When I read stuff like “70% of Arab Americans have said they will never vote for Joe Biden again because they think he’s directly responsible for killing babies” or the same thing about young people, it’s pretty dispiriting. I think idealism can be a force for good, but it can also be stupid, with people with almost no experience with the real world expecting Biden to solve a problem that’s been intractable since 1948! It’s particularly frustrating since I think Biden has said more about the civilians in Gaza needing help than I think most any other president would feel safe saying, and yet it still isn’t enough for these people. They want the U.S. to totally cut off all aid to Israel and quit supporting them, and that’s politically unrealistic.

  76. 76.

    Chris Johnson

    @Poe Larity: The AI scene is FLIPPING OUT. I can’t even load Hacker News this morning. Something absolutely crazy happened at OpenAI and nobody has a clue what brought it on. Started when they randomly fired their chairman on half an hour’s notice.

  77. 77.

    Leto

    @Burnspbesq: just from a lay observation, it seems that Trumpov’s lawyer (former Missouri solicitor general) is basically arguing that unless Trumpov is allowed to threaten/intimidate anyone then his free speech rights are being trampled. The judges have given pretty clear examples of what was agreed upon protected speech (can be critical of the government), versus what is over the line (calling for Mark Milley’s death).

  79. 79.

    Soprano2

    @Leto: So they are arguing that death threats are a permissible form of free speech. Not surprising. Which attorney is a former MO solicitor general?

  81. 81.

    Mousebumples

    @Soprano2: I like it! I know it’s not for everyone, but it’s a way to feel like I’m making an impact.

    You can do it on your time, where you can carve out time to write. I usually write after kiddo bedtimes when Mr. Mouse and I are watching sports or other TV stuff.

  82. 82.

    Citizen Alan

    @New Deal democrat: Either way, it’s a dumb question because it presumes that there are other nations which will be happy to absorb hundreds of thousands of impoverished Gazan refugees. Has anyone polled the question of whether the United States should allow 100,000 or so Gazans or palestinians to immigrate to the US as refugees?  Somehow, I can’t imagine that winning widespread approval..

  83. 83.

    Leto

    @Soprano2: D. John Sauer, former MO SG

    Edit: basically his argument is that everything the fat bastard says is “core political speech”. There’s nothing he can say that isn’t protected.

  84. 84.

    Scout211

    CNN live updates:
    As scheduled, each side had 20 minutes to present their arguments before the appeals court panel.
    But Trump attorney John Sauer is entering his second hour of grilling from the judges, who are showing no signs of letting up.
    The hearing is being held in the court’s large ceremonial courtroom, where members of the court staff, reporters, US Marshals and members of the public have filled much of the seating.
    Judge Patricia Millett, when going back and forth with Sauer, is often shaking her head slightly and leaning forward while Judge Cornelia Pillard often asks her questions with a slight smile. Judge Bradley Garcia is largely expressionless.

     

    DC Circuit Judge Patricia Millett drew a distinction between campaign rhetoric and speech “aimed at derailing or corrupting the criminal justice process.”

  85. 85.

    Lapassionara

    @wjca: Ditto! Since I am a few months older than Biden, I am keenly aware of the affect that my age has had on my abilities. So far, I’m with the crowd that believes that 80 is the new 60. I have lost some spring in my step, but I blame the pandemic for that, when I could not go to the gym. Biden has stayed physically active, and he appears to me to be totally capable. His stuttering issue can give the impression that he has slowed down mentally, but I watched his press conference after his meeting with Xi, and he handled questions with skill and demonstrated knowledge of the pertinent areas. Compared to the orange menace, he is amazingly qualified.

  88. 88.

    trollhattan

    @Chris Johnson: ​
    Microsoft being the prime investor in Open AI hires the two Open AI dudes the second they’re out, which I guess is like betting on both teams in a sportsball match.

    Also indicative of how much money is sloshing around in MS’s coffers but holy hell, that board managed to destroy an industry-leading company in 48 hours. Which says everything I feel about boards in general.

  90. 90.

    Scout211

    IANAL, so asking a dumb question maybe.

    Is the Appellate 3-judge panel in Trump’s gag order appealable beyond asking for full panel review?  Will this be appealed to SCOTUS if they don’t get the ruling they want?

    Because I can already see what Trump will claim:  all three Appellate judges were appointed by Democrats! Bias! Election interference! They were mean to me!

     

    Added: Link

    The three-judge panel hearing the case in the US DC Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday were all appointed by Democrats.

    Judges Patricia Millett and Nina Pillard were nominated by former President Barack Obama and Judge Bradley Garcia by President Joe Biden.

    Millett and Pillard have both ruled in several cases in ways that have been bad outcomes for Trump, especially in clearing the way for investigations into him to move forward.

  92. 92.

    John S.

    @Lapassionara:

    Compared to the orange menace, he is amazingly qualified.

    I think this is where all the polling falls short. If and when it actually comes down to Biden vs. Trump, people have to make a binary choice. It won’t matter as much that Biden is old, young voters have economic anxiety, that different factions of Democrats disagree on Israel, etc.

    It’s a real choice with real consequences, as the people of Argentina are about to find out.

  94. 94.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Soprano2: Honestly, I think the best tactic to take with the people claiming they can’t vote for Biden because he did/didn’t do X is to just change the subject to: “So you are okay with Trump rounding up Undocumented People and putting them in concentration camps?  Yes or no?”  Or “So you are okay with a Federal Abortion Ban?”  Or “So you are okay with another Muslim Ban and Transgender Military Ban?” etc.  You’ll never convince them on I/P or whatever their pet issue is.  But then again, you are also unlikely to convince them on anything else, which is why I refuse to engage with them, for the most part.

  96. 96.

    Soprano2

    @Leto: Ugh, he was Hawley and Schmitt’s Solicitor General, no wonder. I listened to a podcast On the Media ran back in October about Leonard Leo and the Federalist Society. One of the things they talked about was that he concentrated on building up formerly obscure offices, like Solicitor General, in order to weaponize them for conservatives. I can’t find it on their Web site; I don’t think they did it, I think it was done by a sister group and they just ran it.

  98. 98.

    stinger

    I might care more about Joe Trippi’s opinion — on anything — if he knew the plural of “leaf”. I’m shallow that way.

  99. 99.

    Soprano2

    @Citizen Alan: Has anyone paid any attention at all to how these type of refugees are received in other countries? (unless they’re white Ukranians, then they’re welcomed by everyone with open arms. Funny how that works, huh?)

  100. 100.

    Baud

    @UncleEbeneezer:

    I don’t know if it’s best to challenge them if passion has displaced reason.

    Maybe something like “I can’t have allowing Trump to win on my conscience.” Draw a moral line in the sand and leave it to them to figure out what side is the line they want to be on.

    IMHO the worst thing one can do is come off as apologetic.

    YMMV.

  101. 101.

    Soprano2

    @Lapassionara: His stuttering issue can give the impression that he has slowed down mentally, but I watched his press conference after his meeting with Xi, and he handled questions with skill and demonstrated knowledge of the pertinent areas. Compared to the orange menace, he is amazingly qualified.

    Anyone who has had much experience with people who actually have dementia knows that there is no way Biden has it; he couldn’t take questions like he did at that press conference if he had dementia. People in the press have to know this, at least some of them, and know that TFG shows signs of some type of mental deterioration because of the way he repeats things and continues to believe in things that are wrong (the 1917 pandemic, for example) even after he’s told differently.

  105. 105.

    Jeffro

    @Geminid: yes!  I started going there all the way back in my undergrad days in the Valley.  =)

    (haven’t been in a while, though…thanks for the reminder!)

  110. 110.

    Brachiator

    @NotMax:

    “There is no right way to do the wrong thing.” Formidable sentiment.

    Great video clip.

    Good to see it is very popular in various social media places.

  111. 111.

    Soprano2

    @Baud: I know, but the press has a responsibility to resist gaslighting rather than leaning into it. Some of them have to know, from personal experience, that there is no way Biden has dementia. I wish they would say so.

  112. 112.

    Geminid

    @mrmoshpotato: No, I’m not familiar with it and I’m glad of that. I just know I’m buying my Special K at the Stanardsville Great Value for next few months. I need to get a couple things at Walmart but I’m gonna avert my eyes when I pass the cereal aisle.

  113. 113.

    piratedan

    apologies if this becomes tl;dr…

    Reflectively, I find myself looking in the mirror as I cruise thru social media lines with a fair amount of youth and people that I would nominally consider political allies and see a LOT of parallels between our own political angst over the events that led up to and transpired since the J6 attack and what is taking place in Gaza right now.

    There’s a helluva lot of “DO SOMETHING” going on right now and am still surprised about how ignorant (and maybe rightly so) people are regarding the relative recent history of the region and who the players are that make change so difficult and the very same folks that would have likely been screaming (and in some cases did scream) that we don’t NEED to be in Afghanistan/IRAQ/Somalia are advocating that we need to institute a cease fire by any means possible, and yes they’re talking about boots on the ground.

    Now are these people political movers and shakers, not really, but are they filling the ranks of people threatening Jews in the US and elsewhere in the world… it appears that they likely are.

    There are times when I wish I could go all Morgan Freeman/Red narrative mode in speaking to these folks to have them understand what it is that they are advocating for as an end game are the very same that the Administration is pushing for, a two-state solution with Hamas gone and Israel to stop this settlement crap on the West Bank.  That would require people to be recognizant that it’s not an easy solution, but killing innocent civilians isn’t exactly a winning policy either.  It’s NOT easy because of history and context and a whole lotta crap like universal white people guilt allowing the Holocaust to happen (and looking the other way while the Nazi’s did it) and a not so awesome attitude to Jews for centuries.  It also ignores that white folks haven’t exactly been cognizant of the rights of peeps of Arabic decent and how this whole western demonocracy thing isn’t exactly embraced by Arabs as a whole nor does it seem that other Arab states feel a need to offer Palestinians a helping hand other than to keep them out of THEIR country but here are some guns, go knock yourselves out.

    I don’t have answers to get the actors on the stage to step to “our” directions, but I’m pretty sure that the Dem response, while murky and muddled is a damn sight better than Gaza glowing right now.  Despite that, I wish I had something to offer these folks other than wait and see but its very difficult even when you’re the last superpower standing to ask people that have been abused for so long to stop fighting and attempt to be rational and table all of that hate and history, especially so when those in charge really don’t want to do it knowing that as soon as they stop, they’re going to be replaced.

  114. 114.

    Soprano2

    @Michael Bersin: You don’t have to tell me that, I live in Springfield. LOL I’ve seen John Ashcroft and his family at a local restaurant once, and the Blunts are from around here too, as is our current governor. Josh Hawley even pretends to live down here!

  115. 115.

    Subsole

    @Baud:

    Welllllll….in fairness, I am sure it did, given who ended up in charge.

    Among other failings moral spiritual ethical intellectual logical and physical…

    Right disease, wrong vector.

     

    Network news, folks. The only people on earth who can hit the bullseye while simultaneously missing the entire damn target…

  116. 116.

    CaseyL

    @UncleEbeneezer: I had an exchange like that on a WaPo comment board.

    Some numbnuts said he couldn’t possibly vote for Biden because of the “slaughter of thousands of innocents.”  I asked if he was OK with the unconstrained slaughter of innocents by assault weapons here in the US, and OK with the deaths of women and children for lack of medical care, and the suicide or outright murder of people for their lifestyles.

    He didn’t address my comment at all, but simply repeated himself, the slaughter of thousands, etc.

    I told him he was a moral vacuity, and left it at that.

    There are a lot of people who come across as moral vacuities.  They may possibly be exactly that, but they’re likelier to simply be ratfucking bad faith actors.

  117. 117.

    Soprano2

    @piratedan: That’s a pretty good summation of how I feel right now, too. I get so frustrated with the people who wonder why Biden hasn’t solved a problem that’s been intractable since after WWII! Read a little history, people. I feel worse for Arab-Americans, I cannot imagine how they are feeling right now, but the solution isn’t to quit and thus help TFG get elected again.

  118. 118.

    Miss Bianca

    @Citizen Alan: I feel like the White House/Democrats ought to be hiring a polling team on that issue asking people, “Well? Are you in favor of granting asylum to a potentially unlimited number of Palestinian refugees? No? No one else is either, funny that…”

    Yeah, this is a problem that can easily be solved by just yelling “Ceasefire!” loud enough, sure…

  120. 120.

    Subsole

    @mrmoshpotato:

    True. Some Titanian’s auditory receptors are already perking up at the ass-fractured keening…

    Which is remarkable, given the absolute lack of any interplanetary medium through which soundwaves can propagate.

  121. 121.

    Ruckus

    @Another Scott:

    I see. Someone who misunderstands that freedoms all have one thing in common – they are all FREE.

    Has zero concept that all freedoms cost someone something.

  124. 124.

    Baud

    @piratedan:

    Certain issues lend themselves to DO SOMETHING rhetoric. Gaza is certainly one of them.

    The bigger problem is the absence of credit when something is done.

  125. 125.

    Soprano2

    @Michael Bersin: Yeah, you win, although I have Eric Burlison (R-Crazy), and before that I had Billy Long (R-Too Well-Fed) for reps. I’m lucky that I live in the part of the city that has Betsy Fogle (D) as a rep, and before that I had the fantastic Crystal Quade (D). It’s slowly getting better here, we now have 3 Democrats in the state legislature up from only 1 eight years ago.

  126. 126.

    Kay

    @rikyrah:

    I wonder if the workers in those plants will put 2+ 2 together and come up with UNIONS ARE A GOOD THING?

    Well, they’re free riders. They benefit from labor unions but don’t belong to one or pay dues. It happens a lot in all kinds of industries. The bootstrapping free market anti union workers enjoy the benefits of the wage floor the union shops put in place (and paid for) but they don’t pay and they don’t have to strike.
    We see it in Ohio with charter schools. All charters are vehemently opposed to unions but public school unions are holding up wages for charter school employees. Without labor unions they’d all be making 15 bucks an hour. Remember it when they’re beating their chests over how they don’t need unions because they are EXCELLENT, or whatever. They don’t need unions because someone else pays for them.

  130. 130.

    H.E.Wolf

    @Soprano2: ​@H.E.Wolf: Maybe I should try some postcarding. I have a pretty full schedule, but it might help me feel better.

     Based on reading your comments here over the years, I’ve got the impression you’re a “can do” kind of person… so postcards might be a good fit!

    I’m a slow writer with other things on my plate, so PostcardsToVoters.org is a good fit for me: a very low minimum of 4 or 5 addresses, and 3 full days to write (4 days, if I ask for addresses on a Thursday). Plus there’s no penalty for taking a break and resuming days/weeks/months later. :-)

    To sign up: Email [email protected]

    I check their Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/TonyTheDemocrat.org/ – I’m a non-account-holder) to see what’s current. I

    Once someone is signed up, it also works to email their address bot and say “Send me 5 addresses”, which returns a list of current campaigns. [email protected]

  131. 131.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: My mother worked for a free rider GE plant. She loved it because she didn’t have to pay union dues but she got the same pay and benefits the union people got. Of course, now there is no GE plant here because they closed it down in the early 2000’s and shipped all the jobs to Mexico, but luckily for her that was after she retired.

  133. 133.

    Soprano2

    @Michael Bersin: Yep, we also have Mike Moon (R-Totally Insane) down here, he’s in the Rick Brattin mold. Those Brattin ads during the primary in 2020 were something else, I had never even heard of that guy before.

  134. 134.

    cain

    @piratedan:

    Now are these people political movers and shakers, not really, but are they filling the ranks of people threatening Jews in the US and elsewhere in the world… it appears that they likely are.

    You can bet that they are using Israel to do anti-Semitic nonsense under the guise of criticizing Israel’s genocide. We should be clear that Israel is not Judaism. Although, Israelis do share some of the blame for repeatedly re-electing a sociopath right winger and his party. As a nation, you’re saying that what’s happening in the West Bank is ok.

    I’d be curious to know if there are polls on what people’s sentiments are on settlers.

  136. 136.

    Burnspbesq

    The panel seemed genuinely concerned about the imprecision of some of the lines Judge Chutkan tried to draw in her order, but Trump’s counsel’s intransigence clearly didn’t go over well. I think the government “won” today, but that doesn’t guarantee that it’s going to like the opinion when it comes down.

  138. 138.

    Burnspbesq

    @cain:

    We should be clear that Israel is not Judaism

    We should also be clear that Hamas atrocities don’t justify Israeli violations of the law of armed conflict.

  139. 139.

    Ruckus

    @Soprano2:

    That would be giving Joe something. And Joe is old so Joe can’t do anything. Just ask them. Age is a funny thing. Some are very old at 65 and some are not so old at 80. Neither of my sisters lived as old as dad or even close to mom. Yesterday I walked a total of 7 1/2 miles and I’m in my middle 70s. Now I don’t do that much very often but it is all in how one takes care of one’s self and how the world does as well. People do live and can live well into their 90s. Or more. The 50 oldest recorded still alive are all over 112, the oldest is going on 117 yrs old. There are 2 men in that age group, neither live in the US. 8 live in the US.

  140. 140.

    cain

    @Ruckus: Now I don’t do that much very often but it is all in how one takes care of one’s self and how the world does as well. People do live and can live well into their 90s. Or more. The 50 oldest recorded still alive are all over 112, the oldest is going on 117 yrs old. There are 2 men in that age group, neither live in the US. 8 live in the US.

    Have you seen the netflix show about people living long lives (and looking fabulous) ? You should check it out. But a lot of the people whose communities have a thriving senior population – it comes down to food and exercise.

  142. 142.

    Ruckus

    @cain:

    it comes down to food and exercise.

    Yes it does. I think it also helps if one either drinks alcohol in real  moderation or not at all. And then there are the genes. One thing that amazes me is that when I was born, the only disease with a vaccine was smallpox. The polio vaccine came about in the mid 1950s, too late for 4 people I know/knew who live/lived with the after effects. Strangely, all of them women.

  146. 146.

    NotMax

    @Ruckus

    when I was born, the only disease with a vaccine was smallpox

    Tuberculosis vaccine first administered medically in the 1920s.

  147. 147.

    Soprano2

    @Ruckus: This is why I’m diligent about exercising – I want to stay as strong as I can. I feel I’m a pretty young 62, although sometimes my body says otherwise. My face, OTOH, looks like I’m mid-40’s. I don’t even have crow’s feet yet! My secrets 1) don’t smoke, 2) stay out of the sun, and 3) good genetics, which you can’t control. All the women on my mother’s side of the family aged the same way I have. I’m a terrible judge of age because my face looks so young.

  151. 151.

    evodevo

    @Soprano2: ​
      There’s evidently a huge disparity between the youngs’ polling on the Israel/Hamas question, and the olds…I say it’s because of that fact…we have been watching this stuff go down for 60 years, and NO ONE has solved it yet. Expecting Biden to pull a rabbit out of the hat on it is ingenuous at best. I expect naivete plays a big part in this…We olds know better…

  154. 154.

    sab

    @Soprano2: Plan ahead on exercising. I did it a lot until my parents age derailed it, Mom’s disability, Dad’s dementia.

    Suddenly caretaking absorbs all your time. You will need back up. Think about how to get that (family, short term hired help.)  You will need it, but with it you can be good to go for years.

  155. 155.

    StringOnAStick

    @wjca: Aging at different rates is real.  I’m 65 and spent the day backcountry skiing on a peak in Central Oregon.  I have made it point to stay active.  My younger sister is 60, thinks that a walk around the block is enough exercise for any day; she looks, sounds and thinks much older than 60.

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