Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Russia bombs Ukraine’s maternity hospitals; Republicans in the House can’t sort out supporting Ukraine.

I did not have this on my fuck 2022 bingo card.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

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

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

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

The line between political reporting and fan fiction continues to blur.

Donald Jessica Trump found guilty as fuck – May 30, 2024!

Books are my comfort food!

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

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

Let’s finish the job.

The Supreme Court is corrupt. Democrats must win in November and force court reform.

You come for women, you’re gonna get your ass kicked.

We’re not going back!

Accountability, motherfuckers.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

The arc of the moral universe doesn’t bend itself. it’s up to us.

You are here: Home / Nature & Respite / Birdwatching / Squishable Wednesday Morning Open Thread

Squishable Wednesday Morning Open Thread

by | 162 Comments

This post is in: ,

This isn’t a respite thread, but here’s some soothing content anyway: a Roseate Spoonbill and pair of Sandhill Cranes who recently visited our lagoon. I see spoonbills in that spot quite frequently (it’s a crawdad buffet), and I see cranes flying overhead or in fields a lot. But I’ve only seen cranes in river vegetation a couple of times and had never seen them hanging around with a pinko before!

I shared a still photo of the trio in comments the other day. In the video, you can hear one of the Sandhills trumpeting as it briefly flies. The metallic scraping sound that prompts the cranes’ short relocation flight is Bill launching a canoe. He went fishing and caught a couple of big bass!

Open thread.

Reader Interactions

162Comments

  2. 2.

    Scout211

    Reposted from downstairs:

    It’s official, my pick off the short list was the winner!

    Time Magazine person of the year is Taylor Swift

    Say what you will about an entertainment person as person of the year,  but I am so glad it’s not Putin.  TSwift really did catch all the buzz this year.

    And my 13 year old granddaughter will be happy!

  4. 4.

    mrmoshpotato

    But I’ve only seen cranes in river vegetation a couple of times and had never seen them hanging around with a pinko before!

    Commie cranes!

  7. 7.

    MagdaInBlack

    @Scout211: I am having so much fun following her current romance. I’m not a Swiftie, but I find it a fun distraction from all the crap going on elsewhere.

  9. 9.

    Soprano2

    It’s quiet at work today because most of them are at a two-day safety conference that’s put on by a local company. It’s free and they get free lunch, that’s why they go. I never go, because it has nothing to do with my job unless they tell you how to avoid paper cuts and not get carpel tunnel.

  10. 10.

    frosty

    I saw two Sandhills at Bombay Hook in Delaware a little while back. Huge birds! You’re so lucky to have Roseate Spoonbills hanging around. I hope to see a few when we’re on our 11th Annual Snowbird Road Trip in February.
    I’ll be heading south to Baltimore in an hour or so to see a couple of rarities that have been hanging around. This is a weird sport/hobby/activity once it grabs hold of you!​

  11. 11.

    piratedan

    Haven’t seen it posted anywhere, but has anyone asked Liz Chaney why she didn’t call the FBI afyer overhearing the Ellis/Pence phone call on the 4th?

  12. 12.

    Jeffro

    Good morning!

    Filed under, “old dog, new trick”: I have started listening to podcasts on my morning walks.

    The upside is that I walk a lot longer.  The downside is I’ve been listening to politics-adjacent podcasts when I should be using that time to take a break from politics.  (Noted for future walks!)

    Now then…I found this to be pretty fascinating yesterday in the NYT: the police are solving far fewer crimes than they used to.

    Guess when that trend started?  >(

    The F.B.I. released data this fall that gives us a glimpse of how policing in America has changed since the disruption of the pandemic years. The evidence is clear: Police departments across the country are solving far fewer crimes than they did before 2020.
    The clearance rates — essentially the percentage of crimes leading to arrests — for violent or property crimes have dropped to their lowest levels since the F.B.I. started tracking them in the 1960s (though lower arrest standards probably drove the high clearance rates in the 1960s and 1970s).
    In 2022 police departments, on average, solved only 37 percent of violent crimes, just over half of murders and nonnegligent manslaughters and only 12 percent of property crimes.
    While headlines tend to focus on falling clearance rates in large liberal cities, the decline occurred nationwide in both red and blue cities, counties and states. The violent crime clearance rate, for example, fell considerably between 2019 to 2022 in big cities, which tend to be led by Democrats, as well as in small cities and suburban and rural counties, which tend to be led by Republicans.
    Rising crime rates are unlikely to be the culprit. More crime could certainly lead to lower clearance rates — if a department makes the same number of arrests but crime doubles, then the clearance rate would fall as a matter of mathematics — but in fact, the F.B.I. reports that violent crimes fell between 2020 and 2022.
    The exact causes of the decline in arrests are difficult to pinpoint, but the timing is clearly tied to the summer of 2020, suggesting that changes in policing and America’s dwindling confidence in law enforcement since the killing of George Floyd played a role.

    Sentencing and judicial reform tend to make up the bulk of our policy responses to crime and policing, but this new data suggests that increasing the share of crimes that are solved — especially violent crimes — should be a major focus of policymakers nationwide.
    Studies of crime and punishment have shown that a police force’s ability to solve crimes is more effective in deterring crimes than the severity of punishment.

    I know there are hardworking, courageous police officers out there, but in the aggregate, the numbers don’t lie: the cops are not doing their jobs nearly as effectively as they used to, and it’s hurting red and blue America.

  14. 14.

    Another Scott

    Speaking of birbs…

    Ian Rose
    @[email protected]

    One of my favorite things to see come across my screens each year: the US Fish and Wildlife Service has announced that Wisdom has returned to her mating grounds on Midway Atoll.

    Wisdom is at least 71 years old, the oldest verified wild bird of any species. She has raised more than 30 chicks. She has flown the circumference of the Earth over 120 times. She is the closest the seabird world gets to a celebrity, and the only royalty I recognize. Long live the Queen.

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wisdom_(albatross)

    en.m.wikipedia.org
    Wisdom (albatross) – Wikipedia
    Dec 05, 2023, 22:49

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  15. 15.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    Open thread? I’m doing this project in which I read a book from each of the 15 categories in Goodreads’ Best Book of the Year award. (I’ve been reviewing them on my blog as I go along.) My current read is from the new Romantasy category–a combination of romance and fantasy, I assume because that’s a subgenre that’s booming. It’s not going well, which is why I’m commenting here rather than reading it. I’m only at the 12% mark. I hope I get into it more as I go along.

  16. 16.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Remember, you have no obligation to finish reading any book (unless it is assigned reading for a course or you are being paid to review it specifically).  If this one isn’t working for you, just grab another from the category.

  18. 18.

    different-church-lady

    @NotMax: ​
      Elon Musk: “My company will go bankrupt without advertisers.”

    Also Elon Musk: “Advertisers, go fuck yourselves!”

    Linda Yaccarino: “This is fine.”

  23. 23.

    Layer8Problem

    @NotMax:  “Rotisseried Linda Yaccarino.”

    Wow, that’s harsh. I thought she was just overly optimistic or positive based on the press stuff I had seen about her as a “competent” and “capable” ad exec. She’s a asshole with way too high self regard and with the moves of every toxic corporate vice president or manager I ran across. She thought she could manage or at least gull an angry five-year old boss and I just see her reprising Kevin Bacon’s performance at the end of Animal House.

  24. 24.

    Betty Cracker

    @Omnes Omnibus: I used to be a compulsive book finisher. I slogged my way through garbage like Atlas Shrugged and many other books that were very long and had merit but didn’t grab me for whatever reason. I dutifully finished them all. But the older I get, the less patient I am. I don’t have that kind of time anymore.

  27. 27.

    TaMara

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I’m lazy, so I’m not going to look up a link, but a gentleman who had read a record number of books said he started on page 100 and read like 10 pages, if it grabbed him, he would go back to the beginning, if not, he’d only committed to 10 pages.

    I’ve used that method a lot and have found it really does work well.

  29. 29.

    different-church-lady

    @NotMax: ​
      My fuckin’ god, I read that whole article and once again I am astonished at the sheer volume of words people will use to say “sociopath”.

  30. 30.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Jeffro:

    The evidence is clear: Police departments across the country are solving far fewer crimes than they did before 2020.

    After police kill an unarmed person, they tend to respond to any public outcry by saying, in effect, “well, if you don’t like us, see how you do without us” and just not doing their jobs.  I expect there was a lot of that in the wake of the 2020 BLM protests.

  32. 32.

    Wormtown

    Grew up on a farm in Western Massachusetts.  Thirty or more years ago we had a lost sandhill crane in our chopped corn field.   My dad was still alive and took great pride in his visit.  Went to the feed store and bought food for him.  Had all kinds of birders – on an Audubon list.  There was also a rare bird at a neighbors farm so there was a lot of activity with birders.  My dad told the birders he chatted with not to bother going to the neighboring farm because the neighbor’s bird was so small.  He felt the sand hill crane was the only one worth getting excited about.

  33. 33.

    CaseyL

    @Another Scott: Live long(er) and prosper, Wisdom!

    Albatrosses are just fascinating in every way.  According to a program I saw ages ago,  they don’t mate until about age 10 – and spend their time before then in large groups of the same age, slowly finding That Special Someone.  Once they have,  they are mated for life (though a widow/widower may take a second mate).

    It was so much like human social activity I was charmed and enthralled. Humans have consistently undervalued or mocked animals’ emotional lives, which (IMO) are just as complex, complicated, and compelling as ours.

  34. 34.

    Bruce K in ATH-GR

    @Layer8Problem: Is it just me, or does Ms. Yaccarino have more than a hint of the scapegoat about her? Someone to blame when Elmo’s antics finally drive Twitter below crush depth?

  36. 36.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Betty Cracker: I’ve given up on some books and then gone back to them later and found that they grabbed me then.  Others (like Atlas Shrugged), I have tried a few times and never gotten past page 50.

  38. 38.

    J.

    Love this! I’ve seen Roseate Spoonbills on and around Sanibel and Naples, but I’ve yet to see a Sandhill Crane. Very cool!

  43. 43.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @different-church-lady: ​I am astonished at the sheer volume of words people will use to say “sociopath”.

    That’s because they’ve never come face to face with one, so they think they are observing something unique.

  45. 45.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @CaseyL: ​Once they have, they are mated for life (though a widow/widower may take a second mate).
    It was so much like human social activity

    That doesn’t sound very human to me.

  47. 47.

    Layer8Problem

    @Bruce K in ATH-GR:  Fits in with his misogyny, although he probably sees any corporate types as interchangable Lego figures he can toss over his shoulder.  He should try an out-of-nowhere game-changing move a true galaxy-brain would do, like making Joe Rogan CEO.

  51. 51.

    Layer8Problem

    @Omnes Omnibus:  You made an effort.  I’ve told myself I should read Atlas Shrugged so I could trash it responsibly, but figured I should save my energy for the unabridged Life of Johnson.

  55. 55.

    Betty Cracker

    @J.: I was glad to get the spoonie in the same frame because it illustrates how large cranes are. They’re HUGE!

  56. 56.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @different-church-lady: It’s easy enough, all one need to do is get them to open their mouth. Gives them away every time. Of course, I took a five year course in “How to Survive a Sociopath” so I have an advantage.

  57. 57.

    marklar

    @frosty: Hmmm. Bombay Hook is a great place. I wonder if a bird-watching meetup (Bombay Hook, Forsythe, Conawingo Dam, Hawk Mountain, Garrett Mountain in the spring, etc.) might be an interesting idea for those of us within a couple hour (or so) drive to any those places?

  61. 61.

    TBone

    @piratedan: Good question.  Apparently she dialed in and forgot to broadcast?  Woulda been a good time to raise the alarm instead of after the fact.  Those thugs at the Capitol should have been corralled and ID’d instead of let free to walk away.  Book sales tho.

  62. 62.

    brendancalling

    Of note:
    Norman Lear has passed on. He was a giant.

    Not sure if I posted it already but my band, The No Good Crowd, just released a single. We have vinyl available too for those folks that like a nice 45.

    Not sure if I posted it already, but the new episode of the podcast I do with Martin Longman is also up: Progress Pondcast episode 7. I can’t access Spotify from my work computer, so here’s a link to the blog post, which links to the show. This week we dance on Kissinger’s grave, enjoy Santos’ expulsion, and dive into the new scandals swirling over Moms for Liberty.

  63. 63.

    p.a.

    Can’t really expect cops to do their jobs after (sometimes maybe) requiring them to get life-saving vaccines and (sometimes maybe) holding them responsible for their own crimes now, can we?

  64. 64.

    Elma

    The sandhill cranes have not left Wisconsin yet.  There are groups of them that fly by my downtown (all concrete) window every morning heading from the river where they spend the night to the fields to hunt.  The cranes are usually gone by now, but with no snow on the fields, they don’t have much reason to move south.

  65. 65.

    Geminid

    @Scout211: There’s a nice bird refuge 7 miles outside of Roswell, New Mexico. Its called Bitter Lakes National Wildlife Refuge. There’s a big artesian lake and marsh with a driving loop around it. Plenty of large migratory birds stop there, and some  hang out a while.

    I visited there, and I also checked out bird refuges near Alamosa, Colorado. There is a big federal wildlife feserve next to Great Sand Dunes National Park, and several smaller ones in the San Luis Valley. Alamosa has a  Crane Festival every Spring.

    Alamosa seems like a nice town to visit anytime. It has lots of nice walking that’s flat, the way I like it. The town has nice park along the Rio Grand that begins a couple blocks from downtown. The river’s nice, and the view of the Front Range 20 miles east is fantastic.

    Edited for abundant typos.

  66. 66.

    japa21

    @Omnes Omnibus: ​
     There’s an area of the Mississippi at LA Crosse where a large group of Sandhills and pelicans summer. The pelicans have gone but as of yesterday the cranes were still there.

  68. 68.

    NotMax

    @zhena gogolia

    When running the college radio station back when, we’d receive in the post dozens of new albums each week. Would listen to the first track on each side on the preview turntable in order to move it to inclusion on the suggested (read: optional) station playlist.

    Fortunately we had enough storage space to enable never throwing an album away. Must have had over 10,000 of ’em in the music library room.

  74. 74.

    Jeffro

    @TaMara: a gentleman who had read a record number of books said he started on page 100 and read like 10 pages, if it grabbed him, he would go back to the beginning, if not, he’d only committed to 10 pages.

    I might have to think about that strategy!

    I do an ‘interest check’ at page 50; if I like it enough to keep going, I do one more at page 100 to see if I want to finish.

    10 pages (whether at the start or at page 100) feels too short to tell, but I might shorten up my ‘interest check’ to the first 25 pages.  =)

  75. 75.

    Jeffro

    @lowtechcyclist: After police kill an unarmed person, they tend to respond to any public outcry by saying, in effect, “well, if you don’t like us, see how you do without us” and just not doing their jobs.  I expect there was a lot of that in the wake of the 2020 BLM protests.

    Yup.

    It’s just really interesting that the data holds true across ‘red’ and ‘blue’ jurisdictions, as well as other factors noted in the piece.  They’re all responding, and in a bad way, to the public demanding more accountability.

  78. 78.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Baud: I’ve warned you repeatedly about the perniciousness of Steve in the WTF.  Did you listen?  Obviously not.

  80. 80.

    catclub

    @Lapassionara: Are you sure about December 6th, 1941 as a date that will live in infamy?  I would have said December 7th.

     

    Unless you hate Beethoven, then December 16th.

  86. 86.

    coin operated

    Just waiting for our IT change freeze to begin after this weekend…no changes to the production environment until after the 1st is like getting 3 weeks of $HOLIDAY vacation for free!

  92. 92.

    Baud

    @Mike in NC:

    Six people were found dead and three injured after a string of homicides and shootings unfolded across two Texas communities on Tuesday before a suspect was taken into custody and charged with capital murder, police said.
    Four people were killed and two police officers shot in Austin on Tuesday, authorities said. The suspect, who has not been named, was also linked to the deaths of two people in San Antonio, they added.

  95. 95.

    Dangerman

    @lowtechcyclist: After police kill an unarmed person, they tend to respond to any public outcry by saying, in effect, “well, if you don’t like us, see how you do without us” and just not doing their jobs.

    Visiting SoCal again and it’s staggering the reckless driving I see all over; I don’t know if there have been cutbacks at CHP or whatever, but I see wild, high speed driving, and I don’t ever see anyone pulled over (if a CHP is parked dealing with something, it’s a clear accident or flat tire or similar).

    Don’t even get me started on the Redlight turns after it turns red; it appears to be the new sport. There was always 1. Now, it’s 2 or 3.

    Police have a tough job, I get it; they also get paid very well. Deal with it.

    Also, while I am on police, I made a mistake and left my phone in an Uber. I was told by Uber that they would leave it at the nearest Police Station. Since when are the Police tasked with being Uber’s Lost and Found Department? I ate the fee and had the driver return my phone as I kinda need it.

  96. 96.

    CaseyL

    @TaMara: Of all things, the book Dune failed that test with me.  I tried to read it many, many times – and each time gave up.

    It wasn’t until the book was assigned reading in a literature class I was taking that I girded my loins, as it were, and kept on reading. It did improve after the first 40 or 50 pages.

    Since then, I’ve heard quite a number of people recommend just skipping the first 50 pages :)

    (The problem isn’t all exposition dump, though there is a lot of that.  My problem is that Frank Herbert, for all his undoubtedly excellent qualities, had no sense of humor, didn’t understand humor, and therefore neither did any of his characters.)

  97. 97.

    Layer8Problem

    Going from the sublime to the ridiculous, I’m off to try and score a discontinued toilet tank. Wish me luck.

  100. 100.

    RaflW

    There were two sandhill cranes in the parking lot of the high school we went to in Port St Lucie, FL last week (to see a friend’s two H.S. boys play soccer). I didn’t know they hung out in parking lots. The ones that come — very occasionally — into our shoreyard at the lake in Wisconsin spook and fly away at the sound of a patio door opening or a foot step or two, so these guys seemed very nonchalant by comparison.

    They are a bit prettier in the wild, though. Nice video capture, Betty!

  101. 101.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Jeffro: This is why I like shows that are politics-adjacent, but not only or solely focussed on politics.   My fave is The Black Guy Who Tips which is a comedy podcast (I’ve probably mentioned it here before several times) hosted by Rod and Karen, a Black couple in NC.  Most episodes have games like Guess-The-Race and guests (usually comedians) but they also don’t shy away from deep discussions about politics, Racism, Misogyny, LGBTQ Rights, Covid etc.  They are very progressive but also as black people born and raised in the South, they are also realists.  They are on every major podcast network and some episodes are on YouTube.  Here’s a great sample of their political talks.  A listener wrote in saying they are thinking about refusing to vote for Biden in 2024 because he hasn’t been sufficiently pro-Palestinian, in her opinion.  So Rod and Karen spent an hour explaining why he completely disagrees with the idea that not-voting somehow creates change in America.  Anyways, it’s a great show that manages to make me feel slightly better about our political situation without shying away from the realities of it.  When I spent my time mostly listening to Pod Save America and other politics-focussed shows, I was much more anxious, depressed etc.

  102. 102.

    RaflW

    @NotMax: “The former NBCUniversal ad sales chief thought she could manage the mercurial Elon Musk. Her former colleagues are baffled at the result.” Sounds all too similar to the dozens of egotists who joined Orangemandias’ 2017 cabinet.

    People like Musty and Donnie Dazzlehands cannot be ‘handled’, at least not in the sense that normies think. The short fingered vulgarian could at least be manipulated via the equivalent of a verbal mouse on a string, wherin the mouse was obsequious flattery and minor subterfuge. Elmo’s drives seem even less linear and obvious, other than that he’s an extremely brittle crybaby, so good luck to his minions (and by good luck, I mean f*ck off).

  103. 103.

    Paul in KY

    @Layer8Problem: Have a great idea for a short comedy video (also public service): You start out by zooming in on one of those ‘Take A Book, Leave a Book’ kiosks. It is filled with different books, etc. Then you show a hand remove one of the books and replace it with ‘Atlas Shrugged’. This goes on till the whole kiosk is filled with her book.  The last thing is that hand again opens the kiosk and puts a hand grenade or stick of dynomite in there. You pan out and it blows up spectacularly!

  105. 105.

    cope

    @RaflW:  They used to hang around in the parking lot of a FL hospital my wife worked in.  She sometimes had to navigate around them as they foraged for dropped French fries.  She has said they were un-nerving when looking into the car at her, standing taller than she was sitting down.

    Sandhill cranes are very large and noisy and they leave behind stinky poop if they visit your yard.  Flying in formation, honking away, they are, however, quite beautiful.  We still have some hanging around here in Western Colorado.

  106. 106.

    Jeffro

    Kevin McCarthy OUT of Congress by the end of this year!

    The Incredible Shrinking GOP Majority. =

    File under #ETTD

  108. 108.

    Belafon

    @RaflW: They’re both the kind of people that you would have to control by convincing them that any good idea is theirs. And that is hard to do under the best of circumstances.

  113. 113.

    dmsilev

    @Jeffro: His district is pretty deep red, so whenever the special election to replace him is held, it’ll probably be won by another Republican. But, the seat will be vacant for probably 2 or 3 months, right in the middle of the (next) shutdown/budget/etc. mess.

  115. 115.

    RaflW

    @different-church-lady: From the article @NotMax linked to, this is a remarkable observation from one of her former NBCU colleagues:

    Several of Yaccarino’s former associates say she was determined to rise to the level of chief executive, which was clearly not going to happen at NBCU. “I don’t think she has the skill set to be CEO,” a former colleague says. “She can’t do a simple mission statement. She’s not transparent. She doesn’t have the facts at hand. She doesn’t create a positive culture. She takes pushback personally.”

    Reads like a laundry list of reasons why she’s perfect in the Xitter role!

  116. 116.

    RaflW

    @dmsilev: So Johnson will have both Santos and Quevin’s seat open? That’s a very tiny margin to whip for passing anything. We’ll all pay a price for that chaos, most particularly Ukraine I suspect. But it really does suck to be him (no tears).

  118. 118.

    dmsilev

    Re: replacing Kevin, I did a very quick look at CA law and, well, possibly the seat will stay vacant until next November. Per page 7 of this, normally the Governor has 14 days from when the seat becomes vacant to schedule a special election. However, the filing deadline for the fall election is close, and this might apply:

    When a vacancy occurs in a congressional office after the close of the nomination
    period in the final year of the term of office, the Governor may decline to issue an
    election proclamation at his discretion.

    Now, whether “the nomination period” means “filing deadline for the primary” or “the primary has already been held” is not made clear, at least not in this not-for-election-lawyers fact sheet, but it’d be an absolutely hilarious result if Kevin inadvertently (or possibly deliberately) gave Gavin Newsom an opening to screw over the new House GOP leadership.

  119. 119.

    Jeffro

    @smith:

     

    @Old School:

     

    @dmsilev:

    “I have decided to depart the House at the end of this year to serve America in new ways,” McCarthy said in a Wall Street Journal op-ed. “I know my work is only getting started.”

    McCarthy’s retirement will bring to an end a 16-year House career that saw him quickly rise through the ranks of Republican leadership, culminating with his stint as speaker. His ouster marked the first time in history that the House voted to remove its leader, a move that threw the chamber into a period of instability.

    he’s the last “young gun” out the door, right?
    ah well…maybe now he can tell us more about why he thought “Putin pays trump“?

  121. 121.

    Miss Bianca

    @Omnes Omnibus: You’ve actually tried to read Atlas Shrugged?

    The closest I’ve ever got was watching (sort of, I was mostly gagging) the movie they made of it a few years back. To please a friend. Who then got very annoyed with me when I was loud in my scorn, derision, and finally, anger that he thought I would find *anything* worthwhile in such a nonsense piece of work.

    Although, in simple justice, I have to say, a work that manages to be both dull and evil at the same time is…some sort of accomplishment. Just not one to be proud of.

  122. 122.

    Layer8Problem

    @Old School: ​Now I want one of those AI-generated videos of McCarthy singing “Word Up”. We can do those now, right? We have the technology?

  123. 123.

    Mike in NC

    @Jeffro:  So many ambitious shit-bag members of Congress dream of being Speaker as their next step to being President. Yet it never works out. Ask President Paul Ryan or President Newt Gingrich. Kevin McCarthy’s next job will be assistant manager of a fast-food joint in the armpit city of Bakersfield, CA.

  124. 124.

    Baud

    @Mike in NC:

    Kevin McCarthy’s next job will be assistant manager of a fast-food joint in the armpit city of Bakersfield, CA.

     
    Assistant to the manager.

  125. 125.

    Betty Cracker

    @Jeffro: Good riddance to McCarthy. I thought it was kinda weird when he said he would stick around after being deposed. My guess is he was in denial.

  126. 126.

    Geminid

    Westchester County Executive George Latimar has announced his candidacy to represent New York’s 16th Congressional District. This sets up a primary battle between him and the incumbent, Rep. Jamaal Bowman.

    The 16th CD covers a northern portion of the Bronx and as well as southern Westchester County. That could change if Albany Democrats can make a new district map stick.

  127. 127.

    Kay

    @Jeffro:

    It’s just really interesting that the data holds true across ‘red’ and ‘blue’ jurisdictions, as well as other factors noted in the piece.  They’re all responding, and in a bad way, to the public demanding more accountability.

    We’ve basically lost control of the police. They’re accountable to no one. Flush with funding too- they got a boatload from covid funding and then the rush to shower them with cash so no one could ever be accused of not “supporting” them.
    They still have a lousy clearance rate though- they’re really good at military dress up and using battering rams, not so good at investigating and solving crimes. The part that’s amazing to me is the proliferation of video survelliance. This country is lousy with cameras – I don’t think people outside the court system understand they are showing up on video basically all day and night now- but their clearance rate is lower than it was 20 years ago. WTF? Between cell phones, online activity (a wealth of information) and video their clearance rate should have gone UP, not down.

  128. 128.

    RaflW

    @Mike in NC: Unfortunately, Quevin’s next job will be as a lobbyi$t. He sucked yak balls at being squeaker. But he was well known for his fundraising ability, so he’ll be tapdancing for dollars in the corruption-adjacent D.C. industry of choice, money-passing.

  130. 130.

    Geminid

    I wonder if McCarthy was lining up a job (or jobs) before he announced his retirement. He’ll probably need one.

  131. 131.

    Kay

    @Jeffro:

    I’m to the point where the job should include a bachelors degree requirement or a 5 year apprenticeship. Whatever training they are getting isn’t enough. Start over, get rid of the whole academy system and make training better if you want crimes solved. They don’t know how to do it. Fully half of them here can’t even write a decent report on an ordinary interaction. They can’t solve crimes because they don’t have any information from the original incident or encounter.

  132. 132.

    Geminid

    @RaflW: Rodney Davis picked up a nice job on K Street after he lost his primary last year. That’s not too hard for someone who’s been in Congress for a while.

  133. 133.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    They don’t do any of the training where you find one who knows what he or she or doing and that person is used as an example. There’s always one or two or know how to write a report with facts and details – you get to know who they are in asmall jurisdiction like where I live. Those people have to train the others. It shoudn’t run the gamut from “very good” to “very bad”. The very bad group should be retrained or gone.

  134. 134.

    Timill

    @dmsilev: Marin County says:

    San Rafael, CA – If you feel called to public service, the nomination period is open for federal, state and local offices in the March 5, 2024, Presidential Primary Election.

    The nomination period ends at 5 p.m. Friday, December 8, with an extension to Wednesday, December 13, if an incumbent officeholder does not file. When it comes to Marin County representation, seats open for nomination include:

    • United States Senator (full term), U.S. Senator (partial term), and U.S. Representative in Congress.

    https://www.marincounty.org/main/county-press-releases/press-releases/2023/elex-candidate-filing-111323

    Either way, the end of the year is after the nomination period closes.

  135. 135.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: Great point about the proliferation of video evidence! I wonder what the solve rates are in other countries? I agree the whole academy system should be replaced. It’s a miserable failure.

  136. 136.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: I think no politician ever says it because it’s a form of heresy to criticize heroic first responders, but I wonder what the reaction would be if someone running for office said you know what, the crime problem isn’t because liberals coddle criminals. It’s because too many politicians are kissing the police unions’ asses, cops aren’t doing their damned jobs and right-wingers are making sure everyone in the country has easy access to guns.

    It’s the truth! I wish someone would say it!

  137. 137.

    dmsilev

    @Timill: Thanks. So, I hope that Newsom plays hardball and leaves the seat empty until next fall. He can pitch it as saving the state the expense of running a special election.

  138. 138.

    Jeffro

    @Betty Cracker:I wonder what the reaction would be if someone running for office said you know what, the crime problem isn’t because liberals coddle criminals. It’s because too many politicians are kissing the police unions’ asses, cops aren’t doing their damned jobs and right-wingers are making sure everyone in the country has easy access to guns.

    I like this, but I can’t imagine a place in the entire country where “cops aren’t doing their damned jobs” would be a winner.

    It’ll take a lot of public presentations about data like this, and lots of pressure from mayors, city councils, etc on their police chiefs.  Who would then…maybe…in theory…pressure their own departments to do more to solve crimes.

  140. 140.

    Betty Cracker

    @Jeffro: I think you’re right, which is why no one ever says that. There is data, as discussed upthread, but mythology prevails. There’s copious data that suggests different approaches are needed to solve a lot of critical problems, and no one seems to give a shit. So we limp along with inadequate, ineffective institutions that make life shittier. Oh well. ;-)

  141. 141.

    JaySinWA

    @Jeffro: It seems that political pressure to solve crimes actually increases the risk of someone getting framed.

    Which raises the question of whether the “solving crime” metric alone is a valid measure of “police doing their job” without some measurement of “solved correctly”.

  142. 142.

    Elizabelle

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    The Young  Defeated and Deposed Guns.

    Who probably privately think getting out of Congress is the best thing that ever happened to them.  (Well, not McCarthy.  He is not smart that way.)

    They can follow John Boehner’s lead there.

    Zippity do dah.

  144. 144.

    Another Scott

    @Kay: A couple of decades ago, a car was going too fast around a corner, lost control, and hit a tree in the yard of the house we were renting.  (The driver was Ok.).

    A few days later, I got a copy of the police report for the owner’s insurance policy and looked it over.

    Really basic facts were wrong – wrong street address, description of the directions, etc.  It was kinda eye opening.

    There apparently isn’t any consequence for sloppy work – and this is in one of the richest counties in the country…

    :-/

    Something something vital importance of audit something something.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  146. 146.

    trollhattan

    I see McCarthy’s slinking out of the building has been discussed. As to what happens now.

    “If I’m walking away from something that I spent two decades at, I don’t want to look back and say I made an emotional decision,” he said at The New York Times DealBook Summit on Nov. 29. His announcement comes two days ahead of the Dec. 8 filing deadline to run in California’s March 5 primary. (Ha ha, suck it, other Republicans.)

    His resignation means California Gov. Gavin Newsom must call a special election to replace him. The seat will be vacant in between, narrowing an already-slim Republican House majority. California’s 20th Congressional District is solidly Republican, covering parts of Kern, Fresno, Tulare and Kings counties.

    Depending on what his next career steps are, McCarthy’s prowess as a prolific fundraiser will be hard for the California and national Republican party to replace. But he wrote that would be part of his next steps. “I will continue to recruit our country’s best and brightest to run for elected office,” he wrote. “The Republican Party is expanding every day, and I am committed to lending my experience to support the next generation of leaders.”

    McCarthy’s departure will leave House Republicans with a razor-thin majority. The vacancy created by Rep. George Santos, expelled last week, will not be filled until early next year. A special election to fill the seat is scheduled for Feb. 13, and Democrats are given a decent chance of winning. Chances are McCarthy’s seat won’t be filled until later.

    https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/election/california-elections/article280226519.html#storylink=cpy

    Before anybody gets all aflutter, his district is R+16, the state’s reddest (think of it as jail for Republicans).

  147. 147.

    Miss Bianca

    @trollhattan: But Newsom can slow-walk the special election, right? Like, not call it till later next year? >:>

    Normally I would tut-tut over the thought of a Democratic leader pulling such shenanigans, but…things have changed.

  148. 148.

    Origuy

    I have already gotten an email from John Barrows, Democrat, who is running to replace McCarthy. I think he had already filed to run in the primary for the general election. His email says he will be running in the special election.

    His website says he was born and raised in Fresno, and has worked for the city of Fresno.

  149. 149.

    dmsilev

    @Miss Bianca: I posted a link to a summary of state law upthread. Short version: A special election has to take place between 120 and 146 days after the vacancy occurs. However, if the vacancy occurs in the last year of the term and if the nomination deadline has passed, the Governor has the discretion to say “no special election, wait until the regular general one”.

  150. 150.

    trollhattan

    @Miss Bianca: IDK, if it’s covered by statute he probably has a time window, and I’d expect it to be at the tail end of that window.

    I’m a-skeert at what lunatics CA20 is going to hack up to choose from.

  153. 153.

    trollhattan

    R.I.P. Norman Lear, at an impressive 101. I guess beating Kissinger in some fashion.

    A truly good guy, he changed television profoundly and mostly for the better. Personal favorites were Fernwood 2 Night and America 2 Night. But his most important contribution was perhaps founding People for the American Way, a direct response to Moral Majority and their happy band of facists.

    Thank you, good sir, for it all.

  154. 154.

    Hob

    Following up on last night’s comment from Kay about the debunking of “organized retail crime”— there was a very good episode about this recently on the podcast “If Books Could Kill”, the full version of which is only for subscribers but the short version is still worth listening to. The dishonesty definitely didn’t just come from that one “expert”; his numbers are certainly bogus, but the industry group went on to do their own calculations that were equally bogus and that fall apart the second anyone bothers to look for 5 seconds at what they’re comparing, which apparently no one bothered to do for a long time. Like, their “nearly half” figure was arrived at by taking the bogus number and then dividing it by another number that simply wasn’t what they said it was. And the dramatic stats about how much it had increased in recent years were arrived at by comparing to periods of time when either no one was in stores (because of the pandemic), or the stores in question had failed to report crimes that did occur.

    There was a follow-up comment from RSA expressing surprise that “theft reduces inventory by more than a third,” based on a statement that “the percentage of shrink attributed to external theft, including organized retail crime, has largely remained around 36% since 2015.” I don’t blame anyone for being confused by that statement, but that’s not what it meant. They were not saying that 36% of all their inventory was stolen, but that if you look at all of the inventory that disappeared in any way, 36% of what disappeared was stolen by people who came into the store. In other words, 64% of what disappeared was either physically lost by accident, damaged, miscounted due to bookkeeping errors, or stolen internally before it ever got onto the shelves. Whether those numbers are accurate or meaningful—given the other dishonesty in the industry group’s reporting, and the wide variation in how different stores report these things—is another question, but in any case, that number doesn’t have anything to do with the actual percentage of stuff on shelves going away.

  155. 155.

    RaflW

    @Jeffro:“cops aren’t doing their damned jobs” is too much to say for several politicians in Minneapolis. Post-George Floyd. Post multiple exposés about how the union has far too much power and virtually no accountability.

  156. 156.

    scav

    For a short while, I envisioned that the best outlet for that retiring leader to “serve his nation” would be in some right to work state fast-food outlet (there is a labor crisis supposedly) but then his team is exactly the sort to spit in all the meals served and there might be (still more) undeserving victims.  Gas station attendant?

  157. 157.

    Hob

    @Hob: (adding too late to edit): In fact as this article mentions, the total amount of stuff that was stolen or disappeared in any way is a number that isn’t available— they deliberately don’t report it. So there is no way to verify any claim that theft is a major reason for any given company’s business problems.

  158. 158.

    Another Scott

    @CaseyL:

    My problem is that Frank Herbert, for all his undoubtedly excellent qualities, had no sense of humor, didn’t understand humor, and therefore neither did any of his characters.

    Ah, that explains it.

    I never tried to read the book(s). I saw the 1984 movie (with Sting) and couldn’t figure out what the hell was going on. But, you’re right, there was no humor at all (as I recall).

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  159. 159.

    Origuy

    @Another Scott: I read another of Herbert’s books, The White Plague. Very grim, about a biologist whose family is killed by a terrorist bomb. He goes and invents a disease that only kills women.

  160. 160.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Jeffro:  Okay here are a couple adjacent podcasts that are also super-fun:

    Three Guys On: Three (or more) comedians talking about all sorts of shit.  A lot of focus on Black Culture, music, sports etc., but they also have great news and political discussions too.  Here’s an example- “We didn’t record a Thursday episode this week, so we’re putting this one out today for all the patrons and freeloaders. In this episode we talk about old Skinemax movies, Franklin sitting by himself in Charlie Brown’s Thanksgiving, Black Friday, an update on the guy in NYC who harassed an Egyptian cart vendor, Twista’s new gun video, and Rod and Karen from The Black Guy Who Tips podcast drop in to discuss some life hacks.”

    Drapetomaniax: From Dean of Black Twitter, Michael Harriot, comes a Black history podcast like you’ve never heard before. Using a recipe that includes detailed research, barbershop humor and a little seasoned salt, a parade of cookout-certified celebrity guests helps Michael Harriot serve up a compelling, hilarious and more accurate version of Black history that was conveniently whitewashed from your social studies book.

    Medium Popcorn: Medium Popcorn (a.k.a. Ni**as Spoiling Movies) might not be the most scholarly, civilized movie review podcast out there, but damnit to hell, it’s the funniest.” (Craig Lindsey, AV Club) Film enthusiasts Brandon Collins and Justin Brown host this weekly podcast focused on reviewing various movies they recently watched and other random observations. This podcast has been featured by Rotten

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