Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Found liable for massive fraud, is required to post a massive bond, gets a break, then files a *fraudulent* bond!

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

The jury literally has a bell they can ring to force Trump to show up on command. Greatest thing ever!

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

… gradually, and then suddenly.

These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.

Let’s show the world that autocracy can be defeated.

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

People are weird.

Every one of the “Roberts Six” lied to get on the court.

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

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

Bogus polls are all they’ve got left. Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls a year from now.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

If West Virginia and San Francisco had a love child.

Trump’s legal defense is going to be a dumpster fire inside a clown car on a derailing train.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Monday Morning Open Thread: Happy {*Crosses Fingers*} New Year

Monday Morning Open Thread: Happy {*Crosses Fingers*} New Year

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Monday Morning Open Thread: New Year 1

(Clay Bennett via GoComics.com)



H/T NotMax:
Monday Morning Open Thread: New Year

Reader Interactions

217Comments

  4. 4.

    NotMax

    Heh. Played over the closing credits of a recently seen movie; hadn’t thought of it for ages. Definitely recall hearing it a lot on the radio in the long ago (although had to turn up the volume to offset the stomping of dinosaurs).

  5. 5.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Did everybody survive?

    T’was a quiet night here, but today is the Annual Moonlight Racing Hill Climb. I will be counting ambulances, and noting the ones that go in screaming and come out silent as a hearse.

  8. 8.

    lowtechcyclist

    “Everybody’s gone to the Rapture”?

    If everyone who says they believe in the Rapture were to get Raptured right now, the rest of us would be so much better off in 2024.

    Please, Lord, take them! I’m more than willing to be Left Behind!

  9. 9.

    Kay

    The Communications Workers of America (CWA) on Monday sent a letter to leaders at C-SPAN urging the non-profit TV service to remove Allan Block, the millionaire owner of the parent company to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the Toledo Blade, from its board — arguing Block is tarnishing C-SPAN’s reputation.
    Why it matters: The CWA, which represents thousands of media workers — including those at both of Block’s newspapers — argues Block’s attempt to manipulate the Toledo Blade’s coverage of the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection and his family’s recent handling of union issues at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, has become a liability for C-SPAN.
    Catch up quick: Block has been on C-SPAN’s board for over three decades, joining in 1991. He is the chairman of the board of Block Communications Inc., a more than century- old, privately-held family business based in Toledo, Ohio.
    Block Communications also owns various local news TV stations and internet companies. Block’s twin brother John Robinson Block is the vice chairman Block Communications Inc. and serves as the publisher and editor-in-chief of both the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the Toledo Blade.

    The Blocks are another group of wealthy people who are 1. insane and 2. far Right. I am not suprised they manipulated the coverage of January 6th (making it more favorable to Republicans) – the family have pushed the newspapers Right over the years.
    It’s a shame. The Toledo Blade used to be a real newspaper – I subscribed for 30 years. Now it’s just more Right wing propaganda.
    The Right just destroys quality. They turn everything into cheap garbage.

  10. 10.

    Kay

    The Communications Workers of America (CWA) on Monday sent a letter to leaders at C-SPAN urging the non-profit TV service to remove Allan Block, the millionaire owner of the parent company to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the Toledo Blade, from its board — arguing Block is tarnishing C-SPAN’s reputation.
    Why it matters: The CWA, which represents thousands of media workers — including those at both of Block’s newspapers — argues Block’s attempt to manipulate the Toledo Blade’s coverage of the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection and his family’s recent handling of union issues at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, has become a liability for C-SPAN.
    Catch up quick: Block has been on C-SPAN’s board for over three decades, joining in 1991. He is the chairman of the board of Block Communications Inc., a more than century- old, privately-held family business based in Toledo, Ohio.
    Block Communications also owns various local news TV stations and internet companies. Block’s twin brother John Robinson Block is the vice chairman Block Communications Inc. and serves as the publisher and editor-in-chief of both the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the Toledo Blade.

    The Blocks are another group of wealthy people who are 1. insane and 2. far Right. I am not suprised they manipulated the coverage of January 6th (making it more favorable to Republicans) – the family have pushed the newspapers Right over the years.
    It’s a shame. The Toledo Blade used to be a real newspaper – I subscribed for 30 years. Now it’s just more Right wing propaganda.
    The Right just destroys quality. They turn everything into cheap garbage.

  11. 11.

    Kay

    The Communications Workers of America (CWA) on Monday sent a letter to leaders at C-SPAN urging the non-profit TV service to remove Allan Block, the millionaire owner of the parent company to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the Toledo Blade, from its board — arguing Block is tarnishing C-SPAN’s reputation.
    Why it matters: The CWA, which represents thousands of media workers — including those at both of Block’s newspapers — argues Block’s attempt to manipulate the Toledo Blade’s coverage of the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection and his family’s recent handling of union issues at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, has become a liability for C-SPAN.
    Catch up quick: Block has been on C-SPAN’s board for over three decades, joining in 1991. He is the chairman of the board of Block Communications Inc., a more than century- old, privately-held family business based in Toledo, Ohio.
    Block Communications also owns various local news TV stations and internet companies. Block’s twin brother John Robinson Block is the vice chairman Block Communications Inc. and serves as the publisher and editor-in-chief of both the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the Toledo Blade.

    The Blocks are another group of wealthy people who are 1. insane and 2. far Right. I am not suprised they manipulated the coverage of January 6th (making it more favorable to Republicans) – the family have pushed the newspapers Right over the years.
    It’s a shame. The Toledo Blade used to be a real newspaper – I subscribed for 30 years. Now it’s just more Right wing propaganda.
    The Right just destroys quality. They turn everything into cheap garbage.

  17. 17.

    Kay

    More zany Block family hijinks (from 2019) :

    The publisher of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette paid a “bizarre” visit to the newsroom at around 10 p.m. Saturday, according to newsroom employees who witnessed the events.
    “The whole scene was just appalling,” said night cops reporter Andrew Goldstein, who first heard Block as he was walking back to his desk from the breakroom. “As I got closer, I heard raised voices, yelling, what sounded like banging on the walls, I wasn’t exactly sure what was happening.”
    Other newsroom employees said in written statements that John Robinson Block showed up at the office with his young daughter, and walked over to a sign union members pinned to the bulletin board that read “Shame on the Blocks!” amidst ongoing contract negotiations.
    “He shouted that he wanted a picture of himself and his daughter taken in front of the Guild sign and demanded it run on the ‘front page of tomorrow’s paper,’” wrote web editor Marianne Mizera.
    “He fervently demanded the photos be taken NOW, right away and forcefully grabbed his daughter’s forearm, pulling her into the picture as she tried her best to pull away from him,” Mizera wrote. “She was crying, shaking and pleading with her father that she did NOT want to be in ANY photograph.”
    “It was a really desperate kind of scene,” said Goldstein. He recalled Block was acting erratically, pacing back and forth. His hair was disheveled, he was kicking the wall below the bulletin board.
    “Mr. Block has had these kind of temper tantrums before, but nothing like this. This was bizarre, erratic behavior that was frightening because we didn’t know what he would do next especially in regard to his daughter, and that was the scariest thing about it.”
    Block also told his daughter, sometimes getting in her face, that she’s “not one of them” referring to newsroom employees.

  21. 21.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    I stopped buying The Blade when the editorial page became one big anti union rant. It was so clearly just the Block family pissed off at the newspaper Guild. I’m not paying to read the unhinged rantings of Right wing nepo babies. They should keep their shit internal. No one cares what the Blocks think.

  24. 24.

    Ohio Mom

    @Kay: My BIL and his wife worked at the Toledo paper for a while (he was a food writer, she an editor).

    They were not particularly happy there because the tone set by the owner. My BIL was given a few weird assignments on the owner’s whim.

    Now they are in St. Louis. Marginally happier because it is terrible era to work for a newspaper.

    ETA: Based on comments 18 and 22, they got out in time.

  26. 26.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Ohio Mom: Uckkk. Working at the St. Louis Post Disgrace?

    ETA: Here’s a New Year’s trivia question: What country has the highest number of Nobel Laureates per capita?

  27. 27.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: Good gourd, what a weirdo!

    I know the media industry is regulated to some extent in the U.S. and that attempts at regulation run into 1A issues. But maybe it should be regulated a lot more since the press is an essential component of a democracy. It’s not good when giant swathes of it are controlled by relatively few individuals.

  28. 28.

    Ohio Mom

    @OzarkHillbilly: Any port in a storm. My SIL is the older of the two and now retired but BIL has a few more years left until Medicare eligibility (if that is what he’s waiting for, I don’t know their finanacial status).

    It helps that the paper’s bigwigs seem to like him. He’s a features writer, writes heart-warming stuff mostly. I imagine you’ve seen his byline.

  32. 32.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Ohio Mom: I have not read it in years. Tried to subscribe once but they wouldn’t let me. (I was communicating with a condescending pos who succeeded only in pissing me off and I said “Fuck ’em.”)​

    @Princess: ​ I can get on board with that!

  33. 33.

    Elizabelle

    Happy New Year, jackals.

    We will re-elect Joe Biden this year.  We will make the Block family and their ilk cry.

    (Before today, had never heard of the Blocks. So, thank you — sort of, Kay.)

  35. 35.

    Spanky

    @Kay: I like to look in on the news in my old hometown of Pittsburgh, but I stopped clicking on the Post- Gazette site years ago. I use TribLive, but if anyone knows a better one, I’m game.

    Didn’t have a name to attach to the PG’s problems until now, so thanks for the info.

  36. 36.

    Kay

    We watched (some of) CNN’s New Years coverage last night – the “around the world” part. The news celebrity was someone I am not familiar with – a woman with an Australian accent. Anyway, she managed to get two digs at Biden’s age into her coverage. It didn’t even fit at all – again, this is around the world on New Years with CNN, just this “let’s look at London now after Paris!” fluff. It was kind of crudely shoe horned in, almost a non sequitur.

  37. 37.

    Kay

    I love that she sprung it on em:

    COPENHAGEN, Dec 31 (Reuters) – Denmark’s Queen Margrethe II, Europe’s longest-serving monarch, will abdicate on Jan. 14 after 52 years on the throne and will be succeeded by her eldest son Crown Prince Frederik, she announced on Sunday.
    The 83-year-old queen, who ascended the throne in 1972, made the surprise announcement on live TV during her traditional New Year’s Eve speech, which is viewed by many in the country of 5.9 million people.

  40. 40.

    Jeffro

    @Kay: well, the list of issues for RWNJs to not talk about* just keeps getting longer, so “Biden’s age” is going to be their steady (and only) drumbeat all this coming year

    *can’t talk about: inflation, interest rates, anything at all to do with women’s reproductive rights, unemployment, the IRS catching more and more tax cheats, billions more $ in student loans being forgiven, unions’ success in negotiating big raises, standing with Ukraine, etc etc..these things are all obviously in the Democrats’ favor with most being directly due to the Biden/Harris administration.  Soooo…”Biden’s age” it is 😠

  42. 42.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    Haha.  I noticed that before. They have their marching orders.

    I recall one reporter talking about Biden pardoning Trump at the end of Biden’s second term. The reporter threw in Biden’s age, which has no relevance to the pardon issue.  It was blatant.

  46. 46.

    RevRick

    @lowtechcyclist: The Evangelical interpretation of the Rapture is based on a gross misunderstanding of the meaning of parousia. But that’s in large part due to their imposing Plato’s philosophy on the Bible.
    Plato is best known for his concept of ideals and perfection, something that is far removed from the world as we live it. Platonic philosophy sees being born as a downward movement of the soul being trapped in a body, and death is the soul’s release from this worldly prison, when one’s ultimate fate is determined, with the good rising to heaven and the bad damned to Hades.
    So, Evangelicals woodenly interpret Paul’s metaphor of the “meeting  (parousia) Christ in the clouds,” as an escape mechanism. But the word parousia is very much a technical term referring to the process of greeting a dignitary beyond the city and escorting him into the city. A visit of a Caesar to a provincial capital would be a parousia. Local dignitaries would go out to extend an official welcome and then escort him into the capital for all the ceremonies and banquets that followed. The word parousia was understood as a shorthand for that whole process of welcoming the highest level dignitaries into a city. So far from being an escape mechanism, Paul’s use of the word is meant to indicate that Jesus’ return was about transforming this world. It’s about the flourishing of our fullest potential as human beings, not that dead people (or privileged living ones) get to bug out of here.

    Thus ends my theological rant for the day.

  47. 47.

    Geminid

    @Jeffro: For Republicans, one downside of a Trump nomination is that it would cancel out the age issue. As you say, they have few if any other good lines of attack.

  49. 49.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Happy New Year! Not.

    As she recounted it to WLEX, Mullins grappled with a kidney stone in the weeks before the Christmas and New Year’s holidays. She received treatment, but the kidney stone subsequently caused an infection, and she became septic.

    Mullins was rushed to the hospital and sedated for days after doctors worked on her. When she woke up from her sedation, she realized her legs had been amputated. And doctors told her she would ultimately need a quadruple amputation to save her life after her infection had spread, subjecting her to a rare “perfect storm” of potentially deadly medical problems.

    “I’ve lost my legs from the knees down bilaterally, and I’m going to lose my arms probably below the elbow bilaterally,” Mullins said to WLEX. She added that a doctor with whom she used to work had said to her: “This is what they had to do to save your life – this is what’s happened.”

    Talk about the kidney stone from hell. But, she’s got a good attitude.

    “I’m just so happy to be alive,” Lucinda “Cindy” Mullins – who’s raising two sons with her husband – recently told the Kentucky news station WLEX. “I get to see my kids. I get to see my family. I get to have my time with my husband.

    “I just said these are the cards I’ve been dealt and these are the hands I’m going to play. … Those are minor things at this point.”

    I rather doubt I would be so upbeat.

  54. 54.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: It’s true. Some dailies have been hollowed out by hedge funds, but we’re better off than many states.

  59. 59.

    Josie

    @RevRick: ​
     Thanks for this. What an interesting bit of information. It makes so much sense and gives me an optimistic view of things.

  61. 61.

    Nukular Biskits

    @Betty Cracker:

    Believe it or not, I never actually watched the show when it was on … didn’t have cable at the time.

    I ran across this scene on YouTube when looking for a remixed version of Thomas Newman’s theme song for the show.  When I saw it, I laughed my ass off.

  64. 64.

    Quinerly

    Good Morning and Happy New Year from beautiful Cameron, AZ. Our little 10  plus day Christmas and New Years drive about is winding down. Lots of hikes with JoJo las Orejas and good food. Met some cool people on this trip, including a fascinating OB GYN  in Winslow on Christmas Day. She drives up from her home in Phoenix to work for Indian Health Services for 10 days a month delivering Hopi and Navajo babies. Was on call on Christmas. Doctor shortage in Northern AZ. She’s traveled the world delivering babies since earning her medical degree. Pretty sure I probably gained a friend for life on this trip.  Also, got to have breakfast with a Hopi  gentleman I met last year…another fascinating person…first Native American Chiropractor in the country. He has long retired and works as a hobby at the trading post here in Cameron.

    Since my time is coming to an end here outside the Desert View/Watch Tower entrance of the Grand Canyon, I am debating on heading home today with a stop for the night in Window Rock (truly a special place) or head north a few miles for a night at Marble Canyon, AZ so JoJo can play in the CO River at Lee’s Ferry. Supposed to be 51 degrees today.

    It’s been an eating adventure with a lot of hearty Navajo and Hopi home style cooking and a touring of dive bars and microbreweries in Flag, Williams, and Prescott. La Posada Hotel in Winslow and El Tovar Hotel at the Grand Canyon were decked out beautifully for the holidays. Prescott puts on quiet a display downtown on Whiskey Row. Prescott and Williams were both new to me on this trip. Really liked both and thinking about a February trip back to Prescott. Know I will hit Williams again either coming or going in  March on my trip to Death Valley/King’s Canyon /Sequoia NPs.

    Have a great day!!!

  65. 65.

    TS

    @Kay:

     Anyway, she managed to get two digs at Biden’s age into her coverage.

    Most of Australian media takes digs at Biden’s age – all the time. Never mention trump’s age. From the day we elect anything vaguely resembling a left wing government the media goes hard right (well moreso than usual. Like the US media they think only the right know how to govern. 

  72. 72.

    MagdaInBlack

    @RevRick: Which works with my personal belief that we were given this beautiful home (earth) and it is our job to take care of it and each other.

    I don’t understand the folks who trash it and then expect their god to come in like a combo handyman/cleaning crew and fix it or save them from what they’ve done.

  74. 74.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @Kay: Seems like that would’ve been a really good time for Block to have had a slip-and-fall accident. I mean, who would question the newsroom’s story that he slipped on his own slime?

  78. 78.

    satby

    Decisions, decisions… Eggnog flan, eggnog rice pudding, eggnog cheesecake; which to make?? After I get back from Chicago and seeing the kids. For them, I have a carrot cake, it’s my oldest son’s birthday on Thursday but today is their only day off together.

  80. 80.

    Kay

    @Chief Oshkosh:

    The story didn’t cover the part that the Block was at the time involved in a nasty divorce and his young daughter called her mother (Block’s estranged wife) during the incident because she was afraid of her father. The mother ended up showing up at the paper and taking the girl home.

  81. 81.

    RevRick

    @MagdaInBlack: The church I belong to has embarked on the Creation Justice Initiative of our United Church of Christ. We are in the first phase of education and theological reflection. In February-April we will be doing assessments of our church’s environmental practices (good and bad), and then later phases involve developing an action plan to address climate change and connecting with other groups and organizations addressing the challenges.

  83. 83.

    MomSense

    I am so furious at the MAGAts for what they are doing to Secretary Bellows.  Her home was swatted yesterday and she is receiving threats.

  85. 85.

    MomSense

    @RevRick:

    Sadly Christianists seem more concerned with what Jesus can do for them and not with what Jesus taught them to do for others.

  86. 86.

    Quinerly

    @Nukular Biskits:

    Covid Times did a # on me. Never had it (knock on wood) but it literally changed the direction of my life. Have done a 3 major trips since 9/2021 and a few small ones. Feel like on this drive about I got my traveling mojo back. Thanks for piping in. Have a great week.

  91. 91.

    Phylllis

    Happy New Year y’all. Watching the London New Year’s parade. They also have annoying talking head hosts, but at least they shut up long enough to let you enjoy the performances.

  93. 93.

    narya

    Good morning, Jackals! Nothing like starting the new year with a fall–I was taking the laundry down the back stairs and hit a bit of ice. Luckily, I was going VERY slowly, and holding the handrail, so I sorta dropped slowly to my butt–no harm, no foul, no laundry spilled. Otherwise, today will include sausage (sweet Italian, made with venison and pork, the latter to satisfy my late grandmother’s insistence) with cassoulet beans, garlic, onions, and maybe some carrots or something. And a walk.

    Thanks to all of you: you all make everything better.

  96. 96.

    satby

    @Nukular Biskits: Indeed! There was some sort of eggnog shortage here before Christmas, so Friday when I saw some from a local dairy I know, I bought it, even though it’s pricey. Then I went to pick up something at my local store, and my favorite custard nog was available but going fast, so I bought one of those. Now I gotta lotta nog 😆

  98. 98.

    lowtechcyclist

    @RevRick: I’ve known for nearly half a century that the notion of the Rapture was full of shit, but I very much appreciate the depth you add to that understanding.

    This in particular I didn’t know, and it is very clarifying:

    the word parousia is very much a technical term referring to the process of greeting a dignitary beyond the city and escorting him into the city.

    This dovetails with my understanding of Acts 2: the disciples had known Jesus as one person knows another, but in my understanding, the core of Acts 2 is that the spirit of the Lord came and took up residence within those who were open to him, and that through this, the Lord entered the world in a manner that was accessible not just to those who’d known him personally, but to all.

    We who carry the spirit of the Lord within us have brought the Lord into the city.  And we are called to love others as unconditionally as he has loved us, and enable his will to be done “on earth as it is in Heaven.” Which is pretty much the gist of what you were saying.

  100. 100.

    Kay

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I don’t know if your grands are using balance bikes but I’m fascinated with them:

    tom_weaver

    When I was growing up, we learned to ride a bike using stabilisers on a pedal pike. This was the way everyone did it: get used to peddling, then learn to balance. Peddle–>Balance.Now, many kids learn to ride using balance bikes. There’s no peddles. You learn how to balance first, and peddle on your next bike without stabilisers. This new way seems much more intuitive. Balance–>Peddle.I wonder what other carts we’re putting before the horse? Things we don’t even think to question?

    My Danish grandaughter is also learning with a balance bike – in Copenhagen, a very pro bike city where everyone from 4 to 84 rides a bike – so it’s not just American kids. They get to where they can really fly, just pushing off and balancing. It’s a completely different way to learn.

  103. 103.

    Currants

    @lowtechcyclist: 100% agree!
    it’s lovely music, AL, but I’m having trouble placing it with the items pre- and post-.  I’ve probably missed a few beats. Also need more coffee. 😂

  105. 105.

    Jim Appleton

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    What country has the highest number of Nobel Laureates per capita?

    I had to Google, was not surprised that my hunch of some low population country.

  106. 106.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Kay: My middle STL granddaughter has one. I think most people are doing it this way. Much better than getting the push off and peddle till you fall over method I grew up with.

  107. 107.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Apparently a 7.5 earthquake in Japan, with tsunami warnings issued. Not an auspicious start to the new year.

  109. 109.

    Josie

    The black-eyed peas with chicken sausage are in the crockpot and starting to simmer. Dinner later today with extended family – my contribution plus gumbo, cabbage, carrots – all the good luck we can muster.​

  110. 110.

    raven

    @Kay: My old man took us out to a parking lot, put us on the seat and gave us a mighty push and we were on out own!!!

  111. 111.

    H.E.Wolf

    @Elizabelle:

    Happy New Year, jackals.

    We will re-elect Joe Biden this year. We will make the Block family and their ilk cry.

     Yes we will. I’m in!

    I’m going to be a GOTV beast all year. Also a GOTV pest. Rev up your postcard-writing motors if you’d like to have a little fun trouncing Republicans this year:

    PostcardsToVoters.org has addresses for 2 Democratic special elections in early January, plus the FL Vote By Mail project.

    And if you can, buy your stamps now… because prices go up on Jan. 21. Let’s annoy Postmaster Louis DeJoy by paying the lower rate. :-)

  113. 113.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @SiubhanDuinne: ​ I will never forget driving to work and hearing on the radio that Sendai had been destroyed by a tsunami and earthquake.

    Thinking, “Isn’t that where Bethany is?” (my niece)

    Yes it was. Got the A-OK 3 days later. It was a really weird feeling those 3 days, not knowing.

  114. 114.

    Another Scott

    @RevRick:

    So far from being an escape mechanism, Paul’s use of the word is meant to indicate that Jesus’ return was about transforming this world. It’s about the flourishing of our fullest potential as human beings, not that dead people (or privileged living ones) get to bug out of here.

    Interesting.

    One can also look at Mark chapter 1 and argue that Jesus himself was explicitly talking about a “Kingdom of God” being on Earth and at the time he was around.

    13 And he was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted of Satan; and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered unto him.

    14 Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God,

    15 And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.

    IMO, here and elsewhere, he couldn’t have been more explicit – what matters are good deeds now – not waiting around for some future good times for the righteous.

    (The interpretation that made the most sense to me was that Revelation and the Rapture and all that is a screed against the Romans and the emperor at the time(s).)

    I always enjoy your comments. Best of luck to you and your flock in 2024.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  118. 118.

    Citizen Alan

    @lowtechcyclist:  After Prosperity Gospel, the idea of “the Rapture” is the greatest heresy to plague Christianity in the last 1000 years. Unsurprising that most people who believe the former also believe the latter.

  119. 119.

    RevRick

    @Josie: UCC churches are sparse in the South. That bunch of abolitionist churches didn’t exactly endear themselves to that region. Though I do know we have the world’s largest gay congregation located in Dallas. There’s a find a church on the national website: http://www.ucc.org.

  120. 120.

    Josie

    @zhena gogolia: ​
    I found one not too far from me – St. Peter’s. They say that everyone is welcome. LGBT’s, all ethnic groups, etc., even those who are spiritual but not religious. Sounds like my kind of people.

  123. 123.

    ARoomWithAMoose

    @Kay: The other nice thing about using the glide bikes to learn, they are all quite a bit lighter than the 30-40 pound monsters we learned to ride on first.

    It was shocking when my kids switched over to pedal bikes and I couldn’t find anything that weighed significantly less than they did.  As an adult, I can find and easily afford a bike that’s less that 15% of my body weight.

  124. 124.

    Jackie

    Happy New Year everyone!

    Punchbowl News: “Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s last day in Congress was Sunday. There are now 220 Republicans in the House, 213 Democrats and two vacancies. The California Republican was the third shortest-serving speaker of the House in U.S. history, holding the gavel for just 270 days.”

    Great start to the new year, in my opinion!

  125. 125.

    Sorryforlaughing

    @RevRick: Delurking to ask, do you have any recommended reading sources (besides the obvious one) about all this? I already knew fundies misinterpret the entire New Testament but it’s the details of how and just how blatantly that are fascinating.

  126. 126.

    opiejeanne

    @Kay: my first bike had pedals, no training wheels, and that’s kind of how I learned to ride, by pushing off of something and coasting while trying to balance.

  128. 128.

    narya

    @RevRick: Hah! I was raised by atheists, but I think that has given me the opportunity/ability to hear a lot of different interpretations of a lot of different religions and not have a stake in the “correctness” of any of them. I appreciate measured, thoughtful approaches like yours for understanding christianity.

  129. 129.

    RevRick

    @Another Scott: The early church was very much anti-imperialist. For example, the seemingly banal greeting at the beginning of Paul’s letters — “grace and peace” — was a blatant rejection of the Roman ideology of “victory and peace.” Of course, his references to Jesus as Lord and Son of God, would have been in direct opposition to the claims of Caesars to be Lord and “divi filus” son of god.

    Personally, I have always seen the book of Revelation as a radical critique of Roman imperial ideology and all otherworldliness. After all, the conclusion is heaven coming down to Earth and God making God’s home here.

  134. 134.

    Another Scott

    @opiejeanne: Same here.  The nursery school I attended had something like the bike shown here to play with. No training wheels, has pedals, etc. It was small enough that one didn’t need training wheels – you just pushed off and played until your brain got the hang of it.

    I taught myself how to ride on something like that, then got a giant Schwinn for Christmas a while later – I could barely get my leg over it (my parents didn’t want me to outgrow it too soon)…

    I never used training wheels – they seem like a bad idea to me.

    I didn’t know “balance bikes” were a thing, but it seems to be roughly the same idea as the little thing I learned on.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  136. 136.

    BellyCat

    @Kay: Given that both major newspapers in Pittsburgh (The Tribune and Post Gazette) are ostensibly right wing propaganda machines, the fact that the city remains Democratic is a testament to the sensibility of most in Pittsburgh. The Blocks are garbage humans. They essentially put the more liberal Pittsburgh Press out of business (by buying it, if hazy memory serves?) to peddle conservative messaging.

  139. 139.

    Chris T.

    @Kay:

    Anyway, she managed to get two digs at Biden’s age into her coverage. It didn’t even fit at all …

    HEADLINE NEWS: A huge earthquake has struck Japan, where Joe Biden is old!  Israel to withdraw troops from Gaza because Biden is old!  Russia continues to kill civilians in Ukraine, where Joe Biden is old!  And did we mention that Joe Biden is old?

  140. 140.

    Jackie

    @opiejeanne: Me too. In the early ‘60s training wheels were rare (at least in our neighborhood,) and my parents’ philosophy was something like “we learned to ride w/o training wheels, so…”

  141. 141.

    RevRick

    @Sorryforlaughing: In Search of Paul by John Dominic Crossan and Jonathon Reed, gives a great historical perspective, mixed with theological analysis. (Warning, as they explore ancient ruins it does read like a travelogue at times).
    The Forgotten Creed: Christianity’s Original Struggle Against Bigotry, Slavery and Sexism by Stephen Patterson is a brief analysis of Galatians 3:26-28. Again, it’s set in contrast to what Patterson calls “the oldest cliche.”

  142. 142.

    citizen dave

    @OzarkHillbilly:the push off and peddle till you fall over method

    My wife and I were talking about this the other night.  I distinctly remember my dad (still around at 91) running alongside as I took my first pedals.  At the house we rented for a year, so must have been 1967-68, in my first grade year.  So I guess it was the push off and peddle method.

    We bought a balance bike for our toddler grandson about 12 years ago.

    All this makes me wonder if the first inventors ever just put the two wheels together and let it fly?  How did the pedal/chain come to be as well, I wonder?  Feels like the first rabbit hole of 2024 coming on…

  144. 144.

    Ironcity

    @Spanky: If I recall correctly the old Pittsburgh Press (the pm paper) was Scripps-Howard and only slightly left of Atilla the Hun politically.  Post Gazette (the am paper) had a production and distribution agreement in the olden days with the Press and I guess that was how they got rid of unions there and when the Press reporters and staff got too uppity they folded things together and one group of RW POSs sold out the another group.  Welcome to a new gilded age.

  145. 145.

    Barbara

    @Ironcity: That tracks with my understanding. Way back in the day I delivered the afternoon paper (the Press) before it got folded into the morning paper. I subbed for the morning carrier, but really, it wasn’t safe to send minors out on their own at zero dark thirty.

    IIRC, they were merged at least 30 years ago. There was a major strike for a while and I bought my parents a daily NYT subscription. It was all before the Internet . . .

  147. 147.

    Kay

    @opiejeanne:

    I was watching my grandaughter and two other little girls riding in a park – they live in a city- and she and the other girls push off hard, fold their legs back and just fly. They call it “butterfly wings” so it sounds like “butterfly wings! butterfly wings! butterfly wings!” in sequence as they all reach speed. They were having a ball with it.

  148. 148.

    kalakal

    To start the New Year the BBC has put together a very beautiful collection of images as a celebration of the first 2 years of the Webb telescope

    Webb telescope

    They’re glorious

  149. 149.

    Jackie

    To distract the MSM from Biden’s age… we can expect this news to be released this week:

    “Hundreds of sealed court filings pertaining to the late sex-offender Jeffrey Epstein are set to be made public this week, and several prominent names — including Britain’s Prince Andrew and former President Bill Clinton — are expected to appear in the documents,” ABC News reports.

    I hope 1) TIFG is listed, and 2) many, many dog fearing rethuglicans are on the list!🤞🏻

  152. 152.

    twbrandt

    @RevRick: Thanks for that explanation. I grew up and still am attending a Presbyterian church, so never understood what evangelicals were talking about. It was certainly not part of our understanding.

  153. 153.

    EntroPi

    Since our last day of 2023 involved almost 6 hours of animal urgent care/hospitals, to find out that our 3 year old golden doodle likely has a (treatable) genetic condition, and we probably won’t see her again until tomorrow since bloodwork probably won’t be processed on New Years… and she needs an IV to get properly rehydrated and electrolytes rebalanced, etc, etc…

    I’m guessing 2024 can’t be much worse.

    (Ignoring the potential big orange fart cloud on the horizon for now.)

    I’m annoyed I don’t get to run into Narragansett Bay today, as planned, but compared to the past 24 hours of vet bills, that’s an extremely small price to pay!

  154. 154.

    BC in Illinois

    “What are we going to do this year?”

    “The same thing we do every year, Pinky.
    . . . . Try to take over the world.”

  155. 155.

    frosty

    @Kay: ​I gave up on the Baltimore Sun a couple years after Tribune bought them and the op-ed page went Right. I even kept up our subscription after we moved to PA.

    I keep checking back; they almost got bought by a rich guy with the intention of going non-profit but the deal fell through and some awful hedge fund owns them now, doing the usual stripping assets and running the business into the ground.

    The guy who wanted to take them non-profit started his own newspaper: The Baltimore Banner (oh say does that star-spangled …). I should give it a try. As a long time Baltimoron I’m embarrassed to be reading That Paper from South of Us. I need an alternative.

  158. 158.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    I posted part 10 my project to read a book from each of the 15 categories Goodreads uses in its Best Book of the Year contest. Category is YA fiction.

    And now I’m going to go work on a 3000-piece jigsaw puzzle I got for Christmas. Happy New Year to everyone.

  160. 160.

    Kay

    aaronsojourner

    Remember all the bragging by Trump about U.S. manufacturing boom during his administration?The decline in inflation-adjusted quarterly U.S. private investment in the manufacturing industry stopped by late 2017 and then bumped up +6% in 2019 (Fig 1)In the Biden administration — given policy changes in the Infrastructure law, the CHIPS & Science law, & the Inflation Reduction Act — investment in U.S. manufacturing more than doubled, up +108% (Fig 2)

    “Reshoring” is the big untold story of the Biden Administration, IMO. I only know the term “reshoring” because it does get covered locally but ony because I live in Marcy Kaptur’s House district and she holds events on it all the time.
    I think Biden has plenty of time to make people aware of it in MI and PA though. It’s nice to have this completely fresh, IGNORED good rustbelt story to highlight.

  161. 161.

    Nelle

    @Sorryforlaughing: I just finished Elaine Pagel’s book on Revelations.  Next up is The Rapture Exposed, by Barbara Rossing.  I grew up in a Mennonite church and went to a Mennonite college but always veered away from Rapture and End Times talk.  An unnerving encounter with a cousin, serenely happy that Trump is an instrument for bringing about tge End Times, had me scurrying for better context and understanding.

  165. 165.

    frosty

    @Quinerly: Sounds like you had a great time! Enjoy the California National Parks. We’ve been to all of them EXCEPT King’s Canyon. I don’t know how we missed it when we were at Sequoia and it’s right next door. Must have been before I started collecting them.

  167. 167.

    evodevo

    @Nukular Biskits: One of my all time favorites…and in the intro to the vignette, where she is cruising down the road nodding her head to the Xtian talk radio’s drivel, reminded me so much of a co-worker it was uncanny lol

  168. 168.

    EntroPi

     

     

    @OzarkHillbilly: Thank you.

    As I said, it’s treatable (Addisons, if anyone knows anything?), but we had a day of “maybe it’s the weird dog thing going around”  to “genetic condition, and we’ll see you in 2 days”.  So a lot to adjust to.

  170. 170.

    Quinerly

    @frosty: aactually, we are staying at the King’s Canyon park cabins while there. Dog friendly and open for the season at the end of March. They look cool.

  172. 172.

    Yarrow

    @Kay:  I’ve heard it called onshoring but they appear to be the same thing. I agree, it’s a big unknown story. I met a young person last week who I ended up talking with about economic things. He had no idea that Biden was bringing manufacturing back to the US. Otherwise smart, informed guy. He was quite interested in that bit of information.

  174. 174.

    narya

    @RevRick: Yeah, I see it when I visit my parents. And the Easton Express isn’t much better, IIRC; both used to be decent local papers. My parents mostly read it for the local sports, I think, and my mom does the crosswords (dad used to, but can’t see the small print any more).

  175. 175.

    Barbara

    @Kay: By the time the media catches up with the resurgence of Rust Belt states they will probably be in decline again.  There are some stereotypes or “trends” that are so internalized when you are of a certain age that you never grow out of them no matter how profoundly wrong they are.

    Although really, I think at this point it’s mostly just laziness as well as a sign that many journalists have zero insight into the things they are asked to report on and so fall back on tropes however stale or outdated they have become.

    I still give credit to Politico for its trenchant and disturbing reporting on the city of Johnstown (late 2016) and the emergence of the MAGA conservative trend, and how deeply rooted it was in racism. I don’t think they can afford to do that too often, but my mom definitely thought it was accurate.​ It definitely upset local officials.

    The article also talked about the effect of opioid use and abuse.  Now, I don’t think it’s uncommon for journalists to report on employers who say that they would hire more if they could only find more people who could pass a drug test, but it was considered harsh at the time.

  176. 176.

    Eyeroller

    @RevRick: ​
     Now tell them about Isaiah 7:14 and possible translation issues related to that. That at least seems to have some actual scholarship associated with it, though some of the arguments seem a bit strained.

  177. 177.

    RevRick

    @Nelle: One of the takeaways from the two books was that imperialism, with its inherent racism, sexism, and classism, never dies; it just shape shifts. It lives in all the flawed assumptions that forms conventional wisdom. And it infects everyone’s brains. So, ours is an ongoing task of identifying and resisting it, both in ourselves and in the wider world.

  178. 178.

    Miss Bianca

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Went to your blog and read the reviews – there’s at least one book that I figured I needed to read, and a couple I had read already.

    (I agree with you about Go As A River. Lots of buzz about it locally because, hey, rural Colorado, represent! And it mentions Paonia, where I used to live. But yeah, hella depressing. I ended up not liking it very much for many of the same reasons you mention.)

  179. 179.

    Kay

    @Barbara:

    Lol. If I see one more arty photo of “abandoned” Detroit I am going to puke.

    Watch what people do instead of what they say:

    paulkrugman7

    Inflation and crime have both plunged, roughly back to prepandemic. And people are behaving as if the nation is both prosperous and safe. But that’s not what they tell pollsters

    Our clients at the law office are mostly working and middle class and we’ve been noticing  this odd disconnect between what people tell pollsters and what they’re doing for a couple of years now. People just don’t spend a ton if they feel financially insecure. They also don’t leave secure jobs and start small businesses if they genuinely believe the economy sucks, and they’ve been doing a heck of a lot of that, too.

  180. 180.

    Suzanne

    @Barbara: PGH is doing really well, so is Cleveland. The Rust Belt is affordable and it’s definitely attracting people who are priced out of other cities. I have multiple friends who have moved from Phoenix to Madison, WI, Cleveland, and Buffalo since the pandemic. Attracted by affordable real estate and easy access to urban amenities.

  181. 181.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Suzanne: The old Rust Belt is also sometimes identified as the most climate-change-proof spot to live in North America, over the long haul.

  184. 184.

    Barbara

    @Kay: A high school friend has spent the last 25 years or so photographing the demise of the abandoned steel factories around Pittsburgh.  And his book (self-published) is an interesting account of the demise of the industry.

  185. 185.

    Barbara

    @Suzanne: Yes, but they are both still a lot grittier than Northern Virginia!  Which I like, because that’s what I grew up with.  Still, these “medium sized” cities are starting to hit a bit of a wall on home availability and pricing too, and I hope they can keep up.  Nearer to me, Richmond, Virginia is undergoing a similar change, and it is building a lot of new apartment housing.

  186. 186.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Baud: The Americans who are most likely to agree with liberal policy ideas are also the most likely to think rah-rah partisanship makes you stupid. It’s the old Hack Gap.

  187. 187.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Baud: By people do you mean people of the paler hue? Because I have seen no such hesitation among other groups. Its not cool to acknowledge that Ds are doing something right, I don’t even think its deliberate for the most part it is subconscious in many cases.

  190. 190.

    RevRick

    Ah, virgin birth! Even Matthew, who pushes the notion, stumbles over it when he traces Jesus’ ancestry through Joseph.

  191. 191.

    Eyeroller

    @RevRick: ​
     Matthew had a very clear agenda of sledgehammering Jesus’ origin story into biblical prophecy. Also like most Hellenized Jews of his time, he apparently only read the Greek Septuagint.

  192. 192.

    Barbara

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I have been more than a little vexed by some of the positive reviews I read of certain books that have left me cold in some way or another.  In some cases, the reviews are mostly justified because the book is a valiant effort with a lot of good qualities that falls short, but others I just don’t get at all.

  193. 193.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @Barbara: I tell myself that not all books are for all people, but I sometimes get annoyed too. I try not to be too negative because I don’t want to hurt another writer. I feel freer on my blog rather than on Amazon or Goodreads.

  194. 194.

    Barbara

    @Eyeroller: ​ More than once I have wondered at how things might have evolved if those who became responsible for doctrinal development didn’t just keep doubling down on every supernatural claim, and then adding a few of their own.

    Also, you can technically have a virgin birth. I worked a summer job in college with a woman from Brooklyn who told me that she got pregnant just fooling around with her high school boyfriend in the hallway outside her apartment, with no intercourse involved at all. She was stunned when she found out she was pregnant. She resisted a lot of pressure to give her son up for adoption, but honestly, he was a bit of a nightmare with a lot of problems. One of the many people I wonder occasionally about over the years.

  195. 195.

    Miss Bianca

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I’ve been asked to join book clubs before. I’ve always declined, mostly because the thought of having to read a book I didn’t like and then feeling like I had to try to finish it for the group’s sake has always been a problem for me.

    Plus, I feel sure that I would usually end up being That Gal myself – the one who always chose books that other people didn’t like!

    “She’s always making us read depressing political historical stuff!”

    ETA: In a way, I feel like BJ serves as my “book club” – I should be keeping track of the number of books, TV shows, music, etc that I’ve perused just on jackals’ recommendations.

  197. 197.

    frosty

    @Miss Bianca: ETA: In a way, I feel like BJ serves as my “book club” – I should be keeping track of the number of books, TV shows, music, etc that I’ve perused just on jackals’ recommendations.

    I downloaded the Reading List app a few years ago and transferred my paper list. About 130 books to read. I’ve read 200 now (Finished list) and I have about 150 on the To Read list. I blame Balloon-Juice. Three new ones in the last couple of days!

  198. 198.

    Kay

    @Suzanne:

    I watched Pittsburgh become popular when my daughter lived there. It’s interesting to watch prices go up – to see it become “desirable”

    I tell people parts of Cleveland are great now and they genuinely don’t believe me but other “people” have noticed because property is going up.

    My daughter’s high school friend just did a knock down and build new on a city lot in Cleveland. I was teasing her “is this SEATTLE now?”

  199. 199.

    Matt McIrvin

    @schrodingers_cat: I’ve seen a lot of writing from Black left writers along the lines of “actually there’s a lot about the Democratic Party that I’m dissatisfied with but OBVIOUSLY we have to vote for them in the November election, are you completely dense, why is this even a question?”

  200. 200.

    opiejeanne

    @Another Scott: I was seven, visiting cousins in San Diego for my great aunt Winnie’s funeral. We were all playing with the kids next door and none of us really wanted to go to the funeral, so the neighbors agreed to et us stay there, and there were enough bike for everyone, so around and around their backyard we went, me much more slowly, figuring out how to balance, and then realizing that if I pedaled I could stay upright longer. It was just small enough that I could put my feet down if I started to tip.

  201. 201.

    Barbara

    @Kay: I ended up waiting a year to sell my mother’s house not due to any grand strategy but because I had to deal with the various idiosyncratic ideas of my siblings.  Waiting one year, from early 2019 to early 2020 brought the price up a solid 20% and perhaps more — all due to inventory issues according to the real estate agent.

    Likewise, my sister now gets unsolicited offers to buy her house.  The real testament to the recovery of the city will be in neighborhoods like hers, Sheraden, which are still gritty.  The views from her house are simply to die for.  If Pittsburgh were San Francisco she would have a million dollar-plus property.

  202. 202.

    Barbara

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I am humble enough to consider that the problem might be with me not them, but mostly, it’s likely to be generational, in that I just don’t like certain things.  At least with a book you can skip gratuitous violence and whatnot.  It’s usually not very important to plot development.

  203. 203.

    wjca

    Learned to ride without training wheels.  More to the point, on a gravel road.  (Hey, it was way out in the country.)  No ruts, but definitely nothing like a flat surface.  I expect it takes longer that way, but you also end up able to ride lots of places where others cannot.

  206. 206.

    EntroPi

    @EntroPi: They are giving her (Kiwi) a corticosteroid shot, since if the diagnosis is wrong it can’t hurt, and we get her back in a few hours.  Hopefully a confirmed diagnosis tomorrow.

    So all-in-all, good news!

    I was worried I might get a full nights sleep without a creature getting up and turning circles to figure out how best to push me out of bed all night.

  211. 211.

    Ironcity

    @Barbara: You don’t even really need Grandview Avenue for $1M views.  Sheraden or Elliot will do fine, let alone the areas like Highland Park, Stanton Heights or the traditional Squirrel Hill, Oakland and stuff.  Had a great aunt with a house on one of the Spanish American War streets on the North Side that she sold in the 1970s and moved in with my grandmother in Dormont.  Don’t know what she got for it but understand real estate in that area is pretty untouchable now.  They were doing the glacial redevelopment of the North Side then, so doubt the property was worth more than she got.

  212. 212.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Kay: may be relevant: the current general counsel of the NLRB was, prior to taking that job, general counsel of the CWA.

  214. 214.

    Yarrow

    @EntroPi: A friend’s dog was really ill and got diagnosed with Addison’s. They have her on a daily steroid dose and she’s doing great!

    The diagnosis was several years ago now. At least three, maybe longer. She plumped up on the steroids so they lowered her dose and she’s back to her normal weight. She’s active and happy like she used to be. My friend said the vet said it’s really treatable.

  215. 215.

    EntroPi

    @Chris T.:

     

    @Yarrow:

    Thank you both.  She’s home now and both like a brand new dog, and like the old one we knew a few weeks ago.  Rehydration and medication for the win.

    It’s comforting to hear about others with the same condition who are handling it just fine.  Especially since 36 hours ago we had never heard of it.

     

    Entertainingly, I have (many siblings) one sister who used to be a (clicker based) dog trainer, and one who despite not owning any dogs is a top name in the field of dog genetics, albeit primarily dealing with the link between genes and behavior.  Neither of them were remotely useful.  But BJ was.

    thanks again.

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