Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

Let there be snark.

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

Fight for a just cause, love your fellow man, live a good life.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

Ah, the different things are different argument.

Republicans can’t even be trusted with their own money.

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

Jack Smith: “Why did you start campaigning in the middle of my investigation?!”

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

Every reporter and pundit should have to declare if they ever vacationed with a billionaire.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

When the time comes to make an endorsement, the pain of NYT editors will be palpable as they reluctantly whisper “Biden.”

Their freedom requires your slavery.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

Washington Post’s Catch and Kill, not noticeably better than the Enquirer’s.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

I really should read my own blog.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

Come on, man.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

Motown is Joe-Town!

Another missed opportunity for Jamie Dimon to just shut the fuck up.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

You are here: Home / Jan 6: Insurrection / Sunday Morning Open Thread: Step By Step By Step

Sunday Morning Open Thread: Step By Step By Step

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Meant to post this yesterday, for Epiphany, but too much news…

Reader Interactions

246Comments

  2. 2.

    lowtechcyclist

    Memo to Mike Johnson: it wouldn’t be a “moment of great challenge for our country” if people like you weren’t making it so.

    If y’all would kindly STFU and get out of politics, the rest of us could turn this country into a freakin’ paradise.

  3. 3.

    PaulB

    “as many have noted, Mike Johnson has two big problems”

    Actually, he’s got three. The Republican base is far more extreme and rigid than is the Democratic base.

  5. 5.

    lowtechcyclist

    @PaulB:

    Actually, he’s got three. The Republican base is far more extreme and rigid than is the Democratic base.

    That’s not a problem for him, as he exemplifies that base.

  6. 6.

    TBone

    I want a girl with a short skirt and a loooong jacket, whose fingernails shine like justice!

  8. 8.

    Kay

    About Elon Musk in the WSJ

    Some executives and board members fear the billionaire’s use of drugs—including LSD, cocaine, ecstasy, mushrooms and ketamine—could harm his companies

    Ha! They want him out. Afraid they’ll lose all those sweet government contracts with yet another insanely angry and profoundly fucked up middle aged white guy at the helm.

  9. 9.

    zhena gogolia

    I saw Steeleye Span open for Jethro Tull in KCMO in about 1971. Somebody stole their costumes before the concert. I have no recollection of the music at all. I remember them twirling around the stage.

  10. 10.

    Princess

    I had forgotten the National Guard in the Capitol.

    i was so ANGRY on Jan. 6th. I still think Dems need to turn it into a Guy Fawkes type holiday with bonfires and burning Trump in effigy.

  11. 11.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Princess: ​
     

    I still think Dems need to turn it into a Guy Fawkes type holiday with bonfires and burning Trump in effigy.

    I’ve had the same thought. It should definitely be done. Maybe if enough random Dems had their own observances along that line, it would become a thing.

  12. 12.

    Kay

    The federal government needs to enforce the contractor rules regarding Elon Musk. I object to special treatment for wealthy white men – I feel strongly that merit should be the determining factor in workplace evaluations.

    If other federal contractors would be dinged for flagrant, public illegal drug use then wealthy white men should be too.

  13. 13.

    p.a.

    Next “gotcha” question for Repub candidates- at any level- “how old do you think the earth is?”

     

    This snow is so heavy when a shovelful lands on blacktop it sounds like a bucket of water being dumped.  On the positive side; a) I pre-treated w naproxen, b) it’s a good enough workout I can skip Planet Fitness.

  14. 14.

    Tony G

    @Baud: “Slavery is Freedom” was the actual ideology of the “Libertarian intellectual” Murray Rothbard, who stated in his scribblings that he would have supported the Confederates during the Civil War.  Rothbard is largely forgotten today, but his spirit lives on in the Republican Party.

  16. 16.

    TBone

    @Princess: I bought a 7′ tall inflatable Gritty that glows in the dark.  I couldn’t stand all the Rump and Mastriano campaign signs shitting up the view out my picture windows.

  17. 17.

    Kay

    @Tony G:

    But illegal drug use is a problem for federal contractors – a bad personality isn’t. I just want the standards held up for everyone, even the most privileged. Are we lowering standards so Musk can clear the bar?

  19. 19.

    Kay

    CNN — 
    A controversial New York Times opinion piece that openly speculated this week whether Taylor Swift is a closeted queer person has drawn the ire of the pop superstar’s associates, CNN has learned.

    The NYTimes is run by wackos. At some point you have to wonder about their readers. They have to be bad to continue to reward this crap with sales.

  21. 21.

    randy khan

    That’s a very churlish letter.  Even in the middle of the impeachment process, Nancy Pelosi’s invitation did not suggest that she wouldn’t have been inviting him if it wasn’t required.  (And it’s not required by the Constitution, either.)

  23. 23.

    RevRick

    You can tell who is immersed in the rightwing media echo system by the responses in the Navigator poll. BLM! Riots! Protests! Antifa!
    They really are convinced that cities across America have been turned into hellscapes. They really do believe that crime is soaring.
    No wonder they are prisoners of fear, because that’s their earworm.

  26. 26.

    Kay

    @randy khan:

    Biden’s really good at responding to Right wing nastiness with cheerful grace though. I could never do it. It’s effective – remember how he made both Sarah Palin and Paul Ryan look small and, yes, churlish in the VP debates? It’s a real skill.

  31. 31.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    I’m reading Poverty, by America by Matthew Desmond, as the non-fiction book in that Goodreads challenge I’m doing. It’s a sobering look at the wide extent of poverty in America. Desmond argues that it exists mostly because other people benefit from it. Some jackals might find it interesting.

  34. 34.

    prostratedragon

    On the day, I definitely gave a home ovation to the people who had the presence of mind to hustle those ballots to safety. They should always get special memtion. We’re still stomping smoldering embers, but the most important steps in extinguishing the thing were those that led to the certification being delayed only by several hours.

  35. 35.

    Kay

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    It’s just a bizarre thing for them to promote – the truth of it doesn’t matter as much as how intrusive and weird it is. You wonder what their meetings are like “insane (alleged) outing of Taylor Swift? Yes! Definitely!”

  38. 38.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: ​
     

    Calling people any version of LGBTQ seems to be the tack the right wing takes since even they know you can’t say the N word any more.

    Or the C word, which they’d probably like to use on her.

    The hilarious thing, though, is that they think that allegation would somehow take her down a notch. Here she is, with a largely female fandom that’s the biggest fandom in the history of the solar system, and if she were to come out as gay or bi, I bet at least 98% of them would be totally cool with her being that. It wouldn’t make much of a difference at all.

  40. 40.

    Brit in Chicago

    @OzarkHillbilly: Speaker emerita Pelosi is indeed unique, and should never be forgotten, but Jeffries is off to an extremely promising start as her successor as caucus leader. Good luck? Good planning by previous leadership? Or does having sane policies somehow make it easier to find good people? (My guess: a bit of all three.)

  41. 41.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @lowtechcyclist:

     It wouldn’t make much of a difference at all.

    It wouldn’t make any difference at all. I think Taylor should lean into it. The way the Biden folks did with the Dark Brandon meme.

    ETA: HBD to Suzanne!

  43. 43.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @brantl: Oh, I’d put every nickel I’ve got to my name on it. She is a unique talent. There will be others who will be good, 1 or 2 might even be as good as her. But they won’t be her. They will have to do it by being themselves.

    My jury is still out on Jeffries. Nothing against him, there just isn’t enough of a track record to judge him by. So far so good but I need to see how he does with a majority.

  45. 45.

    Kay

    @Josie:

    I;ve been reading her fans on social media since her tour started – just for fun, they’re very joyful people- and I think they will believe it’s disrespectful – that she’s being treated differently than a male superstar would be treated. They’re young women with perhaps more modern views than the deeply conventional and status quo protecting NYTimes and they’re sensitive to that.

  46. 46.

    Suzanne

    @Brit in Chicago:

    Or does having sane policies somehow make it easier to find good people?

    This is such a critical point. The GOP has proven itself insane, and that’s elevated a lot of garbage people. Like, John Boehner was a craven piece of shit, of course, but Mike Johnson is definitely a few steps down from that.

  47. 47.

    Geminid

    @Brit in Chicago: Hakeem Jeffries’ rise to his leadership position may be due to good luck and good planning, but it’s also due to Jeffries’ skill set and hard work. Jeffries had served only three terms when he was elected Chairman of the Democratic Caucus in November of 2018. Leadership and his colleagues must have seen a lot they liked during those six years.

  49. 49.

    Kay

    @Josie:

    Her fans were passing around a clip from one of her shows a couple of months ago that I think illustrates her relationship with them. Swift was performing and one of the fans got too close or something – some minor infraction- and security were too rough with the fan. Swift yelled at the security team from the stage – leave her alone! She didn’t do anything wrong!” They just loved that – that the big burly men work for her and she’ll defend her people. It’s power, right? They respect it.

  50. 50.

    kalakal

    @Kay: It’s a really desperate attempt at click bait. They probably sat around getting all hot and sweaty at the thought of millions of Swifties visiting their website, the hits going through the roof, the more delusional amongst them even thinking that huge numbers of the Swifties would be so impressed by what they saw they’d take out subs.

    Swifties couldn’t care less what the FTFNYT says, they consider it as relevant to their lives as an in depth knowledge of 11th century plumbing

  52. 52.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @Princess: 100% AGREED. FIreworks.

    Trump in effigy.

    The ONLY problem I see is coming up with a proper rhyme like “remember, remember, the fifth of November…”

    Perhaps a more musical and literate jackal than I could come up with something?  

  53. 53.

    Kay

    @geg6:

    They’re the crazy people who did 62 articles in a campaign to remove the president of Harvard. Six reporters on the Harvard beat and now a bizarre, intrusive broadside at Taylor Swift, a pop star.

    They’re wackos. I think we just have to recognize that a combination of covid, BLM and Me Too drove a certain portion of Our Elites absolutely fucking round the bend. They’re not resilient people. They were challenged and they broke.

  57. 57.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @Kay: It’s the biggest thread running through the entire conservative enterprise— they despise the idea of anyone else having any kind of power over Straight White Christian Men.

  60. 60.

    geg6

    @kalakal:

    Truth!  We used to have a newspaper program on campus where the local rag, the NYT and the University newspaper were all available for free.  It was discontinued because no one picked up the NYT and only a couple local rags were ever picked up.  The Daily Collegian was the only one students took in any number and they would still be available for free regardless.  The kids are rightfully ignoring the FTFNYT.

  63. 63.

    Geminid

     

     

    @Baud I think Democrats should celebrate the 5th of January with a peach pie. That’s the day in 2021 that Georgians elected Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff to the Senate. They’ve made a big difference in Democratic fortunes these last three years.

  65. 65.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    @Tony G: Elon’s problem isn’t the drugs. Elon’s problem is his narcissistic personality.

    Yes, but federal contractors aren’t forbidden from naricissism.

    I’m not saying our federal drug laws are right, but cancelling Elon’s contracts could be one good outcome of the War on Drugs. I would count it as the first.

  66. 66.

    geg6

    OT, but WTF is going on at Boeing?  Do I have to check what plane would I be taking every time I have to fly?

  68. 68.

    RandomMonster

    Who knew that Steeleye Span was the original band name before they changed it to Steely Dan.

  69. 69.

    H.E.Wolf

    @Professor Bigfoot:

    The ONLY problem I see is coming up with a proper rhyme like “remember, remember, the fifth of November…”

    Perhaps a more musical and literate jackal than I could come up with something?

    No one here will be surprised to learn that our resident Poet Laureate, SiubhanDuinne, wrote one for us last year.

     

    Be wary, be wary
    Of Sixth January,
    The Proud Boys and Oathkeepers too:
    Breaking down doors,
    Trampling the floors,
    And smearing the walls with poo-poo.

    https://balloon-juice.com/2023/01/06/tgifriday-morning-open-thread-an-anniversary-among-other-things/#comment-8727497

  72. 72.

    Harrison Wesley

    So “The Secret (Alleged) Life of Taylor Swift” is NYT’s big reveal?  Sorry – I get all the news my ignorant old ass can assimilate/use from the Bradenton Herald.

  76. 76.

    Jackie

    @randy khan: Speaking of churlishness, Mar 7 is right AFTER Super Tues. Johnson hopes Biden’s SOTU address will be right after TIFG has sealed the GQP candidacy.

  77. 77.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    @Harrison Wesley: NYT claims Taylor Swift “might” be queer, to the general disinterest of her Millenial and Gen Z fanbase.

    Asked for comment one fan said “That’s kinda cool, I guess.”

  80. 80.

    Spanky

    I’m fine with Effigy Trump being burned like Effigy Fawkes, so long as Real Trump is served same as Real Fawkes was.

  82. 82.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    @Baud: Trump should give the response to the SOTU. That never diminishes the prestige of anyone…

  83. 83.

    M31

    celebrate the 6th of January with a big trump-shaped pinata, and every time you hit it you shout “Will you shut up, man?”

  84. 84.

    Nukular Biskits

    Good mornin’, ya’ll! Running late this a.m.

    One of the g’babies (oh, yeah, and her mother … LOL) left early this morning to go back to Shreveport. Usually don’t sleep well until we get the call they’re back home safely.

    Spent most of yesterday digging up “sticker vine” roots (I think this is called “smilax”) in the part of the backyard that the builder did not clear.  The stuff is like kudzu and I hates it.

    Needless to say, I’m sore and feeling my age this morning.

  86. 86.

    Betty Cracker

    I read the NYT opinion piece about Taylor Swift, and it didn’t land the same way with me as it did for some of y’all. The writer is a self-identified queer woman, and my take is that she desperately wants to believe Swift is a member of the queer community rather than “merely” an ally. She overinterprets lyrics and images and engages in a lot of wishful thinking, IMO. But I don’t think she’s trying to judge or otherize Swift in a negative way.

    I think the piece is cringe-inducing and steps up to the line of creepily obsessive in places. The writer is a Times editor, and no doubt she and her fellow Times editors were eager to produce Swift-related clickbait. But I don’t see the piece as reinforcing a stodgy, anti-woman, anti-queer view like so much of the other Times political and editorial content does.

  87. 87.

    MomSense

    @lowtechcyclist:

    I saw a funny video the other day. A man wakes up after being asleep for 20 years and finds that there is no more income inequality, climate change has been mitigated, everyone has healthcare, education, housing, etc.  He asks what happened and is informed that the rapture happened!  Once they were gone everyone who was left behind just worked together to solve problems.

  88. 88.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    @Betty Cracker: Fair.

    Problem is that too many of us, myself included, are done reading the times or being fair to them.

    Lord knows they aren’t fair to us.

  90. 90.

    Nukular Biskits

    @Kay:

    But illegal drug use is a problem for federal contractors – a bad personality isn’t. I just want the standards held up for everyone, even the most privileged. Are we lowering standards so Musk can clear the bar?

    Well, I know what you mean here but, to be clear, drug use isn’t a problem per se.

    Most (all?) federal contracts have a requirement for employees to not use banned substances like marijuana, cocaine, LSD, etc., and, in keeping with that, most companies doing work for the feds have a drug testing program at least on paper.

    I know for defense contracts, you’re not even allowed to use supplements with THC in them; otherwise you’re in violation of federal drug and contract policies.

    So, your question is valid:  How does Musk get away with being repeatedly and publicly stoned out of his gourd and continue to retain his federal (and especially defense) contracts?

  94. 94.

    Another Scott

    @geg6: As I posted downstairs, I wouldn’t be surprised (but obviously don’t know) if this were yet another illustration of Boeing cutting corners to save money.

    (repost) AviationWeek.com:

    A Jan. 6 emergency airworthiness directive (EAD) orders immediate inspections of aircraft with the inserts, or plugs, that deactivate the exits. The EAD provides few details on the issue or its cause. It says the mandatory checks are necessary following “a report of an in-flight departure of a mid-cabin door plug, which resulted in a rapid decompression of the airplane.”

    The FAA in a statement said the EAD covers 171 of the 218 737-9s delivered by Boeing to date. The checks apply to 737-9s with plugs that have not yet reached 4,000 cycles, sources with knowledge of the issue tell Aviation Week. The cycle limit is linked to a threshold for routine inspections of the affected area, the sources said.

    Inspections will take up to 8 hr. per aircraft, the agency said.

    The European Union Aviation Safety Agency immediately adopted FAA’s directive for affected European aircraft.

    Alaska opted to ground and inspect its entire Boeing 737-9 fleet following the Jan. 5 occurrence, which took place on a flight from Portland, Oregon to Ontario, California.

    […]

    Official details on the occurrence remain scarce.

    Photos posted on social media show the aircraft is missing the fuselage plug and window section in the deactivated left-hand mid-emergency door (MED), sometimes referred to as a mid-exit door. The 737-9 has two of these Type 1 MEDs, each measuring 26 x 51 in., located aft of the trailing edge of the wing on the left and right sides of the fuselage.

    When activated, the additional emergency exit doors enable higher-capacity configurations for up to 220 passengers. However, as Alaska does not operate the 737-9 in these denser seating arrangements, the MED exits are blocked off with plugs to save weight.

    The plug configuration—one of two options Boeing offers to deactivate MED exits on a 737-9— incorporates a standard window and is concealed behind a cabin interior sidewall panel section.

    The plugs and surrounding fuselage section are supplied by Spirit AeroSystems, which remains under scrutiny for numerous production-quality lapses on 737 and 787 subassemblies–its two largest programs.

    United Airlines also operates 737-9s with the blocked exits and is affected by the FAA order.

    (Emphasis added.)

    FWIW.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  95. 95.

    Geminid

    @Baud: US/Turkiye relations have been rocky for much of the last 20 years, but Presidents Biden and Erdogan apparently had a good meeting last July, on the sidelines of the Vilnius Nato confab. There have been promising signs of a better relationship since, despite our differences in northeast Syria and over Israel’s war in Gaza.

    Turkiye still wants 40 new F-16s and 80 upgrade kits for the F-16s it already has. They will be looking for some positive comments from Congressional leaders on this question once Congress convenes this week. That may be easier now that Senator Menendez is no longer Foreign Relstions Chair; Menendez really had it in for Turkiye.

    Turkiye and Sweden resolved their bilateral problems in the weeks before the Vilnius summit, but Erdogan is using its pending approval of Sweden’s NATO accession as a bargaining chip to obtain the F-16s. They need the upgraded jets, but they also see this as a matter of respect.

  99. 99.

    Jeffro

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:I’m reading Poverty, by America by Matthew Desmond, as the non-fiction book in that Goodreads challenge I’m doing. It’s a sobering look at the wide extent of poverty in America. Desmond argues that it exists mostly because other people benefit from it. Some jackals might find it interesting.

    I read that and thought it was well-done.  He’s right: poverty is a policy choice in our land of plenty.

    His previous book, Evicted: Poverty and Profit in The American City, was excellent.  It had a related museum exhibit in DC a few years ago that was equally eye-opening.

  100. 100.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Tony G: Libertarians have a strange fascination with slavery and why it might somehow be morally necessary in this or that situation.

    A version I’ve heard is that you’re not truly free unless you own your body, and you don’t really own anything unless it is something you can sell, therefore it needs to be legally possible for you to sell yourself into slavery. They don’t like the idea of inalienable rights because everything needs to be alienable for the right price.

    How this relates to the fact that people can have children, well… a lot of things about libertarianism don’t work in a world where people can have children.

  101. 101.

    geg6

    @Another Scott:

    Thanks!  Boeing had to know about this.  Is this why they were asking to have less oversight by the feds on that plane?  Inquiring minds want to know.

  103. 103.

    Jeffro

    Btw I see that Smilin’ Glenn Youngkin and his gang of true believers in Richmond are up to no good, proposing that we cut our already-too-low state income tax rates and make up for the revenue by hiking our state sales tax.

    (standard GOP BS, in other words)

    Even some Republican reps are like, “what is this nonsense?”

    Reviews of the plan have been harsh, even from some fellow Republicans. State Sen. William M. Stanley Jr. (R-Franklin) told Cardinal News that Youngkin’s proposal to hike the sales tax, eliminate the car tax and cut education funding will hurt the state, especially in rural areas that propelled him to the Executive Mansion. “Areas that helped get the governor elected are being left on the side of the road,” Stanley said.

    “Fundamentally unserious” is how state Sen. Adam Ebbin (D-Alexandria) described Youngkin’s budget plan in a newsletter emailed to constituents. He faulted Youngkin for seeking to cut taxes in a way that would predominantly benefit “Virginia’s wealthiest residents” — and todo it by hiking the regressive sales tax and cutting spending for critical investments, such as public education.

    “The budget he proposed was filled with a bunch of revenue gimmicks and sleights of hand to make it appear it was balanced,” said Surovell, the incoming Senate majority leader. “The reality is, we’re going to have to start from square one in writing a budget.”

    So…Glenn clearly learned a lot by going down in flames last November and losing the VA House.  NOT

  104. 104.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Jeffro: Most Americans are conditioned to get so fucking mad at the thought that somebody else might be getting something from them for free.

    It seems to be their automatic moral response to being overworked and underpaid–not, actually, to want to get more for less, or something for nothing, but to get angry at people who they think are getting something for nothing.

  105. 105.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Baud: They usually don’t, but they claim that any kind of racist phenomenon will naturally wither away if people just leave it alone and don’t do anything about it. (Or that it will end up conforming to natural biological measures of merit, i.e. if they’re racists themselves.)

  107. 107.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    @different-church-lady: I suppose wistfulness is better than innuendo, but in the end it’s still none of any of our goddamned business.

    Right. There’s also a lot of homophobia of the nature “why they trying to make everyone gay?”

    My bigger concern is this is a relatively anodyne way for them to get the conspiracists’ collective feet in the door and a larger campaign will follow.

    Is it irresponsible to speculate? It would be irresponsible not to.

  108. 108.

    Sure Lurkalot

    @Kay:

    A controversial New York Times opinion piece that openly speculated this week whether Taylor Swift is a closeted queer person

    Why didn’t the author just ask her and not hide behind an “opinion piece”? Is the author a closeted journalist?

    PS Happy birthday to Suzanne. My birthday is next Sunday. I have oodles of friends and family with January birthdays.

  110. 110.

    Jeffro

    Josh Marshall at TPM summed it up nicely re: J6 and why all Americans who respect the rule of law will not and should not let it go:

    The ongoing Republican defense of the failed coup means January 6th never really ended. Politically we’re still living in an open-ended January 6th. You can see it every time an elected Republican refuses to admit who won the 2020 election, the refusals to admit that Trump attempted a coup and failed. You have to look long and hard to find an elected Republican who can clearly and honestly answer these simple questions. Because the contrary is a party article of faith. No republic is safe if it contains a major political faction which allows itself to resort to subterfuge and violence if it can’t succeed in a free and fair election.

  112. 112.

    Josie

    @Betty Cracker: ​
     That may be true, but someone in authority permitted that piece to be published, and it should not have happened. I dare say it would not have happened if the subject had been an old white male.

  113. 113.

    Glidwrith

    @Brit in Chicago: I think you are correct: good luck/planning/sanity. Think about the principle that is the heart and soul of democracy: we can rule ourselves. Out of the many skills of humanity, several will rise to be leaders. We don’t need kings or One Great Man. Sane policy built through knowledge and planning and the luck is intrinsically there for leaders to rise.

  114. 114.

    JoyceH

    Was the changing of the SOTU date something negotiated with the WH or did Johnson just decide this on his own? And if it was his own idea, why? What’s the advantage to his caucus? I’d think it was a bad idea to give your opponents a big, ceremonial, calm and normal event to contrast with the Red Meat Madness of early primary season.

    In other news, after three days with little change in her gait, Jazzy’s limp is noticeably improved today! And! She made it up to the sofa!

  115. 115.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Geminid:

    I think Democrats should celebrate the 5th of January with a peach pie. That’s the day in 2021 that Georgians elected Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff to the Senate. They’ve made a big difference in Democratic fortunes these last three years.

    Truth.  I’ll have to do that next year!

  117. 117.

    E.

    @Betty Cracker: Something gay academics did with skill and artistry forty years ago is to mine the literary canon for clues that various writers and other artists were gay. It was useful then. But people hardly care anymore unless the findings somehow unearth a new understanding of the literature. Applying this technique to a living artist in 2024 is just prurient and dumb. Nobody cares anymore except people who are awful.

  119. 119.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    Until further notice, I’m operating under the assumption that the content of all NY Times articles are covert calls to insurrectionists and inappropriate conjecture about the private life of public individuals.

    I have taken as much time and done as much research on this matter as it appears any NYT political analyst appears to do.

  120. 120.

    smith

    @Josie: I dare say it would not have happened if the subject had been an old white male.

    True. I eagerly await the FTFNYT expose of Lindsey Graham’s sexual orientation.

  121. 121.

    lowtechcyclist

    @MomSense:

    I saw a funny video the other day. A man wakes up after being asleep for 20 years and finds that there is no more income inequality, climate change has been mitigated, everyone has healthcare, education, housing, etc.  He asks what happened and is informed that the rapture happened!  Once they were gone everyone who was left behind just worked together to solve problems.

    You’re gonna have to post a link to that!  I’ve only been saying for decades how much better this world would be if everybody who claims to believe in the Rapture, got Raptured.

    That would surely include Mike Johnson, so right there we’d be ahead.

  122. 122.

    TBone

    @Jeffro: that and a good cuppa really get the blood flowing in the A.M., glad you and others enjoyed.  That Rhapsody in Bluegrass is fun too!

  124. 124.

    Geminid

    @Nukular Biskits: I used to check out twitter accounts of people siding with Russia against Ukraine. It turned out a lot of these people also believed In a “Climate Hoax” and propagated anti-vaccine and Covid conspiracies. Many were crypto-currency fans too.

  126. 126.

    Joey Maloney

    @geg6: Boeing had to know about this.  Is this why they were asking to have less oversight by the feds on that plane?

    The request for exemption I read about was for a completely different part of the plane. The anti-icing system on the engine can overheat if it’s not turned off within 5 minutes of leaving icing conditions and start shedding pieces which could, e.g. smash a window or damage wing control surfaces. So I’m sure it’ll be just fine.

    For fucks sake.

  127. 127.

    Rocks

    @Kay: The real story here is that the New York Times is run by a bunch of leering, creepy old perverts who take a very sick, depraved interest in the sex lives of young women.  It would be interesting to see what’s on their private laptops.

  132. 132.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    lowtechcyclist: I’m a believer in reincarnation, though raised Catholic. When you die, heaven or hell is the world you and the rest of society left yourself to be born into.

    We want heaven for ourselves, we must build a better world.

  133. 133.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Geminid:

    There’s a thing called “crank magnetism”, where there’s a tendency for people who believe one conspiracy theory/nutty belief, to hold many more at the same time. Sounds a lot like what you saw. Like, imagine the type of person to believe all of that and what they would be like in real life

  135. 135.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Nukular Biskits:

    Something more upbeat, perhaps? 😂

    Something less monotonous, maybe. Lord, do I ever hate that tune.  Thank goodness one rarely hears it anymore.

  136. 136.

    Ben Cisco

    Elon isn’t an asshole because he uses drugs ; he’s just an asshole who happens to use drugs.

    Having the same standard applied to him that would be applied to let’s say ME for instance… would be refreshing.

  137. 137.

    Nukular Biskits

    @lowtechcyclist:

    I happened to catch an interview of Gordon Lightfoot one day concerning that song and he was talking about how it came to be, etc.

    Regarding the lyrics

    In a musty old hall in Detroit they prayed, In the Maritime Sailors’ Cathedral

    (which is actually Mariners’ Church), he said he had an old fellow come up to him after a concert and very angrily tell him that the Maritime Sailors’ Cathedral was definitely NOT “musty”.

  138. 138.

    TBone

    Tom Sullivan’s post at Digby’s Hullabaloo will also get your blood moving today.  No more coffee needed.

  139. 139.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @smith: ​I eagerly await the FTFNYT expose of Lindsey Graham’s sexual orientation.

    TMI.​
    eta the less i know of him the better I feel

  141. 141.

    Glidwrith

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: “Smearing” Swift is an opening salvo to take her down. She has demonstrated real power in getting her followers to register to vote. Like ACORN, that is a threat that cannot be ignored.

  144. 144.

    sdhays

    @Betty Cracker: I don’t read anything in the FTFNYT anymore, so I haven’t read the article, but I don’t care who you are or what angle you’re approaching the topic from, opining on a public celebrity’s sexuality is more appropriate for a sub-Reddit post than on a national newspaper’s opinion page.

    I assume that the editor of the opinion page, again, didn’t read what he (I assume it’s another he) greenlit for publication.

    I guess it’s better than publishing an essay better titled “In Support of American Fascism”.

  145. 145.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @UncleEbeneezer:

    This is why they use “woke” and “cuck” nowadays.

    I’m old enough to remember when it was “SJW”. It was 2019 when I first began to see “woke” used, specifically with alt-right idiots calling Terminator: Dark Fate, “Woke” Fate. “Cuck”, I remember all the way back in 2015, with “cuckservative”

    Using “cuck” as an insult is really revealing about the person using it

  146. 146.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Josie: Thank you.  Editors at the Times know damn well it’s not cool to speculate on someone’s sexuality and potentially “out” them.

  147. 147.

    Jay

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    On social media, unfortunately, both Rage Farming and Click Bait farming, is profitable.

    Which is why a bunch of the leading/dominant accounts have moved on to Gaza. It also helps to have your readers/followers self select for gullibility and being simplistic about complex issues. Sells more useless supplements and gold.

    I used to have a WordPress Blog. I wrote good in depth articles about effective home renovations. I had 1 subscriber. My wife.

  151. 151.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Baud: Oh, just like “Barack Obama is secretly gay and Michelle is trans”? Those ones were everywhere a little while ago. Didn’t seem to have much effect beyond racist/sexist/queerphobic right-wingers chortling to each other and everyone else saying “shut up, go away”.

  156. 156.

    WaterGirl

    @JoyceH: My first thought on the SOTU date, which seems quite a bit later than usual, was that the evil speaker wanted to give the Rs plenty of time to screw around with Israel and Ukraine and funding, so they wouldn’t have to risk the President calling them out in the middle of their incompetence and disarray.

    You must be relieved to see a positive change in Jazzy.

  161. 161.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    @Nukular Biskits: If that’s the case, I want to come back as the cat in that video at the top.

    Well, that cat has already been born. Though, I also consider all life to be one. So you are that cat or have been or will be.

  164. 164.

    TBone

    @TBone: I should have clarified, Sullivan’s got a new post up already.  I read the one subtitled ‘Scenes from a Slow Moving War on Women.”

  166. 166.

    Another Scott

    @geg6: Hehe.  :-)

    You remind me of an old long-time on-line friend who was a pilot and had his own plane.

    He said he would never fly on an Airbus plane because they were exclusively “fly by wire” and Boeing still had mechanical connections between the pilot’s controls and the flying surfaces.

    ;-)

    Things change.

    Commercial flying is extraordinarily safe compared to almost anything else you can do.

    Hang in there.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  167. 167.

    CatFacts

    @Betty Cracker: For what it’s worth, I agree with your take on the NYT Taylor Swift article. I don’t think it’s part of a right-wing campaign against Swift.

    This type of conspiratorial thinking is on the outskirts of a lot of fandoms. “Celebrity must be closeted gay and dropping hints to their very most loyal fans like me and I need to write 5000 words about it!!!!” The Atlantic did an interview a few years ago with a woman who was convinced that Benedict Cumberbatch was secretly gay and in love with his costar from Sherlock, that his marriage was fake and his children were actually life-like dolls. (Yep, really.) I’ve heard there are similar conspiracy-type fan theories about people like Harry Styles and the cast of the TV show Supernatural.

    The real question is why someone who has these beliefs is an editor at the NYT and gets her weird fandom rants published on their opinion page.

  168. 168.

    catclub

    @geg6: oy vey.

    How about motor vehicles then? Multi-story buildings like the WTC?   Elevators? all death traps.

     

    I would not be surprised if the total number of people who have died in Boeing Airliners is about the same as died in the WTC.

  169. 169.

    Kay

    Newest grandbaby is overdue so they’re inducing Monday. I’m a wreck. My daughter, however, is calm. She requests laughing gas as a pain med. I had never heard of it before she requested it for the last delivery. She’s a PA so she just rattles off what she needs and they give it to her.

  170. 170.

    Brachiator

    @Kay:

    CNN — 
    A controversial New York Times opinion piece that openly speculated this week whether Taylor Swift is a closeted queer person has drawn the ire of the pop superstar’s associates, CNN has learned.

    I saw the CNN story. The NY Times piece, and the subsequent attempt to justify it, is detestable.

    I would think that reader reaction has been furiously negative.

  171. 171.

    Gin & Tonic

    @geg6: Well, whichever airliner you choose to fly on, you are far, far more likely to die in a car accident on the way to the airport. Commercial air travel is just about the safest mode of transportation there is. Note that in this incident, part of the wall of the plane fell off, nobody died and the pilots landed safely. That is pretty fucking remarkable.

  175. 175.

    Nukular Biskits

    @TBone:

    Tom Sullivan’s post at Digby’s Hullabaloo will also get your blood moving today.  No more coffee needed.

    Thanks for the heads-up. My first reaction was “WTF!?!?!?!? YOU GOTTA BE FUCKING KIDDING ME!!!!”

    They have zero shame. None.

  176. 176.

    SteveinPHX

    @Another Scott: Thanks! I had heard a brief mention of this about 3am on Saturday morning from an LA news radio station, but could find no other reference to this all day Saturday while at work nor last night at home.

    Was beginning to think it was mis-reporting.

  177. 177.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Jay:

    Oh absolutely. I browse r/saltierthankrayt, a Star Wars and other fandom subreddit focused on calling out chuds, and it’s a big grift to be an “anti-woke” Youtuber

  178. 178.

    Juju

    @geg6: I think there should be a blog ban here on even mentioning that song. Now it’s an ear worm for me and all I have to say is, It’s a Small World, to the person who mentioned that Lightfoot song.

  183. 183.

    Baud

    @Gin & Tonic:

    Well, whichever airliner you choose to fly on, you are far, far more likely to die in a car accident on the way to the airport

     
    The question is, why is driving to the airport so dangerous.

  185. 185.

    Kay

    griffinkyle

    Elise Stefanik, a member of House GOP leadership, won’t commit to certifying the 2024 election.

    It’s so dumb how they won’t just rip the band aid off. He loses again they’re going to claim he won again so he can hold the whole party hostage for another decade? Just the cowardice how they keep kicking this can down the road. They could have been rid of him when Biden won- they just had to grow a spine and admit he lost. He’s a loser and they just treat him like every other losing candidate. Done.

  186. 186.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Kay:  Yes, OMG NYT, we are shocked, shocked to find out a woman under 30 in this day age might be bi.  So what rock do these boomers at the NYT live under?

  187. 187.

    Nukular Biskits

    @Juju:

    @geg6: I think there should be a blog ban here on even mentioning that song. Now it’s an ear worm for me and all I have to say is, It’s a Small World, to the person who mentioned that Lightfoot song.

    Glad I could be of service!

    But, if you really wanted to torture me, you should have recommended Suzanne Vega’s Tom’s Diner.

    Oh, f**k! What did I just do?!?!?!?!?!??!

  188. 188.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @zhena gogolia:

    As satisfying as it is to see these take downs, I don’t think the NYT cares whether readers are outraged or not, sadly, if it doesn’t affect their bottom line

  190. 190.

    BritinChicago

    @Geminid: that’s sort of what I meant by luck: our being lucky enough to have someone that good to take over. I was not meaning to denigrate him; rather the opposite. Sorry if I was unclear.

  191. 191.

    Nukular Biskits

    @Suburban Mom:

    @Nukular Biskits: Smilax is the worst. I’ve spent a decade trying to eradicate it from a large azalea.

    I dug up two large wheelbarrow loads of the roots & tubers out of a roughly 20×30 area.  I still have approximately that much more to go.

    At least it isn’t poison ivy, which is my arch-nemesis.

  195. 195.

    Kay

    The Supreme Court on Friday allowed Idaho to enforce its strict abortion ban, even in medical emergencies, while a legal fight continues.
    The justices said they would hear arguments in April and put on hold a lower court ruling that had blocked the Idaho law in hospital emergencies, based on a lawsuit filed by the Biden administration.

    The far Right Six, thru their own arrogance and narrow, unthinking policy making, have now put themselves in the position where they are making emergency medical decisions.
    This just gets worse and worse for Right wing judges. They’ll be directly responsible for dead women.

  197. 197.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Another Scott: The 737MAX is far more dangerous than it should be, while, at the same time, probably far safer than riding any 737 in, say, 1980, when commercial airline travel was *already* statistically the safest form of travel.

    It’s hard to talk about this without confusing a comparison with the ideal world we want with a time series. But I think it’s stunning that the number of airline fatalities per year has gone down so much even in absolute numbers, without correcting for passenger miles, even while total volume of flights was going up and up:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aviation_accidents_and_incidents#/media/File:ACRO_fatalities.svg

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aviation_accidents_and_incidents#/media/File:ACRO_incidents.svg

    You can see a little blip up at the end of that second chart that is kind of worrying. I *think* that trend has continued in 2021 and 2022 but it’s not yet anywhere near the point where it’s rational to avoid flying vs. other travel modes just for that reason.

  198. 198.

    sdhays

    @rikyrah: I have a hard time taking a lot of “Christians” seriously when they spend a lot of time on the words written in non-Gospel books of the Bible. I mean, you claim to be “Christian”, so at least 90% of how you approach life should be rooted in, you know, the supposedly divine descriptions of what Christ actually did and said, not what others wrote about being Christian years later and certainly not the irrelevant Old Testament.

    Instead, the “Truth” of the Gospel is pretty much only around the virgin birth and him being raised from the dead on the third day. And, ok, if that’s all you want to take from it, that’s your choice. But don’t say you’re guided by Christ.

  200. 200.

    Jay

    @Baud:

    it’s a combination of the “arrive 2 hours early so you can make it through Security”, confusing access roads, parking, and the constant rain of aircraft parts and blue ice.

  202. 202.

    Nukular Biskits

    @Kay:

    It gets worse.

    At Tbone’s suggestion,

    Tom Sullivan’s post at Digby’s Hullabaloo will also get your blood moving today. No more coffee needed.

    I read the post.  He’s not kidding.  If THIS doesn’t piss you off, probably nothing ever will:

    “The anti-abortion movement is launching a national campaign to trick women into carrying doomed pregnancies to term,” Vessica Valenti wrote in October in a post titled “Calculated Cruelty.” She summarized it in a followup post on Friday and cautions that the movement has moved upstream of abortion clinic protests to targeting prenatal testing that might reveal fatal fetal abnormalities:

    The short version, though, is that a coalition of the most powerful anti-abortion groups in the country are working together to ban abortion in cases of fatal fetal abnormalities, and to do away with the prenatal testing that provides those diagnoses. They’re not just targeting legislation, but individual women—embedding themselves in hospitals, doctors’ offices and anywhere else patients might be getting bad news about their pregnancy.
    Worst of all, these groups are calling it “prenatal diagnosis counseling” and perinatal hospice care*—manipulating women in their most vulnerable life moments under the guise of offering real help. That characterization is also politically strategic: it means that when Democrats oppose funding to anti-abortion groups that lie to women about their fetal diagnoses, the GOP can claim that they’re actually callously refusing women counseling and care.

    Digby’s Hullaballo: Anti-Abortion Underground

  203. 203.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Baud:

    The question is, why is driving to the airport so dangerous.

    I think the worldwide statistics on this may be dominated by accidents at Bell Circle in Revere, Massachusetts.

  204. 204.

    smith

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I don’t think the NYT cares whether readers are outraged or not, sadly, if it doesn’t affect their bottom line

    They are as much into click-bait as any other online influencer. It serves to grab an audience that they can then propagandize with a corportist world view. To a large extent, that is an audience (fairly well-educated and liberalish) that escapes other online influencing attempts, so it’s all good.

  205. 205.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Rocks: The real story here is that the New York Times is run by a bunch of leering, creepy old perverts who take a very sick, depraved interest in the sex lives of young women. It would be interesting to see what’s on their private laptops.

    What really makes that NYT opinion piece ultra stupid is because one can be sure there are a whole bookstore worth of fan fick porn stories about Swift complete with AI generated pictures, all lovingly  written or prompted by her own fans (and, watch it, it’s going to come out the NYT are the kind idiots who found one of these pictures and where dumb enough to think it was real)

  206. 206.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Kay:

    It’s incredibly disturbing, that despite the backlash the anti-abortion movement has received at the ballot box, these people continue to act like this. I had hoped they would at least back off if for no other reason than to protect GOP electoral prospects

  207. 207.

    Miss Bianca

    @zhena gogolia: Man, I think I read that Steeleye had opened for Jethro Tull on a tour in ’71. Would love to have caught that in real time, but I was only seven at the time, alas…

    Yay AL for posting that link! Proud to know that even in my advancing age I can still sing all the verses of The Wren.

  209. 209.

    Brachiator

    @Kay:

    The people who work at that newspaper show consistently poor judgment.

    This is not just poor judgement. It’s malicious intent. The kind of crap that you see from UK newspapers peddling trash gossip designed to bring down celebrities who are too political in the wrong way.

    And this was an opinion piece. The opinion page editors gave this crap the green light. They didn’t just target this to the general reader.

  210. 210.

    Jay

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    I had hoped they would at least back off if for no other reason than to protect GOP electoral prospects

    While the Groper’s party has aligned them selves with them, they are not allied to the Groper’s party.

  211. 211.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I was just looking up online reactions to the wonderful film Godzilla Minus One (seriously, whether you’re into giant monsters or not, if you care about cinema, you need to see this movie) and was bugged by the amount of the discourse that needed to somehow frame Godzilla Minus One as “non-woke” or “anti-woke”, just because it was a movie everyone liked. As far as I can tell, the only arguably “anti-woke” thing about it is that the protagonist is a man.

    One of the many messages of Godzilla Minus One is a hopeful rejection of the suicidal sacrifice of one’s life as the exclusive be-all and end-all of heroism. You know what other recent movie conveys that message? THE LAST JEDI. (Well, one of the subplots of The Last Jedi.)

  212. 212.

    Bill Arnold

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Did he have to date the letter January 6?

    Yeah, the letter itself can be interpreted as fine, but the date on the letter, when it is from a big-league 2020 election denier, is extremely obnoxious.

  213. 213.

    Miss Bianca

    @Kay: It is a special skill, and I admire it deeply but don’t possess it, that kind of graceful bonhomie. It’s why I could never be a good politician. As one of the characters in Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls puts it, “I’m jolly as they come but I’m not very nice.”

  216. 216.

    Suzanne

    Thanks for the birthday wishes, all!

    I did a Peloton class this morning with my very favorite instructor, Denis Morton. I’m only slightly ashamed to say that I crush on him like a teenager. ;) Workout felt awesome. I’d like to be running, but it’s snowing. I went for a run last weekend, and it started snowing, and I went a couple more miles, but my lips went numb. So I figure the indoor workout is better for now!

  217. 217.

    Ruckus

    @Tony G:

    That narcissistic personality is fed by the drugs – making it worse.

    Of course one couldn’t imagine that a very wealthy man with an ego the size of Texas would have a narcissistic personality. I mean really….

  218. 218.

    Ruckus

    @RevRick:

    No wonder they are prisoners of fear, because that’s their earworm.

    And here I’ve always thought it was because of where they stored their heads. And no it’s not a closet, wastebasket or dumpster, it is their personal outlet orifice.

  219. 219.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Matt McIrvin:

    Chuds and right-wingers feel the need to claim successful movies as their own as examples of “non-woke” movies, as if the Godzilla franchise never had political themes. They’ve ruined online film criticism. Every time a movie or TV show they declare is “woke” is successful, they pivot and say it was actually anti-woke or they ignore it. They even do the opposite with movies they hype up as anti-woke, like Snyder’s recent Rebel Moon that was supposed to be a “Star Wars killer”, but bombed because it’s not a good movie, and now it’s “woke”

    A common criticism of The Last Jedi I’ve read from some Star Wars fans is that it “destroyed Luke’s character”. Which, while I’ve never watched any Star Wars movie myself, is kind of ridiculous. Based on what I’ve read, he was disillusioned with how events in the galaxy turned out after the last OT movie, and became a hermit, but later came out of that seclusion to be a hero one last time

  220. 220.

    JoyceH

    Poor Jazzy could reach her toes with the donut so I switched her to the cone. Well, she can reach her toes with the cone, so now she’s wearing both the cone and the donut. I’ve ordered a longer cone.

    Politics – I keep seeing recent clips of Trump, and then the pundits discuss what he said. That’s worthy of discussion (“negotiate” the Civil War?) but I’d like to see some mention of the way he’s speaking. He’s high-pitched and low volume, slow and and wavering, he sounds … weak. And I’ll just say it – he sounds drugged.

  221. 221.

    Geminid

    @BritinChicago: I did not think you were shading Jeffries. I just wanted to put that information out there because I’ve been following Jeffries pretty closely since that key vote for Caucus Chairman, and researching his career up to that point.

    A lot of people did not pay Jeffries much attention until he served as one of the Managers in Trump’s first imprachment trial. That’s also when a lot of people first heard of Representatives like Val Demings and Joe Neguse. Speaker Pelosi and other leaders were strategic in their selections of members for high profile proceedings like the two Impeachment trials. I think that’s how Pete Aguilar and Elaine Luria ended up on the January 6 Committee.

  222. 222.

    Brachiator

    @Jeffro:

    Youngkin’s proposal to hike the sales tax, eliminate the car tax and cut education funding will hurt the state, especially in rural areas that propelled him to the Executive Mansion. “Areas that helped get the governor elected are being left on the side of the road,” Stanley said.

    Have people in the state been educated enough?

    I keep seeing conservatives in the UK and the US insist that if you cut taxes and government spending, the economy will positively blast off. But they ignore, downplay or deny any government responsibility for the general welfare.

    At worst some right wingers will declare that any person who can’t get rich enough to provide for their family is a loser. Presumably in Republican Nirvana, everyone will be able to send their kid to private school.

  223. 223.

    Soprano2

    @Matt McIrvin: I have a friend on FB who still posts those “Michelle Obama is a transwoman” memes. How she gave birth to two children is never discussed. I think this is all about their contention that Barack is gay, and that they think Michelle is ugly because she’s not a thin blonde white woman.

  224. 224.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): There was another thing going on there. Before Disney bought the Star Wars franchise, Lucasfilm had declared that “what happened after Return of the Jedi?” was the domain of tie-in media, and there was a whole continuity of novels, video games, etc. in which Luke Skywalker became this awesome figure, the powerful mentor/leader of a resurgent Jedi Order.

    The Disney sequel continuity took that away, and they were pissed off about it. I guess I would be too but I never got into that stuff. To me, the character of Luke had aged along with me and his cranky hermit form was an interesting mirror of various disillusionments I’d had in life, so I thought it was cool.

  226. 226.

    West of the Rockies

    @Kay:

    Any chance we can get all the Swifties and all the Beyhive people to vote this cycle?  They’d crush Trump.

  227. 227.

    Soprano2

    @Matt McIrvin: I wish they hadn’t done that, because a lot of those books were great, but I guess they didn’t want to buy the rights; it was cheaper to make up something else.

  230. 230.

    Geminid

    @JoyceH: Yeah, Trump’s affect is off. Kind of mournful.

    He’s saying some strange things too, like his discussion of magnets and water the other day. I think that one goes back to his objection to the Navy’s new electromagnetic catapults; “I like steam,” he said at the time. But there was no way the Navy was going to redesign its new aircraft carriers to suit Trump, and he lost that battle. So why is he still talking about magnets and water? Because he is a crank.

  232. 232.

    Formerly disgruntled in Oregon

    @Matt McIrvin: Then why all the disproportionate hate for “The Last Jedi” vs the first Disney Star Wars movie “The Force Awakens”? It was the first one that did away with all the novelizations, etc. 

    I liked The Last Jedi quite a lot, as it worked to actively subvert many stupid hero story tropes. (I think this was one of the main reasons the chuds were so up in arms about it.)

    When Abrams came back for the third movie (he wasn’t as involved in TLJ), he chucked all of that out the window. JJ Abrams is good at bringing together a good ensemble cast, and that’s about it.

  233. 233.

    sdhays

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): The Last Jedi is the only Disney Star Wars movie I’ve seen, and my god, it was awful. The plot was all over the place and just really poorly written and conceived. And it wasn’t because I hadn’t seen the previous movie. It was just dumb.

    And what doesn’t make sense about Luke’s character in that movie is how he almost murdered his nephew because he could “feel the dark side rising inside him”. He literally refused to kill his father, who was guilty of personally slaughtering thousands, if not millions, but as he got older, he was willing to kill a child because of what they might do in the future? No. Just no. They did Luke wrong there.

    They should have just used the Thrawn books as a base.

  235. 235.

    Thor Heyerdahl

    @Professor Bigfoot: The ONLY problem I see is coming up with a proper rhyme like “remember, remember, the fifth of November…”

    “Fascist pricks, orange dicks, forget us not January six”

  236. 236.

    Brachiator

    @Betty Cracker:

    I read the NYT opinion piece about Taylor Swift, and it didn’t land the same way with me as it did for some of y’all. The writer is a self-identified queer woman, and my take is that she desperately wants to believe Swift is a member of the queer community rather than “merely” an ally.

    But this doesn’t make it an opinion piece. I don’t know this writer or care about her fantasies. She failed to make her essay meaningful to the general reader. Her editors should have rejected this nonsense.

    Maybe she needs to talk to her therapist. But not write about it.

  238. 238.

    Nora

    @Kay: ​
      The whole concept of a preliminary injunction is to keep harm from happening while the case is being litigated. It seems to me that preventing emergency abortions in cases of life and death is NOT preventing harm from happening. How could you argue that it is more harmful to keep the status quo pre antiabortion law than it would be to allow this relatively new law to continue operating, when the latter by its terms will allow women to die because they can’t get the health care that will save their lives?

  239. 239.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    @scav: NYT will very soon be putting its Exclusive Photos of the BATBOY! above the fold.

    Thanks for helping me design my next wall poster.

  240. 240.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Formerly disgruntled in Oregon: Laura Dern’s character was a HUGE CHUD TRIGGER, and I think was intentionally conceived as such. Woman in a position of authority who has a big argument with the male hotshot pilot character, and it turns out he’s wrong and she’s right, and she has purple hair, which is a specific subcultural hate trigger for these guys and the thing that makes me think Rian Johnson was specifically trying to piss them off.

    I thought it was hilarious and kinda liked it in the theater, for that exact reason.

    That said, I have to admit that the plotting there was kind of weak, in “what can spaceships do in the Star Wars universe” worldbuilding terms. Didn’t actually make a lot of sense. I liked the Luke/Rey/Kylo thread of the movie a lot more.

    But it was the best of those three, because The Force Awakens was basically yet another rehash of Star Wars and The Rise of Skywalker was pure pandering bullshit. I think if Abrams had stuck to his guns and actually made a movie building on The Last Jedi‘s plot, we’d like it better in retrospect now.

    Rogue One was the best of the Disney-era Star Wars flicks.

  241. 241.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    as if the Godzilla franchise never had political themes.

    One of the things Minus One does is to basically take the focus of the franchise back to the original, when Japan was still recovering from World War II and the notion of Godzilla as a creation of the Bomb, and his destruction as an echo of the war, had very recent resonance.

    I never saw Hideaki Anno’s Shin Godzilla but apparently it instead uses Godzilla as, basically, a metaphor for the Fukushima Daiichi earthquake/nuclear disaster and the authorities’ inadequate response to it.

  242. 242.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    @Matt McIrvin: The Last Jedi is my favorite Star Wars, period, despite an occasionally meandering plot.

    Granted, I’ve always been ambivalent about the originals. I liked the Last Jedi on themes even if the implementation was imperfect.

  246. 246.

    strange visitor (from another planet)

    @Professor Bigfoot:

    “remember, remember
    the orange offender
    and his fascist treason plot;
    i know of no reason
    fascist treason leaders
    shouldn’t be taken out and shot.”

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