Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is abruptly bailing on his own party after a handful of allegedly invited A-listers publicly disavowed any knowledge of the event—and loudly promised that they would never, ever be caught dead backing him. https://t.co/CoaeQDPdpj
— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) January 8, 2024
Is it me, or is the Kennedy Scion’s head starting to develop the same weird angles as Roger Stone’s?
Per the Daily Beast, “RFK Jr. Backs Out of His Own Birthday Bash After Celebrity Snub-Fest”:
… Kennedy’s press team told The Daily Beast in a statement on Monday that he would no longer be attending the Jan. 22 event, organized by a super PAC supporting his presidential bid.
The PAC, American Values 2024, announced the event on X last week, confirming a Daily Mail report that celebrities like Dionne Warwick, Martin Sheen, Mike Tyson, and Andrea Bocelli would all be there to wish Kennedy many happy returns…
It was unclear Monday if the party would go ahead at all—American Values 2024 did not immediately respond to The Daily Beast’s request for comment.
$30m is nothing for a SuperPAC. There are Congressional races w spending over $30m. https://t.co/ipSbk458HP
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) January 10, 2024
Puck pays Teddy Schleifer to be dazzled by people with money (n.b., his coverage of Sam Bankman Fried), but even he can’t visualize RFK Jr as a viable candidate — “Camelot for the Anti-Vax Set”:
… Look, the guy won’t be president. But R.F.K. is certain to be a major storyline of the election, even if most reporters and pundits have yet to figure out if he’ll be a sideshow or a spoiler. His success could be determined, in no small part, by how much money he brings in—and whether his operation can professionalize enough to ensure he qualifies for as many state ballots as possible. “I don’t care how many podcasts you do and hands you shake,” said Sofia Karstens, an actress who runs a nascent super PAC working on ballot access for R.F.K. “If you’re not on the ballot in all 50 states, who cares?”…
Major donors to Kennedy have included the ever-voluble Bill Ackman and David Sacks, and I know of at least a few billionaire donors who have expressed interest in brokering introductions with the R.F.K. camp, eager to get face time with his campaign. In the new year, Kennedy’s fundraising blitz across the country, with an event scheduled every few days, will focus on states he already has to visit for ballot-qualification purposes, I’m told. The events, according to invites I’ve seen, are often as unusual as the candidate: On January 1, he held a high-dollar event with folks in Aspen, where “apres ski attire” was recommended; on January 16, donors in Hawaii can wear “aloha attire” for a “private sunset reception” with Kennedy and his wife, Cheryl Hines, or join him two days later to go whale watching at a “very special event on a beautiful catamaran in the heart of Oahu.”
Several of the hosts come from the so-called “health freedom” community—the euphemism for these anti-vaccine activists—as is true of many people in R.F.K.’s fundraising orbit and supportive super PACs. For instance, this past weekend in Oregon, Kennedy spoke and answered questions at a sold-out cocktail reception outside of Portland hosted by J.B. Handley, the founder of Generation Rescue, an organization that has pushed links between vaccines and autism. It was attended by about 170 people who paid a minimum of $500 to be there, making it, at minimum, an $85,000-grossing event. There’s plenty of money in the vaccine-skeptic world…
Kennedy is on the fundraising warpath because he needs to make the damn ballots. Unlike other candidates raising major-donor money, R.F.K. has to spend much of that cash on ballot qualification as an independent candidate. Securing ballot access is a byzantine process that’s different in every state; Kennedy qualified in Utah last week, but in more than half of the states, for instance, he needs to name a V.P. candidate before he can qualify. Kennedy has said in interviews that he expects the ballot access push to cost $15 million total, calculating that he needs to collect about 1 million signatures nationwide at $15 a pop. Plenty of experts think it would cost far more than that, but Kennedy, who believes he will make it on every state’s ballot, is banking on his base of volunteer zealots to supplement paid signature-gathering efforts.
Kennedy has also embraced the help of super PACs. Before he even announced his bid, R.F.K. personally asked a supporter in Silicon Valley, Steven Kirsch, to make sure there was a super PAC operation set up specifically for his campaign, Kirsch told me. Kirsch, a hardline anti-vaccine activist, then found an existing group and rejiggered it to become a pro-R.F.K. operation, which is now called American Values. That group has said it will spend up to $15 million of its own money to help R.F.K. qualify in seven states—including those that require the most signatures, such as California, New York, and Texas—with the possible goal of triggering a contingent election, where no candidate reaches 270 electoral college votes, and the president is chosen by congressional delegations from each state.
American Values founder Tony Lyons, the president of Skyhorse Publishing and a close Kennedy friend, told me his PAC will take the lead in those seven states, and the campaign itself will seek qualification in the other 44 jurisdictions, including Washington, D.C. But when I spoke with the campaign, they reiterated that they, following in the footsteps of Ross Perot, would be trying on their own to qualify on all 51 ballots, which sounds pretty duplicative. Perhaps there are some management wrinkles to iron out, in addition to future legal headaches: I know some operatives working for Kennedy opponents who believe that super PACs cannot legally do these extensive ballot-qualification efforts and are working to stop it. R.F.K.’s team obviously disagrees.
Lyons’s group says it has now raised close to $30 million, a not-insignificant amount of money. Its biggest public donors to date have been an eclectic mix, including Timothy Mellon, an heir to the Gilded Age banking fortune. Mellon, who lives part-time in Wyoming, emerged from the woodwork in the Trump era, making eight-figure donations to G.O.P. groups who didn’t even solicit money from him; he also single-handedly tried to finance the border wall in Texas. Mellon, I’ve been told, is fascinated by presidential politics and was first inclined to give $5 million to R.F.K. because he thought he was a kooky Biden-botherer in the Democratic primary. But now, some wonder whether Mellon will see independent R.F.K.’s run as a threat to his preferred candidate, Trump…
And what about Elon? Lyons also told me that Elon Musk had not yet donated to the group, but that he was a “logical donor” eventually. “There were lots of people who thought that he was just on the verge of donating to Bobby Kennedy. And my guess is that he probably will.”…
… And the documentary about the encounter between those two Very Special Fellas will be titled “When Titanic Egos Collide”.
Head of second largest anti-vaccine organization hired as the director of communications for the head of largest anti-vaccine organization’s presidential campaign. https://t.co/CxvWlCCPCF
— Brandy Zadrozny (@BrandyZadrozny) January 1, 2024
Everybody’s a critic!
we need a candidate who understands you should wear over-the-calf socks with suits pic.twitter.com/MbxVef1dnA
— derek guy (@dieworkwear) January 4, 2024
If this is all they can do, RFK will at most be on the ballots of three swing states (AZ, MI, GA). His own campaign admits his only hope is to keep both Trump and Biden under 270. He's a chaos agent, nothing more. https://t.co/aDOEs16kTL
— Bradley P. Moss (@BradMossEsq) December 26, 2023
Speaking of titanic egos:
Dear God,
Please let this happen. https://t.co/WxTvrnjufm
— Rachel Bitecofer ?????????????? (@RachelBitecofer) January 5, 2024
Baud
Not just you. Check him for a Nixon tattoo.
Interesting that you’ve made usually late night fare into a morning post. I’ve liked your upbeat morning content.
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone 😊😊😊
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
Jeffro
big-money anti-vax activists organized as “Health Freedom”
RFK Jr and Vivek potentially working together and inspiring people who are ‘former trumpers for Yang’
I keep telling myself the world is a wonderful place, but there are moments…
Frankensteinbeck
As every name mentioned in this post suggests, I don’t think it’s Biden that R.F.K. jr will bleed votes from.
Baud
@Jeffro:
Funny how Health Freedom ignores abortion rights and trans healthcare.
Kay
@Jeffro:
It’s sad though. The big childhood infectious diseases are definitely coming back. I knew the anti vaxx covid fervor would bleed over into the whole set of childhood vaccines and it has.
Kennedy has blood on his hands. It’ll be a real problem- catastrophic for kids.
Baud
I thought Hillary had the best enemies, but Biden’s may be even better.
Rich right wingers know who’s a threat to their interests.
Jeffro
I was glad to see this as a story (and in the Times, no less): “I’m Rubber, You’re Glue”
*I disagree…it’s very much a strategy, and it works quite well with our ‘both sides’ media enabling it. ‘Both sides’ pulls the thoroughly unfit and corrupt trump up from the sewer and pulls opponents down towards it.
I’d like to see more of this kind of reporting…pulling back the curtain on Mr. Innocent can only help!
Betty Cracker
@Baud: I preferred your response yesterday when the RFK Jr. party snubs came up: even the falcon bailed! 😂
Kay
@Baud:
I think the opposition to Biden hasn’t been portrayed like that – as bankrolled by rich Right wingers because he’s a threat to them- but it seems obvious to me that it is. Biden is the most liberal President on economic issues of my lifetime but rather than oppose him from the Right they’ve purchased some fake liberals and Leftists to supposedly oppose him from the Left. It’s clever because it takes advantage of how shallow most peoples political analysis and decision making is – they don’t think Biden is the most liberal because he is old and has been around a long time.
Anne Laurie
Yeah, I try to keep it ‘clean’ for the Early Morning posts, but there’s such a bounty of schadenfreude right now that I couldn’t resist this one!
ETA: Some people say that long-term steroid abuse is responsible for Mr. Stone’s weird skull-shape, so… would it be irresponsible to speculate?
J. Arthur Crank
Full disclosure: I wear those “crew” socks (e.g. the kind that barely goes above the top of the shoe), even on those rare occasions that I wear a suit. The conventional socks tend to be too tight for my ankles and the lower parts of the legs.
That photo of RFK Jr’s gulliver reminds me of something from that old cartoon Bevis & Butthead.
TBone
Today’s primal scream:
https://www.salon.com/2024/01/08/kellyanne-conway-is-selling-the-a-dream-thats-destined-to-backfire/
Baud
@Kay:
You heard the independent contractor rule is about to come out?
They’ll challenge it in the 5th circuit, of course, which will do its duty.
snoey
@Baud: That head thing is a common side effect of HGH.
RFKjr put out a pic of himself shirtless doing pushups. Bodybuilder’s reddits went nuts – “No way he’s natty” – “nobody looks like that at 70”.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
My heart always goes out to the animals.
gene108
@Kay:
More than just being old, I think there’s a stereotype of what a liberal should present as and a lot of liberal Democratic politicians don’t fit the stereotype. A lot of it has to do with the liberal swing of the Democratic Party, and Democratic voters, over the last 10+ years.
Geminid
I know only one person who thinks RFK Jr. is a good candidate. She’s a Republican and reads Epoch Times a lot.
Frankensteinbeck
@Jeffro:
I don’t think it is, not in the sense that it’s something Trump would not have done except he decided it would help against Biden. It’s normal Trump behavior. It’s normal Republican behavior, they’re just not usually as pathetically obvious. It’s why we use ‘every accusation is a confession’. It’s normal behavior for very small children. It’s the instinct of assholes, abusers, and emotionally stunted egotists.
Republicans yell, “Nuh-uh, YOU!” and Trump does it louder because he does everything louder. That our media eats it up is coincidental. Republicans do it because they’re assholes who start from the assumption they’re the good guys and we’re the bad guys.
Every once in awhile someone like Karl Rove will come along and go “Ah ha, I have this genius plan to do what we already do because it has a good result!” That doesn’t make it an actual plan, as Rove’s permanent Republican majority shows.
Kay
@TBone:
Be happy. They still don’t get it:
Abortion bans MUST inevitably intrude on medical care for pregnant women. They have to. They always will. The Right’s abortion ban theory is poorly thought out and reasoned and unworkable. The backlash to abortion laws is not primarily driven by abortion. It’s primarily driven by the sensible and logical realization by millions of people that the bans impact all pregnancies.
Until the Right figures this out- that they cannot silo “abortion” without profoundly impacting access to best practices medical care for pregnant women they will lose on it.
Every single woman in Texas who was denied medical care during pregnancy and launched a lawsuit was past 15 weeks pregnant. The number of weeks doesn’t matter. They can’t fix these laws because their concept and theory is wrong.
Ireland learned this and Mexico learned this. Let’s see how many dead women it takes for the US to learn it.
Kay
@gene108:
It’s super frustrating to me, as an economic liberal. You want to yell at them “just look at the work!” – billionaires fucking figured out he’s a threat; it would be a real shame if our voters were too dumb and shallow to get it.
RevRick
Third-party Presidential candidates are the stupidest idea possible. They are rooted in the cockamamie notion that somehow Congress will fall in line if they get elected. And that what works in parliamentary democracies will work in ours.
The French political scientist Duvenger, studying the effects that first-past-the-post elections have on the structure of democracy, noted that they all tend to devolve toward two-party systems. Since the outcome is the binary of win or lose, it forces the formation of coalitions before the election. Parliamentary elections allow for the formation of these coalitions after the election. And that makes all the difference.
So, what would happen if a third-party candidate actually won?
They would confront a Congress full of Democrats and Republicans, and neither party would have any incentive to support them. Quite the contrary!
In order to govern, this third-party President would have to align with either the Republican or Democratic Party. Which negates the effort to begin with. Otherwise, it’s a formula for a disaster.
Kay
@TBone:
I think they don’t get it because the anti abortion ideology is grounded in real contempt for women. It doesn’t shock me that lots of wome vote for it because lots of women also have contempt for women. The biggest predictor of voting anti abortion is not gender- it’s contempt for women. A belief that women are dishonest and sneaky and morally and ethically inferior to men.
So it never occurred to them that their crusade would run aground not on the “bad” women who want abortions but instead on the “good” women who want babies. It’s oddly gratifying to me.
NobodySpecial
Dear Billionaires:
It appears that you have way too much money to keep track of and you keep handing it off to bullshit artists.
I offer you the chance to give me money instead. I will do just as much with your money as RFK Jr. and all your other hairbrained schemes at a fraction of the cost, and my bullshit is much less fragrant.
CliosFanBoy
I’ve seen one RFKJr lawn sign here in northern VA. The same person has the Virginia Tea-Party pl8ts on their car.
Kay
Stuff like this is why billionaires are backing all these clownish, allegedly liberal 3rd party candidates:
It’s huge. A huge pro worker move. The billionaires noticed, even if The Left were too fucking stupid to see it. Let’s hope labor at least gets it- they’re often more practical and better informed than the elite Substack/Twitter Left.
Gin & Tonic
@snoey: Bingo! Same thing with Stone. Adam has written about it several times.
Kay
One of the big reasons I’ve always supported Democrats is Democrats are responsible for all lower income health care coverage, including children. Over the last 25 years, in a series of steps, Democrats have covered just about every child in the country. Republicans did none of it- they fought it every step of the way. So that should pay off for us as a country as we get into years of lower income children being covered. But now the disgusting anti vaxx grifters could cut into those projected gains.
I loathe them.
Soprano2
@Frankensteinbeck: My husband had a boss who was an asshole. Every time he lost at a game he’d accuse you of cheating. I’m sure he’s a big MAGA asshole.
owlbrick
It’s early yet out west, but the headline “RFK jr bails on his own party” had me saying yeah… I thought that was old news.
Soprano2
@Kay: Doesn’t she know that the hard right thinks most effective contraception isn’t any different than abortion? *facepalm* It’s as if she doesn’t know anything about the people on her side of the aisle. That’s the whole way they’ll go after contraception; they’ll say it causes abortions so they can outlaw it in the states where abortion is illegal.
Soprano2
@Kay: Just think how he could change the courts if he had four more years to appoint justices. I’m sure that’s part of what they’re scared of, because right now they know they can go to the 5th Circuit and get whatever ruling they want.
Soprano2
@Kay: My mother had a lot of contempt for most women because they voted for Democrats. I always wondered if she thought I was stupid, too. I never had the guts to ask her about it, though.
narya
@Kay: I just recommended that someone get paid as an independent contractor (rather than cash under the table). I don’t think this rule will affect that–at least, I hope not. The employer wants to avoid adding to their payroll, which I get; the employee will be doing grunt work and basically apprenticing (brewing).
OzarkHillbilly
She knows it, she’s just telling them to lie about it. Which comes naturally to them.
Kay
So I have a new grandaughter. My daughter is fine – good delivery. She’s a bleeder though and a PA so she was giving orders – she wanted a second IV with a big gauge “wide open” because she knows she bleeds and might need pressure maintained. Her husband was amused she was directing prep for her own delivery. I was really glad she lives in NY and not Texas and was in a secular hospital.
Soprano2
@Kay: A long time ago I worked for a small company that abused that independent contractor thing. They employed people to deliver ad copy and pick up checks from the places they sold ads to (this was pre-internet). They said those people were “independent contractors” for the purposes of paying them, even though those people were clearly employees and had no other job and no way to work for anyone else. In many cases like that it’s nothing but a scam to keep from paying SS and unemployment for an employee.
Soprano2
I wish NPR still had comments on their stories just to have the satisfaction of seeing hundreds of comments on this story with a variation of “Duh, glad you’re just now noticing this”. It drives me crazy when I listen to programs like the weekly news roundup on 1A and the reporters blithely talk about things like the economy without ever acknowledging that they have agency in how they cover it. I swear in 2021 and 2022 NPR did almost a daily story that was a variation on “Inflation, how bad is it and is Biden to blame?”, then they wonder why voters blame Biden for inflation!
Soprano2
@Kay: Wow, that’s exciting! Glad they’re all OK. I’ve always heard that people in healthcare are the worst patients. LOL
Dorothy A. Winsor
I’m looking forward to Trump delivering his own closing argument in the NY fraud trial. I believe it’s tomorrow? I predict he talks about how great and wonderful his business is.
Kay
@Soprano2:
We had a lawyer and former muni court judge do the contractor scam. However, he was caught by the IRS and the local bar then started a case against him so he retired his license ahead of losing his license.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Kay: Glad everyone is doing well. Congrats, Granny!
narya
@Kay: Every single thing about this comment makes me smile. Congrats to you and the rest of your family!!
TBone
@Kay: thank you for that logical and astute response. In the recent past at a different website where I read comments to see what the dunderheads are up to now, there was a posted article about sudden high infant mortality in one state (can’t remember which) and the stupid fucks went straight to “OOGA BOOGA scary vax killing babies!”. I was ban hammered for calling them all schmucks because abortion health care was outlawed in that state just prior to the study and nobody, not a one, made the connection. Another commenter there backed me up and explained how this all works. Again, thank you.
Soprano2
@Kay: It was obvious it was a scam. These people were kind of scammy. The only reason they had an office here was so they could write off all their trips to see the wife’s family in NW Arkansas as business trips. The home office was in Boise, ID.
brendancalling
“Arlo and Janis” is the only legacy comic I read unironically. It’s always funny, often takes a minute to get the joke, and is the only strip that even comes close to an accurate representation of married life (no, the Lockhorns don’t count).
Soprano2
@Dorothy A. Winsor: OMG, I wonder if there will be a recording of it? Probably not. I have my doubts he’ll actually do it, he says he’s going to do a lot of things and then chickens out at the last minute.
Kay
@Soprano2:
She wouldn’t be able to relax until they were prepared as much as she thinks they should be. They have the ordinary IV in your hand for delivery but she wanted a big backup in her arm in case she started bleeding and they had to push something quickly. Some people bleed more than others and she’s one of them. I was way more of a wreck than she was.
bbleh
The media will cover him every day right up to the election because they! can! write! about! him! using! exclamation! points! He’s controversial! He’s provocative! Bold unconventional challenging yada yada yada.
It’s the same thing with Trump. He knows how to get the media fruit-flies stirred up (and make their jobs very easy), and they just can’t help themselves.
Poor Joe. Good-natured, level-headed competence is just not exciting…
Jeffro
That doesn’t mean it’s not a strategy that he’s learned to use over the years (and especially once he got into politics).
He knows it’s especially helpful considering how our media works. He doesn’t have to ‘decide’ to use against Biden in a conscious way or have it go against his instincts in order for it to be a strategy.
TBone
@Kay: so gratifying! Let’s GO Julie Su!
Jackie
@Kay: Congrats! And, dare I say your daughter sounds like a chip off the old block! Lol
Betty Cracker
@Kay: Congrats! And good for your daughter for being an advocate for her own healthcare! 😊
Frankensteinbeck
@Jeffro:
Then we’re having a semantic argument, because the way I would define ‘strategy’ he absolutely would have to. He’s doing what comes naturally rather than something he did because he thought about it. By how I define the word, that’s a crucial distinction in whether it’s a strategy. I strongly suspect everyone else who goes “It’s not a strategy” thinks that’s the difference, and I’m also sure there’s no shortage of folks defining the word your way.
Old School
@Kay: Congrats on having someone new to spoil!
Kay
@Jackie:
Oh, thanks. She’s adorable. The baby is also cute.
I’ve never had the kind of collaborative relationship she has with her OB, where they “discuss” what she neegs/gets but she’s in the hospital where she practices and they all know one another. I was up all night worrying and she must have know because she texted “I’m eating fruit salad and scrolling IG – I’m fine”.
frosty
@TBone: I read it. I can’t bear to read any more of it. This fucking country.
The Thin Black Duke
@brendancalling: I miss For Better, For Worse.
TBone
@frosty: thank you for slogging through, we need everyone to be educated on how this all works and to prepare in advance for battle. Allies unite!
MomSense
Re RFK jr cough steroids cough allegedly cough.
A good friend of a good friend went to hear him speak in Portland and was so impressed by him. She owns a niche shop in Portland and the comments were overwhelmingly WTF. Definitely made me pause.
She’s a Buddhist and supposedly ethically imports goods from India but I find a lot of her white woman style of practicing so cringe.
narya
@Soprano2: Apparently if he does this, he loses counsel (i.e., he’s going pro se, and you have to pick). AND, if he starts to essentially make claims about the case in a way that is introducing evidence, he can be cross-examined, under oath. So, I’m not holding my breath.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay: Congrats MawMaw.
TBone
@OzarkHillbilly: l.o.l.
TBone
First time on prednisolone and I just can’t fathom why anyone would willingly subject themselves to the horror of steroids. Seriously. WTF.
OzarkHillbilly
@TBone: My wife is MawMaw, and I’m Pawpaw. There is also a MeeMaw and a Grammy and… I’m not sure what they call my Ex but pretty sure it’s not what I call her.
lowtechcyclist
@narya:
Neither am I, but I’m still feeling like the dog in the ‘Cat Fud’ Far Side cartoon.
NotMax
Can’t spell ratf*cking without r-f-k.
//
KSinMA
@Kay: Congratulations!
narya
@lowtechcyclist: Hah! Exactly! Andrew Weissman laid it out last night on one of the MSNBC shows I was half-watching. At one point I think TIFG might have thought he could talk himself out of the mess, a la Sam Bankman Fried (and we know how THAT went), but I think he wouldn’t try it now. He is/was so used to dealing with courts in the way that he did when some contractor tried to sue him–it was successful for decades!–but I think some of the seriousness has leaked into the holes in his brain.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@MomSense:
Sounds overly “performative”. Like people who really want you to know that they’re vegan.
True devotion should be expressed with subtlety.
Geminid
Oregon Jackals may be especially interested in an Oregon Public Broadcasting (opb.org) article about Governor Tina Kotek:
It’s a long article, touching on many subjects including Columbia River salmon, policing, land use and a plan for the state’s biggest city:
Tenar Arha
@Kay: 🥰 Congratulations!
trnc
Wait, what? Don’t non-incumbent prez candidates usually win primaries before naming a VP? Or is this rule just for independent candidates?
catclub
I am wondering how I could monetize this. How much would people like you … and me, pay to make comments ( on my pay website!) ripping NPR or the NYT? My guess is actually zero.
catclub
I think it was Curt Flood (in the Baseball series) who said the haters called him everything but a child of God.
lowtechcyclist
@trnc:
RFK Jr. is running as a candidate in the general election, not in any party’s primaries. If he were a candidate for the Dem nomination, not naming a VP wouldn’t be an issue because he’d be running in primaries.
SiubhanDuinne
@Kay:
Congratulations! With a mom like that, the new granddaughter is going to grow up to be another awesome woman.
dmsilev
@trnc: Kennedy isn’t running in any primaries; this is for the general election, where having a specified running mate is normal.
schrodingers_cat
@Jeffro: Avivek has 3 medical doctors in the family. His antivax position is opportunistic.
Tony G
I’m actually glad that this narcissistic freak is the poster boy of the anti-vaxxer movement. If he had any kind of charisma, he’d be more dangerous.
Jager
I have family in Hawaii, they had no idea there were whales in the “Heart of Oahu”,
kindness
I know it’s not in Democrats wheelhouse, but I think shunning all those who worked for Kennedy or Republicans is in order in Biden’s second term. Fuck that forgive and forget shit.
Kay
@SiubhanDuinne:
Thank you. They have me scheduled for a 2 week “help” visit, 2 weeks from now. My job is to distract the older sister- the 3 almost 4 year old. She’s high energy and “physical” like her father so she always wants to be out and about. I’m teaching her to identify trees. She likes the names “redbud” and “dogwood” so that’s what she guesses for all of them. Wait until we get into the oaks and maples!
schrodingers_cat
@MomSense: These are the type of people who come up to random Indian people and say
” Oh you are from India, you must be spiritual.” Do you know XYZ, where XYZ is their favorite Indian Baba. I have to literally stop myself from rolling my eyes and not be rude.
schrodingers_cat
@Kay: Congratulations to you and your daughter.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@schrodingers_cat: Maybe they could use a little rudeness. Adversity and discomfort can be good for one’s spiritual growth.
evodevo
@Kay: lol YEAH…start her out easy with “red oaks” and “white oaks” and generic maple…red oaks are a bitch because the ones around here in northern KY tend to hybridize (indiscriminate sex!!!) and be impossible to classify…Shumard red oak, scarlet oak, pin oak, etc. etc.
NotMax
@evodevo
Wondering if the kiddo can pronounce eucalyptus.
;)
cain
@Kay:
Are these leftists even connected to worker groups at all? I always feel like they live in their own damn bubble.
TBone
@OzarkHillbilly: I live in an area where those terms of endearment are common but it just makes me giggle, can’t help it. Meemaw just sounds funny!
NotMax
@TBone
Sounds like a European police siren.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@cain: Another good example of performative vs substantial approaches to a thing.
Some people don’t seem to care about anything other than what others think of them.
Subsole
@Geminid:
Epoch Times? Isn’t that the Aum Shinrikyo rag?
cain
@Kay: Good for her – my wife’s multiple experiences with healthcare system tells me that women need to be assertive in what they need because they don’t listen to women.
cain
@OzarkHillbilly:
Not ‘ow ow’ I assume? :-)
I’ve called my grandparents something that usually ends with ‘pa’ or ‘ma’ in our culture. The younger grand kids called them AmmaMa and AppaPa which is pretty much the same as MawMaw and PawPaw.
There go two miscreants
@Kay: Congratulations on the new grandaughter!
cain
@Geminid: I just read that! It’s pretty good and Tina has been making good strides if the people on reddit subcommunities /r/oregon and /r/portland are any judge. She’s been reaching out to rural folks which I think is critical.
If we are going to reduce the influence of MAGA in rural areas, we need to do the outreach.
cain
@Kay: “Wait until we get into the oaks and maples!”
Maybe you can tell the story in this song lyric? :-)
https://www.rush.com/songs/the-trees/
“There is unrest in the Forest
There is trouble with the trees
For the Maples want more sunlight
And the Oaks ignore their pleas.”
eclare
@Kay:
Yay! Congratulations!
eclare
@cain:
All you need to know about maternal care in the US is that Serena Williams almost died after drs didn’t listen to her (IIRC about blood clots). If one of the most famous, richest, fiercest women on earth can’t get good care, what chance does anyone else have?
TBone
@NotMax: hahahahahahaha!
TBone
@eclare: grrrrrrrrrrrrrr this is why I open my loud yap everywhere, regardless of comity or decorum. Especially at my female doctor’s office. Her first name is Ayn.
Geminid
@Subsole: I believe Epoch Times is associated with the Chinese Falun Gong movement. They definitely take an anti- Chinese Communist Party line. Very anti-Democratic Party as well.
The paper must be well financed because there is very little advertising and they mail and hand out a lot of free copies.
Jay
@Geminid:
Has she joined the Falon Gung church yet?
Geminid
@Jay: No.
LiminalOwl
@NotMax: Excellent! (TBD adds, “that’s a bumper sticker.”)
Ruckus
Is it me, or is the Kennedy Scion’s head starting to develop the same weird angles as Roger Stone’s?
At first sight I thought that was Roger Stone’s infant child….
It’s possible his derangement and the direction he’s seemingly going sent me there…
Ruckus
@Kay:
My entire life (going on 75 yrs) rethuglicans have tried to basically kill off everyone who does not agree with them. They want a world that doesn’t and shouldn’t exist, they want hell on earth. Especially for everyone that isn’t them. They “think” their world will be purer. Not better in any way just far more pure. They think that anyone that doesn’t agree with them has been sent by the devil to ruin the planet. I didn’t say it made any sense. They want a country/world like the nazi Germany or Russia was/is. It has to be controlled because of all the demons in and around humanity. Their religion is centuries old, when the world’s knowledge was the bible and everything they didn’t know could be explained by the guiding light.
This isn’t that world – and never really was. They need to be afraid, they need to be ill informed followers because otherwise they actually have to think, to learn, to observe, and the world they think is everywhere scares them because they think they may end up in hell for not being perfect, believing, following drones. The world is passing them by because they only believe in regression to a “better” time, when the world was as simple as they are.
Paul in KY
@RevRick: The 3rd party candidate would have to get the 275 or whatever electoral votes to have a chance. Else it goes to the House and either a Dem or GQPer gets selected.
Paul in KY
@Kay: Congrats, Kay! Yay for your daughter & her family!
Paul in KY
@Soprano2: ‘The U.S. economy is booming according to the data, but not according to public opinion. What part does the media play in the disparity?’
Answer: A fuckton.
rikyrah
@Kay:
But, we already know that the GOP is coming for BIRTH CONTROL. …Unca Clarence told us They’ve told us that they will.
Lyrebird
@rikyrah:
Srsly.
Trying to eliminate no-fault divorce and take away birth control. They just seem to hate everyone, especially women-type everyone, but everyone who’s not in their cult.
rikyrah
@Kay:
Congratulations, Kay :)
rikyrah
@Kay:
It’s so true. Joe Biden is the most liberal President of generations.
And, those on the left, Imma say it again…
They have always been jealous of the right-wing grift machine. They have always wanted one on the left.
It’s one of the reasons why they hate Biden – he dried up what grift they did have with his election and his competence.
rikyrah
@Soprano2:
That’s why we need to keep the Senate and re-elect Dark Brandon.
rikyrah
@OzarkHillbilly:
Completely nailed it, Ozark
rikyrah
@trnc:
I guess this is because he’s not running in a primary. So, the first time people would see him would be on the November ballot, and on that ballot, the Presidential and Vice-Presidential candidates are listed.
Manyakitty
@Kay: mazel tov and congratulations 🎉👏!
Chris T.
@TBone:
Well, now, it’s a bit complicated.
Prednisone / prednisolone (closely related) are “corticosteroids”, which are hugely different from “anabolic steroids”. For some detail on this, see https://www.verywellhealth.com/anabolic-steroids-corticosteroids-difference-190456.
Prednisolone is what you get when you take prednisone: your body turns the one without the extra “ol” into the one with the “ol”. Taking this as a pill has “systemic effects” such as not being able to sleep. You can also get glucocorticoids injected directly into a joint, where they can relieve a lot of pain but still have some bad side effects, just not as many as the systemic ones.
In any case, what Stone allegedly takes is human growth hormone (hGH). This isn’t a steroid; it’s the hormone that makes children become fully grown adults. If you don’t have enough, you become a tiny adult. Some people claim that supplemental hGH keeps adults healthy but in fact it has its own bad side effects, such as acromegaly. As with overloading on anabolic steroids, these bad-side-effects are, well, bad.