Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

Fani Willis claps back at Trump chihuahua, Jim Jordan.

Dear media: perhaps we ought to let Donald Trump speak for himself!

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

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

One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

I desperately hope that, yet again, I am wrong.

Republicans would impeach Biden if he bit into a whole Kit Kat rather than breaking the sections apart.

The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.

If you’re looking for someone who’s young and athletic, go watch a fucking movie.

“Why isn’t this Snickers bar only a nickel?”

‘Museums aren’t America’s attic for its racist shit.’

We know you aren’t a Democrat but since you seem confused let me help you.

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

You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Saturday Morning Open Thread: The Mother’s Milk of Politics

Saturday Morning Open Thread: The Mother’s Milk of Politics

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Meanwhile…




Some people just don’t know how to handle their money!

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249Comments

  2. 2.

    Baud

    RNC: Spends $86k on ”get out the vote” texting DNC: Spends $1.67 million on ”get out the vote” texting

    This maybe is not something we want to highlight.

  3. 3.

    OzarkHillbilly

    That jobs report is rigged.

    eta:

    DNC: Spends $1.67 million on ”get out the vote” texting

    Now I know who to blame for the incessant texts i can’t even f’n open.

  4. 4.

    Geminid

    In 2020, Joe Biden’s campaign did not reach fundraising parity with Trump’s until a few weeks before Labor Day. The 2024 campaigns are very different in this respect. Biden does not have to play catch-up this time.

  6. 6.

    Geminid

    @Baud: I like how the Biden campaign is going after North Carolina. They intend to win those 15 Electoral votes and I think they will.

  7. 7.

    OzarkHillbilly

    𖤐 zach from minnesota 𖤐@Zachsamaphone
    Gotta give credit where it’s due:

    This bill solidified a good 3-5 years of work 20 minutes from home for me, and my fellow union brothers and sisters.

    As a Duluth resident- thank you.

    When I was still working I’d have given my left nut to have a short commute like that for 3-5 years.

  8. 8.

    lowtechcyclist

    The U.S. economy added 353,000 jobs in January, continuing its gradual slowdown

    WTF, WaPo?! Adding 353K jobs is a kick-ass month!

    OTOH, I love the downcast looks on all the Fox News people when they hear the news. Shows exactly whose side they’re on, and it’s not the side of the American people.

  9. 9.

    ColoradoGuy

    Who’da thunk it? Keynesian stimulus works, just as it did ninety years ago. Unlike the 2009 stimulus, it has to be large enough to give a good shove to a multi-trillion economy. Best of all, infrastructure, not tax cuts.

    Compare to the disaster of Tory Austerity in the UK and an entire nation immiserated, which I suspect was the goal of the Tories all along.

  13. 13.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Geminid:

    Those Fox News analysts could be worried about being laid off after this election.

    Lucky for them, there are plenty of other jobs out there!

    Of course, those jobs might require that they do productive work, which would be quite an adjustment for them. (Cue up the world’s smallest violin!)

  21. 21.

    Jeffro

    @Baud:

    The folks in Superior, Wisconsin are the real deal.

    You might even say they are superior.

    Nickel bet that there’s a local store there somewhere selling t-shirts with…yup…”Ask me about my Superior-ity Complex” printed on them.

  22. 22.

    Nukular Biskits

    @NotMax:

    Just made ATL.

    Sucked I had to fly out on what appeared to be the nicest day of my stay.

    This was my first trip back to Oahu in maybe 10 years. Don’t remember seeing this much rainy weather on past trips.

  23. 23.

    NotMax

    @Baud

    Well, they’re no Lake Wobegone, “where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average.”
    ;)

  25. 25.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Baud: I hope they track Taylor’s flight like they do Santa Clause.

    HA! Dawg I hope they do! It would make quite the mess with all the exploding MAGA heads but that’s what fire hoses are for.

  26. 26.

    Jeffro

    The Post has up a really interesting piece about cork this morning.  I had no idea it was so useful, able to be harvested over and over, etc.

    …cork is more than a trendy green material. In addition to jobs, the forests where it grows provide food and shelter for animals, all while sequestering carbon dioxide. And unlike most trees grown commercially, cork oaks are never cut down, meaning their carbon storage capacity continues through the 200 years or more they live.

    The process of harvesting cork takes precision and years of practice. The stroke of the ax must be strong, but also delicate to avoid hitting the inner bark and damaging the tree. Because it is so specialized, it’s one of the best paying agricultural jobs in Portugal.

    The bark can only be harvested between late May and August, when the tree is in its active phase of growth, which makes it easier to strip the outer layer without damaging the tree trunk.

    The cork oak is unique in its ability to regenerate its bark. Once it is removed, workers write the last number of that year with white paint on the exposed golden brown trunk — a three means it was harvested in 2023. The bark will slowly grow back and be ready for another harvest after nine years.

    Paula Salgueira, who has been working in the cork harvest in Coruche for 35 years, extends her hand to touch an oak that was just stripped. “It’s cold,” she says as she caresses the smooth denuded trunk. While axmen work in pairs removing the cork, Salgueira and a few other women gather the planks in piles for transportation.

    The planks will then be stacked outdoors in storage areas exposed to air and sunlight. After six months of aging to remove moisture, they will be sorted according to their thickness and quality, then boiled to clean impurities and make the material softer and easier to handle.

    They even use it at NASA, to insulate fuel tanks(!)

    Very cool.

  27. 27.

    OzarkHillbilly

    That trump guy is all class:

    Roberta Kaplan shared the anecdote during an appearance Friday on the George Conway Explains It All podcast, saying it happened while Trump was deposed at his Mar-a-Lago resort as part of an unrelated, since-dismissed case in which he faced accusations of collaborating with a fraudulent marketing company.

    As Kaplan told it, at the end of the questioning, Trump’s attorneys ensured the two sides were no longer on the record before he looked at her and remarked: “See you next Tuesday.”

    The phrase is well-known, thinly veiled code for perhaps the most offensive misogynistic insult that can be directed at a woman, combining words that sound like the first two letters of the word – “C” and “U” – along with words that start with the letters “N” and “T”.

    Kaplan told Conway that she initially didn’t understand the meaning of what Trump said because the opposing sides weren’t scheduled to meet that upcoming Tuesday. “I, thank God, had no idea what that meant, so I said to him, ‘What are you talking about? I’m coming back on Wednesday,’” Kaplan remarked. “Literally, it was an honest answer. I had no idea what he’s talking about.”

    Colleagues of Kaplan informed her what Trump had meant by saying “see you next Tuesday” once they were all in their car driving away from Trump’s property, she said.

    I need to up my misogyny game, I’d never heard that before either. Of course, his cult will love it.

  28. 28.

    Nukular Biskits

    @NotMax:

    January and February are traditionally the heart of rainy season.

    It’s possible (probable?) that none of my previous 6 or so trips were ever during this time of year.

    I had really talked up North Shore to some of the sailors I was working with (food trucks, beaches, snorkeling, etc) and took several of them with me up there yesterday.

    They had never been to Hawaii before. Still, even with the crappy weather, I think they had a good time.

    My next trip out I’ll have to island hop over to your island. Maybe have a  BJ “proof of life” meetup.

  29. 29.

    Jobeth

    @Jeffro: I bought a cork wallet in Lisbon years ago – it’s still holding up and looks great. I was amazed at the merchandise in the cork store.

  30. 30.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Jeffro: Cork is amazing stuff. I drink only wine these days and I save all the corks for a few projects I have ideas for. (no screw top bottles for me! No wine in a box either!)

  32. 32.

    NotMax

    @Nukular Biskits

    Haven’t been over to Oahu for more than a quarter century. The North Shore then couldn’t be more different from Honolulu’s sprawl.

    This season’s rains on Maui have been particularly protracted, socking us in for 4 or 5 days at time rather than 1 or 2.

  36. 36.

    Nukular Biskits

    @NotMax:

    There was a state park somewhere on the upper north before you come back around the east side that I used to go to. Secluded, no tourists. Can’t remember the name. Didn’t have time on this trip, but things may have changed.

  41. 41.

    New Deal democrat

    @lowtechcyclist: In re “continuing its gradual slowdown,”  I suspect that headline was written and all teed up before the report was released.

    Because not only was the January number good, but the last few months were also revised substantially higher, suggesting the relative slowdown in jobs growth may have leveled off in autumn.

  42. 42.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Los Angeles police arrested two people this week in connection with a spate of graffiti on nearly 30 floors of an unoccupied and unfinished downtown skyscraper.

    The tagging stretches across a large portion of a tower in the $1bn Oceanwide Plaza, a stalled mixed-use retail and residential project that has sat unfinished since 2019. The site is located just across from the Crypto.com Arena, where this year’s Grammy awards will be held on Sunday.
    …………………..
    “I could see people up on the balcony were tagging and everything,” Daron Burgundy, a street photographer, told KTLA. “Last night there was a crew on one of the floors and people were coming out and getting detained by LAPD and getting cited and released. People were still in there tagging while the cops were down here.”

    The Los Angeles police department said in a statement that its air support division spotted more than a dozen people trespassing in the building after midnight on 30 January and “possibly spray-painting”. The group fled by the time officers reached the area, except for two people who police arrested on a trespassing charge.

    Days later officers responded to a vandalism call for people reportedly spray-painting on the building’s 30th floor. They fled when law enforcement arrived. That call ultimately resulted in a traffic citation.

    That’s some top of the line crime fighting there. And just FTR:

    But by 2019, construction had come to a stop after the project’s Beijing-based developer ran out of funding to finish it.

  44. 44.

    NotMax

    @NotMax

    The Kirkland French vodka* comes with a twist off cork stopper. Most user unfriendly, albeit attractive, bottle ever so I decant it into an emptied bottle of another brand.

    *the good stuff. Their American vodka, IMHO, only good for when one needs to strip chrome off a bumper or similar projects.

  45. 45.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @NotMax: I buy cheap wine (having the palate of a buzzard, why bother with the expensive stuff?) so I know the day will come.

  47. 47.

    NotMax

    @OzarkHillbilly

    The wine I mentioned above is $7.99 (up a buck from previous years). Tastes and drinks like a bottle four times the price. Allowing it to breathe once opened ups it from A level to A+.

  52. 52.

    PAM Dirac

    @NotMax: A lot of quality wineries are going to screw tops. For any wine that is is going to be drunk within 3-4 years of bottling, screw tops make much more sense than corks. Corks can get infected and create off flavors so except for the age worthy reds, corks aren’t worth the risk. There still is a perception of quality problem, but that is fading.

  55. 55.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Nukular Biskits: Uck! Sweet wine, double yuck! $25 bucks for 750 mL??? I have no where near enough disposable income to pay that! Just yesterday I bought 3 1-1/2 Litre bottles of Hillbilly Heaven for $10 a pop.​

  56. 56.

    p.a.

    Cork wallets available online, Amazon of course, from abt $20 to $200.  My dead cow wallet still in good shape, but next time…

  59. 59.

    What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?

    @Jeffro: My parents had a cork floor put in their kitchen more than a decade ago. It’s holding up great – it doesn’t really show dirt thanks to the highly mottled nature of the material and is soft and warm under foot. So far water damage doesn’t seem to be an issue.

    We have a basement space we’re refinishing and I really wanted to put in a cork floor but the space has had some water seepage in one corner – there’s a sump pump there now that seems to have fixed the issue – so to be on the safe side we went with ceramic tile. We had carpet and some asbestos containing tiles removed when we discovered the water intrusion issue so we had a bare concrete floor and ceramic being waterproof seemed like the best material.

    I’m trying to find a place to put cork in but just because it’s a great material.

  61. 61.

    PAM Dirac

    @NotMax: Yes there have been all kinds of synthetic alternatives that have never made any sense to me. I guess they lower the risk of infection, but they mainly seem to exist to avoid the perception that screw caps mean cheap wine. I guess they do let you keep the pop! when opening a wine. Sometimes my wife makes a waiter make the sound when opening a screw capped wine that we have ordered :-)

  64. 64.

    Nukular Biskits

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    On a recent vacation up in TN, bought a few bottles after sampling.

    Definitely more a dessert wine, to be sure.

    Also bought enough moonshine (legal,of course) to fuel a fleet of vehicles.

  65. 65.

    PAM Dirac

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Now you owe Neanderthals everywhere an apology.

    I think a lot of the DNA genealogy companies now calculate how much Neanderthal DNA you have. I haven’t seen anyway boasting about that yet.

  66. 66.

    Princess

    @OzarkHillbilly: It’s so infantile. He’s such a wuss. He wants to call her a cunt but he’s too scared to say the word out loud so he uses some cutesy phrase. They want this guy to negotiate with China? Give me a break.

  69. 69.

    Another Scott

    On the NPR news update yesterday morning, they mentioned the big jobs number and the stock market (DJIA) was down about 30 points or so. No matter the good news, the stock trading algorithms assume that it means bad news ahead – OMG, the Fed won’t cut interest rates as fast as we want!!1. It’s terrible!!11

    Of course, the S&P500 is at or near a record high, and is up about 20% in the last 12 months…

    Grr…,
    Scott.

  70. 70.

    Tony G

    @OzarkHillbilly: That’s a 13 hour flight and a 14 hour time difference.  I hope that she can take a nap on the plane!  Honestly, until recently I’ve no opinion about Taylor Swift.  I’m not her target audience.  She seems to be a nice enough young woman.  But I love the fact that the right-wing idiots are freaking out about her — showing the world how weird and insane they are.

  72. 72.

    Nukular Biskits

    @NotMax:

    Speaking of spirits and the like, one of the places I took “the kids” (I’m old enough to call them that) yesterday was the Dole Plantation tourist trap on way back from North Shore.

    Yeah, it’s cheesy but it’s kind of fun to walk around and gawk at the overpriced merch. Kinda like a stateside Buc Ees.

    Anyway, one of the vendors was offering samples of some brand of rum.  Bizarrely (for me, anyway),I really liked the grapefruit rum.

    No, I didn’t buy any and I didn’t want to ask the price.

  76. 76.

    Elizabelle

    @NotMax:  Hey there.  Which wine from Costco are you recommending?

    Lucky you that Hawaii sells spirits at Costco.  In Virginia, we have wine, beer and hard cider in groceries; anything harder, you have to buy at a state ABC (Alcoholic Beverage Control) store.

  77. 77.

    Elizabelle

    @OzarkHillbilly: @Baud:

    I love that the Japanese Embassy embedded several of her song titles (and an album) in their statement.  Good on them.

    And it is funny that rightwingers are seeing Red.

  81. 81.

    Geminid

    There does not seem to be a lot of fallout yet from last night’s US airstikes. Iran said the US had “made a serious strategic mistake” and seperately announced that 18 fighters and civilians had been killed. That’snot that many considering the US says it hit 85 targets with 125 munitions, but reports are that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and there allies had evacuated many of the targets.

    Anyway, I don’t think we were going after fighters so much as trying to blow up as many weapons and bunkers as we could; sending two messages: that we can hit harder, and that we’ll avoid a wider conflict if we can.

    Reports are that Jordanian F-16s joined in some of the airstrikes.

  83. 83.

    Another Scott

    @Baud: Sure, but it’s the vibes thing from the newsreaders.  And the first trading trend numbers in the morning are often different from the way the day ends.  But they can set the mood.

    [eta] And they should report percentage changes, not “points” anyway.

    Just another thing for me to grumble about.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  85. 85.

    Elizabelle

    X link.  Some good marketing.

    Mini Doodle Winnie is here with a hot fashion tip – always match your sweater to your sparkling! 

    Winnie knows.

    All this talk of the pleasures of alcohol, and it’s coffee o’clock here on the East Coast.

  86. 86.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Nukular Biskits: I’ve got a few “Moonshine around the campfire” stories. One involved some friends getting carried away with chugging on the jar and me leaping over the fire to take it away from them. then half carrying them back to my fire, cooking up a bunch of their veggie burgers, etc, forcing them to eat it all, and then tucking them into their tent.

    The next morning M crawled out of their tent.
    I said, “Good Morning Sunshine!”
    M puked in reply.

    When she had finally finished with the dry heaves that followed, she gasped out, “I think L is dead.”

    So I crawled into their piss soaked tent to ensure that her wife was OK. Several minutes of shaking her and asking questions were met with only the sound of her breathing.

    Finally I said, “L? I’m gonna take off your pissy clothes and put something dry on you.”

    She shot straight up and said most emphatically, “NO!”

    I crawled out of the tent and told M, “She’ll live.”

  87. 87.

    beckya57

    I think the DNC has spent most of that texting money on me!  Seriously, I think the DNC and ActBlue need to rethink their approach.  I’m angry every time I get texted, and I never contribute and put stops on all of them.  I exclusively contribute via BJ, because you guys fund groups on the ground who know the local territory.  The ActBlue strategy punishes the party’s best supporters with endless texts, and is inefficient because hopeless candidates in high-profile races get a lot of the money (eg McGrath and Harrison in 2020).  I think BJ’s approach, building from the ground up, makes a lot more sense.

  89. 89.

    Nukular Biskits

    @Geminid:

    My senior US Senator, Roger Wicker, has been demanding a “strong response” against Iran for the past week (without, of course, defining what “strong” actually meant).

    Now that POTUS has ordered striking Iranian-allied interests, Wicker is whining it wasn’t enough, was too late, and didn’t involve military action against Iran proper.

    Fucking warmonger.

  93. 93.

    MagdaInBlack

    @OzarkHillbilly:  Chugging it!!  Dear lord !

    My one experience with “moonshine” i could not get it past my nose.  Dipped a finger in, tasted it..NO tyvm I’ll pass.

  94. 94.

    Kay

    Jonathan Allen
    @jonallendc
    NEW: Trump’s campaign and superPAC spent more than they raised in latest federal disclosures — the MAGA Inc. superPAC because it transferred $30M to Save America, the main vehicle for Trump’s legal fees.

    This comes out right after a spate of articles about how Trump’s campaign team are experienced professionals and not clowns.
    But then, a person of ordinary intelligence could tell the glowing articles about Trump’s campaign were planted by Trump’s campaign, probably in anticipation of federal disclosures being released.

  95. 95.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Jeffro: Not to be overlooked is the fact that the industry provides productive employment for a whole bunch of corkstockers out there…;^p

  96. 96.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Elizabelle: ​ I can always tell when I am driving into a dry county from a wet county in AR. There are always 2 or 3 liquor stores at the county line.

  97. 97.

    Nukular Biskits

    @MagdaInBlack:

    Some of the moonshine we brought back from TN is actually pretty good. One jar is nothing but tangerines in moonshine.

    One flavor, however, called “Blue Flame”, definitely is deserving of its name. IIRC, 180 proof.

  101. 101.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @OzarkHillbilly: ​Then there’s W.C. Fields’ infamous (though probably aprocryphal) off-camera line:

    Water?!?! Never touch the stuff! Don’t you know fish fuck in it?!?!

  103. 103.

    Geminid

    @Nukular Biskits: I think Wicker will be on the wrong side of public opinion in this matter. That is, if Biden succeeds in keeping the war in Gaza from becoming a wider conflict. Very few Americans think the US needs to fight it out with Iran right now.

    Fortunately, it seems like very few Iranian leaders think that now is a good time to fight it out with the US either.

  104. 104.

    Kay

    Feb 1 (Reuters) – A tight, disciplined inner of circle of fiercely loyal aides have helped propel former President Donald Trump to the forefront of the Republican Party’s White House contest, putting him on the verge of securing the nomination.

    It goes on to parrot their linked in profiles and came from “a source inside the campaign” – the “source” apparently called all of them with the same bullshit.
    Trump doesn’t even pay them for this- they do it free.

  105. 105.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    For me: I am concerned how Biden is going to win back the three armed black man vote.

  106. 106.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @OzarkHillbilly: But by 2019, construction had come to a stop after the project’s Beijing-based developer ran out of funding to finish it.​

    Another Chinese specialty export: Ghost Cities of SoCal!

  107. 107.

    NotMax

    @Nukular Biskits

    At one time we used to cut a hole in the narrow end of a watermelon, upend a bottle of vodka therein, and prop it up inside a walk-in fridge.

    When the flesh of the fruit was a pale, pale pink to completely white, it was ready.

  108. 108.

    Mousebumples

    @Kay: I vaguely recall some reporting that the GOP pledged to cover (some of?) Trump’s legal fees, and he wouldn’t try a 3rd party run.

    I get why the GOP did that- they don’t have enough support without Trump’s crazy MAGAhats, but with how his legal bills are piling up …

    Couldn’t happen to a more worthy group of people.

  110. 110.

    Nukular Biskits

    @Geminid:

    Wicker has been beating the war drums for months.

    Not just against Iran, but China as well.

    Oddly, he isn’t complaining about the threat Russia poses to world peace.

  111. 111.

    Mousebumples

    @NotMax: you’ll have to remind me about that Kirkland wine again when it’s available this fall. I’ll try to remember, but lol, I’ll likely forget by then…

  112. 112.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Nukular Biskits: ​Yeah, you gotta be careful with shine. A little can be way too much. Just sip it and pass it on.
    @MagdaInBlack: I’ve had some bad shine, (I mean really bad, like burn off your taste buds and everything else on the way down.) and I’ve had some really good shine, so good one could almost sell it in high end liquor stores. That night, was some of the best I’d ever imbibed in. The girls were total innocents when it came to shine. Literally, babes in the woods.​

  113. 113.

    Nukular Biskits

    @NotMax:

    Ref watermelon & vodka.

    Omg, haven’t thought about that in probably 40 years.  And, yes, that brings back both good and bad memories!

  118. 118.

    Elizabelle

    LOL.  The blogpost title has “Mother’s Milk” and this thread is already 80 proof and it’s not even 9 am yet, Eastern.

    I blame NotMax!

  119. 119.

    Kay

    Here’s Bloomberg with the exact same glowing story about Trump’s “disciplined” campaign team, also released just ahead of embarrassing campaign finance disclosures.

    The Trump people just call a bunch of reporters and the reporters write down whatever they say and print it – no thought applied, no value-add at all.

    The NYTimes also did the exact same story at the same time, but that almost goes without saying at this point- of course America’s Trumpiest recipe, word puzzle and wedding announcement newspaper printed a Trump advertisement.

  120. 120.

    Nukular Biskits

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Yeah, you gotta be careful with shine. A little can be way too much. Just sip it and pass it on

    At the “shine store”, $20 got you 9 tastes. At the advice of staff, most of the samples you sniffed, tasted, etc,like you’d do when evaluating other fine (?) spirits & wines.

    Blue Flame, however, we were strongly advised to toss back without such snobbery.

    And it burned the entire way down.

  126. 126.

    Jeffro

    @PAM Dirac:A lot of quality wineries are going to screw tops…there still is a perception of quality problem, but that is fading.

    There’s a similar thing going on with ‘craft’ beers.  Lots of our local-area breweries put out their product in cans now (have for a few years, actually).  I am guessing that it’s cheaper for them.  It does keep the beer from getting skunked, too.

  127. 127.

    Elizabelle

    @OzarkHillbilly:   LOL.  Time to make the coffee.

    Good point about county line liquor stores.  Would see that in the Carolinas.  I remember when South Carolina would only serve out of airline sized bottles and no alcohol on Sundays.  The restauranteurs got that law changed.

  129. 129.

    Nukular Biskits

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    There was probably about 8 of us at that particular tasting.

    I’m not sure if the, uh, “sommelier” did that for shock value or what.

    You DEFINITELY want to “cut” that stuff with something else.

  131. 131.

    sab

    @OzarkHillbilly: I wore out my last flip phone’s clear button during 2020 election. That phone was only two and a half years old. The previous one lasted ten years.

    Texting STOP back mostly works.

  133. 133.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: Susie Wiles is an accomplished operative for Evil, Inc. IIRC, she was the genius behind scheduling Ronald Reagan’s appearance in Philadelphia, MS, which secured the Klan vote in 1980. More recently she helped put DeSantis over the top in 2018 before they had a falling out. But the present effort is selling the cult leader to the cult, which isn’t much of a challenge. Maybe she was in it as a “fuck you” to Meatball.

  134. 134.

    Jeffro

    @Kay: not just ‘efficient’ but ‘ruthlessly efficient’, that trump campaign!  It’s carnival barkers and hype men, all the way down LOL

  135. 135.

    Geminid

    @Jeffro: My friend Debbie gets beer in quart(?) cans from brewery down by the Woolen Mills in Charlottesville. It’s in a small commercial complex with a beekeeping supply store and a couple other new businesses. Debbie says the guys running the brewery are Army veterans. They make good beer.

  136. 136.

    Scout211

    @Jeffro: Mr. Scout planted two cork oak trees on our property but he forgot which ones he planted and where.

    I was worried that there was something wrong with a couple of oak trees on our property a few weeks ago because the bark looked so weirdly different than all the other oak trees on the property (mostly blue oak). But then I realized they were the cork oak trees that he planted years ago.  We won’t be stripping them, though.

    We do have a Mediterranean climate here in NorCal and Portugal has the most cork oak trees in the world so I think they will be fine.  But the bark is very strange looking.

  137. 137.

    Ken

    My, those spreadsheets are ripe for snark, aren’t they? Take “media booking consultants”, which I assume from the name are people who advise you how to get the candidate on the news programs. I guess they’re not needed if you have a candidate that the news programs want to have?

    (Though more likely, that line and “management consultants” are concealing some sort of grift, like a committee member arranging a little sinecure for a relative.)

  139. 139.

    Ken

    @Kay: It goes on to parrot their linked in profiles

    Always a good sign when the staff is distributing their résumés.

  140. 140.

    Jeffro

    @Betty Cracker: But the present effort is selling the cult leader to the cult, which isn’t much of a challenge.

    Truth.  The cult already looks past the orange makeup, hair spray, girdle, and ill-fitting suits and sees the manliest of manly men.  And they hang on every whine he can babble at them.

    Even the harder part of Wiles’ duties – browbeating elected Rs to fall in line – isn’t all that hard.  They want to do it anyway, most of them.  They’re just looking for an easy out.

    “Help me rationalize supporting this corrupt creature, Susie!”  I bet she offers them their choice of excuses.

  143. 143.

    Jeffro

    @Geminid: I had to Google ‘Woolen Mills’ – been here 4+ years and had never heard that term before.  =)

    I think I’ve been to that brewery once or twice and yes, they have flags/banners for every branch of the service hung up in there.  Good gathering place!

  145. 145.

    prostratedragon

    @Jeffro:  Wow. Took me a moment to process that the cork is harvested wothout also taking the tree — not cut the inner bark, wha? Very interesting, thanks!

  146. 146.

    Kay

    @Jeffro:

    The ruthlessly efficient Trump team got only 50% of GOP voters to back the man who is effectively the incumbent and the indisputable and authoritarian Party leader.

    50% isn’t good. It doesn’t matter how many times political media say it’s good, Trump should have done better than 50%. It should have been 70. I expected 70.

  149. 149.

    Subsole

    @Geminid:

    Absolutely. Conservatism in 9ts modern form exists purely to make life cheap, so your boss doesn’t have to pay you fairly for your time.

    Voting Republican makes your time less valuable. And very often leaves you less of it to spend.

  150. 150.

    Kay

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    I just hope Biden understands a wider war – or the perception of a wider war- means he will lose in 2024. This is exactly what the people protesting the US policy on I/P said would happen. This is not popular. The public does not want the US embroiled in this any more than they already are.

  152. 152.

    Geminid

    @Jeffro: Yeah, selling Trump to the cult and whipping Republican politicians into line are easy work for Susie Wiles. Her biggest challenge by far is influencing her candidate and keeping his confidence. An extended primary campaign could put Wiles’ skills in this area to the test.

  153. 153.

    Scout211

    Update on the backbiting in the RNC.

    LAS VEGAS, Nevada (AP) — Facing a cash crunch and harsh criticism from a faction of far-right conservatives, Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel on Friday called for the party to unite behind the goal of defeating President Joe Biden.

    . . .

    But there’s long been tension between the party establishment and some people who consider themselves Trump’s strongest supporters.

    McDaniel faced a week of withering attacks launched by far-right figures spearheaded by the group Turning Point, a glitzy and well-funded organization founded by 30-year-old media figure Charlie Kirk, who was part of an unsuccessful effort to oust McDaniel last year.

    Days before the party’s winter meeting convened, Turning Point hosted a counterprograming event and training session at a casino across Las Vegas Boulevard dubbed “Restoring National Confidence,” a play on the RNC’s initials. The invite-only event drew nearly 400 attendees aligned with the group, including some RNC members, as well as state and local Republican Party chairs.

    Kirk, who hosts a popular radio show, is part of a faction of conservatives who’ve openly stoked a feud with the RNC, which they have blasted for spending lavishly and being out of touch with the party’s grassroots base. That, they argue, led to losses in 2018 and 2020 as well as underwhelming results in 2022.

    Kirk vs. McDaniel in the main event. Rooting for injuries.

  156. 156.

    NotMax

    @prostratedragon

    At summer camp we used to take the kiddies into the woods with a counselor wielding a linoleum knife in order to cut and strip a rectangle of bark from paper birch trees. Which the kids would proceed to weight down and press flat as a crafts project in order to serve as postcards to send home.

    So long as didn’t completely strip the bark off more than about 50% of the entire diameter of a tree it would recover for the next year.

  157. 157.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @OzarkHillbilly: It’s a stupid misogynist joke that goes back to the mid-90’s, at least.  And the Republican Party is so damn immature that of course they used it for Citizens United to aim it at Hillary.  Which, when you think about it, kinda speaks volumes about this Country and the GOP.

  158. 158.

    Jeffro

    @Kay: 50% isn’t good. It doesn’t matter how many times political media say it’s good, Trump should have done better than 50%. It should have been 70. I expected 70.

    Yup.  He’s running as a (re)incumbent.  (No wonder Haley’s catching so much flak…no wonder team trumpov is so panicky about wrapping this up early!)

    I think I’ve seen a few times now that some 30% of GOP voters won’t back trumpov if/when he’s actually convicted of one of his many crimes.  They’ll switch to Biden, go 3rd party, or skip that ballot line.  That’s huge.

  160. 160.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Kay:

    I like how it took a “tight. disciplined circle of aides” to “help propel Trump to the forefront” of the GOP nomination contest which everyone has been assuming for months was his for the taking.

    Really the only thing that’s changed in the past year was DeSantis’ implosion, and DeSantis ably handled that part all by himself.

  161. 161.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @NotMax:

    At summer camp we used to take the kiddies into the woods with a counselor wielding a linoleum knife…

    For a minute I thought this was heading into 70’s/80’s horror movie territory, lol

  164. 164.

    Brachiator

    @Kay:

    50% isn’t good. It doesn’t matter how many times political media say it’s good, Trump should have done better than 50%. It should have been 70. I expected 70.

    Who cares what happens in the GOP primary? And “should have done better” is irrelevant. If Trump wraps up the nomination with 50 percent plus 1 vote, he will still declare it a mandate from heaven.

    I suppose it might be of some interest if he manages to stop all further primaries and have himself declared the nominee by acclamation.

    But this is still nothing more than the ridiculous Republican clown show.

    Democrats still have to get out the vote and ground Trump into the dust.

  166. 166.

    sab

    @Elizabelle: My grandparents rerired to a dry county in NC. When the county went wet they continued using their same old boootlegger because he delivered.

  169. 169.

    Brachiator

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    That trump guy is all class

    I had heard something about this, but didn’t know the details.

    Trump is like a sullen child.

    It’s sad that his base and the GOP leadership keep propping him up.

  170. 170.

    NotMax

    @sab

    Plus it’s the weekend, a time when we can loosen out belts, untuck our shirts and kick off the shoes, so to speak.
    ;)

  172. 172.

    Captain C

    @p.a.:

    Ah but if next month it’s only 317,000: “Biden economy collapses!”

    “Unlike the booming job engine under Trump, in which the economy finished with 3 million less[sic] jobs at the end of his term, the Biden economy is positively anemic, with only 317,000 jobs gained this month…what’s that?  Some of our viewers know how to do basic math?  Oh, shit…”

  177. 177.

    Brachiator

    @lowtechcyclist:

    OTOH, I love the downcast looks on all the Fox News people when they hear the news. Shows exactly whose side they’re on, and it’s not the side of the American people.

    Yep. Also, the Fox News host says that she expected an uptick in unemployment. They were praying for bad news.

    I wonder how the panel used their right wing pundit power to downplay the good news.

  178. 178.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @sab: My Joliet grandfather was a bootlegger. He delivered too. One night right after Xmas he used my father’s brand new sled to haul the hootch over the ice and snow covered roads. He lost his balance and fell, letting go of the sled. Then he watched as it slid down the very long hill veering neither left nor right and disappeared into the darkness.

    “Ahhh, fuck it.” was all he said.

    Or so the story went.

  184. 184.

    Brachiator

    @NotMax:

    Fix’d: that she those who sign her paycheck. expected an uptick in unemployment.

    The Fox News hosts are happy to go along with their employer’s agenda. They aren’t chained up in the Green Room in between news segments.

  185. 185.

    Subsole

     

     

    @OzarkHillbilly: My one encounter with shine was some Jakeleg Special going around at a party.

    Never again.

    I don’t doubt there’s good stuff, but it seems like it wouldn’t take much of the bad to kill you.

  186. 186.

    UncleEbeneezer

    Charles Pierce on the Fear/Anger that permeates our political landscape:

    Republican state legislators reported more increases in the volume of abuse than did Democrats. As their leaders have at times failed to condemn violence and violent rhetoric, state and local Republican officeholders have experienced abuse from within their own party for refusing to back extreme positions.

    So, basically, and unsurprisingly, the increase in threats and abuse are bipartisan, but most of it is coming from the same sources. Democrats are being abused because they’re Democrats, and Republicans are being abused for not abusing Democrats constantly, nor harshly enough. The fear is nonpartisan, and it is free-floating, and it seeks targets for its own implacable reasons. Like Joyce’s snow, the fear is general, all over the country.

  190. 190.

    Albatrossity

    Late to the party, but IMHO the striking thing about that comparison between RNC and DNC spending is “Office supplies”. Nearly $300K for the RNC and $45K for the DNC. Sounds like the RNC is buying from one of Trump’s companies :-)

  191. 191.

    Princess

    @Kay: I think Susie Wiles did well against de Santis in the primary because she’s worked mostly in Florida and likely knows him and his people inside and out. I don’t think she’s ever done anything national before and it remains to be seen how she does. Her job to now was mostly letting de Santis step on his own dick and keeping Trump under wraps as much as possible. The media did the rest for her, as they will continue to do.

  194. 194.

    narya

    @OzarkHillbilly: I have SO MANY corks. I want to do two things with them: one is to create trivets, for which I would need simple wooden frames/boxes to hold them, but I have neither the tools nor the know-how to do that. Second, there was a bar in Madison, WI that had these amazing cork installations on their ceiling. I don’t think I ever got pictures of them, but they were quite cool. If you ever want my corks for these or other projects, let me know; I’d be happy to ship them to you.

  195. 195.

    Bostondreams

    @Scout211: Kirk is the same guy who recently went on an anti-MLK thing for like a week and believes black airplane pilots are a danger. And the Civil Rights Act should be overturned.

    I hope he wins. Couldn’t happen to a nicer party.

  196. 196.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Subsole: I don’t doubt there’s good stuff, but it seems like it wouldn’t take much of the bad to kill you.​

    IIRC there’s a tossoff line in one of Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels that describes a Russian ritual of dropping a peppercorn or two into a shot of vodka before tossing it off. Spozedly the cheap stuff was often polluted with fusel alcohol** which could make one very sick or even dead; the peppercorn(s) would absorb the crap & drag it down to the bottom of the glass, whereupon the shot could be safely tossed off.***

    **IIRC Fleming called it “fusil oil.”
    ***But hey, it’s been >50 years since I read a James Bond novel, and my memory may be faulty, so take this with a grain of salt peppercorn or two…

  197. 197.

    Another Scott

    @Kay: Reminds me of the Q&A with Kirby yesterday about the Pentagon operations in Iraq and Syria.

    WhiteHouse.gov:

    MODERATOR: Thank you. For our next question we’ll go with David Sanger from the New York Times.

    Q Thanks very much. John, in addition to the signaling that you do by hitting 85 sites, there’s the conversations that have always taken place through backchannels with Iran. This week, we saw the Iranians send a few signals of their own. They didn’t want to have a direct conflict either. Was there any advanced messaging to them saying, “Look, you’re going to get hit because three people got killed, but we don’t want to escalate this” — something that would give them enough understanding to get their people out of the way and that they were going to lose some facilities, but that if they calmed it down, this would be the end of it?

    MR. KIRBY: No, David.

    He constructed this fantastical story and was crushed when Kirby just said “No, David.”

    Sanger isn’t a reporter, he’s a fabulist when it comes to covering Democrats in the White House. He said the Obama administration is the “most closed, control-freak administration” he’s ever covered (in a 2013 story).

    Grr…,
    Scott.

  200. 200.

    karen marie

    @beckya57: You can easily stop texts by texting “stop” back.

    That being said, I agree they’re shooting themselves in the foot. I recently donated to Biden and they’ve been sending daily, twice daily emails wanting more.

    It’s almost like the people running these programs get paid on volume and hide the info on how many targets they lose due to the repetitiveness.

  203. 203.

    Another Scott

    @OzarkHillbilly: I heard stories that my MIL’s parents owned a hotel in a little town in Minnesota during Prohibition.  Somehow they knew when the revenuers were coming by and always had the hooch hidden away in time.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  204. 204.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    @UncleEbeneezer: And yet, they don’t abandon their abusive party members.

    Well of course not – the goal is to take & hold power*, and they’re the easiest folks to manipulate into goosestepping off to the polling place and voting straight Thuglican. And each of them has exactly the same number of votes as each of us.** The fulminating rage of the Thuglican base is just something that has to be endured to obtain the result.

    TBH it is long past time people like us started contesting the stock Thuglican narratives*** with some of our own (which would have the advantage of being true). We might start by explaining why the post-WW2 Golden Age For Undereducated White Males really was not so golden, and whatever gold there was was largely the product of strong unions (and the terror of the US upper class in 1945 that the Great Depression was about to return with a vengeance), and why it could not last once the rest of the industrialized world had dug itself out of the rubble…but I digress…

    *By winning elections if possible, or keeping them close enough for Thugs in the electoral machinery to steal if not.

    **Assuming they and we are choosing amongst the same candidates.

    ***”You’re not getting what you deserve because the arrogant librul elites took it away and gave it to ‘those people’ instead, so you need to hate them all.”
    ​​

  207. 207.

    Nukular Biskits

    @opiejeanne:

    Pretty much.

    There appears to be no foreign issue that Wicker doesn’t think can’t be resolved by “strong” measures & that POTUS is “weak” for not doing them … but he NEVER specifies what those measures should be.

  208. 208.

    Another Scott

    Meanwhile, over at Melon’s expensive jalopy shop… NotebookCheck.net:

    While online sleuths initially suspected that brake cooling was the reason for the retraction of the Cybertruck aero wheel covers, it was later revealed by T Sportline on YouTube that unusual tyre wear was the likely culprit. As the host, Brian, explains in the video, the issue with the aero cover is the rubber buffer that is meant to protect the tyre from the hard plastic of the Cyber Wheel Cover.

    When the vehicle is stationary, there is a small gap between the aero cover and the tyre. However, as soon as the tyre bulges slightly under the pressure of normal daily driving, the sharp edges of the Cyber Wheel Covers make contact with the tyre’s sidewall, slowly wearing away at the tyre’s integrity.

    This is obviously not the intended effect, so Tesla has momentarily pulled the aero covers from new Cybertruck deliveries, although since the Cyber Wheel Covers are so integral to the electric pickup truck’s aesthetics, it’s likely that a revised version will be released soon. Whether Tesla makes the promised March update window, however, remains to be seen.

    Clowns.

    Why people are willing to shell out tens of thousands of dollars to alpha-test these things for Melon is beyond me.

    ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  209. 209.

    JML

    I love seeing the comparison of how much and where the RNC & DNC are spending. Is it good that the DNC is outspending the RNC? absolutely, especially since they are clearly outraising them. But they’re also putting the money into the right areas.

    You have to spend on database management. It’s hugely important to get your voter file in as good a shape as possible early, because it’s expensive and time-consuming. The DNC is investing in payroll over consultants, which is also good (it’s really easy to waste money on consultants and most campaigns do). The transfers to state parties is also really good, and helpful to get their election-year operations moving earlier. Basically you can see the DNC investing money in areas that will make a difference in the election, and spending little on peripheral/wasteful things. RNC? not as much, and now the RNC is getting cash-strapped while still needing money desperately to invest in their programs.

  212. 212.

    Elizabelle

    @Brachiator:  The FTF NY Times used “clouds” and “shadows” a lot in headlines and stories dealing with the ominous Hillary Clinton campaign in 2016.

    Fuck ’em.

  213. 213.

    Miss Bianca

    @Geminid: There’s a funny section in Georgette Heyer’s “The Grand Sophy” which has Sophy and another character getting into a “who’s more boring” contest of wills where she starts reciting facts about the cork oak. That’s how I learned where cork comes from! :)

  215. 215.

    evodevo

    @beckya57: Yeah – I’m getting a text from Sherrod Brown several times a day…I love Sherrod, and if I lived in OH I’d vote for him, but this is getting ridic…

  218. 218.

    Kay

    @Brachiator:

    Who cares what happens in the GOP primary? And “should have done better” is irrelevant. If Trump wraps up the nomination with 50 percent plus 1 vote, he will still declare it a mandate from heaven.

    Wrong. That’s exacty the error political media are making. The only thing that matters are votes. Trump can say all he wants that the primary was a mandate but it wasn’t and his vote total percentages prove it.
    Trump claimed he won in 2020. Is he the President? That’s why reality matters.
    A primary has a real purpose. He barely got a majority of voters in a GOP primaryas a quasi incumbent and the leader of the GOP. With any other person that would indicate some weakness for the general – but they use a special lower standard for Donald Trump. There’s no special lower standard. We just count the votes.

  219. 219.

    Kay

    @Brachiator:

    A stronger general election candidate would have gotten 70% in the primary. Half of Republicans chose someone other than the head of the GOP and the inventor of MAGA. That’s a problem for Donald Trump.

  221. 221.

    Brachiator

    @Kay:

    A stronger general election candidate would have gotten 70% in the primary.

    You keep asserting this as a political truth.

    It’s not.

    You are right, though, that the result is a problem for Trump, for his backers and for the GOP.

  222. 222.

    Jager

    @Nukular Biskits:

    My baby cousin lives in Honolulu. we rented a house on the beach in Haleiwa for a week in July. (We are having a mini family reunion on the beach after the wedding.) My cuz is a 6-4 white guy engineer, his fiance is a 5-1 Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, and native Hawaiian beauty. Last year at dinner at Uncle Bo’s in Honolulu, she nudged me and said, “My Benjy is the oddball here.”

  223. 223.

    Brachiator

    @Elizabelle:

    The FTF NY Times used “clouds” and “shadows” a lot in headlines and stories dealing with the ominous Hillary Clinton campaign in 2016.

    Thanks for the clarification. I stopped paying attention to the NY Times a long time ago.

  226. 226.

    New Deal democrat

    @Another Scott:

    Was there any advanced messaging to [Iran] … that would give them enough understanding to get their people out of the way

    Except that’s exactly what the US did, minus the direct “messaging.”

     

    The US gave 12-24 hours notice that it was going to hit militant bases in Iraq and Syria, and let Iran calculate that 2+2=4.

  227. 227.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @NotMax: Years ago, I left a camera in a restaurant in North Shore and didn’t realize it until I drove back to the hotel in Honolulu, whereupon I had to immediately turn around to get it. I told the valet why, and he looked at me wide-eyed and exclaimed “But that’s so far!”

    <Narrator voice: It was a 45-minut drive>

    I laughed in Californian.

  228. 228.

    Another Scott

    @New Deal democrat: There’s a big difference between telling the world that we’re going to attack those responsible – multiple times – at a time and place of our choosing on the one hand, and privately telling the leaders of Iran that they better move their people out of places X, Y, Z, Q, W by 0400 ET on date such and so – AND – if they don’t respond then we’re done.

    A very, very big difference.

    I stand by my previous take.

    YMMV.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  229. 229.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Uncle Cosmo:

    TBH it is long past time people like us started contesting the stock Thuglican narratives*** with some of our own (which would have the advantage of being true).

    This has been tried.  Repeatedly.  A great example is coal.  Coal mining jobs are not coming back.  It’s not going to happen.  That’s a fact.  There are any number of things that can be done to help people and communities that used to rely on coal jobs, and Democrats would like to do them.

    Tell any of this to an Appalachian and they will hate you.  They will then go looking for someone who will tell them the lie they want to hear.

    Outside of the Republican base, in the larger US population, we face the big problem that the major news outlets define framing, because they deliver information.  They like Republican framing.

    It’s not like we shouldn’t try, but we already are trying.  This situation we’re in is the result.

    I did learn something new from the recent post about Biden.  Retail politics seemed pointless to me in a country of 300 million.  Seeing the articles, I realized that they give Biden a chance to tell the truth to small groups of people, and that format gets attention, spreading messages that would normally disappear because the press doesn’t want to talk about them.  Biden saying African-American employment is way up is not going to be featured in the news.  Biden giving a car ride to a voter and telling that voter will be.  The stories will spread at grass-roots levels as well, especially talking to groups like unions.

  230. 230.

    gwangung

    @Brachiator: To a very great extent, you focus on these primary results to combat the doomsayers that Trump will inevitably win the general. And you do it to generate enthusiasm for your side: “When you see blood in the water, ATTACK.”

    Those are facts; you use facts to construct a message.

  231. 231.

    New Deal democrat

    @Another Scott: Not trying to get into an argument here. This is what the US did, per CBS News:
     https://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-strikes-iran-personnel-facilities-in-iraq-syria-approved-jordan-drone-attack/

    “ U.S. officials have confirmed to CBS News that plans have been approved for a series of strikes over a number of days against targets — including Iranian personnel and facilities — inside Iraq and Syria.”

    We gave advance notice of the locations of our attack.

    I won’t put in another link, so this doesn’t get caught in the spam filter, but a Google search should bring up articles about Iranians subsequently evacuating from these camps.

    Hope that is helpful.

  234. 234.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @karen marie: I agree they’re shooting themselves in the foot. I recently donated to Biden and they’ve been sending daily, twice daily emails wanting more.

    It’s almost like the people running these programs get paid on volume and hide the info on how many targets they lose due to the repetitiveness.​

    I will bet good money that when their market research people** have analyzed patterns of political contributions over decades for every campaign where data is available, the most highly correlated factor (with the greatest overall $$$ return) is people who have already given to the campaign. And that the next most highly correlated factor (with the next highest overall return) is people who have given in the past to candidates with similar political profiles. And that the next is anyone who gave to the political party of the candidate who’s panhandling asking. So yeah, we are all kinda targets. Text STOP back, unsubscribe, delete any obnoxious begging of any form – it’s all you can do.

    **I.e., people with some statistical chops, stripped of all notions of ethics or humanity. Irrespective of party, IMHO.

  235. 235.

    Kelly

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    This has been tried.  Repeatedly.  A great example is coal.  Coal mining jobs are not coming back.  It’s not going to happen.  That’s a fact.  There are any number of things that can be done to help people and communities that used to rely on coal jobs, and Democrats would like to do them.

    Tell any of this to an Appalachian and they will hate you.  They will then go looking for someone who will tell them the lie they want to hear.

    This is also true about logging and mill workers. New equipment gets more done with fewer people.

    But it’s all the fault of the spotted owl!

  236. 236.

    way2blue

    Is it just me—or is Washington Post working overtime to spin the strong jobs number in a negative light?  Jeez.

  237. 237.

    grumbles

    We are currently in the bust-out phase of the grift. Republican entities are not even pretending to be functional, it is just about making sure patsies eat the blame.

  238. 238.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @TBone: ​@Uncle Cosmo: he was originally from DelCo, a local hero of mine.

    Umm…maybe he shouldn’t be. My Little Chickadee was one of the very early talkies, and the cameras of the time were so noisy that the scenes were shot silent and the dialogue dubbed in later. It is well known that when scenes with Mae West but without Fields were filmed, W.C. lurked outside the shot and heckled Ms West unmercifully — most infamously he would shout at her,

    Show ’em your tits, Mae! Show ’em your tits! That’s what they want to see!

    MW probably deserved an Oscar for delivering a competent performance under such circumstances (and not slipping rat poison into WC’s daily bottle).

    Of course Mae herself was no angel. Everyone no doubt knows the immortal line, Is that a pistol in your pocket or are you glad to see me? – which AFAIK she adlibbed. I once saw a report – which I can neither confirm nor deny – that in another flick her character calls the front desk to have her laundry sent up. A knock on the door which is opened on a Chinese fellow in pigtails and pillbox hat, who huffing and puffing proclaims to her, I come lickety-split, ma’am! Her alleged reply (paraphrased):

    Never mind that, just put it over there.

    8^O

    Playboy interviewed her when she was in her 70s (IIRC it was timed with the release of Myra Breckenridge, in which she played**) when she said, I invented censorship in the Thirties and if I had the chance I’d reinvent it right now!

    **In a party scene she asks a rather large young fellow how tall he is. Six feet six inches, he replies. MW: Forget about the six feet, let’s talk about the six inches.) 8^O 8^O Jeebus, Merrilee & Jehosaphat…​

  239. 239.

    Mai Naem mobile

    @OzarkHillbilly: TFG at some point also made a comment to Roberta Kaplan during the E Jean Carroll trial  that she(Kaplan not E Jean Carroll) wasn’t his type. Apparently Orange Moron doesn’t realize that Kaplan is gay. I believe Kaplan was involved in the fight for marriage equality. You would think the moron would know a little about Kaplan.

  240. 240.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Elizabelle: ​@Brachiator: The FTF NY Times used “clouds” and “shadows” a lot in headlines and stories dealing with the ominous Hillary Clinton campaign in 2016.

    And, it might be noted, no more than a few paces of a honking migratory fowl from the infamous Nacht und Nebel.

  241. 241.

    Mai Naem mobile

    @way2blue: who the hell knows? Sally Buzbee did work for the AP for a long time before the WP. I don’t think I appreciated Marty Barron as much as I should have. I don’t think the WP is as good as it was when he was editor.

  242. 242.

    Brit in Chicago

    @ColoradoGuy: ”

    Who’da thunk it? Keynesian stimulus works, just as it did ninety years ago. Unlike the 2009 stimulus, it has to be large enough to give a good shove to a multi-trillion economy. Best of all, infrastructure, not tax cuts.

    Compare to the disaster of Tory Austerity in the UK and an entire nation immiserated, which I suspect was the goal of the Tories all along.”

    Tax cuts which are mostly directed to the rich (which they always are if the Republicans control) don’t even have that much of a stimulative effect, because the rich tend to save most of the extra money. Biden’s spending has been stimulative, however. One might have feared that it would have resulted in an economy that was too hot, i.e. in prolonged inflation. But so far it looks as if most of the inflation came from exogenous factors (pandemic and its aftermath, Putin’s war on Ukraine). If present trends continue, Biden comes out looking like an economic genius. (Which doesn’t guarantee that he’ll be re-elected, ‘cos, you know, he’s old, besides, what about Hunter’s laptop and Hilary’s emails?)

    As for the disaster of Tory Austerity, I could not agree with you more. It’s been going on since the Great Financial Crisis of 2008-9, and has indeed been a disaster for what used to be my country. Very few countries managed to react well to the GFC (China did, also I think Japan) but the UK did worse than almost anyone. Nothing I can say about those people is bad enough.

  243. 243.

    Brit in Chicago

    @NotMax: “The wine I mentioned above is $7.99 (up a buck from previous years). Tastes and drinks like a bottle four times the price. Allowing it to breathe once opened ups it from A level to A+.”

    Would you tell the rest of us what it is?

  245. 245.

    Brachiator

    @gwangung:

    To a very great extent, you focus on these primary results to combat the doomsayers that Trump will inevitably win the general.

    I don’t care about doomsayers. There is no necessary connection between what happens in the Republican Primary and the general election.

  246. 246.

    Geminid

    @Brachiator: Yes, there is no neccesary connection between what happens in the Republican Primary and the general election. But party divisions and a difficult primary season can make a candidate weaker in the general election.

    So like it or not, people here will be following the Republican primaries with interest, and you might as well yell at clouds as tell them how pointless it is to talk about it.

  247. 247.

    cain

    @Albatrossity:

    Yet the GOP is considered the party of fiscal responsibility? The media still talks about it like it is still applicable.

    Michigan GOP out of money as well as the RNC.

    And by this point GOP donors will be out of money as well.

  248. 248.

    cain

    @Kelly: wait till AI powered robots shows up. It will be interesting to see how they react to that especially when their jobs move to a software engineer they could hire anywhere in the world.

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