Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Fight them, without becoming them!

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

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

At some point, the ability to learn is a factor of character, not IQ.

It is possible to do the right thing without the promise of a cookie.

“They not like us!” (that’s for sure!)

The words do not have to be perfect.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

with the Kraken taking a plea, the Cheese stands alone.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

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

Tick tock motherfuckers!

An almost top 10,000 blog!

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

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

Can we lighten up on the doomsday scenarios?

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

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

I’m sure you banged some questionable people yourself. We’re allowed to grow past that.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

Fuck that bum, let’s go Joe!

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

When you’re a Republican, they let you do it.

You are here: Home / Elections 2024 / Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Paddling As Fast As We Can

Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Paddling As Fast As We Can

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Blogfather bait:


Per the Associated Press:

A day after Taylor Swift made music history at the Grammy Awards, a band formed long before she was born made their own history: The Grateful Dead have broken the record for the most Top 40 albums to chart on the Billboard 200.

The Grateful Dead pulled out ahead of Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra with 59 total Top 40 entries on the chart Monday following the No. 25 debut of their archival release “Dave’s Picks, Volume 49: Frost Amphitheatre, Stanford U., Palo Alto, CA (4/27/85 & 4/28/85).” Elvis and Sinatra are stuck at 58 albums apiece.

It’s a remarkable run, made even more special since the group disbanded following the death of Jerry Garcia in 1995. Forty-one of the band’s 59 entries in the Top 40 have happened since 2012, thanks to the popularity of the series of archival albums compiled by David Lemieux…

 
Hold a good thought for Los Angeles area jackals & loved ones:


 
The Nevada caucuses deserve their own post(s), but here’s a teaser…

Reader Interactions

197Comments

  2. 2.

    Jeffro

    (I’m sure by the time I hit ‘Post Comment’ this will not be first, so…second!  or third!  =)

    Btw looks like a lot of the coverage – both straight news and our blessed punditariat’s precious thoughts – of the House’s rejection of the Ukraine/Israel/border deal is “WTF??!?”

    Catherine Rampell, WaPo: The GOP Dog Caught The Car. Again.

    Welp, the dog caught the car again. After months — decades? — of running on tightening the border, House Republicans are suddenly paralyzed when offered the chance to do so.

    A hard-won, bipartisan Senate deal dropped Sunday evening, with tons of items on conservatives’ border-policy bucket list, including many that former president Donald Trump had begged for. These include:

    beefing up border security as a condition for giving any more aid to Ukraine (check!)

    a tougher and faster asylum-processing system so that those who don’t meet asylum criteria cannot stay and work for years while their cases crawl through the courts (check!)

    hiring more personnel for Customs and Border Protection as well as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (1,500 and 1,200, respectively — so, check, check!)

    huge investments in fentanyl detection technologies and other anti-trafficking enforcement (check!)

    reviving something like Title 42 restrictions, wherein the president can “shut down” most of the asylum system (though this version doesn’t require a public health pretext and has more severe consequences for border-crossers — so, check-plus, perhaps).

    House Republicans should have been pinching themselves in disbelief. Yet within hours of this 370-page bill dropping, House GOP members ruled out letting their chamber vote on any of it.

    Even the Mustache of Understanding is able to note the obvious once in a while: The GOP Bumper Sticker: trump First, Putin Second, America Third.

    Barring some last-minute surprise that saves the compromise bill, a terrible thing is about to happen — thanks largely to a Republican Party that has lost its way as it falls in lock step behind a man whose philosophy is not “America First” but “Donald Trump First.” “Trump First” means that a bill that would strengthen America and its allies must be set aside so that America can continue to boil in polarization, Vladimir Putin can triumph in Ukraine and our southern border can remain an open sore — until and unless Trump becomes president once more. Our allies be damned. Our enemies be emboldened. Our children’s future security be mortgaged.

    Today’s G.O.P. bumper sticker: Trump First. Putin Second. America Third.
    “The United States has for some time ceased to be a serious country. Our extreme polarization combined with institutional rules that privilege minorities makes it impossible for us to meet our international obligations,” the political theorist Francis Fukuyama remarked on the American Purpose website. “The Republican Party has grown very adept at hostage holding. … The hard-core MAGA wing represents a minority within a minority, yet our institutional rules permit them to veto decisions clearly favored by a majority of Americans.”

  3. 3.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Really weird dreams last night. Normally I enjoy them and try to finish them. These days tho, the dogs* wake me up 2 or 3 times a night to let them out and when we come back in it takes me an hour or 2 to go back to sleep, so I never get to finish them. Blech.

  4. 4.

    Ken

    “Dave’s Picks, Volume 49: Frost Amphitheatre, Stanford U., Palo Alto, CA (4/27/85 & 4/28/85).”

    Catchy title. I wonder how good the sound quality is — I assume the master is a third-generation copy of a bootleg originally made by a Deadhead in row 38 of the audience, using a Panasonic RQ cassette tape recorder?

  8. 8.

    Spanky

    Are people finally willing to believe who the Republicans are now that they’ve been told (for the millionth time)?

    Naaaaaah!

  9. 9.

    Ken

    @Jeffro: In related news, the truck convoy at the border is confused because they aren’t finding the long lines of immigrants, or any other signs of a crisis, that they were expecting. Will this make them ask who lied to them? Probably not, is the consensus in the comments on that bluesky post.

    By the way, I also learned from bluesky today that English has a perfectly good word for schadenfreude: epicaricacy. (Chuckling now because my browser’s spellcheck is OK with schadenfreude but doesn’t know epicaricacy.)

  11. 11.

    p.a.

    I worked with a huge Dead fan.  He described the music as “mindless noodling”; to him it was a compliment.

    Workingman’s Dead & American Beauty are enjoyable albums.  They are also the most atypical Dead albums.

    I do like the artwork.

  13. 13.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Ken:

    In related news, the truck convoy at the border is confused because they aren’t finding the long lines of immigrants, or any other signs of a crisis, that they were expecting. Will this make them ask who lied to them? Probably not, is the consensus in the comments on that bluesky post. 

    The long lines of immigrants lied to them, obviously.  Pay no attention to the Shithead Ted behind the curtain.

  14. 14.

    Betty

    Apparently Joni Ernst is now saying that it’s too bad so many Republicans came out against the bill before reading it because now she and other Republicans can’t support it. Lankford is wondering who is going to pull the knife out of his back.

  16. 16.

    Elizabelle

    @Betty:  re Joni Ernst.  Maybe that’s actually a signal to take a second look and not vote en masse as Putinists.  The vote has not been taken, or even scheduled yet (right?), and we have seen some amazing saves over the past few months.

    Today would be a great day for all of us to call our Senators and Congresscritters, whether they support the bill or not.  Ring those phones.

  18. 18.

    Suzanne

    @Betty:

    Apparently Joni Ernst is now saying that it’s too bad so many Republicans came out against the bill before reading it because now she and other Republicans can’t support it. Lankford is wondering who is going to pull the knife out of his back

    I cannot roll my eyes enough at just how fucken incompetent these people are. I wouldn’t let them run a goddamn church bake sale.

    Maybe now Lankford can now truly appreciate who his colleagues are.

  20. 20.

    Scout211

    @Elizabelle: Thank you for both links.  They are very different in their approach but are both clear about which party is the problem.

    A couple of Friedman shots:

    Trump, like Biden, grew up in the Cold War, but he spent a lot of it contemplating his wealth rather than contemplating the world. Trump’s instincts, Mandelbaum noted, are really a throwback to the interwar period between World War I and World War II, when a whole segment of the elite felt World War I was a failure and a mistake — the equivalent today of Iraq and Afghanistan — and then approached the dawn of World War II as isolationists and protectionists, seeing our allies as either hopeless or leeches.

    As for Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, I wonder how often he uses his passport. I wonder if he has a passport. He is one of the most powerful people in America, following in the footsteps of both Republican and Democratic speakers who advanced our interests and made us strong in the world for decades. So far, he seems to care only about serving Trump’s interests, even if that means playing extremely risky games with foreign policy.

  22. 22.

    Eyeroller

    @Ken: ​It’s not really English, it’s Greek. Seems to have been coined in the 1700s during that era of stuffing a lot of Greek-derived words into English.

  23. 23.

    cmorenc

    The Grateful Dead at their best were one of the greatest bands ever, but too much of the time they were garage-band level of the sort where bars will only book them to play on  Tuesday nights to play for what they can collect in a tip jar.

  25. 25.

    TeezySkeezy

    @Jeffro: Anyone still shocked at Republicans playing bait and switch and pulling the football when Charlie Brown goes to kick it shouldn’t be reporting on politics or be in politics. How long are people going to get rolled by those psychopaths before they wise up?

  29. 29.

    Spanky

    @Scout211:

    So far, he seems to care only about serving Trump’s interests,

    Always hedging his words,  that Friedman guy. Some things will never change.

  30. 30.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @TeezySkeezy: My take is a little different. The GOP got the football they wanted but they were gonna have to play nice with the DEMs and they just refuse to do that. So instead they are standing on the field, screaming at the DEMs to take the football and go home or they are gonna do poopy in their pants and smear it all over themselves.

  31. 31.

    Scout211

    @Spanky: Always hedging his words,  that Friedman guy. Some things will never change.

    LOL. So true.  But just watch, that will change  in six months.  😉 

  32. 32.

    Elizabelle

    @Baud:  I don’t understand Hill politics, but I really wonder if McConnell’s apparent collapse on this bill was actually a signal to the press.  Which they have willingly picked up.

    Turtle is monstrous, but he does support Ukrainian funding, and probably cannot believe what imbeciles the House leadership are.

  34. 34.

    Soprano2

    Good morning all. Hubby is in surgery (it’s actually a procedure where they go through the urethra to break up the kidney stones, it has a long difficult name) so I’m in the waiting room. I finally got coffee and something to eat. Now I have to wait until it’s done.  Here’s hoping all goes well

    Oh, and Republicans are so fucking stupid. If this bill fails I hope all D’s run on “we had a bill to make the border situation better but R’s couldn’t say yes because TFG wants to use the issue in his campaign. They refuse to actually solve problems.” That will reach normies. They need to push back hard on the “it allows 5,000 undocumented people a day”, because that’s a lie.

  35. 35.

    Lapassionara

    There must be an alternate universe somewhere where the US House of Representatives is not full of kooks and grifters. Hi

  37. 37.

    Soprano2

    @OzarkHillbilly: I agree with this, they want to somehow pass a bill with no Democratic support so they can tell their MAGA supporters they stuck it to the libs. They don’t want to govern or solve problems, they want to “own the libs”.

  39. 39.

    Geminid

    If McConnell and the Republican caucus succeed in obstructing the border security bill, I wonder if former Florida Rep. Deborah Mucarsel-Powell can make that an effective issue in her campaign against Senator Rick Scott. Similarly, Colin Allred (assuming he’s the nominee) might be able to hit Ted Cruz over his inaction.

  40. 40.

    Soprano2

    @OzarkHillbilly:  They have to place a stent, that will be fun. The anesthesiologist was good about my concerns about his dementia; he said that would change some of what they give. I’ve had to learn to get out of my comfort zone to advocate for him.

  41. 41.

    TeezySkeezy

    @OzarkHillbilly: They got what they wanted.  No one is talking about anything now but “securing the border,” which is fine by them. This probably won’t end up hurting them electorally, and it keeps everyone from talking about other things they’d rather not have in the news cycle, like the good economy or Trump’s legal problems. Hell, UKRAINE should be a big part of the story but they are successfully keeping it about tHe BoRdEr!!!

    And, as usual, this situation COULD be turned to the democrats advantage if they hammered them for what they are actually doing (creating a whole cloth fake border crisis because they don’t actually want to help anyone), but no the Dems have now sort of ceded the framing that the border problem is a security problem and even though the repubs are being ridiculous they must have had a point (which they didn’t).

  42. 42.

    Soprano2

    @zhena gogolia: It was a bunch of words half of which I’d never heard before. They go through the urethra to the kidneys with a laser to break up the stones and vacuum out the pieces.

  43. 43.

    Scout211

    @Elizabelle: I don’t understand Hill politics, but I really wonder if McConnell’s apparent collapse on this bill was actually a signal to the press.  Which they have willingly picked up.

    I don’t understand the political games either.  I read somewhere yesterday (sorry, I couldn’t find it again this morning) that part of Trump’s motivation for killing this bill was to weaken McConnell’s power in the Senate.  This makes sense to me since Trump and his minions are busy setting up his unitary executive autocracy.

  45. 45.

    Elizabelle

    The Republicans have devolved into a horrible party, and they deserve everything bad that is happening to them.  But, you have to wonder — and some of them may be thinking along these lines —

    How many hits do they have to take for Trump, who shows no loyalty to others?  A lot of them are already in deep trouble with the previous car they caught (Dobbs).

    Trump is hoovering up cash to pay for his personal legal expenses.

    They are fortunate the MSM is on their side (tax cuts for the corporations and gazillionaires that own the media!), but there are some failures that just cannot be covered up.

    As Soprano wrote, normies will get this.

    And normies may understand the importance of defending Ukraine, if said normies have ever taken a look at a map or have military members in their families and friends.  Or actually believe in democracy, and see the Ukrainians for the courageous people committed to democracy that they are.

    Biden is actually doing a good job talking to normies outside of MSM channels, which are wired for Republicans.

  47. 47.

    Baud

    Hard to believe Ukraine is on the ropes because a bunch of New Yorkers fell for the NYT’s crime panic. But here we are.

  48. 48.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Jeffro: As has been the case for a long time, the Republican pitch is “give us more power and we’ll stop intentionally wrecking the country”. The mugger’s argument.

  49. 49.

    Van Buren

    @Ken: You would be surprised. The stuff they release has been through state of the art audio engineering and is damn good, IMHO.

  50. 50.

    Suzanne

    @Soprano2: Hugs, and hang in there.

    FYI, if they didn’t tell you…. most hospitals can update you on his status via text, so you don’t have to sit there in a surgery waiting room, if that’s not your thing, I am a pacer, and I find it help relieve the stress.

  53. 53.

    geg6

    Probably the only music I hate more than country music would be anything by the Grateful Dead (or Phish). I don’t know how anyone listens to it. And don’t get me started on their fans. I got dragged to a Dead concert at the old Three Rivers Stadium many years ago (the shit we do for what we think is love). Now, remember…I was a punk in my early 20s, so I knew about weirdos. But an entire stadium of people obviously on too many drugs and many of whom also seemed to have mental and social issues made my couple of forays into the NYC and CBGBs look like the exemplar of stability. And those of us who had bathed in the last month were a very obvious minority. The smell of the people around me was nauseating and overpowering. I stayed for an hour (which I considered heroic) and then left the guy who dragged me there and caught a bus out of the city to home. Never again. Can’t even listen to them. Ugh. Worst concert experience of my life and I’ve been to a LOT of concerts.

  54. 54.

    Scout211

    From the Sington Xeet:

    For years, the former President has stoked the fires of hate and bigotry and racism and xenophobia for his own power and political gain.” Vice President Kamala Harris completely shreds Donald Trump in blistering campaign speech. Note to Dems: This is how to do it.

    I want to give VPOTUS some love this morning for her brilliant campaign speeches.  Thank you, VP Harris.

  55. 55.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Van Buren: I had mine for 9 days.

    eta; which I guess I shouldn’t really complain about. My BiL brown bagged it for 3 years before he finally died.

  56. 56.

    Spanky

    @Matt McIrvin:

    the Republican pitch is “give us more power and we’ll stop intentionally wrecking the country”. The mugger’s argument.

    A tactic of both the Mafia and an abusive spouse.

  57. 57.

    Ken

    I just got the rotating tag, “As long as McCarthy is Speaker, the House will never be in order.” Time to retire it? Or is epicaricacious mockery always appropriate?

  59. 59.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    NY’s “progressivism” is insanely over rated. They also fell for Rudy Guiliani when he set up a stage managed cop riot.

    “If you wanted to see an early version of Jan. 6, 2021, go look at the footage of the police riot of 1992, City Hall, New York City,” former Mayor Bill de Blasio says in a new TIME Studios documentary about Giuliani.

    Eric Adams is the same, except extra corrupt. He may actualy be indicted before he goes national, so that’s a relief. They love this shit, including and especially at the hometown newspaper, which has promoted every nasty little mean spirited authoritarian that comes dwon the pike.

  61. 61.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Jeffro: ​
     

    America Third? More like last. Third would be grift, fourth would be beating up on whatever groups they want to beat up on, and who knows what the rest of the list would look like. But for them, America is a resource to be exploited for their own political and monetary benefit, not something to be valued as a democratic society or the land of the free.

  62. 62.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    Agreed. It’s easy to act liberal when you’re talking about reforming other people.

    Self-improvement is risky and hard.

  63. 63.

    Jackie

    @Soprano2: Didn’t TIFG threaten us with a terrorist attack “guaranteed” coming from across the southern border? If failing to get this bill through Congress (it won’t) allows a terrorist attack to happen, the blame needs to be hung squarely on him. And then Johnson. And then on every single GQPer who voted no.

    *I hope your hubby’s procedure is successful and his recovery goes smoothly.

  64. 64.

    Another Scott

    @Jeffro: I’m not giving up just yet.

    I remember when Biden’s “Build Back Better” was dead, dead, dead because of Manchin.  And then, suddenly, the “Bipartisan Infrastructure Law” happened.

    Yeah, yeah, many differences.  The point is, these folks want to be re-elected, and that works in our favor when it comes to getting something done.

    But the GQP monsters have already said that nothing’s happening unless the border stuff is stripped out.  That’s a path forward, but it will take a week or few of them milking all the news they can out of “defeating this horrible bill” before it happens.

    We’ll see.

    There’s the budget stuff coming up to, with the risk of huge cuts if they don’t get it done on time…

    This drama is exhausting, but we have to keep our eyes on the prizes.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  65. 65.

    Baud

    @Another Scott:

    But the GQP monsters have already said that nothing’s happening unless the border stuff is stripped out

     
    Good. We didn’t want it in anyway. They made it a condition in the first place.

  66. 66.

    topclimber

    @Baud: I am afraid comfortable women in both NY and CA did not feel the urgency to turn out like those in other states, because “reproductive freedom is safe here.”

    Our voters didn’t turn out, and our voters are mostly women.

  67. 67.

    Elizabelle

    @Ken:  Good point.  A lot of those things should get pulled down.

    Historically, it was unusual for the president to be a babbling idiot.

    Yes, it was.  And now we have a new POTUS, a good one.  Retire that one.

    Too many rotating tags that have outlived their use.  They need review.

  69. 69.

    Baud

    @topclimber:

    Well, I haven’t looked at data to see who didn’t turn out. If it was an even drop across the board, then you can’t single out the women.

  70. 70.

    Elizabelle

    @Another Scott:  You are where I am.  Democrats and the Biden administration are not just hapless spectators.  They can count, they can negotiate, and they get things done.  Even without getting much credit for it.

    Not over til it’s over.

  72. 72.

    WaterGirl

    @Jeffro: Unless you like all the separate block quotes… if you use “Paste and match style” or whatever your OS calls it, it will copy the text without all the stray HTML formatting that turns it into a bunch of separate pieces when you choose block quote.

  73. 73.

    Matt McIrvin

    While I’m not a Dead superfan, I had a bunch of friends who were and saw them play the old Boston Garden a couple of times. As is sometimes observed, they were sort of two bands in one: the psychedelic jam band and the skilled folk-rock/Americana group. The first aspect gets the flak but I think the second is sometimes underappreciated.

  75. 75.

    Kay

    I’m as liberal as one can get on immigration- I genuinely support new people coming in, I think it’s almost all positive for the country (although there can be growing pains) and I also think there’s a human right to cross borders to survive, but I’m not sure it has paid off politically for Democrats. I think there’s a growing recognition that a lot of immigrant groups are not really supportive of liberal immigration policy. This was also true of earlier immigrant groups (Italians, Irish, Scandinavian, etc) – they weren’t reliably “pro immigrant” politically (at least not in the midwest) but I think that’s hard for people to get their head around. It seems counterintuitive, that the personal is not always political.

    Of course, political payback is not the only factor. As I said I am inclined to support very liberal policy, approaching “open borders” and I think it’s the right thing to do so this Dem retreat on immigration concerns me, but I think it is less of a political slam dunk among our voters (even recent or relatively recent immigrants) than perhaps was thought.

  76. 76.

    Soprano2

    @Suzanne: No, they didn’t mention that. There’s plenty of room here to walk around, and I have to stay with the coats and his clothes. Coats, another reason to dislike winter. Had to wear it because it was 25º when we left the house at 5:00 a.m.

  77. 77.

    Kay

    @Soprano2:

    They gave us a buzzer at U of M children’s hospital – like at a restaurant- and as I am a pacer too I really appreciated the long leash. I was in the elevator when it went off – he’s out of surgery- because I was going up to check if it was working :)

  78. 78.

    catclub

    @Scout211: motivation for killing this bill was to weaken McConnell’s power in the Senate.

     

    1.)The majority leader is the agent of the majority. If they don’t like him they can boot him out.

    2) The majority leader is often the best fundraiser for the party – so has the most spoils to spread out to increase his influence.

  79. 79.

    Jackie

    @Baud: Kathy Hochul was on Morning Joe this morning, and she flat out threatened those Republican House members if they voted against the bill – should it reach the House – she’d make it her mission to make sure they were ousted. She looked straight into the camera and made it a personal promise to each of them one on one. I wouldn’t want to get on the wrong side of her!

  81. 81.

    catclub

    @Kay: You and I are in agreement.

    The US has much more open immigration than most developed nations and it is a huge advantage! And we don’t push it as such.  The US has birthright citizenship which is also nearly unique, and also another advantage over other nations.  People WANT to come here.

     

    Those are the true basis for ‘American Exceptionalism’

  82. 82.

    Kay

    @catclub:

    The “riot” (drunken brawl) was supposedly because the AA mayor was removing the police review board from the purview of the police (shocker- they weren’t punishing themselves- police reviewing police didn’t work) and make it independent. But Rudy was there to gin up racial divisions, happily joining in as the drunken police shouted racial slurs.

    It worked. We know the end of the story. NY media crowned him Americas Mayor and then later he tried to overthrow the United States.

  84. 84.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    NY media crowned him Americas Mayor and then later he tried to overthrow the United States.

     
    You should consider adding that to his Wikipedia page.

  85. 85.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: The fear of crime thing works, unfortunately. I don’t know if you’ve been following the election in El Salvador, where a strongman who cleaned up the country’s gangs while ruthlessly violating people’s civil rights was just overwhelmingly re-elected, even though presidents are only supposed to have one term. He got the courts to rule for him so he could run again. From the interviews I heard the people there mostly love him because the streets are safer, and they don’t care about violating the rights of people who they believe are gang members. Of course,  thousands of innocent people were swept up in the effort and seem to be in prison with no recourse or rights. When people can’t walk down the street safely they’ll accept anything that makes the situation better. Not saying New York City is like that, but the press and Adams made it sound that way.

  86. 86.

    Elizabelle

    @WaterGirl:  You couldn’t just take it down?

    A lot of those things are jingoistic, and not even clever.  I really wish you would stop handing them out like candy.

  88. 88.

    Kay

    @catclub:

    My granddaughter was born in Denmark and people assume she’s a dual citizen. Nope. Denmark doesn’t have birthright citizenship- almost no other countries do. Agree completely – true (and great) American exceptionalism.

    It makes sense to me too. Almost none of us are indigenious. A lot of the founders were foreign-born.

    It would be sad to lose such a great uniqueness. Maybe it’s living in the midwest but I’m genuinely baffled by “there’s not enough room!” Are they kidding? All we have is room. I would bring more to this town if I could.

    The “housing shortage” argument is BS too. Who do they think is doing all the unskilled building labor? Have they noticed every construction crew (laborers) is Latino? We’d have a REAL housing shortage if we didn’t have all these people willing to make 10 bucks an hour to put on a roof in January.

  91. 91.

    jowriter

    @topclimber: I turned out. Always do.  Called my useless GOP replacement for Maloney here in NY-17 and asked him to have the courage to do the right thing for a change.  I am livid.  Can’t wait till he has a Dem opponent here.

  93. 93.

    Baud

    @Soprano2:

    From what I read, El Salvador was in really bad shape with respect to gangs.

    The problem here is how easily people are scared, not by reality, but by fear of a slippery slope.

  95. 95.

    Soprano2

    @catclub: I think birthright citizenship is smart. We don’t have unhappy, stateless people like they have in Europe because of it.  It makes things easy and straightforward.

  97. 97.

    Anyway

    @catclub:

      The US has birthright citizenship which is also nearly unique, and also another advantage over other nations.

    That is another thing the Right Wing wants to strip away – their BFFs the Saudis and other ME despots don’t have anything like birthright citizenship (or any avenues towards that). They import lots of labor to maintain their lifestyle but workers have very few rights.

  100. 100.

    Kay

    @Soprano2:

    I just think we should probably stop thinking of the people who elected George Santos and Eric Adams as America’s Savviest Voters. They seem to get bamboozled quite a bit! Next up -Bozo the Clown. The NYTimes will call him a “bold maverick” and 10,000 Substack authors and Bill Mahr will tell Democrats to adopt Bozo’s policies.

  101. 101.

    rikyrah

    SOO….. we can stop pretending that the GOP are honest actors…no matter the topic.

    they.simply.aren’t.

    THEY.DO.NOT.WANT.TO.GOVERN.

  102. 102.

    Soprano2

    @Chris T.: Yep, I think that’s it.

    Just talked to the doctor, he said it went well. He should be able to easily pass everything the doc didn’t get. He goes back in a couple of weeks to get the stent out, and then they monitor to keep huge stones from happening again. Now, let’s hope there are no lasting effects from the anesthesia.

  103. 103.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Elizabelle:

    The Republicans have devolved into a horrible party 30+ years ago, and they deserve everything bad that is happening to them.

    Fixed.

    Wonder when Old Scratch will be dragging Newt off this mortal coil.

  104. 104.

    Matt McIrvin

    @catclub:

    The US has birthright citizenship which is also nearly unique, and also another advantage over other nations.  People WANT to come here.

    It’s actually not nearly unique–it’s a New World/Old World thing: it’s more the norm than the exception in the Americas. I was surprised when I looked that up.

    (especially since I’d just had a conversation about it with a guy from the Dominican Republic, which doesn’t have it–but the DR is the hemispheric exception here, not the US.)

    We just tend to compare ourselves to Europe, where it’s not the norm.

  105. 105.

    Denali5

    I did not realize that birthright citizenship was so unusual. One thing good about Hungary – it is allowed.

  107. 107.

    Kay

    I think one could make a real pro immigrant argument in the Great Lakes states. Just point to Detroit and Cleveland. Both cities are on the upswing and that is almost 100% because of more recent immigrants. The Cleveland Clinic is probably the most diverse workplace I have even encountered and it’s an absolute economic engine for that city. The Mayor of Detroit (Democrat) does a nice job with this but it seems to stay local and never go national. Start the pro immigrant push in the midwest. Tell them to look around and see what’s happening in older Great Lakes cities.

    Start now, even though we know media and Republicans are going hard Right on immigration – like buying a stock at the low point – it’ll go up. We’ll be ground floor for the pro immigrant revival :)

    I hate when Democrats are on defense. That’s a decision. No one ever has to stay on defense. Go the other way.

  109. 109.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: I agree, I knew Adams would be bad but New Yorkers liked the “tough on crime” rhetoric. They seem to fall for it a lot. I think it means “I see more homeless people and I just want them to go away”.

  111. 111.

    Chris T.

    @Soprano2:

    and then they monitor to keep huge stones from happening again

    I get calcium oxalate stones myself, and they have me on vitamin B6 (one pill twice a day, I order them from Amazon and put them in with all my other daily pills…) and I drink water with lemon juice added.

    Spousal Unit got a sodastream type device, so I can now make fizzy water and add relatively large quantities of RealLemon (I get the big bottles at Costco). I found that adding just a touch of white grape juice makes it particularly tasty; one 64-oz bottle of Welch’s lasts more than a month, so there’s very little added sugar this way. The lemon juice helps keep the oxalate in solution.

    Of course if he has some other kind of kidney stone, this won’t help.

  113. 113.

    Captain C

    @Elizabelle:

    I really wonder if McConnell’s apparent collapse on this bill was actually a signal to the press.  Which they have willingly picked up.

    When I was getting my breakfast at the bodega this morning, I noticed that the Daily News headline was something along the lines of “Trumpers Fight Border Deal.”

  114. 114.

    Chris T.

    @Matt McIrvin: Ireland has a thing where if your parents or even grandparents were Irish, you can get an Irish passport. As I’m half Irish (on the maternal side, and also with the ridiculously pale skin that sunburns in just a few minutes of direct sunlight), I keep considering doing this…

    (The paternal side is probably mostly German and/or Slavic. I always find the historic pattern of “who counts as white” kind of odd since I’m So Obviously White and yet I’m a descendant of those non-white Jerries [Germans] and Micks [Irish]…)

  116. 116.

    Kay

    @Soprano2:

    After the 2022 election I saw a political science piece that speculated why the crime panic resonated only in NY (as far as votes, not Bil Mahr and Substack). It didn’t even reach Philadelphia, let alone Detroit or Chicago. They proposed that it was NY media – that market. If you were within that market you were in a panic over crime.

    I love newspapers so I’m sad that all of Ohio’s are now junk or Right wing rags, but… if we had the NYtimes and the NYPost I’m not at all sure we’d be better informed. They seem to exist to follow fads and create panics. It’s all just so shoddy and cheap. Nothing they write about is real. Adams is cutting funding for NYC public entities and rather than report on that the NYTimes assigns 7 people to badger the President of Harvard until she resigns, because it was fashionable to attack her for a week and a half. They don’t even do good reporting in their backyard. 

  117. 117.

    Suzanne

    @Soprano2:

    I agree, I knew Adams would be bad but New Yorkers liked the “tough on crime” rhetoric. They seem to fall for it a lot. I think it means “I see more homeless people and I just want them to go away”. 

    There have been some high-profile crimes on the subway lately. The subway is a really potent thing for New Yorkers and where they’re probably feeling the most vulnerable and therefore the most cognizant of perceived threats.

  118. 118.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Kay:

    I love newspapers so I’m sad that all of Ohio’s are now junk or Right wing rags

    Even the Plain Dealer or the Columbus Dispatch? I can’t say I’m a regular reader, but they both seem fine in their coverage at least

  119. 119.

    Suzanne

    @Ken:

    A reminder that the line between surgeon and supervillain is exceedingly fine. 

    A reminder that the line between surgeon and douchebag is a single overlapping circle.

    It was a surgeon who told me that some walls are load-bearing.

  120. 120.

    Nelle

    @Elizabelle: Haven’t we all known those people who complain and whine endlessly but refuse to take any steps to fix anything?  Sometimes, they even ask for advice, but then don’t take it and go right back to complaining?

    Would a series of ads with that kind of person whining, then linking it to R’s help normies put the picture together?

  121. 121.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Chris T.: I just saw comedian Dara Ó Briain perform at the Wilbur– he lives in the UK, is married to a British woman, but is Irish (as you could probably guess from that name), and has a whole bit about Brexit and how it absolutely tore his heart out to break with them and “get the faster passport”.

  122. 122.

    Kay

    @Chris T.:

    My husband did it. He has an Irish passport. He did the legal work himself (he’s a lawyer) and I remember it taking a long time but he’s thrilled that he’s an EU citizen in case this place collapses.

    I’m actually really patriotic (and stubborn as hell) so I wouldn’t leave and he won’t leave without me so he’s stuck anyway :)

    I love the US, although I recognize the many, many flaws. I wouldn’t live anywhere else, but we might spend 3 months or so a year in Denmark when we retire because my grandaughter lives there and we adore her.

  123. 123.

    Elizabelle

    @Kay:  Maine also seriously needs immigrants.  They have a lot of people in line for special assistance/nursing care and — they do not have the workers to fill those jobs.  Not enough warm bodies, and an aging population.

    I also wish we could bring back the diversity lottery visas (GOP will hate that name even more now!) and expand them.  We do better with people from all over the world, not just those who can run across our border.

    I wish that we could get more folks out of Haiti.  They face more peril than those running across our border do.  They truly live in a failed state at the moment.  They are drowning to get out of it.

    And that we would do right by our Iraqi and Afghani interpreters.  That was shameful.

  124. 124.

    cintibud

    Too early to get depressed by political news, so I’m taking the opportunity to tell my favorite Grateful Dead joke:

    What does a deadhead say when they run out of drugs? “This music sucks!”

    (apologies to gd fans – I do like a lot of their stuff)

  125. 125.

    Elizabelle

    @Nelle:  Could work.  Try a lot of different strategies.

    Who knows, it might even persuade your average viewer to think “hey, maybe I should give ____ a try” in their own lives.

    ETA:  looking at your suggestion, if it was done with rapier humor, it could go viral.

  126. 126.

    Geminid

    @Soprano2: Eric Adams had a clear lead in first-choice votes in the 2021primary, but when all the ranked choices were assigned he barely beat Kathy Garcia. Under the system that RCV replaced, Adams and Garcia would have faced each other because Adams did not exceed 40%; he had 33% of first choices. RCV is there to stay, but Adams might not be. He was underwater in job approval throughout 2023.

    As for Adams’ national prospects, he was the Flavor of the Month when he won that primary. But Adams is pretty much washed up now I think, even if prosecutors don’t nail him on corruption charges.

  127. 127.

    Kay

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    I don’t read the Columbus paper but I think the Plain Dealer has been gutted. I’m in NW Ohio so our paper is the Toledo Blade which used to be great but is now Right wing, hollowed out and junky.

    I wonder if someone could take away half the NYTimes readers by just doing an online paper with a good word puzzle page, fancy recipes, wedding announcements for fancy people, and insanely over priced real estate. No news. Just “lifestyle”. You could then use the profits to fund a real, non profit newspaper.

  128. 128.

    Anyway

    @Chris T.:

     Ireland has a thing where if your parents or even grandparents were Irish, you can get an Irish passport.

    Italy has something similar. Many Argentinians of Italian ancestry were able to get EU passports when their economy collapsed.

  130. 130.

    Elizabelle

    @Kay:  I am pretty sure the FTF Times is going after digital subscribers whose own city/regional papers have been gutted.  Enormous target market for them.

    And then serve up the crack (ass) DC political bureau, and Bret Stephens, and all their conventional wisdom manufacturing.  (“Bring back the good Daddy Republicans that won’t keep embarrassing us.”)

    The Times truly does some good work, but not on their political desk.

  131. 131.

    Kay

    @Geminid:

    Oh, he’ll be indicted. That “conduit” in campaign finance is so dumb it’s easy to prove. People keep doing it, although it always ends with the people who were the straw donors immediately flipping and of course there’s a paper record. I’m not at all sure NYC law enforcement would indict him – that’s sort of the nexus of his corruption, the police,  but federal will.

  132. 132.

    Ohio Mom

    @Chris T.: After Ohio Son’s second kidney stone, the urologist gave home a 24 hour urine test, the results of which broke out what minerals which can cause kidney stones that Son had disproportionate amounts of.

    The verdict was, cut back on the potatoes and drink lemonade.

    I was surprised that Ohio Uncle, who has had numerous kidney stones, hadn’t been given this test. It seems very useful to know what not to eat/what to ingest more of.

  134. 134.

    JML

    @Geminid: It’s one of the flaws in RCV (but don’t try to tell any RCV partisans that, you’ll get your head torn off) that candidates never really face off against each other and you can line up the differences. When it’s RCV candidates can more easily mask their actual positions. I’m not a fan; it’s generally failed to do any of the things it’s supposed to do: reduce negative campaigning, increase voter participation, ensure candidates have a majority of the vote and a “mandate”, etc. It’s also made ballots much more complicated and voting much harder.

    Much better in theory than in practice, IMHO.

  135. 135.

    Kay

    @Elizabelle:

    My husband still pays for it and reads it although he’s close to cancelling. I sometimes have to tell him not to read whatever panic they are pushing to me – I just am not interested in whatever the fashionable Panic O The Day is. He read the WSJ for decades and I liked it too until it went trashy Right wing. We’re running out of news sources.

  136. 136.

    Elizabelle

    @Kay:  I would love to see that article, if you could ever find it again.

    Very true about the New York media; probably a lot of upstate voters took the crime-mongering for truth, too.

  139. 139.

    Elizabelle

    @Kay:  I despise the Times’ newish editor, Joe Kahn.  If you thought Dean Baquet was a problem …  Kahn is also reducing the number of (especially US political) stories that allow reader comments.  Because:  the most popular comments invariably took the newspaper to task for crappy reporting and framing.

    Bezos’ hire Sally Buzbee is also a nightmare.  I wish pianos would fall on all of them.

    I am liking the Los Angeles Times, and it seems to miss most of the fearmongering.  Having a decent owner probably helps a lot.  And you would love their business columnist, Michael Hilzik.  He is worth the subscription, and sees a lot of the same crap you do, and writes about it, with receipts, and clearly.  I do love how digital newspapers are able to give us the links to the backstory, which is invaluable.

    Out of curiosity:  why precisely is your husband close to cancelling?

    And:  can your granddaughter eventually apply for Danish (dual) citizenship?

  140. 140.

    Ohio Mom

    @Soprano2: I think we can list birthright citizenship under the many contributions of Black Americans have given our country, although maybe indirectly.

    Adding birthright citizenship was the answer to the question, What is the status of the newly freed skaves and for that matter, already free Black people? Voila, they are citizens!

  144. 144.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Ohio Mom: One of the most important court cases on this was US vs. Wong Kim Ark, about a Chinese-American guy born in San Francisco who went to visit relatives in China and was barred reentry to the US under the Chinese Exclusion Act. One of the government’s arguments against him was literally that that line in the 14th Amendment was really only about black people, they didn’t mean Chinese. The courts didn’t buy it.

  145. 145.

    Elizabelle

    Text from friend:  DC Appeals court ruled against Trump in immunity case.

    ETA:  WaterGirl just put up a new thread about it.  Cake baking time!  Cava for me!

  146. 146.

    Geminid

    @JML: I like runoffs but RCV is more in keeping with our impatient times. I’m glad RCV being adopted slowly though, so people can learn to cope with unintended consequences.

    I kind of like Alaska’s hybrid system. It combines a simple “jungle” primary with a ranked choice runoff in November between the top four finishers. I want to see how it works out for Rep. Peltola this year.

  148. 148.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @cintibud: The thing is, this joke doesn’t really work because if you know any Deadheads, you know they will listen to them totally sober, in the morning, in he afternoon, etc.  Sure the drugs enhance the experience, but Deadheads are so into the music that it’s usually the biggest staple of their music-listening.  It’s one of the things that I always found so annoying about them.  I was always more of a Phish and Jerry Band fan, personally, but I could always enjoy some Dead, but he Deadheads I knew, it was like all they ever wanted to listen to.  At some point I’d be like “okay, but can we listen to something else now?” after 4 hours of Dead bootlegs.  Note: I also knew people who were the same way about U2, Phish, Dave Matthews Band and other bands/artists across many genres.  But I guess to some extent, many of us are like this.  I have about 10-20 bands/artists that I listen to 99% of the time.  Sometimes I add a new one or take a break from another, but my music listening gets pretty repetitive too.

  150. 150.

    wjca

    @Kay: I’m as liberal as one can get on immigration- I genuinely support new people coming in, I think it’s almost all positive for the country

    Just to be clear, a real conservative (i.e., not a brain-dead reactionary**) would absolutely agree.  Immigrants are what made this country great — both themselves and their children.

    ** Actually, even a reactionary, one who knows anything about the history he wants to go back to, would be hard pressed to disagree.  The “brain-dead” is also required.

  151. 151.

    rikyrah

    @catclub:

    The US has much more open immigration than most developed nations and it is a huge advantage! And we don’t push it as such.  The US has birthright citizenship which is also nearly unique, and also another advantage over other nations.  People WANT to come here.

    I have been having discussions with Peanut about this point. About birthright citizenship, and how it’s not a thing in other countries.

    Been trying to explain to her how the entire premise of America is different and has been different. The thought that you can become an American. And how, that’s not the case in many other countries.

  152. 152.

    Miss Bianca

    @TeezySkeezy: You’re a real pain in the ass. Up there with eversor. Just endless negging on Democrats and no actual useful insights or even anything humorous to offer.

    Bored now.

  154. 154.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Kay: I’m super radical on this, I’m basically for open borders. Let them all fucking in. We should be happy to let our population fucking double from people coming in from Rwanda or wherever. Everyone who’s in on a guest worker visa should be on a path to citizenship too. Give ’em all green cards or, hell, toss out US citizenship for free like candy. It’s not like I had to do anything to earn it. The contribution these people make to our society is like 99% positive.

    But nobody I talk to IRL agrees with me on this, not even people who identify as super liberal. It goes across as a shocking position.

  155. 155.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Elizabelle: Christy Smith.  Lost CA-25 (the seat that Katie Hill initially won) to a MAGA asshole, Mike Garcia, and it didn’t even end up being very close.  To be fair though, the GOP dumped a ton of money into that race, even putting up a huge anti-Smith billboard on the 405/14 exchange and tons of tv ads bashing her.  Still, up to the weekend before the election we thought it was going to be very close.  We helped canvas Dem voters and the Smith campaign’s internal polling had the race being a toss up.  So it was a very disappointing loss.  The Garcia campaign also pushed Inflation/Crime, like in NY, and Smith was seen as an outsider by many voters.

  156. 156.

    rikyrah

    @catclub:

    I am hoping that Democrats begin to connect the GOP’s attack on immigration and migrants, with them passing these ridiculous attacks on child labor laws.

     

    The connection is there. It’s a direct line.

  157. 157.

    Kay

    @Paul in KY:

    He was thrilled to get it. It’s funny because we have a son working in Denmark on some kind of “necessary  tech worker VISA” and he is now on Level Three of Danish lessons – he speaks Danish. His father could go there and work as an EU citizen not knowing a lick of Danish. Immigration rules never make any sense.

    Also- our renting a very modest apt in Copenhagen for 3 months a year will be cheaper than what we will pay in rent on 550 sq feet to spend 3 months a year with our American grandaughters in NY. We have two other sons. If they both have children we are out of months to spend with them. They all need to congregate in one or two places – I’m going to be exhausted moving every month and a half :)

  158. 158.

    FelonyGovt

    Los Angeles area jackal checking in to say all is well, if VERY soggy here. Unfortunately the same can’t be said for folks who live in the canyon areas or at higher elevations. And the Los Angeles River (yes, there is one) has overflowed its concrete banks.

  159. 159.

    Kay

    @rikyrah:

    I would have voted for the lady who knew sanitation. An under rated area of expertise! But they went for the bloviating, bullshitter man, of course. I think a clue might have been that he lied about where he lived. That’s not normal behavior. Also- “pay me in Bitcoin”. Dealbreaker as a hire, IMO.

  160. 160.

    Kay

    @Paul in KY:

    My son is in a tech worker union in Denmark. Danish workers have to join some kind of organization and he was reluctant at first (he’s like a Right leaning Democrat in the US) but looking at the tech layoffs in the US he’s (now) really glad he has a contract and protections. He’s a lot less bootstrappy since he had a daughter. Now he has to take care of someone else. He recently bought property in Michigan so I hoped he was coming back but now I don’t think he is. He hates chaos and disorder and waste the US is just chaos and disorder and waste now. He’s no longer tempermentally suited to live here.

  161. 161.

    Geminid

    @Kay: My Atlanta friend is fortunate in this respect. His 3 married children all live within one and half miles of him and they have 7 kids between them, age 2 to 13. The parents all work, but Warren and his wife are both retired so they basically run a day care operation on weekdays. It’s a lot of work but they enjoy it.

  163. 163.

    Matt McIrvin

    @JML: I tend to think that which voting system you use in a democracy matters less than people think it does, because people will find a way to game just about anything, but the ranked-choice systems at least have the virtue of letting people indulge their insistence on voting for third-party candidates less destructively.

    Though even that might not matter because some of them are the type of people who will insist on not even marking a second choice–it’s third-party candidate or nothing.

  164. 164.

    TeezySkeezy

    @Miss Bianca: I in fact suggested an alternate course of not meeting a fascist party halfway and legitimizing their fake concerns, but if that bothers you pie me and enjoy the year we all have left. It doesnt matter if I convince you or not because neither of us make much difference in the current flow of politics.

  167. 167.

    Matt McIrvin

    @rikyrah: Maine adopted ranked choice because first-past-the-post elected the deranged Governor Paul LePage with a minority… TWICE.

    But, ironically, the courts struck it down for gubernatorial elections because the precise wording of the state Constitution explicitly excludes it in elections for that one office. So they can use it for everything except governor.

  168. 168.

    Kay

    @Geminid:

    Oh, I’m not doing that – I want to actually retire :)

    I’ll help but I don’t want to do daycare. My kids went to daycare themselves so they’re used to that routine.

    I also have different child rearing opinions than they do. They’re very serious and conscientious – a lot of “I know you have big feelings, lets talk” where I’m a little stricter and blunter. I also make fun of babies because babies are humorous and weird. I was calling my newest grandaughter “Beans” at first but she’s a serious, kind of dour baby so I then went to Mrs. Beans then The Widow Beans. My daughter told me to stop making fun of her baby.

  169. 169.

    Soprano2

    @Suzanne: I read that NYC spent millions on police overtime on the subway but it didn’t have much effect on crime. Bet the police loved it, though.

  170. 170.

    Madeleine

    @rikyrah: The 2022 mayraol election made me realize that I’m a pragmatist when it comes to choosing a mayor. Wiley, the progressive, just never made a case for running the city. I favored Garcia, who had the relevant practical experience. But Adams . . He seemed like a member of the police dept, still does, and has no wider perspective. And that’s setting aside the question of fund raising.

  171. 171.

    Geminid

    Immigration was an issue in last May’s Turkish presidential election. Or at least, the opposition candidate, Mr.Kilicdaroglu, tried to mske it one in the runoff. He finished 5 points President Erdogan in the first round, and the 3rd place candidate was a big immigration hawk. Kilicdaroglu had been running a very positive campaign, but then he went from Hubert Humprey to Pat Buchanon overnight.

    It did not help, and Erdogan won the runoff by the same 5 points. Analysts thought that Kilicdaroglu gained some anti-immigrant voters, but he lost some of his voters on the left so it was a wash

    Ed. There are at least 3.5 million Syrian refugees in Turkiye, and I see Turks make some familiar complaints about them: they take jobs and cause crime. There’s a “replacement theory,” that Erdogan wants Islamist Syrian immigrants to help outvote secular Turks.

  172. 172.

    Soprano2

    @Elizabelle: “This American Life” did a story about a man in Africa who got a diversity lottery visa. The stuff he had to do for it was crazy, plus avoiding gangs in his country (think it was Somalia). He ended up in Maine.

  173. 173.

    rikyrah

    @Geminid:

    @Kay: My Atlanta friend is fortunate in this respect. His 3 married children all live within one and half miles of him and they have 7 kids between them, age 2 to 13. The parents all work, but Warren and his wife are both retired so they basically run a day care operation on weekdays. It’s a lot of work but they enjoy it.

     

    That just sounds busy, but wonderful. They are creating so many memories, big and small, that the grandkids will remember forever.

  174. 174.

    rikyrah

     

    Anne Applebaum (@anneapplebaum) posted at 7:53 AM on Tue, Feb 06, 2024:
    This took my breath away. @Heritage president flips the narrative and says “They’re leveraging the border crisis and the needs of our allies in Israel and Taiwan to extract more than $60 billion in additional unaccountable aid for Ukraine.”
    This weird bill was THEIR IDEA

    David Rothkopf (@djrothkopf) posted at 7:58 AM on Tue, Feb 06, 2024:
    This lie is already gaining momentum on the right. Challenge it every time you hear it. The GOP were the ones who demanded the aid package be tied to the border…back when they allegedly cared about the border. They did this. This was their plan.
    (https://x.com/djrothkopf/status/1754867241110138973?t=VCpKqMSTLD-fV1bqQATgRA&s=03)

  175. 175.

    TeezySkeezy

    @Miss Bianca: And I have to say my post you responded to today wasn’t “doomer” or particularly mean spirited to anyone personally, and I suggested what I would like to see from dems instead, not just criticizing the current path. Look, they’ve let the republicans frame the border issue and have given credibility to their hysterias about migrants for literal decades now with no clear electoral benefit! It’s very frustrating to me!

    I am simply expressing a countervailing opinion and you reacted a bit egregiously….especially the bit about comparing to Eversore, since he talks about eliminationist ideas. You want conformity of only cheerful opinion on dem strategy, fine. Pie me! Everyone can!  Ive only stuck around for Silverman’s updates anyway, I can go back to lurking.

  180. 180.

    Captain C

    @Geminid:

    As for Adams’ national prospects, he was the Flavor of the Month when he won that primary. But Adams is pretty much washed up now I think, even if prosecutors don’t nail him on corruption charges.

    I remember seeing a tweet a few months ago to the effect of, “When Adams was elected mayor the MSM was all like ‘now all you radical lefties will see what a normie dem looks like’, and now every day Adams says something like ‘leprechauns are real, and I’m going to cook one tonight!'”

  183. 183.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:

    . I was calling my newest grandaughter “Beans” at first but she’s a serious, kind of dour baby so I then went to Mrs. Beans then The Widow Beans. My daughter told me to stop making fun of her baby.

     

    Ok..this is hilarious..LOL

  184. 184.

    Captain C

    @Elizabelle:

    I despise the Times’ newish editor, Joe Kahn.  If you thought Dean Baquet was a problem …  Kahn is also reducing the number of (especially US political) stories that allow reader comments.  Because:  the most popular comments invariably took the newspaper to task for crappy reporting and framing.

    I think it’s now painfully clear, if it wasn’t already years ago, that the problem is the Sulzbergers, who are hanging on for dear life because without the FTFNYT they’re just a bunch of rich, unqualified assholes living off the family fortune.  (I mean, they are now, but at least they can pretend to themselves they’re attached to something nominally prestigious.)

  185. 185.

    VFX Lurker

    @Elizabelle: I am liking the Los Angeles Times, and it seems to miss most of the fearmongering.  Having a decent owner probably helps a lot.  And you would love their business columnist, Michael Hilzik.  He is worth the subscription, and sees a lot of the same crap you do, and writes about it, with receipts, and clearly.

    I love my digital LA Times subscription. It’s losing money, but I hope it somehow survives.

  186. 186.

    Elizabelle

    @Captain C:  That’s true. And we have Sulzberger the Leastest now.  He seems to have very bad principles, and not a lot of curiosity

    The FTF NYTimes, and too much of MSM, is Nepo Baby hell.  They get there through schools, privilege, and connection.  It shows.

  188. 188.

    kindness

    @Van Buren: All the Grateful Dead live releases use soundboard masters primarily.  Some of them mix in some stage miked audience sound for the applause.

    The level of disparagement of the band here isn’t surprising, but you might be shocked that there are a lot of Deadheads out there (and here).  The whineys say more about you than they do about the band.  And yes, I did just buy Dead & Co tickets to a few of the Sphere shows in Las Vegas yesterday.

  190. 190.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:

    I love the US, although I recognize the many, many flaws. I wouldn’t live anywhere else, but we might spend 3 months or so a year in Denmark when we retire because my grandaughter lives there and we adore her.

     

    3 months a year…sounds so decadent, Kay.

    Oh my…if you do this…she will love those memories. She will count on that time with you.

  191. 191.

    Paul in KY

    @Kay: Sounds great, Kay! Biking down to your favourite bistro and then enjoying the Tivoli. With your son too!

  192. 192.

    Paul in KY

    @Kay: Them civilized Northern European ‘countries’ suck in our younguns with them thar beautiful cities n great infrastructure n lots o time off! Commie things!!!

  194. 194.

    Ruckus

    @Betty:

    Just unbelievable cowardice on the part of Republicans.

    Really? Unbelievable?

    They’ve got nothing. They are against everything because they’ve got nothing. Nothing upstairs, nothing in any folder that fell behind the file cabinet, nothing in what passes for their brains, nothing. They are against everything because they can’t think of any thing positive because they do not understand time. They want to go backwards in time to when they think life was better – and it never actually was. Was it worse? In some ways yes, in some no. Their problem is that they have their collective heads up their collective exhaust ports and they think everything smells funny and they don’t have a clue what to do about it. They are lost in a time that never existed and looking for a time that never will.

  195. 195.

    Ruckus

    @Kay:

    Denmark.

    An amazing place. Haven’t been in years but really, really enjoyed my time there. Norway as well, a bit less big city feel but the countryside and the people were very similar and very nice.

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