Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

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

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires.

Shut up, hissy kitty!

Nothing worth doing is easy.

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

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

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

We still have time to mess this up!

DeSantis transforming Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

Happy indictment week to all who celebrate!

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Republicans want to make it harder to vote and easier for them to cheat.

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

The choice is between normal and crazy.

If West Virginia and San Francisco had a love child.

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

The new republican ‘Pastor’ of the House is an odious authoritarian little creep.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

Dear Washington Post, you are the darkness now.

The US Supreme Court is on the ballot in november.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Thursday Afternoon Open Thread

Thursday Afternoon Open Thread

by | 263 Comments

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I’m not sure what products I viewed online to make the algorithm think I’m interested in human dog beds, but I’m seeing this ad a lot lately:

Giant dog bed with person in it

At first I scoffed and had cloud-shouty thoughts about what the world is coming to when people lie down in human-sized dog beds. What’s next, I wondered, lapping up beverages with our tongues and sticking our faces into dinnerware sets of metal bowls containing quinoa?

But you know, that human-sized dog bed looks pretty comfy, assuming that the pad underneath is thick enough. Not saying I’d ever buy one, but I will not judge those who do.

Open thread!

Reader Interactions

263Comments

  2. 2.

    Ken

    I am getting to the age where that looks nice, but then I think about getting up from the floor in the morning…

  5. 5.

    cminus

    Some friends of mine bought one of those! They use it as a mobile bed for lounging around before the fireplace or whatnot, and it’s actually pretty comfortable. (Nicer than their guest bed, actually, so if I ever have to spend the night there I’m dibsing it. Though tbf their guest bed sucks.)

  7. 7.

    Leto

    I’m seeing posts on Imgur where moms are “discovering” that dog kennels are for quiet time for them. Images of kids/dogs outside the kennel, while mom is inside with a pillow, book, and glass of wine trying to enjoy 5 mins of peace :p

  8. 8.

    AndyG

    We have a couple of Orvis memory foam dog beds for our 80+lb greyhounds and they are pretty damn comfy.

  9. 9.

    TaMara

    I just want to say, that last night I joked that Maxwell was too close to the Christmas tree in Cole’s thread and today, Willow took her revenge on me for disparaging felines. She tried to climb into my open shelf cupboard and knocked down and shattered a mug I cannot replace.

    We all know I deserved it.

  14. 14.

    rikyrah

    @Ken:

    I am getting to the age where that looks nice, but then I think about getting up from the floor in the morning…

     

    see..see…

    I’m not the only one who is thinking this..

     

    BWA HA HA HA HA HA H HA AH

  16. 16.

    UncleEbeneezer

    On the flip side of “comfortable”, if anyone loves shows that make you very uncomfortable, Nathan Fielder’s new show The Curse on Paramount+ is really fun.  It’s about a 30-something couple who do a home renovation show on HGTV and it really skewers that genre and the mostly-white, hipster, Progressives who host those shows.  It gets into issues of gentrification, cultural appropriation and the ethics of reality-tv philanthropy that is mostly performative.  Be warned: the characters are very flawed.  Nobody is a complete asshole, but everyone has some selfish, asshole tendencies just beneath the surface.  And like Fielder’s other works, Nathan For You and The Rehearsal, it’s never quite clear if some of the show’s participants are really in on the joke or not.  That said, it has some really amazing acting performances and is very funny, if you can tolerate cringe-humor and scenes sustained awkwardness.

  19. 19.

    Barbara

    At one point in his career my husband would have liked having one of these to roll out in his office.  Better than sleeping on the sofa or the floor.

  21. 21.

    gvg

    Surprised I am not getting that ad. I wanted to put allergy covers on my couch cushions. You would think other people had done this and there would be options, but I had to think sideways. I managed to find large dog bed allergy covers that would fit my seat cushions and extra large body pillow covers fit the backrests.  If I want to finish it with a cover on the frame part, I will have to sew it myself which is complicated to be dustmite secure. But I have recently bought 4 large dog bed covers off the internet. I am sure that will impact my ad feed.

    in my experience pet beds are of a lesser quality foam and don’t hold up for more than a few years.

  24. 24.

    bluefoot

    My niece got one of these human-sized dog beds for Christmas. The entire family has been using it for lounging around. I think of it as the 2020’s version of the beanbag chair.

  26. 26.

    A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)

    I’m seeing this a lot on my Instagram feed too. The only thing I can think of is I follow a lot of animal rescue and foster kitten sites LOL. It can’t be the birding or British Royal family sites!

    And I do love Betty’s pics and videos of her swamp birds and other creatures.

  28. 28.

    Citizen Dave

    @UncleEbeneezer: A random post that I endorse 1000%, Uncle E.  I’m a huge Nathan Fielder fan and got the Paramount extension just to watch this show.  Am debating whether to rewatch certain parts of it or the whole thing.

    I thought Espanola was fictional, but a good article about it on the Vulture site today.  It’s between Sante Fe and Taos.  Was thinking a couple hours ago how ironic it would be if I retired to Espanola

    Have watched a lot of background material/discussions about The Curse.  It is something else.  My wife and I noticed how disturbing it was just to watch one episode.  She almost stopped watching.

  29. 29.

    KenK

    @Ken: Yep. After “stretching out” on the floor comes the next big decision. Will is hurt less if I roll to right or roll to left to get up…

  32. 32.

    karen marie

    @TaMara: I have a tall open shelf unit in my kitchen where all my breakable dishes are kept. I had to relocate the kitchen table when Baby Cat came along because she wanted to use it as a launching pad to explore the shelves. Two years in, she hasn’t tried another route. Fingers crossed!

  33. 33.

    Miss Bianca

    @RandomMonster: Yeah, I’m not sure where I would even put it where it *wouldn’t* attract both dogs like a magnet. Maybe the “guest rooms”, where they would be behind closed doors more than 90% of the time.

  35. 35.

    Marcopolo

    Um, did I just see that the senate passed the Ukraine/Israel/Taiwan funding bill to the next stage?  Like w/ at least 66 votes.  Or maybe it was cloture to hear it?  Am looking for more info but if anyone else here knows…this would be good, unexpected, news.

    Answer is yes, vote was to advance the bill: https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2024/02/08/politics/senate-vote-foreign-aid-bill/index.html

    Might be a bit before the vote to pass it (thanks Rand Paul) but the votes to do so are there!

  41. 41.

    rikyrah

    18 GOP-held Biden districts targeted to flip blue (@Needle_of_Arya) posted at 11:51 AM on Thu, Feb 08, 2024:
    a reminder that Bernie Sanders, despite all his time in the Senate, wouldn’t have had the life experience of a Joe Biden to play the various factions of Senate Republicans against one another to highlight their hypocrisy

    and he ended up voting against the compromise bill anyway
    (https://x.com/Needle_of_Arya/status/1755650640980652344?t=_6vD90okFt3Cx53CcJsh7A&s=03)

  45. 45.

    eclare

    I only have hardwood floors in my house, so whatever pad is on the bottom of that bed would have to be really thick.

  46. 46.

    SamInWa

    I own a “Big One” Lovesac so I definitely can’t judge. I love it and when not is use by me, it also serves as the biggest cat bed around. I can say from personal experience that the cover washing up from cat puke very well!

    Only downside is there is no dignified way to get out of one of the things. You kinda sorta have to flop about and wriggle out.

  47. 47.

    Nukular Biskits

    @Ken:

    I am getting to the age where that looks nice, but then I think about getting up from the floor in the morning…

    Hell, I’m at the age where getting out of a human bed is tough!

  49. 49.

    rikyrah

    But but but…

    we couldn’t SCARE then into voting for Hillary  by using the Court..

    They had to vote their ‘ conscience’ or any other of the eleven billionty reasons they came up with as to why they just couldn’t vote for Hillary.

     

    @voteheaux™ (@voteheaux) posted at 11:41 AM on Thu, Feb 08, 2024:
    We’re witnessing why SCOTUS picks should have been the MOST important platform issue of 2016. SMMFH

    FYI: if a GOP president gets in Alito & Thomas will surely retire so that younger, more conservative judges get their spots. America will fall into DECADES of authoritarian rule. https://t.co/LVH0jpo4y0
    (https://x.com/voteheaux/status/1755648007096115362?t=KGycaF2c1RK8tHhZoKu-IQ&s=03)

  51. 51.

    FelonyGovt

    @Alison Rose: OMG one reason I skimp on my PT exercises is having to get up off the floor afterwards. It’s very noisy and involved and occasionally I need rescuing. 😀

  55. 55.

    RandomMonster

    Speaking of pet beds, I put a kitty bed on my desk and now I get a cat napping next to me a couple times a day while I work. I think they also like that the space heater is under the desk.

  59. 59.

    Nelle

    @rikyrah: I will never forget trying to talk a woman into voting for Hillary in the fall of ’16.  I remember the angle of autumn sun as I said, we have to keep Scotus.  She retorted, Don’t you try to manipulate me.  She stole it all from Bernie.

    Good thing I moved away or I would be haunting her house, posting signs against her windows. “Sorry about democracy but at least you weren’t manipulated. ”  The memory gets my blood pressure up.

  61. 61.

    sab

    @TaMara: I had my great-grandmother’s Limoges china in a cupboard in the basement about ten years ago. Starscream the tuxedo/siamese decided to explore the cupboard, was too heavy for the shelf, and accidentally smashed 10 of 12 cups when the shelf gave way.

    I didn’t kill him. I didn’t even yell.

  64. 64.

    CaseyL

    @TaMara:

    Expressing sympathy to you because of course Willow won’t: I am so sorry about the irreplaceable mug.

    Finding a bright side: Here is an opportunity to buy a new irreplaceable mug.

    As for the human-sized pet bed:  Some people, like some non-human people, like to sleep in a cozy cave-like hollow.  They pile up blankets and pillows to create the “cave.”  This would be right up their alley.

    I listened to some of the testimony at SCOTUS, and one thing that pisses me off a lot is how the (RW) Justices don’t allow the attorneys to argue a point that goes against what they’ve already decided.

    …and how flexible they are about what SCOTUS can and can’t do depending on the decision they want to reach.

    …and how stunningly, deliberately oblivious they are to how elections work nowadays. Saying just one state could determine the outcome of a Presidential election (to argue that of course Trump has to be kept on the ballot) is pretty much where we already are.

    …. and how they’re pre-emptively arguing the did-he-or-didn’t-he-foment-insurrection by claiming there could be evidence that he did not. I suppose, since SCOTUS has invented evidence that didn’t exist to support previous decisions, it can go ahead and ignore evidence that does exist to support an upcoming decision.

    (So, OK, more than one thing that really pissed me off.)

    The one thing the hacks brought up which is, has been, a legitimate concern is that a Red state could very easily invent a pretext for keeping Biden, or any Democrat, off its ballot. That is the only thing that had me leary of supporting the Colorado case.

  65. 65.

    steve g

    Looks like a photo-shop job to me. The bed doesn’t look quite right sitting on the floor rug, and the person sleeping doesn’t look right inside the bed. I think the bed is smaller than they are trying to make it appear.

  66. 66.

    Miss Bianca

    @Nelle: I had a similar experience with a woman I knew. For some reason, after pulling the “don’t blackmail me with the Supreme Court!” BS, she took exception to my calling her a cluelessly privileged white woman who would gladly throw millions of her fellow citizens under the Trump bus just to maintain the sacred purity of her vote.

    FTR, I have it on her excellent authority that I am “a hateful person”.

  67. 67.

    hitchhiker

    @Ken:

    Getting upright in the morning would be manageable … it’s the multiple times during the night when getting myself to the bathroom that would do me in.

  68. 68.

    trollhattan

    There is but one bed suitable for our prince of a dog (just ask him) and it’s not one of several so-called “dog beds” purchased for his highness.

    He’s not small but the pristine dog beds are not capable of hosting me. Maybe two, shoved together?

  69. 69.

    AndyG

    @catclub: Greyhounds can get up to 100lbs. Our two boys are both 80lbs – all muscle – and one of our former boys was 95lbs when he came off the track.

  76. 76.

    eclare

    @trollhattan:

    My dad had a pickup truck later in life so that he could just open the door and fall out.  I thought that was silly til I rode in a friend’s Mustang and tried to crawl up and out from the back seat.

  77. 77.

    Brachiator

    I’m almost afraid that the algorithm will send me ads for the thing if I ask about it.

    But you know, that human-sized dog bed looks pretty comfy, assuming that the pad underneath is thick enough. Not saying I’d ever buy one, but I will not judge those who do.

    But it does look kinda comfy. Do you have to inflate the thing?

  78. 78.

    marcopolo

    @eclare: still a long ways to go. and it might require 3 or 4 house Rs to step up and sign a discharge petition.  still, a minor win that should be celebrated.

  79. 79.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Ken:

    I am getting to the age where that looks nice, but then I think about getting up from the floor in the morning…

    This.  I’m just weeks shy of 70, and for the most part my body’s the same as it’s been for quite some time.  But when I get up off the floor, I want a piece of furniture handy to push off of.

    If it weren’t for that, I’d be tempted to try out one of those things.

    ETA: Looks like it isn’t just Ken and me. I see @rikyrah sharing this sentiment, bet a few others have already joined in along the way.

  83. 83.

    rikyrah

    @eclare:

    My dad had a pickup truck later in life so that he could just open the door and fall out.  I thought that was silly til I rode in a friend’s Mustang and tried to crawl up and out from the back seat.

     

    During the pandemic, I took a lot of Ubers and Lyfts.

    Learned a lot about what cars I would never step foot in ever again.

  84. 84.

    rikyrah

    @schrodingers_cat:

     

    I can imaging being tucked in the human sized dog bed covered with my down comforter and hibernating. I would probably put that bed on my real bed though.

     

    I was thinking about a specially made overly large window seat. The perfect book nook.

  86. 86.

    Martin

    Former Trump adviser Peter Navarro ordered to report to prison

    In a former life I worked with him a lot. He was the biggest asshole at the university and a constant pain in the ass. This headline gives me an unreasonable amount of joy.

  89. 89.

    jimmiraybob

    If the SCOTUS rules that states can’t bar a candidate from the ballot doesn’t that just mean that if Trump wins he can’t be sworn into office under Amendment 14, Sec. 3?

  91. 91.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @TaMara: I’ve climbed into Sam the Beagle’s bed with him in it and with him not in it. But it was just to prank him.

    He just gives an uncertain wag and says, “OK, you’re being weird again. Let me know when it’s over. And don’t you think it’s time to give the dog a snack?”

    At the pet store I’ve seen a human in a dog costume climb onto the large dog beds to demonstrate them. They’re plenty big enough. So I wonder if we’re really looking at a “dog bed for humans” or just an ordinary large dog bed being re-labeled so they can mark it up higher.

  92. 92.

    eclare

    @TaMara:

    Hahaha…I just googled, no way to get out of that thing with dignity intact.

    Growing up my grandmother had a totally worn out guest bed with no structure that we called “the marshmallow bed.”  Lovesac marketing missed a good nickname.

  93. 93.

    Martin

    @jimmiraybob: I always figured that USSC would leave the enforcement to congress to conduct on Jan 6, and that indeed seems where they’re headed, which is a shame because voters should know if their candidates are qualified or not before they are asked to vote on them.

    And if you don’t want to politicize the process, don’t leave it to Congress to enforce – leave it to the courts. We’ll see what happens.

  95. 95.

    eclare

    Huh, McConnell and Schumer both wearing blue/yellow ties today.  At least on this we agree.

    Well Schumer’s is kind of purple.  I’ll count it.

  96. 96.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Alison Rose: ​
     
    I think I get it, because I’ve heard others state this reasoning. In fact, I think it’s one of the lines of defense from the Republicans. “If he’s ineligible, it’s not up to the states to decide so they should just let him run and maybe win and then just not inaugurate him.”

    It is of course up to the states to decide. The Supreme Court (up till these clowns, who knows what they’ll do?) has deferred to the states on elections since the beginning.

  97. 97.

    trollhattan

    @Martin: The only thing that would make this better: Navarro going to a for-profit prison owned by Gyna.

    Now, do Wilbur Ross.

  98. 98.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Miss Bianca: And we can already see this same bullshit play happening again for 2024, only with Gaza being used as the justification.  White people are already littering Progressive spaces saying it’s fine to refuse to vote for Biden for anyone who is mad about the Israel/Palestine situation.  They sure do never miss an opportunity to defend the people threatening to abandon our coalition when we need them most.

  99. 99.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Marcopolo:

    Answer is yes, vote was to advance the bill: https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2024/02/08/politics/senate-vote-foreign-aid-bill/index.html

    Per MSNBC, it looks like the vote was on a motion to proceed, IOW, the Senate voted to debate the bill.  So they’ll debate it, then there will be a cloture vote, which is the one they need 60 votes for.  (So its getting 67 votes to move the bill to the Senate floor is a very positive sign, but not yet determinative.)

    If cloture gets at least 60 votes, the bill goes to a final up-or-down vote where 50+VP suffices.  So the cloture vote is the real vote, for all practical purposes.

  100. 100.

    trollhattan

    Now that the several storms have moved on, California’s renewable power generation shines in the winter sun: 70% renewables and only 18% natural gas. Also, our snowpack went from about 50% of normal for the date, two weeks ago, to 75%, or 51% of our average annual max. Water in the bank.

  101. 101.

    Kay

    @UncleEbeneezer:

    About 6 in 10 non-white Democrats disapprove of how Biden is approaching the conflict, while about half of white Democrats approve.

    It’s partly because the dissent skews young and younger Democrats are more diverse, but it’s just inaccurate to say it’s limited to “white people”. I haven’t seen a shred of polling that would indicate that.

    It’s also most Democrats (62%) and slightly more than 50% of Independents, btw. This is unpopular with Democrats. You can defend Biden’s approach on the merits – disagree with them – but claiming the dissent is some esoteric “privileged” position is just not true.

  102. 102.

    jimmiraybob

    @Alison Rose: ​

    @Alison Rose: ​
      “I don’t see how the second part of your question follows the first.”

    Being on the ballot in any state for the purpose of election is one question but it seems to me that that is separate from actually assuming the office of the President.

  103. 103.

    lowtechcyclist

    @UncleEbeneezer:

    And we can already see this same bullshit play happening again for 2024, only with Gaza being used as the justification.  White people are already littering Progressive spaces saying it’s fine to refuse to vote for Biden for anyone who is mad about the Israel/Palestine situation.  They sure do never miss an opportunity to defend the people threatening to abandon our coalition when we need them most.

    This sort of crap just disgusts me.  I totally agree with them that what Israel is doing in Gaza is an abomination.  But it’s not the only thing going on in the world.

    For instance, the bill for aid to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan.  God, I hate that we’re going to send more money to Israel if this thing gets through Congress.  BUT Ukraine desperately needs our help, and this bill is the best shot I see at our giving them the help they need anytime soon.  So if there were any doubt as to how my Congressman and Senators were going to vote on this, I’d be gritting my teeth to call them up and tell them to vote for this bill.

    So is a purity pony going to throw Ukraine under the bus because of Gaza? That seems, um, less than pure.

    And that’s just that one issue, of course; I’m not even talking about our democracy here.

  104. 104.

    Geminid

    @trollhattan: California will have some more renewable energy come online by 2026 when the SunZia wind project and transmission line are scheduled for completion. I expect there are other projects in the pipeline as well. That and battery storage will enable California to used even less natural gas.

  105. 105.

    rikyrah

    Really American  (@ReallyAmerican1) posted at 11:47 AM on Wed, Feb 07, 2024:

     HUGE! Trump and Republicans are rightfully *losing their minds* over J.B. Pritzker’s plan to stop them and their authoritarian movement in 2024.

    Why? Because J.B. is honing in on the most important swing states, on one of the most important issues, in perhaps the most data driven Democratic effort in modern political history to tilt swing states towards Democrats and enshrine abortion access as law.

    And it’s already working.

    Just a few months ago, Governor Pritzker announced that he was putting together a nationwide non-profit geared towards delivering swing states for Democrats in 2024.

    Ohio and Virginia were his first big tests. And he won. BIG.

    In Ohio, the Governors “Think Big America” delivered $250,000 to tip the scales on the Ohio reproductive rights constitutional measure.  The result? Victory.

    In Virginia, where Republicans attempted to take over the house and deliver a majority to ban abortion in the state, Think Big America donated another $250,000.  The result? Another victory.

    But he’s just getting started.

    “Think Big America, a nonprofit founded and solely funded by Pritzker, is the largest backer of an effort to put abortion to a direct vote in Nevada, where the group has donated $1 million and added an on-the-ground adviser. Pritzker’s organization is also supporting a ballot measure push in Arizona and evaluating other states where it could get involved, including Florida and Montana, a top Senate battleground, according to a spokeswoman.”

    “While efforts to put abortion measures on the 2024 ballot are underway in about a dozen states, the issue could be particularly consequential in Arizona and Nevada because they are among a handful of places that will decide the presidential race. They also have hotly contested Senate races this year.”

    Think Big America is one of the most concerted, data driven attempts to deliver swing states across America for the Democrats in 2024.

    And Illinois’ Governor has already shown that he can win big against Republicans in the toughest states.

    This is genuinely a massive victory and gift for Democrats and America.

    Smash the  and make sure everyone sees this if you appreciate J.B.’s work to help save America with @Think_Big_USA, and think more people need to step up and follow his lead!

    (https://x.com/ReallyAmerican1/status/1755287113220739583?t=Gh_QS6op7yJMh4pEJizqgg&s=03)

  110. 110.

    Kay

    In 2022, Missouri was the first state to ban abortion when Roe v. Wade was overturned, and anti-abortion lawmakers in the state are continuing their streak of cruelty. On Wednesday, across party lines, Republicans rejected an amendment that would have added rape and incest exceptions to the state’s total ban. Democratic state Sen. Tracy McCreery proposed the amendment by pleading with her colleagues to “show an ounce of compassion” for victims. As it currently exists, McCreery said the ban tells victims, “We’re going to force you to give birth, even if that pregnancy resulted from forcible rape by a family member, a date, an ex-husband or a stranger.”

    Please proceed, gentlemen. The anti choice religious extremists sternly lectured the peon rape victims on how they have to give way to God’s will.
    I found these people repellent beginning at 6 years old and nothing they have done since has changed my mind. Just pure gut instinct – I knew to steer clear of them.

  112. 112.

    Brachiator

    @UncleEbeneezer:

    Nathan Fielder’s new show The Curse on Paramount+ is really fun.  It’s about a 30-something couple who do a home renovation show on HGTV

    I may check this out. It’s weird. I don’t watch much TV these days, and especially have fallen out of love with comedy. Too much formula, too often gags are not set up well and so telegraphed you obviously see it coming.

    But I may soon have a block of free time and will take a look.

  114. 114.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    On Wednesday, across party lines, Republicans rejected an amendment that would have added rape and incest exceptions to the state’s total ban

     

    I assume this mangled sentence means no Dems crossed over.

  116. 116.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @Martin: ​
     

    He was the biggest asshole at the university and a constant pain in the ass. This headline gives me an unreasonable amount of joy.

    Somehow, it’s always reassuring that somebody who comes across as a total asshole via the media turns out to be a total asshole in real life.
    Even better when they go to prison.

  117. 117.

    trollhattan

    @Kay: Well you see, a cluster of cells is the real victim, so there!

    Waiting to see the absolute bottom Republicans are willing to hit over abortions is like pondering just how many need to be killed in a single spree shooting before they’ll entertain the tiniest of gun control measures. There is no there, there.

    Maybe there will be meaningful repercussions. Nine months to go (that’s just a coincidence).

  119. 119.

    Dangerman

    What’s next, I wondered, lapping up beverages with our tongues and sticking our faces into dinnerware sets of metal bowls containing quinoa?

    Sounds good to me; I draw the line, however, at replacing handshakes with sniffing butts.

  120. 120.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    Yes. Democrats keep bringing these exceptions up as amendments. We’re not hearing about the rape cases but they’re happening – they have to be. There are a lot of rapes in the United States.

    One thing that amazes me about the anti abortion lobbyists and lawyers – the fancy ones from expensive schools- is they really don’t seem to have a firm grasp on THE SCALE of the United States. There were 470,000 rapes in the US in 2023. They’re forcing thousands of children and women to carry their rapist’s child. It’s like they thought there were “3” or 300″. It’s a big country! They’re weirdly cloistered and impractical people.

  121. 121.

    Freemark

    @Alison Rose: Related. I’ve noticed the ground keeps getting farther away when I’m standing as I get older. But weirdly I haven’t gotten any taller.

  124. 124.

    Quinerly

    @Citizen Dave:

    Great Humane Society in Espanola. That’s where my JoJo las Orejas came from. It’s in my Will. Predominantly Hispanic community. Great Northern NM and Mexican food. Lots of descendents from original Spanish. Tight knit community. Known for its Low Riders and Low Rider Parades. My JoJo only understood Spanish when he originally adopted me. We are coming up on our 4 year anniversary. He is now bilingual.

  128. 128.

    Geminid

    @Miss Bianca: You’ll love J.B. even more when Nomadic Warriors for Pritzker sweep across Kansas and liberate the East Slope. They’ll bring extra horses so liberal Coloradans can join the ILKhan’s horde.

  129. 129.

    jackmac

    @TaMara: ​
     Early in our married life my wife and I lived in an apartment in Lincoln Park in Chicago and had a collection of antique cut glass pieces from her mother. We placed the glass on a series of built in shelves that SEEMED secure until a cat jumped on the shelves in the middle of the night. You know what happens next. The shelves collapsed, many of the pieces were shattered. The cat went on to bedevil us for 20 more years. He was troublesome and injury-prone but we loved him nonetheless.

  130. 130.

    JWR

    Why is NBC running a Special Report on the “no charges for Biden” on the classified documents case? Didn’t this come out last night, or was I dreaming

    ETA The Repub prosecutor, Robert Hur, said that Biden presented himself as an elderly gentleman with a poor memory.

  131. 131.

    Miss Bianca

    @Geminid: Sign me the fuck up. I’ll even be able to provide my own horse! And I’ll put my doughty Thoroughbred up against those hardy Mongolian ponies any day for stamina! :)

  133. 133.

    Quinerly

    @Baud:

    I had just retired at the end of 2019. Poco had died. I was making my yearly winter 4-6 week trek to NM. No traveling dog. Went to lunch with a friend at a spa outside of Santa Fe. Ended up looking at puppies at the “Puppy Patch”….Espanola works with the spa bringing puppies in to the “Puppy Patch” for adoption. JoJo, his mother, and 8 siblings had been dumped at Espanola Humane Society in Dec. His leg was badly broken. The Hispanic vet saved his leg and JoJo lived with him and his family from Dec to February recovering. I didn’t realize that JoJo didn’t understand English until after adopting him.

  135. 135.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @Quinerly: This is one of the Pod Save America guys on twitter:

    Robert Hur clearly decided to go down the Jim Comey path of filling his report absolving Biden of criminal activity with ad hominem attacks, like calling him an “elderly man with poor memory.” Not remotely subtle. Just a right-wing hit job from within Biden’s own DOJ. Wild.

  136. 136.

    Betty Cracker

    The Florida Supreme Court, comprising 100% Republican appointees with the majority appointed by DeSantis, is hearing arguments from wingnut state attorney general Ashley Moody to bar the reproductive rights amendment from the ballot this November. The arguments are 100% insulting bullshit, but I do wonder if they’ll just make up reasons to keep it off the ballot. One of the justices is married to the GOP lawmaker who sponsored the six-week abortion ban. Did not recuse.

  138. 138.

    catclub

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: The chyron said “Biden willfully retained classified documents.”

     

    I suspect the Fox chyron is not necessarily a reliable source of information.

    panic and paranoia, yes.

  140. 140.

    Old School

    Information about Afghanistan apparently.

    Biden saved notebooks from his time as vice president that contained classified information, according to the report, and used those notebooks to craft his 2017 memoir with a ghostwriter. The special counsel noted the published books ultimately did not contain classified information.

    Prosecutors concluded Biden saved some of the material because he believed he was an important figure in U.S. history and wanted that history to reflect that he opposed sending more troops to Afghanistan in 2009. Biden, the report said, “always believed history would prove him right.”

    Some of the classified documents were classified “top secret/sensitive compartmented information,” a category reserved for particularly sensitive material. They included papers that related to Afghanistan, including a 2009 memo he sent to then-President Obama in “a last ditch effort to persuade him not to send additional troops to Afghanistan,” the report said.

  143. 143.

    catclub

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: The common elements to both those sounds like:  zero indictments, zero pleading to some crime by the persons being investigated, lots of unsubstantiated accusations by the investigating team.

  146. 146.

    catclub

    @JWR: Why is NBC running a Special Report on the “no charges for Biden” on the classified documents case?

     

    Shouldn’t they have waited till October to do that, like James Comey did??

  150. 150.

    JWR

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    This is one of the Pod Save America guys on twitter:

    I suppose we should’ve been a bit more prepared for this one. This Hur character presents as mostly MAGA, far as I’m concerned.

  151. 151.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:

    On Wednesday, across party lines, Republicans rejected an amendment that would have added rape and incest exceptions to the state’s total ban.

     

    Jessica Valenti keeps on telling us:

    There ARE NO EXECEPTIONS, even in states with ‘ exceptions’. You can never find them.

  153. 153.

    Baud

    @catclub:

    Comey concluded his investigation in May or so. He “reopened” it just before the election because they found duplicate emails or Anthony Weiner’s laptop.

  158. 158.

    glc

    Zaluzhnyi out. I imagine Adam will have something more to say about that tonight, now that it is done.

  161. 161.

    JWR

    @Baud:

    He “reopened” it just before the election because they found duplicate emails or Anthony Weiner’s laptop.

    God, do I ever remember that day! My heart sank so low it was coming out my butt. (Not really, but that was a very bad day for me.)

  165. 165.

    Baud

    @JWR:

    I thought our voters would get mad and come out extra hard. Nope, our marginal voters got manipulated that day. Learned my lesson.

  172. 172.

    rikyrah

    @trollhattan:

    Now that the several storms have moved on, California’s renewable power generation shines in the winter sun: 70% renewables and only 18% natural gas. Also, our snowpack went from about 50% of normal for the date, two weeks ago, to 75%, or 51% of our average annual max. Water in the bank.

     

    When I look at all that snow, and water, I am always hoping that it can be captured to help areas in drought.

  173. 173.

    FunWWords

    @NotMax:

    @brachiator:

    see also brilliant Brockmire w Hank Azalea & Amanda Peet from Veep guy and just for lighter but still dark funny funs Teachers and Plebs…. All available free Pluto TV

  175. 175.

    JWR

    From NBC:

    Hur’s report said there were “clear” material distinctions between a potential case against Biden and the pending case against Trump, noting that unlike “the evidence involving Mr. Biden, the allegations set forth in the indictment of Mr. Trump, if proven, would present serious aggravating facts.” Most notably, they wrote, “after being given multiple chances to return classified documents and avoid prosecution, Mr. Trump allegedly did the opposite.” On the other hand, they wrote, “Mr. Biden turned in classified documents to the National Archives and the Department of Justice, consented to the search of multiple locations including his homes, sat for a voluntary interview, and in other ways cooperated with the investigation.”

    Good.

  184. 184.

    Quinerly

    @JWR:

    Don’t shoot the messenger. I am just reading the report and articles. Adding info to this thread.  From the report:
    Hur’s report included several shocking lines about Bidens’ memory, which the report said “was significantly limited” during his 2023 interviews with the special counsel. Biden’s age and presentation would make it more difficult to convince a jury beyond a reasonable doubt that the now 81-year-old was guilty of willfully committing a crime.
    “We have also considered that, at trial, Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory,” it said. “Based on our direct interactions with and observations of him, he is someone for whom many jurors will want to identify reasonable doubt. It would be difficult to convince a jury that they should convict him — by then a former president well into his eighties — of a serious felony that requires a mental state of willfulness.”
    Later in the report, the special counsel said that the president’s memory was “worse” during their interview with him, compared to his memory in recorded conversations from 2017.
    https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/joe-biden/special-counsel-says-evidence-biden-willfully-retained-disclosed-class-rcna96666

  185. 185.

    Betty Cracker

    @JWR: I don’t understand how this special counselor (or whatever the official title is) role works, I guess, because I thought Hur’s job was to investigate the classified docs found on Biden’s property, determine if any wrongdoing occurred related to document retention and issue a report on THAT. The paragraph you quoted above is exculpatory for Biden, which is all well and good. But was it Hur’s job to compare Biden’s case to Trump’s? Is he deep enough in the weeds on Trump’s case to be qualified to do that? Was it his job to make editorial comments about Biden’s memory?

  187. 187.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @lowtechcyclist: I’m one of those weirdos that believes EVERY member of our Coalition has a moral obligation to vote for Biden to prevent a second term for Trump and a GOP Congress.  That applies to all of us: White Voters, Male Voters, Women Voters, Black Voters, LGBTQ Voters, Straight Voters, Young Voters and Muslim Voters.  Nobody gets a pass to sit this one out.  The stakes for our country and our planet are simply too big.  And frankly anyone who is spending their time threatening not to vote (or defending those that do) because of one issue/policy or otherwise pushing on the delicate fractures in our coalition, is undermining that goal, while bringing a smile to Putin’s face.

  190. 190.

    Baud

    @Quinerly:

    The only “revelation” suggests Biden did not recall the same events in 2023 that he did in 2017 about things that happened in 2009.

    The media will run with it, but I don’t see a there there, except that the prosecutor is acting like Comey.

  191. 191.

    oldgold

    @Quinerly: These references in the report to his poor memory, which the report attributes to his age, are going to be a real problem going forward.

  192. 192.

    rikyrah

    @UncleEbeneezer:

     I’m one of those weirdos that believes EVERY member of our Coalition has a moral obligation to vote for Biden to prevent a second term for Trump and a GOP Congress.  That applies to all of us: White Voters, Male Voters, Women Voters, Black Voters, LGBTQ Voters, Straight Voters, Young Voters and Muslim Voters.  Nobody gets a pass to sit this one out.  The stakes for our country and our planet are simply too big.

     

    Preach it.

    TELL IT.

  194. 194.

    Quinerly

    @Alison Rose: yes.

    But, unfortunately, this is now out there. I’m pretty sure that I, as a long time Biden supporter, don’t have to explain this to anyone. Plays into a narrative, for sure.

  195. 195.

    zhena gogolia

    @Baud: All I can say is, the picture painted here is not consistent with how Biden presents himself. More people are going to see Biden campaign than are going to read this report. And Hur is not in the same position of authority that Comey was.

  197. 197.

    Alison Rose

    @UncleEbeneezer: Anyone who says they won’t vote for Biden because of Gaza should be asked: “Why do you not care about tens of millions of people in this country whose lives will be damaged or destroyed in a second Trump presidency? Why do women, queer and trans people, POC, disabled people, refugees, elderly, and people of minority religions in this country not matter at all to you? And outside our borders, why do you not care about Ukrainians or Taiwanese or really anyone in any country aside from Palestine? And when will you be changing your voter registration to Republican, because if you are okay with all of those groups being harmed, in many cases irreparably, then there is no difference between you and the GOP.”

  198. 198.

    zhena gogolia

    God, it’s a good thing I have to go to a lecture in a few minutes. I’ll need my husband to talk me down this evening.

  200. 200.

    Alison Rose

    @zhena gogolia: This. The report can claim all it wants, but Biden is clearly in control of his faculties and his memory seems just fine to anyone who pays attention to the actual man himself and not a caricature given to us by someone clearly not sympathetic to his side at all.

  203. 203.

    wjca

    @Kay: On Wednesday, across party lines, Republicans rejected an amendment that would have added rape and incest exceptions to the state’s total ban.

    Give them credit for this much: consistency.  IF you actually believe that the fetus is a human being from the moment of conception (for many of them, it’s a facade, but there are some believers), then there isn’t a moral excuse for rape or incest exceptions.  Any more than you should fault a bastard for his parents’ failure to get married.

  208. 208.

    JWR

    @Betty Cracker:

    Was it his job to make editorial comments about Biden’s memory?

    Good question(s), but as others have already noted, it’s like Comey all over again. I never trusted him to be any but the worse Repub for the job, and there he goes, handing team T***p another “Joe’s so old” talking point. :(

  210. 210.

    Alison Rose

    @wjca: Yeah. It’s natural to hear “no exceptions for rape victims” and think that’s the worst stance, but if someone claims they’re against abortion because it’s murder, but they’re okay with allowing it for rape victims — i.e., people who didn’t do anything “wrong” — what that proves is they don’t actually think it’s murder, they just want to punish sluts. “These poor innocent victims over here deserve an abortion, but you heathens who got pregnant through consensual sex, no way.”

    Of course, as others point out, these exceptions almost never apply anyway, since the bar to prove you were raped is probably high enough to have scorch marks from the sun.

  211. 211.

    wjca

    @Betty Cracker: was it Hur’s job to compare Biden’s case to Trump’s? Is he deep enough in the weeds on Trump’s case to be qualified to do that?

    How deep in the weeds do you have to be to say “Biden cooperated.  Trump obstructed “?

  212. 212.

    Betty Cracker

    @zhena gogolia: Yep, it was Garland. Maybe some day the law against appointing Democrats as special counselors/special prosecutors/FBI directors will be overturned.

    I believe we’d see different results!

  214. 214.

    rikyrah

    @Alison Rose:

    Anyone who says they won’t vote for Biden because of Gaza should be asked: “Why do you not care about tens of millions of people in this country whose lives will be damaged or destroyed in a second Trump presidency? Why do women, queer and trans people, POC, disabled people, refugees, elderly, and people of minority religions in this country not matter at all to you? And outside our borders, why do you not care about Ukrainians or Taiwanese or really anyone in any country aside from Palestine? And when will you be changing your voter registration to Republican, because if you are okay with all of those groups being harmed, in many cases irreparably, then there is no difference between you and the GOP.”

     

    CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP

  216. 216.

    Betty Cracker

    @wjca: Not deep at all, but what I’m asking is, why is that in his purview at all? Why is a cognitive assessment of the president in his purview? Like Comey, he had ONE JOB. I’m kind of sick of these douchebags taking it upon themselves to editorialize.

  218. 218.

    Old School

    Asked for a reaction to the Robert Hurt report that was just made public, a senior adviser to the president told CNN:

    “379 pages to say no charges and no charges even if he was a civilian. Period.”

    Biden’s personal lawyer Bob Bauer leaned into that in his statement, saying this report was one of “investigative excess.”

    “Whatever the impact of those pressures on the final Report, it flouts Department regulations and norms,” Bauer said.

  219. 219.

    wjca

    @UncleEbeneezer: I’m one of those weirdos that believes EVERY member of our Coalition has a moral obligation to vote for Biden to prevent a second term for Trump and a GOP Congress.

    I’d go further and say that everyone, whether otherwise a Coalition member or not, has such a moral obligation.

  220. 220.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Alison Rose: And then they’ll say “why doesn’t Biden care enough about all those people to change his policy so that I’ll be able to vote for him? Why don’t you care enough to make Biden change?”

    (i’ve seen this whole conversation go around several times, and that’s the response)

  221. 221.

    Paul in KY

    @Betty Cracker: I wonder if Mr. Garland saw this before it was released? Might have been the time to do an ‘executive summary’ of it and release that first.

  224. 224.

    Paul in KY

    @Matt McIrvin: Because he FUCKIN CARES MORE THAN TRUMP, YOU STUPID DUMBFUCK! THAT IS ALL THAT MATTERS: HOW DOES HE COMPARE TO TRUMP!!!!!!

    Not directed at you, that’s what I’d say to these splitter choad dipshits.

  225. 225.

    Eyeroller

    @Geminid: Plus he’s not a neurologist.  He has no basis to say that other than to attack Biden.  Everybody’s memory for past events gets worse as time passes.

  227. 227.

    oldgold

    @Old School: That and a buck fifty will buy you a bad gas station cup of coffee.

    Within hours, if not sooner, the story, is not going to be Biden was exonerated, it will be all about Biden’s failing memory.

    We have a problem. And, we are not going to be able to wish it away.

    My proposed solution is that Biden be examined as to cognitive abilities and the results released.

  231. 231.

    eclare

    @Geminid:

    I didn’t know Hur was a trained medical professional who could assess mental ability.

    I do think Joe’s stutter is more pronounced recently, which some people interpret as mental decline, which is bullshit.  But I attribute that to the fact that Joe has to be running on fumes at this point, dealing with Bibi, Ukraine, yahoos in Congress.  I would expect stress and a lack of sleep make a stutter worse.  Please correct me if I’m wrong, just my hypothesis.

  234. 234.

    Leto

    MSNBC is showing part of Biden’s response to the report, as he gave it “moments ago” at a rally speech. For an old guy, with memory problems, he’s reciting long passages from memory verbatim. But yeah, man, woman, camera…

  239. 239.

    Quinerly

    @Betty Cracker:

    It’s not. But if you read that part of the report, the business about his poor memory dovetails into the reason why Hur didn’t charge.

    That’s his excuse for taking  those shots at Biden.

  240. 240.

    Old School

    @oldgold:

    We have a problem. And, we are not going to be able to wish it away.

    Well, good thing the election isn’t until November then.

  242. 242.

    catclub

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: It also sounded like something he’s not qualified to assess.

     

    I think if the statement starts out “He may appear to a jury as…”

    I think a prosecutor is fairly well qualified to assess that.

  243. 243.

    Baud

    @Quinerly:

    The part you excerpted indicates that he believes a jury would find Biden sympathetic. Not that Biden lacked the mens rea for a crime.  Seems like a shifty analysis, but I’m not a prosecutor.

  245. 245.

    Quinerly

    @Baud:

    Look, I don’t agree with any of this. But people need to read the impt parts of the report and accept the fact that it is out there.

    It ties into a narrative the press has been beating for at least 2 years.

    It’s a problem.

  246. 246.

    Baud

    @Quinerly:

    No one is disputing the media problem. Part of dealing with the problem is explaining to people that this guy is another Comey, which he appears to be.

    Simply saying it’s a problem doesn’t get us anywhere.

  247. 247.

    Quinerly

    @Baud:

    It seems some don’t want to even acknowledge it’s a problem.

    I totally get equating it with Comey.

    A lot of people who vote don’t know/remember Comey. And that’s another problem we should acknowledge.

  249. 249.

    Betty Cracker

    @Quinerly: FWIW, I agree. Anything that confirms a damaging preexisting narrative is a problem, which is why I’m somewhat optimistic that the GOP’s recent border bungling will hurt them. First step of solving a problem is admitting it exists.

  252. 252.

    Citizen Alan

    @lowtechcyclist:  Reasonable people can disagree about Biden’s approach to Gaza. But anyone who says “I’m so angry about Biden’s approach to Gaza that I will enable the reelection of Trump, who will, on his first day in office, call Bibi up and tell him that it’s okay if he flat-out exterminates all the Palestinians in Israel,” is just a fucking idiot.

  254. 254.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Alison Rose: Exactly.  No matter what group you are a part of, no matter what level of privilege you have, the whole point of our coalition is that we are supposed to have each others’ backs, and use our votes to help and protect everyone else.  We rightfully bash the men who refuse to vote for whatever reason and throw women under the bus.  We rightfully bash the white people who do the same thing to PoC.  We rightfully bash Cis/Het people who do the same.  The take-your-ball-and-go-home approach to voting is bullshit no matter who pulls it.  And it’s not something we should applaud, encourage or make excuses for.

  255. 255.

    Citizen Alan

    @wjca: I reject every part of that. Because there is nothing–absolutely nothing!–that Republicans have done in the 50 years that supports the idea that they care at all about the health and safety of a fetus or a newborn beyond preventing it from being aborted. So long as no abortion takes place, they don’t care if the woman miscarries and/or dies in the process of giving birth or if the newborn child starves to death in the gutter.  The anti-choice movement is driven 100% by a sadistic misogyny. Eve ate the apple, and so God decided that pregnancy should first-and-foremost be a method of torturing women.

  256. 256.

    Mai Naem mobile

    @wjca: you have to be a former Rehnquist clerk. Apparently Garland couldn’t find another lawyer to be the special prosecutor. Too few lawyers out there.

  258. 258.

    JWR

    Wasn’t Hur already in his position when Garland took over, leaving Hur in that position as one of those stupid peace gestures to Repubs? He knew that if he removed the guy, they’d be screaming about the “Democrat special counsel” that Garland should have replaced him with. But whatever. Let’s see where the pieces fall.

  259. 259.

    Kayla Rudbek

    @rikyrah: hmm, maybe this could go into the bay window nook seat in my bedroom that is currently covered with a stapled-on, cut-to-size rug (yet another example of the previous owner’s bad design decisions)

  262. 262.

    FunWWords

    @Betty Cracker:

    I feel like maybe Uncle Joe has been around block/ has enough experience to have said something to the effect of “I don’t recall” as opposed to oversharing / implicating himself in Republican shenanigans… didn’t Hillary also say she didn’t recall during 11 hr Benghazi BS? Like, isn’t “ I don’t recall” kinda standard code for … get bent, I’m not volunteering any info “investigator” going run w in bad faith?

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