I see that the Justice Department has provided the media and Republicans with a both sides defense on documents to use in their fluffery of Trump, with a bonus dig at Biden’s mental health. So that’s fucking awesome. I remain very concerned about the Fall election. It’s clear that it does not matter how well things are going or anything concrete, a lot of people just want to burn shit to the ground and a lot of people just want to carry out their vengeance porn on the poor and minorities and those different than them.
In other news, I didn’t do anything today. I mean I worked, and I made dinner, and now I am baking brownies, but other than that I did nothing of note. Cleaned some litter boxes. Carried some palm tree debris around back. But other than that, just pissed and moaned about the rain and my back like a proper old person.
I did get to use my brand new to me antique nut cutter (or vintage) that I got for free at the estate sale. Like a mason jar contraption with a screw on lid with a plunger that crushes nuts up. I’d never made brownies for Joelle before, but she had mentioned in passing that she liked walnuts in them, so I crushed up some nuts and threw them in.
I like a good single use tool. I know with the need for economy of space in a lot of apartment kitchens multi-purpose tools are preferred, but I like to live in a world where a good tool has a place even if it can only do one thing. Plus, the more complicated things get, the more likely they are to break, and the less likely you are to be able to fix it. Especially with electronics.
I guess that’s all I have to say tonight.
lowtechcyclist
Three new posts in <45 minutes – that's pretty impressive work by you front-pagers!
I can barely keep up with the posts, forget the comments!
Baud
@lowtechcyclist:
Comments aren’t worth reading.
Or was it the posts?
Nannette
As a child, I used that mason jar nut chopper to chop walnuts for my Grandmother so that she could bake nut cups for Christmas. It was a tedious job but the positive reinforcement I got at a job well done balanced out the hand cramps I suffered.
Jay
Is it the one with the 4 blades and the rotational shaft with a wooden knob on top?
Old School
Mmmmm… brownies.
sanjeevs
Another great choice by Garland.
Meanwhile not a single actual GOP Rep or Congressman has been charged by the DoJ. Not a single financier has been charged by the DoJ.
And with Cannon running interference, the only person dinged by the DoJ for mishandling of classified info is Biden.
Baud
@sanjeevs:
You know, a criminal indictment (Trump) is worse than a special prosecutor report.
Miki
You’re in Arizona. It’s pecans, not walnuts. Get a grip, John.
sanjeevs
@Baud: You think anything will happen with that under Judge Cannon?
Baud
@sanjeevs:
I’m taking issue with your comparison.
Betty
Totally agree about electronic appliances. Manual stuff works and lasts.
sanjeevs
@Baud: Fair enough.
But Garland has confirmed the widespread perception of him as another of the Comey/Mueller type.
Garland selected a Republican as Special Counsel and got the inevitable result. Garland is responsible for this debacle.
Chetan Murthy
@Baud: I think what @sanjeevs: is pointing out, is that for the MSM, this is their oppty to bothsides, and yeah, Garland gave it to them on a silver platter. Yes, 91 indictments is much worse than a special prosecutor’s “no bill” report. But this FedSoc prosecutor teed up enough meat to get the MSM going for weeks …..
I mean, sure, it’s all bullshit. But here we are. It is what it is, as a great (no, he wasn’t great, he wasn’t even middling) philosopher (he wasn’t that either) once said.
Chetan Murthy
@Miki: what I wondered was: “what, a special tool for crushing already-shelled nuts? really?” I thought that’s what *hands* were for ? [says the guy with a $50 garlic press]
Baud
@Chetan Murthy:
I agree with that. It’s not what was originally said though.
Cheryl from Maryland
My mother had a nut chopper like that. Four blades, red metal domed top, wooden knob. I wanted it so bad, but my brother got it first. The one I have is plastic and not nearly as nice. I did get all the Miro cookie sheets.
Omnes Omnibus
Since the thread about the oral argument is as dead a Jacob Marley, let me note here what I say every time people here listen to an oral argument: Trying to guess what an appellate court will do based on the oral arguments is a mug’s game. It is a cross between astrology and phrenology with a more than a touch of Kremlinology tossed in for flavor. You can say the arguments went will for one side or the other, but that doesn’t tell you anything. Please feel as free as ever to completely ignore this and speculate wildly though.
Old School
@Chetan Murthy:
Merrick Garland when appointing Robert Hur:
“I am confident that Mr. Hur will carry out his responsibility in an even-handed and urgent manner, and in accordance with the highest traditions of this Department.”
Marina
Hur was appointed by Garland. Garland was appointed by Biden. Because Obama had [tried to] appoint Garland to the Supreme Court, picking a milquetoast Republican candidate to appeal to his friends across the aisle. The moral of this story: Do not attempt to appease Republicans. It won’t work. Don’t appoint Republicans. To anything. Ever. [See Comey, James.]
All those damning little details in today’s news [like Biden not remembering what year his son died] didn’t have to be in that report. They weren’t directly relevant. Garland could have kept them out. Maybe, like Comey, he was concerned about what Republicans might think…
I admit, the details were damning. I don’t even know what I want to happen now. Maybe go back to that butterfly ballot that was such a lousy design hundreds of elderly Jews in Florida accidentally voted for Buchanon and that’s [one reason] why Gore lost the presidency. See Bradbury’s “A Sound of Thunder” https://www.astro.sunysb.edu/fwalter/AST389/ASoundofThunder.pdf
hitchhiker
At least he’s issuing this bullshit now, in February, rather than next October.
I think they’ll have their feast for a bit, but soon enough it will be … didn’t that one guy say Biden was a geezer last winter?
And Biden is not under investigation for anything now. Nothing. No more special reports, no more leaked stories about special prosecutors, no more hours of cable hosts speculating about what will happen next. This is it. This is what they get — a report that goes so low as to suggest Biden can’t remember when his son died of cancer, and that will be an old memory by the time we get to the election.
It’s disgusting, but they’re all disgusting. Let’s vote their disgusting asses right out of our government.
Chetan Murthy
@Old School: “Pull the other one, Merrick ya fookin’ putz”
wjca
Garland selected a Republican, making it impossible to yell “Partisan cover-up!” When, as expected, no grounds were found for charges.
Omnes Omnibus
@sanjeevs: And those of you who think so will continue to do so no matter what evidence to the contrary is put in front of you. So I’ll just say you are wrong to put it on the record.
Chetan Murthy
@hitchhiker: I am hearing echoes of “Benghazi Benghazi Benghazi” down the halls of the House of Representatives …..
sanjeevs
@Omnes Omnibus: Anyone appointing a Republican as Special Counsel has zero interest in truth or justice.
Only playing the both-sides bullshit.
zhena gogolia
@hitchhiker: Thank you.
A lot of unfamiliar people showing up here this evening to shit on Garland.
Chetan Murthy
@Omnes Omnibus: Omnes, you wiill be vindicated *if and only if* TFG is disqualified from the ballot in November. Otherwise, your oh-so-vaunted legal system is worth shit, only useful to oppress the weak, comfort the powerful. But hey, maybe it’ll come thru. Maybe it’ll come thru.
TaMara
Use the flat side of my meat hammer, a ziplock bag, and all my pent-up rage to crush nuts.
zhena gogolia
My husband says “one news cycle.”
I think I’ll stick with him this evening.
prostratedragon
@wjca: Oh you don’t say! // obvious. And with that in mind, what else could Garland have been expected to say?
TaMara
Also, don’t forget, the pie filter is your friend.
Chetan Murthy
@sanjeevs: Surely there was some Republican prosecutor who wasn’t a TFG ass-licker. Surely. At the very least, Merrick could have picked a G(r)OPer who had had a really bad run-in w/TFG. Those exist, FFS.
Omnes Omnibus
@Chetan Murthy: Nope, even then, half of you will say that it happened despite Garland being a crypto-Republican squish.
Chetan Murthy
@Omnes Omnibus: He’s not a crypto-GrOPer squish. He’s something worse: a spineless jellyfish. He doesn’t apply the law without fear nor favor; far from it: he lives in fucking fear of GrOPers and their wrath, so he goes out of his way to favor them.
But you’re wrong: all we want is for the law to be applied. That’s all we want. What we see is that the law is a cudgel the powerful use to beat us, and nothing more.
Or as Johnny Casper put it: “youse fancy-pants, alla yez”
Chris
@Old School:
Well, one out of three ain’t bad.
Sure Lurkalot
I have always assumed that Garland was chosen AG to make up for his failed SC nomination. I wasn’t all that thrilled when Obama picked him in the first place, I thought it was yet another “crossing the aisle” hail mary…surely the republicans wouldn’t refuse to consider someone so anodyne! I understand that his appointment and handling of things Trump are matters of contention here. The fact that he waited until Trump declared his candidacy to appoint a special counsel speaks volumes to me.
As for the Hur shit, was there no review of his report? He was not appointed an independent counsel AFAIK.
Argiope
I’m going to admit here and now that last week I couldn’t immediately remember if my mom had died of cancer in 2017 or 2018. For context, I had not just managed an ongoing international incident, I was just doing my taxes. At age 54. How Uncle Joe manages to get through a presser without cussing at reporters is beyond me, and all the evidence I need that his faculties are intact. I couldn’t do it. Christ, what a bunch of assholes.
delphinium
@Chris:
So, Meatloaf has been wrong all these years?
Argiope
@TaMara:
If only we could deliver a few select pairs to you, still attached to their owners.
Chetan Murthy
@Argiope:
https://www.rawstory.com/biden-zings-fox-news/
wjca
@Omnes Omnibus: Well, some still seem to have trouble wrapping their heads around the idea that Biden might be a damn crafty politician. Who got skads of good legislation thru despite razor thin margins in Congress. Nope, must be a hopeless naif, because he isn’t jumping to do something that they think is the most effective way to address (pick any one: border, Gaza, etc., etc.).
Chief Oshkosh
@Sure Lurkalot: Others are making that point out on the intertoobes. In fact, some have pointed out that DOJ policy is to NOT release these reports at this level of detail (TPM has such commentary on its front page right now).
Similar to Comey, Garland appears to be going outside of policy.
Why? Just do your fucking job. Your job does not include making decisions based on politics, especially when there’s set policy about NOT doing what you just did.
Chris
@Chetan Murthy:
No, there wasn’t. Every time they try to look for one – remember when Comey was a Principled Man of Integritude because he stood up to one of Dubya’s attempts to politicize the DOJ? – it bites them in the ass. You’re more likely to be struck by lightning than to find a high-level Republican who isn’t going to try to extract his political pound of flesh from any time he’s given a position like this, however “apolitical” his job may supposedly be.
They need to stop playing this fucking “nobody can say there was a cover-up if a Republican is investigating!” game, because not only does it never work, all it means in practice is that Republicans will only be investigated by Republicans, Democrats will only be investigated by Republicans, and the end result is “only Republicans are allowed to investigate anything.”
M31
love those old nut choppers! My inherited one got lost in a move and I miss it every time I chop nuts on a cutting board and they fly all over the kitchen and they’re too many different sizes
gotta hit some yard sales this spring
I love silly old single-use kitchen tools as long as they are stylish. I got a great shiny chrome ice chopper called “The Ice-O-Mat” at a yard sale for 25 cents a few years go, love it.
NotMax
If what you describe is anything like the ancient one nestled in a cabinet here — with a round cork insert that sits on the bottom of the jar portion — I use it to coarsely chop onions (or a small amount of mirepoix) when don’t feel like dragging out the mini food processor.
Chief Oshkosh
@Chris: I think you may be onto something there, Chris.
NotMax
@NotMax
Misremembered. Not a round cork insert, it’s a removable wooden disk.
Chetan Murthy
@Chris:
Fair enough. In that case, *Merrick* shoulda said so, and appointed a Dem. I’m good with that, BTW. I also subscribe to “NO MORE FUCKING REPUBLICAN DADDIES”. I also remember James Fucking Comey’s “Elect More Women” t-shirt (and the proof that there is no God, b/c he wasn’t struck by lightning for wearing the damn thing)
Chetan Murthy
@Chris: I do wonder though: what about George Conway? If I thought about it a little longer, maybe I could find a few others. Jeff Berman ?
prostratedragon
@Chetan Murthy: They also would have to be available.
Ghost of Joe Liebling’s Dog
@Chetan Murthy:
Presumably it has “… just not THAT one” on the back.
Chris
@Chetan Murthy:
I think at this point, we’ve simply been bitten on the ass so many times that it makes no sense to take the chance. And like I said, the norm of “only Republicans are allowed to run political investigations” needs to die in a fire. It’s not just hurting us as a party, it is wrecking the government and the country.
Omnes Omnibus
@Chris: While I broadly agree with this sentiment, I do have to note that Jack Smith is not a Republican.
Another Scott
Meanwhile, … DJ Cummerbund – Testifireball (3:41)
(A mashup of Rage Against the Machine’s Testify and Pitbull’s Fireball)
Catchy!
Cheers,
Scott.
Chetan Murthy
@Chris: I’m 100% OK with your position. And honestlly, more than 100%, in the sense that the only good G(r)OPer is a dead G(r)OPer. Fuck them. Fuck them all. So of course, I’m OK with it.
What I meant was only that *if* Jellyfish Merrick wanted to appoint a Republican, he should have found one who was implacably opposed to TFG and all his works. I mean, if that’s impossible, then “oh so sorry, Merrick, you gotta appoint a Dem”. But if it’s possible, sure, I guess he could do that. But the idea that it’s OK to appoint some run-of-the-mill TFG ass-licker ? Fuck that.
And fuck you, Merrick.
catclub
No, the indictment of Trump for mishandling of documents is MUCH bigger ding than the special counsel not charging anything. And also saying, ‘even if he were not president now, we would not charge ANYTHING.’
rikyrah
@Old School:
I know….I wanna know all about the brownies😋😋
catclub
@Chetan Murthy: The horrifying thing about a lot of government employees is that if they are not Democrats, then they are totally with Trump. And the ones in law enforcement are most likely to be trump humpers.
…. and I was a government employee! My fellow workers! ack!
catclub
it would be interesting to find the letter that assigned the job.
Indict or silence?
wjca
Beat me to it! It’s far easier to spot a few high profile cases that fit a narrative than to actually wade thru the data.
Albatrossity
The people who were gonna toot that one-note chorus that “Biden is old!” were already gonna toot it, and would continue to toot it no matter what. To blame that on Garland is, to say the least, a stretch.
And yeah, I understand that this gives them a louder toot for a news cycle or two. And yeah, I wish it hadn’t happened. But IMHO, it is not worth all the hand-wringing that I see here.
You may now go back to your regularly scheduled weeping and gnashing.
Chris
@catclub:
I really don’t think the average Dem groks how much the average Dem and the average Repub lives in different universes. Not the politicians or pundits or financiers, ordinary people (including, yes, civil servants).
I had a friend who graduated from the same international relations/national security studies program as me at the end of the 2000s, back when I still had Republican friends. At some point after we graduated, I found out that she had no idea we never found any WMDs in Iraq. A decade after the fact, four years of studies in this exact field, someone who supposedly followed the news more than the average joe, and somehow the central fact of the war that had dominated headlines since before she was old enough to drive had completely eluded her.
She’s been an analyst of some sort in various security agencies for the last fifteen years. You tell me if you think it doesn’t affect her judgment, and thereby the government’s, that she doesn’t think anything exists unless it appears on One America News.
Jackie
@Albatrossity: 👍🏻
Priest
My phrase of art when I’ve used a less than appropriate tool for a task is “I could butter toast with an axe if I had to, but…” So I fully support John’s single use implement.
NotMax
Gonna be an upcoming yummy string of dinners
Just slid the 8½ pound boneless pork loin scored at Costco (for 99 cents a pound) into a 325 degree oven. Simple seasoning this time out: brushed with oil and a rub of ground sage and herbes de Provence. Probably include a sprinkle of black pepper after the first basting in about an hour or so.
Am one of those who have no problem whatsoever dining on leftovers day after day until they’re gone.
Quadrillipede
Outside of the Right Wing Bullshit Production Complex (RWBSPC?) because nobody cares what diseased nonsense they pretend to believe, how many Americans uncritically accept everything they hear or read on “the news”?
I have trouble imagining it’s more than 15% myself, but am interested in arguments that would support a different estimate…
wjca
And rending of garments. Must not forget rending of garments.
NotMax
@Quadrillipede
Not even “the news,” for too many it’s “the headlines.”
Quadrillipede
Joe Biden is old, but Merrick Garland will be old too one day…
(My ”research team” just informed me that JB is almost exactly 10 years older than MG.)
TBone
@Omnes Omnibus: 👍 what’s with all the Eeyores. There are no charges, merely a stupid insult (not even original material) to our intelligence. Again. Won’t be remembered next week when the next “outrage” hits. Keep yer powder dry, no tears necessary is my motto. I’m not letting these morons light my hair on fire with this crap. Pwn the libs my ass.
HinTN
@NotMax:
Right there with you. Cooking’s gotta be better than this scrum. Enjoy!
TBone
A huge pot with a chicken carcass simmered slowly for hours. Tomorrow it will be chicken soup with plenty of garlic, much of which will be frozen for upcoming yukky weather days.
prostratedragon
Take it, Pitchbot!
Jackie
I just saw an interview by Kaitlan Collins (CNN) with Elise Stefanik. Stefanik can almost talk nonstop full speed without taking a breath as well as Kellyanne Conway.😵💫
Ksmiami
Garland needs to step down or be fired by Biden tomorrow. The Hur report is a disgrace and the DOJ is a joke.
Ksmiami
@Albatrossity: Garland should never have appointed a hack Rt wing pos to investigate Biden, or insult him in the report. From the beginning, Garland has been pathetic when we needed strength.
Alison Rose
@Ksmiami: That would not be a good look. It would make Biden seem petty. He’s addressed the report and refuted what needed refuting. Now we should all leave it in the dustbin.
Ksmiami
@Alison Rose: disagree. It would make the Dems fighting for his Re-election very happy. Appoint a savvy and strong democratic prosecutor to the role. And then clean house at the DOJ.
sab
@TBone: Whole chicken seared all over, then simmered for hours with celery (chopped into long chunks) and whole tomatoes (squished). Then remove chicken and simmer the celery/tomatoes down for another few hours. Then return the chicken (either chopped into serving pieces, or skinned and deboned) and reheat for at least half an hour. At this point add tiny potatoes or hunks of regular potatoes, or alternatively serve over rice. Potatoes go in at the last hour.
It works best if you can carmelize the liquid after the chicken has been removed. Okay but a bit bland if it doesn’t happen, but amazing if it does. That requires enough time and liquid for the carmelization to happen.
Frankensteinbeck
Early analysis of online reactions suggests that today’s news day was “Oh man, did you hear the zinger Biden pulled on Steve Doocey?”
NotMax
@TBone
Chicken ‘n’ dumplings (a.k.a gentile matzo balls)?
wjca
Let’s hear it for low expectations! Suddenly even moderate witticisms make an impact.
Jackie
@Ksmiami: If Garland had appointed a Dem to investigate Biden… well we ALL KNOW how well that would have been played by TIFG and the GQP. Unfortunately it was Hur, who seems to have some MAGA in his DNA.
Garland is damned, DAMNED either way.
NotMax
@wjca
Nothing to do with Biden but the comment reminded me of this sketch.
;)
Ksmiami
@Jackie: the guys been a weak- willed MAGA enabler from the beginning.
Ruckus
John, if I recall you really aren’t all that old, not in the natural order of things. I was the youngest in my family (not by much mind you) and now I’m the only one left in my family and the oldest of all the cousins. I was born in the first half of the last century – you do the math. There are some here older than me but most are not. And if I recall, including you. But what goes around often comes around. I remember in Los Angeles as a kid, the buses were electric with overhead wires. They were replaced of course with diesel buses and now we are back to electric cars and there are local buses where I live that are battery electric. They inductive charge at a bus stop I pass – on the electric transit train. What comes around often likely did before. Back to age, there are several women who live in the apartment complex I live in who are in their 90s, one is 97 and one man that I know of is 93. We are living longer and I’d bet healthier than prior generations. Wikipedia lists the 50 oldest known people in the world. 49 are woman, the oldest is 116 yrs and 342 days and the youngest of them is 112 yrs and 144 days. Ten of them live in the US.
TBone
@NotMax: mmmmm. I usually just make it with the usual veggies plus lots of garlic and add noodles last minute, but that sounds really good, so maybe!
TBone
@sab: that sounds delish, does it have a name? Did you make that up?
TBone
@Alison Rose: hard agree
Gwangung
@Ksmiami: The only sensible thing you said is your last sentence.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@Ruckus: Yeah, Edith Ceccarelli is 116+ years old and lives just up the road in Willits, CA. Every year Willits celebrates her birthday; this year the town marked it with a parade.
Ksmiami
@sanjeevs: I think Biden should fire garbage garland tomorrow.
Ksmiami
@Jackie: oh yes only Republicans get to investigate Democrats.., that’s worked so well for us
Ksmiami
@Alison Rose: even Bloomberg is dumping on Biden.
MomSense
@Marina:
I’m going to be charitable and assume you are just ignorant about Garland’s career as a prosecutor.
Subsole
@Quadrillipede:
Oh, they don’t uncritically accept the news. They’re not that naive.
They uncritically accept conspiracy bullshit on the internet.
xjmuellerlurks
We had one of those choppers when I was a kid, 60 years ago. I chopped my share of walnuts for baking and always enjoyed it – it was fun. It works good for nuts, but can be used with onions – particularly for those who have a hard time working them with a knife.
Miss Bianca
@Omnes Omnibus: Even later to this theme than you, but I just wanted to say THANK YOU.
TheTruffle
A look at the comments section of WaPo shows a lot of people who think this is a hit job on Hur’s part.
Garland should have picked another investigator.
evodevo
@Omnes Omnibus: Yes, this…and there must have been a short list somewhere from which they picked Jack Smith – was there anyone else on there they could have enlisted who was NOT a partisan Repub?
evodevo
@NotMax: Which is why I treasure Doug J
Joelle
For the record: Cole’s pearl onion beef stew (with carrots and baby green peas for Bunny!) was a midwinter’s delight on a spoon. The brownies that he bitched about were also deliciously decadent with lots of just right size walnuts submerged in a half baked lava flow of chocolaty goodness.