If the bank records prove anything then indict him. Otherwise and this bullshit charade.
Because that’s all you have?
— Gary Koepnick (@garykoepnick) March 2, 2024
If you can bring yourself to listen to 30 seconds of Jim Comer… dude is frantic that all the spinning plates are come crashing down, some of them possibly on his own head. We had full faith in Informant Smirnov, because he told us exactly what we wanted to hear!
How clean is the dirt on Hunter Biden? A key Republican source is charged with lying to the FBI https://t.co/gaX0zCipGj
— The Associated Press (@AP) March 2, 2024
Smirnov seems to be what Georgette Heyer would have styled ‘a plausible rogue’ — plausible only to those looking to believe. From the Associated Press, “How clean is the dirt on Hunter Biden? A key Republican source is charged with lying to the FBI”:
Alexander Smirnov was cast by Republicans as one of the FBI’s most trusted informants, offering a “highly credible” account of brazen public corruption by Joe Biden that formed a pillar of the House impeachment investigation of the Democratic president.
Then, last month, the script changed dramatically.
Smirnov, 43, finds himself charged with lying to the FBI, accused of fabricating a tale of bribery and espionage involving then-Vice President Biden and the Ukrainian energy company Burisma, and he has told officials he has Russian intelligence contacts…
Interviews and a review of public records by The Associated Press suggest this was not likely Smirnov’s first turn in what the government says is a cycle as a fabulist.
They offer a portrait of a businessman who operated a string of murky shell companies, ran with others who have been accused of fraud, and boasted of his own ties to the FBI. The episode highlights not only the perils of the Republicans’ reliance on unverified information in their quest to confront Biden but also the risks inherent in the FBI’s use of sometimes-unreliable informants who may have ulterior motives.
“How come in all of the universe nobody in America figured out for years that this guy is a fraud and a liar? How did this (expletive) make its way to Congress?” said Yossi Attia, a Los Angeles businessman who has interacted with Smirnov and once ran a penny stock company in which Smirnov held a substantial stake.…
Little is known publicly about Smirnov other than allegations in the government’s case, court records, corporate financial disclosures and business filings.
A dual Israeli and U.S. citizen, Smirnov moved to the United States in 2006, traveling in Los Angeles’ Eastern European expatriate circles for more than a decade while providing information to the FBI. It wasn’t immediately clear what investigations Smirnov may have contributed to, though he worked with an FBI handler based in Seattle and the indictment suggests he provided reporting related to “ROC” — a likely reference to Russian organized crime.
A short biography included in a corporate financial document from 2011 describes Smirnov as a veteran businessman “fluent in Russian, English, Hebrew and Arabic” who once was president of a “private mineral and logistic operation, with assets in Russia.”
Even as Smirnov was being paid as a government informant, he participated in duplicitous business schemes, according to court records and interviews…
In 2016, Tigran Sarkisyan and Hripsime Khachtryan sued Smirnov, claiming he pitched them on a company called Grand Pacaraima Gold Corp. It was only after paying him $100,000 that the two discovered the stock certificates Smirnov provided were fake, according to the complaint. When they approached him about it, Smirnov told them he was working with authorities on a fraud investigation that did not involve them and he “continued to make excuses and lie” about their investment, the complaint said.
The suit was dismissed in 2018 when Sarkisyan and Khachatryan failed to show up for a court date because they were incarcerated. The two been sentenced to prison for racketeering weeks earlier in a far-reaching case against dozens of defendants that included allegations of fraud, money laundering and murder-for-hire, court records show.
Another acquaintance, Dmitry Fomichev, sued Smirnov in 2013, claiming Smirnov failed to repay a $500,000 loan. Court records state Smirnov boasted of his connections with the FBI and said he could help Fomichev “resolve certain matters then being investigated by several agencies of the federal government” in exchange for the loan.
Several months later, Fomichev was indicted on tax and immigration charges and sentenced to probation. A Los Angeles judge ruled in Fomichev’s favor in the civil case, though, issuing a nearly $600,000 judgement against Smirnov…
Prosecutors also have emphasized Smirnov’s preoccupation with keeping his accumulated wealth out of his own name, noting how he would withdraw large sums and use it to purchase cashier’s checks to give to his longtime girlfriend. After moving to Las Vegas in 2022, he gave her money to purchase a $1 million condo just off Elvis Presley Boulevard that is owned under her name, records show.
Smirnov told his FBI handler in 2017 that the Biden family name surfaced during a business call he had with a representative for Burisma, where Biden’s son Hunter served on the company’s board.
But after Donald Trump and his allies, including Rudy Giuliani, acting as a Trump lawyer, began to peddle unsupported corruption claims involving the Bidens and Ukraine before the 2020 presidential election, Smirnov’s story grew more elaborate…
All this money floating around, and a cadre of variously dim-witted and dishonest Repub ‘business experts’ just begging to be lied to! Could any self-respecting con artist resist such temptation, even given the odds against success over the long term?
Drawn in 30 seconds #Smirnov #Republicans #liars #Russia #Vodka #Cartoon #Timelapse #DrawnIn30Seconds pic.twitter.com/lKKscoHVEK
— Clay Jones (@claytoonz) February 23, 2024
NotMax
“He who slings mud generally loses ground.”
– Adlai Stevenson
.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone😊😊😊
rikyrah
Symone D. Sanders Townsend (@SymoneDSanders) posted at 9:07 PM on Sat, Mar 02, 2024:
This is a lie. The unemployment rate under Trump for Black Americans at its lowest was 5.9% & that was August of 2019. In 2020 the last year of Trump’s presidency it was 16.8%
The “lowest ever” was under Biden at 5% in April 2023. The lowest since the 1970s. Remarkable given what the # was when Biden took office.
I hate arguing about this b/c Black unemployment has consistently been higher than overall unemployment, but this baseless lie from Black people who know better is just too much.
(https://x.com/SymoneDSanders/status/1764125531270738391?s=02)
rikyrah
Susan Bordson (@susanbordson) posted at 10:36 AM on Sat, Mar 02, 2024:
CNN obtained slides from No Labels that are evidence the org is planfully designing messaging to hurt Pres Biden by intentionally MISREPRESENTING the Biden-Harris Admin’s policy positions.
Their talking points exactly parrot right-wing media messaging
https://t.co/k22pgOQRv4 https://t.co/Vk7pF678W6
(https://x.com/susanbordson/status/1763966576808648973?s=02)
Betty Cracker
I realize the FBI has to work with sleaze bags to get intel on other sleaze bags. But the unforgivable thing is that Smirnov was peddling a fantasy that had been debunked FIVE YEARS PREVIOUSLY. It wasn’t a secret to anybody — we had a whole goddamn impeachment trial that included the same steaming load of horseshit.
As I’ve said in my posts, it’s a measure of how dysfunctional our political press is that the House GOP isn’t being pilloried daily on front pages nationwide for serving as a Russian intelligence tool. That would be a 5-alarm scandal in a healthy democracy.
But DOJ dysfunction is arguably more consequential. It’s way past time to clean house.
sdhays
@rikyrah: That can’t be true. There’s no way an organization funded by Clarence Thomas’ best billionaire friend would be trying to hurt President Biden.
Oh, wait. That’s exactly what it would be trying to do.
Miss Bianca
Georgette Heyer quote FOR THE WIN!
lowtechcyclist
@rikyrah:
As their grift collapses, I guess they’ve got to do their best to keep those checks from Harlan Crow coming.
Mousebumples
From the linked article –
I’ve got a few more similar links/quotes, but I’ll split them into separate comments to avoid upsetting the spam filter with too many links.
But yay for successful union organizing!
sdhays
@Betty Cracker: Agree 100%.
Mousebumples
All of these below are from the same longer thread. I picked out a few of my favorite Skeets, but feel free to click over for more of the discussion.
I think Kay has been talking about this for awhile – Biden/Harris administration is the best for union labor in decades. I can’t say I know what to expect from a powerful UAW GOTV operation, but it makes me optimistic.
dmsilev
They really really really want another “but her emails!” Benghazi investigation, where they can take some tiny nothingburger that _sounds_ bad and blow it way out of proportion. That’s all they know how to do any more.
Frankensteinbeck
This is the Republican Party from grassroots to plutocrats to think tanks to elected officials. It’s their ethos. Reality has a liberal bias, so fuck reality. They will go looking for better facts, and believe those facts utterly, even if that leads them to walk off a cliff.
I’ll say this for that asshole bigot McConnell, he’s smart enough to see reality in front of him, even if his utter evil makes his decisions obscene.
Sid
It’s a mystery that Smirnov is still alive.
OzarkHillbilly
Yep, and hopefully they treat all informant statements with the requisite doubt until confirmed by a 2nd independent source. Unfortunately they are humans with all the typical blind spots.
BlueGuitarist
@rikyrah:
Good morning!
OzarkHillbilly
@Mousebumples: Good news indeed.
BlueGuitarist
@Mousebumples:
🎶 There is power in a union!
delphinium
@Mousebumples: Great news!
Frankensteinbeck
@OzarkHillbilly:
I thought they did. Part of the point of this debacle was that the FBI had this document in their ‘probably bullshit’ file but Republicans demanded a copy and waved it around as if it were confirmed truth.
dmsilev
The Post covers Lauren Boebert:
If it’s more extreme than her Beetlejuice ‘performance ‘, think I speak for many in saying that no, we really shouldn’t see what she does, and what sort of ‘church’ is this anyway?
Suzanne
@Mousebumples:
Let’s hope.
Marcopolo
So Misery held its Republican presidential caucuses yesterday and the orange blob won all the delegates. Was looking to see if there was any reporting that broke out actual numbers for supporters of different candidates inside the caucus locations but could not find any. Apparently, reporters were not allowed in. However, as one of my friends remarked, “can you imagine trying to caucus for Haley? I’d be afraid for my safety.” Not sure if that is the primary reason why all of these states R parties have abandoned primaries for caucuses but I’m sure it’s one reason. Less democracy, less transparency, more control.
OzarkHillbilly
@Frankensteinbeck: I haven’t been following the details of this particular conspiracy because I know it’s all bullshit and prefer to focus my energies on things more substantive.
As to what I said above, every now and again an agent gets taken in by somebody they have built up a relationship with over the years. The system is supposed to keep that from happening but every now and again one slips thru the cracks.
Ding ding ding….
JML
@Mousebumples: It’s 100% true: Biden-Harris administration is easily the most pro-Labor administration in my lifetime. Obama was not great a great Labor president; while he wasn’t opposed to organizing, he did teachers dirty with his crap Education Secretary and simply didn’t make it a priority (and was, like a lot of elites, skeptical of union expansion into service areas and “white-collar” professions). Clinton was poor on Labor and NAFTA drove a lot of union households out of the democratic party. Carter wasn’t great on Labor issues; most of what was done for unions in those days was through Congress (and to be fair, Labor needed to evolve badly during the 70’s and it took a long time).
I think it goes without saying that no Republican administration has been good for Labor since…Eisenhower? Maybe? They’ve consistently fucked working people for decades and sided with corporate every single time for at least 60 years.
Love seeing UAW finally seeing some success at the plants in the south. Could be huge in finally flipping some of these states from being MAGA strongholds.
Marcopolo
@Mousebumples: Never underestimate the average Americans ability to (not) connect dots. I hope that UAW (and other union) members make the connection between their success at the bargaining table & the Biden administration’s support for unions & organizing (in particular through the actions of the NLRB). Guess we’ll see. Also think the 180 degree about turn by Starbucks vis a vis union organizing is related to this as well.
Frankensteinbeck
@dmsilev:
Man. It’s a good day for summing up conservatives, because that’s the evangelical mindset in a nutshell. Who cares about her actions? She yells Jesus properly!
Brachiator
This is tiresome. The Republicans pretty much said that they wanted to impeach Biden, from the moment he was elected. They ran off searching for evidence, even though there was never any underlying crime, criminal investigation or convictions of anybody for anything.
Trump and his family, Clarence Thomas all have obvious conflicts of interest that have been ignored, overlooked, even celebrated. But Hunter Biden’s laptop must pay for its sins.
Spanky
@dmsilev:
One of them thar snake-handling churches.
Mousebumples
@JML: my first presidential election as a voter was 2004, but my uncle was UAW. Very liberal, which was atypical in the very red county I grew up in. He passed away in 2019, but I’m thinking of him with this union revitalization.
@Marcopolo: I’m not sure what it means, but I’d rather be us than them, with UAW on our side.
JPL
@Suzanne: I don’t have a lot of faith in Shawn Fain, since the UAW donated more to republicans than democrats. We’ll see
BTW Congratulations!
NotMax
Soo-prize, soo-prize.
Betty
@Marcopolo: I read that the woman who supported Haley was screamed at by the Trump supporters. Sounded very ugly.
Betty
@JPL: Wasn’t that the Teamsters? Fain has been very clear about his support of Biden.
Frankensteinbeck
@NotMax:
So Trump did vastly better in the caucus than in the primary. These are the kinds of numbers he should have been getting in the primary. The Party officials, it seems, are much more dedicated to him than the voters.
eclare
@Sid:
That was my thought.
BlueGuitarist
@dmsilev:
Right!
They make “Laptop” like “emails” a synonym (synecdoche?) for scandal thru high volume repetition. The folks who don’t accept the phony association with scandal are made to feel like, how can you be so stupid you’ve never heard of a laptop or email, as if not accepting the lie is confessing ignorance.
As BC says, the press is so dysfunctional.
Still noteworthy that through the whole 30,000 emails thing the media couldn’t put it in the context of the W administration’s 22 million emails hidden on RNC servers to hide their corruption and avoid compliance with presidential records act. Or that the ftfnyt still won’t admit their responsibility for the consequences of vastly overhyping that nothing burger.
maybe Hunter’s “I would have gone to the Apple Store” can be the common sense entry into breaking down the whole preposterous saga.
hunter’s Apple laptop which he would have taken to the Apple Store
RaflW
“Alexander Smirnov was cast by Republicans as one of the FBI’s most trusted informants, offering a ‘highly credible’ account of brazen public corruption”
I know it’s been discussed before, but Rep. Ken Buck of CO, hardly a waffling centrist, was questioning the credibility of this witness more than six months ago. He could see, even from his MAGA perch, that the whole case was structured on one witness of unknown quality.
But the GOP House is 90% easy marks for the Russians — and somewhere between 1-5% owned by the Russians. Somehow that last bit doesn’t seem to be a tasty chew toy for the press to investigate.
Betty Cracker
@OzarkHillbilly: & @Frankensteinbeck: There are bad actors in the DOJ. This isn’t news to anyone, I know, but it’s pretty consequential since they’ve helped Russian intelligence services coopt a chamber of the US Congress. Rep. Nadler gets it:
Maybe it’s no surprise that Trump holdovers at the DOJ are feeding Russian disinfo to Congress, but it’s intolerable. We need to clean that Augean Stable, stat.
Nukular Biskits
Good mornin’, y’all.
Slow moving here … too much … uh … “adulting” last night.
kalakal
Euphemism of the day
Geminid
Chef Jose Andrès was scheduled to appear this morning on ABC’s “This Week.” He’ll probably have something to say about relief efforts in Gaza.
SFAW
@Suzanne:
“Hope is not a stragerty.”
Kidding, of course — just trying to annoy the crap out of various commenters. [I know, I know — who’d a thunk?]
eclare
@kalakal:
Seriously.
OzarkHillbilly
Yep.
SFAW
@kalakal:
Well, she was doing a lap-dance-adjacent thing.
S Cerevisiae
@Spanky: ok that made me lol
TBone
It’s Sunday and I’ma tell a story. One of my favorite locals at our former little country church took the Easter opportunity to actually throw hot cross buns at us while we were exiting. Had a good arm for his advanced age and even pummeled our car as we pulled away after landing one on my butt 😆 he had a naughty streak that wouldn’t quit. He used to run a tiny country store and we’d go in for coffee after a hard night on a long weekend fishing. He’d yell “Are ya hungover!” at the top of his lungs.
https://www.wonkette.com/p/those-cakes-we-like-are-raisin-hell
SFAW
@RaflW:
The “easy marks” implies (to me, at least) that they’re dupes. I think they’re more likely willing assets, because “better a Rooskie than a Demon-crap.” Yeah, there are some morons there who don’t know any better, but not that many.
TBone
@Nukular Biskits: 😆❤️🌹
BlueGuitarist
@Betty:
@JPL:
According to open secrets data in the last 5 elections the smallest share UAW gave Democrats was 98.4%; smallest share from teamsters to Democrats was 92.2%.
last 5 elections = 2016 thru 2022; in 2024 neither has yet given 1% of their smallest election cycle contribution
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Betty Cracker: They didn’t like the debunking so they demanded the original (false) statements that they thought could be massaged into come convincing shape.
We’ve seen this before. For me, it brings to mind how Cheney didn’t like what the intelligence community was concluding so he demanded (and got) “raw intelligence” so he could put out his own intelligence analysis.
We’re lucky that the current crop of clowns is less competent.
TBone
@eclare: if she tried to “present herself” any harder that night, her tits woulda been firing bullets.
billcinsd
@SFAW: or more Willie and the Hand Jive
Bex
@Sid: Dead man walking.
JPL
@Betty: It was! I’m glad that I was wrong, but unions should support Biden. The police union will stand with trump though.
Miss Bianca
@dmsilev: “they should see me in church”?
What, is she blowing the minister or something?
TBone
@Miss Bianca: 😆😭🤮
Uncle Cosmo
‘Scuse me, but don’t you mean the Teamsters (45K to Thugs vs 30K to Dems)? Or did I miss something here that you can link to & enlighten me? (Cf. Betty @ #34 supra.)
Baud
@JPL:
I get that unions play both sides like corporations do.
OTOH, I’ve never been asked to support corporations on moral principle.
Bill Arnold
@Spanky:
Laughed. Laughed again. :-)
Suzanne
@SFAW: Hope is absolutely not a strategy. But it can be a step toward a strategy. Let’s pull plan the election! That’s a strategy.
A good piece in TNR: Has Zionism Lost the Argument?
JPL
@Uncle Cosmo: yup see my comment at 51
eversor
@Betty:
It was vastly worse than “the woman who supported Haley”.
The reporting was that they made all the Haley supporters stand in a line and then started screaming, yelling, threatening, and berating all of them. It also wasn’t isolated to that incident which is the one that made news and had a woman reduced to tears from it. It was multiple incidents.
This is an important distinction. As it indicates that rather than a one off incident this sort of mass indimidation can be expected in the general election.
Press wasn’t allowed in those places. So the details that are trickling out are from people who were there to participate and were hooked into the larger GOP and expressed concern over it.
Caucuses have always been prone to indimidation but this is on a new level.
Starfish
@JPL: A lot of people have been criticizing unions for doing this, but I think that corporations and organizations that want to move policy need to donate to both sides unless they want to be shut out if an election does not go their way.
oldgold
The New York Times is annoying and often worse, but cancelling your subscription is not the answer to what ails us.
Trump, almost unbelievably, is getting worse. On the campaign trail and in court he has been a shit factory the likes of which have never witnessed in this country. Yet, he seems to pay no political price his execrable conduct. In fact, if the polls are to believed, he is gaining momentum.
We have a message and/or messenger problem. Time is running out to fix this. Hard questions need to be asked. Hard decisions need to be made. Or, very hard time may lie ahead.
Omnes Omnibus
Of course it isn’t. Then again, no one was really saying that it was. What it is, though, is a valid decision that people can chose to make about the use of their own money.
BTW Biden is going to be the Democratic nominee. You are just going to have to accept it.
debit
Ok, Dean Phillips.
Scout211
Interesting. AP News found Republican primary voters who say they will not vote for Trump in November.
They even interviewed some of those non-Trump Republican voters in the wild.
Still no word from all those Biden voters who will vote for Biden to be re-elected, though. They must be out there somewhere . . .
SFAW
@Suzanne:
Exactly.
Semi-related, but absolutely serious question. To my semi-feeble mind, planning/managing a campaign is not very different from planning/managing a large project. Determining what resources are needed, marshaling those resources, scheduling when/how those resources are used. The only significant difference I see (so far) is that getting people’s votes is typically less “concrete” than the result of a project (such as a hospital).
Given that preface: have you ever thought about trying to run a campaign?
Frankensteinbeck
I just heard the TV news say that Trump’s speech about languages is a sign of ‘cognitive decline.’ (They did not leave out fascist rhetoric.). If Trump being the senile one touches the mainstream, Trump is in trouble. He provides vast amounts of blatant evidence.
RepubAnon
@dmsilev: It’s odd that nobody asks Republicans why their hearings are not held by the Weaponization of Government committee. After all, that’s what Republicans do.
SFAW
@Omnes Omnibus:
OK, but I’m distressed that Biden is a whole day older than he was yesterday!
SFAW
@RepubAnon:
The FTFTFNYT Style desk will get right on that.
dirge
In most places, the police union isn’t a union. It’s a street gang.
Miss Bianca
@Frankensteinbeck: Huh. That’s the first I’ve heard about TV news starting to go after Trump.
Maybe some newsies are starting to wake up to the fact that Trump’s American fascism may be cute and kicky and get them clicks, but ultimately it’s going to be bad for them, too?
Or maybe they’ve figured out that “Trump in decline” might be even better clickbait than “Biden is old”?
CliosFanBoy
@Frankensteinbeck:
Which is exactly what they did in 2002-2003 with CIA’s Iraq reports. Cheney was over there literally every week pressing fore “proof” that Iraq had WMDs, and brown-nosing upper managers (I’m looking at you Tenet!) handed over the material from “this source has no access and no history accuracy” reports.
Scout211
His current excuse that he uses in order to cover up his mixing up of people’s names and other verbal mistakes is, “I meant to do that!”
Ha ha. So funny that jokester Trump. Always with that great sense of humor, especially the humor that makes him look like he is in cognitive decline. Oh yeah, he loves that kind of humor. LOL
Last night he mixed up President Obama with President Biden and the media is starting to talk about that more. I’m sure his fans will accept his claim that he did that on purpose for whatever he says his reasons are, but I don’t think that excuse will go very far past his MAGA fans. I guess we will see now that the Biden-Harris team is attacking him directly on his cognitive issues.
Nettoyeur
@eclare: What profiteth a man who wins the support of 98% of ultra rightwing crazies at the cost of the support of everyone else?
taumaturgo
@Marcopolo:
No one ever lost money underestimating the intelligence of the American public. H. L. Mencken
Bill Arnold
@Scout211:
“You know, Argentina, great guy. He’s a big trump guy. He loves Trump. I love him because he loves trump Anybody that loves me. I like them.”
DJT could not remember the name of the new President of Argentina (Javier Milei), so he went with “Argentina, great guy”.
Baud
@taumaturgo:
Didn’t people lose money betting on a Trump win in 2020?
SFAW
@Baud:
Fox sure did.
ETA: OK, OK, so technically, the Dominion lawsuit wasn’t exactly a part of the bet.
TBone
* chef’s kiss for Tiedrich today. A new monetary system is taking hold 😆
https://www.jefftiedrich.com/p/dumb-ass-trumpers-are-getting-scammed
Another Scott
Local – on the scene – coverage from yesterday in Greensboro:
“We were told…”
No matter how big (or small) the place, there are always people who cannot get in.
Funny, that.
“Yeah, your lying eyes show hundreds or thousands of empty seats, but we kept that guy from CNN out, so we’re not lying about that.”
[ groucho-roll-eyes.gif ]
Something like 1.7M people live in the Triad area…
Cheers,
Scott.
sdhays
@Baud: Corporations are people, my friend!
eclare
@SFAW:
Hahaha….good one.
gene108
@BlueGuitarist:
This is what the MSM does to Democrats, at least beginning with the Clinton administration. Republican media starts dropping rumors and innuendo that something bad may might’ve happened. They blow a lot of smoke. The MSM runs with it like there’s an actual fire there. The MSM did this with Whitewater, Travelgate, etc. They did this to Gore about “inventing” the internet.
They wanted to do this with Obama, but he had to be super careful to get where he did as fast as he did. They could not find any innuendo to gossip monger about.
I think the DC political media are a bunch of town gossips masquerading as news reporters. They love finding a rumor about a Democrat and spreading it like wildfire through their media outlets. It’s like, “OMG! Did you see Barack Obama wore a tan suit. How scandalous!” or The Clinton Foundation accepts money from wealthy foreigners. There has to be a scandal there.
I think it used to be a lot lot worse. With internet, information can bypass the MSM gossip to some extent, so people who are plugged in know about the BS.
Nukular Biskits
@Spanky:
Reminds me of the time we changed churches and attended an SBC church (yes, I know: groan) and a couple of women from their “welcoming committee” came over one evening to get to know more about us.
When they asked what church to which we had previously belonged, I told them XYZ Church of God in Gulfport. Both women got a strange look on their faces and one asked, “Isn’t that where they play with snakes??!?!?”
I couldn’t resist … 😊I made up an elaborate lie that had my then-spouse looking at me like “WTF are you doing?”. Both the church ladies suddenly had more urgent matters to attend and left.
We didn’t attend any more services at that church. LOL!
Uncle Cosmo
@JPL: Well played, Jet Propulsion Lab!
(NB A couple of generations back, on a NASA-sponsored junket around the US, I saw the main control room at JPL – and it pissed me off to no end. In its infintesimal whizzdumb NASA had put us up, 30 wannabe astronomers & astrophysicists about to enter our senior years at college, in a motel just down the hill from Mount Wilson Observatory – & instead of taking us there, to one of the biggest pilgrimage sites in our chosen field(s), they stuffed us in a bus & drove us for an hour to see the JPL control room, which looked like nothing so much as a cheap set in a low-budget Japanese sci-fi flick. Still pisses me off to this day, as I have yet to get to Mt Wilson.Grr!)
Jackie
@Mousebumples: YAY!!! 👍🏻
Baud
@gene108:
Agree. The biggest positive these days is that there seems to be a robust counteroffensive to the media spin.
mrmoshpotato
Is it a horse’s ass that’s actively taking a shit?
Baud
@Nukular Biskits:
It’s what Jesus would have done.
Miss Bianca
@Spanky:
“One-eyed snake handling or two-eyed snake handling?”
“Two-eyed snake handling!”
“DIE, HERETIC!”
Glidwrith
@dirge: Commentor Kay has asked with the number of video cameras around, why the police don’t solve more crimes. It’s because that’s not what they are doing.
catclub
I think FBI dysfunction is a permanent feature of the organization.
Jackie
@Marcopolo: Your friend was correct:
Omnes Omnibus
A good analysis of the NYT/Siena poll.
catclub
There are Psalms that have a phrase about ‘rejoicing in their beds’.
way2blue
Finally occurred to me (I’m a bit slow in this regard) that one reason, perhaps the main reason, why Comer & Jim Jordan are so vigorously attempting to derail Biden’s re-election—is that the hammer of justice will come for them in a second Biden term. Justice for their roles in the Jan 6th fiasco.
catclub
Didn’t someone else mention snake handling churches?
ETA: … late, as ever.
WaterGirl
@dmsilev: She was just pulling on his dick in tune with the music. They don’t call that dancing in your neck of the woods?
Jackie
@Spanky: TIFG approves of her Beetlejuice performance; he gave her a ringing 👍🏻👍🏻 endorsement yesterday 🙄
catclub
I think the media was fairly evenhanded with Obama. John McCain took that as a personal insult. Evenhandedness is not what the media is usually about.
JPL
@Uncle Cosmo: My brother-in-law worked there for awhile. He was really a right wing nut job.
JPL
What a day! At five o’clock this morning I was attacked bt a flyer left by Duty to America and just now, I barely missed stepping on a snake. Pretty sure it was an Eastern Kingsnake so that’s good news.
narya
@Omnes Omnibus: Thanks for sharing that. I couldn’t bring myself to dig into the actual poll. As he notes, and many folks here and elsewhere note, including in actual voting patterns since Dobbs, women see what’s going on, and do not trust the man who engineered this SCOTUS to have their interests at heart. Nearly any poll that shows otherwise is suspect to me.
BeautifulPlumage
@Miss Bianca:
Ha, ha, ha! I love that bit!
Another Scott
@Omnes Omnibus: +1
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@Omnes Omnibus: Yeah, that’s a good analysis. Seems like a good one for forwarding around.
TBone
I’m watching the movie ‘Never Give A Sucker An Even Break” streaming free on You Toob to my smaht TV. Seems appropriate. Somehow.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Never_Give_a_Sucker_an_Even_Break
Baud
@Omnes Omnibus:
It’s like he doesn’t know us at all.
mrmoshpotato
@Jackie:
Rooting for injuries! (Not sorry at all)
Mr. Bemused Senior
@Baud:
Mousebumples
@Omnes Omnibus: Agreed. Thanks for boosting it here.
Polls don’t vote. If the cross tabs don’t match recent polls, which are you going to trust?
Betty Cracker
@catclub: Well, if it can’t be prevented from laundering disinformation from a hostile foreign power, maybe it’s time to burn it down and start over? Seriously. This is intolerable.
Baud
@Mr. Bemused Senior:
😱
JPL
@Omnes Omnibus: Excellent news, and I passed it on.
Cacti
As I’ve said previously, I’m equally interested in what Smirnov’s relationship is with Israeli intelligence, seeing that he’s also an Israeli citizen.
I have strong suspicion of a joint FSB/Mossad production to give a boost to the orange fascist.
Sure Lurkalot
@TBone: Nothing says “pious” to me more than surgically doubling the size of your breasts after suing your spouse (who in January 2004 was arrested for “allegedly” exposing himself in a bowling alley and in February 2004 for “allegedly” physically abusing his then girlfriend Lauren) for divorce.
Salt of the earth. I’m sure the church she chooses will be so gratified to have her as a parishioner.
Jackie
@TBone: Less money for the RNC – oops! I guess the money will find TIFG’s pockets either way with Lara’s (DIL) help!🙄
Baud
@Cacti:
It would have been going on since before 2020, right?
Sure Lurkalot
@Scout211:
This was from last week (and I apologize for the Twitter link, Nitter instances seem to fail regularly) but it appears yesterday’s rallies (see e.g. Aaron Rupar’s feed) gifted a lot more content.
https://twitter.com/JoeBiden/status/1763210154575548687
Hope Joe’s comms team makes this a weekly feature.
kindness
What is that maxim for lawyers in court?
“If you have the facts on your side, pound the facts; if you have the law on your side, pound the law; if you have neither the facts nor the law, pound the table.”
Republicans and Fox have been pounding the table for quite some time now. MAGA folk don’t see that but most regular folk do.
catclub
@Baud: I have a naive faith that the Mossad is much more principled (and less likely to do that) than Netanyahu. I could be sadly mistaken.
Villago Delenda Est
The church of what’s happening NOW!
Baud
@catclub:
Hard to say. Right wingers everywhere, both here and abroad, are freaking out and capable of anything.
catclub
can I just say that the Seth Myers and O’Donnell reports on Trump ‘losing it’ and being incoherent show surprisingly short snippets. Which makes them fairly unconvincing to me.
Villago Delenda Est
@Sure Lurkalot: People of the land. Common clay of the new West.
Kay
Liberals, in my experience, consistently underestimate AA union membership. African Americans have the highest union membership of any group. It makes perfect sense if you think about it. Unions have entry requirements and rules that are transparent and apply to everyone equally. Benchmarks for promotion or advancement are either some kind of certification or senoirity. Unions have a process for workplace discipline and firing.
Those are objective measures that would level the barriers black people face in the workplace due to racial bias. It’s literally leveling the playing field. I read up on this a bit during Ohio’s Issue Two (a pro labor initative) because I was surprised by how many black people were at organizing meetings. It’s a whole labor theory.
Labor unions also lessen racial tension between groups because AA and Latino and white are all working towards the same goal.
Jackie
Heh, watching Jamie Raskin on Jen Psaki’s show discussing the SCOTUS vs TIFG Immunity case. Raskin very dryly pointed out the Supremes could listen to the case 4/22 and make a decision by the 23d or 24th aka as Josh Hawley warp speed.
Yes, I spewed coffee…
TBone
@Sure Lurkalot: the entire nation will be gratified. If she has her way 🙄😆
Villago Delenda Est
@Omnes Omnibus: Agreed. Jay points out the obvious flaws without resorting as I would do to nakedly pointing out that the Vichy Times is simply not a reliable source for political reporting.
Baud
@Kay:
Probably because we’re obsessed with the white union members vote that makes many states in Midwest red.
TBone
@Jackie: whatever “works” 😜
TBone
@Villago Delenda Est: she works that clay like she’s at a pottery wheel.
Juju
@Scout211: My mother has advanced dementia and she says the same thing when she makes mistakes with names and places and whatnot and it’s pointed out to her.
TBone
Apparently “Uncle Bill” Fields is having the desired effect.
Kay
@Baud:
That’s the wrong way to look at it though. White union membership (hourly workers) are more Democratic than white non union members (hourly workers). If you look at them as a subset of white working class people they’re the most Democratic among that group.
Another Scott
@catclub: +1
He’s mostly reading a teleprompter competently. He goes off on tangents and his mouth sometimes doesn’t keep up.
What’s more telling are his excuses when called out on his obvious errors. His narcissism means he cannot admit an error or a mistake. That keeps coming out. That’s the story, for those who cannot pay attention.
Maybe the pundits and reporters will find space for that in their 2027 books. :-/
Cheers,
Scott.
taumaturgo
Villago Delenda Est
@taumaturgo: Succinct, to the point.
TBone
@Villago Delenda Est: 😅
Jackie
@taumaturgo: I agree!
Geminid
@TBone: I read a biography of W.C. Fields written a couple years after his death. It was kind of sad. Fields left home early in his teenage years because his father beat him, and he lived on the Philadelphi streets. The police got to know him well and so did the other kids. They all wanted to fight the tough streetkid, and that’s how his nose got squashed.
After scrabbling his way up the resort circuit, Fields made a name on Broadway and then drove to LA and made it big. But Fields was never a happy man, and he basically drank himself to death.
TBone
@Geminid: we have a lot in common, except I quit drinking about a decade ago. I am aware of all of that but others might not be. Comedians frequently come from tough places. As a cop’s daughter, I had a rough road with biker gang kidnapping me for “safe” rides up the Turnpike. That’s the tip of the iceberg.
MomSense
How many cycles do we have to put up with rumors about Democrats being repeated ad nauseum until the general population believes them? There are some journamalists who are actually stupid, but I really think this is deliberate. They want Republicans in office and tRump is a boost for their revenues.
Geminid
@TBone: One day when Jackie Gleason was around ten, his father left home for work at an insurance company, Then he left work at lunchtime and walked away from his family and his job.
Gleason recalled sitting at the kitchen table in the evening, watching his father write policies. He remembered thinking his father had beautiful handwriting.
TBone
@TBone: funny story. My friend met an internet date for lunch. He started talking about some devil worship or something similar. She said “Well, I’m not afraid, I know some Pagans.” But she found out the hard way he wasn’t talking about motorcycles 😆 a few minutes later and politely excused herself.
TBone
@Geminid: the tears of a clown. Brings back fond and not so fond memories…all mixed up. Ah to be young and fearless again! But old and brave will have to do.
TBone
Local biker gang member in Court upon being questioned by the Judge about his religion: “Republican, Your Honor!”
Memory Pallas
@Omnes Omnibus:
Thanks for this link. very clear and rational. I feel like we need a plan for dealing with the fact that this phenomenon may persist throughout the election cycle
Fake Irishman
@Kay:
and along those lines in unionized workplaces, the gender gap in wages is smaller, likely for the same reasons you note here (transparent and clear rules for raises, advancement and promotion)
it’s almost like women are a major part of the labor movement too….
TBone
@Fake Irishman: if we women all sat down for one day, the nation would crumble.
ETA was it Icelandic women who actually did just that?
cain
@Mousebumples: Looks like while the GOP plays fiddle with social issues – labor is gaining ground. Greater organized labor means that the Democratic party’s star is also going to be rising.
The oligarchs are going to be pissed. All the GOP have done is focus on abortion and transgender.
I’m delighted. Because those other laws are going to eventually going to get struck down.
Baud
@Kay:
Yes I know white union households are better than white nonunion households. I was just commenting on why we focus on white union members, which are still disproportionately Republican in the Midwest.
cain
@Mousebumples:
Meanwhile, at Trump rally the crowd goes quiet because the TFG referenced Obama instead of Biden as President.
Yeah, confidence is dipping. Haley is probably grinding her teeth right now. :-)
Baud
@cain:
They’re only going to be pissed if they lose in November. If they win, they’ll know they own labor.
Suzanne
@SFAW:
Oh HELL no.
I am a nerd with a bad personality.
glc
A remark on CDC recommendations.
Quadrillipede
Excerpts from an interview with a psychologist who has been monitoring the ongoing deterioration of Grampa Cognitive Test. URL is below:
† Personally, I do want to say the media is covering this up, but I don’t have a precise handle on why. Is it negligence, malice, or simply incompetence? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
kalakal
@SFAW:
On the bright side TFGs fine is a $112,000 more than it was yesterday!
cain
@JML:
I think that white collar skepticism about union might change with AI. I was a skeptic mostly because traditionally labor organized for blue collar/assembly line type stuff. Their physical labor is the “product’.
I think and I’m one of them – we see ourselves as our unique way we solve problems as the “product”. SO how do you unionize around that. I think we’re just looking at it wrong.
I think AI and what it will bring into the workforce is going to create some serious shifts and we are going to need to figure it out how our labor plays into it.
cain
@Brachiator:
These assholes would impeach Jesus because he talked to a prostitute.
Another Scott
Speaking of FTFNYT, DeLong points us to Parker Molloy:
They’re not interested in presenting the news in an objective way. They want to slant their coverage to hurt Democrats. It’s what they do.
(See the link for embedded links.)
Grr…,
Scott.
Baud
@Another Scott:
You broke the blog.
But good info.
glc
For the SF crowd: Cory Doctorow’s Tor publications (apart from the current release, The Bezzle) are available as a package – 18 ebooks for $18 (or more if so inclined).
Details on his blog. The offer will be open for a while (about 3 weeks).
Yutsano
@Quadrillipede:
Because he makes their jobs much easier. They don’t have to try to get stuff out of his administration .
EDIT: 169? I’ll take it.
Another Scott
@Baud: Sorry. I didn’t notice that the unlinkified twitter link was a little too long.
:-/
I’ll send WG a note.
Cheers,
Scott.
AlaskaReader
This is just a reminder that Republican voters are every bit as cretinous and willfully demented as are the people they vote for.
As is the same for all their enablers.
TBone
@glc: Similar to how long Covid patients are being “treated” except long Lyme patients have known what’s up at the CDC for decades.
https://underourskin.com/film/
Quadrillipede
I’m hoping that eventually enough of the general public will start to notice the increasingly glaring differences in topic choice and framing between legacy media and left-leaning/liberal/not-overtly-fascism-curious blogs/social media, and some will start going around the MSM to get informed.
The Biden-Harris campaign seems to be at least open to this, if we see more events like Biden’s Superbowl “interview” going directly on TikTok and cutting the TV channels out of the loop entirely.
(From my POV, any MSM pearl-clutching about no longer getting to be the gatekeepers is already its own reward…)
Jackie
@Quadrillipede: The GQP will prop him up with a broomstick up his ass while his handlers – Stephen Miller et al – run the government behind the scenes. As long as TIFG can hold a fat sharpie well enough to scrawl his signature passing laws enacted by MAGA congress…
Ryan
I mean yeah on the last cartoon. Smirnov, is what we call in the biz, a clue.
Uncle Cosmo
@Omnes Omnibus: Nice catch, good analysis.
I say for the umpteenth time, no one not on the inside of a campaign or campaign committee is ever** going to see results from a poll that’s an honest attempt to assess voter opinions and preferences. Poll results released to the public are either clickbait (OMGOMGOMG AIN’T IT AWFUL HAVE YOU SEEN THE LATEST POLL!!!!) or pushpolling (attempting to drive a narrative for the benefit of whoever commissioned the poll and those they support).
The thing about survey research is that it’s easy to screw with the methodology to get the desired results. One obvious ploy is questions biased toward a particular POV, individually or in the context of surrounding queries. Another is to diddle with the sample composition in terms of what groups are over- or underrepresented and who is “likely to vote.” (Rasmussen, a notoriously GOP-leaning pollster, tends to assume Thugs will crawl over their dying grandmother to vote whereas Dems have to be begged or bribed to show up. If a Rasmussen poll shows the GOP under water it’s a safe bet a blunami is on its way.***) These guys know exactly what to do to get the “results” their customers want, but they generally conceal them under the rubric of “judgement born of long experience in survey research”…
** At least not until long after the fact, when the information is no longer high-value. Somewhere in my files I have a copy of a poll done for a Baltimore mayoral election ca. 1970 – very interesting insight into how a nationally-recognized survey operation did business, but not given to me until some years later, when the information and recommendations were water over the damned…
*** Raz needs to do non-political and off-year surveys in order to stay in business, so to preserve credibility, his polls start to lift the far-right thumb off the scales as voting nears, so that by Election Day his results are in line with most other operations.
Soprano2
@Frankensteinbeck: If TFG really does have some kind of dementia they’re taking a huge gamble on the unknown. Since he came back from the hospital I’ve been able to get hubby to leave the house once for his appointment to get the stents removed. I had to call EMS transport to see if they would take him to the doctor’s office (they won’t, but my call got him off the couch). Other than that he won’t leave the house. He wouldn’t go to the symphony last night. We hosted the Afterglow, it’s a big deal that he’s usually excited about. I couldn’t get him to take a shower this morning. He may never leave the house again. Dementia is unpredictable; there can be a sudden change like this. They’re playing with fire.
One thing this whole experience has done has made me decide there will be no more interventions like this. He’s worse off now than he was before. He gained nothing from this.
Quadrillipede
I considered trying to work an allusion to Weekend at Bernie’s meets Reagan/Mondale 1984 into my OP, although I felt it might ultimately be distracting given that it wasn’t Mondale who won in a landslide. But, yeah.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Soprano2: I’m sorry to hear that.
TBone
Bring out your death cult! Oops, dead!
https://digbysblog.net/2024/03/03/trump-is-now-an-anti-vaxxer/
Scout211
I’m so sorry. That is just so hard. Do you think you can start looking into some home health care?
Scamp Dog
@Sid: Not to me. He did his job, had good success for a while, then got caught. If and when he gets back to Russia, the FSB will see he’s rewarded.
Now if he had ratted out his handlers, that would be a different story.
Scout211
A moment in history. Caitlin Clark breaks Pete Maravich’s all-time NCAA scoring record today. At home on senior day. ESPN
I am so old I remember when Title IV was just a dream for women and girls. I’m having a moment here. 🥲
Raven
@Scout211: and she did it from the line!
TBone
@Soprano2: having been there with my mom, sufficient words of comfort fail me
I’m glad you’re here. It’s a little thing that can be big.
At first, I wanted to shove the big, orange DNR sign down somebody’s throat.
glc
@SFAW: In percentage terms the rate is slowing, and may reverse itself in a few years (linear regression).
I’m counting on this, myself. I’m roughly my children’s age and the gap seems to be narrowing.
AlaskaReader
@Uncle Cosmo:
As a turn of phrase, …that is an absolute glory.
eclare
@Soprano2:
Oh I am so sorry.
Soprano2
@Another Scott: They probably got a lot of right wing complaints that the headline was pro-Biden so they changed it.
Melancholy Jaques
@oldgold:
A large number of cancellations with the message that “your anti-whoever the Democrat is” political coverage is the reason would be a good thing. Not going to happen or it already would have.
We actually face fairly easy questions: Who is our nominee? Biden. What do we need to do? Work hard and work together to make sure we win.
Scout211
@Raven: I played tennis for the University of Iowa as a freshman. They recruited from the PE classes and we provided all of our own equipment. We had games with local colleges that they called “Play Days” and we carpooled to get there. It was actually really fun. The next year, Title IX was passed and official college sports for women began. I was not given a tryout 🤣
@Scout211: Typo: Title IX not IV. Oops
cain
@Scout211:
I expect a new kind of voter intimidation – going after Republican voters who won’t vote Trump.
Our shit press will only be concerned that this is bad news for Biden if that ever became a reality.
AlaskaReader
@Scout211: Not to belittle Clark’s achievements, but I’ve been reading about some women players who were maybe more remarkable scorers that the NCAA wasn’t around to make note of.
Seems if something happened before the NCAA came about, it didn’t happen.
And neither Lynette Woodard, nor Pistol Pete had the benefit of three point shots.
I like ‘records’ to record feats performed under the same or at least similar conditions.
There is no doubt Clark is a phenom.
But credit due to players who preceded her, the new ‘record’ just isn’t the same thing.
cain
It was reported that a hush fell over the crowd when he did that. I think it will be harder to accept as fake news when you’re at a fucking Trump rally and he goes off the rails.
lowtechcyclist
@Mousebumples:
Yay indeed! That’s great news!!
Citizen Alan
@Scout211: Yeah, yeah. But did she score all those points against men?!? Checkmate, feminists!! (/sarcasm)
Soprano2
@Scout211: I’m going to have to do something, I just don’t know what. I’m trying CBD/THC gummies to improve his sleep and appetite. I started last night, I’m going to give it a week to see if I think it works. I figured why not, it’s legal here, so I got a reference to a good shop. They were really helpful.
cain
@Jackie:
What will Nikki Haley say about this as her supporters are attacked in the public like this? Will she stand up for her supporters? This should be fun.
She has no political power. Will she advocate for trump after having her supporters humiliated? The magic 8 ball says yes.
Raven
@AlaskaReader: I used to play with Teresa Edwards when she was finishing up at UGA. Talk about records!
Soprano2
@Scout211: There’s been some good local coverage of that here because Jackie Stiles, a former record holder, played for Missouri State. She tried to get Clark to come here to play, but said she figured out petty quickly that Clark would go to a bigger team and conference.
Raven
@Scout211: I have a bunch of pals who were collegiate level gymnasts. Sorry about that.
TBone
@Soprano2: if sundowning is involved, I recommend a stronger sedative at night. Also, we hung really loud jingle bells on all doors in case of wandering. I know you said he won’t leave the house but that could change.
Soprano2
@TBone: I keep thinking about how horrified my smart, funny, talented husband would be to see how he is now. We all make those jokes about it, never thinking we’ll be like that someday.
lowtechcyclist
@Spanky:
I’m just this far in in reading the thread, but it’s gonna be hard for anyone to top this line!
TBone
@Soprano2: it is a looming worry. Another reason laughter is so, so very important ❤️
BUT crying works too!
PS my only remaining Aunt, mom’s sister, is showing concerning behavior r.n.
Gretchen
Hunter brought up at the hearing something that has bothered me about the laptop story: there are tons of Apple stores near both his house and his dad’s. Why would he track down a no-name store in a strip mall that would invalidate the laptop warranty? All these reporters have iPhones. They know this, and yet ran with the story, and never questioned why no-name called Rudy, even though it had a Biden he could have called the Biden campaign office indicated by the stick on the laptop. They just slurped it down like ice cream.
RaflW
Nikki Haley is doing so much bobbing and weaving, I’d think she’s working out at a boxing gym:
“[Haley] said that what to do with embryos created for in vitro fertilization should be a decision ‘between the parents and the physician’ and that the ‘government shouldn’t do anything to stop’ I.V.F. But she then said that states should be allowed to stop I.V.F.”
Aren’t states “the government”, Nikki? Why should a state be able to block IVF but the feds can’t? She has no internal consistency, only ambition. She’s really not any more qualified that Trump, even if she wouldn’t take an immediate blowtorch to the constitution
Also, too, why is IVF a decision ‘between the parents and the physician’, but letting a 17 y.o. start hormone therapy for their gender identity not a decision between the patient, supportive family & their doctor?
It’s all just bullshit stacked on bullshit.
cain
@Baud: and work to destroy it.
Soprano2
@TBone: He seems to be better in the evening, worse in the morning. He’s also having headaches, which are a side effect of the Eleqis he’s taking now for A-fib. I’m not a medical person, it’s so hard to know what the right decision is. He has an appointment with his gerentologost this week, I’m tempted to go without him to talk to the doctor about all of this.
sab
@Jackie: T Trumpers at the Missouri caucus may have won the night, but they pretty much guaranteed that the Haley supporters will be voting for Biden rather than staying home in November.
cain
@Quadrillipede: The thing is – they would absolutely do that for Biden. If there is a chance for this man to be president of the U.S> there needs to be a lot more scrutiny.
The GOP is ok because it means they can put in a VP they could control who could take over. But Trump won’t allow that at all. He’ll get a simp for certain and he will never let go of power and he’ll have a cabinet that would be afraid of his supporters.
Luckily, he has not made any nuclear threats.. yet.
TBone
@Soprano2: you do what YOU need to do to care for both of you FIRST. It seems counterintuitive but it’s really the best, smartest way. Can you find a caregiver group in your community?
Sure Lurkalot
@cain:
My question for Nikki Haley about Trump when she inevitably exits:
Will you endorse Trump but not support him or support Trump but not endorse him?
RaflW
@debit: “Ok, Dean Phillips.”
As an aside, I early-voted yesterday in MN’s Tues. primary. I was happy to vote for Joe Biden. And I was even happier to vote against Phillips.
I hope he is sufficiently humiliated this week to just slink away quietly.
Soprano2
@TBone: I’ve been doing some crying this weekend for sure.
RaflW
@Sure Lurkalot: She’s waffling like an Eggo in a toaster with an overly excited spring:
TBone
@Soprano2:
https://www.caregiving.org/resources/
Start there and get more local. Ugh, broken links abound.
This works
https://www.nextstepincare.org/
Josie
@Soprano2:
I’m so sorry that you are experiencing this. I remember how it affected my mother to be in the hospital. She broke her wrist and was in for a short while. It totally threw her off to get out of her safe environment. I can’t imagine how much more difficult all this is since you are dealing with a mate. I hope the CBD stuff works. My youngest son is a recovering alcoholic who suffers from anxiety and he swears by the CBD. He says there are different types depending on what your problem is. If one doesn’t work, keep trying until you find one that does.
Miss Bianca
@cain: Why should she be different than that model of courage, Ted Cruz? I mean, if Ted Cruz could kiss Trump’s pumpkin-shaped-and-colored ass after the man insulted *his wife*, why would Nikki cavil about having her mere *supporters* threatened and maligned?
Scout211
@Soprano2: I just know that my husband does better if we keep him on a regular daily routine. I learned that in one of the caregiver’s books I read. We have alerts and alarms on his phone to keep him on track with regular daily tasks. If our daily routine changes, he gets confused and frustrated. So keeping on that routine makes a big difference.
I can monitor this because I am retired and we found out even before he was diagnosed that he needs me nearby to help him function. I think I have read that you are not retired yet so you don’t have the ability to monitor him all day. Having a home healthcare aid could be an answer to that. Just a thought.
I know our guys have different types of dementia but the life of the caregiving spouse is not much different. It’s okay to cry and it’s okay to feel sorry for yourself and it’s okay to ask for outside help.
Take care of yourself. I know you are already taking good care of your guy.
Baud
@Miss Bianca:
She’ll probably end up offering her supporters to Trump as tribute.
zhena gogolia
@Soprano2: Oh, it’s so sad and terrible. My heart goes out to you.
Miss Bianca
@RaflW: Yeah, there is “a path forward”, Nikki – unfortunately for you, it involves voting for Joe Biden.
Gvg
@JML: Biden may be better than Obama on Labor because he is old enough to remember when they worked well.
japa21
@Miss Bianca: Speaking of Cruz, have there been any Cruz sightings in Cancun, what with the wildfires in TX going on?
Soprano2
@TBone: I’ll look at that later, thanks.
Jackie
@cain: Actually…
So she’s hedging. She won’t vote for Biden, regardless. My question, which wasn’t asked, is if she still supports pardoning TIFG “for the good of the country”?
Soprano2
@Scout211: Oh yeah, that’s true. This totally messed up our routine. I wish I had asked the urologist “What happens if we do nothing?” Doctors want to fix things, and I think they don’t consider that might break something else. Would it have been better to accept lower kidney function and a gradual worsening? This may sound bad, but everyone dies from something. My husband’s kidney function is better now, but his life (and mine) is definitely worse. He might have lived several more years without this treatment. I think we forget that things don’t always have to be treated.
debit
@RaflW:
My absentee ballot was accepted on Friday, so I am relieved.
Sometimes I think Dean Phillips has involved us in some sort of public humiliation kink that we never agreed to.
I also hope he goes away. Alas, I foresee a future where he’s skulks around like some sort of low rent Tulsi Gabbard.
Baud
@debit:
Maybe he’ll end up on Joe Rogan too!
JPL
@Jackie: That is the one question that she never wavered on.
debit
@Baud: I’d bet money on it.
eclare
@Soprano2:
I went through the same with my dad. He had major abdominal surgery at 84 for colon cancer. The surgeon said they got it all afterwards, so one problem solved. But it caused so many more, for my mom and dad. I wish someone had asked, what if we do nothing? Especially since some prostate cancers are now considered so non-aggressive drs don’t even treat them.
I think his life would have been much better using drugs to treat the symptoms, but hindsight is always 20/20.
Again, I am so sorry, and please use this space to vent or do whatever you need to do. We’re here.
Bill Arnold
@Another Scott:
For those with a twitter(x) account, https://twitter.com/nyt_diff “Editing the Grey Lady” is useful; it documents changes to headlines (and to article urls, with easily -read change marks.
SiubhanDuinne
Did anyone else listen to MVP Harris’ speech at the Edmund Pettus Bridge just now? She was fiery and passionate about Gaza relief and an immediate six-week ceasefire, about reproductive rights, about voting rights and background checks for gun purchasers. She was brilliant. Best speech I’ve ever heard from her. If you missed it live, do yourself a favour, look it up later, and watch the whole thing.
lowtechcyclist
@Miss Bianca:
Didn’t think anyone could top Spanky’s comment, but I think you, um, pulled it off. ;-)
Baud
@SiubhanDuinne:
Glad to hear it. Hopefully it’ll be posted.
Jackie
@JPL: I think (hope) that will keep a lot of non MAGA GQPers from wavering about holding their noses and voting for Biden!
hueyplong
Reading the posts complaining about the media not providing hair-on-fire coverage of Trump’s just-shy-of-a-stroke-onstage verbal/cognitive events, my reaction is that this would be borderline treasonous in September and October. I’m less bothered about it at the beginning of March. Time may be against us in the constantly stalled trials, but it’s with us here. And expert descriptions of the problem likely accelerating are all good. At some point they’ll have to hide him from the public, except that Trump won’t do that. He needs his rallies to feed his narcissism, and at one of them a couple of months from now I’m going to be made so happy as to be at risk of my own personal medical event.
Being told to be patient for 8 years or so is a drag, but there is reason to think good things are going to happen.
SiubhanDuinne
@Baud:
It should be on YouTube fairly soon, I imagine. I’ll try to remember to look for it and maybe put up a link once a fresh open thread goes up.
ETA: Maybe this.
Miss Bianca
@lowtechcyclist: lol!
lowtechcyclist
@Omnes Omnibus:
Thanks for sharing! I wasn’t going to try to access the crosstabs on the FTFNYT, so it’s good to see some of the, erm, interesting things about them.
Eyeroller
@Soprano2: More likely they weren’t getting enough clicks.
JPL
@SiubhanDuinne: If something were to happen to President Biden, she is more than capable of handling the job. I hope the news covers her more, so others will feel the same way that I do.
skerry
@Omnes Omnibus: Thanks. That was helpful
Jackie
Mighty obliging of the supremes… the DAY BEFORE Super Tues AND AFTER vote by mail/early voting has been in progress. 🙄
Yutsano
I see it’s a front pagers off Sunday again…
sab
@Soprano2: My dad has had dementia for at least a decade. Fortunately for us he was a pathologist, so although a doctor he was somewhat skeptical of medical interventions. That has helped me make decisions. He needs cataract surgery and dental surgery but anasthesia can really make things worse for dementia. I am pretty much just say no to medical interventions, but my dad is 99 yo, and a dad not a spouse.
You really should talk to the gerontologist.
lowtechcyclist
@Cacti:
Back in the spring of 2021, Zelenskyy asked for Israel’s permission (which was needed) to obtain the Iron Dome missile defense system from the U.S. Israel refused. And their general reluctance to help Ukraine in trying to reclaim their country from Russia has been disturbing, to say the least.
I still doubt that Russian and Israeli intelligence are working together to help Trump win, but it does seem that those two nations are finding themselves on the same (wrong) side a lot lately.
Another Scott
@SiubhanDuinne: Thanks for the pointer. I think your link is from last year.
This seems to be today – MVP starts around 1:01:30.
Cheers,
Scott.
TBone
@SiubhanDuinne: it was awe inspiring.
Uncle Cosmo
Which prompts the question: What is the metamorphic form of bullshit? I know the metamorphic form of paper is Masonite (which I discovered while stacking up at home all the stuff from my office when I was abruptly pasturized), but this has me stumped…
sab
@lowtechcyclist: The thing that all Americans, Jewish or not, need to realize that for Israelis the only Jews that count are the ones that live in Israel
ETA and for Bibi, the only Jews that count are Bibi and possibly his wife.
Juju
@Soprano2: I’m late to this, but my advice is don’t kick yourself over this. There is no way of knowing what caused the more rapid advance of your husband’s dementia. It may have gone in that direction more quickly no matter what happened.
My mother has advanced dementia. Some days are better than others. Sometimes I’ll think things are pretty stable and are for the most part, ok, then the next day it will be sunny outside and she will interpret shadows as dangerous big animals outside and absolutely panic when I let the dogs out, lest they be mauled or eaten by the dangerous animals. The thing I’ve been dealing with lately is my mother not recognizing the house she’s lived in for more than 40 years. I point out it has all of her stuff in it and that helps, but it’s not permanent. At least she remembers from time to time that we don’t have rhinos, hippos or elephants in NC unless they are in a zoo.
Just remind yourself you are doing the best you can, and that’s all you can do, and try not to grind or clench your teeth.
Quadrillipede
This might be overly optimistic, but if I’m understanding the recent DOJ announcement, then the Supreme Court’s blatant punt on the question “are (Republican) presidents actually kings or nah?” might mean we get an insurrection trial verdict in September/October, with former president oatmeal perseverating all over the plaintiffs/jury throughout. I kind of feel like a performance like that ought to nudge the needle, even with the some of the diehard post-reality crowd…
Roberto el oso
@dmsilev: Good thing she’s not Catholic or there’d be a constant “piso mojado” sign outside the confessional booths.
Soprano2
@sab: I think at the age of 99 it’s easy to say no more. I have a friend who believes her husband with Alzheimer’s died a lot sooner due to a hip surgery. At the age of 77 it’s harder, but after this experience I think interventions are more harmful than helpful.
sab
@Soprano2: Thank you for responding. I have two stepsons and I picked the one that loves me least for my medical POA.
sab
@Soprano2: My older sister often disagrees. I ask her “?!@@#$”
hueyplong
@Quadrillipede: May you be celebrated as a seer.
Kirk
@Juju: Or being convinced that the little people are building a basement under the house. They have a door right there, can’t you see it?
Soprano2
@Juju: Thanks. I know it was going to happen eventually, but I’m convinced him getting sick from the clogged stents and being in the hospital is what caused it. The doctor who did his neuropsych evaluation told me that vascular dementia happens in steps rather than being a slow decline, and for sure that’s what happened. Maybe he’ll improve a little bit, but he’ll never be where he was before. I think it wasn’t necessary to do this procedure on a man who has a fatal disease. It may be slow, but in the end the dementia will kill him. If I can’t get him to eat more he’s going to starve to death.
TBone
@Soprano2: my mother would eat only vanilla ice cream voluntarily. Be prepared for that lack of appetite maybe not getting any easier.
sab
@Soprano2: My dad in his prime was a pathologist so he saw, in addition to cancer slides, all the medical fuckups.
Elderly are a whole different ball game. Doctors want to help, but the elderly are a whole different ballgame. They react differently (mostly more) to every intervention. Gerontologists know that. Other doctors not so much.
Soprano2
@sab: Some people are in denial and can’t let go. My mother had an advance directive which made it easier to decide what to do when she had her stroke, but also I was the only one to make the decision. I don’t think my sister would have disagreed, though.
glc
@TBone: That’s a tough one.
My wife had a case that responded well. It’s been quite a while and the details are hazy but I see the CDC still recommends two weeks of antibiotics. My wife was treated in France and my current recollection is that it was 6 weeks. Also, as the total cost was less than the cost of 2 weeks of treatment in the US our insurance paid for the whole thing, which frankly was a surprise. I’d mentioned that point when submitting the forms but I didn’t really expect them to agree.
Uncle Cosmo
A humorous op-ed that IIRC appeared in the Wall Street Urinal in the 1980s, entitled something like “Marketing Advances Could Save Religion,” noted that “there is only so much shelf space in the supermarket of religion” and advocated for (among other things**) consolidating the vast majority of the smaller Protestant sects into one umbrella denomination called the Middle American Christian Church (MacChurch). Its services would be pretty much the same everywhere: “Someplace for Mom, Dad, Sis and Junior to go before Sunday brunch where they could be reasonably certain they wouldn’t be asked to speak in tongues, handle snakes, or give money to the Sandinistas.”
** This also applied to Catholicism, which the author divided, like Gaul, into three parts: The church as directed from Rome (“RC”), the liberation-theology leftish offshoot (“RC Free”) and the Latin-mass traditionalists (“RC Classic”). As a baptised, communioned, confirmed, and finally former member of the One Holy Catholic And Apostolic Church (OHCAAC), I must admit this had me ROTFLMAO (Rolling On The Floor Laughing My Apse Off)…
sab
@Soprano2: Dementia and anesthesiology do not mix well. Talk to a gerontologist.
Soprano2
@TBone: I know, mostly I’m hoping the CBD/THC will help him want to eat more of whatever he will eat.
Juju
@Soprano2: I have a mid April nephrology appointment with my mother because she’s in stage 3 kidney failure. I looked that up on the Mayo Clinic website, because it sounded serious, and it is, but not as serious as it was made out to me when the nurse called to give me the news. The average person can live up to 25 years with stage 3 kidney disease. My mother is going to be 91 this Wednesday. My brother is a physician and I talked about the situation with him and told him how I felt about it and how I wanted to deal with our mother, which is, she’s 91 and quality of life is more important than quantity, and I’m not going to worry. My brother agrees. When she has doctor appointments it takes a day or so for her to settle back into her routine. Anyhoo, I hope your husband settles back into his routine. My mother only leaves the house for doctor appointments now. She does better at home than going out.
Geminid
@sab: Israelis are no more a monolith than are American Hispanics, even the 77% of Israeli citizens who are Jews. When people say “Israelis are this,” or “Israelis are that,” they are stereotyping and most often stereotyping incorrectly.
TBone
@Soprano2: that’s a good plan. THC sure fattens me up.
sab
@Soprano2: My huge concern is my husband versus the stepkids. When my mom was failing my dad (early dementia) would have moved heaven and earth to save her, when she wanted to die. She died of pneumonia at home, which she would have survived if she had been in hospital.
That was the hospital’s fuckup, not mine. But she had already said she wanted to go home.They sent her, not me.
Juju
@Kirk: Or why is a real estate agent coming in the middle of the night to show someone the house? Didn’t you hear them when they were here? Why did I put the house up for sale?
sab
@Geminid: Head down, you are right.
sab
I did not always but lately I project Bibi thought on all Iraelis.
But all Israelis do think non-Israeli Jews are lesser beings.
Subsole
@oldgold:
Ok.
And replace him with whom, exactly?
Juju
@Soprano2: My mother went through a phase like that, where she lost weight because she couldn’t remember that she had not eaten, and when I put food in front of her she would insist she’d eaten already. Her doctor suggested having her drink Boost, but she drank three of a six pack and hated them. So I kept putting food out for her, easy to eat things, like pudding, yogurt, lunchables, instant mashed potatoes, and anything else I thought she’d like. She started eating those things and I made what used to be favorite meals for her and that got things rolling again. My niece sends cookies she makes for her grandma and I discovered my mother really likes Publix coffee cakes. Now she has days where she forgets that she’s eaten and eats more, and days that she thinks she’s eaten but hasn’t. Oddly enough, it all seems to balance out for her and she’s at a good weight and it’s been consistent for the last couple of years. It’s not a balanced diet by any stretch of the imagination, so I make sure she takes daily adult gummy vitamins and hope for the best. I hope you can find something your husband likes to eat and get him to a point where he has more interest in food. I will keep my fingers crossed for you.
Juju
@sab: I hadn’t thought of that. Fortunately my mother has not needed any kind of surgery since her back surgery 20 plus years ago. At this point in her life I would say no to any kind of surgery.
Subsole
@cain: I know we’re talking about it a lot in medicine.
Brachiator
@Omnes Omnibus:
Very good poll analysis piece. The part about pollsters heavily relying on English speaking Hispanic voters was outrageous.
Princess
@Geminid: Thank you. It’s like someone from Europe describing everyone in the US as Trump lovers in 2017.
ETA and I have no idea, sab, where you get the notion that Israelis despise American Jews. Some of the most belligerent settlers ARE American Jews. But Israelis with American ties cut right across the political spectrum.
Bill Arnold
@Subsole:
That’s easy: “Johnny Unbeatable”.
Brachiator
@Uncle Cosmo:
Good Poll analysis.
Yep. The crazy thing is that even people who distrust polls treat them as oracles, especially when they like the results. But this is the most important caution about relying on polls. They can be more accurate closer to the election because more voters have decided who they support and most surprises have been taken into account.
Women are not a monolith. White women and black women vote differently. Unmarried women and married women vote differently. Education level and age are major factors. Southern white women tend to strongly vote Republican.
National polls are faulty by definition. They are also lazy. We don’t vote nationally for president. And anyone who tells you that there is a strong correlation between the national vote and state voting is lying.
Chief Oshkosh
@Quadrillipede:
Just spent the weekend with several conservatives. One of them was actually scary. Really nice lady right up to the point that she discovered that I am a Democrat. After that, she got seriously abusive and irrational – absolutely raving – and I was NOT discussing politics at the time (or at any time).
Just absolutely Looney Tunes. She was panting after her tirade and had to go to bed to sleep it off. Here’s hoping she strokes out when Biden wins. Fuck ‘er.
Ruckus
@Soprano2:
I’ve dealt with old people with dementia, one had noticeable dementia for over a decade. And the first noticeable incident was being asked a question so out of left field and so out of context that it still makes me wonder WTH after over 30 yrs. That was Alzheimers that later went on, very noticeably, for over 10 yrs. Could not speak or make noise for the last 5.
Gvg
@mrmoshpotato: Sounds like a good way to lose to me. I prefer that outcome of course. I imagine the lesson they learned is never admit who you really support.
I mean, they went to one of his rally’s, so they were potential voters, and he attacks them.
Chief Oshkosh
@AlaskaReader:
Sort of how I feel about F1 records. There’s no doubt that Hamilton, Vettel, and Verstappen are fantastic drivers, but Juan Manuel Fandgio did it when a mistake was fatal.
Harumph!
Gvg
@Baud: Historically, and not that long ago, a bunch of big unions were very racist, and would not let POC in, or did not apply the rules fairly. They were very reactionary in the 70’s and I really think that might be one reason they lost a lot of influence. It’s only recently that unions have finally shown that they have matured ethically. So older people like me are surprised when we hear this.
Fake Irishman
@Gvg:
Depends a lot on the union.
Culinary workers local 5 in Las Vegas really got strong by organizing primarily Hispanic casino workers and ensuring they got opportunities for career advancements.
The UAW leadership really worked hard on educating membership about civil rights for decades and quietly funded a lot of activism.
The building trades, not so much.
billcinsd
@AlaskaReader: Pistol Pete also played in the era when freshman were not eligible to play for the varsity. The Pistol averaged 43.8 ppg as a sophomore