Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

Polls are now a reliable indicator of what corporate Republicans want us to think.

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

Ron DeSantis, the grand wizard, oops, governor of FL.

There are some who say that there are too many strawmen arguments on this blog.

When the time comes to make an endorsement, the pain of NYT editors will be palpable as they reluctantly whisper “Biden.”

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

There is no compromise when it comes to body autonomy. You either have it or you don’t.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

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

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

Fight for a just cause, love your fellow man, live a good life.

Not all heroes wear capes.

Republicans don’t trust women.

I wonder if trump will be tried as an adult.

Biden: Oh no. We’ve upset Big Pharma again.

… gradually, and then suddenly.

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

Nikki Haley, who can’t acknowledge ‘slavery’, is a pathetic shill.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

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

Sunday Afternoon Open Thread

by | 131 Comments

This post is in: 

Boston terrier looking stern.Regular at the bar. Dapper little gent. A bit too enthused about the snack options sometimes.

Open thread.

ETA: At some point this week, I was driving and heard some legal analysis on an NPR program, I think. I was only half paying attention.

Anyhoo, the speaker was reviewing the “novel” perspective Justice Kavanaugh or Gorsuch* brought to the debate about bump stocks. To wit: will no one think of the poor buyers who already own bump stocks and who only wanted to convert their AR-15s into fully automatic machine guns, which are illegal even in this gun-psychotic country?

Seriously, that’s something they’re taking under deliberation. We are ruled by corrupt sociopaths.

*I confuse those two because they seem like interchangeable aging frat boys of a similar vintage.

Reader Interactions

131Comments

  6. 6.

    NotMax

    Not to be a downer, and dunno if has already been mentioned; noting the passing of comedian Richard Lewis at 76 earlier this week.

  9. 9.

    zhena gogolia

    I think it’s Badger, and I think he’s looking for either beer nuts or pickled eggs.

  13. 13.

    Miss Bianca

    Oh, Badger!

    That is all, thank you. Listening to the wind shrieking outside and watching the trees wobbling back and forth.

  20. 20.

    NotMax

    Brain is urging, “Get out there and do some lawn mowing.”

    Wonky knee I twisted a few days ago keeps interjecting, “Are you nuts? No way, José.”

  21. 21.

    sdhays

    If this has already been discussed, apologies, but…apparently former President Dotard is now officially pro-measles/whooping cough/polio:

    @BarbaraComstock

    Trump said in Richmond, that he will take all federal funds away from public schools that require vaccines. Like most states, Virginia requires MMR vaccine, chickenpox vaccine, polio, etc. So Trump would take millions in federal funds away from all Virginia public schools.

    Support for vaccination is depressingly low right now because of the right-wing embracing the anti-vax movement, but I’m skeptical that it’s a winning general election message. What’s astonishing is that he didn’t need to go all in on anti-vax; he’s winning those voters already, and it’s not like he has a problem talking out of both sides of his cat’s-anus-like mouth.

    “Mercedes, have you seen my marbles anywhere? The last place I put them was in the shitter with the stolen government secrets.”

  23. 23.

    Betty Cracker

    @sdhays: There’s a measles outbreak in FL right now. The crackpot surgeon general DeSantis hired is leaving it up to parents whether to send their unvaxxed kids to school or not. Dotard is cribbing off that clown, maybe.  We’re so fucked next time there’s a public health issue that requires collective action, however trivial.

  27. 27.

    japa21

    @sdhays: The way things are going, yo are going to see a lot of diseases, i.e. measles and mumps showing up, and that is going to drive home the need for vaccines message.  This is a loser for Trump.

  29. 29.

    Martin

    Literally every law has the same trap – that people will be unaware of the change to the law. if this is a problem for bump stocks, then no laws can ever change. It’s the dumbest goddamn argument you can put forward. How a justice could get it past the thought->speech filter is astonishing.

  30. 30.

    Dan B

    Update for a different pet from the Garden Chat post, Miss Milly my little grey BaBoo are chasing each other around the house.  BaBoo is happy to have a playmate. They are floor maniacs.

  34. 34.

    UncleEbeneezer

    Michael Popok has a hopeful attitude towards SCOTUS and Presidential Immunity.

    TLDW:  It’s possible they only want to rule on 1.) whether Former Presidents can assert Immunity and 2.) what constitutes an official act/duty?  Both are things that really need a definitive Supreme Court ruling for the future and  could be decided fairly quickly and still leave time for a criminal trial in September.

    I wouldn’t count on it, but it’s nice to have someone analyze the situation and come to a conclusion that isn’t “OMG they’re just stalling for Trump” and could very well be possible based on what we know.

  35. 35.

    glc

    Right gains in local elections, Israel.

    On the other hand, according to this report

    The rightwing bloc’s success is unlikely to be repeated at a national level; polling shows that Netanyahu’s coalition of far-right and religious parties would incur massive losses if an election was held now.

  38. 38.

    VFX Lurker

    Great pup pix of Pete and Badger.

    I’m trying to entice my anxious cat to eat a new diet (vet recommendation). I tried gradually mixing the old and new food over a period of a week, but now it seems like she’s ignoring the new food entirely. I don’t want her to miss meals, so I set down a portion of the old and new food side-by-side. She nibbled a bit at the old, familiar food, then left the rest.

    I think my other cat (who does not have any anxiety or dietary restrictions) may have been happily eating both the old and new food when I’m not looking. If the anxious cat will eat the old food, I might try starting over with reintroducing the new food.

  39. 39.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @NotMax:

    Brain is urging, “Get out there and do some lawn mowing.”

    Wonky knee I twisted a few days ago keeps interjecting, “Are you nuts? No way, José.”

    Are you sure Twisted Knee isn’t really muttering, No way? Hoe, say?

    ;^p

  40. 40.

    Geminid

    @Nukular Biskits: I’ve been reading a biography of English general George Monck, and was interested to see that when he was Governor General of Scotland in the 1650s, Monck prohibited the public carrying of arms, even”fowling pieces.”

    That cut down on feuding and banditry. A contemporary commented that for the first time in 500 years, a “man could ride from one end of Scotland to the other carrying only a switch.”

    I also learned that General Monck liked to chew tobacco.

  41. 41.

    Miss Bianca

    @TBone: Reading down through the quoted bit, I love how “maverick” is apparently now the term of art for “so bugfuck-nutso-beyond- the-pale-of-established-thought-and-best-practice that we can’t even see you from here.”

    I guess because it’s shorter than “so bugfuck-nutso-beyond-the-pale-of-established-thought-and-best-practice that we can’t even see you from here.”

  42. 42.

    Jackie

    @japa21: How TIFG jumping on the RFK jr anti-vax wagon thinks that’s going to increase his voter pool… I say go for it!

  44. 44.

    RSA

    It’s pretty obvious that the bump stock has no purpose other than giving the shooter an experience some say is fun. Everyone seems to agree that it goes through ammunition much faster and reduces aiming precision.

    In a sane country, I think they’d be outlawed simply on safety grounds, without even bringing guns into the picture, as being too likely to cause injury to users or bystanders.  We do this with all sorts of technology, vehicles being the most obvious example.

  45. 45.

    mrmoshpotato

    Ahoy there sir!  What’ll ya have – a Pupperoni?

    The trees out back looking quite nice too.

  47. 47.

    Miss Bianca

    @Jackie: Is it only a matter of time before Trump announces RFK Jr as his running mate? And would RFK Jr accept? We wonders, yes we wonders…and then we wonders why we are troubling our beautiful mind with such speculation.

  48. 48.

    sdhays

    @UncleEbeneezer: If you pushed me to make a prediction, I’d say the Supreme Court will issue a clear, reasonablish ruling about immunity that leaves Trump with nothing – and with at least 7 votes in the majority. The Supremacist Court hasn’t been particularly supportive of Trump himself; they like being the top conservative oligarchs in the government.

    But it’s still a fact that they could be moving faster and they didn’t have to pause the trial while they deliberated. Those actions are definitely supporting Trump.

  51. 51.

    satby

    @sdhays: I was just at a board meeting of our rescue group, and one of the others is GQQQP. She was telling the story of an Asian (she assumed Chinese) doctor she verbally abused during her last hospital stay because Covid; and then made some comment about U of Notre Dame students at the hospital studying “biomedical engineering, and you know what that means”. So I asked, because I love a good crazy yarn, and she said it meant they were learning to engineer new viruses.

    Imagine that toxic masculinity -retro Catholic U, Scalia and Coathanger-Barrett’s favorite, is now part of the world wide conspiracy. Ultimately, they’ll eat their own, and I will have tasty popcorn watching.

  55. 55.

    Elizabelle

    I love your dogs.   Baxter can all the snacks and ice cubes he wants, and he looks to be better company than a lot of barflies hanging out on stools.

    And Pete, just a doll.

  57. 57.

    Nukular Biskits

    @Geminid:

    I’m thinking of that ridiculous SCOTUS ruling where Alito trotted out some nonsense about gun restrictions in light of history (that NY case … would look it up but eating right now).

  60. 60.

    NotMax

    @TBone

    “I’m looking for a man named LaFong. Carl LaFong.…”

    his name always makes me think “water closet.”

    Just goes to show ya. Makes me think “Debussy.”
    ;)

  71. 71.

    Geminid

    @glc: That was a low turnout election, even lower than usual for municipal elections. As usual, the Ultra-Orthodox turned out because the rabbis tell them to.

    This was one reason why Netanyahu won his 64-56 coalition majority majority in the November 1, 2022 election. Some Israelis on the left was unmotivated for the 5th election in four years, while the two Ultra-Orthodox parties increased their total MKs by 3.

    Also, some bad tactical decisions came back to bite the left wing parties. Labor refused Meretz’s request for a joint slate, while the Balad party split from the Arab Joint List.

    There is a 3.25% threshold for Knesset representation. If Meretz or Balad had made the threshold they would have won 4 MKs each. Meretz came up just short with 3.24% while Balad came in with 2.86, so basically 6% of the opposition vote was wasted.

    The opposition’s mood on November 2 was much like Democrats’ mood the day after Clinton lost in 2016. They were shocked.

  74. 74.

    Almost Retired

    @sdhays:  Alas, it surprises me not at all that Trump’s going down the antivax path.  Another on the checklist along with anti Medicaid expansion, rejection of Summer meal programs for children, repeal the ACA, etc.  I must have slept in the day the Professor in my Intro to Poli Sci class explained the reasoning behind the electoral strategy of killing off your voters.

  76. 76.

    Dan B

    @satby: MiIlly goes so fast she rolls over and smashes into doors, etc.  BaBoo is much intrigued and is also a rocket cat.

  78. 78.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Nukular Biskits:

    I think it’s about time we go back to the historical understanding of “arms”; i.e., single-shot muskets.

    This.  I’d be fine with an unenfringeable right to own single-shot muskets, as long as we can regulate or ban, as appropriate, the hell out of all more modern firearms.

  81. 81.

    Kelly

    @RSA: In a sane country, I think they’d be outlawed

    In a sane country when bump stocks were invented the authorities enforcing laws against fully automatic weapons would have said “You think because the automatic device is not directly moving the firing mechanism instead it is moving your finger it’s not a full auto weapon? Are you out of your damned mind? The bump stock clearly results in fully automatic fire. Illegal!!!!”

  83. 83.

    Dan B

    @BeautifulPlumage: Milly seems whipsmart.  She’s a talker and has different words for food, play with this toy, starting to zoom, etc.  She really talks at Mike a lot.

  84. 84.

    CarolPW

    Good depth. Natural light. Art (we are pro-fish). Couch view. Flowers. Ice chest under counter minor infraction. 9/10.

  85. 85.

    RaflW

    @sdhays: I expect the NYY to either not cover this at all, or to write a 400 word update on their live coverage scroll, with the headline “Trump said to be considering tying school aid to vaccine changes”.

  86. 86.

    JPL

    Campaigning as an anti-vaxxer and now wanting to defend the FBI does not seem like winning issues.

    Via Scott MacFarlane:

    Per House Speaker Mike Johnson office, new spending deal to fund government thru September cuts the FBI. By 6%

  87. 87.

    Abnormal Hiker

    I’m sure everyone will want to read the puff piece on Lauren Boebert in WaPo.

  88. 88.

    Mike S. (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!)

    @Betty Cracker:  Y’all are lucky that idiot doesn’t want to bann vaccinated kid from attending school. because they will shed disease particles or something.

  90. 90.

    Jackie

    @Betty Cracker: Jamie Raskin was on Jen Psaki’s show today and he said the supremes can move fast when they want to – using the Bush Gore decision for the example. He went on to say in that deadpan tone he uses so well: “The SCOTUS hears the Immunity case 4/22. They could make a decision by 4/23 or 24 at Josh Hawley warp speed, if they wanted to.”

    Immediate vision of Hawley high tailing it away from the insurrectionists… 😂

  91. 91.

    Another Scott

    Meanwhile, …

    Dean Phillips
    @deanbphillips

    When the NYT/Sienna poll shows me at 12%, you better believe it is flawed.

    Only 5% even know who I am.

    11:47 AM · Mar 3, 2024

    (Yes, that’s his real account.)

    Hmm….

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  94. 94.

    Miss Bianca

    @Another Scott: Hmm…that sounds suspiciously like Dean Phillips is exhibiting not only a glimmer of self-awareness, but also sense of humor. Is it possible?

    (ETA: maybe one of his soon-to-be-ex-staffers posted it on the way out the door.)

  98. 98.

    Jay

    @RSA:

    Bump Stocks were banned because the Vegas Mass Shooter used them to convert semi auto rifles to full auto.

  100. 100.

    Warblewarble

    Is not just Netanyahu, but the Israeli war cabinet that is blocking aid to the Palestinians that MVP is now expressing concern about. The urgency has been there for months and months. Next week, she and others will be meeting Benny Ganz. Regretfully my expectations are not high.

  101. 101.

    zhena gogolia

    @Miss Bianca: That is the most likely VP pick for Drumpf. Won’t be a woman or a person of color. But he’d love the celebrity cred of a Kennedy.

  102. 102.

    JPL

    @zhena gogolia: trump might have stated that he’ll block funding to public schools if they mandate vaccines, in order to get Kennedy’s endorsement.   Latest speculation is that Katie Britt the new senator from Alabama will get the nod.

  103. 103.

    Another Scott

    Meanwhile, on the appropriations bills released today…

    Bobby Kogan
    @BBKogan
    12m

    Major victory for the country that Dems successfully fully funded WIC and protected SNAP – two major food assistance programs.

    Ensuring adequate food is a foundational pillar of society.

    Caitlin Emma
    @caitlinzemma
    2h

    Policy highlights:

    — More than $7B for WIC, a more than $1B increase over fiscal ’23. Democrats championing full funding here.
    — No SNAP pilot program pushed by Republicans
    — Rider that preserves gun rights for veterans who need fiduciary help w/ their VA benefits is in

    Mar 3, 2024 · 11:27 PM UTC

    Good, good.

    Eyes on the prizes.

    (via Fritschner)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  104. 104.

    Abnormal Hiker

    @JPL: Don’t think so. Just scrolled through quickly to comments and didn’t notice any ALL CAPS sections.

  105. 105.

    Another Scott

    @lowtechcyclist: I think if we’re going to go by “originalism” then we should be consistent about it.

    Colonial Williamsburg Magazine:

    The Magazine was constructed in 1715 as storage for the arms and ammunition dispatched from London for the defense of the colony. Just before the Revolution, it was the scene of a famous confrontation between Williamsburg residents and the royal governor, when his soldiers absconded with the colony’s gunpowder.

    IOW, the guns and ammo were kept locked up. And were for use by the militia – made up of the able-bodied citizenry.

    There weren’t people rolling down Duke of Gloucester Street with their personal cannons and racks of muskets on their buggies.

    Grr…,
    Scott.

  106. 106.

    Betty Cracker

    @JPL: Britt wouldn’t surprise me as a VP pick. Hair Furor reportedly gushed that she and her husband looked “straight out of central casting” when he met them, which is how the shallow old monstrosity picks people.

    I’d wager a small sum the VP pick will be a woman or black man.

  108. 108.

    Another Scott

    @Baud: [ snort! ]

    “Those stupid colonists, they didn’t even know that the building was an Armory not a Magazine!!1  How can we trust anything they say about the Second Amendment??!!1”

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  109. 109.

    Scout211

    @Betty Cracker: Britt wouldn’t surprise me as a VP pick. Hair Furor reportedly gushed that she and her husband looked “straight out of central casting” when he met them, which is how the shallow old monstrosity picks people.

    Ugh.  what an idiot.

    Did you read how he referred to the Lt Governor of North Carolina as he endorsed him?

    RALEIGH, N.C. (AP)  — Donald Trump has endorsed North Carolina Lt. Gov Mark Robinson for governor, fulfilling a pledge the former president made several months ago.

    At a rally Saturday in Greensboro, Trump compared Robinson, who is Black, to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., the famed civil rights leader. Trump referred to Robinson as “Martin Luther King on steroids.”

    Trump said Robinson wasn’t sure how to respond when Trump compared him to the legendary civil rights leader, telling him: “I think you’re better than Martin Luther King. I think you are Martin Luther King times two.”

    “You should like it,” Trump said.

  110. 110.

    The Lodger

    @satby: Exactly what are you all trying to rescue? I can’t imagine this banana brain in an organized effort to do anything positive.

  112. 112.

    Geminid

    @Betty Cracker: One thing Britt may have going for her besides ambition: she served several years as Richard Shelby’s Chief of Staff, so she ought to know how to subordinate herself to a powerful man.

    Britt also may have Susan Wiles and Chris LaCivita in her corner. Trump already has conservative evangelicals locked down, but the Wall Street Journal types are still sceptical. Britt would reassure them. A safe pick.

  113. 113.

    karen marie

    @NotMax:   I’ve been watching David Letterman Show episodes  from the ’80s on youtube – Richard Lewis was a frequent guest.  What a brilliant show that was.

  114. 114.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Miss Bianca:

    🎶 “Who is the tall dark stranger there? So-bugfuck-nutso-beyond-the-pale-of-established-thought-and-best-practice that we can’t even see you from here is the name.” [….] ”Natchez to New Orleans, livin’ on jacks and queens, So-bugfuck-nutso-beyond-the-pale-of-established-thought-and-best-practice that we can’t even see you from here is the legend of the West.” 🎶🎶

  117. 117.

    karen marie

    @JPL:   I don’t see that happening.

    She’s not blonde and she doesn’t appear to have big tits.

  119. 119.

    JPL

    @Jackie: So is he.   Pence did not help him win a particular state, but it insured the evangelical vote.   trump is lagging with females, especially suburban females

    What would Steve Bannon say?

  121. 121.

    JPL

    @mrmoshpotato: Decades ago, we shared a compost pile with a neighbor and my dog discovered it after large piles of cabbage leaves were dumped in.   A gas mask wouldn’t have helped.   She, the dog, was banished from the bedroom.

  123. 123.

    Jackie

    @JPL: Does TIFG listen to Bannon very much? They seem to have an on again off again relationship. Bannon would probably go for Kari Lake or Noem. A very MAGA female. MGT wants it, but even Bannon THAT isn’t delusional!

  124. 124.

    Geminid

    @JPL: A friend cooks a lot of cannabis edibles and sells them at cost, mainly to other retired nurses. They all need pain relief, so Debbie goes through a lot of weed. She puts all the leftover cannabis sludge in her compost pile.

    So one day a friend came by with his dog, and chatted over a cup of coffee while the dog ransacked the compost pile. That dog ended up spending six days in the veterinary hospital.

    Debbie never told the friend why his dog got sick. She was just pissed the guy didn’t keep his dog out of trouble. After all, Debbie said, a woman’s compost pile is her castle!

  125. 125.

    satby

    @The Lodger: she’s a legacy member from when the rescue was founded more than 10 years ago, and normally inactive. And getting pretty old, some dementia may be beginning because she’s certainly worse. But she wants to move to Huckabee land, so it’s a soon to be solved problem.

    And no, as is not usual for me, I didn’t bother debating her on her whack views. She’s a sad case and soon to be gone.

  127. 127.

    trollhattan

    @Scout211:

    So much to unpack, but it’s Trump so leave that suitcase alone!

    Among the Apostles was universal regard for Jesus’ legendary guns. “Yeah, unto the Valley of the Shadow of Death tread those who dare armwrestle the Son of God.”

  131. 131.

    wjca

    I confuse those two because they seem like interchangeable aging frat boys of a similar vintage.

    The difference seems clear.  One is, pretty clearly, a rapist.  The other, for all his faults, doesn’t appear to be.

    When women’s rights are under attack, that should be noted.  Even if it is only a difference between extremely bad and off the charts horrible.

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