Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

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

Quote tweet friends, screenshot enemies.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

Let’s finish the job.

Let me file that under fuck it.

Sadly, media malpractice has become standard practice.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

Israel is using food as a weapon of war. Unforgivable.

Hey Washington Post, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” is supposed to be a warning, not a mission statement.

ha ha ha! Nice try weird people.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

T R E 4 5 O N

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

The willow is too close to the house.

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

Republicans would impeach Biden if he bit into a whole Kit Kat rather than breaking the sections apart.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

Jack be nimble, jack be quick, hurry up and indict this prick.

You are here: Home / Politics / Looks like Ronna (not Romney) and Donnie Are Going Through Some Things

Looks like Ronna (not Romney) and Donnie Are Going Through Some Things

by | 315 Comments

This post is in: ,

Does anyone know how the attempted boycott of Meet the Press went today?

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Love the mockery! Needling Donnie the day before (hopefully) he has a come to Jesus meeting with the judge who will determine the future of his financial life.

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Open thread.

Reader Interactions

315Comments

  2. 2.

    mrmoshpotato

    Does anyone know how the attempted boycott of Meet the Press went today?

    I boycott it every Sunday.

  6. 6.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    @rikyrah: I learned just today I’m seven months older than the Breakfast Club, which I never finished.

  7. 7.

    WaterGirl

    Why aren’t these people smart enough to slink off and hope that no one notices them?  Ronna will have brought this on herself by increasing the likelihood of being prosecuted.

  9. 9.

    lowtechcyclist

    @rikyrah:

    The Breakfast Club was FORTY YEARS AGO 😔😭

    I am old 😢

    Get used to it. :-)

    I long ago got used to the idea that most Americans didn’t remember where they were when they heard that JFK was shot, BECAUSE THEY HADN’T BEEN BORN YET.

    (I was in my fifth-grade classroom on that overcast Friday in northern Virginia, if you’re wondering. Or even if you’re not. Reality is like that.)

  12. 12.

    mrmoshpotato

    @lowtechcyclist:

    I long ago got used to the idea that most Americans didn’t remember where they were when they heard that JFK was shot, BECAUSE THEY HADN’T BEEN BORN YET. 

    Ahoy!

  13. 13.

    Another Scott

    Nobody would ever believe that Don Poorleone picture.

    The hand is much, much too big.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  14. 14.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    @mrmoshpotato: Eat your Wheaties.

    If you’re eating breakfast cereal and lying to yourself that starch cardboard is better for you than delicious cinnamon and oat clusters, you’re depriving yourself for no good reason.

  15. 15.

    West of the Rockies

    Question… would America be better off if Trump loses badly in November and Democrats have full control of Congress (but the QOP likely won’t dissipate and become less dangerous)…

    Or The Turd dies and the cult of personality breaks like a bad fever?

    I know Trump going to prison is theoretically a possibility, but I will believe it when I see it

    How does Trumpism actually end?

  17. 17.

    Jackie

    NBC’s money would be better spent having Liz Cheney as a Republican spokesperson – at least temporarily through the elections. She’s an honest TIFG hater.

  21. 21.

    smith

    Another amusing bit of news — when second son Eric went hat in hand to rich guys he knows to ask them to lend dear old Dad a mere $464 million, they laughed at him! He was apparently astounded. Didn’t they know who he is?

  22. 22.

    lowtechcyclist

    @West of the Rockies:

    I’d prefer full control of Congress. Cult or no cult, there’s shit that needs to be attended to, from voting rights to reproductive rights to climate change, and a shitload of things in between.  I want to see a Congress that moves mountains to make this country and our world a better place.

  23. 23.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Marcopolo:

    Um, why not both? I’d say “hell, all three,” but you probably don’t want a decaying corpse in a jail cell. 

    Yeah!  Give us both!  Especially after the decade of abuse the orange shitstain has subjected us to.

  24. 24.

    Another Scott

    @West of the Rockies: There are still LaRouchies and Moonies and so forth out there.  They don’t matter in national politics any more though.

    It ends by defeating them in November.

    Politicians want to be elected.  If some movement keeps losing, then politicians who have a chance of winning won’t join it.  And that movement will fade away.

    My $0.02.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  33. 33.

    BeautifulPlumage

    Someone on Bluesky or Xitter said this isn’t even the largest bond amount put up in NY. I don’t know where to start looking for that kind of info but am curious about it. Anyone here know where this info migth be found?

  35. 35.

    mrmoshpotato

    @JPL:

    That can’t be! That was a good movie. 

    Would it be ok for The Breakfast Club to be 40 years old if it totally sucked? 😁

  39. 39.

    mrmoshpotato

    @TBone:

    Eric Trump said top insurance executives laughed when he asked for more than $400 million in bond money for his father. 

    “Fuck off, Gums!”

  40. 40.

    MattF

    NBC hiring Ronna is astounding. She’s a long-term gaslighter and election denier, not any sort of candidate for political correspondant. Chuck Todd (!!) was exceedingly pissed about the situation in a public MTP segment.

    And what’s left to say about TFG?

  41. 41.

    JoyceH

    @West of the Rockies:

    Or The Turd dies and the cult of personality breaks like a bad fever?

    I keep thinking that would happen and it certainly seems to be the case that Trump has a hold on the MAGAts that no one else can duplicate, though many have tried. On the other hand – they’ve tried to replace him while he was still available.  Sometimes… sometimes I remember that some of the worst and most dangerous cult leaders didn’t actually create the cult but inherited or assumed control of a cult someone else originated – David Koresh and so on.

    I can’t imagine who that would be, and nobody else has ever seemed to have the hold over a POLITICAL group that Trump has had, but we might learn differently if Trump dies and the fever doesn’t break.

  42. 42.

    BeautifulPlumage

    @smith: ​
      I get that he meant they laughed at the “ridiculous large amount” but it didn’t come off that way : )

  45. 45.

    JoyceH

    New subject – do you use audio books or know people who do? How prevalent are audio books? I don’t use them, so I’ve sort of ignored the subject, but a few people have told me that audio books are Big. Currently Amazon Direct Publishing has a beta going to create audio books, so the upfront cost isn’t an issue. So – audio books: discuss.

  47. 47.

    hueyplong

    @West of the Rockies: “How does Trumpism actually end?”

    Guess I’m rooting for “Not with a bang but a whimper.”

    Though a bang of the Führerbunker variety would be even better.

  51. 51.

    Another Scott

    @BeautifulPlumage: Google showed me this about a $3B bail bond.

    But that was for bail, not appeal.

    RobinsKaplan.com:

    On July 25, 2023, a federal judge in St. Paul ordered BMO Harris Bank to post bond for more than $1.158 billion as a result of the $1 billion jury verdict and interest award Robins Kaplan secured against BMO on behalf of its client Douglas Kelley. This case arose from one of the largest Ponzi schemes in U.S. history.

    So, yeah, there are much bigger ones than TIFG’s appeal bond.

    HTH!

    [eta:] That was not in New York (bank was chartered in IL), if it matters.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  52. 52.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @JoyceH: For me they’re not a thing.  I get pissed off when idiots replace simple lists (“Who are the greatest hockey goalies of all time?”) with fucking podcasts that waste endless time of idiots verbally masturbating.

  53. 53.

    gene108

    @rikyrah:

    I have coworkers in their mid-20’s. If I had kids, I could be their father. Would’ve had them in my early to mid-20’s.

  57. 57.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @JoyceH: I don’t think any of his spawn have his twisted charisma that so appeals to white supremacists, “Christians”, xenophobes, misogynists and other reactionary shitbirds.

  61. 61.

    Raoul Paste

    @BeautifulPlumage:  No link, but I have seen this referenced on Fox News, of all places.
    They displayed a number of examples where  bond was over $1 billion, generally involving mega corporations like Chase or Apple, or Samsung

    edit. I see that Another  Scott is already on it

  65. 65.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @JoyceH: When I had the 90 minute commute to Ames, I got audio books from the library. I got discs at first, but then they had audio books I could borrow for my ipod. Since they were in the car, I got in the habit of listening to them whenever I drove around.

  66. 66.

    Eolirin

    @Villago Delenda Est: That’s not an audio book? That’s a completely different thing? Audiobooks are usually just narration of the exact written words of a novel.

    Though sometimes they’re more like radio plays, like the really excellent Sandman adaptation Audible’s been producing.

    I find it harder to process spoken word than read, and I don’t spend any time doing things like driving to commute, so they’re not something I touch much. But a lot of them are very good nowadays

    And at minimum, listening to the now sadly departed Harlan Ellison read his own work… truly something else. And Neil Gaiman is not far behind.

  70. 70.

    Scout211

    @JoyceH: do you use audio books or know people who do?

    I prefer reading the written words but I do know many people who mainly listen to audiobooks.  When I volunteered at the library a few years ago, the CD versions of books were popular and often checked out. Now most of the patrons are connected through Libby and other services for free digital downloads.  So yes, audiobooks are popular.

  72. 72.

    trollhattan

    Your occasional reminder: nature hates you, feline edition.

    Saturday’s mountain lion attack in El Dorado County is believed to be the first fatal incident of its kind in two decades. So how often do mountain lion attacks happen in California? Such incidents are rare, but there have been 22 documented mountain lion attacks involving 24 victims in California since 1986 — including Saturday’s attack — according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

    A person is one thousand times more likely to be struck by lightning than to be attacked by a mountain lion, which tends to avoid human interaction, according to the fish and wildlife department. What we know about Saturday’s mountain lion attack On Saturday, “at 1:13 p.m., the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office received a 911 call indicating that two people had been attacked by a mountain lion,” the Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.

    One victim, who was identified by authorities as 21-year-old man, was killed. His 18-year-old brother was injured but was expected to survive. The attack occurred five miles southeast of Georgetown on Darling Ridge Road near Skid Road not far from Dutch Canyon, according to dispatchers. The area lies within El Dorado National Forest. The condition of the victim who survived was not released, but dispatch audio reviewed by The Sacramento Bee said the individual was bitten in the face.

    https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/article287038265.html#storylink=cpy

    My inlaws lived very close to here, so within shouting distance of cougars and an hour’s drive to their doctors.

    But wait, there’s more!

    It was a beautiful Pacific Northwest day. Sunny, puffy clouds on the horizon. Five competitive cyclists – women in their 50s and 60s – met at the Tokul Creek trail north of Snoqualmie.

    At the yellow gate before riding into the deep forest, the women took a group selfie. They had no premonition that 19 miles in, a young male cougar would attack one of them, and that they’d spend 45 minutes in a battle for their lives.

    Cougars, wild cats also known as mountain lions or pumas, are reclusive and tend to stay away from humans. In the Northwest, people who spend time in the mountains know these apex predators may be lurking nearby, but sightings are rare. Even more unusual is an attack on a human. There have been 20 cougar attacks recorded in Washington state in the last century, two of which were fatal.

    The prevailing advice for a cougar encounter is to make yourself big – and loud. So when two cougars ambled across the gravel trail where the cyclists were riding, Auna Tietz started shouting.

    “Cougar! Cougar!”

    The first cougar, presumably the mother or a sibling, ran off. But the younger one paused … and then lunged at Keri Bergere, 60, who was biking a few paces ahead of him.

    “Looking to my right, I saw the cougar’s face,” Bergere said. “It was just a split second, and he tackled me off my bike.”

    Bergere and the cougar tumbled into a shallow ditch to the side of the trail. The animal sunk his teeth into Bergere’s jaw and pinned her face into the dirt.

    “I thought my teeth were coming loose, and I was gonna swallow my teeth,” she said. “I could feel the bones crushing, and I could feel it tearing back.”

    The cougar ripped an earring out of her ear, while maintaining a vice grip on her.

    “I felt like it was suffocating me,” she said. “I could taste the blood in my mouth.”
    https://www.kuow.org/stories/cougar-attack-washington-state-cyclists

    Article goes on a good while but I’ll caution, there are pictures.

    In conclusion: Nature hates you.

  73. 73.

    JoyceH

    @Eolirin: Right, it’s just a book being read aloud. Until recently, the upfront costs were horrendous if you wanted to retain all rights, or you’d split royalties with the narrator. Amazon has this new thing that’s apparently AI generated and you can get an audio book up in a couple days. I only got as far as voice selection, there are two British female voices and I can’t decide. But I admit I was impressed by the sound of it – it did sound like a person reading a book aloud.

  74. 74.

    Anoniminous

    @West of the Rockies:

    Trumpism – as such – is a cult of personality so it will go when he does.

    However, he has proven there are ~74,223,975 Americans who are OK with Fascism so I expect someone else to pick-up the banner.

  75. 75.

    gene108

    @West of the Rockies:

    How does Trumpism actually end?

    It doesn’t. It just mutates into an even more radical right-wing revolutionary ideology.

    One thing I have never seen Republicans do is moderate.

    After every loss, they become more conservative and more radical. Bush, Sr.’s loss begat Newt and Bush, Jr. McCain’s loss begat the TEA party. Romney’s loss begat Trump. Trump’s loss begat an insurrection and a doubling down of adherence to Trump.

    I think a lot of it has to do with all the billionaires who can dictate their policy preferences to Republicans. They have the money to fund media, think tanks, operatives, primary challengers, etc. to keep Republicans in line.

  76. 76.

    mrmoshpotato

    @JPL:

    The Washington Post has an article about Ronna’s appearance which includes a video of Chuck Todd admonishing the network. 

    That. Is. ADORABLE!  Fuck off, Chuckles!

  78. 78.

    Scout211

    @HumboldtBlue: Ugh.  The Trump family turns everything into a sad story of the poor Trump souls who are just not treated fairly. Please feel sorry for those sadly mistreated Trump family members. How can they survive when bankers laugh at them.  Oh and send money really fast to soothe our wounded souls.

    s///

  79. 79.

    Eolirin

    @JoyceH: I’m skeptical AI voices can compete with the higher quality productions, they may sound real more but they suck at providing complex inflection, and will give unemotional performances, but I could see it being a way to expand audience reach for less well known works.

    I think it’s going to lead to spamming that’s an issue with Kindle Unlimited though. Long term there’s going to be a mess of content that’s going to be nearly impossible to wade through.

  80. 80.

    BeautifulPlumage

    @smith: ​
      thank you! And the explanation that it can be spread over several bonds. Cheap-ass broke loser family.

  82. 82.

    raven

    @MattF: I remember when MSNBC hired Greta Van Susteren and Rachel went on and on about how great she was going to be!

  83. 83.

    Another Scott

    @BeautifulPlumage: Adding “-trump” (without the quotes) to the Google search will exclude TIFG from the results.

    At least that’s the way it’s supposed to work.  (Google seems to be breaking it’s search results to try to make them more “relevant” and “AI-enhanced” and so forth.  You might have to try several times for it to stop fighting you.)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  84. 84.

    Pink Tie

    @smith: That Hindustan Times article says that the lenders “laughed at his [Eric’s] face” — mistranslated idiom or accurate reporting?

  85. 85.

    Eolirin

    @gene108: We have one example of how you beat this back and unfortunately it only drives it underground for a generation or so.

    The FDR era and the post war period saw significant crack downs on wealth accumulation, which blunted the ability for the super wealthy to affect policy and additionally dismantled propaganda dissemination by attacking the ability to use radio for it, which at the time was a massive medium.

    That coupled with anti-fascist sentiment and active societal pushback against a lot of the groups involved did a ton of work.

    But that required a perfect storm of the great depression and world war 2 to accomplish. And media mediums were more consolidated and controllable back then. I have no idea how we can duplicate any of that without significant changes to what’s considered protected speech and with how much control the federal government is able to exert on private business.

  88. 88.

    Brachiator

    @JoyceH:

    New subject – do you use audio books or know people who do? How prevalent are audio books?

    I used to have a long commute, so I was a regular audiobook user. I also used to listen to rebroadcasts of old radio dramas.

    The local library has a popular audiobook program.

  89. 89.

    Geminid

    @trollhattan: I saw a wild photo last week. A photographer took two pictures of a heron gliding along a lake shore.  The photographer thought he would take a third but the heron had disappeared, and when he looked at the second one he saw why. It showed a leaping bobcat with its claws in the heron’s body.

    I could see the bobcat waiting in the first picture but it blended into the weeds so well I probably wouldn’t have found it if it had not been circled.

  92. 92.

    PAM Dirac

    @smith:

    Didn’t they know who he is?

    I’m not a lawyer and I haven’t read every detail of every filing, but it seems to me that all of drumpf’s filings are variations on the “Don’t you know who I am?” theme.

  94. 94.

    Mike in NC

    Rex Huppke (USA Today) suggested that they try to raise money by renting out Eric Trump dressed in a clown costume for birthday parties.

  96. 96.

    smith

    @Pink Tie:  According to Salon, this is what Eric related to Fox “News”:

    Every single person when I came to them saying, ‘Hey, can I get a half-billion-dollar bond?’ Maria, they were laughing. They were laughing. Top executives of the largest surety companies had never seen anything of this size. What, they’re going to start seizing assets if he can’t put up something that’s not available in the United States?”

    Lots of news outlets have the story, that was just the first one I grabbed. Certainly the implication I get from this quote is that they did laugh in his face. Contra to Eric’s interpretation, though, I think they were laughing at the idea that anyone would take that kind of risk with TFG, not at the size of the bond. As discussed in other comments here, bonds of a billion or more are not unheard of.

  97. 97.

    Rose Weiss

    @JoyceH: I know several people who listen to them regularly. I occasionally download one from my library’s Hoopla account and listen on my tablet, mostly while I’m in bed at night. It’s nice to have someone read me to sleep. The downside is sometimes I get so involved in the book, I want to keep listening long past the time I can’t keep my eyes open.

  98. 98.

    Baud

    @Eolirin:

    . I have no idea how we can duplicate any of that without significant changes to what’s considered protected speech and with how much control the federal government is able to exert on private business. ending our commitment to civil rights.

     

    Biggest difference between today and FDR’s time IMHO.

  99. 99.

    Kineslaw

    @JoyceH: I lost the ability to read books for pleasure when I was in law school, but I listen to a lot.  I have a professor friend who is the same way – reading is for work, listening is for pleasure.

    Out of a sample of eight people I know who enjoy books, the split is five readers and three listeners.

  100. 100.

    VFX Lurker

    @JoyceH: New subject – do you use audio books or know people who do? How prevalent are audio books? I don’t use them, so I’ve sort of ignored the subject, but a few people have told me that audio books are Big. Currently Amazon Direct Publishing has a beta going to create audio books, so the upfront cost isn’t an issue. So – audio books: discuss.

    Love ’em. I listen to audiobooks in the shower, folding laundry, household chores, driving, exercising. I started out borrowing audiobooks from my well-stocked library’s Hoopla and Overdrive systems. Now I use Audible to supplement my library borrows.

    Some narrators are better than others, but I’m so grateful for audiobooks.

  102. 102.

    PAM Dirac

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    I was in first grade at the time.

    I was in third grade and I’ve always had this weirdly specific memory of a girl named Elizabeth Nelms burst out crying when they announced the president’s death over the loudspeaker. I thought “that is kind of strange. It’s really sad but it isn’t even anyone related to her.” Elizabeth, if you are out there anywhere, sorry for thinking your pain was a little bit strange.

  104. 104.

    Manyakitty

    @HumboldtBlue: again, I ask, please warn about your surprise twitter links. JFC, please show the tiniest bit of consideration for people who don’t feel like gargling musk’s balls.

    (Note that this is a directed comment–I appreciate whatever the front pagers assemble for us)

  105. 105.

    Ruckus

    @lowtechcyclist:

    I was a sophomore in HS, we all filed into the autotorium and the principal told us to be quiet and when we were quiet we were told of the shooting of JFK. One could have heard a needle drop for some time. I can’t remember if we went home after that or not. I can remember that silence.

  109. 109.

    NotMax

    @smith

    What, they’re going to start seizing assets if he can’t put up something

    Yes, Eric. Just as assets are treated in every other appeals case when bond is not forthcoming.

  110. 110.

    karen marie

    @West of the Rockies:

    Or The Turd dies and the cult of personality breaks like a bad fever?

     

    You mean the same people who think JFK Jr. is alive?

    Trump is a symptom. The disease produced him and will outlast us all.

  112. 112.

    Brachiator

    @trollhattan:

    Saturday’s mountain lion attack in El Dorado County is believed to be the first fatal incident of its kind in two decades.

    Yikes!

  113. 113.

    gene108

    @Anoniminous:

    The demographic shift towards a multiethnic society isn’t going to move the political needle much. I think the diversity will be clustered in already diverse places, and not impact the states with the largest percentage of white people that much.

  116. 116.

    Eolirin

    @Baud: Okay, so, yes, sure, if we completely capitulate we could blunt enough of the political force that the Christian Nationalists would lose enough other groups to lack the numbers they need to end democracy, but the divisions that FDR faced were pretty intense up until the war started too. There was more than one attempted coup. Father Coughlin was ginning up fascist sentiment to an audience substantially larger in reach than the entire right wing media apparatus that exists today. The Nazis were actively trying to fuck with our politics by playing on social divisions.

    There were a ton of similarities to the current moment, and that was with racial issues mostly off the table.

    Any kind of significant social change is subject to this kind of pushback. The coordination and intensity of it is always being managed by people of great wealth and pushed through propaganda channels with wide reach. If those things can be blunted, even though the social divisions exist, they can be dealt with to a far greater degree.

  118. 118.

    raven

    @PAM Dirac: 11th grade Mr Hollisters American History class. He burst into tears and cried “where do we go from here”? Being and incredibly bunch of juvenile delinquents me and my buddies didn’t get what the big deal was. I know where I went from there three years hence!

  121. 121.

    gene108

    @smith:

    What, they’re going to start seizing assets if he can’t put up something that’s not available in the United States?”

    So a friendly foreign government would put up the money? 🤷🤷‍♀️

    Really depends what they think the odds of him winning are.

  122. 122.

    japa21

    @karen marie: Mrs. Japa is positive that Trump won’t make it to 11/5 and that there will be a lot of people voting for a dead man.  This works best if he died the last week of October.  I told her that most will still believe he is alive and that Biden just kidnapped him and any body that is produced will be deemed a fake.

  123. 123.

    Melancholy Jaques

    @MattF:

    Chuck Todd (!!) was exceedingly pissed about the situation in a public MTP segment.

    I thought he went kind of easy on her. Another guy on the same panel was a more specific. She is a liar and an election denier who helped organize illegal electors. She has no place on a legitimate news show.

  124. 124.

    Starfish

    @Villago Delenda Est: Podcasts and audiobooks are not the same.

    There are some podcasts that are professionally done that are edited well, have appropriate intro and outro music.

    A lot of them are long winded nonsense, but there are some better ones, done by professionals who do various radio shows.

  126. 126.

    artem1s

    @JoyceH: ​ 

    audio books: discuss.

    Go to your local library and see if they have a system for lending audio book (digital). They definitely lend CD audiobooks. Ohio’s library system uses an app called Libby. I borrowed CDs a lot to listen to on the way to and from work when I got fed up with NPR. I just took a vacation and rather than haul a physical book around with me I downloaded a digital copy on my phone. I listened on the plane and sometimes at night to help me sleep. I’m currently listening to the Biography of Oppenheimer they based the movie on. I listen when I’m drawing or cleaning or doing any number of chores. It’s awesome. The leases last about 2 weeks and you can renew a number of time usually. Depends on how many ‘copies’ they have rights to and how many people have it checked out or are waiting.
    Don’t pay Amazon for something you can get for free.

  127. 127.

    VFX Lurker

    @Eolirin:

    I’m skeptical AI voices can compete with the higher quality productions, they may sound real more but they suck at providing complex inflection, and will give unemotional performances, but I could see it being a way to expand audience reach for less well known works.

    I think it’s going to lead to spamming that’s an issue with Kindle Unlimited though. Long term there’s going to be a mess of content that’s going to be nearly impossible to wade through.

    Before the current crop of AI voices, I borrowed an “audiobook” from the library that used some kind of text-to-speech function to narrate the text. It grated on the ear. I’d give it a 1/5 star rating.

    The current AI voices are maybe 3 stars out of five. They sound natural and pleasant, but if you don’t know they’re AI they come across as amateur narrators. They make it possible to commute to work while listening to a book, but they’re not nearly as nice as listening to a narration by Ray Porter or Robin Miles.

  128. 128.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @lowtechcyclist:

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    @sab:

    I was recently engaged, and in a local jeweler’s with my fiancé selecting a setting for my ring and deciding on our wedding rings when someone burst in from Peachtree Street* shouting the breaking news.

    *For those who remember the Atlanta of the 1960s, it was the downtown Maier and Berkele’s. I think it’s been many decades since M&B had a Five Points store — they’ve been in the suburbs forever.

  129. 129.

    Ruckus

    @gene108:

    As you say, it doesn’t.

    They want what they want.

    To return to the early 1800s.

    They of course don’t realize that the world was pretty crappy for almost everyone, and absolutely crappy for anyone of color. They only understand the second part.

  131. 131.

    Geminid

    According to the 5pm CBS radio news, House Foreign Relations Chairman McCaul McCaul said that Speaker Johnson would bring a Ukraine aid package to the House floor after the Easter break. McCaul also said they were still working on the bill.

    This was from Margaret Brendan’s interview of McCaul shown this morning on Face the Nation.

  132. 132.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    @Starfish: Yes, that is so true and crazy to me. I can remember 9/11 so clearly. It was my first day at a new job. First, the loud whispers started. Then we were all called into a conference room. Things changed so much after.

  133. 133.

    smith

    @raven: I was also in 11th grade. The principal announced the shooting and then JFK’s death over the intercom when I was in chemistry class, and then I went on to American History. My teacher there was a nasty Bircher who made no attempt to hide it. She just sat there with a satisfied little smile on her face, like the cat that caught the canary. One of my most memorable moments of that day.

  136. 136.

    lowtechcyclist

    @SFAW:

    Oh, Cracklin’ Oat Bran, get on board
    We’re gonna chow dow ’til there ain’t no more to go

    I’m glad I’m not the only one who’s made that connection!

  137. 137.

    Baud

    @Geminid:

    I hope for Ukraine’s sake what the put on the floor is something within the range of reason. They love poison pills.

  140. 140.

    TBone

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: it’s a great word, although it reminds me of regurgitate.  Also, I don’t think of the monetary punishment as “fines,” but as a Judgment (in the legal sense of the word, not the judginess sense).  That’s just because I worked in the field, I guess.  Disgorgement is perfect though because that’s exactly what he did! Gorge on OPM.

  142. 142.

    gene108

    @Starfish:

    That is happening to 9/11, and there are 23 yos wandering around who were born around then

    My nieces and nephews were born post-9/11. They will be turning 17, 19, and 20 this year.

    It will linger on in their minds because older generations who witnessed it won’t let them forget it entirely. I had the experience with Watergate. I was about six weeks old when Nixon resigned. When I was growing up Watergate was a very big deal where bad things happened that should never have happened in the USA.

    Their kids will not have the any connection. It’s like how many people get wound up on December 7 because of Pearl Harbor or commemorate the Battle of Gettysburg on July 4.

  143. 143.

    Scout211

    @rikyrah: Google says The Breakfast Club was released on:

    February 15, 1985

    So we have almost a year to still feel young.  LOL

    The movie has meaning to me, not because it’s a good movie but because my teen stepdaughter went with me and we really loved the story arc for the Demi Moore character who complained the whole time about her “stepmonster,” but in the end her stepmonster was really the parent who cared about her the most.  My teen stepdaughter affectionately called me her stepmonster on occasion after that. It was sweet.

  145. 145.

    Matt McIrvin

    @West of the Rockies:

    How does Trumpism actually end?

    When about 70-100 million currently living Americans die. But most scenarios in which that happens all at once are pretty bad.

  147. 147.

    Geminid

    @Baud: I wonder if Johnson will or even can put an aid bill on the floor. When McCaul said they were still working on the bill, it made me think his prediction was aspirational.

  150. 150.

    PAM Dirac

    @Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony:

    I can remember 9/11 so clearly.

    My 9/11 memory was checking cnn.com for a bit of news before I Ieft my Rockville, MD office to go up to Frederick to interview a post-doc candidate. I read that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center and thought that was weird as it was a extremely clear day, at least in the DC area. I called up to Frederick and found out that the candidate and my staff member were in our offices, but they had been touring the NCI labs on Fort Detrick and were about the last one off the base when it was shut down. The vehicles behind them were tanks.

  151. 151.

    JoyceH

    @VFX Lurker:  Well, I might give this a try, since it seems fast and easy. A few years ago I did up paperbacks for my series of Regency romances, and it was a lot of work and I only sell a couple paperbacks a month. I don’t understand it, pretty sure paperbacks still outsell ebooks. On the other hand, I don’t know how to market paperbacks. But I’ll try audio books the Regency Mage series because I’m still trying to make myself get going on the series again.

  152. 152.

    Matt McIrvin

    @gene108: Watergate is the earliest political event that I have any semi-coherent memories of. My daughter is studying it in US history class now, and is baffled as I am as to why Nixon needed a dirty tricks squad in an election he was fated to win in a landslide anyway.

    (The earliest event of any kind is the tail end of the Apollo Moon program, probably Apollo 16 and 17.)

  153. 153.

    Anoniminous

    @gene108: ​
     
    Maybe.
    Seeing all the gawd-fearin’ pasty white cis hets in, e.g., Ohio, having shit fits about THOSE people I think it’s 6/5 & pick ’em which way the political needle will move. My guess is a return to the historic American Racism and Genocide.

  156. 156.

    Pink Tie

    @smith: Oh I understood the reporting, I just thought it was funny to read that they laughed AT, not in, his face (because of his appearance, not just because a foreign newswriter might have chosen the wrong preposition).

  160. 160.

    lowtechcyclist

    Speaking of movie anniversaries, my favorite comedy ever, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, will turn 50 in just over a year.  Wikipedia says it was released in the UK on April 5 3, 1975, and in the U.S. on April 27th. I saw it just a couple weeks after it opened here.

  161. 161.

    gene108

    @Scout211:

    but because my teen stepdaughter went with me and we really loved the story arc for the Demi Moore character

    Demi Moore was not in “The Breakfast Club”. Clearly thinking of another movie, because “The Breakfast Club” is good.

  163. 163.

    JoyceH

    @Matt McIrvin: When I drive to the other side of the county, I pass this house that for the past few years has had this massive collection of Trump signs and flags along the fence. A few months ago when I drove by, everything was gone except for one Trump flag hanging from one corner. My immediate thought was ‘guy must have died or gone into sheltered care’. Then it struck me that the notion ‘maybe he got over it’ didn’t even strike me as an option. Last week when I drove by, the fence had a new coat of paint and an American flag. ‘Yep, new owner’.

  164. 164.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    @Scout211: I googled. Looks like step monster plus Demi Moore was St. Elmo’s Fire. Surprisingly, I never saw that movie. However, most Gen Xers can tell you which Breakfast Club character they most resembled in HS.

  166. 166.

    Geminid

    @Baud: McCaul spent part of the interview pleading Johnson’s case to remain Speaker. That did not bode well for the legislation. Johnson is probably the weakest Speaker ever.

  169. 169.

    dmsilev

    I will give Ronna credit for one accomplishment. I didn’t think it was possible to bring shame to the Romney family name, but she did it.

  170. 170.

    karen gail

    @lowtechcyclist: I was in sixth grade class; we had a pervert for a teacher who would rub girls backs to check for bras. The principal came over intercom and announced the death and closing of school. Then forgot to call the bus company that she had cancelled classes and most of us would need a ride home.

  173. 173.

    Portly Neighbor

    JoyceH – if you wrote the Regency Charades series – I loved it/them (especially “Katherine, when she smiled“).  {Loved it enough to come out of lurker status]

  174. 174.

    mrmoshpotato

    @raven:

    I remember when MSNBC hired Greta Van Susteren and Rachel went on and on about how great she was going to be! 

    And then there’s NBC burning $60+ million on Megyn “Jesus was white” Kelly.

  176. 176.

    PAM Dirac

    @Matt McIrvin:

    Watergate is the earliest political event that I have any semi-coherent memories of

    I was going to high school about 10 blocks from the Capitol during the ’72 election. I have maintained that one of my best friends started Nixon’s downfall. On the night of the breakin we were at a party in Georgetown. My friend was trying to get the attention of a young lady and failing badly so he was not in a good mood. We left the party and our route home took us down Pennsylvania Avenue past CREEP (Committee to Reelect the President). My friend yelled out the window “Nixon is a Dick!” and it was all downhill from there. By the time Nixon resigned we had graduated, but were home from college for the summer. We got some pizza’s and beer and went down to the Ellipse to celebrate. The biggest cheer was wen a moving van went by (This was long enough ago the traffic could still go right next to the White House).

  178. 178.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Jinchi: In the fall of 2020, my daughter was taking a social studies class called “Election Madness”, which was originally supposed to be a historical look at messed-up, raucous and pivotal elections throughout history (1800, 1876, 1968, 2000…) but as the season went on, events overtook them and it just turned into a current affairs class where they discussed the crazy shit that was going on at that moment. That was even before January 6th, but of course the Republicans were plotting their dumb state-legislative coup with fake electors right out in the open.

  180. 180.

    kalakal

    @JoyceH:

     do you use audio books or know people who do? How prevalent are audio books?

    I don’t use them personally but judging by the borrowings at the library I’d say they’re very popular. Libby is the most common app, nearly every library has it  we also offer Hoopla

  185. 185.

    Jackie

    @BeautifulPlumage:

    There’s this info re larger bonds posted:

    Fox News host Eric Shawn pointed out that Donald Trump’s claim that his New York fraud bond is unprecedented was simply “not true.”

    “This is from Letitia James, the attorney general’s own court papers on the show to right now,” he continued. “There have been bigger bonds in the history book from one billion dollars to one and a half billion dollars. That was a Carnegie Mellon patent case.”

    https://www.rawstory.com/fox-news-trump-bond/

  186. 186.

    karen gail

    @JoyceH: I am very much in favor of hard copy books, audio books wouldn’t work for me since not only am I very hard of hearing but there are some sounds I can’t hear. When a person plays piano one note at a time there are notes that I can’t hear, but discovered that I can hear deep sounds no one else has admitted to hearing (at least to me.)

  187. 187.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @JoyceH: I occasionally use them. I enjoy immensely fictional books with a lot of characters and accents read by a talented actor. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed some Janet Evanovich and some British mysteries that way.

    I bought Michelle Obama’s Becoming in both hardback and audio formats, and it does a lot for my sanity to turn it on and listen to her voice for a chapter or two. Working my way slowly through it that way.

    I also have memoirs of a number of comedians read by the author.

  188. 188.

    brendancalling

    @JoyceH: my attention span for reading books has atrophied, so audiobooks are a blessing. Currently on “Moby Dick,” and it’s fucking awesome

  189. 189.

    brendancalling

    @JoyceH: my attention span for reading books has atrophied, so audiobooks are a blessing. Currently on “Moby Dick,” and it’s fucking awesome

     

    @trollhattan: more like “nature finds you delicious.”

  190. 190.

    Mr. Bemused Senior

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: I became an Audible customer during a stretch of driving over an hour to work. Michelle Obama’s Becoming was my first listen.

    I have always enjoyed radio drama so I find audiobooks comfortable. It does take longer than reading though.

  192. 192.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    Regarding how old we were when big events occurred: My wife is a university professor. We just had a conversation today about how her students were born after 9/11. I knew it intellectually but it’s still startling since that’s so etched in my memory. Hell, the 70s are still fresh in my memory.

    I came to something approaching full political consciousness about 1970, when I turned 13. But earlier than that I have memories of 1968 just being an awful year when it felt like the world was falling apart. I have no conscious memory of JFK’s assassination but RFK’s really shook me.

  195. 195.

    catclub

    @Melancholy Jaques: She is a liar and an election denier who helped organize illegal electors. She has no place on a legitimate news show.

     

    and she still was not enough of a trump lickspittle for trump.

  198. 198.

    Sure Lurkalot

    @JoyceH: I listen to audiobooks and own a few. But mostly get them via Libby, Hoopla or Audible. IMHO, the narrator is most important; the content can be awesome but some voices can make or break the experience. For example, I think Steven Fry does a fine job narrating his Greek myths/epics books.

    I do read more than I listen and I agree that the mind wanders more with audiobooks.

    Good luck with your series!

  199. 199.

    Spanky

    Being born just 9 years after WWII, the touchstone I remember everyone referencing was Pearl Harbor. I suspect that 30-40 years before that it was the blowing up* of the Maine.

    (* Not necessarily a deliberate act, after all. Sorry, Spain! Heh!)

  200. 200.

    Kent

    @lowtechcyclist: None of my students remember 9-11 because they hadn’t been born yet.  Assuming your earliest memories are from about age 4, you’d have to be about 28 years old today to remember 9-11 as it happened.

  201. 201.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    Here’s someone who should shut up. “Carville spoke with Maureen Dowd for an opinion piece in The New York Times:”

    James Carville, the Democratic political strategist who led Bill Clinton to victory in the 1990s, claimed “too many preachy females” in the party may be to blame for turning voters off to Joe Biden.

  202. 202.

    piratedan

    MSNBC would have been better off hiring our beloved alumni NYT Pitchbot or JoJo for Jerz for some pointed commentary with humor regarding what the GOP is doing.

  205. 205.

    Another Scott

    My father said his first big memory was hearing about Pearl Harbor on the radio when he was a kid of around 6.

    Human memories are weird things.

    GHWB was reported to be the youngest fighter pilot in WWII, but he somehow felt the need as vice president to lecture us on September 7, 1988 that “I wonder how many Americans remember. Today is Pearl Harbor Day…”

    :-/

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  206. 206.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: I was born in 1968. I think a lot about how that catastrophe year produced me (right after MLK was killed and right before RFK was killed), and according to boomer memory, I never knew a world that wasn’t already destroyed in some sense.

    I once read an essay that claimed that America’s soul died in 1963 when JFK was shot. My America was always a zombie, the walking dead.

  207. 207.

    Kent

    @japa21:Mrs. Japa is positive that Trump won’t make it to 11/5 and that there will be a lot of people voting for a dead man.  This works best if he died the last week of October.  I told her that most will still believe he is alive and that Biden just kidnapped him and any body that is produced will be deemed a fake.

    We need him to croak on live TV I guess.  Like in the last debate.

    Better yet, just stroke out on live TV and go into a coma so they technically can’t replace him since he isn’t actually dead.  And they are stuck with a vegetable at the top of the ticket paired with whatever MAGAt he picks as his servile VP.

    I don’t think the RNC has rules for that eventuality.

  209. 209.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @Baud: “A suspicion of mine is that there are too many preachy females” dominating the culture of the Democratic Party, Carville told Dowd. “‘Don’t drink beer. Don’t watch football. Don’t eat hamburgers. This is not good for you.’ The message is too feminine: ‘Everything you’re doing is destroying the planet. You’ve got to eat your peas.’

  210. 210.

    David 🏈 Mahomes! 🏈 Koch

    @smith:

    bonds of a billion or more are not unheard of.

     
    As Mr. Peabody would say, “surly Sherman, you’ve heard of James Bond.”

  212. 212.

    Kent

    @Matt McIrvin:

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: I was born in 1968. I think a lot about how that catastrophe year produced me (right after MLK was killed and right before RFK was killed), and according to boomer memory, I never knew a world that wasn’t already destroyed in some sense.

    I once read an essay that claimed that America’s soul died in 1963 when JFK was shot. My America was always a zombie, the walking dead.

    I was born in February 1964 so I was in utero when Kennedy was shot.

    My actual first memory of a world event outside the world of my family was the 1969 moon landing which the whole world watched on TV.  After that I remember glimpses of the Vietnam war on TV (probably from the early 1970s) and then the fall of Saigon and Watergate and the Nixon-McGovern campaign of 1972.

    I didn’t really start becoming astutely aware of politics in any sort of sophisticated way until Carter and Reagan around 1980 when I was 16.

  214. 214.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    Also, The Hill is reporting that Tammy Murphy is dropping out of the NJ senate primary. Good. I like Andy Kim. Besides, I object to the machine politics that put Murphy front and center. They should be beneath us.

  215. 215.

    Kent

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I looked it up. Carville was born in 1944 so he’s about to turn 80 years old.  Just like Biden, he is too old to even be a boomer.  He’s a war baby.

    Why are we still listening to what he thinks about female college students?  And why is an 80 year old still teaching at LSU?

  217. 217.

    Another Scott

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: “Eat our peas” is a famous Obama line. (from 2011).

    Carville seems to be stuck in the 20teens.

    He had a fancy condo in a Ritzy development on the river in Alexandria around then.  And a Mercedes sports car with a license plate that said “ELEVEN”.  It worked in all kinds of ways (what the car could do, his emotional age, etc.).

    Go retire James.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  218. 218.

    David 🏈 Mahomes! 🏈 Koch

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: ​
     

    Don’t watch football.

    that’ boy ain’t right. He’s never heard of sports loving progressives Taylor Swift and Caitlin Clark

  220. 220.

    Baud

    I haven’t seen this quote posted here

    In an interview with CNN’s Chris Wallace last July, McDaniel said at the time that she didn’t think “he [Biden] won it fair.”

    However on Sunday, McDaniel told Meet the Press host Kristen Welker: “He won, he is the legitimate president, fair and square. He won, it’s certified, it’s done. But I do think it’s fair to say there were problems in 2020

  221. 221.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    @Kent: Those attitudes are still pretty prevalent, not just in men his age, but in those 30 years younger. I do think misogynistic attitudes were a bit part of the people who switched from voting for Obama to voting for Trump.

  222. 222.

    raven

    @David 🏈 Mahomes! 🏈 Koch: Yea, it was ok but the notion of the dude walking down the road near Kontum and night was just too much for me.  It wouldn’t matter to most folks but there is no fucking way. Of course I hated the Deer Hunter  too.

  223. 223.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @Baud: If by “problems in 2020” she means a mob invaded the capitol at Trump’s instigation, beat the crap out of police, and threatened to kill the VP, then yes, she’s right. There were problems.

  225. 225.

    smith

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Carville is way out of the mainstream of the Democratic party, and has been for some time, but this brings up to me the disappointment I have felt that the Dems never did any meaningful soul searching after 2016 about misogyny on our side. It’s not just Republicans that have been trying to do a Hillary on Kamala Harris, and I think if it were called out more forcefully it might shame its practitioners into shutting the hell up.

  227. 227.

    Baud

    @smith:

    Soul searching at that time would have resulted in a schism when we could not afford it. We’re not out of the schism woods even this year.

  232. 232.

    smith

    @Baud: Not sure we can afford the schism if women voters and especially black women voters are alienated by allowing the Carvilles of the party to speak for us.

  233. 233.

    raven

    @David 🏈 Mahomes! 🏈 Koch: The wedding was the only part I liked. Otherwise its was pure bullshit from the dopey idea that DeNiro could just walk onto a plane to the Nam, in uniform with a fucking Goatee, finding his buddy in the same tiger cage and then the Russian Roulette, give me a break. Oh yeah, the last scene, obviously filmed above the tree line and that doesn’t exist in Pennsylvania.

  234. 234.

    Baud

    @smith:

    What do you want to do, kill him? Do you think Biden sent him to speak to Maureen Dowd? Any woman or black person (or anyone else) that uses Carville against us is a natural serf to the GOP.

  238. 238.

    Betty

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: James is past his use by date. There are no Democrats, male or female, saying those things. Taylor Swift, acknowledged female Democrat, is credited with making football more popular.

  239. 239.

    smith

    @Geminid: I am particularly thinking of the ways in which more mainstream Dems seem to want to undermine Harris any time the topic of Biden’s successor comes up. Carville is in many ways an outlier and not highly influential, but his idea that there’s something wrong with women as leaders, especially a woman as president, does not seem to be uncommon, at least among certain types of pundits and insiders.

  240. 240.

    Redshift

    @JoyceH: I’ve never been much into audio books (I mostly listen to stuff I’m the car, and when I’m driving, I can’t focus on them and keep realizing I’ve missed bits.) But I have plenty of friends who really like them.

  241. 241.

    Miss Bianca

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Jesus Christ, Carville. It’s the fucking REPUBLICANS who are telling people not to drink beer and watch football!

    I mean, if you’re going to be an idiot, don’t be *such* an idiot about it!

  246. 246.

    Spanky

    Current WaPo headline:

    Former RNC chair Ronna McDaniel faces sharp criticism after NBC hiring

    My question: Why aren’t the NBC suits facing harsh criticism after Ronna McDaniel hiring? My first thought might be obvious – professional curtesy.

  249. 249.

    Geminid

    @smith: I mainly follow that type of Harris-hostile pundit and insider through mentions of them on Twitter, and I always see them pelted by a storm of rhetorical tomatoes. The pushback you want is already there, I think, and it’s led by women and Black people

    But when I think of “mainstream Democrats” I think of officeholders first and I don’t see any of them undermining Harris.

  251. 251.

    Ivan X

    @Betty: ok, as long as we’re on this topic, why do people watch MSNBC? Like, they tell me things I agree with, but they also raise my blood pressure. I need diversion and escape.

  257. 257.

    David 🏈 Mahomes! 🏈 Koch

    @raven: I saw a lecture by a sound editor [Patrica Jackson] who worked Apocalypse Now who said the movie was screened to veterans for their feedback and they all said the movie was too soft, that the war was more insane and dark than what was dramatized on their film.  Yikes!

  258. 258.

    frosty

    @artem1s: ​
     Ms F got me a Kindle a couple of Christmases ago. I download books with Libby, load it up with three or four, then PUT THE KINDLE ON AIRPLANE MODE and return the books. They stay there until it’s synced and I can take as long as I need to read them. Just don’t goof up and link to a wifi somewhere.

    I was skeptical of eBooks but they’re great for traveling. No weight, no bulk, read as much as you want.

  259. 259.

    Ken

    @smith: Yes, but those larger bonds were for companies that had actual assets and a good credit rating, not commercial real estate encumbered by massive mortgages and a long history of stiffing their creditors. So totally unfair to the Trump Organization.

  260. 260.

    Eyeroller

    @trollhattan: Nature does not hate us, it’s just indifferent. Why should a cougar think we are different from, say, a deer? He has no understanding that we are “better” and are not proper prey.

  261. 261.

    smith

    Alex Cole @acnewsitics BREAKING: Cab drivers in New York City are now referring to Trump Tower as The Tish Mahal

  263. 263.

    RedDirtGirl

    What show was Senator Warnock on this morning? I heard people mention it last night, but then crickets today.

  264. 264.

    Jaybird

    @Kent: I was born that March, in DC, where I proceeded to grow up. My first conscious memories are of the 1968 riots, because my mom was trapped at her office in the Post Office Building (AKA Trump Hotel) and our housekeeper stayed over in the guest room because my dad would neither allow her to take the bus or drive her home (reasonable enough. her apartment was in Anacostia).

    I used to have a whole Watergate scrapbook. I was a little bit obsessed. That said, I had classmates whose fathers went to jail over Watergate

  265. 265.

    Quadrillipede

    @frosty: My Kindle’s been on airplane mode since I got it 10 years ago. It makes a great portable reader for various books I can find online and load onto it over a USB data† cable.

    † AFAICT, it’s the only device I’ve ever owned that actually requires a USB data cable to transfer data…

  268. 268.

    frosty

    @raven: ​Oh yeah, the last scene, obviously filmed above the tree line and that doesn’t exist in Pennsylvania.

    I never had any interest in seeing Deer Hunter because of this. Film it in PA! Where the first day of deer season is a school holiday.

  270. 270.

    prostratedragon

    @Matt McIrvin:

    I once read an essay that claimed that America’s soul died in 1963 when JFK was shot. My America was always a zombie, the walking dead.

    Spot on. Sad and disturbing as was the President beinag assassinated, the killing of LHO almost finished me, because I knew there’d now be little chance that we would at least get a satisfactory answer of what happened. I haven’t been quite the same since, and think that of those still around I’m far from alone.

  271. 271.

    NotMax

    @TBone

    Yeet these mfers into the solar system.

    Dunno if it survived the refurbishment but there used to be this sign inside the Hayden Planetarium in NYC:

    Solar System
    & Rest Rooms
    That Way ===>>
    .

  272. 272.

    JPL

    @RedDirtGirl: Face The Nation.   If you search CBS.news you can find the transcript.  Probably best not to bother with Kevin saying MTGreene understands policy.

  273. 273.

    Gvg

    @Geminid: More than a decade ago. A photographer caught a Gator leaping several feet out of the water to catch a heron in flight. Actually the picture was a second before the catch, but it did get the bird. People were astounded. Gators are not leapers on land, but evidently can build up speed under water. It amazed me that they could evidently see well enough from under the water.

  274. 274.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Kent:

    he thinks about female college students

    why is an 80 year old still teaching at LSU?

    Could these two things possible be related?

  275. 275.

    Geminid

    @Gvg: Could be the gator had its eyes above water, tracked the heron and timed a quick half-dive and jump. Maybe a crafty old gator, maybe an innovative young one.

  276. 276.

    wjca

    @gene108: The demographic shift towards a multiethnic society isn’t going to move the political needle much. I think the diversity will be clustered in already diverse places, and not impact the states with the largest percentage of white people that much.

    Perhaps.  But perhaps not. In some of those red/rural states, the children of those white people are leaving.  Which is the behavior seen approximately forever.  BUT, there are jobs, e.g. in slaughter houses, which still need to be done.  Those currently get done by immigrants and their “natural born citizen” children.

    Call it stealth diversity in deep red areas.  Whether it has a political impact somewhat depends on whether, and to what extent, xenophobia there gets replaced by acceptance of Those People.

  280. 280.

    Geminid

    @wjca: Some of those rural kids leave for college and then take jobs in the suburbs. A form of intra-state demographic shift. I bet that’s a significant group in growing states like Texas, Georgia and North Carolina.

    I sometimes talk with a guy who makes a good living mowing lawns in a prosperous county. I’m pretty sure he votes Republican, but his two daughters both teach in public schools and I’m not sure how they vote.

  284. 284.

    cain

    @Kent:

    Why are we still listening to what he thinks about female college students?  And why is an 80 year old still teaching at LSU?

    My dad is 85 and is still teaching at Purdue – not just teaching but doing research. He’s a progressive although at times he doesn’t quite get women issues as well has I think he could.

    My dad would probably die if he didn’t have his research – it is what drives him. I never believed in retirement.

  286. 286.

    Geminid

    @Jeffro: I’m waiting for some people tubing the James River to encounter a 12-foot long sturgeon. It wouldn’t eat them, just scare the crap out of them.

  288. 288.

    Matt McIrvin

    @gene108: I don’t know… One of the patterns Republicans like to crow about the most is that if you look at population growth and decline, it looks like people are voting with their feet to swarm out of Blue America and into Red America. Texas and Florida and most of the South have exploding populations; California and Massachusetts are shrinking (or not growing as much). Just look at those raw numbers and it looks like Americans really like to be ruled by Republicans.

    But… but… a lot of those people moving into the South aren’t white. And the South, as is well-known, isn’t super white. That’s why Abbott and DeSantis keep trying to make political hay with anti-immigrant freakouts about the Great Replacement.

  291. 291.

    Jeffro

    @Geminid: um WUT

    Have they seriously pulled out one that big from the James?

    never mind, I just Googled it and YIKES!

    I need to take up a different hobby!

  293. 293.

    Kayla Rudbek

    @JoyceH: I have a monthly subscription to Audible so that I can take advantage of the 2-for-1 sales that they do every month. I have a long backlog of audiobooks to listen to which is good for crafting time.

  294. 294.

    Comrade Scrutinizer

    @lowtechcyclist:

    I long ago got used to the idea that most Americans didn’t remember where they were when they heard that JFK was shot, BECAUSE THEY HADN’T BEEN BORN YET.

    I have kids in my college classes who have no experience of 9/11. My Dad was born before modern physics was a thing, and grandad was born 3 years after the Wright Bros. first flight.

    So it goes.

  296. 296.

    A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)

    @lowtechcyclist: This may be a dead thread, but I was watching the second episode of the new season of The Amazing Race and the racers are currently in Puerto Vallarta and ended the leg at the houses where Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton lived down there. I almost fell out of my chair when one of the racers (in his 20s, I think) asked “Who’s Elizabeth Taylor”? I am old too. I was in 7th grade when JFK got shot.

  298. 298.

    brantl

    @Manyakitty: Everybody who’s watched her for any length of time, doesn’t respect her, in any way. She’s a traitor, just like her greedy, lying, sack-of-shit old man that she respects so much.

  300. 300.

    brantl

    @Manyakitty:”Reasonable, we can disagree on policy, but no one doubts her commitment to the country.”

    I doubt her commitment to anything other than her lying, cheating, traitorous, greedy, sack-of-shit old man.

  301. 301.

    WaterGirl

    @Baud: but you have no idea what the topic is or if the youtube link is to a song or something of substance, so you have no idea what you are clicking on.

  303. 303.

    A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)

    @JoyceH:  Since I retired and no longer commute, I don’t listen to audio books anymore, but I used to get them from the library and listen morning and evening while driving.  The main things I noticed were 1) good narrators (who use different voices for different characters in fiction books) can make all the difference 2) it’s nice having someone (good) read aloud to you, and 3) I finished listening to several books I would never have read all the way through. The two I remember most vividly were Interview with the Vampire (Anne’s Rice’s first book – I was curious what all the fuss was about) – God, the vampire was so whiney I was done with him about half way through the book, and  A World Undone: A History of the Great War, which was really good, but so depressing (all that death for basically nothing except setting up WWII) that I would have quit it if reading on my own.

  304. 304.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Eolirin: I just prefer the written word, where I have to pay attention, to audio, which is subject to many distractions.  My example was a poor one, but again, audio is subject to distractions (at least to me) much more than reading, where at an early age I learned to bear down and concentrate.

  305. 305.

    Ironcity

    @Kent: A vegetable would be an improvement on the current situation, so don’t give the GQP ideas.  But what kind of vegetable?  Peas, beans, and corn are too pedestrian so it would have to be brussels sprouts or eggplant.

  306. 306.

    wjca

    @Ironcity:  Peas, beans, and corn are too pedestrian so it would have to be brussels sprouts or eggplant.

    Nope.  Both with way too much nutritional value.  Go with empty calories, like potato.

  312. 312.

    Paul in KY

    @trollhattan: Maybe she said “cougar cougar” in a scared tone of voice? IMO, when you yell at these things, you want to sound mean and aggressive.

  313. 313.

    tam1MI

    @raven: The wedding was the only part I liked. Otherwise its was pure bullshit from the dopey idea that DeNiro could just walk onto a plane to the Nam, in uniform with a fucking Goatee, finding his buddy in the same tiger cage and then the Russian Roulette, give me a break. Oh yeah, the last scene, obviously filmed above the tree line and that doesn’t exist in Pennsylvania.

    Not to mention the scene where John Savage jumps out of a helicopter into a river full of rocks, with predictable ensuing results (his limbs are smashed), then Super Special Robert de Niro jumps into the same river at the same damn spot, and not only does he emerge  unscathed, he proceeds to carry John Savage fifty miles to safety!

    Such a stupid, stupid movie.

  315. 315.

    David 🏈 Mahomes! 🏈 Koch

    @TerryC: on media players (including youtube) you can speed up the audio/film.  If i’m familiar with the subject, I usually play the content btwn 1.5 to 2 times normal speed.

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