Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I was promised a recession.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

Well, whatever it is, it’s better than being a Republican.

There are a lot more evil idiots than evil geniuses.

I also would like a pony to improve my balloon juice experience.

Russia bombs Ukraine’s maternity hospitals; Republicans in the House can’t sort out supporting Ukraine.

Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson is the bland and smiling face of evil.

We’ll be taking my thoughts and prayers to the ballot box.

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

Innocent people don’t delay justice.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

Today’s gop: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

If you’re looking for someone who’s young and athletic, go watch a fucking movie.

Donald Trump, welcome to your everything, everywhere, all at once.

How any woman could possibly vote for this smug smarmy piece of misogynistic crap is beyond understanding.

We won’t go back.

A consequence of cucumbers

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

I didn’t have alien invasion on my 2023 BINGO card.

The rest of the comments were smacking Boebert like she was a piñata.

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

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

You are here: Home / Politics / Slow News Day (Yes, That’s Sarcasm)

Slow News Day (Yes, That’s Sarcasm)

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President Biden is bringing his best game.

Slow News Day 1

Wowser, what could go wrong here?

And this:


.

.
This is the clearest summary I have seen yet:


.

Between this and the US abstaining today at the UN, Bibi is apparently not having a good day.

Good things are happening on a lot of fronts; now we just need to fund Ukraine.

I would sleep a lot better at night if we could do that.

Open thread.

Reader Interactions

86Comments

  6. 6.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @rikyrah: ​
     

    When I came of voting age and look back at social issues of the last 43 years, there’s a ton of things I never thought I’d ever see happen:

    1) We’d elect a black man president.
    2) “Gay rights” (and everything related) would ever be put into law much less gain the kind of widespread acceptance we now see.
    3) The GOP become a party of the USSR/Russia.

    The song the British played when surrendering at Yorktown remains as pertinent then as it does today.

  7. 7.

    WaterGirl

    In some ways, we are on a roller coaster, with a madman at the switch.  We have no control over the ups and downs, and we can’t get off.

    This is part of why I believe it’s so important that we are raising money for the groups with boots on the ground.  We can’t see the results day by day, but we are building something good that will pay off in November.

    We can’t afford to lose heart.  At least not for any longer than it takes for us to dust ourselves off and get back in the fight.

  10. 10.

    Miss Bianca

    May be a slow news day for some, but not for me. Found out last night my younger brother was in the hospital. Found out this morning that it was because he had a massive stroke.

    And I’m sitting literally up to my ass in snow hundreds of miles away and there’s not a damn thing I can do about the whole situation except talk to his doctors on the phone.

    Hope none of the rest of you have anything that exciting going on!

  13. 13.

    Old Man Shadow

    I can’t recall the last time the US hasn’t vetoed a resolution to shield Israel. Biden has to be pretty peeved with Bibi.

  16. 16.

    cmorenc

    I agree with Conway: also, it’s going to be easier to convince normies that if Trump is unable to come up with the revised bond amount without tapping foreign sources, that is both a big conflict of interest for a Presidential candidate and that Trump isn’t nearly the smart billionaire businessman he claims to be, but a precariously leveraged swashbuckler whose fortune is built on a house of cards.

    Also, $175 million sounds more like an amount he should be able to come up with according to his claims of wealth than $400+ million.

  19. 19.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @WaterGirl: ​ we can’t get off.

    I did last week, totally disconnected from the news and had no idea of anything that was happening. It was nice and when the week was done, getting back on the roller coaster didn’t sound so bad.

  22. 22.

    Shalimar

    Did something happen today?  Sorry, been busy writing my future New York Times Op-Ed: Benedict Arnold, Free Speech Hero of the Revolution

    The article after that will ask the critical question: Does Joe Biden have to know his son had naked pictures on his phone to be impeached, or is this a high crime that doesn’t require any mens rea?

  23. 23.

    Miss Bianca

    @Kristine: Unfortunately, it had been 48 hours since anyone had heard from him – his coworkers finally did a wellness check because he hadn’t been to work in three days – so it’s very unlikely to have been caught early enough for a full recovery.

    But, let’s not borrow trouble…

  25. 25.

    Jay

    Beirut, Lebanon – Abbas Baalbaki, an environmental chemistry researcher at the American University in Beirut (AUB), has been looking at white phosphorous dropped by Israel onto Lebanese soil for nearly six months.

    Then, one day, a sample he and a colleague were looking at burst into flames.

    That should not have happened. The samples had been dropped over Kfar Kila on October 17 and collected on November 10 after it had rained in the area.

    They had been “spent” for nearly a month by the time Baalbaki tested them.

    He had read all the literature on white phosphorous and taken all the precautions – the samples should not have been active.

    “[They] began emitting fumes,” Baalbaki recounted to Al Jazeera.

    A few seconds of exposure to the fumes was enough to give Baalbaki brain fog, lack of concentration, extreme headaches, fatigue and stomach cramps for days.

    “I called my colleague and asked him how he was feeling,” he said. “He had the same symptoms.

    “I hadn’t understood how toxic it is.”

    https://www.aljazeera.com/features/longform/2024/3/25/israels-toxic-legacy-bombing-southern-lebanon-with-white-phosphorus

    Israel is creating an Environmental “dead zone” in southern Lebanon, which provides 80% of Lebanon’s agriculture.

  27. 27.

    Josie

    @WaterGirl: This is a direct quote from the court’s order. Note provision # 4.

    “It is ordered that the motion is granted to the extent of staying enforcement of
    those portions of the Judgment (1) ordering disgorgement to the Attorney General of
    $464,576,230.62, conditioned on defendants-appellants posting, within ten (10) days of
    the date of this order, an undertaking in the amount of $175 million dollars; (2)
    permanently barring defendants Weisselberg and McConney from serving in the
    financial control function of any New York corporation or similar business entity; (3)
    barring defendants Donald J. Trump, Weisselberg and McConney from serving as an
    officer or director of any New York corporation for three years; (4) barring defendant
    Donald J. Trump and the corporate defendants from applying for loans from New York
    financial institutions for three years; and (5) barring defendants Donald Trump, Jr. and
    Eric Trump from serving as an officer or director of any New York corporation in New
    York for two years.”

    If there is anything contradicting this, I haven’t found it.

  33. 33.

    cain

    @Shalimar: “243 years ago, the United States of America was born with a brand new constitution. Learn how this event years in the past could spell doom for Biden.”

  36. 36.

    NotMax

    FYI.

    In response to the devastating Maui wildfires in 2023, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa School of Architecture students are learning to digitally restore individual buildings in Lahaina using cutting-edge technologies such as virtual 3D modeling and artificial intelligence (AI). Source

    Rudimentary and not detail for detail accurate but it’s an interesting project which should become more refined in future.

  37. 37.

    NutmegAgain

    I do feel a tiny bit better knowing that despite the lowered bond, Oily Orange Don is still on the hook for the half-billion. Still, just repeating everybody, but no ordinary person would get a proportionate reduction in bond. (Or would they? IANAL)

  38. 38.

    ...now I try to be amused

    @Old Man Shadow:

    I can’t recall the last time the US hasn’t vetoed a resolution to shield Israel. Biden has to be pretty peeved with Bibi.

    Bibi’s bluff, called! Bibi must not have been paying attention; the withdrawal from Afghanistan showed that Biden is willing to take a political hit to do the right thing. Sticking it to Bibi is just a bonus.

  40. 40.

    Hoodie

    @Josie: I think Conway’s on the right track in interpreting that order.  The stays on the bars on doing business, etc. are pretty meaningless;  it’s the money that counts and most puts Trump at risk.   $175M is still a shit ton of money and 10 days is not a lot of time to come up with it.   If he does have the cash, then he either has to give it to the state or pledge it to a bond broker who will charge him and arm and a leg.  If he can pay the bond, he’s also in less of a position to declare bankruptcy and won’t be able to claw it back if he does.  It’s  likely to make his cash situation even more desperate.

  41. 41.

    NutmegAgain

    @comrade scotts agenda of rage: Saw a story today in the NPR universe about recovered music ca. 1800 that was composed by a Black man, who had been enslaved in CT. The evidence makes him among the first Black composer in the US, certainly in CT. Linky here, including some of his music played.

  42. 42.

    Miss Bianca

    @WaterGirl: Sorry, my sarcasm meter appears to be malfunctioning today.

    ETA: But thanks to you and all the other jackals for your kind thoughts. Much appreciated, as always.

  44. 44.

    Jay

    @Miss Bianca:

    Probably the most important parts of stroke recovery, are attitude, and doing the rehab. Yes, you can rebuild skills and abilities by doing the therapy, which rewires neuron paths to new parts of the brain.

    My Grandfather had 17 strokes over several decades and remained active and independent until the 16th one, which caused such violent personality changes that he was committed.

    My Grandmother had 6 over 30 years, the combination of the last, her age, and various other factors ended her independent living. She died at 92, with her mind and grudges all intact.

    My Dad had one. He was living with us, I noticed it immediately, gave him an aspirin and water and rushed him to the ER. It was a “mild stroke”, some slurring in speech, some numbness on the left side of his body, some loss of motor control in the left arm.

    But he quit, gave up. Refused to do the rehab, waited to die.

    After 6 months, he finally realized that he was not going to die, just yet, and decided to start doing some of the rehab. By then, 6 months of lying in bed 24/7 just watching the History Channel and pooping into diapers, had atrophied pretty much every muscle.

    He never walked again, moved into long term care, and lived another 20 years.

    I hope your brother recovers and does well.

    And I am sorry you cannot be there for him right now.

  46. 46.

    NotMax

    @NutmegAgain

    In and of itself granting a reduction is far from without precedent. Do agree with surprise at the scope of it, though. Personally would have been much more comfortable with a reduction by $175 million rather than a reduction to it.

  48. 48.

    rikyrah

    @WaterGirl:

    This is part of why I believe it’s so important that we are raising money for the groups with boots on the ground.  We can’t see the results day by day, but we are building something good that will pay off in November.

    We can’t afford to lose heart.  At least not for any longer than it takes for us to dust ourselves off and get back in the fight

     

    I hear you , WG,

    I feel you.

  49. 49.

    MomSense

    Fuck this shit.  The legal system bends fucking backwards for the least deserving person ever.

    It wasn’t that long ago that I was a paralegal for an attorney who did criminal defense.  The shit that Donald gets away with is infuriating.  Nobody else keeps getting away with it.

  51. 51.

    catclub

    @Baud: Yes, it’s really the only thing left we really have to get done before the election.

     

    It was supposed to get done before LAST november.

  53. 53.

    NotMax

    @Hoodie

    And every step along the way documentation must pass muster with the financial monitor under her expanded authority.

  54. 54.

    Miss Bianca

    Thank you, jackals! I know many of us have come through some tough times recently, and this community is so supportive when that happens, it’s a blessing and I’m deeply grateful for it.

  58. 58.

    Doug R

    @rikyrah: In a better world, the US would be less problematic with funding Ukraine. However, it is wonderful to see Europe step up, especially France.

  59. 59.

    Geminid

    Fifty-seven year old Gideon Saar served in Israeli governments during the last decade as a Likud Knesset Member. He challenged Neranyahu for leadership of the party in 2019 and lost. Saar left Likud the following year and formed the New Hope party. His party elected 6 MKs in the March, 2021 election and was one of the 8 parties that formed the Bennet-Lapid government in June, 2021.

    When Netanyahu engineered that government’s fall the following June, Saar formed an electoral alliance with Benny Gantz’s Blue and White, and their joint slate was named National Unity. They won 12 seats in the last election, held on November 1, 2022. They were in opposition until October 12 of last year, when the Knesset ratified a new emergency coalition agreement and Gantz brought his 12 MKs into the present emergency coalition.

    Now Saar has taken his party out of the government and out of Gantz’s party. This will not bring about a new election, but it may be a sign that Saar anticipates one before too long and wants to position his party for it

  60. 60.

    Baud

    @Doug R:

    They’re going to have to keep doing it. We’re too unreliable right now, and will be for a while, given elections every two years.

  62. 62.

    Ohio Mom

    @Miss Bianca: I think it also has a lot to do with what part of the brain was damaged. Here’s hoping your brother’s stroke was in a part of the brain that does something easily done without.

    Sending good thoughts his way and yours.

  63. 63.

    Ohio Mom

    @comrade scotts agenda of rage: Given the same situation, I would have also said, Nope, this country will never elect a Black man president, Gay Rights, another Nope. I think I would have considered it sad that both answers were Nopes.

    But the idea that the Republican party would become an arm of Moscow, I would have thought that was gibberish. One of those things that “isn’t even wrong.”

  64. 64.

    WaterGirl

    @Miss Bianca: Not surprising that your sarcasm meter is off.  The whole back of your brain that normally handles that stuff is busy screaming oh my god about your brother, probably over and over.

    I’m so very sorry.  We feel so helpless when we are far away like that.

  66. 66.

    The Very Reverend Crimson Fire of Compassion

    @Miss Bianca: I’ve been there. My sister had a massive stroke several years back. We weren’t certain how much of her was left, and it took months to gauge how many areas of her life were impacted (short answer–all of them, Katie). For the first year afterward, it appeared that she would be permanently reduced to the intellect and perceptions of a child. It’s been over a decade, now, and she’s a fiercely intelligent and independent woman again, living on her own and making her own choices. It’s been a long road, and harder than I or anyone who hasn’t personally been through it can imagine, but she is ALL THE WAY BACK. It can happen, even when initial impacts are scary and overwhelming.

  67. 67.

    Hoodie

    @Geminid: This seems to be getting lost in the somewhat overwrought furor over the appeals court ruling in the Trump fraud case.  Seems like a BFD that the US abstained in the UN, and this move by Saar in the wake of that could be significant.

  70. 70.

    Freemark

    Just saw DWAC stock is up 35% on the news of Trump’s reduced bond. Essentially DWAC is investing 300 million dollars in a company with a negative value and some people think its a great investment. So Trump will suddenly be worth 4 billion dollars. I realize that won’t be ‘real’ money immediately. But still WITEF.

  72. 72.

    Miss Bianca

    @Dean- 18 year stroke survivor. I have musings about strokee:

    *blink* *blink* Uh…okay.

    He’s at Providence Hospital, which is actually a comprehensive stroke center for the region, according to their website.

    They have some pretty good doctors there – the top craniofacial team in the country at the time put my face back on straight after my bike accident at that hospital. Pretty sure he’s in good hands, but there’s a lot I don’t know about what to ask, so thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

  75. 75.

    Geminid

    @Hoodie: Saar telegraphed this move a week ago, so today’s Security Council resolution probably was not a factor here.

    This government is getting shakier though. Israel needs new National service legislation to keep the IDF up to strength, and the Netanyahu coalition’s bill adds to the obligations of those serving while continuing to shield the Ultra-Orthodox from service. Yoav Gallant, the Likud Defense Minister, says he will not go along and Benny Gantz says he’ll leave the government if Netanyahu’s bill passes.

    One Israeli described the political dynamic:

       My cousins were very much liberal but “wait until after the war” kind of people, but after their service was extended and more exceptions given out to Bibi’s extremist allies that are causing trouble in the [West Bank] they’re done with him. People are mad mad.

  76. 76.

    Jackie

    @Miss Bianca: I’m SO SORRY! I can only imagine how helpless and stressed you’re feeling right now; not being able go to him atm. I hope there are other family members who ARE able to be with your brother until you’re able to travel! Sending healing thoughts to him and hugs to you!

  78. 78.

    Geminid

    @Hoodie: The Jerusalem Post has a good article based on an interview with a former IDF Operations Directorate head, Major General Israel Ziv, that addresses matters in and out of Gaza. It’s titled:

    Israel’s war in Gaza is lost and aimless, Hamas is still kicking– IDF [General]

    Former IDF maj.-Gen. Israel Ziv reveals the bitter truth about the war in Gaza, the debate with Americans, and the activity at Shifa Hospital.

    Hopefully this link is too short for me to mess up:

    https://m.jpost.com/israel-hamas-war/article-792864

     

     

    @Geminid:

  81. 81.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    @Geminid: If the ultra-orthodox were forced to serve, that would finally be fair. It would also finish Bibi. The downside is having religious nutjobs trained with weapons.

  82. 82.

    Geminid

    @Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony: I read that most Ultra-Orthodox served in the IDF until the late 1970s, and the practice of granting large numbers of draft exemptions started under Begin’s Likud government and increased since then. But with the Haredi now accounting for 13% of Israel’s population, and the 20% of citizens who are Arab being exempt, the rest of the nation is hard-pressed to fill the IDF’s ranks.

    The problem extends to the overall economy. The Haredi are poorly educated and unsuited for work in a modern economy. Labor economists see this as a constraint on future⁷ growth. Fortunately, Israeli Arabs are better integrated into the economy now and pick up some of the slack.

    Proponents of Haredi servive see the IDF as a key institution for integrating Israeli citizens into a whole, which is why the Ultra-Orthodox rabbis oppose service. Their whole ethos is based on apartness, except when it comes to government subsidies.

    There is Supreme Court decision striking down these  draft exemptions. I’m not sure, but I think the court granted a period of time for the  government to come up with a new system and March 31 is some sort of deadline.

  86. 86.

    Quaker in a Basement

    Why, Trump has a development at Seven Springs that’s worth exactly that much! Just sit tight while Eric pours the concrete.

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