Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Every reporter and pundit should have to declare if they ever vacationed with a billionaire.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

Republicans want to make it harder to vote and easier for them to cheat.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.

Innocent people don’t delay justice.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

Baby steps, because the Republican Party is full of angry babies.

Second rate reporter says what?

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

Even though I know this is a bad idea, I’m off to do it anyway!

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

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

“Cheese and Kraken paired together for the appetizer trial.”

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

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

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

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

Tuesday Afternoon Open Thread

by | 192 Comments

This post is in: 

All the news  this week has worn me out, and it’s only – checks computer, yep, it’s only Tuesday.

Trump sets the dogs on Judge Merchan and his daughter, Merchan puts a gag order in place for Trump, seems like the case before the Supreme Court is mostly going the way it should, and Ronna is out at NBC.  They need to fire the two people who approved the hire.

I’m too tired to write much or add links, so talk among yourselves.

Oh, and I vacuumed all the dog beds yesterday and then forgot to put them all back in place.

Henry didn’t seem to mind at all!

Totally open thread.

Reader Interactions

192Comments

  4. 4.

    A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)

    I’m a cat lady, but Henry is the cutest!! And yes, he does look like a lamb :-)

  5. 5.

    trollhattan

    Guy you don’t give a fuck about picks a running mate you will likewise, not give a fuck about. On behalf of California, sorry.

    Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced tech lawyer and major campaign supporter Nicole Shanahan, 38, as his Vice Presidential running mate Tuesday afternoon in Oakland.

    “I wanted a vice president who shared my passion for healthy, wholesome foods, chemical free, from regenerative agriculture, from good soils,” he said. “And I found exactly the right person.”

    Shanahan, who previously contributed to President Joe Biden’s campaign, has been a supporter of Kennedy’s presidential bid since he announced he was running as a Democrat in April 2023. She helped pay for and plan his $4 million Super Bowl ad, of which other members of the Kennedy family disapproved.

    The attorney, tech entrepreneur and philanthropist was previously married to Google co-founder Sergey Brin. She founded the Bia-Echo Foundation, which supports “reproductive longevity” as well as criminal justice reform efforts and the climate crisis.

    “She has used, over the past several years, cutting edge technology including AI to calculate the catastrophic health consequences of toxins in our soil, our air, our water and our food,” Kennedy, an environmental lawyer, said Tuesday. A Wall Street Journal story accused Shanahan of having an affair with Elon Musk in 2022, which Shanahan and Musk both strongly disputed.

    Shanahan wrote an essay for People Magazine last year outlining the career setbacks, stress and anxiety the rumors caused. “I can’t think of anything worse for a professional woman’s career than publicly shaming her for a sexual act,” she wrote. She has said in the past that she is not an “anti-vaxxer,” but “does wonder about vaccine injuries.”

    [“I’m just asking questions!”]

    After receiving the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine and subsequent booster vaccines, she told Newsweek that she’s suffered “significant health issues” afterward, and wonders if they are related. “From our first meeting,” Kennedy said, “Nicole’s intellectual capacity left me awestruck. I knew right then I wanted her as my vice president and I knew America was going to fall in love with her.”

    https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/election/article287111840.html#storylink=cpy

  8. 8.

    WaterGirl

    @trollhattan: I don’t care enough about him to read the story, but I read the name of his so-called running mate, and said “who”?

    I read yesterday that all the signatures he had turned in for (maybe?) Nevada don’t count because they didn’t list a V.P.

    Too bad, so sad.

  12. 12.

    Mr. Bemused Senior

    @trollhattan: “Nicole’s intellectual capacity left me awestruck…”

    Every time I think of it I go “awwww.” [h/t Muppets, Sam the eagle]

  17. 17.

    Chris

    Totally open thread.

    So, I’m two episodes into Special Ops: Lionness.  … To my shock, it’s actually grabbing me.  It’s a longstanding view of mine that movies and TV shows related to contemporary wars (at least the ones the U.S. military is involved in) have been shit for one to two decades, largely because the censorship that comes with “backed by the Pentagon” just closes off too much – it’s basically the “man, political correctness killed good movies!” trope, only real – to leave a good story, and these days everybody wants the “backed by the Pentagon” cachet.  And yet so far that’s not happening: it’s not, you know, Band of Brothers, but I’m enjoying it and wanting to keep watching.

  19. 19.

    Captain C

    @trollhattan:

    “She has used, over the past several years, cutting edge technology including AI to calculate the catastrophic health consequences of toxins in our soil, our air, our water and our food,” Kennedy, [a huckster disguised as–CC] an environmental lawyer, said Tuesday

    RFK the lesser is going to go full General Jack D. Ripper on us by summer, isn’t he?

  21. 21.

    SenyorDave

    Depressing headline of the day:

    How the criminal case against Texas AG Ken Paxton abruptly ended after nearly a decade of delays (yahoo.com)

    He’ll pay $300k restitution for his securities fraud.
    It’s not like he did something terrible, like steal to feed his family. Or have a child with gender dysphoria be treated by an actual doctor, instead of a quack who tells the child to take a cold shower and suck it up.
    And to top it off, Paxton gets to continue to take his revenge, which he is very open about.

    There better be karma.  If Sisyphus has to push a boulder up a hill for all eternity, what should Paxton get?  How about buried in shit up to his head, and have an itchy nose?

  22. 22.

    Chris

    @trollhattan:

    Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced tech lawyer and major campaign supporter Nicole Shanahan, 38, as his Vice Presidential running mate Tuesday afternoon in Oakland.

    1) Who the fuck is that.  At least “Kennedy” is a name that comes with its own publicity.

    2) “Tech lawyer.”  Of course it’s a Silicon Valley type.

  24. 24.

    WaterGirl

    @Mr. Bemused Senior:

    “I wanted a vice president who shared my passion for healthy, wholesome foods, chemical free, from regenerative agriculture, from good soils,” he said. “And I found exactly the right person.”

    • Passion for healthy wholesome foods
    • Chemical-free
    • Grown in a certain way
    • In a certain soil

    It’s amazing – I have never seen the key qualifications for President and Vice President laid out so clearly before!

  25. 25.

    Baud

    @trollhattan:

    I knew right then I wanted her as my vice president and I knew America was going to fall in love with her.”

     

    So, I can see a Dem somewhere perhaps using similar language, so this isn’t something that comes from my disdain for RFK, Jr., but I find that description somewhat sexist, or at least sex-codes. Hard to see someone saying it about a male Veep.

  28. 28.

    WaterGirl

    @SenyorDave: I have it on good authority from a comment yesterday on Balloon Juice that the Feds are also investigating Paxton.

    That’s the only reason I am not feeling enraged about how fucking wrong the TX case outcome is.

  30. 30.

    Gin & Tonic

    My daughter was traveling for business last week, had to catch an 0500 plane home Saturday. Felt like crap, it got worse, so she went to an urgent care clinic yesterday. In a warm touch, the provider said “wow, your lungs sound terrible, are you a smoker?” Daughter is approaching 40, has never smoked, and in fact runs ultramarathons for “fun.” Turns out she has pneumonia and two ear infections. This may be the fourth time she’s had pneumonia, we kind of lost count.

    Well, she’s otherwise healthy, and this is treatable, so we’ll come out the other side, but this may be her body telling her to slow down.

  35. 35.

    Baud

    @Captain C:

    You know, now that we’ve broken the female Veep glass ceiling, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a romance/scandal between a president and veep at some point.

  38. 38.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    Did someone else say they would end chronic disease “in years”? It’s the answer to a question no one asked.

    I would support fining RFK Jr voters. They should have to pay us for this

  39. 39.

    WaterGirl

    @Gin & Tonic:

    “wow, your lungs sound terrible, are you a smoker?”

    Wow, not exactly what you want to hear.

    Seems like body is telling her, okay, if you won’t slow down on your own, I’m not giving you a choice.

    Oh, and ear infections really hurt.  Hope she recovers soon.

  44. 44.

    Mike in NC

    @trollhattan: Some hack whose name escapes me once proclaimed that the country was going to “fall in love” with Sara Palin. How’d that work out?

  47. 47.

    Baud

    @WaterGirl:

    I suppose they could make up one if we had a Dem POTUS/Veep pairing of two young attractive people. In fact, if Kamala were Obama’s Veep, I could definitely see Fox having a field day with the rumors.

    But I was thinking of a real affair (or romance, if they happen to both be single).

  50. 50.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    @SenyorDave: I do not believe defendents should ever be offered deals that keep them out of court without requiring admission of guilt. The current system allows rich people to buy their way out of legal trouble.  It’s crap.

  52. 52.

    WaterGirl

    @Mike in NC: Well, in 2008 when I was going door-to-door for Obama in Indiana, some redneck came to the door, complained about how awful a pick Sarah Palin was, and mentioned that McCain said the economy was fine.

    Followed by:  “I guess I’m gonna have to vote for the Ni****!”

  55. 55.

    Tony Jay

    Rat Fucking Kook x 3 needs someone who can network oligarch cash into his grift-bucket. He’s hooking up for a special summer of shitflinging, and that costs.

    Meanwhile the expression on Henry’s face clearly spells out “the relationship between this gorgeous crumple of blanket and myself is purely platonic – and consensual.” Good dog.

  56. 56.

    Regine Touchon

    @WaterGirl I’m looking for new doggie beds for my three critters.  Where did you get the large white-ish one?

  57. 57.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    @Baud: Sure. Keep them out of jail, BUT there needs to be an admission of guilt on the record. None of this BS ‘I took a deal but I never said I was guilty crap.’

  58. 58.

    WaterGirl

    @Regine Touchon: You have good taste!

    The big whitish one is the best dog bed ever, and I found it while on a family trip where there weren’t enough beds for everyone, so after the first night on the floor I went looking for a large dog bed that I could sleep on!  It’s got the special orthopedic foam inside, and I’m not sure if you can tell from the photo, but it even slopes up a bit on one end for sort-of a pillow.

    I have never been able to find another one like it!  After the trip, it was Tucker’s favorite bed.

  63. 63.

    Tony Jay

    @Baud:

    Given that many VP picks tend to be divide-bridging reaches across the Big Tent, and involve the egos of people who both thought they should be President, there would have to be some major UST involved.

    Though now that you mention it I’m almost sure there’s bound to be a sub-genre of self-published political/sex thrillers out there on the internet featuring a whole revolving cast of thinly-veiled expies “hammering out their differences” on the Resolute Desk.

  65. 65.

    Darkrose

    Sad news: we had to say goodbye to my sweet, lovely orange kitty boy yesterday. Alistair was 14 years old; he came to us a few months after my Maine Coon Joxur left us in 2010, through the Orphan Kitten Project at the UC Davis Vet School. It was my turn to name the cat, and I chose Alistair, after the character in Dragon Age Origins who was a kind-hearted, not all that bright, ginger. Alistair the cat was gentle and patient, even if he wasn’t the smartest. He loved to watch the birds in the feeder next door, and to chew on any unattended cables–I had to constantly replace headsets and MagSafe cords because of him–and to sit next to us while we gamed. He wasn’t a loud purrer, but he loved being petted and scritched and would put up with being snuggled. He was an excellent back-up alarm for me; he’d come into my room around 8 to make sure I was awake by mewling and pawing at my arm until I either got up to pet him or let him under the blankets.

    He was a very big boy. A couple of weeks ago we noticed that he’d lost a fair amount of weight quickly, and he was barfing a lot. We weren’t too worried because he’d gone through barfy periods before, but we saw that he wasn’t eating much. He really didn’t like us touching his face, but we managed to get him to open his mouth and we saw that he’d lost some teeth. We tried him on some wet food, and for a while it seemed like that we’d found a solution. Then this past weekend he stopped eating almost entirely, turning his head away when we brought food near. We took him to the VMTH yesterday and they found that his kidneys had almost completely failed, and he had pancreatits and liver problems. The doctor didn’t seem very optimistic about his prognosis even if they could get him stabilized, and she mentioned that he seemed tired, and we knew it was time.

    He wasn’t a loud cat, but the house feels quieter. His brother keeps looking around and sniffing things, but he’s also spending time with both my wife and me, like he wants to make sure there’s coverage. (We used to joke about how they’d switch rooms every so often like there were scheduled shift changes.) We’re both okay until we’re not; I’m very lucky that my supervisor is a cat person and my job is flexible that she immediately agreed to let me work from home all week so I can occasionally break down in peace.

    RIP Alistair K. (the K is for Kitteh) Wallace-Moore. You were loved, and you will be missed.

  67. 67.

    Spanky

    @Baud:

    You know, now that we’ve broken the female Veep glass ceiling, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a romance/scandal between a president and veep at some point.

    Donald/Ivanka

    (No one was eating, were they?)

  73. 73.

    West of the Rockies

    Did anyone here note the passing of Eric Carmen a couple weeks ago?  He had a great voice.

  76. 76.

    Jay

    @Gin & Tonic:

    It may be her body telling her to get vaccinated.

    I’ve had pneumonia once. Early 20’s, riding a motorcycle here, through the winter, in sleet and rain.

    My ex-brother, gets pneumonia every time he gets a cold. So, once a year.

    I suspect that some people are in some way, more susceptible to a pneumonia infection.

  78. 78.

    Jackie

    @Kay: Nicole Shanahan apparently got TIFG’s attention lol

    Donald Trump’s campaign issued a statement about “environmental whack job” Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his new running mate, Nicole Shanahan.

    Said Trump: “RFK Jr. is an AOC lover and opposes really any human advancement, preferring that we all live in caves by candlelight, except of course supports charging stations for your $150,000 electric car that can only drive a few miles before dying just like his presidential campaign.”

    Is he comparing Shanahan to AOC?

  79. 79.

    JCJ

    @WaterGirl: There is a monastery near the clinic where I work and we have seen quite a few of the Sisters over the years.  They gave us a lamb cake recently, but it looked much more like a weasel than a lamb.

  84. 84.

    Jay

    @Darkrose:

    I am sorry for your families loss. Sadly, we only get to love them for a short time, but we get to love them deeply. I am glad that you have the chance to mourn your loss.

  88. 88.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    @Baud: ANY program that offers people a mulligan on committing a crime will be ruthlessly exploited by the Paxton and Trumps of the world. We can’t make it only apply to the young, disadvantaged, and foolish. In fact, I would argue the reason Trump may well escape justice is all those well intended barriers put in place to help keep the potentially redeemable out of prison. There needs to be limits.

  90. 90.

    Anotherlurker

    Since this is an open thread, I want to state that I’m totally done with Apple products.  It started 5 years ago when I purchase a new MacBook .  I brought it home set it up and proceeded to go over my iTunes music library and check the contents of my iPod. Imagine my surprise when I found that at least 100 of my CDs which I put on iTunes disappeared. Poof!  Gone.  On top of that, they were also gone from my iPod. These were discs that I purchase from sources other than Apple.  As far as I’m concerned Apple owes me at least a grand for dumping the products that I purchased and trusted iTunes for holding.  I spent close to 2 hours at the Apple Store with one of their Genius associates (as Apple calls them) with absolutely no positive results.  Sadly, when I moved from Fla. to California, I had donated all my CDs to the Bradenton Library.

    To add insult to injury, about 1 month into owning the new MacBook , I followed their prompts to update the Monterey operating system. This resulted in the computer getting very hot and shutting down randomly. On top of that, the email program ceased to function.  Back to the Genius Bar for another nonproductive 2 hour session.  When the session was over, after trying myriad fixes, I was sent home no better that when I went in.  Finally, after 3 months, there has another fix to the OS and the overheating problem moderated to the point where the computer was useable. However the MacBook still got noticeably hot and lasted only about 6 hours on a full charge.

    The computer is now acting up again, shutting down randomly. I tried all suggested fixes to no avail.

    I’m buying a Samsung Tablet next week.

    Apple is an example of planned obsolescence as a core business practice, customers be damned.

  92. 92.

    Wyatt Salamanca

    Congrats to Doug for getting cited by Politico:

    The senior Biden campaign adviser who spoke to West Wing Playbook said they were somewhat sympathetic to reporters and editors grappling with the challenge of covering a political candidate who obliterates norms, lies routinely and has undermined America’s democratic system. Their frequent frustrations with the press, the adviser said, often arise from coverage that underplays the dangers of Trump or equates them to Biden’s own political deficiencies.

    That view is shared by the left more broadly. Ever since Trump’s victory in 2016, progressives have increasingly focused on the media’s role in American politics. Praise for the tough coverage Trump endured during his presidency has since given way to frustration with the press’ approach to the current campaign. They’ve largely adopted the viewpoint of the “DOUG J. BALLOON” @NYTPitchbot account that sees the media as desperate, above all else, to prove its impartiality by creating faux equivalency: nitpicking Biden’s every mistake and harping incessantly on his age while grading his predecessor on a curve.

    https://www.politico.com/newsletters/west-wing-playbook/2024/03/26/biden-worlds-view-of-the-nbc-mess-00149170?cid=hptb_primary_0

  95. 95.

    dnfree

    @Gin & Tonic: We have a daughter who is immune-compromised.  As I, a non-medical-expert, understand it, part of her immune system is simply missing–never developed.  She was diagnosed in her mid-30s, and she says this immune issue is normally not discovered until someone’s 30s-40s.  The main symptom apparently is that if the person gets sick, with a cold, for instance, it almost always develops into something much worse (pneumonia, laryngitis, pharyngitis, bronchitis–something–and then the recovery takes a long time.  The body simply fails to realize it should be fighting back.

    If your daughter has a history like this (multiple times of getting sick/staying sick), she should talk to her doctor about immunoglobulins.

    https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/igg-deficiencies

  97. 97.

    WaterGirl

    @Jay: @Gin & Tonic:

    I got pneumonia 3 times in college, before we figured out that it was the pyrethrins in the anti-flea stuff.  After that, all good.

    But I had grown up in a house with two smokers, and we lived upstairs from the tavern we owned, so I’m sure there was second-hand smoke that made me vulnerable.

    But as I said, all good after I learned not to use any products with pyrethrins, so hopefully I grew out of the second-hand smoke, too.

  98. 98.

    Jay

    To all the Fundi Churches holding Easter egg hunts,………………………

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Easter eggs are aborted chickens, painted in drag for the children.

  104. 104.

    karen marie

    @SenyorDave:   You left out “he did not have to admit guilt” and “the charges will be expunged when he completes his community service.”

    Motherfuckers.

  105. 105.

    Brachiator

    and Ronna is out at NBC.

    Mostly been off line today. This is good news. She never should have been hired in the first place.

  106. 106.

    karen marie

    @Chris:   I’m going to guess “ex-wife of a Google founder” was the$most$compelling$reason for Kennedy to choose her.

  107. 107.

    scav

    @Jackie: Said Trump: “RFK Jr. is an AOC lover and opposes really any human advancement, preferring that we all live in caves by candlelight, except of course supports charging stations for your $150,000 electric car that can only drive a few miles before dying just like his presidential campaign.”

    Certainly appears to have abandoned hope of E-musk as an ATM.

  110. 110.

    Quadrillipede

    If a more general awareness of the mainstream media’s — um — limitations is slowly starting to sink in with the general public, that could be a useful development.

    I’d be even happier if that led to more traffic for independent sites delivering conversant-with-reality news and opinions in the next 8 or 9 months or so…

  116. 116.

    debit

    @Darkrose: I’m so sorry for your loss.  They are with us for too short a time, and leave too large a hole in our hearts when they leave.

  117. 117.

    Quadrillipede

    @Jay: I’m half-considering trying to start a whispering campaign that electromagnetism makes you LGBTQ or some such nonsense.

    If it makes even 1 out of 10,000 wingnuts ditch their phones out of fear of woke contamination, that might make the general internet fractionally more tolerable…

  118. 118.

    Chris

    @Wyatt Salamanca:

    What the fuck? “The tough coverage Trump endured while President?” The media’s catchphrase for two years was “TODAY is the day Trump became President,” usually about a success so banal it was the presidential version of washing your hands after taking a shit. What Trump “endured” was being so much of a fuckup that even the media couldn’t cover for him anymore. (Same thing Romney endured before him, and McCain before that, and Dubya before that).

  122. 122.

    Quadrillipede

    @Jay: They really shouldn’t be using any technology more recent than stone hand axes. Their Creator demands it!

    (I’m sort of half-joking, but that is the logical end point of this line of thinking, isn’t it?)

  124. 124.

    Ruckus

    @Mike in NC:

    Worked out well for most of us. We don’t have to hear that name very often and almost always it is used in at least a somewhat appropriate degrading manner…..

  125. 125.

    Quadrillipede

    @Omnes Omnibus: Don’t judge a program by a misuse of it.

    Having thought about it, like, a lot, it’s really hard to come up with any legal or political system that isn’t vulnerable to bad-faith metagaming.

    Once you have bad actors embedded inside any system it’s just a forever ongoing game of whack-a-mole…

  127. 127.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Quadrillipede: The question becomes does it do more good for those it was meant to help than the harm that comes from its misuse.  I choose to err on the side of the people who need the benefit.

  128. 128.

    Jay

    @Quadrillipede: Just keep in mind, you will need to cultivate various nym’s, across a broad swath of social media,  hidden by VPN’s etc, to become a “trusted” commenter, before launching your effort.

    That much time in the swamps often has a bad effect on people

    On the bright side, you can use Apartheid Clyde’s AI to write most of your comments.

  131. 131.

    Brachiator

    @trollhattan:

    The attorney, tech entrepreneur and philanthropist was previously married to Google co-founder Sergey Brin. She founded the Bia-Echo Foundation, which supports “reproductive longevity” as well as criminal justice reform efforts and the climate crisis.

    So she is at least one third fruitcake.

  135. 135.

    Quadrillipede

    @Jay: …a bad effect on people

    Tru dat. As some old German guy said: “if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you”.

  137. 137.

    Geminid

    @Matt McIrvin: Right now polls show RFK Jr. taking more votes from Trump, and I think the polls have it right. But RFK Jr. has almost 8 months to shape his messaging, and he can shape it to go after potential Biden voters if he wants to. So I’m glad the Biden campaign is preparing to bury him with negative ads.

    RFK Junior’s VP candidate brings money to the table, and that could go a long way if they can buy the Libertarian Party nomination. That would translate to ballot access in 50 states.

  139. 139.

    Mr. Bemused Senior

    @Omnes Omnibus: The question becomes does it do more good for those it was meant to help than the harm that comes from its misuse.

    The same analysis applies to almost any social structure. Alas, it seems often to be overlooked [or perhaps maliciously opposed].

  140. 140.

    Ruckus

    @Anotherlurker:

    And my experience is exactly the opposite of yours. Now I don’t use a portable computer any longer but do use iPhones and they have been far, far better than any other cell phone I’ve seen/owned. And I’ve had cell phones since the mid 90s.

    My home computers have been Apple over the last 20+ yrs and the first computer I ever bought was a 1978 Apple II. All Apple computers since have worked flawlessly. Now I have had several MSDos computers and was never as satisfied as I am with Apple.

    Have know others that have not had good luck with Apple but then I’ve known others that have had trouble with most any computer.

  141. 141.

    Albatrossity

    Cute pup!

    Vis-à-vis some of the news of the day: If you bought those gold sneakers and a Trump-endorsed Bible, would you have to leave them behind when the Rapture comes?

  142. 142.

    Burnspbesq

    @WaterGirl:

    I have yet to receive a legal notice from Henry

    Henry is taking his cues from Trump’s lawyers, deliberately blowing deadlines and then whining when the court refuses to give him relief from his failure.

  145. 145.

    MomSense

    Power is back on – lots to do.  I need to clean out the spoiled food in the refrigerator and do dishes.  The giant tractor/snowblower ran over a large branch and sent pieces flying.  Some of the projectiles hit my house.  I’ll probably have to call the insurance adjuster.

  146. 146.

    Jackie

    This is interesting:

    Donald Trump’s valet’s grand jury testimony may soon be released publicly.

    Judge Aileen Cannon is likely to unseal the transcript of testimony from the former president’s former personal assistant Walter Nauta after a Washington D.C. court transferred jurisdiction of the case to her, Newsweek reports.

    Nauta has given the testimony to a grand jury in D.C. He’s now on trial in Florida in the classified documents case, and his attorneys there requested access to what he said.

    The Department of Justice Special Counsel Jack Smith filed a court brief on Monday that was emailed to both Cannon as well as Nauta’s attorney, Newsweek reported.

    The sealed D.C. order specifies the “resolution of public disclosure of certain pleadings and other materials arising out of a grand jury matter in the District of Columbia.”

    The materials being transferred to Cannon’s court now task her on making a decision to release it publicly, according to Newsweek.

    While it’s unclear what Nauta may have divulged when questioned before the grand jury, what he said could directly affect his former boss’s defense as to why he allegedly hoarded classified documents in banker boxes shipped from the White House to Mar-a-Lago.

    *snip*

    In a separate March 9 filing to Cannon, Smith requested the redaction of several documents that would expand the scale of the investIgation into Nauta, the outlet reported.

    That filing, Newsweek reported, unveils how the feds sought search warrants in Washington, D.C., for Nauta’s “Verizon cell site data” and for his “Google location data” that would prove the valet’s whereabouts on the days he’s accused of hiding the prized boxes of documents.

  147. 147.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Jay:

    Easter eggs are aborted chickens

    Yeah, but that’s OK because animals don’t have personhood, you know.  (Tell that to anyone with a pet, but that’s how they see it.)  That’s why it’s OK to kill animals for food. Besides, Cain and Abel.

    We’re gonna be visiting the in-laws this weekend. They’re evangelical, so I’m gonna tell them I’m boycotting God this weekend because no way he’s pro-life, think of all the miscarriages! And who knows how many million fertilized eggs never implant in the uterine lining – that’s all God’s fault right there!

    How can they worship a God who’s not pro-life like they are? Have they ever read the Old Testament? It has stuff like God getting pissed off at King Saul because Saul didn’t kill every last enemy, but kept some of them as captives. Saul was more pro-life than God, and look what God did to him.

    Maybe they should re-think whether they should worship this God, and if they continue worshiping him, whether it makes more sense to be more pro-life than God is!

  150. 150.

    Brachiator

    @SenyorDave:

    Depressing headline of the day: How the criminal case against Texas AG Ken Paxton abruptly ended after nearly a decade of delays.

    Recently spoke with some Texans who are resigned to the deep political corruption there, but unhappy about it.

  151. 151.

    Geminid

    @Albatrossity: It’s not clear what folks will take with them when the Rapture comes, and when that blessed event will happen is still a mystery.

    But these idiots will be able take all that stuff when the Crapture comes, and it’s overdue.

  152. 152.

    Brachiator

    @Baud:

    You know, now that we’ve broken the female Veep glass ceiling, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a romance/scandal between a president and veep at some point.

    I think someone wrote a romance novel on this theme. I think the title was “Pantless on the Potomac.”

  154. 154.

    Burnspbesq

    @Comrade Bukharin:

    She had an affair with Elon Musk while married to Sergey Brin, if that counts.

    They both vehemently deny it, but it’s worth noting that neither has sued the WSJ over its reporting.

  156. 156.

    piratedan

    @West of the Rockies: It was noted.  We understood that his voice was iconic in the mid 70’s with the group Raspberries and a significant solo career.  We also noted that his political views were a dumpster fire and while you can appreciate the vocals and the music, its hard to separate from the actions in the later years (see Clapton, Eric and Morrison, Van)

  157. 157.

    Another Scott

    Pace yourself, WG and everyone. More battles await.

    Madiba K. Dennie at BallsAndStrikes.org:

    […]

    Like the membership of this Court, FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine is a sloppy, hastily-manufactured bid by the conservative legal movement to drive the Republican policy agenda. But even if it doesn’t succeed, it may still move the needle towards greater injustice, as the cases that chipped away at Roe did. Alarmingly, Alito and Justice Clarence Thomas both asked the advocates about the Comstock Act—a 19th-century federal statute, unenforced for decades, that prohibits anything “obscene” from being sent through the mail for any “indecent or immoral purpose.” The law refers to anything that could be used to produce abortion as unmailable, and many Republican politicians are now arguing that this “zombie law” could be reanimated and used to ban abortion nationwide without any new legislation.

    Both the conservative activist lawyers arguing the case and conservative activist lawyers deciding it used oral argument to surface this line of reasoning. Alito described Comstock as “prominent provision” and “not some obscure subsection of a complicated obscure law; in an exchange with a lawyer for a pharmaceutical company that manufactures mifepristone, Thomas characterized the law as “fairly broad, and it specifically covers drugs such as yours.” Erin Hawley, AHM’s lawyer and spouse of the other shitty Hawley in politics, gestured towards Comstock’s potential utility to the conservative legal movement by telling Thomas that the law’s plain text “is pretty clear.”

    Republicans on the Court use cases like FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine to tee up the conservative legal movement for future success. They may lose this battle, but Thomas and Alito are giving far-right activists like Hawley their marching orders for the next one.

    Grr…,
    Scott.

  158. 158.

    Gvg

    @WaterGirl: The news showed a clip of an elderly white couple, I think from West Virginia that actually said that on camera….Not the Palin McCain specifics but the “we’re going to vote for the N…”

  159. 159.

    Jeffro

    re: JFK Jr, I’m LOL-ing my ass off that even the Libertarian Party is like, “no thanks, dude”

    keep collecting those signatures, though, nitwits!

  160. 160.

    geg6

    Henry is too adorable.  I haven’t read the thread yet, but has everyone else noticed that Henry looks exactly like a spring lamb?  Maybe Betty C. can make a butter Henry this year!

  161. 161.

    Jeffro

    @Kay:can we please, please start taxing rich people? They’re a menace.

    I think it came up in an earlier thread today (or was it on Twitter?) that taxing the rich more…just because reasons…is HUGELY popular, especially in our blessed only states that matter swing states.  There was a Bloomberg article about it.

    I have a sneaking suspicion that Biden/Harris 2024 is aware of this.  =)

  162. 162.

    Jeffro

    @Jackie: trump knows that if being seen as this season’s “outsider” and being anti-vax are the primary things RFK Jr is known for…then RFK Jr is only going to pull votes from potential trump voters.

    I’m just rooting for injuries between them, either way.

  165. 165.

    Downpuppy

    The people who hired Ronna McDaniel get their news from MSNBC,
    They didn’t realize that she was a total liar & lowlife.
    Will there be some recognition from the staff that MSNBC failed?
    No.

  166. 166.

    Quadrillipede

    FAO The Rich:

    Would you prefer to be taxed or eaten? We are willing and able to make either accommodation. Please respond forthwith.

    Yours sincerely,

    The 99%

  167. 167.

    Albatrossity

    @Downpuppy: I don’t think that the inability to hear or understand news, from whatever source, was behind the decision to hire Ms Romney. It was nothing but appeasement, hedging their bets like good capitalists do.

  169. 169.

    Brachiator

    @Another Scott:

    Alarmingly, Alito and Justice Clarence Thomas both asked the advocates about the Comstock Act—a 19th-century federal statute, unenforced for decades, that prohibits anything “obscene” from being sent through the mail for any “indecent or immoral purpose.” The law refers to anything that could be used to produce abortion as unmailable, and many Republican politicians are now arguing that this “zombie law” could be reanimated and used to ban abortion nationwide without any new legislation.

    BBC News has a good background piece on this. Note that the Comstock Act was also used to ban any type of contraception.

    The Comstock Act, championed by anti-vice crusader Anthony Comstock and passed in 1873, made it a federal crime to send or receive any material deemed “obscene, lewd or lascivious”. The statute makes specific mention of birth control and abortion, barring any materials designed or intended for “the prevention of conception or procuring of abortion”.

    Over the next century, various court rulings clarified the law’s meaning, gradually narrowing its scope. In 1971, Congress removed most of Comstock’s restrictions on contraceptives and two years later, through Roe, the Supreme Court established a constitutional right to abortion. By then, the act was seen as a largely unenforceable relic, and remained dormant for 50 years.

    But now, within right-wing circles, the Comstock Act is being revived.

    Without Roe in place to guarantee access to abortion, the logic is straightforward. According to a broad reading of the law, the mailing of any materials related to abortion – through the United States Postal Service and through private carriers like UPS and FedEx – would be illegal.

    By preventing any of the medications or tools necessary for the procedure from reaching hospitals and clinics, Comstock would act as an effective block on abortions, getting around the need for Congress to pass any new legislation.

    “It is sweepingly broad language,” said Rachel Rebouché, dean and law professor at Temple University Law school, and a leading scholar in reproductive health law. “If it was applied literally, it [Comstock] could be a ban on an abortion in an indirect way, because everything gets mailed to outfit abortion clinics.”…

    Comstock will be raised before the Supreme Court this week as part of arguments from a group of anti-abortion activists and doctors who want federal approval of the abortion drug mifepristone to be withdrawn.

    And it has been invoked specifically in the conservative Heritage Foundation’s playbook for the next Republican administration, dubbed Project 2025.

    The right wing Supremes have been given their marching orders. The dream is that Trump will have the DOJ impose the Comstock Act soon after he takes office, if he wins.

  171. 171.

    Jackie

    @Downpuppy: Wrong.

    ….But the company’s on-air personalities — especially those on NBC’s liberal-leaning cable affiliate MSNBC — disagreed vehemently, saying that McDaniel’s promotion of former president Donald Trump’s media-bashing and false election-fraud claims disqualified her from a role in their news divisions.

    And one by one, they took to the airwaves to deliver that message to their bosses in front of their live audiences Monday.

    “Take a minute, acknowledge that maybe it wasn’t the right call,” MSNBC’s top-rated star Rachel Maddow said on her show that night. “It is a sign of strength, not weakness, to acknowledge when you are wrong.”

    “To be clear, we believe NBC News should seek out conservative Republican voices to provide balance in their election coverage,” co-host Mika Brzezinski said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Monday. “But it should be conservative Republicans, not a person who used her position of power to be an anti-democracy election denier.”

    “We welcome Republican voices,” prime-time host Joy Reid added later that day. “The reality is: This isn’t a difference of opinion. She literally backed an illegal scheme to steal an election in the state of Michigan.”

    Conde apologized to employees “who felt we let them down” and said he took responsibility for the botched hiring.

    He added that the network remains committed to ideological diversity, “and to that end, we will redouble our efforts to seek voices that represent different parts of the political spectrum.”
    Gift link: https://wapo.st/3IUcxAXhttps://wapo.st/3IUcxAX

  174. 174.

    Captain C

    @Brachiator:

    I think someone wrote a romance novel on this theme. I think the title was “Pantless on the Potomac.”

    Was the President or the Veep suspiciously but not actionably similar to Baud?

  179. 179.

    wjca

    @karen marie:  “the charges will be expunged when he completes his community service.”

    So the charges ae expunged.  Doesn’t that, as a matter of law, make it like they never happened?  In which case, could a future honest Texas AG charge him again?  Can’t be double jeopardy if they never happened the first time, right?

    Asking for a friend.

  180. 180.

    Lyrebird

    @debit: Exactly what I thought!  And he looks suitably regal and adorable, both!

    Thank you @WaterGirl: for sharing that moment of cuteness.  Please tell Henry what a splendid boy he is from a reader.

  182. 182.

    Brachiator

    @citizen dave:

    So can’t the needed pills be sent via FedEx/UPS/Amazon/whatever?

    The legal theory is that if the products or components or related equipment are mailed anywhere in production process, then the Comstock Act would apply.

  186. 186.

    Burnspbesq

    @japa21:

    The constitutionality of the Comstock Act is not at issue. And as long as U.S. Attorneys appropriately allocate their finite prosecutorial resources, it never will be. But it’s a monster under the bed that Dems can use to further motivate women voters. And hopefully it will be repealed if Dems have majorities in both houses of the next Congress.

  187. 187.

    Pennsylvanian

    Did not read all of the comments, but would like a butter lamb and a butter Henry, now and forevermore. No, you didn’t ask, and no pressure, Betty.

    John, I’m feeling your angst; this Spring has been, well, not like other Spring.. And we’ve seen some really fucked up seasons here around the BJ history. We must press on, now and always.

    I am so fucking jaded at this point, but we cannot afford to leave a single voter behind. Roe, Roe, Roe the Vote. No quarter for insurrectionists, fascists, authoritarians or the free dumb bunch. 

Comments are closed.