Don’t threaten us with a good time, Repubs!…
if they get rid of the 22nd amendment that would only make 88 year old Trump lose to Obama in one of the biggest landslides in modern history https://t.co/LXKeNNK8HA
— shmulik (@souljagoytellem) March 30, 2024
Biden Campaign calls out 'unhinged all-caps tirade' from 'feeble and confused Trump'https://t.co/OyMRXVI7hs
— Acyn (@Acyn) March 31, 2024
… Trump posted an Easter message which attacked the prosecutors and judges involved in the various legal cases against him as ‘crooked and corrupt.’ …
The Biden Campaign responded by posting an image of his rant with the message ‘ A feeble and confused Trump spends the Easter holiday spewing an unhinged all-caps tirade attacking America and talking about himself.’
The Biden Campaign continues to show that they are willing to take on Trump head-on with his own words, using Trump’s own posts to portray the indicted former president as unwell and unhinged…
One of the challenges of the 2021 COVID-driven supply chain disruptions was visibility—the lack of a shared picture of the supply chain. Since then, we've built unprecedented partnerships & data-sharing infrastructure giving us useful insights into the challenges of this moment. pic.twitter.com/6YkNbBFH4R
— Secretary Pete Buttigieg (@SecretaryPete) March 31, 2024
Chair @harrisonjaime: Trump is a broke, small, thin skinned, wannabe dictator, calling for a bloodbath when he loses in November. He regularly incites political violence, we need to take these threats seriously, and we'll make sure he's not anywhere near the White House pic.twitter.com/ERip2n87f5
— DNC War Room (@DNCWarRoom) March 30, 2024
“Once social change begins, it cannot be reversed. You can not un-educate the person who has learned to read. You cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore.” – César Chávez, PRESENTE! #CesarChavezDay pic.twitter.com/lSxdWd0Ofw
— Christine Pelosi (@sfpelosi) March 31, 2024
It's time for @SpeakerJohnson to decide what matters more: defending democracy or helping Putin. pic.twitter.com/IRtgoDK2pJ
— Rep. Jim McGovern (@RepMcGovern) March 29, 2024
Pastor Johnson, still in the hot seat…
Always worth pointing out that Ukraine is one of only two countries on earth where millions of Russians live in freedom (the other one is the U.S.), and they’re not particularly keen on giving it up. https://t.co/qmNGG1iNHw
— Peter Wolf (@peterawolf) March 30, 2024
On The Road – Albatrossity – Favorite Birds
Baud
Not sure I agree with Chavez. Not the first sentence at least.
satby
Vote Vets new ad is going to kick some Republican ass too. Good job showing how the current crop betrays it’s own history.
TeezySkeezy
Yes, Trump would lose to Obama in a fair election, but if they win and manage to get rid of the 22nd amendment then there actually won’t be a legitimate election again, so, no, we won’t see this happen.
lowtechcyclist
Good morning, y’all.
WereBear
I am a proud follower of Dark Brandon!
The Biden Administration had to point at the elephant in the room. It was so freakin’ obvious.
No one else in such authority, like most media, had bothered to do that…
Baud
@lowtechcyclist:
Good morning.
Princess
@Baud: There are plenty of historical examples of people having rights then losing them.
Baud
@satby:
I really appreciate the veterans groups that have broken with the Republicans.
Baud
@Princess:
And our side has suffered from complacency for many years based on the assumption that someone else will stop the oppression.
Betty Cracker
Kudos to the Biden social media team for attacking Trump as “feeble and confused.” For one thing, it’s the truth. It’s also useful counterprogramming for all the crap Biden gets for being a mere four years older. Biden needs to neutralize the age issue as much as possible, and this can be an effective tactic.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Baud: I was ready to post something similar. Dobbs decision anyone?
Dorothy A. Winsor
I literally cannot read Trump’s all caps posts. I can’t tell where sentences stop and start, assuming there are sentences. Add that to the crazy talk and my brain just bounces off it.
It’s better that way.
Anne Laurie
There is a difference between ‘Farm workers will never be allowed to organize’ and ‘Farm workers have organized, but our employers have managed to prevent us from doing so here.’
Just as there is a difference — we are now discovering how much of a difference — between ‘Republicans can’t actually end Roe v Wade, they just us it as a talking point’ and ‘Republicans have ended Roe, because they hate women’s autonomy’.
The ‘learning to read’ analogy goes back to antebellum slave revolts, of course. (I think Sojourner Truth used it.) Knowing that real change *is* possible, even if that change has since been reversed, gives people courage!
Ben Cisco
@Dorothy A. Winsor: What’s left of his mind is an abyss, no need to look in there.
Can’t wait for Election Day!!
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone 😊😊😊
Baud
@Anne Laurie:
I get that. But see my #9. I feel like too many people use it as an excuse to be complacent. Similar to how the right uses the idea of “American Exceptionalism” as a god-given reality that applies no matter how they behave, rather than a command to be better.
frosty
One thing I find really interesting about Pete Buttigieg is how the DOT has been brought to the forefront of the administration, and he’s really good at discussing it. I can’t remember any others where this was the case. Maybe because it’s one disaster after another, but maybe it’s because this is an area that Biden wants to focus on. It’s a major part of the country’s infrastructure after all.
I hope his move to Michigan keeps him in politics.
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
Anne Laurie
Fair enough. I’d still defend the sentiment, though: Look what they took from us! is certainly an effective rallying cry for the revanchists. I think we can usefully repurpose it, with non-voters and non-voters who’ve been convinced that their votes won’t make a difference.
Nukular Biskits
Good mornin’, y’all! Hope everyone is doing well.
Took today off to finish (?) up a few things.
Glad to see Dark Brandon and team going on the offense often and early. With that in mind, I also have to agree with this from the Great Orange Satan from yesterday:
Most voters don’t know the stakes of the election. That will change
As some of you know, I can attest to this, having run for elected office a couple of times. My SWAG is that probably 60%-70% of folks simply don’t know what the issues are, who is running (particularly at the local and state level) and what the respective positions of the candidates are.
With all this in mind, Team Biden is going to have to keep messaging this EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. until Election Day.
Jay C
@rikyrah:
Good morning, rikyrah!!
BTW, does anybody know what the status of the House Discharge Petition (re Ukraine aid) is at present? Last I read, they were still short by about 30 signatures (or more): no (maybe 1?) Republicans have signed on yet, and there is resistance from the lefties in the Dem caucus over aid to Israel being included. Yeah, it would nice if some sort of pressure (from anywhere) could get a bill to the floor: but given the chaos the KooKoo Kaucus seems determined to foster in the House, who knows?
God, I hope the Biden-Harris campaign and the DNC/DCCC can coordinate to seriously attempt to take back the HoR this election, gerrymanders or not.
Oh, and speaking of the campaign, I saw the B-H folks are finally offering a Dark Brandon coffee mug with color-changing eyes! Everyone should have one….
SiubhanDuinne
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
They don’t.
There aren’t.
HTH.
Gvg
@frosty: some of America’s earliest use of taxation was to build roads, then canals and then trains which are IMO really important sources of our rise from poor nation to rich. They also put in the Constitution that land could be confiscated for roads, but owners had to be compensated, both points that had historically been a problem for other countries merchants.
Betty Cracker
The all-GOP, majority DeSantis-appointee FL Supreme Court has to rule on the abortion rights and recreational pot ballot initiatives today. A ruling was expected Thursday, but today is the last day by law, I think. It’s a thoroughly corrupt court, but analysts seem to think there’s a good chance they’ll allow the initiatives, even though they could be beneficial for Democrats in November.
Last September, the court heard arguments about the 15-week abortion ban DeSantis signed before subsequently signing a 6-week ban while running for president. The ban was challenged because of a previous FL Supreme Court comprising judges appointed by both Democrats and Republican governors had interpreted the state constitution’s privacy right as applying to reproductive healthcare.
One of the current judges — who did not recuse — is married to the statehouse wingnut who sponsored the 6-week ban bill. I’m not a lawyer, so maybe I’m off base here, but I am convinced they are sitting on this ruling to help Republicans politically.
The court is widely expected to allow the 15-week ban, which is already in effect during deliberations. If they do, that will automatically trigger the 6-week ban 30 days later, effectively banning abortion in Florida. I wonder if this corrupt-as-fuck court can drag the ruling out for a year?
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@frosty:
Having worked for DOT for 27 years and saw all the Secretaries during that time frame, Pete’s definitely a different beast and you nail the reason: he’s a great communicator. None of his predecessors were.
In fact, Sec of Transportation was for the longest time one of those cabinet positions typically given to the opposite party in some effort to show bipartisanship. Which given how transportation bills used to be funded, actually represented real bipartisanship at least when it came to old-school pork.
I also recall reading that Pete asked for this position and given the Biden administration’s obvious goal of massive infrastructure spending in his first term, having a gifted communicator like Pete out in front made perfect sense.
Jeffg166
My next door neighbor told me her medication went from $400 a month to $8 a month. She didn’t know why. Biden was my answer.
Baud
@Jeffg166:
👍
SiubhanDuinne
@frosty:
He was the perfect choice for that job. I was always a Mayor Pete fan, but when Biden nominated him to Transpo, I thought, Well, we’ve seen the last of Pete Buttigieg, that’s a Cabinet department where ambitious politicians go to die. But then I watched his confirmation hearings, and he was just powerful in articulating a critical role for transportation and infrastructure. He’s actually made these functions exciting and sexy, and I love watching him explain the complexities. He does it simply enough that even I can understand, yet I never feel that he’s condescending. I hope he stays in government, and I hope he goes as high as he wants.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@SiubhanDuinne:
Oh, there’s no doubt he’ll run for President again.
Soprano2
It’s a great start to a Monday morning – the database where I do almost all my work is down because they did some stuff over the weekend. Every time I see the e-mail saying they’re going to do “maintenance” I hold my breath, because about once a month it messes up that database.
I think hubby is going to come home today. I haven’t heard anything from the hospital yet, but I called the nurse on his floor and told her to have the doctor call me. I want to talk to her about his blood pressure. He has historically had high blood pressure when he doesn’t take any meds, but his BP has been pretty normal the whole time he’s been in the hospital. I want to ask her if she thinks perhaps his meds need to be adjusted. I’m wondering if taking too much BP medicine could be making him feel sluggish and tired all the time. I took his BP for a couple of weeks before Christmas, and it seems like it was always on the low side.
Baud
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
We have more good people than we have offices for. It’s a pity.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@SiubhanDuinne: His experience as a mayor was probably useful at DOT
SiubhanDuinne
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Good point. In a way, it’s all potholes and snowpocalypses writ very, very large.
TBone
@Jeffg166: was she at least curious about WHY? Or was she just happy to benefit no matter how it happened and content to leave it at that?
Soprano2
@Nukular Biskits: It’s why we have those annoying ads. I read somewhere that people have to see a message 7 times before they begin to absorb it. Everyone says advertising doesn’t work on them, but it must because otherwise companies wouldn’t spend millions of dollars on it. The key is to figure out the best place to advertise.
One of the Republican candidates here is running an ad against one of his primary opponents about wanting to protect our land from China (they think this is a big issue, apparently). I think the ad is ineffective, because the audio is in Chinese; if I hear it from the other room I have no idea what it’s about. Most people only half pay attention to the commercials anyway. Maybe they think the language will get people to look, but I’m betting it has the opposite effect.
SiubhanDuinne
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
Shit. I’m gonna hafta choose between Pete and Kamala, aren’t I?
(FTR, it would be MVP for me in this scenario.)
RSA
This is a weird framing. There’s no “they” who can “get rid of” a Constitutional amendment. It’s the same process as adding an amendment, which has always involved ratification by 3/4 of the states.
Dorothy A. Winsor
In the week since my publisher suggested I used tiktok and Instagram to reach YA readers, I’ve posted every day. I make mistakes, but they’re new mistakes each time, so that’s progress. Yesterday, I successfully flipped the image so a book title was no longer backwards. Today I aim to make a post from a video already in my gallery and then share the tiktok to Instagram. I’ll film the video today at the library which currently has a large display of YA fantasy books. I love my library.
Lyrebird
@satby:
oh THANK YOU for posting that. (and as always, THANK YOU AL!!) but I have been hoping Vote Vets would put something together that could be used in strongly Republican districts. This is fantastic.
TBone
This lady judge is cool as all get out. I love her name as well as her wisdom.
Retired California Superior Court Judge LaDoris Hazzard Cordell: “Please don’t eat the daisies!” As always, the “you moron” part is left unspoken.
https://youtu.be/bRaxfuYloQE
lowtechcyclist
@Nukular Biskits:
And the more we get our message into people’s minds early, the harder it will be for them to dislodge it later on.
While the vast majority of potential voters aren’t paying conscious attention yet (or anytime soon), if they hear a short message enough times, it’ll register enough for them to buy into it without much thought if it makes sense to them. Once that happens, we’re in the position of reinforcing the message while the other side’s in the position of having to try to dislodge it. Reinforcing is easier.
zhena gogolia
@Betty Cracker: And Trump’s own words right below confirm it!
lowtechcyclist
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
The main takeaway from my POV is that for him, even Christmas and Easter are all about his grievances. Worth mentioning to one’s Christianist friends if they should mention Dump.
Soprano2
@SiubhanDuinne: This is true, a lot of a mayor or city manager’s job involves managing infrastructure. The citizens want all the money to go to police, fire and roads, because those are the three things they see that they think help them. If we didn’t have dedicated taxes and fees for everything, 90% of the money would probably go to those three things. So much of what city government does is invisible to most people, like inspecting restaurants or making sure your neighbor can’t have 10 dead cars parked on their property. Most people don’t think about things like that until it’s their neighbor with all those cars.
TBone
@lowtechcyclist: every day is Festivus for the foolish.
Soprano2
@Dorothy A. Winsor: It’s all stream of consciousness – he’s vomiting what’s in his brain onto social media. I agree, it’s unreadable.
zhena gogolia
Say what you will about LP, they make lovely short films.
Another Scott
@Jay C:
https://clerk.house.gov/DischargePetition
#1 has 213 signatures.
#9 has 191 signatures.
None of the summaries explicitly mention Ukraine, but instead talk about “common sense policies”. One may have to do some digging to figure out the details.
HTH a little.
Cheers,
Scott.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@frosty: I have a family friend who is one of Buttigieg’s mom’s good friends. She told me about his place in Michigan but said not to tell anyone because it was supposed to be a secret, but I’ve since discovered, despite not breathing a word about it to anyone, that everyone seems to know about it. The general vicinity of where his house is happens to be one of my Shangri La’s – basically the whole of the East Coast of Lake Michigan North of Muskegon would do though. I don’t dream about a place on “the big lake” just one of the smaller ones near it, of which there are hundreds, maybe thousands.
He is great with the media for sure and runs the Department well.
Another Scott
@Soprano2: Low BP is dangerous in oldsters because, among other things, it increases the risk of falling when they get up. (My FIL fell on the coffee table getting up out of his chair and cracked a couple ribs. Ouch!).
Best of luck with the meds and getting hubby home in good shape!
Cheers,
Scott.
Brachiator
I never knew that Easter Monday is observed as a holiday in some countries. Is this when a resurrected Jesus went to have breakfast?
Also, Trump is an idiot. If he sees his shadow, he rages and hurls stupid insults.
He always sees his fat ass shadow.
Jeffro
You almost have to laugh. Almost. The 22nd Amendment to the Constitution is AN AMENDMENT. To THE CONSTITUTION. It’s not some ‘norm’ or ‘tradition’ or even a ‘rule’ that we just sort of have around.
These people are so fucking out of their minds with this bullshit. “Rule of law? Constitution? Constitutional amendment? What’s that? durrrrrrrrr”
We KNOW you’re inspired by your darling little white supremacist blowhard mouthpiece, GOP! Anything goes when you can’t win power legitimately, amirite GOP? Just follow trumpov’s lead and honor absolutely nothing but your own quest for the power to hurt others. Unbelievable.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: I work at DOT too, but not quite as long as you (20 years August of next year). He’s definitely the best with the media I’ve seen. I remember Ray LaHood (one of those opposite party guys) because I briefed him once or twice.
Also because of the comments he made when someone asked him what the most surprising thing about being Secretary was and he said, and I’m paraphrasing here, “that some GS 13 from OMB can tell me no and make it stick.” I saw that happen first hand and it IS weird but I don’t think it’s actually the GS 13 making those decisions, he or she is just the messenger.
I will say that the Cass Sunstein era OMB made the job of getting new regulations out pretty difficult…I know he wrote a bunch of books that were popular – or as popular as books about the intersection of behavior, economics and the legal system ever get – but I felt like he either had some agenda that was counter to the goals of the administration, or let career staff with said agenda roll him all the time. At any rate I was expecting him to be good but was thoroughly unimpressed with him as an OMB OIRA director. It was another version of what I saw as the main flaw of the Obama era – giving people the benefit of the doubt even when they have repeatedly shown they don’t deserve it anymore.
Brachiator
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Pretty soon you will be a video pro!
Layer8Problem
@Brachiator: “I never knew that Easter Monday is observed as a holiday in some countries. Is this when a resurrected Jesus went to have breakfast?”
Yes. Among the other benefits the Romans brought to Judea, they extended the weekend brunch menu into Monday.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
@Layer8Problem: Easter Monday is actually a bank holiday in Greece. (However, it’s not until May 6 this year.)
Baud
@Brachiator:
Monday is when he could get $1.50 hotdogs at Costco, which is closed on Easter Sunday.
WereBear
@Betty Cracker: I stop this talk in their tracks with “Yes, thank goodness we have a President who has so much experience with NATO.”
cmorenc
@RSA:
Knowledgeable RW politicos and think-tanks know that, and will more likely attempt to mount a call for a Constitutional Convention, which under Article V of the US Constitution, only requires 2/3 of the states (34) to call for such, as opposed to 3/4 to pass an Amendment to the current constitution (38). Still a heavy lift, but with all the red states in the south and central mid-west, it’s not hard to see that they are only single digits short of being able to do so, whereas in even the worst red-wave election cycle, there are at least 13 reliably blue-enough states to block a RW constitutional amendment.
TBone
https://digbysblog.net/2024/04/01/no-april-foolin/
Baud
Political humor on Reddit. Funny comments.
Wapiti
@SiubhanDuinne: Well… MVP is probably going to need a White male running mate in 2028. So the primaries might be about who gets that nod.
Soprano2
@Another Scott: What’s so crazy is that his uncontrolled BP used to be dangerously high. I’m wondering whether his weight loss the last couple of years plus getting older has lowered his BP enough that he doesn’t need the meds anymore.
lowtechcyclist
@Brachiator:
You’ve heard of the Last Supper, of course. Well, Easter Monday celebrates the First (Resurrected) Brunch. ;-)
Seriously, there’s exactly zero events in the Bible that specifically happen on the day after the Resurrection. Here in Maryland, the schools have Good Friday and Easter Monday off, so spring break in most counties is the week before Easter.
When I’ve griped about the absurdity of the Easter Monday holiday, my wife used to say it was a travel day. That never made sense to me: Easter-related celebrations look like church in the morning, then a big family meal in the middle of the day, so plenty of time to get back home afterwards.
I looked it up awhile back on the DOT website (too lazy right now to find it), but air traffic on Easter Monday was something like 8% more than the Mondays a week before and a week after. Not anything that would justify a day off of school, and nowhere close to, say, the day before Thanksgiving.
SiubhanDuinne
@Wapiti:
That’s my dream ticket for 2028.
WereBear
@Jay C: You are right. They also have a 2 mug pack…
RevRick
@Princess: Like women in Iran and Afghanistan. Like Jews in Germany in the 1930s. Like blacks in post-Reconstruction America. Like indigenous native peoples after Columbus showed up.
Baud
@SiubhanDuinne:
Traitor!
WereBear
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I’m on TikTok too!
And friend me? Unless we already are. I seem to remember following you there?
Baud
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
I can’t wait for the Winsor challenge to go viral.
WereBear
Trumpists are a different story, and I think their golden calf is all they have room for now.
RevRick
@Anne Laurie: There’s some focus-group studies that show that the most effective anti-Trump messages are not what he’s done but what he’s threatening to do. That also, of course, applies to the GOP as a whole with their 2025 Project.
lowtechcyclist
@cmorenc:
Um, NO. A Constitutional Convention only bypasses the need for Congress to pass an amendment. An amendment passed by a convention would still need to be ratified by 38 states.
It’s right there in the language of Article V:
This is why I’ve never grokked why people get all agitated about the possibility of a Constitutional convention. Anything they pass still has that same 38-state hurdle, and good luck with that.
Matt McIrvin
@lowtechcyclist: The argument I hear is that the original Constitutional Convention’s output wasn’t passed under the amendment provisions of the Articles of Confederation, so there’s no reason to expect the Constitution’s process to be any barrier to a new one– laws only apply if people act like they do, so it’s a question of what you can make stick.
TS
@Brachiator:
It’s when workers have a 4 day weekend – as in Australia.
Almost Retired
I love the Jack Wolf quote about there only being two countries where millions of Russians live in freedom – Ukraine and the US. Never thought of that before, but it’s a powerful observation.
kalakal
@Brachiator:
It’s a 4 day weekend in UK, I think the Monday holiday is driven by the tradition that if the actual holiday falls on a Sunday everybody gets the Monday as a holiday from work
snoey
@lowtechcyclist: The clause that allows for state conventions instead of legislatures to ratify amendments seems to open the process to calvinball.
More likely is a bogus scotus argument that the 22nd really means consecutive terms.
rikyrah
@Jeffg166:
That’s right. And, tell her to tell everyone else.
lowtechcyclist
@WereBear:
Never hurts to give them reason to be uncomfortable about their worship of their orange cow.
No, it won’t change their minds overnight. Or even in time for this election. But being derisive of Dump, and for reasons based on their home turf, will at the very least make them more reluctant to spout their bullshit about him around you. And might even plant some doubts, you never know.
Matt McIrvin
@snoey: We don’t actually have evidence that the current SCOTUS is that personally loyal to Trump, as opposed to generally reactionary– his attempts to get them to overturn the 2020 election wouldn’t have been booted so quickly if they were.
Brachiator
@WereBear:
I’m surprised that Trump isn’t selling a golden calf to go along with the gold tennis shoes.
rikyrah
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Your handle on TikTok?
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@lowtechcyclist: The simplest path is to have the ScROTUS find that particular amendment “unconstitutional” because it conflicts with some other Constitutional principle, because of some bullshit originalist or textualist or some other new made up term mumbo jumbo reasoning they can come up with over their morning coffee.
Brachiator
@kalakal:
Uh, isn’t Easter always on Sunday?
In some cultures, I think the week after Easter is Bright Week. Easter Monday is the first day of Bright Week.
Easter Monday is a bank holiday in the UK.
cmorenc
@lowtechcyclist: Happy to be informed of my erroneous assumption that Constitutional Convention bypasses the 3/4 ratification requirement. Nevertheless, it is true that by a vast proportion, it is RWers, not progressives who push the notion that a Constitutional convention is needed to cure in one fell swoop what they think ails the current version of the constitution.
pat
@Soprano2:
Do you have a BP measuring device at home? I’d suggest taking his BP for a while, like maybe morning and evening. With or without meds.
Luther Siler
“It’s an amendment to the Constitution” sounds great until the Supreme Court decides no one has standing to sue to keep him out of office, the states aren’t allowed to keep him off the ballot because the amendment doesn’t mention elections, and it REALLY meant more than two terms in a row anyway.
Plus he’s not President, he’s ACTING President. Totally different.
TBone
@Matt McIrvin: Ginni Thomas is all I need to know in that regard. That’s hard evidence enough for me.
Gin & Tonic
@Brachiator: In Eastern Europe, the Monday after Easter is the remnant of a pre-Christian springtime holiday, in which boys sprinkle (or douse) girls they like with water. The springtime/planting symbolism should be obvious. This does not, of course explain a bank holiday in Britain.
Another Scott
@lowtechcyclist: They probably figure that since a secret cabal meeting got rid of the Articles of Confederation, they can do the same with all the pesky constraints of the Constitution via such a meeting as well.
MountVernon.org:
Sensible present-day changes could be made by sensible people in a new Constitutional Convention. Of course, if a sufficient number of sensible people were present then one wouldn’t be as needed in the first place… :-/
Cheers,
Scott.
TBone
Doing my part today, whatever I can no matter how small the pebble, it makes ripples. If he hates it, I spread it!
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100218827044
Oh and it’s great so that’s a big plus! 😆
Gin & Tonic
@Soprano2: We went through something like this with my (very old) MIL, but I can’t remember what it’s called. The effect was that when she was lying down, her BP would go up, then when she sat up, it would drop, enough that she felt faint or sometimes would pass out. The solution was to elevate the head of her bed – you can of course use a hospital-type bed, but there are foam wedge cushions that’ll do the same. The angled sleeping reduced the resting BP somewhat.
But diagnosing this requires an experienced gerontologist.
rikyrah
Peanut goes on her first trip by herself today. She’s going to NY City for Spring Break with classmates. Yes, they will be chaperoned, but, still. I have requested a daily proof of life selfie from her…LOL
kalakal
@Brachiator: Yes it is, but it’s a general rule. applies to christmas as well. A bank holiday is a public holiday.
schrodingers_cat
@Gin & Tonic: That sounds a lot like Holi celebrations in north India.
snoey
@Matt McIrvin: That’s true now, but we’re not in the world where TFG is likely to win a third term and many other things will have been changed for the worse should that disaster happen.
moonbat
In Washington, Easter Monday began as a celebration of Easter for the African American domestic workers whose children were not welcome at the White House Easter egg hunt, egg roll, and story time even though they were the folks who kept “the nation’s” Easter celebrations running smoothly. So they took the following Monday for their own celebration. In DC going to the Smithsonian National Zoo for such celebrations has become an annual tradition.
pat
I mentioned in a previous thread that I am in Austria now.
A couple of things: Two people have asked me if I plan to move here permanently if trump is elected. (Um, no….)
Also, we were invited on Saturday to a friend’s place out in the country where he could burn his Easter fire. This morning we read in the paper that, usually, all the Easter fires increase air pollution, but this time it couldn’t compete with the dust blowing in from the Sahara.
Also, stores (including grocery stores) were closed on Sunday (always) and Monday. Plan ahead with the groceries….!
RSA
@cmorenc: Aha, that does make sense, and it would be “they”. Thanks.
JML
I think my favorite bit of the crazy-ass right-wingers agitating for the repeal of the 22nd amendment is how they claim that the people who passed the amendment couldn’t have conceived of a president serving non-consecutive terms. It’s as if Grover Cleveland didn’t exist?
Tony Jay
@kalakal:
Not everyone. For example we brave, unsung (but did I mention brave?) heroes of the NHS have to cover the Bank Holidays. I was in today.
Bang those pots and pans, Britain!
Baud
@JML:
🎶Mister we could use a man like
Herbert HooverGrover Cleveland again.🎶Frankensteinbeck
@Matt McIrvin:
We have a lot of evidence to the contrary. Trump has won almost nothing that has gone before the Supreme Court. They let him delay one court case and voted 9-0 that he can’t be taken off ballots – which means the legal reasoning for that one was good enough the liberals agreed.
For the latter I am told, and I am too lazy to look it up, that Article 14 states that congress does have to pass an enforcement law, that it wasn’t just pulled out of SCOTUS’s ass.
EDIT – Something else I read that hasn’t gotten much circulation. Apparently when SCOTUS sent the Texas immigration law back to the 5th Circuit, the 5th Circuit struck it down. As disgustingly corrupt as our court system is, conservatives are winning less than you think.
Sure Lurkalot
Trump is a self-medicated John Gill in 2024, odds are he will be a literal puppet by 2028 so we’d actually get Stephen Miller pulling the strings (even moreso than now).
I’m scaring the shit out of myself.
Torrey
@TBone:
Judge Cordell makes excellent sense. I think the judges need to spell things out: “you may not make threats, explicit or implicit, against [name specific groups, including judges’ families]; you may not do [X, Y, Z].” Make the point clear that none of this interferes with the conduct of an election campaign. “Nothing in this instruction impedes your ability to debate policy, to state your policies or to argue with your opponent’s policies, to encourage your voters to vote, or any other action involved in a campaign.”
BTW, I see that Her Honor has a book out, titled, appropriately enough, Her Honor. I had a look at the Amazon write-up, ad I will be buying it.
TBone
JFC Delco, get your shit together. Woolley bully!
Philbert
@cmorenc: If they have a Constitution Convention, the Blue states get to make suggestions too!
TBone
@Torrey: 😘👍Her Honor is a badass. For the rest of these cucks, it’s like they all know the old saying:
Uncle Cosmo
@Another Scott:
One year back in the Oughts, on the Friday before July 4, I got a call from the dental office next door to the house where I grew up. “We saw your mother passed out in her garden & called the paramedics. They just took her to the hospital.”
By the time I got there she seemed OK. The docs found her BP was low but nothing else was amiss and released her the next day. In consultation with my brother and her MD, we decided to discontinue her maintenance BP meds and check her readings regularly. BP stabilized in normal range and she never passed out again. Seems it was “white coat syndrome” – whenever she went to the dr’s office her BP would go up & not knowing any better he’d prescribed Rx to bring it down.
yellowdog
@SiubhanDuinne: Me too. But Pete is younger; he can wait. But isn’t it great that we have a deep bench?
Soprano2
@pat: I do, I was thinking about that. I want to talk to the doctor and see what she thinks.
Soprano2
@Gin & Tonic: Lucky for us, I switched him to a gerontologist last year for just this reason. There are specialists for children because their needs are different. The needs of older people are different too, so I decided he’d be better off with one of them. Besides, I don’t think his previous doctor gave even one fuck about his memory problems. That guy’s name was Post, and it was certainly apt.
Citizen Alan
@lowtechcyclist: I think the scary part comes in the word legislatures. As in, how many state legislatures at this point are so hopelessly.Gerry mandered in favor of the republicans that they would Is approve a fascist constitution over the wishes of the majority of their voters?
hueyplong
@JML: You have to remember that all they know is what FoxNews told them today. It’s likely that FoxNews has not not mentioned Grover Cleveland today.
Uncle Cosmo
@Baud: Cracked me up that the reporter referred to the toppling podium as a “pulpit!”
pat
@Soprano2:
It can only give you good information, in my opinion. When I start a new med, I take my BP a couple of times a day, just to check. Sometimes I’ve felt tired in the morning and it’s down to 110 or so. Good to know.
Good luck, you have an extremely difficult road ahead of you. Come here for good thoughts (always welcome) and good advice (to ignore if necessary.)
Brachiator
@SiubhanDuinne:
I would like to see Mayor Pete moved into an ambassadorship, to get some foreign policy experience.
hueyplong
@Frankensteinbeck: You’re right about the Fifth Circuit case and you could add that the Fifth fairly clearly understood that it was supposed to cut the bullshit and dimiss when the case was returned to them.
Baud
@Frankensteinbeck:
Not struck down, but the Fifth Circuit declined to allow the Texas law to stay in effect pending appeal.
satby
@Jeffg166: @SiubhanDuinne: Infrastructure improvements are a passion for (still in my heart my) Mayor Pete. He did a ton of road and park improvements and redesign for better use while mayor, and put in some sort of storm sewer monitoring system on flood prone streets as an early warning for the city to take action before the St. Joe river flooded them. He started a program to buy back houses on the flood plain that basically flooded every year, and had the riverbanks through town reinforced and made higher where possible. The first three years I lived here there were floods closing streets near the farmers market, houses, and the downtown park, which was designed to be a flood plain. We’ve had a lot of rain each year, but no flooding. I’m sure we might with a catastrophic storm, but people say it used to be a routine thing. Dude’s good at infrastructure.
Scout211
I’m late to this discussion, but talking to the doctor about his bp meds is a good idea. We deal with this all the time with my husband and his many specialists. There are so many factors when we are talking about older adults with fragile health and high blood pressure, low blood pressure and bp meds. Using just a standard recommended number does not always apply to everyone equally.
Long term high blood pressure can damage kidneys (which happened to my husband) but too low can cause other issues like dehydration, falls and confusion. Both my husband’s cardiologist and his nephrologist would like to keep his bp low but the cardiologist agreed to change his medication to a different class of bp meds. That seems to have made a big difference. So that may be something to explore with his doctor.
Long-term poor kidney function can be a factor in dementia and at first my husband’s neurologist thought his cognitive decline was vascular dementia due to his kidney disease and his cardiac issues. After the MRI, he changed it to Alzheimer’s.
It’s been a long road for us but at least at this point all of my husband’s doctors are working together. But none of them suggest stopping the bp meds even though it tests low sometimes. The change to a different class of bp meds worked well for him, though. It could be an option for your husband.
Sending you strength and hoping you have some answers and some help.
Brachiator
@Gin & Tonic:
Sprinkle. Water. Sounds like fertility rituals being cleaned up.
Maybe in olden times, aristocrats would sprinkle pound notes on the heads of peasants.
There’s probably some tradition behind declaring bank holidays.
Uncle Cosmo
Well heck, chessplayers have understood that for generations. From about a century ago:
(Nimzovich, a great original thinker whose strategy was often too convoluted for his own good, is also know for an instance when, about to be beaten by a clearly lesser opponent, he jumped up on the table scattering the pieces in all directions and shouted Why must I lose to this idiot??!!!??!! :^D)
Dorothy A. Winsor
@WereBear: I follow you but it’s from a different account than the one I used on my phone. I like my PC one better! That’s what I use to see your posts.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@rikyrah: @dorothywinsor (I think)
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Baud: I’d settle for selling a few books
Uncle Cosmo
@Sure Lurkalot: ???? Who TF is “John Gill”???? Google is coming up empty.
Mike S. (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!)
@cmorenc: But don’t changes to the constitution proposed by a Constitutional Convention need to be ratified by 3/4 of the states? I thought that it was just a way to bypass congress, not state ratification
Eta: @lowtechcyclist: got to this before me and muchmore thoroughly, but at least I remembered correctly!
Soprano2
@Scout211: That’s helpful information, thanks. It’s so hard to know what to do because you have to balance one harm against another harm.
rikyrah
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
thanks. found you and am following
Brachiator
@lowtechcyclist:
A great discussion here, and I have certainly been educated about the process.
Maybe this has already been covered. I think the fear of a constitutional convention is that radicals would seek to rewrite the entire Constitution, not just propose amendments.
Still a heavy lift.
SFAW
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Re: sentences stopping and starting: here’s another one of his, although his upper/lower case usage was better:
“riverrun, past Eve and Adam’s, from swerve of short to bend of bay, brings us by a commodious vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs.”
Although it does make a little more sense than his usual ravings.
SFAW
@Uncle Cosmo:
Star Trek (TOS) reference. “Patterns of Force” episode. He was the “leader” of a Nazi-like society, but Skip Homeier’s character was the real power, and he kept Gill (a former history professor, I think, maybe at Starfleet Academy?) perpetually doped up.
ETA: Here’s a digest of the episode.
mrmoshpotato
@Ben Cisco:
A Kremlin-humping abyss.
Barbara
@Scout211: I would expect a lot of push back for eliminating BP meds entirely for the reasons you outlined. High blood pressure is known as the “silent” killer — but especially for African Americans, who are at much higher risk for kidney disease.
Matt McIrvin
@pat: I know from online experience that Austria quite definitely has the equivalent of Trump supporters. Maybe not as powerful, for the time being.
Matt McIrvin
@SFAW: he was Captain Kirk’s old history prof, who for some reason believed the Nazis were an “efficient society” so you could do good by having Nazism without the evil. He learns the hard way that that’s not true, but I question how good a historian he could be to believe that in the first place.
pat
@Matt McIrvin:
I have never understood the Austrian politics. Too many parties. Ha. But obviously our friends (Austrian; we don’t know any Americans here) are aware of the dangers of trump and wonder if it’s time to get out if he is elected.
Brachiator
@Sure Lurkalot:
Cool TOS reference. Trump alternately seems nuts or medicated, but he seems to throw off efforts to make him a puppet. Any manipulation must be indirect.
Manyakitty
@SiubhanDuinne: in my dream scenario, we’ll see 8 years of Harris-Buttigieg, then he’ll be ready for the big chair.
randy khan
@Frankensteinbeck:
For the latter I am told, and I am too lazy to look it up, that Article 14 states that congress does have to pass an enforcement law, that it wasn’t just pulled out of SCOTUS’s ass.
That is not the first reading of that provision that comes to mind when you see it. This is the text, which is Section 5 of the 14th Amendment:
“The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.”
First, it does not say that only Congress can enforce the 14th Amendment – just that Congress has that power. (It doesn’t even say “have the power,” which might imply that it has all of the power, although again that’s not a slam-dunk obvious reading, just “have power.”)
Second, because it’s in Section 5, not Section 3 (which is the insurrection clause), it applies to the entire 14th Amendment. Nobody ever has claimed that Section 1, which is the basic citizenship and civil rights provision of the 14th Amendment, or Section 4, the kind of obscure provision about honoring debts (which basically says that U.S. debts will be honored, but that the U.S. is not responsible for debts of the Confederacy) require Congressional enforcement mechanisms. So the Supreme Court reading here is inconsistent with how Section 5 has been understood before. Not to mention arguably being in direct conflict with a whole slew of cases that treat Section 1 as being enforceable on its own terms.
Torrey
@Brachiator:
I have never before claimed to understand what is going on in Vladimir Putin’s head, but I suspect he would disagree with this assessment.
Brachiator
@Torrey:
RE: Trump . . . seems to throw off efforts to make him a puppet.
Good point. But I think that the Heritage Foundation has more impact on Trump than Putin.
It’s interesting that NY Times hack Haberman is all up Trump’s ass, but doesn’t have much coherent to say about who influences him.
wjca
Secretary of State might be better. Broader foreign policy experience.
wjca
A Harris-Buttigieg ticket is a good way to lose.
People tend to be change averse. They’ll accept one novelty, then they want a breather before the next change. That was part of Hilary’s difficulty. A first black President, followed by a first woman Persident? Just too much change too fast for some people. (And “some people” are enough to shift a close election. Which is mostly what we have.)
Having had an “old white guy” as President means that MVP has a decent change in 2028. But add a gay guy to the ticket? Again, too much change too fast. Pete is young, he can wait. Much as I’d love to see him as President, and sooner rather than later, I’m wary of trying to move the needle too fast.
strange visitor (from another planet)
@rikyrah: bummer. we’ve only been teased by spring in nyc. the weather here is gonna be dreary and grey for the next several days.
strange visitor (from another planet)
@Uncle Cosmo: star trek tos episode. patterns of force. gill sets up a nazi regime but is usurped and sedated by the “deputy fuhrer” melakon who uses gill as a big brother figurehead of the fascist state
eta- i see sfaw and others got there already.
Bill Arnold
@lowtechcyclist:
Representative Jason Smith’s (Chair of the Committee on Ways and Means) Easter email newsletter is similar in form, though not all caps and better written. It starts like this:
This may become a norm for MAGA politicians.
Bill Arnold
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?:
Perhaps you would accept a SCOTUS opinion that the constitution is unconstitutional, but many millions would not, and as those on the militant right continuously remind us, the USA Constitution includes an implied mechanism other than “petition” for address of grievances.
Kayla Rudbek
@Almost Retired: how many Russians live in Finland and the Baltic states?