Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

You cannot love your country only when you win.

Fight them, without becoming them!

It’s the corruption, stupid.

After dobbs, women are no longer free.

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

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

My right to basic bodily autonomy is not on the table. that’s the new deal.

Can we lighten up on the doomsday scenarios?

The real work of an opposition party is to oppose.

Putin dreamed of ending NATO, and now it’s Finnish-ed.

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

I really should read my own blog.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

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

You’re just a puppy masquerading as an old coot.

The line between political reporting and fan fiction continues to blur.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

I might just take the rest of the day off and do even more nothing than usual.

I did not have this on my fuck 2024 bingo card.

It is possible to do the right thing without the promise of a cookie.

One lie, alone, tears the fabric of reality.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

Wake up. Grow up. Get in the fight.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / We’ve Got Intelligence and Humor

We’ve Got Intelligence and Humor

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This post is in: ,

We’ve got intelligence and humor. And Dark Brandon!  Plus we can spell.  What have they got? (Besides their miserable existence, and hate.)

Oh, right.  Trump is going to host a fundraiser at MAL for the Legal Defense Fund of his apparent friend and soulmate Tim Ballard, who is being sued by multiple women for sexual assault.  You can’t make this stuff up!  (Do we think this is why the earthquake hit?)

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Open thread.

Reader Interactions

208Comments

  3. 3.

    Jeffro

    omg seriously??  THAT was the epicenter?

    it’s a sign, GOP.  don’t say you weren’t warned!

  4. 4.

    Bill Arnold

    Amy Goodman (democracy now) interviews Yuval Abraham about his +972 Magazine/Local Call “Lavender” piece.
    Lavender & Where’s Daddy: How Israel Used AI to Form Kill Lists & Bomb Palestinians in Their Homes (APRIL 05, 2024)
    It addresses the IDF denials (snippet):

    Contrary to claims, the IDF did not use an artificial intelligence system that identifies terrorist operatives or tries to predict whether a person is a terrorist. Information systems are merely tools for analysts in the target identification process.

    with

    YUVAL ABRAHAM: I read this response to some of the sources, and they said that they’re lying, that it’s not true. And I was surprised that they were — you know, usually they’re not so, you know, blatant in saying something that is false.
    I think this can very easily be disproven, because, you know, a senior-ranking Israeli military official, the head of the 8200 unit’s AI center, gave a public lecture in last year, in 2023, in Tel Aviv University — you can google it, anybody who’s listening to us — where he spoke about, quote — I’m quoting him in that lecture — “an AI system that the Israeli military used in 2021 to find terrorists.” That’s what he said. So, to have that on record, to have — I have the presentation slides showing how the system is rating the people — and then to get a comment from the IDF spokesperson saying, “We do not have a system that uses AI to…” I really don’t know. Like, I almost thought, “Do I put this in the piece or not?”

    That’s unusual; Israeli military sources are agreeing quite vigorously that the IDF spokespeople are lying.

  5. 5.

    MazeDancer

    Ridiculously, NYS Emergency Management blasted an alarm about the earthquake. An hour and a half after it happened.

    Screaming alarm noise. AI voice yelling.

    Way scarier than the earthquake

  6. 6.

    Brachiator

    Oh, right.  Trump is going to host a fundraiser at MAL for the Legal Defense Fund of his apparent friend and soulmate Tim Ballard, who is being sued by multiple women for sexual assault.  You can’t make this stuff up!  (Do we think this is why the earthquake hit?)

    Is it a bad thing that I don’t know who Ballard is?

    But even so, fuck Trump.

  9. 9.

    geg6

    If it’s true that the epicenter of the quake really was Trump National, I may have to become at least agnostic. Hilarious.

  10. 10.

    trollhattan

    @Spirula: “We award Donald Trump Enterprises fifty rolls of generic paper towels and our sincere hopes for a quick recovery.”

  11. 11.

    Ken

    Do we think this is why the earthquake hit?

    There are so many Trump sins to choose from, why that particular one? But if God has decided to get back into the smiting business, Trump is going to end up like the character in Edmond Hamilton’s “The Earth-Brain”, triggering earthquakes every time he sets foot to ground.

  13. 13.

    topclimber

    Ivana and all that gold bullion and Top Secret info must have been rolling in her grave.

  15. 15.

    Eolirin

    As a New Yorker I find it hilarious that an earthquake that happened in Jersey is being widely refered to as “the NYC earthquake”

  21. 21.

    JoyceH

    It frankly baffles me that Trump has any support left at all. I just wish the MAGAts, when they listen to Trump or read his posts would imagine that he was their uncle. Would they let that uncle continue to manage his own finances? Would they let him drive a car?

  23. 23.

    WaterGirl

    Apparently, I put this post up a bit too soon.

  24. 24.

    narya

    My mom said that the grandfather’s clock rattled and she for-sure felt it (she’s about 20 miles or so from the epicenter, I guess?).

    Today’s menu: wild turkey dark meat pot pie (carrots, corn from last summer, cassoulet beans, NO peas, onions, celery, garlic), with some of last week’s puff pastry as a topping, with the latter baked separately so it doesn’t get soggy, and citrus squares with an oat crust, to use up the blood oranges and lemon and maybe a lime that are getting old in the fridge. And I’ll roast the sweet potatoes from today’s farm share, since I’ll have the oven on. Yes, folks, it’s another exercise in using up stuff that’s in the fridge.

    Back when I fantasized (not seriously) about trying out for Next Food Network Star, I thought that my point of view would be exactly that: using up things that need to be used. That doesn’t fit neatly into their challenge format, but I always thought it would be more useful for people who were cooking in real life. The closest I’ve seen to that is a Tom Colicchio cookbook called “Think Like a Chef” (which I heartily recommend).

    ETA to close paren

  26. 26.

    Mr. Bemused Senior

    @PaulWartenberg: The earthquake WAS caused by trump jumping up and down while throwing a tantrum!!!

    OK, yes he’s heavy but I doubt he has the strength to jump up and down much. Maybe he used a trampoline?

  31. 31.

    Matt McIrvin

    @geg6: The golf course was inside the innermost green circle, but the actual epicenter was a bit to the northwest of it.

  32. 32.

    lollipopguild

    Donnie may be God’s Chosen Instrument but not in the way donnie thinks he is.

  37. 37.

    Nelle

    I’m sitting here, quietly imagining what divine smiting of Marjorie might look like.  I’ve always liked the word “smite” – quick, punchy, and final.

  40. 40.

    Brachiator

    @geg6:

    He is the supposed LDS activist against sex trafficking who is in trouble for…wait for it…sexual assault and misconduct. They made a very stupid movie about him, portraying him as some sort of hero starring…wait for it…Jim Cavaziel.​

    I really liked Caviezel in the 2002 production of The Count of Monte Cristo. It’s a shame that he is a political fruit loop.

  41. 41.

    trollhattan

    @WaterGirl: Eclipses?

    We’re now into O’Reilly territory: “Tide comes in, tide goes out. You can’t explain it.”

    Well, actually….

    Marge, God is saying you’re stupid.

  47. 47.

    HumboldtBlue

    @trollhattan: ​ 

    That reminds me of the meme featuring Groucho Marx and a lady.

    Lady: I do believe Trump was sent by God.

    Groucho: Why? Did he run out of locusts?

  49. 49.

    Mel

    @Bill Arnold: The link now comes up with the message “We’re having trouble finding that data.”

    Perhaps it is a short delay while Russian hackers busily knock out a Sharpie marker “revised” map to post? 😹

  50. 50.

    Josie

    @Nelle: ​
     I’d enjoy reading your description of said smiting. Would it involve thunder and lightening or an earthquake or maybe a flood?
    I always wonder if any Republicans are secretly embarrassed to have her as a spokesperson.

  51. 51.

    Butch

    The “Comer camp?”  CAMP?  Did someone with a brain actually write those words?

  52. 52.

    Timill

    @Josie:

    A second flood, a simple famine
    Plagues of locusts everywhere
    Or a cataclysmic earthquake
    I’d accept with some despair

    But no, you sent us Congress
    Good God, sir, was that fair?

  53. 53.

    Matt McIrvin

    To a Spinozan type who sees their God as the ground of being who frames the laws of nature, eclipses might be a more valid message from God than anything else, though the message is something like “the universe is a machine with rules that can enable prediction”.

  54. 54.

    sdhays

    @twbrandt: Atrios says this is “Tesla quitting”, and I don’t think he’s wrong. They’re giving up on being a major automaker. Their focus is on “robotaxis”, which I assume will involve thousands of people in India driving cars in NYC, as long as cell phone networks can handle the strain.

  55. 55.

    TBone

    I wish God would open a sinkhole and swallow the entirety of Mar-A-Lardass in one fell swoop. That’s my idea of a good smite 😊 especially when certain visitors are in attendance

  57. 57.

    different-church-lady

    Trump is going to host a fundraiser at MAL for the Legal Defense Fund of his apparent friend and soulmate Tim Ballard, who is being sued by multiple women for sexual assault.

    “…at least it’s an ethos.”​

  58. 58.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @trollhattan:

    Eclipses?

    We’re now into O’Reilly territory: “Tide comes in, tide goes out. You can’t explain it.”

    Well, actually….

    Marge, God is saying you’re stupid.

    Right? Where are all the Jewish space lasers when we could really use them?

  64. 64.

    Mike in NC

    The sinkholes that have been appearing on Fat Bastard’s properties are portals to Hell.

  66. 66.

    Eyeroller

    @WaterGirl: Does she think that an eclipse means that a dragon has eaten the Sun and may not disgorge it and then we’d all die if we don’t ask God to tell the dragon to release the Sun???  How could anybody possibly think an eclipse is a bad thing?  (Rhetorical question.)

  69. 69.

    Anotherlurker

    On August 23, 2011 at 1:51:04 PM,  I experienced the effects of a 5.8 magnitude  earthquake at Yankee Stadium. I was in the Yankees broadcast truck when we felt this 60,000 lb. mobile unit bounce up and down.  The quake was centered in the Piedmont area of Va.  It was quite an interesting experience but it wasn’t frightening.  We were lucky it wasn’t the 125th St. fault that runs thru Harlem.  That fault has quiet for quite a while.  It felt like someone rocked the unit back and forth for 5 seconds or less.

  71. 71.

    Leto

    @Josie: ​

    Thunderbolt and lightning, very, very frightening me
    (Galileo) Galileo, (Galileo) Galileo, Galileo Figaro, magnifico!

  72. 72.

    2liberal

    @PaulWartenberg:  The earthquake WAS caused by trump jumping up and down while throwing a tantrum!!!

     

    This implies that the orange fart cloud is physically capable of getting both feet off the ground at the same time.  I sincerely doubt he can do this.

  73. 73.

    Msb

    Bedminster was the epicenter? Has anyone checked to see if Ivana is still where Trump left her?

  74. 74.

    Brachiator

    @PaulWartenberg:

    The earthquake WAS caused by trump jumping up and down while throwing a tantrum!!!

    Trump is too out of shape to jump up, and too weak and lazy to throw a tantrum.

    He would do an arhythmic shuffle and at best gesture a tantrum. A pout would have to suffice.

  79. 79.

    mrmoshpotato

    @TBone:

    I wish God would open a sinkhole and swallow the entirety of Mar-A-Lardass in one fell swoop. That’s my idea of a good smite 😊 especially when certain visitors are in attendance 

    Same.  So tired of hearing about the orange shitstain.

    Hope no one was injured in the quake.

  86. 86.

    Sure Lurkalot

    @WaterGirl:  Nah, your most excellent linkage to Mad Marge’s tweet about it being time for repentance, with all the earthquakes and eclipses being sent by god.

    After you, Marge. Show us how repentance is done!

  89. 89.

    Ruckus

    @2liberal:

    I’m sure it’s possible that SFB can have both feet off the ground at the same time. It just takes tying him to a Saturn 5…….

  91. 91.

    jimmirabob

    @Matt McIrvin: My understanding of Spinoza’s Deus sive Natura is that God is what we call all the forces and acts of nature – personifying natural events.

  93. 93.

    Scout211

    Trump, in an interview with Hugh Hewitt, said he isn’t sure that Biden will debate him.  He also said that Biden is on drugs.  Now that’s funny, but I don’t think he meant it to be.

    Every accusation is a confession. They just never stop, do they?
    Link

    Asked by Hewitt whether he thinks Biden will agree to a debate before their expected rematch in November, Trump replied: “I don’t think so, but I hope he does … You know that white stuff that they happened to find, which happened to be cocaine in the White House? I don’t know, I think something’s going on there, because I watched his State of the Union, and he was all jacked up at the beginning. By the end, he was fading fast. There’s something going on there.”

    “I want to debate,” Trump continued. “And I think debates, with him at least, should be drug-tested. I want a drug test.”

    Sure, Donald, that can be arranged   But you go first.

  100. 100.

    Bill Arnold

    @Mel:
    Sorry, somehow the link got a trailing double quote. Trim that, or click on another link on the page.

  101. 101.

    Jeffro

    @JoyceH:It frankly baffles me that Trump has any support left at all.

    Me too, but “dominant group status threat” is a real thing, and he speaks that language very, very well.  Unfortunately.

  102. 102.

    Geminid

    @Scout211: Trump wil float a dozen excuses by the time he has to put up or shut up on debates. Not that he’ll shut up; he’ll whine about how unfairly he would be treated.

    I don’t expect him to meet Joe Biden on a debate stage. He’s not up to it. He’ll lose either way, because Democrats will make this an issue and I think it will be a good one.

  104. 104.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @Geminid: He’ll complain about every arrangement for the debate. Who’s in the audience? Will his mic be on at all times or only when it’s his turn? Will he be addressed and/or introduced as  “President” Trump?  And on and on.

  106. 106.

    hueyplong

    @Geminid: He doesn’t have COVID to give Biden this time, so it’s no-go.

    He’ll insist on a FoxNews shill as the moderator, then refuse to debate if forced into someone in the neighborhood of objective.  That’s his likely out.

    By debate time, his disconnects are going to be difficult to disguise.

  110. 110.

    Geminid

    @Jeffro: I see that Rep. Greene told CNN she’s coming to Virginia this month, to help state Senator John McGuire take down Bob Good.

    Central Virginia resident:

       Damn right I heard that as a threat.

  111. 111.

    Mr. Bemused Senior

    @Timill:

    That voice. Where have I heard that voice?

    Thanks to the Internet I can look up William Daniels on imdb. Wow, what a career!

  116. 116.

    Jeffro

    @Geminid: oh good lord…so she’s on McGuire’s side, and Gaetz is on Good’s side?  <barf>  And they’re all going to be running around just miles from here??

    This means that there’s a nonzero chance I might actually run into them someplace!  With Gaetz, I think it would be impossible not to yell “pedo creep” but with Greene, I feel like the sulphur stench would make it hard to focus.

  118. 118.

    JaySinWA

    @Peke Daddy :A few riffs on cleaning out the fridge.

    Cleaning out the fridge,
    Cleaning out the fridge

    We shall come rejoicing,
    Cleaning out the fridge.

  119. 119.

    Jeffro

    OT but Biden/Harris 2024’s media team is at it again, trolling the SHIT out of Fox News over their reaction to the great jobs report today.

    (violin music plays while Fox talking heads a) praise the report and b) Maria B asks “yeah but is it TOO good?” and raindrops fall)

    Tweet from B/H: “We’re sorry this is happening to you, @FoxNews”

    LOLOLOLOL

  121. 121.

    Mr. Bemused Senior

    @Brachiator: yes, though my most recent recollection was from the Closer (Serving the King).  Then after looking it up, the Adams Chronicles.

  122. 122.

    cain

    @twbrandt: Kind of make sense – no way they are going to be able to compete with $10k EV cars. Although, no way I would trust a $10k EV car, lol – it’s not the car, it’s the software.

  123. 123.

    cain

    @sdhays:

    @twbrandt: Atrios says this is “Tesla quitting”, and I don’t think he’s wrong. They’re giving up on being a major automaker. Their focus is on “robotaxis”, which I assume will involve thousands of people in India driving cars in NYC, as long as cell phone networks can handle the strain.

    There are plenty of other races other than Indians/south asian driving taxis.

  127. 127.

    narya

    @SuzieC: This is a mashup and adjustment of two King Arthur recipes. 9×13 pan, 350 degrees.

    I had 3 blood oranges and a lemon, and I used the zest but not juice of a lime, too. Zest all of the fruit before doing anything else, and set the zest aside. Squeeze the juice next; I had a lot of pulp so I strained it. I used 2T of that mix in the crust (i.e., not the OJ called for).

    For the crust: cream a stick of butter, 170 grams of brown sugar, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp salt. When it’s creamed, add 100 g of oats, 70 g of oat flour (whir oats in a food processor or coffee grinder; I used oat bran because I’m lazy and had some around), 90 g of whole wheat flour, and 2 T of OJ (or other citrus), and ONLY mix til it’s crumbly. Put about half the mix in a buttered 9×13 pan and bake about 20 minutes.

    For the citrus: whisk together 4 eggs, 250 g of sugar (more or less depending on whether you’re using oranges, blood oranges, lemons, limes, etc.), and 160 g of citrus juice. Then add 40 g of AP flour, 3 T of zest, and 3/4 tsp salt.

    After it bakes for 20 minutes, take it out, pour the citrus on top, then sprinkle the rest of the crust on top of that; bake for 35-40 minutes.

    I just tasted mine and probably should have used even less sugar (I used about 150 g instead of 250); it’s like a chewy, lemony, oatmeal bar, basically, NOT a regular lemon bar.

  129. 129.

    Bill Arnold

    @Eolirin:
    For reference, solar eclipse prediction is pretty precise to about 1000 years into the future. (There is some chaos involved.)
    How far ahead can we predict solar and lunar eclipses?

    NASA developed a pair of catalogs of solar eclipses: one covering a 5,000-year period spanning from about 4000 years ago to about 1000 years into the future; the other a 10,000-year catalog of solar eclipses spanning from about 6000 years ago to about 4000 years into the future. The accuracy of these catalog degrades drastically before 3000 years ago and after 1000 years into the figure.

  134. 134.

    Eolirin

    @MagdaInBlack: I’m always a little skeptical that comments like that are real. There’s a ton of performative signaling by people who absolutely know better and would never do the things, and outright shitposting.

  135. 135.

    Sister Golden Bear

    Some good EV news: Electric Vehicles are lowering Bay Area’s carbon footprint: study

    In 2012, Ronald Cohen began setting up a Bay Area network of CO2 monitors that has grown to more than 80 stations, including seven in San Francisco. The network stretches from Sonoma County through Vallejo and down to San Leandro.

    Between 2018 and 2022, 57 of the sensors in the Berkeley Environmental Air Quality and CO2 Network recorded a steady decrease in CO2 emissions that translates to a 2.6% yearly drop in vehicle emission rates.

  136. 136.

    hueyplong

    @BruceFromOhio:  I wonder what would turn up in a search of articles urging empathy on Republicans.  Maybe Politico could just let us know if they themselves have done any.  Whatever the Vegas line is, I’ll take the under, even if it’s 0.5.

  138. 138.

    MagdaInBlack

    @Eolirin: I thought of that after I posted.  I do believe, tho, there are those that dumb.

    Eta: and there’s #136 with prime example 😉

  139. 139.

    Jay

    @cain:

    It is a call back on Amazon’s grocery stores where you used their app, to click on an item, load it in your cart, and the “app” would total your bill and you would auto pay. No pesky self check outs, no cashiers,

    just several thousand tech’s in a center in India, manually totaling your bill and checking your cart through the app and through video surveillance.

  140. 140.

    hueyplong

    @smith: I think they all should stare down this and every eclipse, and agree that precautions are for weenie libtards like ourselves.  Win-win.

    Once they’re blinded, we won’t even have to take their guns away, and can enjoy the resulting drop in resale value of big-ass trucks.

  141. 141.

    Betty

    Nicole Wallace just made an excellent point when she asked why does Biden have to explain to CEOs  that his policies are best for their employees.  Where is the character, the civic responsibility? She said she is disgusted. We need more of this from the MSM.

  142. 142.

    Scout211

    More bad news for Trump’s Truth Social boondoggle   Link

    Shares of Truth Social owner Trump Media & Technology Group tumbled 12% on Friday, sinking to their lowest level since the company went public last week.

    The selloff has erased nearly $2 billion from the value of former President Donald Trump’s stake in the company this week.

  143. 143.

    Josie

    I just got an email from Alexandra Petri covering this very subject. If you have access to the Post, it’s worth a read.

    ETA: The subject being Marge’s fears of nature’s (God’s) anger.

  145. 145.

    trollhattan

    @Betty: Employees!?! Those bastards know what they did.

    They should have more “independent contractors” like the tech bros demand.

  146. 146.

    RevRick

    @WaterGirl: I pray that we don’t listen to any of the theological claptrap peddled by Evangelicals and their followers.
    They promote the completely false notion that “repent” means “behave, or else.” The Greek word it translates is metanoia, which literally means after or beyond thinking, and more loosely as more comprehensive or transcendent thinking. In other words, we repent when we question the worldly ideologies that bind and limit human existence.

    Here’s an example of the Early Church taking this injunction of Jesus seriously and creating a baptismal creed/hymn to proclaim it:

    ”In Christ, there is no Jew or Greek, no slave or free, no male and female…” (Galatians 3:28)

    The conventional wisdom of the Roman Empire of the day would have been that this is insanity talking. Why, of course, there are superior races, and slaves are two-footed livestock, and women are here to breed! These beliefs were the foundation of the Empire.

    Well, here we are, 2000 years later, still working on it, but then that’s because the ideology of imperialism is adaptable, and not fixed to any particular system.

    Do you want to hear my thoughts about what garbage the “rapture” is?

  147. 147.

    Denali5

    @Jay:

    Wegman’s has them now. You do your own checkout. The fatal flaw is payment. Self checkout can only handle 20 items; if you have more than 20, the system  shuts down. Ask me how I know. I am well acquainted with the helpless helpers at the self check out, as well as two upper level employers and the information specialist who happened to be in the store. Everyone was pretty apologetic, but it was annoying.

     

     

     

     

     

    A

  148. 148.

    narya

    @Mel: I should note that this is still a work in progress . . . like, next time I’ll probably put about 2/3 of the crust in, not half. That said, I did sample a corner, and it’s chewy and oaty and citrusy, so it is not a Fail. If it weren’t already sweet, I’d maybe schmear some cream cheese frosting on it. If I had cream cheese, which I don’t

    ETA: this is basically how I cook/bake: sorta write it down, maybe sorta reproduce it, tweak it some, adjust based on available ingredients . . . the few recipes I have written down and use MOSTLY as written are two made w/ sourdough discard: waffles and pizza crust.

  149. 149.

    Mr. Bemused Senior

    @RevRick: Do you want to hear my thoughts about what garbage the “rapture” is?

    I think this falls under “preaching to the choir,” though I hope you know that I regard your comments highly.

  150. 150.

    Ken

    @Scout211: Naturally, while his meme stock is cratering, Trump is suing two of the co-founders to seize their small holdings (under 2% and 8% of the shares, IIRC — this was on Ken White’s “Serious Trouble” podcast this week).

    I almost hope he wins, since he’ll probably spend more on lawyers than the stock will be worth when he finally gains control.

  151. 151.

    arrieve

    @Josie: Gift link to the Petri column:

    When the air fills with smoke and the temperature rises, you say it’s good science to say, “The scary thing that the Earth is doing right now is because mankind did something wrong,” but I say that the eclipse and the earthquake are because of sins one time and suddenly I “don’t understand basic science”?

  152. 152.

    trollhattan

    @Jay:

    Amazon constructed a grocery in the husk of abandoned mall containing my office. It sits there, unopened and peering inside I see they never bothered pouring the floor. For awhile hobos had broken into the likewise unused bike lockers in front to form a sort of housing co-op and rotating debris heap.

    One wonders what happens to such a thing, but as a sunk cost it’s probably a few seconds of corporate revenue invested. Jeff Bezos owns cufflinks that cost more.

  153. 153.

    geg6

    @BruceFromOhio: ​
     
    Fuck this dude. I live in what is designated as “rural” America. I don’t see any GOP/MAGA people around here who aren’t so full of rage that I expect each and every one to stroke out every time they drive by my house during political season when I have my large and proud signs for Dems front and center. I hear their bigoted and sexist talk in the grocery store, the local bar and when I happen to walk by any of their open church doors. I have been threatened with violence by these people for having political disagreements with them. I’ve been at political and environmental rallies where a caravan of giant pickups with MAGA flags have driven in circles around us waving clubs and guns. I’ve never seen so many people so consumed by rage in my 65 years. I knew all this shit was seething under their skins my whole life, but it’s only in the last 8 years that they decided they would let it all out, loud and proud. I just love how some asshole who obviously hasn’t lived here is telling me that I should just embrace and feel sorry for these neanderthals (no shade to neanderthals, who were probably lovely in comparison). I’m so fucking sick of someone telling me that I’ve got these people all wrong and that I must come to them on their terms. Fuck that. Just fuck that.

  155. 155.

    trollhattan

    @Ken: “Should I do business with Donald Trump?” has had its definitive answer for half a century. And yet.

  157. 157.

    Jackie

    RFK Jr. fundraisers tied to J6ers, QAnoners, Christian Nationalists, and far-right extremists.

    On March 23, Steve and Tracy Slepcevic hosted a fundraiser for independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in the San Diego area. Tickets started at $575, and those who paid $2,750 were to be treated to a “private sunset reception” before RFK Jr. would chat with the assembled and pose for photos. It was hardly surprising that the Slepcevics were supporting Kennedy, given that Tracy is a long-time anti-vaxxer prominent within the autism community. But the personal politics of the Slepcevics illuminate the weird currents propelling Kennedy’s White House bid, for the pair have hobnobbed with QAnoners, Christian nationalists, election deniers, and other pro-Trump extremists. Steve, who has a checkered past as a businessmen that includes an arrest (but not a conviction) for allegedly defrauding victims of Hurricane Katrina, was in the crowd of Trump devotees outside the Capitol on January 6.

    Last year, Tracy Slepcevic published a book called Warrior Mom about her years raising a son with autism that she blames on routine childhood vaccines. The book was endorsed by Kennedy and championed by Michael Flynn, the disgraced former national security adviser for President Donald Trump who has become a QAnon-friendly Christian nationalist and a leader within the far-right patriots movement. The Kennedy campaign sells signed copies of the book for $150 a pop. Tracy has been an ally of Children’s Health Defense, the anti-vax nonprofit that Kennedy ran before entering the 2024 contest. In November, she spoke at CHD’s annual conference in Savannah, Georgia, where she hawked her book and palled around with Kennedy, a longtime peddler of Covid and vaccine misinformation. On Facebook, she declared, “Had a great time at the CHD conference in Savannah with some amazing people…I’m so blessed to be on this journey with each and every one of them.” In promoting her book and activism, she has shared platforms with Stew Peters, a far-right anti-vaxxer who has been tied to QAnon advocacy and has spread (according to the ADL) antisemitic tropes, and with Andrew Wakefield, the disgraced scientist who wrote a discredited paper linking autism to vaccines.

    Tracy is a regular on the far-right conspiracy circuit. In November 2022, she joined the ReAwaken America tour as a speaker. This was a traveling road show that fused Christian nationalism, QAnonism, and MAGAism. It was a feast of election denialism and assorted conspiracy theories that featured as headliners Flynn, MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone, conspiracy-theory-monger Alex Jones, and Lara and Eric Trump. At these events, there was much talk of demons. (At one stop, Stone proclaimed “there is a Satanic portal above the White House” that appeared after Joe Biden became president.) Last June, Tracy attended the premiere of Plandemic 3: The Great Awakening, the third in a trilogy of conspiracy theory movies produced by an independent filmmaker named Mikki Willis. The first was loaded with debunked notions about Covid and vaccinations, and Facebook and YouTube each removed the film from its platform. The third one claimed Covid lockdowns were “synchronized tyranny” concocted to control the masses, decried a “purported plot” for one-world government, and dubbed Black Lives Matter a pro-communist organization.

    https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2024/04/rfk-jr-steve-tracy-slepcevic-fundraisers-trump-qanon-january-6-extermists/

    Lots, lots, lots more at the link. These people aren’t attracting Biden voters; they’re definitely a threat to TIFG’s voting pool.

  158. 158.

    trollhattan

    @geg6:

    Preach!

    My quaint NW Iowa birthplace spawned Rep Steve King. Anybody wishing to square his long stint in Congress with the helpful, polite locals is welcome to share.

    Saying the quiet parts out loud. The end.

  160. 160.

    Geminid

    @Sister Golden Bear: California isalso putting out less emissions from gas-fired electrical generation. Decarbonizing that sector is less challenging than is transport.

    Do you see many electric buses now?

  161. 161.

    Brachiator

    @RevRick:

    ”In Christ, there is no Jew or Greek, no slave or free, no male and female…” (Galatians 3:28)

    Hold on there, Sparky. Sounds like them Christians were gender neutral. ;)

  162. 162.

    japa21

    @RevRick: I have been meaning to tell you how much I enjoy your comments and the information contained within.  Back in 1969, I entered a UCC seminary in the Twin Cities, MN.  I had been working towards that for 8 years, even serving my church briefly when our minister departed to become a computer programmer (it was a very small church).

    Back then, the UCC was not quite as progressive as it is now, specially the Congregational side, from which I sprang.  I needed to take a leave of absence due to health issues and never went back, realizing that either the church was not ready for my liberalism or I was not ready to be stifled by its conservatism.

    Anyway, the point of this is to agree with you about how out of touch the fundamentalist evangelical churches are.  My son has become part of that side of Christianity and it does create issues at times.  Mrs Japa and I do go to his services when we visit and it dismays me that they never recite the Lord’s Prayer, most of the readings are Old Testament or Paul, and the Bible they use is the King James Version, basically considered the absolute worst translation out there.

    I am now, BTW, Roman Catholic, which means I barely qualify as Christian to them.

  163. 163.

    Brachiator

     

    @Geminid:

    Foothill Transit, serving the San Gabriel Valley, has electric buses.

    Foothill Transit is committed to operating a 100% zero-emission bus fleet. Since 2010, we’ve operated a fleet of 33 electric buses, one of the largest in the nation. In 2021, we added two Alexander Dennis battery electric double deck buses to our fleet.

  164. 164.

    Princess

    @Scout211: Trump is obviously crapping his pants at the thought of debating Biden. He knows the juice they give him for his rallies only works for so long.

  168. 168.

    arrieve

    @Josie: No problem. I had just read the article when I saw your comment. But gift link is easy. You click on “Share” at the top of the article and it’s one of the options.

  169. 169.

    Geminid

    @Brachiator: I think Foothill Transit also bought some hydrogen fuel cell buses. Alameda County has been running fuel cell buses for twenty years now.

    California is about the only state with a hydrogen refueling infrastructure, but the federal government is trying to jump start that sector with the seven “Hydrogen Hubs” funded by the Infrastructure bill, and tax credits included in the IRA bill.

  170. 170.

    trollhattan

    Takes all kinds, to make a village. I call it Village of the Damned!

    A man accused of setting off a small blaze Wednesday in Magalia, about 4 miles from Paradise in Butte County, was arrested as authorities warned wildfire season is approaching.

    A captain with Cal Fire was stopped by residents about 1:30 p.m. while driving on Skyway near the Coutolenc Road in Magalia, largely laid to waste along with Paradise in California’s deadliest conflagration, the Camp Fire.[guessing this needs “to report the fire” to make it not sound like a citizens’ arrest of the fire captain]

    The residents had extinguished the flames and saw a person walking away from the scene, Cal Fire said. The fire was contained to a “small spot of vegetation,” Cal Fire said. Butte County sheriff’s deputies stopped a man about half a mile away. He was arrested on suspicion of arson and was being held on $75,000 bail in Butte County Jail.

    https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/crime/article287422920.html#storylink=cpy

    He sounds nice.

  172. 172.

    JoyceH

    Sigh. I swear, a significant portion of our population is turning into ignorant, terrified, superstition-riddled peasants, seeing Signs from the deity. The earthquake is being coupled with the eclipse as Signs. Repent! Some fellow in Twitter even said that eclipses are a recent thing that’s unnatural and didn’t used to happen. For the record, the earliest known record of an eclipse was found on a clay tablet from the Mesopotamian city of Ugarit, dating to 1375 BC. I’m sure humanity has seen many before that but they didn’t record them because first they had to, y’know, invent writing.

  173. 173.

    Jay

    @Denali5:

    The Amazon stores whole spiel was that it was their app/AI/software, created a “check out free” shopping experience.

    It didn’t work, at all.

    To make it seem like it worked, they created a “tech” center in India where thousands of poorly paid “techs”, using your cell phone photos and a massive instore surveillance system, did the work that a normal cashier or self check out would do.

    Here, they are ripping out self checkouts and going back to cashiers. Monitoring the self checkouts is actually more labour intensive for the store, just for all the glitches and user error. On top of that, it’s easy to steal. Swap a scan code and presto, filet minon at $0.99 a pound, put down a bulk bag of macadamia nut’s and pick the bulk peanuts icon.

    The diss at Muskrat, Cain missed, is the RoboTaxi’s won’t be self driving, they will be remotely driven by some “tech” in a call center in India, via a gaming consul running a ripped off copy of some Hookers and Blow racing game tied into the RoboTaxi’s sensors.

  177. 177.

    frosty

    @Scout211: ​
     I’m tired of this asshole. I don’t care that every accusation is a confession. I just want the motherfucker to go away and get off the news. I don’t want to see his face or his stupid long tie ever again. I’m starting to worry it won’t happen in whatever time I have left.

  178. 178.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @geg6: Yep. When I see articles like that, or hear people telling us to pay more attention to the rural areas, I just think “Man, you have never lived there. You do not know those people.” Rural OK, AR, MO (aka “The Ozarks”) and then running down to northeast TX/northwest LA – the crazification factor is inverted. 27% of the people (at best!) are somewhat normal. The other 83% are simply horrid.

    I really feel for that 27%, though.

  179. 179.

    frosty

    @geg6: I live in what is designated as “rural” America.

    I’m there too and I’m with you on everything. I keep my head down and I don’t put out yard signs so I don’t get the rage directed at me like you do. But you’re right, fuck them. I’m not about to try to “understand” them. They can just go back under their rocks and seethe until their aortas explode.

  182. 182.

    Barbara

    @Chief Oshkosh: Like people who persistently wring their hands that Democrats are not able to reach the working class, when this guy says that Democrats are unable to talk to rural people he is talking exclusively about white people. And concludes that rural resentment is distinct from racism.  Yeah buddy, sure it is. I will concede that rural people in Maine (where he lives) are probably mostly white and also filled with resentment, but stating that their resent is a distinct thing from racism is a very big leap.

  183. 183.

    Jackie

    Heh, TIFG KNOWS RFK Jr’s campaign is a threat to his:

    New York Times: “Mr. Trump’s interest in Mr. Kennedy has centered almost exclusively on the potential power of the branding. He has collected opinions from those around him about whether combining the two famous last names on a single presidential ticket could result in some kind of political magic, according to the people familiar with the conversations.”

    Plus, the knowledge that RFK Jr’s crazy cultist followers should be supporting him; TIFG, not jr! (insert foot stomp)

  185. 185.

    Jay C

    @geg6:

    Yeah, well I read through Jacobs’ Politico piece, and AFAICT, his whole thesis is a lengthy (and in my estimation, vain) attempt to sanitize/whitewash/excuse “Rural America’s” politics of resentment and prejudice. Mainly by dancing around the core pathologies at the heart of Rural American “culture”; and getting shirty about what he feels is the misuse of the term “rage”, where “resentment” is the preferred excuse. BFD.

  187. 187.

    Scout211

    @mrmoshpotato: Anyone else got a basketball jones for tonight?

    Yes! Go Hawkeyes! 

    My entire family graduated from lowa so I do have a favorite tonight.  But I don’t have ESPN, so I guess I’ll have to keep up with the games on the ESPN.com gamecast.

  188. 188.

    Brachiator

    @Jay:

    The diss at Muskrat, Cain missed, is the RoboTaxi’s won’t be self driving, they will be remotely driven by some “tech” in a call center in India, via a gaming consul running a ripped off copy of some Hookers and Blow racing game tied into the RoboTaxi’s sensors.

    If the cars are driven the way that many vehicles are driven in India, this could be a very… interesting… experience.

    Horn, please.

  193. 193.

    Mr. Bemused Senior

    @Brachiator: If the cars are driven the way that many vehicles are driven in India, this could be a very… interesting… experience.

    Hoo boy, you can say that again. A taxi driver in Bangalore described it to me as “magical driving.” Not for the faint of heart!

  195. 195.

    cain

    @Jay: I suppose the call center folks would be amused but the propensity for mischief for a bored tech is off the scale.

  196. 196.

    Matt McIrvin

    There was apparently a second quake from the NJ location at 6 PM EST. Weaker than the first one.

  197. 197.

    Jay

    @Brachiator:

    the time lag and the poorly ripped copy of Grand Theft Auto III used as the software’s base will make it interesting enough.

  201. 201.

    Brachiator

    @Jay:

    the time lag and the poorly ripped copy of Grand Theft Auto III used as the software’s base will make it interesting enough.

    Driving the streets of New Delhi is crazier than any mere video game.

    ETA. Or riding in a three wheel taxi in Jaipur. After drinking some Indian moonshine, late at night.

  203. 203.

    JAFD

    Was lying down, digesting breakfast, when first earthquake hit.  Neighbor’s little dog very peturbed.  As the young lady I was with during the Easter Sunday earthquake of ’84 told me “When I said I wanted ‘to feel the earth move’, that is not what I meant.”

    Anyway, we had a full-bore nor’easter blow thru here Tuesday and Wednesday, so yours truly decided to warm the place up by making some Oatmeal Drop Cookies (recipe modified from 1950 edition of Betty Crocker’s Picture Cook Book (‘They’re not ‘old cookbooks’, I tell myself, they’re ‘cultural history documents’)

    So, mix together

    1 stick butter (‘1/2 cup soft shortening’ – that’s what I had)

    1 cup brown sugar

    2 eggs

    Stir in

    1 3/4 cups flour (All that was left in ‘King Arthur Bread Flour’ bag)

    1 teaspn baking soda

    1 teaspn salt

    1 teaspn cinnamon

    2 cups ‘old-fashioned oats’ (get a double-boiler and your breakfast oatmeal will cook without needing attention while you read your email…)

    Drop in spoonfuls on lightly greased or nonstick baking sheet, bake at 400 F 8-10 minutes until lightly browned.

    ‘Twill be just what you need to ballast you down in windstorm.

  204. 204.

    BruceFromOhio

    @geg6: ​
      But geg6, he’s done surveys. He lives in rural Maine. He’s been studying this for years. He knows they vote relentlessly and reliably against their own interests. And yet, somehow magically hocus pocus, it’s the Democrats problem to solve. And! There is racism in the cities, too! So both sides.

    Yeah, agree. Fuck this guy. Totally.

  205. 205.

    Kayla Rudbek

    @geg6: at least my Neanderthal ancestors took care of their sick and buried their dead, unlike the MAGA cult

  206. 206.

    Ironcity

    @Ken: Trick question:  TFIG will not spend more on lawyers than he would gain from the suit because (a) TIFG doesn’t pay lawyers and (b) he has his MAGAts to chip in their SS checks to cover it.

  207. 207.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Eyeroller: How could anybody possibly think an eclipse is a bad thing? (Rhetorical question.)

    (Raises hand and looks around guiltily.)

    When I was 7 or 8 I watched (on our 11″ b&w TV) a Little Rascals short where they hid in the bushes along a river, spying on an African-American church congregation preparing to baptize new members during a solar eclipse. I clearly remember one of the men saying, Just as soon as the eee-clipse is total; followed by a panorama of the scene showing the black disk of the moon sliding across the sun.

    It scared the bejeezus out of me.

    When I went to school I must’ve started babbling to my classmates about this horrible thing that was gonna happen, and my teacher must’ve taken note, because the next thing I remember I was in the principal’s office** with him and another teacher, who showed me some diagrams and patiently went through what an eclipse was and how it was nothing to be afraid of.

    And the scales fell from my eyes, and I was duly amazed at how much astronomers knew about something so far away – and in that moment I decided I wanted to be one of them when I grew up. (And eventually, in the amoral words of Maxwell Smart, I missed it by that much…)

    ** Which FTR held no terrors for me. I was Mr diStefano’s pride & joy, a budding genius Italian-American kid, He’d call me in once a week and take me up to a storage room full of books for the yet-to-be-built elementary school library and let me take home as many as I wanted, on condition I would read every one of them by the next week and tell him about them. Those were the days…

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