Yesterday we opted to sit on the porch observing the antics of the local birds rather than plug into the outrage machine. So I’m just now seeing the news that Israel bombed Iran in retaliation for Iran’s attack on Israel last week, which was in response to Israel’s strike on Iranian personnel in Damascus blah blah blah.
According to CBS News, Iranian officials are “downplaying” the missile strikes, which perhaps signals they don’t intend to escalate. Or maybe not. The people in charge of both countries are goddamn nuts, so anything is possible. I’d rather look at windswept herons than think about that:
Not a great picture — we have Albatrossity for that — but it shows how the bird is harnessing the breeze to complete his grooming routine. Before that, he was standing in a not-so-shallow spot taking a full-on bath. Date night!
Open thread.
Nukular Biskits
Good mornin’!
And, with that, off to the shower to get ready for one more day (this week) of the grind.
satby
I think the apparent downplaying of the attack by Iran is testament to the ongoing diplomacy Biden and Brinker have been doing in the Mideast to try to keep it from spiraling out of control. Israel and Iran are generally bad faith players though, so we’ll see if the diplomatic work done can keep the lid on more escalation.
Baud
Yeah. I posted the same at the end of the overnight thread. Sounds like a minimal strike, and I haven’t seen reports of causalities or even much damage in Iran. Reminds me of blog arguments where every party wants to have the last word. Fingers crossed.
eclare
Thanks for the heron photo!
Baud
@satby:
Agree. But since Israel did attack, the usual suspects will blame Biden for failing somehow.
eclare
@Baud:
Seems like a good summary and analogy.
Baud
@eclare:
Thank you.
Geminid
Turkish journalist Ragip Soylu quoting a Reuters report:
This incident may have been like a couple in the fall of 2022, when missile factories inside Iran were struck by drones launched from within Iran, presumably by Israeli proxies.
Tony Jay
The Windswept Herons was what Tom Petty originally wanted to call The Heartbreakers, but they told him not to be so damned refined about their good old Rock and Roll.
True fact? Damned if I know.
Baud
Looks like there might be a border bill in the House. Maybe a deal with Dems?
lowtechcyclist
@Baud:
“Someone is wrong in the Middle East.”
ETA: We’ve truly gone through the looking glass when we can apparently convince Iran to act with more restraint than Israel.
Geminid
@Baud: This morning’s Politico Playbook reported that the Rules Committee approved a Rule for voting on the 4(?) bills last night. Five Republican and four Democratic members voted for the rule, with Republicans Massie, Norman and Roy voting no.
The plan is for the House to vote on the Rule today, then hold roll call votes on the bills tomorrow
Baud
@Geminid:
At this point, I really only care about Ukraine.
lowtechcyclist
@Baud:
Same.
MagdaInBlack
@Baud:Yup.
eclare
@Baud:
Same.
ETA> on a lesser note, Taiwan. If we can’t get computer chips from there, we’re screwed.
Geminid
@Baud: Ukraine certainly is the nation that really needs this package. The “Indo-Pacific” component has more long-term implications, and right now it sure doesn’t look like Israel is running low on weapons.
Baud
@eclare:
Agreed. Although a war for chips would be a refreshing change from a war for oil.
NotMax
If one squints the ears just right, it sounds as if Leon is singing My Blue Heron.
:)
Betty Cracker
Some ambitious reporter needs to look into porky GOP pols hoovering up the national supply of drugs like Ozempic. As much as I’d like to think Trump is less spherical today than he was a couple months ago because anxiety is eating him alive, I’ve gotta think he’s popping skinny pills, perhaps following the DeSantis playbook. I saw a recent pic of Kremlin talking points distribution hub JD Vance looking suspiciously svelte too. I hope people with actual diabetes can still access these drugs.
p.a.
Has the anti-semitic, Charlottestville wing of the Republican party had any influence on the usual Republican “let Israel kill everyone so Jeebus can kill Israel” policy?
TBone
In preparation for the Supremacist Court crap that’s barrelling toward us, here is Denver Riggleman of the J6 Committee reading all of Ginni Thomas’s texts to Mark Meadows. It’s much worse than I knew, and I know she is so very bugfuck crazy and downright brainwashed by QAnon. Oh. My. God.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?si=xfEIxQN9299gtHm3&v=UeDqnuSlrCA&feature=youtu.be
Clarence Fucking Thomas married a complete and utter moron, he needs to get the fuck outta here.
MattF
Looking a lot like Dems are in charge of the House. But… shhh… mustn’t say that.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
I’ve been a bit unplugged this week too. Partly it’s because I’m having a very medical few weeks coming up. Cataracts finally reached the point where they’re operable so I’m doing pre-op, op and post-op till late May. And have a generalized low level of anxiety which makes the news hard to take.
Plus out of the blue the surgeon’s office called me yesterday and said she wants me to come in today. No idea why.
Baud
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
Good luck with everything.
eclare
@MattF:
First rule of “Dems in charge of the House” is that we don’t talk about “Dems in charge of the House.”
Geminid
@eclare: The US began the process of onshoring chip production in July, 2022 when Congress passed the CHIPS+ Act. Now the Commerce Department has started awarding money that incentivises plant construction, and some companies are beginning construction. They’ll take a while to start production.
These factories will cost billions. One key piece of equipment sells for $200 million or more, and Dutch company ASML produces almost all of them. The head of ASML said recently that they may have to develop facilities outside Holland if their government restricts ASML’s ability to hire foreign engineers.
eclare
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
The dr wanting you to come in today is scary! Good luck!
MattF
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: Cataract surgery is a good thing. May need a minor ‘update’ after five years.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@MattF: I’m beginning to think there’s a genuine possibility of Democrats regaining enough power before this Congress is over to get a shitload of stuff done.
eclare
@Geminid:
I saw that Commerce Sec. Gina (I cannot spell her last name) will be on Sixty Minutes this weekend. I hope she pushes the need to onshore chip manufacturing.
Betty Cracker
Pinky the Spoonbill just landed in the lagoon! We spotted him/her yesterday after a lengthy absence.
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: Medical weeks are the worst, so my sympathies.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: I guess House GOPs (read Johnson) are feeling a little heat for not passing the last border bill?
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@MattF: I know, in theory. My wife went through this already several years ago. She was much more myopic than me but now we joke about her bionic eyes.
But still it’s my eyes.
@Baud: Thanks.
Kay
The only person still defending political speech at the NYTimes is Michelle Goldberg, the liberal. The entire “universities are supressing speech!” crowd they employ seems to have disappeared, now that..universities are actually supressing speech.
NotMax
@TBone
Left singularly unimpressed with the premiere of Riggleman’s “Coalition of the Sane” effort yesterday. May as well have been titled The Tonguebath Show. That’s 20 minutes shall never get back.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
I don’t think I’d like it on the merits, but I suppose it would be helpful to Biden for him to say he did something bipartisan about the border.
MattF
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: I think eye surgeons deliberately chat about the horrifying details in order to desensitize their patients. ‘So, yeah, I’m gonna scrape those lesions off your cornea and then pump you up with steroids so it will all reorganize naturally. Nothing to worry about.’
Betty Cracker
@Kay: Holy moly! The unhinged religious fanatic from GA should be the lead story. Oh well, mission accomplished for the woke panic fomenting team.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@TBone:
It’s clear he couldn’t do any better in terms of a spousal unit and vice versa.
Uncle Clarence has always needed to get the fuck outta here. History will not be kind to him and alas, he’s making sure the histories won’t be written for a good while.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
When is Republican craziness ever been a lead story?
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: I hope it is something similar to the Senate bill. Like word for word with a tweak here or there to give mods the cover to ignore the hawks.
Kay
I take it back- Pamela Paul, a Right winger employed by the NYTimes to scold people on how universities are supressing speech applauds the arrest, removal and suspension of protestors, as long as they are Left wing protestors.
That was always the game. The “free speech at universities!” bullshit always meant only the speech they agreed with. It was entirely predictable they’d ditch the principle to align with Right wing ideology.
All that whining about “cancelling” yet they enthusiastically support arrest and detention for speech crimes.
Geminid
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: Democrats could conceivably get control of the House, but I don’t see them getting any major legislation through the Senate, especially before the election.
That’s one reason I don’t want to see Jeffries as Speaker now. The other is that right now his caucus has some real divisions over the Gaza wa, and it could be difficult to wrangle. So, if Johnson gets toppled I’d rather see Democrats help elect an outsider like former Republican Reps. Charlie Dent or Jeff Flake to be a “caretaker” Speaker who’s willing to put critical legislation on the floor. Don Bacon (R-NE) floated that scenario when this Congress began in January of 2021.
trnc
Silverman wrote last night that he thinks MJ has the OK to pass a Ukraine bill in the House because it will be filibustered by repubs in the Senate. Hopefully, Schumer can get it through.
Baud
@Geminid:
Agree. At this point, there’s no point in putting Jeffries in charge.
TBone
@NotMax: IDGAF about Riggleman except for his exposing even more of Ginni Thomas’s bat shit insanity. The focus of my locus was the Supremacist Court. And yes I knew Clarence is worse than an asshole but the shit spewing out of his wife is COMPLETELY disqualifying.
Another Scott
Pretty Birdy. We all hope that you are doing well, BC.
Meanwhile, …RollCall.com:
(Much more at the link.)
The bomb-throwers have to keep their prescious, but everything is falling into place to get this done. It shouldn’t take long to get it through the Senate either. It looks like the attack overnight was “just right” to get both sides to claim victory/no big deal, so I suspect that even the Israel piece won’t be a problem.
This is looking (to me) like it will end up like the Manchin drama over the infrastructure bill. Lots of noise and interminable delays, but ultimately something very much like what Biden proposed becomes law.
Politics is slow.
Have a good Friday, everyone.
Cheers,
Scott.
NotMax
@Geminid
First posted the link here about a year ago to a fascinating look at and inside ASML by a Dutch public broadcasting outlet.
TBone
Good news
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-seizes-four-web-domains-used-create-over-40000-spoofed-websites-and-store
Baud
@trnc:
We only need 9 republicans. I’d be a little surprised not to get them. But who knows?
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
It’s such a betrayal for the Columbia President to throw the students to the wolves to appease them.
I mean, she kept her job but WTF is her job, now, exactly? Obviously it has little or nothing to do with students. Her job is now 100% about keeping her job. Is it worth it?
Geminid
@NotMax:
@NotMax: Denver Riggleman pops up on the local radio station from time to time, as their “national security expert.” It’s usually for just a minute or two which is a good thing because Riggleman is one most boring people I have ever heard.
TBone
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: I hope John Oliver appears and attends all future oral arguments. With a bullhorn and a money-launching gun. No, make that a big net and straitjacket like in a cartoon.
Mousebumples
I agree – but Wegovy (weight loss branded name of Ozempic) recently got FDA Approval for prevention of major cardiovascular events in patents with active cardiovascular disease who are overweight (eg previous heart attack or stroke).
Earlier this week, Zepbound (weight loss branded name of Mounjaro) indicated positive results in sleep apnea, though they haven’t been published yet. Studies in heart failure and addiction are on going, I believe, likely among others.
Unlike COVID use of ivermectin, hydroxychloriquine, etc., at least this is hopefully not going to kill someone for using.
Betty Cracker
@Baud: You’re right — it never is. Even when that party openly functions as a propaganda outlet for a genocidal foreign power.
ColoradoGuy
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: Had both eyes done two months ago. I was terrified, but the operation was painless and very fast, three minutes per eye. 90 minutes of quiet sedation beforehand, you lie down on the table, you see flashing, watery images, and bright lights, and one eye was razor-sharp immediately after the operation. I did not expect that. The other eye was sharp but milky-looking for about three days afterward, then cleared up. Surprisingly, no sensation of pain or pressure at all, even afterward.
You’ll need to wear dark glasses for several weeks afterward, and take eye drops four times a day for four weeks. Night vision is incredibly improved, it feels like you can see in the dark, and in the (very bright) daytime, everything has an overall bluish tint. Purples and greens are super vivid. With some lenses, you can even see ultraviolet. Colors are more vivid overall, and you definitely see new colors you didn’t notice before.
Before surgery, you tell the surgeon whether you want distant or close-up vision, with moderate glasses needed for the other case. You do NOT want “monocular vision”, which destroys depth perception. Better to put on glasses every now and then and retain depth perception.
I opted for distance vision and correction of astigmatism, which requires more exact measurements to create the new lenses. I didn’t end up with infinity distance, maximal sharpness turned out to be about 30″ or so, which is an OK compromise because everything is reasonably sharp. I have moderate additional glasses for driving, which corrects everything for infinity, resulting in very sharp distance vision and TV watching. The astigmatism is completely gone; I look up at the moon at night, and it is sharp, with no haloes around it, and it looks spherical.
Betty Cracker
@Mousebumples: Years ago, I worked for a consulting company that did (among other things) focus groups to help pharma companies name new drugs. “Zepbound” makes me smile. 😊
Eyeroller
@Kay: A university President’s job is fundraising and, in the case of state universities, keeping politicians happy. The Provost sets academic policies. The President rarely interferes with that.
NotMax
@Geminid
Wanted to scream “Jeeze, guys, get a room already!” through the screen to him and his guest Adam Kinzinger.
Steeplejack
@Kay:
Morning Joe just had Jonathan Greenblatt, the head of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), on within the last half hour and let him rant unchallenged about the “anti-Zionist” campus protesters. He even equated them with “proxies” for Iran.
Mousebumples
@Betty Cracker: lol.
I learned some time ago that the FDA picks the generic one (eg semaglutide, tirzepitide), and the drug company picks the brand name (with the FDA holding veto power, which may be enforced after launch if the name is too similar to another drug and leads to med errors).
The different brand names for weight loss vs not was related to Medicare (CMS) regulations. Weight loss is currently an excluded indication (though that may be changing in the next few years – stay tuned), but the new CV prevention indication is Medicare eligible as of last month.
Lots of changes on the horizon. Though considering weight gain to be a personal failure will probably not be an easy fix. (see also mental health crises)
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
You know who’s already skinny. Joe Biden.
eclare
@Betty Cracker:
That is a strange name, there is a line of cleaning products named Zep, mainly industrial but some retail. I am surprised the pharma company got permission to use Zepbound.
Take this pill or shot and get a cleaner toilet?
Eta> my fave recent name is for Moderna’s covid shot, Spikevax!
Kay
@Steeplejack:
It’s nonsense. The polling has flipped. Most people in the country now oppose the IDF’s actions in Gaza. This is a 65%-35% issue and the students are on the 65% side. For Morning Joe – a POLITICAL show- to pretend this is some kind of fringe Left view is just bullshit. They’re lying to viewers.
TBone
Forward thinking 👍
https://www.reuters.com/technology/first-law-protecting-consumers-brainwaves-signed-by-colorado-governor-2024-04-18/
Eyeroller
@ColoradoGuy: The bluish tint from cataract surgery is because the natural lens has pigmentation that increases with age and cataract density and makes everything have a yellow/orange/brown cast. Without it we can see much further into the blue and even a little into the ultraviolet. I had cataract surgery in one eye due to a type associated not so much with age but with steroid use and trauma (surgeries) so the mismatch was quite pronounced. I have blurry vision in that eye now due to corneal decompensation, unfortunately, so my brain mostly ignores those images, but sometimes it’s still noticeable.
evodevo
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: Had mine done finally, last July/Aug. Some things will be great…some will take getting used to. The return to color reality will be striking (turns out everything was yellow-tinged and dull, and I didn’t realize lol) and brightness also. Evidently a lot was not getting through the lenses. Surgery was fine (my afib was in abatement at the time, thank goodness) and I don’t have diabetes, so there were no pre-op difficulties there (a lot of the elderly patients in the cubicles around me were having problems, from what I could overhear). You wear the eye shield for a day, and then at night for awhile, to keep from squishing your healing cornea. You have to put cortisone drops in your eye for several weeks to damp down inflammation, so keep that in mind. I had severe astigmatism, and that has been reduced to a small amount. I wear a contact lens for that. For awhile, I had a flickering in the middle of the vision field in each eye that was due to “scar tissue” (??), but it’s now so reduced I don’t notice it any longer. Your vision will change week by week, so don’t make any decisions about contacts/glasses/etc. for several months. Use temporary aids for the duration. Mine has taken about 6 months to stabilize. Happy with the results. Good luck to you on your procedure!
Baud
@TBone:
I hope that doesn’t prevent me from soliciting investors for my brain.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Kay: A friend of ours just became a college president. What a time to take that job! But she’s used to difficult times, she shepherded another college through a major sexual harassment scandal and helped create their sexual conduct policy.
Kay
@Steeplejack:
I like to return to the big, pompous “Harpers Letter” the anti-woke ninnies all signed when they were pretending they were worried about free speech and vigorous debate. You know, their North Star:
Insufferable people. To go from “people are cancelling me because they’re mean to me on Twitter!” to “arrest and detain all the protestors I disagree with!” is some switcheroo. Only the truly full of shit can manage this blatant a 180.
Our elites are low quality. They’re ninnies who do no real thinking. Of course it’s incoherent. They put no thought or work at all into it.
Betty Cracker
@Mousebumples: Fascinating. It does seem like we’re on the verge of all sorts of breakthroughs.
MattF
@eclare: That’s the shot I got at CVS on Monday.
Baud
@Kay:
I don’t know. I bet they think about themselves.
In all seriousness, IMHO part of the problem is a culture of contrarianism that is endemic on our side. It makes it hard to stay grounded.
Kay
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
What’s raising all that money for if not for students? The people who run our institutions protect The Institution (and their own jobs) rather than protecing the reasons the institution exists – the point of the thing.
It must make for very empty work. They’re working for a set of buildings. They may as well develop real estate.
Geminid
@Geminid: Now the Jerusalem Post is reporting that Israeli officials say this was not a drone attack, that IDF fighter planes launched the missiles and the target was an airbase near Isfahan.
Baud
@Geminid:
Any news on damage or causalities?
MattF
@Betty Cracker: I’d be concerned about R political types trying to corner the market and make a huge profit from reselling. They do that sort of thing for a living.
Baud
@Kay:
Plenty of right wing students at elite colleges.
TBone
@Baud: I wanted to joke with you but … During fElon’s animal torture trials for his brain implant scheme, a tractor trailer full of monkeys crashed on a local highway here, in the dead of winter. It was like a waking nightmare to see on my local news. I don’t know what lab they were heading for, but JFC
https://www.wpxi.com/news/trending/3-monkeys-euthanized-after-escaping-during-crash-pennsylvania/H2XTJCOA7NHTRLBK6SGXA6QTJM/
Baud
@TBone:
Sometimes I wish the animals would join forces and take over.
Raven
Damn, a little rain and none of Artie’s dog friends show up! Where is Oatmeal??
Geminid
@Baud: I haven’t seen any word on casualties yet. This news item was one of several about the attack posted on Laura Rozen’s Twitter account. One of the experts she cited pointed out that it’s difficult to get information about casualties from Iran’s government.
lowtechcyclist
@Betty Cracker:
That crazy fuckhead.
So in order to bless Israel, one has to support it when it engages in genocide? That’s a new one.
Did the prophets curse Israel by pointing out when and how Israel was going astray? That’s what the protesters are doing. I’d ask him to hand me his Bible, and I’d rip out everything from Isaiah to Malachi on that account.
NotMax
@Baud
Obligatory.
:)
TBone
@Baud: me too!
Kay
I wen to the NW OH Dem dinner last night. Two things happened, one very funny. Our MOC was a woman who is active in our county party but also the women’s outreach coordinator for her union (UAW). She started with “sisters and brothers” like all labor people do then said ” but I want to talk to my union brothers” and then told went on a kind of delightful RANT about how men owe women in the Democratic Party and they should have our back on abortion. I love a direct quid pro quo demand.
The other thing was how many people mentioned 35 dollar a month insulin to me. They tell me Trumpists are claiming Trump did 35 a month insulin and they want Democrats to correct this. I had no idea half of Ohio was talking about insulin.
Baud
@Kay:
Why don’t they take the initiative and correct it when they hear it?
ETA: Seriously, people who credit Trump like he’s Jesus will just assume the Dems are lying anyway.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@ColoradoGuy: She does them one at a time. So I’m getting my left eye done on Tuesday and the right three weeks later. Hence why the post-op routine will take me into late May.
@evodevo:
My wife and I both use very close vision as a low power microscope for close work, so opted to keep some nearsightedness. The eye doctor said people get really upset when they lose that capability.
The Thin Black Duke
@Baud: Unfortunately, contrarianism is a belief system used by people who can afford it. Groups who are marginalized know there are some issues that you can’t “both sides”. Trouble is, the Contrarians can always find a media platform to muddy the waters.
NotMax
@Raven
Artie to Raven: “You know what you did, bossman.”
;)
Eyeroller
@Kay: I suspect there’s a correlation between heavy use of insulin in a population and being Republican. (Old and obese–Type I is fairly rare so we are mostly talking about Type II.) It always amazes me how unmoored in time most people seem to be. Like blaming Obama for things that happened a year or sometimes several years before he was elected. Now they are trying to credit Trump for something that happened three years after he left office. Of course both those phenomena represent what people want to believe to be true.
Betty Cracker
OMG, y’all — Taylor Swift’s new album has a track called “Florida” featuring Florence Welch (of The Machine). They brilliantly nail the shady nature of the place, and in a fun way.
Baud
@The Thin Black Duke:
I think a problem with many college educated liberals is that the learn critical thinking skills really well but learn how to make difficult adult judgements less well.
And I include myself in this, although it has never led me to “both sides” election choices.
Kay
@Baud:
Saying what Democrats should do is just part of Democrats. I got a mock up of a political button dropped off at the office the other day. It has “33,916” (or some large number beginning with 33) and “Trump Lies” on it. Drawn on paper and glued to a button. I’m supposed to make this button – contact the button making people, pay for it, just make this button appear. I get a lot of ideas like this.
They’re not great on execution. That’s why Water Girl is really a rare breed of Democrat cat. She does the thing, whatever the thing is.
Mousebumples
@Betty Cracker: between GLPs (eg Ozempic) and mRNA, I agree!
@MattF: see also compounded drug at med spas. The safety, efficacy, and potency of what’s offered at those places are sketchy and questionable, at best.
Baud
@Kay:
I agree. I hate it. It’s way overdone. There are various aspects of Dem culture I don’t like and that’s one of them.
ETA: agree about WG also. She’s an inspiration.
ETA2: That button idea sounds not great.
NotMax
@Betty Cracker
Florida with shady practices?
;)
The Thin Black Duke
@Baud: Thing is, other than not wearing pants at inappropriate times, you’re a proud, card-carrying member of the “reality-based” community. Experience is realizing there’s a big difference between doing the same thing and doing the next thing.
eclare
@Betty Cracker:
Wow, that’s a great song.
Soprano2
That’s because what they really mean is that universities are suppressing CONSERVATIVE speech. They never say that word, but it’s what they mean. It’s like “free speech warrior” Bill Maher and his friends, who don’t give two shits about actual free speech.
Raven
Oatmeal is here!!
Bupalos
@Baud: I get the sentiment. But ultimately Ukraine (and the entire world, really) depends on the U.S. somehow learning how to make it’s democracy function in the age of Trump and the authoritarian challenge. So it all matters.
Steeplejack
Morning Joe about to rerun the segment with Jonathan Greenblatt right now, for those who want to listen.
sdhays
I just want to put this out there: Taiwan is worth defending even if we made all the computer chips we could ever want in the US itself. It’s a thriving democracy and pretty much the most progressive nation in Asia. And the people are some of the nicest people in the world.
They are threatened by the exact same attitude that Putin and the Russians have regarding Ukraine. I know that no one here meant anything by it, but it’s worth emphasizing that Taiwan is worth defending on values alone, not just a transient resource. There is no equivalence between Taiwan and horrible oil producing countries like Saudi Arabia.
Soprano2
@Another Scott: I hope you’re right and Silverman is wrong. I seem to remember the last bill passed the Senate with something like 70 votes, so I don’t think a filibuster could stop the Ukraine bill. Maybe Johnson had a real change of heart, who knows. Maybe the pressure to pass all of it got to be too much for him.
evodevo
@TBone: Precautions around monkeys are sound procedure…they bite hard, and the bites often become infected bigly – dirty mouths, just like humans. A friend who worked in a lab went through that after one of the lab monkeys bit him on the hand. Nasty mess…
Geminid
@Geminid: Some both-siderism from Turkish Presiden Erdogan, as reported by journalist Ragip Soylu:
Erdogan probably took that poke at Israel because of the Gaza war. He’s criticized the Israelis harshly over it. But I think he mainly hopes this conflict is contained. There’s already a hot war going on across the Black Sea; Turkiye doesn’t need another one breaking out to the south.
Reports are that Erdogan intends to commence his own war this summer, in Northeast Syria and Northwest Iraq, but he would say, “Now that’s different. We’re going after the PKK!”
evodevo
@Kay: Go to the nearest WalMart (especially the small town ones) and look around…I bet 99% of the insulin and metformin prescribed in this country are doled out there … the number of obese people in the WalMart in Cynthiana is amazing…
Soprano2
@Betty Cracker: I think they pick random letters out of a hat, say two vowels and five consonants, and then use them to come up with a name.
evodevo
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: Yeah. that’s what I had- REALLY REALLY nearsighted…before surgery I could see to do the smallest of work – splinters, needlework, etc. All I had to do was pop out one contact lens. Now not so much.
NotMax
@evodevo
Walmart centerfold.
;)
Soprano2
@Kay: It’s a major big deal to people who take insulin. My husband has two credit cards with significant balances (thousands of dollars) mostly because for two or three years he was buying those insulin pens. The short-acting insulin was around $300/month! He got the doctor to switch him to vials because that was a lot cheaper, but it’s not as convenient. Now I switched back to pens for the short-acting insulin because it’s $35/month! I’m not surprised they were all talking about it.
evodevo
@NotMax: YES this…just the other day, there were THREE like this tootling around…not quite so “exposed”, but still buttcrack territory LOL
Another Scott
@Kay:
ICYMI…
BidenHQ (short video)
As they make the point elsewhere, every single Republican voted against this.
They should have that video in continuous rotation on every video billboard in rural America.
Forward!!
Cheers,
Scott.
SiubhanDuinne
@NotMax:
Did you post that in another thread a few days ago? I saw it very recently, and love it!
smith
Speaking of the effect of cataracts on color perception, my mother had cataracts that went untreated for a number of years, during which she was doing a lot of travelling. She’d come back with reams of photos, but was always dissatisfied with how washed out they looked. She’d learned to use Photoshop, so she set about “correcting” the color, with the result that her vacation snaps ended up looking like a Kodachrome explosion on speed. The colors were so intense they were almost neon.
She was so pleased with the result she printed them on note cards to sell at her church’s fundraisers. Her elderly friends who bought them just looooooved them — the colors looked so natural!
NotMax
@SiubhanDuinne
Yeah, but it seemed to fit in again almost seamlessly.
;)
Kayla Rudbek
@Betty Cracker: I actually have diabetes and I am having difficulty accessing those types of medication. Although my insurance company is not being helpful either.
SiubhanDuinne
@NotMax:
For sure. Perfect.
TBone
@evodevo: maybe if we didn’t torture them, they wouldn’t be biting us. Not highlighted in the story I linked, there were monkeys scattered in the woods around the crash site for several days, in trees, etc. in the freezing cold overnights and frigid days. It wasn’t “merely” a few monkeys suffering.
Steeplejack
@Kay:
Had to go run an errand, got back in time to hear the repeat of Jonathan Goldblatt. He said that Iran has its proxies in the Middle East and its “campus proxies” here in the U.S. He said the protests were like “a demonstration in Tehran,” and he can’t believe they’re happening in Morningside Heights!
He also said the protesters were spitting on their Jewish classmates. That’s something I’ve been wondering about—the right’s campaign to link any incidents of anti-Semitism on campus (which I’m sure exist) to campus protests against Israel’s actions in Gaza. I haven’t read much about how widespread the incidents of anti-Semitism really are.
tokyocali (formerly tokyo ex-pat)
@smith: That story is a keeper. It goes to show there is always someone who appreciates your outlook on life.
Manyakitty
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: that’s a LOT. Best wishes for good outcomes!
Kayla Rudbek
@eclare: different classes of goods and different customer bases, so both companies get to keep their respective trademarks.
Jackie
@eclare: LOL
Eric Swalwell was on TV last night and accidentally called Jeffries Speaker. He sorta qualified it as “in everything but name,” but it was funny.
cain
@Kay: part of me want to devolve that entire convo into a spat between toddlers coming down to: I don’t believe in your God and my God will kick your gods ass.
Eunicecycle
@smith: Did she have her cataracts done then look at the pictures? I wonder what she thought then. My mom thought my dad had become color blind because he started mismatching his clothes. When he had his cataracts done, he was amazed at how different colors looked.
NotMax
@Raven
Yay for Oatmeal!
By any chance have a buddy named Maypo?
;)
Miss Bianca
@Steeplejack:
Spitting. Huh, funny. All the stories about dirty fucking hippies “spitting on” honest yeoman Vietnam vets. And yet…kind of like “wolf attacks on humans”, none of these alleged incidents can be proved to have happened.
So yeah, pro-Palestinian students are spitting on Jewish students. I’m going to take that nugget o’ info with a hearty helping of “Sure, Jan” on the side.
mrmoshpotato
Good call.
Bill Arnold
@trnc:
My impression was that he expressed it as a possibility, the reasonableness of which depends on the level of support for Ukraine among Senate Republicans. Going by past votes and rhetoric, the support level is more than sufficiently high; Trump/Putin are trying to dampen it.
rikyrah
@Baud:
Me too
rikyrah
@Kay:
Saw a large protest over the suspension of those students at Columbia. The students don’t buy it
Chris T.
@Betty Cracker: I’m on Ozempic for diabetes and haven’t had a problem yet (just started this year though and friends who were on it before me had issues last fall as I recall).