Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

Letā€™s delete this post and never speak of this again.

We won’t go back.

Iā€™m sure you banged some questionable people yourself. We’re allowed to grow past that.

Can we lighten up on the doomsday scenarios?

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

He really is that stupid.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

The willow is too close to the house.

Maybe you would prefer that we take Joelle’s side in ALL CAPS?

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

Republicans in disarray!

The fight for our country is always worth it. ~Kamala Harris

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.

Somebody needs to explain to DeSantis that nobody needs to do anything to make him look bad.

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

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

ā€¦ riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

Putin dreamed of ending NATO, and now itā€™s Finnish-ed.

This fight is for everything.

Iā€™m more Christian than these people and Iā€™m an atheist.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

If a good thing happens for a bad reason, itā€™s still a good thing.

You are here: Home / Politics / Biden Administration in Action / Saturday Morning Open Thread: Life’s Rich Panorama

Saturday Morning Open Thread: Life’s Rich Panorama

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  6. 6.

    OzarkHillbilly

    This:

    Trump being a 78-year-old man whoā€™s not completely there and nods off in the middle of the day is genuinely new information

    After all the “Sleepy Joe” bullshit, it is obvious that every accusation is a confession.

  8. 8.

    trnc

    @OzarkHillbilly: Also, he literally fundraises off of each court appearance, so the claim that he can’t campaign while he’s in court is a stretch.Ā  Also, since his speeches are all the same grievance fest anyway, his campaign could set up rallies and play video of his Gettysburg speech on a jumbotron. Win-win.

  9. 9.

    TBone

    If anyone is interested, here is a follow up interview with the editor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Chris Quinn.Ā  He’s the guy who put the hammer down on the both-sidesing bullshit in our press, and who was highlighted here recently (many new subscriptions resulted).

    In his weekly ā€œletter from the editor,ā€ under the headline ā€œOur Trump reporting upsets some readers, but there arenā€™t two sides to facts

    https://presswatchers.org/2024/04/an-interview-with-a-newsroom-leader-who-speaks-the-truth-about-donald-trump/

    Maybe that helped break the recent NPR story.

  12. 12.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @NotMax: It is one thing for some to hear of “executive time” and fill in that space with whatever they think E time means, another to hear he can’t stay awake when his future is at stake. As I said the other day, I never had a problem staying awake in court, too much was on the line.

  14. 14.

    TBone

    JFC!Ā Ā 

    “A resolution awaiting approval from the state House could keep Arizonaā€™s Supreme Court justices on the bench, even if voters decide to reject them on the ballot in November.

    Democratic activists have encouraged Arizonans to vote against retaining Arizona Supreme Court Justices Clint Bolick and Kathryn H. King after they voted to enforce the 1864 abortion ban last week.

    But a Senate resolution would do away with Arizonaā€™s judicial retention elections, allowing superior, appellate and Supreme Court judges to essentially have lifelong terms. Currently, those judges are appointed through a merit selection process and face retention elections every four to six years.
    https://www.azcentral.com/s…

    And it would be retroactive. So if the judges are voted out – they stay forever.”

  15. 15.

    Martin

    Regarding the high speed rail projects here in CA – there’s not many people that follow these things that believe the Vegas Route is going to work. The Brightline plan has some big problems.

    1. It’s going to use the I-15 right of way which won’t allow for high speed trains over most of its length. There’s only about a 20 mile stretch that the trains can go over 110MPH. As such, the end-end journey will take about as long as the LA-SF run is planned to, despite being considerably shorter.
    2. The LA endpoint is in Rancho Cucamonga, which has Metrolink connection to LA, but isn’t really easy to access for most people in the region. That service can be upgraded, but those upgrades aren’t included in the plan (unlike with CA HSR where a LOT of the funding goes to connecting services).

    One of the lingering problems even with the CA HSR plan is how it competes with air travel. I used to routinely take flights from Orange County to Oakland for work meetings – 7AM up, and 4PM or so back, with there being a flight generally every hour. It’s an hour-ish flight. Southwest boards pretty quickly, and no checked bags. CA HSR will still struggle to compete with that even with its 2:15 LA-SF time and even if it does have hourly trains. What’s the overhead time getting to your local airport vs getting to Union Station (or in the case of the Vegas train, getting to Rancho). One solution to this is once HSR opens up to ban regional flights in the state between HSR stops – so no LA-SF flights. This is what France is doing, but it’s unclear if CA even has the authority to do that. It definitely doesn’t have the authority to do that with Las Vegas. So can CA continue to internalize the full travel costs (pollution) for those flights or will they just undermine these other travel options.

    The Vegas route is a bit of a shame because a proper high speed route from LA to Vegas wouldn’t really be all that hard especially if it branched off from the CA HSR route in Palmdale where it’s already past the difficult mountains and where buying right of way is pretty cheap there in the high desert. Well, cheap form the perspective of California, and expensive from the perspective of Brightline. But having the federal funds flowing into Brightline likely prevents that other option from ever being developed.

    Transit usually needs to have a compelling benefit to travelers to get them to choose it. If you cut enough corners on it, and eliminate the compelling benefit, it pretty much just fails. It needs to be cheaper, or more convenient, or faster, or more pleasant, etc. CA HSR achieves that mainly by serving communities that have no real air travel. There’s millions of people in the Central Valley with no real air connectivity and rely on LA/SF/Oakland for that and HSR connects all of these. But LA-SF probably needs air travel to be choked off somehow – or those costs reflect the full environmental cost of flying which would at least make HSR more economical. I don’t see any way to make the Brightline Vegas route make sense unless there were slots on the train itself.

  16. 16.

    TBone

    Jorts the Cat xit to Governor Bill Lee about his anti-union screed

    Cry louder Baby Bill. Canā€™t hear you over the cheers of the workers who just showed you who runs things in TN

  17. 17.

    Suzanne

    @OzarkHillbilly: Right?! FFS. He spent yesterday falling asleep and ripping farts, and apparently the media is still gonna pretend that He Became President That Day.

  18. 18.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Feature, not a bug: Rise in pregnant women turned away from US emergency rooms, papers show

    One woman miscarried in the restroom lobby of a Texas emergency room as front desk staff refused to admit her to the hospital.

    Another woman learned that her fetus had no heartbeat at a Florida hospital, the day after a security guard turned her away from the facility. And in North Carolina, a woman gave birth in a car after an emergency room couldnā€™t offer an ultrasound, and the baby later died.

    Complaints that pregnant women were turned away from US emergency rooms spiked in 2022 after the US supreme court overturned Roe v Wade, federal documents obtained by the Associated Press reveal.

    The cases raise alarms about the state of emergency pregnancy care, especially in states that enacted strict abortion laws and sparked confusion around the treatment doctors can legally provide.

    ā€œIt is shocking, itā€™s absolutely shocking,ā€ said Amelia Huntsberger, an obstetrician/gynecologist in Oregon. ā€œIt is appalling that someone would show up to an emergency room and not receive care ā€“ this is inconceivable.ā€

    And it has happened despite federal mandates that the women be treated. Federal law requires emergency rooms to treat or stabilize patients who are in active labor and provide a medical transfer to another hospital if they donā€™t have the staff or resources to treat them. Medical facilities must comply with the law if they accept funding from the federal government Medicare program.

    The supreme court will hear arguments next Wednesday that could weaken those protections. The Biden administration has sued Idaho over its abortion ban, even in medical emergencies, arguing it conflicts with the federal law.

    ā€œNo woman should be denied the care she needs,ā€ Jennifer Klein, director of the White House gender policy council, said in a statement. ā€œAll patients, including women who are experiencing pregnancy-related emergencies, should have access to emergency medical care required under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act [Emtala].ā€

    Pregnant patients have ā€œbecome ā€˜radioactiveā€™ to emergency departmentsā€ in states with extreme abortion restrictions, said Sara Rosenbaum, a George Washington University health law and policy professor, adding: ā€œThey are so scared of a pregnant patient, that the emergency medicine staff wonā€™t even look. They just want these people gone.ā€

    They’re just women after all, not real people, right?

    eta: more horror stories at the link

  22. 22.

    citizen dave

    For me, R.E.M.’s best album (and not just because it was recording in my state).Ā  https://www.udiscovermusic.com/behind-the-albums/r-e-m-lifes-rich-pageant/Ā  (However I would strongly counter their apostrophe theory with Who’s Next)

    From this link:

    Though itā€™s actually based on an old English idiom, R.E.M. reputedly first encountered the phrase ā€œlifeā€™s rich pageantā€ through watching the 1964 filmĀ A Shot In The Dark, starring Peter Sellers as the hapless fictional French detective Inspector Clouseau. In the film, Clouseau opens a car door and falls into a fountain. In response, the movieā€™s female lead, Maria Gambrelli (played by actress Elke Sommer) says, ā€œYou should get out of these clothes immediately. Youā€™ll catch your death of pneumonia, you will.ā€ To this, Clouseau replies philosophically, ā€œYes, I probably will. But itā€™s all part of lifeā€™s rich pageant, you know.ā€

    R.E.M., however, chose to present the album asĀ LifesĀ Rich Pageant, deliberately omitting the apostrophe. Nearly all contractions used by R.E.M. lacked apostrophes, though, in this case, ā€œlifeā€™sā€ was a possessive. Peter Buck later stated: ā€œWe all hate apostrophes. Michael insisted, and I agreed, that thereā€™s never been a good rock album thatā€™s had an apostrophe in the title.ā€

  25. 25.

    What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?

    Sounds like Volkswagen America is now a union shop so that’s some good news.

     

    @Martin: Can’t speak for CA because I don’t know the geography intimately but here in DC the train station is much more accessible than any of the airports, you can show up like 10-15 minutes before your train leaves rather than 1.5 hours. There’s a dining car so you get food and drink on your own timeline. I’m only 5’8″ and 153 lbs and fit in a modern day coach seat reasonably comfortably, but still the seats on the train are more comfortable. The train has advantages.

    I’d love a high speed rail line from here to Chicago with stops in Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and if they could justify a jog to the North for it, Detroit, plus a few smaller cities in between.

  26. 26.

    Suzanne

    @citizen dave: I would probably rank Lifes Rich Pageant as their third-best album (after Automatic and Document), but that is still rarefied air.

    New Adventures in Hi-Fi is #4, and is incredibly underrated.

  28. 28.

    Betty

    @Martin: I was thinking all the congestion on the east coast is likely going to hinder high speed rail although talk of a line from Philly to Pittsburgh has been floating around for a while. Lots of opportunity for progress in less congested areas.

  33. 33.

    Rusty

    @Suzanne: And it would include Manchester NH.Ā  Many of our Republican state elected officials have bitterly opposed even extending the Boston public rail system to Nashua and Manchester (southern NH is now effectively an outer suburb of greater Boston).Ā  It’s SOCIALISM!!!Ā  WHATS WRONG WITH MORE HIGHWAY LANES!!!!

    It will have to be all federal dollars, we can’t even fund our public schools with our broken tax system here, let alone something like high speed rail.Ā  Sigh.

  35. 35.

    citizen dave

    @Suzanne: I probably shouldn’t have said “for me the best” because it’s all subjective, right?Ā  Just looked at the DocumentĀ tracklist and it’s right there with Lifes Rich PageantĀ for sure (for me); and Fables as well.Ā  They started to lose me with Automatic.Ā Ā Not coming down on them at all, though.Ā  For some years there I always thought U2 and R.E.M. were the best rock bands going of their generation.

  36. 36.

    What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?

    @Suzanne: Hadn’t seen that but it would do. Just a spur line to the West from Detroit. If it went to Grand Rapids before jogging south that would be ideal. Then launch into another loop to Chicago Indianapolis Minneapolis and Milwaukee. Maybe loop in KC if that’s feasible.

  38. 38.

    kalakal

    @citizen dave:

    We all hate apostrophes. Michael insisted, and I agreed, that thereā€™s never been a good rock album thatā€™s had an apostrophe in the title.ā€

    Have to disagree with them there

    Who’s NextĀ 

    Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club BandĀ 

    It’s only Rock ‘n Roll

  39. 39.

    cain

    @Betty:

    HSR is good for the east coast given population density and the relative closeness of big cities.

    I would love to see HSR between Seattle or Vancouver, BC and San Francisco with a stop in Portland. Portland to Salt Lake City and Phoenix.

    I disagree with Martin in regards to competition when regional flights because you spend 2 hours waiting for a 30 minutes flight. Plus cramped quarters and no food. I can bring my own food and snacks in relative spacious seats and also work on my computer.

    It has none of the relative anxiety you find in an airport.

  40. 40.

    Suzanne

    @Rusty:

    WHATS WRONG WITH MORE HIGHWAY LANES!!!!

    If we donā€™t build more highway lanes, how am I supposed to drive my $95K F-series truck (with not a single scratch in the bed) at 90mph and awe the ladies with my masculinity?

    I’m sorry, I donā€™t have much respect for the communities that want to grow their tax base and their property valuesā€¦. but not make any investments in that community.

  42. 42.

    Betty Cracker

    I’m baking a birthday cake for my brother today. It’s the biggest project I’ve taken on since the butter lamb, and I hope I am up to the task! I may just do the sponges today and deal with the icing and assembly tomorrow prior to the gang’s arrival. That way I won’t have to bother with overnight storage since I lack a proper cake stand.

  44. 44.

    TBone

    @LiminalOwl: šŸ‘ for the state to be able to keep ALL the proceeds over and above their tax lien seems ludicrous.Ā  An idea: once you’re a certain age, property taxes could cease altogether.Ā  Say, age 60.Ā  A girl can dream…if we “fair share” tax the wealthy and their stock trades, we wouldn’t miss the income.

  47. 47.

    TBone

    @Betty Cracker: good plan.Ā  I don’t own a cake stand either, so I simply invert an extra large, metal mixing bowl over the cake platter.Ā  Works pretty good.Ā  Keeps hubby outta the icing too (I can hear if he tries to lift it off the granite countertop šŸ˜‚).

  48. 48.

    cain

    @TBone: detaching paying for schools and finding other means to pay for it would be better. Plus it removes the inequality of how some schools get better funding because of higher property taxes due to demand.

  50. 50.

    TBone

    @cain: yes.Ā  I’m trying to say that seniors shouldn’t be forced out of the homes they spent lifetimes paying for over a few thousand in back taxes.Ā  That’s ludicrous (read the article and you’ll see that woman fell behind and was forced out of her home over a $2,000 shortfall that ballooned because of interest and fees).Ā  Then the state keeps ALL of the proceeds from selling her home? WTF

  56. 56.

    TBone

    @NotMax: ā¤ļøā¤ļøā¤ļø me and mom used to dance to that album, her in go go boots, me jumping up and down

  66. 66.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    Darned power went out about a half hour ago. Local to us so we’re probably fooked for a few hours. Battery backups good for about another hour.

    Happy 4/20 and good morning!

  68. 68.

    Rusty

    @TBone: The flip side is it would only .ake the housing shortage worse.Ā  Older, singles or couples living in large homes that are cheap with no taxes amd so they don’t move to smaller, more efficient homes.Ā  I don’t want people forced out, but no taxes creates the wrong incentives.

  69. 69.

    MomSense

    Fingers crossed, jackals.Ā  Sending contract to seller.Ā  Seller was away yesterday without internet access and back today.Ā  My broker called the house inspector she works with and he had already done an inspection on this house and said it’s immaculate.

    Any jackals visiting Central Maine you have a place to stay!

  74. 74.

    TBone

    @MomSense: great!Ā  I would caution you to have an independent home inspection, however.Ā  I got burned using one connected to the realtor (they want to make the sale easy for their buddy).

  77. 77.

    RaflW

    I’m still mad that Scott Walker cancelled the (mildly) high speed rail project that would have connected St. Paul/Twin Cities to Chicago via Milwaukee.

    In the good news dept, it does appear that at least our second daily regular-speed train on that segment should start before the end of 2024. It may seem small, but that doubling of frequency & choice may more than double ridership over time by offering sufficiently different departure times, and just the flexibility to maybe extend or head off early, etc.

  78. 78.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @Martin: Not currently, but for years I was involved in metro and regional transit issues (mainly as a neighborhood and institutional participant and representative). It was always frustrating to deal with the amount of wishful thinking on the one hand (e.g., train zealots), and the cynical conniving on the other (mainly politicians and contractors). Outcomes like you predict here were the rule, with termination/connection points that barely, sorta look possible in the abstract, but that everyone knew would never work in reality because they just wouldn’t meet the people’s needs. The money would get spent, lives would be upended, and transit would take yet another black eye.

  79. 79.

    Rusty

    @TBone: My parents are the perfect example.Ā  They live in a 4 bedroom suburban house and just got themselves on a wait list for a one bedroom apartment in an assisted living facility near us.Ā  That house will now be available to a family with kids that can’t live in a one bedroom.Ā  If they stayed (and many more like them), then housing prices would only contine to rise in their town because of the more limited supply.

  82. 82.

    Omnes Omnibus

    On behalf of all the college radio people, I feel it is necessary to speak up for Murmur and Reckoning.

  83. 83.

    TBone

    @Rusty: yes but there is no additional housing stock as a result of that. One home sold, one home bought/rented.Ā  Ā It doesn’t alleviate the shortage – it provides first time/family buyers large houses they maybe can’t afford.Ā  The prices are already ridiculous.

  88. 88.

    Ken

    GOP Rep. Nehls: After we pass this, what do we really have to do for the rest of the year?

    Betcha a dollar that Rep. Nehls wrote all his college essays the night before they were due.

  91. 91.

    Baud

    @TBone:

    Seniors will still be forced out of their homes for back taxes.Ā  The government just doesn’t get to keep the excess.

  94. 94.

    TBone

    Postulating on how to love thy neighbor properly šŸ™„ Let the Caturday mockery commence.

    https://crooksandliars.com/2024/04/maga-pastor-burns-border-needs-fence

    If there’s a wall in heaven, if there’s a gate, we call it the pearly gates in heaven, right?

    And not everybody can go there.

    There has to be certain qualifications to enter inside the heavenly gates.

    And so part of the, and the number one way to enter into the heavenly gates, the pearly gates, the Bible says, is the belief in the Lord Jesus Christ to accept him as our Lord and savior.

    John chapter three, verse 16, he that, and so we know without a shadow of a doubt, if heaven has a gate, if heaven has qualifications to enter it, to accept Jesus as our Lord and our savior, knowing that he died on the cross and he rose three days later, and he’s coming back again for his church, we the church, then there should be a wall or a gate here in the United States of America.

  95. 95.

    TBone

    @Baud: that’s why my dream is to end property taxes at a certain age.Ā  An age jubilee, if you will.Ā  It’d be a Baud! platform winner!

  96. 96.

    Betty Cracker

    @eclare: Two layers of vanilla cake sponge with chocolateĀ buttercream frosting, decorated with a few dashes of sprinkles and vanilla frosting script honoring the birthday boy, who also recently got a promotion at work! Not sure I’ll have enough room to allude to that. I could if I were doing a sheet cake, but his Platonic Ideal of a birthday cake is layered and round, so I’m going with that. Will post a pic if I get a chance!

  97. 97.

    Gretchen

    My daughter got an email from President Biden last week saying youā€™re welcome, your loans are forgiven. She was in the public service program where you take a public service job, make all your payments for 10 years and whatā€™s left is forgiven at the end. The program didnā€™t work well, had trouble tracking payments and getting credit for what you paid. Biden straightened it out so it worked as promised. Not a freebie, just competent keeping the government end of the bargain. Such a relief!

  104. 104.

    zhena gogolia

    @Gretchen: Speaking of which, I’ve been struck by the fact that the huge supply chain problems predicted when the Baltimore bridge collapsed have not materialized, at least as far as I’ve seen. I assume this is because of a hell of a lot of quiet, competent work behind the scenes by our present government.

  105. 105.

    MomSense

    @Gretchen:

    Hooray! Ā I wish Americans werenā€™t so reactionary because competent, reasonable, mature governance should be a great selling point.

  108. 108.

    frosty

    @Martin: ā€‹Great. And if LA to Vegas fails, kiss off HSR for the rest of the country as a result of that bad publicity. A couple of days ago I saw a map comparing passenger rail lines in Europe (very dense) with the US (very thin). My first reaction was that there is nowhere in Europe as unpopulated as Wyoming. HSR makes no sense for most of the country.

    But you’re right, when it’s done it needs to be done right. Rancho Cucamonga? By the time you drive there from the LA Basin you’re well on your way to Vegas. Without paying for parking or schlepping your luggage from the car to the station.

  110. 110.

    schrodingers_cat

    OT Gardening question. I got some trees, but I am too busy to plant them this weekend. Can I put them in large pots outdoors until they are ready to plant. How long can I keep them that way. They are dogwoods and viburnums. Thanks.

  111. 111.

    cmorenc

    @Baud:

    Seniors will still be forced out of their homes for back taxes.Ā  The government just doesnā€™t get to keep the excess.

    Recall that the rising property taxes that accompanied the rising property prices in middle-class suburban housing in California that provided the political fuel for Prop 13, which limited property taxes to 1% of assessed value and prohibited any annual increase of more than 2%.Ā  Precisely to inhibit government from forcing people (especially the olds) to sell their house due to unaffordable property tax increases.

  113. 113.

    eclare

    @narya:

    She should whip up one of those white chocolate collars like they do on GBBS!

    /s

    Seriously writing on the side is a great idea!Ā  Birthday on top, business on the side.

  114. 114.

    Starfish

    @schrodingers_cat: First, I am jealous that you get to plant this weekend, and I get inches of snow.

    Second, I think with trees, that the older they are when you plant them, the longer you have to baby them so they get well established outside.

    So if you had your tree in a planter for two years, then it is going to take a couple of years for it to get established, and you want to fertilize it and water it and really take care of it when it is outside.

  124. 124.

    frosty

    @Rusty: ā€‹Maglev. Ugh. It will be the death of HSR. If you want to get something done don’t start with a technology that is still experimental, at lest in North America.

    My pet peeve: You can’t get from Washington to Philly in 21 minutes if you’re making three stops in between. People who calculate these travel times divide the distance by the top speed and don’t account for stops or slowing down in the cities.

    There’s been a Maglev line from DC to Baltimore in the planning stages for at least 20 years.

  127. 127.

    smith

    @cmorenc: Where I live, property taxes are discounted for people over 65, with an additional discount for seniors with low incomes. I’m sure a lot of places do this.

    I agree with others above that forcing old people out of their homes will do nothing to ease the housing shortage. If affordable housing is scarce, you solve it by creating more affordable housing. Also by clamping down on developers and big investors who skew the housing stock toward the higher end.

  128. 128.

    Baud

    There was that Star Trek TNG episode about a planet where they made old people kill themselves.Ā  Maybe that’ll solve the housing shortage.

  129. 129.

    Another Scott

    Well, actually, there are still things that Congress needs to do before September 30.

    A big one is FAA Reauthorization that ends May 10.

    A bigger one is the FY25 budget which starts on October 1…

    We don’t want the House paralyzed after this Supplemental vote.

    Forward!!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  131. 131.

    smith

    @Baud: All this generational hostility toward Boomers who supposedly have sucked up all the nation’s resources has made me thankful that we’re running out of ice floes.

  134. 134.

    Baud

    @smith:

    A lot of it started organically, but I think much of it these days is right wing propaganda designed to discourage young people from joining with allies against rich people and fascists.

  135. 135.

    JMG

    Even current low-speed rail is the best, or rather least worst, way to go between Boston and New York simply because auto traffic at both ends is so horrendous and travel by air leaves you far away from your destination in NYC. So if they were ever to start serious high speed rail in this country, this route would be the best place to do so.

  136. 136.

    smith

    @Baud: Certainly the apparently widespread belief that old people are living high on the hog on Social Security that they somehow didn’t earn clearly has political roots. Also the belief that you don’t have to pay anything for Medicare.

  138. 138.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Baud: Is there really a nationwide shortage. I am so old that I remember when everyone was complaining about how the real estate market was fucked because of the glut in housing following the Great recession.

  139. 139.

    TBone

    I’m making DIY enchiladas today.Ā  Half will go into the freezer to be baked another day.Ā  Baked another day šŸ˜

  142. 142.

    p.a.

    Reconstruction of the /Fables/of the Reconstruction

    That is all.

     

    Also too: w’at’s th’ issue wi’ ‘postrophes?

  144. 144.

    TBone

    ‘Burn ‘Em Up O’Connor’ is on TCM followed by ‘Patrolling the Ether’.Ā  They’re not being subtle today šŸ˜‚

    10PM: ‘The Bad News Bears’ silly fun

  145. 145.

    smith

    @schrodingers_cat: Rightwingers are so cognitively flexible! It’s the same thought process that makes Biden both senile and an evil genius, or Obama both incompetent and an evil genius.

  146. 146.

    stinger

    @schrodingers_cat: Are they bare root, potted, balled-and-burlapped? Do you have a cool, sheltered place like a garage? How long before you can get them in the ground?

    If they already have soil around their roots (potted or b-and-b), they should be all right as-is for a few days. If bare root, pot them up (or leave them how they arrived if mail ordered), but again I’d try to get them in the ground as soon as possible.

  147. 147.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @kalakal:Ā ā€‹Campaign song: Crimina Fartuna, by Churl Ooff.

    Campaign speech: The Gettysburg Undress:

    OMG OMG OMG! Other than Depends and a bleach-soaked buttplug, the God-Emperor Of Dung is nekkid!!ā€‹

  149. 149.

    TBone

    @Jackie: he and Ginni had to be home to greet the big truck that brings the industrial sized shredder and the thingies that wipe your hard drives clean.Ā  They’re still working on how to delete from the cloud…

  150. 150.

    Geminid

    @cain: One thing I like about the proposed high speed rail route from Charlotte to Atlanta is that it serves Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson Airport. That ties into Atlanta’s well-integrated MARTA subway and bus system.

    The Infrastructure bill including $66 billion for Amtrak. At the time, Atlanta’s chief said this exceeded capital investment in tbe system since its creation. Some of this will go towards improving service on existion routes, and more will go towards expanding a service map that has remained static while the nation’s population grew by over 120 million people.

    It seems like the high speed rail component may be sufficient to get projects moving, but I think there will have to be an Infrastructure 2.0 bill to fully fund new high speed rail routes. I expect Congressional Democrats are working on one.

    In the meantime, 60 mph stretches of line can be in many cases be improved to allow 90 mph trains. I think some routes out West already have 120 and 150 mph speed limits.

    Another impediment to faster rail service are conflicts with freight trains. It seems like some them can be resolved by adding tracks, but regulatory changes may be needed as well. Secretary Buttegieg may be working to ease this problem, and it might require a legislative fix.

  152. 152.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Baud:Ā ā€‹McGovern is right.

    McGovern was “Right From The Start” in 1972. ;^D For all the good that did him. (Or those of us who busted our butts going door to door down the rowhouse blocks of Baltimore for the ticket that fall.)

    (NB I got to meet George McGovern in his Senate office in early 1973. He seemed genuinely moved when the political club we formed from the ashes of the effort presented him with a modest check to help retire his campaign debt. A fine and decent man, and a certified war hero, who deserved so much better…)

  153. 153.

    schrodingers_cat

    @stinger: They have soil around them, they are wrapped in plastic. We got them from horticultural dept at the nearby University that was giving them away forĀ  Earth Day.

    2 viburnums and 2 dogwoods. The branches are about 2 to 3 feet tall.

  154. 154.

    Jackie

    This is interesting: Apparently the FEC has a loophole to help the GQP with funding workarounds:

    Daily Beast: ā€œFilings this week showed that while Trumpā€™s numbers do appear to have ticked up last month, his political apparatus needed to spend a stunning amount of money to get there. Itā€™s a long-running and importantā€”but little-noticedā€”negative trendline for Trump, as outsized operational costs have been gobbling up a large share of the money raised, a vicious cycle that can become increasingly hard to break.ā€

    ā€œOn top of that, the high-dollar Trump-RNC joint fundraising machine that launched last month appears to have failed to deliver on its main mission, at least in its early stages. That committee is the cash-strapped RNCā€™s big, belated hope to finally start accumulating the money it has desperately needed to properly fund, staff, and win a costly and crucial election cycle nationwide.ā€

    ā€œThat committeeā€”called ā€˜Trump 47 Victoryā€™ā€”pulled in nearly $24 million in megadonor dollars last month. About $10.5 million went to the RNC, with the overwhelming majority going to three accounts that are generally unusable for political activity.ā€

    ā€œJust $1.5 million made its way to the RNCā€™s election account, or about 6 percent of the total raised.ā€

    The Daily Beast article is behind a paywall, but more details here from RawStory: https://www.rawstory.com/trump-legal-fees-2667825071/

  156. 156.

    eclare

    @Geminid:

    That would be great for Charlotte!Ā  When I flew B class from ATL to Croatia a few years ago my tickets from MEM to ATL were about one third of the cost.

    Yeah I could have driven six hours to ATL, but there is the parking issue, and on the return flight that would have been brutal to drive home.

    I assume Delta is fighting this, because if Charlotte is like MEM, Delta gouges consumers who want a smooth, one airline only, check bags only once, flight.

    Eta>Ā  I know what the cost was because I was the only one who had to book a MEM ATL ticket.Ā  I met a friend in ATL to go to Croatia.

  158. 158.

    wjca

    @cain: I would love to see HSR between Seattle or Vancouver, BC and San Francisco with a stop in Portland. Portland to Salt Lake City and Phoenix.

    Why do people keep talking about HSR to San Francisco?Ā  That’s just nuts — do they never look at a map?

    If you are going to do sane HSR in California, you run up the Central Valley, maybe with a branch line to Oakland.Ā  And judging from the fiasco that is our current HSR project, massive skepticism is in order.Ā  I’d rather my tax dollars went to finance HSR on the far side of the country, where it makes some sense.

  159. 159.

    TBone

    @Baud: šŸ˜† I also immediately thought of our President’s fondness for ice cream and the happy memes I have in regards thereto.

  160. 160.

    Ken

    @Jackie: ā€œJust $1.5 million made its way to the RNCā€™s election account, or about 6 percent of the total raised.ā€

    When Trump hears about this, he’ll be furious. That’s his money, not the RNC’s.

  162. 162.

    wjca

    @TBone: Theme song for the orange fraud

    Better yet (with abject apologies to the Beach Boys):

    Be True to Your Fool

    When I drive around the other parts of the town,Ā 

    I got my decal in back,

    So be true to your fool!Ā 

  163. 163.

    Scout211

    Freed from the House GOP caucus, Ken Buck is spreading the word aboutĀ Moscow Marjorie again.

    This time he is responding to her disgusting display in the committee hearing this week. Ā You know, ā€œthe Nazis are taking over Ukraine, Mr. Snyderā€ performance.

    ā€œWell, ā€˜Moscow Marjorieā€™ has reached a new low,ā€ Buck said, after Hill showed footage of Russian TV personalities claiming that Greene is ā€œrunning Congressā€ and ā€œbelieves that Americans should help Putin win.ā€

    He added that during the Russian Revolution, ā€œAmerican journalists who were writing glowing reports about Russia at the timeā€ were called ā€ā€˜useful idiots,ā€™ and I donā€™t even think that Marjorie reaches that level of being a ā€˜useful idiotā€™ here.ā€

    Buck said that Greene is ā€œmouthing the Russian propagandaā€ and ā€œreally hurting American foreign policy in the process.ā€

    Sheā€™s acting completely irresponsibly,ā€ Buck said. ā€œWhen history looks at this period of time, Russia invaded Ukraine, Ukraine is fighting for its freedom, and we should be with the freedom fighters in this war.ā€

  165. 165.

    Scout211

    @Ken: When Trump hears about this, heā€™ll be furious. Thatā€™s his money, not the RNCā€™s.

    Lara will take care of it with a little creative paperwork. I hear that the Trump family has some experience with that.

  166. 166.

    Geminid

    @eclare: The proposed Charlotte-Atlanta route would also stop at the Greeneville-Spartanburg airport. Eventually, the idea is to extend high speed service through Raleigh, Richmond and DC.

  171. 171.

    wjca

    @Ken:

    At least Rep Nehls makes clear that he has no interest in passing a budget for next year.Ā  And is fine with a government shutdown from October 1st until whenever they get around to a Continuing Resolution.

    Or maybe he is just so ignorant of his job that he doesn’t realize that they are supposed to do those little tasks.

  172. 172.

    stinger

    @schrodingers_cat: You should be able to keep them, wrapped up the way they are, in a sheltered location — mainly out of the sun, which will overheat the plastic. Maybe up to a week, check the soil occasionally — it should be just slightly damp. You don’t want to waterlog the roots or let them dry out, or encourage the plants to start growing. They should be dormant right now. Good luck — send pics!

  173. 173.

    Glidwrith

    @TBone: Iā€™ve read that some states (TN? KY?), once a home has been paid for, the tax revenue goes down. So they will start sending inspectors to claim something is not in compliance and harass the homeowners into moving or seizing the property outright so it can be sold for higher property tax revenues.

  174. 174.

    Soprano2

    @MomSense: That’s good, here too many people don’t do that and they end up with a large repair bill they didn’t count on. We wish a sewer line inspection was mandatory when a house was sold, but that will never happen. We had one guy get mad when he found out the house he was renting had a septic tank even though it had sewer access so he was paying a sewer bill. Did the owners never have that septic tank pumped? šŸ˜± Now we require all houses to connect when they get access, but we haven’t always done that even though it is required by ordinance. They thought it would happen when the house was sold. That was a bad plan, but that way they didn’t have to be the bad guy who made people spend money to connect.

  175. 175.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @TBone:

    Awhile back, I looked up the evangelical response to the parable of the Good Samaritan.Ā  I couldn’t figure out how they could square Jesus’s direct statement that a heathen who helps strangers will get into Heaven, but the religiously devout who don’t won’t.

    There are two main ways they handle it.Ā  1)Ā  They don’t.Ā  They just ignore it and keep on doing what they want to do.Ā  2)Ā  They interpret the parable that, since it was Jesus who was helped, you only have to help Christians.Ā  And of course, they think only their little cult count as Christians.Ā  You’re Jesus-approved to hate the Other.

  177. 177.

    TBone

    @Glidwrith: that seems hard to believe ugh. I don’t know the property tax laws in any state but mine, but paying off your mortgage here has no such effect thank gawd.

  179. 179.

    wjca

    @cmorenc: Recall that the rising property taxes that accompanied the rising property prices in middle-class suburban housing in California that provided the political fuel for Prop 13, which limited property taxes to 1% of assessed value and prohibited any annual increase of more than 2%.Ā  Precisely to inhibit government from forcing people (especially the olds) to sell their house due to unaffordable property tax increases.

    And the result has been to keep working age people in their existing homes, rather than moving to take a better job, just because of the jump in property taxes involved.Ā  (The assessed value is adjusted when a home sells.)Ā  Not to mention being a disaster for schools (mostly funded by property taxes), because their costs rise with inflation, but their revenue is constrained.

    There is a real problem here.Ā  But restricting property taxes isn’t the way to solve it.

  181. 181.

    Miss Bianca

    @Scout211:

    Jesus Christ in the Balkans, when *Ken Buck* starts sounding like a rational human being, you know the GOP is in deep shit. Or maybe just deeply shitty, which would be per usual.

  182. 182.

    smith

    @Frankensteinbeck: Another one I’ve seen is when they cast themselves in the role of the injured man, and Jaysus as the Samaritan who comes along to save his precious soul. The whole transaction stays within Christianity, no filthy Others involved at all.

  185. 185.

    2liberal

    @kalakal:

    Have to disagree with them there

    Whoā€™s NextĀ 

    Sgt. Pepperā€™s Lonely Hearts Club BandĀ 

    Itā€™s only Rock ā€˜n Roll

     

    Predicted response:Ā  OK Boomer.Ā  Ā (i am a boomer)

  189. 189.

    TBone

    @TBone:

    I come in on a night train
    With an arm full of box cars
    On the wings of a magpie
    Cross a hooligan night
    I busted up a chifforobe
    Way out by the cocomo
    Cooked up a mess a mulligan
    And got into a fight

    Whistlin’ past the graveyard
    Steppin’ on a crack
    A mean mother hubbard papa one eyed jack

    You probably seen me sleepin’
    Out by the railroad tracks
    Go on and ask the Prince Of Darkness
    What about all that smoke
    Come from the stack
    Sometimes I kill myself a jackel
    Suck out all the blood
    Steal myself a stationwagon
    Drivin’ through the mud

    I want to whistlin’ past the graveyard
    Steppin’ on a crack
    I’m mean mother hubbard papa one eyed jack

    I know you seen my headlights
    And the honkin’ of my horn
    I’m callin’ out my bloodhounds
    Chase the devil through the corn
    Last night I chugged the Mississippi
    Now that suckers dry as a bone
    I’m born in a taxi cab
    I’m never comin’ home

    Whistlin’ past the graveyard
    Steppin’ on a crack
    I’m mean mother hubbard papa one eyed jack

    My eyes have seen the glory
    Of the drainin’ of the ditch
    I only come to Baton Rouge
    To find myself a witch
    I’m-ona snatch me up a
    Couple of ’em every time it rains
    You see a locomotive
    Probably thinkin’ its a train

    Whistlin’ past the graveyard
    Steppin’ on a crack
    I’m a mean mother hubbard papa one eyed jack

    What you think is the sunshine
    Is just a twinkle in my eye
    That ring around my finger
    Called the 4th of July
    When I get a little bit lonesome
    And a tear falls from my cheek
    There’s gonna be an ocean in
    The middle of the week

    Whistlin’ past the graveyard
    Steppin’ on a crack
    I’m mean mother hubbard papa one eyed jack

    I come into town on a night train
    Arm full of box cars
    On the wings of a magpie
    Cross a hooligan night
    I’m gona tear me off a rainbow
    And wear it for a tie
    I never told the truth
    So I can never tell a lie

    Whistlin’ past the graveyard
    Steppin’ on a crack
    A mean mother hubbard papa one eyed Jack

  190. 190.

    cain

    @Geminid

    Can’t wait to get rid of this MAGA strain and have reasonable politicians that can with finding the best path for implementing.

  191. 191.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @trnc:

    Also, since his speeches are all the same grievance fest anyway, his campaign could set up rallies and play video of his Gettysburg speech on a jumbotron.

    True, but then Trump wouldn’t get the narcissistic fix he so desperately needs.

  192. 192.

    cain

    @sdhays: maybe we can get that idiot on Fox News who is busy doingĀ  investigating of jurors to find the answer.

    He apparently has time.

  193. 193.

    Harrison Wesley

    @TBone: Wow – almost makes me want to move back!Ā  I wonder if the Uncovering PA bro has put up anything about it.

  194. 194.

    wjca

    @TBone: in my dream, we fair share tax the wealthy and their stock trades to outpace any shortfall.

    Must be very sure that yhose tax changes are in place, not just legislated, but being collected, before you touch the property taxes.Ā  Because experience shows that otherwise you’ll get “property tax relief” without the compensating tax increases.

  195. 195.

    TBone

    @Harrison Wesley: We welcome you with open arms šŸ˜ I want to move outta rural central and back down to Chester County but the real estate wars are daunting.Ā  I need food, culture, trips into Philly more often, and South Philly-baked bread

  196. 196.

    TBone

    @wjca: it’s a dream.Ā  Details are important though.Ā  We have a major enforcement problem all over the place. In my dream, we stimulate the economy hiring WPA people to think of the pitfalls and then get to work preventing them. This admin hears us. Let’s give Dems at least three more trifecta terms.Ā  Dream BIG!

  197. 197.

    Harrison Wesley

    @TBone: Chester County?Ā  Y’all better hit the lottery before moving there.Ā  If you’re not into Center City (was affordable for me, as a single old dude who didn’t mind living in a place the size of a postage stamp), the other outlying counties have (OK, used to have) places that were affordable.Ā  Or you could commit PA heresy and move to…..New Jersey

    ETA: Rural/central PA has a lot of good stuff, but I guess it depends on where you are.Ā  I wouldn’t mind living in Harrisburg or Carlisle or Lancaster, but none of them have what Philly and the Iron City have.Ā  (Yes, I’m a long-term Philly guy, but my parents were yinzers)

  199. 199.

    Mai Naem mobile

    @TBone: the fact that the Arizona senate is proposing this means the GOP is truly worried about the judges not being retained. I’d have to look it up but its close to 0% chance that a judge in AZ won’t be retained. There may have been 2 judges in the last 20+ years who weren’t retained. A lot of people don’t even bother voting in that section of the ballot because it’s too much work to look them all up.

  200. 200.

    La Nonna

    Interesting about property tax in the US, in Italy there is NO property tax on your primary residence, only local rubbish and streetlighting tax (in our case about 100 eu per year), but second, third homes, etc., are heavily taxed.Ā  Public schooling is paid for by the federal govt., equally funded throughout the country, with equal curricula available publicly nationwide.Ā  The same for universal healthcare, available in all its forms regardless of urban/rural location.Ā  All paid for by a national income tax of about 30% (horrors to Americans), but extra low levels of homelessness and literally NO medical bankruptcies are the obvious upsides.

  201. 201.

    jowriter

    @MomSense: Found your house in a minute. Ā It’s lovely! Ā We’ve had a place Downeast year-round part-time for 25 years–family ties in Expensive County NY keep us there a bit still. Ā The place was old but well cared for and we’ve made our own changes gradually, always respectful of its 1870s vintage. Ā  Maine is beautiful just about everywhere and settling next to a John Calvin Stephens-designed library sounds just short of heaven. Wishing you well with a satisfactory inspection and a motivated seller.

  202. 202.

    TBone

    @Mai Naem mobile: yup we have judicial retention elections here in PA also.Ā  Very few voters decide. My guess is that’s about to change (my hope I should say).Ā  And NOT the way the rethugs are trying to change it by making them lifetime errors, oops, jurors.

  204. 204.

    TBone

    @Harrison Wesley: I was raised in Delaware County and only just moved out of it in 2015.Ā  Ā I miss that area and can afford to move but am waiting to see what effect the recent NARA settlement about brokerage fees may be.

    DelCo girl at šŸ’™šŸŽ¶

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RYu5YbdRKL0

    Although I’ve been nationwide and across the pond, it’s home. Lived in Galveston for a year but this damn Yankee needs PA

  206. 206.

    Ruckus

    @TBone:

    What really threw me, and I was glad to see, was the number of veterans ā€” or people who said theyā€™re veterans or in the armed service ā€” that said: ā€œIā€™m so glad you wrote this. When I signed up to defend our country, I was not defending this. I was defending our country, and he doesnā€™t speak for our country.ā€ That was cool. I mean, it was good to see because that was not a small number of people.

    One of the editor’s comments in the article.

    This is one of the clearest ways this concept has been stated. SFB was and is in this for one person and one person only. And he has been that person his entire life.

  207. 207.

    MomSense

    @schrodingers_cat:

    @Miss Bianca:

    Come up! Ā Itā€™s about 15 minutes north east of Waterville. Ā There are beautiful lakes and hills to hike. We can also just sit on the porch and gab!

    The drive to the coast is manageable and that would be fun as well.

  208. 208.

    TBone

    @Ruckus: I’m glad that hit home, that editor dude Chris is setting an example for how to stay on the right track.Ā  If we could ban Fux Lies we’d be getting somewhere too.

  210. 210.

    Harrison Wesley

    @TBone: Born in NJ, grew up in Iran and Saudi Arabia, went to high school in Italy, tried out college with Prestigious Liberal Arts place in Delco, got bounced out, worked for PRR/Penn Central until bounced, worked Phila nonprofts, followed my heart to FL.Ā  During my l-o-o-n-g Philly residence, I lived in Delco (around Sharon Hill), West Philly, Far Northeast, University City, and last stop in Center City.

    Wish you best of luck in home discovery – turns out that I really like a lot of things about FL, but PA’s got it all.

  211. 211.

    TBone

    @Harrison Wesley: *Steve Buscemi voice: HELLO FELLOW DELCONIAN

    I greet you fellow traveler!Ā  I suspected šŸ˜Š you’d know DelCo AND exactly what you’re doing.Ā  I, too, was somewhat of a jack of all trades when young.Ā  It’s not just a location, it’s a state of mind.

  213. 213.

    Melancholy Jaques

    @citizen dave:

    For some years there I always thought U2 and R.E.M. were the best rock bands going of their generation.

    They were, they are.

  215. 215.

    Harrison Wesley

    @TBone: Steve Buscemi, Boardwalk Empire; not Steve Buscemi, The Big Lebowski – right

    ETA: They were Nazis, Dude?

  217. 217.

    Melancholy Jaques

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Those two have held up well for me. I am amazed at times how sophisticated the songs on Murmur are given how young the band was.

  219. 219.

    Ruckus

    @What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?:

    I do live in SoCal and I take the Metro electric train, if not regularly anymore, reasonably often, almost all the way across LA County. It is far cheaper and better than driving that far in many, many ways. I’ve ridden commuter trains in many places, in Europe, the loop elevated train in Chicago, all across Los Angeles are the major ones. The LA Metro system has gotten better over time as there are now 4 underground stations in downtown LA which means traffic is not affected nor does the train have to stop for cross traffic – which it did at one time. Yes parts of the routes do cross streets and traffic does have to stop but that is rather minimal. And depending on the time of day, the train is often faster than driving, sometimes far faster. Far cheaper than the cost of gas as well.

  221. 221.

    A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)

    @wjca: True this! In the Bay Area, trains could go to Oakland or San Jose, or hook into the commuter train which goes up the Peninsula.

  223. 223.

    Ruckus

    @frosty:

    Is LA to Vegas the ends of the line or is there in the background an Ā east extension for the future?

    It’s like the HSR vision of Los Angeles to the bay area, which is already being built. Can it go farther? Sure, why not.

    Many people don’t like the idea of rail traffic because they either have never really traveled by train or have long ago (like me taking a train to the Bay Area from LA. First I had to wait for a bus from the eastern SG Valley area to Union Station. Then we took a bus to Bakersfield. Then we got on a train that took us to Martinez and then another bus to the North Bay. It was cheaper than a flight LAX to SFO but that would still have required a way to get to LAX or parking at a lot a day, and then to Marin County. Plus the train traveled at an average of 45-50 miles an hour. It was about a 14 hr trip. HSR would change that to about 2 1/2 hrs. Add up the LAX-SFO flight time, checkin/wait time, transportation on each end and the train might actually not take much longer.

    My point is that we have to do something. Driving time and gas cost or 14 hrs on current rail system – of which most was on buses, isn’t a good answer. The flight time is not bad but there is having to check in early enough that the flight time may be only about 50% of the trip time and the cost of someone having to pick you up or rent a car. And how crowed are the skies these days? We fly a lot because we don’t have much alternative currently. And can the number of flights be increased? Not a whole lot. And then there is the cost of the planes/jet fuel/crew, and the risk is not zero – although it might not be horrible but add more flights and that risk goes up.

    My entire point is that we can’t continue to deny that we need change. Is it going to be cheap? Not really, but what is? Is there a possibility that the cost per person will go down with HSR? I believe there is. Rail transport is slower than flight, high speed rail is faster than driving. We are limited by airplane safety how many planes we can fly in and out of any city and many cities are close or at their limits. I’ve traveled in trains in Europe decades ago and it was pretty good at the speed of normal train travel. HSR is faster by a bunch. I don’t know if HSR is the answer but what else is a possible better answer? Nothing.

Comments are closed.