Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!

People are complicated. Love is not.

If marriage is the equivalent of selling yourself into slavery, women with self respect should reject the offer.

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

This fight is for everything.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

Oppose, oppose, oppose. Do not congratulate. This is not business as usual.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

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

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

Democrats are back in array!

You cannot love your country only when you win.

It’s a good piece. click on over. but then come back!!

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

Pelosi: “He either is stupid, or he thinks the rest of us are.” Why not both?

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

Let the trolls come, and then ignore them. that’s the worst thing you can do to a troll.

If a good thing happens for a bad reason, it’s still a good thing.

Dear media: perhaps we ought to let Donald Trump speak for himself!

Accountability, motherfuckers.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

Hey hey, RFK, how many kids did you kill today?

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Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Dems Are On A Roll!

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271Comments

  4. 4.

    Chet Murthy

    “Dots”.  He’s talking about South Asians, isn’t he?  Sigh.  “subversive rap music”.  Hell, I’m not much of a fan of Indian music either, but FFS I know it’s not rap, and it’s in languages I don’t speak, so how could I tell it’s subversive?

    What a moral idiot.

  5. 5.

    WereBear

    This is what comes from decades of right wind media assuring people who have regard their state capital as “the city” and have never been there.

    There was nothing to stop them from living in MAGA World, like those millionaires in Disney developments in Florida. Everyone they knew and met and talked to on the phone watched the same channels and had the same thoughts and they keep thinking they are still the Moral Majority.

    Fox has to NOT lie so much now, lest they be sued. Or decide they will make their takeover move again, now that many more are actually watching.

  6. 6.

    WereBear

    On a separate note, I can see normies who plan to vote for Biden in the back of their mind seeing headlines, satisfaction, and moving on. Because so far this century, the Democratic Party and politics nerds have been dodging so many meteors for them. That complacency should end.

    But are people planning a picnic, discovering a former President is now a convicted felon, and not react? This is how I know that, once again, they bump the polls for horse races. It’s not even a science now, except for that poll that went back and asked the same people after the verdict, and more people were dumping the Convicted Felon than keeping him.

  7. 7.

    NotMax

    Media note.

    For those with access to Showtime, old news, but it’s now on Netflix.

    Absolutely in awe of the depth and layers of performance by Benedict Cumberbatch in the first episode of Patrick Melrose. Dunno yet how the rest of the miniseries holds up.

  8. 8.

    WereBear

    @NotMax: I’m a fan and it sounds like his territory, too!

    I am also willing to bail. Took getting BritBox for my birthday to learn how much they used to send mostly the speedy-paced ones across the pond.

    They CAN go slower… much muuuuuuuuch slooooower…

  10. 10.

    NotMax

    Speaking of New Jersey, from downstairs.

    “Complete and total” Dolt 45 endorsed candidate in NJ Republican senatorial primary lost by … 25 points.

    “So much non-winning.”

  12. 12.

    Don

    Is anybody talking about the latest Jon Stewart Daily Show takedown of EVERYBODY? If there is a must watch half-hour, this is it. This is what the MSM should be doing.

  13. 13.

    Don

    @Baud:

    All of them? For the first time, more working class voters identify as Republicans. This is a failure of Democrats. I do not want to support the money people who now own the Dems, but I’m not going to vote for any Republican in my lifetime. So, it’s the Nineties all over again. Where do I go? Fuck ’em all.

  15. 15.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Baud: Fragile white people, of whom this CJ Engel idiot is a prime example.

    C.Jay Engel 🌲
    @contramordor
    The multigenerational California cultural crisis is finally at the front door of our little town. My wife has to avoid certain places now with the kids because of a growing DEI customer base. House goes up for sale this week.

    ………………………

    Local gas station bought up by Dots. No one knows them. They don’t put up Fourth of July decorations. Did nothing for Memorial Day. Play subversive rap music. Zero interest in conversation.

    Wahhhh…

  16. 16.

    TBone

    This is very encouraging. Very encouraging.  We are indeed on a roll and I am chuffed. FBI raids!  Fighting back on behalf of tenants! Woo hoo!

    https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/realpage-rent-price-fixing-probe-escalates-with-fbi-raid/475109

    RealPage’s reach is undeniable. A D.C. lawsuit showed that 60% of apartment buildings in the area set prices using RealPage. In Phoenix, Arizona, 70% of apartment units were owned or managed by companies using its software.

    Over 16 million rental units across the U.S. used RealPage’s algorithm as of a 2020 blog post.

  19. 19.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Baud: Do white people regularly engage in conversation with gas station workers?

    Only when the pump won’t take their debit card.

  20. 20.

    Geminid

    I like how Rep. Clark is highlighting this Discharge Petition. This legislative vehicle was hardly discussed until this Congress. I thought it was used to good effect in the Debt Ceiling wrangle last May and the Foreign Aid bill this Spring.

    Now House Democrats will use it to force action on the Right to Contraception Act. If nothing else, this opens up a good line of attack on the purple l-district Republicans who won’t sign it.

  22. 22.

    Baud

    Salon, via reddit

    I wasn’t dead enough for an abortion”: Texas mom blames Trump for almost losing her life
    If Trump wins in November, “he will make this nightmare a reality nationwide,” says Lauren Miller

  23. 23.

    TBone

    Is HuffPo learning how to do real journalism like ProPublica? Looks that way! 💙

    Now, new disclosures seen by HuffPost shed some light. Just weeks before she issued the ruling, Mizelle had discreetly attended an all-expenses-paid luxury trip from a conservative group whose primary mission is to persuade more federal judges to adopt the use of corpus linguistics. For five days, Mizelle and more than a dozen other federal judges listened to the leading proponents of corpus linguistics in the comfort of The Greenbrier, an ostentatious resort spread out over 11,000 acres of West Virginia hillside.

    The newly formed group that picked up the tab, the Judicial Education Institute, received more than $1 million in startup funding from the billionaire libertarian Charles Koch’s network and DonorsTrust, a nonprofit that has funneled millions in anonymous donations to right-wing causes and has been dubbed “the dark money ATM of the conservative movement.”

    Bonus: Senator Sheldon Whitehouse is quoted

    https://www.huffpost.com/entry/judges-luxury-travel-mask-mandate_n_665e065be4b0a8b68eea43fa

  24. 24.

    TBone

    @OzarkHillbilly: we do. We made fast friends with two at separate stations here.  We get to know cashiers at supermarket also. Hubby likes to get to know people personally and we’ve  struck up lasting friendships that endure even after said friends leave the employ of where we met.  It’s nice to know why they left too.

  25. 25.

    eclare

    Does anyone know what “Dots” stands for in the tweet from the guy in CA?  He said “Dots” bought the local gas station.  I googled and just got a lot of Department of Transportation hits.

  29. 29.

    Geminid

    @eclare: This is a derogatory reference to caste marks on people’s foreheads. I first heard it 25 years ago, when Indian immigrants bought a country store down in southern Albemarle County, Virginia. A friend called it the “Dot Store.”

  30. 30.

    Ken

    @Chet Murthy: it’s in languages I don’t speak, so how could I tell it’s subversive?

    That's how you know they're plotting something. If they didn't have anything to hide, they'd speak American, like normal people.

    (Do we still use the code font to signal sarcasm? I don’t recall seeing it much lately.)

  31. 31.

    TBone

    @Baud

    Yah, those encounters of which I speak began in The Before Times.  Now we also avoid the public as much as possible.  Bummer!

  33. 33.

    Layer8Problem

    @Geminid:  Insulting, demeaning, and diminishing.  And the people using terms like that generally hate being called racist.

  34. 34.

    sab

    @eclare: To my horror, I just found a wikipedia page with an alphabetical list of ethnic slurs with the country of origin and definitions.

  35. 35.

    hueyplong

    @Baud: But why “Dots” and not something else? What’s the etymology? And is it limited to Indians or does it extend beyond the border to Pakistan, Bangladesh and beyond.

    ETA Sorry, I see Geminid has taken care of it. I issue an Emily Latella “Never mind.”

  36. 36.

    TBone

    @Baud: I have two wolves inside like the old saying.  Which one gets fed.

    I think you have a pack! 😆

  38. 38.

    eclare

    @Baud:

    It just hit me, because of the dot on the forehead.  This realization coincided with my caffeine intake.

    I’m with the person who asked who talks to people at gas stations?  Pay at the pump, baby!

  39. 39.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @OzarkHillbilly: I kept rereading that first one, trying to decode it. Is this person really saying they have to keep their kids out of stores because there are non-white customers in them? No, that can’t be. But yeah, that’s what the words say.

  40. 40.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @TBone: I am not a friendly, talkative type. A 3 word sentence from me is a “font of conversation”. That being said, when I am at a Wally world or the local feed store or the post office, I always ask how their day is going. They never complain (no doubt they would get fired if the did) but they probably appreciate somebody not treating them like an automaton.

    Also, I acknowledge my fellow shoppers. A friendly nod and a “How ya doin’?” doesn’t cost anything and most actually return a smile.

  41. 41.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @OzarkHillbilly: He’s a typical rural Californian.  The fact that he is upset he can’t stand around and yap with people working upsets him says it all.

  43. 43.

    TBone

    @eclare: beware skimmers installed at the pumps, we’ve had problems here with those covert card readers.  Going inside is safer if you’re masked.

  44. 44.

    Spanky

    @eclare: You have to remember that a lot of people get their gas at convenience stores, so they need to go inside and talk to the people when they’re paying for their Doritos.

  48. 48.

    O. Felix Culpa

    I was an elections worker in the NM primaries yesterday. Overall turnout in our county was low (22%), but Democratic turnout was encouraging, with 66% of total votes cast in the county. (NM has closed primaries.)

    Impressionistic “data”: You couldn’t tell if a voter was a Democrat or Republican if they were friendly–which most voters were–but if they were sour, they were almost always Republicans.

  49. 49.

    eclare

    @Geminid:

    Thanks, I’ve never heard it.  Strangely, Memphis suburbs have a large Indian population due to an international shipping company located here where they work.  But I think they mainly stay way out in the burbs, so I guess if that slur were used, it would be out there.

    Although come to think of it, there are two Indian restaurants within two miles of me…

  50. 50.

    TBone

    @OzarkHillbilly: 💙💜 it only takes a few words or a smile!  Some days I do random compliments to people.  I miss being out in public as much as The Before Times because people’s reactions are so positive when you surprise ’em!

  51. 51.

    sab

    @Baud: My daughter-in-law works at an Indian owned gas station. She has been on her own since her mother died when she was 16. They hired her when she was desperate and they have always treated her like family.

  53. 53.

    The Red Pen

    Ugh. I pledged to never post to Twitter again, but I couldn’t help myself.

    My grandparents fled Nazi Germany. They moved to Texas and bought a gas station. It had three bathrooms; Men, Women, and “Colored.” They put an “Out of Order” sign on the “Colored” bathroom and EVERYONE used the M & W. I guess they failed to “integrate” (irony) with the culture.

    F’ing character limit. They were my wife’s grandparents, a Catholic Socialist married to a Jew. They saw the writing on the wall and got out in 1929. The US was sick of Germans fleeing the degrading situation in Germany, so they came in on forged papers saying they were Swedish (yeah, they were also ILLEGAL immigrants). Oddly enough, the people who helped them were Mormons and only asked that they put “Mormon” as their religion on their immigration paperwork. I’m sure they hoped the affiliation would stick, but that aside, I’m sure they saved a lot of people’s lives with this scheme.

    They moved to Texas, which, at the time, had many German-speaking areas. With the money they had, they were able to buy a gas station (like many immigrants today). They didn’t understand the three bathrooms and when it was explained to them they were like “Didn’t we just get away from this shit?!” and they closed off the “Colored” bathroom, inviting all patrons to use the same Men and Women’s.

    They both served in WWII, but were assigned to the Pacific theater because they were German. My wife’s grandmother flew cargo planes. My wife’s grandfather saw combat and lost most of his vision.

    And now, every f’ing day, my wife goes on about “My grandparents warned me to look out for the Nazis and I used to think it would never happen and now it is!” She’s not wrong.

  54. 54.

    Baud

    @TBone:

    it only takes a few words or a smile!

     
    I didn’t get enough of that growing up. Turned me into a grouch.

  55. 55.

    Geminid

    @hueyplong: I think in this case the “dots” stand in for all the South and EslEast Asians who own and manage convenience stores: Indian, Pakistani, Korean etc. A C-store near me is run by a Pakistani family, and another store I used to frequent was owned by Yemenis. It seems like the first generation immigrants run the stores, and the kids help out until they go to college and on to professional careers.

  57. 57.

    eclare

    @TBone:

    Strangely enough, I went to Kroger yesterday morning early, and every employee greeted me with a hearty “good morning!” or “how ya doin?”  Even the guy vacuuming the foyer carpet at 7:15 am.  I liked it, and I responded back.

  58. 58.

    Ken

    @eclare: Although come to think of it, there are two Indian restaurants within two miles of me…

    The horror. Next there will be taco trucks cruising your neighborhood.

    My childhood memories include exciting visits to the Chinese or Italian restaurants (well, Shakey’s Pizza, but close). Does anyone else remember when such places were considered exotic?

  59. 59.

    TBone

    I’ve only ever heard the slur dotheads.  It leaves no room for mistaking who/why and I only ever heard it in DelCo, I guess because I’ve never seen one here.  Not one. We’ve got the ethnic group, but only the males make themselves visible here in central PA for some reason. /s

  63. 63.

    hueyplong

    Even if you’ve thought through a reason to hate an entire set of people, who cares who owns a gas station?  I have no idea who has owned any of the hundreds of stations I’ve stopped at in approximately 40 states in the last 2 years, and that includes the ones a couple of miles from my house.  And this makes you say you’re going to list your house?

    Are we naturally heading to where all these people live in Idaho?

  65. 65.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Chet Murthy:

    Hell, I’m not much of a fan of Indian music either, but FFS I know it’s not rap

    I suspect he means American rap music, or something he mistakes for rap music.  It’s hardly surprising popular music would be playing at a gas station, but to him it’s more offensive not-white-peopleness.

  66. 66.

    p.a.

    @Ken: That’s how you know they’re plotting something. If they didn’t have anything to hide, they’d speak American, like normal people.

     

     

    What do you call someone who speaks 2 languages?

    Bilingual.

    3 languages?

    Trilingual.

    1 language?

    American.

  67. 67.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @eclare: One of the great joys in life pre-pandemic was Indian buffets. There were a couple I hit regularly. They’re mostly gone now, though I know one restaurant that started a buffet post-lockdown.

    Unfortunately there are no Indian restaurants close to me or my travels any more. It’s a rare treat. We do have an Indian grocery but other than paneer and pickle, I’m completely mystified by most of it.

    My grad school had about as many Indians as Americans. That’s when I learned to love Indian food.

  70. 70.

    TBone

    @The Red Pen: it’s not hyperbole.  We just had a “Unified Reich” reminder for fucks sake!  Someone here recently made me feel like I was overreacting to the Nazi ideology that IS IN PLAIN SIGHT and I was like NAW, SON, I SAW WHAT I SAW

  71. 71.

    Baud

    When did Apu debut on the Simpsons? You think people would be used to the idea by now.

  73. 73.

    eclare

    @Ken:

    I don’t remember any Chinese restaurants growing up.  The exotic restaurant where I grew up was the Greek restaurant, and considering where I grew up, that was exotic.  I went to high school with the owner’s son.

  74. 74.

    TBone

    @Baud: you are the

    T.B. with the H.O.G.!

    Tough Baud with the Heart of Gold!

    (I know it’s in there, you can’t hide)

  76. 76.

    catclub

    @OzarkHillbilly: Only when the pump won’t take their debit card.

     

    Yes. I was confused because I drove into a gas station that was not really self-serve. How does someone else pumping my gas work?

  79. 79.

    eclare

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:

    Oh I love Indian food too, I lived in London for six months years ago.  I get take out from the one closest to me maybe every other month.  I think they brought back the lunch buffet.

  80. 80.

    p.a.

    As a 2nd gen Southern European, I’m amazed/disgusted by what I hear from my cohort when we all know the same shit was said abt our grandparents.

    Get one rung up the ladder and kick out the rung you just left.🤬

  84. 84.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @eclare: This brings to mind two random bits of French-speaking culture I heard recently.

    1. When you go into a shop you will be greeted with “Bonjour” and you are expected to respond “Bonjour” before doing any business. This was the subject of an amusing video where a customer in a Parisian shop is in a hurry to get to the business, and the clerk keeps more and more pointedly saying “Bonjour” in response to his questions.

    2. A shopkeeper in Montreal told us that by law they are supposed to greet customers with “Bonjour, hello” or “Bonjour, [other English greeting]” and they’ll be fined if they don’t say the French first.

  85. 85.

    catclub

    @p.a.: Get one rung up the ladder and kick out the rung you just left

     

    It is the new  citizen way. Always has been.

  86. 86.

    smith

    @Spanky: Are Oregonians allowed to pump their own gas yet? It was always a bit discombobulating to have to wait for the pump guy to appear there, and I’m old enough to remember when it was the  rule, not the exception.

  87. 87.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @catclub: We actually had a full service gas station in Cuba (MO) until the last 5 or 10 years. Not sure exactly when that changed.

  90. 90.

    Kay

     

    Israel Secretly Targets US Lawmakers with Influence Campaign on Gaza War

    Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs ordered the operation, which used fake social media accounts urging U.S. lawmakers to fund Israel’s military, according to officials and documents about the effort.

    Targeted, specifically, Black Democrats in Congress

  91. 91.

    catclub

    Delay, delay delay: Also, judicial circus. CNN:

    Judge Aileen Cannon is planning on holding a sprawling hearing on Donald Trump’s request to declare Jack Smith’s appointment as special counsel invalid, signaling the judge could be more willing than any other trial judge to veto the special prosecutor’s authority.

    The planned hearing also adds a new, unusual twist in the federal criminal national security case against the former president: Cannon on Tuesday said that a variety of political partisans and constitutional scholars not otherwise involved with the case can join in the oral arguments on June 21.

    It’s an extraordinary elevation of arguments in a criminal case first filed a year ago this week that likely won’t see trial until next year, if at all.

  92. 92.

    eclare

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:

    I took a trip to Paris with my then bf who was not into “pleasantries.”  Either from reading or having been there before, I knew that “Bonjour” was required before any business was done.  One night we got a cab and bf just started barking directions, while the driver kept saying, in a very annoyed tone, “Bonjour” and did not move.

    Bf finally got a clue.

  95. 95.

    Shalimar

    @Baud: Does anyone outside of New Jersey (the only state left where you can’t pump your own gas) ever need to see a gas station employee?  I have no idea who owns any of the gas outlets around here.  It seems very weird to be in a place so small you only have access to one source.

  98. 98.

    sdhays

    And now I’ve learned another racial slur that I had blissfully been unaware of for these many years. Not sorry I never really got into Xitter.

    At least I didn’t learn it because a member of Congress said it this time.

  99. 99.

    eclare

    @Shalimar:

    I occasionally go into the gas station near me when I want a coffee, Exxon has good, cheap coffee, and I am not brewing a pot for one.

    Someone of southeast Asian descent has worked there for years, we chitchat as he rings me up.

    But for gas, the transaction is at the pump.

  100. 100.

    Baud

    @eclare:

    we chitchat as he rings me up.

     
    I was reliably informed that you can’t have a conservation with them if they’re not white.

  102. 102.

    smith

    @NotMax: “Complete and total” Dolt 45 endorsed candidate in NJ Republican senatorial primary lost by … 25 points.

    Funny, this keeps happening. Seems the Felon doesn’t have an iron grip on Republican voters after all. Isn’t fear of those voters’ rejection the main reason so many GQP politicians have pledged unconditional fealty to him? What happens if it turns out they’re getting nothing for all that self-abasement?

  103. 103.

    lowtechcyclist

    @TBone:

    Someone here recently made me feel like I was overreacting to the Nazi ideology that IS IN PLAIN SIGHT and I was like NAW, SON, I SAW WHAT I SAW

    Hell yeah! How could you not see it? //

  104. 104.

    TBone

    @catclub: remove, remove, remove!

    For some reason, I can hear Ted Nugent’s ‘Free For All’ playing when I read these words:

    a variety of political partisans and constitutional scholars not otherwise involved with the case can join in

  108. 108.

    Baud

    @smith:

    What happens if it turns out they’re getting nothing for all that self-abasement?

     
    They’ll reject Trump and want to be appreciated for their courage.

  109. 109.

    TBone

    @lowtechcyclist: 💙❤️ 💜

    ISWYDT

    Dude was serious when he used words to downplay the Nazi influence so I appeared to be the screechy, hysterical lady parts haver.

    You ain’t normalizing that shit on MY watch, pal!

  114. 114.

    TBone

    @smith: sniveling fealty almost never ends well for the sniveler and NEVER where Dotard is involved. Every. Thing. He. Touches!

  115. 115.

    Steeplejack

    @Ken:

    Do we still use the code font to signal sarcasm?

    Nope. Just put // at the end of your sarcastic gem.

  116. 116.

    schrodingers_cat

    American media needs to stop acting like Modi’s mouthpiece. Everywhere I saw headlines saying he has won a third term. He hasn’t yet. Yes his party has the most numbers but its still well over 30 short of an absolute majority.

    Usually in a parliamentary democracy when your party loses seats in an election the leadership changes. There are rumblings within the BJP demanding change. And rumors about one or more coalition partners bolting.

  117. 117.

    smith

    @catclub: In my non-lawyerly opinion, Cannon has put herself between a rock and a hard place with this one. I can’t imagine she’s deluded enough to think a ruling that the Special Counsel was illegally appointed would stand on appeal, but she’s already gone so far down that road to appease the Felon I don’t see how she turns back.

  118. 118.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @smith:

    Seems the Felon doesn’t have an iron grip on Republican voters after all.

    I’ve been saying this for years.  His endorsement doesn’t seem to move a needle.  You get about the same results you would expect if he wasn’t involved, stuff like ‘the crazier candidate has the best odds in a primary.’  Trump loves to endorse or claim he endorsed candidates who had guaranteed to win and put those on his win tally, but very few elected or voting Republicans listen to him much.  They do what they were already going to do – claim Democrats can’t win an election legitimately, that any consequences are political persecution, elect batshit crazy oppositional defiant assholes, hold budgets hostage, refuse to vote for their own legislation if Democrats agree to it…

    EDIT – @smith:

    I can’t imagine she’s deluded enough to think a ruling that the Special Counsel was illegally appointed would stand on appeal, but she’s already gone so far down that road to appease the Felon I don’t see how she turns back.

    She does what she’s been doing, walk the line just below getting kicked off the case.  Her two usual techniques are taking a lot of time to seriously consider issues that no other judge would consider, and issuing an insane pro-Trump ruling, then canceling it just before it’s taken to the appeals court.  She’s allowed to do those things as much as she wants.

  119. 119.

    Baud

    @schrodingers_cat:

    If American media had their way, Modi would have his supermajority. Thankfully, they’re not as influential as they’d like to be. Although they are more influential than we’d like them to be.

  122. 122.

    MazeDancer

    If you have a WSJ subscription, please consider cancelling today.

    Article using liars Kevin McCarthy and Mike Johnson as sources screaming Mr. Biden is mentally slow is disgusting. Even Morning Joe is outraged.

  123. 123.

    Baud

    @MazeDancer:

    Earlier MSNBC was feigning outrage but effectively endorsing the view and saying Biden had to fix it by giving more news interviews. They’ve adopted the NYT position.

  124. 124.

    tokyokie

    After spending most of my adult life as a newspaper copy editor, a job in which I dealt entirely with other cranky newspaper hands, I became a nurse. And because it’s a job in which interacting with the clientele is essential, I have become unfailingly polite, so much so that it has spilled over to my non-work life. I consistently use “sir” and “ma’m,” open doors for others, let others go first, and greet everybody heartily. And it seems to brighten others’ day, and that makes me feel good as well. I heartily recommend everybody try it.

  125. 125.

    Percysowner

    What are the great joys of living where I do Columbus Ohio is that I have so many ethnic restaurants near me. We have a great Indian food. Great Thai food. Great Korean food. Great taco trucks. It’s just wonderful having all that choice. I don’t know why people would be upset.

  126. 126.

    Geminid

    @Frankensteinbeck: Trump’s endorsement tecord is mixed. I think it put Dr. Oz over the line in his Pennsylvania Senate primary. South Carolina Congressman Mark Sanford lost his primary in 2018 to a Trump-endorsed lightweight.

    But both Oz and the South Carolina crank lost winnable races. Sanford would have held his seat in the general election, and David McCormick would have been a stronger candidate than the hapless Oz.

  127. 127.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @eclare:

    In my area (north Atlanta suburbs) there’s an active, if informal and unorganised, group of liberal women (mostly young marrieds) called Connect the Dots, and the members refer to themselves as Dots. But I don’t think that’s the reference in that dude’s tweet. No idea what he means, but apparently it’s an insult or slur of some kind.

  128. 128.

    Ken

    @smith: What happens if it turns out they’re getting nothing for all that self-abasement?

    We laugh and laugh and mock and laugh, same as any other day.

  129. 129.

    Kay

    You do tend to know small business owners when you live in a small town. I know the Syrian immigrant who owns our Valero (convenience store) – it’s one of four he owns. He’s interested in selling marijuana (legally!) so he’s been paying me to help him with that, but I knew him on a nod and smile basis prior to that. He’s funny – one of those manic energy people just bursting with ideas.

  130. 130.

    Soprano2

    @WereBear: That’s what living in a small town is like, at least that was my experience. My best friend told me that I was probably the only kid in our class whose father had a college degree except for the boy whose father was our principal, and she was probably right. I was an outlier at my school.

  131. 131.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Geminid: From slightly before the turn of the millennium I remember the “Bombay[1] Lottery” scratch-off:

    If the dot on the card matches the dot on your forehead, you win a 7-11 in the USA.

    I can appreciate the cleverness of the concept while noting it does not compensate for the blatant racism.[2]

    [1] At about the same era, an Irish-American chem-E who taught ceili dancing recounted how a shipment from his firm had been rejected on arrival because its destination was not entered as “Mumbai”, resulting in a 30,000-mile round trip. (They made their point.)

    [2] Relayed to me by another Irish-American who pennywhistled in the weekly sessions at the local Irish bar (and almost surely did not come up with the joke himeslf). What is it about hyphenated Americans (I include my own Italian forefathers as arguably the worst) who having climbed the ladder to relative whititude immediately cut the ropes so no one else can?

  132. 132.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @schrodingers_cat:

    I am trusting your reporting and insights on this election rather than the FTFNYT coverage. Hope you can do a complete analysis for us once the dust settles.

  134. 134.

    Soprano2

    @Don: That was quite an interview, I knew it was a lot longer than most of the shows. He kept at him, which is what the press won’t do. Stewart might have some problems, but that was a good interview.

  135. 135.

    eclare

    @narya:

    The French have a way, especially Parisians.  A few years ago when the cab drivers intentionally slowed down to protest something, they called it Operation Escargot.

  136. 136.

    CaseyL

    @smith: They passed a law letting people pump their own gas, but I don’t know if it’s gone into effect yet.

    Yes, that was always disconcerting: I go down to Portland OR once in a while, but apparently not frequently enough to remember I couldn’t pump. my own gas.  I’d open the car door, and an attendant would instantly appear.  It always amused me.

    I’ll kind of miss it.

  139. 139.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @TBone:

    There’s a lot of wisdom in there, but I strongly disagree with one thing:  Her complaints about the internet.  I remember damned well spending my adolescence in conservative areas pre-internet, and my 20s in an increasingly internet-enabled world.  Like police violence, all the racism, all the insularity, all the conspiracy thinking, it was flourishing.  The people it wasn’t happening in front of just didn’t know.  Meanwhile, thanks to the internet, oppressed non-conformists find each other and escape the horror of a world where they don’t know any option besides evil exists.

  143. 143.

    Kay

    The funny part of the Israeli influence campaign is it operated using the over hyped AI, so was dumb as hell. They would have a profile picture of a white woman and text that read “as a Black man…”

    Whatever they paid they were robbed.

  144. 144.

    Soprano2

    @Geminid: That’s so dumb, the vote should be 435-0 because making the right to access contraception the law of the land shouldn’t be a partisan issue, or even controversial.

  146. 146.

    SFAW

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Also, I acknowledge my fellow shoppers. A friendly nod and a “How ya doin’? Blech!” doesn’t cost anything and most actually return a smile.

    Fixed that for ya

  148. 148.

    SFAW

    @Soprano2: ​
     

    That’s so dumb, the vote should be 435-0 because making the right to access contraception the law of the land shouldn’t be a partisan issue, or even controversial.

    You must be new here (where “here” == ‘Murica).

  149. 149.

    Baud

    @Soprano2:

    Eh. Oppression of women is absolutely a partisan issue. I know you said shouldn’t, but the other side also has their views on what shouldn’t be a partisan issue that are diametrically opposed to ours.

  150. 150.

    eclare

    @Baud:

    IMHO Katty Kay was the only one jumping with both feet on the “Joe needs to get out more/do more interviews” bandwagon. YMMV.

    We already have two hot wars, and now reporting says Bibi is about to invade Lebanon this weekend, but waaahhhh, Joe won’t talk to us.

  151. 151.

    Gin & Tonic

    @The Red Pen: ​

    They moved to Texas, which, at the time, had many German-speaking areas.

    Fascinating (and l-o-n-g) passage in Robert Caro’s LBJ biography about his having the (then-)West German Chancellor to Texas for a visit and a barbeque.

  153. 153.

    TBone

    @Frankensteinbeck: we grew up before the Internet. For those who were born with it, I think her commentary is spot on.  But it’s her overall message (that comes at the end of the article), which I would in no way characterize as complaining, that’s the important part.  The “why I posted it” part.

    If not for the Internet, we’d not be Jackals. I get it!  But we had childhoods that kids today will never know.

  154. 154.

    Kay

    @Soprano2:

    They can’t vote for it, because to do would concede that it is in danger of being outlawed, which they won’t admit.

  155. 155.

    SFAW

    @tokyokie: ​
     

    I consistently use “sir” and “ma’m,” open doors for others, let others go first, and greet everybody heartily. And it seems to brighten others’ day, and that makes me feel good as well. I heartily recommend everybody try it.

    Your type makes me sick.

    Kidding, of course. I try — although sometimes I forget — to behave the same way. Well, the doors, “sir,” “ma’am,” and you-first-please parts. The “greet everyone heartily” is sometimes a bridge too far for me, mainly because I’m an asshole.

  156. 156.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Soprano2: Back when I lived in Bourbon, I hung a flag off the front porch every Memorial Day and July 4th. Now, nobody can see our house and I’m not about to fly a free flag for the taking up by the road.

  157. 157.

    Soprano2

    @Ken: Yes, that used to be what passed for Italian food here. ETA – I would love to go back and look at a grocery store from 1970, just to see how different the offerings were than what we have now. I think most of us would find the choices boring and unimaginative.

  158. 158.

    smith

    @CaseyL: My daughter lives in Portland, and she was disappointed that self-pumping would now be allowed. It was one of the few ways many of the abundant homeless people there could earn some money.

  159. 159.

    SFAW

    @Baud:

    Oppression of women is absolutely a partisan issue.

    This cannot be said enough. Many RWMFs want Gilead, and are not called out enough for that,

  161. 161.

    Soprano2

    @OzarkHillbilly: That’s one of those “I’m so old” things I can say now, I’m so old I remember when all the gas stations were full service. It was nice when it was raining. Most of them had garages where they fixed cars; pumping gas was an excuse to look at the engine and suggest services the customer might want to get .

  162. 162.

    eclare

    @SFAW:

    For some reason, even being raised in the south, my parents did not drill “sir” and “ma’am” into me.  But you better fucking say “good morning.”

  163. 163.

    Geminid

    @Kay: Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli is a mediocre Likud hack, so it’s not surprising this project was too amateurish to stay secret.

    It sounds like former civil service workers leaked the story. That’s starting to happen a lot in Israel, as with Transportation Minister Miri Regev. Her misdeeds have little to do with the war, but they illustrate the smash-and-grab mentality of this rotten government.

  164. 164.

    smith

    @Kay: And if they vote against it, their Dem opponents in the upcoming election have an effective talking point to use against them. Pair  it with the abortion issue and you have a message that might penetrate the minds of squishy normies.

  165. 165.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Soprano2: Even in the 80s when our kids were little and we were living in a close-in suburb of Baltimore, “Italian” meant spaghetti and meatballs, “Chinese” meant chop suey and chow mein, and that was pretty much the restaurant choices in the burbs.

    This despite the fact that the city of Baltimore itself was pretty famous for ethnic neighborhoods and restaurants.

    An actual exotic food we learned to love then was Chesapeake Bay blue crab, boiled and dumped onto a table in front of you with no plates or silverware.

  166. 166.

    TBone

    @eclare: 👍 you can’t put a bandaid over a gaping wound and expect it to heal properly!  But you can inspect that wound to figure out how to properly treat it before the bandage goes on.

  168. 168.

    Kay

    Let’s talk about Christina Francis, the president of the American Association of Pro-Life OBGYNs (AAPLOG). Francis is testifying for Republicans today in the Senate HELP committee hearing on the consequences of abortion bans. Before she spouts her nonsense, I thought it would be good for you to have a sense of who she is—and how extremist AAPLOG is.

    Francis believes:

    • Children should be forced to give birth
    • Women should be forced to carry nonviable pregnancies to term
    • Abortion is never necessary to save women’s lives
    • Women with life-threatening pregnancies should be forced into vaginal labor or c-sections, even before viability
    • Certain kinds of birth control are actually abortions

    No other country in the world forces women with life threatening pregnancies to undergo vaginal birth or a c section. The US states that banned abortion are the most anti women governments in the world on this issue, which makes the US the most anti women government in the world on this issue.
    Patty Murray was great at the Senate hearing. Just such a good advocate.

  170. 170.

    Another Scott

    TheHill is a RW rag, but they’re usually pretty good at providing timely political information. But one has to have one’s reality filters working, and has to note them mixing opinion pieces with reporting in their headlines.

    They’ve gone into hyperdrive with their thumbs on the scale (to mix metaphors) recently.

    E.g. “Trump 56% / Biden 44%”

    “Could Trump win the election in a blowout?”

    It’s just shameless. [ groucho-roll-eyes.gif ]

    It’s not even worth spending 5 seconds to scan the headlines anymore.

    This is the kind of stuff Democrats are up against. I assume it will get worse closer to November.

    Oh well. I’ll keep looking, while hanging out here in a reality-based community…

    Eyes on the prizes.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  173. 173.

    Nelle

    @TBone: My conversations with random young people showed that this is an issue they brought up over and over.  Want to get young voters mobilized?  Address this over and over and show what Dems are trying to do about it.

  175. 175.

    evodevo

    @hueyplong: ​
      Well, anyone the ignoramuses THINK is Hindu…just like with Sikhs being attacked for being “muslim” after 9/11. Yer average ‘Murrican doesn’t know or care what the differences are.

  176. 176.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @eclare: I’m not good with the social graces, but what I don’t get about the “bonjour” thing or “good morning” is that it’s pretty much a reflex to respond with whatever greeting I hear, in any language, without thinking about it. It seems to me to take extra effort to not respond in kind. I would automatically echo back a greeting in Klingon if presented with one, even though it would probably be “I challenge you to a duel”.

    @eclare: There’s a scene in “Beasts of the Southern Wild” where the little girl is reaching for implements and her dad snatches them away from her and demands she “beast it”, rip it apart with her bare hands. I’d never heard that but I knew exactly what was going on. In Maryland they’ll give you a little knife, a wooden mallet, and a nutcracker to help with getting the crab open. But you’ll be judged if you use them.

  177. 177.

    Kay

    @Geminid:

    The Israeli media coverage is always more rigorous than the US coverage. The NYTimes omitted the fact that the campaign was not just pro Israel, it was Islamophobic, which is really an essential part of this – it is not just pro, it is anti Arab and anti Muslim, which Arab Americans have been saying since the start and is the truth and should be reported.  That part was included in the Israeli media articles – they even used “Islamophobic”

  178. 178.

    Another Scott

    @Soprano2: Reminds me…

    “Accent Flavor Enhancer!” (MSG).  “Why would one need a chemical to make something taste more like it should taste??”

    “Meat Tenderizer!”  “When does a meat tenderizer stop working??”

    It was a strange time.

    But, then as now, companies try their best to come up with things related to “food” and “nutrition” and “health” that they control and try to make people want to buy.

    “Acme Canned Air!  Get your Mountain Fresh Canned Air!  Elvis’s favorite brand!!”

    :-/

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  181. 181.

    Soprano2

    @Baud: True, but the vast majority of Republican women use birth control, which benefits Republican men. I know some of them think it causes abortion, but that’s a minority viewpoint even on that side of the aisle.

  182. 182.

    NotMax

    @Soprano2

    Boring? We had the choice of both Chun King and LaChoy. Not to mention the Swanson quote=unquote International TV dinners — as printed right on the box: German-style, Chinese-style, Mexican-style, Italian-style, English-style, Polynesian-style.
    ;)

  183. 183.

    Jeffro

    This is better than the original headline, much earlier this morning, which was “It’s Crazy To Think That Trump Wants to Be A Felon”

    So instead, I give you Jamelle Bouie’s very-newly-re-headlined, “The Truth of Trump is Very Far From the Myth”

    (If they had asked me, I’d have just gone with “Trump is Vastly Weaker Than Most Think” =)

    The myth of Donald Trump is that he is immune to scandal — that there’s nothing he could say or do that would undermine his political prospects. In this rendering of the Trump dynamic, his shamelessness helps him glide past controversy, and the unshakable devotion of his base keeps him afloat through the worst of storms.
    The truth of Donald Trump is very far from the myth. Yes, he is shameless. Yes, he is surrounded by a cult of personality. But neither has made him invulnerable to the blows of political combat.

    It would exhaust your time and my patience to do a full inventory of every scandal and offense that has marked Trump’s time in the national spotlight. But we don’t need to. The pattern is clear enough.

    Trump did not shrug off the debacle of the “Access Hollywood” tape; his campaign came as close as it ever would to total collapse. He owes his survival to the ironclad partisanship of his Republican allies; without it, he would have sunk under the many waves of anger and condemnation. In the wake of his apologetics for the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Va., in the summer of 2017, his already low standing crashed even further as voters turned away in disgust. And Trump was so shaken by the roar of outrage in opposition to family separation at the Southern border that he rescinded the policy rather than risk the chance of a fatal blow to his presidency. Even minor scandals, like his derisive reference to “shithole countries,” forced both Trump and his White House into a defensive crouch.

    The guilty verdict makes Trump the only ex-president to be convicted of a felony and, as a result, to face the possibility of prison time. If this were any politician other than Trump, there would be no question that this conviction was the worst of all outcomes for his campaign. But the myth of Trump — the myth of his invulnerability to scandal — has produced the idea that his criminality, confirmed for the first time by a jury of his peers, is baked in to his standing with voters. He might be a felon, goes the argument, but this won’t matter, especially not to his base.

    That’s half right. It probably won’t matter to his base although, again, it does not make sense to judge the importance of political events against the attitudes of people who, by definition, have immovable, calcified views of the former president. Besides, the base can’t put Trump in office by itself; his only hope is to win the moderate, independent and persuadable voters he lost in the previous election.

    More than half of voters (54%) approve of Trump’s conviction and 49 percent, including 52 percent of independents, told ABC News that the former president should drop out of the race

    The numbers do not mean that Trump is destined to lose or that he cannot win. But on the narrow question of whether it helps or hurts him to have a felony conviction, it seems clear — even obvious — that he is in a worse position than he was before the jury rendered its verdict. The alternative is to think that Trump preferred a conviction to an acquittal. But that’s nonsense.

    An acquittal would have been a triumph. Trump, a man who seems to live in an eternal 1990, would have had the chance to play John Gotti and pose as the persecuted champion of ordinary people. If an acquittal would have helped the former president, then his conviction has probably hurt him.

    It’s a great point to make, especially to the RWNJs in your life: if trump’s conviction helps him, then I take it an acquittal would have hurt him?  No?  Please explain.   =)

  185. 185.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: I know, but it’s so dumb. It wasn’t that hard to make abortion controversial, because most women won’t ever have one, but the vast majority of women use contraception for at least some of their lives. The battle to make it illegal will be much, much harder for them.

  186. 186.

    Baud

    @Soprano2:

    But how many of those Republicans are going to care about Republicans not protecting the status quo against future threats?

  187. 187.

    Baud

    @Soprano2:

    But how many of those Republicans are going to care about Republicans not protecting the status quo against future threats?

  188. 188.

    H.E.Wolf

    @Shalimar: Does anyone outside of New Jersey (the only state left where you can’t pump your own gas) ever need to see a gas station employee? ​

     Pre-pandemic, I used to pay cash (because of the discount) at my local gas station. I therefore saw the employees behind the counter, and said hello every time. I eventually asked and learned how to say hello in 2 South Asian languages.
    So, basically, we did the Bonjours. :-)​

  189. 189.

    Mousebumples

    @Soprano2: That’s so dumb, the vote should be 435-0 because making the right to access contraception the law of the land shouldn’t be a partisan issue, or even controversial.

    Agreed. Not a good way to vote for any Republican that’s not in an R+40 district. It’ll anger normies and libertarians. Hope the DCCC is ready to capitalize with ads and mailers.

  190. 190.

    evodevo

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:   Yep…and as the owner of a small retail bidness over here in the US, I/we often get into discussions with the owners (France, Germany, Italy, etc.) about everything from the economy to current affairs to local zoning regs lol.  We always buy SOMETHING no matter what, because it pisses me off when the lookie-loo’s browse OUR store and complain (this would inevitably be a local) about how we’re only open on weekends and not all week, but never buy ANYTHING.

  192. 192.

    RaflW

    I had never heard of this Engel creep. Did a little googling and he’s written a few pieces for some rag called American Reformer. He’s proudly the terrible person he appears to be in his xits.

    “I’m an anti-Mass Democracy guy, standing up for our customs and traditions over against [sic] abstract concepts like Democracy. I hope “our democracy” is threatened, because as it turns out “our democracy” is just a label that rationalizes the liquidation of Heritage America.”

    Sounds like he’s so ‘heritage’ that he’s ready to erase all the constitutional amendments after the 2nd, or maybe 3rd.

  193. 193.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Another Scott:

    “Accent Flavor Enhancer!” (MSG).  “Why would one need a chemical to make something taste more like it should taste??”

    I don’t know why, but a lot of foods do seem to need a chemical to make them taste more like they should taste.  That’s why many of us frequently put sodium chloride, good old NaCl, on food.

  194. 194.

    Eyeroller

    @Another Scott: ​Well, monosodium glutamate occurs naturally at low levels in many foods. There’s no evidence it’s harmful as an additive (despite a lot of urban legends) at normally-consumed quantities. And “meat tenderizers” are just digestive enzymes, specifically some proteases that break down collagen (the tough parts) Pineapple has a lot of it. If you’ve ever wondered why we are advised not to put raw pineapple into Jello and such, it’s because that’s based on collagen and raw pineapple will digest it.

  195. 195.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    We actually had a full service gas station in Cuba (MO) until the last 5 or 10 years.

    I knew that place.  I used to meet one of my remote users who worked for the Motor Carrier folks there if I needed to physically do something on his computer (this was a good decade before remote access was even a thing).  He lived further south so it was a good halfway point to meet up.

  199. 199.

    Starfish

    @Chet Murthy: Rap is surprisingly versatile and has been adopted around the world. One of my YouTube rabbit holes is “Look at this rap in Language X”

  201. 201.

    eclare

    @Eyeroller:

    Huh, I’ve always wondered why you’re supposed to use canned pineapple rings to make a pineapple upside down cake.

    Thanks!

  203. 203.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Baud:

    Bonjour, Hello, Guten tag, Good day!

    A forgotten dance number from the documentary The Sound of Music on the Cutting Room Floor. 

  206. 206.

    Kay

    @Soprano2:

    Bsed on the people I talked to in Ohio in the pro choice amendment campaign most people don’t believe contraception is at risk. There’s a lag, a delay, in public awareness. We’re still in early days of telling people about this.

    People really, really need to stop thinking exclusively in the “abortion” box – you cannot ban abortion without impacting an entire range of womens health and agency issues because it was never exclusively about abortion – it is about disliking and not trusting women and therefore needing to control them. We’ve all seen how abortion bans IMMEDIATELY affected women who were not seeking an abortion – that had to happen. There is no way to draft a law around it. The Roe framework is the only workable framework anyone has ever come up with. You have to build a fence around pregnancy because the state can’t just dabble in pregnancy regulations – when they’re in they’re in all the way.

  207. 207.

    Starfish

    @schrodingers_cat: Hey, I want to thank you!

    My two coworkers were very excited about the results of India’s election, and I vaguely knew what they were talking about because you tell us about it here

    They had been watching election results the night before.

  208. 208.

    Kay

    @RaflW:

    “Nobody knows them” Lol

    Why doesn’t he introduce himself? They find it impossible to function in society. Just normal politeness eludes them.

  209. 209.

    Sure Lurkalot

    @Baud:

    Earlier MSNBC was feigning outrage but effectively endorsing the view and saying Biden had to fix it by giving more news interviews.

    Oh no, that means there will be the furrowed brow, pursed lips of Katy Tur on at noon. Sorry I will miss it.

  212. 212.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    For the last few months, I’ve not been able to write. I can’t even sit down and read through my draft. It finally occurred to me that I feel the same way I did in 2020 during the height of the pandemic. My back brain was occupied with thinking about a deadly disease, leaving no room for thinking about the story I was writing. I think Mr DAW’s Parkinson’s is currently occupying that space. That’s ok. First things first.

  213. 213.

    Kay

     

    We had mainstream centrist pundits saying a 15 week ban would work because they don’t bother to actually THINK about this. Play it all the way out. Because they don’t actually care about womens health or lives.

    Of course the “exceptions” don’t work. They could never work. We’d need a Right wing lawyer standing next to every physician instructing her. They’re never going to be able to codify every medical issue that might come up for 100 million women and girls. Texas kicked it to their medical board and the medical board basically threw up their hands and dodged it too.

  214. 214.

    Quiltingfool

    My dad is a church-going fellow, and he does a lot of small repair jobs at the church.  He met an Indian couple (the husband attends the Southern Baptist seminary) and really likes them.  He thinks they are the hardest working people, and they are extremely generous and kind to an old white man!  But, he also thinks the church takes advantage of their willingness to do volunteer chores at the church (cleaning, etc.) and I get the feeling Dad thinks several people at the church subtly “look down” on these nice people.  Frankly, I’m not surprised.

    If my dad thinks you are a hard worker, you are No. 1 in his eyes, your gender, skin color, ethnicity or nationality don’t matter.

  216. 216.

    OzarkHillbilly

    The GOP convention website used a pic of a city skyline as a backdrop image. One problem: It appears to not be Milwaukee. Apparently, it’s Ho Chi Minh City.

  218. 218.

    smith

    @Sure Lurkalot: And of course he just gave an extensive interview with Time magazine. They even posted the raw transcript so any aspiring Robert Hurs out there can pick over it, word by word.

    What they are objecting to is his choosing who he will talk to, just like any candidate would. I’m guessing he’s fed up with the silly gotcha questions the supposedly respectable press lobs at him to amplify RW talking points, and has decided to speak to outlets that are willing to address serious subjects. Most of the Time interview focused on foreign policy, not so much on his age and Hunter’s laptop.

  219. 219.

    Kay

    Advocates have been saying for 50 years that “abortion is healthcare” which was considered the extreme Left edge of the debate but as we are now finding out is just true, as a practical matter.

    But we knew this. The Roe judges famously used a medical model to write the decision. It’s the only humane, modern model that can be used. Lawyers really can’t practice medicine. People will die.

  220. 220.

    scav

    @eclare: The initial greeting in France is important — and, it’s often almost as much to everyone in the shop as to whoever’s doing the service.  A solid mumbled misseurdahms can go a long way as you enter a bakery line.  (clearly a lot of local knowledge about the size and type of the place complicates life).  And that’s before getting to the counter. But in general, it’s safer to remember that whoever is providing the service in France, be it waiter, clerk, baker, pharmacy staff, taxi-driver, whoever, sees themself as a professional providing a service to you and they will not be groveling to you for approval, tips or whatever.  They do expect respect and will be judging your manners, not necessarily harshly, but please pull up your socks.  Absolute benefit is often how much extra milage you get after demonstrating you’re a foreigner with basic manners.

  221. 221.

    Tarragon

    @Ken:

    (Do we still use the code font to signal sarcasm? I don’t recall seeing it much lately.)

    I’m pretty sure we settled on every font to signal sarcasm

  222. 222.

    RaflW

    @The Red Pen: “’My grandparents warned me to look out for the Nazis and I used to think it would never happen and now it is!’ She’s not wrong.”

    A decade ago when we were winning on LGBTQ+ rights, the Robert’s Court had not yet fully attacked Voting Rights, and Obama was in his second term, I mused out loud to friends a few times my fear that, while we should absolutely celebrate, were we nearing a Weimar-like apex.

    “Bathroom” bills, seeking to marginalize and attack trans people, got rolling around 2015 and alas I felt then that my Weimar worries were under way. And here we are.

  224. 224.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Frankensteinbeck: Yeah.  The irony is that if someone wanted to emigrate to America and fit in culturally, playing rap/hip-hop music would actually be one good way to fit in.  Rap IS American Culture.  In fact, I’ve heard some pretty arguments that rap is the quintessential example of American culture in that it is the one form of art that really still is mostly under the ownership of the Black People who created it.

    But of course, it goes against what this racist jackass wants for his community, which speaks volumes.  Ironically, this dude should LOVE rap for the misogyny and perpetuating myths of racist criminality, both of which I’m sure he shares.

  226. 226.

    RaflW

    @Baud: Dunno when he first appeared, but the voice actor Hank Azaria apologized in 2021. Via The Guardian “[T]hough he believed the show was founded on good intentions, it contributed to the “structural racism” in the US.
    He said that it had also taken him some time to realize that his portrayal of Apu Nahasapeemapetilon was offensive to the Indian American community.”

  228. 228.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: ​An actual exotic food we learned to love then was Chesapeake Bay blue crab, boiled and dumped onto a table in front of you with no plates or silverware

    BOILED??!???!?? You sure as fuck didn’t live within a time zone of Bawlmer, hon – or if you did it didn’t penetrate. Those “beautiful savory swimmers”** are STEAMED (which only turn from blue to bright orange after cooking).

    As for silverware, sure there is: A crab mallet to bust up the shells and a table- or butterknife to pry out the harder to reach morsels. And the tablecloth is always several layers of a recent Bawlmer-area fishwrap. (Or was when newsprint was ubiquitous.) And the appropriate libation: Natty Boh!

    (BTW did you know the steamed blue crab is the best diet food in the multiverse? Because it takes waaaaaay more calories to pick it clean than you get from eating it,)

    Now turn in your Bawlmer-area residence card and GTFO.

    ** English translation of the Latin species name for Chesapeake Bay blue crabs, Callinectes sapidus​

  229. 229.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    No, the feds that oversee motor carrier safety.  We had em scattered around the state so as to be closer to where companies like Wallis operated from.

  230. 230.

    stinger

    @Chet Murthy:

    it’s in languages I don’t speak, so how could I tell it’s subversive?

    It’s not about the singer’s gun, pickup, dog, or ex, so it’s subversive!

  231. 231.

    Kristine

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: Reminds me of a ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ scene in Quantum of Solace. Gemma Arterton’s character strides into a hotel and up to the front desk and immediately inquires about her reservation. After a beat, the front desk clerk says (iirc)”Buenos Dias.” Arterton replies in kind, and they continue with the conversation until Bond/Daniel Craig derails it.

  235. 235.

    TBone

    @Uncle Cosmo: 👍

    My mom and dad used to take us to Walt’s in Philly for hours-long crab eating.  Walt’s was someone’s former rowhome with the original front door still on it.  There was no boiling going on!

  236. 236.

    Another Scott

    @Eyeroller: @eclare:

    Indeed, very interesting.  Some PUDC has really nasty texture at the interface between the fruit and the cake, some is fine.  Maybe related to that enzyme stuff??

    Thanks muchly.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  237. 237.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Uncle Cosmo: Boiled, steamed, whatever. (Ducks) I should have known that actually as we have made them for ourselves on occasion. Been too long I guess.

    Early in my residence here in PA I made a similar faux pas, ordering swiss cheese on my cheesesteak. The diner guy gave me a pass that once (whew!).

    It was always brown paper off a roll at any crab place we went to.

    We actually just had some blue crabs. There’s a place near us that sells them. We bought a dozen, ate a few in the traditional style and picked the rest to make crab cakes, which were pretty damned good. And renewed my respect and awe for professional crab pickers.

    As for the “silverware”, the people who taught us to eat crab also told us that traditionalists looked down on anyone who actually used that little mallet and knife.

  238. 238.

    UncleEbeneezer

    The speed of the pivot from “this war is wrong and must end” to “Israel really shouldn’t even exist” by so many on the Progressive Left has been really gross and eye-opening.  The list of nations that: 1.) favor one ethnicity/religion, 2.) are built upon disputed land/Colonization, 3.) have/are engaged in one-sided wars or even genocide, is really quite long.  But Israel is the only one Progressives argue should be dismantled.  And Israelis are the only people whose three-thousand year connection to the land can be blithely dismissed.   If you can’t see the obvious Anti-Semitism of that hypocrisy (especially given the unique history of almost every country rejecting, removing and/or legally persecuting Jews) you have a major blind-spot.

  239. 239.

    NotMax

    @Kristine

    Reminded of a ludicrous short scene in an old movie.

    Man and woman on an ocean liner (South American, IIRC). standing at the rail making goo-goo eyes at one another.

    Steward walks over to her and presents an envelope on a silver tray, at the same time saying “Telegrama.”

    The lantern-jawed guy, to allay confusion, proudly translates for her: “Telegram.”

  240. 240.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: I agree, a lot of people think you’re crazy when you say that there are Republicans who want to ban most safe, reliable forms of birth control because they say they cause abortions. It’s just not on their radar at all. If Democrats publicize this vote far and wide it will change that just a little bit, because you know some Republicans are going to vote against it and claim it’s for some bullshit reason rather than the real reason, which is we don’t trust women and think they’re using these drugs for abortions.

    I guarantee you most people didn’t associate care for a miscarriage with abortion before the Dobbs decision because they didn’t know any better. They thought a D&C was something different than an abortion because it has a different name.

  241. 241.

    Soprano2

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I feel you, come sit by me. So much of my brain is taken up these days thinking about hubby’s condition that I make lists of phone calls I need to make because I’m afraid I’ll forget something important.

  246. 246.

    wjca

    @Shalimar: Does anyone outside of New Jersey (the only state left where you can’t pump your own gas) ever need to see a gas station employee?

    The Costco gas stations (totally self service, of course) typically have an employee in evidence.  Mostly for when one of the card readers goes on the fritz and need a reboot.

  247. 247.

    wjca

    @Soprano2: That’s so dumb, the vote should be 435-0 because making the right to access contraception the law of the land shouldn’t be a partisan issue, or even controversial.

    If it had that kind of support, they wouldn’t need a Discharge Petition in the first place.

  251. 251.

    Anyway

    @Soprano2:

    I guarantee you most people didn’t associate care for a miscarriage with abortion before the Dobbs decision because they didn’t know any better. They thought a D&C was something different than an abortion because it has a different name.

    I blame doctors for not being more clear about the impact of the new TX, OH, <red state> abortion laws on  treatment of pregnancies. How it constrains them from providing care. They should have been more vocal in the lead-up (and even now as pastor Mike , SCROTUS and other Rthugs contemplate further restrictions)

  252. 252.

    Misterpuff

     

    @TBone: what was in those Baco Bits, anyhow?

     

    Smoke flavor (burnt wood) on an early form of texturized soy protein (very hard, so crunchy).

  254. 254.

    rikyrah

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    C.Jay Engel 🌲
    @contramordor
    The multigenerational California cultural crisis is finally at the front door of our little town. My wife has to avoid certain places now with the kids because of a growing DEI customer base. House goes up for sale this week.

     

    DEI customer base?

    Phuck outta here.

  255. 255.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Baud: Cut up a watermelon, put a little sugar and salt and put it in a pitcher. In a day you will have a watermelon cooler with both juice and chunks.

    I usually add rock salt which gives it a unique flavor.

  257. 257.

    Chris T.

    @catclub:

    I bet you mean remote access _on non-Unix computers_ cause I had remote access in 1994.

    I had it in 1981!

  260. 260.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:

    Jessica Valenti  said this in one of the first videos I ever watched of her on TikTok.

     

    The exceptions are a phucking lie.

    I DO so wish that Democrats would bring this up. Over and over.

    That the GOP is lying about exceptions, because THERE ARE NO EXCEPTIONS.

    In all those Red States, you can’t cobble together 50 instances of where EXCEPTIONS WERE ALLOWED FOR AN ABORTION.

     

    not 5000

    not 500

     

    In ALL those states, you can’t find 50 instances COMBINED.

  261. 261.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: ​You better duck, hon – you know what a crab mallet moving at relativistic velocity can do???

    Given the demise of newspapers, there will be generations untold who will never understand why steamed crabs should be eaten on newsprint…
    Dad loved seafood of all types but refused to pick crabs – “too much work” – so occasionally Mom would cross the street to the supermarket for a can of crab meat for crab cakes.[1]

    FTR “traditionalists” from the Eastern Shore used to (probably still do) look down their noses at Old Bay spice in preference to the Wye River variety. At least that’s what my friend who got her degree in Chestertown told me. Doesn’t stop me from packing a can of Old Bay for delivery to my friend in Prague (he got his PhD here).

    FWIW anyone who eschews mallets and knives in favor of bare hands probably has no functioning sensory nerves left in their upper extremities from having Old Bay ground into zillions of tiny cuts on hundreds of summer weekends.​

    [1] I worked for the State of MD in Annapolis in the 70s among a bunch of non-Marylanders. One day the division head led us all on a field trip for “the best crab cakes in the world.” We got there & ordered & the division head said to me​<, Well whaddaya think, pretty good huh?

    Yes they are, I replied, they’re just like the ones my mother makes. Dead silence for ten seconds, then: Can you get your mother to make crab cakes for our picnic?

    No, I replied. You know how much crab meat costs & how much work it is?? FTR when I asked my mother where she got the recipe she showed me the side of the Old Bay can!
    ​
    ​
    ​

  262. 262.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @sab: give me your search terms. I knew the ones we used in the 70s in Chicago burbs, before I understood how hurtful they were.
    Omg. A whole list.

    I tend to be naive, and don’t have very, so i get behind on new language uses, and epithets. I sometimes make a mistake, unknowingly, because of it.

  263. 263.

    Gloria DryGarden

     

    @H.E.Wolf: yes I speak to the cashier at the gas station. it’s really fun to speak w people who are from other countries, and try to guess where they are from. Often a person is pleased I even know their country exists. I usually ask which languages they speak. In multilingual places folks often speak 3-4 languages: their local region/ village, the colonist language, and a nearby village/ tribes language, because of trade, visits, marriages. I realized that ESL was a misnomer, because so few people came here with only one language. People are amazingly pleased that an American might know of their country, their languages. Which tells me how few people ask, or interact. Gosh. I go home and get my maps out, if they gave me more specifics I couldn’t place.

    time for the multilingual joke

    what do you call someone who speaks two languages? Bilingual

    and how about someone who speaks 3? Trilingual.
    how about 4? Etc, quadrilingual.. multi lingual.

    ok, and, what do you call a person who speaks ONE language?

    (see next comment)

  265. 265.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @Kay: I’ve been wondering how exceptions could work. It seems it would involve delays in the court systems, rulings by politician men w no medical experience. Terrible untimely medical delays.

    is anyone building a class action against governing bodies for practicing medicine without a license? Or wrongful death? I’m not expert on legal strategies, but I do so hope something is in the works. Take these people down.

  266. 266.

    Liminal Owl

    @TBone: I’ve been dithering about subscribing to the Inky ever since I canceled FTFNYT. Probably will do it now. Philly is on the short list of potential moves.

  269. 269.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @Anyway: do you think doctors speaking up more forcefully or informatively would have made a difference? When I speak w anti choice people I notice they can’t hear me. Won’t hear me. Are hell bent on their agenda/plan. I thought there Were hearings, and that doctors explained for example, that an ectopic pregnancy can’t be reimplanted. And so much more.
    im desperate to get through to these xyz#$!-Ers

  270. 270.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @rikyrah: I didn’t know this. So few exceptions have been allowed?

    It’s so unimaginable to consider being the one asking for the exception, too.
    A twelve year old goes to court w her mom, who believes her (yeah, right) to say daddy/ brother/ uncle got me pregnant. Nope. Totally dangerous.

    The rich guy who owns half the town raped me, I don’t want to carry this pregnancy he caused… nope. And all the sepsis post miscarriage cases, already getting denied. It’s infuriating.

    so, all along, the exceptions were a lie? I just hadn’t thought about it, and just thought it was a mere cumbersome mess, with no system put in place to attend to all the cases. Was it always a lie, to make it appear there would be a margin of reasonableness?

    wow. Vile.

  271. 271.

    The Red Pen

    @RaflW: The difference between what people will say out loud today that they wouldn’t have dared ten years ago is alarming. The similarities to Weimar are alarming.

    Still, I focus on the differences. Not to deflect the awful reality but to see that we have different, easier, paths out. The Versailles Treaty put Germany in a world of hurt. Maybe it deserved that, but it had the result of making it the perfect incubator for muscular nationalism. Things in the US are going pretty well. People complain, but a lot of our problems stem from what our system is allowing corporations to do to us. People are pushing back and they have resources to do so.

    I think the main problem is complacency. A lot of people aren’t paying attention. I don’t blame there, there are a lot better things to do with one’s time, but it allows for stealth ratfuckery. When they go too far, like they did with abortion rights, a lot of those people are suddenly paying attention. Of course, at that point, a lot of damage is done, but we have paths to undo it and people will take those paths once they are aware of what’s going on.

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