Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

The low info voters probably won’t even notice or remember by their next lap around the goldfish bowl.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

FFS people, this was a good thing. take the win.

If ‘weird’ was the finish line, they ran through the tape and kept running.

Books are my comfort food!

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

Baby steps, because the Republican Party is full of angry babies.

I was confident that someone would point it out and thought why not me.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

I have other things to bitch about but those will have to wait.

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

Wake up. Grow up. Get in the fight.

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

When we show up, we win.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

“Until such time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin on.”

Polls are now a reliable indicator of what corporate Republicans want us to think.

President Biden is doing good where he can, and getting it done.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

I like political parties that aren’t owned by foreign adversaries.

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

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Some Media Selections

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Some Media Selections

Here are a few varied things I’ve been watching/listening to that aren’t cable or big media.

First, the picture above of Iranian women in the 70’s is via the the_YV_edit TikTok.  Since TikTok is a totally impossible to search platform, I can’t link directly to the particular video where she says she thinks about this picture at least once a week (and how reactionary men in power will, when they get the chance, crush women).  But, pick any of her videos and you’ll get the picture.  She has a no-bullshit take on relationships between women and men from a perspective that is rarely heard in mainstream media.

Lauren Boebert Can’t Lose is a podcast by the City Cast Denver podcasters, and it’s a good review of Boebert’s rise in Colorado politics.  I learned a lot about Boebert and, specifically, why she ran from CO-3 to CO-4.  The third episode, “The Pueblo Problem,” explains how her vote against legislation to provide healthcare to burn pit victims affected Pueblo (which is sort of the blue dot in CO-3), and turned that city, which is heavily populated by veterans, against her.

The regular Denver City Cast is pretty good, too.  Their post-mortem on the CO-4 debate with Kyle Clark is worth a listen to get some experience Colorado journalists’ take on the CO-4 race.  The short summary is that they think that Boebert will win simply because she has 5 opponents and (like the 2016 Republican Presidential primary) nobody was willing to drop out even though it’s clear that they’ll all split the anti-Boebert vote.  Kyle Clark also makes this observation:

I can give you a list of 20 times that Lauren Boebert lied to the public. We could have spent the entire hour on that, so she gets a discount by doing it in bulk. And that’s the problem. And the problem is also that it’s unfair to everybody else up on that stage. And by extension, every other politician that we cover, whether it’s the Mayor of Denver or the Mayor of Aurora or anything else, because things that they would get dinged [for she slides on].

Clark at least recognizes and calls out the fundamental problem with our current media structure and prolific liars like Boebert.  He doesn’t offer a solution other than transparency.

Politico’s piece on Kevin McCarthy’s revenge tour is worth a skim, but one thing stood out — Republicans are spending $14 million in a primary battle in VA-05 to try to (keep/unseat) incumbent Bob Good.  Here’s the thing about that district:  it has a R+7 PVI, which is a reach, but possible for a good Democratic challenger.  (CO-3, which is R+6, would almost certainly have gone to Democratic challenger Adam Frisch).  Hopefully the $14 million of shit talk ads will have some impact on the general election.

Reader Interactions

79Comments

  1. 1.

    J. Arthur Crank

    I hope Boebert doesn’t come out and say “I’m lying”.  We know what happened to Norman after Harry Mudd said something similar.

  2. 2.

    Geminid

    Regarding the Virginia 5th CD: last month a friend forwarded me the fundraising numbers for the Democratic primary candidates, and the leader had raised only $12,000. So rightly or wrongly, Democrats there seem to think this is a no-hope contest despite the Good/McGuire fight.

  3. 3.

    Anoniminous

    CO-4 is R+13.  It’s your classic rural Ignorant Hick district.  Since 2010 40% is the most the Democrat has gotten.  In any normal year that means the GOP primary is the election.   However, this is not a normal year.  Be interesting to see how it plays out.

  4. 4.

    Bill Hicks

    “Since TikTok is a totally impossible to search platform”, what does that mean? Doesn’t google include TikTok posts? And why wouldn’t you be able to provide a link whether it is impossible to search or not? I don’t use social media much, so I am ignorant about these things. I remember there was a texting app that caused the messages to “disappear” after a certain time (never personally used it, but it was well known), is Tik Tok like that?

  5. 5.

    Starfish

    @Bill Hicks: TikTok is mostly video content. If you don’t save a link to your favorite video, it is nearly impossible to find again.

    This one was a favorite among some women in tech that I know.

  6. 6.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    About the Iran pic: I highly recommend “Persepolis” by Marjane Satrapi for a first hand view of what it was like to be a young girl born into that freedom and then have to live in a society with morality police who can arrest you for dressing wrong.

    It’s heartbreaking. And no longer such a remote possibility here.

    I saw the film adaptation of what was originally a graphic novel.

  8. 8.

    Ohio Mom

    I hadn’t seen that exact photo of Iranian women back in the old days but I have seen a couple of others. If you didn’t know it was Iran, you might get stuck on the photos as bits of fashion history (or is that just me? I like those clunky shoes).

    I guess human societies slide backwards all the time (thinking here of Dobbs) but the example of Iran is so, so stark.

    Ohio Family certainly benefits from living in the heart of the American Empire but Iran is an example that other parts of the world have paid big prices for our dominance.

    Not saying a different nation would do better running an empire, though.

  9. 9.

    Ohio Mom

    @gene108: You do know that Iran did once have a democratically elected government, which the CIA overthrew in record time, replacing it with the Shah?

  10. 10.

    VFX Lurker

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: About the Iran pic: I highly recommend “Persepolis” by Marjane Satrapi for a first hand view of what it was like to be a young girl born into that freedom and then have to live in a society with morality police who can arrest you for dressing wrong.

    It’s heartbreaking. And no longer such a remote possibility here.

    I saw the film adaptation of what was originally a graphic novel.

    I saw that film many years ago in a theater. Great film.

  11. 11.

    Almost Retired

    I drove across CO 4 on Wednesday from Pueblo to Wichita, Kansas (living the dream) and heard a couple Boebert ads.  She’s trying to be even more pro Second Amendment than her primary opponents, which is difficult.  Maybe she’ll come out in favor of mandatory gun ownership (and decriminalizing hand jobs in live theater venues).

  12. 12.

    Betty Cracker

    Meanwhile in Sunny Gilead, Democrats have fielded candidates in all 140 legislative seats that are up for grabs in 2024. That’s the first time they’ve done that this century. The chance that they’ll take over the legislature is approximately zero thanks to gerrymandering and outsized rural representation in the state senate that mirrors our intractable federal problem. But if you don’t play, you can’t win, so kudos! If we have an unbelievably good year, we could conceivably break the GOP supermajority hammerlock!

  16. 16.

    Betty Cracker

    @Baud: So far, I’m liking Nikki Fried’s tenure as party chair. She’s more aggressive than predecessors and seems to have a better understanding of the basic blocking and tackling.

  17. 17.

    Bill Hicks

    While I’m on an old-guy luddite ranting mood, anyone else hear about the rule of engineering that the perfect tool can only accomplish one task? It reminds me of cell phones and why I dislike them. While cell phones can do many many things, they are never perfect at what task they are used for and usually way worse than a tool designed for that purpose. They remind me of Swiss army knives, while they have many apps/tools in them, they mostly suck and you would only use them in a situation where access to a real tool is not possible or too time/expense consuming. Certainly you wouldn’t want to unscrew and then screw in again something with a Swiss army knife. God damn clouds!

  19. 19.

    BlueGuitarist

    @Betty Cracker:

    That is impressive!
    Looks like only about 60% of state legislative seats have both D and R candidates in states where filing has closed.

  23. 23.

    Bill Hicks

    Thanks for the feedback Starfish, I guess I still don’t understand, isn’t Youtube basically the same thing as TikTok, but it is easy to share a link or search for a video?

  24. 24.

    Tony G

    That’s an interesting photo of the Iranian women in the photo.  The Shah of Iran was, of course, an evil kleptocrat who tortured and killed his opponents.  The Shah had attained absolute power, of course, because of the 1953 coup that was instigated by the CIA.  But the 1979 revolution that overthrew the Shah and put the theocrats in power made things even worse.  In an alternate timeline in which the CIA coup had never occurred and a democratic system had been allowed to grow in Iran, the world would be a much better place, for women in Iran and for everyone else.  Eisenhower has a relatively good reputation now because he was the least-bad Republican president since Hoover.  But in foreign policy he was a disaster.

  25. 25.

    Jackie

    @Betty Cracker: I just read about that! Nikki Fried is doing a great job!

    It’ll be interesting to see if any surprise upsets happen as a result!👍🏻🤞🏻

  28. 28.

    cmorenc

    @gene108:

    Iran traded one oppressive government, the Shah, for another.

    Similar to Iraq, where the politically thuggish regime of Saddam Hussein and the Baath Party nonetheless ran a religiously secular government that was fairly tolerant of its citizens and women living a western lifestyle.  The main morality enforced on citizens was to stay out of Saddam’s way / bad side.

  29. 29.

    Betty Cracker

    @Baud: We’ve had some much needed rain this week, but the floods are in South Florida, so a couple of hundred miles away. My friends in Ft. Lauderdale and Miami send astonishing pics!

    My part of FL has been in a drought for almost a year — we didn’t get our usual summer rains last year. Supposedly the return of La Niña will bring them back. I hope so! I could probably cross our river on foot and not get my hair wet!

  30. 30.

    O. Felix Culpa

    I ordered a Biden-Harris yard sign from the campaign, and was delighted to have it arrive only a few days after placing the order. That is, until I opened the box and saw that the stakes were missing. So now I have a lovely sign and no way to display it. I’ve sent a message to their website and am waiting for a response, or, more importantly, the requisite stakes.

  31. 31.

    sab

    @Bill Hicks: Yes! That is why I love my flip phone, because it is basically just a phone not attached to the wall.

    I read your comment to my spouse, and he just rolled his eyes. He loves his cellphone.

  33. 33.

    Betty Cracker

    @Jackie: I was in favor of her getting the job but understood the misgivings some FL Dems had. It’s going to be a long, hard slog, but she’s making the right moves, IMO.

  35. 35.

    Betty

    @Tony G: I believe it was the Dulles brothers with their fetish about seeing Communists whenever the people started asserting their rights against authoritarian governments.

  36. 36.

    Another Scott

    The old, old story of the original mausoleum is a reminder that it’s always easier to destroy than to build (beautiful buildings, or societies). Progress has to be protected, and expanded, or the monsters will destroy it.

    Meanwhile, …

    Renewable Energy
    @[email protected]

    This photo isn’t shared to highlight that wind turbines can provide livestock much needed shade.

    This photo is shared to highlight the importance of trees.

    [ image ]

    Jun 15, 2024, 11:49 AM

    Pretty compelling!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  37. 37.

    Starfish

    @Bill Hicks: YouTube is more long form videos. TikToks will be really short. YouTube Shorts is trying to compete with TikTok. You can just watch a bunch of stuff that is really short and not remember any of it.

  40. 40.

    TBone

    @O. Felix Culpa: same thing happened to me for 2022 for a Dem candidate, I blamed the mail carrier, thinking of DeJoy 😆

    I improvised with some metal we had laying around that was better than the replacement that finally arrived.

  41. 41.

    Starfish

    @cmorenc: Incredibly different from Iraq!

    In 1953, the CIA plotted to overthrow the Democratically elected leader of Iran and replace and replace them with someone aligned with western oil interests. During the time of the Shah, he lived in opullence and did not meet the needs of his people.

    Folks saw him as morally bankrupt so they replaced him with a religious government that was going to do better, but instead that religious government gave them religious police. Oops.

  43. 43.

    laura

    @prostratedragon: Derek, the dieworkwear guy is so very good at breaking down men’s fashion and how it is Not the same as men’s style. Since having recently taking some clothing construction courses, I’m finding it impossible to not focus on mens on the TV wearing well tailored clothes- mostly suits, and those who don’t, won’t or can’t. The spread collar must die is a hill I will die on! I’ve even roped spouse into the review and analysis because sportsball is an area in which there is constant opportunities to shit talk and admire. Male professional athletes have really been a source of fashion excitement, but the panels of sports opinion havers is where I’m constantly thinking “What would Derek Guy say about this?” Yes, I’m petty, why do you ask?

  44. 44.

    cmorenc

    @Starfish:

    @Bill Hicks: YouTube is more long form videos. TikToks will be really short. YouTube Shorts is trying to compete with TikTok. You can just watch a bunch of stuff that is really short and not remember any of it.

    The RW is very busy embedding RW propaganda / hit pieces into YouTube shorts, interwoven with the guitar pieces, people doing dumb things pieces, cute dog or cat videos, etc.  Lots of short pieces of Jordan Peterson sharing his RW-ish “wisdom” observations.  OTOH, progressive advocacy short pieces seem to be very rare – we’re ceding a propaganda tool to them unopposed.  Folks may not remember much or anything specific about these RW pieces embedded in the stream of other shorts, but cumulatively they have an impact.

  47. 47.

    Tony G

    @cmorenc: Parents have an obligation to raise their kids to be intelligent, decent people.  If they do, then that will counteract the right-wing propaganda (as well as the stupidest advertising of all kinds) that kids are exposed to.  If they don’t … then we have the world that we have.

  48. 48.

    Tony G

    @cmorenc: Lately, for some reason, I’ve been thinking about some ancient history – the 1968 My Lai massacre.   The soldiers who killed, raped and tortured that day were “ordinary American kids” — most of them just a year or two out of high school.  They didn’t have to do it; they could have rebelled or at least walked away.  Something in their “ordinary American upbringing” turned them into you men who eagerly raped, tortured and killed civilians, rather than refusing to do so.  We can blame that massacre on LBJ or McNamara or Westmoreland or anyone else — but the blame finally lies with those “ordinary American kids” who shot their rifles and threw their grenades.

  49. 49.

    Steeplejack

    @Another Scott:

    It would be tremendously helpful if, when you include a Mastodon link, you would delete the @ line just below the URL. It only repeats the information in the URL, and quite often it breaks the margin for phones and other devices.

    Cheers,
    Steep.

  52. 52.

    japa21

    @Betty Cracker:  How is she in terms of fund raising or on the ground work.  That is where a great difference can be made.  Having candidates in every district is also important because it can (though not necessarily) increase Dem turnout which helps statewide and national races.

  53. 53.

    Tony G

    @Tony G: My point is an obvious one: The root cause of the problem with this country is not Trump, or Bush, or Reagan or even Nixon.  The root of the problem is that we are a shit country with shit people (like every other country on the face of the earth).  We all have a responsibility to try to make this country into a decent place — but we are starting with a foundation that is fundamentally rotten.  (That’s about as cheerful as I can be today!)

  55. 55.

    Tony G

    @Anoniminous: Yes, he wasn’t the worst!  And the (American part) of the Vietnam War didn’t start on his watch either.  But, like all presidents, he was part of, and controlled by the foreign policy establishment that, among other things, engineered the coups in Iran and Guatemala.  (He did a good job planning D-Day, at least.)

  56. 56.

    lowtechcyclist

    @laura:

    The spread collar must die is a hill I will die on!

    As I sit here in my cutoffs and t-shirt, I am delighted to have no idea what you’re talking about.

  58. 58.

    HumboldtBlue

    We need a competitive Euros match. In the first three games, the winners have outscored the losers 11-2.

    Albania v Italy coming up!

  60. 60.

    Anoniminous

    @Tony G:

    Re D-Day:  as much as I don’t like the odious little shit I have to give Montgomery credit for the actual D-Day Operational Plan, riffing off the previous work of Lieutenant-General Frederick Morgan, et.al., e.g., choosing Normandy.

  63. 63.

    trollhattan

    @Tony G: ​
    William Calley provided quite a litmus test for America, spanning his trial, conviction, Nixon’s interventions, imprisonment and many appeals.

    Still alive by the way, at age 81 he’s a free man.

  65. 65.

    David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    @gene108: ​

    @Starfish: ​
     

    PBS’s youtube channel has a great documentary on the complete sordid history (trailer) (full)

    John Foster Dulles, who became his Secretary of State, and his brother, Allen Dulles, head of the CIA, were pushing Eisenhower from the very beginning to realize Mossaddegh as a threat. At a National Security Council meeting, Eisenhower asks Dulles to explain why we should be overthrowing this guy who’s not a communist. He wonders why we can’t do things that make people in poor countries like us instead of hate us. But in the end, Eisenhower was persuaded to go along.

  67. 67.

    laura

    @Steve in the ATL: the spread collar is an abomination. It says hey! Look a me, I’m Gordon Gekko bitches. It’s a cheap affectation that seems to be all the rage. Why would anybody want the distraction of a spread collar on an otherwise well made dress shirt just fighting with the jacket lapels? When I see the spread collar I hear a very loud record scratch. Further, the spread collar says I have no sense of personal style, so I’m going with current, disposable fashion. Harrumph!

  69. 69.

    UncleEbeneezer

    Speaking of misogyny in the Middle East…(TW systematic/sexual violence)

    This morning, The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel (COI) released a report on the war crimes committed on and after Oct. 7. Here’s what we know:

    Systemic sexual violence

    Relying on thousands of open-source materials they forensically collected, authenticated, and analyzed, the COI found extensive evidence of systematic sexual violence committed by Hamas and other Palestinian individuals on and after Oct. 7.

    The COI found indications that Hamas and other armed groups “committed gender-based violence in several locations in southern Israel on Oct. 7. These were not isolated incidents but perpetrated in similar ways in several locations and by multiple Palestinian perpetrators.”

    The COI found indications that Hamas and other armed groups “committed gender-based violence in several locations in southern Israel on Oct. 7. These were not isolated incidents but perpetrated in similar ways in several locations and by multiple Palestinian perpetrators.”

    Sexual violence committed in several locations

    The COI “documented cases indicative of sexual violence perpetrated against women and men in and around the Nova festival site, as well as the Nahal Oz military outpost and several kibbutzim, including Kfar Aza, Re’im and Nir Oz.”

    Extensive evidence of sexual violence, desecration of bodies

    The COI “collected and preserved digital evidence, including images of victims’ bodies displaying indications of sexual violence, a pattern corroborated by independent testimonies from witnesses.”

    …

    If you read the full report, it’s very detailed and gets much worse. It also includes confirmation that IDF committed acts of Sex/Gender-Based Violence too. But the real news is that an independent human rights org confirmed widespread, sexual violence by Hamas on 10/7; a claim that many protestors have been vigorously denying/downplaying for eight months.

  70. 70.

    gene108

    @Ohio Mom:

    You do know that Iran did once have a democratically elected government, which the CIA overthrew in record time, replacing it with the Shah?

    Yes. In 1953.

  71. 71.

    gene108

    @Betty Cracker:

    The chance that they’ll take over the legislature is approximately zero thanks to gerrymandering and outsized rural representation in the state senate that mirrors our intractable federal problem.

    If Democrats increased the size of the House, I think some of the rural over representation will be reduced and the EC less likely to have someone lose the popular vote by millions win the presidency.

    I think there are some logistical problems regarding office space, and maybe fear of not being able to field additional candidates (I really don’t know), but it’s within the powers of Congress to solve.

    Senate filibuster rules would be the major obstacle, I think.

  76. 76.

    strange visitor (from another planet)

    @UncleEbeneezer:  that’s not a link to the report.

    the protestors have really started to act like dicks in nyc. totally crossing the line into open, seething jew-hatred.

  77. 77.

    Geminid

    @Anoniminous: I figured you knew this, but a lot of people don’t and I thought they should know that Ike didn’t just stay out of the Suez Crisis, he insisted that the British and French drop their plan to intervene.

  78. 78.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Bill Hicks: It depends. I wouldn’t want to use a cell phone as my sole Web or email client, but I also wouldn’t want to carry a dedicated Web or email client with me everywhere I go; portability is its own advantage and puts a premium on integration.

    For a long time, cell phone cameras were significantly worse than any dedicated digital camera you’d be likely to buy, but once they hit the “good enough” point where they were comparable to a pocket point-and-shoot, the fact that you could immediately share those photos using the phone’s other capabilities suddenly became a huge advantage. A cell phone is never going to match the photographic capability of a good SLR because it can’t have a physically large lens. But they just annihilated the low-to-mid pocket digicam market.

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