Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

After dobbs, women are no longer free.

Fucking consultants! (of the political variety)

Never give a known liar the benefit of the doubt.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

Republicans in disarray!

The press swings at every pitch, we don’t have to.

Every decision we make has lots of baggage with it, known or unknown.

We need to vote them all out and restore sane Democratic government.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires.

“I was told there would be no fact checking.”

This country desperately needs a functioning fourth estate.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

Live so that if you miss a day of work people aren’t hoping you’re dead.

Those who are easily outraged are easily manipulated.

Shut up, hissy kitty!

People identifying as christian while ignoring christ and his teachings is a strange thing indeed.

Republicans want to make it harder to vote and easier for them to cheat.

When I was faster i was always behind.

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

Come on, man.

A norm that restrains only one side really is not a norm – it is a trap.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Saturday Morning Open Thread: Same As It Ever Was

Saturday Morning Open Thread: Same As It Ever Was

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Saturday Morning Open Thread 37

(John Deering via GoComics.com)

Worried about Musk and Ramaswamy running amok at DOGE? Fear not, oversight will be supplied by Marjorie Taylor Greene as part of a deal to leave Mike Johnson alone. nymag.com/intelligence…

[image or embed]

— Ed Kilgore (@edkilgore.bsky.social) November 22, 2024 at 4:07 PM

It’ll be good for popcorn sales, I guess… Ed Kilgore, at NYMag, reports “Don’t Worry: MTG Will Supervise Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy”:

Nobody much knows how to deal with the Department of Government Efficiency, whose DOGE acronym is based on a cryptocurrency-adjacent meme. Donald Trump’s recently acquired buddy Elon Musk seems to have developed the idea of a sort of cartoon superhero agency designed to destroy the deep state — or maybe it was just a joke, suggests Decrypt’s Liz Napolitano. DOGE has no legal status, no public funding, no authority to do much of anything other than bloviate, headed by Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, two men with zero experience inside the federal government they promise to expose and largely blow up…

In a Wall Street Journal op-ed that laid out their vision for cheerfully blowing up the public sector, Musk and Ramaswamy suggested that Trump might be able to unilaterally implement their recommendations via the illegal means of presidential impoundment (i.e., cancellation) of congressionally appropriated spending, a trick that contributed to Richard Nixon’s downfall when he tried it. The dynamic duo also vaguely but alarmingly said they’d pursue reforms in government contracting via a “temporary suspension of payments,” which sounds a lot like abrogation of federal obligations.

Now, it’s possible that this is all just a fantasy exercise by two rich boys or even a way to keep them busy and out of the actual work of the Trump administration (though Musk and Ramaswamy have been assured the president’s Office of Management and Budget, which prepares Trump’s own fiscal recommendations, will be paying close attention to their findings).

Certainly, the idea that DOGE will be a rhetorical playground for extremist rhetoric was reinforced by the step House Republicans just took to provide oversight of the pretend department, as The Hill reports: putting Marjorie Taylor Greene in charge of oversight with the aptly named “Delivering on Government Efficiency Subcommittee.”

Now, unlike her new partners in the demolition business, she’s has a grand total of three years in the public sector, though all of it has been spent running around the country like a firebug promoting the MAGA cause and headline-grabbing through high-profile antics in the House…

She’s also not afraid to speak authoritatively about stuff she knows literally nothing about. She has a very safe ultra-Republican district and now a license to demagogue even more than usual. Greene, Musk and Ramaswamy form quite the three musketeers of what will likely be a pretend war on inefficiency that will generate headlines and social media fire and not a lot more.

… Although I personally hope MTG eventually challenges one or both of her fellow Dogeteers to arm-wrestle (possibly at the same time). Remember when Elon wimped out on his proposed cage match with Zuckerberg, cuz his mommy wouldn’t let him?
 
Matt ‘No-Longer-Rep’ Gaetz, movin’ right along!
Saturday Morning Open Thread 35
(Ginger Palmer Gaetz)

Saturday Morning Open Thread 36

(Nick Anderson via GoComics.com)

Reader Interactions

219Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    But as mentioned above, Musk and Ramaswamy said they’ll target $500 billion in spending that is unauthorized by Congress, as well as programs they believe aren’t in line with lawmakers’ intentions.

     

    The biggest source of expired authorizations sits with health care for veterans, which cost $119 billion in fiscal 2024, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

     

    However, Musk and Ramaswamy didn’t single out veterans’ health care as a place where they’d seek to cut. Instead, they listed the following areas:

     

    The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which receives $535 million a year

    International organizations that receive $1.5 billion in grants

    Planned Parenthood and what they describe as “progressive groups” that receive almost $300 million per year

  2. 2.

    New Deal democrat

    RFK Jr is funny until he’s not, because if he is confirmed I expect the easy availability of COVID vaccines and data to go away very quickly, among other things.

    So I am looking at the “least worst” outcome, which is probably a major measles outbreak that hopefully doesn’t kill any children, and gets him canned quickly. I hate being a Doomer, but there it is.

  4. 4.

    narya

    Okay, a small thing, but I want everyone to stop calling it a “Department.” It’s not a fucking Department unless Congress creates it. You can call it an Office–acronym = OOGE, which sounds about right. And if it’s not an official part of government, then they don’t get paid and–and this is the important part–they’re under no FOIA rules, etc. It’s such a fucking scam.

  5. 5.

    Suzanne

    @New Deal democrat:

    Leopards-eating-faces-palooza! 

    My ability to assist those whose faces get eaten by leopards is limited. I suspect I am not alone.
    I hope they have factored that into their plans.

    LAWL.

  7. 7.

    narya

    Also too: I was fibrillating about getting a new laptop, and I was planning to only replace the battery on my phone, but I’ve decided to replace both the phone and laptop before January 20.

  8. 8.

    Nukular Biskits

    @narya:

    The 1234 and Windows keys on my laptop have failed.  I was thinking about getting a new laptop but have other priorities so I alternate between using a Bluetooth keyboard and the on-screen keyboard.

    But … you may have a point about getting some of these purchases (like a laptop) done before next year.

  9. 9.

    narya

    @Nukular Biskits: I’m in Apple-world, and the laptop is only 7 years old, I think, but I want to get it now. Same with the phone: it’s 3.5 years old, but it’s now four generations behind the most recent iteration, and it’s not gonna last 4 years, so . . .

  10. 10.

    TBone

    GOP: We Don’t Want To Defund Special Ed, We Just Don’t Care
    Sen. Mike Rounds claims that the GOP doesn’t want to defund special education, but they’re still going to do it because they don’t really care

    What Rounds is proposing is giving each state a block grant but without the requirements or monitoring in place. And I can promise you that these block grants are going to be smaller than what they are distributing now. Then the states will take these lesser grants and skim off the top for their campaign donors, Whatever money that is left is then divvied up among the school districts, leaving them to either hold a referendum to raise enough taxes to cover the differences or to cut services and ending up being ordered by the court to meet the mandated services.

    In other words, the Republicans are making sure that the shit rolls downhill onto those further down the food chain.

  11. 11.

    Chris Johnson

    @New Deal democrat: Not at all doomer to correctly identify this. That’s also why MTG is in there: she’s as good as identified herself as a Russian asset right alongside Epstein, and publically threatened her fellow Republicans. So she’s DOGE now? Then she is an overseer making sure Musk and Vivek do actually use their powers to wreck America as brutally as possible.

    That’s also what RFK is there for, and it’s reasonable to expect he will TRY repeat TRY to ban vaccines, erase all data, my pet theory is that he’ll try to ban pasteurization while he’s at it.

    He also needs a Russian-loyalist overseer, because he’s another Trumpian loose cannon, or worse (for them): he might be completely in earnest, and that’s bad for Russia because if he doesn’t know his real job then he might not be aggressive enough in wrecking real medicine.

    The DOOMER thing would be to not understand this also harms Republican interests and money, directly and indirectly, and therefore Trump faces a schism and open opposition from within the Republican party. They want power, but this is not power, this is a bust-out, a plan to ruin them along with the rest of the Americans, and some of them clearly know it. Pay attention to everyone who’s a Russia hawk. The more of those showing up, the more it shows the Republican party trying to hang on to potential real power by backstabbing the Russia wing (and rightly so)

  12. 12.

    Nukular Biskits

    @narya:

    I tend to keep things waaaaay longer than most folks.  The laptop prior to this one I had for over twelve years.  I had max’d out the memory and upgraded to an SSD, which (despite having an older processor), allowed it to keep up.  Unfortunately, it died on me while I was on business travel.  Fortunately, I did have a backup of all my files, albeit it wasn’t as recent a backup as it should have been (note to self:  You need to do that this weekend.)

    I think someone spilled something on the keyboard as these keys started working intermittently and now not at all.  I don’t recall doing that and Ms. Biskits would kill me if I blamed the grandbaby.  So, since everything else is allegedly President Biden’s fault, I guess I have to blame him.

  15. 15.

    dm

    Heather Cox Richardson pronounce “DOGE” as “doggie”, instead of as the title of the Renaissance leader of Venice, which I think is appropriately infantilizing for Elon, Vivek, and MTG’s endeavor.

  17. 17.

    narya

    @mrmoshpotato: More like the Department of Redundancy Department . . .

    In other news: venison tenderloin is on the menu again. (Season in WI opened about two hours ago, and one has already been obtained; dunno yet how big.)

  18. 18.

    catclub

    via the illegal means of presidential impoundment (i.e., cancellation) of congressionally appropriated spending, a trick that contributed to Richard Nixon’s downfall when he tried it.

    Yeah, right. But now, the Court will back those impoundments as legal and the House and senate GOP will certainly NOT initiate impeachment over them.

  19. 19.

    TBone

    I am mesmerized by a woman on local TV station making old school PA “Dutch” shoofly pie.  I don’t really like it, but knowing what goes in is fascinating.  Now she’s on to shoofly cake and molasses cookies.

    Also whoopie shoofly pies. Now she’s gone overboard 😆

  23. 23.

    narya

    @TBone: I looooove shoofly pie; I use my mom’s recipe. I’ve also used her recipe for the filling to make muffins rather than pie. Last week I made what were supposed to be gingerbread muffins with pumpkin, and there wasn’t nearly enough molasses or ginger to satisfy me, in part because I can eat waaaaay more ginger than most people.

  25. 25.

    TBone

    @narya: I suspected you’d know! 💜 I can eat one slice because it is gooey good. But it’s not a fave. I also adore ginger and have been drinking ginger ale for two weeks.  Now I’m thinking about making my own (it settles my stomach).  On our farm, my Great Uncle made homemade sarsaparilla soda.  Yum.

    I once roasted an entire leg of venison using a Frugal Gourmet recipe that called for a ton of leeks.  It was amazing!

  26. 26.

    Chris Johnson

    @catclub: That court and that House and Senate GOP will not turn against Trump and the MAGA wing so long as Trump and the MAGA wing do not use their power to crash the car and ruin everybody’s day.

    ALL the signs indicate that the MAGA wing has their orders. They are to grab the wheel and wreck everybody’s shit, including the Republican House and Senate, because Russia is in dire straits and cannot survive America being alive for one more minute. The urgency is beyond extreme. They HAVE to wreck America pretty much immediately, because half measures will spur a backlash much like the one that put Biden in power, and such a backlash would be the last straw for Russia now that everybody basically knows what is up.

    These are the conditions under which the House, the Senate, even perhaps the court, will backstab the MAGA faction. ‘Gentlemen! We have to protect our phoney baloney jobs!’ as we heard in Blazing Saddles. You don’t have to look any further than venality, greed and desire for power. It’s inevitable.

    The MAGA shit will only work if the MAGA people do actually have the power to force the others to destroy themselves to the glory of Russia. The ones who could turn against the MAGAs are still crazy rightwingers up to plenty of bad things, but they won’t cosign self-destruction.

  27. 27.

    narya

    @TBone: No marination–just seared very quickly. I don’t marinate any of the venison I make; the strategies I use include making sure it’s room temperature, and DRY, which means letting it sit on paper towels for awhile, and then searing it fast and letting it rest in the warming drawer while I deglaze the pan. Rare is the only way to go. Luckily, my friend does his own butchering, so I can select the proper piece. You’d perhaps appreciate another preparation: venison cheesesteaks! I slice it paper-thin while it’s still pretty frozen, and I use good baguettes and cheese . . . . mmmm.

    ETA: For ginger ale, I make a ginger syrup, basically, which lasts forever, and then just mix a little with club soda.

  36. 36.

    rikyrah

    Christopher Webb (@cwebbonline) posted at 11:10 PM on Fri, Nov 22, 2024:
    STUDENTS EMBOLDENED BY TRUMP

    Beverly Hills High School—the week of the 2024 election a mob of kids with a Trump flag on a pole, with Trump clothing and MAGA hats stormed the halls.

    In recent weeks, Black students have been targets of racism, saying they’ve been called racial slurs and seen racist graffiti scrawled across the walls of the restrooms.

    t.co/Bjve66a1ZQ
    (x.com/cwebbonline/status/1860189048901632186?t=xcF50IptFMqcwgmMZeqq-Q&s=03)

  38. 38.

    scribbler

    @narya:  Mmm, ginger.  Best ginger beer in the world by far is Belfast Ginger Beer, made right here in Wisconsin.  So gingery!

    ETA: Of course, haven’t tasted every ginger beer in the world yet, so a bit of hyperbole. But seriously, if you like ginger beer, it’s fantastic.

  40. 40.

    Chief Oshkosh

    The Anderson cartoon sums up a large part of what drove the outcome, IMO. RW professional disinformation, funded at least since the 70s by what we now call the oligarchs, has cause a generational shift away from rational or critical thinking. The other biggies are racism, misogyny, and tribalism. The disinformation would never have take root without those.

    What to do about it? In the short term, as Josh Marshall wrote yesterday, the elected Democrats should be the opposition party and oppose everything the fuckwits try to get done. I don’t think it’ll have the impact it did in 2004, but it’s the bedrock must-do activity.

    For my part, as just one citizen, I’m not sure what I can do other than to encourage my elected D officials (I have a couple in my state) to keep a stiff spine and upper lip.

  42. 42.

    eclare

    @Nukular Biskits:

    That’s why I always liked Alton Brown’s show, because he got into why you do certain things the way you do.

    Critical to baking, which is why I don’t bake much.  Love to cook though.

  43. 43.

    princess leia

    @narya: I have been thinking to replace my 8 yo laptop as well! I have a HP Spectre, which I really like, so will either go with that or an HP Envy. What kind are you considering? And does anyone here have a better suggestion for a laptop purchase?  Spending a big chunk of $$$ always is intimidating to me.

  44. 44.

    RevRick

    I have a bone to pick with the cartoon, which erroneously suggests that the Puritans opposed vaccination or were handing out smallpox tainted blankets to the native population. Nothing could be further from the truth.

    First, when there was a smallpox epidemic outbreak in 1721 in Boston, the Puritan minister, Cotton Mather, was a prominent advocate for the new method of inoculation created by Edward Jenner. Harvard and Yale had been founded for the express purpose of educating a learned clergy, ones not only familiar with Greek, Hebrew and the latest theological thinking, but also with science, politics and ethics.

    Second, the smallpox tainted blankets were a British military tactic used in the French and Indian War. But by that time, most Eastern Indigenous tribes had long been exposed to the disease, so it was of doubtful value.

  45. 45.

    Dr. Jakyll and Miss Deride

    @catclub: Even if the Court says  impoundment is illegal, impeachment won’t happen, and Trump will go ahead and do it anyway.  What’s to stop him?

  46. 46.

    narya

    @princess leia: I am all-in on Apple world, so I’ll just be getting a new MacBook Air (not the Pro, because I don’t need it for graphics, gaming, video, etc.). It will be my third Mac laptop, so I’m not a reliable source if you are looking for something outside of Apple.

  47. 47.

    TBone

    @narya: I suspect that some eateries in my locale use venison for cheesesteaks when I’m not looking.  Overly very highly seasoned mystery meat is a thing here 🤮😤

  48. 48.

    TBone

    Just a note of gratitude for all youse guys, today and always.  I feel so much less alone…there is always something to be grateful for here!

  50. 50.

    RevRick

    @TBone: The local A-Treat Soda made sarsaparilla, cream, and white birch beer sodas, which was available at Redners.
    I’m a big fan of molasses (my wife, not so much), because as a child I often poured it over my oatmeal. So, I really dig shoofly pie. I also love anise, so I love licorice and Pfeffernusse (which Redners also sells).

  51. 51.

    narya

    @TBone: Blegh. I use salt and pepper. And caramelized onions. I’ve realized, though, that because I eat venison and wild turkey that my friend hunts and I buy what a friend called “hippie meat,” I’m used to meat that tastes like actual meat. I rarely season it, unless I’m making a stew or braise of some kind. But, hell, most of my diet is more than two standard deviations from the mean; not judging anyone for anything, just recognizing that my own tastes are uncommon and therefore possibly not a good guide for anyone.

  52. 52.

    narya

    @RevRick: OMG, we had A-Treat soda; I always liked the cream soda (which was red, IIRC?). My mom mostly didn’t allow us to drink soda, so it was always, in fact, A Treat.

  53. 53.

    Shakti

    Like the rest of you knew at the beginning of the year, I have discovered Chappell Roan.
    “My Kink is Karma” is my wishful thinking vibes for those people.  Get wrecked, metaphorical clown ex.

    I’d say I’m fine, except all of these weird, annoying physical ailments have decided to make a comeback. TL, DNR:

    I think I had a weird physical reaction to some cranberry orange relish so I have red cracking irritation around my mouth. The pharmacist said I might be dehydrated or it’s the weather change or..stress — which decided to show up on my face. This is the second time in about two months and I thought it was some skin cream I used. She carefully avoided saying the election — everyone here just says ‘hurricanes’ and the ‘holidays.’

    ;

    LMAO.

  54. 54.

    New Deal democrat

    @Dr. Jakyll and Miss Deride:

    Even if the Court says  impoundment is illegal, impeachment won’t happen, and Trump will go ahead and do it anyway.  What’s to stop him?

    And there is one of the fatal flaws in the US Constitution exposed by Trump.

    So long as the President has the support of 1/3rd+1 of the Senate, he has total impunity for anything.

  57. 57.

    Another Scott

    @Nukular Biskits: One can get replacement keyboards.  I recently got one for a Thinkbook for about $30.  Some are easy to replace, some (like the Thinkbook) take quite a bit of disassembly (so I still haven’t done it yet).  Dunno if that is an option for you.

    Good luck!

    Best wishes,
    Scott.

  58. 58.

    Nukular Biskits

    @eclare:

    I’m one of those weirdos who, upon reading a list of ingredients, can “taste” the result in my mind, which is why I like to cook and, especially, experiment with recipes.  The problem with that is I never write down anything so every dish comes out a little differently, depending on my mood, etc.

    Related, the god-daughter of the lady who runs the coffee shop I usually stop at in the morning (Delo’s Heavenly House of Coffee, in Gautier, MS) is majoring in “culinary science” (?) up at MS State. Had I only known such a major existed, I probably wouldn’t have went into engineering forty years ago!

  61. 61.

    Nukular Biskits

    @Another Scott:

    Yeah, I’ve already looked at that.

    Some laptops have keyboards that are easily removed from the top without hardly any disassembly.

    This one, however, is a Dell XPS and requires nearly a complete stripdown starting at the bottom to get to the keyboard (or change a DIMM or SSD, for that matter).  I’ve done that before on my previous laptop, another XPS, but it was a major PIA.

    I might consider taking it to a local “you break it, we fix it” shop since presumably they’ll possess all the tricks and tools to replace it (I don’t).  Before I do that, however, I need to make a full  backup … just in case.

  62. 62.

    Nukular Biskits

    @TBone:

    Just a note of gratitude for all youse guys, today and always.  I feel so much less alone…there is always something to be grateful for here!

    You gotta wait until tonight for Balloon Juice: After Dark when the bar opens.  Then you can tell us how much you love us!

    Except for Baud.  🤣

  64. 64.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Shakti: My Kink Is Karma is legit the best song I’ve heard in decades.  It was in my head for months.  It’s an example of a perfectly written and extremely catchy song that just hits me in the sweet spot as a musician/song-writer.  And the lyrics are so fucking good.  “Using your distress as foreplay” is just chef’s-kiss.  I was a bit annoyed with her meltdown and BothSides™ bullshit wrt the election and being asked if she supported Kamala, but god-damn is she talented and I really love her music and performance art.  I don’t have much interest in stadium/festival concerts anymore, but she is one artist we might make an exception to see live.

  65. 65.

    TBone

    @Shakti: I had a burning inflammation of the lips and tongue last year in December. It started as (I thought) chapped lips.  My dermatologist mistook it for an allergic reaction (almost emergency room worthy) but it is actually Covid inflammation gone wild.

    I was prescribed a round of Prednisone and given a steroid laced ointment for external use only.  The ointment, worth its weight in gold, has prevented another flare up two weeks ago.  I think it’s cortisone ointment.

  67. 67.

    stinger

    @catclub: And the “temporary suspension of payments”, which turns out to be permanent, is how Convicted Felon has operated his whole life. Nothing to see here, move along.

  68. 68.

    Eunicecycle

    @UncleEbeneezer: my husband and I were just discussing how women are getting blamed for the “crisis” with young men, in particular young men not going to college. We have so beaten down boys with all our demands for equality. We’ve taken away all their agency and parents have no influence I guess. It’s pretty pathetic.

  70. 70.

    sentient ai from the future

    @Chief Oshkosh: calling your reps to give them “attaboys” is valuable on its own, both for the mental health of the staffers and the reinforcement of right behavior by pols

  71. 71.

    prostratedragon

    @narya:  One thing the acronym “doge” has going for it with me is that it keeps front and center Doge Dandilo of Venice (one of them) who invaded Constantople on pretext of a Crusade looted much of it to carry back to Venice.

  73. 73.

    rikyrah

    Donald Trump is a white DEI hire (@Needle_of_Arya) posted at 6:04 AM on Sat, Nov 23, 2024:
    the sobering reality that the white-centered liberals and “white moderate” Democrats gambled on America’s future by seeing the ouster of Biden from the 2024 ticket and the election loss of his vice president as an opportunity for the return of traditional white hierarchy in 2028
    (https://x.com/Needle_of_Arya/status/1860293254576591297?t=ijYyYy8P6oafQh0xSt8zvg&s=03)

  74. 74.

    VeniceRiley

    Can we add a YOUR on the front ant call it YOOGE?

    You can call it an Office–acronym = OOGE, which sounds about right. And if it’s not an official part of government, then they don’t get paid and–and this is the important part–they’re under no FOIA rules, etc. It’s such a fucking scam.

  76. 76.

    Ohio Mom

    @TBone: Special Ed in the best of times is underfunded.

    Parents can sue if they think their child is not getting the services they need and have been promised in the IEP (which is ostensibly a legal contract) but lawsuits take a lot of time (and money) and kids grow up fast, by the time the lawsuit is resolved, the kid is long out of the classroom that inspired the complaint.

    The legal guidance for special ed, that is the documents that explain and interpret special ed laws and procedures are issued by the federal Department of Education. So this is a two-pronged attack the Republicans are planning to wage, on funding and on administrative support.

    To step back a moment, the IDEA law (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) is based on the idea that if it is the law that children must attend school, then children with disabilities must also attend school, and be given the services and supports they need to access the curriculum. It is their civil right to be educated.

    Before the late 1970s when the first federal special Ed law was enacted, most children with disabilities did not attend school because most school systems would not accept them.

    That’s enough pedantry for now.

  77. 77.

    narya

    @rikyrah: butbutbut . . . TCFG doesn’t know ANYthing about that Project 25 thingie! Never heard of it, doesn’t like it, won’t do anything about it!

    Willfully ignorant is no way to go through life and yet here we are.

  78. 78.

    TBone

    @Ohio Mom: the article states that fact.  ETA

    I know this from having spent most of my career working with children with disabilities and their families getting the services and equipment they needed while Scott Walker was governor and he tried to to do the same damn thing. And I also know that when the parents of special need children finally figure out that their children are being wantonly put in harm’s way, it will be the GOP who will be having their own FAFO moment. One just does not piss off a mama – or a papa – bear and hope to get away with it.

  80. 80.

    VeniceRiley

    @Eunicecycle: It is pathetic. They’ve rat pelleted each other into their own video game and media bubble. Lots of money behind it. And eSports eclipse real sports too. These boys are on the weirdest self selected island that ever existed.

  81. 81.

    Ohio Mom

    @rikyrah: I’d like to think that hospitals will keep their own data and that one day, at great expense, all this information can be reconstructed, but who knows?

  83. 83.

    TBone

    @Shakti: it is long Covid.  Inflammation comes and goes on the regular.

    But the cortisone ointment (based in plain petroleum jelly) is a fix if you do not get it under control no matter how/why it started.

    Last year, the skin would literally crack, peel, and burn off of my lips. New skin, repeat.  It was a painful, bloody mess.

  84. 84.

    Barbara

    @TBone: Robert Reich appears to believe (like Bernie Sanders and Chris Murphy) that if we make the lives of white working class voters better — essentially bring back the status circa 1968 — they will vote for Democrats.  Honestly, I see no objective evidence to support this point of view.

  85. 85.

    RevRick

    @Shakti: Since COVID is a virus that attacks the oxygen-uptake receptors of the cells, even mild cases leave some lasting damage. But most of it won’t show up until one’s declining years.

  86. 86.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    FYI, the Josh Marshall piece “A Party of Institutions In An Era of Distrust” is a good one to bookmark, assuming you have a subscription (I don’t, got a guest link from somebody here yesterday):

    talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/a-party-of-institutions-in-an-era-of-distrust

    Bloomberg did a series earlier this year called the “Republic of Distrust”

    bloomberg.com/graphics/2024-opinion-trust-government-science-religion-business-decreasing/#bbo-insti…

    It examines polling data over the years on areas of “distrust”: gubmint, media, etc.  Interesting read and provides a bit of historical context.

  87. 87.

    Eunicecycle

    @Ohio Mom: I’ve read that lots of government departments and agencies are archiving their websites in case they are taken down for mentioning climate change, vaccines, etc. I know in his first administration (I still cannot accept there will be a second!) lots of government websites were scrubbed of “offending” words.

  89. 89.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    I don’t understand the SCOTUS immunity ruling. They said the president is immune from prosecution for illegal acts he engages in as part of his official role. Does that mean the acts aren’t illegal? And the ruling only talked about the president, not the people who would carry out the illegal actions. Are they immune from prosecution? Is “I was only following orders” sufficient to keep them out of court?

  90. 90.

    TBone

    @Barbara: that’s not what the speech he gave in 1994 was about though.  That speech was the point of article posted, not what he believes in 2024.

  92. 92.

    The Truffle

    So how long before infighting begins among these people? And why is the party of “small government” creating a new agency?

  96. 96.

    Citizen Alan

    @Nukular Biskits: Idiocracy breaks my heart because it was five minutes away from being the most culturally and politically important movie of the last fifty years. And that 5 minutes comes at the very beginning. When there is a stupid narration, explaining that the Idiocracy came into existence simply because dumb people outbred smart people by comparing an upper class married couple who kept putting off children with an ignorant maybe-married couple in a trailer park who did know how to use birth control.

    Which is nonsense because (a) parents who have a large number of children generally do so because of fundamentalist, religious beliefs, beliefs which also drive the anti abortion and anti contraception movements, and (b) the arise of our own idiocracy has been the result of a fifty year campaign to destroy public education so that Americans would be more susceptible, to propaganda and disinformation.

    I have always wondered if mike judge realized that but didn’t dare take a political stance on the subject.

  97. 97.

    Eunicecycle

    @VeniceRiley: I think it’s so important to get kids involved in sports, music, dance, something that makes them get out of their rooms. Some have blamed the pandemic for this isolation we see but it’s been happening for years. My grandson is a sophomore at the University of Kentucky and he went through the pandemic in high school, and plays video games, but he also was on the soccer team and reffed younger kids’ soccer games.

  98. 98.

    narya

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: IIUC, and I may not, the decision is silent as to people following the orders. My guess, with this court, is that if it’s a Dem, then the order-followers can be prosecuted but if it’s a R, then not. The whole Seal Team 6 line of questioning pokes at this–presumably, someone could say that it’s an illegal order and not do it, but this Court likely would say that it can’t be illegal because the President ordered it. Unless the President is a Democrat. No, it does not make any logical or historical sense: the sole purpose of everything they did was to enable TCFG be re-elected.

  100. 100.

    RevRick

    @Barbara: I agree.
    In the Spring of 1963, JFK enjoyed an 80% approval rating among white working class voters. By the Fall, it had fallen below 50%. What changed? In the summer, he proposed the Civil Rights legislation.

    When I first moved to Western Pennsylvania in 1975, Westmoreland County was solidly Democratic. But then came deindustrialization and the ground began to shift. And the inherent social conservatism of working class folks took over. White working class people want well-ordered homes, well-ordered families, and well-ordered communities, and through the 70s-90s they saw increasing disorder, and they blamed the Democrats (with a large assist from Rush Limbaugh and the Republicans).
    We need to create a narrative of a new and better order.

  101. 101.

    Ohio Mom

    @TBone: Havng known many special ed families, I’m not particularly sanguine about their ability to fight back.

    First, on an individual level, parents are always at a disadvantsge. The school staff knows special ed law and all its loopholes in great depth and parents generally don’t. Parents get outsmarted all the time. I hired an advocate to come with me to IEP meetings but that costs money that not every family has.

    And sorry to say this, but a lot of parents are stupid and also Republicans (I can’t tell you how many times I put my foot in my mouth assuming my fellow special education parent would appreciate my anti-Republican remarks).

    Lots of them are about to have their faces eaten and they won’t realize it’s a national problem, not just their school district. They have no awareness of the bigger picture, and what awareness they do have is often expressed as, “They wouldn’t do that to our kids.”

    Finally, the disability community is fractured. Every disability has its own national advocacy group and I think that dilutes our voice. And these groups have to advocate for disabled people of all ages — childhood is a relatively short part of the human lifespan.

    But, special Ed is no longer my problem, my kid is in his late twenties. I mainly hope my school district remains strong because I like my inflated property value.

  102. 102.

    gene108

    @TBone:

    Sen. Mike Rounds claims that the GOP doesn’t want to defund special education, but they’re still going to do it because they don’t really care.

    What Rounds is proposing is giving each state a block grant but without the requirements or monitoring in place. And I can promise you that these block grants are going to be smaller than what they are distributing now.

    Thing is most people don’t have special needs kids. A lot of people have kids with IEP’s and special needs, but it’s not the majority of students.

    Very little of the worst Republicans are proposing will negatively affect most people. It’ll adversely impact large segments of people, but stop short of hurting most people directly.

    This is one reason Trumpism has proven so durable. Most people wake up the next morning and nothing has changed for them.

  104. 104.

    TBone

    Random Comment of the Day:

    Okay — I don’t know why I didn’t know this prior to this morning, but do you know who’s directly responsible for killing Air America?

    Mitt fucking Romney. His company, Bain Capital, bought AA’s parent company and then directed all the network’s radio stations to switch to other formats, like all-sports. Just in time for Romney’s presidential bid.

  105. 105.

    TBone

    @gene108: you’d be surprised how many kids need “special” education of one sort or another.  IEPs are commonplace now, in my experience from representing parents vs. school districts at a law office.

    But the reason I posted the article is because of the front page here. DOGE

  106. 106.

    Eunicecycle

    @TBone: Wow. I did not know that. But it makes sense. The evils of vulture capitalism will be visited unto the 7th generation.

  107. 107.

    frosty

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: It’s OK, SCOTUS doesn’t understand it either. They won’t worry about it until someone brings a suit about “I was only following orders” then they’ll see which way the wind blows and make up some other shit.

    This is the other fatal flaw that the founders put into the Constitution.

  111. 111.

    Aussie Sheila

    @Citizen Alan:

    The unfettered pardon power means lower level flunkies may be excused from ever having to face indictment, so the now practically monarchical powers of the US President means he/she is able to act and give orders as they see fit, providing people believe that they will receive a pardon while the President remains in Office.

    Pretty neat trick.

  112. 112.

    narya

    King Arthur has Staub dutch ovens (4 quart) on sale for $130 (usually $350), if you’re looking to buy one.

  114. 114.

    frosty

    @Another Scott: I’d say Musk is sophomoric but that’s probably a level above him. S 3 X Y. DOGE. And my favorite, his overpayment for Twitter for $54.20 a share. Got to get that 420 meme in somewhere. Snicker.

    @TBone: Ha! You got there before me!

  115. 115.

    Eunicecycle

    @TBone: my granddaughter has one for her speech impediments. She stuttered, which has almost entirely disappeared now, but she still can’t say “r”s. She’s 7-years-old so still has time to correct it. I can pretty much understand her now.

  120. 120.

    VeniceRiley

    @Eunicecycle: Cool. Keep him away from red pill content his cohort consumed in YouTube and social media. Oh, and the weird AF pron boys consume these days. Cannot tell you the number of R/twoXchromosomes posts and comments of nonconsent choaking. Hey I’m not carrying your luggage. Refusal to clean a thing ….

    If I had a boy, I would raise him in an internet desert.

  121. 121.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Eunicecycle: I coach a tennis team that is just getting started.  Three boys and about ten girls.  Every class we start with running/fitness: 4 laps jogging, 1 lap side-shuffle, 1 lap karaoke (cross-over steps) then 100 jumps with jumping rope.  The boys gripe and moan, try to lie about how many laps they’ve already done, always try to make excuses for why they shouldn’t have to run, can’t stop physically hitting each other etc.  While the girls just…do the routine, rarely complain or make excuses, they listen to my corrections/feedback etc.  It’s just weird.  I often will reward the girls and cut their laps short, which pisses off the boys and makes them whine that the girls are getting preferential treatment.  I explain to them that I’m rewarding them for working hard and not trying constantly cheat or get out of their drills.  I literally have to watch the boys and count their laps out loud because otherwise they will lie to try and get out of the warm-up.  It’s so disturbing.  They just have a complete sense of entitlement and belief that their actions should have no consequences.  I see the same gendered differences in behavior at much younger ages too.  It’s impossible not to notice.  The girls follow instructions or at least try to.  Boys take joy in refusing.  I’ve had to punish so many boys with extra laps, sitting them out for bad behavior and even talking to their parents, over the years.  I’ve almost NEVER had to do that with any of the girls.  Something is deeply, deeply wrong with the way boys are socialized in our society.  And these are affluent boys with fairly normal social skills and many friends.  Neither economics nor loneliness are to blame.

  122. 122.

    Eunicecycle

    @VeniceRiley: I know he knows about Rogan but thinks he’s an idiot so that’s good. He seems to be a good kid, is doing well in college, has lots of friends, so I am not too worried about him.

  123. 123.

    Ohio Mom

    @gene108: IIRC, somewhere between 10-15% of school children have IEPs or 504 plans (504s are slangily referred to as “IEP-lites”).

    Worth noting is that the level of impairment varies widely. A very smart, socially adept kid with dyslexia has an IEP, so does a medically fragile, non-verbal, intellectually disabled one. Their parents are hardly a unified group, they generally don’t see their interests as aligned.

    Not to mention that many parents of typically-developing and gifted kids see the special ed kids as vacuuming up funding and resources they they think should rightfully go to their kids (this is particularly true of parents of gifted students).

    TL/dr: you are correct, slashing special ed to pieces won’t affect the majority of public school families, they’ll probably hardly notice.

  125. 125.

    Eunicecycle

    @UncleEbeneezer: my husband student-taught high school math in the 70s (he ended up not teaching, went into IT instead) but he said even then the girls were better students than the boys. And this was in advanced MATH, you know, that girls can’t do. The girls paid attention, followed instructions, etc. It sounds like not much has changed.

  127. 127.

    Mel

    @TBone: Custard apple pie is right up there with shoofly pie for me. Delicious, especially if you can find Norther Spy or Cortland apples! 😸

  128. 128.

    Starfish (she/her)

    @Ohio Mom: A lot of the gifted kids are twice-exceptional now.

    And there are a lot of very weird discussions about “Was gifted education some racist bullshit anyway?” Was it all ADHD, autism, and whiteness?

  131. 131.

    Jeffro

    @rikyrah: Vought, Mike Davis, Brendan Carr, and Kevin Roberts (the Heritage guy) can all be found on Wikipedia, next to the phrase “the banality of evil”.

  132. 132.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    Via Blue Sky

     

    Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski said that she won’t approve any of Donald Trump’s cabinet nominees unless they are properly vetted by the FBI.

    Thank you, Lisa!

  136. 136.

    Tom Levenson

    @RevRick: Not Jenner. He invented the smallpox vaccine using the cowpox virus, having seen  and heard about the fact that dairy maids did not get smallpox after having had a case of cowpox. That was in the 1790s.

    What Mather supported was variolation. That involved gathering material from smallpox sores, scratching the skin of an uninfected person, and rubbing the smallpox dose into the abrasion. Mather first heard about this from his slave, Onesimus, and later read the paper in the Royal Society’s Philosophical Transactions published 1716 that reported on the same procedure practiced in Ottoman Turkey. That was what he managed to get one Boston doctor to try out in 1721, over the opposition of most of the local medical community.

    Yes I am a nerd about this. I’ve been working on the book in which I tell this story (and much else) for a few years now. It comes out next spring, should y’all be interested. ;-)

  137. 137.

    Jeffro

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: this is the way to do it!

    He’s a lame duck.  There’s no reason to show him any deference or deviation from the usual procedures.  Especially since the effects on the country will last a lot longer than he will.

  138. 138.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Eunicecycle: I’m guessing it was even worse back then.  At least now there are boys who get it and don’t have this entitlement and toxic chip on their shoulder.  I imagine that % is much higher than it was when I was in HS/college and honestly, any guy who even treated fairness to girls/women as a legit thing were ridiculed.  I see boys who will celebrate/praise a girl who is a better player than they are or who they just lost to.  That was UNHEARD OF when I was a boy (80’s).  So that gives me a glimmer of hope.

  139. 139.

    Starfish (she/her)

    @TBone: We had racism. Lots and lots of racism.

    I think I got classified because my younger sister did so well on a test that whoever scores the test thought someone at the school was cheating.

    Then they were like “Oh, you need to test this kid for giftedness and get her sister too.”

    At that point, I had been speaking English for about three years.

    So I know that where I live now, there are considerations around “How do you classify kids who may not speak English?” “How do you classify kids who are gifted in the fine arts and not logic puzzles?” There are a lot of parents who are paying $$$ for outside tutoring saying “Well, my kid who has been taking violin lessons since age three is gifted.” And are they gifted or is the family extremely well off?

    But from what I am seeing out of what is offered to my son is that middle school gifted program is just a jobs program for some lady to push papers in the middle school and of no benefit to the actual children.

  141. 141.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @schrodingers_cat: Definitely a likely part of the equation.  But I’ve seen lots of examples from all types of students (White, Asian-Am, Latinx, Black etc.). It’s really noticeable when I have a brother and sister in the same class, which is pretty often.

  142. 142.

    Starfish (she/her)

    @Barbara: Robert Reich is extremely shouty, and I do not like to listen to this extremely shouty man.

    But his son who did Funny or Die and then Dropout is funny, I guess.

  143. 143.

    Ohio Mom

    @Starfish (she/her): Yep. Gifted education is also a sop thrown to tiger moms.

    When Ohio Son was in high school, the Gifted and Talented parent group held a workshop on executive functioning. I went because executive functioning is definitely an issue for Ohio Son.

    The first part was a presentation by a psychologist explaining just what executive functioning is, and that was extremely helpful to me.

    The second part was a pair of testimonials from two G&T students who claimed to have EF issues. I had to keep myself from breaking into laughter.

    They both had extremely packed schedules, with multiple extracurricular activities, most after school but some starting before the school day — and first bell was at 7:20 am! Plus lots of homework from all their AP classes.

    Of course they were always stretched thin, but the source wasn’t how their brains functioned, it was over-filled schedules.

  144. 144.

    Eunicecycle

    @UncleEbeneezer: it will be several generations of work to minimize toxic masculinity; I’m sure it can’t be eliminated but hopefully it can be suppressed down to a fringe element.

  145. 145.

    artem1s

    If MTG’s new job is babysitting the edge lords of a private sector, non-government agency, then she needs to resign from the Senate. Government contracts can’t be awarded without taking bids on the work. None of these assholes should get a contract or paycheck for this bullshit. Any money made off this scam should be subject to FOIA. No privacy for the assholes who hate privacy for the rest of us.

    This is all about skimming taxpayers money and redirecting it to Elmo’s companies and directly into his cronies pockets. I find it hard to believe the BoD of banks, big governments contractors and the CEO’s of Fortune 500 companies are going to sit still for being pushed to the back of the line by these nouveau riche assholes.

  147. 147.

    rikyrah

    Brian Allen (@allenanalysis) posted at 7:41 AM on Sat, Nov 23, 2024:
    Mike Johnson’s bias couldn’t be more obvious. For Matt Gaetz, he claims Congress has no authority to investigate a “private citizen” and blocks the Ethics Committee report.

    But when it’s Hunter Biden—a private citizen just the same—Johnson demands relentless congressional scrutiny in the name of “transparency.”

    The hypocrisy is staggering: one rule for his allies, another for his enemies.

    Johnson’s so-called principles aren’t about justice—they’re about protecting his political circle and weaponizing Congress against those he opposes.

    (x.com/allenanalysis/status/1860317770971513337?t=uLAAwXY8TwB75wc5w_ZuLg&s=03)

  148. 148.

    Ohio Mom

    I should add that what is true for my school district isn’t true for all.

    Discussions about schools are too often based on personal anecdotes. Which is okay as far as anecdotes go but hardly the big picture.

  149. 149.

    rikyrah

    I definitely remember this.

     

    Donald Trump is a white DEI hire (@Needle_of_Arya) posted at 11:42 PM on Fri, Nov 22, 2024:
    since I’m Gen-X, I’m reminded of an earlier age in which it was quite common as a Black child to know of white counterparts whose parents didn’t want you socializing with them outside of school

    white people who cling to Trump relatives bring that sort of 20th-century energy
    (https://x.com/Needle_of_Arya/status/1860197086492590167?t=f7N_S4BH3tzq5fTdXsHAeA&s=03)

  152. 152.

    Starfish (she/her)

    @Ohio Mom: A lot of the districted level gifted education things put on by my district that are not talks are a hot mess. There is definitely a camp of “what is wrong with me wanting to hoard resources like a dragon for my child?” and a camp of people who do not enjoy their nonsense.

  155. 155.

    Kay

    Has The NY Times announced the economy is booming yet, or are they waiting until their boy(s) are sworn in?

    Happy Days Are Here Again! World peace! High wages and low prices! Everyone gets the house they want in the city they choose!

    A country of spoiled 5 year olds.

  156. 156.

    Eunicecycle

    @rikyrah: when you realize Trump hires people to destroy the departments they are heading, it makes more sense. I don’t understand why these people accept the jobs, though. I wouldn’t accept a job I have no experience in, especially if it’s to head a gigantic organization that effects the lives of millions of people. Like the Department of Education. For example did I just use “effects” properly? Or should it have been “affects”? If I head the DOE I should know that.

  158. 158.

    Eunicecycle

    @Kay: I think someone mentioned that the country’s opinion on the economy has already increased 15%. Because people are idiots.

  159. 159.

    tobie

    @rikyrah: I’m not going to get Soc Sec, I guess. My entire retirement plan was built around the assumption I’d be getting a nice monthly check given the amount I paid into the fund my entire working life. Fuck.

    I’d hoped to write a book entitled American Freeloaders: Rural Small Business Culture but now I’ll be too busy working till I drop dead to finish this exposé.

  160. 160.

    narya

    @rikyrah: I think they’re going to round up all sorts of folks, imprison them, then use them as essentially slave labor–“rent” them back to the very agricultural/meat processing companies where they worked before, obviously at little to no pay for the folks doing the work and higher profit margins for the ag/meat producers. They’re not going to “deport” people when there’s profit to be made on the labor of those people. it’s beyond vile.

  161. 161.

    Juju

    @TBone: Shoofly pie is one of those things that looks like it should be chocolate and it isn’t.  I put it on my list of chocolate pretenders like oatmeal raisin cookies. If I’m going to eat something high calorie for dessert I want it to be worth my while.

  163. 163.

    Poe Larity

    So our Treasury Secretary worked at grandpa Prescott’s Brown Brothers Harriman but voted for Al. And then he went to work for… wait for it… George Soros.

    Can’t wait to remind all the Trumpers of that..

  164. 164.

    Mr. Bemused Senior

    @Eunicecycle: not just the jobs, who wants to work for bosses like these?

    We can expect incompetence and an orgy of corruption.

    [ETA think people in general are not going to like it but what do I know?]

  166. 166.

    TBone

    @Poe Larity:

    Bessent has made it well known that he wants to extend tax cuts made in Mr Trump’s first term in office.
    He has also defended the use of import tariffs, one of the more controversial parts of the President-elect’s campaign agenda, calling them a “useful negotiating tool”.
    On the campaign trail, Bessent told voters that Trump would usher in a “new golden age with de-regulation, low-cost energy, [and] low taxes”.

    bbc.com/news/articles/cj3mv6l1ypyo

  169. 169.

    Geminid

    In foreign news from the past week, Iraq imposed a nationwide curfew from midnight Tuesday to midnight Thursday, and 140,000 census workers conducted Iraq’s first nationwide census since 1987.

  172. 172.

    Ruckus

    @Chris Johnson:

    This far right concept of “If we can’t rule exactly as we want and fuck up everything so that we can steal everything and make the rest so screwed up that it doesn’t work, then we aren’t worth the steaming pile of manure we are actually trying to create” really is insane because it shows that they really are all mentally less than 4 yrs old and think, such as it is, that playing destructo with the entire country is fun and will pay off very well for them and that the world will hold parades for them when their toy box explodes.

    IOW they are completely fucking insane and have their heads stuffed up a very dark and smelly place – each other’s exit port, at the very best have the mental level of those 4 yr olds, all the grace and charm of a pile of steaming monkey crap and an IQ of a deranged butterfly. I may be giving them too much credit…

  173. 173.

    Chris Johnson

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: She is literally representing Alaska. Putin has already made noises about how America owns Alaska illegally.

    I’m not terribly surprised that the Republican Senator from Alaska would side with Republicans over MAGAs who are publically threatening their fellows with extortion by Russia. If it’s that on the table, with TASS openly outlining Trump’s indebtedness and MTG openly threatening her fellows, Alaska is literally the first territory Trump would cede.

    Stands to reason Murkowski objects. Mind you, if Trump does recess appointments it’s moot. But I am not surprised the Senate knows what’s going on.

  175. 175.

    narya

    So, I thinking of a simple pie crust (sable or sucree), with caramelized butternut squash, topped with creme brûlée–i.e., the squash as a surprise filling . . .

  177. 177.

    Geminid

    @TBone: I learned about Shoofly Pies when I lived in the Shenandoah Valley. Pennsylvania Dutch cuisine runs right down I-81.

    Have you ever had a Hummingbird Cake? They have those in Valley too. I don’t think they use real hummingbirds. At least, not fresh ones because I’ve seen the cakes in the wintertime.

  179. 179.

    Ruckus

    @narya:

    Willfully ignorant is no way to go through life and yet here we are.

    What do you mean – no way to go through life?

    It is their only goal. And their only possibility, because it really seems to be difficult to go through life with one’s only goal being to stuff said head up as many exit ports to see if they can find one that doesn’t smell so delightful. I believe it hides reality, humanity, having the IQ of a gnat and a complete lack of concept of – well everything.

  182. 182.

    gene108

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    I don’t understand the SCOTUS immunity ruling. They said the president is immune from prosecution for illegal acts he engages in as part of his official role. Does that mean the acts aren’t illegal? And the ruling only talked about the president, not the people who would carry out the illegal actions. Are they immune from prosecution? Is “I was only following orders” sufficient to keep them out of court?

    My take on the immunity ruling is Trump’s shakedown of Zelensky, which led to his first impeachment would okay now because talking to another foreign leader is part of the president’s official duties.

    People following president’s orders have some kind of preferred immunity that makes it harder to prosecute them.

    The most jarring thing to me is the part of the decision that states the AG and DOJ work directly for the president.

    @New Deal democrat:

    And there is one of the fatal flaws in the US Constitution exposed by Trump.

    So long as the President has the support of 1/3rd+1 of the Senate, he has total impunity for anything.

    Another fatal flaw is the presidential pardon power. Trump dangled future pardons in front of Flynn and Stone to get them to stop cooperating with the FBI, which they were getting close to doing as part of the plea deals.

  186. 186.

    Ruckus

    @narya:

    shitforbrains (yes you can imagine who this is…) is not willfully ignorant, he is willfully an ass who thinks he is the best human to ever have been created. (He wasn’t born, that’s too common..) He has all the charm and grace of an inflamed exit port which, because it’s inflamed does not allow the proper working of said port, and he is therefore made up of 94% decaying crap. The other 6% is preparing to become crap. At which point it will also start decaying.

    (In case it isn’t obvious – I’m not a fan of said pile of 94% pure crap)

  187. 187.

    TBone

    @Geminid: never heard of hummingbird cake, must investigate!

    It’s a Southern thing?!

    This layered masterpiece got its name from its home country, Jamaica, where the hummingbird is the national bird. Fun fact: in Jamaica, hummingbirds are called “doctor birds,” so as you might guess, in Jamaica this cake is called “doctor bird cake.”

  188. 188.

    The Audacity of Krope

    @TBone: Trump would usher in a “new golden age with de-regulation, low-cost energy, [and] low taxes”.

    An age of irresponsible economic sugar highs that will leave society destitute when the fossil fuels, the only energy they seem willing to cultivate, runs out. Bonus points for the climate catastrophe we’ll have to handle at the same time.

  191. 191.

    The Audacity of Krope

    @Ruckus: they are completely fucking insane and have their heads stuffed up a very dark and smelly place – each other’s exit port

    Don’t kink shame.

  192. 192.

    Kay

    @Ohio Mom:

    Ohio mandated funding for gifted education, under this whiny Right wing theory that seemed to rest on the idea that children with disabilities were getting all the goodies. “Gifted” was then made so broad it is meaningless, and basically consisted of all the kids whose parents were in the top 10% of income in the district. I refused to go to the meetings for my youngest. I thought it was 100% about flattering better-off parents.

  193. 193.

    KatKapCC

    @Geminid: It’s “shoo in”. Think of it as telling something “shoo” to get it go away. It’s like…a movement reference, in the case of “shoo in” meaning “getting in quickly and easily”.

  203. 203.

    Ruckus

    @narya:

    A big problem is that he isn’t stupid.

    A complete and utter asshole, sure.

    A pompous, arrogant jackass, sure.

    A far worse than useless, self-centered egomaniac, sure.

    A perfect example of head up own ass, sure.

    A dictionary level example of far worse than useless, sure.

    A – add your own definitions of who and what he actually is.

  204. 204.

    Ruckus

    @The Audacity of Krope:

    Some things just aren’t funny.

    shitforbrains is a perfect example of not funny at all.

    The fact that he has supporters is not funny at all.

    The fact that he got elected – again, is not funny at all.

    The fact that I’ve almost forgotten how to laugh – is not funny at all.

  206. 206.

    The Audacity of Krope

    @Ruckus: Definite variances in mileage there. I’m determined to find all of this funny even if it kills me. I’ll laugh my way through the gulag if I have to.

  208. 208.

    Ruckus

    @UncleEbeneezer:

    Go back centuries to how life was.

    Everything was laborious, took effort. No tractors on the farm, any work was actual hard labor. Education was learning the hard way and at a high cost for not learning. Communications existed of in person speech. A lot of the concept of existence was unknown. Poverty was far more common. And more severe. Knowledge was limited – which helped make everything harder. Anyone having a lot very often indicated theft in one way or another. Health care meant stopping bleeding. At best.

    The main concept of life was survival – and nothing more for the vast majority of humans. Life has changed quite a bit in the lives of olds alive today. Like this one. So many of the things we accept and use today are significantly different than they were in the lifetime of old farts of today – or didn’t exist. How old is what we are doing right now? A level of communications unheard of, unthought of, undreamt of by most (all?) olds alive. IOW, this old fart can tell you that life is yes, still life, but living is a hell of a lot different. Go back another 75-100 years and ask the same question, the answer will be far more different.

  214. 214.

    Soprano2

    @Barbara: These people are fooling themselves about why WWC people vote for Republicans. What they want back is Jim Crow and women back in the home so they don’t have to compete with them on a level playing field.

  215. 215.

    Ruckus

    @UncleEbeneezer:

    I’m a tad older than you and there were boys that didn’t have the entitlement and toxic chips on their shoulders. Exposure and seeing women actually doing the jobs that not actually all that long ago were seen as MAN’S work has actually been going on for more than my lifetime. I think WWII is one of the things that changed that. There are pictures of factories of women making things like airplanes and tanks and vehicles, with a few old men walking around as supervisors. My father was a mold maker, which entails making molds that create plastic parts. I worked there and ended up owning the company he started longer than he did. I’ve written about it here before. Many of the products of the tools we built would be recognized by most of the people on this blog. Toys, household products, more bottle molds than I can count, for 4 oz to 5 gal bottles, and other types of products, like medical bone saw blades, and on and on. Early on most women did not do this work but as time went on that has changed. Education has changed, women no longer are considered only as housewives and mothers. And almost all of it has been over the last 75-100 years. When I was in the military, over 1/2 a century ago, woman in the US military did not participate in combat or serve on ships or fly planes. They do now and have for a while. My dentist and some of my doctors at the VA are women.

    Life in the last 50-60 yrs has changed a fair bit. I believe that has pissed off some the relics on the male side of humanity, and a few of the younger ones as well. Tough whatever. This is supposed to be a country of equality and all that. And some seem to think that half (actually slightly over half) of humanity are not as worthy as they see themselves. That segment is full of human exhaust waste.

  217. 217.

    Ruckus

    @narya:

    Yes iPhones are up to version 16 but the difference from the latest to say version 14 are not really all that great. Especially if you mostly use it for a phone. I have a 14 and the only reason I’d buy new right now is if my phone gets run over by a car or something along that line. And my 14 runs the latest update so really not a lot of justification to update. You say 4 generations so that would be like a 12 so if all you have is the small basic then they do more, etc, but also cost more. Possibly if you use it for more than just an actual phone…

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