This suggestion by Mark Cuban caught my eye; might work, certainly worth floating, but I think insufficiently cynical. Opposition to phasing out coal isn't about jobs; it isn't even, mostly, about profits. It's a front in the culture war. 1/
— Paul Krugman (@pkrugman.bsky.social) November 30, 2024 at 7:47 AM
Coal mining stopped being a major way of life a long time ago — not because of eco-freaks, but because strip mining and mountaintop removal made most workers unnecessary 2/
— Paul Krugman (@pkrugman.bsky.social) November 30, 2024 at 7:51 AM
Coal output didn't begin falling until around 2010, mainly because of fracking and to some extent renewables. But by then there were already very few miners (the personal training industry employs about 20X as many people as coal) 3/
— Paul Krugman (@pkrugman.bsky.social) November 30, 2024 at 7:54 AM
But coal as an idea — big, tough men (approaching Trump with tears in their eyes) has outlasted coal as a reality. West Virginia thinks it's a coal state, when in reality it's mostly a health care state (supported by Medicare and Medicaid, which the people it votes for want to cut) 4/
— Paul Krugman (@pkrugman.bsky.social) November 30, 2024 at 7:59 AM
Look, I get it. Job are about dignity as well as money, and being a coal miner used to mean something. But that's why empty promises to bring coal back play politically, while even a generous buyback scheme probably wouldn't 5/
— Paul Krugman (@pkrugman.bsky.social) November 30, 2024 at 8:05 AM
I do not, as an aggregator, find The Exquisitely Gated Garden a natural fit, but I fully understand the problems with the ongoing degradation of The Former Public Square [gift link], so it is no doubt a good thing that more of our most important institutions are switching platforms…
Also I think everyone gets at this point that he just reflexively says "pedo" when his ego's threatened, it's purely a deimatic display like puffing up or waving your tentacles around
— Hemry, Local Bartender (@bartenderhemry.bsky.social) November 29, 2024 at 10:21 PM
"there isn't a secret smarter media for rich people" is an underrated observation. Honestly it's worse for them, they're looking at the same dumb shit your aunt phyllis shares on facebook but everyone they know IRL is financially obligated not to tell them "that's bullshit phyllis you dumb fuck"
— Hemry, Local Bartender (@bartenderhemry.bsky.social) November 30, 2024 at 11:47 PM
President Biden and I are on track to have the strongest four years of small business growth in history.
— Kamala Harris (@kamalaharrisbsky.bsky.social) November 30, 2024 at 6:33 PM
WaterGirl
Love your title, Anne Laurie!
Baud
I’m mostly enjoying BlueSky so far, but I follow a small number of people, so it’s more like an Expanded Universe Balloon Juice for me.
However, even with that, I am getting a better sense of the problems with social media and how it works against us. I can only imagine how horrible Twitter was.
Betty Cracker
Wisconsin’s Ben Wikler is running for national party chair, according to the NYT. Here’s a gift link to the interview. The article says MN Dem chair Ken Martin, former MD gov Martin O’Malley and NY State Sen. James Scoufis are also pursuing the gig.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
I don’t know Ken Martin. I hope a NY guy doesn’t get it. I don’t have a problem with O’Malley, but he doesn’t strike me as the person we need right now.
suzanne
Whaaaaaaat?! You mean the people actually doing the most work there are doctors and nurses and administrators and service staff?! So: foreigners, women, people who went to college?! Heresy.
p.a.
The Sorting Hat: pushing the mandate idea reveals those as bad faith liars or idiots. There is crossover too I suppose.
Oops, forgot about the Elder Wand’s defeat of
liberal biasfake newsbasic math.Betty Cracker
@Baud: Yeah, I don’t know much about the other contenders, but Wikler strikes me as a compelling choice. Here’s a snippet of his response when asked why he’s the best person for the job:
We’ll have to see just how successful the incoming right-wing kleptocracy is at entrenching power, but that will be the task.
Trivia Man
@Betty Cracker: He has had some success here, if we cant have Howard dean again ben might do well
TBone
Somebody tell these *redacted* fucks the facts about coal
https://www.reuters.com/legal/blackrock-state-street-vanguard-sued-by-republican-states-over-climate-accords-2024-11-27/
The usual suspects in the usual court, of course.
NotMax
Long-ish weekend watch.
Repeated from deep within a night time thread because some people expressed interest in exploring the topic.
The INSANE Truth About IKEA.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
You mean wild, wunnerful West Virginia, red state exemplar, is just another conservative state sucking massively at the Federal teat?
We have this week’s winner of the Claude Rains Memorial Gambling Awareness Award with the covered 4-Claude rating!
Baud
And this just popped up on Blue sky
WaterGirl
@Betty Cracker: Holy fuck, if Ben Wikler is running the rest of them should drop out.
We would be crazy not to choose him.
(Sorry, Wisconsin!)
Trivia Man
@WaterGirl: Apology accepted. We aren’t all better tet, but if Ben can do the same thing nationwide I’ll be happy if he gets called up to the big leagues.
Terraformer
As a Wisconsinite, I can definitely recommend Wikler. He’s done wonders here and I think would bring new energy to a Democratic Congress that sorely needs it
Nukular Biskits
Good mornin, y’all!
Pecan pie and coffee for breakfast. I regret nothing.
tihotm
Lame Duck Trump.
For the first time in US history the presidency is changing parties, but the president elect is a lame duck.
Trump is a lame duck.
Where are the stories about the succession battle to come? Or about the need to nullify the 22nd amendment?
Trump is a very weak lame duck. He won a popular vote plurality by 1.6%. The GOP House majority is razor thin.
Where are all the stories demanding Trump reach across the aisle?
Sure saw a lot of that when Obama squeaked through with a 7.5% popular vote margin and 365 electoral votes.
How will the GOP hobbled by a lame duck president, tiny house margin and unpopular agenda govern?
Nukular Biskits
@Baud:
So you never were on Twitter? What made you take the plunge on Bluesky?
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone😊😊😊
NotMax
@Nukular Biskits
Scarfing down some chicken nuggets dipped in BBQ sauce for (very) late din-din.
;)
Nukular Biskits
@TBone:
The only thing that surprised me about the coal lawsuit is that MS’s AG, Lynn Fitch, didn’t hop on the bandwagon.
She frequently joins in such frivolous nonsense.
Baud
@Nukular Biskits:
I think I signed up for Bluesky and Mastodon shortly after Musk bought Twitter. Can’t remember why exactly, but I probably thought it would be interesting to part of it from the start. But I never posted anything, until I made my first Blue sky post after the election. That happened to coincide with the big migration from Twitter. It helped that M^4 had been talking up Bluesky here, which persuaded me to try it out.
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
satby
@Baud: I’m so old I remember when Pete Buttigieg ran for that job.
Nukular Biskits
@NotMax:
You’ve already worked your way through the leftovers from Thanksgiving?
Geminid
In 2018 New Mexico Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham ran for Governor on aclean energy platform and won. Then, she and the Democratic legislature passed legislation intended to transition from fossil fuel-based electrical generation to renewables. New Mexico enjoys abundant sushine as well as wind, and the transition was long overdue.
A key part of the plan is shutting down the Four Corners coal generation plant. It’s big; in the 1960s astronauts could see the smoke plume as they flew by. The plan is to end operations in 2032 I think. The workers will be offered retraining for clean energy jobs.
One of the big clean energy stories this year was the private financing of the very large SunZia wind project that will be built in east-central New Mexico, along with a transmission line that will supply grids in Arizona and Southern California. That and smaller wind and solar projects will shift New Mexico’s energy sources from fossil fuels to renewables.
One interesting aspect of the SunZia project: the state’s highway department is reworking intersections in northeastern New Mexico so as to accommodate the hundreds of long wind turbine blades that will be trucked down from a plant in Pueblo, Colorado.
Not to pick on Mark Cuban too much, but it looks like he is proposing a program that Michelle Lujan Grisham and New Mexico Democrats have already put into action.
Coal plants are on the way out nationally too, although many will be replaced by gas generation. It seems to me the Trump administration will at best (or worst) slow that process down except– I could see Wyoming making a deal with data center developers to build coal generation plants near its large coal deposits. I expect they’ll have to override a lot of popular oppostion though.
Baud
@satby:
Probably worked out for him that he didn’t get it. It’s a pretty thankless position.
Honus
@suzanne: Yeah, to the extent they are local, they’re people that got an education in order to get/stay out of the mines and mills. That was the whole idea when I was growing up there in the 60s and 70s.
AWOL
@tihotm: Illegally. And possibly endlessly. Certainly, as last time, it will be tragic.
Did you just awake from a long nap, by any chance?
satby
@Baud: Maybe. Certainly for him, but not for the Democrats.
Anyone remember what accomplishments Perez and co-chair Ellison had? Cause I don’t.
Nukular Biskits
@Baud:
I had joined Twitter several years ago primarily for the purpose of interacting and providing feedback to elected officials like my idiot governor, idiot state auditor, etc as well as provide factual pushback to the claims being made on air by a couple of “conservative” talk show hosts here in the state.
Yeah, I know. Tilting at windmills and what not. Most elected officials probably mute any/all constituents who don’t agree with them, at least on their official accounts.
Anyway, as you know, I was part of the Great Migration. My Twitter account is still there but I unfollowed everyone and deleted all my posts.
Baud
@satby:
Pete is great, but it’s speculative to assume how well he would have done as DNC chair. And he was pretty new and untested then. I don’t see passing on him as some great affront.
NotMax
FYI.
Paninis go home? Not a big fan of specialty use kitchen appliances but gotta admit this looks intriguing.
Geminid
@Betty Cracker: It sounds to me like Scoufis, the New York State Senator, just wants to get his name out there.
He may be sorry; the first thing I thought of was, “Scoufis the Doufis.” I know I shouldn’t be this way with someone’s name, but I am.
Wanderer
@tihotm: Same as it ever is: BADLY. I will be dressed in black on the day President Biden completes his term.
satby
@Baud: I don’t particularly either. OTOH, imagine where we might be had a persuasive, smart, adept on his feet guy been the spokesman for a party that is constantly told has a “messaging” problem. Because what everyone just loves about the guy now was there then. Just a thought experiment. Honestly though, I’m kind of cynical that the DNC chair matters.
eclare
@Nukular Biskits:
I am still waiting on a couple of entities to start Bluesky accounts. Also, a couple of people that I follow on Bluesky and Twitter will sometimes post to Twitter but not Bluesky. I assume that is user error on their part?
narya
Yeah, I think Wickler is awesome. I’ve seen/heard him a lot, mostly on MSNBC and Pod Save America (spit!), and he’s one of those one-foot-in-front-of-the-other types. He took on a thankless task that it doesn’t seem anyone else wanted and pulled Wisconsin back from the abyss. It’s still a mixed bag, but it’s not nearly what it was.
Baud
@Nukular Biskits:
It’s good work, even if unappreciated.
I tend to avoid following what Republicans are up to, but someone needs to keep an eye on them and I appreciate the people who take on that task.
Nukular Biskits
@satby:
I keep hearing about this alleged “messaging problem” but I have yet to see any consistent analysis/conclusions from the pundits.
eclare
@NotMax:
Oh my gosh, that stuffed waffle is a sugar bomb. Ugh. Not a sweets person.
NotMax
@eclare
“Norman, co-ordinate.’
;)
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Geminid:
An old friend of mine is very active in solar energy promotion in NW (and pushback against several of the utility companies). This is an example of what they’re doing:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SMA-AES-Survey
https://enewmexican.pressreader.com/article/281788519297579
Baud
@satby:
It’s important work, but I hear you. Starting with Howard Dean, people started to view the DNC Chair as some type of Supreme Leader of all aspects of the party. It’s really not that powerful a position.
suzanne
@satby: I remember going to the DNC Future Forum in Phoenix and seeing Pete Buttigieg there. First time I had ever heard of him. He blew me away. I would vote for him for pretty much anything.
satby
@Nukular Biskits: I don’t think it’s a “messaging problem”, I think a scant plurality of voters chose a different message. And as I stated on the sky site, they did so gleefully. So they can reap what they’ve sown.
narya
@Baud: I found a few people I like a lot and looked at who THEY were following to create my own feed; I also looked for people I followed on the Bad Place. While I’ve looked at several “starter packs,” I have not subscribed to any of them wholesale. I’ve found that having a variety of types of people–law and politics, yes, but also art and LGBTQ issues and trans folks and writers–makes for a varied feed. The science feed, BreadSky, etc. are also fun.
Baud
@Nukular Biskits:
Summary of all messaging critiques: “The Dems aren’t messaging to meeeee.”
eclare
@NotMax:
I just googled. Any Star Trek/Star Wars reference is lost on me.
Baud
@satby:
I agree.
Baud
@narya:
I’m building up slowly.
narya
@Baud: I’ve been ignoring nearly ALL messaging critiques, honestly; it’s fighting the last war, and I’m not convinced that anything we take from this election will help in the next one.
Doug R
@tihotm:
1.55% and still dropping IIRC
eclare
@Baud:
The very essence of White people, especially men, complaining about “identity” politics.
Baud
@narya:
Same. Besides being unhelpful, I consider myself aged out of the messaging debate.
satby
@narya: I was an earlier Sky adopter and I mostly follow people I follow on the bird site, so a similar mix. I loaded the Juice feed, but it’s not my primary one. There’s a nice Gardening feed too.
TBone
@Nukular Biskits: we are all invested in coal, so it truly is frivolous yelping.
satby
@Baud: We live in a childish, narcissistic society. And we’re almost all going to suffer for it.
narya
@Baud: That said, Ben Wickler’s thread on BSKY running for DNC chair is inspiring. You gotta love a politics dork who started working for Dem candidates at the age of 11.
Nukular Biskits
@satby:
That’s my take as well.
Those pushing the “DeMs In DiSaRrAy!!1!!1!” narrative are promoting something that I see very little evidence of.
schrodingers_cat
I am still on Twitter, but mostly in a lurk mode. I am there for the reason I joined and started tweeting. To follow Indian politics. I also have a Bluesky account but haven’t used it much.
If I am online I am mostly on YT following art videos, drawing, coloring and sketch book videos.
Baud
@narya:
Sure, I don’t mean to suggest that messaging is unimportant. But people obsessing over it is pretty worthless and somewhat harmful IMHO. It’s very easy to become distracted by small differences.
tihotm
@AWOL: Did I just awake from a long nap? I wish, but no.
What I am trying to say is that no party has ever nominated an automatic lame duck for president. It weakens them, and Dem partisans should be calling him a lame duck weak president every day. Repetition works. He’s a lame duck. He’s weak. It was stupid to nominate him.
Their house majority is just a few votes. How will they pass budgets, or maybe more importantly raise the debt ceiling?
Geminid
@Geminid: Maybe Senator Scoufis is setting up a run for New York State Democratic Chairman. People up there seem to stay pissed off at Jay Jacobs, the current one.
Baud
@schrodingers_cat:
The international people will be the last to switch over, if at all. Most of them don’t care about Musk or his politics.
Nukular Biskits
@Baud: @satby:
WRT “the messaging problem”, DougJBalloon nails it in his unique way:
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: I don’t know if BlueSky is available outside the US.
Baud
@tihotm:
They’ll raise the debt ceiling with Dem votes. They’re not going to want to hobble Trump, and Dems don’t want to crash the economy and hurt people.
Baud
@schrodingers_cat:
There are definitely UK people on there.
UncleEbeneezer
@narya: That’s a good approach. I need to add more artist types. What are both of your handles on B-sky?
narya
@Baud: Completely agree–not least because the subject really serves to obfuscate a whole lot of assumptions (what messages are or aren’t “worthwhile,” what people messages “need” to reach or can ignore). That’s why I like people like Elias and Wickler (and Stacey Abrams and Rev. Barber) who are just saying “here’s what I think is important, and here’s the work I’m doing to foster those principles.” It’s active, rather than REactive work.
narya
@UncleEbeneezer: @gingerchef
narya
@schrodingers_cat: A lot of Brazilians came over relatively recently, too.
NotMax
@tihotm
Kay
Media celebrities are mad that people are leaving Twitter because they used Twitter to promote their careers and sloppy, lazy work. Twitter was always about media people promoting themselves. If their audience leaves they have no one to sneer at.
NotMax
eclare
I dunno. Can envision it stuffed with pepperoni and and cheese and smothered in tomato sauce.
Kay
I feel like liberals disengaging from media has panicked them. They were too stupid to realize the only people who bought their product were liberals? They chased away the only people who still buy the low quality product.
Baud
@Kay:
Heh. I just commented on a Blue sky post about that. The media really is mad.
tihotm
@NotMax: from my original post … “For the first time in US history the presidency is changing parties, but the president elect is a lame duck.”
NotMax
@Baud
efgoldman ’em all.
Baud
@NotMax:
100%
Kay
Maggie Haberman needs Donald Trump to pretend she’s an adversary. It’s a game. She pretends to hold Trump accountable, he pretends she’s a tough reporter – they both profit. The only losers are people who pay for the NYTimes.
Kay
@Baud:
The game doesn’t work unless liberals play. Liberals gave them cover to stay on the Nazi site. Boy are they mad. We should have disengaged years ago.
NotMax
@tihotm
Cleveland? (Granted, by tradition rather than statute.)
Kay
They can’t sell their dumb sub stacks or books without liberals reading Twitter. As usual, it’s all about them and their dumb careers.
Baud
@Kay:
Yeah, I know. Liberals have weak private institutions and interactions IMHO. We tend to focus on making other people’s spaces better rather than making our own space more attractive.
Miss Bianca
@WaterGirl: Seems like from what I’ve read and heard, it would be, to paraphrase an old horse-racing bromide, “Wikler first, the rest nowhere.”
Nukular Biskits
Okay. Coffee’s about gone and I’ve finished my morning news/opinion skimming.
My goals for the day (in no particular order):
lowtechcyclist
@Terraformer:
My memory has lost track of exactly why I was impressed by Ben Wikler before he was chosen to chair the Wisconsin Democratic Party, but I was sufficiently impressed by him back then that I started an automatic monthly contribution to WisDems when he was chosen for that role.
Haven’t regretted a dime of it, and I think he’s got the best chance of being the right person for this moment. I think O’Malley did a good job as governor of Maryland, but I’m not at all sure what he’s done since has prepared him for this role the way what Wikler’s had to deal with in Wisconsin has prepared him for it.
WaterGirl
@Miss Bianca: I had never heard that, but it fits.
No contest.
*I will be sure to tell them that when the powers that be call me for my opinion.
Baud
My Bluesky feed is definitely all in for Wikler.
Miss Bianca
@Kay:
For some reason, I just felt like I had to see that again.
3Sice
The coal powered generation fleet is ancient; average age is 45-50 years old. Closures and conversions to gas are on going. Replacement is not cost effective vs. solar wind or gas.
Obama tried that “clean coal” plant bull. That failed hard. The production costs per kW are a bad investment.
The “coal forever” pitch is directed at coal plant employees rather than miners and is CYA for when they roll them. this is all the dummycrats fault, you see?
Kay
Propublica is asking people to help them document and record deaths caused by abortion bans. I think this is really vital work they’re doing because the Trump Administration and red state governments (GA and TX) are no.longer tracking maternal health to hide the bad stats from the pub!ic. We’ll lose this information forever without Propublica and they operate on a shoestring as a nonprofit – they need the public to help.
Miss Bianca
@WaterGirl: originally coined for the great 18th-century British racehorse Eclipse. Live and learn! :)
Kay
Obviously get the affected persons permission before contacting Propub!ica. Women may choose to not report fearing government retribution in a state like Texas and thats a complete!y rational fear.
Steve LaBonne
@Kay: And now the Trump “Justice” Dept. will sue them into oblivion while Kash Patel’s FBI arrests their reporters. This is obviously terrible for the country, but we can’t save them and we didn’t vote to put them in that position.
Kristine
@Betty Cracker: heh, I wrote postcards for Skoufis—he won his reelection bid.
Idk enough about him to determine how he would work as a national party chair
Currently in the teens here in NE Illinois—feels like 6F with the wind chill. It is sunny, but that really doesn’t help. My sole bit of outdoor holiday decor—a spiral tree in the front yard planter—can wait. Indoor time will be split between working, cooking, and a deep purge of the closets. I’m now down to the stuff that fits and is in good shape but that I just don’t care for anymore. Getting there.
Kay
Funny thing I heard at Thanksgiving – construction workers call driving a pick up and wearing Carharts when you don’t need to for work “stolen valor”. I laughed.
Kay
@Steve LaBonne:
Who did they imagine was buying this shit? Trump voters in diners? No one is watching their cable tv appearances either. Good.
Kristine
@lowtechcyclist: Thinking Wikler’s the best bet as well.
Bugboy
WTH, Paul? Coal miner is, and always has been a dangerous, dirty, shit-for-pay job that would end up killing you (and your low-cost labor children) one way or another.
We’d be better off glorifying garbage men, F.K.A. “sanitation workers”. At least there is no end to America’s want for someone else to clean up after it?
justsomeguy05
@Wanderer: Johnny Cash beat you to it (as have some political & artistic movements)
Not sure how many folks, or even Cash fans, were aware of his reasons for always wearing black. As detailed in his song “the man in black” (lyrics below).
Even with a deep understanding of human history & behavior, many of us haven’t understood how much worse it could, and may, get.
=======
Well, you wonder why I always dress in black
Why you never see bright colors on my back
And why does my appearance seem to have a somber tone
Well, there’s a reason for the things that I have on
I wear the black for the poor and the beaten down
Livin’ in the hopeless, hungry side of town
I wear it for the prisoner who has long paid for his crime
But is there because he’s a victim of the times
I wear the black for those who’ve never read
Or listened to the words that Jesus said
About the road to happiness through love and charity
Why, you’d think He’s talking straight to you and me
Well, we’re doin’ mighty fine, I do suppose
In our streak of lightnin’ cars and fancy clothes
But just so we’re reminded of the ones who are held back
Up front there ought to be a man in black
I wear it for the sick and lonely old
For the reckless ones whose bad trip left them cold
I wear the black in mournin’ for the lives that could have been
Each week we lose a hundred fine young men
And I wear it for the thousands who have died
Believin’ that the Lord was on their side
I wear it for another hundred-thousand who have died
Believin’ that we all were on their side
Well, there’s things that never will be right, I know
And things need changin’ everywhere you go
But ’til we start to make a move to make a few things right
You’ll never see me wear a suit of white
Ah, I’d love to wear a rainbow every day
And tell the world that everything’s okay
But I’ll try to carry off a little darkness on my back
‘Til things are brighter, I’m the man in black
Kay
Some female fighter pi!ots have their own TikTok account. Its fascinating. They had a whole 20 second one on what nail polish colors they are allowed to wear.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: Musk may have stupidly screwed the pooch by throttling the links journos, pundits, etc., use to promote their work on The Bad Place (NBC News):
Lots of media people seemed okay with the influx of Nazis at x-twitter, but a decline in engagement metrics sent them fleeing. They’re shocked that they’re getting more engagement with content at Bluesky even with half the followers. Well, duh!
Musk is encouraging media people to upload their content on his shitty platform rather than posting external links to it. Yet another aspect of “how things work” that he doesn’t understand.
Eunicecycle
@Nukular Biskits: its funny, in our house it’s my husband that LOVES Christmas decorations. And he hates to get rid of old ones, because of tradition. So we have SO MANY that accumulated. We worked all day Friday putting them up and I was exhausted. He has finally agreed to get rid of some old ones; yay!
Kristine
@Kay: I would join TikTok for that. Account name?
Betty Cracker
@Kristine: I need a deep purge of a couple of closets too but so far I’m only in the planning stages. Because lazy.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Nukular Biskits:
I’ve spent two days putting up exterior lights cuz I love exterior lights. I get *no* joy putting them up but get great joy every night when they come on.
@Eunicecycle:
That describes me in terms of old tree decorations mainly because they’re the only thing I can describe as an heirloom, and I use that term loosely. When one has a peripatetic single mom, those few things that traveled hither and yon growing up have some meaning.
kindness
So…Kash Patel has been named by Trump to lead the FBI. I have to wonder how all those Trumper FBI people (you know, the one’s that pushed the 2016 Hillary e-mail ‘scandal’ in the NY FBI offices) feel about their company being run by someone determined to tear the whole thing apart. Are they feeling foolish now for supporting what came to be the seeds of their own thing’s demise? I doubt it. They are lunkheads and can’t see their own faults.
Wanderer
@justsomeguy05: That’s cool to know. Certainly his phrasing is spot on and expressed more clearly than I ever could. My thought was to mark how there will no longer be a Presidential person guiding the nation.
H.E.Wolf
#22: Grover Cleveland (D)
#23: Benjamin Harrison (R)
#24: Grover Cleveland (D)
My favorite part of the Wikipedia entry for Grover Cleveland is the editorial note at the top:
” ‘President Cleveland’ redirects here. For ships named after him, see SS President Cleveland.”
ETA: Corrected my numbering system typos (and probably broke the formatting.
Kristine
@Betty Cracker: I’m lucky—the county waste agency takes most all textiles (including undergarments!) for reuse/recycling. They take shoes and boots as well. Linens. I cleaned out my linen closet. The sock supply is next. Then the coats.
And I’ve found at least one place that takes costume jewelry. I bought so many earrings in the 80s/90s that have been sitting in an old jewelry chest for decades. I threw out a few but hated doing that because, well, the stuff is still wearable or usable for crafting.
Elizabelle
@Kristine: Thank you! Great to hear about I Have Wings. Saved that link; would be fun to send them some unused costume jewelry.
lowtechcyclist
@H.E.Wolf:
#22: Grover Cleveland (D)
#23: Benjamin Harrison (R)
#24: Grover Cleveland (D)
#22 and #23 were first terms for each, so not lame ducks as President-Elect. And #24 wasn’t a lame duck as President-Elect because the 22nd Amendment was still several decades in the future.
Another Scott
Meanwhile, remember to ignore the hype.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Kristine
@Elizabelle: I saw them mentioned on either FB or BS and they seem legit. Pretty big board for a small charity, but most were affected by breast cancer in some way.
I just want to send the stuff to a place where it has the best chance of being used.
John S.
@narya:
I love Dr. Barber. Democrats should pay heed to his campaign for the poor. That’s a winning message.
Starfish
@Baud: Yup. A lot of people in my field kept their Twitter accounts because when they give talks in other countries, the folks there are still on Twitter in the way that we used to be.
John S.
@Kay:
That’s funny! It perfectly describes all the truck drivers I used to see in South Florida cosplaying as macho men.
Meanwhile, here in rural Washington that’s pretty much standard gear for anyone who actually does stuff outdoors, gets dirty and works on their land.
John S.
@kindness:
David Weldon (anti-vaxxer) would do far more harm at the CDC than Patel would do at the FBI. So far, it’s the one pick I am genuinely concerned about (in addition to Brain Worms Jr. at HHS).
StringOnAStick
@Betty Cracker: I’m for Ben Wikler all the way, he’s shown he knows how to build up the party.
As for coal mining, my dad is a (very old) mining engineer and it’s been about the culture war for him since I was born. The first Bircher reactionary I knew was him, and working at a college that makes mining engineers made it clear it’s endemic to the degree and the kind of people who pursue it, especially in the 2000’s to present day. Coal is dead, it’s only twitching as a culture war motif.
cmorenc
A problem I have with the thead title: “Objects in Media May be Smaller than they Appear” is that:
GWBush won the EC by winning Fla by 537 votes, but losing the national popular vote by 500k. But really, the final margin was just one vote in SCOTUS. Yet, the narrowness and tenuousness of his win did stop him from proceeding as if he had a mandate.
Trump won the EC in 2016 by a combined aggregate of just 70k votes across 3 states, while losing the national popular vote by nearly 3 million. That did not stop Trump from behaving like he had the mandate of >60% popular vote and massive EV margin.
So – in 2024 Trump wins the popular vote by 2.4k million and the EC by apx. 225k combined votes across those same 3 states as he won much more narrowly in 2016, plus EVs of several states he lost in 2020. Do you really expect either the media coverage mode or the actual governing mode will be different this time around vs post-2000 and post-2016 much narrower electoral results
An accurate paradigm for this history is that the GOP views these narrow wins the same way as high-stakes poker games when their opponent goes “all-in” with a strong hand of a full house, but they win because they drew the fourth card of 4-of-a-kind on the final card. The take the GOP have is: we won the whole pot, and the oppo is now bust, at least until the next Presidential election.
Steve LaBonne
@John S.: If measles virus and Bordetella pertussis had stocks, they would merit a strong “buy” recommendation. Also companies that build caskets for small children.
narya
I can’t help but think that Pierre Bourdieu would be helpful in sorting out our current states of affairs….
Nukular Biskits
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: @Eunicecycle:
Ran out of steam quickly, LOL.
Ms Biskits absolutely LOVES decorating for Christmas. She was pestering me almost immediately after Thanksgiving dinner about getting the tree out of the attic. It’s pretty much the only holiday she cares about decorating inside and outside for (sorry, bad grammar there).
Of course, all the actual work falls on me so I’m not all that enthusiastic about it. Plus, and this does make me sound like the Grinch, I’m kinda over Christmas decorations given the local iHeart radio affiliates have been playing Christmas music since BEFORE Thanksgiving and a lot of retailers were selling Christmas junk, uh, yard decorations at the same time as Halloween yard decorations.
The Unmitigated Gaul
@Baud: Not so. It’s COMPLETELY out of our control.
Shakti
@Kay: Shouldn’t they have been madder about Elon throttling outbound links?
Or making the block non-existent?
Or the signal to noise ratio?
I have a twitter account but I haven’t posted or liked anything in a while and it’s been locked for over a month.
I have 18 follow requests and they are overwhelmingly password reset accounts. I tweeted for myself obviously but…
Bots and engagement farmers and trolls do not buy anything. They’re worse than Meta and YT for earned media and numbers. Jeez. Elon got what he wanted out of hollowing out twitter — its going to turn into myspace in less than six months.
Shakti
@Betty Cracker:
@Kay:
I am not sure why GIGO (Garbage In Garbage Out) is a concept people have to relearn over and over again.
With Meta companies, with Tiktok, with pivot to video, with any kind of ad metrics or audience measuring metrics you can possibly name.
I have more positive interaction on Bluesky than Twitter by far.
Everyone is scarily innumerate. And any journalists under a certain age went to college and the most popular major by far is business and why the effing hell is the concept of a more effective sales funnel beyond them (for their work; for the entity that publishes their work and sells ads ).
UncleEbeneezer
@kindness: We are about to see what a completely politicized DOJ really looks like. Patel will be able to not only take us back to the JE Hoover days of the FBI being completely weaponized against the Left but also refusing to investigate or prosecute the violence of Nazis, Klan, Insurrectionists, Republicans etc.
Kayla Rudbek
@Baud:
@schrodingers_cat:
and Ukrainians, South Americans, Palestinians, etc
Gloria DryGarden
@eclare: would it be fruitful to ask them why, on x twitter, or suggest their followers on blue sky might like to hear about it too?
artem1s
The coal buyout is a pretty interesting idea. I think we may be looking at a lot buy backs of the public utilities coming. The W privatizations aren’t working out so well for residential consumers and it will get worse if we have another W style recession.
The coal culture war issue is going to be a factor no matter. So why not use the opportunity to drag WV out of the dark ages, give them better economy, and clean up the last vestiges of the air, land, and water pollution from the mines and plants? Conservatives whinged about the death of small family farms in the mid west but the reality is those retiring farmers made good bank selling off to suburban developers during white flight. They had no problem selling out once the land was worth more than what they could ever make farming. They coal industry might whinge but they’ll grab the money and run if it’s structured right. All that land and labor could be put to good use, if you had a decent infrastructure and WPA plan to go with it. But it will have to wait until after 2028 now.
Ramona
@artem1s: You make a good point.
If the goal is good public policy, then buying the coal mines can work. If the goal is to get the bad faith critics to put a sock in it, then Cuban’s idea is not the solution.
pieceofpeace
@justsomeguy05:
Thanks for this. I imagine he’d have more reasons for wearing black these dark days… what a terrific, talented being…
Kayla Rudbek
@Eunicecycle: I could probably decorate one tree solely with licensed character ornaments (Disney and Peanuts mostly, old ones from the 1970s-1980s which were paint-your-own) and the only thing I would need is a second tree topper.
Dan
@tihotm: I don’t know why anyone would think Trump is a lame duck. Only the Constitution says so, and John Roberts has been quite clear that trump can continue to wipe his ass with that document.