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You are here: Home / Open Threads / It’s Cosplay All the Way Down

It’s Cosplay All the Way Down

by | 142 Comments

This post is in: 

First, this guy (state senator from Pennsylvania) is dumb and funny:

It's Cosplay All the Way Down 2

He now says this was a “joke” which is what all unfunny Republicans say when they’re caught saying something dumb, racist, sexist, abusive or (fill in the blank with a bad thing).

Second, MTG and the real point of this post:

It's Cosplay All the Way Down 3

This be the verse:

  1. I have a shiny toy, it kills and destroys.
  2. There aren’t many uses for my shiny toy, so I have to dream some up.
  3. To dream those up, I need to imagine a world where I, a privileged member of one of the most privileged groups on earth, is threatened.
  4. Then I can talk about using my shiny toy to attack imaginary threats.  It makes me feel better about my investment and bothers other people because my shiny toy is really fucking dangerous, especially in my incompetent/crazy hands.

One of the rentals where we stayed in the Denver area last year overlooked the garage of a serious StarWars cosplayer.  It was just wall-to-wall stormtrooper regalia —  the very definition of a harmless hobby.  Unfortunately, the cosplay that the MTGs of this country have chosen uses killing machines instead of replicas of blasters, so now we have to give a shit about it.

(All of this is via Digby.)

Reader Interactions

142Comments

  1. 1.

    KatKapCC

    Listen, if there really are dangerous evil drones out there looking to take us out, I 100% endorse MTG going outside and making herself as visible as possible.

    Also…is it just me or does the last sentence in her post sound like she’s saying she’ll shoot “every other red blooded freedom loving American”?

  2. 2.

    Steve LaBonne

    What fine specimens of white America. We must fight the woke so such gifted people can continue to rise in the meritocracy.

  3. 3.

    Gin & Tonic

    Actually on-topic: the Mayor of Warwick, RI, put up a Tweet with a picture of the starship USS Enterprise against a black background and said “I saw this hovering over my house last night.”

    Ridicule is all you can come up with.

  4. 4.

    Lacuna Synecdoche

    Inspired by an earlier comment via Anne Laurie, I wrote a new drone song.

    Here’s the comment:

    Situation: There are 65 unknown drones in the sky

    “Ridiculous! I need to go investigate this myself! Better send my drone!”

    Situation: There are 66 unknown drones in the sky

    And here’s my new song! :

    99 Drones Flying Up High
    99 Drones In The Sky!
    I’ll Send Up A Drone
    To Find Out Why:
    One Hundred Drones Flying Up High!

    One Hundred Drones Flying Up High
    One Hundred Drones In The Sky!
    I’ll Send Up A Drone
    To Find Out Why:
    A Hundred and One Drones Flying Up High!

    A Hundred and One Drones Flying Up High
    A Hundred One Drones In The Sky!
    I’ll Send Up A Drone
    To Find Out Why:
    A Hundred and Two Drones Flying Up High!

    A Hundred and Two Drones Flying Up High!
    A Hundred Two Drones In The Sky!
    I’ll Send Up A Drone
    To Find Out Why:
    A Hundred and Three Drones Flying Up High!

    (And so on …)

  6. 6.

    Lacuna Synecdoche

    @KatKapCC:

    Also…is it just me or does the last sentence in her post sound like she’s saying she’ll shoot “every other red blooded freedom loving American”?

    Grammatically, that’s exactly what it says. It’s dangerous to put speech in the mouths of morons.

  7. 7.

    Old School

    I can’t believe MTG just threatened to shoot “every other red blooded freedom loving American.

    Edit: I should have refreshed the comments.

  8. 8.

    Chris

    There aren’t many uses for my shiny toy, so I have to dream some up.

    The root problem with guns.  They’re a solution in search of a problem.

  10. 10.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Steve LaBonne: The great Swedish aviation YouTuber Mentour Pilot recently posted one of his epic accident videos, and this one was, at long last, giving his take on a particularly important case–the Indonesian Lion Air crash that was the first indication of something fatally wrong with the 737 Max.

    The video was an interesting one in that he revealed that there were, in fact, a lot of things other than Boeing’s MCAS system contributing to the accident–some other Boeing software omissions; a wild coincidence in which a faulty part was replaced with a differently faulty part; and the actions of the airline and the crew did contribute as well. A different crew had actually successfully dealt with the same failure on the same aircraft the previous day (…and then failed to transmit enough information to provide the crew on the accident flight with sufficient warning).

    Of course, many commenters seemed to refuse to see any nuance in what he’d said and either declared that Boeing was blameless (definitely not true) or that he was a “Boeing fanboy” who was going out of his way to exonerate Boeing (also not true, given his many other recent videos).

    But the dumbest one of all was the commenter who just declared it was “DEI all the way down”. I guess he knows all about the DEI processes of Indonesian airlines.

    It reminded me of the newspaper editorial I read around the time of the first Gulf War that blamed Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait on his having liberal parents who didn’t spank.

  11. 11.

    rikyrah

    Shadow Of The Nerdtree (@agraybee) posted at 0:02 PM on Tue, Dec 17, 2024:
    We’re not going back to 2017 hyper-engagement where people got way too emotionally invested in things like who gets to be ranking member of the House Oversight Committee.
    (https://x.com/agraybee/status/1869080841646952908?t=f_ECZqqH4SzeeMcNop_qyw&s=03)

    Tim 🇺🇸 (@trouble_man90) posted at 1:18 PM on Tue, Dec 17, 2024:
    Like the media, leftists think they’re getting 2017-2020 resist liberals when in reality they’re not getting any liberals at all. We’re not marching, we’re not going to be huddling around the tv watching MSNBC for 8 hours a day. So much of their existence is based on what liberals do. They’re going to have to move forward without us.
    (https://x.com/trouble_man90/status/1869099994914926703?t=loQ77ynsG1XvDBymBwT9LQ&s=03)

  13. 13.

    scav

    @Old School: She has rather left unspecified whether she’s going to shoot all of them or only 50% as best I can tell.  Both are steps in the right direction to be fair.

  15. 15.

    Steve LaBonne

    @scav: We should encourage them to clean their guns more often, because they sometimes shoot themselves while doing so.

  20. 20.

    Bugboy

    It was just wall-to-wall stormtrooper regalia —  the very definition of a harmless hobby.

    Really?  You didn’t notice the “stormtrooper” bit?  Star Wars has led the way to dehumanize society with its faceless stormtroopers fighting a faceless droid army.   And take my word for it having gamed with a bunch of these ill-contents: they ALWAYS pick the Dark Side.

  21. 21.

    Motivated Seller

    In a two-party system, Public Displays of Derangement are normalized, as long as they get the clicks

    ::stage whisper:: Don’t give them the clicks!

  23. 23.

    Dougboy

    @KatKapCC: Your final point is what I noticed about her idiotic post as well. If you’re correct, I say to MTG “Get busy shooting those red-blooded freedom loving ‘murkans”

  25. 25.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @Bugboy:

    And take my word for it having gamed with a bunch of these ill-contents: they ALWAYS pick the Dark Side.

    I have a similar story albeit with an older hobby and group: historical miniature wargamers.

    The people in the hobby have always been conservative white dudes with a heavy streak of libertarianism in them.

    One observation over the years is that the same people who play Civil War rules who always play the Confederates are also the same people who, in a WWII scenario/game, always play the Germans and if possible, the SS.

  26. 26.

    Leto

    One of the rentals where we stayed in the Denver area last year overlooked the garage of a serious StarWars cosplayer. It was just wall-to-wall stormtrooper regalia — the very definition of a harmless hobby.

    Do you happen to have any pictures of the regalia? Would be cool to see.

  27. 27.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Bugboy: The number of Star Wars fans who refuse to recognize that the Empire are the bad guys has always been… very interesting to me.

    (Not recognizing the Jedi as good guys, now, that makes sense. That’s basically canon in the prequels. It’s pretty clear that they were a kind of rotten institution and a lot about the Empire arose from their flaws.)

  31. 31.

    Sister Golden Bear

    Speaking of invented threats… Republicans are lying about the Madison, WI shooter being trans — as they routinely do after any mass shooting that gets news coverage. Matt Gaetz is on end g talking about the need for “trans control” rather than gun control.

    It would be nice if some of the energy spent debating how many Dems can dance on a pinhead could be focused on the clear and present dangers us trans people are facing right now. 

  33. 33.

    NotMax

    @Leto

    Common for properties in Hawaii to have not only a house but also a separate cottage.

    There’s one such cottage in Kihei on Maui built to mimic a life size Star Trek shuttlecraft.

  35. 35.

    No Nym

    I almost want to join the butterfly social platform so I can personally point and laugh at Senator Doug Mastriano. Almost.

    The pattern of inventing a threat, constructing a reality around it, and using it as justification to act in some anti-social or “disruptive” way is something I have observed in people with serious personality disorders. I think Dr. Bandy Lee is right when she calls this Trump contagion.

  36. 36.

    Eunicecycle

    @rikyrah: I heard it even before it was known the shooter was a girl. One of the first lies out of the box! I heard it about the CEO shooter, too.

  37. 37.

    KatKapCC

    @Sister Golden Bear: Interesting. So because mass shooters being female is unusual (though not unheard of), the right simply can’t accept it as a possibility…

    …so are they saying that being a mass shooter is something only men do? Sounds like misandry to me!!!!

    (With the caveat that if the shooter were a trans woman, she would obviously be a woman, but in the minds of the right, she would not be.)

  38. 38.

    Old Man Shadow

    We’re really gonna have to be the country of having to actually say, “Please don’t shoot at airplanes on landing approach,” aren’t we?

    I honestly keep imagining that there’s some low… that there is some point of stupidity that even Americans won’t cross… that somehow… even the dumbest fuck from Dumbfuck, FL hopped up on bath salts will reach a point where he will say, “Huh… no, I don’t think that’s a good idea” and somehow humanity keeps fucking crossing those lines.

  40. 40.

    Matt McIrvin

    @KatKapCC: I don’t even think they’re thinking that far. They just claim that every mass shooter is trans. It’s an automatic lie at this point.

  41. 41.

    Leto

    @NotMax: that’s pretty cool. There’s a guy over in the UK who built a full sized replica of a Battle Star Galactica Colonia Viper star fighter. I watched his build progress over the years as he posted updates to Imgur. He trailers it around to conventions now.

  45. 45.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @Matt McIrvin:

    But the dumbest one of all was the commenter who just declared it was “DEI all the way down”. I guess he knows all about the DEI processes of Indonesian airlines.

    Whining about DEI is very common on professional aviation channels. The lack of critical thinking skills is on full display. None of those pinheads ever sit back and think “Yeah, but almost all the Boeing execs, and almost all the Boeing employees, and almost all of the US pilots who use their products, and almost all of the FAA personnel who work in the system are WHITE MALES.”

  47. 47.

    Steve LaBonne

    I would like to know more about that school and the experiences the shooter had there. The word “abuse” comes to my mind when it’s a question of that kind of “Christians”.

  48. 48.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @KatKapCC: No it’s a smear tactic they’ve regularly used for shooters who are boys/men as well. The goal is the same as with the “groomer” slur, to paint trans people are dangerous predators who need to be eliminated. With extreme prejudice.

    FWIW, the Madison shooter was obsessed with school shooters, in particular Columbine, and expressed white supremist/Nazi sentiments on her social media.

  52. 52.

    Steve LaBonne

    @KatKapCC: It depends on whom it’s open season on at any given moment. At other times she would somehow have been an immigrant. If that looked unlikely to fly she would at least have been a woke anti-Christian liberal (despite actually being a little Nazi, as we’re hearing). Speaking of which I would also like to know more about her parents.

  53. 53.

    Quinerly

    Tucson’s Sonoran Dog….I have a few words on the subject.

    All of them, Katie. All of them.

    Especially the ones lovingly wrapped in bacon by the taco truck guys who laughed at me when I ordered my first one. And smothered in whole, grilled jalapeños.

    “I’m eating the dogs………”

    That is all.

    Carry on

  54. 54.

    No Nym

    @Old Man Shadow: I don’t think most people have the mental skills to discern a good idea from a bad one. Like the toddlers they are, they want to act from their feelings, regardless of whether their feelings are in any way based in reality.

  55. 55.

    Matt McIrvin

    @eclare: Pretty much every one of Mentour Pilot’s accident videos is an examination of the holes in the Swiss cheese lining up.

  57. 57.

    Chris

    @Bugboy:

    Really?  You didn’t notice the “stormtrooper” bit?  Star Wars has led the way to dehumanize society with its faceless stormtroopers fighting a faceless droid army.   And take my word for it having gamed with a bunch of these ill-contents: they ALWAYS pick the Dark Side.

    I’ve found that people’s approach to fandom tends to predict a lot about them in real life.

    When the now-former-friend who’d been writing fanfic where the main characters were a grey Jedi and a rogue Sith and the moral of the fanfic was that both sides were just as bad, BUT her self-insert character just happened to be a Sith…  Well, let’s just say I was utterly unsurprised that she spent the second half of last decade spiraling farther and farther down an anti-anti-Trump rabbit hole.

  58. 58.

    KatKapCC

    @Steve LaBonne:

    Speaking of which I would also like to know more about her parents.

    Yeah. I haven’t read any articles because I’m not in the brainspace to do it, but I did wonder if we have another Crumbley situation. I realize that’s not the norm, but these days…

  59. 59.

    Chris

    @comrade scotts agenda of rage:

    One observation over the years is that the same people who play Civil War rules who always play the Confederates are also the same people who, in a WWII scenario/game, always play the Germans and if possible, the SS.

    I’ve occasionally wondered where they even get people to play Union soldiers.  The people who fetishize the Civil War to the point of playing reenactments do seem to be pretty much entirely on the Confederate side, in a way that isn’t true for, say, Revolutionary War or WWII reenactments.

  63. 63.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @Chris:

    Lemme stress I’m not talking about reenactors but guys pushing toy soldiers around a table.

    But now that you mention it, I knew several guys who were gamers as I described above and also Civil War reenactors and yup, they were Traitors Fighting In Defense of Slavery.

  64. 64.

    UncleEbeneezer

    LA County report on hate crimes (spoiler: pretty bad all around, lots of new record highs):

    • Reported hate crimes dramatically increased 45% from 930 in 2022 to 1,350 in 2023, the largest number in the history of this report and surpassing the 1,031 hate crimes from 2001 when the September 11th attacks occurred.

    • There were 99 anti-transgender crimes, representing a 125% increase. This is the largest number ever documented. A staggering 97% of these crimes were violent.

    • Religious crimes spiked 90% and were the second largest motivation. Anti-Jewish hate crimes rose 91% from 127 to 242. This is the largest number of anti-Jewish crimes ever recorded.

    • African Americans were again grossly over-represented in reported racial hate crimes, constituting 49% of racial hate crime victims. The 320 anti-Black crimes were the highest number ever recorded.

    • Anti-LGBT* crimes rose 48% from 173 to 256. This was the largest number ever documented. 73% of these crimes targeted gay men.

    • Anti-Latino/a crimes rose 19% from 121 to 144. This is the highest number ever recorded. Racial crimes targeting Latino/as were the most violent (87%) of all racial and ethnic groups.

    • Anti-Asian crimes, after dipping the year prior, increased 31%. The 80 victims were the second highest number ever recorded.

    • In 2023, there were 209 crimes with evidence of White supremacist ideology, and this was the highest number ever recorded in this report. They comprised 15% of all reported hate crimes.

    • Hate crimes in which anti-immigrant slurs were used climbed 31%. The 123 crimes recorded in 2023 comprised the largest number ever recorded. Suspects used anti-immigrant language in 71% of anti-Latino/a crimes and in 18% of anti-Asian offenses.

    • Crimes in which there was specific language regarding conflict in the Middle East sharply increased from 2 to 64 in 2023 and accounted for 5% of all hate crimes. This is the largest number ever recorded since we began tracking this phenomenon in 2007.

    • Hate crimes taking place at schools grew 46% from 93 to 136 and accounted for 10% of all hate crimes. Over half (57%) of hate crimes that occurred in schools were motivated by race, ethnicity, or national origin.

    • There were sharp increases in hate crimes based on gender (142% increase), religious (90%), and sexual orientation (48% increase) hate crimes. Race, ethnicity, and national origin was by far the most common motivation, constituting 45% of all hate crimes. These crimes jumped 18%, from 547 to 646.

    • 65% of reported hate crimes were of a violent nature compared to 72% the year prior. Vandalisms surpassed violent simple assaults, creating a drop in the percentage of violent crimes.

    • The largest number of hate crimes took place in the Metro Region which stretches from West Hollywood to Boyle Heights followed by the San Fernando Valley.

  65. 65.

    Chris

    @KatKapCC:

    @Sister Golden Bear: I wonder if they extend this to all crimes. Like…do they believe cis people ever commit crimes at all? Good lord, they are fucking weird.

    What do you even consider a crime?

    If the other side does it, it’s a crime.  If your side does it, it isn’t.  If a terrorist tortures Jack Bauer, is that a crime?  Of course.  If Jack Bauer tortures a terrorist, is that a crime?  Of course not.  Not one that should be investigated, prosecuted, punished, or in any other way acknowledged, anyways.  Jack Bauer’s on your side.  He’s a good guy.

    Their whole universe works like this.

  66. 66.

    Geminid

    @rikyrah: It was so sad to hear about Jennifer Wexton’s terrible disease. She originally thought she had Parkinsons but then was diagnosed with supranuclear palsy which progresses swiftly.

    Jennifer Wexton did Virginia Democrats proud in 2018 when she was one of three Democratics to flip Republican House seats. All three will be out of Congress next year. Wexton is retiring and Elaine Luria lost in 2022, while Abigail Spanberger will run for Governor next year.

    One silver lining: state Senator Suhas Subramanyam, Wexton’s replacement in the 10th CD, looks like a very talented politician and is only 37 years old.

  67. 67.

    KatKapCC

    @UncleEbeneezer:

    Religious crimes spiked 90% and were the second largest motivation. Anti-Jewish hate crimes rose 91% from 127 to 242. This is the largest number of anti-Jewish crimes ever recorded.

    Ah, but I’ve been told on this very blog that there isn’t any anti-Jewish hate anywhere in the country. Curiouser and curiouser!

  69. 69.

    UncleEbeneezer

    Israel and Saudi Arabia Reach Normalization Breakthrough, Clearing Path for Hostage Deal
    Netanyahu believes Saudi crown prince’s limited interest in Palestinian statehood and a vague commitment to a ‘path towards statehood’ will secure domestic and political support for a cease-fire deal with Hamas

    Quick summary of details from Shaiel Ben-Ephraim on B-sky:

    The deal that is currently brewing to end the war in Gaza, which everyone hopes to finalize before Trump is inaugurated, has three phases.

    * Phase one: Fighting stops and Israel makes partial withdrawals. An unnamed number of hostages are released, consisting of female soldiers, women, the sick, and individuals over the age of 50, in exchange for Israel releasing hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, including convicted murderers.

    * Phase two: Israel withdraws completely from Gaza. It announces a path to a Palestinian state. Israel normalizes relations with Saudi Arabia. The other hostages and bodies are released.

    * Phase three: Saudi Arabia, The Palestinian Authority, the UAE, and the US (and possibly other countries as well) lead the rebuilding of Gaza. This is a very similar plan to the one that Biden offered in January. Only many civilians, hostages, and soldiers have died in the interim.

  70. 70.

    Chris

    @comrade scotts agenda of rage:

    Ah OK.  I misunderstood.

    But, yeah.  The entire mythology of the Civil War and how we talk about it in this country, for a solid hundred years, was 100% from the Confederacy’s point of view.  We’ve finally recently gotten to the point where it’s actually OK to view the era from the slaves’ point of view, whether it’s serious stuff like Glory or action movies like Django Unchained.  But weirdly, the Unionist point of view has been almost completely absent since, well, the nineteenth century.  Sometimes you’ll get things centered around Lincoln himself, but it’s really rare to get them from the POV of the average Yankee.

  73. 73.

    Scout211

    Open thread stuff.  A bit off topic

    The mayor of Madison was so fed up with the media trying to get personal information about the victims and families from the school shooting that she just let them have it and I am here for it

     Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway declined to share information about the victims and lashed out at reporters who expressed frustration over the lack of details.

    “I don’t know how many times I have to say this, we will share good, factual information when we can. None of you is obliged to stay here, you’re free to leave, you don’t have to be sitting in this room if you don’t want to,” she said at a news conference. “We will share information when we can.

    “I’m going to say this and then we’re done,” the mayor continued. “It is absolutely none of y’all’s business who was harmed in this incident. Please have some human decency and respect for the people who have lost loved ones or were injured themselves or whose children were injured. Just have some human decency, folks.”

    “Leave them alone,” she said. “Let them grieve. Let them recover. Let them heal. Don’t feed off their pain. We’ll share what we can, when we can and not before that.”

    Rhodes-Conway said her first priority is respecting the victims’ privacy.

    “These are folks have been deeply impacted by trauma and are grieving, and frankly, I think it should be up to them whether and if they want to share any personal identifying information with anyone at all,” she said.

    “But it’s not up to me, it’s a law enforcement decision and so when law enforcement feels like that’s appropriate they will share that information.”

    Good on her for pushing back on the media frenzy to get their sound bites.

  76. 76.

    OlFroth

    @Chris: I do Union reenacting, and there’s a couple of things that I’ve observed:  You get HUGE Confederate participation for the 1862 and 1863 battles (when they were winning).  The last event you get decent rebel turnout is Gettysburg, because Pickett’s Charge.  As the cycle moves into 1864 and 1865, you get fewer and fewer Confederates, because now they’re losing.  The Confederates almost are always placed closer to the sutlers (the food and equipment vendors).  If they’re not, they don’t come.  They also almost always have giant tents, while most Union infantry use period correct dog tents (not all do though). There’s also a thing known as “The Fredericksburg Line.”  The further south you get from Fredericksburg, the worse the amenities for Union reenactors.

  77. 77.

    different-church-lady

    @Scout211:

    None of you is obliged to stay here, you’re free to leave, you don’t have to be sitting in this room if you don’t want to,”

    “But my editor will send me back to the gimp room if I don’t have a story!”

  79. 79.

    Geminid

    “Happy Days Are Here Again!”

    But maybe not. The radio news just told me that the Dow Jones Average fell 360+ points today, marking the 9th straight day of losses. This was despite a widespread expectation that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates again tomorrow.

  80. 80.

    Matt McIrvin

    @different-church-lady: Remember when Betelgeuse mysteriously dimmed for most of a year, spurring speculation that it was about to explode (which astronomers didn’t take super seriously)? It’d be hilarious if it decided to do that right now (well, at such a time that the light reached us now).

  81. 81.

    TONYG

    MTG is either too dumb to understand that randomly shooting bullets into the air is a good way to kill or maim people on the ground or — more likely — she just does not care about human life aside from her own.

  82. 82.

    Baud

    @UncleEbeneezer:

    I wouldn’t be surprised to see Trump tank the cease fire deal the way he tanked the Iran deal. Netanyahu may well realize that. But what can you do? Gotta try.

  83. 83.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @KatKapCC: They’re just Anti-(((Zionist!))).

    The good (bad) news is I’m guessing these numbers will look pretty mild compared to what we see when we finally get the accounting for 2024.

  84. 84.

    Matt McIrvin

    @OlFroth: That was the Dunning School of historiography in combination with institutions like the United Daughters of the Confederacy–it was a concerted effort to rewrite the history of the Civil War, and even after it’d faded as the main current of serious historical research, it dominated in secondary textbooks because everyone wanted to please the people who bought school books in places like Texas.

    My daughter still used The American Pageant as her AP US History text, the same text I used, which started out as a blatantly Dunning School-compliant text though it’d been revised and toned down over the decades. When I used it, they were still going on about the depredations of the carpetbaggers and the unpreparedness and corruption of Black politicians in the Reconstruction governments of the South.

  89. 89.

    catclub

    @Sister Golden Bear: FWIW, the Madison shooter was obsessed with school shooters, in particular Columbine, and expressed white supremist/Nazi sentiments on her social media.

     

    This is my surprised face.

  93. 93.

    Geminid

    @Baud: Trump has made clear he wants the Gaza war settled before he takes office. I don’t think he’ll try to tank this potential settlement.

    Netanyahu’s actions are conditioned by his domestic political problems. Right now it seems like he’ll do better to assent to this ceasefire and hostage/prisoner exchange. Polling shows broad popular support for settling this war along the lines proposed, even among his voter base.

    When the deal is approved– if it is approved– the next step will be a UN Security Council resolution ratifiying it. That wording of that resolution will be important going forward.

  94. 94.

    catclub

    @Geminid: Yeah, but it is mostly an indicator that teh DOW is completely out of step with the real movers of either the NASDAQ or the S&P 500.

    It had an amazing run of paralleling the S&P500 for a long time.  that was mostly luck, in hindsight.

  95. 95.

    Old School

    @Baud:

    Sometime in the future:

    Point: It was wrong for Trump to imprison Joe and Mika.

    Counterpoint: They had it coming.

  96. 96.

    Jeffro

    @rikyrah:

    “Less than 10 out of 510,000”As
    @MarshaBlackburn & senate Republicans predictably hijack a hearing about sports gambling and make it about trans athletes, the @NCAApresident says there less than 10 total across 🇺🇸

    What’s the shortest way to tell Americans, “while the GOP tries its best to get you riled up about 10 – 10! – college athletes across the entire country, they’re about to loot the country for hundreds of billions in YET. MORE. TAX CUTS FOR THE WEALTHY”?

    “oh, and PRIVATIZE YOUR SOCIAL SECURITY, and THE POST OFFICE TOO”

    I have a feeling that the winning TV ad will be called “Squirrel!!!”

  98. 98.

    Jeffro

    @comrade scotts agenda of rage:The people in the hobby have always been conservative white dudes with a heavy streak of libertarianism in them.

    (I always write it as “libertarianism”, but YMMV.  =)

    so true w/ those observations…none of them want to be Luke or Leia, none of them want to serve in the Union…odd, that…

  99. 99.

    karen marie

    @rikyrah:   Maybe I’m dim, maybe it’s because I don’t watch TV, but who are “they” that have to “move forward without us”?  And who is “us”

    Also, who was “overly invested” in who was the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee?  I don’t remember that being a thing.  But, again, I don’t watch TV, so …

  100. 100.

    Baud

    @Geminid:

    Well, it would be nice to see Netanyahu finally get his due, but I’m not optimistic that Israel will be superior to the US in that respect.

  101. 101.

    catclub

    @Matt McIrvin: ​
     I also like Mentour pilot. one can learn things one did not know.

    One thing you learn is that aviation best practices are often updated after an accident.

  103. 103.

    Betty

    @No Nym: He is a kook and was the Republican candidate for PA Governor against  Josh Shapiro. Part of the New Apostolic Reformation. Eccentric but scary Christian Nationalists.

  105. 105.

    karen marie

    @Sister Golden Bear:   I wondered how the GOP was going to weaponize the gender of the shooter.  They must have been absolutely beside themselves with joy that it was a young woman instead of the more typical young man.

  106. 106.

    rikyrah

    @Sister Golden Bear:

    FWIW, the Madison shooter was obsessed with school shooters, in particular Columbine, and expressed white supremist/Nazi sentiments on her social media.

     

    I mean, it was a deliberate choice to come to school and kill people. She could have done the suicide at home.

    BTW, do we know where she got the gun from?

  109. 109.

    tobie

    @UncleEbeneezer: @Baud: I thought this take on the settlement was apt.

    I have a hard time believing Netanyahu can even pay lip service to the idea of a Palestinian state, but there’s a clear logic in Israel and the Saudis formalizing their relationship. Both are weary of the Turks’ growing influence and loathe the Iranians

    I agree with Shaiel Ben-Ephraim that the deal Biden discussed with Netanyahu a year ago was pretty much the same, but Netanyahu prolonged the war to save his own hide and to help Trump. So many world leaders are so awful. Trump, Putin, Netanyahu, Orban, Erdogan, Modi, Xi, Khamenei all take the cake.

  110. 110.

    karen marie

    @catclub:  But why shoot children?  I mean, I just don’t get it.

    Note to future mass shooters:  Please pick targets that are not children or powerless adults.

  111. 111.

    Old School

    @rikyrah:

    BTW, do we know where she got the gun from?

    I saw something claiming to be her manifesto floating around Twitter last night.  As a recall, she wrote the gun was due to “the stupidity of her father.”

  112. 112.

    Almost Retired

    @Baud:   It’s disgusting.  I’ve been an LA Times subscriber since 1982, but I cancelled after the Harris endorsement was pulled (although adding Scott Jennings to the editorial roster didn’t help).  I’m tempted to resubscribe just so I can cancel it again.  I like meaningless dramatic gestures.

    Evidently, the LA Times is returning to its roots as a right wing rag like it was during the  Chandler era.

  115. 115.

    catclub

    @tobie: Turkey, Israel, and Saudi Arabia have apparently always been in competition to be ‘the US’s

    worst ally’.

    I am surprised that Turkey has fallen behind in those sweepstakes. They have done good work in helping defeat Russia in Syria. Of course, now they will turn their primary ire on the Kurds,… again.

  119. 119.

    Quinerly

    @Baud:

    Happy Dance! I adore our current woman governor. I assume she is term limited.

    Would be wonderful to have someone from Laguna Pueblo as governor.

  120. 120.

    TBone

    @Quinerly: this fucking guy

    Loudermilk, chair of the subcommittee that assembled the report, was previously scrutinized by the disbanded House panel after he gave tours of the Capitol to two men who later participated in the march to the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

  123. 123.

    tobie

    @catclub: I think they already have turned their ire against the Kurds and, although it has not gotten much press, Turkey is occupying large swaths of Northern Syria, not to speak of the territory held by their proxies.

    Loud sigh.

    Frenemies is a thing. We’re seeing a bunch of self-dealing rightwingers win elections and then dismantle the courts to remain in power indefinitely.

  124. 124.

    Citizen Alan

    @Jeffro: I used to describe libertarians as “Republicans who want to smoke pot.” But I’ve come to favor a new formulation I saw here a few days back: “Libertarians are Anarchists who nevertheless want police around to keep their slaves in line.”

  126. 126.

    Geminid

    @catclub: Turkish officials maintain that their ire isn’t focused on the Kurdish people, but rather on the PKK which has waged war on the Turkish state since 1984.

    We’ll get a chance to see if this is true over the next few weeks, in Northeastern Syria. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan insists that the Kurdish YPG militia xzmust be disbanded and that Turkiye will do this if neccesary.

    Now a US-mediated ceasefire between Turkiye and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) has been extended until the end of the week. Syrian Kurdish leaders are negotiating their people’s status now with Syria’s interim government, but the HTS leader al-Jolani has also indicated that they want the YPG disbanded, with its members returning to civiliian life.

    These matters will play out in public view for the most part. This is one of the best reported wars this century. Regional news sites like Rudaw English provide some of the best coverage here.

    Rudaw is based in Erbil,* the capital of the Kurdish Regional Government that governs most of Iraq’s 6 + million Kurds. Syria’s Kurdish region of Rojava is right across the border.

    * Erbil was called Arbela back in the day. Alexander the Great fought a big battle near there.

  127. 127.

    Bugboy

    @Chris: *SOME* of us actually do like playing the good guys, but to your point, I believe this is of a piece of why a liberal equivalent of Fox News does not exist.

  132. 132.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Jeffro: Belle Waring and some of the other Crooked Timber folk used to call this fascist-curious ideology “shmibertarianism” since it clearly didn’t make any sense to call it libertarianism.

  133. 133.

    Matt McIrvin

    @OlFroth: Fortunately the damage it did to her was limited since she didn’t trust that book as far as she could throw it. Her teacher was trying to get them to think like real historians, contrasting views from multiple sources, and the thing she noticed about The American Pageant was that it had this tendency to turn everything into a way more coherent narrative than actual history could possibly be. I think she was a more sophisticated thinker about this than I’d ever been.

  137. 137.

    Geminid

    @tobie: This deal could have been made last January and should have been. I believe Israel would have taken it then. The War Cabinet formed the previous October 11 would have voted for it at least 2-1, with Gantz and Gallant voting for and Netanyahu voting against or conforming to his rivals for tactical political purposes.*

    I don’t think Hamas would have agreed. They were the negotiating partner from hell because they had a perverse incentive. The strategy behind their savage attack on October 7 was to incite retaliation so savage as to drive away support for Israel from the world in general and Israel’s allies in particular.

    When 10,0000 dead did not move Western governments, Hamas decided to sacrifice another 10,000. When that didn’t work they put the next 10,000 at risk and pinned their hopes on a major regional war breaking out. That never happened, which can be credited in part to the US military’s exceptionally heavy presence in the region.

    Now events in Lebanon and Syria have left Hamas isolated, with their position in Gaza eroding day by day. Their central aim throughout this terrible war was to come out of it with control over Gaza and its people similar to that which they had going in; also, to establish theirprimacy as leaders of the Palestinian movement. It looks like that won’t happen either, and that Hamas’s rival, the Palestinian Authority government in the West Bank, will have first place.

    * This changed when Benny Gantz left the Security Cabinet in May. Gantz had telegraphed the move three weeks before, Hamas leader Yahyah Sinwar knew that a window was closing, but he still held out. Now it looks like his successors will take a deal Sinwar could have made six months ago.

  138. 138.

    Dan B

    @Geminid: Much of the Dow Jones’ fall was from stock prices of health insurance companies being the biggest factor and United Healthcare being almost half of the losses in that sector.  United Healthcare lost 20%.

  139. 139.

    TONYG

    @KatKapCC: It does sound like that.  But I think that she just lacks the skills in the English language to construct a coherent sentence.  (English!  Does she speak it?)

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