Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

“Facilitate” is an active verb, not a weasel word.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

The republican ‘Pastor’ of the House is an odious authoritarian little creep.

Republicans got rid of McCarthy. Democrats chose not to save him.

How any woman could possibly vote for this smug smarmy piece of misogynistic crap is beyond understanding.

It’s possible to be a liberal firebrand without crapping on the party.

We are learning that “working class” means “white” for way too many people.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

It is possible to do the right thing without the promise of a cookie.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

Trumpflation is an intolerable hardship for every American, and it’s Trump’s fault.

Lick the third rail, it tastes like chocolate!

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

Consistently wrong since 2002

Fight for a just cause, love your fellow man, live a good life.

So many bastards, so little time.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Museums are not America’s attic for its racist shit.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

America is going up in flames. The NYTimes fawns over MAGA celebrities. No longer a real newspaper.

You are here: Home / Archives for 2024

Archives for 2024

Late Night Open Thread: The Big Business People Are Losing Faith in TFG

by | 128 Comments

This post is in: , , , ,

I’m pleased to say that Trump is currently at the Economic Club of Chicago where he is getting torn a new one by the moderator. Every concept in his economic plan is being shredded. He can’t cope and he’s now just insulting everyone.
(???Credit: @acyn.bsky.social)

[image or embed]

— News Eye (@newseye.bsky.social) October 15, 2024 at 1:36 PM

Mr. Pierce, at Esquire — “Trump’s Interview with Bloomberg’s John Micklethwait Had Little If Anything to Do with Reality”:

… On Tuesday, some genius in the former president*’s campaign decided to put him in a one-on-one with Bloomberg EIC John Micklethwait. Moreover, C-SPAN decided to show the event live. It was a triumph in the history of human incoherence. The former president* didn’t so much dodge the questions as simply answer the questions that were being asked by the moderator in his head. Micklethwait tried nobly to haul things back to reality, as befits a man whose ancestors were clearly spawned in a Dickens novel, but there was no pulling the former president* out of his own private universe. To wit:

Micklethwait: Should Google be broken up?

Trump: [Deep sigh] I just haven’t gotten over something the Justice Department did yesterday, where Virginia cleaned up its voter rolls and got rid of thousands and thousands of bad votes. And the Justice Department sued them, that they should be allowed to put those bad votes, those illegal votes, back in and let the people vote. So I haven’t gotten over that. A lot of people have seen that, and they can’t even believe it.

M: The question was about Google, President Trump…

(Note: Apparently there were ten or twenty cult members in the hall who applauded at every bit of this authentic campaign gibberish.)

And then: the big, shiny new whopper that he and the oil slick he’s running with, as well as Speaker Moses in D.C., have been beta-testing around the country in the past several weeks.

M: Maybe I can ask you about something else. Business people in this room, capital markets, they all like the rule of law, they like certainty. The Chinese—they like it when things go wrong in America. If you look at the events of January 6, 2021, it showed too many people that America’s democracy was unruly and violent. Only three weeks to go until the election. Will you commit now to respecting and encouraging a peaceful transfer of power?

T: You had a peaceful transfer of power.

M: You had a peaceful transfer of power compared to Venezuela, but it was by far the worst transfer of power for a long time…

show full post on front page

Late Night Open Thread: The Big Business People Are Losing Faith in TFGPost + Comments (128)

War for Ukraine Day 966: President Zelenskyy Presents the Victory Plan

by | 12 Comments

This post is in: , , , , , , ,

Painting by NEIVANMADE. A Ukrainian Soldier leads several Ukrainian civilians. He is holding the hand of one woman. They are painted in golden yello and are standing on the crest of a hill that has concertina wire and other anti-tank and anti-personnel obstacles on it. The hill and the obstacles are painted black. They are facing away and to the right where the sun is rising in the east and the sky is lightening from a light yellow to an orange. Below the Ukrainian Soldier and Ukrainian civilians, written in gold, is "TOGETHER YOU ARE THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD"

(Image by NEIVANMADE)

A quick housekeeping note: We are home! The girls are up on the bed snoozing away as I type this. As you can imagine, I’m fried. I’m going to just run through the basics and then rack out.

Here is last night’s butcher’s bill:

President Zelenskyy presented the Victory Plan to the Verkhovna Rada today. Here are its five points:

Victory Plan Consists of Five Points and Three Secret Annexes

16 October 2024 – 14:25

The Victory Plan consists of five points – geopolitical, two military, economic, and security-related – and three secret annexes. President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy presented the content of the Victory Plan during his address to the Verkhovna Rada.

The first point is an invitation for Ukraine to join NATO. According to the Head of State, the fact of Ukraine’s invitation to NATO could become fundamental for peace and serve as a signal to the Russian dictator that his geopolitical calculations have failed.

“Determination on the NATO issue for Ukraine also means the inevitability of European integration for Ukraine and the fact that there is no alternative to democracy in Ukraine. That is why this is the initial point of the Victory Plan. The first and very important point. The sign of determination. This is what the invitation is. An unconditional invitation right now,” the President emphasized.

The second point is defense. It outlines the irreversible strengthening of Ukraine’s defense against the aggressor. Volodymyr Zelenskyy mentioned that there is a clear list of weapons capable of sustaining the necessary strength of Ukrainian warriors.

The implementation of this point envisages further operations by the Defense Forces in designated areas of Russia, strengthening Ukrainian positions, and destroying Russia’s offensive potential in the occupied territories.

It is also based on the assistance of partners, in particular in equipping reserve brigades for the AFU, bolstering air defense, shooting down Russian drones and missiles jointly with partners, investing in Ukrainian defense production, lifting restrictions on the use of long-range weapons, providing appropriate long-range capabilities and real-time satellite and intelligence data.

“The defense point of the Plan has a secret annex – and it is accessible only to those partners who have the appropriate military assistance capabilities,” the President noted.

The third point is deterrence. Ukraine offers to deploy a comprehensive non-nuclear strategic deterrence package on its territory, sufficient to protect the country from any military threat posed by Russia.

“The deterrence package is the fact that Russia is either going into diplomacy or going to lose its war machine. Peace through strength,” the Head of State emphasized.

This point also contains a secret annex, already shared with the U.S., the leaders of the UK, France, Italy, and Germany.

The fourth point is strategic economic potential. Ukraine offers its strategic partners a special agreement for the joint protection of the country’s critical resources, as well as joint investment and use of this economic potential.

This involves natural resources and critical metals worth trillions of U.S. dollars, including uranium, titanium, lithium, graphite, and other strategically valuable resources, which are a significant advantage in global competition.

“The deposits of critical resources in Ukraine, along with Ukraine’s globally important energy and food production potential, are among the key predatory objectives of the Russian Federation in this war. And this is our opportunity for growth,” the President said.

This point also has a secret annex that is only shared with designated partners.

The fifth point is security-related. It is designed for the post-war period and involves, if partners agree, the replacement of certain U.S. military contingents stationed in Europe with Ukrainian units that have gained real experience in modern warfare, the use of Western weapons, and cooperation with NATO troops.

“This Ukrainian experience should be used to strengthen the defense of the entire Alliance and ensure security in Europe. This is a worthy mission for our heroes,” Volodymyr Zelenskyy concluded.

The secret annexes are, of course, secret.

Here is President Zelenskyy’s presentation of the Victory Plan to the Verkhovna Rada earlier today. Video below, English transcript after the jump.

show full post on front page

War for Ukraine Day 966: President Zelenskyy Presents the Victory PlanPost + Comments (12)

Excellent Read: Is It Time to Freak Out About Bird Flu?

by | 38 Comments

This post is in: ,

Because the important stories are inevitably posted immediately after my weekly pandemic updates… Helen Branswell, at Statnews, “The answer is not as straightforward as one might like”:

If you’re aware of the H5N1 bird flu outbreak in U.S. dairy cattle — you may have seen some headlines or read something on social media — perhaps you are wondering what the fuss is about. Yes, there have been nearly a couple dozen human cases, but all have had mild symptoms. The virus does not decimate herds in the way it does poultry flocks; most — though not all — of the infected cows come through the illness OK.

If, however, you are more familiar with the history of this form of bird flu, you might be getting anxious. You might be worried that no one has figured out how one of the infected individuals, who lives in Missouri, contracted H5N1. Or you might recall that the virus has killed half of the 900-plus people known to have been infected with it over the past 27 years. Above all, you might fret that the virus is now circulating in thousands of cows in the U.S., exposing itself to some unknowable portion of the more than 100,000 dairy farmworkers in this country — the consequences of which could be, well, disastrous.

Ongoing transmission in cattle means that every day in this country, a virus that is genetically suited to infecting wild birds is being given the opportunity to morph into one that can easily infect mammals. One of these spins of the genetic roulette wheel could result in a version of H5N1 that has a skill that is very much not in our interest to have it gain — the capacity to spread from person to person like seasonal flu viruses do.

So is this freak-out time? Or is the fact that this virus still hasn’t cracked the code for easy access to human respiratory systems a sign that it may not have what it takes to do so?

The answer, I’m afraid, is not comforting. Science currently has no way of knowing all the changes H5N1 would need to undergo to trigger a pandemic, or whether it is capable of making that leap. (This important article lays out what has been learned so far about some of the mutations H5N1 would have to acquire.)

The truth is, when it comes to this virus, we’re in scientific limbo…

show full post on front page

Excellent Read: <em>Is It Time to Freak Out About Bird Flu?</em>Post + Comments (38)

Swamp Creatures (Open Thread)

by | 151 Comments

This post is in: 

The river keeps on rising after absorbing hurricane rainfall. It’s changing the habits of the local birds.
Two ibises in a swampWe usually see ibises like those pictured browsing on the riverbank. These guys have shifted to the swamp in back of our place.

The river is about a foot over flood stage, and the NOAA river forecast service predicts a further rise of around four inches. Our downstairs should be okay if they’re right about the crest. Some folks downriver on lower-lying land are already inundated.

I’m not fretting because there’s not a damn thing I can do about it. I’ve honed that skill some this year. I’m even pretty calm about the election!

Anyhoo, the temperature dropped into the upper 60s, and there’s low humidity. Nothing to do about that but make a big pot of chili. My secret ingredient? A heaping teaspoon of cocoa powder.

Feel free to share your chili secrets or discuss anything else. Open thread!

Swamp Creatures (Open Thread)Post + Comments (151)

We Are In the Home Stretch for North Carolina!

by | 41 Comments

This post is in: , , , ,

Zoom With Four Directions Set for Thursday at 7 pm ET 1

As you can see, we are in the home stretch for North Carolina!

Yesterday afternoon I asked our 4 remaining Angels if they would be up for pre-matching, and they all were.  Our Balloon Juice angels for this final stretch were:  Patrick G, anonymous, Friend of the blog, Andrew, and anonymous.  Thank you all!

We completed NC Black Alliance!  We have about $3,500 to go on NCAAT, and about $3,000 to go on our NC Candidates.

Of course, the pre-matching means that we have to get the rest of the way without any Angels.

On the plus side, that means you don’t need to report your donation – unless you want to inspire other people – because everything is pre-matched.

We can do this, right?

Early voting starts in North Carolina on Thursday morning.

Once we knock these off, we have some statehouse races in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Wisconsin.  We’ll probably try to raise $2k apiece, which can go a long way at the end of the cycle for social media ads and literature to leave at doors, etc.

I cannot believe we are less than 3 weeks away from election day.

Open Thread.

We Are In the Home Stretch for North Carolina!Post + Comments (41)

Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Portents

by | 258 Comments

This post is in: , , ,

Biden: He's become unhinged. Look at his rallies … last night, he stood on the stage for 30 minutes and danced. I'm serious! What's wrong with this guy?

[image or embed]

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.bsky.social) October 15, 2024 at 8:06 PM

If you're feeling anxious about the election, it's because the stakes are very high, and the historical inflection point is getting closer.
It's not because the odds have worsened. If you feel like they have, the main factor is your social media feed, not anything concrete.
I strongly second this??

[image or embed]

— Nicholas Grossman (@nicholasgrossman.bsky.social) October 15, 2024 at 11:00 AM

show full post on front page

Wednesday Morning Open Thread: PortentsPost + Comments (258)