Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

Hell hath no fury like a farmer bankrupted.

Republicans cannot even be trusted with their own money.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

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

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

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

Compromise? There is no middle ground between a firefighter and an arsonist.

One lie, alone, tears the fabric of reality.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

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

This blog will pay for itself.

You cannot shame the shameless.

Fear or fury? The choice is ours.

Books are my comfort food!

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

“Loving your country does not mean lying about its history.”

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

Conservatism: there are people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

Petty moves from a petty man.

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Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Grinding Through It

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I’ve checked all the usual sources, and it looks like my best decision of the week to date might well have been taking a nap instead of watching the vice-presidential debate. Our guy did his best, their guy tap-danced for an audience of cultists, and no minds were changed. (Although there may, of course, be a backdraft yet to come.) To save time, here’s a report from the Washington Post — “Vance, Walz square off in what could be final meeting of presidential campaigns”: [gift link]

… In marked contrast to the September presidential clash between former president Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris — who hardly concealed their disgust with each other — the running mates often went out of their way to be gracious, while focusing more on policy differences than personal slights.

They offered praise, sympathized and acknowledged that they agreed on how to address some of the country’s most vexing and divisive issues. At the same time, neither man shied away from the dirty work they had to do for their campaigns.

Vance referred to “our Democratic friends” even as he suggested that Harris had “enabled the Mexican drug cartels to operate freely in this country” and set the stage for the global instability that has sparked a widening war in the Middle East…

Walz turned from the first question about the Middle East to argue that the nation doesn’t need “a nearly 80-year-old Donald Trump talking about crowd sizes” to solve the situation. He quoted Trump’s recent dismissal of the traumatic brain injuries sustained by U.S. troops during his presidency as “headaches.” And he chided Trump for conducting diplomacy on Twitter and for not paying federal taxes.

Walz followed up by criticizing Vance for repeating unsubstantiated claims that immigrants in the senator’s home state had been eating the pets of their neighbors, a claim that local officials say lacks evidence. He also said Trump had helped to scuttle a bill that would have solved the immigration problem, because he wanted to run on immigration reform…

In one of the sharpest exchanges of the debate, Walz directly asked Vance whether Trump had lost the 2020 election, a fact the former president has refused to admit.

“Tim, I am focused on the future,” Vance deflected.

“That is damning,” Walz said. “That is a damning non-answer.”…

One of the only other truly contentious moments in the debate came when one of the moderators, Margaret Brennan, pointed out that the Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, falsely accused of eating pets are there legally under a Biden administration program. Vance objected.

“The rules were you weren’t going to fact check,” Vance responded, before speaking out of turn to argue that the Biden administration’s policy was not proper. After repeated requests that the debaters stop speaking out of turn, the moderators cut the microphones of the candidates and changed topics…

 
More importantly, IMO, Vance’s boss is not doing well. Also from the Washington Post, “Trump mixes up words, swerves among subjects in off-topic speech”:

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On The Road – Captain C – Road Trip, April 2024 Part 5: Melissa Caruso’s TARDIS Bookstore (AKA the Lyrical Ballad Bookstore) Part 1

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Captain C

The main reason that Dame N and I chose to stop in Saratoga Springs on the way to Cooperstown was to check out the Lyrical Ballad Bookstore.  I refer to it as ‘Melissa Caruso’s TARDIS bookstore’ because like many people, Dame N and I found out about it through a wonderful tweetstorm (back before it was the hellsite) by author Melissa Caruso*.  You can see it collected here on the Media Chomp website; I highly recommend it as it’s a wonderful journey.

To sum up, the Lyrical Ballad seems like a small storefront used bookstore when you enter it.  Then you see that there’s another room in back.  With connections to, IIRC, another couple rooms.  Then some more rooms, and more, all with floor-to-ceiling bookcases jammed to the gills with enticing used books of all types (and generally grouped by category).  I refer to it as a TARDIS bookstore because once you have finally journeyed as far back as you can go, it does not seem possible that this much bookstore can fit into the building it occupies.

The proprietors are very nice people, and remembered Melissa and her viral tweetstorm (and even had a set of autographed copies of her books).  I spent, well, a LOT there, and happily so.  You will find out some of what I bought in the next few photosets, and the rest later in the series.

*Melissa Caruso is a good friend of my sister’s; my sister’s maid of honor in fact.  She’s a very talented writer who has written two interesting Fantasy trilogies, the Swords and Fire trilogy and the Rooks and Ruin trilogy, set on opposite sides of a continent in the same ‘verse.  She has a new book coming out, not in that ‘verse, this November, called The Last Hour Between Worlds.

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On The Road - Captain C - Road Trip, April 2024 Part 5: Melissa Caruso's TARDIS Bookstore (AKA the Lyrical Ballad Bookstore) Part 1 8
The Lyrical Ballad Bookstore, Saratoga Springs, NYApril 17, 2024

Out in front of the Lyrical Ballad.  Looks like a nice, inviting, ordinary-sized bookstore, right…?

COVID-19 Coronavirus & H5N1 Updates: October 2, 2024

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Late Night Open Thread: Light / Shadow

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Two sports obituaries, two different legacies…

Charles P. Pierce, at Esquire — “Dikembe Mutombo, Who Died at 58, Was a Man of His Home and a Man of the World”:

… [W]hat marked Mutombo’s life was not his unsurpassed ability to block shots, nor was it the iconic finger wave that he gave to the unfortunate victims of his hijacks. It was that Dikembe Mutombo was a man of his place, and also a man of the world. His charitable efforts in his native Democratic Republic of the Congo, and all over the continent, were as vast as his work in spreading the sport of basketball in Africa. Both he and Hakeem Olajuwon, born in Nigeria, opened the continent to the NBA and to the world. Now African stars are all over the Association, from Pascal Siakam to Joel Embiid.

I first encountered him during my last years of covering college basketball, when Mutombo was a mystery recruit at Georgetown whom John Thompson had paired with established star Alonzo Mourning. Thompson kept all of his players under wraps, but he was especially stringent with Mutombo. But even with the limitations on access to him, Mutombo’s intellect and humor shone through. This all blossomed as his career went along. This great tower of a man was obviously brilliant—he spoke nine languages, including five African ones—but he could be positively impish. There were very few NBA players who were both as respected and as liked as he was. He became the NBA’s first Global Ambassador.

Meanwhile, Mutombo’s efforts in his home country were legendary. He built a hospital in Kinshasa that has treated over half a million people since it opened. He worked constantly to improve education and health care in his embattled homeland. And, in a week in which the former president* went out of his way to scare people with his lie about Congolese convicts flooding into America, Mutombo’s pride in his country and his people stands out as hope for a better, more empathetic world. His life was a celebration of life and a celebration of hope. Dikembe Mutombo Mpolondo Mukamba Jean-Jacques Wamutombo died on Monday at 58 of brain cancer. May his memory be the blessing that his life was.

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Tom Scocca, at Indignity — “Exit the hustler”:

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VP Debate Second Thread

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I’m watching the debate and I have to say that the fucking kumbaya is absolutely not good for Harris/Walz.

Walz is doing a good job in general.  Vance is a slick lying piece of shit, and finding areas of agreement with a lying piece of shit makes common cause with a lying piece of shit.

For example, “Gov Walz and I think something needs to be done about gun violence.”  No you don’t.  You want to deflect and lie.

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War for Ukraine Day 951: Russia Commits More War Crimes in Kherson & Pokrovsk

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A painting by Ukrainian artis NEIVANMADE. The background is white. In the center, which is black with blood red bordering, is an hourglass. Inside the hourglass is a Ukrainian Azovstal POW painted in blood red. He is shirtless. His arms are upward along the outer edges of the upper half of the hourglass forming a saltire cross. He is chained with steel gray chains shackled to his wrists. Above his head, in grey, is written "Ruzzian Captivity." below his torso in the lower half of the hourglass, written in gray, is "Kills." To the left of the hourglass "He Saved Others" is painted in gray. To the right of the hourglass "But He Can't Save Himself" is painted in gray.

(Image by NEIVANMADE)

Two quick housekeeping notes. First, Rosie is doing great. Thank you for all the good thoughts, well wishes, prayers, and donations.

Second, I know everyone wants to watch the debate or, at least, read other people liveblog or livetweet or liveskeet or whatever the debate, so I’m just going to run the basics tonight.

Russia attacked Kherson’s central market today.

WARNING!! WARNING!! GRAPHIC CONTENT!! WARNING!! WARNING!!

A Russian strike on Kherson, right in the city center. As of now, six deaths have been confirmed. My deepest condolences to all the families and friends affected. Six people have been injured and are receiving the necessary assistance.

Daily Russian terror, daily attempts to destroy life—this can and can be stopped. We must achieve lasting peace for our state and our people. For this to happen, Ukrainian strength and the resolve of our partners must outweigh Putin’s desire to wreck terror.

Pressure on the aggressor and support for Ukraine must be constant and comprehensive. I thank all our partners who help us defend lives. I thank everyone who protects Ukraine.

The also massacred 16 Ukrainian POWs on the Pokrovsk front:

The Russian military executed 16 (!!!) surrendered Ukrainian soldiers at sight.

This is the worst incident of POW execution known so far in this war.

It happened near Pokrovsk.

Look at what the Russians did – they lined the surrendered Ukrainians up, shot them all down, and then finished off those dying on the ground.

When some sneaky character says ‘Ukrainians just need to surrender,” — this is the answer regarding what will happen if Ukraine “just surrenders” to Russia, which is absolutely out of its damn mind and sick with absolute sadism.

And they’ve apparently poisoned an entire Ukrainian river:

Putin’s ecocide in #Ukraine. “Everything is dead. Not a single organism survived. This is unprecedented. It’s Europe’s first completely dead river.” Russia is suspected of deliberately leaking chemical waste into the Desna river, with deadly consequences for wildlife. https://theguardian.com/world/2024/oct/01/ukraine-seim-river-poisoning-chernihiv-ecocide-

More on this after the jump.

Here is President Zelenskyy’s address from earlier today. Video below, English transcript after the jump.

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Vice-Presidential Debate Open Thread

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Here’s the PBS live stream, since CBS keeps crashing on my machine:

Sorry, but I’ve got a severe case of the Just CANnots. Gonna go take a nap, since I’ll be putting together the Weekly Covid / H5N1 Update later (as well as, probably, some kind of recap roundup).

Have at it, jackals!

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