Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
The interior of this bank is not as elaborate as the one in Owatonna but it still includes the large expanse of stained glass for a well-lighted open space. Placing the vault at the forefront of the design was something that differentiated this bank from the others I saw on this trip.
Stained glass windows
Three quick housekeeping notes. First, Rosie is doing great. Thank you all for the good thoughts, well wishes, prayers, and donations.
Second, how/why is it only Wednesday?
Third, air raid alerts are up over all of eastern and central Ukraine as of 8:05 PM EDT/3:05 PM local time in Ukraine. No indication on the air raid alert maps of Russian strategic aviation up. Yet.
Despite everyone’s expectations, hopes, wishcasting, Secretary Blinken and Foreign Minister Lammy did not go to Ukraine today to provide Ukraine permission to use long ranger US and British weapons systems and munitions against legitimate military targets that Russia has moved farther east.
Asked about Ukraine use of long-range missiles to strike Russia, Blinken says, “[W]e have adjusted and adapted as needs have changed… and I have no doubt that we’ll continue to do tha…” Says he will share what he has learned with Biden, who meets with Starmer Friday in DC.
— Olivia Gazis (@Olivia_Gazis) September 11, 2024
As U.S.-UK-Ukraine joint presser ends and delegations depart, air raid sirens sound over Kyiv – pic.twitter.com/AhgEZW55il
— Olivia Gazis (@Olivia_Gazis) September 11, 2024
Reuters has more details:
KYIV, Sept 11 (Reuters) – The U.S. and British foreign ministers met President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Wednesday on a visit interrupted by air raid warnings, unveiling new support but no breakthrough on the long-range strikes into Russia desperately sought by Ukraine.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and British foreign minister David Lammy, in Kyiv at a critical juncture in Ukraine’s struggle against Russia, said they talked about Ukraine’s war goals and what they could do to help.
“Among other things, we discussed long-range fires, but a number of other things as well. And as I said at the outset, I’m going to take that discussion back to Washington to brief the president on what I heard,” Blinken told reporters.
Zelenskiy has been pleading with Kyiv’s allies for months to let Ukraine fire Western missiles including long-range U.S. ATACMS and British Storm Shadows deep into Russian territory to limit Moscow’s ability to launch attacks.
“We are listening carefully and, of course, we are having discussions on a range of issues, including the military equipment that Ukraine needs to win,” Lammy told a news conference alongside Blinken and Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha.
The British foreign minister suggested those discussions could continue for a few more weeks, a remark that will disappoint Ukrainians hoping the West would quickly discard fears of escalation.
Ahead of the news conference, Zelenskiy was asked whether he was optimistic the United States and Britain would greenlight deeper strikes into Russia, and he quipped that it depended instead on the “optimism” of Ukraine’s partners.
“Let’s count on some strong decisions at least. For us it’s very important for today,” he told reporters in Kyiv.
In a comment posted on his Telegram channel, Zelenskiy described the talks as “long and meaningful”.
“All the key issues were discussed,” he wrote.
“What’s important is that all the Ukrainian arguments were heard. And that concerns long-range weaponry, supplying our front-line brigades and the general strategy of moving strategically towards a just peace.”There is nervousness in Washington and some European capitals that lifting the restrictions on long-range attacks could provoke Russia towards a direct conflict with the West, at the same time as a recognition that Ukraine needs more help if it is to swing the war in its favour.
The speaker of Russia’s lower house of parliament, Vyacheslav Volodin, said Moscow would consider the United States and its allies to be parties to the war if they allowed Kyiv to use long-range weapons to strike deep in Russia.Overnight,
U.S. President Joe Biden suggested there was room for compromise, saying his administration was “working that out now” when asked if the United States would lift the restrictions on the use of long-range weapons.
The air raid alert sounded twice during Blinken and Lammy’s visit to Kyiv, before and after the news conference. A wreath-laying ceremony they were due to attend was cancelled.
Both alerts appeared to have been sounded over ballistic missile threats, but it was unclear what any missile had been targeting or what happened to the missiles.
More at the link!
We’re now almost three years into Russia’s genocidal re-invasion of Ukraine and ten and a half years into the initial invasion and the US DOES NOT have an actual strategy for Ukraine! Major General (ret) Mick Ryan wrote about that today and we’ll cover his assessment after the jump, but I’ll just reiterate that the lack of clearly articulated policy and a properly developed strategy that is feasible, suitable, and acceptable is why the Biden administration cannot seem to get its act together regarding Ukraine.
President Zelenskyy addressed the fourth Summit of the International Crimea Forum. Video below, English transcript after the jump.
War for Ukraine Day 931: Lessons from AlicePost + Comments (26)
What a difference a day makes. At around this time last night I was freaking out, started to watch the debate, lost my nerve about 45 seconds in, and turned it off. But about ten minutes later people on twitter said it was getting good, so I went back, and man am I happy I did. What a thorough beatdown, and in retrospect it started when Kamala walked over at the beginning and cornered Trump at his podium and made him shake her hand. At that point, I think Trump started to realize he was not in charge and that he could not control. Some big dick energy from Kamala, as the kids used to say.
She was so good at baiting him and the fucker fell for it every single time. He couldn’t look at her, he couldn’t say her name and just waved and said “these people,” and she just smiled and dropped the next piece of chum in the water. There were so many good moments, but my personal favorite was when she said he was fired by 81 million people and having a hard time “processing it.” So masterful. Reminded him he got millions fewer votes than Biden, lost, used his fired terminology from the apprentice, and the best part, the most delicious, was saying he was having a hard time processing it- which cuts in multiple ways. It insinuated he was too addle-brained to handle it, and used the language an adult might use to another adult while dressing down a recalcitrant child- “Little Donnie is still processing this and he is going through some things.” Fucking chef kiss, again, as the kids used to say.
So yeah, it was nice, real nice, to watch someone finally after ten fucking years taking a two by four to that bulbous pumpkin head and cut the mother fucker down to size. We’ve been waiting for someone to stick it him like this for so long and everyone tried to act like this is politics as usual and treated him like an equal, when he doesn’t even deserve to be in the same fucking city as Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden. Damn it was fucking cathartic. And like I have mentioned before, one of the reasons she was so able and ready to do it is because she is younger, and doesn’t have the memories of bipartisanship and working across the aisle with a sane Republican party. She came of age politically after prop 187, and she has never known anything other than batshit crazy dipshits like Trump. Give the woman a club and she’ll fucking use it, because she understands that treating him with respect and dignity because of tradition just legitimizes the fucker.
I’m still flabbergasted that we had a former President and current candidate for President scream that black people are stealing family pets and eating them. It’s like an acid dream. Am I flashing back to when I was a much younger man with a PhD in Street Pharmacology? And I realized today that it totally gives Lloyd Christmas Dumb and Dumber vibes when he was screaming about their pets heads falling off.
And I am now 100% convinced that Donald Trump believes everything he sees on television, does not understand tariffs, and has no idea that there are multiple meanings and connotations to the word “asylum.”
Now, will the debate matter? I don’t know (and really don’t care). The only true thing Donald Trump has ever said in his entire fucking life is “I could stand in fifth avenue and shoot someone and I wouldn’t lose any voters.” So I doubt he will lose any voters at all. He might even gain a few because racism. But he surely did himself no good with independents and may have depressed his own turnout. But it really doesn’t matter because the only way we can win this thing is to go balls to the wall and get every fucking vote we can in the khive column and maybe we will overcome Trump and his voters, the media, the electoral college, and the GOP saboteurs at every level and in every branch of government.
About the only people I think Kamala really convinced is the media. Whether that will pay any dividends is subject to question, but I do expect a shift in coverage and how they approach Donald.
Had a great time at the gym, getting in about five miles walking, using the machines, and doing some swimming. It’s amazing to me that in two months I have gone from a pretty “meh” attitude about exercise to the time spent at the gym being the highlight of my day. I just feel so much better mentally and physically, and if I don’t go I notice I am stiffer and less mobile. If you have been waiting or ashamed you are too out of shape or fat, knock it the fuck off and go join and start moving. Find a wellness center associated with a rehab or a hospital- it will be cheaper than other gyms, and most everyone there is my age or older and DOES NOT GIVE A FUCK how you look or how out of shape, just wipe down the machines when you are done you sweaty bastards. My gym has only a smattering of dudebro lifters and lululemon instagram fitness model girlies, but even then it’s hard to even judge if they are that attractive because they are surrounded by a bunch of decidedly unattractive people like me, so maybe they just look good by comparison? Whatever. Go, and trust me on this. And even if you can not do much at first, go anyway every day just to get into the routine of it and before you know it everything will be much easier.
In other news, Joelle’s mum is in the hospital with a heart related issue. I have no other information than what I just told you, so don’t even try to get more info out of me because I do not have it. Joelle’s sister is coming into town tomorrow, and I am going to check in on her once she gets released.
That’s it for me. What a night that was. I felt like a thirsty man in the desert and from off in the horizon Kamala came running with a big glass of water. So good. By the way, this is awesome:
these petty bitches just posted the whole 100 minutes and called it an ad.
and i love them so much for it. https://t.co/LSYGo19EP4
— Florida Chris (@chrislongview) September 11, 2024
Fucking brilliant.
It looks like winning debates is a black job. pic.twitter.com/j84hMx9PQP
— Alex Cole (@acnewsitics) September 11, 2024
When will Our Very Serious Major Media start demanding that the GOP replace failing candidate Donald Trump?
(But seriously: Can we drag out the dissection of Trump’s performance for the next three weeks, as would only be *fair*?)
lol pic.twitter.com/WY7pyjPcbd
— Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) September 11, 2024
The funniest part of last night was how easily Trump was baited into sounding like an unhinged moron.
Like, everyone, EVERYONE could see what she was doing – but like the petulant little bitch he is, he couldn’t NOT respond.
— justin (@justinchirped) September 11, 2024
They are panicking https://t.co/bmWZYNdnG6
— Patrick (@QuadCityPat) September 11, 2024
Just a reminder: Trump didn’t have a bad night. This is just who he is, and has been all along, visible to anyone who looked past the sanewashing.
Probably this is also who Harris has been all along, but now she has broken through the negative narratives that have clung to her.
— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) September 11, 2024
Wednesday Night Open Thread: <em>No Concept — *You’re* the Concept!</em>Post + Comments (44)
NYT “fact checks” aside, the Haitians eating dogs and transgender prison operations bullshit is coming out much earlier this cycle than in past elections. Back in the good old days, Republicans would save this shit until the last moment, and they’d spread it via mailers and robocalls, so people who were going to vote would hear/see it, but it was too late for the Democrat to push back.
Instead, we have Trump and Vance pushing a bunch of horrible lies. Unfortunately for his campaign, Trump has gotten more unhinged and yells the soft part out loud more than he used to. But don’t underestimate JD: he’s halfway decent at pushing a lie and making it sound reasonable (that’s a link to a Xitter video in a scrum). Of course, in the hands of an interviewer working him 1:1, he’s still sounds shitty. (Here and here are two more Xitter vids of an interview with Kaitlan Collins).
It’s a sign of desperation and double-triple-fipling down on anti-immigrant and anti-trans hate that causes them to trot this shit out so early. It’s also a sign of how much the right wing media landscape has changed in the past few years. Steve M has a good post on this, key point:
But in recent years, as Fox News has begun losing its primacy on the right while the Internet has increasingly been the main source for what rank-and-file right-wingers believe, fringe ideas have become more mainstream: Barack Obama birtherism, the allegedly stolen election in 2020, QAnon’s notion of a vast elitist pedophile ring that somehow excludes all Republicans.
It sure didn’t help Trump that his companion on the plane ride to Philly was nutjob Laura Loomer. When you lie down with pigs, you end up covered in shit.
Anyway, in some good news, it looks like we might just have our first trans Member of Congress — Sarah McBride won her primary last night for the Delaware at-large seat vacated by Lisa Blunt Rochester, who is running to replace retiring Tom Carper. The more trans visibility, the better.
Looks like we could use an open thread.
Henry is tired after the debate. That’s all I’ve got, back to work!
Here you go!
I have a quick update on the NCAAT fundraising.
We are at $17,000, which is awesome.
Side note: For some reason I can’t quite recall (!) I didn’t manage to get any client work done last evening! I am not where I need to be, so I will be MIA for most of today. So this one is simple. No reporting of NCAAT donations is necessary, just get the thermometer to $21,000, please. :-)
Why? Because we have a Balloon Juice Angel who will complete the match for us as soon as the thermometer hist $21,000.
This Angel writes a check rather than adding to the thermometer, so for now I have changed our goal to $21,000 to be more clear that once we hit that amount in the thermometer, we will have met our goal!
Because we have a double external match + a BJ Angel, all donations to NCAAT of any amount are 6x!
You’re still free to note a donation in the comments to inspire other people, if you want, but no reporting is necessary.
I am going to take a quick peek to see how the debate is being reported and then it’s work, work, work for me. Hoping that between Kamala being was so great last night and him being so weak, that maybe the media wasn’t able to go with their prepared take on the debate. (Either he won or it was a toss-up.)
Open thread!