Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

It’s pointless to bring up problems that can only be solved with a time machine.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

She burned that motherfucker down, and I am so here for it. Thank you, Caroline Kennedy.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

The press swings at every pitch, we don’t have to.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

When you’re a Republican, they let you do it.

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

Stop using mental illness to avoid talking about armed white supremacy.

Mediocre white men think RFK Jr’s pathetic midlife crisis is inspirational. The bar is set so low for them, it’s subterranean.

The desire to stay informed is directly at odds with the need to not be constantly enraged.

Sometimes the world just tells you your cat is here.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

Let there be snark.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

Anne Laurie is a fucking hero in so many ways. ~ Betty Cracker

In my day, never was longer.

He really is that stupid.

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

Republicans in disarray!

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On The Road – UncleEbeneezer – Early-Summer, Eastern Sierra Adventure (Part 1-of-5): Tuttle Creek

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UncleEbeneezer

We decided this year to try our luck on an Early-Summer camping trip to the Sierra.  We usually wait until Late-Summer/Fall to avoid the crowds, heat and mosquitoes so we decided to go just before Memorial Day Weekend and to try someplace new.  We had really hoped to camp at Lone Pine Campground, which is on the way up to Whitney Portal, but rain damage to the roads still had that campground closed until further notice, so instead we decided to try our luck at Tuttle Creek Campground.

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On The Road - UncleEbeneezer - Early-Summer, Eastern Sierra Adventure (Part 1-of-5): Tuttle Creek 8
Lone Pine, CAMay 20, 2024

Our goal with this trip was to finally explore the Sierra near Mt. Whitney/Lone Pine, unfortunately for several reasons that didn’t really end up happening the way we’d hoped.  But here you can see Mt. Whitney, tallest mountain in the Lower-48, viewed from downtown Lone Pine.

Hopeful Dawn Open Thread: Magdi Jacobs on Social Media Tactics

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Hopeful Dawn Open Thread: Magdi Jacobs on Social Media Tactics 1

(Jack Ohman via GoComics.com)

I’m really bad at social media (twitter & BlueSky) myself — I’m not a fast reader, and tend to treat them as ‘places I mine for blog aggregation’ — but per Ms. Jacobs’ suggestions, I’m gonna work on at least reposting more often:

1. It’s fine to disagree w/ Dems from now until #EDay; That said, plz do so respectfully & kindly. The media thrives on Democratic discord. Every time Democrats/Leftists/etc engage in ferocious debate online, editors contact people like me to write Op-Eds. This drives coverage.

2. Put winning the election above social media clout. This involves not trying to be cool by dragging other Democrats (or possible Dem voters). It also involves not overly curating your twitter feed. RT Cringe. RT Democrats saying good things. This matters…

3. While you commit to *not* arguing, at least in a hostile way w/ Dems, commit to trying to argue w/ conservatives. Don’t just drag them (tho dragging is good), try to argue with them. Make a debate with conservatives blow up online so much that editors contact writers to do an OpEd

4. If it’s too hard to try to argue w/ a conservative, & I agree this may be the case, commit to not just dragging them, but also to finding joy in doing so *w/ others,* a la “Weird.” We’ve never done something like “weird” before. It was great. Gave us joy/strength; put them on defensive.

5. Just as you commit to RTing great things–including cringe things–about Democrats, commit to RTing every single negative thing you see about Trump. Trump has *massively* benefited from an almost 9 month media blackout. As well as normalization. Pierce through this.

That’s about it, for now. The goals are these: Deprive media of Dem Discord. Give them other debates to cover. Spread joy. Create the perception of *strength* in numbers by liking & RTing every Good Democratic tweet. Reject over-curating your account. RT @KamalaHQ in particular.

One last thing, though. I’m not trying to reignite Biden-Drop-Out debates, b/c I am delighted by how things have turned out. But I do want to note something for explanatory purposes: Post-June-Debate, many Black Democrats tried, valorously, to make “Black Jobs” trend.

This worked, to some extent, but “Black Jobs” seemed to get drowned out by Dem discord over everything else. Imagine if things had gone differently. Either Biden performed better or our social media focus had just been different. “Black Jobs” would have hurt Trump quite a bit.

Now, look at this Simone Biles Tweet. So many likes + RTs. I saw it & immediately looked at the “numbers” for the tweet. The “numbers” made me so happy, but also made me think, “I don’t have to RT that, b/c everyone has seen it.” WRONG, Magdi. I should have RT’d it!

Hopeful Dawn Open Thread: Magdi Jacobs on Social Media Tactics

Why? Again, b/c numbers matter. 1.3 million likes? Amazing. What if it got to 2 million likes. Or 200K RTs? That’s strength. Strength in our joyful coalition. Strength in our patriotism. And strength in mocking the bad ideas of the other side.

From now until EDay, focus all your negativity on our opponents. Put Trump under the spotlight. All while finding joy in our coalition. Practice respect in our disagreements. Reject clout. Reject anti-cringe. Reject over-curation. Give Kamala Harris GREAT social media numbers…

All negativity towards other Dems, all motivation to be the “most right,” the “knowiest of all,” etc, throw that all out the window. If someone does it to you, don’t respond. They are injecting necessary negativity into the discourse. Which is why Russian trolls imitate them!

Let’s just say we’re done with all that. It’s not the right way to behave in a coalition. Mute it out. Joyfully.

P.S. I’m also going to try to QT things more often that I love w/ simple messages, like, for example, “I love this!” Typically I might feel a bit embarrassed, like why do my followers need to know what I love? Shouldn’t I think of something smart to say? We should reject this.

Just. . . be open to tweeting your love. To sharing it with your followers so that they can share their love back. We can be excited and happy and hopeful together. I truly believe that this is how we win this election.

Or, at the very least, it will keep us all saner over the coming hectic months.

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Words for me to keep in mind for tomorrow

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I thought I’d check in with (fake) jack Smith before I head to bed this evening.  Not sorry I did!

Jack E. Smith ⚖️

@7Veritas4

Whoever her pick is, here are some things to keep in mind:

– You all have your favorites. She has been meticulous (and discreet) in the selection process for a reason. She’ll need all of them to campaign and win in November.

– Some of you will be disappointed when your favorite isn’t selected. That’s ok. Don’t have a tantrum about it.

– Remember the assignment. We’re in this to preserve democracy, not convince each other why we’re right about who Kamala Harris should’ve picked as her running mate.

Okay, so the first two were kinda preachy, but I found the third one to be an excellent reminder.

Republicans don’t need our help trashing the VP choice.  If I were Kamala, I would be choosing someone I connected with rather than someone who could bring in this constituency or that one.  Barack chose well, and Joe chose well, so I suspect Kamala will likewise choose the person she wants to be the last person in the room with her.  Who am I to judge who that person is for her?

When I used to interview folks for positions in the IT group I managed, one of the interview questions went something like “Can you tell us about a time where you complied with a policy with which you didn’t agree?”  It was never a good sign when the person couldn’t come up with something, or did come up with a situation, but spent the whole time telling us why he was right.

Cole has a category called stream of consciousness, I guess that’s the one I should have used for this rambling post.

Open thread.

 

 

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War for Ukraine Day 894! We’re Back!!!

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A couple of quick housekeeping notes. First, Rosie had her chemo treatment today. She’s still in full remission and is doing excellently. Thank you for all the good thoughts, well wishes, prayers, and donations.

Second, I want to thank TaMara for doing emergency back up duty last night. My power went out around 7 PM last night. Which is unusual as it almost never goes out. Occasionally during a thunderstorm if we get a strike near the house it’ll flicker for a few seconds and come right back on. Last night it was out till after midnight. The power company’s outage map was ambiguous as to the reason, but the fancy weather app I have listed it as tree on power line or lines. Even if that was the case, I have no idea where in the area that would’ve been. Regardless of the reason, we’ve been back up and running.

We have reports of recent – within one to four hours – attacks on Kyiv and Kharkiv:

And just as I finished drafting tonight’s update at 8:50 PM EDT/3:50 AM local time in Ukraine, an air raid alert went up for all of Kharkiv Oblast.

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

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Monday Evening Open Thread: RFK Jr, Pursued By A Bear (Story)

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Actually, you don’t get weirder than Roseanne giving you side-eye…

In the patois of our people: Better to have kept his tongue between his teeth. The New Yorker profile is not an Isaac Chotiner special; it was probably intended as a beat-sweetener, but it reads more like a lawyer’s dutiful plea for his client’s early parole (The tragic chronic illness of substance abuse… traumatic childhood… bad companions… we’re all very pleased with how well Bobby’s incorporated his hard-won lessons. ) Here’s the entirety of the New Yorker’s take on the bear story, four-fifths of the way through a very long, deeply dispiriting narrative:

… One day, in the fall of 2014, Kennedy was driving to a falconry outing in upstate New York when he passed a furry brown mound on the side of the road. He pulled over and discovered that it was the carcass of a black-bear cub. Kennedy was tickled by the find. He loaded the dead bear into the rear hatch of his car and later showed it off to his friends. In a picture from that day, Kennedy is putting his fingers inside the bear’s bloody mouth, a comical grimace across his face. (When I asked Kennedy about the incident, he said, “Maybe that’s where I got my brain worm.”)

After the outing, Kennedy, who was then sixty and recently married to Hines, got an idea. He drove to Manhattan and, as darkness fell, entered Central Park with the bear and a bicycle. A person with knowledge of the event said that Kennedy thought it would be funny to make it look as if the animal had been killed by an errant cyclist. The next day, the bear was discovered by two women walking their dogs, setting off an investigation by the N.Y.P.D. “This is a highly unusual situation,” a spokeswoman for the Central Park Conservancy told the Times. “It’s awful.” In a follow-up piece for the Times, which was coincidentally written by Tatiana Schlossberg, one of J.F.K.’s granddaughters, a retired Bronx homicide commander commented, “People are crazy.”…

My people — our (Irish-American) people — have a tradition of composing proud sagas about our reckless, feckless, substance-abusing Warriors (aka chaos muppets). I was told that our drunks run in packs because there’s got to be at least one guy in the bunch who can piece together a narrative after the event. My old man was a (mostly functional) alcoholic, so this is how I understand RFK’s bear tale, from RFK’s own telling:

Bobby and a bunch of his guys spent the afternoon out in the hunting field, an expedition where a certain amount of celebratory drinking is practically mandatory. Eventually, everybody piled into RFK’s van, which was driven by RFK himself, because of course it would be very wrong to hand over the keys to a(nother) drunk, officer!

At some point on the way to Westchester, a bear cub — probably already dead — was encountered. It seemed like a good idea to stuff the carcass in the back of the van, because Bobby could skin it later, and maybe the meat would be edible, at least for the falcons or something. *Totally* legal, because a retroactive game license for roadkill bear is available in NY state. (Remember, kids: Bobby had not been drinking.)

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Monday Night Open Thread

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I am so very relieved to hear the VP selection has been made because the usual idiots on twitter are turning this into a contentious litmus test, with loud proclamations about something whatever candidate they don’t like has done wrong. Here’s where I stand- I’m fine with any of them, I’d really like Tim Walz, but if she chose cancer as her running mate I would still low crawl over broken glass while naked to get to the polls to vote for Kamala, and this is in a red state where she won’t even crack 40%. So anyone with a purity test can go fuck themselves.

Breyana’s parents are at their cabin, so she is here tonight. We are making tacos and watching movies.

I’ll have more when I am inspired. Feel like the House of Dragons finale was anti-climactic.

*** Update ***

I remember what I wanted to ask. Will the google decision loosen their stranglehold on online advertising?

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Water, water everywhere (open thread)

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What a difference a day makes! Here’s the little peninsula that juts out into the river in front of our house (Pendejo Point) shortly after 6 PM yesterday as the hurricane was moving up the coast:

Water, water everywhere (open thread)

Here it is today after a foot of rain overnight:

Water, water everywhere (open thread) 1

Our river had plenty of excess capacity, unlike the Suwannee, which is getting pounded by the storm now in a way that has my relatives who live on it in a tizzy. (We are a riparian people.)

Please overlook our cruddy screens! It’s tough to keep them clear in the Mildew State.

Open thread!

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