Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

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

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

Hell hath no fury like a farmer bankrupted.

Human rights are not a matter of opinion!

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

Finding joy where we can, and muddling through where we can’t.

“In this country American means white. everybody else has to hyphenate.”

Optimism opens the door to great things.

You passed on an opportunity to be offended? What are you even doing here?

The “burn-it-down” people are good with that until they become part of the kindling.

The willow is too close to the house.

“In the future, this lab will be a museum. do not touch it.”

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

It is not hopeless, and we are not helpless.

People really shouldn’t expect the government to help after they watched the GOP drown it in a bathtub.

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

It’s a good piece. click on over. but then come back!!

Usually wrong but never in doubt

“The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.”

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

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On The Road – Captain C – Arizona – February 2024 : Animals

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Captain C

As many of my AZ friends and family are animal lovers and thus have lots of pets, I always get to get some good scritches in on my trips there.  While I don’t think I hit my record (I think it was 16 cats and 6 dogs petted in a weeklong trip), I did meet some very nice furfellas…

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On The Road - Captain C - Arizona - February 2024 : Animals 6
Mesa, AZ

These, however, are not cute furbabies.  They are pigeons fighting over the remains of our meal at Mango’s, a Mexican restaurant in downtown Mesa which is my favorite such restaurant, well, anywhere.  “Our” in this case refers to the two former Mesa librarians who were very helpful mentors in my own journey to being a librarian, whom I was delighted to see.

Late Night Open Thread: “Our” Mainstream Media Owners Are Objectively Pro-Chaos

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A century ago, Rudyard Kipling (former journalist) complained that the people who owned the press demanded “Power without responsibility – the prerogative of the harlot throughout the ages.” For all the improvements in media delivery since then, some things don’t change, and an ownership preference for novelty remains among the strongest.

Politico guy wishes to Speak to the Manager, though:

From the print interview, “We Are the World Power.’ How Joe Biden Leads”:

… On June 6, Biden will travel to Normandy, France, to memorialize an event that has served for eight decades as a focal point of this vision. He will arrive as the 12th—and certainly the last—American President who was alive on that day in 1944, when 73,000 American troops led the largest amphibious invasion in human history, accelerating Nazi Germany’s defeat and Europe’s liberation. For generations, D-Day has been a hallowed anniversary. The President says commemorating it is as much about the future as the past. “We’re playing [that role] even more,” Biden says. “We are the world power.”

Whether this view of America’s role in the world will outlast Biden’s presidency is an open question. Voters face a clear choice this November. Biden calls America’s democratic values the “grounding wire of our global power” and its alliances “our greatest asset.” His presumptive opponent, former President Donald Trump, called for withdrawing American forces in Europe and Asia and has promised, most recently in his April 12 interview with TIME, to cut loose even our closest allies if they don’t do as he tells them. By his own account, Trump sees all countries as unreliable, the relations between them transactional. That sentiment has spread throughout a Republican Party that once championed America’s values abroad. J.D. Vance, the Ohio Senator in contention to become Trump’s Vice President, tells TIME that the D-Day story has become a sepia-toned distraction. “The foreign policy establishment is obsessed with World War II historical analogies,” says Vance, “and everything is some fairy tale they tell themselves from the 1930s and 1940s.”…

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Wednesday Night Open Thread

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I am now officially at the absolute end of the rope with stories about undecided voters or people talking about the lesser of two evils. The whole “I can’t decide” nonsense drives me fucking bonkers, and I have no idea how this helps inform the electorate by elevating the deep thoughts of imbeciles who almost ten years in can’t decide if Trump is evil enough for them to ‘hold their nose” and vote for Biden. The discourse is currently stupid enough that we do not need the media to pollute it further by elevating halfwits. Besides, that’s the Republican’s job.

***

Speaking of halfwits, that idiot Marge from Georgia is all over the news, making an ass of herself in the Fauci hearings and getting rebuked by her own party, and then I saw something about her ranting about George Floyd. How do these fucking people get elected? BTW- why does Fauci keep showing up at these hearings. You gave your whole life for the country and are retired, go soak in a pool and have some shrimp cocktails and catch a matinee. You’ve earned it. Fuck those idiots in DC. And if they subpoena you, ignore it- they do when they are subpoenaed.

***

Got the car back today, and I was pleased to get out of there at just a thousand bucks. But the ac and other things are fixed, so it’s not like I had s choice. I’ve started to look at new vehicles recently, because I want to take a year or two and figure out what I like before I trade in the Honda. The CRV is a 2013 and has 140k miles on it, and runs great and the interior and exterior are in good condition, but with all the cross country travel I am going to be doing, I need to start thinking about a replacement in a couple years.

I really, really like the Ford Maverick hybrid, but there simply are none in stock ever. I also want to look into the crash ratings. I am also looking at Toyota Highlander hybrids, and I find myself drawn back to Subaru Outbacks now that they are more station model than SUV again. I also really need to get a car that works well for 5′ nothing Joelle, because ideally we will be downsizing to one car once we are eventually in the same place.

In the meantime, I am waiting on the powerball so I can buy my mercedes e class wagon in jet black.

***

I know I will get nothing but shit for this in the comments, and it is in especially poor taste because what brought it on was her doing me a favor, but my fucking God my mom can turn the simplest of thing into something the size and scope of the invasion of normandy. She was taking me to get my car, and I called her to tell her I would be over in ten minutes. That conversation devolved rapidly into a give minute debate over whether I wanted her to pick me up or walk over and it just got so complicated so fast.

At any rate, Gerald and Landrea called earlier to ask if Breyana could stay the night while they go to a getaway for the night, and of course I said yes. We went to Mexican for a late afternoon early evening dinner, and are now watching the Avengers and I am about to make some popcorn.

Oh yeah. I am now self conscious about making popcorn because about a year ago I was facetiming Joelle and I said I am about to make popcorn and poured some oil in a big pot and started heating it up and she asked me what the hell I was doing. Apparently most people have popcorn apparatus like an air bloower or they just use microwave, and I am apparently the last person on the planet who throws oil and popcorn in a big pot, covers it, and makes it that way.

Isn’t that how everyone does it? Why would you want an appliance for just one thing or to eat shitty microwave popcorn. I guess I just thought everyone made it that way.

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War for Ukraine Day 833: A Few Odds and Ends

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Quick housekeeping notes. First, Rosie is still doing well post chemotherapy. Usually if we have side effects they hit on Thursday or Friday, so we’ll see what tomorrow brings. But for now, she’s doing fine.

It was a busy day for me, so I’m going to keep this a bit shorter and focus on a couple of items that aren’t just battlefield updates.

Right now, at 6:54 PM EDT, the air raid alert map is funky. The alerts are up for Kharkiv and then the oblasts in south central and southeast Ukraine.

This morning, however, all of Ukraine was under air raid alert!

President Zelenskyy is traveling again. Today he was in Qatar and met with the Amir. So there are no new videos from him today. He and Patron are killing me on content for you people. I don’t think they realize the pressure I’m under here!

More seriously, Mrs Zelenska sat for an interview with Latin American news outlets regarding Ukrainian efforts to get the Ukrainian children stolen by Russia back. Here’s the video:

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Open Thread and Rocky Update

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Thursday Night Open Thread 9

We have an update on Rocky!  I do love a happy ending.

Update from indycat32!

Was talking to my neighbor yesterday afternoon.  Turns out Rocky is not homeless.  He belongs to a woman in the next block who has way too many cats. According to the little girl who was visiting my neighbor Rocky’s name is Leo.

The 4 cats that I now think are  hers that I’ve had contact with (that is, I got  neutered) were all well fed, friendly and health.  Not what one usually expects with hoarders, which why I thought they’d been recently abandoned. I guess Rocky just preferred my house – less crowded.

Animal Care Services is now involved, and according to my neighbor they’re letting her keep the ones that have been fixed. So  I’m out of the Rocky business.  He is being cared for and will, I’m sure, continue to stop by for a snack.

Thanks to everyone on Balloon Juice!

Open thread.

Here’s he original post in case you missed it.

Cat Bleg – One-Year-Old Rocky in Indianapolis Needs a Home

 

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In A World Of Book Banners, Be An Annabelle

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I told commenter RaflW that this deserved to be front paged and they okayed that. Book banning has been a thorn in my side since my college days. To Kill A Mockingbird has long been a target. That book got me through middle school. So I’m a bit militant and could definitely relate to Annabelle’s protest.

From  RaflW comment:

I just read this written by my friend Sara. She published in to all users on FB so I’ll post it in full (alas w/o the lovely photos of these intensely amazing youths – or click here if you’re an FB hanger-on like me, like and even share Sara’s post!).

 

Friends, meet Annabelle, a high school graduate who grew up in the Boise UU Fellowship where I serve. Many of you know her by the viral video of her graduation ceremony where she offered the superintendent a copy of the Handmaid’s Tale and he refused to take it so she gently dropped it at his feet (and he then proceeded to kick it away). Annabelle has been fighting the book bans in her school & school district all year. The thing about Annabelle is that she is very introverted and quiet. She is not typically the front-line justice leader, but diligently believes in the values of freedom and autonomy. Her dad joked that the fastest way to get an introvert angry and fired up is to take away her books!

Yesterday, she participated in our bridging ceremony during the Sunday service along with a few other youth including my own graduate. This is an annual ritual we do to honor our high school graduates and mark their rite of passage from youth to adulthood. Annabelle gave the most moving reflection that brought me and so many others to tears. I had the joy of being a chaperone with Annabelle’s jr. high group (with my own kiddo too) to Boston to explore our UU history. I could not be more proud to have been a small part of the life of these young people, including Annabelle. She embodies such courage and hope and depth of what we hope UUism might impart to our young people. These are the moments of Ministry that crack my heart open. These kids teach me so much more than I/we could ever teach them.

I put a link to an excellent interview with Annabelle in the comments. Please watch it, it is even better than the 30 second tik tok video. But while this viral video brought Annabelle into the spotlight, the whole group of bridging seniors are amazing. They have been through a lot and they’ve come to this moment ready to launch into the world. What a blessing for all of us. Congratulations fabulous ones, we love you dearly!

Sara stayed with us for a couple nights last summer during her sabbatical. We didn’t talk too much about Idaho politics since she was in need of downtime, but yeah, it’s a wild (and not good) world out there.

Here is the video of Annabelle’s interview:

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Wokety Woke Broke

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As valued commenter Kay has pointed out, self-proclaimed wingnut messaging guru Christopher Rufo‘s “war on woke” as a GOP electoral strategy didn’t resonate with voters much outside of already red states like Florida. But is the anti-woke crusade spent as a cultural force? I think you can make the argument that it succeeded in that realm as conspicuously as it failed in electoral politics.

Example: to activate Rufo’s cynical anti-woke strategy, FL Gov. Ron DeSantis made the Left Coast-dwelling Rufo a state college trustee to help dismantle famously liberal New College of Florida. DeSantis also signed a slew of constitutionally questionable culture war legislation that disrupted schools and businesses — and cost taxpayers many millions of dollars to defend in court.

Angry Boots hoped to push future convicted felon Donald Trump aside and march triumphantly into Iowa on the strength of actions like that, i.e., to reap the electoral benefits of the anti-woke agenda. But DeSantis crashed and burned, immolating hundreds of millions of GOP donor funds along with his national political future as anti-woke as an electoral force proved a dud even with Iowa’s conservative GOP base.

Still, we shouldn’t overlook the real-world consequences of the anti-woke push where wingnuttery already holds sway. The transformation of New College from an academically over-achieving hippie haven into a space that caters to meathead conservative jocks is proceeding apace. And the anti-woke agenda has successfully rolled back a lot of the progress (or at least made dead letters of pledges to make progress) in the corporate and academic worlds too.

NYT columnist Michelle Goldberg addressed this in a May essay (gift link) that reviews a book written by cancel culture-obsessed journalist Nellie Bowles.

“At various points, my fellow reporters at major news organizations told me roads and birds are racist,” [Bowles] writes. “Voting is racist. Exercise is super racist.” Even allowing for 2020’s great flood of social-justice click bait, these are misleading and reductive caricatures. It’s hardly revisionist history, for example, to point out that Interstates were tools of racial segregation.

But my biggest disagreement with Bowles lies in her insistence that the movement she’s critiquing has triumphed. She describes the New Progressivism as the “operating principle of big business,” as well as the tech sector and academia. This week, speaking on the podcast of her wife, the Times Opinion writer turned heterodox media entrepreneur Bari Weiss, Bowles said, “The revolution didn’t end because it lost. It ended because it won.”

It didn’t, though. Even at the zenith of the George Floyd demonstrations, the corporate social-justice stuff was mostly window dressing; the operating principle of big business is and always was the pursuit of profit. And now, we’re in the middle of a furious reversal.

Goldberg is right about the reversal. As she notes, corporations and institutions are jettisoning diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies as fast as they adopted them in 2020. Elite colleges are cracking down on protesters. States and institutions are banning consideration of environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance in investment decisions.

Maybe it’s the inevitable backlash that arises to vociferously oppose every scrap of social progress, however modest and necessary and overdue. But it also looks like a partial victory for the Rufos, Bowles and Weisses of the world. We shouldn’t expect them to recognize that since their cashflow depends on monetizing nonexistent conservative victimhood. Luckily for them, it’s an inexhaustible resource.

Open thread.

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