Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

Wait, what?

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Washington Post Catch and Kill, not noticeably better than the Enquirer’s.

White supremacy is terrorism.

Democracy is not a spectator sport.

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

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

A norm that restrains only one side really is not a norm – it is a trap.

How stupid are these people?

In my day, never was longer.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

Fundamental belief of white supremacy: white people are presumed innocent, minorities are presumed guilty.

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

The republican caucus is covering themselves with something, and it is not glory.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

Well, whatever it is, it’s better than being a Republican.

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

There are times when telling just part of the truth is effectively a lie.

The way to stop violence is to stop manufacturing the hatred that fuels it.

In after Baud. Damn.

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Climate Solutions: New Grid Rules and Big Bison

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I don’t remember when I stumbled on Beau – he describes himself as a southern journalist and his takes are thoughtful – but this morning there was this nugget I was unaware of, so I went searching for more information. This is why I’m posting a quick hit climate post this morning before I run off to take care of my long list of things-to-do today.

Here’s the announcement:

There is a lot to disseminate, but you can read more here, here, and here.

FERC’s new transmission and cost allocation rule, Order No. 1920, continues the essential work of the Commission – ensuring a reliable grid – by requiring the nation’s transmission providers to plan for the transmission we know we will need in the future.

This rule adopts specific requirements addressing how transmission providers must conduct long-term planning for regional transmission facilities and determine how to pay for them, so needed transmission is built. The final rule reflects more than 15,000 pages of comments from nearly 200 stakeholders representing all sectors of the electric power industry; environmental, consumer and other advocacy groups; and state and other government entities.

The grid rule contains these major elements:

  • Requirement to conduct and periodically update long-term transmission planning to anticipate future needs.
  • Requirement to consider a broad set of benefits when planning new facilities.
  • Requirement to identify opportunities to modify in-kind replacement of existing transmission facilities to increase their transfer capability, known as “right-sizing.”
  • Customers pay only for projects from which they benefit.
  • Expands states’ pivotal role throughout the process of planning, selecting, and determining how to pay for transmission facilities.

Now back to how transforming soil and rewilding is an important part of climate solutions:

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Saturday Morning Open Thread: Busy, Busy, Busy All the Time

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Holding our Houston area jackals in the light… y’all check in when you get the chance:

“Debates over the debate” convo in full spate:


Per the Associated Press, “Trump accepts a VP debate but wants it on Fox News. Harris has already said yes to CBS”:

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Open Thread: Against Doomerism

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On Doomerism - STOCKPILE

When I was very young, my parents called me Eeyore (supposedly because that’s how my baby brother pronounced ‘Anne Laurie’ without the use of consonants). That much-maligned mythical donkey was one of my earliest role models, a true Cynic whose example I strive to emulate. Eeyore did not wallow in doomerism; he recognized the shortcomings of those around him, and took a certain satisfaction in noting them even while striving for mutual happiness. (Consider the famous birthday party story: Since Eeyore knew his friends would not remember his birthday unprompted, he made sure to remind them; when the best those friends could come up with for presents were ‘a jar that used to have honey in it’ and ‘a red rubber rag that was once a balloon’, he found a way to enjoy those humble gifts.)

Political doomerism does nobody any good. Yes, there are too many dumb / cruel / ill-informed voters, and a plethora of political grifters and crackpots all too eager to take advantage of them. Our job is to fight for every honest vote — to cure ignorance & stupidity where we can, and to get our own voters to the polls.

Open Thread: Against Doomerism

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Will This Story Have Actual Legs (I Surely Hope So) Open Thread

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Please please please let this story have legs.

half a h/t to Jackie because she sent me a TikTok from Facebook and I tracked it down on twitter.  The part where Rachel gets really serious is around 2 minutes, 18 seconds.

Gradually and then suddenly?  We can only hope.

Oh, and if you want something soothing and uplifting watch this.  I can’t recall who posted the link in a post earlier today.

Open thread.

*found the cartoon on twitter but also had it sent to me by TBone, so another half h/t for her!  You know what they say, half a h/t here, half a h/t there, pretty soon you’re talking about real hat tips!

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War for Ukraine Day 814: The Russian Bombardments Continue

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Screen shot of painting by NEIVANMADE. It has five Ukrainian Soldiers, defenders of Azovstal in Mariopul in the center. They are painted in grey. Around them in red are the structures of the Azovstal plant. Above them is written in English: "Stronger Than Steel". Below them written in English is written "Mariupol".

(Image by NEIVANMADE)

Quick housekeeping note: Ruby appears to have made a full recovery and Rosie is still doing very well ahead of her next chemo treatment on Monday. Thank you all again for your good thoughts, well wishes, prayers, and/or donations to Rosie’s GoFundMe.

One correction from last night: Putin and his entourage went to Beijing. I wrote that Xi had gone to Moscow.

As I begin writing tonight’s update – at 7:30 PM EDT – air raid alerts are up from Sumy, Kharkiv, and Poltava Oblasts in the northeast through Kirovohrad Oblast in central Ukraine to Mykolaiv and Odesa Oblasts in southern Ukraine. An air raid alert has just gone up – 7:50 PM EDT – for Vinnytsia Oblast.

Russia has continued bombarding Kharkiv and Sumy Oblasts, as well as other parts of Ukraine.

Russian forces are also continuing to commit crimes against humanity. I’m not embedding it, but Ukrainian aerial reconnaissance has captured video of a Ukrainian in a wheelchair killed on the grounds of a hospital in the Russian occupied portion of Vovchansk. The Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor’s Office is treating this as an execution of a civilian trying to flee the Russian occupation. Do NOT go looking for the video or the still imagery!!! You don’t need to see it!!!

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

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Friday Night Open Thread

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Oh noes, an elderly Republican has a sad:

Despite all the talk that Joe Biden killed the Commission on Presidential Debates this week, there’s at least one objection.

“We ain’t dead yet,” says Frank J. Fahrenkopf Jr.

He’s the co-founder and co-chair of the commission, and he sat down for an interview with the Playbook Deep Dive podcast this week to discuss whether this really is the end of his organization’s 36-year run producing 33 general election debates.

Fahrenkopf had harsh words for senior members of the Biden campaign, which stunned the commission on Wednesday morning with a letter declaring the president would not participate in the commission’s fall debates. The Biden team described the commission’s debates as “noisy spectacles” that occur too late in the process to accommodate early voting, and which were too easy for Donald Trump to hijack in 2020 by breaking rules that went unenforced.

Fahrenkopf called the Biden campaign’s allegations “false” and said the campaign “didn’t do their homework” on early voting. He blamed the blowup on Biden advisers Anita Dunn and Ron Klain’s hostility to the commission.

Some quick background- Fahrenkopf is the former head of the RNC from 83-89, during the Reagan years, before most voters today were even able to vote, and according to his wikipedia entry, he is 84 years old. So no, he and the Presidential Debate Commission are not technically dead, but if you look at the actuarial tables he’s got one foot in the grave the other on a banana peel and the commission is in the same boat.

Having said that, thank FUCKING GOD Biden’s team managed to secure the debates outside this shitshow. Here’s the deal- it’s not 1988 anymore and we are long past pretending that the old rules of genteel debate still hold. In fact, the biggest impediment to Democratic success in the last twenty years or so are the idiots in the Democratic party, now mostly gone, who believed in the old way and treating Republicans as serious people who should be given the benefit of the doubt. The stupid centrist fuckers who think they can negotiate with terrorists because in their mind Tip O’Neill is still smoking cigars and having drinks with Reagan.

Those days are long gone, and the simple fact of the matter is the institutions we relied on for decades and centuries are crumbling in this new era, because much of government and civil life requires people acting in good faith. Republicans tossed that aside in the Gingrich era and have become worse with every passing years, and have in many instances either fully co-opted institutions or simply ignore them and do what they want because they realized there are no repercussions.

The same thing happened to the Sunday shows and much of the media- Republicans realized that there is no down side to just flat out lying, and they did that until they just stopped showing up. In addition, the media bent over backwards to be “fair and balanced,” so we were then and now treated to the grotesque spectacle of treating things like Obama agreeing with Henry Louis Gates as a scandal on par with Donald Trump blackmailing Ukraine. Biden’s dentures slip and he mispronounces a name while Trump shouts out “MAGNETS DON’T WORK UNDERWATER AND HANNIBAL LECTOR WAS A GREAT GUY” and the headline the next day is “both Presidents have issues with their age.”

This serves no one, of course, except Republicans. It doesn’t help the country, it doesn’t help inform the public, and it certainly doesn’t build faith in institutions.

So Mr Fahrenkopf can fuck off into the wilderness for all I care. After the deceits and abuses they let Trump get away with the last few times around, I see no need to include the commission this time around.

***

In other news, this happened in Congress:

Two thoughts- Raskin deserves credit for not breaking out into a full laugh, and I hope that Crockett is around for a long time.

***

My legs are very sunburned and ouchie, so I am going to do nothing but watch Caprica tonight and stay out of any sun tomorrow. I guess I have nothing else to say, really.

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Friday Evening Open Thread: Maybe ‘Justice’ Alito Was Just Jealous of His Benchmate?

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“White man can’t even get the credit he deserves for undermining democracy in service to America’s real heroes, its billionaire oligarchs! Maybe if I blame it on the old ball’n’chain, I could get some attention here?!?… “

Friday Evening Open Thread:

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