Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson is the bland and smiling face of evil.

Let me file that under fuck it.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

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

Republicans cannot even be trusted with their own money.

Jack Smith: “Why did you start campaigning in the middle of my investigation?!”

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

If you’re gonna whine, it’s time to resign!

The rest of the comments were smacking Boebert like she was a piñata.

The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

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

Text STOP to opt out of updates on war plans.

Stay strong, because they are weak.

We will not go back.

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

America is going up in flames. The NYTimes fawns over MAGA celebrities. No longer a real newspaper.

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

Republican also-rans: four mules fighting over a turnip.

If rights aren’t universal, they are privilege, not rights.

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Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Ritual — Sacred, Profane, & Otherwise

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Best wishes to those who celebrate!


 


 
Y’know, I’m beginning to suspect Joe is enjoying giving the NYTimes the… snub:

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COVID-19 Coronavirus (& H5N1) Updates: May 15, 2024

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*Sigh*… It’s a start:

… The new funds include $101 million to continue work to prevent, test, track and treat animals and humans potentially affected by the virus known as Type A H5N1, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said. And they include about $98 million to provide up to $28,000 each to help individual farms test cattle and bolster biosecurity efforts to halt the spread of the virus, according to the Agriculture Department.

In addition, dairy farmers will be compensated for the loss of milk production from infected cattle, whose supply drops dramatically when they become sick, officials said. And dairy farmers and farm workers would be paid to participate in a workplace study conducted by the USDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

So far, farmers have been reluctant to allow health officials onto their farms to test cattle because of uncertainty about how it would affect their businesses, researchers have said. Also, farm workers, including many migrant workers, have been reluctant to be tested for fear of missing work or because they didn’t want to be tracked by the government…

The new spending comes more than six weeks after the first-ever detection of an avian bird flu virus in dairy cattle — and one confirmed infection in a Texas dairy worker exposed to infected cows who developed a mild eye infection and then recovered. About 33 people have been tested and another 260 are being monitored, according to the CDC…


 
Thread for nervous wonks:

The political version of Oppositional Defiance Disorder (and the professional grifters who fatten off them):

… Since March 25, when the bird flu virus was confirmed in U.S. cattle for the first time, weekly sales of raw cow’s milk have ticked up 21% to as much as 65% compared with the same periods a year ago, according to the market research firm NielsenIQ…

… CDC officials warned last week that people who drink raw milk could theoretically become infected if the bird flu virus comes in contact with receptors in the nose, mouth and throat or by inhaling virus into the lungs. There’s also concern that if more people are exposed to the virus, it could mutate to spread more easily in people.

States have widely varying regulations regarding raw milk, with some allowing retail sales in stores and others allowing sale only at farms. Some states allow so-called cowshares, where people pay for milk from designated animals, and some allow consumption only by farm owners, employees or “non-paying guests.”…

From 1998 to 2018, the CDC documented more than 200 illness outbreaks traced to raw milk, which sickened more than 2,600 people and hospitalized more than 225.

Raw milk is far more likely than pasteurized milk to cause illnesses and hospitalizations linked to dangerous bacteria such as campylobacter, listeria, salmonella and E. coli, research shows…

I’m willing to allow the argument that raw milk ‘tastes better’, but right now, I wouldn’t drink unprocessed milk even from a cow I *did* know personally!
 

***********

 

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Late Night Open Thread: ‘A Pride Movement for Bad People’

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With Donald Trump barred from publicly attacking the key witness in his hush money trial, his campaign brought to court a phalanx of Republican elected officials to speak for him.

“The thing that the president is prevented from saying, which is a disgrace, is that every single person involved in this prosecution is practically a Democratic political operative,” U.S. Sen. JD Vance of Ohio said outside the courthouse Monday during a morning break…

Bringing allies to court allowed Trump’s campaign to press his message without violating the gag order. It also gave those allies a high-profile platform to demonstrate loyalty to their party’s presumptive nominee and perhaps audition for higher office.

According to Trump’s campaign, all of his courthouse guests Monday volunteered to appear to support the former president and were not explicitly invited by people affiliated with the campaign. But U.S. Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, who was at court with Trump last week, said Monday that he had been invited by Susie Wiles, a senior adviser to Trump’s campaign and also a longtime Florida GOP operative who advised Scott’s 2010 gubernatorial bid…

Vance, widely seen as a contender to be Trump’s vice presidential pick, was part of a group that arrived at court with Trump and stood behind him as he addressed reporters before heading into the courtroom. It was the biggest single showing of the allies joining Trump in court for the hush money trial since it began last month.

Others in Monday’s group included Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, U.S. Rep. Nicole Malliotakis of New York, and a pair of attorneys general, Steve Marshall of Alabama and Brenna Bird of Iowa. Former GOP rival Vivek Ramaswamy, who shuttered his campaign earlier this year but is considered a likely part of a new Trump administration, planned to come to court on Tuesday, according to a spokesman for the entrepreneur…

Outside court with Vance, Tuberville on Monday questioned the citizenship of the jurors, suggesting there were “supposedly American citizens in that courtroom,” and portrayed Bragg as a publicity-seeker.

He described Trump as “going through mental anguish in a courtroom. That’s very depressing.” …

Tuesday, it was ‘Leader’ Johnson’s turn atop the klown car:

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War for Ukraine Day 811: A Brief & Late Tuesday Night Update

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(Image by NEIVANMADE)

A quick housekeeping note: Sorry for the delay tonight. I just got back from the emergency vet. Not for Rosie, Rosie is fine! Ruby, however, got into something she shouldn’t have earlier and we went to the emergency vet, which is the same vet as the oncology vet, to make sure she’s okay. I got home about 1/2 an hour ago. All of Ruby’s bloodwork is good, they got her to puke up what she shouldn’t have eaten so that’s all out of her system, but they’re keeping Ruby overnight as they want to get her fever down. So she’s being monitored, getting IV fluids, antibiotics, and the vet expects she’ll be coming home tomorrow. So that’s why tonight is delayed.

The only air raid alerts as of 11:06 PM EDT are for Luhansk and Crimea, which always have air raid alerts, and Kharkiv Oblast.

The Russians are still hammering away at Kharkiv and Sumy Oblasts:

Twitter/X is literally preventing access to Voichuk’s, as well as Maria Avdeeva’s tweets with videos of the attacks aftermath. If I click on the tweets they disappear. If I try to embed them here, this is what I get:

https://x.com/maria_avdv/status/1790417111937958329

Notice how that isn’t actually embedding.

Kyrylo Budanov, Chief of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of Ukraine commented on the threat of the Russian offensive in Sumy region:

“From the very beginning, the Russians were planning an operation in Sumy region. As of now, they are keeping small groups of forces in the border area – they have the town of Sudzha, and we have the Sumy area, but the situation has not allowed them to take active action and start implementing their plan,” Budanov said.

From The New Voice of Ukraine:

“Everything that was in the border area has already been deployed. Next, they will have to bring in their reserves,” Budanov said. He noted that the Russians had planned an offensive operation in Sumy Oblast from the very beginning. However, the situation had not yet allowed them to implement their plan.

<p “margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:=”” justify;line-height:150%”=””>”As of now, they are keeping a small group of troops in the border area near, let’s say, the (Russian) town of Sudzha, and from our (Ukrainian) side it is in the deirection of Sumy.”

Earlier, on May 14, Budanov said that Russian attacks in Kharkiv Oblast would continue for “another three or four days,” after which Russian troops were expected to “make a hard push in the direction of Sumy.”

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

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Reminder: VAAC Zoom Tomorrow (Wed) at 7:30 Eastern, VAAC Angels, and What Comes Next

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Zooming!

Just a reminder that the zoom with the great folks at VAAC is tomorrow evening – Wednesday – at 7:30 Eastern.  We’ve got several VAAC peeps who are showing up to meet with us tomorrow – they are really special people and once you hear their stories, I guarantee that you will come away inspired.

I mean, really, who couldn’t use a little extra inspiration these days?

Oh, and if you missed all the previous posts about VAAC (Voting Access for All) click on the category link above, and also copied here for your convenience, .  You’ll find 6 or 7 recent posts about VAAC that will supply lots of information about the organization.

To RSVP and get the zoom link, send email to WaterGirl.

Brutal honesty?  I have not had the number of RSVPs we hoped for. I hope it’s just that BJ peeps have been busy or focused on the NY trial, and have just forgotten to RSVP. Let’s make it worth their time, and let them know they have our support. 

Donating!

We reached $15,000 on Monday, which is really great!   And we have a $2,500 check from an angel who did the double-angel-matching, which won’t show up in the thermometer, but does count toward our $25,000 goal!

So all wee really need in order to reach our goal for VAAC is $7,200.  And we have 2 angels who came forward, each with $1k to match for you guys.  So that $2k (once you match it!) will count toward the $7,200.

So really, we just need to pull together and donate $5,200 through the thermometer, and we will have met our $25,000 goal for them.

So until further notice, we have an angel match and the external match, so all donations  up to $100 are really 4x the donation amount.

If you donate for the match, either add it to this thread or send me an email message.

Thanks so much, guys!

What’s Next!

After this we’ll take a couple weeks off from fundraising, and then we’re looking at some new organizations we’re excited about and we’ll have more details for you in a week or so.

Totally open thread!

 

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Tuesday Night Open Thread

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Another exciting day here in WV, as it election day, so I dutifully went to the polls and voted for a bunch of people who will NEVER EVER EVER get elected here because I vote in the Democratic primaries, so that was eventful. Afterwards I had to drive to Morgantown because in my infinite wisdom while in Arizona in December I scheduled a bunch of appointments today, not knowing that it was election day and every place would be packed.

Regardless, it was a nice drive, made better by the fact that I spent the whole drive down and back listening to a fabulous podcast by none other than a Balloon Juice commenter (I honestly forget her handle) Rose Judson. It’s called “Books of All Time,” and it is described as “Books of All Time tackles classic literature in chronological order. Each month, host Rose Judson summarizes a classic work of literature in one episode and then dives into the story behind it in the second episode.”

It’s REALLY good. The stories are fun and informative, the background episodes are equally fun, and what I like most about it is that it is SOOO ACCESSIBLE. It’s not super inside baseball- someone with only a passing knowledge of some of the texts will be on the same footing as an expert or someone who has never heard about them. Plus, Rose has a delightful voice and the time just passes by.

I was just chatting with her the other day and she mentioned her podcast, and I am glad she did! I’ve also asked her if she would like to do a zoom book club with us at some point, and she said yes and seemed excited about it, so we are going to try to schedule something in July/August. That way all of you should have plenty of time to listen to the podcasts if you are so inclined.

You can find it on Spotify here, Apple here, and you can search your other podcast delivery places on your own. I give it two thumbs up.

***

The first appointment was with a dermatologist to check two tiny rough patches on my back to see if they were something I should be concerned about, and they are in fact basically aging spots that everyone gets, but while I was there I had them remove some skin tags that had grown on my back. My doctor was super nice and she had a nice young PA who was only on her second day, and I told them that it would be perfectly fine with me if the PA did them to help her learn, and they were very excited. I lay down on my stomach and I didn’t feel a thing and it was over in a jiffy, and I was told that I “did a great job,” to which I responded that I am very good at lying down in fact I was a natural and practiced as often as I could.

Next up was the eye doctor, and that was kind of irritating because they did the whole numbing drops and dilated my pupils. I hate that. At any rate, everything was ok and I am developing cataracts, albeit very very minor ones, but I should keep an eye on them to which I said “ehh what’s another torpedo in a sinking ship,” which seemed to upset her a little as she winced. She’s young. She’ll understand one of these days.

***

Back to WV politics. By the Way of Joe My God, I learned this about my Governor, Jim Justice, who may one day be my Senator:

The son of a coal magnate, Mr. Justice took over the family business in 1993 and expanded its interests beyond coal, with acquisitions in agriculture and high-end hospitality. Like many sprawling enterprises, the Justice companies have taken on prodigious debts. But they have also taken on a reputation for not paying them — and that may be catching up to them.

A bank in neighboring Virginia that has served the Justice family for decades has begun the process of collecting on more than $300 million in defaulted loans. Some of the family business’s prized assets, chief among them the 246-year-old Greenbrier resort, are in the bank’s sights, and collections on the governor’s personal bank accounts and even his house are now a possibility. Efforts have already been underway in Virginia to seize properties belonging to Mr. Justice’s son, James C. Justice III, the president of the family companies.

In West Virginia, the tax authorities have placed liens on Greenbrier properties for millions in unpaid taxes, only months after auctioning off tax-delinquent properties owned by the governor elsewhere in the state.

Collecting on such substantial debt has pitted creditors against one another, at times to the Justices’ benefit. One bank sued Mr. Justice along with a number of banks last month after discovering that the collateral for one of its loans, some land near the Greenbrier, had also been pledged to a host of other lenders.

I’m officially over right wing fake billionaires running the world, I really am.

That’s it for me. Battlestar Galactica is streaming for free on Amazon Prime, so I am off to rewatch Caprica first before starting that. Take care.

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