Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

One way or another, he’s a liar.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

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

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

Compromise? There is no middle ground between a firefighter and an arsonist.

I would gladly pay you tuesday for a hamburger today.

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

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

Republicans got rid of McCarthy. Democrats chose not to save him.

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

Every one of the “Roberts Six” lied to get on the court.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

Let the trolls come, and then ignore them. that’s the worst thing you can do to a troll.

Be a wild strawberry.

“A king is only a king if we bow down.” – Rev. William Barber

Hey Washington Post, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” was supposed to be a warning, not a mission statement.

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

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

Museums are not America’s attic for its racist shit.

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

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

Roe is not about choice. It is about freedom.

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On The Road – Christopher Mathews – The Doctor and the City

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Christopher Mathews

In 2017, the long-running BBC television show “Doctor Who” featured an episode called “Smile,” set on a newly-colonized but strangely deserted planet.  The mystery to be solved by the Doctor and his companion, Bill Potts, was simple but sinister: what happened to the colonists?  For me, though, the mystery was: where did they film that gorgeous architecture?

The answer turned out to be the Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències (the City of Arts and Sciences), in Valencia, Spain.  Since then, I’d been jones’ing for a chance to see it in person – and this year, I took myself there for my birthday.  Here are a few photos from that visit.

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On The Road - Christopher Mathews - The Doctor and the City 7
L'Hemisfèric, City of Arts and Sciences, Valencia, SpainMarch 26, 2024

The first of the City buildings to be completed, in 1998, L’Hemisfèric houses an IMAX theatre/planetarium and a huge lobby area that can be used for meetings and special events.  It’s also really pretty at night.

Gradual Dawn Open Thread: Pete Buttigieg, Working Dad

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I’m sure it helps that Buttigieg is working for a man who was once a single dad raising two young children. Biden has talked about how he couldn’t have stayed in the Senate without a strong family network to support him… and reliable public (rail) transportation between Washington DC and his home in Delaware. Dan Merica, for Notus — “How Parenthood Changed Pete Buttigieg”:

… Lis Smith, who had been Pete’s top media adviser in 2020 and was there that evening, remembers thinking how striking it was to see “someone who would gaggle in Norwegian on the campaign trail or could recall entire poems and recite them to a reporter in the car … cry uncle during bath time.” Smith, who recently had a child of her own, told me, “There was sometimes a perception of Pete that he was Mr. Perfect and that everything did come a little too easily to him. So there is something new and different seeing him sort of struggle like the rest of us with the challenges of child-rearing.”

The Pete Buttigieg who called for backup was indeed a changed man — more willing to acknowledge he needed help, yes, but also differently disposed toward politics and power than the hyper-confident small-city mayor that America first got to know in 2019. According to Pete, his husband and a dozen people who have known him for years, parenthood has altered everything from the kind of future he wants for himself to the say-yes-to-every-invitation attitude that helped him climb to the top rungs of American politics. “I’m more attuned to all of the different ways you can have a good life, only some of which involve public life,” he told me recently over lunch near the Department of Transportation’s headquarters in Washington.

Chasten told me that people routinely ask him what is next for his husband — but that’s the wrong question. “There has been a significant change in Pete,” Chasten said, “where I feel like he has recognized that leadership is extremely important, but it’s not the only thing.” He continued, “Pete has always been a really gifted, skilled public servant who, therefore, should continue to be of service and should continue to think about what’s next. … But then our kids came along, and I think Pete very quickly realized how good it is being home and being a family, and being in Washington robs you of many opportunities to just be a family.”

Buttigieg is hardly the first Washington official to face a trade-off between public ambition and parenting. Women have for generations borne the brunt of this dilemma — memorably captured by former State Department official Anne-Marie Slaughter in her viral 2012 essay, “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All.” Now, Buttigieg is experiencing the dynamic first-hand. “I think work-life balance is still sometimes treated as though it were only a women’s issue,” he told me. “I think becoming a father helped me realize what was at stake for me personally in all of these debates about work-life balance, childcare and everything that goes along with it.”…

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Late Night Open Thread: Tick, Tock…

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The 2Raw2Real dude doesn’t get enough credit for his work:

TikTok owner ByteDance would reportedly prefer shutting down its app in the U.S. rather than sell it to a potential American buyer if all legal options fail
A shutdown would have limited impact on its business while not having to give up its core algorithm

[image or embed]

— Phil Lewis (@phillewis.bsky.social) Apr 25, 2024 at 1:33 PM

I’m told TikTok is the ultimate PERFORMATIVE! app, so I guess it makes sense its ‘owners’ (CCP frontmen) are going full LEAVE BRITTNEY US POOR LIL SMOLBEANS ALOOOOOONE!!!… although, frankly, it doesn’t make me *less* suspicious of its data-harvesting potential, elderly Cynic that I am.

Reuters, last week — “ByteDance prefers TikTok shutdown in US if legal options fail, sources say”:

TikTok owner ByteDance would prefer to shut down its loss-making app rather than sell it if the Chinese company exhausts all legal options to fight legislation to ban the platform from app stores in the U.S., four sources said.

The algorithms TikTok relies on for its operations are deemed core to ByteDance’s overall operations, which would make a sale of the app with algorithms highly unlikely, said the sources close to the parent…

TikTok’s CEO Shou Zi Chew said on Wednesday the social media company expects to win a legal challenge to block legislation signed into law by President Joe Biden that he said would ban its popular short video app used by 170 million Americans.

The bill, passed overwhelmingly by the U.S. Senate on Tuesday, is driven by widespread worries among U.S. lawmakers that China could access Americans’ data or use the app for surveillance.

Biden’s signing sets a Jan. 19 deadline for a sale – one day before his term is poised to expire – but he could extend the deadline by three months if he determines privately owned ByteDance is making progress.…

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War for Ukraine Day 797: Another Monday, Another Bombardment of Kharkiv

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Painting by NEIVANMADE. It has a white background an in the center are Soldiers in green doing air defense by firing at incoming Russian missiles in the upper right. The missiles are red and yellow. In the upper left, written in green, is the text: "SAVE THE BRAVEST PEOPLE IN THE WORLD!" Below the Soldiers, also written in green, is "SUPPORT FOR KHARKIV"

(Image by NEIVANMADE)

Before we begin, two quick housekeeping notes. First, Rosie is hanging in there. The good news is that after two chemo treatments her lymph nodes have shrunk back to normal size. The bad news is that she’s had a very strong reaction to the two chemo treatments. As a result, she had a rough weekend. The oncology vet, who is excellent, decided today that they would give her treatments to ensure she’s fully hydrated, treat her irritated stomach/GI system, try to stimulate her appetite, and just do overall system support. The difference between before and after her visit is very clear. She’s eating again, though we’re keeping it to a small amount for tonight. Provided she continues to stabilize and strengthen back up, they’ll give her her next chemo treatment next week.

Second, as you can imagine, because she had a long weekend, I had a long, worrisome, and not very restful weekend. I want to apologize if I have been overly curt, cranky, and irritable – as in more than my usual sterling and pleasant personality – over the last couple of days.

The Russians once again started the week by bombarding Kharkiv.

They also hit Odesa. As of now the butcher’s bill is four dead people, one dead dog who was killed while out for a walk – the human survived, and twenty-seven wounded. Among the wounded are two children and a pregnant woman.

A tragic day for #Odesa.

#Russian forces launched a ballistic missile, reportedly containing cluster munitions, at one of the city’s most popular locations among residents and visitors.

As of 10 PM Kyiv time, four people were reported killed as a result of the missile hit. One more man died due to a stroke.

A total of 32 people were wounded, with 25 currently hospitalized, including two children and a pregnant woman.

One girl, not yet five years old, is in extremely critical condition. Six more adults are also in intensive care, according to Oleh Kiper’s report.

#RussiaIsATerroristState

 

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

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A Couple of Thoughts on Kristi and Her Pets

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A Couple of Thoughts on Kristi and Her Pets
Courtesy of Atrios via someone who chooses to remain anonymous. From l-r, Bryon Noem, (her husband) Cory Lewandowski and Poor Cricket.

My dad grew up on a farm in the Dakotas and has some stories about animal cruelty that are really awful.  His dad, my grandfather, would take care of the excess kitten population by putting them in a burlap sack and throwing them in the river.  Dogs were routinely euthanized by shooting them when they could no longer provide service.  I’m sure that a dog that killed chickens (which is what Kristi Noem’s dog did) would have been shot as soon as they caught him or her.   I  don’t think that my dad’s family were outliers here.  My father-in-law, also a Dakota farmer, had about the same attitude towards dogs and cats.  The real outlier was wife’s grandfather, another Dakota farmer, a gentle man who took exceptionally (for the time) good care of his dogs as well as any other animal on his farm.

The second experience I’ve had growing up is watching hunters who keep dogs.  These people keep their retrievers in pens/runs, frustrated and barking all the time, until hunting season.  I’m sure there’s some training involved, but those dogs have what I’d consider a miserable life except for the few days when they’re out doing what they were bred to do.  I’ll bet you a shiny South Dakota quarter, which features both a pheasant and Mt. Rushmore, that Kristi’s un-neutered dog Cricket spent most of his life in a pen waiting to retrieve pheasants.

So, when Noem shares an anecdote about killing 14 month-old Cricket after he she killed some chickens and bit her, she’s speaking to two specific audiences.  The first is an audience informed by the same life experience I’ve had*:  people who know that farmers treat dogs like livestock and understand that a dog that can’t do their job needs to be euthanized.  This audience is generally white, mostly male, older, with a background either working on a farm or having parents/grandparents who worked on the farm.  It is also a tiny audience, mostly living in red states where Trump will win even if he was caught engaging in human sacrifice.  The second is a bunch of cruel, heartless fucking sadists.  Donald Trump is in the latter group.

Unfortunately for term-limited Gov. Noem, she miscalculated.  She looked at the way the DC press treats country folk (condescending but afraid to challenge their quaint country traditions) and thought she’d get some “well she’s authentic” coverage.  She also didn’t figure that the Guardian, which is based in a country with a long record of humane treatment of animals, would read her book and break the story with a critical eye.

In other words, cucking her husband with Corey Lewandowski, making a commercial for the dental clinic that did her veneers, and generally being an awful person, weren’t enough to sink her VP bid.  I’m guessing Trump’s reaction to the bad PR she’s getting because she bragged about killing her dog 20 years ago (and a goat) probably did it, but predictions are hard, especially about the future.

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*Just to be clear, I had that life experience and concluded that I think this treatment of dogs is a cruel anachronism. I had to have our dog euthanized by the vet when she was diagnosed with incurable liver cancer, and it was a terrible experience that I never want to repeat.

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Tuesday Monday Evening Open Thread: Nancy Pelosi, Still Fighting the Idiots

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I don’t think whining about how badly the pandemic went for TFG is a winning argument, but sure, Katy Tur, fight for the guy who tried to sicc his mob on you.

Pelosi’s just back a tour of Ireland and Britain:

ETA: Let’s not forget:

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