Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

“Loving your country does not mean lying about its history.”

Democracy is not a spectator sport.

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

These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.

Shut up, hissy kitty!

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

He really is that stupid.

The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.

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

“They all knew.”

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

President Musk and Trump are both poorly raised, coddled 8 year old boys.

Never give a known liar the benefit of the doubt.

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

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

Live so that if you miss a day of work people aren’t hoping you’re dead.

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

It is possible to do the right thing without the promise of a cookie.

“Perhaps I should have considered other options.” (head-desk)

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

Fucking consultants! (of the political variety)

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

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Wednesday Evening Open Thread: Repro Rights Are Human Rights

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Dubious At Best

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I am still not over the ridiculous and murderous ruling that came from the Arizona  Supreme Court yesterday.

The territorial Speaker of the House in 1864 – for the territory that later became Arizona – was William Claude Jones.

He’s the one who is legislating from beyond the grave.  He’s quite the role model, and definitely someone whose views should be determining women’s rights to self-determination and controlling our own bodies.

According to his Wikipedia page. William Claude Jones married a 15-year-old and was described contemporaneously as a “pursuer of nubile females”.. 

He abandoned his 15-year-old wife a short time later, and then married another 15 year old.  

***

Speaking of dubious at best, I listened to a great discussion of Supreme Court rulings and more.

YouTube summary:

As the first-ever trial of a former President looks imminent & certain, an only-on-Talking-Feds roundtable of Molly Jong-Fast, Josh Marshall, & Sen Sheldon Whitehouse joins Harry to assess how the spectacle of Trump-in-the-chair will play on the campaign trail. They then move on to the re-emergence of abortion as a year-long white-hot political issue in Florida & therefore the election before taking on Trump’s vulgar attempts to exploit base anti-immigrant sentiment.

YouTube left off a description of the most interesting part where they talked briefly about the US Supreme Court and how they have recently become “triers of fact”, which is supposed to be reserved for the lower courts, and making rulings based on bullshit and “facts” that aren’t facts at all.   That conversation starts around the 35-minute mark, and lasts maybe 10 minutes.

Sheldon Whitehouse and Josh Marshall were both at their best.  I’m not that familiar with Molly Jong-Fast, so I can’t speak to whether she was at her best, but the whole thing was a great conversation.

Open thread.

 

 

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Wednesday Morning (Semi-Respite) Excellent Read: Chef José Andrés Is *Also* A Golfer

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I follow @CleanObserver for his political takes, and this was a lovely bonus. From Golf, “The man behind the Masters menu? He’s feeding a hungry world”:

… SOMETIME IN THE WINTER OF 2016, José Andrés’ phone rang.

It was Sergio Garcia.

As almost every story involving José starts, somebody needed help. Garcia had been an excellent professional golfer, achieving fabulous wealth and international fame, but on the eve of his 34th birthday, Garcia still had holes in his resume. With 20 pro victories but no major wins in 73 attempts, his legacy hung dangerously in the balance between historically good and quickly forgotten.

“He called me out of the blue,” José remembers, his eyes widening. “He had this … energy.”

The request was formally a job offer: Garcia needed an in-house chef for Masters week, and he could think of no one better suited to run his kitchen than the best chef he knew, José.

Trouble was, José was already booked solid. He was busy trying to feed the world. And feeding the world doesn’t necessarily allow for a week of flipping omelets at a rental home in northeast Georgia, as Andrés tried to explain…

Garcia was relentless, and soon it became clear that he really did need José…

… And you’ll have to click through to find out what that involved. C’mon, it’s a great read!

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COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: April 10, 2024

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It’s great news (as far as I’m concerned) that covid infections, per the CDC and Biobot, are dropping — for the moment — to the point where updates are a background noise rather than a non-stop battery of bad news. (Until the next peak comes along, possibly during summer vacation season, almost certainly by the year-end holidays.) There’s liable to be an ongoing shortage of news articles for me to aggregate… mostly updates on long covid research, and historical updates (recriminations) on the past four years. For the moment, I’ll keep putting up a post every Wednesday morning, but I can’t promise much actual news.

On the other hand, there’s a ‘new’ nightmare virus keeping pandemic watchers on high alert. Specifically: H5N1 ‘bird flu’, which is now infecting dairy cows in multiple U.S. states (all probably tracing back to the same herd in Texas), as well as cats sharing those cows’ barns, and at least one dairy worker. The good news: Public authorities are very much aware of H5N1’s potential; we have — thanks to Covid-19 — a global network in place to monitor, research & treat H5N1 hotspots; and there’s a considerable history of similar ‘bird flu’ outbreaks for medical personnel to draw on. (Including the 2002-2004 ‘Hong Kong SARS’ outbreak, which is when I first started paying attention to the word ‘coronavirus’.) Here’s a gift link to a NYTimes article that pretty much summarizes current information:

Again: Gift link

As a committed carnivore and major dairy consumer, I am going to continue my lifelong practice of avoiding raw milk. (I took a Dairy Science 101 semester almost fifty years ago, and even in those ancient days the advice from all the best global experts was ‘Never drink raw milk from a cow you haven’t met.’ I will, for my own reasons, continue to monitor the various twitter feeds of health experts (many of whom are gradually transitioning from covid-19 to H5N1), and will of course let you know if anything changes.

***********

As the United States eased into spring, only two states had increases or likely increases in coronavirus infections as of March 30, according to an update from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In addition, the CDC reported a decline or likely decline in coronavirus infections in 29 states and territories and called infections “stable or uncertain” in 19 areas. Even so, a national covid-19 forecast predicts up to 3,400 daily covid hospital admissions in late April.

All told, nearly 1.2 million U.S. residents have died of covid-19, according to the CDC’s Covid Data Tracker.

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On The Road – way2blue – Aitutaki, Cook Islands [1 of 3]

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Quick reminder – You don’t have to travel to some exotic place in order to have your pics in On the Road.  Don’t get me wrong, we love having all the wonderful photos from all these amazing places that you adventurers have been to!

But OTR doesn’t have to be only that.  I love the pics ema sends of NYC, often not how I have pictured NYC at all.  What’s happening in your backyard?  If you live out in the country, I would love to see photos of what you see as you head to town to shop.  If you live in France, I would love to see your favorite hangouts.  If you’re taking a trip to see friends or relatives, what are the sites you see along the way?

You get the idea.  Right?

way2blue

The 15 islands of the Cook archipelago stretch across ~1400 kms of the South Pacific.  They were first settled around 1000 AD by Polynesians thought to have migrated from Tahiti, ~1100 km to the ENE.  Aitutaki is the second most populated of archipelago, at ~1500 residents (Rarotonga has ~15,000).  Aitutaki also has a volcanic center albeit much more modest.  The island is horseshoe-shaped with inner and outer lagoons.  We stayed at a small resort facing the inner lagoon.  The husband In the bungalow next to ours headed out to fly fish every morning (intending to catch & release bone fish).  Very confusing for me as there aren’t any fly hatchings to speak of.  Found out he runs a fishing lodge in Alaska…

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On The Road - way2blue - AITUTAKI, COOK ISLANDS [1 of 3] 8
AITUTAKI

I swear the propeller is attached to the engine.

Grim Grey Pre-Dawn Open Thread: RFK Jr, Getting More of the Attention He Craves

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RFK Jr, Getting More of the Attention He Craves - STOCKPILE

(Jack Ohman via GoComics.com)

It would be the wrong kind of attention, if he thought there was any chance of genuinely contesting the election, but since he’s pretty clearly just in it for the grift lulz… USAToday — “RFK Jr., floating conspiracy theory, says ‘reasonable’ people say Jan. 6 wasn’t insurrection”:

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. argued on Friday that the deadly Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol attack might not have been a “true insurrection,” and said that, if elected, he would appoint a special counsel to investigate whether prosecutions related to the attack were “politically motivated.”

“It is quite clear that many of the January 6 protestors broke the law in what may have started as a protest but turned into a riot,” Kennedy said in a statement. “Because it happened with the encouragement of President Trump, and in the context of his delusion that the election was stolen from him, many people see it not as a riot but as an insurrection.”…

But Kennedy said that, while he had not personally examined the evidence, “reasonable people, including Trump opponents,” suggested there was little evidence of a true insurrection…

Kennedy went on to accuse both Democrats and Republicans of using the Capitol attack to sow greater division in America and questioned whether “political objectives motivated the vigor of the prosecution” of Trump supporters who broke into the Capitol building.

Judges, including those appointed by Republican presidents, who have overseen cases against the protesters have vehemently pushed back against similar claims about political motives.

But Kennedy suggested that, if elected president, he would appoint a nonpartisan special counsel in the Department of Justice to “right any wrongs” and examine whether political motives played a role in the cases…

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War for Ukraine Day 776: Russia Continues to Bombard Kharkiv and Sumy!

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Screen shot of new artwork by NEIVANMADE. The background is black. In the bottom foreground are grey Ukrainian homes and apartment buildings being bombarded by red Russian missiles with the Special Military Operation "Z" symbol on them. Above the missiles, written in red is the word "Ruzzians". Below the buildings being attacked is the statement "Turns Homes Into Graves".

(Image by NEIVANMADE)

As of 8:20 PM EDT the air raid alerts are only up over Kherson, Mykolaiv, and Odesa Oblasts, in addition to the ones that are always up over Russian occupied Luhansk and Crimea.

Russia bombarded Kharkiv again!

Kharkiv needs a robust defense. There is a solution to Russia’s constant terror: we need additional air defense systems and missiles. The world has no right to remain indifferent while Russia deliberately destroys the city on a daily basis and murders people in their homes. Ukraine needs greater air defense.

I am grateful to everyone who is there for our people—eliminating the consequences of shelling, assisting, supporting, and working hard to keep normal life in Ukrainian cities.

And Sumy Oblast:

From The Kyiv Independent:

Russian forces struck six communities in Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy Oblast in 14 separate attacks throughout the day, the regional administration reported on April 9. At least 50 explosions were reported in Sumy Oblast over the past 24 hours.

The communities of Yunakivka, Bilopillia, Krasnopillia, Okhtyrka, Esman, and Seredyna-Buda came under attack.

Throughout the day, Russia assailed the border communities with mortar, artillery, grenade launcher, and rocket attacks. The community of Esman saw at least 14 mines dropped according to the Ukrainian military.

No casualties or damages to civilian infrastructure were reported.

Russian strikes against Sumy Oblast have become increasingly destructive over the past month, leading to multiple civilian casualties. On April 8, Russian aerial attacks against the town of Bilopillia and the city of Sumy killed one person and injured six others, one of them critically.

Amid intensified attacks, Ukrainian authorities ordered the evacuation of children from 52 settlements in Sumy Oblast on April 5.

They also hit Poltava!

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

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