Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

So very ready.

So many bastards, so little time.

So fucking stupid, and still doing a tremendous amount of damage.

Trump should be leading, not lying.

You cannot shame the shameless.

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

Wake up. Grow up. Get in the fight.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

Cancel the cowardly Times and Post and set up an equivalent monthly donation to ProPublica.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

Fight them, without becoming them!

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

If you thought you’d already seen people saying the stupidest things possible on the internet, prepare yourselves.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

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

Fight for a just cause, love your fellow man, live a good life.

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

You are here: Home / Archives for 2024

Archives for 2024

GOP Venality Open Thread: Is Trump Trying to Set Up Another ‘October Surprise’?

by | 119 Comments

This post is in: , , , ,

Are a bear’s sanitary arrangements convenient to its woodland home? Of course he is. Is the GOP happily abetting the crime cartel, ‘patriotism’ be damned? After Nixon, Reagan, and Bush… of course they are.

Will Bunch, at the Philadelphia Inquirer — “Trump’s family takes Saudi cash and deals with MBS and Netanyahu. That’s troublesome.”:

It’s now been seven years since one of the most iconic political moments of the Donald Trump era: the 2017 photo of the then-newly elected 45th president surrounded by Saudi Arabian royals and oligarchs dressed in traditional garb, all fondling a mysterious, glowing orb.

But for Trump and his family, the afterglow from that encounter — and the beginning of what fictional American emigree-to-the-Arab-world Rick Blaine would have called “a beautiful friendship” with the Saudis — has never dimmed.

This weekend, the endless gusher of petrodollars from Riyadh left their oily mark on the dim jewel of Trump’s fast-fading empire, the Trump National Doral course outside of Miami. There, the Saudi-funded LIV Golf tour brought yet another televised and star-studded tournament to a resort owned by the 45th president’s business arm.

We don’t how much the LIV tour — largely a creation of the massive sovereign wealth fund controlled by the Saudi dictator Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) — paid the Trump Organization for the three-day event. The LIV people insist the money is nominal, but no one would argue that the widely seen tournaments are propping up Trump’s coffers at a time when his hotel brand is in the loo, and the established PGA golf tour is avoiding the ex-POTUS and his 88 felony charges.

The New York Times, in a deep dive this weekend into Trump’s business world and its ties to the MBS regime, reported that Trump’s 15 golf resorts from California to Scotland — including one under construction in Oman in partnership with (surprise!) Saudi business interests — are his last remaining profit center, as the LIV events draw fans and also boost the cache of his private clubs that can charge as much as $400,000 for an individual membership…

It all looks like textbook corruption, since the Saudis didn’t start doing substantial business with the Trump family until after his presidency — when, among other things, his administration whitewashed any real probe into MBS’ involvement in the killing of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi — and before his current campaign, which has him in a dead heat with President Joe Biden. But in a world on fire, there are even bigger geopolitical reasons to be alarmed over Team Trump’s close ties…

…[W]hat if the current leaders in Jerusalem and Riyadh thought they could get better deals by waiting nine months and seeing if Trump becomes 47th president? What if Netanyahu, increasingly unpopular and, like Trump, facing criminal charges, thinks that another term for Trump — whose policies were rabidly pro-Israel, even if his personal friendship with the Israeli prime minister cooled after the 2020 election — is his best hope for staying in power?…

show full post on front page

GOP Venality Open Thread: Is Trump Trying to Set Up Another ‘October Surprise’?Post + Comments (119)

Tuesday Afternoon Open Thread

by | 150 Comments

This post is in: 

Hey everybody, busy all morning elsewhere, so I haven’t even seen any new.  Please share new below, and talk about any else you like, too.

I liked this so much from one of yesterday’s tweets, I thought I might use it to dress up various posts.  Seriously can’t think of a post where this wouldn’t fit with at least some of the comments.

Open thread!

Tuesday Afternoon Open ThreadPost + Comments (150)

Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Choose *Actual* Lives!

by | 275 Comments

This post is in: , , , ,

Not the fanatics’ forced-birth edicts, but the lives of millions of individuals.

Per the Associated Press, “Biden promotes ‘life-changing’ student loan relief in Wisconsin as he rallies younger voters”:

President Joe Biden said Monday that more than 30 million borrowers would see “life-changing” relief from his new plan to ease their student loan debt burdens, a fresh attempt by the Democratic president to follow through on a campaign pledge that could buoy his standing with younger voters.

He detailed the initiative, which has been in the works for months, during a trip to Wisconsin, one of a handful of battleground states that could decide the outcome of Biden’s likely November rematch with Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee.

Biden said he wanted to “give everybody a fair shot” and the “freedom to chase their dreams” as he lamented the rising cost of higher education…

Some young voters have been impatient with Biden’s attempts to wipe away student loan debt. The Supreme Court last year foiled his first attempt to forgive hundreds of billions of dollars in loans, a decision that Biden called a “mistake.”

Since then, the White House has pursued debt relief through other targeted initiatives, including those for public service workers and low-income borrowers. Administration officials said they have canceled $144 billion in student loans for almost 4 million Americans…

show full post on front page

Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Choose *Actual* Lives!Post + Comments (275)

On The Road – ema – 2024 NYC St. Patrick’s Day Parade

by | 43 Comments

This post is in: ,

ema

I love parades! Assemble some marching bands and pipes and drums and I am right there to cheer them on.

My favorite parade is Tartan Day Parade, not for anything that happens during the parade but rather for the “after-party.” The parade marches down 6th Ave. and ends at 55th St. Once they reach the end, the bands break formation, go on 55th St. and start a “battle” of the bands. It’s a lovely and joyous impromptu pipes and drums street concert.

Back to this year’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade. It was 4 hours long (I condensed into 1 hr of pipes and drums and marching band music) and I enjoyed every minute of it. Here are some highlights:

 

On The Road – ema – 2024 NYC St. Patrick’s Day ParadePost + Comments (43)

On The Road - ema - 2024 NYC St. Patrick's Day Parade 9

The parade opened with the most gorgeous Irish Wolfhound you have ever seen. My only regret is that I wasn’t able to pet him.

Late Night Open Thread: Wrapping Up the Day’s Event

by | 91 Comments

This post is in: 

Here just north of Boston, 93% of totality turned out to be pretty impressive through the eclipse glasses Spousal Unit had prudently acquired, and the myriad tiny crescents thrown by our old-fashioned metal colander amused him very much. No leaf shadows, because no leaves here just yet… It didn’t get dark, but the light shifted weirdly — the birds started their twilight messaging, and they seemed to be yelling what the actual f*ck?!? at each other. Also, there were a lot of police & ambulance sirens on the main road at the end of the block and the off-ramp behind our house; I don’t know if drivers actually got that confused, or if the authorities just wanted to be sure everyone kept their mind on the road and not the sky.

Eclipse problems I had *not* considered (although, yes, it’s logical)…

Rivka Galchen, in the New Yorker:

… The physicist Frank Close saw a partial eclipse on a bright day in Peterborough, England, in June, 1954, at the age of eight. Close’s science teacher, using cricket and soccer balls to represent the moon and the sun, explained the shadows cast by the moon; Close attributes his life in science to this experience. The teacher also told the class that, forty-five years into the future, there would be a total eclipse visible from England, and Close resolved to see it. That day turned out to be overcast, so the moon-eclipsed sun wasn’t visible—but Close described seeing what felt to him like a vision of the Apocalypse, with a “tsunami of darkness rushing towards me . . . as if a black cloak had been cast over everything” and then the clouds over the sun dispersing briefly when totality was nearly over. Close has since seen six more eclipses and written two books about them, the first a memoir of “chasing” eclipses (“Eclipse: Journeys to the Dark Side of the Moon”) and the second a general explainer (“Eclipses: What Everyone Needs to Know”).

show full post on front page

Late Night Open Thread: Wrapping Up the Day’s EventPost + Comments (91)

“Einstein” Zoom on Wednesday, April 17 (& Evening Open Thread)

by | 28 Comments

This post is in: , , ,

Benyamin Cohen, a colleague of Cole’s, has written a book about Einstein – Benyamin is Einstein on social media, so it’s fair to say that Ben knows a lot about Einstein!

Benyamin wrote The Einstein Effect.

Einstein

The Einstein Effect

We have scheduled a zoom with Benyamin – a 45-minute presentation and then time for questions.

This will be a fun, light-hearted, not particularly science-y or scholarly talk about Einstein. Plus we asked for the special bonus Mandy Patinkin story!

We are zooming with Ben on Wednesday, April 17.  Time will either be 7:30 or 8:00 pm – depending on input from folks who want to attend.

We asked Benyamin to talk about Einstein, related to these topics, but questions at the end can be about anything Einstein.

War and Peace… and Einstein

Einstein and pop culture

Einstein in the age of Fake News

Who’s interested in the zoom?   RSVP by email to get the zoom link, but please also let us know in the comments.

Einstein on twitter.   Einstein on Facebook.   Einstein on Instagram.

Benyamin is also open to joining us for an “Ask Me Anything” thread – like we did with Wiley Cash a few years ago – if people are interested in that.  If so, please let us know in the comments.

Open thread.

“Einstein” Zoom on Wednesday, April 17 (& Evening Open Thread)Post + Comments (28)