Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

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

Accountability, motherfuckers.

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

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

Giving up is unforgivable.

Human rights are not a matter of opinion!

The willow is too close to the house.

Shut up, hissy kitty!

75% of people clapping liked the show!

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

She burned that motherfucker down, and I am so here for it. Thank you, Caroline Kennedy.

Republicans in disarray!

That meeting sounds like a shotgun wedding between a shitshow and a clusterfuck.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires Republicans to act in good faith.

Speaker Mike Johnson is a vile traitor to the House and the Constitution.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

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

Second rate reporter says what?

Dear elected officials: Trump is temporary, dishonor is forever.

“Facilitate” is an active verb, not a weasel word.

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

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

Stand up, dammit!

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Late Night Schadenfreude Open Thread: The Higher the Monkey Climbs…

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… the more he expose!

For entertainment purposes only… Ed Zitron, at his blog Where’s Your Ed At, on “The Descent of Elon Musk”:

… Musk is, on paper, the most successful man in the world. He’s a social media star, a multi-billionaire with his own social network, and he owns a 20.5 percent stake in the world’s most valuable car company by market cap. He knows — or can easily get in touch with — almost anybody in the world, and has the means to start or incubate any venture under the sun.

Yet with the world at his fingertips, Musk seems joyless, marinating in misery, surrounded by an air of existential bleakness…

Lemon’s interview is fascinating for many reasons, chief of which is that Elon Musk sounds really, really stupid. The supposed real-life Tony Stark is ineloquent, stumbling through his answers with the verbal agility of somebody that just woke up, his dialogue a buffet of “uhs” and “ums,” with even his answers to softball questions feeling like he’s making the answers up in real time. Within five minutes, he effectively admitted to not watching Don Lemon’s show, claiming Don (and CNN) were “center-left,” yet not appearing to have a clear answer as to why.

Elon Musk, a man with unimaginable money and power, has the elegance and eloquence of a nervous teenager. His delivery is stilted, convoluted yet specious, echoing a lack of research or real understanding of anything he’s talking about beyond what he might have glanced at in between posting stolen memes and begging people to use his website. He seemed uncomfortable, and professionally-speaking, these aren’t the actions of an introverted or shy personality, but somebody who hasn’t had to answer a real question in decades. It’s remarkable that we’ve never seen an interview like this with a tech founder, let alone Elon Musk, made more-so by how much even the lightest brush with criticism aggravated and frustrated him…

Fundamentally, he seems miserable. He looks tired, not the kind of tired you get from doing something you love, but from the exhaustion one gets when you can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel…

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War for Ukraine Day 767: Russia Bombarded Ukraine Again Overnight

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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)

Just a quick housekeeping note to start. While Ukraine is in the process of moving itself onto the western calendar, including for Christian religious holidays, they have not yet done so for Easter. Eater will be celebrated in Ukraine on 5 May this year.

Before we get fully started, I want to address the question as to why Avdiivka was important for the Russians. I’ve answered this at least once before, but since the question has arisen again, I’m going to go over it again. Russia, right or wrong, believes that Avdiivka is a key location that they have to take in order to fully occupy Donetsk Oblast and the entire Donbas. Reuters has a really good summary of the Russian strategic logic:

Both sides regard Avdiivka as key to Russia’s aim of securing full control of the two eastern “Donbas” provinces – Donetsk and Luhansk. These are among the four Ukrainian regions Russia says it has annexed but does not have full control of.

Avdiivka is seen as a gateway to Donetsk city, whose residential areas Russian officials say have been shelled by Ukrainian forces, sometimes from Avdiivka.

Seizing it could boost Russian morale and demoralise Ukrainian forces, which have made only incremental gains in a broad counteroffensive since June. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy himself visited in December.

“If the Russian army takes control of the (supply) road, the Ukrainian armed forces will evidently be forced to withdraw from Avdeyevka. That will be a great victory for the Russian army,” Sergei Markov, a former Kremlin adviser, said on Feb. 5.

Mykola Bielieskov of the National Institute for Strategic Studies, an official think-tank in Kyiv, said taking Avdiivka would not decisively tip the situation in Moscow’s favour but “would make the situation more tenable for occupied Donetsk as a major Russian logistics hub”.

Bielieskov believes the battle is driven by a Kremlin desire to strengthen the hand of Western sceptics calling for a cut in support for Kyiv, citing the limited impact of billions of dollars in military aid.

I know that this makes no sense to some of you and I understand why. But regardless of whether it does or does not make sense to you, it apparently makes sense to Putin and people.

Russia targeted Ukrainian civilian targets, including more energy infrastructure, in another overnight bombardment. This time they went after the second largest natural gas storage in Europe.

Poland once again scrambled their fighters and put a combat air patrol up:

https://twitter.com/revishvilig/status/1774270455072878842

There were other air raid alerts throughout today. As I type this, at 7;00 PM EDT, other than the air raid alerts for Russian occupied Donetsk, Luhansk, and Crimea the airspace over Ukraine is clear. But, as the Ukrainians have learned the hard way, that can change with a moment’s notice.

Remember, Putin has several objectives with these bombardments. The first is to overwhelm Ukrainian air defense and force the Ukrainians to deplete their stocks of air defense munitions because the US has stopped resupplying Ukraine thanks to the dysfunction of the House majority GOP. The second is to capitalize on the stretched too thin Ukrainian air defense in order to stress and terrorize the Ukrainians to the point where morale collapses and socio-cultural cohesion and resilience crack and crumble. The third is to destroy as much of Ukraine’s energy generation and transmission infrastructure and capacity as possible. The fourth is to do the same to the Ukrainian agricultural sector.

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

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Medium Cool – Sports are Part of Culture, Too!

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Medium Cool is a weekly series related to popular culture, mostly film, TV, and books, with some music and games thrown in.  We hope it’s a welcome break from the anger, hate, and idiocy we see almost daily from the other side in the political sphere.

Arguments welcomed, opinions respected, fools un-suffered.  We’re here every Sunday at 7 pm.

Medium Cool – Sports are Culture, Too!

Seeing as this is a holiday, at least for some of us, that makes me think about family.  Earlier this week, I saw a couple of comments about baseball, and there was talk about going to games when we were little.  Let’s combine the two and talk about sports when we were growing up.  Growing up in Chicago, I loved going to games with my Dad.  White Sox, of course!   Not that other team. :-)

So let’s share some memories.  Did you go to baseball games with your brother, shoot hoops with your dad, play in a soccer league?

Sports and culture, anything goes.

 

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Suffs: The Musical (Bonus Hillary & Malala)

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“Suffs” (short for suffragists) is a new Broadway musical about women’s fight more than a century ago for a “radical” idea: the right to vote. Correspondent Martha Teichner talks with two of the show’s producers, Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, about the importance of art to spread a political message. She also talks with cast members, including the show’s writer and star Shaina Taub, who says “Suffs” has a timely message: “Every generation has to fight to protect these rights and freedoms again and again and again.” @suffsmusical

I honestly had no idea this musical was brewing, but I went looking for a few videos after watching the one above.

Check out the full company in this preview presentation, which includes two songs new to the upcoming Broadway production, featuring a book, music, and lyrics by Shaina Taub.

Shaina Taub, Kim Blanck, Ally Bonino, Hannah Cruz, and Nadia Dandashi perform “Great American Bitch” from Broadway’s new musical Suffs at the historic Cooper Union Great Hall on February 28, 2024. A “remarkable, epic new musical” (Variety) that explores the suffragists’ relentless pursuit of the right to vote. Book, music, and lyrics by Shaina Taub. Directed by Leigh Silverman. Now on Broadway.

Here’s a link to the official YouTube page

This is an open thread

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The Biggest Loser?

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This isn’t a prediction, but my gut feeling is Trump is going to lose in November more decisively than generally supposed right now. I also believe his candidacy will have a measurably negative effect on his party’s fortunes, partly because of stuff like this: (Politico)

Donald Trump’s bid to oust a Florida Republican who backed Ron DeSantis over him is reviving a long-running GOP anxiety: that he can’t be dissuaded from the grudges and inflammatory rhetoric that plagued his party’s lawmakers during his first term.

Trump’s call for a challenger to Rep. Laurel Lee (R-Fla.), the only House Republican from DeSantis’ state to endorse the Florida governor in the primary, reveals a campaign with little interest in courting his former rivals and their supporters.

The article quotes sundry Republicans who are shocked — shocked! — that Trump seems indifferent to the electoral fate of any GOP candidate not named Donald J. Trump. But as the noxious orange fart cloud is fond of braying at his hate rallies, “You knew I was a snake when you took me in!”

Lee, the targeted rep in the Tampa Bay area, will likely win her primary. IIRC, the candidate filing deadline had already passed before the alleged political savant Trump tried to gin up a MAGA challenger.

But local Dems have identified an excellent candidate to oppose Lee in the general, Hillsborough County Commissioner Pat Kemp. I know Kemp a little from working with the Democratic Party in that county before we moved. Like all Florida districts, the 15th is heavily gerrymandered, but Kemp seems exactly the type of experienced and disciplined pol who could pull off an upset.

Anyhoo, some in the crappy national political media are finally noticing that substantial portions of the Republican base are still voting for Trump opponents in primaries long after those candidates flamed out, and these savvy pundits are belatedly concluding that this isn’t a positive sign for GOP unity. All I can say is welcome to the party, pals!

I’m not confident about anything. The past several years revealed the galloping stupidity and malevolence of a greater portion of our electorate than I fully comprehended before 2016.

But today, the Trump-led Republicans are failing on the basic blocking and tackling parties must do to succeed, like not turning the party institution into a personal grift operation and not gratuitously attacking incumbents with seats in a closely divided chamber. May they reap what they sow in abundance.

Open thread.

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Sunday Morning Open Thread: Easter Sunday

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Best wishes to all who celebrate!
 

And a warning for those who celebrate Monday as “Half Off the Seasonal Chocolate” Day…

… About three-quarters of the world’s cocoa — the main ingredient in chocolate — are produced on cacao trees in Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria and Cameroon. But dusty seasonal winds from the Sahara were severe in recent months, blocking out the sunlight needed for bean pods to grow. The season prior, heavy rainfall spread a rotting disease.

With exports from the Ivory Coast, the world’s top producer, down by a third in recent months, the global price of cocoa has risen sharply. Cocoa futures have already doubled this year, trading at a record high of more than $10,000 per metric ton in New York on Tuesday after rising more than 60% the previous year. Farmers who harvest cacao beans say the increases aren’t enough to cover their lower yields and higher production costs.

Yet the high Easter demand for chocolate carries a potential treat for big confectionery companies. Major global makers in Europe and the United States have more than passed on the rise in cocoa prices to consumers. Net profit margins at The Hershey Company increased to 16.7% in 2023 from 15.8% in 2022. Mondelez International, which owns the Toblerone and Cadbury brands, reported a jump to 13.8% in 2023 from 8.6% the year before…

To help increase production, authorities are promoting education on farming methods that might mitigate the effects of climate change, such as the use of irrigation systems. The president of Ghana also has promised to step in to help farmers get a better deal.

“With the current trend of the world cocoa price, cocoa farmers can be sure that I will do right by them in the next cocoa season,” President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo said last month…

Carried over from last night… Happy International Transgender Day of Visibility!

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