Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Let there be snark.

Hey hey, RFK, how many kids did you kill today?

The republican ‘Pastor’ of the House is an odious authoritarian little creep.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

Someone should tell Republicans that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent, or possibly the first.

The fight for our country is always worth it. ~Kamala Harris

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

It’s the corruption, stupid.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

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

The gop is a fucking disgrace.

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

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

When they say they’re pro-life, they don’t mean yours.

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

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

The desire to stay informed is directly at odds with the need to not be constantly enraged.

I have other things to bitch about but those will have to wait.

Consistently wrong since 2002

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

It’s a good piece. click on over. but then come back!!

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

The lights are all blinking red.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Thursday Morning Open Thread – Breaking: Eggs

Thursday Morning Open Thread – Breaking: Eggs

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Thursday Morning Open Thread - Breaking: Eggs

(Mike Luckovich via GoComics.com)

This *should* be a gift link… Lora Kelley, at the Atlantic, on “The Breaking Point for Eggs”:

One sign that the egg-cost crisis has gotten dire came in the form of a bright-yellow sticker on a laminated breakfast menu: On Monday, Waffle House announced that it would be adding a temporary 50-cent surcharge to each egg ordered.

Egg prices have risen dramatically as of late. First, inflation pushed up their cost. Then the ongoing bird-flu outbreak led to shortages. On the campaign trail, Donald Trump assured Americans that he would get food costs under control: He vowed last summer that he would bring food prices down “on day one”—a promise he did not fulfill. As egg prices have kept ticking up in recent weeks, Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s press secretary, has blamed the Biden administration for high egg costs, citing the standard, USDA-authorized measure of killing millions of egg-laying chickens that were infected with bird flu (something the previous Trump administration also did). The average price of a dozen eggs in U.S. cities remained below $2 until 2022. Eggs now cost an average of more than $4 a dozen—it’s a lot higher at some grocery stores—and the USDA has forecasted a 20 percent further price jump for eggs in 2025. As a spokesperson for Waffle House said in a statement, high egg prices are now forcing customers and restaurants to make “difficult decisions.”

As egg prices shift, so does the pricing logic that grocery stores and restaurants have long used. For decades now, grocers have helped maintain eggs’ affordable image, even when the amount they themselves spent on eggs was fluctuating. Many stores consider eggs “loss leaders”; they effectively subsidize the cost of eggs in order to draw in shoppers (who, they expect, might then splurge on higher-margin items). This was possible for stores to do because eggs were cheap to produce and readily in supply. Innovations in industrial farming, incubation, artificial lighting (to trick hens into thinking it was morning and time to lay), and carton technology meant that, by the early 20th century, cheap eggs were bountiful in American markets.

But when wholesale costs soar, as they are now, the loss-leader rationale starts to strain. (The cost of a dozen eggs for restaurants and stores is about $7, compared with $2.25 last fall, according to one recent estimate.) A few grocers are keeping egg prices consistent despite rising costs, but many more have started passing high prices over to shoppers. Eggs are also ingredients in lots of grocery items, such as baked goods and salad dressing—so those may see price increases too…

Anybody want to recommend a good source for ‘I did that!’ Trump stickers?
 
Speaking of fragile things once considered eternal…

Mitch McConnell is really feeling that gravitational pull from Hell.

[image or embed]

— ???????????? ???????? (@sundaedivine.bsky.social) February 5, 2025 at 3:55 PM

Deleted a post about how McConnell's fall down the senate stairs might be followed with other politicians' falls out hotel windows next week. I'm astonished that anyone old enough to have a Bluesky account read this as a call to violence rather than fear of growing Russian-style lawlessness at home.

— Carl T. Bergstrom (@carlbergstrom.com) February 6, 2025 at 1:29 AM

But there you go.
Fucking hell, people, you may think that politicians of either party are ineffectual assholes—and you might well be right—but you REALLY don't want to live in a country where they start getting offed at the whim of the supreme ruler.

— Carl T. Bergstrom (@carlbergstrom.com) February 6, 2025 at 1:31 AM

Reader Interactions

160Comments

  1. 1.

    Doug R

    I can confirm during my latest visit to Costco this week here in Canada that it was $9.99 for TWO dozen. So $5 CANADIAN per dozen for eggs from free run chickens.

    We have quotas and a functioning Health & Welfare ministry if that makes a difference.

  2. 2.

    Belafon

    We could put some money into researching a vaccine, but no, Trump’s cutting funding to those places.

  4. 4.

    Shalimar

    I thought I was living in a country where we didn’t have supreme rulers, but then we elected the idiot version of David Koresh to rule us and the wrong side of the country caught on fire.

  8. 8.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    McConnell and old man and a polo survivor?

    Gawds, Trump manages to make even Turtle look human in comparison.

    McConnell funerial is going to be an exercise in surrealism when Trump claims he was the polo survivor and McConnell thanked him, with tears in his eyes (along with the Palestinians thanking Trump for ending their suffering by destroying them)

  9. 9.

    Redshift

    Getting ready for the Indivisible visit to Mark Warner’s office I organized for today! 34 people signed up since I posted it yesterday. As of yesterday, Senate Dems seem to be officially in board with what we’re asking for now (total obstruction until the lawlessness stops), so I’m working on what our ask should be now in addition to saying thanks.

  10. 10.

    trnc

    I would love to see Mitch resign and Beshear to replace him with a democrat, but the Ky leg claims he doesn’t have the authority and I’m not betting which way the courts come down on that.

  11. 11.

    Another Scott

    Grr…

    Quoting the Atlantic story –

    First, inflation pushed up their cost.

    That points to a Vox piece from 2022 that talks about various inputs that were driving egg prices up to $1.50 a dozen. Feed, packaging, labor, transport, etc. It wasn’t some nebulous “inflation”, it was specific things.

    Blaming everything on nebulous “inflation” is like blaming any business or market condition on “uncertainty”. It is a mouth noise that doesn’t explain anything. (No business or trader is guaranteed a profit or a market. There is always “uncertainty” about the future. If something is different now, maybe explain what that difference is rather than nodding knowingly, stroking your chin, and saying, “Ah, inflation!” or “Ah, uncertainty!”)

    Grr…

    Thanks, AL.

    Best wishes,
    Scott.

  13. 13.

    Barbara

    Since one of my kids is a vegan and another loathes eggs, my household egg consumption has plummeted. Still, eggs are some of the least processed foods many people still eat. It’s hard knowing that the executive branch just doesn’t care.

  15. 15.

    trnc

    @Another Scott: That points to a Vox piece from 2022 that talks about various inputs that were driving egg prices up to $1.50 a dozen. Feed, packaging, labor, transport, etc. It wasn’t some nebulous “inflation”, it was specific things.

    Yup. I’ve ranted many times about almost no mentions of Exxon making record profits during inflation, artificially driving up the cost as it was being used as a key inflation indicator.

    Our media sucks.

  16. 16.

    Bruce K in ATH-GR

    @trnc: Well, there’s always my method for determining whether a Trumpist is lying: take an EEG. If it’s a flat line, you might be able to trust what they’re saying. Otherwise, don’t believe them.

  18. 18.

    trnc

    @Barbara: ​
     

    Since one of my kids is a vegan and another loathes eggs, my household egg consumption has plummeted. Still, eggs are some of the least processed foods many people still eat. It’s hard knowing that the executive branch just doesn’t care.

    I assume a few people who still think he cares will have their eyes opened a few months after the FDA forces out most of the workers in the food testing labs.

  19. 19.

    Scout211

    Re: Bergstrom’s deleted blue sky post.

    One of the things that helped me get through the first Trump administration was balloon-juice. I was mostly a lurker for years before that but became active as a commenter during those four years.  The snark, humor and the commenters and front-pagers making fun of Trump helped me cope.

    But at least so far in this term, the Trump/Musk administration is so cruel and so scary that any attempt at snark or making fun of them does not go over well.  It’s too damned serious.  So I do sympathize with Bergstrom and his attempt at humor, but I get why it’s not funny right now.

    I sincerely hope we can get to a place in the next four years where we can make fun of Trump and his minions (or rather, his team behind the curtain). Humor is a way to help us cope and I hope we can do that again.

  20. 20.

    MomSense

    There is a farm stand up the road selling them for $3 so I’ve been buying really nice eggs there. My neighbor George has chickens and he can’t keep up so he said I could have some of his eggs anytime.

  22. 22.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @NotMax:

    Great movie featuring two wonderful actors, McDormand and the fantastic Sam Rockwell who finally got the Oscar love he so deserved for his role in that film.

  23. 23.

    Belafon

    @Scout211: It’s also why sarcasm must be marked on the internet. Yes, it might ruin the joke a little, but it’s the only way to convey what we would normally hear in a person’s voice or the sly smile on their face.

  26. 26.

    Spanky

    In case you needed another item to add to the reasons to hate Elon, from today’s Spaceweather.com:

    What goes up, must come down–which could be a problem when you’re launching thousands of satellites. Since 2018, SpaceX has placed more than 7,000 Starlink satellites into Earth orbit, and now they are starting to come down. In January alone, more than 120 Starlinks deorbited, creating a shower of fireballs.
    “The sustained rate of daily reentries is unprecedented,” says Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard Center for Astrophysics who tracks satellites. “They are retiring and incinerating about 4 or 5 Starlinks every day.”

    Planners have long known this would happen. First generation (Gen1) Starlink satellites are being retired to make way for newer models. “More than 500 of the 4700 Gen1 Starlinks have now reentered,” says McDowell.

    When Starlinks reenter, they disintegrate before hitting the ground, adding metallic vapors to the atmosphere. A study published in 2023 found evidence of the lingering devris. In February 2023, NASA flew a WB-57 aircraft 60,000 feet over Alaska to collect aerosols. 10% of the particles contained aluminum and other metals from the “burn-up” of satellites.

    What we’re observing is a giant uncontrolled experiment in atmospheric chemistry. The demise of just one Gen1 Starlink satellite produces about 30 kilograms (66 pounds) of aluminum oxide, a compound that eats away at the ozone layer. A new study finds these oxides have increased 8-fold between 2016 and 2022, and the recent surge is increasing the pollution even more.

    On the bright side, each reentry produces a beautiful fireball–and the odds are increasing that you’ll see one. Visit the Aerospace Corporation for reentry predictions, and submit your photos here.

    (Quoted in full because I don’t know how accessible this article will remain.)

  27. 27.

    AM in NC

    @Scout211: I’d argue that humor is even more important than that.   Making authoritarians ridiculous, mocking and laughing at them,  decreases their power.

    The BEST blows landed in 2024 seemed to be the “weirdos and couch fuckers and skipping dipshits” blows landed by Walz LAUGHING at Musk/Trump/MAGA.

    The MAGAs’ entire self-definition as ÜBERMENSCHEN is attempting to compensate for their fragile tiny insecure egos.  Laugh at them and point out that WE SEE HOW SMALL YOU ARE AND, YES, WE ARE LAUGHING AT YOU. They can’t deal.

    Normies don’t want to join with losers and creeps.  WE need to turn MAGAchoads into the mockable losers and creeps they actually are – but exposed over and over again to the general public.

    Laughter is strong. For us as solidarity, and to puncture the “strong man” lie.

  28. 28.

    terraformer

    @trnc:  yes – I just searched and, lo and behold, the R-controlled state government changed the law *recently* across a couple of iterations from: the gov gets to appoint someone to fill the vacancy, to the gov can appoint someone from a list of 3 that the departing party’s “exec council” recommends, to the latest – which is the gov has no role at all, and must call a special election

    Yet again, Rs in statehouses hobble any Dem gov elected to ensure their vise-like grip on power forevermore

  29. 29.

    Belafon

    @Spanky:

    When Starlinks reenter, they disintegrate before hitting the ground, adding metallic vapors to the atmosphere. A study published in 2023 found evidence of the lingering devris. In February 2023, NASA flew a WB-57 aircraft 60,000 feet over Alaska to collect aerosols. 10% of the particles contained aluminum and other metals from the “burn-up” of satellites.

     
    It would be interesting to see a chart of that measurement by year.

  30. 30.

    Matt McIrvin

    @AM in NC: Mocking them is important for our morale but it’s less powerful than you think. Tom Lehrer eventually got disillusioned with political satire in part because he stopped believing it was doing anything other than flattering the sensibilities of his audience–“not even preaching to the choir, more like titillating the choir”. He quoted, I think, Peter Cook pointing out that the jokes in Weimar cabarets did jack shit to prevent the rise of the Nazis.

  31. 31.

    Spanky

    Fucking hell, people, you may think that politicians of either party are ineffectual assholes—and you might well be right—but you REALLY don’t want to live in a country where they start getting offed at the whim of the supreme ruler.

    I can’t tell whether he means Musk or Putin.

  32. 32.

    Avalune

    For quite some time we’ve been getting eggs from the head of IT in my workplace but his chickens have been struggling recently so it’s hit or miss on whether any are available. Of course more people at the workplace are turning to him for eggs atm too. He feeds them organic and they are free range and he’s kept the cost at $4 so far. Leto might have already mentioned this…

  33. 33.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @NotMax: I love Frances mcdormand. Not sure if I can get TCM.

    RE THE TITLE, BREAKING EGGS, is always a double entendre in spanish. Even when reading cooking instructions aloud, it is impossible not to smirk every time  eggs have to be broken; the second meaning is always there.

    It means to break balls, or it approximates ball breaker

  34. 34.

    tam1MI

    @trnc: Every article I have seen about how Palestinian-Americans who voted for Trump feel all betrayed by his pronouncement is followed by a tsunami of responses in the comment section of the “Fuck Around, Find Out” variety. No sympathy whatsoever. The Uncommitted crowd have led their followers straight into the political wilderness.

    Oh, well. They were warned.

  35. 35.

    AM in NC

    @terraformer:  YEP.  Gain control of the Lege. Gerrymander so Democrats can’t ever compete fairly.  Pull all powers into the Lege, that you now control.  Rinse, repeat.

    Republicans have been breaking our governments for decades.

    The Party and their ideology need to be crushed, ground to dust, burned, and the earth salted behind them.  The Confederate Party has shown us over and over and over again who they are, what they want, and what they are willing to do to get it all.     They must be stopped. At long last, it’s US or THEM.    It’s U.S. or Them.

    I don’t want to feel like fellow Americans are my enemy, but they have put us here.  THEY have made themselves the enemy of my nation and her people.  It’s shocking, and horrifying, and tragic, and infuriating.      But I won’t let them take everything without a fight.

  36. 36.

    Redshift

    @Scout211: I heard a piece on NPR a few days ago where AOC was talking her difficulty with American leftists being convinced it’s wrong to be happy if people are suffering, in contrast to Puerto Ricans (who have been at this a lot longer) know that there has to be joy and humor for people to want to be part of the struggle. And how you need to manifest the world you’re trying to create, so if you can’t find joy, you’re doing it wrong.

  37. 37.

    Starfish (she/her)

    Etsy had a number of the stickers  that looked like they might not be quite as small as the Amazon ones, and they might not put money in Bezos’s pocket.

  38. 38.

    AM in NC

    @Matt McIrvin:  It is depressing.  I just think/hope against hope that  some of the soft support for them could be shifted by making them culturally toxic.  And humor is one way I know to do that.  But the humor has to be smart enough to attract the normies, not push them closer to the MAGATS.

    But no, humor doesn’t beat guns or being able to operate the mechanisms of applying power.

  40. 40.

    JMG

    There’s a working farm (also farm stand, also petting zoo for kids’ parties in the next town over, and we get our eggs there for less than store cost — so far.

  41. 41.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Redshift:

    where AOC was talking her difficulty with American leftists being convinced it’s wrong to be happy if people are suffering

    I resemble this remark.

    Part of my problem is classic liberal guilt: I know for damn sure that I’m in pretty much all the hegemonic/oppressor groups (well, not the religious ones, but even there that’s my cultural background), so being happy doesn’t feel like an act of personal rebellion to me–no one is really trying to make me feel bad, they’re trying to privilege people who look like me. That may be changing a bit, though, as the tyrants in power start really cracking down on wrongthink.

  43. 43.

    A Ghost to Most

    @Spanky: Since we are often out of cell tower range, Starlink is appealing. But, Elmo. Satellite emails will have to suffice.

  52. 52.

    Lobo

    Latinos as well as other marginalized groups have always used gallows humor to survive.  We also embrace joy because we recognize how fragile life is. We always celebrate when we can.  When you see a dandelion smile. They are one tough mf’s.  It is like my joke that to forget life for a while, I saw something happier, it was Blade Runner. Cheers and share a smile with someone who needs it.

  53. 53.

    Matt McIrvin

    @sab: Opossums are great! People think they’re scary because they look kind of like giant rats and have a lot of teeth. They can do a convincing threat display but they’re actually not very aggressive (their signature move is feigning death). And their favorite prey is ticks, which definitely makes them friend to people.

  55. 55.

    schrodingers_cat

    The Republicans have a death grip on power because they represent the most powerful demographic in the US, white people

    Its the largest, most powerful demographic. That’s why the news media defers to them as well.

  59. 59.

    catclub

    @tam1MI: In the CNN article about ‘disappointed over Gaza anti Biden voters’  a good many were still  all in on their votes for Trump. Some were unhappy with Trump.

  62. 62.

    Bupalos

    @syphonblue: I get the to-for-tat impulse, but personally I think we do more harm than good when we just flat out lie like they do. Part of the tactic from the Trump regime is simply to make the idea of truth meaningless  to people. Claiming Trump is responsible for the higher price of eggs seems to me something that gives as much aid and comfort to that project as to fight it.

  64. 64.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @Redshift: I got yet another request for donations from Mr. Warner, and like every single one of them I’ve seen since November, “STOP.”

    Y’know, if one of our Dem politicians sent me a message with information and WITHOUT a beg for donations, I’d be more inclined to make those donations; but every single goddamn one of them includes “Please chip in!” “Please rush your donation!” “Donate now to stop Trump!” and just fuck you.

  65. 65.

    Matt McIrvin

    @AM in NC: There was this toxic dynamic in Trump’s first term in which the media nominally seemed to be in opposition to him but actually loved him, because he was such a hilarious clown show. Trump hates being mocked, it drives him up the wall, but he really benefited from being ridiculous, because it made him the center of attention.

    I do wonder if they’ve miscalculated, though, with this top-down, artificially imposed fealty to Trump that they’ve adopted this time around. Sanewashing him and performing fulsome respect to him makes him less interesting to the people who used to drive views and subscriptions for Trump outrage stories.

  67. 67.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @Matt McIrvin:

    Back in red, rurl Misery, we loved our country possums.  You see them and they look so hapless, it’s as if that word was created just for them.

    Harmless and as you pointed out, gargantuan tick consumers and where we were, you wanted that.

    Whereas raccoons?  Everybody with no experience with them would oooh and ahhh, “They’re so cute?” or “Trash Pandas!”.  They’re bastards.  I trapped probably 100+ in my decades there as they were a threat to our chickens and rescue cat group.  Would relocate them to the dump in Jeff City even tho the state wildlife people always said that was putting the raccoon’s life in jeopardy.  Didn’t care.  So was shooting them point blank and I would have need a gun to do that.

  70. 70.

    Captain C

    @catclub:

    a good many were still  all in on their votes for Trump.

    Sunk cost fallacy, perhaps?  Or just delusional?  Like, “Well, he’s a good, successful man, he hasn’t made a career out of deceiving and betraying people, has he?  Besides, he hates some of the right people…”

  75. 75.

    tobie

    @Quinerly: I’ve got two competing thoughts in my head about Musk/DOGE/Bondi et al.

    –we’ve got to fight them with everything we’ve got

    AND

    –we’ve also got to recognize that these are gamesmen with a big swagger who want to scare us to death but get little done. Their entire strategy is a PR strategy. The now forgotten Congressman from GA Madison Cawthorn gave the game away several years ago when he admitted that he only had a comms staff, no policy staff. One of the many forms of resistance is to puncture the illusion these conmen create. Thank you for the link to the Guardian article that does this!

  76. 76.

    Josie

    @Professor Bigfoot: ​
     I agree. I find it in very poor taste for them to be dunning us for money when they are playing it safe. Also, I suspect that some of the texts I am receiving that ask for money to fight Trump are scams.

  77. 77.

    Geminid

    @Professor Bigfoot: I will likely be disappointed, but I still hope Mark Warner retires next year. Rep. Jennifer McClellan can win that seat, and McClellan would make an excellent Senator.

  78. 78.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Steve LaBonne: Average Moron voter may not know this but folks at NPR and NYT who have embraced Rs know this fully well. I have even less sympathy for them than the average Moron voter. Our complicit news media is the biggest culprit for our current state of affairs.

  79. 79.

    Doug R

    @trnc:

     

    I would love to see Mitch resign and Beshear to replace him with a democrat, but the Ky leg claims he doesn’t have the authority and I’m not betting which way the courts come down on that.

    I say appoint a Democrat, send him and then let them fight.

  80. 80.

    Librettist

    These places have been getting clobbered by fast casual, and the stuck in customers are fixed income.

    Trump did this.

  81. 81.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    Waffle House is more downscale than Denny’s — in a good way, I’d argue.

    In many ways, Waffle House supplanted Denny’s over the last 15 years from the “downscale in a good way diner” perspective. It’s not unlike how IHOP supplanted Denny’s in the “we don’t mind if non-white people eat here” perspective.

    Waffle House article that’s worth a read:
    https://www.eater.com/2017/5/2/15471798/waffle-house-history-menu

    Bubba Watson ate at his regular one after his second Masters victory:
    https://www.espn.com/golf/masters14/story/_/id/10780235/bubba-watson-celebrates-late-night-meal-waffle-house
    Bubba’s definitely a god-bothering loon but in golf circles, he’s always been someone who made it clear about his southern upbringing and his opposition to the racial crap he was surrounded with growing up.

    That being said, Waffle House steals wages and acts just like it’s run by any, bog-standard billionaire like it’s owner, Joe Rogers Jr:
    https://x.com/RaiseUptheSouth

    More on how Waffle House exemplifies the ‘Southern Economic Development Model’:
    https://www.epi.org/blog/waffle-house-strike-highlights-the-harms-of-the-southern-economic-development-model/

    A more titillating chapter in his history (a sex tape!):
    https://archive.ph/gv3g1

    I’m trying to see who he (Joe Rogers Jr, son of the founder) gives money to but haven’t figured all that out yet.

  84. 84.

    oldgold

    Speaking of humor and eggs, this is from Amy Klobuchar’s remarks at the Washington Press Club Foundation Annual Congressional Dinner held last night.

    “What is the difference between Greenland and Donald Trump? Greenland is not for sale.”

    “OK, for any Republican Trump administration person out there, they want to throw eggs at me as a result of that joke. You can’t, because they’re too expensive.”

  85. 85.

    AM in NC

    @Doug R: Yep. EXACTLY.  I understand respecting norms and the dangers of our people blowing through them too. But if you don’t hold power you can’t wield power.

    When we do hold power again, I expect to lock in these norms into codified LAW (including a full-court-press to get big money out of politics) and beat GOP electeds over the head with it if they resist.

  87. 87.

    Jeffg166

    @sab:

    Opossums only live one to two years in the wild. I noticed a downward trend in my garden over the last few years. That’s when the foxes moved in to the area.

  88. 88.

    Geminid

    @Doug R: The Republican-controlled Senate would not seat a Senator that Governor Beshear chose in violation of Kentucky law.

    Anyway, if Andy Beshear wants to be a Senator he can run against Rand Paul in 2028. Beshear would have a good chance of winning, at least if he doesn’t try to game McConnell’s replacement. That would kill his chances in Kentucky.

  90. 90.

    Soprano2

    @Another Scott: Commodities are a terrible thing to use to measure inflation, because the price of them varies for so many reasons outside of just inflationary pressures, like having to kill millions of chickens due to bird flu!

  91. 91.

    Gin & Tonic

    @NotMax: ​

    which I presume is more or less equivalent

    Waffle House and Denny’s occupy entirely different universes. You need to watch the Anthony Bourdain episode where he went to Waffle House with Sean Brock.

  92. 92.

    Jeffro

    @Geminid: froette still has her heart set on working on the Hill (hopefully with a D House majority)  but I’m working hard to sell her on the idea of working for Spanberger in Richmond or McClellan on the Senate side

    i think she’d work for Katherine Clark for free, though!

  93. 93.

    TBone

    I was again impressed with the presentation Senator Whitehouse gave on the floor last night, thanks for sharing that link, tobie.

  95. 95.

    JML

    @Geminid: Beshear might be the only D in KY that could win a senate seat. So I hope he goes for it; Rand Paul is unlikeable enough to be beaten.

    I’ll be thrilled to see Traitor McConnell finally gone from the Senate, but the sad reality is his successor is likely to be just as awful if not worse. The only good thing is while the stain of evil might be similar, I doubt they’ll be as effective at implementation as Traitor McConnell, who while an evil, disgusting POS who has done massive amounts of damage to this country and I wouldn’t pee on him if he was on fire…he was also very effective at a) getting things he wanted done, and b) stopping things he didn’t want to happen from getting done.

    More useless showoffs in the GOP that are ineffective and dumb? better than competent evil, barely.

  96. 96.

    Gin & Tonic

    @schrodingers_cat: ​
    Exactly. Got a text last night from my son, who did a Fulbright Public Policy Fellowship (previously known as the Clinton-Fulbright Public Policy Fellowship – yes, as in Hillary) saying “Fulbright Program is gonna die, isn’t it?”

    I said yes, and that after this the US will be permanently diminished as an international actor. The “soft power” accumulated over the last century will not – cannot – be rebuilt.

  97. 97.

    Belafon

    @Matt McIrvin: This gets at something I’m struggling with as a white guy. How do I celebrate Black History Month, Women’s History Month, and all of the others? How do I show support for LGBTQ+? I don’t want it to be about me, but at the same time I want to let other people know I am grateful for their presence and contributions, and maybe as an added bonus piss of other white men and women.

  98. 98.

    FelonyGovt

    @tobie:  Musk is following that Silicon Valley philosophy “move fast, break things”, like the beginnings of Uber where they just ignored laws and regulations that were inconvenient. It’s infuriating.

  99. 99.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @Redshift: Black folks.

    Our music, our comedy, our dance have ALL come from people who have been oppressed for hundreds of years.

    Alas, most white Americans believe they have NOTHING to learn from Black folks- or anyone else who is not straight, white, and Christian.

  100. 100.

    Belafon

    @JML: I kind of think he’s our best next presidential candidate, and that will get tarnished if he loses a senate run.

  101. 101.

    Dave

    @tobie: Musk is a bit different because while he is very much a PR bullshitter he likes to do things and does live by the ethos of move fast break things because those things are designed by and for lesser people.

    No sense of responsibility coupled with supreme arrogance and burning need have accomplishments is a dangerous mix given the current insanity that we are all living with.

    As for how much of his public persona is BS marketing strategy versus drug fueled sociopathic need for approval and dominance? Damned if I know and fundamentally I don’t care outside of ola general curiosity not that it’s an either/or situation necessarily.

    It’s a difficult target to convey that these are deeply weird bozos with deeply weird bozos goals and are simultaneously incredibly dangerous because they are bozos.

  102. 102.

    glory b

    @Captain C: The Michigan Advance had an article well before 10/7 about Muslims returning to the Republican party (there were a fair number of them before 9/11) over LGBTQ panic. They joined with Republicans disrupting school board meetings, leaders were meeting with Mike Flynn, pulling down rainbow flags, etc.

    So, it looks like some of them might have meant it when they voted Republican.

  103. 103.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Belafon: In social-media-type situations, maybe even to some degree in Real Life, the answer is easy: share/boost the contributions of marginalized people, without adding much or any of your own commentary. You can do a lot just by promoting their voices and getting out of the way.

  104. 104.

    Matt McIrvin

    @glory b: As they say, intersectionality is hard. There’s nothing stopping some marginalized people from being bigoted against other marginalized people, and it can make a broad coalition difficult to keep together. Republicans can and do get votes from minority groups who lean socially conservative with a culture-war appeal. The alliance lasts until white Republicans go through another round of overt bigotry against them.

    That’s one of the many reasons the Great Replacement conspiracy theory of mass immigration is bullshit. The whole thing rides on the idea that new immigrants will robotically vote Democratic, but they’re not even that Democratic! They’re another voting bloc that can be courted.

  105. 105.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @oldgold: I am slightly in love with Amy Klobuchar.

    She’s a smart, tough little dame with PLENTY of moxie; but she’s also a good hearted person.

    And she’s damn cute, too!

  106. 106.

    Belafon

    @Matt McIrvin: Which I do online – I’m following and sharing posts on facebook from a group covering African Americans – and I generally talk about the contributions of blacks and women. I have a shirt that has “Ada, Jean, Grace, and Margaret” that I like to wear around, and I would like to do something similar for other people. Yes, I like to be a walking advertisement.

    Plus, I feel there’s a use of my privilege showing I stand for people like this. I own a shirt that says “Stop pretending your racism is patriotism.” I know I get all sorts of emotions out of it, from thanks to looks on faces.

  107. 107.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Matt McIrvin: This is one of the biggest reasons I was not sanguine about KH taking Biden’s place, my biggest worry was that support for Biden wouldn’t necessarily translate to her in 100 days that were left in the campaign.

    Misogyny is not insignificant among many D voting groups either.

  110. 110.

    Layer8Problem

    Apropos of nothing, that snowy picture of Ozark’s up top is peaceful and calming.  Very much appreciated.

  113. 113.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @glory b: I’ve heard that Arab culture is also a colonizer culture— that, for example, Jews have lived in Jerusalem for literally thousands of years (see the Mount of Olives) but were colonized and taken over first by the Romans and then the Arabs.

    I had a boss who was an Egyptian Arab; and his contempt for Americans was obvious, his dislike for our one female engineer, and the sheer gall to intimate that I had abused my travel allowance (I hadn’t, I never did, I never would, and it pissed me off so much I quit then and there).

    Arabs are considered “white” here, put “white” on the forms, and as we now seem, genuinely believe that they ARE white, and thus anti-Blackness is natural.

    They’re the people who told Black folks we needed to vote against our own KNOWN best interests for the sake of Arabs in Palestine, so fuck ‘em.

  116. 116.

    Kay

    @Quinerly:

    That is wild. I figured they would lie. An alderman in Chicago’s Little Village, a 90% Hispanic neighborhood, said ICE showed up in 2 unmarked SUVs and locals essentially chased them out in four hours. Two SUVs for a community of 70,000 people. They’re lying about the extent of these sweeps.

    Nothing that comes out of the Trump Administration will be true. We’re going to have to cobble together local news and witness accounts from numerous sources to put it together.

  117. 117.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @schrodingers_cat: We don’t just look like stupid and cruel bullies on the world stage.

    We ARE stupid and cruel bullies on the world stage; and we can’t even deny it because he won a free and fair election.

    Americans* CHOSE this MF.

  118. 118.

    dww44

    @NotMax: Denny’s is a tad more upscale, imo..  It’s all day breakfast diners.  And waffles are not their main offering. Most people order the eggs/bacon/sausage/grits/hashbrowns/toast options. Also very very hot steaming coffee.

  119. 119.

    Leto

    @Kay: it literally comes back to, “If their lips are moving…” Idk, they’re not punished for lying so they keep doing it. At this point I don’t know who needs to punish them, because it’s all they’ve done for decades now.

  120. 120.

    Suzanne

    @Matt McIrvin:

    That’s one of the many reasons the Great Replacement conspiracy theory of mass immigration is bullshit. The whole thing rides on the idea that new immigrants will robotically vote Democratic, but they’re not even that Democratic! They’re another voting bloc that can be courted.

    Lots of people of all races are socially conservative, especially with regard to LGBTQ+ and women-in-public-life issues, and it’s one of the most difficult things for me to reconcile w/r/t coalition building.

  122. 122.

    Matt McIrvin

    @schrodingers_cat: Conservatives think soft power is bad, because it’s soft. They treat international relations like they raise children: “respect” means fear born of violence. They’re strutting around now saying “America is respected again.” That means people are pants-shittingly afraid that we will kill them. That’s their “respect”.

    Meanwhile, the whole TikTok/Rednote business has made me realize that China understands soft power and has started flexing it in America. They understand it to a degree that Putin doesn’t (he’s got a great international propaganda operation but it’s all sour and negative, all trolls sowing discord and dirtying up the world). There are a lot of Americans today who regard the PRC like some people in the USSR used to regard America, as a land of forbidden wonders and luxuries. Look–they actually spend on public infrastructure and public goods there! Imagine that!

  123. 123.

    Kay

    @Quinerly:

    The DOJ said yesterday they’re going to move a way from prosecuting white collar crime and move towards prosecuting immigrants and “street crime”

    Oh, bullshit. They just added the “immigrants and street crimes” to cover the fact that they’re not going to prosecute anyone who is rich, powerful or Republican. Trump hires lie like regular people breathe.

  124. 124.

    pajaro

    @trnc:

    Trump may want this, but he wants it only if Gaza is handed to him on a silver platter.  It’s a fantasy.  Israel has tried to completely subdue Gaza for 16 months, and hasn’t succeeded yet.  Hamas will not surrender if the end game is the extermination of Palestinian society in Gaza.  No agreed upon permanent cease fire will occur if the possible day after includes the forcible displacement of the Palestinian population.  The people of Gaza are not going to leave willingly; Egypt and Jordan will not take them, and forcing them out would not only be a Crime Against Humanity, it would be an act of war against Egypt and Jordan.  He’s nuts if he thinks that the Palestinians, Israel’s neighbors and the Arab world at large is just going to say, yeah go ahead.

  127. 127.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Professor Bigfoot: Every time international terrorism becomes a big panic concern, Arab-Americans (and Central Asians, and South Asians sometimes) get hit. A lot of them voted for Bush in 2000 and regretted it in 2001.

  128. 128.

    RaflW

    Oh, quick update for those who saw my post last night in the LGBTQI+ thread. Newsletter this morning tells me:

    PFund Foundation’s TRANSCEND Fund awards $300,000 to 33 Trans+ serving organizations

    PFund Foundation is proud to announce its largest TRANSCEND grant distribution yet. A record $300,000 is being distributed across 33 grants to Transgender and Gender nonconforming serving organizations in Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. The TRANSCEND Fund supports Trans+ rights advocacy and general operating support for organizations that support Trans+ & gender nonconforming folks throughout their lives.

    Pfund continues to raise money for this fund, and the recipient orgs are doing a lot of direct service as well as advocacy. That’s my accountability update for the moment!

  129. 129.

    tobie

    @Dave: Your take strikes me as very perceptive. I probably didn’t express myself well. I take the threat of Musk & Co very seriously, and if you mess up govt services millions of people will pay a heavy price. Messing up Twitter is nothing in comparison. On the other hand, I don’t want to give into to the myth these sheisters want to create about themselves. I know my stance is inherently contradictory. Don’t know what to do.

  131. 131.

    zhena gogolia

    @Professor Bigfoot: This is the heart of my despair.

    But it was not a landslide as with Nixon or Reagan. It was a bare majority. That keeps me somewhat sane. But still tragic, horrible, stupid, stupid, stupid.

  132. 132.

    Bill Arnold

    @FelonyGovt:

    “move fast, break things”

    In Musk’s case (including his flunke accomplices), some of those “things” are laws, including the USA constitution.
    Mr Musk presumably swore (or affirmed) the naturalization oath, even if he did not swear (or affirm) the federal oath of office.
    Naturalization oath, bold mine:

    “I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty, of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the Armed Forces of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God.”

  133. 133.

    Betty Cracker

    @Suzanne: Yep. I’m not at all confident people opposed to the fascist Trump regime will be able to put aside their differences long enough to remove the fascists from power (if we get another chance, that is). Factions within our coalition loathe each other. I get it; there are factions within the party I don’t like either and vice versa. People will either temporarily set aside their differences for the greater good or not.

  134. 134.

    Miss Bianca

    @tam1MI: If these Palestinian-Americans are anything like the Hamtramck City Council in their general sensibilities, I suspect that they voted for Trump not because they pretended to believe the lie that his “policies” were somehow going to be better for Palestinians in Gaza, but because Republicans would indulge them in letting their misogynist, anti-LGBTQ+ freak flags fly.

    Won’t we all be ever so surprised when the next wails of “curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!” from that particular corner come from the fact that Dear Leader is deporting *them*, as well. >:/

  135. 135.

    trnc

    @terraformer: The Beshear argument against the laws is that the state consitution gives the governor the power to replace senators, so the laws are meaningless unless the state courts side with the leg. I don’t know anything about their SC, but the court elections are supposedly non-partisan.​
     

    ETA: She was appointed to her first state court seat by Paul Patton, a democrat.

  136. 136.

    Emily B.

    Jumbo eggs have hit $11.99 at a C-Town near me in northern NJ. Admittedly, it’s a small grocery in an urban area, so prices will be a bit higher than at a suburban Costco.

    But this price was being advertised as a Weekly Special.

  137. 137.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @Matt McIrvin: Another example of how a mentality of supremacy always leads to “a sudden but inevitable betrayal.”

    Every time.

    But THEY THINK THEY’RE WHITE.

  140. 140.

    trnc

    @tam1MI: I certainly have sympathy for Palestinian Americans caught in the political crossfire, but the evidence against Trump being their friend was crystal clear. I told people before the election we were way past the usual political considerations for any election.

  142. 142.

    Belafon

    @Bill Arnold:

    laws of the United States of America

    If you don’t like the law, you get it changed, or expect to be arrested. There’s a reason why Biden didn’t ignore the Supreme Court decisions as much as he hated them.

  143. 143.

    trnc

    @Geminid: ​
     

    The Republican-controlled Senate would not seat a Senator that Governor Beshear chose in violation of Kentucky law.

    That would be the excuse, but state laws that violate the state constitution are invalid.

  144. 144.

    Suzanne

    @Betty Cracker:

    Factions within our coalition loathe each other. I get it; there are factions within the party I don’t like either and vice versa. People will either temporarily set aside their differences for the greater good or not.

    Oh 100%. But it’s really fucken depressing. Honestly, it’s remarkable the any coalition has lasted as long as it has.

  145. 145.

    glory b

    @Kay: Not much street crime violates federal criminal law anyway, it’s just posturing, promising to target black neighborhoods makes them happy.

    They can’t threaten us with deportation and most street crime is under the jurisdiction of local police and District Attorneys anyway. Trump just needs to look like he’s doing something to specifically hurt black people.

  146. 146.

    Belafon

    @Suzanne: That’s because our coalition is “not Republican.” Which, as we’ve generally seen, is only when Republicans are seen as a true danger. If falls apart when people, especially whites, but sometimes men, forget what the other side will do.

  147. 147.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Matt McIrvin: South Asians have been voting for Ds in 2:1 ratios for many cycles including this one. They get a bad rap for 2 reasons.

     The BJP trolls on social media are pro-T and get mistaken for Indian Americans
     Many prominent Indian Americans in the media are  Republican toadies.

  149. 149.

    FelonyGovt

    @Belafon: This is the thing that confounds me about Musk. He and his geek squad should be arrested- but it seems like no one is willing or able to do the arresting.

  150. 150.

    Suzanne

    @Belafon: You are correct.

    I often try to remind others — as well as myself — to “remember who the real enemy is”. Because I, like Betty, am really uncomfortable with certain parts of our coalition.

    But ultimately, I can do math in my head, and add to 51%.

  151. 151.

    Betty Cracker

    @glory b: Great point about street crime mostly being handled at the local level. Bondi’s DOJ will look the other way so Trump and the other white collar criminals can rob us blind. She’ll probably be in on herself. Bondi is a crook.

  153. 153.

    glory b

    @schrodingers_cat: I read somewhere that the most durable Democratic constituencies are black, Jewish and South Asian voters.

    And that in spite of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, most of the ones polled did not object to affirmative action.

  155. 155.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @Professor Bigfoot:

    I had a boss who was an Egyptian Arab; and his contempt for Americans was obvious, his dislike for our one female engineer…

    I’ve told this story before.  My wife was one of two women graduates from the CU-Boulder engineering school with a degree in Engineering Physics in 1984.  Back then during the glorious Reagan Years, home interest rates were in the lower double digits and unemployment hovered in CO around 9%.  Thus, the only job available to her was with the nascent ‘Star Wars’ program with the Navy back in DC.

    Her first boss was an Iranian engineer who didn’t know what to do with her, disdain was palpable.  She was miserable for the 4-5 years she was there before she managed to find something else.  But the early work scars are still there 40 years later.

    She’s not typically a bitter person who holds a grudge (unlike her husband) but she’s wished nothing but a painful death on him.  For all we know he is dead now.  If so, good.

  156. 156.

    Miss Bianca

    @Professor Bigfoot: I have a feeling that that’s going to be my go-to meme for the next however many years of the Trump Regime we got going on.

    @glory b: oh, racist as well, WHAT A SURPRISE. Seems like almost every immigrant group to the US absorbs the “if you’re black get back” mentality from white people.

  160. 160.

    Kayla Rudbek

    @Belafon: read, like and share stories about admirable people who aren’t white men (I got a lot more woke by starting to pay attention to women inventors, scientists, and engineers, then Black History Month always seems to turn up more great Black inventors, scientists, and engineers, etc.)  And look for people who aren’t white men who are doing things you’re interested in and that you enjoy or that you would buy anyway (for me it’s bicycling and yarn).

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