Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Dear media: perhaps we ought to let Donald Trump speak for himself!

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The revolution will be supervised.

Baby steps, because the Republican Party is full of angry babies.

Petty moves from a petty man.

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

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

Do we throw up our hands or do we roll up our sleeves? (hint, it’s door #2)

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

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

If you are still in the gop, you are either an extremist yourself, or in bed with those who are.

“I was told there would be no fact checking.”

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

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

Trumpflation is an intolerable hardship for every American, and it’s Trump’s fault.

The unpunished coup was a training exercise.

Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls 2 years from now.

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

I might just take the rest of the day off and do even more nothing than usual.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

We know you aren’t a Democrat but since you seem confused let me help you.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Open Thread: Nice to Know It’s Working

Open Thread: Nice to Know It’s Working

by | 333 Comments

This post is in: 

Lawmakers flooded with thousands of calls per hour as constituents demand answers about Elon Musk. Keep it going!
www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202…

[image or embed]

— Silvija (still) stands with Ukraine (@svecrumba.bsky.social) February 7, 2025 at 5:03 PM

Per the Washington Post, “‘It is a deluge on DOGE’” [gift link]:

Constituents have flooded the phone lines at the U.S. Capitol this week, many of them asking questions about billionaire Elon Musk “feeding USAID into the wood chipper” and his access to government systems.

Senators’ phone systems have been overloaded, lawmakers said, with some voters unable to get through to leave a message. The outpouring of complaints and confusion has put pressure on lawmakers to find out more about Musk’s project, heightening tensions between the billionaire tech mogul and the government.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said the Senate’s phones were receiving 1,600 calls each minute, compared with the usual 40 calls per minute. Many of the calls she’s been receiving are from people concerned about U.S. DOGE Service employees having broad access to government systems and sensitive information. The callers are asking whether their information is compromised and about why there isn’t more transparency about what is happening, she said…

“It is a deluge on DOGE,” said Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minnesota). “Truly our office has gotten more phone calls on Elon Musk and what the heck he’s doing mucking around in federal government than I think anything we’ve gotten in years. … People are really angry.”

Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) said he’s been hearing from constituents “constantly” on DOGE and Musk. “We can hardly answer the phones fast enough. It’s a combination of fear, confusion and heartbreak, because of the importance of some of these programs.”…

Open Thread: Nice to Know That It's Working 1

(Jack Ohman via GoComics.com)

Lawmakers, including Republicans, have asked for clarity from the White House about the scope of Musk’s team’s access to data, including classified and personal information, this week. Some also expressed confusion about what is going on.

“A lot of people think that Elon Musk is off the chain and causing all kinds of havoc,” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina) said on the Senate floor Thursday. “I haven’t seen that yet.”

Tillis said that he was assured that no one without proper clearances is accessing classified information and that DOGE employees are not looking at detailed individual payment data, but rather just how the payments are processed, echoing the White House’s statements. He defended Musk but also noted that he has “put out social media posts that are incorrect,” which have fed into the concerns. “So he probably needs to tighten it up,” Tillis said…

Open Thread: Nice to Know That It's Working

(Matt Davies via GoComics.com)

Reader Interactions

333Comments

  4. 4.

    Geminid

    Turkish journalist Ragip Soylu* reposted this Tweet from Elon Musk:

       I love Donald Trump as much as a straight man can love another man.

    …with the comment:

       Damage control mode on after Time Magazine cover.

    * Soylu is Istanbul bureau chief for Middle East Eye.

  7. 7.

    Geminid

    Is there something rotten in the Empire State? The New York Post thinks so. Headline:

      Democrats reach new low in attempt to stall House election

    The Post’s story is about a controversy over scheduling the special election to fill Elise Stefanik’s NY21 seat. Stefanik is Trump’s nominee for UN Ambassador.

    New York law currently requires Governor Hochul to set a date for a special election within so many weeks after Stefanik resigns her House seat. Assembly Democrats are considering legislation that would give Hochul more discretion. There are already some local elections set for August and moving the House election to late summer would, among other benefits, save taxpayer dollars. A laudable motive in my opinion!

    But how can they miss her if she won’t go away? Stefanik’s nomination has been approved by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, but Republicans haven’t moved for confirmation by the full Senate. They want to get two empty Florida seats filled before Mike Johnson loses Stefanik’s vote. Their strategy is to delay Stefanik’s confirmation until as late as April, and then get the “Safe R” seat filled by June. “Not so fast!” say Hochul and Albany Democrats.

    The Albany-based Times Herald seems to provide good coverage of this story.

  10. 10.

    Suzanne

    “So he probably needs to tighten it up,”

    LOL.
    This is an inadvertently hilarious response to utter lawlessness and plunder.

  15. 15.

    Baud

    @m.j.:

    It’s why I can’t get too mad. I respect democracy, and people wanted this. The choice was clearer than even in 2016.

  18. 18.

    TBone

    After the female former head of the Coast Guard was so unceremoniously evicted from her residence (despite having a 60 day waiver within which to vacate) in 3 hours, barely enough time to pack up a lady go bag, the Coast Guard says NOPE (the Inky).

    The SS United States’ departure to Mobile, Ala., on Thursday was canceled at the request of the U.S. Coast Guard. There is no new move date.

  21. 21.

    different-church-lady

    Looks like judges are forming the first firewall. I’ll too lazy right now to find them all, but I think there’s at least three temporary halts  in place, and I don’t doubt there’s  more to come.

  22. 22.

    TBone

    After the plane crash in Philly, the NTSB must investigate why the first car on a heavily populated SEPTA train burst into flames in DelCo (Crum Lynne/Ridley Park).  The train station and the train were successfully evacuated with no injuries, but the size and suddenness of the conflagration are SUSS!

  30. 30.

    Geminid

    @Geminid: There is another special election coming up in New York, to fill newly elected Rep. George Latimer’s post of Westchester County Executive. That one is set for next Tuesday, February 11.

    I was reminded of this by a post from Westchester Democrat Tom Watson:

       Big race in Westchester flying below the radar. Ken Jenkins is locking up vast coalition support against a radical MAGA opponent. Watch this one.

    Watson was referencing this announcement by an SIEU local:

       32SIEU is proud to endorse Ken Jenkins for Westchester County Executive! Ken has always stood with working people fighting for fair wages, strong unions and economic justice. We need leaders who put working families first. Ken is that leader.

    Westchester County has a population of 990,000 and is bounded by New York City on the south, Long Island Sound on the east, and the Hudson River on the west. George Latimer became County Executive in 2017 when he beat Republican incumbent Rob Astorino by 14 points, despite being outspent 3 to 1 (according to Wikipedia)

    The County has been voting Democratic at the federal and state level, but Republicans hope their candidate for Executive, Christine Sculti, can score an upset. Sculti promises to lower taxes and fight for repeal of Westchester’s “Sanctuary County” ordinance.

  31. 31.

    different-church-lady

    In case you were wondering how The Supremos might side in all of this:

    But ProPublica has identified three lawyers with elite establishment credentials who have also joined the DOGE effort.

    Two are former Supreme Court clerks — one clerked for Chief Justice John Roberts, another for Justice Neil Gorsuch — and the third has been selected to be a Gorsuch clerk for the 2025-2026 term.

    Well done, electorate.

  37. 37.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    I know it’s trivia compared to everything else, but Trump’s plan to name himself chairman of the Kennedy Center Honors board is the stuff of satire. Honest to god, I don’ t know how The Onion stays in business.

  38. 38.

    TBone

    @Ramalama: he is still battling BUT improving every single day and the vet who pronounced him terminal did not even come into the exam room for tube incision check & bandage change yesterday.  We might have to go back because too-loose bandage shifted overnight. The tech who wrapped it did the best she could, I suspect Noah fiddled with it in exasperation.  He’s got SPUNK!

  39. 39.

    TBone

    @prostratedragon: yep, Philly (for the most part) doesn’t suffer Nazis (I didn’t want to type out the H word today, I refuse).  Let’s just say we don’t like them running around loose.

  41. 41.

    sab

    @different-church-lady: Clerks for Gorsuch are kind of legal newbies. These aren’t their best and brightest. Hopefully the move to DOGE will tank their careers in the long run.

    I am pleasantly surprised that the phone calls to Congress are having an impact. Disappointed that my senators don’t clear their message boxes. But now I have confirmation that their thought process is “Lalalala we can’t hear you”, which is worth knowing.

    I grew up in an old-fashioned Republican household. I am our first Democrat. I had been used to cutting them some slack because my parents were not racist monsters. They both died no-longer-Republican. Now I just can’t and won’t talk to Republicans. Even family.

  47. 47.

    TBone

    @sab: because I was in an “assistant” position for so long, I do not underestimate the abilities of clerks to perform fuckery at all levels – I knew some really fucked in the head co-workers over the years and, despite their stupidity (sometimes because of it) they were very dangeous.  Especially those in the “who you know, not what you know” department of derp.

  48. 48.

    NeenerNeener

    One of my sisters called me last night in a panic because she got an email from a scammer accusing her of watching porn sites and threatening to out her to her entire contact list and show up at her front door looking to do violence if she didn’t send them bitcoin within a certain time frame.  She’s in her mid-70s and finds even the soft-core love scenes on Outlander and Virgin River offensive so I know she’s not watching hard-core porn sites. They had her full name and address in the email, and the only place she said she entered any of that stuff recently was on an AARP web site. So, did somebody hack AARP, or are Musk’s script kiddies selling our info already?

    I sent her the url for the FBI web site for reporting email scams (in case the people who investigate this stuff haven’t been fired yet ) and told her to report it. Also, if she gets any phone calls from scammers to tell them that she can’t talk about it on this phone number and to give them the number of the local FBI office.

  52. 52.

    sab

    @Geminid: I said this a year or so back:

    I very very much appreciate your work, but it is disturbing that the best news aggregator I follow (you) is actually a landscape designer and not a reporter.

  55. 55.

    p.a.

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I asked this, I guess rhetorically, a while ago; as a “billionaire” New Yawker, has he ever even been to the Met Museum, Museum of Natural History, MoMA (haha!), etcetcetc?  Maybe for cocktail events?  Ever served on a board?(who would ask him???😂)

  56. 56.

    Suzanne

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I was mentioning on a thread last night that I feel similarly about the executive order about plastic straws. Like…. it’s a relatively small thing — except the issue of plastic waste is actually a huge issue — but it just makes me so sad.

  58. 58.

    NeenerNeener

    @TBone: Good to know. This is the first time I’ve heard of this particular scam, but I used to get scammer calls all the time 5 or 6 years ago and used to give them the phone number of the FBI office in Buffalo if they wanted to talk further. I haven’t gotten another call in years after I started sending them to the FBI. She’s never experienced it before and she and her husband are freaking out.

  59. 59.

    What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

    @prostratedragon: Honestly wonder why no states have charged those DOGE guys with cyber crimes against their residents. Like if I’m in Massachusetts and a hacker from Iowa steals my data the State of Massachusetts can press charges right? The crime doesn’t actually have to physically occur in the State, just affect a state resident.

  60. 60.

    Geminid

    @Baud: I wonder if the two Florida special elections involve primaries. This can vary from state to state. New York allows party officials to select the candidates for special elections as was the case when Tom Suozzi ran to fill George Santos’s NYO3 seat. New York 21st CD Democrats have already selected 48 year-old dairy farmer Blake Gendeben to run for Stefanik’s seat.

    Virginia usually has primaries for special elections. That’s how Rep. Jennifer McClellan won the 4th CD nomination to succeed the late Don McEachin in early 2023.

    But when 5th CD Rep. Tom Garrett abruptly announced his retirement in April of 2018, the candidates were chosen by district party officials because it was so close to the June election. In the Republicans’ case, 33 county and city Republican chairmen picked Denver Riggleman on the 5th ballot. That was a nice bit of irony; Garrett retired on account of his alcoholism, while Riggleman ran a vodka distilling business.

  61. 61.

    sab

    @TBone: So glad to hear about Noah.

    Ponyo went to the vet because I thought she had a new mast cell tumor. She had sprouted a new thing that looked like misplaced leventh nipple. ( I always thought dogs only have six, but she has ten. Apparently that is normal for pitbulls.)

    Vet said not a problem. It’s just a benign cyst.

    She has had so many surgeries that she growls at vets and has to be muzzled. Harmless otherwise. Last time the vet took her muzzle off she had the nerve to beg for a biscuit afterwards.

  62. 62.

    TBone

    @NeenerNeener: A memory:

    Dad working late night shift as a cop, Mom & kids alone in house with unpublished phone number. It rings.  Mom picks up.

    Caller: (*breathing heavily) whatcha got between your legs?

    Mom yells: “MORE THAN YOU GOT BETWEEN YOUR EARS!”

  63. 63.

    FelonyGovt

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: These kinds of petty, spiteful edicts- Kennedy Center! Plastic straws! – only do more to make it look like Trump is just a figurehead and that Time cover was accurate.

  66. 66.

    Geminid

    @sab: I’m a good paver too, and a competent (but slow) carpenter. But I’m semi-retired and enjoy posting as a hobby.

    This reminds me that I need to work up some pictures of various bluestone and brick paving projects and submit them for an Artists in Our Midst post. Only I’ll ask WaterGirl to title it “Artisans in our Midst,” because paving is a utilitarian craft.

  68. 68.

    Suzanne

    @Baud: Yes, that’s absolutely right. Similar with the whinging last term about low-flow toilets and stuff. It’s just about being an asshole because it’s fun to annoy liberals.

  70. 70.

    sab

    @Geminid: Please do. My new (to us) house could use some yard thoughts. 1966 house with a totally ignored yard. Grass on the front hill, trees in rhe back until the railroad tracks. Virgin territory. We don’t intend to do much, but a few touches could help.

  71. 71.

    What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

    @NeenerNeener: I’ve gotten those emails… it’s easy to get people’s address and phone number. I had to do a thorough background check for the adoption process and looked myself up on Been Verified to get old addresses. They had them going back to when I was in college circa the early ’90s.

  74. 74.

    sab

    @Geminid: Utilitarian crafts.

    My machinist stepson can fix almost anything. His girlfriend can do anything with textiles, fabrics or threads.

    My PhD sister cannot even boil an egg. My MD father could barely screw in a lightbulb.

  76. 76.

    TBone

    @Baud: my evil SIL once received newfangled lightbulbs as a big part of her Xmas bonus, tee hee hee.  I know only because she complained.

  77. 77.

    Suzanne

    @Baud: Oh yeah, for sure. Those people who were stockpiling incandescent bulbs…. just utter idiots. Basically arousing themselves by irritating a liberal.

    I would mention 3000-square-foot McMansions in suburban gated communities are also part of this aesthetic, but I’d probably be summoning the stalker commenter.

  80. 80.

    Geminid

    An Al Arabiya headline:

       As rainstorms and Trump blow through Gaza, residents say they will never leave

    The Israeli army is leaving though, bit by bit. The IDF has announced they will evacuate the “Netzarim Corridor” in coming days (the Corridor divides the southern two thirds of the Gaza Strip from the northern third). This is in accordance with the timetable set for Phase One of the ceasefire. I think they are now 14 days into the 42-day Phase One.

  81. 81.

    Phylllis

    @NeenerNeener: I’ve received a version of this a few times. The scammer says they have video of me ‘pleasuring myself’ that they will release to my contact list if I don’t pony up some Bitcoin. I’m always tempted to respond that there isn’t anyone on my contact list who would be shocked by video evidence of me devouring a honey bun.

  82. 82.

    sab

    @Suzanne: We stockpiled incandescent bulbs because I didn’t want to replace all my lamps. Those twirly new bulbs required a harp on the lamp and a new lampshade.. They have better bulbs now but they didn’t then and it took them ten years

    ETA Also too we shouldn’t send those mercury filled twirly bulbs to the landfill and nobody will accept them anymore for recycling.

  86. 86.

    laura

    @NeenerNeener: Have your relatives watch the movie Thelma – currently available on hulu. She is scammed and seeks revenge. They will feel better in seeing themselves in June Squib.

  87. 87.

    MagdaInBlack

    @sab: Tile-work, brickwork, metalwork, woodworking, glass-blowing….so much cool stuff

    @TBone: And our amazing quilt makers. Ravens wife does some stunning thread-art ( i hope that’s the correct term)

  89. 89.

    Suzanne

    One of the things that has changed a lot in the last 25 years — and most people have no idea — is that buildings have to be much more energy-efficient by code. There are much stricter requirements for R-values of exterior walls and roofs (“continuous insulation”). Which had led to some of the goofy synthetic exterior materials that people see on buildings, and then say, “Why don’t they use brick? It’s so much nicer.”

  91. 91.

    NeenerNeener

    @laura: I don’t know if they still subscribe to Hulu, but I’ll let them know. I’ll even watch it myself. Thanks for the tip.

  92. 92.

    p.a.

    @TBone: I haven’t done it, mostly because I’ve cut contact completely, but a great gift idea for MAGAts is “a donation in your name has been made to Planned Parenthood.”

  93. 93.

    Suzanne

    @sab: You can use LEDs in the vast majority of lamps, even old ones, with no issue. I’ve had two old lamps and one chandelier rewired for LEDs, too. The cost savings of the LED as well as reduced heat from the bulb makes it pencil out.

  94. 94.

    sab

    @sab: My MBA Republican brother is a talented woodworker, but he learned that in public junior high school shop class, not in his later education.

    ETA They didn’t let the girls take those classes.

  95. 95.

    TBone

    @sab: WTF I learned how to solder, lathe, bend metal, and hammer fucking nails in shop class!  Until someone dosed the teacher’s coffee one day.  Teach was never quite the same after that…

  96. 96.

    Suzanne

    @The Thin Black Duke:

    What sad empty bitter joyless lives these people live.

    Agreed.

    I mentioned that, in 2020, one of my neighbors put up an enormous (like 8′ long at least) banner across their front yard that read “TRUMP 2020 MAKE LIBERALS CRY AGAIN”. That’s really it, in a nutshell. They hate us and want to destroy what liberalism has built, because they’re mean. There’s no principle.

  97. 97.

    TBone

    @p.a.: I HAVE done it in Xmas cards hahaha!  Great reminder we need not wait for holidays!

    Remembering Myrna Loy in Cheaper By The Dozen hahaha!

  98. 98.

    AM in NC

    I hate Thom Thillis with the fire of a thousand suns.  He destroyed representative government at the state level in NC, and then wants to pose as what passes for a GOP moderate these days at the national level.

    Well, he may occasionally make moderate mouth sounds, but he votes MAGA over 90% of the time, and always when it matters.  He’s a GOON.   I want him beaten in ’26 so fucking badly I can’t hardly stand it.

  99. 99.

    sab

    @Suzanne: I agree, but early on there weren’t those options. Took them ten years at least to giving us decent bulbs.

    Getting someone to rewire your lamp isn’t much of a solution. Who will do it? If you can find someone will they be competent? How much will it cost?

    I have some lamps where I am at stage one. Finding someone.

  100. 100.

    pajaro

    @p.a.:

    Trump hates beauty, in music and art.  The idea of him sitting through even one act of an opera in the Presidential Box at Kennedy Center is unthinkable.  Once the lights went down and he wasn’t the center of attention, he would be left with himself and the music.  He couldn’t do it.  This idea of him naming himself the President of the Board of the Kennedy Center is also a fantasy.  He couldn’t sit through a board meeting of a fine arts organization if his life depended on it.

  102. 102.

    sab

    @TBone: You are about ten years younger than me. We had none of those options. My baby sister had them all. Fed government gave her those options and she has no idea. It was just what was available when she came along and she had no idea why or how hard we fought for it.

    Well, that will all be going away soon.

  105. 105.

    TBone

    @NeenerNeener: thank you!  Maybe people see a bit of where I get my personality (on top of surviving DelCo as a cop’s daughter).  She survived as a cop’s wife, which ain’t easy.  She encouraged him to retire as soon as his pension allowed and put him through college to become a professor of American and Russian history so she could finally sleep again.

  106. 106.

    Suzanne

    @sab: Like I said, most lamps don’t need rewiring. The vast majority of them will work well with LED bulbs. I had a couple of antiques passed down to me that were pretty far from UL listed, so I had them rewired, but I probably didn’t need to do that. And it shouldn’t be too difficult to find someone to do a basic rewire….. other than the chandelier, which needed a specialist, I’ve lived in multiple cities and I’ve never had a difficult time finding a nearby lamp repair service. They even do it at my local family-owned hardware store.

  107. 107.

    MagdaInBlack

    @TBone: In my hs years (72-76) young women were just being allowed in shop classes. Before that it was just not offered to us. My then future FIL taught shop and ag biz and holy cow did that old trad-man throw a fit.

    He adjusted tho =-)

  108. 108.

    sab

    @Baud: Temporary inconvenience?!  Just do your homework and require bulbs that fit the millions of lamps already out there. Any other approach is just incompetence.

  109. 109.

    Geminid

    @sab: It never hurts to start planning. I always recommend people draw out the perimeters of a yard on paper and sketch in projected beds, trees etc. Quarter inch graph paper works well. You can get one of those 4-color pens if you want more excitement in your life!

    In the meantime, you can stick some sunflower seed in on the edges. They’ll add some color and make the birds and the bees happy.

    And Crimson Clover is good to sow broadcast. It will grow up amidst the grass and/or weeds.That will add color and helps build up the soil. Crimson Clover is an annual and won’t get in the way of longer term plantings. It’ll grow about 15″ tall until you mow it.

    I think Crimson Clover is the prettiest of all the clovers. It’s often found in wildflower mixes, but the best way to buy it is at an agricultural supply store. Usually it comes in 3lb bags. The Madison, Virginia farmer’s co-op sells it by the pound

  110. 110.

    TBone

    @sab: I am howling in pain over that. My entire family were teachers, as far back as great grandparents. I read somewhere yesterday that the Dept. of Education is NOT going away though.  They best not fuck with THAT too much on my watch!

  111. 111.

    Suzanne

    @pajaro:

    Trump hates beauty, in music and art.

    Apparently his favorite song is “Memory” from Cats, and his favorite movie is Citizen Kane.

  114. 114.

    MrPug

    Lawmakers, including Republicans, have asked for clarity from the White House about the scope of Musk’s team’s access to data, including classified and personal information, this week. Some also expressed confusion about what is going on.

    Way to do your jobs “lawmakers”! That’ll really show, and (not fucking) stop the DOGEbros. JFC can the Republican congressfuckers be any more worthless?

  115. 115.

    sab

    @Suzanne: The lampshades was the issue. Clip on lampshades (most of them back then) couldn’t handle twirly bulbs. I stockpiled to get me over the hump. Now I can get bulbs that fit.

    If I paid to  rewire everything to accept twirly bulbs and harp friendly lampshades and then we got old lamp friendly new bulbs I would be incandescent with rage. That is why I stockpiled old bulbs.

  117. 117.

    Ohio Mom

    @Baud: Thanks for this, I was unaware of this story. Lincoln Heights is only a few miles from me. It’s amazing what what you don’t find out reading the local paper. I stopped watching the local TV news long ago, too many fires and car crashes, maybe they would have covered this.

    Lincoln Heights has an infuriating history. It’s always been a Black neighborhood, right next to the huge GE campus. Somehow (shark) when the suburbs started getting incorporated, the GE campus got included into a white suburban city, relegating Lincoln Heights to poverty without a strong tax base. It’s a perfect example for a critical race theory presentation.

    For more detail: https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/07/lincoln-heights-black-suburb/398303/

  119. 119.

    Another Scott

    @Baud: +1, but save some room for …

    Warum sind Eier immer noch so teuer?

    ¿Por qué los huevos siguen siendo tan caros?

    Yumurtalar neden hala bu kadar pahalı?

    чому яйця досі такі дорогі?

    Miért olyan drága még mindig a tojás?

    რატომ არის კვერცხები ასე ძვირი?

    Etc.

    Best wishes,
    Scott.

  120. 120.

    AM in NC

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:  Another HIGHLY mockable moment.   If I had videographer skills, I’d be filming videos where Trump announces that he’s fired all the Oscar Voters and replaced them with himself.

    Fired all the Emmy voters and replaced them with himself and that the Emmy Board just announced a yuuuuuuuuuge mistake they are now correcting. The Apprentice is now the winner of Best Reality Show and Donald Trump is the winner of Best Reality Show Host”

    Just mock this fatherfucker to hell and beyond, and make him a laughingstock even unto his MAGAchoads.

    We need the Pritzker and the Angus King approaches, I think.

  121. 121.

    TBone

    @Another Scott: I can still read German!  I thought I’d lost most of that ability from not exercising that muscle…of course, context helped things along, a lot.

  122. 122.

    prostratedragon

    @Baud:  I’ve known the expression “dipshit” for many decades, but I must thank Tim Walz for alerting me to how widely applicable it is these days

  123. 123.

    Jeffro

    @TBone:DOGEshits coming for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau next.  Man the phone lines!  I hope people gather together to protect the CFPB because its mission is to help protect us.

    Jeffries or AOC or Warren or whomever might want to keep a running list up every time they put in a press appearance:

    Left side: THINGS WRECKED BY MUSK/TRUMP*

    *yes in that order  =)

    and just keep listing them in as plain language as possible…”YOUR PRIVACY”, “TREASURY”, “FOOD AID TO POOR COUNTRIES”, “CONSUMER PROTECTION”, etc

    Right side: THINGS STILL WAITING ON MUSK/TRUMP

    and just list a new one each day…”INFLATION”, “AFFORDABLE HOUSING”, etc

  125. 125.

    TBone

    @Jeffro: McSweeney’s is keeping The Lists but your idea, for politicians (who can easily plagiarize the source material) is even better – it’s Tony the Tiger

    Grrrreat!

  126. 126.

    Ohio Mom

    @sab: I’ve had some luck calling Moreno’s office. I go down the list on his web page, calling every Ohio office, and around once every three or so days, I get a person. I think the last time it was the Cleveland office, another time it was the Cincinnati office. But yes, most of the time, it’s voice mail and they are full half the time.

    He has offices in D.C., Cleveland, Cincinnati and Columbus but not Toledo, why doesn’t northwest Ohio get any love?

    Husted still only has a D.C. office and a voice mailbox which may or may not be full. I wonder how long he’ll skate on “I only just got appointed.” He’s the opposite of hit-the-ground-running.

  127. 127.

    lowtechcyclist

    @FelonyGovt: ​
     

    These kinds of petty, spiteful edicts- Kennedy Center! Plastic straws! – only do more to make it look like Trump is just a figurehead and that Time cover was accurate.

    Exactly – he’s handling trivial stuff while Elon’s doing the big stuff. The big orange baby has his pacifier.

  128. 128.

    AM in NC

    @Baud:  Is it immoral for we “Libs” to start claiming we absolutely hate to consume strychnine because it’s so MAGA-coded that no liberal should ever, ever be seen consuming it”?

    I hate that this is where my thoughts have been moved to.  I don’t want to feel such anger and metaphorical violence toward these people.  I don’t want ANY kind of violence.  But they are getting people killed, gleefully, and it’s only going to increase drastically from here.

    I am talking about these thoughts because I NEVER want them made manifest, and that means stopping this shit now, however we can.

  129. 129.

    TurnItOffAndOnAgain

    @NobodySpecial: Interesting. My theory was that Dems in the House and Senate were initially holding their powder because of the special elections this year, given the razor-thin margin of the Republican majority.

    If a +21 district in Iowa is gettable, does that mean the one’s in Florida could possibly be in play? Florida’s not Iowa, after all. But I wonder if they think it’s possible.

    There are also other rumblings, but I don’t know if I believe them…

  131. 131.

    Another Scott

    @NeenerNeener:

    … she can’t talk about it on this phone number and to give them the number of the local FBI office.

    [ chef’s kiss ]

    “Does your mother know that you’re trying to scam old ladies and make them homeless? Do you think she’s proud of you?”

    Grr…

    Best wishes,
    Scott.

  132. 132.

    Suzanne

    @lowtechcyclist: FFOTUS appeals to the deep emotional desire for performance/showmanship, and retribution. (Call it “The Melodramatic Style of American Politics”.) FElon wants power to actually do something bad with it. Right now, they serve one another’s ends well. I wonder if that will continue.

  133. 133.

    Jeffro

    @Baud:The plastic straw thing is a sop to the MAGA base. Like gas stoves. Their base really enjoys policy trinkets that make libs cry.

    Yup.

    He’s addressing every last bit of made-up crisis and every last rage-bait segment that he ever saw on Fox News.

    You watch…he’ll put out an E.O. stating that meat can never be banned anywhere and one proclaiming that shower heads must be able to go ‘full throttle’.

    Just go back through old Fox clips and you’ll be able to see the next dozen E.O.s

  134. 134.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Baud: ​
     

    Don’t forget more efficient light bulbs!

    Remember when you always had to keep a bunch of spare light bulbs around because they needed replacing so often? I recently had to change a bulb, and I think the last time before that was last spring or early summer. Why anyone would want to go back to incandescents is beyond me.

  136. 136.

    Chief Oshkosh

    Tillis’ bullshit line is being repeated by other Republicans. “Everyone should calm down. I haven’t seen [insert crime of the day]” means “I have carefully avoided any news at all about this particular dumpster fire and nobody has ripped me a new asshole over that, so how can it truly be a thing?”

    I sure hope NC citizens are ripping him and his staff a whole bunch of new assholes.

  137. 137.

    Jeffro

    @Suzanne:one of my neighbors put up an enormous (like 8′ long at least) banner across their front yard that read “TRUMP 2020 MAKE LIBERALS CRY AGAIN”. That’s really it, in a nutshell. They hate us and want to destroy what liberalism has built, because they’re mean

    Yup.

    They’ve been well-conditioned over the past three decades to just reflexively want the opposite of whatever we want (or whatever they think we want, or whatever someone coughFoxNewscough tells them we want)

    They’re our own home-grown North Koreans at this point.  Extremely gullible to anyone with a big enough megaphone and the right words.

  138. 138.

    AM in NC

    @Chief Oshkosh:  We are.  And his staffers sound sad.    I am hoping to peel some of them away for the future by repeating ALL of us have to make a choice: Team USA or Team Musk/Trump.    That’s it.

  142. 142.

    Another Scott

    @What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: I was flabbergasted when I set up an online account with UPS (I think it was) years ago.  They wanted to verify my identity, so I had to answer a bunch of multiple choice questions about valid addresses from my past.  They had things going back decades.  It was kinda creepy.

    But, yeah, it’s too easy for people and companies to get names and addresses and much, much more about us.  Our individual protection seems to be a member of a giant murmuration of potential victims, and not much else.

    [ sigh ]

    Best wishes,
    Scott.

  143. 143.

    Kay

    “I don’t like the turbulence, I don’t like the chaos”- says Trump voter

    JFC – the dumbest people on the planet

  144. 144.

    Geminid

    @Jeffro: I saw a couple early polls on the Virginia Governor race, released about a month ago. An Emerson College poll showed Democrat Abigail Spanberger leading Republican Winsome Earl-Sears 42 to 41%, with 13% “Undecided” and 4% saying “Other.” The last number might reflect a small boomlet for former Rep. Denver Riggleman, who is teasing a run for Governor as a libertarian.

    And a Mason Dixon poll showed Spanberger ahead of Earl-Sears, 47 to 44%.

  147. 147.

    sab

    @Baud: We stockpiled because we thought (everyone told us) they were going away. I would love to not have a shelf of those dinosaur bulbs, but I did not want to replace all my lamps and/or lampshades

    ETA Terrible marketing on their side (who is they?)  but it is what it is ( or was).

  148. 148.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @Suzanne: You and Baud should get a room. ;)

    There really are fixtures (lamps, ceiling, etc.) that don’t play well with anything other than incandescent bulbs, producing a flicker from non-incandescent bulbs that, in my experience, not everyone is able to discern. So, they’re not “just utter idiots;” their equipment and their experience is different from yours.

    I have two such lamps, and there’s no rhyme or reason to it with regards to era of design and purchase compared to the reset of my fixtures. I tried every new bulb used in all my other fixtures, and all failed (and it was quite an assortment as I was a very early adopter of non-incandescent bulbs). I replaced the guts of one of those lamps with guts of another I snagged from dumpster diving; problem solved. The other lamp isn’t used enough for me to bother with.

    But it’s a thing.

  149. 149.

    Starfish (she/her)

    @NeenerNeener: Is she in a state where porn was recently banned? Any list of people in such states could have leaked and given these scammers information to work with. If this is what happened, it is amusing that legislators, by banning porn, just made it easier to menace their residents for crypto.

  151. 151.

    Another Scott

    @sab: Early LED bulbs weren’t anywhere near as power efficient as ones these days.  They generated a lot of heat, and heat kills LEDs, so they had to be bigger to have heat sinks to get rid of the heat.  That’s why they often didn’t fit in older harps.

    As they get better at making the LED materials, better circuit designs and better at making the electronics that convert AC wall power to DC for the LEDs, create more efficient phosphors that convert the light from the LEDs into pleasing colors that our eyes like, etc., etc., they can make the bulbs smaller, cheaper, more efficient, and longer lasting, and in more sizes that fit more fixtures.

    They wouldn’t have had the money to make those improvements unless people were willing to buy a lot of those too-big bulbs years ago.

    It’s yet another illustration of technological progress, especially in the mass-market consumer space.

    HTH!

    Best wishes,
    Scott.

  152. 152.

    Starfish (she/her)

    @NeenerNeener: During the end of Republican presidencies, such scams are often up because Republicans don’t do anything for consumer protections.

  154. 154.

    Jackie

    @Geminid:

    TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — President Donald Trump -endorsed candidates Jimmy Patronis and Randy Fine won their Republican primaries in the special elections to replace former Florida Reps. Matt Gaetz and Mike Waltz, notching wins in reliably conservative districts.
    Republicans are expected to hold the seats following the general election April 1.
    Patronis will advance to the general election to face Gay Valimont, who ran unopposed for the Democratic nomination in the race for the northwest Florida seat.

    Fine will advance to the general election to face Democrat Josh Weil, a public school teacher from Orlando.

  155. 155.

    Miss Bianca

    @Suzanne: Yeah, Thom Tillis says “I’ve been assured” that everything is hunky-dory with Elon, baby, so REMAIN CALM, EVERYBODY!

  156. 156.

    Nukular Biskits

    Good mornin’, y’all!

    Another work day here the Left Coast.  Six more days until I get off the treadmill!*

     

     

    *Inside joke just for that damned Baud … LOL

  157. 157.

    Central Planning

    @Chief Oshkosh:

    “Everyone should calm down. I haven’t seen [insert crime of the day]”

    “You can’t see it when your head is up your ass!” seems like a good response.

  158. 158.

    Another Scott

    @sab: Curly fluorescent bulbs were kind of a transition thing.  They were more efficient than incandescent bulbs, but (as you say) they contain mercury, and they require high voltages to start the electrical discharge in the bulb that generates the light, so they need much more complicated electrical circuits than LED bulbs.  It’s hard to tune the color of the light as well, especially compared to LEDs.  They were always going to lose out to LEDs in the consumer space.

    We had some compact fluorescent bulbs for a while, maybe 20 years ago.  One in a torch lamp started smoking one evening – the transformer burned up.  Glad we were there at the time…  :-/

    Best wishes,
    Scott.

  160. 160.

    Suzanne

    @Chief Oshkosh: Yes, I know that flicker can happen. Mostly in older lamps. Hence the suggestion to rewire.

    Last time I had a lamp rewired, which was about 18 months ago, it cost approximately $30, which included a new switch, as well.

    I’m a bit of an Old Lighting Enjoyer, plus I’m frugal. I understand the hesitance around switching to the fluorescents, which really were a PITA to use and recycle. But LED is a significantly superior technology in every way. Absolutely pencils out, and quickly.

  163. 163.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @AM in NC: That’s encouraging to hear that NCers are ripping him. Hopefully he’ll have some embarrassing moments in front of cameras, too.

  164. 164.

    Suzanne

    @Miss Bianca:

    Yeah, Thom Tillis says “I’ve been assured” that everything is hunky-dory with Elon, baby, so REMAIN CALM, EVERYBODY!

    Do you think any of these GOP clowns ever feel even a flicker of shame or embarrassment for having to say shit like this? For FSM’s sake.

  165. 165.

    Quinerly

    @sab:

    I totally understand this. I have a pretty extensive collection of antique lamps….most my grandmother had converted from oil to electric many years ago. Cut glass, milk glass, blown glass. Luckily, along the way, my dad updated and rewired most of the lamps in the 1970’s. I rewired the last of them a few years back. With the original LED bulbs, the harps were a huge issue.

    I bought a large supply of the reproduction Edison bulbs. I like the light they give thru the shades. I have the “amber” ones.  They work with all my harps that I couldn’t replace/update a few years back.

  167. 167.

    stinger

    OP:  I thought the tiki torch in the Jack Ohman cartoon was a nice touch. And Tillis’s “he probably needs to tighten it up” = “Stop telling people what’s going on.”

    Now, on to reading the comments!

  168. 168.

    TBone

    Hubby is out getting more waterproof bandage tape because I decided my professional know how is good enough to rewrap around Noah’s tube so as not to traumatize him with hospital visits two days in a row.  Just enough to keep all foreign matter out of his incision!

    That was an expensive mistake they made yesterday also too (I normally like loose women but not this loose!)

  171. 171.

    Quinerly

    @pajaro:

    I looked it up it confirm…. he never  attended the Kennedy Center.

    The report I read on this said he indicated  he would be dictating programming and specifically declared that he would end events featuring performers in drag.

    In a statement later on its website, the Kennedy Center said it was aware of Trump’s post. “We have received no official communications from the White House regarding changes to our board of trustees,” the statement said. “We are aware that some members of our board have received termination notices from the administration.”

    In his post, Trump did not clarify which board of trustee members he would terminate besides the current chairman, philanthropist David Rubenstein.

    Rubenstein was first elected to the post in 2010 and reelected each year since that time. He was originally appointed to the Kennedy Center board by Republican President George W. Bush and subsequently reappointed by Democratic President Barack Obama and Biden.

    The current board features Biden’s WH press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, as well as Mike Donilon, Biden’s longtime ally, and Stephanie Cutter, a former Obama adviser. The treasurer of the center’s board of trustees is television producer Shonda Rhimes.

    The current board also includes Pam Bondi and Lee Greenwood.

  173. 173.

    p.a.

    @Another Scott: I bought LOTS of the curly fluorescents from Bldg 19 (ask a Masshole😉) at $.99 each when they were $5 each or more retail.  Might have a few left, and yes, whenever they burn out I think an electric motor somewhere in the house is flaming out.

    (The bulbs were in a chest-high gaylord and I had to shake the ones in boxes without cellophane windows to listen for the tinkle of broken glass to avoid buying junk.  Those who knew Bldg 19  understand.  I miss those stores.)

  179. 179.

    Kay

    Mexican Americans tell me undocumented are getting picked up –  “deported” –  and then showing up for work the next day.

    Theyre calling it MAGA – Mexicans always get around :)

    I suppose there’s no way to verify what they’re actually doing but relying on Trump Administration officials for actual information seems unwise.

  184. 184.

    Miss Bianca

    @Suzanne: I think in order to be a modern Republican politician you have to have your sense of shame surgically removed. Because I have never seen a flicker of shame or remorse or even recognition from these bozos that the party line they are parroting is eye-wateringly, insultingly STOOPID.

  185. 185.

    Harrison Wesley

    @TBone: That sounds like sabotage. Wonder if that’s the same line I used to ride when I lived in Sharon Hill (very long time ago).

  187. 187.

    Quinerly

    @Chief Oshkosh:

    You understand these old lamps. TY.

    I, too, stockpiled some of the old bulbs a few years back. Got me over the hump. Like I said up thread, I now use the reproduction Edison bulbs in these antique lamps.

  188. 188.

    Geminid

    @schrodingers_cat: My knowledge is common-place on the horticultural side. I’m good at grading problems though, and at hardscape design including paving. I’ve got time for some free consultation if you want to get a front pager to forward your email address to me.

  190. 190.

    CliosFanBoy

    @sab:

      Fairfax County in Virginia accept them at their landfill sites at the Household Hazardous Waste section, along with old fluorescent bulbs, old cans of paint, household chemicals, bug killers,, etc.

  192. 192.

    Mike E

    @Chief Oshkosh: Sadly, the citizens of NC, of which I was one for 36 years until recently moving home to PA, will be no source of joy regarding any political awakening in the near/midterm future. NC Dem party chair Anderson Clayton is doing heroic work to resurrect them from the ashes and deserves your praise and support, she’s got her work cut out for her.

    Late to the sad news about Villago’s passing, I’ve had a few pleasant interactions here with him and looked forward to his pithy denouncements of the village of idiots and thieves…he’ll be missed.

  193. 193.

    lowtechcyclist

    (ETA: I see sab beat me to it, but I’ll leave this here anyway for the additional details.)

    @Suzanne:

    Like I said, most lamps don’t need rewiring.

    If I understood sab correctly, the issue wasn’t rewiring.  Many lamps, especially smaller ones, had lampshades that clipped directly onto the bulb, rather than attaching to the lamp itself. (We still have a few of those.)  So they didn’t work with the CFLs (the ‘twirly’ bulbs, I’m guessing) or with some of the more oddly-shaped early LEDs.  (I still have a few LEDs from early on that are shaped like an English muffin, only not quite as thick.  They’re fine in most lamps, but those sorts of shades won’t clip to those either.)​

  198. 198.

    Harrison Wesley

    @p.a.: He showed up for all the events long enough to get his picture taken. Notorious for never making donations.

  199. 199.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @Chief Oshkosh:

    There really are fixtures (lamps, ceiling, etc.) that don’t play well with anything other than incandescent bulbs, producing a flicker from non-incandescent bulbs that, in my experience, not everyone is able to discern. So, they’re not “just utter idiots;” their equipment and their experience is different from yours.

    I have two such lamps, and there’s no rhyme or reason to it with regards to era of design and purchase compared to the reset of my fixtures. I tried every new bulb used in all my other fixtures, and all failed (and it was quite an assortment as I was a very early adopter of non-incandescent bulbs). I replaced the guts of one of those lamps with guts of another I snagged from dumpster diving; problem solved. The other lamp isn’t used enough for me to bother with.

    But it’s a thing.

    Precisely.  Anybody who’s worked in historic preservation/restoration has wrestled with this issue and we’ve run into the same issues as you’ve described.

    Yeah, we have gone over to LEDs as much as we can.  In some cases, they’ve been a massive improvement (ignoring the longevity/energy component) particularly if one’s looking for an old-fashined filament bulb that’s representative of an historical look.

    Anybody who came to the Denver meetup would have seen an example of that in our living room ceiling light: a modern spider design with old-style filament bulbs, LED.

    There’s also how rooms present in both kinds of lighting. And as mentioned by somebody else earlier and not making sweeping pronouncements, it’s taken the bulb people a decade to get anywhere close to that “soft glow” of incandescence.  Also too, often there’s something as mundane-sounding as lamp shades have driven the continued use of incandescent.

    LEDs have over time been a godsend in a variety of ways but lumping people who still have some requirement for older bulbs into the mass of Cleek’s Law following rwnjs is, as usual, missing the point.

  200. 200.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @Another Scott:

    Curly fluorescent bulbs were kind of a transition thing.

    Heh heh, we bought a slew of those back in Misery and still have a couple we’re trying to “use up”.  I’ve got one in the little lamp that hangs over the dormer alcove where my desk sits.  The damn things don’t burn out.

    But yeah, they’re usage is very limited.

    My grandmother’s kitchen light was one of those ring fluorescent fixtures that were everywhere in WV farm houses back in the day.  Basically an energy-saving equivalent of the LED.  You don’t see those anymore.

  204. 204.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @Nukular Biskits:

    Yup.  We’ve got probably a dozen in the basement.  We’re still using one fixture that uses the 4′ tubes in the laundry room and the bulbs/tubes came with the place.

    I’ve seen places that do them but charge.  And they tend not to take small, piddly amounts from residential users like us “too hard for us to process” is the excuse I get even when I’m there to pay for being green.  A local example:

    https://www.ridwell.com/pickup-categories/iPAvL0v8

  206. 206.

    brendancalling

    Many of the people complaining keep voting for Trump’s nominees (Angus King, looking at you, dipshit).

     

    maybe they could, you know, do something other than cry about it.

  207. 207.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Another Scott: ​
     

    We had some compact fluorescent bulbs for a while, maybe 20 years ago

    I still have a few CFLs in lamps around the house. Eventually they’ll all die, but they have a long lifetime, so it’ll take a while. They’re working fine, so there’s no reason to get rid of them.

    I think I still have one leftover mixed 4-pack of incandescents tucked away in the basement. I have no need or desire to use them, so I should just toss them.

  209. 209.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @Geminid:

    Good for NY Assembly Democrats for playing political hard ball.

    We’re in a cold civil war and it’s no time for the usual Dem “bring a knife to a gun fight” mentality.  Glad to see they, as a group, are gonna fight back appropriately.

  211. 211.

    artem1s

    I think calling state reps will probably be as helpful. normies and state’s right wingnuts have been tod the lie that federal workers are freeloaders for so long they think this is winning. they don’t understand how dollars flow down to state agencies. Businesses too. make sure you’re supporting businesses that aren’t wiping away their public support of LGBTQ, strong labor laws, providing good benefits, providing living wages, and protecting their minority workers from harassment. Write letters, emails, fill out surveys expressing disappointment to those who appear to be bending the knee.
    All sectors in all areas need to be reminded that dollars and profit come from the bottom up. If you bust your union they aren’t going to have money to buy your products anymore. Whether they bend the knee to TCF or not, at the end of the day if they impoverish 99% of the population eventually all their money won’t be able to buy them anything if their is double digit inflation. And TCF isn’t going to care when they lose everything in the next stock market crash.

  215. 215.

    Kristine

    @Geminid: I’d love to see this. I will need at least one new sidewalk and a driveway in the next year or so but have no idea what’s possible beyond the standard concrete or asphalt strip.

  216. 216.

    Geminid

    @Kristine: I’ll try to “git ‘er done” by April. Then I can take questions. I am a sort of “Jack of All Trades,” but I’m good at paving and paving design.

  217. 217.

    Trivia Man

    @p.a.: i send $25 a month in my moms name to PP. i have tried so many times to have a conversation with her, she just refuses to answer then gushes out a flood of republican lies.

    I ask, Do you support murdering abortion doctors? Ignored. Repeat over the course of a week. Finally get a 500 word spew.
    Of course not, all murder is bad. And joe biden murders healthy babies after birth and calls it a choice abortion.

    Then she ignores every follow up. I am low contact with her.

  218. 218.

    bluefoot

    Listening to a live town hall conference call given by my Congressperson about what Musk and DOGE are doing, and protecting our private and financial information.  She calls what DOGE and Musk are doing is straight up illegal.  Right now she is outlining current actions and immediate-to-short term plans in Congress to block and undo what DOGE and Musk are doing.

    The Q&A should be interesting.  She is talking now about how we need to try everything because in the current environment, we 1) need to keep up the pressure and 2) we don’t know what is going to work and there’s no “one weird trick.”.

    She came to my door when she first ran for Congress.  We ended up having a long talk about civil engagement, concerns about development, gentrification and housing inequality in greater Boston.

  219. 219.

    Suzanne

    @lowtechcyclist: Agreed that the swirly bulbs were bad for clip-on lampshades. But there’s clip-on adapters for lampshades for LED bulbs (if you still need them, that is) available on Amazon for approx. $3. As the Department of Energy notes:

    Residential LEDs — especially ENERGY STAR rated products — use at least 75% less energy, and last up to 25 times longer, than incandescent lighting.

    Widespread use of LED lighting has a large potential impact on energy savings in the United States. By 2035, the majority of lighting installations are anticipated to use LED technology, and energy savings from LED lighting could top 569 TWh annually by 2035, equal to the annual energy output of more than 92 1,000 MW power plants.

    So, I figure, it’s a good thing to move toward. I see it similar to electric cars….. not yet perfect, but an advance. I’ve had my current car for 10 years and plan to drive it into the ground, and then make the switch.

  220. 220.

    Trivia Man

    @TBone: I loved that book, never saw the original movie. It gave me a new way to think about working. (Perfect for that Medium Cool topic weve been discussing!)

  221. 221.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @Geminid:

    Then, Dems in general, need to find ways or start acting in ways to get around that widely held perception, trope or not.  I’ve spent a week immersed in this as me and MM have related here and that trope was one constantly repeated in various ways by a lot of different people.

    It’s why when prominent Dems speak out the way they do (AOC, Warren, Crockett, etc), it’s applauded for countering that perception.

    There are other ways as well.  One of the best people at bringing a gun to a gun fight, in the Senatorial arena, was Harry Reid.  No flash, just his boxers grit and style.

    And again, kudos for the NY Assembly for remembering that politics is a blood sport, particularly at this point in our country’s history.

  222. 222.

    bluefoot

    She says, “Help us translate how what is happening is harming you and your communities. Telling us your stories gives us ammunition for legal action, legislative action, and to stand up against what is happening.” She wants her constituents to keep calling and emailing and showing up.

  223. 223.

    zhena gogolia

    Do people realize that Doge and Il Duce are the same word?

    Noun
    duce (usually uncountable, plural duci)

    (fascism) an authoritarian leader, especially Benito Mussolini

    Borrowed from Latin dux, ducis (“leader”). Compare the likewise borrowed doublets duca and doge.

  225. 225.

    different-church-lady

    @Geminid: ​I partially agree with what you’re saying. But watching a significant number of our supposed party leaders curling up into a fetal ball for an entire summer really rattled my ability to give them any faith.

  228. 228.

    TurnItOffAndOnAgain

    @Geminid: Yeah. We’ve got to start internalizing that that’s a destructive narrative the GOP set up, and there’s a lot of time where we think we’re resisting group-think by criticizing Democrats when we’re actually submitting to the opposite party’s group think.

    You’re not a follower, are you? Then you’ll do what everyone else is doing and say that Democrats suck!!

    We’ve gotta shake that off to get to actual good faith criticism that can hold its tongue for the sake of political expedience when it needs to.

  229. 229.

    zhena gogolia

    @different-church-lady: Yes. I was disgusted by the pusillanimity of elected Democrats in refusing to support our incumbent president last summer. But now? The American people did not give them the power to do anything. So I support them in whatever feeble efforts they are still able to make. It’s too late, but they’re doing what they can.

  230. 230.

    Trivia Man

    @Suzanne: I winder if he ever watched tge whole thing. Awfully long movie for him. But its about a rich guy and critics say BEST EVER! So he thinks it makes him look cultured. Plus, easy to remember and say. Culture signaling is my bet.

  231. 231.

    different-church-lady

    @TurnItOffAndOnAgain:

    …there’s a lot of time where we think we’re resisting group-think by criticizing Democrats when we’re actually submitting to the opposite party’s group think.

    You’d think we wouldn’t need to explain the difference. But last summer proved me very very very wrong.

  234. 234.

    Starfish (she/her)

    @Kay: That issue is going on in Colorado. There was an ICE raid hoping to catch 100 El Tren de Aragua, and they got maybe one?

  236. 236.

    Matt McIrvin

    @TurnItOffAndOnAgain: The first rise of Trump really alerted me to the way that even criticism “from the left” can be bad-faith ratfucking. All the supposed socialists and critics of American empire who went MAGA. Hey folks, he’s threatening to invade Canada now!

  238. 238.

    dnfree

    I haven’t read all the comments here yet, but the Pitchbot was mentioned today in electoral-vote.com in their Saturday Q&A. The reference is a link in the original.
    —————————

    C.A. in Tucker, GA, asks: This was the top headline in The New York Times on Thursday afternoon: “Trump’s Gaza Plan Has Many Pitfalls, Hamas Among the Biggest.” The subhead: “President Trump’s proposal to ‘own’ Gaza and transfer its population elsewhere has stirred condemnation and sarcasm, but it is an opening bid and could disrupt a tired diplomatic paradigm.”

    Why does the Times keep sane-washing Trump, including his plans for ethnic cleansing? What on earth is going on at that newspaper?

    (V) & (Z) answer: Headlines and subheads are written by copy editors, who are trained to keep them as neutral as is possible. And that headline and sub were for a piece that struggled with the same question we struggle with every day: There’s gotta be SOME logical plan here, right? RIGHT? He doesn’t REALLY want to ethnically cleanse Gaza, right? RIGHT?

    So, we do understand how the Times ends up with pieces like this one (though this particular one isn’t very good), and with headlines and subheads like these. That said, the paper’s tendencies towards sanewashing and bothsidesism are obvious enough, and problematic enough, that it’s hurting the Times’ reputation. It should say something to the leadership that the New York Times pitchbot has nearly 200,000 followers on BlueSky.

  239. 239.

    Trivia Man

    @Another Scott: And that herd anonymity used to be pretty good. But newer computing is so powerful it can quickly sort through that enormous pile of raw information and make connections.

    Like the cities that track every license plate that crosses the city line. The ability to film every car is decades old, the game changer is instant cross matching to identity and every appearance on every road that car has ever made.

  240. 240.

    different-church-lady

    @dnfree: ​

    Why does the Times keep sane-washing Trump, including his plans for ethnic cleansing?

    Because they’re down with it. And it’s not the first time.

  241. 241.

    Geminid

     

     

    @comrade scotts agenda of rage: I think Democrats would do well to learn more about the individuals in our 215 member House caucus. I plan to contribute to that in coming weeks by profiling the new members elected last November.

    Some like Janelle Bynum (OR) and Derek Tran (CA), who flipped Republican seats, especially interest me but they all seem solid.

  242. 242.

    Trivia Man

    Random good news: my downy woodpecker is back for a 4th year. Every morning between 6-8 am he stops by to hammer the metal flashing on the chimney a few times. Just saying, HELLO WORLD!!.

  243. 243.

    Thor Heyerdahl

    @Trivia Man: “Hey Donald what’s the name of his sled?”

    “A sled, what kind of idiot would use a sled? You know, just the other day this big, strong guy came up to me with tears in his eyes and he told me ‘Dear Mr. Trump it’s incredible what you’ve done as president, we don’t have to use sleds anymore…”

  245. 245.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @comrade scotts agenda of rage: There’s nothing Dems can do that will keep the haters from claiming it wasn’t enough and spreading BothSides bullshit.  We’ve seen this play out countless times.  It’s JohnnyUnbeatable in perpetuity and it never changes.  So long as assholes only pay attention to the Dems they can publicly shit on and make that trend to feed the MSM this problem will be with us.  People believe all sorts of irrational shit that isn’t born out by facts and “Dems don’t fight” is an obvious one.  We see it play out right here at BJ all the damn time.  Some LoyalDemBUT (usually a virulent Progressive) claims Dems don’t do X, someone responds with a link showing several examples that, actually, they do and then the hater either moves on to another criticism or nit-picks that Dems still don’t do X well enough.  It’s a fucking constant smear on the Dem brand and this bullshit behavior goes into hyper-drive, the bigger the election that is approaching.  These are the assholes who tanked our candidates to deliver Republicans to power in 2024, 2016, 2000.  They are the problem.

  248. 248.

    Geminid

    @different-church-lady: Yes, the events of June and July were demoralizing. So was the controversy over the war in Gaza.

    I think we need to move beyond those events. They were singular and unusual, and don’t provide much good guidance moving forward, just plenty of grounds for recrimination and grudge holding.

  249. 249.

    cmorenc

    @AM in NC: So…who is the Ds strongest candidate to run against Tillis? Roy Cooper? Advangages of Cooper are winning trac record + the relative unlikelihood of distracting surprises, such as the messy extramarital affair of Cal Cunningham, who on resume (ex-military, etc) seemed the perfect fit for cutting a big enough slice of the middle of the NC electorate to win against Tillis.

  251. 251.

    Suzanne

    @Thor Heyerdahl: No, no way.

    “Sleds?! As you know, we make the best sleds, they’re yuge. Just the other day, a Marine, he came up to me with tears in his eyes, and he said, ‘Sir, thank you for replacing our sleds, we’d been trying to replace them for years, but the nasty Democrats said that sleds had been canceled’. But we’re bringing sleds back.”

  254. 254.

    bluefoot

    What’s interesting about the Q&A is the subtext for a lot of the questions is that people are looking for leadership – both in the federal government, and what we can do as individuals.

  255. 255.

    Trivia Man

    @NotMax: Thurber was a genius. I recently learned that he and EB White launched their careers together with the book Is Sex Necessary. A spoof if pop psychology popular at the time.

  257. 257.

    Geminid

    @cmorenc: I thonk Roy Cooper ran almost 300,000 votes ahead of Joe Biden in 2020, so he’s definitely a proven vote getter.

    Jeff Jackson, North Carolina’s new Democratic Attorney General, seems like a promising politician as well. A former U.S. Representative, Jackson is fairly new in statewide office, but he won’t be in 2028 when the mediocre Sen. Ted Budd will face reelection.

  258. 258.

    Suzanne

    @NotMax: “Isn’t that so terrible that sleds had been canceled? Very nasty, they’re so nasty.”

    LMAO. Is there a FFOTUS-speak generator? I bet DeepSeek can do it.

    The DNC should hold a roast of Elon Musk.

  261. 261.

    zhena gogolia

    Chris Murphy sends an informative e-mail every day. True, it always ends with a plea for cash, but I’m okay with that.

  262. 262.

    TBone

    @Trivia Man: I read the book as a child (thanks again Mom!) before I ever became a cinephile.  The classic era movie is almost as good as the book and I also love Bonnie Hunt with Steve Martin & kids in the newest version.

    ETA Isn’t it amazing how much we can learn, if we’re still malleable!

  264. 264.

    tobie

    I haven’t seen any posts here about the new NIH rules limiting overhead on current and future grants to 15%. Overhead covers everything from lab space, safe disposal of materials to heating and cooling, computer servers, and the personnel that make mammoth grant applications possible. This will kill not only academic medicine but also research universities in the US. It also will kill biomedical sector of the economy. Like every univ employee in the country last night, I got the email that the univ’s finances are on very shaky footing.

  266. 266.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Quinerly:

    I looked it up it confirm…. he never  attended the Kennedy Center.

    The report I read on this said he indicated  he would be dictating programming and specifically declared that he would end events featuring performers in drag.

    Then there’s a number of Shakespeare plays they won’t be performing.

  268. 268.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @Starfish (she/her):

    And that one was at the apartment complex where my wife is doing cat TNR.  She’s had some interesting stories this week about how not just the residents there have been sharing info but the company that owns the apartment complex has been doing quite a bit to keep residents as informed as they can about everything.

    The ICE shit that’s happening is a real galvanizer because of, well everything from the lack of transparency to the underlying fascist aspect of it.

  271. 271.

    Geminid

    @Alce _e_ardillo: Thank you for the correction. Someone here was asking yesterday about the NY21 special.election date. The Albany Times Union sounds like a good source.

    State and local media provide good reporting on stories I hear very little about from “national” news sites. I learned this following Rep. Sharice Davids. Davids more or less disappeared from national media after she was sworn in January of 2019. But I found plenty of stories about her on local and national media, which is where it counts for purple district Democrats like Davids.

  274. 274.

    brantl

    We need to stop calling them DOGE, they’re the department of Zero Efficiency, thereby being DOZE, and since they’re anti-Woke, that seems appropriate, despite being totally useless.

  275. 275.

    Steve LaBonne

    @tobie: I had one above with a link. Thank you for bringing this up. It may seem esoteric but it’s a direct hit on one of this country’s greatest strengths.

  277. 277.

    TBone

    @comrade scotts agenda of rage: also too I posted a news story yesterday that Google has teamed up with the new admin and is recycling old ICE news items to make them look new again and placing them at the top of searches on ICE news (propaganda gone wild).

  278. 278.

    Miss Bianca

    @kalakal: Muskolini, otherwise known as Il Douche.

    Come to think of it, Musky bears more than a passing resemblance to Mussolini. Someone cleverer at teh graphix than I could surely photoshop his flounder face onto Mussolini’s body…

  283. 283.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Suzanne:

    Fortunately, we’ve got enough of a variety of different lighting fixtures that there’s a place for every type of bulb we’ve got.  And the few lamps that are particular about the bulb size and shape, I’ve got newer LEDs in them that work there.

    Eventually I’ll use up the last few CFLs and odd-shaped LEDs that are on the shelf.  It’ll take years because they all last so long, but that’s not something I’d call a problem. :-)

  285. 285.

    NotMax

    Presume y’all have heard or read that Felon 47 has called for resettlement of Afrikaners to the U.S.?

  292. 292.

    Suzanne

    @NotMax: Yes, I saw that this morning. FElon has clearly been whispering in his ear. In case anyone hadn’t been paying attention (unfortunately a horrifyingly large segment of the population)…. immigrants are only a problem for FFOTUS if they’re not white!

  295. 295.

    tobie

    @Steve LaBonne: Thanks for posting about this. Biomedical research has driven American preeminence in new medical equipment, therapies, pharmaceuticals, etc. I really wish university presidents had taken the time over the last decade to explain how basic research leads to new medicines. R&D at pharmaceutical companies cannot replicate this since such research is devoted mostly to turning academic discoveries into marketable products.

    @pika: I hear you. I’m sorry you have to go through this. I feel like I’m too old to start fresh but not old enough to retire yet. It’s terrifying.

  296. 296.

    Suzanne

    @lowtechcyclist: Yeah, the LEDs last so long that backstock lasts a while! We buy most lightbulbs at Costco and the price is great. Has really come down a lot in the last 15 years or so. The chandelier has exposed bulbs, so I spent a little bit more for the warmer light candle-style bulbs.

    Another cool thing I found is a service that makes custom lampshades. When we moved from AZ, one of my lampshades got torn in the move. It was on one of the family heirloom lamps that I had had rewired, and I couldn’t find a shade in a store that would fit it. Problem solved! I would say it was maybe 10% more expensive than one in the store that was about the same size, so that is annoying, but certainly cheaper than a new lamp. As an Old Lighting Enjoyer, I’ve run into most of these issues over the years. Always on the lookout for good stuff on FB Marketplace, yard or estate sales, etc.

  297. 297.

    AM in NC

    @cmorenc:  I’d say Cooper for sure.  He’s already won multiple state-level races.  He also so clearly loves North Carolina and has been scandal free.

    Plus, Southern-sounding, older straight white dood who can’t be easily demonized.  He was a good Governor with a fantastic record to run on (MEDICAID EXPANSION TO SAVE YOUR FUCKING RURAL HOSPITALS, FOLKS).

    I don’t know who else we got that would be close to having the same chance as him.   What do you think?

  298. 298.

    Steve LaBonne

    @tobie: The most horrifying thing is that this was done out of malice, not ignorance. The new NIH director, who was one of the “Great Barrington Declaration” assholes during the pandemic, is an MD and an economist and is professor of health research policy at Stanford. He knows EXACTLY what he is doing and his intent is to destroy biomedical research because it doesn’t conform to the worldview of right-wing ideologues.

  299. 299.

    pika

    @tobie: same boat. I’m not in STEM but the knock-on effects are absolutely terrifying. I’m sorry that you and so many others (many who don’t even know yet) are enduring this

  300. 300.

    AM in NC

    @tobie:  This is going to KILL my state – between UNC system, Duke, Wake Forest and RTP, this is going to be devastating.  And the idiots just do not understand what they are doing.  Just insane.

  301. 301.

    Steve LaBonne

    @tobie: That’s exactly where my sister the Northwestern professor is. And before this she thought she would never retire because she loves her work.

  302. 302.

    Steve LaBonne

    @AM in NC: See my comment. The NIH director DOES understand, and at a level of detail few of us could aspire to. Which makes it even worse.

  303. 303.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Geminid: The problem is there’s always another singular event when there’s a big election approaching.  What’s the old expression about three times being a trend?  I submit: Al Gore, Hillary Clinton and Biden (and then)/Kamala Harris.  A swath of our coalition is constantly in search of a reason to throw (leading Dem candidate) under the bus.  They do it every day right here in the comments on a smaller scale over more minor shit.  But it’s really not hard to predict who will spend election year bashing Dems instead of trying to lift them up.  I could’ve probably named them for you back in 2022.  But they are very loud, relentless and sadly have significant influence in directing the conversations on our side, always steering them towards possible electoral nightmares.  There will always be another Invented-The-Internet, Emailz, He’sOld, Genocide etc., for them to use as a justify their ratfucking.  And they’ll do it again next time.  They are the biggest problem, imo, when it comes to achieving real Unity in our coalition.  They don’t want unity unless it’s on their terms.  And they’ve proven that no stakes are too big for them to change that position.

  307. 307.

    Shana

    @sab: my architect father used to tell the story of a homeowner who called him a few months after moving in to the house to come reattach the spring on his screen door

  320. 320.

    TBone

    @different-church-lady: I still have a full can of Esso motor oil from Dad’s garage that he saved from his mom’s garage.  She (my “Aunt Libby,” step grandma) had a ’65 Mustang.  I still can’t believe Dad sold it for a Honda hahaha!

  322. 322.

    Ohio Mom

    @lowtechcyclist: Can I have the incandescent bulbs? I get all the arguments for those newfangled bulbs but I haven’t yet found one that casts light in a soft enough color for my tastes.

    Also, the chandelier bulbs do not sit properly. I miss incandescents so!

  323. 323.

    Another Scott

    @zhena gogolia: Donnie loves Il Douche, of that there can be little doubt.

    But I’m pretty sure the DOGE name is yet more trolling by Melon, just as he did many times with Dogecoin:

    Musk’s first Dogecoin-related tweet occurred on December 20, 2020. Musk tweeted “One Word: Doge”. Shortly after, the value of Dogecoin rose by 20%.[79] This was followed by a series of Dogecoin-related tweets by Musk in early February 2021 captioned “Dogecoin is the people’s crypto” and “no highs, no lows, only Doge”. Following these tweets, the value of Dogecoin rose by roughly 40%.[79]

    On April 15, 2021, the price of Dogecoin rose by more than 100% after Musk tweeted an image of Joan Miró’s Dog Barking at the Moon painting captioned “Doge Barking at the Moon”,[80] a message which was taken by some as a reference to the industry slang term “to the moon”,[81] meaning a hoped-for increase in a cryptocurrency’s value.[82]

    On May 8, 2021, Dogecoin fell as much as 29.5%, dropping to US$0.49 during Musk’s Saturday Night Live appearance.[83] It then rose by 11% on May 20, 2021, shortly after Musk tweeted a Doge-related meme.[84] In the same month, the price of Dogecoin was up 10% in the hours after Musk tweeted a Reddit link for users to submit proposals to improve the cryptocurrency.[85]

    On December 14, 2021, Dogecoin spiked more than 20% after Musk said that Tesla will accept the currency as a means of payment for Tesla merchandise.[85][86]

    On June 16, 2022, Elon Musk was named in a complaint seeking damages of $258 billion. The complaint was filed in federal court in Manhattan by plaintiff Keith Johnson. Johnson cited Musk’s repeated use of his massive social influence to promote the altcoin, which he claims artificially inflated the price.[87]

    It was reported in 2013 that Musk thinks Dogecoin could be used for Twitter transactions.[88] On October 27, 2022, Elon Musk completed a deal to take Twitter private. This led to a sustained rise in Dogecoin from October 25 to October 29, with Dogecoin increasing as much as 46%.[89]

    Between April 3 and April 7,[90] 2023, Twitter’s bird logo was replaced with an image of the Doge meme for desktop users, leading to a rise in Dogecoin prices.[91] No reason was given for the icon change, with some speculating that it was a late April Fool’s joke,[92] or an attempt to troll investors over the Dogecoin lawsuit that Musk was seeking to end that week.[93]

    […]

    Etc., etc.

    He’s a troll. He trolls about everything. And if he can make some money off the hoi polloi buying and selling magic beans, then of course he’s going to do that too.

    Grr…

    Best wishes,
    Scott.

  325. 325.

    Kayla Rudbek

    @What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: yes, the states’  Attorneys General need to step up.  That reminds me that I should go make a complaint (Virginia will probably not do anything but I do have bank accounts outside Virginia so I could have standing to go after the DOGE data breach in the states where my bank accounts are located). For you non lawyers, standing is whether the court you’re trying to sue in has jurisdiction/authority over you and/or your opponent. The law runs with the turf, so you’re not supposed to be able to sue in, say, California state court if you and/or the opponent have no ties to California.

  327. 327.

    Ebony

    @NeenerNeener: She needs to get ahead of this scam. I have a cousin who was targeted by these scammers. They generated porn on his phone and he got in legal trouble. She needs not only to the FBI, but to the police. Also she needs to get all of her electronics, anything connected to the Internet checked out for generated porn and viruses. She also should check her bank account.

  329. 329.

    BarcaChicago

    @Ohio Mom: I feel the same and only use incandescent bulbs because I have still not found an LED light that doesn’t cause a visceral response from me. For some reason, I’m really sensitive to light in general: I lived in Spain for 10 years and they have a lot of charming old bodegas, but unfortunately they tend to use naked fluorescent lights on the ceiling and it would make me feel almost sick to be in there. Anyway, I buy my incandescent bulbs at the grocery store, or at Lowe’s/Home Depot, etc. They are marketed as appliance bulbs, ceiling fan bulbs, things like that. But easily accessible. I would love to find an LED that I can tolerate – I was gonna say hopefully that will happen soon, but obviously not while we’re struggling through this time of regressive chaos and coup.

  330. 330.

    SW

    If the Democrats can’t spin the billionaires takeover of the federal government into electoral gold in 2026 they need to disband the party and find a new hobby.

  333. 333.

    No One You Know

    @Trivia Man: Love this. I’m hoping for the return of a family of Northern Flickers this spring.  Thru usually turn up when it’s a bit warmer.

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