Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

This fight is for everything.

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

Republicans do not trust women.

Hell hath no fury like a farmer bankrupted.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

Fear or fury? The choice is ours.

GOP baffled that ‘we don’t care if you die’ is not a winning slogan.

Find someone who loves you the way trump and maga love traitors.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

They want us to be overwhelmed and exhausted. Focus. Resist. Oppose.

They are not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

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

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

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

“A king is only a king if we bow down.” – Rev. William Barber

If you voted for Trump, you don’t get to speak about ethics, morals, or rule of law.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

Fight them, without becoming them!

One lie, alone, tears the fabric of reality.

T R E 4 5 O N

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

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

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Sunday Morning Open Thread: Happy Easter!

Sunday Morning Open Thread: Happy Easter!

by | 153 Comments

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A very happy Easter Sunday to those who celebrate. Even if I no longer observe, I can appreciate the importance of a story about overcoming what seems like a final defeat. I also appreciate Victorian greeting cards:

Sunday Morning Open Thread: Happy Easter! 2

I also also appreciate this BBC story from 2016: “Misspelled Acomb sign proclaims ‘Chris is Risen.'” It’s funny aside from the typo:

“The pastor at the Baptist Church is actually called Chris and he’s got to get up for a sunrise service at 6.30am on Easter Sunday.

“His predecessor didn’t manage to get up for the service last year.”

Sunday Morning Open Thread: Happy Easter! 3

Finally, we have this, from Popehat:

Angel of the Lord: He is not here, He is risen, just as He said.
Come and see the place where He lay. And go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead.

Alito: Okay, first of all, this violates ALL sorts of rules

Thomas: This was a LAWFUL execution, who is God to interfere

— Aiding And Abetting Terrorists Hat (@kenwhite.bsky.social) April 20, 2025 at 5:47 AM

The Child is beyond the age of hunting Easter eggs, but she will probably never be too old to enjoy eating a heap of chocolate for breakfast (I got her a KitKat egg and a Malteasers egg – she likes crispy bits in her chocolate, but nothing gooey). She will head up to her English grandfather’s place for lunch, and then spend the second week of her Easter break with her dad. Meanwhile, I will crack on (heh) with laundry, breaking down those pallets, and other forms of productive puttering. Baked chicken thighs and asparagus with lemon orzo for dinner. What’s on your agenda today?

Reader Interactions

153Comments

  1. 1.

    NotMax

    <What’s on your agenda today?

    As it’s barely just past midnight here at the moment (and wide awake), one fervently hopes rising late.

  2. 2.

    oldster

    Alêthôs anestê.  Chris, that is.

    Happy Half-Price Chocolate Eve to all who do not celebrate.

    (This was a friend’s nickname for Valentine’s Day, but it seems as though it ought to apply here as well).

  3. 3.

    bjacques

    Happy Easter!

    Patching some shingles on the roof. In Amsterdam, it’s in the high 50s but sunny.

  4. 4.

    Tony Jay

    My child might be 12, but he’s hunting the hell out of the bunny’s droppings and should, over the course of the day, consume enough sugar to fuel a week of DOGEbrat fuckery in the halls of fallen power.

    Today we drop him at DnD, and since we did our food parcel drop-offs to Liverpool’s unhoused on Friday instead of the usual Sunday, we’ve got the early afternoon free to go have a beer and a game of darts.

    All hail the Time of the Bunny!

  5. 5.

    David_C

    Happy Easter! Since I’m in my church’s choir, singing will take up much of the morning. Two services, and for each one a (loud) anthem and 6-7 hymns. The postlude is an organ and brass rendition of the Hallelujah Chorus, and I will at least hum along.

    My chef SIL will cook dinner and I’ll see the kids and grandkids. Tomorrow is work and more battles.

  9. 9.

    Tony Jay

    @Rose Judson:
    Bright and breezy here too. Three days off work = Garden Chores, but today is for relaxing. Maybe this evening I’ll spend an hour devising sarcastic memes to vent my disgust with J. K. Umbridge and her sorority of spite, as is my wont. Or I’ll get back to work on the Letter from Brexitania I’ve been crafting. Thing is, it’s hard to encapsulate the multi-level awfulness of newnewlabourinc when they just keep on adding new floors and pumping them full of dismal gruel.

    One must try, though. Such is Service.

  10. 10.

    Rose Judson

    @Tony Jay:

    Or I’ll get back to work on the Letter from Brexitania I’ve been crafting. Thing is, it’s hard to encapsulate the multi-level awfulness of newnewlabourinc when they just keep on adding new floors and pumping them full of dismal gruel.

    This is also my problem – the omnishambles of it all. I may have to do a series of short stuff on “why IS Keir Starmer?”

  13. 13.

    Tony Jay

    @Rose Judson:

    why IS Keir Starmer

    Oh, that’s easy. Because Wes Streeting is so repulsively toxic that McSweeny needed someone as hollow as a drum to sneak his True Blue Coup past the Labour membership.

    He’ll be dumped in good time for the next election, so Wes can lead ‘his’ Party into coalition with the rump Conservatives and save us all from Froggy’s Reform mob by adopting all of their policies.

    Am I joking? Time will tell. 

  14. 14.

    Ramalama

    I gave up chocolate for Lent. I may or may not start up again. I’m seriously a junkie. All Day Everyday I Dreamt About Chocolate.

    the only kicker was I allowed myself fruit. But I don’t like fruit except for bananas, oranges when someone else has peeled them for me, and dates. One of our shops carried the world’s best dates, dehydrated, so that it was exactly like eating jelly beans. Those were from Iran. But then they stopped carrying those, and sold a few plump varieties, one of which I liked, but then they stopped carrying them, likely tariff related. And the other options sit in my fridge not worth it. Just lousy in comparison.

    the beauty of this scheme meant I couldn’t overdo the dates. Like physically…if I ate more than 4 or on occasion 6, there would be Consequences.

    Even thinking through my non-chocolate life makes me sound bad.

  15. 15.

    oldster

    @Ramalama:

    Yes, if I had to pick one chocolate substitute, it would probably be dates. A date with an almond inside is sometimes even better.

  17. 17.

    MagdaInBlack

    Last Sunday afternoon I heard many little voices outside and looked to see we were having an egg hunt in the central greenspace here. Plactic colored eggs everywhere and many small folks gathering them. The wee-est ones were not so sure what was up but figured it out while the older ones had a method. ALL eggs were collected and then we had to all sit down and open them, because these parents had put treats in each egg.

    I very much enjoyed the festivities, from my 3rd floor perch, especially the inflatable unicorn egg gathering basket one small person was styling around with.

    Happy Easter

  20. 20.

    Spanky

    Jesus has risen, rolled back the stone covering his tomb, and seen his shadow, thus signifying that we’re in for another 9 weeks of spring.

    Happy Easter, y’all.

  23. 23.

    Betty Cracker

    Happy Easter to all who celebrate!

    We’ll be having waffles for breakfast and later joining Bill’s mom, aunties, siblings nieces, nephews and assorted spouses for Easter dinner. There will be borscht, deviled eggs, baked ham, asparagus, carrots, scalloped potatoes and rolls. Also cheesecake and coconut-pineapple cake for dessert. 

    There will also be Easter chocolates in dishes distributed around the house, and I plan to have some. Hopefully I can locate the foil-wrapped chocolate eggs that contain malted milk centers. Yum!

  27. 27.

    Baud

    I didn’t watch, but this seems like something folks here would enjoy.

    Trump’s authoritarian push stumbles as resistance diversifies and grows (13-minutes) – Rachel Maddow – April 18, 2025

  28. 28.

    eclare

    I am meeting some relatives for lunch at a nice place.  It should be a good time, politics avoided.  I hope the restaurant has what I ordered last year, a modified eggs Benedict with salmon.

  30. 30.

    mrmoshpotato

    @oldster:

    Happy Half-Price Chocolate Eve to all who do not celebrate. 

    And also to (too) those who celebrate.  I see you (tomorrow) Cadbury caramel eggs.

  32. 32.

    mrmoshpotato

    Ham, potatoes, and probably another veggie for Easter dinner.

    Ham for days! (Seven pounds for the three of us.)  Soups are on the horizon.

  34. 34.

    Raven

    Sitting at the dog park with Artie. I don’t think any of her dog friends will show up but it’s nice. My bride had her art opening Thursday and it was a great crowd!

  38. 38.

    eclare

    @Raven:

    Haven’t seen you in a while, great news about your bride’s show!

    What kind of art was it, paintings?  Photography?

  40. 40.

    Raven

    @eclare: Yea, I read most everything but don’t post much. It’s almost like these physical problems are positive and keep me from going off!

  52. 52.

    Sandia Blanca

    @David_C: Another choir singer here! Singing at both services, with breakfast potluck between (we have to feed the brass players!) and a big potluck and Easter festival following the 11 o’clock service. Naps will be in order this afternoon.

  54. 54.

    Geminid

    @oldster: The heck with chocolate substitutes, I want one of those Fix chocolate bars from Dubai! They’re made of milk chocolate with a filling of pistachio, tahini, and kataifa, which is a fried dough in strand-like form. Fix Dessert Chocolatiers can’t produce enough of them at $20 each to satisfy demand, and copycats are so successful there is now a worldwide shortage of pistachio nuts.

    Fix founder Sarah Mahmoudi decided to name her company for “Freaking Incredible ‘Xperience.” Mahmoudi developed her sensational product while pregnant with her second child. She experienced cravings for the traditional Middle Eastern dessert knafeh, which is kataifa mixed with honey and nuts, and decided to add chocolate to the mix.

    Ms. Mahmoudi is a British Egyptian who now lives in the United Arab Emirates. In an interview by Emirati media site Fact Magazine, Mahmoudi said she believes this is a good era for Arab businesswomen. Her advice to new women entrepreneurs:

       Start before you’re ready. To often, we wait for the perfect moment, but success is built in the process, not just the outcome. Trust your instincts. Surround yourself with people who push you forward, and don’t be afraid to take up space. Your vision deserves to be seen, and your voice deserves to be heard.

  57. 57.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Ramalama:

    I gave up chocolate for Lent.

    I still like the church sign board that said “This Lent, keep the chocolate, give up the hatred, bigotry, and misogyny.”

  61. 61.

    VeniceRiley

    Spouse has 4 days off Easter, which is lovely wrapped in Friday and Monday bank holidays here in England. Usually she works them; so this is nice. Nice weather too. Going to the Sudbury water meadows to walk the doggo/pony and have a pint at The Mill hotel.

    There will be mud!

    Shut it about gardening, Tony. So much poo to find hidden in too tall grass! Yes, he’s nearly famous and a wonderful dog; but, every time I step out there, I want to trade him for a teacup Yorkie.

    I love holidays here. The Christian ones even. So much less culty and so much more cultural than religious.

  62. 62.

    Spanky

    @NotMax: When I’m at the store and see the KIND bars In reminded that “kind” is German for “child”, but they’re not listed in the ingredients.

  63. 63.

    lowtechcyclist

    @NotMax:

    Nothin’ like taking a break with a Fart bar.

    And washing it down with a Pee Cola, from your link.

    And then there’s Poland’s response to tourism.

  64. 64.

    rikyrah

     

    Pekka Kallioniemi (@P_Kallioniemi) posted at 6:33 AM on Sun, Apr 20, 2025:

    Putin’s “Easter ceasefire” was nothing but a charade—a show for MAGA audiences who took the bait. Fox News aired an Easter Mass from Russia (accidentally portraying Kyiv as part of it), and MAGA influencers quickly began blaming Zelenskyy for everything.

    It was all done by design: to shift attention away from Russia’s Palm Sunday bombing of Sumy and other atrocities, and to portray Russia—just as the MAGA crowd claims to be—as a Christian nation with traditional values.

    What they conveniently forgot to mention is that the country is ruled by a former KGB spy—and so is its Orthodox Church.

    t.co/k10pEQkDaa
    (x.com/P_Kallioniemi/status/1913918976276471952?t=FxGPzmZdoE_zrNGpFr4j7g&s=03)

  65. 65.

    WendyBinFL

    @Baud: Oh my, that video!

    BettyC, thanks for another bravura post! Forwarding it to family and friends.

    Mr. B and I will have brunch with our daughter today. (Mr. B’s first name is Chris, so this post should give him a good chuckle!)

  68. 68.

    NotMax

    @Spanky

    Sort of the way I react whenever I see Beat Bobby Flay among streaming choices.

    False advertising, AFAIC.
    ;)

  69. 69.

    laura

    I’m Nigella Lawsoning a ham, and the deviled egg slurry is bagged and ready to pipe back into the whites, internationally famous rice salad, asparagus and fresh sliced strawberries await a lemon pound cake and berry balsamic sauce that friends are bringing, along with a potato salad. Were hosting lunch and then playing a rock & roll hall of fame trivia game that’s about 10 or so years out of date. If it was current, none of us would no nothing. With luck, everyone will go home with a greasy parcel.

    Papa Francesco sending a factotum to school the couchfucker on the basics warms the cockles of this salty acts despite much faith gal who still believes that I was a stranger and you welcomed me is a better rule to live by than what’s currently on offer.

  75. 75.

    Jerry

    I can’t believe it’s been only 2 1/2 years since Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde implored Trump and those in his circle to show mercy for the poor, LGBTQ, immigrants, and oppressed communites of our country. /sigh

  76. 76.

    lowtechcyclist

    @NotMax:

    And then there’s Ohio.

    “Where the vegetables are green
    and you can pee into the stream
    yes, we’re back from the shadows again.”

  79. 79.

    Trivia Man

    @oldster: my favorite holiday of the year is Discount Easter Candy week! But for the first year ever, i am not participating. Last year, after i procured my stash, i was diagnosed diabetic.

    Sprinkle some jelly beans on the curb for me, and delight in discount marshmallow chocolate eggs for me.

  80. 80.

    geg6

    Heading to my sister’s for family time.  The weather is nice enough that I can get the niece’s three little ones all hopped up on chocolate and sugar and they can go outside and run it off with the dogs.  A smaller than usual gathering due to my older sister being hospitalized and her husband will be hanging with her.  Younger niece will not be there as she will be working the ER at Children’s Hospital.  Older niece, her husband and kids, my youngest sister and her husband, me (John does not want to go) and a family friend will be the only ones at hosting sister’s.  I’m bringing my famous honey glazed carrots and roasted asparagus.  The asparagus at the local Giant Eagle was just beautiful.  They often have vegetable and fruit bins specified as locally grown and these were from a farm in Fayette County, which is a bit over an hour south from here.  Can’t wait to eat those spears!

  82. 82.

    Another Scott

    @rikyrah:

    Relatedly, … Fiona Hill and Clifford G. Gaddy at TheAtlantic (from February 2015):

    “The problem you Americans have in dealing with us is that you think you understand us, but you don’t. You look at the Chinese and you think: ‘They’re not like us.’ You look at us Russians, and you think, ‘They’re like us.’ But you’re wrong. We are not like you.”

    Over the past few years, top-ranking Russians have repeatedly delivered versions of the admonition above to American interlocutors. We’ve been told that it comes originally from Vladimir Putin. That makes sense. Putin is a former intelligence officer. And what the warning expresses, with typically Putin-esque bluntness and political incorrectness, is a maxim shared by U.S. intelligence officers: Beware of seeing false mirror images. Do not assume your adversary will think and act the same way you would in similar circumstances. You will likely misread him if you do.

    Despite a new ceasefire, Russia and the West remain at risk of uncontrolled escalation over Ukraine, and in such situations little can be more dangerous than misreading your adversary. So Putin is right: Washington shouldn’t “mirror-image” him, and U.S. leaders shouldn’t assume that he will interpret events and words as they might. But one neglected question is that of how Putin interprets the United States. Has he followed his own advice—or does he assume Americans, including President Obama, will act and react as he would? Does he even care about how Americans think, what their motives and values are, how their system works? What does Vladimir Putin actually know about the U.S. and about Americans?

    [ paywall starts ]

    Maybe 47 is like VVP and not like the rest of us, and maybe that’s a big part of the problem??

    Grr…

    Thanks.

    Have a good Sunday rikyrah and everyone.

    Best wishes,
    Scott.

  83. 83.

    Anyway

    @Geminid: The Greek festival here has really good desserts including kadayifi -it’s the same thing. So yummy. The local Middle Eastern grocery sometimes has it too.

  84. 84.

    RevRick

    Christ is Risen…and hopefully Chris is too.

    That affirmation is the bedrock of all flavors of Christianity, but it is shrouded in mystery. It is inexplicable, yet whatever exactly happened, the fruits of it were unmistakable.
    The apostle Paul, writing about 20 years after the event to the incredibly fractured church in Corinth, confesses that he only handed down to them the affirmation that Christ rose from the dead. But he goes on to say that if it’s just a one-off experience, it’s kind of irrelevant. Jesus’ resurrection is a foretaste of our own. But what does that mean?
    I know that a lot of Christians might respond that they believe so that they can get into Heaven, but that really misses the point. The power of the resurrection is only meaningful in the here-and-now. It’s revealed in transformed human lives creating a transformed world. The Bible opens in a garden and ends up in a city, the new Jerusalem (city of peace). It moves from the flowering of the natural world to the flowering of humanity.
    And what would that take?
    The Early Church figured that out pretty quickly, and it’s encapsulated in a hymn to which Paul alludes in his letter to the Galatians (circa 50 C.E.) in chapter 3:

    “In Christ there is no Jew or Greek, no slave or free, no male and female.”
    This transformation requires the removal of all barriers to human flourishing, including all distinctions falsely based in race, class and gender. The resurrection happens whenever the Church exerts its influence to promote and create new visions of how the world works in ways that allow people to flourish.

    I don’t need to get into Heaven. Heaven is already here. I just need to share a taste of what might be. And, for me, that’s both inward looking and outward looking. Inwardly, I need to work on the garbage the world has taught me. Outwardly, being committed to a justice that is substantive and inclusive, but also bringing joy to others.

    Aren’t you glad you asked?

  86. 86.

    Anyway

    @Betty Cracker: Happy Easter BC and all who celebrate! The family gathering sounds fab — hope everyone has a blast. Loved this year’s butter lamb —one of your best.

  91. 91.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    Double header baseball for all us godless, secular humanists!

    Froze my ass off at Coors field yesterday.  Today, warmer and sunnier and a make up game for the one Friday that got *snowed* out.

  92. 92.

    prostratedragon

    @geg6:  Hmmm. Belatedly decided to get in some provisions for skillet roasted chicken and veg. Not too late to add on asparagus …

  93. 93.

    Hildebrand

    As a clergy couple, it’s been an absolute delight not to lead services throughout Lent and Easter.

    We went to Easter Vigil last night at the York Minister – and slept in this morning.

    My wife then enjoyed making a lemon poundcake and an egg/potato/cumberland sausage bake that was beyond delicious.  Both paired very nicely with a lovely New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc.

  94. 94.

    MagdaInBlack

    @RevRick: Had I had you doing the Sunday sermon, rather than the priest reading the latest letter from the bishop, I would have been riveted instead of bored.

    Thank You ! And Happy Easter.

    Eta: my childhood catholic church experience was not inspiring.

  95. 95.

    Soapdish

    Clean and maintenance on bikes
    Make some chili
    Make some red beans with rice and andouille sausage
    Put the bike rack on my spouse’s car for our trip to the Adirondacks later this week
    Easy 7 mile run
    Rehearse some songs for later this week
    Laundry
    Leg of lamb for dinner
    Family zoom meeting cocktail hour (we’ve been doing this since the start of Covid and decided it was nice to keep doing)

    Busy day!

  96. 96.

    Trivia Man

    @RevRick: thank you for the only sermon i will get today, i will reflect upon it.

    I was raised in a very mormon household, including the stories about ancestors who walked from Nauvoo IL to the Great Salt Lake. Easter was an odd time, it wasn’t exactly emphasized. But in their efforts to improve membership numbers that has changed.

    Special palm Sunday emphasis, leaning in to more traditional easter trappings, even encouraging the wearing of cross jewelry.

    And of course, the gas-lighting. What do you mean different? Its always been like this since day 1 and Joseph’s divine revelation of the restoration.

  97. 97.

    WaterGirl

    @Rose Judson

    Crispy bits in chocolate – absolutely!

    The Child has most excellent taste.

  98. 98.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @Another Scott: I think it was BC a long time ago who pointed out that the Russians have simply never put in the work to build a contemporary society from within. They’ve always been imperialistic.

    Many months (years?) later, Krugman wrote about the research and thinking that have led many to understand why, even strictly economically, imperialism isn’t worth it.

  99. 99.

    Deputinize America

    I went to my ancestral Antiochian Orthodox church for all three and a half hours of Pascha at midnight – despite the fact that my orientation anymore is full on aggressive atheism, my cousins still go there, the liturgy is meditative as opposed to smarmy, the lead priest is a really nice guy and the service is well over 90% “be thoughtful, charitable, humble, patient and just, like Jesus was” with only a little bit of woo. Plus, my kids were baptized there and I was happy to attend frequently until a brief, abortive attempt by an asshole fundie convert bishop to infect and control the hierarchy (it reverted to normal, but by then my examination of the whole of Christianity was pretty scathing, as seen through the eyes of seeing fundamentalists sanewashed everywhere in our society).

    I say “ancestral” because my great grandmother’s name (died 1934 getting run over by a trolley trying to save one of my great uncles) is one of the first on the +Memory Eternal+ board along with my paternal great grandfather, some great aunts, my grandparents and multiple cousins.

    I appreciate that liturgy – it is peaceful, and even though I’m past belief, I find chanted liturgy soothing and the mark of something unique and mature.

  101. 101.

    Albatrossity

    Slow-cooking a pork roast to make pulled pork for the family (E, me, daughter and grandchild). It will be accompanied by asparagus; dessert will be solid chocolate bunnies. No butter lamb, alas, but we’ll probably survive!

  103. 103.

    Nukular Biskits

    Good mornin’, y’all.

    Moving slow, easing into the day. “Productive puttering” sounds too intense for me so I may just spend the majority of the day on the back porch swing listening to the birds.

  105. 105.

    oldster

    @Trivia Man:

    “Last year, after i procured my stash, i was diagnosed diabetic.”

    I live in dread of the same diagnosis, Not that it has persuaded me to live right.

  106. 106.

    prostratedragon

    @Another Scott:

    Oh he definitely is, or aspires to be. Not least in a drive to diminish or destroy whatever seems to out-achieve them, which is what P. wants more than merely using us. Consider this year’s White House Easter egg roll:

    As you read about a proposed EO eliminating most African diplomacy, replacing the foreign service exam w/loyalty oaths, and mandating that AI do the hard thinking, make sure you read the final ¶, which notes there are several proposals.

    nytimes.com/2025/04/20/us/politics/trump-state-department-overhaul.html?unlocked_article_code=1.BE8.…

  107. 107.

    Another Scott

    Oh, and yet again, Popehat shows that he’s an absolute master of the form of the devastating tweet.

    Relatedly, Alito yet again shows us all that he’s a petty, disingenuous, dangerous, reactionary troll.

    Short thread:

    bsky.app/profile/rparloff.bsky.social/post/3lnam6lplgc2x

    Roger Parloff
    ‪@rparloff.bsky.social‬

    Here’s Justice Alito’s dissent to the order preventing the summary removals without due process of scores of Venezuelans to a terrorist prison from which there appears to be no mechanism for return. He cites procedural irregularities.

    supremecourt.gov/opinions/24p...

    April 20, 2025 at 8:03 AM

    ‪Roger Parloff‬ ‪@rparloff.bsky.social‬
    1h

    Characteristically, Alito also relies on a misleading factual record. He says that DOJ atty had represented to Judge Boasberg that it had no plans to remove anyone on Fri 4/18 or 4/19. What DOJ atty really said …
    /2

    ‪Roger Parloff‬ ‪@rparloff.bsky.social‬
    1h

    was that no one would be removed Friday and that he was aware of no *present plans* to remove anyone Saturday, but that the govt would be within its rights to do so. Judge Boasberg agreed with
    @aclu.org that that was no assurance at all.
    3/3

    bsky.app/profile/rpar…

    ‪Roger Parloff‬ ‪@rparloff.bsky.social‬
    1d

    DOJ: no flights tonight, but [they won’t commit to send flights tomorrow. they’d be within their rights under the JGG ruling to do so.

    G: we don’t have any assurance [that people won’t be sent out tomorrow.]

    /31

    Click on over for embedded images, etc.

    Grr…

    Best wishes,
    Scott.

  110. 110.

    Another Scott

    Meanwhile, in his characteristic thoughtful way, today Dean Baker of CEPR talks about Section 230:

    […]

    Using Section 230 as an Equalizer

    The reason we get huge social media platforms like Facebook, X, and TikTok is there are enormous network effects. People want to be on these huge platforms because everyone else is on them. If you hope to reach a large group of people with your postings, then you have a strong incentive to be on one of these platforms.

    The network effect is an intrinsic feature of the technology. However, this does then create the problem of who controls a huge platform. Who decides what material is banned, and probably more importantly, who decides which material gets promoted to millions or hundreds of millions of users. This is why these platforms are so problematic for people who believe in democracy.

    A restructuring of Section 230 provides one way in which we can look to offset the network effect. I have proposed that we repeal Section 230 protection against liability for defamation only for sites that carry advertising or sell personal information. That would mean all the huge platforms that dominate social media now would lose their protection. However, smaller sites that rely on either donations or subscriptions would still enjoy the protection Section 230 now provides.

    To be clear, I know that many smaller sites do have some advertising. This change would mean that if they wanted to continue to have Section 230 protection, they would have to drop the advertising.

    This could lead to some going out of business. That would be unfortunate, but as a practical matter we don’t have many policies that actually have an impact in the world that don’t have some negative effects. If that is a basis for nixing policies, we will not be able to accomplish much in the world.

    Would this change lead to a mass exodus from Twitter and Facebook? I don’t have an answer for that. I have been told very confidently by people who know the Internet much better than me that this change would either mean nothing to the huge sites (they would just hire more lawyers) and also that it would force them to adopt a subscription model where people had to pay to use their sites.

    For my money, I would be happy to see the experiment. As I have outlined above, I can see no reason why social media sites should enjoy a greater protection against defamation lawsuits than print or broadcast media.

    […]

    Is he right? Dunno. But we see the dangers of these huge platforms and this may be one way to start cutting them down to size.

    Click over and read the whole thing.

    Best wishes,
    Scott.

  111. 111.

    Almost Retired

    Happy Easter!  Because our sons are 7 years apart, we hid all the eggs in twos with each boy instructed to take only one.  We thought it might also encourage cooperation (“Look, I found two here – come get yours”).

    The older one quickly figured out the system could be beat by quietly taking both eggs, and assuming the rest of us would be none the wiser.  He is a lawyer now.

  113. 113.

    Hildebrand

    @RevRick: Yep, every day is ‘end days’ (meaning, we’ve only got one crack at this, and no guarantees of a tomorrow) so live in way that builds up, never tears down.  Live in a way that creates, never destroys.  Live in a way that welcomes, never rejects.  Live in love, not hate.

    Do justice, love kindness, walk humbly – that’s still a good code to live by.

    Seems it’s the fundamental call that nice young fellow from Nazareth offered to make the world a better place, something closer to what Pops created us to do in the first place.

  114. 114.

    mappy!

    The yard. Daffs, Tulips, Scilla, Swamp Marigold, Turkestanica Species Tulips, Myrtle… Ephemerals: Spring Beauty, Trout Lily, Trillium…

  115. 115.

    YY_Sima Qian

    Reposting my comment from previous dead thread:

    Not a surprise that Trump & MAGA is highlighting the lab leak CT to the COVID-19 origin. When authoritarian regimes feel precarious, fanning xenophobia (as well as fear of domestic “5th columnists” & other “enemies of the state”) is a go to play. When the recession hits (if it has not hit already), & prospects for “beautiful deals” dim (least of all w/ the PRC), Trump will grasp at Sinophobia, just like when it became clear that the Trump 45 Administration’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic was utterly disastrous.

    Furthermore, MAGA is also probably planting the seed for exacting “retribution” & “reparations” from the PRC by seizing the latter’s Treasury & agency holdings, not to mention even kookier ideas such as calling in worthless bonds from the late Qing Empire.

    Whatever happens, it will be increasingly dangerous to be a Chinese national or Chinese American (or anyone who can be confused for such, thus people of E & SE Asian descent) in American, just like during the COVID-19 pandemic (& since).

  116. 116.

    YY_Sima Qian

    How the “beautiful deals” w/ the 70+ countries are going:

    A 林@lin_linvy
    The US regime wants Indonesia to stop using QRIS and GPN (Indonesia local payment system) and switch to Mastercard/Visa because the former gives local businesses an “unfair” advantage. This is insane, QRIS is a standarized cashless payment system. Think of it like our’s Alipay

    alice maz@alicemazzy
    southeast asian qr payments are free, instant, and push-only. western credit cards add 3% to the price of everything because businesses bake the cost in for everyone, and western cards and ach take 2-3 days to clear and are push/pull so anyone with your number can steal from you
    afaik india/brazil systems are similar. unreal how much better it is and all it takes is a government that cares even a little bit to hire some programmers and tell banks “you have to support this now.” usa is in the stone age, never give up your superior technology asean
    another benefit is most places have terminals that automatically fill the amount and validate reciept but cheap places can just stick a qr code on the wall. they tell you how much and you send it and a tenth of a second later get a receipt to show them
    qr isn’t just a “wow china so advanced” thing, they’re becoming standard in any part of the world that’s in between “100% cash economy” and “too captured by rent-seeking conglomerates to solve a trivial coordination problem”
    what I’m saying is trying to force qr countries onto visa/mastercard is basically luddite terrorism

    It turns out naked, coercive, exploitative, extractive, rent seeking, negative sum imperialism is not attractive. Who knew?

  117. 117.

    Another Scott

    More Parloff this Sunday.

    bsky.app/profile/rparloff.bsky.social/post/3lnaucxyie22a
    Roger Parloff
    ‪@rparloff.bsky.social‬

    To prevent class relief ordering adequate notice & due process to all aliens subject to the Alien Enemies Act proclamation, DOJ offers several catch-22s. One is: Since named plaintiffs deny being Tren de Aragua, they aren’t subject to the proclamation, so can’t serve as class representatives.

    [ image ]

    April 20, 2025 at 10:28 AM

    O .  M  .  G

    These monsters need to face real consequences for arguing this dangerous nonsense.

    And their enablers and supporters need to be confronted to make them think about the consequences if things like this stand.

    Grr…

    Best wishes,
    Scott.

  118. 118.

    Soprano2

    The agenda for today is shower, breakfast, then switching the clothes in my closet from winter to summer. I wish I had a closet big enough for all of them, but I don’t. It’s a job because I clean all my shoes before I put them away, that way they’re ready to wear when fall comes. It’s a good day for it since it’ll be raining on and off all day. They’re forecasting a chance of tornadoes later today. It’s already rained over 3″ since Friday. My sump pump is kicking on about every two minutes right now.

  119. 119.

    Trivia Man

    @RevRick: side question, ignore if too personal or divisive for you. Are mormons christian? Opinions differ and as an atheist i am missing much nuance.

  120. 120.

    lowtechcyclist

    @RevRick:

    I know it seems like years, but it’s only been months.

    Hell, it feels like we’re already in his third term.

  123. 123.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Trivia Man:

    side question, ignore if too personal or divisive for you. Are mormons christian? Opinions differ and as an atheist i am missing much nuance.

    I’m not RevRick, but I’ll offer my quick take: it’s not my business to decide which of all the millions of people who identify as Christian are really Christian. I’ll let God sort that part out.

    Jesus said, “you shall know them by their fruits.” Paul in his letter to the Galatians said the fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  And in Matthew 25, Jesus has some words about how the sheep and goats will be separated: did we feed the hungry, clothe the naked, welcome the stranger, visit the sick, etc.

    The older I get, the less I worry about issues of doctrine.

  124. 124.

    lowtechcyclist

    @YY_Sima Qian:

    unreal how much better it is and all it takes is a government that cares even a little bit to hire some programmers and tell banks “you have to support this now.” usa is in the stone age

    I don’t write many checks anymore, but a good deal of those I write are to local businesses who want to avoid that 3% bite that the credit card companies take out.

    But when even countries like Indonesia have a better way of doing this, it’s pretty disgusting that being in the U.S. gives us the sucky choice of paying an extra 3% for credit card convenience, or retreating to the obsolescence of checks.

  125. 125.

    YY_Sima Qian

    @lowtechcyclist: Policymaking captured by powerful vested interests, wedded to obsolescent/obsolete incumbent technologies

    The PRC ran w/ the QR based cashless payment system because credit cards never had the chance to capture the bulk of transactions. Then Alibaba & Tencent proliferated it across the Global South, which had similar situations as the PRC.

  126. 126.

    jimmiraybob

    Yesterday, at a march in downtown St. Louis, I saw an old woman in a wheel chair that had shown up.  It was cold and rainy and she showed up.  Her hands on the wheels must have been freezing.  She showed up.  There was a nearby lightning strike and booming thunder.  She showed up.  When the future asks, what did you do?  She’ll say, I showed up.

    Just sayin’.

  128. 128.

    Shana

    Just got back from a korean spa visit with my daughter – delayed birthday present – which was lovely, and empty except for us at 9am. Will probably spend the afternoon shifting around Passover dishes for regular dishes and moving non-Passover- approved foods from basement fridge to kitchen fridge. Then for our first post-Passover dinner we’re going to either Famous Dave’s for BBQ or Carnegie Deli for reubens.

  130. 130.

    trollhattan

    Stopping by to note the chicken-riding bunny army has to be one of the weirdest Easter takes, ever.

    Onward!

    Cluck!

    Chicken used to be not the cheapest available meaty option. Mom had stories from her yoot of my grandmother making mock chicken for the family, from veal.

  133. 133.

    Juju

    @NotMax: I am no fan of Peeps. I don’t care for marshmallows, so peeps are a definite no for me. The only peep thing I ever paid attention to was the annual peep diorama that the Washington Post did, or does, but I lost track of that bit of fun, especially after Bezos took over. The peep ratings were funny and it made me smile because the couple doing the rating of the new peep flavors really belong together. I’m glad they found each other. They are probably one of the cutest couples I have ever seen. I will say that the thought of a Dr.Pepper flavored peep actually made my skin crawl.

  134. 134.

    David_C

    @Sandia Blanca: Ooh, the potluck sounds like fun! We had an Easter egg hunt in the building – kids everywhere – and I had snacks with tea I brought from home. Voice is a bit shot. Happy Easter!

    @RevRick: Amen! The things I hear from some of the loudest voices out there don’t match with our theology, what I taught in Sunday School, and what we proclaim in music.

  135. 135.

    Ramalama

    @lowtechcyclist: Yes absolutely. Mine was more of a “Do it now as an option so that later down the road you’re not required to,” mode.

    My parents were both super Catholic, and super liberal. My mom wrote letters to the editor that got published in religious periodicals but also the Chicago Tribune. She was, as she said, “barely hanging in there by the tips of her fingers.” She went to Bible studies (eye roll) and discussions and often had people ask her to help them defend her/their shared views against firebrand nutters, also in the group.

  136. 136.

    Torrey

    @Raven: I’m late to the party, as always, but those thread paintings are amazing! I hope at some point we get the chance to see more of her work.

  137. 137.

    dnfree

    We have a Greek in-law named Christ, so our relative is generally glad to tell us when Christ has risen on Easter.  This year it’s the same day as “regular” Easter, but many years it’s a week later.  That means they had to pay full price for Easter candy this year.  But I’m sure the eggs were dyed red, as is traditional.

  138. 138.

    Juju

    @Ramalama: When I was a child and compelled to give up something for lent, it was never chocolate, because I knew I couldn’t do it. I usually tried to give up something like folding laundry, but my mother would never have any of that smarty pants stuff, especially from me. I love chocolate, but I try not to eat as much as I really want to eat, but I can go about seven to ten days without chocolate.  I do reach a point where I swear I will peel my own skin off if I don’t have chocolate.  You have my admiration.  I have not cared for dates since my grandmother would bring some weird date nut bread that came in a can.  Cream cheese was supposed to make that better, but that bread with cream cheese put me off of cream cheese until I was almost 30. My hat is off to you for your choice of dates as a a chocolate substitute. I could never do that.

  140. 140.

    RevRick

    @Trivia Man: If you go by creedal, orthodox Christianity, then the answer is no, because they add a separate revelation to the story. Jehovah’s Witnesses are in a similar weird relationship to Christianity. And then there’s Islam, which acknowledged Jesus but denies his divinity.

    My own inclination is to let people/religious bodies to define themselves. It’s no skin off my teeth.

  141. 141.

    Miss Bianca

    @lowtechcyclist: He is risen indeed, Hallelujah!

    Or so the faith of my childhood prompts me to respond. I tend to prefer expressing it the way the marquee outside the Paonia Baptist Church proclaimed it, lo, these many years ago:

    “HE’S UP!”

  143. 143.

    Formerly disgruntled in Oregon

    @RevRick: Thank you, Rev!

    “In Christ there is no Jew or Greek, no slave or free, no male and female.”
    This transformation requires the removal of all barriers to human flourishing, including all distinctions falsely based in race, class and gender.

    I’m not a member of a religion, but I too seek this unnameable unity. May we all find each other as one.

  147. 147.

    Trivia Man

    @RevRick: I also consider it not my definition to make. When i am around family it sometimes comes up in a defensive way – “Jesus Christ is in our name! We are certainly christian!” I am curious why others say no. The “extra” revelation is certainly an oddity.

  150. 150.

    opiejeanne

    Thread is possibly dead now but, oh well.

    I got up early to rehearse with the choir and with the director for a piano duet we were playing during Communion, Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring. Bach’s little perpetual motion composition. Sang, played pretty well the first time through but the church was packed so we played it a second time, and it was great, nearly perfect, and a lot of fun. I swear, yesterday when I practiced it I was inventing new mistakes  so I stopped working on it and did something else. Didn’t even look at the music again until this morning. Thank goodness we did it twice, because I didn’t want to leave it with that performance in everyone’s memory.

    One* of our kids is coming over with her spouse for a 3pm dinner, ham of course, potato salad, deviled eggs, various accompaniments including a green salad, and little lemon cakes in the shape of Peeps. Some of them lost their heads in the mold, so I glued them back on with a little of the lemon drizzle. I’m learning not to grind my gears, so to speak. I’m 75 now and have discovered that I don’t have the pep I used to have, so I’m learning to scale back a bit: the potato salad came from the deli, the ham is a very small one so we don’t experience the definition of eternity: 2 people and a ham.

    We discovered that the easter baskets have been visited by mice while they were stored in the garage, so we had to discard the “grass” and clean them up, and the candy is either in wrappers or in plastic eggs.

    What is with all of these people I read about this week who give their kids a new bike EVERY Easter???? It was more than one family that claimed it was tradition.

    *The other kids and spouses are out of state currently.

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