The Eurovision party is officially underway. Welcome to a week of power pop, outrageous outfits and, inevitably, protests.
— The Associated Press (@apnews.com) May 12, 2025 at 3:00 PM
in 2009 and 2010, a lot of dems voted for the aca knowing they’d lose their jobs because it, but willing to do so because it meant giving millions of people health insurance
\soon, we’ll see if republicans are willing to lose their seats to kick millions off their insurance and condemn many to death— Bobby Kogan (@bbkogan.bsky.social) May 12, 2025 at 12:26 PM
We are oddly selective about the government services about which we will say, they operate at a loss.
Commuter rail, we are often told, operates at a loss. But we spend even more on street and highways, and take in little direct revenue from them. Yet no one ever says they are operating at a loss.— John Skiles Skinner (@skiles.bsky.social) May 10, 2025 at 10:56 PM
I met with air traffic controllers at the Aurora control center on 1/30, the day after the American Airlines / helicopter crash. Their biggest concerns were (a) DOGE-threatened layoffs (b) whether any female / minority employee would be blamed and (c) mental health resources…
— Sean Casten (@seancasten.bsky.social) May 12, 2025 at 2:20 PM
Pope Leo XIV expressed solidarity with imprisoned journalists and affirmed the “precious gift of free speech and the press.” He spoke in an audience with some of the 6,000 journalists who descended on Rome to cover his election as the first American pontiff.
— The Associated Press (@apnews.com) May 12, 2025 at 9:00 AM
And the NYTimes is happy to assure us that the new South African ‘refugees’ are not just grubby rurals barking some guttural creole…
"life coach and campaigner for white South Africans who want to apply for US refugee status"
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm.bsky.social) May 11, 2025 at 10:45 PM
The Trump superfan showcased as one of the first Afrikaner refugees from anti-white racism in South Africa.
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm.bsky.social) May 12, 2025 at 7:42 AM
2/ Notable thing here is that this "refugee" status is usually framed around "white farmers". But this woman who is the poster-person for this lives in Cape Town and it doesn't seem like she's Afrikaner since her bio says she was born in Zimbabwe back when it was still known as Rhodesia.
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm.bsky.social) May 12, 2025 at 8:10 AM
On The Road – 🐾BillinGlendaleCA – Dark Places
lowtechcyclist
Good morning, y’all.
Baud
@lowtechcyclist:
Good morning.
Baud
I need a coach to help me with self love.
Professor Bigfoot
G’mornin’, all!
Apartheid, Jim Crow… other than birthplace, what’s the difference between ‘em?
Baud
@Professor Bigfoot:
Good morning.
lowtechcyclist
See, that’s why we need to conquer Canada and Greenland. Otherwise, our military will be operating at a loss.
Sarcasm aside, the point is well taken. The USPS, for instance, is a freakin’ necessity, even in this era of email, texts, and social media.
The payoff of paying for something you need is that that need is met. My house is operating at a loss too, but we sure couldn’t do without one.
Nukular Biskits
Good mornin’, y’all.
Y’all have no idea as to how relevant the title of this post is to the House of Biskits this morning.
Ms. Biskits’ mother’s b’day was Sunday so we have three of her five sisters here (along with one of the grandaughters and a BIL) to celebrate said birthday and Mother’s Day.
Pray for me. LOL.
Betty Cracker
The white South African refugees thing is yet another proof point for the “every accusation is a confession” axiom. Trusk & Mump accused Dems of an “open borders” policy designed to flood the country with immigrants who would become Democratic voters. Then they fly in an explicitly Trump-supporting group of “refugees” while leaving Afghan allies, etc., to the tender mercies of the Taliban.
Debbie(Aussie)
I read this in theGuardian this morning, and was wondering how you guys feel about another prospect for en-shitification of a once great nation.
I read BJ every day, as I have for 20 years. During this time I have come to know some wonderful people. As with Ukraine, I feel informed, but at a total loss as to how to help. What is happening matters. Please know that there is an obscure Aussie lady who admires and cares for you all. Because that’s all I know to do.
Best wishes with love
Debbie
eta: I know copying comments is frowned upon. But I put it on a dead thread. Have trouble keeping up with you guys. Deb
Betty Cracker
@Nukular Biskits: Just keep their mimosas topped off, and you’ll be fine. :-)
lowtechcyclist
So the primary concern of this ‘refugee’ is helping others avoid toxic relationships.
Very big-hearted of her to be able to think of others in this way while enduring the sort of persecution that turns one into a refugee.
ETA: Seriously, isn’t anyone in the media asking these people about the horrors they experienced that drove them out of their homeland?
Matt McIrvin
The double standard is familiar in transit-fan circles. Passenger railroads are in trouble if they can’t operate at a profit, but nobody says this about the interstate highway system. The reason is simple: the people writing the articles use interstate highways and do not use passenger railroads. There’s a real death spiral with the latter in the US, because poor service resulting from low investment makes them unattractive relative to cars.
Debbie(Aussie)
I’m curious to know under what sort of persecution this woman suffers. And why she can’t live in SouthAfrica. Don’t refugees need to be likely to imprisoned or killed on return to their home country? Wow! Another word that he and his pals have made meaningless.
eta spelling
MagdaInBlack
@Debbie(Aussie): It makes me ill, just as everything they’re doing makes me ill. This is a “JFC can’t you people leave anything nice alone? Must everything be monetized and strip-mined for wealth?” kind of ill.
Betty Cracker
@Debbie(Aussie): From the linked article:
That’s the MO for all of the illegal and outrageous bullshit they’re doing. It took us a while to dust ourselves off and start fighting back, but I’m somewhat heartened by all the protests nationwide that ordinary people are routinely engaged in — not just in cities, but in small towns in red states too.
Thank you for not losing faith in the good people here. I don’t know if we can save the country, but we’re trying, and it’s nice to hear encouraging words from abroad.
lowtechcyclist
@Debbie(Aussie):
Sounds like she could use a dose of Tom Petty:
Somewhere, somehow
Somebody must have kicked you around, some
Who knows, maybe you were kidnapped
Tied up, taken away and held for ransom
It don’t really matter to me, baby
Everybody’s had to fight to be free
You see you don’t have to live like a refugee
Sounds like she damned sure doesn’t have to live like a refugee.
Debbie(Aussie)
@MagdaInBlack: That’s what I was feeling when reading it. I would only get to your amazing national parks if I won lotto. I know they are there (for now) for the millions who visit every year. I, like I know all of you do, wake up every morning and wonder what horrendous feelings he will loosen today.
Suzanne
@lowtechcyclist: Mornin’.
The irony of the situation is…. I would be completely fine with letting in Afrikaners as refugees, if we let in other refugees, too. I’m a throw-the-doors-open person.
Sally
@Betty Cracker: Exactly what I said to family last night! Every accusation is a confession.
Baud
I’m surprised Trump isn’t flying them in on his Qatari plane.
Bupalos
It’s good to see that she takes her role as self-taught narcissistic abuse expert seriously enough that she’s signed up for extra continuing education credits.
Soprano2
I think they’re bringing these people here to show that they think the refugee program is a joke. Every question to Leavitt should be about this, what imminent danger these people were in that merited expedited status and a chartered plane, what merited bringing them here ahead of the refugees from other countries who were already approved? I wish someone was bold enough to ask if it was their skin color, because we all know that’s what it was.
Sally
That’s some refugee camp she lives in. I’m glad we are rescuing her from that squalor.
Suzanne
@Matt McIrvin: The thing about that example that’s bonkers….. commuter rail operating at a loss? The gain is the work from that rider that’s enabled, the taxes collected from that work, the spending that happens after that work. It’s insane.
We need more of it, too. As I’ve noted, the overall pattern of settlement in the world, and in our country, is urbanization. This isn’t for I-wanna-live-by-the-hip-bars reasons, it’s for that’s-how-the-economy-is-growing reasons. So that puts a lot of strain on cities, the questions become how to accommodate more people (density or sprawl or just don’t and prices spike) or how to expand the range of access (trains, roads).
Baud
Blast from the past
stinger
Billions of dollars in worker’s comp? Employees must be getting injured on all the fancy new machines. Where the hell is OSHA? Employee injuries should largely NOT be out of the employer’s control.
Baud
@Sally:
hells littlest angel
A former sculling coach might do.
MagdaInBlack
@Soprano2: I’ve no doubt this is an Elon project. Wonder what razz-ma-tazz he sold them on preserving the white “race.”
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone😊😊😊
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
Bupalos
@Betty Cracker: very much this, though you could bring every potential Afrikaner refugee in existence and give them citizenship immediately and it would have no electoral effect. The real move here is simply to inject more toxic ethnic balkanization into the conversation. Pumping the idea of non-whites seizing the government and taking revenge on whites into the bloodstream.
I feel they’re a little electorally maxed out on this subject, but they do seem to know how to work the attention economy.
hells littlest angel
@Baud: I really expected him to get off. Guess the French don’t cut movie stars slack like they used to.
rikyrah
We are sending back Afghans who HELPED US DURING A WAR.
Sending them back to almost certain DEATH.
While letting in the South Africans😒😒
Sally
@Baud: Only a suspended sentence. Assaulting women is not that big a deal. And all those supporting remarks because he plays pretend in front of cameras.
Misogyny will never die.
Kirk
@stinger: It should be obvious but this is part of the lead up to changing the worker compensation rules and laws. It goes in hand with the department’s reduction of budget and personnel.
“We’d make a profit if it weren’t for those pesky regulations.”
Professor Bigfoot
Oh, wow, with every refresh the pie changes! But the pied MF remains pied. Another cool Balloon Juice feature!
Had my first cardiac rehab session yesterday, and crimony, I knew I was out of shape, but damn.
This fat fucker here has a deep hole to dig himself out of.
Baud
@Professor Bigfoot:
Cool. I just pied you and it does change. Neat.
ETA: Quotes change too.
Dorothy A. Winsor
So Duffy keeps talking about how bad the air transportation system is. Is he talking about what he’s doing to make it safer? Or just blaming Biden?
MagdaInBlack
@Dorothy A. Winsor: B.
Professor Bigfoot
@Baud: Jesus Haploid Christ.
The embodiment of “if you’re a star you can do anything.”
I read once that he was very much how Frenchmen see themselves- not as mincing little caricature, but big, bluff, “hail fellow well met” kind of fellows. The ones who would go toe to toe with the likes of Thomas Cochrane on the high seas, so I can see the reflexive urge to defend him; but… Non, mes amis, ce n’est pas le chemin!
Suzanne
@Professor Bigfoot: Well, if we can be a source of encouragement, please don’t hesitate to reach out! I’ve come to be one of the people I used to hate — I like to run, eat Brussels sprouts, and I turn away free alcohol. Teenager Suzanne is like WHAAAAAAT?!?!
Nukular Biskits
@Betty Cracker: or just keep mine topped off & have no worries!
Betty Cracker
@Professor Bigfoot: I hear you, man. I wasn’t FAT fat before I got sick, but I had packed on some extra pounds over the years. Many weeks of puking during chemo took those right off — it’s not a weight loss program I recommend, but it’s damn sure effective!
Since then, I’ve been trying to build my strength back up and make healthier choices about eating. It’s hard because I love to eat ALL THE BAD THINGS! But I really do feel better.
Hope you do too at the end of your rehab. You can do it! No one is lazier than me, and I’m muddling through! ;-)
Matt McIrvin
@Suzanne: I live within walking distance of a commuter-rail station and I don’t use it to commute downtown. Instead, what do I do? I drive 20 minutes in THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION to a bus depot in the next state over, and ride a (semi-private but state-subsidized) bus in.
Why, on God’s green earth, do I do that? The commuter rail goes to North Station and my office is near *South* Station, and whether I bridge that gap by subway, bus or on foot, it’s approximately another half hour. The bus is an express straight to South Station. The commuter rail is usually a local–there’s a more express run but there’s basically one all morning, whereas for a while the bus is doing it every half hour. The bus depot has free parking too. It’s actually marginally faster for me to use that bus.
How could they fix it? Well, the fabled North-South Station heavy rail link is maybe an impossible dream, and the MBTA Orange Line is better than it used to be, so there’s less available upside at that end. But they could just run more of the commuter-rail trains all the way out to the terminus where I live instead of stopping halfway there, and run them a little more often, and express a few more of them, and that’d tip the balance. But that’s not where we are.
lowtechcyclist
@Sally:
And from the comments on Reddit, it sounds like he’s got a loooong history of sexually assaulting women and girls.
He’s got another trial coming up for sexually assaulting another woman. Maybe they’ll finally throw him in prison for a week or two. (Cynical? Who, me?)
Fuck this business of letting people off because they’re celebrities.
Betty Cracker
@Suzanne: I used to hate Brussels sprouts until I learned to toss them in olive oil, salt and pepper and then roast them. They’re damn near as delicious as French fries cooked that way!
Barney
@lowtechcyclist: The Reuters article says “Journalists were not granted access to those headed to the U.S.”. So they know they have to stop questions being asked, because it will be laughably clear these are not “refugees” from anything. Though Katia Beeden is well-versed in self-publicity, so I expect some will try and get her to spill the beans, knowingly or not.
lowtechcyclist
@Professor Bigfoot:
Good luck with the rehab! And with any luck, you’ll stay away from six-foot holes for a long time to come.
Debbie(Aussie)
@Professor Bigfoot:
best of luck with the work required to get out of that hole. Hope you have a cheer squad. I believe one of our noted authors, Ms Windsor, has been through such a program. (Apologies if I have mis-remembered)
Baud
@Barney:
“It was awful. I lost half my servants.”
Suzanne
@Betty Cracker: Yes, that’s how I do it now. My grandmother used to steam them, and I just hated them. Oh my God.
Like I said…. teenager Suzanne would think I am pathetic. LOL.
Debbie(Aussie)
@Professor Bigfoot:
best of luck with the work required to get out of that hole. Hope you have a cheer squad. I believe one of our noted authors, Dorothy Winsor, has been through such a program. (Apologies if I have mis-remembered)
Betty Cracker
@Suzanne: My gran would boil them to mush in water with a dollop of bacon grease.
Another Scott
@Matt McIrvin: It’s infuriating.
The post office is explicitly in the Constitution. It’s clear how important it is to the nation. But the monsters have wanted to kill it and chop it up for parts for decades. My recollection is that they have rules that they must break even with micromanaging their revenue, but they can’t run a profit to build a rainy day fund or return to or start new lines of business (modern small financial services). And it took close to a decade to remove the requirement that they prefund their pensions out 75 years?…
It’s Calvinball with an essential service.
Grr …
Best wishes,
Scott.
Debbie(Aussie)
Good night everyone. May it be a quiet day.
Matt McIrvin
@Suzanne:
For the US right, we’re perpetually in the 1970s white-flight, “FORD TO CITY: DROP DEAD” era, and it will never end. They emphasize ruin porn and people fleeing California and the Northeast–get your news from their sources and you’d think the US is rapidly deurbanizing.
Baud
For Aussie juicers who are still up.
Gvg
@rikyrah: I think that the state department employees and the journalists are choosing to sabotage this Trump/Musk project by either selecting obviously unqualified refugees or else playing up the worst stories. Possibly both. It’s also possible that there aren’t really that many white South Afrikaners who want to immigrate, in spite of Musk’s delusions, so this is all they could find.
At any rate, I think this might be too much of a silly story for even the regular Trump voter to swallow, because it’s not American centered enough. They don’t really care about this, and would probably prefer no immigration, or maybe some young non rich white Europeans. Women preferred but I don’t see how that could be arranged decently enough. More billionaires is not really appealing IMO.
Professor Bigfoot
@Suzanne:
@Betty Cracker:
@lowtechcyclist:
@Debbie(Aussie):
Aww, thanks, you guys! I’m definitely trying, and there are some positive role models right around here– the day I first signed up for CR, there was a fellow running on one of the treadmills– found out he’d had a heart attack in his 40s and took it as a true wake up call. He’s planning to run his first 5K in July.
Another finished rehab the day I started; he says he and his wife went completely vegan, right down to *no oil.*
I was listening politely, and thinking “no fuckin’ way…” :^D
(Betty, I too was born and raised in the South, and trust me, I love ALL THE BAD THINGS!– btw, do you slice the Brussels sprouts before tossing in olive oil and what temperature do you roast them at?)
Suzanne
@Matt McIrvin: The irony is…. many cities in the Northeast and California would be growing if they could accommodate the growth. But there’s a lot of resistance to growth, because it’s hard.
But…..everybody’s gotta be someplace.
Another Scott
@Betty Cracker: Supposedly the bitter horrible Brussel sprouts we grew up with and the ones for sale now are different beasties – they took out a lot of the horrible taste compounds. (No time to look for a cite, but should be on scholar.google.com )
Maybe?
Best wishes,
Scott.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
My theory has always been that they hated Bill Clinton because urban areas became nicer places to live during his presidency.
Completely upended their world view, and they’ve been opposed to reality at an accelerating rate since.
Professor Bigfoot
@Another Scott: Infuriating is exactly the right word.
These white surpemacist neo-Confederates are bent on destroying the Constitution of the United States, one way or another (or one way AND another).
Stupid, greedy, lazy, grifting, ignorant motherfuckers claim to love the Constitution, got “WE THE PEOPLE” stickers all over their lifted trucks but will destroy it because it permitted a Black man to be President “over them.”
Matt McIrvin
@Gvg: In his first term Trump complained that we only get immigrants from “shithole countries” (purely racist of course) and not nice people like Norwegians. But why would Norwegians want to immigrate to the US? Even in better times for the US, it’s not going to happen unless they’ve got a very, very specific reason.
Here he’s got a little group of white people who apparently want to come in. Usually, the modern right (unlike, say, Ronald Reagan!) can’t comprehend that people who are coming from a country they don’t like are people who don’t want to be there and would rather be here, so they’re not somehow agents of their government–but of course it’s all racism really, so that’s not actually a consideration.
Professor Bigfoot
@Matt McIrvin: American conservatism is neo-Confederate white supremacy, period full stop.
The Audacity of Krope
So I have no problem with white South Africans per se. But if they’re claiming refugee status, that claim is undoubtedly based on white supremacists arguments which I have certainly heard our President repeat.
Matt McIrvin
@Baud: But they loved Rudy Guiliani!
rikyrah
@Baud:
Wait,.these are new charges?
Wasn’t he convicted years ago for the same thing?
raven
@Betty Cracker: Try this
MEXICAN STREET CORN BRUSSELS SPROUTS
AM in NC
@Suzanne: I hear you. I just talked with a boyfriend from college last week, and when he heard I now trail run for exercise he paused, laughed, and said “that doesn’t sound like the AM in NC I used to know”. Plus, roasted Brussels sprouts are deelish!
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
Republicans have never been constrained by the need to apply standards consistently.
drdavechemist
Regarding Brussels sprouts, my son informed me that selective breeding (not genetic modification, in case that’s a concern) has resulted in a decrease in the bitterness that all of us older folks would have grown up with.
Here’s an article that identifies the Dutch scientist who initiated this change in the 1990s, but the bottom line is that contemporary sprouts produce much less of the bitter chemicals we remember so they really do taste better.
ETA, like Another Scott said, but with a link to back it up
rikyrah
@Professor Bigfoot:
Good luck with rehab🙏🏾
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Professor Bigfoot: I did rehab at a nearby hospital after my heart attack in 2018. It was a kind of class, though the nurses running it just monitored us while we spent time on the machines. I honestly enjoyed it. Everyone there was in the same boat, so we could all share stories that our friends and family were tired of.
Matt McIrvin
@Suzanne: There’s a lot of “Nobody goes there–it’s too crowded” to it. Many of the problems that currently exist on both the West Coast and the Northeast stem from a shortage of housing. A visible-homelessness crisis turns even liberal governors like Newsom and Healey into reactionaries, and provides Fox News fans with a supply of pooping-in-the-street pictures to pass around.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Debbie(Aussie): You’re right! I did. And you have a good memory. That was 2018
Betty Cracker
@Professor Bigfoot: I trim the ends and slice them in half (through the stem) and roast them at 425 for about 20 minutes. So good!
@Another Scott: Fascinating! I’d never heard that theory.
YY_Sima Qian
While taking in white supremacists from South Africa, the Trump Administration is kicking Afghans who had risked their lives working w/ the US forces to the curb:
Baud
@YY_Sima Qian:
A lot of people fell for the grief they gave Biden for not doing enough for the Afghani refugees.
Matt McIrvin
@drdavechemist: The mid-20th-century American way to prepare all vegetables was also to boil them to mush, which is particularly disastrous for Brussels sprouts. You want to roast or pan-sear them.
Lyrebird
I hope that’s true.
I do not usually go for extremes like this, but I hope someone makes a split screen with Ms. Beeden on the one side and the grieving Sudanese mamas holding their dying/dead little ones for the last time, the ones who starved bc no more USAID gruel to subsist on.
I DETEST TRUMP MILLER MUSK AND THE REST, FIRE OF 1000 SUNS, YES INDEED. Mrs. Trump’s jacket sums it up I guess – they truly don’t care.
There are genuinely persecuted Christians, for instance, who they could airlift out of Pakistan. Nooooo. The Afghan heroes who helped our military. Nooooo.
Ugh. Better go chop wood, carry water, etc.
YY_Sima Qian
@Baud: The lesson for the ROW is not to risk one’s (& one’s family’s) life woking with the US forces.
Professor Bigfoot
@Dorothy A. Winsor: SAME!
Only one class so far, but that’s exactly how it goes– first a class on the heart, it’s bits and pieces, how it’s supposed to run and how it can go wrong, then a half hour or so on the machines while attached to an EKG monitor.
It was kinda fun, actually; but I’ll never admit that in open court!
eclare
I am excited for Eurovision!
The Audacity of Krope
@drdavechemist: Selective breeding is genetic modification. I don’t have a problem with it. Jus’ sayin’…
Dorothy A. Winsor
I see Trump has named his attorney, Todd Blanche, as acting librarian of congress. I was going to say he’s unqualified, but he’s white and male, so I guess he’s qualified after all.
A DEI hire
Baud
@YY_Sima Qian:
Yeah, do it for cash upfront or not at all.
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
An actual DEI hire would be qualified, if not overqualified. But, yes.
The Audacity of Krope
Also, too, good for the institution.
Gvg
@Lyrebird: Bush should have made it a priority to get the Afghans who helped us into the states, and the Iranians. But he didn’t try. The bigots in his own party wouldn’t have let him and the US was going full melt down paranoia anti Muslim at the time, even democrats, but that really made it impossible for us to succeed AND made a lot of our promises dishonorable IMO. I was so pissed. I have not forgotten. If I was ever in a position of power I would try to make that right.
It really needs Americans to realize the debt though. Enough voters to push a law through.
Bupalos
@rikyrah: there are no doubt some folks personally at elevated risk among the TPS recipients, but TPS is a different program than what you’re probably thinking of here…. The allies program is through the DoD.
This is shitty but not quite THAT shitty.
Gvg
@YY_Sima Qian: yes. Another reason to think Trump is an enemy agent. Everything he does, erodes our power. What would he do differently if he was an enemy agent? Nothing.
Spanky
@Betty Cracker:
I use an olive oil infused with garlic or sometimes habenaro, depending on mood or request from Mrs. Spanky. Really perks them up.
Sure Lurkalot
@Betty Cracker: Drizzle balsamic vinegar over roasted brussel sprouts and they really zing.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Sure Lurkalot: I still can’t eat brussels sprouts happily. To me, if you have to go to that much work to make something edible, you should just move on. Like kale. Why?
JML
Do today’s roasted brussel sprouts still smell like I recall them stinking from back in the day? because I’m pretty sure that was the biggest flaw for me and why I found them intolerable, no matter how much butter was involved…
drdavechemist
@The Audacity of Krope:
No disagreement from me, but some folks don’t understand that and think GMO is akin to Dr. Frankenstein.
Betty Cracker
@Spanky: & @Sure Lurkalot: Great suggestions! I’ve tried the balsamic drizzle, and it adds a sweetness and complexity that is really tasty. Brussels sprouts — who knew? ;-)
Bupalos
@YY_Sima Qian: this isn’t great reporting.
“for thousands of Afghans who aided the U.S. against the Taliban terrorist group and fled their home country.”
TPS is aimed at general in-country instability, the same designation granted to Haitians. Anyone who wanted to get out of Afghanistan could be eligible for TPS. The Allies Welcome program is (crosses fingers) permanent. Though it’s bureaucracy in a war zone. No doubt some folks who should be in the later category took the former because they couldn’t provide documentation or jump through the right hoops.
Librettist
The shit pile between Trump’s ears is trapped in 1985. The hooks for him are divestiture, not playing Sun City, etc. I believe if pressed he would indicate Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela were to blame for this “refugee crisis”.
The Audacity of Krope
@drdavechemist: Something I learned over my lifetime, some folk aren’t too bright…
Peale
@Debbie(Aussie): the parks won’t be sold. They’ll be given away to cronies. The privatization drive will last until some company with ties to China or the Gulf tries to invest in one.
Sure Lurkalot
@Matt McIrvin:
Might be nice to see proof they’re giving up what they have in the way of real estate and other fixed assets in their native home from which they’re fleeing for their very lives on a private, chartered plane.
Baud
@Gvg:
But he’d be doing it more competently.
Librettist
@Baud:
His prostate was all over my news feed. I guess he is still POTUS? The sweet lemons coming from American media is breathtaking.
Betty Cracker
@raven: I will! That sounds seriously good!
Sure Lurkalot
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I understand. I’m not a bitter greens lover myself. And brussel sprouts are quite odoriferous so I totally get why they are not well liked. Broccoli has similar qualities but it seems more people like it.
Bupalos
@drdavechemist: what people don’t understand about GMO is that it’s overwhelming use-case is Roundup-Ready. GMO in practice has essentially meant expanded monocropping, higher financial pressure on farmers and more value extraction for agrobiz, and glyphosate everywhere, in everything.
And, to be fair, higher crop yields.
sab
@Betty Cracker: I am so old that I remember Abscam, where rich people in the Middle East were buying American citizenship by bribing Congressmen. This seems similar, and that was a scandal.
sab
@stinger: The alternative to letters by mail is $10+ FedEx. My family lawyer says their expenses for use of alternative document delivery have gone through the roof.
I don’t see how starving the postal service benefits me at all.
lowtechcyclist
@Matt McIrvin:
Yeah, and “Escape from New York.”
Only in the sense of “it’s so crowded, nobody goes there anymore” but they wouldn’t want to admit that.
Some of my wife’s relatives are in the process of relocating to northeast Tennessee because central Florida’s getting too expensive for them. Don’t know if that’s part of any larger pattern: I’d think if people started fleeing Florida, it would be because it’s damn near impossible for a lot of people to insure their homes. And that’s not just on the coast, it’s happening 30+ miles inland and 100+ feet above sea level.
RevRick
@Professor Bigfoot: White male supremacy is Europe’s most enduring export.
Spanky
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
I’ve contemplated this question, and figure that the most likely reason was because they were there and people were hungry. And in kale’s case, it either lasted through the winter or could be planted early enough to harvest during the Starving Time.
And I guess we still eat them because they’re still there, and maybe (especially now) because there can always be another Starving Time.
The Audacity of Krope
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I eat Brussels sprouts because you can flavor them with almost anything and they will be delicious.
Baud
@RevRick:
I thought it was Brussel sprouts.
Another Scott
@drdavechemist: Thanks Dr. Dave!
Best wishes,
Scott.
Bupalos
@RevRick: True but then brown male supremacy is south America’s, black male supremacy is Africa’s, and don’t even get me started on whatever color we’re doing for the Middle East’s male supremacy because whoa Nelly….
Another Scott
@Baud: I thought it was “Brussels”, but the keyboard on my phone said “Brussel” so I went with that. I should have known better.
Stupid autocorrect strikes again.
Grr…
Best wishes,
Scott.
Geminid
I saw this in Ankara-based Clash Report:
The Axios story is by Barak Ravid:
https://www.axios.com/2025/05/13/edan-alexander-release-secret-talks-bahbah
frosty
@Baud: You should be able to find one or two of those on Pornhub.
Baud
@Another Scott:
I have no idea what’s right. I’ve given all control to autocorrect.
Matt McIrvin
@JML: I do not find Brussels sprouts any stinkier or bitterer than broccoli (the flower of a different cultivar of the same species). They’re like little roasted cabbages (another cultivar of etc. etc.) but with more flavor.
frosty
@Debbie(Aussie): I responded to your dead comment in the dead thread a little while ago so here it is again, same as you.
I saw that headline yesterday and couldn’t bear to read it. My retirement plan, well one of them*, was to visit as many National Parks as I could. I’ve gone from 18 to 53 in the last four years.
*Wasting four hours a day reading every comment in Balloon Juice was of course at the top of the list!
twbrandt
@Professor Bigfoot: good luck! I had the same experience at my first cardiac rehab session too. But things really do improve when keep at it. My most difficult adjustment was in my diet. Good bye double cheeseburgers with fried onion rings.
RevRick
@Suzanne: It’s spelled zoning laws. Not too many years ago, I was part of a group of UCC clergy that read Richard Rothstein’s The Color of Law, which traced the ugly racist history of zoning laws and the brutal segregation that followed.
And you know why in cities across the country, the west side is the rich part and the east side is the poor section? Well, the prevailing westerlies mean that factory smoke and stench are driven from west to east.
narya
@Matt McIrvin: IIUC, broccoli, kale, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, kohlrabi, romanesco (the Fibonacci number vegetable!), and cabbage are all cruciferous and related. I love ’em all. Broccoli is a particular favorite, but I eat SO much kale. (Farm share has spinach in the winter and kale most of the rest of the year.)
narya
@RevRick: I heard an interview with the author of this book and, given the public transportation freak that I am, I might actually veer briefly away from escapist fiction to read it. (The interview was on Strict Scrutiny if you want to get the gist of the book w/o reading it.)
frosty
@Professor Bigfoot:
Best of luck on the cardiac rehab – It should keep you commenting a lot longer. Out of breath while doing it though LOL!!
RevRick
@Bupalos: No, white male supremacy is the universal construct, but everywhere men have more power and status than women. In Latin America, blue bloods, that is those of Spanish/European descent whose veins you can see, are at the top of the social hierarchy and there’s a ruthless gradation based on paleness or darkness of skin on down.
Matt McIrvin
@narya: All literally the same species!
LAC
@Suzanne: You would be okay with this situation? Bringing in these people based on lies and distortions is essentially a slap in the face of a refugee program. Why are compromises always done on our backs? We get the ‘fight fight fight” mantra here but this is not objectible? People who benefited from the apartheid regime are okay here as refugees as well?
narya
@Matt McIrvin: One cruciferous veggie I do NOT prefer is turnips. I had a lot of them in the farm share in the early days, and I reached the lifetime limit eventually. My nerd favorite is romanesco because of the Fibonacci thing, but, turnips aside, I do love them.
lowtechcyclist
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
I’m with you on this. My wife loves them, but to me they taste okay at best, and cooking them makes the kitchen reek.
Bupalos
@RevRick: Good note. While my comment was a bit tongue in cheek, it does speak to a certain seemingly unifying characteristic among the world’s ethnicities. And a reminder that overlapping identities can clash.
Also while all the places most deeply touched by the European colonial contest in the 18th and 19th centuries do certainly have the white thang, it’s worth noting this is a historical contingency. Racism looks somewhat different in Japan which had a different experience in that period. Which doesn’t mean “reverse” but does mean “different.”
lowtechcyclist
@Sure Lurkalot:
I’ve never really noticed the smell of broccoli cooking. Also, prep is easy, steam it and serve with some butter, and at least to my taste buds, it’s delicious that way.
Glidwrith
@Professor Bigfoot: I fully understand if you want privacy while you recover, but would you be willing to share details of the exercises?
There’s so much misinformation out there concerning what works and we never hear from real physical therapists until we’ve already severely damaged our bodies.
frosty
@Spanky: Kale was a critical element of the YA book “Ashfall”. After the Yellowstone super volcano erupted, it was the only thing that would grow that was rich in Vitamin C.
lowtechcyclist
@frosty:
The times we’re in are making us all age faster than usual, but you’re an outlier even by those standards. ;-)
Deputinize America
I’ve been to Fish Hoek – its incredibly well-off and super white.
Gin & Tonic
@narya: I think a few years back somebody posted my favorite recipe for kale: coarsest chop the leaves, blanch in boiling salted water for two minutes while heating some olive oil in a pan; drain the kale, throw it into the hot olive oil for two minutes, then dump it in the garbage (the olive oil makes it easier to empty the pan.)
lowtechcyclist
@LAC:
“Let ’em all in” is a compromise??
Bupalos
@Spanky: Kale is extremely nutritious of course and can be delicious. Needs to be paired with sweetness and a little tang. Parsnips and kale is one of my favorite fall/winter dishes.
I always think these “X food is bad” things that happen on the internet as kinda weird, and somehow particularly “internety.”
Harrison Wesley
@Betty Cracker: Most serious weight reduction I had was from surgery to vacuum my pulmonary artery ten years ago. Went in at an overweight 210; came out of rehab a couple months later at 165. Been in that range ever since.
Fair Economist
@RevRick:
A telling exception is Birmingham, where a mountain immediately south of the city blocked the smoke and stench. There, the nice areas are south of the city (“over the mountain, abbreviated OTM) and the poor (and black) areas are to the north.
LAC
@lowtechcyclist: Since there is zero evidence that these people are being actually oppressed, bringing them in under a refugee status is insulting.
NutmegAgain
I’m sorry, but, “Narcissistic Abuse Recovery Coach”?? WTF? Are they really bringing her in to deal with Trump’s staff? Or is the punctuation off: (Narcissistic) Recovery coach. These people.
Bupalos
@Deputinize America: BUT THE BLACK HOARDES ARE RIGHT AT THE GATES.
I really think this whole bit the administration is running here is simply to get people thinking and talking about ethnicity and rule, an exercise they think they always profit from. They just want people to google “what are the blacks doing to the whites in South Africa” and “is South Africa a worse country than it was during apartheid” and stuff like that. It doesn’t even matter what the answers to those questions might be, it’s just the exercise itself that they expect to produce positive political results for them.
They might want to consider that they just won the last election by peeling off an unexpected margin of non-white voters. On the other hand I might want to consider that “non-white voters” is a more complicated construct than many of us have been accustomed to assuming.
Bupalos
@LAC: It’s absolutely insulting and a completely intentional racist provocation.
LAC
@Bupalos: 💯
Harrison Wesley
@NutmegAgain: I’m suspicious of the NARC acronym.
LeftCoastYankee
Apparently we have a shortage of racists with Dutch accents.
Does this rank above or below “defeating paper straws” on the next Fox list of Bozo’s accomplishments?
Oy.
Matt McIrvin
@lowtechcyclist: Talking to MAGAs about Florida, they are in total denial. It’s “the climate change religion”–a disaster the negative Nellies have been predicting for decades and it never happens. I suspect this hurricane season with NOAA and FEMA both broken is going to be a shock.
They’re also in denial about other things. I watch the YouTube channel of Fran Blanche, a vintage electronics tinkerer who is a trans woman. People keep telling her to join the Florida land bonanza and have that low cost of living. She cannot get into their thick heads that transphobic laws in Florida would be a problem for her. They find reasons not to believe it.
Kayla Rudbek
@Suzanne: and the less money that the average commuter has to spend on the car/parking/gas/insurance, the more money they have to spend on other things
Geminid
@Geminid: More Witkoff news, from Israeli journalist Noga Tarnopolsky:
Tarnopolsky also reposted this from World Food Program chief Cindy McCain:
Baud
lou
@Betty Cracker:
Same! I had a war with my mother at age 10 when I refused to eat my brussel sprouts and sat at the table until bedtime. Now can’t get enough. Especially when sprinkled with parmesan, balsamic vinegar and roasted with garlic.
Harrison Wesley
@Matt McIrvin: If they think the cost of living here is low, they should consider how much homeowner insurance costs. If you can find it.
Kayla Rudbek
@Betty Cracker:
@lou: Brussels sprouts have been bred to taste better now than they were 20-years ago (some of the previous breeding for yield messed up the taste)
Belafon
@Dorothy A. Winsor: In this case:
Deliberately
Excluding
Intelligence.
Belafon
@lou: According to my parents, when I was five they put Brussel Sprouts on my plate, and I got up screaming and ran to a corner and would not return to the table until they proved to me that the green balls had been removed.
Geminid
@Geminid: Axios also published an article this morning by Barak Ravid and two other reporters about Trump’s Middle East trip, titled “All Trump roads lead to the Gulf.”
https://www.axios.com/2025/05/13/trump-gulf-trip-saudi-uae-qatar-partners
YY_Sima Qian
Sickening:
These days, I struggle to distinguish between the Russian Army in Ukraine & the IDF in Gaza.
Professor Bigfoot
@twbrandt: Ribs. That’s gonna be hard to give up.
Was walking through the supermarket the other day and they had “country style boneless ribs” on sale and almost purely out of habit i grabbed a pack.
I’ve told myself that I have not had my last slice of chocolate cake, nor my last drumstick, nor even my last rib… but I I gotta eat a whole lot less of ‘em.
Manyakitty
@Debbie(Aussie): thanks, Deb. We appreciate you!
Professor Bigfoot
@Glidwrith: Basically, at least as far as the class is concerned, it’s just workout machines— treadmills, rowers, recumbent bikes.
Basically just a cardio workout— get your heart rate up to some speed and keep it there for a while.
Glidwrith
@Professor Bigfoot: Thanks! Good to know!
NotMax
@lowtechcyclist
Sprouts and maple syrup .
’nuff said.
(I employ a similar method, but quickly parboil the whole sprouts for around a minute before slicing them. Find that way time in the oven can be lessened.) Also adhere to the tradition of first cutting a shallow X into the bottom of the stem end of each one prior to cooking, regardless of how; helps make that tougher part of the sprouts tender.)
Manyakitty
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I roast them in a glaze of olive, balsamic, maple syrup, and salt and pepper. Really good.
The Audacity of Krope
@Bupalos: Hordes.
It is not someone’s private collection of black people.
Harrison Wesley
@The Audacity of Krope: True. The South African refugees had to leave their hoardes behind.
suzanne
@LAC: I’m okay, really, with anybody coming for any reason. If someone just likes the climate or they want to live in Wyoming because they like cows, or whatever. If they want to move for their relationship or their job or hobbies. I fundamentally think borders are inhumane. If it was up to me, I’d basically allow in anyone without a criminal record, phase in social benefits over, say, seven years, and call it a day.
I am offended by the preferential treatment given to these quote-unquote refugees, but for me the answer is to let everyone in who wants to come.
RevRick
@Professor Bigfoot: Thank God for rehab! May it greatly benefit and quicken your recovery. Be well, brother.
Ramalama
My my
At Waterloo
Napoleon did surrender
(obligatory ABBA note for anything related to Eurovision)
prostratedragon
Heard on the internet —
Call: Make this nightmare end.
Response: You think you can just boss cholesterol around?
schrodingers_cat
@LAC: Agreed.
dnfree
@Glidwrith: Having been through heart rehab longer in the past, there are three unusual features compared to just walking on a treadmill or an elliptical at home or at a gym. One is the educational component, because hey, you just had a heart attack and you’re more likely to pay attention. Second is that they measure in exercise units called METS, which I never completely got the hang of but it seemed to be a measure of exertion or effort. And third is that you’re completely wired up and they are monitoring your heart. Twice during my rehab, the man next to me (different men) slowed down; one even collapsed. The nursing staff raced over and hauled them off and they wound up getting another stent or whatever on the spot.
So after you complete 12 weeks or whatever it is now, your confidence that it’s okay to exercise and you won’t immediately have another heart attack is increased. So it really is a specific program geared to heart attack survivors, not the general public.