Eclipse of the Blood Moon…
am i planning on staying up until 5 am for the lunar eclipse? yes.
is it worth it for this view? yes.— Jasmine 🌌🔭 (@astrojaz.bsky.social) March 2, 2026 at 3:05 PM
Iraq War Veteran Crow: Trump announced the start of this war with Iran at Mar-a-Lago. He talked about the fact that service members were going to die. Then he literally walked behind the curtains to his private club and he hosted a million dollars a plate dinner and dance party that night.
— FactPost (@factpostnews.bsky.social) March 2, 2026 at 5:56 PM
The MarkWayne Indicator strikes again!
(MarkWayne Indicator: If the GOP is shoving Mullin out to defend their latest atrocity… it means nobody with better thinking skills is willing to put themselves in the line of fire.)— Anne Laurie (@annelaurie.bsky.social) March 2, 2026 at 6:58 PM
Hunt: “Did the president not run on not starting a war with Iran?”
Sen. Mullin: “He ran on ending wars. He's ended eight of them.”
Hunt: “He started this one.”
Mullin: “This isn’t a war.”— The Bulwark (@thebulwark.com) March 2, 2026 at 5:13 PM
When you are shoveling that much shit it helps to have a plumber on speed dial.
— Jason Barscheski (@jasonbarscheski.bsky.social) March 2, 2026 at 8:41 PM
MarkWayne, just following orders…
Very putinesque.
— Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec.bsky.social) March 2, 2026 at 7:01 PM
My government has a real “we didn’t know starting a war would cause a war“ vibe going on which I realize I should be outraged about in the abstract but find myself mainly nonplussed by at this point.
— Starfire’s Deranged Neocon Foreign Policy Podcast (@irhottakes.bsky.social) March 2, 2026 at 3:23 PM
The gap between how cool he thinks he sounds and how he actually sounds would take light eight centuries to traverse.
— Philip Bump (@pbump.com) March 2, 2026 at 8:17 AM
Hey is this good
— Fubar ???? (@captainfubar.bsky.social) March 1, 2026 at 10:10 PM
Under our Constitution, the President does not get to unilaterally declare war. Speaker Johnson should call the House back immediately to vote on the war powers resolution. Trump must stop putting service members in danger until he has laid out the strategy to Americans and Congress has approved.
— Katherine Clark (@whipkclark.bsky.social) March 1, 2026 at 1:07 PM
This is an illegal war that could easily escalate in dangerous and unpredictable ways into a wider regional conflict.
Have we learned absolutely nothing from our decades of endless war and reckless attempts at regime change in the Middle East?— Rep. Jim McGovern (@repmcgovern.bsky.social) March 1, 2026 at 6:33 PM
Trump spent a decade selling "America-First" isolationism.
No more endless war, no sending Americans to die in the Middle East, he said.
He lied. Why? Follow the money. He's just another neocon shill for Big Oil & Middle East autocrats. Many of us tried to warn you.— Rep. Jim McGovern (@repmcgovern.bsky.social) March 2, 2026 at 12:02 PM
There’s that number.
— Malaclypse the Middle (@malaclypse.bsky.social) March 1, 2026 at 6:39 PM
this isn’t an exaggeration, it’s literally word for mangled word
— GOLIKEHELLMACHINE (@golikehellmachine.com) March 2, 2026 at 1:50 PM
American troops are dying in the Middle East for Trump's illegal war against Iran, but the president is more concerned with promoting his gold-encrusted ballroom.
— Elizabeth Warren (@warren.senate.gov) March 2, 2026 at 1:32 PM
The American people want affordable health care and cheaper groceries, not another forever war in the Middle East.
— Elizabeth Warren (@warren.senate.gov) March 2, 2026 at 5:01 PM
The U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia tells Americans to "avoid the Embassy until further notice due to an attack on the facility," and the U.S. State Department orders the evacuation of non-emergency personnel and family in Bahrain and Jordan.
— The Associated Press (@apnews.com) March 3, 2026 at 12:57 AM
Replacement cost for three F-15Es is in the neighborhood of $300 million for those keeping track
Attacking Iran looks like it will cost US consumers about 40 cents/gallon.
— George Pearkes (@peark.es) March 2, 2026 at 7:11 AM
H/t YY_Sima Qian:
a thing historians will marvel about when they study this era is the extent to which the "war is a thing that happens to poorer, browner people" class went about systematically dismantling every aspect of the global political order that confined the costs of war to poorer and browner people
— Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò (@olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social) March 2, 2026 at 10:32 PM
whether war, vaccines, or critical infrastructure there is contingent of the right that seems to believe that their security from the worst things that happen is some kind of metaphysical principle rather than the result of specific historical processes that could've gone otherwise and still could
— Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò (@olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social) March 2, 2026 at 10:37 PM
all seems like fun and games until the measles outbreak, incel mass shooter, or Shahed 136 drone hits your kid's school I guess
— Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò (@olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social) March 2, 2026 at 10:39 PM
And even then…
There’s a movement to draft Barron Trump, but I think a campaign such as this would be more effective if it impacted someone Donald Trump knew personally.
— Frank Conniff (@frankconniff.bsky.social) March 2, 2026 at 3:41 PM
On The Road – pat – Calendar 2020
Baud
Big primary day for the decent folks
(Technically, Republicans hold primaries today too, but who cares?)
Princess
I’m just reading that US commanders are describing this war to their troops as a Christian war. One of them said its intent was to bring about Armageddon and the return of Jesus. Meanwhile, Americans are (rightly) angry that Trump hasn’t justified/explained it to them but Bibi has been on Fox instead, doing that, and my Israeli friends are furious at the same time that Bibi has justified it to the Americans but not to them.
As my Mother used to say when I’d fight with my sister, “It’ll end in tears!”
Suzanne
Of course we haven’t!
dc
I guess “Special Military Operation” was taken.
mappy!
More troops to the not-war? Blaming Biden? Things just sort of go thingy sometimes…
Baud
@Suzanne:
There was a recent meme on Reddit about how every Republican president starts a war and creates an economic disaster. Don’t know how many people it’ll reach, but I was definitely like “No lie told.”
Jeffro
“a fallen warrior of Terra” – who knew trumpov was such a sci-fi fan?
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: So long as they are rewarded by white people and wanna be white people at the polls they are not going to change.
Trivia Man
Someone just forwarded to me another complicating wrinkle. Israel needs to pass a budget by the end of the month or they run out of defense spending funds.
Trivia Man
@Baud: hip kidz say “no cap”
Jeffro
that last tweet, OUCH! so true though
Suzanne
@Baud:
YUP. They’re all war pigs.
Album for the day: Bad Religion, The Empire Strikes First.
trnc
Historically, I’d say that’s accurate.
I wonder if the commanders who are giving out illegal orders and ignoring rules of engagement realize that a pardon won’t do them much good if the next president hands them over to Iran.
hueyplong
You kind of have to hope that a sufficient percentage of Americans comes to the realization that ETTD is real, it’s either him or us, that the realization hits in time for November, and that he doesn’t effectively prevent the votes from being cast/counted.
Jeffro
just sharing a couple of gift links here:
retro “Pizza Hut Classics” – link in story to find the old-school Pizza Hut location, red plastic glasses and all, nearest you! (Mrs. Fro and I now have date night planned for next week, LOL)
piece about Jackson Hole’s billionaire class causing Jackson Hole to just about literally crumble (it’s actually full of facts about our new Gilded Age – highly recommended reading)
The article goes on to talk about the problems created specifically by the Friess family – isn’t Foster Friess the guy who holds Clarence Thomas’ strings?
trnc
The good thing about Trump’s prediction of around a couple of days/3 days/maybe 4 weeks is that everyone knows about his well thought out timelines.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone😊😊😊
Dave
@Princess: There has for some time been a true believer insane class of officers in the military. Mostly they were kept in check by more sober if conservative flag officers and whatnot but with Hegseth purging that and being one home that is no longer the case. I had a few clashes with the type.
Rare case when it’s better when they are incompetent. It is not reassuring to say the least but then what is reassuring in the current moment?
trnc
You might be thinking of Harlan Crow, although Friess could also be a puppetmaster from hell.
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
trnc
@rikyrah: Good morning!
Well, maybe after my dentist visit.
Dave
@mappy!: This reminds me of Rumsfeld’s “you go to war with army you have not the one you want” which is true unless it’s a goddamned war of choice.
I haven’t watched any press talking about this; can’t stomach it. Are they as pathetic as they were in the run up and immediate aftermath of Iraq or are they at least a bit more skeptical?
Or are they still impressed by the cool macho explosions?
JML
@Jeffro: I really does seem that when they cross the billionaire line they stop being able to understand the word NO.
Rules? Those are for other, lesser people.
Tax the rich. Eat the rich. Destroy the rich. The older I get, the more I want someone to simply take their money.
schrodingers_cat
Give Joyce Carol Oates, the Nobel Prize for literature
Joyce Carol Oates
@JoyceCarolOates
Soapdish
“My government has (insert latest bullshit here) which I realize I should be outraged about in the abstract but find myself mainly nonplussed by at this point.”
There. Fixed it for everyone.
TS
We just saw the eclipse in Australia, started about 8.30pm local time & has just reappeared blindingly bright – very little cloud made for easy viewing.
Deputinize America
Last night, I got the privilege to listen to an executive level travel industry briefing run by their chief operations people and their VERY connected risk and security personnel.
1. There are 300,000 stranded Brits, some expatriated assholes, but most caught on layovers in Doha and Abu Dhabi, coming home from Asian, Australian or Indian holidays. The Brits wind up taking care of their own eventually, but it takes some days to put together.
2. There are 400,000 stranded French, who handle theirs much the same.
3. The US sucks, because Freedom and Bootstraps, it will be a very long time to get anyone’s attention to try to organize anything.
4. Currently, cross-border overland transit is unaffected, BUT that can change if various militias sense an opening. Going rate on ground transit – if you know people who know people (or are working through this group) – is 20K USD per head to get to Amman or Muscat. Flights from those places are 20K -30K.
5. Italian and Greek cruises are fine, for now. That could change, although Greece has its own version of an Iron Dome. Turkey can get a little weird toward the south, although Istanbul and Smyrna should be fine.
5. Spring travel is fucked across the board unless you’re already booked. That whole region’s routing is completely unwound, equipment and crews are out of place, and longer routes are gonna force cancellations and potential surcharges due to fuel price increases. Enjoy taking the Family Truckster to Gatlinburg or the drive to Orlando, in other words.
6. The best they can hope for (after repatriation of the stranded) is to salvage something of the summer, but as the war drags on they have their doubts.
Upshot is that there was a LOT of talk likening conditions to the pandemic.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
I’m liking TV’s Frank more as I learn more about him. Now if he could just help arrange for certain people in Washington to be stuck on a space station and forced to watch bad movies until their brains break (robot buddies optional)…
Betty Cracker
@Jeffro: Oh lord, I worked at Pizza Hut as a server in the late 80s, and that article gave me all the flashbacks! I can still smell the stale grease in the mandatory brown polyester uniform with the dumb and unnecessary matching brown visor! One of the bennies was we got to take home all the personal pan pizzas that were unclaimed by a customer after 15 minutes under the heat lamp. This made me very popular in the dorms! ;-)
@schrodingers_cat: The woman can flat-out turn a phrase!
Soprano2
So here the price of gas went from average $2.29/gal to $2.99/gal since Friday. I bought gas Saturday at the Wal Mart gas station for $2.19. I wonder how many people will see that price increase and wonder what happened? That might be the first time they become aware that we attacked Iran over the weekend!
Deputinize America
@trnc:
“Trump may have pardoned you, but you’re getting on that plane for Tehran, General Caine. You should have given more thought to those orders before carrying them out, you fucking coward. Oh, and the swordsman probably won’t let you wear the ribbons, doodads and stars before executing you.
Thanks for your ‘service’, asshole.”
narya
QFT
The malicious side of me wants harm, but I also think that wishing harm on anyone, no matter how heinous, is not a good thing for one’s own self/mental state. So I’ll settle for taking their money.
Suzanne
@Dave:
LOfuckenL.
Seems like all of these assholes forget that you can…. just not go to war!
narya
@Princess: I’ve also read that some military commission/agency/office has received a whole BUNCH of complaints from the troops, so yay for that.
schrodingers_cat
If you are not following baby monkey Punch’s saga on the intertoobz you are missing out.
p.a
@Princess: This goes back to the W maladmin at least, actual verbal insults of Jews & Muslims at the AF Academy in Col Springs.
Focus on Family🤢 based in C.S.
chemiclord
But, of course, mentioning that Trump had played footsie with starting a war in Iran during his first term runs right into the wall of, “NO ONE COULD HAVE EXPECTED THIS WHEN THEY VOTED FOR TRUMP A THIRD TIME! STOP BEING MEAN!”
Soprano2
@Betty Cracker: My best friend worked at a Pizza Hut in the late ’70’s. The pics in that article look exactly like what they looked like then. Made me nostalgic.
Jeffro
“tax the rich, just because” is actually more popular that if you give folks a reason
hey, I don’t make the rules here, billionaires! LOL
Jeffro
oh heck yeah
more popular than a blind RA!
Geminid
@Deputinize America: I read that flights in and out of Cyprus are suspended. This is due to a second drone attack from Lebanese Hezbollah. So now Greece has sent 4 F-16s to Cyprus, and several warships* to the waters around the island.
* Fun fact: one of the Hellenic Navy ships is the Kimon, named after the Athenian general who wrested the island of Cyprus from the Persians 2500 years ago.
MattF
Watched a lunar eclipse many years ago in a public area. Put on my ‘not a physicist right now’ hat and explained to the crowd how the dragon was swallowing the moon and then shitting it out again.
Betty Cracker
Just read that Noem is appearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee today. Should be a fine opportunity for Democratic committee members to roast the bejeebus out of her about the many scandals that have unspooled on her watch, from atrocities like the murder of U.S. citizens in Minneapolis to tabloid shit like Noem’s purchase of a luxury fleet of flying fuck palaces on the taxpayer dime.
peter
@Soprano2: My wife and I were in grad school in Madison WI in the early 1980s, living in married student housing. We and another couple would have pizza night at a nearby Pizza Hut every couple months — a big splurge, but a lot of fun. Our kids grew up thinking this was what pizza tasted like. Like Eggo waffles or Kraft macaroni and cheese.
NotMax
@Suzanne
“That trick never works.”
– Rocket J. Squirrel
//
schrodingers_cat
Punch getting fed.
Jeffg166
The No Kings March the 28th of March will now be an anti felon anti war March. Maybe we will get to that 3.5% of the population turning up to show how very unpopular the felon and his war are.
Betty Cracker
My dogs are verbally harassing large wild turkeys at the fence line. This will not go well for them if the turkeys decide to respond to the trash talk!
schrodingers_cat
@chemiclord: Yeah we have to be nice to the folks who voted for this nightmare
because they are my relatives.Soprano2
@schrodingers_cat: That is so cute! I’ve been hearing about Punch from Colbert. He bought one of those “comfort monkeys” for himself. LOL
Soprano2
@schrodingers_cat: Well, I have to work with a lot of them so I have to be civil, at least at work. I haven’t yet asked if any of them are regretting their vote.
schrodingers_cat
@Soprano2: The comfort monkey is bright orange like the nightmare in the WH.
jonas
@Jeffro: I recall Foster Friess as the Rick Santorum patron who advised women to just put an aspirin between their knees if they needed birth control. He seemed nice.
Those classic Pizza Huts remind me of so many childhood birthday parties. Buncha kids around that red and white checkered tablecloth scarfing bad pizza and bottomless Cokes from those red cups. That’s right. I’m old enough to remember when you ordered a soda, it was one drink, not a self-serve limitless soda fountain. That’s why those old pizza restaurants were kid Valhalla — pitcher after pitcher of pure, bubbly soda!
bbleh
@Suzanne: learning is emasculating.
Soprano2
@schrodingers_cat: I’m just waiting to hear someone bitching about gas prices, because they’ve all been so happy that prices have been lower lately. I remember the first Iraq War with Kuwait – gas went up about $0.10/gal every week for weeks and weeks. I worked at a trucking company then, and they had to disable their automated fuel system because it couldn’t keep up with the price increases all over the country.
Soprano2
@jonas: I’m old enough to remember that a 20 oz cup of soda was considered a large!!!
Trivia Man
A bump of 40 cents at the pump (diesel) will translate to an immediate increase of 5-10 cents per mile of trucking. On every leg moved by truck.
Trivia Man
@JML: Best Occupy Wall Street sign: JUMP, YOU FUCKERS
Geminid
@Baud: I’ll be watching Rep. Dan Creshaw’s primary (I think it’s in the Houston area but I’m not sure). Republican challenger David Toth is supported by Ted Cruz among others, and he could beat Crenshaw. Evidently, Crenshaw is accused of not being conservative enough.
Suzanne
The Texas primary is today, yeah? Can’t wait for this to be over.
Dave
@Soprano2: I’m ok with it as long as people actually make the basic connection of why they have gone up.
Jeffro
I think you’re right – it’s Crow.
So hard to keep it all straight as to which billionaire owns which SCOTUS justice
Betty Cracker
@Jeffro: As someone once suggested, they should be required to wear sponsors’ labels on their robes, like NASCAR drivers.
jonas
Those are probably orders directly from Hegseth. I would also suspect that 95% of the troops being told this have no fucking clue what he’s talking about.
Baud
Trump is making my EV more valuable. Checkmate, liberals!
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: We have an EV and a hybrid! What EV did you get?
Jeffro
this latest scandal just might have some legs – take it and run with it, Dems
Kash fired FBI counterintelligence team focused on Iranian threats…because they were part of the team that looked into trumpov’s stealing/keeping national security documents at MAL
LET’S GO CONGRESS!!!
oldgold
What in the hell is Marco Rubio’s claim to fame? Every damn time he steps into the spotlight, he fails spectacularly. Yesterday’s insane performance, attempting to justify this war, was just another example of this gutless nitwit proving he would be unfit to serve as mayor of Burnt Stump.
jonas
@Dave: I’m looking forward to the stickers with Trump’s face saying “I did that!” plastered on gas pumps.
There are going to be some absolutely idiot MAGA cultists who go around crowing that they’re proud to pay more for gas if it helps Dear Leader to glorious victory over
EastasiaOceanaIran. I suspect the rest of the country will be less sanguine about what’s coming....now I try to be amused
@Dave:
I understand that there is a similar class of officers in the IDF.
Baud
@schrodingers_cat: Bolt
Jackie
@Soprano2:
I can’t wait for FFOTUS to explain to his Base WHY gas prices are suddenly skyrocketing. This might be their first realization their beloved anti-war prez has instigated a war in the Middle East.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: I was looking at Bolts. Cute cars. I got a red Leaf.
Dave
@…now I try to be amused: Truthfully form my limited experience even worse. Encountered some true fanaticism amongst them.
That they both believe the other are fools who believe the wrong things would be amusing if it wasn’t all so damnably horrific.
Ran into occasional issues with true believers of that sort in the US Army but mostly subtle things because I would challenge it as inappropriate in a manner they didn’t necessarily anticipate in the moment.
schrodingers_cat
@Soprano2: I don’t envy you.
jonas
It’s time to play “Spin the Wheel to Choose Which Democratic Figure to Blame™”! My guess is either Obama or, somehow, AOC. It could be anyone! Or maybe he gets confused and starts raging about Ted Cruz’s mother, Hillary Clinton, before getting distracted by the ballroom again.
LAC
@schrodingers_cat: Yeah, but it was heartbreaking cute watching him hug it. I hear that he has gotten a surrogate mommy connection. There were internet aunties ready to fly in to a kick monkey butt for rejecting him earlier. Babies are babies…
schrodingers_cat
@LAC: It was. He is adorable.
Betty Cracker
@oldgold: Once upon a time, Lil’ Marco was the GOP’s Great Hispanic Hope. Then the party rejected GWB’s (admittedly janky) outreach and leaned into white Christian nationalism with Trump, and Rubio had to adapt. Maybe Trump will make him Viceroy of Cuba this week.
Deputinize America
@Geminid:
The Cyprus hit makes me nervous in that, to me, it means Istanbul is in range.
Jackie
Aside: WaterGirl/Mike in Oly; that waterfall is stunning!
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Bruce K in ATH-GR:
I’ve been following him on twitter for several years.
He is a national treasure that most of the nation doesn’t know about.
rikyrah
We are starting out with approval FOR THE IRAN WAR at the CRAZYFICATION FACTOR LEVEL.
THAT’S HOW IT’S STARTING OUT 🧐🧐
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Baud:
When did this happen? Used or one of the new ones?
Welcome to the
ClubCult!Soprano2
@Jackie: It is, it reminds me of the ones we saw on Maui.
Dave
@rikyrah: It might rise in the short run if they can claim any sort of chest pounding success but yeah not great guys. And any apparent short term success is unlikely to endure even a few months let alone beyond.
Belafon
@Jeffro: Right now, an attack on us would not hurt Trump with the party. They won’t blame him, and he can use it to further slide into fascism, which they don’t mind either.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Betty Cracker:
I worked at one in early 1979 my senior year of HS, then the same one in summer of 81, then one in Boulder in 1983. Half the employees at that one were at our wedding.
I would “trade” “free” food with other places from time to time if they had a manager amenable to it. One of my wife’s jobs as her undergrad time wound down was an asst mgr at a KFC so we’d swap chicken for pizza all the time.
Betty Cracker
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Now I’m craving Pizza Hut, which hasn’t happened in decades! I blame y’all! ;-)
jonas
Which makes sense, because that’s where the popularity of our last little Middle East Aventure pretty much ended.
It had started with around 75% approval.
Soprano2
@Dave: I think it’s funny that FFOTUS believes he can time a war by saying “Yeah, it’s going to last about 4 weeks”. LOL, doesn’t he know the enemy gets a say too?
ETA – I just saw that the market is down over 1,000 points. It’s just occurred to them that this Iran War thing might be serious. *rolleyes
Dave
@Soprano2: These idiots operate on classical bad planning “I want outcome X, I want to achieve outcome X by means Y, therefore Y must lead to outcome X because I want it to and anything else would hurt my feelings”.
This is how you create disasters and yet so many people operate like this and think it’s reasonable.
Deputinize America
@Betty Cracker:
That’s just monstrous.
...now I try to be amused
@Dave:
Especially in war. Once upon a time Trump seemed to understand that the enemy always gets a vote.
Before he went into politics Trump was protected from consequences by lawyers and lies. A foreign enemy at war with him is affected by neither of them.
Betty Cracker
@Deputinize America: Right? These days, I make my own dough and sauce, place carefully selected toppings by hand and then cook my artisanal pizza in my own portable wood-fired pizza oven. This should not be happening!
Dave
@…now I try to be amused: Yes it was the closest thing he had to a virtue. He seemed to at least grasp that once you start the shooting just about anything can happen and he might be held responsible but he’s sufficiently decayed that even that one thing that wasn’t absolutely awful about him is no longer the case.
Jeffro
You must be kidding.
An attack on us, due to a) trump’s war of choice and b) his FBI’s elimination of positions designed to foresee/prevent such attacks, wouldn’t hurt trump with the party?
The attack, period, is already hurting him with his party and base. Additional, preventable casualties could only send his numbers down, even if by a fraction.
Let’s not always assume that nothing matters when it comes to trump’s approval (whether with MAGA electeds or base voters). It’s not going to be the huge erosion we’d all like to see, but it’s definitely there
see also rikyrah at #83…he’s already in a bad spot…preventable casualties won’t help!
Jeffro
@Betty Cracker: I’m telling you, Mrs. Fro and I are rarin’ to go next week! We’d go sooner but we have a busy week and then family coming to town/events going on this weekend :)
Suzanne
@Dave:
This is exactly my criticism yesterday. It is irresponsible thinking. We cannot ever separate ends from means, or means from capabilities.
I am thrilled to see the end of the ayatollahs in Iran, and I am happy that so many Iranians are feeling hopeful. But without a solid strategy to replace that regime with something better (which, of course, we do not have in evidence!)…. we run a very good chance of making things even worse. We are rolling the dice with people’s lives. (We seem to do that when it’s brown people.)
You know what it is? It is glib. It is living in fantasy and none of us should ever engage in it.
ETA: And I find this kind of fantasy thinking an on-ramp to Bad Action.
Jeffro
The canceled flights in the area (oops sorry there Dubai!) and the impacts from closing the Strait of Hormuz are tremendous.
It’s like what trumpov has already done to damage tourism and our economy (mostly with his tariffs and ICE insanity), only much more sudden and visible)
Dave
@Suzanne: Glib and ultimately unserious describes so many of these people. No sense of responsibility or the weight of what they are doing.
Politicians, the mega wealthy, influencers, all of it just a turbocharged version of the Great Gatsby’s retreat into their own unending carelessness.
It’s not great
And it’s how you end up with statements like “Dubai wasn’t supposed to be subject to geopolitics”. My man how in the hell can you be that clueless?
Or vapid media idiots asking Iranian officials about how dare they have have the gall to retaliate.
UncleEbeneezer
We had a bit of a nightmare on Sunday. Went up to the ski valley for lunch with a friend who was snowboarding. When we got there she wasn’t feeling well and thought she might have fell and hit her head but couldn’t remember anything. We rightly suspected a concussion and got her down to the medics and eventually the hospital. But for 8+ hours she was confused, scared and repeating the same questions over and over. She’s thankfully home and better now but it was real scary.
Suzanne
@Dave: Also, it should be noted that we would never engage in such dice-rolling with people we actually think of as people!
But Muslims aren’t fully realized human beings to too many of these psychopaths.
UncleEbeneezer
@Soprano2: In more positive news, we are planning a trip to Kauai and the Big Island for the Fall. My wife has never been to Hawaii and I haven’t been there in almost 40 years (Maui). Very excited.
Matt McIrvin
@Jeffro: Short term, a major attack on the US probably would help Trump to some degree in spite of everything. Even Jimmy Carter got that kind of boost from the hostage crisis.
But it didn’t last. Even the greatest crisis spike since opinion polling was invented, George W. Bush’s from 9/11, didn’t last, though it took long enough to die out to get him just barely reelected. And given that this is obviously a crisis of Trump’s own making and that his whole administration makes Bush’s clown show look like expert state craft, I suspect it’d be smaller and shorter-lived.
Betty Cracker
@Jeffro: Preach. Public opinion is the battleground right now, and we are winning, or at least, Trump is losing. That matters.
The authoritarian modus operandi is to make it so that public opinion no longer matters, but though we’ve taken frightening leaps in that direction, we’re not there yet. So it matters.
Geminid
@Deputinize America: The Uranians have laid off Turkey. They said they would hit US bases anywhere in the region, and they have with the exception of bases on Turkish soil.
I can of two reasons for this. One is that they want to preserve Turkiye as a potential mediator to settle this war. The other is that Turkiye has the second biggest army and air force in NATO. Also, Turks are intensely nationalistic and they would demand severe reprisals.
The Islamic Republic needs to keep Turkiye neutral, and it cannot afford to make an enemy of a well-armed nation that shares a 500 mile border with it, especially when a majority of their own population hates their leadership.
Searcher
I know Mullin is only in his late 40s, but if any other Senator repeatedly confused the President and the Secretary of Defense, we’d be complaining about the advanced age of senators and the raising the possibility of dementia.
(I mean, mixing up Iraq and Iran too, but we’re more used to that.)
So, is Mullin experiencing early-onset dementia, or is he really just THAT stupid? Like, I know he’s pretty stupid. But really?
Matt McIrvin
@Betty Cracker: Even totalitarians need public support. The difference is that they hold all the levers to manipulate it. Trump’s made a serious bid to seize that kind of control. But he still doesn’t have it.
Trivia Man
@Jeffro: Thats why we need to require sponsorship patches on the robes like NASCAR uses.
Betty got there first, im not as clever as i think
Baud
@Geminid:
I thought people from Uranus were called Uranites.
Baud
@UncleEbeneezer:
Wow. That is frightening.
Baud
Matt McIrvin
@UncleEbeneezer: So scary! Years and years ago my wife fell and hit her head skating, got mildly concussed and had to get her head scanned. But she wasn’t that strongly affected.
Geminid
@Deputinize America: Hezbollah launched the drones that hit Cyprus. That’s a short flight from Lebanon.
In the run-up to this war, there was a lot of speculation as to whether Hezbollah would jump in on Iran’s side. They did Sunday, and a lot of Lebanese are furious with them. Their Shi’it political allies are cutting ties, and two major Shi’ite tribes in the Bekaa Valley have come out in favor of Hezbollah’s disarmament.
Most other Lebanese hated Hezbollah to begin with. This war could signal the end of Hezbollah as a military force, and maybe as political force as well.
Van Buren
@Soprano2: Does this mean we’re allowed to ask about Epstein now?
Trivia Man
@Suzanne: It reminds me of homer simpson. He discovered dueling and learned nobody wanted to duel. So he carried around gloves and slapped everyone as a challenge. Everyone backed off every time. Until someone didnt and homer realized he was in over his head.
Conclusion: trump is dumber than homer.
UncleEbeneezer
@Matt McIrvin: This sort of blackout is common with CTE, but usually not for that long. It was very scary.
Trivia Man
@Baud: Diesel is up 9 cents in the weekly update. AAA says up 12 cents since yesterday.
Lacuna Synecdoche
WaPo via Anne Laurie @ Top:
I wish a reporter would ask Trump:
Four weeks to do what? You’ve already decapitated Iran’s leadership. What goal are you trying to achieve that is going to take another four weeks to accomplish?
p.a.
Rethugs rely on their followers voting themselves into cardboard boxes etc as long as their domestic targets have even less, but don’t savvy that people we bomb will act the same to themselves to get back at us?
WTFGhost
Well, that’s the thing. It’s okay to say “I could have told you Trump was a warmonger at heart.” It’s okay to inform someone, in a neutral tone, that you foresaw something, in hopes that they listen to you next time.
But obviously, you can find an approach less obviously mocking than “no one could have expected…” :-) .
@schrodingers_cat: I’ll be as nice to them as I am to everyone. Keep in mind, one of my problems socializing is, sometimes, listening to (generic)you *hurt*, so I get cranky and upset, unless I have the resources and reserves to hold my mood in check. So my version of nice is sometimes very frank and rude. “Actually, salesperson, I want you to leave, I’m disabled, and… listen, you have to learn to expect people to say no. Oh, come on, dude, watch your blood pressure! Okay, okay, you fornicate yourself too.”
So, yeah, I’ll be nice, but for me, “nice” is “I coulda told you he was stupid and thought the US was invincible, but you listened to a bunch of assholes who lied through their teeth to you, who told you people like me deserved your hate and contempt.”
You know, y’all humans, you really hate it when social mores are made visible; it’s against the rules to make social mores visible. In fact, I think that was the whole point of ACT UP, now that my brain is firing on at least once cylinder. “Make homophobia and heterosexism visible, so we can finally scorn it. They’ll hate you protestors, but you’ll win the long battle for justice.”
Just like Black Civil Rights, “get the hatred visible, on TV, and have a Malcolm X scaring the hell out of you, to boot.” I wonder if “outing” was the gay version of Malcolm X.
(Outing gay people was a big deal back then, but, if someone was gay, and, was opposing gay civil rights, in a substantial way, there were folks who said they should be outed. If they’re raising the temperature to boil gayness out of society, they should feel the heat too. Even then, note, it was controversial, not unlike calling ICE on an immigrant today.)
Man. Having a functioning brain is a funny thing.
Front pagers, this means I might be going crazy again. Whenever I feel good, insanity is usually a bunny-hop away (and bunnies can hop quite a distance!).
Jeffro
Other outlets are picking up on the “Kash fired FBI specialists in countering Iran” story…
Leto
@Lacuna Synecdoche: a common refrain that Repubs would trot out against Dems is that any time we spoke about a time frame for any operation that we’d conduct, Repubs said that was simply giving the “enemy” a manageable clock. They “knew” we’d stop at X time, so they’d just hold out until then. Glad that was memory holed like every other fucking thing with this shitbag.
Suzanne
@Lacuna Synecdoche:
Keep bombing until he gets a Nobel Peace Prize, of course.
ETA: I’m sorry, was that cynical?
Elizabelle
@Jeffro: Trump did not bankrupt six businesses by accident.
Learn up, wingtards! Voting has consequences.
Jeffro
btw – good piece up in the Times about how 4 big-deal law firms DIDN’T capitulate to trumpov and his DOJ, and won
(9 of them did capitulate, “obeyed in advance”, paid big $$$)
there’s a lesson there for any and every institution of any kind in the US: the only proper response to these goons is, “eff you”
Jeffro
@Lacuna Synecdoche: there’s a joke there somewhere about how trump needs four more weeks – or if you prefer, two entire Obamacare replacement plans – to conduct and finish up the Iran war
Belafon
@Jeffro: Sure, he’s already at the crazification factor, but that’s literally the “no matter what” support level, and that’s nearly all of the Republicans in Congress.
It’s also a Republican we’re talking about. The headlines of any attack will read “Iranian terrorists blow up hospital, Trump responds decisively.” Had it been a under a Democrat, the headline would read “President Harris fails to prevent death of women and children in Iranian attack.”
taumaturgo
@Suzanne:
It’s understandable when you consider the theft of oil—greed is the real driving force, masked by hollow phrases like “democracy” and “freedom.”
Belafon
@Belafon: Also, I’m talking about using the event to further the administrations authoritarian ends, which are happening right now even though the majority of the public doesn’t support them.
montanareddog
If I understand correctly, Pete Legless, is Secretary of Major Combat Operations, which makes him the head of the Department of Major Combat Operations, where is is in charge of several hundred thousand major combat operators.
Nice rebranding exercise.
ironcity
@Van Buren: Isn’t this whole diversion called operation “Epstein Fury”? It’s pretty bad when the diversion results in more people being killed and injured and the expenditure of untold amounts of treasure. What is the GOP definition of war, because it sure fits mine.
Soprano2
@Lacuna Synecdoche: They’ll never ask him this obvious question, but if they did he’d probably say it was a nasty question and evade it. Someone told him this should be over in 4 weeks, that’s why he’s saying it. “It’s always been about a 4 week process.” That sounds like something someone said to him.
catclub
@Betty Cracker: at least not wild pigs
Jeffro
also a good piece up today about JD Vance’s (d)evolution and the three “thinkers” who have heavily influenced him: Patrick Deneen, Peter Thiel, and Adrian Vermeule. Thiel is familiar to all of us – the other two are not. All of them are complete psychos, as is Vance.
The piece concludes with a quote from Andrew Koppelman, who has been critical of Vance’s ‘big three’:
Professor Bigfoot
I keep seeing this phrase as “Sergeant Major of Combat Operations,” and from there to “Sergeant Major Legless” and was transported to Ankh-Morpork.
catclub
@Baud: seems mild to me …less than 2%
hueyplong
@ironcity: Dude, come on, it’s Epic Epstein Fury. They don’t do things halfway. They make them Epic.
How dare you try to downplay the superlatives of a guy who can regrow an ear.
Suzanne
@taumaturgo: I don’t know if greed or wrath is the driving force here. Netanyahu has wanted to invade Iran for probably 30 years?
It doesn’t really matter to me. Both are terrible, and the idiot FFOTUS is only too happy to join in.
Matt McIrvin
@Jeffro: The Friedman unit has contracted.
Another Scott
@Soprano2: Here in NoVA the neighborhood station has had regular at $3.19/gallon for months (maybe years). It was still $3.19/gallon this morning. (There’s a place down the road that charges about $0.75 a gallon more – I don’t know if they’ve changed it yet.)
Gas prices are extremely local, at least around here.
Best wishes,
Scott.
catclub
I would suggest that Natanyahu has wanted the US to invade Iran. Remember both the the Israeli and Saudi Armies fight song is onward christian soldiers.
Matt McIrvin
@WTFGhost: I didn’t necessarily know that Trump was a warmonger at heart, but I do know he’s a dumbass at heart and that he lashes out violently whenever he takes a loss. Right now he’s a cornered animal. Sadly there’s no way out of this but through.
YY_Sima Qian
@Geminid: End of the Hezbollah would be a net positive outcome from this mess, & one that the current Hezbollah brought on itself.
Not that the end of Hezbollah would stop Israel from asserting its military hegemony over Lebanon periodically.
Another Scott
@Deputinize America: Nit – The JCS has no operational control of anything. They’re purely advisory. The combatant commanders are the ones who should be sweating…
Thanks.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Kathleen
@Betty Cracker: Ha! My daughter worked as hostess in Pizza Hut in the late 80’s!
hueyplong
@YY_Sima Qian: It might be a positive, but we’d have to get lucky both to end Hezbollah and have it be a net positive. Region-wide chaos, if it happens, is unlikely to be good in either the long or short term.
Presumably, that’s why our list of sane presidents haven’t been desperate or stupid enough to roll those dice.
Deputinize America
@Another Scott:
Accurate, but they do become the face of things.
I’d say that you turn over every decision maker down to the 2 star level, and reluctantly allow an amnesty for those not so high up the chain.
Let it be an example.
Matt McIrvin
@Jeffro: as Kipling put it, once you have paid him the Dane-geld you never get rid of the Dane.
(A principle the Danes seem well aware of regarding Trump, in fact)
Old Man Shadow
The officer corps need to be purged of anyone who thinks that God needs their help to bring about the end of the world.
And I do not care how much the right-wing screams persecution about it. If you don’t care enough about the world and the people in it to do everything you can to save it from annihilation, you have no business being in the military.
Matt McIrvin
@Old Man Shadow: One thing I will say for Ronald Reagan: when he thought of the parallels between the Biblical Apocalypse and his current situation, it did NOT make him feel better about it, rather the reverse.
Geminid
@YY_Sima Qian: I guess we’ll see if your prediction of Israel’s perpetual belligerence comes true. I can’t see any objective reasons for Israel to interfere with Lebanese affairs once Hezbollah is gone. And Lebanon has many powerful friends who will sode it now that no longer harbors a powerful Iranian proxy.
So what would Israel gain out of “asserting its military hegemony” over a neighbor that’s no longer a threat? I know there are people who believe Israelis are congenital warmongers– or say they do– but I don’t think you believe that.
Old Man Shadow
@Betty Cracker: Pizza Hut hasn’t actually been good in decades, so it makes sense you haven’t craved it in a while.
Now, I don’t know if my opinion that Pizza Hut used to be amazing back in the days when it was a restaurant with seating was nostalgia or realistic, but I’ve been told that ever since they were bought out, enshittification has resulted with cheaper and cheaper ingredients replacing quality.
Kathleen
@schrodingers_cat: That was so cute!!!!!!
japa21
@UncleEbeneezer:
If you get the chance, The Grand Canyon of the Pacific is on Kauai. Well worth the time.
JML
@Another Scott: Jumped from $2.69/gal to $3.19/gal over here. They always jump the gas prices fast around here and everyone follows suit, even though they already paid for their gas in their pumps at a lower rate. war is a nice short-term profit boost for the gas stations.
Old Man Shadow
@Geminid: I do not think that the current government of Israel will ever feel “safe” so long as any country in the region has any sort of capacity to strike it or resist its attacks.
Chief Oshkosh
@Soprano2: I don’t know if this is related to the latest War of Choice, but my nearby Walmart didn’t have higher octane gasolines available yesterday.
Eyeroller
@schrodingers_cat: We had a red Leaf and I loved it, but gave it up when I went from 2 cars down to 1 because I didn’t want to have my only car be an EV. Bought a PHEV.
JML
@Old Man Shadow: I think you’re correct on Pizza Hut: it was pretty high quality when their primary business was sit-down, family restaurant. When they made the move to focus more on delivery and fast casual takeout, it got a lot worse.
But I haven’t ordered from there in a long time because it simply wasn’t good and there were better options.
Sadly, I live in a town with terrible pizza options. I’d kill for one of the local chains to come in, or even one of the more regional ones, let alone a great local place. I’m better off with take & bake, it’s sad.
Eyeroller
@schrodingers_cat: It’s not really that cute since his mother abandoned him at birth. I saw a picture of him at 6 days old with the stuffed orangutan as his “mom.” But lack of a mother and too much exposure to humans early have been part of his problem with socialization to the other monkeys.
I wondered why she would abandon a newborn and learned that apparently it’s not that uncommon among Japanese macaques for first-time mothers to do this. Living in a zoo may exacerbate this tendency, especially considering how terrible many Japanese zoos are in terms of habitat and other environmental enhancements for their animals.
Kathleen
@Baud: I don’t have to drive to work, thank goodness and I don’t go places or do things. I get fuel points at Kroger and since I’m a Boost member I get double fuel points for every purchase. Glad I filled up this weekend because I got 90 cents off a gallon and gas was below 3.00/gal. I think I paid $13 to fill up my tank and I have Subaru Impreza.
taumaturgo
The relentless pursuit of security by those in power has fueled historical injustices—from witch hunts and KKK violence to the internment of Japanese Americans, FBI spying on civil rights activists, mass stop-and-frisk policies, the war on drugs, warrantless arrests, the erosion of habeas corpus, police impunity, ICE enforcement, and suppression of free speech. These actions, all justified in the name of safety, reveal that what many called “rights” were often just temporary privileges, revoked when inconvenient. My authoritarianism alarm goes off whenever I hear a pro-safety politician.
WTFGhost
@jonas: I hope he also advised men to have a rich fantasy life and to know how to pleasure themselves, in the same sentence. You can’t put pressure on one partner to be the one to say “no.”
MattF
Via jwz, modern digital infrastructure. Tap anywhere, ever so lightly.
Geminid
@hueyplong: How would the end of Hezbollah cause regional chaos? Can you describe it in concrete terms? They’ve been the source of regional chaos; the Syrians can testify to that, and so can the Lebanese.
I know there’s this idea that Iran’s Islamic Republic and its proxies like Hezbollah and Hamas have been an essential counter-balance to Israeli belligerence. That’s basically the justification Westerners have used for siding with this Iranian government.
I don’t buy it. I think it’s more the opposite. Iran and its “Axis of Resistance” proxies have given Israel licence for aggression, while at same time imposing political turmoil and bloodshed on tens of millions of Arabs.
catclub
Speaking of which, things seem very quiet in Iraq.
A pillar of stability?
Melancholy Jaques
I see people demanding or expecting that asshole to explain why he started a war with Iran.
It’s because he is desperate to reverse his steady decline in the polls. Is that not clear?
Shalimar
@Jeffro: Foster Friess is the asshole who said, “On this contraceptive thing, my Gosh it’s such [sic] inexpensive,” he added. “You know, back in my days, they used Bayer aspirin for contraception. The gals put it between their knees, and it wasn’t that costly.”
Which left Andrea Mitchell of all people so stunned she couldn’t talk for awhile before finally saying “let’s change the subject.”
Baud
@Melancholy Jaques:
Only Dems are capable of wagging the dog, according to first media principles. Republicans have honorable agendas that would put the nation at risk if the press reported on them.
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
@p.a: yup. The evangelical take over of the Air Force Academy has been going on for decades, ran into a few of them during my time stationed in various bases that had joint force commands. Made life fun for a foul mouthed, atheist, female sailor…
Matt McIrvin
@Melancholy Jaques: We know, but anyone who gets the opportunity should try to make him say it.
Matt McIrvin
@Chief Oshkosh: What I noticed the last time I fueled up was that the price gap between regular unleaded and the high octane blends had gotten enormous.
Jeffro
@Shalimar: I remember that – such a card, that Foster =P
the whole piece about Jackson Hole is really eye-opening
Geminid
@Old Man Shadow: That’s what people said about Europe back in the day.
Now I see you are talking about this government. But Israel holds Knesset elections no later than October. There will be a new government, and I don’t think it will be like this one. I think it will more like the one before this one, and they had good relations with neighboring states.
But that’s something we’ll get to see by this time next year.
scav
Anyone thought to ask Secretary of Not a War Kegsbreath about the official WH position of Operation Not Really So Epic Fury’s status? Should we not really hear about the expected behaviors, characteristics and gendered-expectations of our Not a War-Fighters?
Soprano2
@JML: I was told that those convenience stores are told by their corporate offices when to change prices. I don’t know if that’s true of all of them, but I think at least some must.
taumaturgo
It seems Israel’s Iron Dome is cracking under the Iranian hypersonic missile response.
youtube.com/watch?v=pYNdkgDRvPA
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
It was known that the AF Academy was a problem 20+ years ago: The God Squad at the Academy
hueyplong
@Geminid: I didn’t say (or certainly didn’t mean to say) that eliminating Hezbollah – standing alone – would cause regional chaos. We just attacked Iran, so some sort of surgical removal of Hezbollah without widespread regional consequences doesn’t appear to be on the menu here.
I will say that the “elimination” of any group is likely to be messy regardless of whether it’s the main thrust of a war or a consequence.
Kathleen
@UncleEbeneezer: I’m glad she’s better! That had to be scary.
jonas
@JML: Yeah, they can track price rises hour by hour practically. When oil drops, of course, it takes weeks for the prices to come back down. Funny how that works.
MisterForkbeard
@Lacuna Synecdoche: The current “goal” is to… destroy missiles and airpower, I guess? I guess we can bomb them for 4 weeks, maybe?
They also say the goal is to keep Iran from destabilizing or influencing the region, but there’s no word on how that would actually happen.
Another Scott
Meanwhile, … RollCall.com:
(Emphasis added.)
“This reason”??! Hmm…
Best wishes,
Scott.
Belafon
@Another Scott: “So did you know this specific attack was going to happen, or were you just spotting Trump one war?”
different-church-lady
Nice bit of subtle trolling by the WaPo:
Headline: “White House rationale for war keeps shifting”
Illustrated with a photo of Hegseth pointing the finger at one of his generals.
washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https%3A%2F%2Farc-anglerfish-washpost-prod-washpost%252Es3%2…
Geminid
@hueyplong: There won’t be a surgical elimination of Hezbollah. It’ll be more a political elimination because it’s allies, primarily the Amal party headed by Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri, will wash their hands of their self-destructive partners.
On the military side, there is actually a Security Resolution, Resolution 1701 passed in 2006, that requires Hezbollah to be disarmed. The Israelis have taken the position that they will enforce it if no one will.
Under the November, 2024 ceasefire agreement, the Lebanese state is required to disarm Hezbollah. That’s easier said than done though, because Hezbollah outguns the Lebanese Army. So, progress has been very slow on that front.
That situation is changing though. For one thing, the Israelis are disarming Hezbollah hour by hour now, because Hezbollah decided to jump into this war on Sunday. And there is a stronger political consensus among Lebanese that they can no longer tolerate an armed mini-state inside their borders.
different-church-lady
@jonas: Well, you know, it takes some time for the greed to finish running through the system.
Jackie
When are we going to call this the Epstein War? Even my pretty much normie daughter recognized this is a war of convenient distraction.
different-church-lady
@Jackie: We should go ahead and call it that, but honestly I don’t think it is. They want to bomb things. It’s not like they weren’t going to do it if everything else was going ducky. The entire administration consists of belligerent assholes.
Paul in KY
@Suzanne: I’ve seen Bad Religion 3 or 4 times. All great shows! One of my all time favourite bands!
Barbara
@JML: It’s actually not hard to make your own pizza. I do it about once a month, using Roberta’s pizza dough recipe from NYT food. She uses half AP and half “00” flour, but you can use all AP if that’s what you have. I use commercial spaghetti sauce, usually Barilla, and I buy cheese, mushrooms, whatever else I like.
It freezes pretty well, so you can make a double batch and save it for later, to shorten production time.
YY_Sima Qian
@Geminid: See Israel’s interventions into Syria post-overthrow of Assad, including seizing territory & attempting to establish separatist proxies. The new regime in Damascus had not made any moves to antagonize Israel or threaten its security, prioritizing domestic consolidation & indeed is & remains sworn enemies of Israel’s greatest foes (Hezbollah & Iran).
Then there is the bombing targeting Hamas leaders in Qatar, who were meeting to discuss terms for Gaza, responding to U.S. proposals.
This kind of militarism is not a recent development for Israel, but IMO a metastasized siege mentality coupled w/ increasing arrogance & lack of restraint starting from the ‘82 invasion of Lebanon, w/ only a brief interlude during Rabin’s PMship. Bibi is an evolution to ever more reckless extreme.
Melancholy Jaques
@Matt McIrvin:
Asking him anything is a waste of time. He lies, deflects, or rambles about something unconnected with the question. For reasons that continue to elude me, none of that seems to affect his standing with his supporters or the political media.
gvg
@EmbraceYourInnerCrone: More than 40 years ago. I was told in the early 80’s when I got out of high school. A shame really, but that was the reputation among the other services. I don’t know how much control that view has on the other services though. I think the small size comparitively would make it more possible. And the marines…well they don’t seem as likely to me. I think the kind of fatalism of the evangellical seeking argamegdon view would be counter productive to success for marine missions. The air force on the other hand had to be mentally able to deliver nukes back in the day. That could have set a different tone?
Paul in KY
@schrodingers_cat: That poor little guy. I hope he’s able to have a good rest of his life.
JaySinWA
I presume you mean the pizza dough, not the entire pizza
ETA Who would a thunk of Pizza Hut as comfort food?
stinger
@Shalimar:
Andrea Mitchell really missed an opportunity. She should have replied, “Which gals were those, exactly? The women you were dating, who didn’t want to have sex with you? I’m not surprised.”
Paul in KY
@Jeffro: Back in college we had someone (Dominoes maybe) that promised the pizza was free if it took them more than an hour to deliver it. We would intentionally mumble our address when ordering.
It may have been cold, but it was free!
Paul in KY
@Betty Cracker: Be interesting to see how she responds on the ‘Bondi Scale’. I expect a full Bondi, myself.
Matt McIrvin
@JML: that’s one thing about living in Massachusetts, good Mexican food may be hard to come by (though it’s much better than it used to be, there’s a good place in our town) but good pizza is more plentiful than you can imagine.
different-church-lady
@Barbara: I had a devil of a time with it until I figured out I wasn’t letting the store-bought dough warm up nearly enough. Results: toppings on thick cardboard.
Suzanne
@Paul in KY: I love Bad Religion, and I’ve seen them three times, I think? I listened to The Empire Strikes First every day for a month while driving to work as the Iraq invasion ramped up. Helped me feel less alone and gaslighted, while watching the country descend into bloodthirst.
Belafon
@JaySinWA:
Anyone who grew up eating it. A lot of comfort food is what you grew up on. Like, for me, Hamburger Helper.
Matt McIrvin
@Paul in KY: Domino’s had to stop doing that! Too many exploits. And I recall it was also a safety issue for their drivers.
Eyeroller
@Paul in KY:He lives in a zoo, he’ll be OK. Obviously, if he’d been born in the wild he’d have died shortly after birth, but he has a steady food supply and attention from keepers guaranteed. His only real problem is being bullied by the other monkeys, but that situation is apparently improving.
Paul in KY
@jonas: I’m gonna look for some of those!
different-church-lady
@Matt McIrvin: We also get to enjoy the sheer variety. Literally every independent place you go, the pie is slightly different, even when it’s the same style category. Somehow they haven’t managed to homogenize pizza yet.
Paul in KY
@jonas: I’m guessing Biden.
Paul in KY
@LAC: Ha! An adult monkey of that breed will whup your ass. Don’t care how big you are.
Old Dan and Little Ann
We’ve been watching reruns of “The Goldbergs.” Last night the son got a job delivering pizzas and the Noid was definitely talked about.
Paul in KY
@Betty Cracker: In my youth (age 10 to 15), going out to the local Pizza Hut was a big treat.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@Suzanne: I saw Bad Religion once in concert!
Miki
@UncleEbeneezer: Sounds like Transient Global Amnesia. My sister has had at least four episodes, the first time while skiing. Temperature can be a trigger for her, as can stress. It’s freaky as heck. Glad your friend is okay.
Geminid
@catclub: There’s plenty happening in Iraq. For instance, they’re trying to pick a new Prime Minister after parliamentary elections last fall. Rudaw English is a good source for this kind of news, and so are the BBC, France24, Middle East Eye and TRT International (a Turkish site).
You probably won’t find out much from US publications though. They and their readers are not very interested in Middle East events unless there are large explosions involved
RevRick
@Jeffro: I read from Robert Reich, I believe, who said that the income of the richest 154,000 families equals that of the bottom 77 million.
Paul in KY
@UncleEbeneezer: Thank God y’all were there to help her. I was watching the downhill and some of the outrageous snowboard stuff with my son and was telling him ‘you just have to be crazy to take the lines they are taking and doing the tricks they are doing’.
Geminid
@YY_Sima Qian: I knew about all that as well as you do when I made my comment. But I was talking about Israeli behavior going forward, after this war ends.
Paul in KY
@Searcher: He accepted the name ‘Markwayne’. That’s all you need to know.
Ruckus
@Dave:
There has for some time been a true believer insane class of officers in the military.
I was in the USN during Vietnam and they were a percentage of them in at that time, over 1/2 a century ago. It’s humanity and the military co-mingling, and they are always going to be there, as well as in everyday normal life. It’s just that in everyday normal life they either have to keep their trap shut or they find out how many people put up with their bullshit. In the military one often just has to put up with their bullshit. However, it doesn’t seem to be anywhere near a majority of the human race in my experience. At least in public. In the military I think it’s one way some become officers, because I ran across a few that fit the description perfectly, and very few enlisted did. If they tried it seems they found out the hard way to not fall or jump into that cesspool.
Jeffro
@Suzanne: I don’t know how I missed the earlier comments on this but here’s a virtual high five for Bad Religion, who I have (only) seen twice ;)
Related: Social D and Descendents are on tour, y’all!
Sister Golden Bear
Fucking Kansas officials…
She’d Never Changed Her Gender Marker. Kansas Invalidated Her License Anyway.
A trans woman who never changed her gender marker was issued a letter invalidating her license. At the DMV they cut up her license, which had an “M” marker.
Another Scott
@Paul in KY: Back in the dark ages I worked for a while for a company that owned a few dozen Domino’s franchises. They were one of the last to get rid of “Delivered in 15 minutes, or it’s free!” policy.
Turns out that corporate made them give up the policy because too many drivers (at other stores) were getting in crashes, etc., trying to beat the deadline.
Something something easily foreseeable consequences something something.
:-/
Thanks.
[ as Matt said at #206 ]
Best wishes,
Scott.
p.a.
@Matt McIrvin: Hell, here in RI megamarts carry fresh pizza dough from local Italian bakeries, or you can get it from the bakeries themselves. Good for doughboys too.
Paul in KY
@Suzanne: I don’t think he (Netanyahoo) has ever wanted for the IDF to invade Iran. He’s wanted to bust them up or get some patsy maybe to invade…
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@Jeffro: I might have to listen to some Social D when I get home from work!
HopefullyNotCassandra
@Geminid: the Kimon…
now that is wild.
...now I try to be amused
@gvg:
My brother was a Minuteman missile launch officer and I’ve wondered about that too, but I’ve never asked him about it; we’re not that close. He’s not strongly religious as far as I know.
Sister Golden Bear
@UncleEbeneezer: Highly recommend doing a “doors off” helicopter tour of Kauai. Much better view than then regular version, especially if you want to take photos.
Paul in KY
@Jackie: Thus The Epstein Wars begin…
HopefullyNotCassandra
@Suzanne: the winning candidate has to hit 50% or there will be a run-off.
Suzanne
@Jeffro: I have seen Social D either six or seven times. I have lost count.
Paul in KY
@gvg: I was in USAF from 81 – 85 and none of my commanders gave a shit about whether we went to church or not or whatever. Everyone cursed like sailors. Guess I lucked out.
Jeffro
@Suzanne: That’s a lot! Descendents are a hoot, too. Go see if they’re playing in your area! I already have tickets for their DC show. =)
Belafon
@Suzanne: Looks like the Attorney General one on the Republican side will be a runoff.
Paul in KY
@Suzanne: Bad Religion Playlist :-):
– Anesthesia
– Against the Grain
– Operation Rescue
– Unacceptable
– Quality or Quantity
– Flat Earth Society
– No Control
– 21st Century Digital Boy
– Atomic Garden
– Sanity
– Best for You
– Social Suicide
– Atheist Peace
– God’s Love
– The Empire Strikes First
– A Walk
– Punk Rock Song
– Pity the Dead
– Come Join Us
– I Love My Computer
– There Will be a Way
– Let It Burn
– Don’t Sell Me Short
– Kyoto Now!
– Evangeline
– The Defense
– Recipe for Hate
– American Jesus
– Watch It Die
– Lookin’ In
– Leave Mine to Me
– The Handshake
– Infected
– Individual
– Inner Logic
– Past is Dead
– Fuck You
– Dharma and the Bomb
– Nothing to Dismay
– Requiem for Dissent
– End of History
– Candidate
– Big Black Dog
– Since Now
– Cyanide
– Where the Fun Is
– I Want to Conquer the World
– Anxiety
Deputinize America
This probably only covers some the influencers and dickbag tax avoiders, and not the 10s-100s of thousands of vacationers and travelers hung up during either vacations or layovers at Doha and Abu Dhabi, but its a start.
I think EVENTUALLY its going to have to be landing craft on beaches at Haifa and Beirut, but it has to start somewhere.
Ruckus
@Soprano2:
One door down the street from me there is a 76 station and gas is $4.80 a gallon.
Just checked and the price went DOWN! It’s now $4.69 a gallon. I use a different station/brand where regular is around $4.25-4.30. There are stations that are cheaper, but not around me. NorCal is a lot cheaper, as in mid to upper $3 range. (That lot cheaper is doing a lot of work…)
Dorothy A. Winsor
Watching or listening to Trump and his minions is pointless. They lie and/or have no idea what they’re talking about anyway. As Rachel Maddow says, watch what they do, not what they say.
Paul in KY
@Matt McIrvin: Free cold pizza and Iron City beer (that we paid for), playing risk.
Sneaky little nerds we were.
Jackie
@Matt McIrvin:
In the ‘80s. Guaranteed delivered in 30 mins or less. At the time we lived in a mobile park that was pretty obscure to find. I don’t recall how many times I started to give the order taker directions, only to be cut off with a “don’t worry ma’am, we’ll find it!” And they did – after someone from Domino’s eventually called back for directions. Over the course of two years we probably got six free pizzas LOL!
Paul in KY
@Eyeroller: Sounds good for him (in general). Read that a certain amount of bullying is just how it goes in monkey society.
Lily
Ani DiFranco, Do Or Die
Paul in KY
@Miki: Wanging your skull in a ‘yard sale’ crash will also do that :-)
Paul in KY
@Jeffro: Social Distortion is so badass! Saw them in Louisville years ago. Mike is the man! Have also seen Descendents a couple of times at Riotfest.
Suzanne
Who the fuck is Sid Rosenberg? Getting dragged on X for calling Mamdani a “Radical Islam cockroach”. He seems nice.
p.a.
@Paul in KY: SD, Sonic Youth, Neil Young & CH tour years ago.
Awesome. Think Neil’s Weld tour.
Jeffro
@Paul in KY: Riotfest = bucket list trip for me, hopefully in the next few years. Good on you for going!
Paul in KY
@Another Scott: This was in 1980 or 1981 timeframe and I think it was 1 hour. Have heard about the 15 mins one. Glad (as a driver on the roads) that they stopped that :-)
Eyeroller
@Paul in KY: Apparently, much like humans, they form cliques that compete. His “troop” may be larger or smaller than it would be in a wild population, I don’t know the specifics for that species. A lot of “wild” Japanese macaques live in close quarters with humans anyway.
Example of human interaction tiktok.com/@wildlife_rescuers/video/7540034101827489079 I am pretty sure that’s a Japanese macaque, I know they hang around touristy hot springs. That may not be a “century egg” but an egg boiled in a sulphur hot spring.
Trivia: The Japanese macaque lives the farthest north of any nonhuman primate. They like to soak in hot springs in the winter to warm up.
Paul in KY
@p.a.: Have never seen Neil, except for when he got Buffalo Springfield back for a year and then at end of CSN concert he came out and did ‘Ohio’ with band. He happened to be in town for a concert of his own the next night.
Paul in KY
@Jeffro: I’m a punk rocker at heart and for me Riotfest is the best! Hope you get to go! I’m doing Lolla this year, but hope to do Riot next year.
hueyplong
@Paul in KY: I saw N Young in ATL on 10/25/86. Had a great time but suffered a mood change when I got home and Mookie Wilson hit a weak grounder right to Bill Buckner.
Denali5
@UncleEbeneezer:
Glad it all worked out. You did the right thing in having it checked out.
Paul in KY
@hueyplong: Man, that sucked for y’all. To me, the basic fault lies with the Red Sox manager. He knew Buckner was a defensive liability (at that time), yet left him out there so he could dance around with team when they won. Ancillary fault with Buckner, as if he’d been a true team player he would have subbed himself out for a better defensive fielder.
I was for Mets.
Ruckus
@Matt McIrvin:
What percentage of modern cars need high octane? I’d bet most modern cars can use regular. Sure some will need premium, but most cars on the road these days don’t. Why? Because of the cost. Most people don’t buy $50-60K cars. And most current cars don’t need it, because they are designed to use regular. I’ve owned cars for 60 years and have never needed premium in any of them.
Ruckus
@Betty Cracker:
We have many ways of making public opinion matter, sites like this one can and do create a methodology to discuss matters that need communicating. Sure, it could be shut down but how would that look? Better? Yeah, I don’t think so.
Citizen Alan
@Princess: The arrogance of that idea. The utter fucking hubris of it! That God and Jesus are nothing but genies to be summoned into service by the proper rituals and blood sacrifices. I cannot think of a clearer example of what Jesus referred to as “whited sepulchers” than people who claim to be Christian but then actively work towards the destruction of humanity because they think it’s their ticket to the great whites-only country club of the afterlife. What a weak tiny god they worship.
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
@gvg: possibly especially for bomber pilots a fatalistic world view for Air Force academy grads make sense. I met some, few evangelical Navy officers but many of the officers I dealt with were mustangs, and Warrent officers. A lot of the pilots I knew were ROTC with a few Academy grads (my favorite one went to MIT for astrophysics, she was super smart but NO real world experience in anything). The Army and Marines seemed more middle of the road but mostly I just knew Army enlisteds not officers.
Ramalama
@Matt McIrvin: there used to be one really great Mexican resto in Jamaica Plain; one excellent Cuban resto in JP; and one Honduran resto in Jamaica Plain. Back when I lived there. A white appearing guy used to play trumpet in the Mariachi band at the Mexican place.
Paul in KY
@Citizen Alan: Tis stupid and an ‘unwashed pagan picking lice off to eat’ way at looking at Jesus and Christianity. If he exists or existed in the manner the scriptures say, he ain’t coming back till he wants to come back. No matter what happens here on earth.
Another Scott
@Citizen Alan:
Obligatory musical accompaniment – Petition the Lord with Prayer 0:39)
Thanks.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Kayla Rudbek
@Betty Cracker: I’ve said something similar (although I think I cited Formula 1 and professional cycling instead)
Kayla Rudbek
@EmbraceYourInnerCrone: 30+ years ago when I was applying to college, I think it was a problem back then
Kayla Rudbek
@gvg: Marines are crazy in a different way, because there’s no good way to sneak up on a beach and kill people (unlike the Army, Navy, and Air Force)
Mo MacArbie
@p.a.: Saw that one too, and I remember the big yellow ribbon on the giant mic stand, since we was for the troops but not Gulf War I. The more things change…
Never got into Bad Religion, though I do have their Christmas album and appreciated the King Crimson quotes in “21st Century Digital Boy”.