Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

No one could have predicted…

… gradually, and then suddenly.

Radicalized white males who support Trump are pitching a tent in the abyss.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

A fool as well as an oath-breaker.

Also, are you sure you want people to rate your comments?

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

The republican caucus is covering themselves with something, and it is not glory.

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

Hell hath no fury like a farmer bankrupted.

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

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

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

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

When they say they are pro-life, they do not mean yours.

The arc of the moral universe does not bend itself. it is up to us to bend it.

Let me file that under fuck it.

When we show up, we win.

When tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty. ~Thomas Jefferson

“In this country American means white. everybody else has to hyphenate.”

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

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

Not all heroes wear capes.

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War for Ukraine Day 797: Another Monday, Another Bombardment of Kharkiv

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Painting by NEIVANMADE. It has a white background an in the center are Soldiers in green doing air defense by firing at incoming Russian missiles in the upper right. The missiles are red and yellow. In the upper left, written in green, is the text: "SAVE THE BRAVEST PEOPLE IN THE WORLD!" Below the Soldiers, also written in green, is "SUPPORT FOR KHARKIV"

(Image by NEIVANMADE)

Before we begin, two quick housekeeping notes. First, Rosie is hanging in there. The good news is that after two chemo treatments her lymph nodes have shrunk back to normal size. The bad news is that she’s had a very strong reaction to the two chemo treatments. As a result, she had a rough weekend. The oncology vet, who is excellent, decided today that they would give her treatments to ensure she’s fully hydrated, treat her irritated stomach/GI system, try to stimulate her appetite, and just do overall system support. The difference between before and after her visit is very clear. She’s eating again, though we’re keeping it to a small amount for tonight. Provided she continues to stabilize and strengthen back up, they’ll give her her next chemo treatment next week.

Second, as you can imagine, because she had a long weekend, I had a long, worrisome, and not very restful weekend. I want to apologize if I have been overly curt, cranky, and irritable – as in more than my usual sterling and pleasant personality – over the last couple of days.

The Russians once again started the week by bombarding Kharkiv.

They also hit Odesa. As of now the butcher’s bill is four dead people, one dead dog who was killed while out for a walk – the human survived, and twenty-seven wounded. Among the wounded are two children and a pregnant woman.

A tragic day for #Odesa.

#Russian forces launched a ballistic missile, reportedly containing cluster munitions, at one of the city’s most popular locations among residents and visitors.

As of 10 PM Kyiv time, four people were reported killed as a result of the missile hit. One more man died due to a stroke.

A total of 32 people were wounded, with 25 currently hospitalized, including two children and a pregnant woman.

One girl, not yet five years old, is in extremely critical condition. Six more adults are also in intensive care, according to Oleh Kiper’s report.

#RussiaIsATerroristState

 

Here is President Zelenskyy’s address from earlier today. Video below, English transcript after the jump.

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A Couple of Thoughts on Kristi and Her Pets

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A Couple of Thoughts on Kristi and Her Pets
Courtesy of Atrios via someone who chooses to remain anonymous. From l-r, Bryon Noem, (her husband) Cory Lewandowski and Poor Cricket.

My dad grew up on a farm in the Dakotas and has some stories about animal cruelty that are really awful.  His dad, my grandfather, would take care of the excess kitten population by putting them in a burlap sack and throwing them in the river.  Dogs were routinely euthanized by shooting them when they could no longer provide service.  I’m sure that a dog that killed chickens (which is what Kristi Noem’s dog did) would have been shot as soon as they caught him or her.   I  don’t think that my dad’s family were outliers here.  My father-in-law, also a Dakota farmer, had about the same attitude towards dogs and cats.  The real outlier was wife’s grandfather, another Dakota farmer, a gentle man who took exceptionally (for the time) good care of his dogs as well as any other animal on his farm.

The second experience I’ve had growing up is watching hunters who keep dogs.  These people keep their retrievers in pens/runs, frustrated and barking all the time, until hunting season.  I’m sure there’s some training involved, but those dogs have what I’d consider a miserable life except for the few days when they’re out doing what they were bred to do.  I’ll bet you a shiny South Dakota quarter, which features both a pheasant and Mt. Rushmore, that Kristi’s un-neutered dog Cricket spent most of his life in a pen waiting to retrieve pheasants.

So, when Noem shares an anecdote about killing 14 month-old Cricket after he she killed some chickens and bit her, she’s speaking to two specific audiences.  The first is an audience informed by the same life experience I’ve had*:  people who know that farmers treat dogs like livestock and understand that a dog that can’t do their job needs to be euthanized.  This audience is generally white, mostly male, older, with a background either working on a farm or having parents/grandparents who worked on the farm.  It is also a tiny audience, mostly living in red states where Trump will win even if he was caught engaging in human sacrifice.  The second is a bunch of cruel, heartless fucking sadists.  Donald Trump is in the latter group.

Unfortunately for term-limited Gov. Noem, she miscalculated.  She looked at the way the DC press treats country folk (condescending but afraid to challenge their quaint country traditions) and thought she’d get some “well she’s authentic” coverage.  She also didn’t figure that the Guardian, which is based in a country with a long record of humane treatment of animals, would read her book and break the story with a critical eye.

In other words, cucking her husband with Corey Lewandowski, making a commercial for the dental clinic that did her veneers, and generally being an awful person, weren’t enough to sink her VP bid.  I’m guessing Trump’s reaction to the bad PR she’s getting because she bragged about killing her dog 20 years ago (and a goat) probably did it, but predictions are hard, especially about the future.

———–

*Just to be clear, I had that life experience and concluded that I think this treatment of dogs is a cruel anachronism. I had to have our dog euthanized by the vet when she was diagnosed with incurable liver cancer, and it was a terrible experience that I never want to repeat.

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Tuesday Monday Evening Open Thread: Nancy Pelosi, Still Fighting the Idiots

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I don’t think whining about how badly the pandemic went for TFG is a winning argument, but sure, Katy Tur, fight for the guy who tried to sicc his mob on you.

Pelosi’s just back a tour of Ireland and Britain:

ETA: Let’s not forget:

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There Be Dragons (Open Thread)

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We saw this medium-sized gator sunning in a muddy spot yesterday. From a distance and through the screen, I couldn’t tell what the spherical object next to it was. But upon application of a long-distance lens, I identified the object tentatively as an apple snail shell, extra large:

Gator sunning with snail shell

There were other snail shells strewn about, with the gator in the center like a dragon guarding its treasure. The muddy spot is a favorite of wading birds like herons, egrets, Limpkins, spoonies, etc., but not when the gator is holding court.

***

Having caught up with “Franklin” on Apple TV, I’m in a show hole. Can anyone recommend some compelling programs to stream? I’ve heard “Deadloch” (Amazon) is pretty good if you like a spoof of atmospheric British police procedurals. I am a fan of that genre so intend to check it out. Also, HBO’s “Hacks” will be back this week. Yay!

Other than that, we’ve been mostly watching baseball, and it’s not going well for our team. It’s still early yet. I am not panicking.

Open thread!

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Monday Morning Open Thread

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Food for thought.

Here’s the entire contents of the tweet.  (just below)

I found it interesting and approachable, but not overwhelming, and I thought it might generate some good discussion.

Angry Staffer
11:47 AM · Apr 26, 2024

Let’s talk Ukraine.

There’s a lot of analysis out there that I believe is driven by a fundamental misunderstanding of the way Russia fights wars.

Bottom line up front: Russia’s current goals in Ukraine aren’t necessarily victory, at least not in the traditional military sense.

We’ve seen evidence of this since even before Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014. More on that later.

Would Putin like to “get the gang back together” and continue rebuilding his sphere of influence in the former Soviet states? Absolutely. Is that his primary goal? Not even close.

Putin’s stated goal for decades has been preventing NATO expansion, which he views as an existential threat to the Russian Federation’s survival. His “special military operation” obviously failed spectacularly in this regard.

Putin was furious when Estonia and Latvia joined NATO; he’s clearly not happy about Finland and Sweden joining either, but Ukraine? Ukraine would be the ultimate insult.

So what’s the best way to keep Ukraine from joining NATO?

– You could corrupt their electoral process and install a puppet. They tried that and failed.

– You could conquer the whole country. They tried that and failed.

– You could keep them in a perpetual state of warfare—a stalemate and a war of attrition—knowing that NATO won’t allow them in while they’re tied up in a hot war. That’s where we’re at now.

Back to how we’ve seen these signs since at least Crimea:

To put these datapoints together, it’s important to understand how invested Russia is in their nonlinear war strategy.

In 2014, after Yanukovych was ousted, sentiment was that Ukraine would gravitate more towards NATO. Putin immediately moved to annex Crimea.

In April 2014, the Crimea occupation evolved into fighting in Donbas, and thus began the perpetual conflict strategy.

In 2015-2016, Russia was working on two additional fronts: devastating Ukrainian critical infrastructure with a barrage of cyber attacks, and interfering in our Presidential election.

For context here: remember some of Russia’s goals with their 2016 influence operation:

– hurt US support for Ukraine (they did that when Trump and Manafort forced a massive change in RNC Ukraine policy)

– denigrate Hillary Clinton with the goal of hurting her Presidency, or electing Donald Trump

– They had a clear preference for Trump, and after watching Trump get impeached for trying to extort Zelenskyy, it’s clear why:

Electing Trump furthered their goal of keeping Ukraine in conflict indefinitely.

To be clear, in February 2022, Russia seems to have shifted their goals temporarily; hey legitimately thought they could take Kyiv in a 3-Day operation, in what has to be one of the biggest intelligence failures in history.

Now they’re back to plan stalemate. Some of this is because they know if Trump gets elected in 2024, US support for Ukraine (and probably NATO) will end.

With this understanding of Russia’s goals, the way forward is pretty clear in my eyes:

We give Ukraine what they need to win. Immediately. Simply giving them enough to defend themselves only acts to further Russia’s goals of a tactical stalemate.

A tactical stalemate will never put enough pressure on Putin to force an end to this war. We have to stop being risk averse and let Ukraine go on offense.

This last aid package — combined with EU support — goes a long way towards advancing this capability, but we still have work to do.

Totally open thread.

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Where WERE you, sweet meteor?

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Two of the most gargantuan, gaping assholes in Florida collided yesterday, and all I could think of when reading about it was the sad absence of a meteor. Gift link from the Post:

Former president Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis met privately Sunday morning in Miami, according to people familiar with the matter, breaking a years-long chill between the presumptive Republican nominee and his onetime chief primary rival…

The meeting was orchestrated by Steve Witkoff, a Florida real estate investor and developer both men know, and he attended. Witkoff called the former president’s team and asked for him to meet with DeSantis, a person familiar with the matter said.

Trump and DeSantis had not spoken since the end of a bruising primary season, where DeSantis dropped out after a disappointing finish in Iowa, following months of attacks from Trump and his supporters.

Trump, DeSantis and a mindbogglingly corrupt developer/GOP donor together in the same location? In Miami? And no (highly localized) destruction raining down from the sky? Thanks for nothing, Oort Cloud!

The newsiest bit of the article is toward the end, where reporter Josh Dawsey describes a scene reminiscent of a mob boss in straightened circumstances leaning on a discredited goon in his hour of need:

In recent weeks, DeSantis held an event for donors at a resort in Florida, and people close to him said he is potentially interested in running for president again in 2028. During the Republican primary, Trump told advisers he wanted to hurt DeSantis for 2028, too. But he has moved his focus on to Biden and his criminal trial in recent weeks, and Trump allies say he would favorably view DeSantis raising money for him.

Trump would welcome donations from Old Scratch himself, so that hardly needed to be said. For me, the amusing subtext is that DeSantis is caught in yet another ambition trap. His life has become a hellscape of ambition traps, where he’s forced to suck up to odious people and adopt unnatural mannerisms and wear strange articles of clothing in a fruitless quest for the White House.

I think the frustration of being caught in these traps accounts for the undercurrent of fury that’s always just below the surface with DeSantis, whether he’s awkwardly navigating a stage wearing wedge heels in cowboy-boot wrappers or raring back like an aggressive baboon to boom fake laughter at startled Iowans.

DeSantis laughing awkwardly at Iowa event

On a related note, there was speculation in the morning thread about Trump doing time. I still think that’s extremely unlikely, even if he loses the election (which I think he will) and is convicted on at least some counts. But he’s a miserable sumbitch right now too, and so is DeSantis. That’s real, so I will savor it.

Open thread.

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