Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
I just covered some of my tender plants since it’s going to get down to 15 degrees overnight. That’s with wind chill. Temps will actually be 26 degrees.
Does anyone know whether wind shill should be taken into considerations when it comes to temps for plants, not people?
What’s everybody else up to today?
Open thread.
Since it is St. Patrick’s Day, I was listening to a mix of Irish music, and one of them was “Dublin Blues” by Guy Clark. The song mentions Mad Dog Margaritas, and I googled it, boy did I learn a lot.
First, the recipe: “[T]wo parts Monte Alban Mezcal, one part Triple Sec, one part fresh lime juice, shaken vigorously with ice and served on the rocks.” (Monte Alban is a low-end Mezcal with a worm in it. I do like Mezcal, but I’d recommend Del Maguey Vida or, if you can find it and afford it, one of the Bozal varieties.)
Second, the restaurant:
The Chili Parlor first opened that door to the public in 1976. (As a side note, chili was named the official state dish of Texas just a year later.) Among the establishment’s early patrons was a loose-knit assemblage of fun-loving rabble-rousers known as the Mad Dogs, a group founded by legendary Texas Monthly writer Gary Cartwright and his equally legendary wordsmithing compadre Edwin “Bud” Shrake. Circling around the Mad Dog nucleus of Cartwright and Shrake was a constellation of other Lone Star luminaries (as well as out-of-state friends and associates) that included writers, politicians, artists, actors, rascals, and musicians. Larry L. King, Dan Jenkins, Willie Morris, Billy Lee Brammer, George Plimpton, David and Ann Richards (yes, the same Ann Richards who went on to become Texas’s second female governor), Susan and Jerry Jeff Walker, Willie Nelson, and one Guy Clark were all members in good standing.
Individually, the Mad Dogs were mostly creative, productive, and important members of society. As a unit they were less so. Though their proposed plans were big—multiple attempts to buy a town, the production of thirty-minute pornographic movies with socially redeeming value, an all-night general store, the launch of “the world’s first literate and non-hysterical underground newspaper”—these schemes went almost wholly unfulfilled.
Now you know. Happy St. Patrick’s Day to those who celebrate.
I have been hearing about and reading about the dangers of autocracy, the road to autocracy, at least since Trump came on the scene in 2015. But here it is, nicely laid out in just 45 seconds. I hope you’ll watch it!
.@StuartPStevens on @MSNBC breaks down how the roadmap to autocracy begins with the Republican Party’s unwillingness to lose. They cannot accept defeat so they attack every institution in America created to hold them accountable and elect a strongman like Trump. pic.twitter.com/Wv3tT0gfoa
— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) March 14, 2024
My amateur transcript:
The foundation of democracy is somebody has to be wiling to lose. You have to have faith in the system.
The essence of these autocracies is they destroy faith in the system.
What Republicans have done is – you can’t just say Trump because it’s now Republicans – they have attacked institution after institution in America.
They attacked the Justice Department. They attacked law enforcement. They attack elections.
And the purpose of this is to kind of throw up your hands and say “we need a strongman“ to take care of everything because democracy isn’t working.
This is what the Russians have said since 1920s – the Soviet Union – that democracy doesn’t really exist in America.
And it’s a complete lie. They’re embracing Victor Orban. It’s a complete roadmap to autocracy.
They want us to feel helpless. They want us to feel hopeless. They want us to give up. It gets discouraging. It wears us down. We even see it here. We even say it in the comments.
Except for the “we need a strongman” part. Here on Balloon Juice, we are saying “hell no, we don’t want a strongman!” and we’re doing everything we can to stop it.
Most normies aren’t going to read a long post from Teri Kanefield or any of the other many people who have been talking and writing about this for years. But they might take 1 minute to read a tweet and watch a 45-second clip. Please think about sharing this with everyone you know who doesn’t understand their game plan, and that we are being played.
Not totally unrelated, we still have an Angel match from eponymous, who will match up to $50 per person. To count toward the match, tell us about your match in the comments. Or you can let me know by email.
Open thread!
Update: Angel match #4 from eponymous is now complete! But our anonymous Angel from match #3 just volunteered to match another $1,000 of donations.
They Can’t Beat Us If Everyone Knows Their GamePost + Comments (176)
Kudos to whoever is dressing Trump in shirts bearing his name and city, in case he wanders off without supervision – though since he's out on bail, a GPS ankle monitor may be more appropriate. pic.twitter.com/25qi1tPZaE
— Kop*wow ???????? (@KPLWW5) March 14, 2024
It would be the ultimate Trump move, to not repay the GOP for the nomination. https://t.co/Gs9K48FABN
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) March 15, 2024
Saturday Night Horrors Open Thread: The ContenderPost + Comments (107)
(Image by NEIVANMADE)
I am completely fried. Just a long week, not necessarily anything bad. So I’m just going to cover the basics tonight so I can go and rack out.
ETA at 10:00 PM EDT: I’m aware of the Starlink Snowflake news. I’ll try to get to it tomorrow night once I’ve gotten some rest.
The Lithuanian Foreign Minister is, as usual, correct:
https://twitter.com/GLandsbergis/status/1768374497193627994
More from Odesa:
https://twitter.com/SESU_UA/status/1768947749867737161
“Today, one more employee of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine, another victim of yesterday’s Russian attack on Odesa, died in the hospital from serious injuries,” Ihor Klymenko reported.
Thus, the death toll from the attack on Odesa on March 15 increased to 21.
“More than 70 people were injured”
President Zelenskyy addressed the increased casualty count from the Odesa attack in his daily address. Video below, English transcript after the jump.
War for Ukraine Day 752: The Updated Butcher’s Bill from OdesaPost + Comments (39)
Cats aren’t jerks. They’re just misunderstood. https://t.co/kpEn1zTYSo
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) March 12, 2024
Right now, I’d only go as far as ‘Not all cats are jerks’, because the Spousal Unit’s cat Rocky is being… a pain in the neck, which is his default status. Per the Washington Post, “Cats aren’t jerks. They’re just misunderstood.” [gift link]:
If you’ve lived with cats, you’ve probably found yourself staring at them after they’ve toppled a plant or swept a mug off the table, thinking: “Why did you just do that?”
A precise answer isn’t easy to come by. Some recent studies have made strides in assuaging the more self-conscious human anxieties about cat ownership (allegedly, they know their names and they emotionally attach to us). But by and large, research that sinks its claws into domestic cat behavior, genetics and psychology remains somewhat nascent, especially compared to what’s available about dogs…
Cats indeed descended from solitary creatures, but this doesn’t mean they’re hermits. In wild or feral colonies — which form the basis of most feline social research — cats develop dynamic relationships with their peers, selecting a few “preferred associates” (Hollenbeck’s words) to hang out with…
Research into feral colonies shows that cats tend to form matriarchal social bonds; females will adhere more closely to one another (typically in a community of mothers, aunts and sisters). Males, once they’re about a year old, are more likely to move about nomadically. Even though existing research focuses primarily on feral cats, any person who has lived with more than one feline can attest that the domesticated ones form bonds with each other, too — if they so choose.
Monique Udell is the director of the Human-Animal Interaction Lab at Oregon State University, which has been investigating the social potential of domestic cats. According to Udell, cats actually have a “flexible” social structure, meaning they can exist successfully on their own or in groups, depending on early life experiences (such as whether they were exposed to humans as babies) and their environment.
“What we’re finding is that when we give them the same kinds of opportunities or challenges that we regularly give dogs, that oftentimes cats not only can engage in high levels of social behavior, but many cats actually prefer social interaction,” Udell says.
Fun Saturday Read: <em>Cats Aren’t Jerks… </em>Post + Comments (110)
Remember epic loser Ron DeSantis? It wouldn’t be surprising if non-Floridians already forgot the forgettable face-planter who set $160M aflame only to come in a very distant second in the Iowa caucuses.
But those of us who have to share a peninsula with the failed pretender to the MAGA moron throne get frequent reminders of his existence as he grasps for ongoing relevance. As reported in this space, formerly obsequious statehouse minions are already giving Ron the “new phone who dis?” treatment.
To remove the sting, DeSantis is trying in vain to spin his losses into wins. Here’s an editorial from the Tampa Bay Times that notes a wipeout in a recent settlement over Ron’s signature “Don’t Say Gay” law:
OK to say ‘gay.’ The DeSantis administration wasted no time this week spinning a settlement over Florida’s Parental Rights in Education Act — also known as the Don’t Say Gay law — as some kind of victory for state-sponsored bigotry. The agreement between the state and parents, teachers and advocates who challenged the 2022 statute keeps the law in place. But it clarifies that the restrictions on classroom instruction about gender identity and sexual orientation were not sweeping bans on discussions about LGBTQ+ issues in the schools. By removing that uncertainty, the settlement defangs a key component of the Don’t Say Gay law. By leaving the restrictions purposely vague, lawmakers all but invited parents and school districts to overreact. The result was a chilling effect that caused teachers to clam up, administrators to remove books with LGBTQ+ content and school districts to pull their support for anti-bullying and other programs. As part of the deal, the Florida Department of Education will send a memo to all Florida school districts explaining that the law is not as restrictive as some schools have interpreted. We’ll withhold judgment until we see that letter; the Education Department has sent out rotten guidance lately. But this is a huge step in the right direction toward restoring some fundamental human dignity.
Emphasis mine since “purposely vague” is the key here – it’s a tactic adopted by hard-right totalitarians everywhere to intimidate opponents, and it works. For two solid years, this crappy law created chaos in Florida schools. The settlement intends to rob it of its power by introducing clarity.
DeSantis and allies like the Moms for Liberty degenerates will keep lying about the outcome, but make no mistake: This settlement is a huge win for groups like Equality Florida, which demonstrated that with perseverance, it is possible to claw back rights, even in a state run by corrupt Republican authoritarians.
That’s worth celebrating!
Open thread.
