On the plus side, the PBS News Hour last night had 2 commenters on about the various nefarious (honestly I can't remember what exactly they were banging on about – maybe the Queens Man in the Can). The 2 commenters both were Republican operatives.
PBS, like NPR, has long been a conservative new outlet. I've spent decades watching in awe as McNiel-Lehrer peddled Republican talking points dressed up as "thoughtful" questions, and after Judy Woodruff took the helm, watched her cram Republican talking points into every story and interview no matter how awkwardly those points fit.
So it is, as Roy points out, only natural that they only interview Republicans when discussing Republican wrongdoing.
"Welcome to Weekend Edition. I'm Scott Simon. President Joe Biden has been talking about raising the cap on Social Security withholding so that those making one million dollars a year would continue to pay into the system instead of stopping their payments at a hundred and sixty thousand dollars of income. Many believe that doing this would plunge the economy into a deep depression as millionaires would simply stop working in order to avoid the extra one-and-a-half percent of taxes. Here to discuss the issue with me are NPR public intellectual Jonah Goldberg, Ohio Senator JD Vance, and billionaire Peter Theil operating Senator Vance's lips. Gentlemen, welcome."
"Sorry to break in here, Peter – This just in: Chief Justice for Life Clarence "RV King" Thomas has just announced the Supreme Court will from now on be known as El Supremo di Tutti Supremo, and his new title will be simply Il Capo.
With that it's back to our panel.
Gents, now that the court and all the rest of it is sorted out, should we dig into one of NPR's most-respected, certainly most forwarded, issues: Susan Stamberg's Special Recipe For Caviar Pie...?"
Just realized I should now be calling him Clarence "Secret Borrower" Thomas, or maybe Clarence "Mr Ethical" Thomas, or maybe just Clarence "Shrug" Thomas...
For years I've imagined a "National Puppet Radio": various avatar of NPR stalwarts, like a Cokie Roberts sock puppet, moving it's mouth as she did to throw it (and by it, I mean Clinton scandal rumors) "out there"; a Bob Edwards (fuck I'm old) marionette, the David Frum/Jonah Goldberg/David Horowitz finger puppets..
It's gotten better some...
I'm attached to (been on a community advisory board) my local Public Radio because they are about the only ones doing good reporting across WNC.
But until they decide they aren't Beltway courtier media, they will often suck worse.
Funny E Musk says they are "state media" and RT isn't...
This thing that isn't owned by the state? It's state owned. This other thing that proudly announces it's owned by the state? Completely independent. I know which one I trust [to keep those under-the-counter payments coming].
NPR and even the BBC aren’t state media in the commonly understood “blatant propaganda” sense. However, I “enjoyed” the Centrist Defense Squad commentators at TPM struggling mightily to prove that NPR was listener supported by noting that only 1% of its funding comes from the government, and 39% from listener contributions. Astute readers will note that leaves 60% unaccounted for. No doubt it’s supplied by wholesome small business donations from places like Ma & Pa’s Bait Shop and Carrie’s Designer Handbags—certainly not Exxon-Mobil or the Koch Foundation.
Not to run true to form but while I'm pretty confident that the GOP "brand" is becoming ever more repugnant to ever more voters, the party's doing a fine rigging elections, for giving themselves an unfair advantage. The Wisconsin legislature is but one example.
But that said, I'm sold old that I reminder when there was one day to vote with sufficiently extended hours so that a day wouldn't have to be taken off and mail in ballots were a pain in the ass and only to be used when really necessary. So, I mean, not all of the GOP's efforts have to work as much as feared.
And, yes, the youngs are ever more repelled by Republicans and the right, understandably so.
So, much hope.
Meanwhile, good luck to Roy next week, and happy easter to whoever's observing.
I get your point, but I'm starting to warm to the idea, can't imagine why. But honestly, if they're just going to act like a mini-legislature, shouldn't they just be elected like legislators? With the Wisconsin Supremes, nobody's even pretending any more, they're all presented with exactly the same set of facts, the same laws, and then they proceed to rule in exactly opposite directions.
The only thing worse than an elected judiciary is an unelected, unaccountable Supreme Court.
After awarding themselves the power to rule by fiat in Marbury vs Madison, they still mostly pretended to be august oracles of the law. Now they don’t even bother with pretense and just openly flaunt that they’re hacks in robes. (But because they wear robes we have to respect and obey them, else the republic will fall, and it’ll be all our fault.)
Sunday is my daughter's birthday: heading into the northern fuzz of the Big Peach, to have Indian food, my new obsession, with her and the son and their respective partners. I shall awaken a grumpy BF (he's not a morning person and I absolutely am) and yell "Yea! He is Risen!!"
The crazy thing is Republicans would have a pretty solid hold on a majority in the state legislature even with fair maps, because we liberals have all chosen to ghettoize ourselves within Madison and Milwaukee. My rep, for example, routinely wins 80+ percent of the votes in every election, so 30% of those votes wasted, in the sense that they can't go to elect someone else.
But nearly certain control is never enough for the fascists, so they gotta fuck with the maps to milk some extra Republican seats out of Eau Claire and Green Bay.
You saw my theory: it’s going to be a race whether the GOP becomes anathema to enough voters or the GOP rigs elections enough to make all non-Republicans unelectable.
I’d like to think we’ll do better in 2022 and since. Alternatively, I contemplate Trump re-elected with a strongly Democratic Congress willing and able to kick his ass all the time.
Meanwhile, are y’all there impeaching the newly elected judge yet?
And then replaced by his own Lieutenant Governor, who also gets impeached? Not sure what happens after that. If Robin Vos is anywhere in the line of succession, then that must be their plan, just a few simple steps to Governor Robin.
No, I had a newly elected judge in mind, not the governor. He the Republicans control enough. A judge could only be controlled if they were willing to be controlled.
Things would be quite a bit different if the Democratic Party tried to compete in those districts. It would probably be a long time before they could win, but it wouldn’t be that difficult to get the margins way down, which would matter in district, statewide, congressional and Presidential elections.
True, rural Wisconsin used to elect Democrats, they just don't now. Sometimes that's the Dems not running candidates, sometimes they do run very good candidates who don't win.
I'm the last person to make excuses for Democrat bigwigs, but running a candidate means finding someone who's willing to run. For a serious candidate, you want someone who's well-respected in their own community, maybe a local elected official (ha, good luck with that) a small-business owner, maybe a teacher, firefighter or other public servant. Such people often don't want the headaches of running, especially in today's environment.
Back in the midterm, the Dems had hopes of picking up one seat, the Republican was retiring so it was an open seat and the woman they recruited seemed like the perfect candidate, small-business owner, born and raised in her small town, good public speaker. She lost.
yeah, that is part of gerrymandering. You trade 5 areas slightly favoring your side for one area that greatly favors the other side. Do that 4 times and you will likely have a majority/supermajority even if the rest of the state is fair.
Republicans really are in between a political rock and a hard place. They can’t back off their rabid “no abortions ever--show us your children’s underpants--uppity Black guys get what’s coming to them” position without losing their feral base, but if they persist on that road, they will consistently lose between 60 and 80% of the voters under 40. Who, as the song says, are the future. No wonder they’re trying to implement minority rule in every way they can, fascism is the only way out of their dilemma, the only path they have to political relevancy 10 to 20 years from now.
Couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch of fellas. Oh, and good luck next week, Roy.
But Thomas isn't uppity -- he knows his place, which is to support and reinforce white supremacy. So he's allowed to be rewarded with nice treats like all-expenses-paid vacays.
More specifically, the Supreme Court’s job is to protect money and privilege. That’s why nobody fought the power grab of Marbury vs Madison—they were always going to rule in favor of rich white guys anyway, so who cares if they got to have final say on running the country?
Don't mean to quibble (who am I kidding, I love to quibble!) but it's not fear of "losing their feral base", those Tennessee Republican legislators ARE the feral base. There's not the tiniest difference between them and the yahoos who vote for them. I've seen Wisconsin Republican legislators in action, live, you can trust me on this one.
Oh, agreed. This is true of many on the federal level and is especially true in the statehouses. I was referring to top-down, overarching strategy -- there they are at an impasse, unable to moderate and unable to attract voters outside the base unless they do.
It would be interesting to know to what extent they even see or appreciate this as a dilemma. They'd have to connect any future (or past, or present) electoral setbacks to their own actions, and I'm not sure they're capable of that. No, what they did is exactly right, as is anything they decide to do in the future, and any elections they lose must be due to those damn voting machines.
It’s no longer the usual suspects bamboozling the common clay with stories of camping in Wal-Mart parking lots. The common clay is sitting in Capitol buildings.
Carry On Quibbling, but one a yins gonna be the last quibbler standing, so keep the quibbles clean – I don't wanna see any quibbles upside the head and no quibbles below the belt, understand?
Periodic reminder that these people want to repeal the Seventeenth Amendment, and have senators appointed by (Republican-controlled) statehouses. Like it used to be.
"call it a small-scale variation on Jan. 6" -- the January 6 that was normal tourists mixed with peaceful protesters exercising their Constitutional rights? Like "Benghazi," "January 6" can mean what you want it to mean, I guess.
Maybe the tossed reps (junior Jan6ers) had only a couple hidden guns and sharpened flagpoles...or maybe theirs was a Confederate flag inside a big red circle, with a red slash line thru it. That right there'd be enough to get 'em hanged ('cept that dubiously-reasoning, otherwise OK White lady).
So maybe the "super"majority showed remarkable constraint.
Right? They couldn't even put the fig leaf of dumping the white woman as well to cover their racism. They should have just put on the white hoods they keep under their desks while they voted.
Okay, I'll call it a small-scale variation of January 6. Yeah, let's definitely go with that. 100% And so the only right a proper remedy for this small-scale variation of January 6 is to expel those members who were with the protesters. I agree with this. Absolutely.
Now, let's look at the full-scale actual January 6. In keeping with this principle, we should expel every member of Congress who was (and still is) with the insurrectionists. So bye-bye MTG, Gaetz, Hawley, Johnson . . . well, would you look at that! No more House majority for Republicans, and a major loss of power in the Senate as well.
But I guess this principle only applies to Black folks. As such principles usually do.
"This thing was exactly like this other thing, except not really in any significant way" is not a persuasive argument to anyone outside the rightwing bubble, a fact that Byron York may or may not realize.
Good point, if this is what you get for the small-scale variation, imagine what the consequences must be for the full-scale kind! What's that? Nothing, you say? Well, that doesn't scale at all.
Holy Jesus, this is spot on. If you guys think anyone who supported Tiny Jan 6 should be expelled, do you think anyone who supported Actual Jan 6... no, no, I'm sure there's some reason the rule doesn't apply if the tables are turned. Wilhoit's Law fully operational here.
When you have an x-ray, call it a small-scale variation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki...or something. Whether it's a sense of proportion or words, what does any of it mean, really?
Down in GA, I'm hearing good stuff about Fani Willis grand Jury: even if Tubby ends up as "an unindicted co-conspirator", we have evidence of perjury by prominent witnesses (cough, Graham, Meadows, etc…), and a broad abuse of the election in the GOP worthies, Party wheelhorses, and MAGAt dirtbag "Alternate Electors"who signed off on the fraudulent election certification for tfg, and one of the fake electors illegally in a county election officek
Out here in the boonies, the Culture War shit is getting tired: and it seems a bit less febrile.
I've actually had a MAGAt adjacent relative say "if He's a billionaire, why does he need my money?"
Have a good Good Friday, second day of Passover, National Girl Me Too Day, National Beer Day(!) and World Health Day: so, Roy, you get healthy and get out of the hospital ASAP, stat: It's full of sick people....
In cool news, French protestors took over the Blackrock HQ in dwntown Paris -- this the corporation that basically owns all our media worldwide -- which leads me to doubt this is just about 'pension reform.'
Also Israel has been having massive protests against Bibi's government (wasn't he defeated years ago, why is he still PM?).
There was a more recent election that Bibi's block won. It's mostly that the right wing governments have let in a lot of Eastern European right wing Jewish people
eta: the protests are about Bibi trying to end the current judiciary that has found Bibi possibly guilty of criminal behavior so he's going to bring in a more congenial set o justices.
That the TN legislature didn't expel the one white rep makes the racism look just a wee bit "systemic" dontcha think? At this point, I'm forced to describe Republicans using one of the orange POS's favorite locutions -- human scum -- and it's only out of christian charity that I keep the word "human".
Good luck next week, Roy. I fortunately survived what was definitely not minor surgery a few years ago and my best advice (if this is your first maj-surg rodeo) is to make sure you have a reliable network of food smugglers -- the hospital fare was so bad it was actually worthy of scientific study. I mean, how do you completely fuck up pancakes fer crine out loud? Here all those terrific doctors and nurses had literally just saved my life and some 3rd party meal contractor was doing their best to kill me. If it weren't for the untainted packages of cereal I hoarded I don't think I would have made it. Just a thought.
The food service we had when I was at SUNY Stonybrook (Aramark) does a lot of institutional food-dealing, and, Jeebus, were they awful. I still recall the lettuce on the salad bar with the browning edges.
Can't speak for the food, but from my mom's stay in the hospital I did pick up an appreciation of vintage American plastic dinnerware, and I've bought some Dinex cups off ebay since then. The stuff from the early 70's is the best, of course.
So I guess the next we from you is that you were kicked out of the hospital for chasing nurses and stealing the pain meds from the geriatric ward. Get well soon! You don't want us out doing whatever comes to mind.
Hey, The EDs were my grad school sort of band. We had such songs as "Kathy Ireland: Let's Have Sex", "Inconsequential", "Nobody Wins", "She Wonders". I mostly wrote the lyrics and programmed the drum machine.
If only the media mavens would read any of the fine books, articles, comics and cereal box backs about what fascism is, they might start using the word to describe a party’s policy of single party rule, racist nationalism, revisionist history, hyper religion, minority scape-goating, sexual domination, lying and lawlessness. There’s a reason the Republicans banned “Maus;” they’ll be after Hannah Arendt and William Shirer sooner or later.
Meanwhile, Roy I wish you a safe and complication-free operation, a speedy recovery with adequate analgesics and of course Happy National Beaver Day!
On the plus side, the PBS News Hour last night had 2 commenters on about the various nefarious (honestly I can't remember what exactly they were banging on about – maybe the Queens Man in the Can). The 2 commenters both were Republican operatives.
Naturally!
Folks is catching on tho.
PBS, like NPR, has long been a conservative new outlet. I've spent decades watching in awe as McNiel-Lehrer peddled Republican talking points dressed up as "thoughtful" questions, and after Judy Woodruff took the helm, watched her cram Republican talking points into every story and interview no matter how awkwardly those points fit.
So it is, as Roy points out, only natural that they only interview Republicans when discussing Republican wrongdoing.
Yes. However, the new cohosts have been taking it in better directions recently, which is why the scene last night jarred me.
This is not to say the various regulars are improving, but the reporting is.
"Welcome to Weekend Edition. I'm Scott Simon. President Joe Biden has been talking about raising the cap on Social Security withholding so that those making one million dollars a year would continue to pay into the system instead of stopping their payments at a hundred and sixty thousand dollars of income. Many believe that doing this would plunge the economy into a deep depression as millionaires would simply stop working in order to avoid the extra one-and-a-half percent of taxes. Here to discuss the issue with me are NPR public intellectual Jonah Goldberg, Ohio Senator JD Vance, and billionaire Peter Theil operating Senator Vance's lips. Gentlemen, welcome."
"Sorry to break in here, Peter – This just in: Chief Justice for Life Clarence "RV King" Thomas has just announced the Supreme Court will from now on be known as El Supremo di Tutti Supremo, and his new title will be simply Il Capo.
With that it's back to our panel.
Gents, now that the court and all the rest of it is sorted out, should we dig into one of NPR's most-respected, certainly most forwarded, issues: Susan Stamberg's Special Recipe For Caviar Pie...?"
Just realized I should now be calling him Clarence "Secret Borrower" Thomas, or maybe Clarence "Mr Ethical" Thomas, or maybe just Clarence "Shrug" Thomas...
For years I've imagined a "National Puppet Radio": various avatar of NPR stalwarts, like a Cokie Roberts sock puppet, moving it's mouth as she did to throw it (and by it, I mean Clinton scandal rumors) "out there"; a Bob Edwards (fuck I'm old) marionette, the David Frum/Jonah Goldberg/David Horowitz finger puppets..
It's gotten better some...
I'm attached to (been on a community advisory board) my local Public Radio because they are about the only ones doing good reporting across WNC.
But until they decide they aren't Beltway courtier media, they will often suck worse.
Funny E Musk says they are "state media" and RT isn't...
This thing that isn't owned by the state? It's state owned. This other thing that proudly announces it's owned by the state? Completely independent. I know which one I trust [to keep those under-the-counter payments coming].
Every day is Opposite Day in Wingnuttia!
The Corporation for Public Narrowcasting
I'd hesitate to stuff MY hand up the backside of any a those...
I've had my hands inside a cow (trying, unsuccessfully, to deliver a breech birthing calf) and "expressed the anal" glands of a few dogs...
I figure it will be similar.
NPR and even the BBC aren’t state media in the commonly understood “blatant propaganda” sense. However, I “enjoyed” the Centrist Defense Squad commentators at TPM struggling mightily to prove that NPR was listener supported by noting that only 1% of its funding comes from the government, and 39% from listener contributions. Astute readers will note that leaves 60% unaccounted for. No doubt it’s supplied by wholesome small business donations from places like Ma & Pa’s Bait Shop and Carrie’s Designer Handbags—certainly not Exxon-Mobil or the Koch Foundation.
BNSF pays its staff to watch the homey segment with the fingerpickin' guitar and the Ken Burns-style fiddle...
And for the clearest and most concise dissection of the Hunter's Laptop Bullshit:
https://asharangappa.substack.com/p/framing-hunter-biden
Asha Rangappa is my new crush, after Dr. Sabine Hossenfelder...
Also, “transurrection” reads like something I would write. Not sure what I should make of that.
They had "Woke-apocalypse" all cued up and ready to go, and then decided it was too hard to pronounce.
On the plus side o'the ledger, if you say “transurrection” just a little bit off, they reeeeally get creeped out.
I think that’s likely a large part of their problem- they can’t stop wanking to trans porn on the internet so want to outlaw it to save themselves.
“It’s neither clever, catchy, nor easy to say. I think we’ve got a winner!” —A Highly Paid Political Consultant
The woke-pocalypse is coming!
It’s coming for the Rethuglifascists. Be afraid, be very afraid.
I'm a little surprised they coined that so close to Easter, 'cause now it has me envisioning Christ flouncing out of the tomb with a boa.
Dig the edit.
Well, non-fundamentalist theology would agree that God isn’t limited by the human concept of gender, so :shrug:
It's a mashup of The Transfiguration and The Resurrection! Two Jeebus events in one!
Isn't that what Neil Young REALLY wanted to call that LP which served a thumb in the eye of his record label?
Not to run true to form but while I'm pretty confident that the GOP "brand" is becoming ever more repugnant to ever more voters, the party's doing a fine rigging elections, for giving themselves an unfair advantage. The Wisconsin legislature is but one example.
But that said, I'm sold old that I reminder when there was one day to vote with sufficiently extended hours so that a day wouldn't have to be taken off and mail in ballots were a pain in the ass and only to be used when really necessary. So, I mean, not all of the GOP's efforts have to work as much as feared.
And, yes, the youngs are ever more repelled by Republicans and the right, understandably so.
So, much hope.
Meanwhile, good luck to Roy next week, and happy easter to whoever's observing.
I feel slightly soiled when I'm forced to appreciate an enlightened judge winning an election. Electing judges is stupid and fraught.
As to your last bit, me, my outlook is more Wester than Easter.
I get your point, but I'm starting to warm to the idea, can't imagine why. But honestly, if they're just going to act like a mini-legislature, shouldn't they just be elected like legislators? With the Wisconsin Supremes, nobody's even pretending any more, they're all presented with exactly the same set of facts, the same laws, and then they proceed to rule in exactly opposite directions.
The only thing worse than an elected judiciary is an unelected, unaccountable Supreme Court.
After awarding themselves the power to rule by fiat in Marbury vs Madison, they still mostly pretended to be august oracles of the law. Now they don’t even bother with pretense and just openly flaunt that they’re hacks in robes. (But because they wear robes we have to respect and obey them, else the republic will fall, and it’ll be all our fault.)
And they take August off anyway...
Sunday is my daughter's birthday: heading into the northern fuzz of the Big Peach, to have Indian food, my new obsession, with her and the son and their respective partners. I shall awaken a grumpy BF (he's not a morning person and I absolutely am) and yell "Yea! He is Risen!!"
And he'll tell me to get the fuck out.
Ah, love....
Indian food! Damn, that's some good stuff. I think I know what I want for lunch today - onion biryanis and mulligatawny soup.
I've been trying simple recipes: red lentil dahl, a baking powder naan, using potato and pea samosa filling as a side dish...
Curry on, curry on...
The crazy thing is Republicans would have a pretty solid hold on a majority in the state legislature even with fair maps, because we liberals have all chosen to ghettoize ourselves within Madison and Milwaukee. My rep, for example, routinely wins 80+ percent of the votes in every election, so 30% of those votes wasted, in the sense that they can't go to elect someone else.
But nearly certain control is never enough for the fascists, so they gotta fuck with the maps to milk some extra Republican seats out of Eau Claire and Green Bay.
You saw my theory: it’s going to be a race whether the GOP becomes anathema to enough voters or the GOP rigs elections enough to make all non-Republicans unelectable.
I’d like to think we’ll do better in 2022 and since. Alternatively, I contemplate Trump re-elected with a strongly Democratic Congress willing and able to kick his ass all the time.
Meanwhile, are y’all there impeaching the newly elected judge yet?
I get a chuckle out of knowing that if she is impeached, the person who gets to appoint her replacement is Democratic Governor Tony Evers.
Who then gets impeached too?
And then replaced by his own Lieutenant Governor, who also gets impeached? Not sure what happens after that. If Robin Vos is anywhere in the line of succession, then that must be their plan, just a few simple steps to Governor Robin.
"Seven Steps to Robin" would push Kilometers right over the edge.
No, I had a newly elected judge in mind, not the governor. He the Republicans control enough. A judge could only be controlled if they were willing to be controlled.
Things would be quite a bit different if the Democratic Party tried to compete in those districts. It would probably be a long time before they could win, but it wouldn’t be that difficult to get the margins way down, which would matter in district, statewide, congressional and Presidential elections.
True, rural Wisconsin used to elect Democrats, they just don't now. Sometimes that's the Dems not running candidates, sometimes they do run very good candidates who don't win.
Not winning should result in trying harder, not quitting. Unless you’re a Democratic Party bigwig.
I'm the last person to make excuses for Democrat bigwigs, but running a candidate means finding someone who's willing to run. For a serious candidate, you want someone who's well-respected in their own community, maybe a local elected official (ha, good luck with that) a small-business owner, maybe a teacher, firefighter or other public servant. Such people often don't want the headaches of running, especially in today's environment.
Back in the midterm, the Dems had hopes of picking up one seat, the Republican was retiring so it was an open seat and the woman they recruited seemed like the perfect candidate, small-business owner, born and raised in her small town, good public speaker. She lost.
Why don’t you run if no one else is?
yeah, that is part of gerrymandering. You trade 5 areas slightly favoring your side for one area that greatly favors the other side. Do that 4 times and you will likely have a majority/supermajority even if the rest of the state is fair.
Republicans really are in between a political rock and a hard place. They can’t back off their rabid “no abortions ever--show us your children’s underpants--uppity Black guys get what’s coming to them” position without losing their feral base, but if they persist on that road, they will consistently lose between 60 and 80% of the voters under 40. Who, as the song says, are the future. No wonder they’re trying to implement minority rule in every way they can, fascism is the only way out of their dilemma, the only path they have to political relevancy 10 to 20 years from now.
Couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch of fellas. Oh, and good luck next week, Roy.
If you include Clarence (RV Jockey) Thomas among your uppity Blacks, would the underpants puller-downers have a slight change of attitude?
But Thomas isn't uppity -- he knows his place, which is to support and reinforce white supremacy. So he's allowed to be rewarded with nice treats like all-expenses-paid vacays.
More specifically, the Supreme Court’s job is to protect money and privilege. That’s why nobody fought the power grab of Marbury vs Madison—they were always going to rule in favor of rich white guys anyway, so who cares if they got to have final say on running the country?
Don't mean to quibble (who am I kidding, I love to quibble!) but it's not fear of "losing their feral base", those Tennessee Republican legislators ARE the feral base. There's not the tiniest difference between them and the yahoos who vote for them. I've seen Wisconsin Republican legislators in action, live, you can trust me on this one.
Oh, agreed. This is true of many on the federal level and is especially true in the statehouses. I was referring to top-down, overarching strategy -- there they are at an impasse, unable to moderate and unable to attract voters outside the base unless they do.
It would be interesting to know to what extent they even see or appreciate this as a dilemma. They'd have to connect any future (or past, or present) electoral setbacks to their own actions, and I'm not sure they're capable of that. No, what they did is exactly right, as is anything they decide to do in the future, and any elections they lose must be due to those damn voting machines.
"Conservatism -- even authoritarian, corrupted, openly racist conservatism -- can never fail, it can only BE failed."
Standing athwart history, yelling "what happened to poll taxes and literacy tests?!"
It’s no longer the usual suspects bamboozling the common clay with stories of camping in Wal-Mart parking lots. The common clay is sitting in Capitol buildings.
Carry On Quibbling, but one a yins gonna be the last quibbler standing, so keep the quibbles clean – I don't wanna see any quibbles upside the head and no quibbles below the belt, understand?
Periodic reminder that these people want to repeal the Seventeenth Amendment, and have senators appointed by (Republican-controlled) statehouses. Like it used to be.
Well, sure, ANYTHING but figuring out how we could appeal to more voters.
"Gun rights and civil control."
Somewhat more decorously, HCR also has a good take on it today:
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/april-6-2023?utm_source=substack&publication_id=20533&post_id=113208641&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share&triggerShare=true&isFreemail=true
I appreciate how Doc Richardson approaches her work – historian as reporter, taking "the First Draft of History" seriously.
"Crow had given Thomas a $19,000 Bible that had belonged to the famous formerly enslaved abolitionist and writer Frederick Douglass"
So he could burn it? Or is it a case of "Dead long enough that we can safely ignore everything he ever said or wrote"? You know, like Jesus.
Clearly intended to signify that Thomas inherited Douglass' mantle — the mind reels.
People are recognizing Clarence Thomas' corruption more and more.
Something, shall we say, symbolic about a rich White man gifting a Bible to a Black man (who himself wants to be White).
"Here, please have this, I believe in the past my people have used it as an instrument for control of your people."
He's being recognized more and more, or whatever Mango Mussolini said.
"call it a small-scale variation on Jan. 6" -- the January 6 that was normal tourists mixed with peaceful protesters exercising their Constitutional rights? Like "Benghazi," "January 6" can mean what you want it to mean, I guess.
Maybe the tossed reps (junior Jan6ers) had only a couple hidden guns and sharpened flagpoles...or maybe theirs was a Confederate flag inside a big red circle, with a red slash line thru it. That right there'd be enough to get 'em hanged ('cept that dubiously-reasoning, otherwise OK White lady).
So maybe the "super"majority showed remarkable constraint.
I'm so old and well-mannered that I still get amazed that these bigots don't mind showing their hand so plainly.
Right? They couldn't even put the fig leaf of dumping the white woman as well to cover their racism. They should have just put on the white hoods they keep under their desks while they voted.
Okay, I'll call it a small-scale variation of January 6. Yeah, let's definitely go with that. 100% And so the only right a proper remedy for this small-scale variation of January 6 is to expel those members who were with the protesters. I agree with this. Absolutely.
Now, let's look at the full-scale actual January 6. In keeping with this principle, we should expel every member of Congress who was (and still is) with the insurrectionists. So bye-bye MTG, Gaetz, Hawley, Johnson . . . well, would you look at that! No more House majority for Republicans, and a major loss of power in the Senate as well.
But I guess this principle only applies to Black folks. As such principles usually do.
"This thing was exactly like this other thing, except not really in any significant way" is not a persuasive argument to anyone outside the rightwing bubble, a fact that Byron York may or may not realize.
Even the Sesame Street kidz be goin' "Huh? That what you mean to say?"
One of these things is just like the other,
Even thought it's different,
Don't ask me why
Good point, if this is what you get for the small-scale variation, imagine what the consequences must be for the full-scale kind! What's that? Nothing, you say? Well, that doesn't scale at all.
Holy Jesus, this is spot on. If you guys think anyone who supported Tiny Jan 6 should be expelled, do you think anyone who supported Actual Jan 6... no, no, I'm sure there's some reason the rule doesn't apply if the tables are turned. Wilhoit's Law fully operational here.
When you have an x-ray, call it a small-scale variation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki...or something. Whether it's a sense of proportion or words, what does any of it mean, really?
Stop wid all yer pesky questions or I'll x-ray ya straight inta da middle a next week!
Omigod, the Bowery Boys have broken out of yesterday's thread and invaded this one!
Byron York has an HO-scale model of a human brain.
Yeah, that tracks...
Ohmigosh, did the FBI infiltrate the Nashville protest TOO?
The woke FBI, which is indistinguishable from Antifa.
I heard someone threw a paper airplane from the gallery, which collided with the speaker's podium in a small-scale variation on 9/11.
Antifa pretending to be Proud Boys pretending to be Antifa.
Plenty of good stuff, like Mehdi Hassan's pantsing of Musk's Matt Taibbi ( https://twitter.com/mehdirhasan/status/1644064242419617803?s=20 )
Down in GA, I'm hearing good stuff about Fani Willis grand Jury: even if Tubby ends up as "an unindicted co-conspirator", we have evidence of perjury by prominent witnesses (cough, Graham, Meadows, etc…), and a broad abuse of the election in the GOP worthies, Party wheelhorses, and MAGAt dirtbag "Alternate Electors"who signed off on the fraudulent election certification for tfg, and one of the fake electors illegally in a county election officek
Out here in the boonies, the Culture War shit is getting tired: and it seems a bit less febrile.
I've actually had a MAGAt adjacent relative say "if He's a billionaire, why does he need my money?"
Have a good Good Friday, second day of Passover, National Girl Me Too Day, National Beer Day(!) and World Health Day: so, Roy, you get healthy and get out of the hospital ASAP, stat: It's full of sick people....
I'm assuming you joke, but there really is a massive problem with iatrogenic infections in hospitals, i.e. ones you get from being in the hospital.
Like most stuff, I'm not completely unserious here.
Mom pretty much died from the drag of a long MERS infection caught in hospital.
My condolences. Can't help but wonder if a similar thing happened with my mom.
In cool news, French protestors took over the Blackrock HQ in dwntown Paris -- this the corporation that basically owns all our media worldwide -- which leads me to doubt this is just about 'pension reform.'
Also Israel has been having massive protests against Bibi's government (wasn't he defeated years ago, why is he still PM?).
Might be an interesting Spring...
The Bibi, defeated, can never be unseated!
There was a more recent election that Bibi's block won. It's mostly that the right wing governments have let in a lot of Eastern European right wing Jewish people
eta: the protests are about Bibi trying to end the current judiciary that has found Bibi possibly guilty of criminal behavior so he's going to bring in a more congenial set o justices.
That's a good mindset to have heading into your surgery.
That the TN legislature didn't expel the one white rep makes the racism look just a wee bit "systemic" dontcha think? At this point, I'm forced to describe Republicans using one of the orange POS's favorite locutions -- human scum -- and it's only out of christian charity that I keep the word "human".
Good luck next week, Roy. I fortunately survived what was definitely not minor surgery a few years ago and my best advice (if this is your first maj-surg rodeo) is to make sure you have a reliable network of food smugglers -- the hospital fare was so bad it was actually worthy of scientific study. I mean, how do you completely fuck up pancakes fer crine out loud? Here all those terrific doctors and nurses had literally just saved my life and some 3rd party meal contractor was doing their best to kill me. If it weren't for the untainted packages of cereal I hoarded I don't think I would have made it. Just a thought.
The food service we had when I was at SUNY Stonybrook (Aramark) does a lot of institutional food-dealing, and, Jeebus, were they awful. I still recall the lettuce on the salad bar with the browning edges.
Can't speak for the food, but from my mom's stay in the hospital I did pick up an appreciation of vintage American plastic dinnerware, and I've bought some Dinex cups off ebay since then. The stuff from the early 70's is the best, of course.
You do you.
But the very best spousal thing I ever did was smuggle food to the missus in the hospital.
Happy thought! Yes, those kids in Nashville and the young assemblymen are such a sight for sore eyes.
I agree.
So I guess the next we from you is that you were kicked out of the hospital for chasing nurses and stealing the pain meds from the geriatric ward. Get well soon! You don't want us out doing whatever comes to mind.
Breaking news: Unattended Edroso commenters storm Tennessee State Capitol.
Hey, now. I never storm anything unattended.
They called themselves " Ed - Heads" and showed a propensity for violence and sarcasm.
One participant was wrestled to the ground by police after he was seen brandishing a bag of limericks.
It's a fair cop.
Coulda been worse, tho. Coulda been haiku!
Not necessarily in that order.
Hey, The EDs were my grad school sort of band. We had such songs as "Kathy Ireland: Let's Have Sex", "Inconsequential", "Nobody Wins", "She Wonders". I mostly wrote the lyrics and programmed the drum machine.
Tennessee Goddamn.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJ25-U3jNWM
I'm there!
So good.
If only the media mavens would read any of the fine books, articles, comics and cereal box backs about what fascism is, they might start using the word to describe a party’s policy of single party rule, racist nationalism, revisionist history, hyper religion, minority scape-goating, sexual domination, lying and lawlessness. There’s a reason the Republicans banned “Maus;” they’ll be after Hannah Arendt and William Shirer sooner or later.
Meanwhile, Roy I wish you a safe and complication-free operation, a speedy recovery with adequate analgesics and of course Happy National Beaver Day!
You left corporatism off your list. Always and ever about the wingtips, not the jackboots...