"Salt of the earth." The title(?) of the Stones song most buzzing around my head the last few days...
Anyway.
Am insanely compelled to note that Roy is being much too kind, here the reality is so much worse:
Klobuchar dissing Trump for not warring hard enough against Iran with the implicit message that this war is any way good for this nation. It's been great for Iran's immediate, near and maybe mid-term future. And of course good for the Don's personal wealth. But for the US, that if we war more and harder it'll turn out good for us?
I note on occasion how MAGAts and the like -- well, Donny, too -- mouth the RWNJ tropes from the 90s on like they're anything more substantive than incantations. Well, Klobuchar there the same pretty much. Her position is universes away from reality.
But did it's not just her; Chuck went there too the other day.
And there's Jeffries, telling us that if we don't like the alt-Republican national Democrats to leave the party. I assume for him, that's what democracy looks like: Zero tolerance for dissent. Just like the Republicans.
To be clear, not dissing today's post so much as just noting that the underlying reality is so awful. And, you know, I gotta be me because I've failed in all my efforts to be anything else...
"Seersucker" the word, is just plain obscene. But nice material for those sultry, languid (dammit, there's no gettin' round it!) summer days when it's just too darn extreme heat emergency...
"The word originates from the Persian words شیر shîr and شکر shakar, literally meaning "milk and sugar", from the gritty texture ("sugar") on the otherwise smooth ("milk") cloth."
It's becoming clear to us normal people (i.e. Canadians lol), that you're entire system of governance and ideas about law and order and, well, pretty much everything, are fucked up. We've herded all our loonies into a largish area out west where we can watch them and be amused. The rest we paid to become Americans (except for Neil, he's on mission).
I reckon there are probably more beavers in Quebec than Alberta. Alberta, however, claims to have no rats. (Big wheat growing area, they actually have a "rat patrol.)
I'm hip. Beavers are inspirational. They are bound/determined to dam what's left of the C&O Canal as we speak. They had a pretty good run the last couple years til the Great Esnshittification last winter caused the human engineers to rip it all out in favor of cleaner water for humans et al.
Canada probly has more beavers than humans. And I should place here my perennial favorite beaver reference: "beaver drop". When you're beaver supply gets low, drop more beavers!
Also, too: I was a charter member of our building's rat patrol. Was fun faux-terrifying the neighbors and genuinely enraging/embarrassing management for awhile. Eventually it got too easy.
Their attempt was deemed illegal and unconstitutional. It was also financed by MAGA (or whatever), pretty common knowledge. Where's the asshole American ambassador these days? There will be no vote.
As an aside: a lot of Nova Scotians of my generation left the coast for oil jobs in Alberta. I've had a lot of old friends go to the dark side. I remember spending a week in Medicine Hat, Alberta when I was 17 (turned out to be the end point of my attempt to thumb across Canada one summer). Alberta is not in any way similar to Quebec (who by virtue of language alone could make a reasonable argument for separation). Alberta is all about money.
Sorry if I wander off topic sometimes. But it's hard NOT to connect the dots sometimes. What's going on in the US is directly relevant to Canada, Japan, and other countries; and vice versa.
Oooh, lookit Mr. International Perspective here, trying to convince us nations aren't isolated individuals JUST LIKE EVERYONE ELSE. Hey! Troublemaker! What part of "there are NO systemic problems" don't you understand?
Performative secession. Amply funded by dark MAGA money (just like the anti-vaxx Freedom Convoy that shut down Ottawa for three weeks in 2022.) The courts have ruled that indigenous treaties with the feds won’t allow separation, but Danielle is going ahead with a referendum in the fall anyway to appease the party’s whackjob wing. Her survival as leader demands it. Plus she loves the idea of riling up urban liberals (Yes, it’s true! We actually exist in Alberta). She takes her cues from Trump. Even went to Mar-a-Lago to be up close and personal with his stench.
It’s so weird. It’s a referendum over whether there should be another referendum about overruling the courts. Like they ain’t going away and that’s scary. The Brexiteers weren’t supposed to win either.
Another Substacker I follow is Charlie Angus, former NDP MP from northern Ontario. Good writer. Just today he published a longish piece comparing Brexit with the foreign influence behind Alberta separatists. Best we not get too complacent.
I’ve already signed up to volunteer when the campaign begins in earnest. Yesterday’s World Cup stoppage-time win was a truly O Canada moment here. People celebrating on the streets in downpour weather. That gave me hope.
Well, I like to think we Americans are doing our part in the fight against the see-cesh by enshittifying our own country to the point that nobody would want to join it.
It's been almost 20 years since I was doing political consulting, but I see some things never seem to change. And one of those things is that Democratic politicians despise Democratic voters. The refrain since 1990 or so has been "Vote for me because I'm not like those OTHER Democrats!" And far too many Democratic politicians spend way too much time searching for their own Sistah Soulja moment, for a chance to punch hippies and prove they're not going to advocate for things that benefit society.
I hated those politicians back then and still hate them today. If I could, I would mail Hakeem Jeffries a big bag of half-eaten salted dicks.
Trump hands him a line like "I love the inflation!" and Jeffries' comeback is "Well, the Democrats do NOT love the inflation." Ooh, snap! I wonder how many bottles of Dasani they went through in the conference room coming up with it.
Yeah the Dems should definitely go with "we'll help the average citizen out just a little bit, but we LOVE the billionaire business guys and AI too! Middle of the road! Nothing too scary and drastic! Everyone say it with us: Status Quo! Status Quo!"
In all seriousness, what's so depressing is the way forward to victory is staring them right in the face, people are screaming it -- meaningful help for the average joe, hatred of data centers, taxing of billionaires, stopping and if possible reversing the enshittification of almost everything -- but centrist Dems have their fingers in their ears chanting la-la-la.
"The Pool, in all its inspirational (former) beauty, must be restored same. But 2 marks to the administration for spending the $$millions that were necessary to illustrate just how impoverized the liquid federal infrastructure has become, and further for identifying those hoodlums and communists who lurked thereby well into the dark of night before viciously snorkling out with boxcutters to bring down the great body of water...we are certain bothsides can agree to the desperate need for more money to support proper reconstruction of this and other historical treasures, like the memorial for Rebecca Winborne, who, we understand from our more south-directed colleagues, stitched together the first national flag that really matters..."
According to today's missive from Heritage, "affordability" is out and it's now all about "opportunity". Because it's YOUR FAULT if you don't seize the "opportunity".
Battle of the Buzzwords. Maybe we can cram everyone into a football stadium, blue on one side and red on the other and shout it out like a Bud Light commercial.
They had some oaf from the Park Service testifying in the Senate, Sheldon Whitehouse asked, "The President says you have evidence of a 350 foot gash cut in the reflecting pool. Do you have evidence?" Answer: "Senator, the Park Service Police have served this country with honor, courage and distinction since the founding of the Park Service in 1789..." And it went downhill from there.
Couldn't have gone DOWNhill from there. Not unless the dude was already shovelin' like crazy...
The early days of national parks in this country are pretty fun reading. And leave us not forget that altho Yellowstone was established in 1872, the Park Service was not founded til 1916, so in the interim the US Army had park management duties around the country (especially out west). Classic example was the Buffalo Soldiers of the Presidio, riding across California in the spring to get Yosemite reopened.
We have a richly rewarding history if one is looking for bemusements.
This is chillingly accurate. I'm only surprised that Dem centrists -- like their Republican counterparts (or is that colleagues?) -- haven't yet come out in favor of means testing the right to vote.
I know people who think like this. Essentially Republicans who vote for conservative Democrats. Not even they think Schumer has a future in the party leadership. Jeffries has enough Vance-like chameleon moves to switch if the 2026 incoming House class mirrors recent state and local elections, but not Chuck. Our goal is to make Mike Johnson’s nightmare come true in 2027-8. Watery Schumerist Dems writing letters won’t make that happen.
This is going to offend some people, (I know, inherent barbarianism) but I have to get this out so here goes.
I disagree with this premise.
Because attacks on "establishment/centrist Democrats" read *to me* as an attack on Black people and especially Black women. Who have been carrying the party for at least thirty years now. The numbers don't lie.
Yesterday's meeting with Dad, well, it went well for the most part (I did a particularly good job of distracting him, twice, as he tried to go into a rant about immigrants in the UK) but the worst part had to be the actual hardcopy versions of the goddamn fucking Epoch Times for sale at Walgreens. I would have gotten a picture, but I was with my father. Fucking Epoch Times. What the hell are we DOING here.
Here's ABC's Jonathan Karl interviewing Zohran Mamdani, he tells Mamdani that Democratic centrists have responded to DSA election wins with a manifesto of their own, Mamdani cracks that million-dollar smile of his and says, "Sounds pretty Socialist to me!"
MacBooksPro
made my morning (so far)
All the Attorneys General have 'em.
"Salt of the earth." The title(?) of the Stones song most buzzing around my head the last few days...
Anyway.
Am insanely compelled to note that Roy is being much too kind, here the reality is so much worse:
Klobuchar dissing Trump for not warring hard enough against Iran with the implicit message that this war is any way good for this nation. It's been great for Iran's immediate, near and maybe mid-term future. And of course good for the Don's personal wealth. But for the US, that if we war more and harder it'll turn out good for us?
I note on occasion how MAGAts and the like -- well, Donny, too -- mouth the RWNJ tropes from the 90s on like they're anything more substantive than incantations. Well, Klobuchar there the same pretty much. Her position is universes away from reality.
But did it's not just her; Chuck went there too the other day.
And there's Jeffries, telling us that if we don't like the alt-Republican national Democrats to leave the party. I assume for him, that's what democracy looks like: Zero tolerance for dissent. Just like the Republicans.
To be clear, not dissing today's post so much as just noting that the underlying reality is so awful. And, you know, I gotta be me because I've failed in all my efforts to be anything else...
no seersucker suit for you!
(unless you wanna hang out with Tom Waits)
"Seersucker" the word, is just plain obscene. But nice material for those sultry, languid (dammit, there's no gettin' round it!) summer days when it's just too darn extreme heat emergency...
I know what seersucker (material) is, but what is the reason for the name? I could google it, I guess. I honestly don't know.
Me too, but why deflate a good muse?
Damn, I was hoping you'd tell me :-)
OK, I gave in and wiki-ed it:
"The word originates from the Persian words شیر shîr and شکر shakar, literally meaning "milk and sugar", from the gritty texture ("sugar") on the otherwise smooth ("milk") cloth."
Which is better than we could have hoped.
Yeah, I know it'll make a man look like a renowned Southern writer, but you cannot press that stuff for love or money. You'll always look rumpled.
Only had one in my life. High maintenance and all that, but still more comfortable than wool.
And happy to have never worn a suit since retirement.
If "Atticus Finch" is the look you're aimin' for then "rumpled" is PERFECT.
Not since retirement…
That's one of the things I like about it - you always have an excuse
It's becoming clear to us normal people (i.e. Canadians lol), that you're entire system of governance and ideas about law and order and, well, pretty much everything, are fucked up. We've herded all our loonies into a largish area out west where we can watch them and be amused. The rest we paid to become Americans (except for Neil, he's on mission).
Aren't they trying to secede or something? I haven't kept track
Well sure, but not like them Quebeçoisis – we got muscle! And beavers (Oh, do we have beavers!)
I reckon there are probably more beavers in Quebec than Alberta. Alberta, however, claims to have no rats. (Big wheat growing area, they actually have a "rat patrol.)
Hey. The largest beaver dam system in the world is in northern Alberta. You can see it from space!
I used to work in the boreal forests. The big ones truly are amazing. Genius builders and engineers, those beavers. And hydrologists too!
I'm hip. Beavers are inspirational. They are bound/determined to dam what's left of the C&O Canal as we speak. They had a pretty good run the last couple years til the Great Esnshittification last winter caused the human engineers to rip it all out in favor of cleaner water for humans et al.
Ripped out all their dams? I think they were a little rough on the beavers.
God damn it! Stick to the script, comrade! :-)
Canada probly has more beavers than humans. And I should place here my perennial favorite beaver reference: "beaver drop". When you're beaver supply gets low, drop more beavers!
Also, too: I was a charter member of our building's rat patrol. Was fun faux-terrifying the neighbors and genuinely enraging/embarrassing management for awhile. Eventually it got too easy.
Are you... mocking us? Have at it!
More beavers than humans? Why, I hear they got HUNDREDS of 'em
https://www.hundredsofbeavers.com/
This is movie of the decade.
Beaves with parachutes
Beavers are the best!
Their attempt was deemed illegal and unconstitutional. It was also financed by MAGA (or whatever), pretty common knowledge. Where's the asshole American ambassador these days? There will be no vote.
As an aside: a lot of Nova Scotians of my generation left the coast for oil jobs in Alberta. I've had a lot of old friends go to the dark side. I remember spending a week in Medicine Hat, Alberta when I was 17 (turned out to be the end point of my attempt to thumb across Canada one summer). Alberta is not in any way similar to Quebec (who by virtue of language alone could make a reasonable argument for separation). Alberta is all about money.
"Alberta is all about money." well then, they'd be quite at home in the States!
Sorry if I wander off topic sometimes. But it's hard NOT to connect the dots sometimes. What's going on in the US is directly relevant to Canada, Japan, and other countries; and vice versa.
When the time comes to hoist Old Glory by imposed edict, I just wanna see the 'flag blue' engulfed by Genuine Canadian Algae green.
I appreciate the sentiment, but Canada is Liberal red!
Oooh, lookit Mr. International Perspective here, trying to convince us nations aren't isolated individuals JUST LIKE EVERYONE ELSE. Hey! Troublemaker! What part of "there are NO systemic problems" don't you understand?
Hell, I come here for all the wandering-off-topic.
Performative secession. Amply funded by dark MAGA money (just like the anti-vaxx Freedom Convoy that shut down Ottawa for three weeks in 2022.) The courts have ruled that indigenous treaties with the feds won’t allow separation, but Danielle is going ahead with a referendum in the fall anyway to appease the party’s whackjob wing. Her survival as leader demands it. Plus she loves the idea of riling up urban liberals (Yes, it’s true! We actually exist in Alberta). She takes her cues from Trump. Even went to Mar-a-Lago to be up close and personal with his stench.
It riles me up here in Japan. Must be worse in the middle of it.
It’s so weird. It’s a referendum over whether there should be another referendum about overruling the courts. Like they ain’t going away and that’s scary. The Brexiteers weren’t supposed to win either.
Another Substacker I follow is Charlie Angus, former NDP MP from northern Ontario. Good writer. Just today he published a longish piece comparing Brexit with the foreign influence behind Alberta separatists. Best we not get too complacent.
I’ve already signed up to volunteer when the campaign begins in earnest. Yesterday’s World Cup stoppage-time win was a truly O Canada moment here. People celebrating on the streets in downpour weather. That gave me hope.
Well, I like to think we Americans are doing our part in the fight against the see-cesh by enshittifying our own country to the point that nobody would want to join it.
That was a slow burn til the 92 minute, and then it was excruciating til the whistle.
It's been almost 20 years since I was doing political consulting, but I see some things never seem to change. And one of those things is that Democratic politicians despise Democratic voters. The refrain since 1990 or so has been "Vote for me because I'm not like those OTHER Democrats!" And far too many Democratic politicians spend way too much time searching for their own Sistah Soulja moment, for a chance to punch hippies and prove they're not going to advocate for things that benefit society.
I hated those politicians back then and still hate them today. If I could, I would mail Hakeem Jeffries a big bag of half-eaten salted dicks.
i am amazed at how Hakeem Jeffries' occasional appearances on MSNOW give this 76-year-old geezer the very worst cringe.
Painful.
I'm like Ratso Rizzo slappin' Hakeem's car in the crosswalk: "I'm fightin' fascism here! I'm fightin' fascism here!"
Hakeem sayin' "Driver, accelerate".
Trump hands him a line like "I love the inflation!" and Jeffries' comeback is "Well, the Democrats do NOT love the inflation." Ooh, snap! I wonder how many bottles of Dasani they went through in the conference room coming up with it.
A green Reflecting Pool's worth.
Hmmm... now I've got an idea! Remember Whole Foods Asparagus Water? Well, it's like that, but...
https://www.eater.com/2015/8/3/9090797/whole-foods-asparagus-water-wtf
robot zombie sayin' "i know you are but what am i?"
Ell. Oh. Ell.
Yeah the Dems should definitely go with "we'll help the average citizen out just a little bit, but we LOVE the billionaire business guys and AI too! Middle of the road! Nothing too scary and drastic! Everyone say it with us: Status Quo! Status Quo!"
In all seriousness, what's so depressing is the way forward to victory is staring them right in the face, people are screaming it -- meaningful help for the average joe, hatred of data centers, taxing of billionaires, stopping and if possible reversing the enshittification of almost everything -- but centrist Dems have their fingers in their ears chanting la-la-la.
Well, if you've got your fingers in your ears you have no way of using them to point out the obvious, as the good lord intended.
"The Pool, in all its inspirational (former) beauty, must be restored same. But 2 marks to the administration for spending the $$millions that were necessary to illustrate just how impoverized the liquid federal infrastructure has become, and further for identifying those hoodlums and communists who lurked thereby well into the dark of night before viciously snorkling out with boxcutters to bring down the great body of water...we are certain bothsides can agree to the desperate need for more money to support proper reconstruction of this and other historical treasures, like the memorial for Rebecca Winborne, who, we understand from our more south-directed colleagues, stitched together the first national flag that really matters..."
this is excellent, but i'd just suggest you cram "affordability" somewhere in there.
you know, "be specific" whatever that means.
"Our affordability index suggests the people are ready for it. Indeed, when we float provisional terms "How 'bout for free?" polls extremely."
According to today's missive from Heritage, "affordability" is out and it's now all about "opportunity". Because it's YOUR FAULT if you don't seize the "opportunity".
Battle of the Buzzwords. Maybe we can cram everyone into a football stadium, blue on one side and red on the other and shout it out like a Bud Light commercial.
In the interest of National Reconciliation, might I suggest we come together over "I'd like to have the opportunity to pay my fuckin' rent."
Less taste! More feelings!
Tubby is hard at work on the "less taste" part in his White House refurbishments.
HE's GILTY!
Just don't seize the "opportunity" the way so many GOP leaders and Christofascist pastors have IYKWIMAITYD.
They had some oaf from the Park Service testifying in the Senate, Sheldon Whitehouse asked, "The President says you have evidence of a 350 foot gash cut in the reflecting pool. Do you have evidence?" Answer: "Senator, the Park Service Police have served this country with honor, courage and distinction since the founding of the Park Service in 1789..." And it went downhill from there.
Couldn't have gone DOWNhill from there. Not unless the dude was already shovelin' like crazy...
The early days of national parks in this country are pretty fun reading. And leave us not forget that altho Yellowstone was established in 1872, the Park Service was not founded til 1916, so in the interim the US Army had park management duties around the country (especially out west). Classic example was the Buffalo Soldiers of the Presidio, riding across California in the spring to get Yosemite reopened.
We have a richly rewarding history if one is looking for bemusements.
All shit flows downhill, from here, from there, from everywhere. I mean, that's just Civil Engineering.
Leave us all rise in gratitude for gravity. Think of the incivility otherwise!
* Fuck Axios
* Politico too.
This is chillingly accurate. I'm only surprised that Dem centrists -- like their Republican counterparts (or is that colleagues?) -- haven't yet come out in favor of means testing the right to vote.
Still in the closet on that one (but oh is there a lot of ecstatic moaning comin' from that closet!)
I know people who think like this. Essentially Republicans who vote for conservative Democrats. Not even they think Schumer has a future in the party leadership. Jeffries has enough Vance-like chameleon moves to switch if the 2026 incoming House class mirrors recent state and local elections, but not Chuck. Our goal is to make Mike Johnson’s nightmare come true in 2027-8. Watery Schumerist Dems writing letters won’t make that happen.
There's nothing humorous
'bout Democratic Schumerists
"Olivia Reingold is a staff writer at The Free Press. She co-created and executive produced Matthew Yglesias’s podcast, Bad Takes."
YIKES!!
An ironically fitting title, there.
Ha ha, they probably thought they were being ironic when they were just being accurate.
I'm thinking maybe I could interest establishment Dem types in a few cases of my upcoming book, "Irony For Dummies".
I am now imaging your collected research docs for that book. Buncha folders with specific subjects. Clipped together with magnets.
Yes, the irony filings.
The irony filings will hafta wait for when they drag me into court for providing material support to terrorists for publishing my screed.
This is going to offend some people, (I know, inherent barbarianism) but I have to get this out so here goes.
I disagree with this premise.
Because attacks on "establishment/centrist Democrats" read *to me* as an attack on Black people and especially Black women. Who have been carrying the party for at least thirty years now. The numbers don't lie.
Fair enough, but wouldn't you like to see some of that old style militancy, just a little? ACT like change is possible, goddamn it.
Yesterday's meeting with Dad, well, it went well for the most part (I did a particularly good job of distracting him, twice, as he tried to go into a rant about immigrants in the UK) but the worst part had to be the actual hardcopy versions of the goddamn fucking Epoch Times for sale at Walgreens. I would have gotten a picture, but I was with my father. Fucking Epoch Times. What the hell are we DOING here.
End Times Magazine: No need to read it, just seeing it in the supermarket tells you everything you need to know.
And right next to it in the rack: Time Magazine, muttering 'Hey now...'
People pay for that?
Yeah, that's the size of it.
LMAO
The title gives me an idea: Henceforth the Democrats take all their p'litical strategizin' advice from Paul Lynde.
Here's ABC's Jonathan Karl interviewing Zohran Mamdani, he tells Mamdani that Democratic centrists have responded to DSA election wins with a manifesto of their own, Mamdani cracks that million-dollar smile of his and says, "Sounds pretty Socialist to me!"
https://youtu.be/AbARdcqmWTY
Socialists always have an edge it they're pretty – just stands to reason.
"Stop staring at my Means of Production - my eyes are UP HERE"
I've seen your means. Now turn around so's I can see your ends.