“they see a growing anger among their base that has, in some cases, morphed into a disregard for American institutions, political traditions and even the rule of law.”
Heavens to Betsy, no! Not a disregard for American institutions like the Vichy SCOTUS! Not a disregard for political traditions like bipartisanship when your opponents wrestle you to the ground and put you in handcuffs! Where, oh where, is the civility that all Democrats should hug to their breasts on their way to the gulag?
Well, our Thursday Evening Sign-Wave and ChatFest along the boulevard is pretty civil, tho one must be prepared to put up with the honkies (what's that? oh, you know – them drivers what honks as they go by...I mean, here we are, just tryin' to have a civil conversation til the club opens and we can sidle in for a cool one, and they're just poundin' their horns...incivility, thy name is Civic).
Sadly, I am a-west of there these few weeks, suffering mightily in Waymoville, the cool, grey, digitized city of fog, amid the coyote cubs, the incredible burritos, and Saint John Coltrane Invitational Sonic Ascension Day Jazz Vespers at Grace Cathedral up the block.
Well, considering that "rule of law" now means "The President and his goons get to do whatever the fuck they want but if you so much as give the side eye to an ICE agent, you'll get the shit kicked out of you and be thrown in prison for assaulting an officer" I can see how some of us might have lost our regard for it.
That line is the first goddamn thing I picked up on, and it croggles my mind to think how it describes the ACTUAL GOP but is directed at a mythical Democratic Party. I mean, make your case about fighting lawlessness with lawlessness, but don't pretend it's the Dems who started it.
“the base” demands they “fight harder,” which may seem provocative if you have age-related osteoporosis.
I feel seen. That's okay - I can still talk some pretty salty shit from the sidelines.
Any news source that is exclusively on-line and has a made up word for a name is Bullshit. (I include Vox - which is probably a word (at least it's latin) but it has Ezra Klein cooties all over it and therefore, I said THEREFORE, qualifies as bullshit due to prior association.
They sure don’t understand that dying as a martyr to Democracy would redeem a dissolute life like mine. Gotta go sometime and yes, I do remember General Patton’s advice not to die for your country…
I was gonna pull that quote too, tho for sheer chutzpah (or is it chats'paw?) the “tried to up the ante” by “getting tackled by law enforcement” bit flames abright.
I admit to a small sense of duty to take a hit for the crew, as at my osteo-degraded stage I'm better suited to it than them what's potentially got more to live for. And as I always say, lotsa things could be worse than 3 squares anna cot (note to [private] jailors: don't bother trying to make me work in your gulag – my resistance might be futile, but I'm pretty good at mucking up things that need upmucked).
Blaming Padilla takes Murc’s Law to new heights. “This bad thing happened to a Democrat by a Republican because the Democrat [fill in the blank] to cause it.”
That "Bullshit" reminds me of the poster we found yesterday in the bodega a block from Grace Cathedral. It proclaims the store was where Bullitt (there's the memory flash) would buy all his frozen dinners in between chasin' baddies around the city. The poster announces a raffle to coincide with the original premier of the flick. The prize? A week's worth of frozen dinners!
People rave about the car chase, but check out Jack Lemmon outrunning corrupt power-company cops in The China Syndrome. BMW 2002 > Mustang fastback any day.
My experience with Vox, especially their "expainers", is they seem very clear and well written, until they hit a subject I have more than a passing familiarity with, when they become the work of a bright intern scraping the web for plausible factoids that may or may not have some connection to reality.
If George Will is on board with an Emanuel candidacy, I guess we can declare it settled. Next on the agenda, do we order in or go someplace for lunch. Show of hands?
I read an MSN piece about the worst hitters in baseball history which did not include Bill Bergen and yet Bergen was easily the worst hitter in MLB history. Probably this was recency bias, but still even Grok might get this correct
I'm intrigued by the math of this, because they're always room at the top end, if the best hitter had a .400 average, someone could come alone with a .405, some day. But at the bottom, there must be a guy who got no hits at all, ever, and then how could anyone ever be worse that that? So it's like a bell curve, but it's not symmetrical. If you're three standard deviations above the mean you're probably Ted Williams, but it may not be possible to be three standard deviations below the mean because you can't have negative hits.
For starters, most baseball statistics are more likely log-normal in distribution. A normal distribution doesn't really apply when the value can not be negative. Also, MLB players are selected from the far right part of the entire population.
For the specifics I meant (although didn't say) that the players needed to have played quite a few games (Bergen played ~950 over 11 seasons was worse than replacement level as a hitter but a very good fielder. Given that he was worse than replacement level as a hitter, almost all hitters that got more than a few at bats (and weren't pitchers) were better hitters than Bergen. Bergen had one season where he hit over 0.200
So I guess their own little holocaust last November didn’t teach the Democrats anything? When six million plus people who turned out to “save democracy” by voting for Biden in 2020 chose to sit home and not even vote because they were so disgusted with the results?
I didn't see one mention of AOC or Bernie Sanders in any of those articles. It's as if Mamdani was birthed sui generis as a "democratic socialist", whatever that is hur hur. I seem to recall just a couple of months ago even the NY Times was reporting how the Sanders/AOC Fighting Oligarchy tour was drawing "monster crowds" in the Heartland™ among people who might be more inclined to think oligarchy is a foot problem. It's like we're watching memory holes being vacuum molded right before our eyes.
'watching memory holes being vacuum molded right before our eyes' reminds me of the cool old shows on the b&w tv that were nothing but films of industrial processes. "Howdja make that thing, mister?" "Why, in a vacuum mold, Susie! C'mon – I'll show you how it works!"
I loved that stuff! There is/was a more recent Canadian show called "How It's Made" that did nothing but that for years. And the best segments on Mr. Rogers were always when he would go to places like the Crayola factory.
Well, if we're sharing childhood memories, this is my chance to mention that sweet injection-molded plastic bust of Abraham Lincoln I scored at the Museum of Science and Industry.
(Last time we were in town we went to the U-505 exhibit. It's important to note that neither Spouse nor I can stand cramped or confined spaces. It was her first time and she *loved* it.)
Remarkable how the Right tried to negate that turnout by whining that "nobody can tell us what 'No Kings' means", as if if we just didn't look at the imperial powers Schitzenführer is claiming nothing would be wrong.
'more about “children who do not know what a pronoun is.”'
Yeah. It's very obvious that a lot of the snowflakes squalling about people getting to choose how to self-identify ALSO have no idea what a pronoun is, with much less excuse than children, so what the fuck, eh?
Which Post does Rahm write for? Washington? New York? Saturday Evening? He’s only relevant to the sort of people who read George Fucking Will and has replaced Bill Kristol as “the man who is always wrong.” There probably isn’t a person in Chicago who wouldn’t step right over him if he collapsed on the sidewalk.
There isn't a person in Chicago who wouldn't kick him repeatedly about the head and neck while he was down there. Hell I'd fly home and take a number to do so.
His nominal constituency is the cop-dominated neighborhood of Mount Greenwood. It's as far away from downtown as you can live and still be within the city limits (which was the rule for city employees back then).
I'll say it again: any Democrat running for office who is not daily raising hell will not get one red cent from me. It ain't much, but it's not nothing.
George Will is still alive? Who knew? Back when last I heard of him, which is probably 20 or 30 years ago, at least, he already looked like the corpse of George Will. He must look like something out of The Evil Dead by now.
...according to Axios [Padilla] actually "tried to up the ante” by “getting tackled by law enforcement.”
OK, if you're some kind of soulless PoliticsBot who can't even imagine what it feels like to act out of a sincere commitment to principle, then I could see how this Padilla business must be confusing to you. "This Padilla character - what's his angle, huh? What's in it for HIM?"
It’s like these stand-pat Dems are revelling in the fact they don’t have a majority. The perfect excuse to just be a spectator as the country gets swallowed by violent fascism. Wearing their passivity like a badge of honor.
Over on Bluesky they seem to have a large fan base, telling commenters to stop getting mad at them. It’s all the Republicans’ fault and anyway what can they do?
The reason you fight even after you lost the last election is because that is how you win the next election.
The shit is getting real. After Vance's speech to Claremont and CBP declaring that essentially LA is under occuption the whole "let's not overreact and call them fascists" tack isn't a political position, its evidence of cognitive blindness, neurosis or maybe even tacit but intentional collaboration. The Dem-consultant triangulation strategy means choosing a position somewhat to the left of "blood and soil," and logically it's just flatly immoral and impractical. "We only want to put *recent* immigrants into detention, not the ones who came through Ellis" may seemingly play well in Steve King's old district, but nobody will be understanding on the other side of this.
$170 billion increase in ICE funding in Tubby's bignbrutalbill, I didn't hear any Democrats talking about that. I guess they should be lauded for their "focus" and "message discipline."
I can't even...
Of course, what I can't involves nothing new anyway...
I got yer strongly worded letter right here, bitchez!
[through a bullhorn, hiding behind a SWAT team armored personnel carrier] PUT DOWN THE READING GLASSES AND STEP AWAY FROM THE COMPUTER NOW
“they see a growing anger among their base that has, in some cases, morphed into a disregard for American institutions, political traditions and even the rule of law.”
Heavens to Betsy, no! Not a disregard for American institutions like the Vichy SCOTUS! Not a disregard for political traditions like bipartisanship when your opponents wrestle you to the ground and put you in handcuffs! Where, oh where, is the civility that all Democrats should hug to their breasts on their way to the gulag?
Well, our Thursday Evening Sign-Wave and ChatFest along the boulevard is pretty civil, tho one must be prepared to put up with the honkies (what's that? oh, you know – them drivers what honks as they go by...I mean, here we are, just tryin' to have a civil conversation til the club opens and we can sidle in for a cool one, and they're just poundin' their horns...incivility, thy name is Civic).
Sadly, I am a-west of there these few weeks, suffering mightily in Waymoville, the cool, grey, digitized city of fog, amid the coyote cubs, the incredible burritos, and Saint John Coltrane Invitational Sonic Ascension Day Jazz Vespers at Grace Cathedral up the block.
That doesn't sound too bad.
It isn’t bad, and I say that as an East Baynian who looks at the City So Shitty across from a large and cold bay.
Have you ridden Karl across the bay yet? I think the coolest cool thing is a boat named after fog.
Actually no, but the Richmond Ferry is a delight
"disregard for... even the rule of law."
Well, considering that "rule of law" now means "The President and his goons get to do whatever the fuck they want but if you so much as give the side eye to an ICE agent, you'll get the shit kicked out of you and be thrown in prison for assaulting an officer" I can see how some of us might have lost our regard for it.
Ubi sunt the Quislings of yesteryear?
Quislings gonna quis
I thought they linged like nobody's business
Quisled out, eventually.
That line is the first goddamn thing I picked up on, and it croggles my mind to think how it describes the ACTUAL GOP but is directed at a mythical Democratic Party. I mean, make your case about fighting lawlessness with lawlessness, but don't pretend it's the Dems who started it.
What’s that law that says “Democrats are always responsible”?
“the base” demands they “fight harder,” which may seem provocative if you have age-related osteoporosis.
I feel seen. That's okay - I can still talk some pretty salty shit from the sidelines.
Any news source that is exclusively on-line and has a made up word for a name is Bullshit. (I include Vox - which is probably a word (at least it's latin) but it has Ezra Klein cooties all over it and therefore, I said THEREFORE, qualifies as bullshit due to prior association.
It's funny cuz in my experience the angriest libs are geezerish (like me). But we don't have cushy DC sinecures.
They sure don’t understand that dying as a martyr to Democracy would redeem a dissolute life like mine. Gotta go sometime and yes, I do remember General Patton’s advice not to die for your country…
I was gonna pull that quote too, tho for sheer chutzpah (or is it chats'paw?) the “tried to up the ante” by “getting tackled by law enforcement” bit flames abright.
I admit to a small sense of duty to take a hit for the crew, as at my osteo-degraded stage I'm better suited to it than them what's potentially got more to live for. And as I always say, lotsa things could be worse than 3 squares anna cot (note to [private] jailors: don't bother trying to make me work in your gulag – my resistance might be futile, but I'm pretty good at mucking up things that need upmucked).
Malicious compliance? Bitch I did manual labor -- I wrote the book!
I'd buy THAT!
Blaming Padilla takes Murc’s Law to new heights. “This bad thing happened to a Democrat by a Republican because the Democrat [fill in the blank] to cause it.”
Bitch was just ASKIN' fer it!
An *actual* application of “Murc’s Law,” as opposed to the usual cynical “stop asking your Democratic representatives to do something.”
Missing the obligatory Green Lantern reference. The traditions of the internet MUST BE HONORED.
Some people (so far not elected officials AFAIK) have actually gotten themselves dragged off to concentration camps.
I was not surprised to hear from FAUX that an attempt by Dem lawmakers to legally visit a ICEstapo detention center was called "trying to break in".
"have actually gotten themselves dragged off to concentration camps."
Jeez, some people will do anything for a little attention.
"Any news source that is exclusively on-line and has a made up word for a name is Bullshit."
It's why I always refer to "Semafor" as mis-translated from the original Russian.
Both Rahm Emanuel and George Will are men who rode other politicians' coattails to prominence so this tracks.
That "Bullshit" reminds me of the poster we found yesterday in the bodega a block from Grace Cathedral. It proclaims the store was where Bullitt (there's the memory flash) would buy all his frozen dinners in between chasin' baddies around the city. The poster announces a raffle to coincide with the original premier of the flick. The prize? A week's worth of frozen dinners!
I, for one, only ever dug the coffee grounds out of the trash that one time.
While wearing pajamas? Seriously, did McQueen wear those on a dare? "OK, Mr. Coolest Man Alive, bet you can't pull this one off."
Now I need to revisit that film tonight. Thanks, Obama!
People rave about the car chase, but check out Jack Lemmon outrunning corrupt power-company cops in The China Syndrome. BMW 2002 > Mustang fastback any day.
My experience with Vox, especially their "expainers", is they seem very clear and well written, until they hit a subject I have more than a passing familiarity with, when they become the work of a bright intern scraping the web for plausible factoids that may or may not have some connection to reality.
For some students, having ChatGPT do all your homework is actually preparation for a future career.
Absolutely, if your career is generating content.
Some people deserve to be replaced by machines.
If George Will is on board with an Emanuel candidacy, I guess we can declare it settled. Next on the agenda, do we order in or go someplace for lunch. Show of hands?
Indeed. Shall we change the subject to baseball now?
(Reminder that he lauds Tony LaRussa, who somehow wasn't a genius back when he was managing mediocre White Sox teams.)
Hard to believe the Giants have a winning record after yesterday's meltdown...
Well, if George is going to lunch he must be properly attired first, so I think we need to make a selection: https://thebowtie.com/en-us/collections/luxury-self-tie-bow-ties
I read an MSN piece about the worst hitters in baseball history which did not include Bill Bergen and yet Bergen was easily the worst hitter in MLB history. Probably this was recency bias, but still even Grok might get this correct
I'm intrigued by the math of this, because they're always room at the top end, if the best hitter had a .400 average, someone could come alone with a .405, some day. But at the bottom, there must be a guy who got no hits at all, ever, and then how could anyone ever be worse that that? So it's like a bell curve, but it's not symmetrical. If you're three standard deviations above the mean you're probably Ted Williams, but it may not be possible to be three standard deviations below the mean because you can't have negative hits.
For starters, most baseball statistics are more likely log-normal in distribution. A normal distribution doesn't really apply when the value can not be negative. Also, MLB players are selected from the far right part of the entire population.
For the specifics I meant (although didn't say) that the players needed to have played quite a few games (Bergen played ~950 over 11 seasons was worse than replacement level as a hitter but a very good fielder. Given that he was worse than replacement level as a hitter, almost all hitters that got more than a few at bats (and weren't pitchers) were better hitters than Bergen. Bergen had one season where he hit over 0.200
Sadly, today's voters don't have the good sense to listen to their betters.
So I guess their own little holocaust last November didn’t teach the Democrats anything? When six million plus people who turned out to “save democracy” by voting for Biden in 2020 chose to sit home and not even vote because they were so disgusted with the results?
"Well, if shouting IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT doesn't move those people to the polls in '28, then we got nothin'."
I didn't see one mention of AOC or Bernie Sanders in any of those articles. It's as if Mamdani was birthed sui generis as a "democratic socialist", whatever that is hur hur. I seem to recall just a couple of months ago even the NY Times was reporting how the Sanders/AOC Fighting Oligarchy tour was drawing "monster crowds" in the Heartland™ among people who might be more inclined to think oligarchy is a foot problem. It's like we're watching memory holes being vacuum molded right before our eyes.
ETA Not to mention that little No Kings thing.
'watching memory holes being vacuum molded right before our eyes' reminds me of the cool old shows on the b&w tv that were nothing but films of industrial processes. "Howdja make that thing, mister?" "Why, in a vacuum mold, Susie! C'mon – I'll show you how it works!"
I loved that stuff! There is/was a more recent Canadian show called "How It's Made" that did nothing but that for years. And the best segments on Mr. Rogers were always when he would go to places like the Crayola factory.
Hard to imagine a place that's "like the Crayola factory" but isn't the Crayola factory...
Ooh, look at Mr. Fancy-Pants, whose parents could afford to buy him the name-brand crayons.
Well, there's Mondo Llama, Wonder Stix, Brilliant Bee and Prang among others
A Font – Nay, A TORRENT – of previously unimagined coloring devices!
(I have every single episode of "How It's Made." Because I am That Guy.)
"Who else reads books about submarines?"
"Uh... my dad?"
The saxophone one is great. Pointed to that by my partner, as I'd never even heard of the show.
In Eaton, PA!
You've just accounted for about 90% of my YouTube these days.
I remember doing both vacuum and injection molding in Shop class in junior high.
Well, if we're sharing childhood memories, this is my chance to mention that sweet injection-molded plastic bust of Abraham Lincoln I scored at the Museum of Science and Industry.
(Last time we were in town we went to the U-505 exhibit. It's important to note that neither Spouse nor I can stand cramped or confined spaces. It was her first time and she *loved* it.)
Glad it's still there and hasn't been replaced with a computer model and VR headsets.
Reminder to me that I need to tour the Pampanito down t'the wharf before we leave.
Remarkable how the Right tried to negate that turnout by whining that "nobody can tell us what 'No Kings' means", as if if we just didn't look at the imperial powers Schitzenführer is claiming nothing would be wrong.
'more about “children who do not know what a pronoun is.”'
Yeah. It's very obvious that a lot of the snowflakes squalling about people getting to choose how to self-identify ALSO have no idea what a pronoun is, with much less excuse than children, so what the fuck, eh?
My favorite is "THERE ARE NO PRONOUNS IN THE BIBLE".
"I am that I am", motherfuckers.
"Tell me you don't know what a pronoun is without telling me you don't know what a pronoun is."
Praise whom?
Praise "Bob"!
Which Post does Rahm write for? Washington? New York? Saturday Evening? He’s only relevant to the sort of people who read George Fucking Will and has replaced Bill Kristol as “the man who is always wrong.” There probably isn’t a person in Chicago who wouldn’t step right over him if he collapsed on the sidewalk.
Oh, just you wait til he's out on the Mike-Bloomberg-funded campaign trail! Feel the Rahmentum!
It's no longer enough to just send the bombs, now we need a President who actually volunteered with the IDF!
There isn't a person in Chicago who wouldn't kick him repeatedly about the head and neck while he was down there. Hell I'd fly home and take a number to do so.
His nominal constituency is the cop-dominated neighborhood of Mount Greenwood. It's as far away from downtown as you can live and still be within the city limits (which was the rule for city employees back then).
I'll say it again: any Democrat running for office who is not daily raising hell will not get one red cent from me. It ain't much, but it's not nothing.
George Will is still alive? Who knew? Back when last I heard of him, which is probably 20 or 30 years ago, at least, he already looked like the corpse of George Will. He must look like something out of The Evil Dead by now.
*now imagining a George Will with a baseball bat in place of his right hand*
...according to Axios [Padilla] actually "tried to up the ante” by “getting tackled by law enforcement.”
OK, if you're some kind of soulless PoliticsBot who can't even imagine what it feels like to act out of a sincere commitment to principle, then I could see how this Padilla business must be confusing to you. "This Padilla character - what's his angle, huh? What's in it for HIM?"
"This Rosa Parks lady, I don't get it - how she gonna monetize that shit, huh?"
"You'll never want to give up your seat in the new La-Z-Boy Deluxe!"
You told HIM! Oh. Wait. You told YOU.
2 marks either way...
I crack me up.
It’s like these stand-pat Dems are revelling in the fact they don’t have a majority. The perfect excuse to just be a spectator as the country gets swallowed by violent fascism. Wearing their passivity like a badge of honor.
Over on Bluesky they seem to have a large fan base, telling commenters to stop getting mad at them. It’s all the Republicans’ fault and anyway what can they do?
The reason you fight even after you lost the last election is because that is how you win the next election.
Natasha Cloud, as much as anything else that has happened in the last ten years, gives me hope.
"Emanuel says, more in anger than in sorrow...."
L'ancien switcheroo !!! Dammit George, ya still got the magic!!
The shit is getting real. After Vance's speech to Claremont and CBP declaring that essentially LA is under occuption the whole "let's not overreact and call them fascists" tack isn't a political position, its evidence of cognitive blindness, neurosis or maybe even tacit but intentional collaboration. The Dem-consultant triangulation strategy means choosing a position somewhat to the left of "blood and soil," and logically it's just flatly immoral and impractical. "We only want to put *recent* immigrants into detention, not the ones who came through Ellis" may seemingly play well in Steve King's old district, but nobody will be understanding on the other side of this.
$170 billion increase in ICE funding in Tubby's bignbrutalbill, I didn't hear any Democrats talking about that. I guess they should be lauded for their "focus" and "message discipline."