Friday, April 30, 2021

Friday Night

Rock on.
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Friday Evening

What did I miss?
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Afteroon Thread

Busy with some stuff this afternoon. I'd tell you to go read some other fine blogs instead, but there are no more blogs! This is the last one!!!
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Of Course

The writers aren't going to cast any new characters.
On Wednesday, former New York City mayor and Donald Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani’s apartment and office were raided by the feds. On Thursday, he picked up the phone and called Alan Dershowitz.
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The Tyranny Of Bill Barr

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Here Is A List Of All My Crimes

They weren't too bright and things got outta hand.
A confession letter written by Joel Greenberg in the final months of the Trump presidency claims that he and close associate Rep. Matt Gaetz paid for sex with multiple women—as well as a girl who was 17 at the time.

“On more than one occasion, this individual was involved in sexual activities with several of the other girls, the congressman from Florida’s 1st Congressional District and myself,” Greenberg wrote in reference to the 17-year-old.

Read the whole thing, as the kids say.

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Morning Thread

Big day for crimeing.
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Thursday, April 29, 2021

Thursday Night

Rock on.
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Vaccine Machine Slowing Down

I've said worries about people not getting vaccinated by choice were premature, but they aren't so premature anymore.
(source)

7 day average peaked at 3,243,252 and is now down to 2,501,972. Data isn't necessarily complete for the dark blue bars at the end.

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Happy Hour Thread

Thirsty Thursday.
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The Gig Is Up

Hopefully not a "pleasing nobody" compromise.
Labor Secretary Marty Walsh, a son of Irish immigrants and a former union member, has been expected to boost President Biden’s efforts to expand workers’ protections and deliver a win for the country’s organized labor movement.
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How About A Maximum Voting Age?

I'm not serious, but especially with the boomer bulge squeezing through the age pyramid, the distorting effects of people not letting go of power at all levels is a bit troublesome. This isn't "boomer bashing," it's that the people who hold disproportionate power are not going to be living with the consequences of their decisions nearly as along as The Kids Today. Maybe it's time to let go a bit.

Again, I'm not serious about the voting age, just maybe it's time to promote the 50-year-olds out of the mail room.

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Rudes Just Wanted MORE MONEY

I dunno if I really buy that explanation for all of this. It seems like he was uniquely positioned to sell his Brand - even 15 years after the greatest day of his life, Nine Eleven - for riches in a way that didn't require him to try to become Bond Villain.

Bernie Kerik didn't even dent his reputation. If you see how reporters treat Kerik, Bernie Kerik didn't even dent Bernie Kerik's reputation.

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Kevin McCarthy, Welcome To Meet The Press

(this was on Hannity)

I don't think journalists should shun someone in his position, but when someone has a track record of being a constant, persistent liar, you can't treat them in the Beltway chummy "we're all just pals here" way that Chuck Todd and many others do.

It isn't the lies, it's that they're liars.

I endured endless hours of media figures screeching, 'HE LIIIIIIEEEEEED TO THE AMERIIIICAAAAN PEOPLE,' during Clinton impeachment.

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Thursday Is New Jobless Day

553K new lucky duckies.

Still really high!

I point out that it's really high because it is! And because the powers that be tend to just decide bad job numbers are just The Way Things Are Now and start blaming the victims.

It's still a shitty jobs market, no matter how many tipped-wage restaurant owners run to the press complaining that no one will work for 2 bucks an hour in hospitality during a pandemic.

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Morning Thread

Full Communism has arrived!
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Wednesday, April 28, 2021

Wednesday Late Night

Rock on.
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Biden Speech Thread

Better talk about sending human-animal hybrids to Mars, bitches!
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Biden Speech Pregame

Have your own cable news panel segment in the comments.
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Wednesday Evening

Can't wait for Joe the Biden to announce he's outlawing Republicans!!!
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The Kids Don't Remember Vicky and Joe

Though about this when they popped up in the last chapter of the insane story we were living through. Joe diGenova and Vicky Toensing were just such fixtures during Monica Madness and impeachment, "sleeping in the cable news green rooms" types. Just vicious and nasty and dishonest, and of course very respectable members of elite Washington society.

And that was... a long time ago!

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Oh, Rudy, Where Did You Go Wrong

I've asked this before, but it is really hard to imagine just how Rudy went down the bad path. Not that I think there was a "good" Rudy, but he didn't need to turn to this life. Speeches, "consulting" jobs, corporate boards, cable news gigs, ... Just seemed like a life of barely show jobs with huge paychecks was his for the taking. Why was it not enough?
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Afternoon Thread

enjoy.

....lol Vicky

F.B.I. agents on Wednesday morning also executed a search warrant at the Washington-area home of Victoria Toensing, a lawyer close to Mr. Giuliani who had dealings with several Ukrainians involved in the effort to find damaging information about the Bidens, according to people with knowledge of that search. Ms. Toensing has represented Dmitry Firtash, a Ukrainian oligarch under indictment in the United States whose help Mr. Giuliani sought.
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America's Felon (Possibly)

Oh Rudy.
Federal investigators in Manhattan executed a search warrant on Wednesday at the Upper East Side apartment of Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former New York City mayor who became President Donald J. Trump’s personal lawyer, stepping up a criminal investigation into Mr. Giuliani’s dealings in Ukraine, three people with knowledge of the matter said.
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But They Have A Point

Years ago I was rolling my eyes at some gross PETA billboard, commenting on how much of a turnoff it was and how it certainly wasn't doing anything to help their cause.

The friend I was with explained that, no, actually PETA is very effective. Even if "everybody" hates PETA, many people think, "I hate PETA, but they have a point...".

They draw attention to practices many people do find abhorrent, even if the way they do it often makes people mad. You can hate PETA AND factory farms! Very wise middle of the road position.

Not interested in debating the effectiveness of PETA's tactics specifically. Just a general point about "radical" activism.

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8 Can't Wait

Would anyone argue the vast majority of cops wouldn't defend this, and not just in a public solidarity for your tribe sense, which is a problem in many powerful professions, but really just because they think it's fine.
ELIZABETH CITY, N.C. (AP) — The FBI launched a civil rights probe Tuesday into the death of Andrew Brown Jr., a Black man killed by deputies in North Carolina, as his family released an independent autopsy showing he was shot five times, including in the back of the head.
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The Bullshit Factory

One problem is many Big Time reporters are very defensive about the New York Post, as it's a place they did their first journalism. The Post's local journalism stuff can be "real" and fairly straightforward, at a time when there aren't a lot of local journalism jobs, and they don't feel like they have any responsible for the bullshit and racism that surrounds it.

They aren't too dumb to know the "real journalism" is just there to launder the bullshit, but they don't care.

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Morning Thread

Woe is Wednesday.
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Tuesday, April 27, 2021

Tuesday Night

Rock on.
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Smog

I think people just a little bit younger than me don't realize just how much we fucked things up environmentally, in very visible ways (smog, acid rain, toxic rivers, ...), and then... actually managed improved things. Air quality isn't perfect everywhere all the time now, of course, but oppressive smog was standard "everywhere," and not just in the places of legend like Los Angeles.

No real point, except The Kids Today don't remember the smog!!!

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Happy Hour Thread

Mourn the passing of another Tuesday.
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Your Moment of Zen

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Excellent Ideas, Mr. President!!!

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Rich White Asshole Unleashed

When you start to think the few rules that once applied to you no longer do, you get to say anything!
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That's Just How Things Are Done

It only takes a few years for "wow that's wrong" to morph into "everybody does it" to "that's just how it's done" to "that's how it should be" to "it has always been this way."

Trump innovated in the "just put the bags of cash on the Oval Office desk" brand of corruption, but we still have a problem with DC being filled with practices that people don't even feel the need to defend, and consider it to be bizarre to even question.

This isn't about anything specific at the moment, just a general dispiritedness at the level of obvious corrupt practices that people seem to be unable to conceive of as flawed because, well, everybody does it.

Some of the scandals that derailed presidential appointees in the not so distant past, for example, seem hilariously quaint. And probably some of them were even a bit silly! But swinging too far the other way...

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Census

I don't have much confidence that the Census is "real" (choose how much you want to blame Covid or Trump), so while I'd normally find the underlying data interesting, it just is what it is. Numbers we pretend are true because that's what we have.
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Morning Thread

Nothing bad ever happens on Tuesday!
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Monday, April 26, 2021

Monday Night

Rock on.
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The Tech Promises Of The Teens

What happened? Mostly they were dumb, like "Uber, but for juice" or whatever, but there was the regular succession of hyped up products that possibly could've done something sort of useful, maybe, at least. Now it's like "twitter, but it's audio." Or "twitter, but with more Nazis."

And self-driving cars! Any day now.

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Happy Hour Thread

As long as you are happy.
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Investigate The Police

It's something.
Attorney General Merrick Garland announced Monday that the Justice Department will open a civil investigation into the Louisville Metro Police Department, 13 months after the shooting death of Breonna Taylor, a Black woman whose killing was among the flash points that sparked mass social justice protests across the nation last summer.
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Vaccinate The World

Glad they read this very fine blog (joke).
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. will begin sharing its entire pipeline of vaccines from AstraZeneca once the vaccine clear federal safety reviews, the White House said, with as many as 60 million doses expected to be available for export in the coming months.
Faster, Mr. Biden, sir.
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America's Worst CNN Employee

Rick Santorum.
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Wonking Ourselves To Death

Pelosi's maligned and misrepresented comment about Obamacare, "We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it," is perhaps applicable now, though it seemed a bit absurd at the end of a year long process in which it seemed that every single detail was hashed out in public.

Public debates about proposed policy are good if they are informative, but in truth, even our respectable news outlets aren't very good at discussing policy, and everything becomes a debate between paid liars and people forced to treat paid liars as good faith actors (back when I went to DC a bit more, I participated in a few public panels on various things, and "must have a paid liar on the panel because this is how things are done" is a bizarre part of the culture).

Most people won't ever really know what's in a big bill, they'll know if the Biden Bucks show up in their bank accounts, or if their kids get health insurance, or if the potholes are still there. Policy debates, as they happen in The Discourse, do not actually educate voters, and throwing it out there for a discussion for a year is just going to end up misleading and confusing them.

I'm not making the case against transparency, for writing secret bills, just making the case that given the way people are "informed," the longer things take the more likely they are to be misinformed.

Pass it, let people see the consequences, see the voters at the next election.

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Who's "We"

Sometimes it matters only a bit, sometimes a lot, but if I were an editor at one of our finer publications (no I should not be an editor at one of our finer publications), I would do my best to expunge all uses of "we" and "our" in pieces, which generally cast the "we" as white, elite educated, high income residents of one of a few metropolitan areas in the US.

You know other people can read your publication, and maybe some even subscribe to it, right?

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Morning Thread

The most exciting morning thread of the week!
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Sunday, April 25, 2021

Sunday night

Rock on.
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Oscar Thread

I was not nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in Oscar-Related Programming Activities.

Roy gives his predictions.

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Sunday Happy Hour

The last happy hour before Monday.
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Socialism or Barbarism

Fa or Anti-Fa.
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Bad Tweets

Lots of clickbait bad tweets and journalists often get pissy and say, "READ THE ARTICLE," as if the tweet somehow doesn't exist or count. Interesting. Computer, show me the article.
Ah, well, nevertheless, the points still stands.

...the bad tweet was deleted after I first scheduled this post, but it was up a long time!

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Elite Impunity

We shouldn't lose sight of the fact that while lots of the 1/6 insurrectionists are currently involved with our legal system, it was quite clearly an "inside job" to some degree at various leadership levels and those people... welp...
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Morning Thread

Day of rest.
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Saturday, April 24, 2021

Saturday Night

Rock on.
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Saturday Happy Hour

Only comes once per week!
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Humanitarian Interventions

Don't think it's unfair to say that if you claim to support bombing the shit out of random countries for humanitarian purposes, you should at least pretend to think that imprisoning the despots, I mean pharma executives, for holding a life saving vaccine hostage, isn't too unreasonable.

Hunt them down in their spider holes!

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America's Worst Former President

George W. Bush.
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Vaccinate The World

Invalidate the patents, nationalize the companies (even buying them at fair value), force mandatory licensing, whatever. I don't particularly care how, but "welp, the plague is going to kill millions more and also make international travel impossible forever because of the sanctity of intellectual property laws as currently accepted in 2021 " is not really a defensible approach.

But it will be defended.

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Eye-Popping

I briefly worked at a newspaper in high school, doing box scores and writing up tiny briefs about high school baseball games. "Don't use adjectives like 'eye-popping,' instead use more objective descriptions, like 'game winning,'" was the kind of 5 minute instruction I got for this. Not that I think journalism has to be that way, but it is the kind of editorializing that certain outlets disdain. Also, too, we had this "eye-popping" tax rate way back in 2017.
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Morning Thread

Another morning, another thread.
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Friday, April 23, 2021

Friday Night

Rock on.
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Sounds Like A Bad Idea

We do respect the right to protest in countries where we have decided their leader is bad for reasons M&M Enterprises can explain.
The members expected directives to ready ground troops to help state and local authorities respond to disturbances triggered by resistance to stay-at-home rules or panic over empty store shelves.

But then came an unusual order: The air branch of the Guard was told to place an F-15C fighter jet on an alert status for a possible domestic mission, according to four Guard sources with direct knowledge of the matter.

Those sources said the order didn’t spell out the mission but, given the aircraft’s limitations, they understood it to mean the plane could be deployed to terrify and disperse protesters by flying low over them at window-rattling speeds, with its afterburners streaming columns of flames. Fighter jets have been used occasionally in that manner in combat zones in Iraq and Afghanistan, they said.

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Happy Hour Thread

Get happy.
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My Guiding Philosophy

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Out

Not sure how many of Erik Prince's Knights of the Round Table or similar will be there, but we'll see...
(CNN)The US military withdrawal from Afghanistan is now underway with equipment being packed and shipped out, three defense officials tell CNN.

The Pentagon has also approved the deployment of hundreds of maritime, air and land forces to the region to ensure security for American and NATO forces as well as contractors as they withdraw, the officials said.

Off on a tangent, but when Blackwater first started sucking up absurd amounts of government money to run the world for us with iron fists, in 2003, Erik Prince was... 34 years old.

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The Real King Under The Mountain

There is no answer that will satisfy me, but I return again and again to the question of just what motivates someone with $2 billion to aspire to have $3 billion, especially once the thread of life is getting a bit short. And not just enjoying watching the numbers add up every morning, some perverse joy in running up the score for its own sake, but actually spending time and mental energy on this task instead of absolutely anything else those riches should allow. 

Only one thing to be done. If this fundraiser nets me ONE BILLION DOLLARS then I will consider this question anew and report back.

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Thanks to all! Final Spring fundraising day!

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Happy Bleach Day

I try not to dwell in the past too much, but a good reminder of how the last guy was covered, generally, and of course when it mattered.
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Vaccine Machine Slows Down

Not a lot but the daily dose average has been declining.

I do think that in The Discourse there has been much more concern with the problem of vaccine hesitation rather than the easier problem of people who are Not Very Online With Flexible Schedules.

Send them around in ice cream trucks. Whatever. Focus on getting them to everyone who wants them more than trying to convince MAGA chuds.

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Morning Thread

Weird how there's one every day.
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Thursday, April 22, 2021

Thursday Night

Rock on.
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Yang

Some political phenomena I understand. Some I don't.
To some Stonewall attendees, Mr. Yang’s appearance only fueled concerns about whether he can discuss the problems at hand with sufficient depth and seriousness. More broadly, the reaction speaks to how polarizing Mr. Yang’s personality can be — eliciting sincere enthusiasm and disdain in seemingly equal measure.

“When I see a candidate come in just with Michael Scott levels of cringe and insensitivity, it either tells me Andrew Yang is in over his head or is not listening to his staff,” said Alejandra Caraballo, a member of the organization, referring to the character played by Steve Carell on “The Office.” “Those are both radioactive flashing signs that say he is not prepared to be mayor of New York.”

Ms. Christ said members were offended that Mr. Yang chose to focus on bars, parades and his gay staff members.

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Afternoon Thread

still busy
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America's Worst Humans

Tucker Carlson.
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Lunch Thread

Busy with annoying life stuff.
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Spring Fundraiser Day The 6th!

Your kids don't need that college money anyway!!!

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Thanks to all!

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Thursday Is New Jobless Day

547K new lucky duckies.

Moving in the right direction, of course, but still really really high!

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Morning Thread

Get your morning on.
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Wednesday, April 21, 2021

Wednesday Night

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Sounds Bad

We "know" this was in part an inside job, just don't have all the dots and connections.
A Capitol Police officer radioed units outside of the building on the morning of Jan. 6 and told them only to scout for anti-Trump troublemakers — not pro-Trump protesters, according to the findings of an internal investigation revealed at a public hearing by Rep. Zoe Lofgren.
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Afternoon Thread

Too early for happy hour. Don't even think about it.
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All In

The Chauvin case provided an opportunity for conservatives to prove just how Not Racist they were, sacrifice the one bad actor in the entire police force nationally, and then go back to talking about how racism is fake and black 9-year-olds are so frightening and powerful that cops have no choice but to shoot them.

Some couldn't even do that.

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The Mall Is Flat

I stopped paying attention to one of my pet obsessions - The American Dream Mall - as, like many things, it wasn't going to do so well because of Covid and I couldn't make fun of it failing for normal reasons. But the company behind it is unsurprisingly not doing so well and it's a bit of a weight on its shoulders!
Lenders are seizing minority stakes in Minnesota’s Mall of America and another massive shopping center that were used as collateral for debt on the long-troubled American Dream project in New Jersey.

Developer Triple Five Worldwide had pledged 49% of its equity stakes in Mall of America and the West Edmonton Mall in Canada as collateral for the $5 billion shopping and entertainment center located west of Manhattan in East Rutherford.

(thanks to reader f)
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Spring Fundraiser Day 5!

Thanks to all, though surveying my contemporaries, it is inevitable that my takes will only get worse with age!

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Occupy America

That cops were prepped for a full military occupation of many major cities yesterday, with the support of their team 'D' mayors, is a bit of a problem.
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Heavy Handed Federal Intervention

Good.
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The American Way Of Policing

They're calling it that, not me. "Defund" activists are milder in their critiques.
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Morning Thread

Sad day for cops. They were pretty excited about another chance to riot.
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Tuesday, April 20, 2021

Tuesday Night

Rock on.
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Tuesday Evening

Harm reduction, at least.
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Chauvin Verdict

Imminent... ...guilty on Murder 2, the most serious charge.

...guilty on Murder 3

...guilty on manslaughter

all 3

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Cat Scratch Fever

Thoughts and prayers.
Musician Ted Nugent has tested positive for coronavirus months after he said that the virus was “not a real pandemic”.
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Greatest American Hero

I'm too lazy to try to find it, and I don't remember who it was, but when Boehner's book was announced awhile back, some reporter tweeted something along the lines of, "Oh this will be great! Boehner used to gather us all around over drinks and tell great and hilarious stories!" And, well, yes, the way to get good political coverage is to bring out the tire swing, serve lots of drinks, and tell reporters high-larious off the record stories.
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Contrarianism

From 90s Slate onwards, it's always been "flattering people with elite status quo opinions, especially the racist ones they're embarrassed to share, by rebranding them as bold punk rock truth telling."

The entire punditocracy were convinced that they were extremely courageous rebels for supporting the plan of the government of the United States of America to go kill hundreds of thousands of innocent brown people. They stood up to the Quakers!

It's so damn boring. This blog is boring, sometimes, but I hope it usually isn't that.

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Spring Fundraiser Day 4!

I'm just a dumbass with a blog, but most punditry is like that. David Brooks is a dumbass with a column and TV gigs and, because he has to put his wife through college, some other side gigs.

There's always some tension between "I gotta have a take on something" and "but I really don't have any expertise in this area." One doesn't have to be an expert to have educated opinions, but I do try to refrain from coming across as some sort of authority when I'm just spouting off.

Extra white guy confidence makes it easier to be a blogger - instant "expert" takes on any subject - but it doesn't make it easier to be a good person.

Which is why, in a way, being a dumbass with a blog is better than being a dumbass with a New York Times column. The implied authority of that fucking newspaper suggests their columnists have some idea what they're talking about. Quite often they don't!

Thanks to all!!! 19 more years of bad takes!!!

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Whose First Amendment

I do get a bit frustrated with journalists treating brutal police actions against protesters one way, and treating similar actions against journalists as an unambiguous assault on democracy. I've even seen journalists complain that since "everyone" claims they're a journalist now (you know, people working for small independent outlets or just trying to cover things for the public generally and not just THE NEW YORK FUCKING TIMES), it makes it harder for them to get the special abuse free treatment from the police which allows them to objectively cover both sides of the "cops beating up people" news.

Not going to go deep into The Constitution, but it doesn't say "freedom of assembly for people who work for the Sulzbergers." 

I'm really not sure what the point of this was or who it was addressed to, but I think if there is a point to be made here, it's the other way around. The cops have been beating and gassing protesters for months. What makes you think they'd be thwarted by your press cards?

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Neutrality

I haven't been following the Chauvin trial closely, but very generally, jury selection is a bit like journalism, in that some things are considered to be unacceptable bias (and something you can be struck from a jury for) and some things are not, and much of the validity of those distinctions collapses with minimal scrutiny.
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Tuesday Morning

Whenever we have an Andrew Sullivan eruption, it's a reminder that a big chunk of elite media figures basically agree with him.
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Monday, April 19, 2021

Monday Night

Rock on.
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Monday Evening

I admit I failed to CANCEL so many people who deserve to be cancelled, but at least I've been telling you that Andrew Sullivan is a big dumb racist for years.
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Happy Hour Thread

This blog will remain caliper free, no matter how many millions I am offered to do racism.
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Bipartisanship

I don't think any of the reasons given for why bipartisanship is good have much validity. Maybe the best justification on its face was the Obama-with-ACA one. Basically, if you're going to do something really big you want some general buy-in so that it's less likely to be undone (Obama also just wanted to prove he was a Uniter).

Still that was dumb and wrong because, as as have seen, in our system it's as hard to undo big legislation as it is to do it. Hard doesn't mean impossible, but nor should it. Republicans never managed to undo ACA. The couple of whacks they took at it were probably good, actually, and the rest was on John Roberts.

Our electoral system should be a competition. Choosing between basic party platforms is better than asking voters to vote for the person based on personality, or whatever, at least for Congress. Pundits think voters are dumb for expecting politicians to implement those platforms, but those pundits show their contempt for reasonable democracy. In 2016, very savvy pundits loved to show how savvy they were by claiming that Clinton was full of shit about many of her campaign promises, and that her being full of shit was good! Whether she was full of shit or not, it was a pretty weird argument to be making! She's lying, and it's good! They would say this out loud where people could hear them!

No one can explain just what Joe the Biden or Democrats generally would win by getting Republicans on board for an infrastructure bill, or anything else. There's no need to see an unncessary Republican vote (if it's unnecessary) as something to be traded for.

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SPRING FUNDRAISING FUN!

Day 3. Thanks to all! Come for the Musk bashing, stay for the snacks.

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Lunch Thread

People I know are involved with bringing the Catalan Festival of Sant Jordi, a book/literary-centric tradition, to NYC (and the English speaking internet), so something to tune in to if you are interested! Starts now! It'll be there all week.
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ONE MILLION ROBOTAXIS

I suppose I get a bit tired of dunking on Elon because, well, I WAS PROVED FUCKING RIGHT about his self-driving cars. I'll take the win and apologies from all the people who used to be very very condescending about the issue (for some reason, tech-related issues, like pointless wars, bring out the worst condescension from idiots).

I did have a rental car for a bit during covid, for various reasons, which reminded me of a theory I had about why I was such a self-driving car skeptic: as an occasional driver, it's more apparent to me just how complex driving is. It was definitely the case that after I had the car for a few weeks, my deeply submerged instincts returned and driving became pretty automatic. Ah, this is what it's like for most of you. Quarter of your brain busy with driving, the rest of it contemplating the deep mysteries of life or remembering the lyrics to Stairway as it plays on the radio. Seems easy after a bit!

But it isn't easy, and while potential safety issues are what people focus on, the basic fantasy of "push a button and let my car take me somewhere" is not going to be reality any time soon even if the technology that exists is neato!

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Don't Tell Me What To Do, Mom

I like to blame the massive amount of lead ingested in various ways by people somewhat older than me (not me, of course), but that's only a partial explanation for the fact that some people just become absolutely enraged if anyone tries to tell them what to do or suggests that their behavior in a situation has been anything less than perfect.

The mask wearing and the people who like to get performatively mad about mask wearing are a good example of that. And, look, I think it's the case that outdoor mask wearing is almost entirely pointless (not indoor) as a direct barrier to transmission. I think people who get performatively mad about people not wearing masks outdoors (now, at least, not several months ago) are also a bit annoying. But there are still arguments for rules requiring them and certainly arguments for, at least at the moment, following the cultural norm of wearing a mask in public if that is true in your location.

Even as (soon, hopefully, not quite yet everywhere!) the imperative fades, requiring public mask wearing is a signal that this is serious and it reminds people of the necessity. Following the cultural norm signals that, at this serious moment, you are not a fucking asshole.

Of more concern has been the various panics about "crowded parks" leading to closures in a society that sees "people having fun outside" as a threat, generally.

"Don't be an asshole" applies across the board. Wear a fucking mask if it's what people do, it's a small ask, and also don't freak out if someone isn't, outside at least.

At various times, I've been where public mask wearing is a requirement and/or norm and where it hasn't been and, really, it's fine either way. Of all the Covid indignities, it's just not important. Get mad about something else.

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Monday Morning

Another day in the Great And Glorious Biden Era.
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Sunday, April 18, 2021

Sunday Night

Rock on.
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I Walked For Like An Hour Or Maybe Five

Been carless for a long time so it isn't as if walking is alien to me, but during the worst of Covid, well, what else was there to do? Lots and lots of walking.

Though when riding transit isn't an appealing option, the possible routes are a bit limited...

No point. Evening thread! Tomorrow is...

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Cunning Plan

A bit of a joke, I think, but consider if Democrats were clearly and obviously and explicitly crafting voting laws to prevent exurban white people from voting?
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Eight Can't Wait

When politicians start getting more mad at undeniable evidence of extreme, widespread, endemic corruption and lack of accountability for our police forces than they do at activists for highlighting it, sometimes inartfully, those activists will perhaps quiet down a bit and stop interrupting brunch.
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At Least They Only Killed Themselves

Full self-driving [into a tree].
HOUSTON – Two men are dead after a Tesla traveling in Spring crashed into a tree and no one was driving the vehicle, officials say.
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Spring Fundraiser Day 2!

Funny how we've moved from "weird to ask for money on the internet" to "Andrew Sullivan just made $12 billion on substack and gofundme is how we fund our medical system now."

I don't measure enough skulls to earn that much money - racism's popular it seems! - and fortunately I don't need any medical treatments, but thanks to all!

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It All Adds Up To A Funky Situation

Imagine the coverage of scenes like this coming from a country with a leader we had decided we didn't like that week.

We'd be invading by Friday. Not that it would help the situation, of course, for obvious reasons.

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Morning Thread

It's dumb as I was personally unscathed in any meaningful sense, but some lifting of the regular anxiety from the last 4 years is a reminder of just how anxiety-inducing it was.
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Saturday, April 17, 2021

Saturday Night

Rock on.
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Who Will Defund The Funders

I don't think most powerful people really see protest, especially any protest that mildly inconveniences anyone, as legitimate. One can always point to a bit of vandalism or mild violence, and the police are trained to take actions to make sure something happens, as a cover for this.

A great show of the spirit of democracy in other countries. Not so much here

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Saturday Happy Hour

How are you celebrating the blessed blogiversary?
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Vaccine Hesitancy

I don't have strong opinions about how to (or not) push people to get vaccines once it's clear that supply and distribution issues aren't the problem, but "not getting a vaccine to own the libs" is quite a cultural moment.
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Lunch Thread

enjoy
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Happy Blogiversary To Me!

19 years already? Feels like no time has passed at all! I'm certainly as beautiful as I always was!

Also, day one of SPRING FUNDRAISING FUNSTRAVGANZA. Your voluntary contributions and subscriptions keep this paywall free! Given current trends, in a few short months, this will be the last free site on the internet!

Paypal:


Patreon:
Become a Patron!

I will never pivot to email!

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Defund The Police

A year of yelling at activists for using the slogan "Defund the Police" because it cost the Democrats the House, the Senate, and the Presidency, and the alternative offered is...
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Morning Thread

Everybody is awful except for me.
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Friday, April 16, 2021

Friday Night

Rock on.
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That Was Quick

Though details forthcoming, of course. Yelling at them is good!!!
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Happy Hour Thread

In about a dozen years, college professors will have a class of freshmen who really don't remember the year(+) of Covid.
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Unconscionable

Big victory for the America First caucus.
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Snitches

No honor among asshole losers.
A founding member of the Oath Keepers arrested in the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol has agreed to plead guilty and cooperate against others in the case — the first defendant to potentially flip in the sprawling domestic terrorism investigation that has led to charges against more than 400 people.
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Shitty Year For Jerry Jr

Toxic institution, toxic people.
Liberty University has filed a lawsuit against its former president, Jerry Falwell Jr., previously one of the most influential figures in the U.S. evangelical Christian community, alleging that he misused university resources and tried to conceal a relationship involving a former pool boy.
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What Could Go Wrong

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Lunch Thread

Had a fever for a few hours then fine. 5G chip fully integrated into my systems!
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Shit It Is Fucked Up And Bullshit

Horrible police, horrible and frightened mayors.

Take away the money of the executioners. How's that for a snappy slogan?

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Are They Learning

Obama would have taken the $600b, received 0 Republican votes for the "compromise," and then be very sad that The Council of David Brookses still didn't give him credit for being bipartisan.
Talking policy with Benjy: Why a bipartisan deal on infrastructure looks unlikely A moderate group of Republicans is set to potentially offer an infrastructure plan of their own this week — with the hopes of enticing Democrats to the table. But if you want to see why the White House is so lukewarm on bipartisanship right now, take a look at how they want to pay for it.

Republicans oppose raising corporate taxes, Biden’s preferred pay-for. So Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., appearing on CNBC, suggested they might offer a smaller $600 to $800 billion plan funded by other means. One possibility Sen. Mitt Romney floated to reporters: user fees like a gas tax, which has traditionally paid for highway maintenance, but not been raised in decades to keep up with inflation. Another idea with some GOP interest in the House and Senate is supplementing or replacing that tax with a “vehicle miles traveled” charge that accounts for the ongoing transition toward electric vehicles.

The pod people would've high fived the Bartlet moment at Le Diplomate though.
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Morning Thread

They day for getting down.
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Thursday, April 15, 2021

Thursday Night

Rock on.
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Afternoon Thread

The 5G implant Bill Gates put in me made me sick! Sure I will be fine but talk amongst yourselves.
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America's Worst Humans

Laura Ingraham.
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Broken

Can't Biden hire a "tsar of making the fucking application websites work."
A critical $16.25 billion grant program to sustain thousands of small creative venues that haven’t been able to open since the pandemic began has yet to deliver a cent of relief four months after passage, due to delays and faulty technology at the Small Business Administration (SBA). A website constructed to take grant applications closed last week after only four hours online, because of constant crashes and an inability to intake documents. It has not been restored and there’s no timetable for its return.
Congress did its job, a rare achievement, get on it executive branch...
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Information Wants To Be Free

That everything is going behind paywalls is Bad, even if I'm not faulting any individual decision to do it.
In addition to targeting its current global readership, the newly revamped Reuters.com www.reuters.com is hoping to attract professional audiences prepared to pay $34.99 per month for a deeper level of coverage and data on industry verticals that include legal, sustainable business, healthcare and autos.

Reuters.com will remain free for a preview period, but will require users to register after five stories. It is not immediately clear when it will begin charging.

The ad supported internet was/is not without its problems, but the "everything behind the paywall" internet is not so good either!
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Bad Biden

Obama spent several years trying to diffuse the general immigration issue by "proving" he would be Tough and, somehow, get an immigration deal out of it. I don't know how this ever made sense, nor do I know how this does anything for anybody.
(CNN)President Joe Biden has resisted signing off on raising the Trump-era refugee cap because of political optics, sources have told CNN.

The President's hesitation comes as the administration faces heat from Republicans and Democrats for its handling of an influx of migrants at the US-Mexico border. But the situation at the US southern border is separate from the refugee program, which dates back decades and has a thorough vetting process in place for refugees overseas to resettle in the US.

Just do everything you want to do as fast as possible and then move on.
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What Can We Do

I suspect our brains are not capable of comprehending the scale of spaces/places that we are unfamiliar with. Afghanistan is about the size of California, both in area and population. How would another country go about being an occupying force in California, even without any very organized resistance? How do you maintain influence, let alone order, from San Diego to Chico and everything in between? What exactly do 5,000 troops do? 50,000?

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Thursday Is New Jobless Day

576,000 new lucky duckies.

THE STREAK IS OVER!!!

55 straight weeks in a row of above the Great Recession peak! No more!!!

Thank you Most Patriotic President Biden!!! [flag emoji][flag emoji][bicep emoji][rocket emoji] [rocket emoji] You saved the economy!!! You rule that other guy drooled!!!

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Morning Thread

Thursday is the Wednesday of Fridays.
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Wednesday, April 14, 2021

Wednesday Night

Rock on.
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Sure Why Not

I doubt the curfew has much of an impact, once the bars and restaurants are open, but this shows the impulse is to just say "fuck it" and keep opening up.

New York City's cases/100,000 people over the last 7 days is 265. That's basically the current level of The Netherlands, which has a pretty extreme level of lockdown at the moment.

The UK just got out of extreme lockdown, though there's still no indoor dining. Both the US and the UK are doing pretty well with vaccines (the UK went the "give a first shot to everyone!" route, so is ahead in that sense). The US new case rate is about 9 times higher than the UK.

The daily death rate is about 9 times higher, too. Vaccine machine is probably working its magic, but it hasn't yet been enough without lockdown.

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Happy Hour Thread

Immortality is good, if brief.
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A Shortage of Preening Democrats

Various people expressing something along these lines:
Something progressives admire about Biden is that he is a talented “reasonablizer” of their ideas. As Reich told me, “Biden is almost magical in his ability to make progressivism boring. He can say the same thing that Bernie Sanders has or AOC has and say it in a way that causes your eyes to glaze over.” From progressives who are used to even their more modest proposals being tarred as communism, this is a genuine compliment.
I don't think this is about how normal people perceive Biden, or even The Council of David Brookses, though somewhat the latter. What's supposed to happen is that when Biden does something even Bernie Sanders could love, "Max Baucus" and "Bob Kerrey" and "Evan Bayh" and, god help us, "Joe Lieberman" are supposed to run to the cameras and op-ed pages and preen. Sure there's Manchin, but even he isn't really doing that.

That's what reporters want, and if more Dems were giving it to them, it would be all the Council Of David Brookses would talk about, and eventually normal people might hear about it on NPR and be very upset.

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Every Time We Try To Get Out

From that fucking newspaper.
Ah, yes, when we were "pulled back" to Iraq. That's how it happened.
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Lunch Thread

Jab time! That sweet feeling of immortality going to be rushing through my veins!!!
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Fish

It isn't alwasy the case that the person with the fancier job title is the "bigger fish." Bob from accounting might be doing more serious crimes than the Senior VP of Marketing, even if the VP got a cut.

But a member of Congress, an elected official tasked with making laws and oversight and otherwise having tremendous power, is the bigger fish.

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Pizzagaetz

Sweat running down that giant head for a long time now.
A former local official in Florida indicted in the Justice Department investigation that is also focused on Representative Matt Gaetz has been providing investigators with information since last year about an array of topics, including Mr. Gaetz’s activities, according to two people briefed on the matter.

Joel Greenberg, a onetime county tax collector, disclosed to investigators that he and Mr. Gaetz had encounters with women who were given cash or gifts in exchange for sex, the people said. The Justice Department is investigating the involvement of the men with multiple women who were recruited online for sex and received cash payments and whether the men had sex with a 17-year-old in violation of sex trafficking statutes, people familiar with the inquiry have said.

Uh-oh.
Gaetz’s cellphone was seized when federal agents executed a search warrant, Politico reported Tuesday, citing interviews with three people who were told of the matter by the congressman, who changed his phone number late last year. His former girlfriend’s phone was also reportedly seized.
Really needed that pardon!
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Morning Thread

I don't think everything that is good is popular (or vice versa), but better to read a poll of the population than get feedback from the Council of David Brookses.
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Tuesday, April 13, 2021

Tuesday Night

Rock on.
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Tuesday Evening

Vaccine machine going into my arm tomorrow!!!
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pictures

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Happy Hour Thread

Tuesday is the best day of the week named "Tuesday."
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Your Moment Of Zen

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Florida Men

Shit's going down.
Before he resigned in disgrace last year, Seminole County Tax Collector Joel Greenberg doled out dubious contracts to a number of Republican politicians, political strategists and other allies, many with links to the scandals that have rocked Florida politics this month, according to audit documents, emails and other records reviewed by the Orlando Sentinel.

The records also provide further details of Greenberg’s friendships with two of the powerful figures buffeted by the controversies: U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz and lobbyist Chris Dorworth. Greenberg, the records show, took a taxpayer-funded trip to Miami to meet with Gaetz and received an invitation from Dorworth to a VIP experience at an event with former President Donald Trump in which Dorworth promised, “They will feed us all booze and give us a ride as well as an escort to our luxury boxes.”

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Even Better

Set conditions and the blob leaks to the war loving journalists that they haven't been met.
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Period

Has it been 20 years already?
President Biden will withdraw all American troops from Afghanistan over the coming months, people familiar with the plans said, completing the military exit by the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that first drew the United States into its longest war.
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Blocking The Johnson

I have no expert thoughts about the withdrawal of the J & J vaccine (or the various similar concerns about the Oxford/AZ vaccine).

The US seems to generally (if not evenly in every location) have plenty of supply. Hopefully not a problem!

As for other places...

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Criminal Enterprise

I frequently said, during the era of the last guy, that it wasn't the lies themselves but the lying. The complete disregard for truth as any kind of guidepost from which the lies were a deviation. Most "fact checking" was pointless as it failed to confront the fact that it was all just lies which maybe occasionally happened to be true. Only Daniel Dale managed to convey this, or even tried.

Similarly, it isn't this corrupt act or that one, whether it's technically illegal or whether the Marshal of the Supreme Court is finally going to step in. It's the complete disregard for a framework in which there are corrupt acts and noncorrupt ones.

And literally everyone gets tainted by it, including the journalists who have no qualms about betting their careers on juicy scoops from criminal liars.

The libs used to point out just how many people in the Reagan administration got into legal trouble. That said something about the Reagan administration, but it also says something about how much elite impunity as a doctrine has been enshrined since.

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Tuesday Morning

8 can't wait!
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Monday, April 12, 2021

Monday Night

Rock on.
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Well Not Everybody

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Happy Hour Thread

To Mondays!
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America's Worst Humans

Bill Gates.

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The Boehner World Tour

Given his treatment by journalists for his book tour, along with some other comments I've seen over the years, the way for a politician to get good media coverage is to get plastered and shit-talk your colleagues "off the record" to journalists so you all have a good laugh.
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America's Worst TV Journalist

Jonathan Karl
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Lunch Thread

Enjoy.
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Choices

I know which I'd pick.
The White House is facing diverging pressure from two powerful allies — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Budget Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) — over whether to use an upcoming spending package to strengthen the Affordable Care Act or expand Medicare eligibility.

Pelosi’s office is pushing the White House to make permanent a temporary expansion of Affordable Care Act subsidies that were included in the $1.9 trillion stimulus legislation last month, according to a senior Democratic aide who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal conversations.

Sanders said in an interview that he is arguing for lowering the age of Medicare eligibility to 55 or 60 and expanding the program for seniors so it covers dental, vision and hearing care.

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Blue Trump

There's a point at which corruption is so endemic that no one can even recognize it anymore, and everyone is implicated.
Staffers told the Times Union that book-related assignments were given during the normal workday, and that staffers did not question that they were required to complete these assignments.

They say that was the culture that existed in the Governor’s office.

One former staffer says there was a “clear expectation that we would do political work to help with his campaign and run the governor’s personal errands.”

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"Jews Will Not Replace Us"

I'm so old I remember when someone submitting an uncurated video to a video submission contest for an activist group, which was deemed anti-Semitic by virtue of it making a facile comparison between the Bush administration and Nazis, led to the organization receiving an official denouncement vote from Congress (and a weeks long media shitshow).

Plenty of people in The Discourse do treat all of this stuff as a game, and are transparently just political hacks trying to score points for Their Side. But others hold themselves out as either OBJECTIVE and NONPARTISAN or at least Council of David Brookses style CONSCIENCE OF THE NATION type commentators.

"One random unaffiliated dude on the internet" made MoveOn toxic. All of Fox News should be much moreso, and yet...

...oops, correction, it was something else that got the Cogressional condemnation, the nazi ad was just a media shitshow (thanks to mike stark for the reminder).
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Morning Thread

Some journalists just can't quit the last guy, and wow they hate it when you make fun of them for it.
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Sunday, April 11, 2021

Sunday Afternoon

Monday's almost here.
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And On And On

Sure, uh, women's rights, we haven't used that one in a few months.
(CNN)Concerns are mounting from bipartisan US lawmakers and Afghan women's rights activists that the hard-won gains for women and civil society in Afghanistan could be lost if the United States makes a precipitous withdrawal from the country.

President Joe Biden has suggested it will be difficult to meet the May 1 deadline for US troops to leave the country as dictated in the deal the Trump administration signed with the Taliban. However, there are fears that if the US withdraws troops before the conditions on the ground are right -- regardless of the date on the calendar -- there will be a sharp and possibly catastrophic backslide

.
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Lunch Thread

Get your lunch on.
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Small Tunnels And Fixed Guideways

Some things should be self-evidently dumb, and there are so many dumb things about Elon's Tesla tunnel, but one is that if you you have a tiny tunnel (and early Tube tunnels are actually smaller than Elon's), it'll work just fine if you have something on a fixed track, but expecting human drivers to navigate a tiny tunnel at 35 MPH for 8 hour shifts without regular (if minor) incidents is not reasonable.

Those cars are going to be bashing up against the walls regularly.

But, Atrios, these are self-driving Teslas! Surely they can self-drive their way through a .8 mile tunnel.

Surely. Wonder why that isn't happening.

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Morning Thread

I am a sick, sick man, but I can't wait for Elon's Tesla ride to open for a convention in Vegas.
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Saturday, April 10, 2021

Sunday Saturday Night

Rock on.
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Gonna Have To Shut Down Yale Law School

Because we know what's going on.
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ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND CASES PER DAY

One thing I've watched with minor amusement is how the US media regularly (led by the big outlets) picks up one country semi-randomly and makes it sound as if Covid there is some TREMENDOUSLY HUGE DEAL.
Covid-19 Live Updates: India Tops 100,000 Cases a Day as Virus Races Out of Control

...

Though damaging and ultimately flawed, the lockdown and other efforts appeared to work. Infections dropped and deaths remained low. Officials and the public dropped their guard. Experts warned fruitlessly that the government’s haphazard approach would bring a crisis when a new wave appeared.

Now the crisis is here.

India on Saturday reported a daily record of 145,384 new infections as Covid-19 raced out of control. Deaths, while still relatively low, are rising. Vaccinations, a mammoth task in such a large nation, are dangerously behind schedule. Hospital beds are running short.

It's always bad when the curve shoots up, national numbers don't always convey the magnitude of more local outbreaks, and hospital capacities can differ greatly. But adjusted for population, 145K new cases per day is equivalent to 36K in the US. The US hasn't had a 7-day average figure that low since... September.

Sure it's worrying, as it is everywhere when the case number shoots up, but...

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Afternoon Thread

Even bloggers get the occasional weekend.
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Saturday Lunch

Gotta hear both sides of the white supremacy issue.
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Saturday, Saturday

I started writing a more serious post about this, filled with deep thoughts, but, really, just fucking assholes.
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Morning Thread

I knew Elon's Vegas project was dumb, but the man never fails to exceed expectations.
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Friday, April 09, 2021

Friday Night

Rock on.
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Your Moment Of Zen

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Happy Hour Thread

Raise a glass to the misery of your enemies!
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I Did Not See That Coming

I didn't really. I thought Tucker was just a relatively harmless (compared to the rest of the conservatives) asshole.
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Afternoon Thread

Once again it is Friday, Friday.
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The Future

How long before everyone involved with this just pretends it never happened?
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Prince Philip Died

No deep thoughts about him, but I did just work my way through The Crown, slowly. Leaving aside any discussion of whether it's Good or Bad (you can have that if you wish), Factualish or Fantasy, it has basically established itself as the post-war history of Britain for most Americans. Not unique as a fictional represenation supplanting a more documentary treatment of historical events, but interesting to see it happen for various reasons!
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Never Clearly Label Your Sex Crimes

The folder on your desktop marked "all my crimes" is not a good idea, either.
In two late-night Venmo transactions in May 2018, Rep. Matt Gaetz sent his friend, the accused sex trafficker Joel Greenberg, $900. The next morning, over the course of eight minutes, Greenberg used the same app to send three young women varying sums of money. In total, the transactions amounted to $900.

The memo field for the first of Gaetz’s transactions to Greenberg was titled “Test.” In the second, the Florida GOP congressman wrote “hit up ___.” But instead of a blank, Gaetz wrote a nickname for one of the recipients. (The Daily Beast is not sharing that nickname because the teenager had only turned 18 less than six months before.) When Greenberg then made his Venmo payments to these three young women, he described the money as being for “Tuition,” “School,” and “School.”

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Morning Thread

I don't really understand why Venmo sets transactions to public by default (or at all), but you can change that.
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Thursday, April 08, 2021

Thursday Night

Rock on.
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Grand Old Police Blotter

Kansas edition.
TOPEKA — Senate Majority Leader Gene Suellentrop reeked of alcohol, struggled to speak or walk, and threatened the Kansas Highway Patrol officer who stopped him in the early hours of March 16 for driving the wrong way on Interstate 70 in Topeka.

The details of the arrest were made available Thursday following the release of his charging affidavit in Shawnee County District Court. Kansas Reflector and other news media filed motions with the court seeking the document’s release.

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Happy Hour Thread

Get happy.
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Rough Year For Jerry Jr

Dude looks like shit. for comparison...
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Pizzagaetz

....ouch
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Slow Mo

Another reason to keep screaming GO GO GO (no I don't really think they can hear me, but I gotta pretend) is that once they get off the fast moving treadmill, they tend not to get back on it.

Only way to get anything done in Congress is with a sense of urgency. Take away the need to save the world, and they're back on their usual bullshit, which is doing nothing.

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Lunch Thread

Busy with some stuff.
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They Can Hear You

I imagine teachers lean significantly towards team 'D,' but probably less overwhelmingly than is generally thought. I'm sure some of them are Fox viewers, too.
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Thursday Is New Jobless Day

744K new lucky duckies.

And still above the one week peak of the Great Recession.

The reason I point this out, harboring some illusions that my blog has magic powers of influence, is that rich people are good, stonks are good, elites are vaccinated, life is almost back to "normal," for them, and they quickly decide things are okay when they are not.

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The Deep State Is Trying to Cancel This Man

Or at least Liz Cheney's buddies in the DOJ.
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) took a trip to the Bahamas in late 2018 or early 2019 that federal investigators are now scrutinizing in their probe of Gaetz’s potential violations of federal sex-trafficking statutes. Investigators are attempting to determine whether the escorts were illegally trafficked and whether Gaetz accepted escorts’ services as a quid pro quo for political favors. Gaetz is under investigation for an alleged relationship with a 17-year-old and for potentially paying women for sex. He has denied the allegations and has not been charged with a crime. On the island trip, Gaetz was accompanied on the trip by Jason Pirozzolo, a hand surgeon and cannabis entrepreneur, who allegedly footed the bill for travel, hotels, and escorts. Pirozzolo declined to comment to CBS News.
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Morning Thread

All aboard the Rush Limbaugh Express!
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Wednesday, April 07, 2021

Wednesday Night

Rock on.
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Your Moment of Zen

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Is It Love?

I bet it's love.
Evidence is mounting that a tiny subatomic particle called a muon is disobeying the laws of physics as we thought we knew them, scientists announced on Wednesday.

The best explanation, physicists say, is that the muon is being influenced by forms of matter and energy that are not yet known to science, but which may nevertheless affect the nature and evolution of the universe. The new work, they said, could eventually lead to a breakthrough in our understanding of the universe more dramatic than the heralded discovery in 2012 of the Higgs boson, a particle that imbues other particles with mass.

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America's Worst Human

Josh Kraushaar.
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Aren't You At Least A Little Embarrassed

There's a piece in the WaPo about how sad it is to be political reporter now because it is hard, instead of fun, unlike with the last guy when (I swear I am not making this up) "Reporters drank lustily from the firehose of leaks that emanated from the White House."

Yes your job was easy and fun when Javanka and Stephen and Kellyanne and Sarah would just text you the latest gossip.

How'd it all work out, guys, while you were busy promoting that shit? Democracy dies in bullshit, as do people.

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No Hurry

One reason to GO GO GO with an infrastructure bill, instead of slow walking it to make sure all the senators can pretend to be deeply involved in the project and to randomly trim things for the sake of TEH DEFICIT or whatever, is that there are a few senators who are of advanced age who represent states with Republican governors.
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Care To Specify?

Curious which wars were fought over oil. Don't remember being told that at the time.
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Crime Spree

Our favorite Florida member of Congress tried to get a blanket pardon from Trump.

The entire Trump era was a nonstop crime spree, by Trump, his inner circle, and all the various people in the outer orbit. This isn't a secret, even if two sources close to Jared and Ivanka deny it.

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Morning Thread

Pardon me!
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Tuesday, April 06, 2021

Tuesday Night

Rock on.
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Tuesday Evening

Every day has an evening. Whoa.
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Your Moment of Zen

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Afternoon Thread

enjoy
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They're Bad People, Brent

Who is the audience for things like, "Gail Collins and Bret Stephens shoot the shit." Not even picking on them, specifically, though Bret is a disgusting clown even by the low standards of the cosnrevative movement, but genuinely confused that in the year of our Gritty, 2021, there's still a market for this genre of things.

Bad people all across the political spectrum, but I think we're long past the era when "we" pretended that well-meaning people on Both Sides want basically the same things, they just disagree about how to get there. It isn't an argument about the glorious impact on the economy of low tax rates, or how Social Security Privatization will be BETTER for your retirement. It's about stealing all the money from poor people and giving it to rich people, or maybe not doing that.

And that's before we get to the explicit bigotry.

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