Friday, December 31, 2021

Friday Night

Rock on.

Happy Hour Thread

Get the party started.

This Is The End

...of the year! Happy 2022 (soon), to those who celebrate.

Lunch Thread

Eschaton Rockin' New Year's Eve Party!

Good Boys and Good Girls

I suppose I'm having a lot of flashbacks to the Obama administration. The early days of that was my "peak going to DC" time, an era where I did meet with members and staffers, etc. There's a kind of righteous certainty among people who succeeded because they knew who to check all the right boxes when they were 15, a belief that if they (and you) do check all the the right boxes than everything will go as planned. High fives! (Snuffy Walden score!)

Not a lot of self-doubt, not a lot of self-recrimination. Among other things, it's a worldview which is very unsympathetic to the failure of others, failures that could not have resulted from anything other than a failure to check the boxes.

Do Clap Popular Things Clap

I guess "popularism" is over, as we did all the popular things, and now it's just "do more racism."

Made many mistakes over the years. Being an Yglesias booster was one of them.

A big problem with the Biden White House is they love the absolute worst fucking people in The Discourse, and Yglesias is one of the ones they love (all the smartest boys on the internet basically, who tend to approach most things from a Trumpesque "nobody thought of this before I did" perspective). Ron Klain is regularly retweeting the worst shit.

Friday Morning

Holiday week almost over!

Back to the take mines.

Thursday, December 30, 2021

Thursday Night

Rock on.

Happy Hour Thread

Get happy.

Hot Dog Guy Dot Gif

BBC has owned it, retired it.

Oh Elon

That's a lot of cars!
New York (CNN)Over 475,000 Tesla (TSLA) cars have been recalled due to technical defects that may increase the risk of accidents. Two separate recalls are in place, one regarding the rear-view camera in the Tesla Model 3 and the other involves the frunk, or front trunk, latches in the Model S.

The large recall nearly equals Tesla's total global deliveries last year, as just under 500,000 total cars were delivered in 2020, according to Tesla's annual report.

Lunch Thread

Busy not blogging.

Don't Look Up

I thought it was a pretty good movie. Some decent satirical bits, overall maybe not very satisfying.

I was quite amused that a lot of journalists were complaining about the movie using the "trope" of a woman journalist sleeping with her source. And, yes, movies do that and it is a very bad movie trope!

But if all the very serious journalists consider the host of a morning infotainment show character a "journalist" and a guest on the show to be a "source" then, I dunno man, I think the problem is with the concept of journalism and maybe the movie has a point.

Thursday Morning

Get Thursdayed.

Wednesday, December 29, 2021

Never Go The Full Conservative

At some level "lol who cares," but all more mainstream outlets sanitize the conservative movement for more normal people, and I do not think this is good!

Bring on its snarling id!

Just Another Day In America

Mass shooting in Coloardo, apparently by a Nazi.

RIP Harry Reid

I met him a few times, back when important people would meet THE BLOGGERS. I won't give some sort of full assessment of his time as Leader, but I think he did "teach" me about an important skill good politicians have, which is telling whoever is in the room with them what they want to hear. A very clever one manages to do it without being dishonest or even deceptive. When Reid was bullshitting a bit he'd do it with a wink so you knew he was. "I gotta say this, you know!" But even that, of course, was playing to the audience.

I honestly mean this as a compliment. Of course we all want BRAVE UNFLINCHING TRUTHTELLERS, or think we do, but that's not the road to success in many roles. A politician who is careful with his bullshit is actually showing some respect for his audience.

Morning

Again

Tuesday, December 28, 2021

Tuesday Night

Rock on.

The Ghouls Are Always At The Table

By that, I mean the rich guys who see a crisis as a way to make themselves richer are busy calling in their favors while the rest of us are being distracted by happy talking about "common purpose" or whatever.

They are always there, they have immense influence, and they aren't dissuaded by pesky things like "mass death."

Happy Hour Thread

Get happy.

Imagine That, Huh, Me Working For You

Pick your preferred villains, but Omicron is inspiring the "get back to work, serfs" response from the powers that be, not the "we must do something" response which appears only in the first 14 days of any major crisis.

Dems got wiped out in 2010 midterms, and the often expressed view from both Obamas was something like "our voters got complacent and didn't bother to turn out" and, well, there were almost 6 million foreclosures total in 2009 and 2010 (more in 2010 than 2009) and the unemployment rate on election day was almost 10%.

Again, choose which villains to blame for that, but I do not think the correct diagnosis of the moment was simply "our voters got lazy."

Lunch Thread

Don't eat the wrong food.

Welfare For Rich White People

A maddening thing is probably no one knows this better than our well-connected political journalists. They just don't bother to bring it up!

The River's Just A River

The plan seems to be "hope Omicron doesn't kill so much."

Declaring Victory

I actually don't have strong views about WHAT SHOULD BE DONE ABOUT COVID in a lot of areas, but I do remember how every couple months the Obama boys would high five themselves (and expect everyone to clap) about ending the jobs recession, and then, "ah, well, nevertheless" would kick in. And then eventually everyone just decided there was nothing to be done, that the problem was "skills mismatch," everyone went to college and got the wrong degrees, and young men would rather play video games than work.

Learn to code!

They don't have superhuman powers, but they should use the powers they do have. The Obama administration's whocouldanode, notourfault, nothingwecando, thepeoplearetoblameactually was... not good!

Morning Thread

Rise and shine.

Monday, December 27, 2021

Evening Thread

At the end of the day we're another day older.

Oh Elon

What are you doing now.
BEIJING -- Chinese citizens lashed out online against billionaire Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk on Monday after China complained that its space station was forced to take evasive action to avoid collision with satellites launched by Musk’s Starlink programme.

Resurrections

I thought the new Matrix film was pretty good, basically agreeing with Jamelle's review. The fight/action scenes were weirdly not great, and don't expect anything to make too much sense, but it was clever in a lot of ways.

8 Can't Wait

Lunch Thread

Eat. Or not.

The Answer Is Not More Cars

Might be one of my opinions that is "wrong," but I am very skeptical about the push to provide a lot of infrastructure to support electric cars as a useful way of reducing carbon emissions. And even with simple sounding things like, "require chargers to be installed in certain types of new construction" has an ongoing maintenance issue. As in, who is responsible and how do you ensure the things are maintained?

This is a solvable problem, but less solvable when "government should just take care of stuff" is heresy. Of course I just hate cars and think they should be banned, but minor land use changes allowing more people to not have to drive for every single trip they do are actually "free" or better. Replicating our world, but electric, is actually expensive and there still are a lot of unsolved problems.

King of the Ghouls

Larry's been the ghoul-on-in-the-inside for decades, cosplaying as a center-lefty when he's been behind practically every disastrous right wing position in his entire career. Lots of the "good" economists have stayed quiet, for who knows what reason, which is why my list of "good economists" kept shrinking. Larry's at the pretending not to understand things phase of his career, because he's got nothing else, but everybody else doesn't have to pretend to not see what he's doing. Orszag, another ghoul. Come for your man, Larry's friends. You should have come for him decades ago instead of swatting his critics.

Monday Morning

Get your Monday on.

Sunday, December 26, 2021

Sunday Night

Rock on.

Happy Hour

Monday tomorrow.

Ghouls

I've long said that economists aren't as bad as some people think, but the public face of economics is absolutely horrendous and part of the reason for that is not enough economists, like Gray, call their colleagues (appropriately) ghouls.

Owning The Libs Is The Force That Gives Us Meaning

Various forms of covid/vaccine denialism have been the WARBLOGGING of our time. This is like if George Bush went on TV a few months after the Iraq war started and said, "oh, sorry, the war was a bad idea, I messed up, also I'm sorry libs, it isn't true you love Saddam and terrorism."

Lazy Sunday

My 2022 prediction is: that fucking newspaper will never stop centering the weirdo fringe beliefs of the Trumpkins.

Are they weirdo fringe beliefs? Consider how <20% views are normally treated except when reporters think they are the views of Real Americans? Or rich assholes, I guess.

Morning

again

Saturday, December 25, 2021

Saturday Night

Rock on.

Saturday Evening

Have at it

Books? What Are They?

Going to skip my occasional year end book list, as I sort of forgot to read this year. A few, but only a few! Will dedicate myself once again next year.

I did recently run a 5k in 23:04, which is old man respectable, so I did *something*.

Lunch Thread

ham?

Happy Life Day!

The Kids won't remember, but before video sharing sites on the internet, this was apocrypha. You would describe it to people and they wouldn't believe it was real.

Now we all get to enjoy it!

Morning

Were you naughty or nice?

Friday, December 24, 2021

Friday Night

Rock on.

SILENCE

You can go watch cousin Doona's new Netflix show.

Lab Leak "Theory"

Remember when all the smartest boys on the internet decided the "lab leak theory" was totally true, because SCIENCE, spent 2 weeks yelling at everyone for not talking about it, then just forgot about it again?

More people need mirrors.

"Agreed"

How charitable of them.
Tesla has agreed to modify software in its cars to prevent drivers and passengers from playing video games on the dashboard screens while vehicle are in motion, a federal safety regulator said on Thursday.
I remember a few years ago when the telsa fanboys were super excited because (I think) they could now watch Netflix on their car dash. And when would that actually be a thing you would want to do? Kids on their tablets in the back seats, sure, but...

Holiday Week

Going to keep the lights on here, but also going to try to disengage a bit more than I usually do. Not so very fine blogging ahead!

Morning Thread

Trees up?

Thursday, December 23, 2021

Thursday Night

Rock on.

Friday Evening

Christmas Eve eve!

Guilty

These things are always surprising.
Former Minnesota police officer Kim Potter has been found guilty of first- and second-degree manslaughter in the fatal shooting of Daunte Wright.

Holiday Cheer

It is quite miraculous (to me) that the country managed as well as it did under Covid. That's the cheer!

The sad thing is that all the things that made that possible (economic support, widening direct federal involvement in public health) seem to be embarrassing for people, something best swept under the rug as quickly as possible so we can return to "normal."

The right lesson is those things are good, akshually.

Lunch Thread

Transitioning into the holiday schedule on this very fine blog.

Fix It

DOTs need more than a nudge. Love building new useless highways, hate fixing.
USDOT Nudges States To Prioritize Fix-It-First Infrastructure Spending

The People Who Should Know Better

The way our national media operates, the standard way a dumb story becomes a thing, is that the right wing kicks a soccer ball and the 8-year-olds that are our political press all chase after it, often leaving the goal uncovered. Back before twitter killed Drudge, it was so easy for them. A dozen years or more of "top story on drudge at 1, on CNN by 4, in the New York Times by evening."

It actually isn't that easy now for them, but they get the regular assist from the centrist dipshits (marks or participants, depending) who take all their nonsense seriously. Oh no, inflation! Terry Mac was too woke and people are mad about CRT! The caravan in Mexico (1300 miles away from the border!)! Real Americans in the Ohio diners are concerned about [spins wheel] the use of the term 'Latinx' by DC issue groups! Despite all polling on the issue saying the opposite, the data nerds are convinced that the people (the data nerds) hate all covid related mandates! Polls are everything until they disagree with me!

I actually had an exchange with a reporter (a civil exchange, a good reporter) about the migrant caravan issue in 2018, and this reporter did seem to honestly believe the story was an important one that would continue to be covered after the election and, well...

But that was actually an issue that was worthy of coverage, just not at that moment because Donald Trump said so. Sometimes these types of stories are worthy of news coverage, just not obsessive what-does-it-mean-for-politics coverage. Often they're just bullshit. Short term gas price spike! No Christmas gifts! A one month decline in real wages in 3 deciles of the income distribution! Corporate HR anti-racism! One month of inflation after a pandemic!

Thursday Is New Jobless Day

205K new lucky duckies. Still fine.

Morning Thread

Thor's come through for us, again.

Wednesday, December 22, 2021

Wednesday Night

Rock on.

Happy Hour Thread

Smile!

Snitches

Don't Worry, Mr. Manchin, There Will Always Be Plenty Of Poor People

Hardly a novel observation, but large numbers of people believe this state of affairs is how it should be. There's a very special racist version of this, which is that Some Types Of People will be and should be poor, but the purely racist version isn't the only one.

And Then

Good that they are extending the student loan payment freeze but May is getting even closer to November...

Lunch Thread

How about vegan?

The Schools

It's one discussion I've largely avoided, but all the people who insist upon the schools being open (ideally they should be!) largely ignored the very real resource problems that schools face and nobody has really even tried to solve.

(Obviously "schools" are not one thing, there are thousands of school districts under all kinds of political jurisdictions, but generally...)

Aside from physical mitigation issues (ventilation, etc.), people just flat out ignore the unsolvable personnel issues that schools face daily when staff/teachers are getting covid and there isn't exactly a large pool of willing substitutes. There has been a lot of wishing away of the health risk to children, and a lot of just ignoring the issue of spread (in school and at home), but even if "we" accept those things, the very practical issue of making sure there are sufficient people watching your 8-year-olds every day is unsolved and often unsolvable!

I'm not saying, "close the schools!" I'm saying that, well, you try being a principal of one right now.

Our Sister Outlet

There's something very specific and very obviously damaging about covid misinformation, but it really can't be said enough that most of the rest of the press ignored (downplayed, smeared critics) Fox's destructive bullshit content for years. It's always been bad! Very bad!

During the post-9/11/Iraq era (always going to be fun trying to explain that link to the kids), Fox was hardly different than much of the rest because the rest were toxic, too! And when Obama came in, they all loved the idea of a loyal opposition, even though it was not loyal and largely full of nonsense. At best.

Nonsense is a valid perspective as long as conservatives believe it has long been the standard. Weirdly much more valid than, say, "maybe we should have some sort of free at point of access health care system." That one is subversive shit, communism even.

Just Solve Problems

The deeply embedded ideology of the past several decades is that the best the government should do is to provide a maze you walk through with a treat at the end. Better to just do things.

Sometimes it's useful to think, "what if Trump was doing this?" Or if that's too psychotic, "what if George W. Bush was?" How would you react?

I'm cautiously optimistic about Omicron (if I were Nate Silver I'd call this MY PRIORS and decree it's SCIENCE instead of just some bullshit in my head), but to a great degree the plan now is get vaccinated and hope for the best and, well, we'd better hope!

Whether or not they're particularly helpful in reducing the spread in the aggregate, the tests certainly help people manage their own lives and reduce personal anxiety. That's important!

Wednesday Morning

Again

Tuesday, December 21, 2021

Tuesday Night

Rock on.

More thread

The trouble is I never have a really good link handy when I think the comments have gotten too high, so here's an Onion headline.

Happy Thread

The sad thread is elsewhere.

Weeping For The People Of Afghanistan

I suppose once upon a time it was a slightly cynical suggestion, but after 20 years of this shit, it's quite clear that lovers of humanitarian war just love war, and once the bombs stop dropping they lose interest, at best.

Do What You Can Do

Use the force, Joe.
I wouldn’t hold my breath, but executive action is a duty regardless. The function of the president is to take care that the laws are faithfully executed. If Biden wants a successful presidency, the only path forward goes through using his own prodigious authority. We wrote the Day One Agenda precisely as a counterpoint to the despair of legislative paralysis. There’s not a ton we can do about the paralysis, but a president can govern. And we know what he can do. We wrote it down and everything.
The force of LAW.

Well If Goldman Sachs Says So

I think concerns about the Biden Boom fizzling out are very valid! Especially if Mr. Biden does not do some things he personally has the power to do! But this tic of left-leaning people to point to conservative/wealthy authorities as if they are Serious Adults Who Need To Be Listened To is a problem!

I do not think "we'd better follow the sage advice of Goldman Sachs!" is a particularly wise long term strategy!

Same thinking leads to recruiting ex-military/cia for candidates, running to The Generals (former) to get blessings for your foreign policy, or trying to get Mitt Romney to support your economic legislation.

Yesterday Is The Day Donald Trump Became President

I try not to focus too much on the extended Donald cinematic universe, but I suppose the MAGA King saying his subjects should get boosters is noteworthy.

Lunch Thread

Find some good eats.

I Blame The Bernie Bros

The last several months have been a complete lesson in how The Left, the least powerful political force in the country in terms of representation in the actual halls of power, however defined, gets blamed no matter what they do.

"The Left" in Congress basically went to bat for the supposed Biden agenda, supported by most of the supposed moderates in Congress, attempting to strategically shepherd the bill through while compromising every time. They were still being blamed at every step.

And now Mitt Romney is going to save us!

Really it's the centrist pundits who think (their versions of) drum circles and giant puppets are the major agents of change.

Holding The Public To Account

A common observation about the UK press is that they see their primary job as holding the public, not the powerful, to account. I don't think I'd describe the problems with the US media that way, though there are some ways in which that tendency emerges, but I'd say it's an attitude which affects our D-leaning political-industrial complex generally.

All the ways in which the public is sliced up into deserving/undeserving for things is like this. Sure team R thinks "richer white people are deserving and eerybody else isn't" which is really bad! But team D has their own model of deserving/undeserving.

Complex eligibility requirements, to make sure people are obeying all the (abritary, complex, inconsistently applied) rules.

That model drove everybody into student debt, of course. The success sequence required college, those without it were undeserving.

Enablers

Manchin goes on Fox and says "lol I was full of shit the whole time" and then his people release some bullshit about a DEAL he totally would have supported totally he promises and it was TOTES reasonable but people were mean to him. Centrist dipshits: There's also a second "maybe Mitt Romnney will support something!" plotline.

And they say The Left is full of unreasonable dreams and magical thinking.

Morning Thread

Mo' morning mo' morning mo' morning.

Monday, December 20, 2021

Monday Night

Rock on.

Happy Hour Thread

You guys just don't understand how we do things in West Virginia.

We lie. That's how.

Oh No Mr. Manchin My Stonks

The funny thing is that one crisis that for a moment leads to our glorious leaders considering doing *something* useful (considering, not necessarily doing) is when the STONKS crash.

Better Things Aren't Possible

There is a moment when a crisis hits when better things do seem possible, but then everyone gets back on their bullshit really really fast.

Corruption is part of it, of course, but there really is deep deep ideological opposition to the idea that the government should do anything except build unncessary highways and buy yachts for middle aged guys in Northern Virginia.

Use It

The Left is regularly mocked for its supposed uncompromising purity politics, but right now there are numerous perfectly legitimate uses of executive power which might be (to Biden) imperfect inferior substitutes to what Congress can enable.

Guess he is just going to have to compromise.

Aside from the Good Things my demanding ideology insists upon, if Omicron winter is bad then the Biden Boom is going to need a little boost.

The Thread of Lunch

For those who eat.

I Dunno If This Is Such A Good Idea

The "two track" plan always sounded crazy, and certainly strongarming the progressives to vote for the other bill was extremely crazy, but "trust us" (or "trust them") voices were always very loud.

The savvy take coming out the end of this will be that the BIF is great and wonderful, and the two track plan was necessary to get that passed, and otherwise nothing would have passed.

The great thing about twitter is you see the talking points in fairly raw form, who has them, and who repeats them.

We all gotta eat, I guess.

A cursed aspect of DC is that everyone is supposed to pretend that obviously bad faith operators are AKSHUALLY operating in good faith. It is very rude to point out that the Lobbyist from Chevron-Raytheon is in fact paid to lie, or at best not let the truth ever get in the way of the interests of his clients. Pointing it out is much much ruder than lying for money.

MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Nothing important is really about me, of course, but even in the ridiculously tiny spot I have in The Discourse, certain dynamics play out over and over again and we're entering the "no fun for me" phase of it. Of course that was most of the Obama administration, too.

Easily Flattered Fools

The simple reason you do your best not to let any legislative "negotiations" drag on forever. A bunch of rich guys have been telling Manchin how awesome he is for months, and every time he goes on teevee and is an asshole, they butter him up even more.

We aren't ruled by wise and benevolent people, for the most part. The best you can say is, "Members of Congress, they're just like us! (only richer)."

Monday Morning

Get your morning on.

Sunday, December 19, 2021

Sunday Night

Rock on.

Face Up, Make Your Stand

Aside from everything else, Manchin wasted tens if not hundreds of thousands of person hours of everyone from Joe Biden on down to poor lowly paid congressional staffers and everyone inbetween.

Bad faith operators aren't just liars, they're sociopaths who truly don't consider most other people to be people.

I feel bad when I waste your time with a bad post.

Mad Now

The White House is making angry noises about Mr. Manchin. I suggest they make angry executive orders, also, too.

Who needs coal, really?

Sunny Sunday Afternoon

 Location depending.

Predictable

There are going to be people who continue to tell you that failure to release the patents has nothing to do with the current issues SO STOP SAYING THAT. When things are complex and there's no single cause, one can alwas use that complexity to deflect from obvious causes. No there isn't a straight line from "Pfizer patents to Omicron" in the same way there isn't a straight line from "global climate change to that one tornado" but of course it mattered, and it mattered in a particularly gross and easily fixable fashion.

...Capitalism!

And Then It All Went Wrong

Even now there are ghouls at the heart of the administration saying that it's time to go back to "normal." There are people whose life of devoted public service means ensuring that things never change, and that the danger of any response to the current emergency is that people might get some ideas about how things could be different.

Choose your own villains. But they're there and their voices are much more influential than this very fine blog will ever be.

Morning Thread

Countdown to Xmas.

Saturday, December 18, 2021

Saturday Night

Rock on.

Happy Hour Thread

Omicron and on.

Nobody Could Have Predicted

Whocouldanode.
“We didn’t see Delta coming. I think most scientists did not — upon whose advice and direction we have relied — didn’t see Delta coming,” she said. “We didn’t see Omicron coming. And that’s the nature of what this, this awful virus has been, which as it turns out, has mutations and variants.”
Variants were not a surprising development. And certainly not after Delta.

Entering the ugly phase of this administration.

Green Shoots

"We" all know the story of politics. Who the good guys are, who the bad guys are, why things aren't progressing as well as they should.

Also what we're supposed to think.

Normies are just going to know if things seem better or worse, and blame the people in charge (that's team D).

Saturday Saturday

Weekending

Morning Thread

Saturday.

Friday, December 17, 2021

Friday Night

Rock on.

Happy Hour Thread

Friday edition.

Clap Louder

I know there are people who prefer a cheering section, who want to root for the good guys and blame the bad guys when things go wrong, but I do wish people would understand that the ghouls always have a seat at the table. The people advocating for doing less things and worse things are always there, in various guises. Whatever you think of Joe the Biden, there are some bad people in his immediate circle and there are certainly bad people having meetings with members of Congress every hour of the day.

I don't imagine this very fine blog frequently has much influence on the world, but I do know that there are many more voices saying "don't do more, do less, all your problems are because of all the socialism [you haven't even done]" in earshot of the people in power.

I apologize in advance for the midterm losses I have caused.

America's Worst Presidents

Joe Biden

Windows Hell

Managed to get it fixed but is amazingly a known issue for years which one of these 8 methods might fix but somehow we can't solve it with one of our numerous updates.

Lunch Thread

Good eats.

Vacuuming Up All The Money

I do think old rich people think "student loans" are something that 23-year-olds have to sacrifice a few avocado toasts to pay, and not a life curtailing burden for tens of millions of people.

The psycho economists are aware, but they are dedicated to the idea that not rich people must suffer.

Gonna be some economic and political headwinds if they don't do something!

Me complaining about it, and not offering up the very elaborate excuses circulating in the talking points, is the problem, of course.

If You Don't Do This Thing, I'll Do This Other Thing

Certainly there are things the Biden administration can do by executive order which would make certain coal loving senators VERY VERY VERY ANGRY.

That there are things to bargain with is my point.

Maybe read that Art of the Deal book (joke).

Friday Morning

Almost over!

Thursday, December 16, 2021

Thursday Evening

Enjoy

Windows Hell

Having some minor tech problems.

The Cost Of Vaccinating The World

Whether by releasing the patents or just having rich countries pay the Pharma extortion...

I suspect much cheaper than not!

There has always been a noncontroversial nontrivial risk that letting Covid run wild too many places instead of stamping it out as fast as possible would be catastrophic.

And catastrophic for "us" not just those other people we don't care about.

"We" got the miracle vaccine and then hoarded it.

Afternoon Thread

Busy with some stuff.

What A Moran Flanagan

Caitlin Moran's Flanagan's presence in The Discourse has long confused me. She's dishonest and very dumb, but like that dishonest and dumb friend in a group that everyone feels obligated to humor and praise. Except they aren't just humoring and praising her, they're paying her lots of money to write nonsense for the rest of us.

...confused my Caitlins. Flanagan, not Moran! (correction from reader el)

The Vibes, They Are Bad

Lots of things going on, but I do think West Wing Brain makes a lot of people truly think a long drawn out drama culminating in a DEAL IN WASHINGTON is good politics, instead of very very bad politics, no matter what comes out the other end.

For the largely mythical regular swing voter, the focus of all of our politics for some reason, politics is horrible. They don't want to hear about it, ever, and it's a trip to the dentist whenever they do.

(Most 'independent' voters are not swing voters at all, I'm talking about the genuine weirdos who go through life being genuinely confused about which party they should vote for.)

Thursday Is New Jobless Day

206K new lucky duckies.

Thursday Morning

Thanks for this day, Thor.

Wednesday, December 15, 2021

Wednesday Night

Rock on.

Long And Winding Email

Been a long time since I taught, but back when I did, students would often want to turn things in late. I'm a softie and mostly was fine with that, subject to my own time constraints. But students would often compose these long emails (or sometimes in person) filled with elaborate excuses. I understand that, too, but really DON'T WASTE MY TIME. Do or don't do, tell me when you can turn it in, and I'll let you know if it's ok. If there really needs to be an excuse, KEEP IT SHORT.

But, really, stop with the excuses.

I think I have a point here.

Happy Hour Thread

In pursuit of.

Free Market Economy

Credit to Pelosi for being honest about what that is, I guess. There's no amount of possible transparency that mitigates the harm of this.

Ah, Well, Nevertheless

Requiring 50+1 votes so they don't need 60. What a system!

Liars

What I meant by this, specifically, is that people like Ryan Lizza have been listening to versions of the basic Left Critique of political media coverage, the details of which change but with fairly consistent contours, for decades now. And they constantly respond by straw manning it various ways. I don't chalk this up to misunderstanding. It's deliberate. 

One benefit of twitter is you can see how they ignore the substance of any critique while pretending, "OH LIBERALS JUST WANT NICE STORIES ABOUT BIDEN" or in this case, "You fools don't understand how political coverage works, and I am going to lie in a completely transparent way about how it actually does work" (which, even if it was true, is very bad and you should change that!).

 Not sure who the audience for these lies is meant to be!

Lunch Thread

Whatever you want Wednesday.

Pretending To Believe

All kinds of behaviors are more just in group signalling than they are motivated by sincere belief, though over time one loses track. You say and do things, big and small, for the approval of your "community" whoever that happens to involve (friends, family, church, your internet weirdo forum, whatever).

Can't fake some behaviors, but you can fake "not getting vaccinated." Tell all your MAGA buddies that you didn't do it, but just go do it!

The Party of Mark Meadows

I'm a lazy blogger so I didn't do a full survey or anything, but I did go and read a few profiles of/pieces about Meadows back before Trump, and it was funny how they fit the pattern of all profiles of relatively powerful Republicans. Basically, hinting that he's a bit of psycho but then finding some quotes from "Democrats" (there are a billion people in the Great Democratic Cinematic Universe, you can always find some) about how, well, sure he's a bit of a psycho but he plays well with others and is a nice guy and so not so bad after all!

But, yes, Trumpism without a few of Trump's particular quirks existed before Trump.

Don't See How Donnie Two Scoops Is Going To Wriggle Out Of This One

We'll see!
A federal judge on Tuesday rejected former president Donald Trump’s long-running effort to block the Treasury Department from turning over his tax records to the House Ways and Means Committee, but put the ruling on hold pending an expected appeal.
Trump Judge. For the cynics:

Morning Thread

Don't see how Mark Meadows is going to wriggle out of this one.

Tuesday, December 14, 2021

Tuesday Night

Rock on.

Happy Hour Thread

Joy joy

Just Liars

At this point I guess I just get annoyed that they expect us to pretend not to notice.

Grand Old Police Blotter

Every time.
Three Republican residents of the hedonistic Florida retirement haven The Villages have been charged with casting multiple votes in the 2020 presidential election, according to local reports.

The Most Trusted Name In News

They aren't obligated to give these people jobs.

Lunch Thread

Get your lunch on.

America's Worst Supreme Court Justices

Gorsuch


Justice

There is a large contingent of people out there who really think it is important to vocally express support for the idea that our leaders - Pelosi, Schumer, Biden, Garland - know what they are doing. The kind of people who think Psaki's press briefings are good entertainment, I guess.

I don't think clapping loudly is important, but hopefully they are correct that there is something to clap.

Sowing, Reaping

Some true believers, but most really don't want the consequences of their actions.
Three Fox News hosts who have been among Donald Trump’s most ardent media boosters were so horrified by the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol that they begged the then-president’s chief of staff to convince him to intercede, according to newly aired messages from that day.

Morning Thread

Good peoople beget good people.

Monday, December 13, 2021

Monday Night

Rock on.

Happy Hour

Get happy

Good Things Happen To Good People

A toxic concept, something that people who managed to get through life winning enough of the daily gambles tell themselves.

Cancel Culture

They won't label him "Dr. Oz," following their normal style guide. This is no less ridiculous than most "cancel culture" stories, of course.

Lunch Thread

Get lunchin'

The Plot Against America

Don't think anybody should be constructing euphemisms for obvious things like, "they tried to do a coup," or "Trump tried to have Mike Pence killed."

Also there are laws against such things.

Vote Harder

I do keep looking for evidence that the people in charge realize that this isn't a sufficient plan. I keep not seeing it!

Just Get The Damn Shots

I came across an anti-vaxer ally the other day, and they were peddling notions of all the horrible things the state was planning to do to you (according to them) if you didn't get the vacccine. And, sure, OK, I'm not entirely immune to concerns about state overreach and a healthy skepticism of handing more power over to the state is always welcome.

Or, you know, you could JUST GET THE DAMN SHOTS!

Monday Morning

So it begins.

Sunday, December 12, 2021

The Thread Before The Storm

Monday tomorrow

The Good Fox

Chris Wallace is leaving Fox. With Shep Smith also gone, who will other reporters use to pretend Fox does serious journalism?

I am sure they will have no trouble choosing someone.

The Cost Of Doing Nothing

We all know weather isn't climate, and not every extreme weather event is directly attributable to climate change, but you don't have to be An Advanced Weather Knower to have noticed that we've had more than a few weird destructive weather events recently.
MAYFIELD, Ky. — A desperate search and rescue operation unfolded Saturday across six states mauled the previous evening by rare late-season tornadoes that may have left more than 70 people dead.

Sunday Morning

Here it comes.

Saturday, December 11, 2021

If you ever need something to read

I wish I had time to read everything Cory Doctorow writes, 'cause it's pretty much always good stuff. For example:

When you hear "one size fits all," think "universal"

The demonization of "one size fits all" didn't find its way into the neoliberal Devil's Dictionary by accident. As Lawrence Glickman writes for the Boston Review, it was tied to a deliberate, late-1970s effort to kill the New Deal's ethic of universal services:

https://bostonreview.net/articles/in-praise-of-one-size-fits-all/

Take Ed Clark, the Koch-backed Libertarian presidential candidate in 1980 (his running mate was David Koch). Clark used "one size fits all" to attack on the idea of universal, public education, calling the system an "educational straitjacket."

By the 1990s, "one size fits all" was the go-to way to criticize any universal program, including (and especially) programs that protected the civil rights of minorities. In 1990, James J Kilpatrick used the phrase to damn "motor voter" laws that automatically combine voter registration with drivers' licenses. The trick worked so well that he used it again to attack a family and medical leave bill.

I've noticed this on social media when discussing health care that's free at the point of use under some kind of single-payer (or similar) system. "Haha, one size fits all!" they crow, as if, you know, *free* wasn't literally one size fits all. Look, we're not talking about fitting your 38DDs into a training bra. Never being sent a bill for your cancer treatment really is something that fits all sizes.

Saturday Evening

I got nothin'

Mysteries

Even given their weird fetishes, the constant effort to make Chris Christie happen is bizarre.

Lunch Thread

No blog for you

Chillin'

Busy today.

Morning Thread

Don't be lazy. There is posting to be done.

Friday, December 10, 2021

Friday Night

Rock on.

Friday Happy Hour

Everybody's working for the weekend.

Ah, Well, Nevertheless

Having flashbacks of young Obama staffers, high fiving each other and sending out press releases about "green shoots" every month, confident they had saved America.

Freak Show

They are silly. I think the fact that the Fox news studio doesn't get firebombed weekly (not advocating this!) is proof that "antifa" doesn't actually control our finest cities.

Lunch Thread

eat.

Fight Club

"I WILL NEVER STOP FIGHTING FOR YOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUU" is the kind of thing politicians say while campaigning. Presumably they say it because they think it's appealing, and I suspect they're correct that it is. Somewhat a romantic notion that it is, somehow, a fight, and someone is our champion in that fight, and they're a good champion.

Even when the bastards are winning, probably helps to signal that you're fighting. Not, oh, well, the judges told us no, what can we do, the senate has rules, oh no. Can't win, not gonna try.

Everybody's Fault But Mine

Bouie.
Right now, the moderate Democrats who run the party have a narrow and slipping hold on Congress against an opposition that relies on structural advantages, which could be mitigated, or at least undermined, with federal power. They have failed to act, and there’s no sign, so far, that anything will change.

If and when Democrats lose one or both chambers of Congress — and when we all face the consequences of their failure — I am confident that we’ll hear, once again, how it’s everyone’s fault but their own.

I blame my bad blog posts.

Where Are The Celestial Hall Monitors

Don't have to convince me of certain asymmetries in the way the press deals with the parties, but they aren't going to do your job for you. Dems have this need for NONPARTISAN INDEPENDENT actors to deal with their problems for them, and that just isn't how it works, especially as all those actors (including the press!) are corrupted.

I can complain about the press not doing their jobs, but Schatz isn't doing his by complaining on twitter, either (complaining on twitter is my job, because I am not a senator).

Use power, including (but not limited to) access to the big microphone.

Friday Morning

It is here again.

Thursday, December 09, 2021

Thursday Night

Rock on.

America's Worst Supreme Court Justices

Amy Coney Barrett

Happy Hour Thread

That time again. Only one hour.

Everything, Everything

A Starbucks store is unionized.

Oh No The Regulators

For years Elon has been suggesting that "the regulators" might stop his self-driving car dreams from happening, and since he's never going to make it actually work, I suspect this is a ploy to finally get them to shut him down so he can claim it was their fault.
Last August, Vince Patton was watching a YouTube video of a Tesla owner who had made a startling observation: Tesla drivers could now play a video game on their car's touch-screen dashboard — while the vehicle is moving.

...

On Wednesday, NHTSA confirmed that it's looking into the matter. News of Patton’s complaint was first reported Tuesday by The New York Times.

Grand Old Police Blotter

Lunch Thread

Eat

The Grift Must Be Getting Pretty Good

With the US Congress becoming a very attractive place for transparent grifters, I do think it's time to confront the fact that basic financial corruption of the "we don't do that here in America, unlike those other shitty countries" type is widespread (and quite likely legal!).

Obvious thing is the various "Congressional insider trading" scandals that no one ever seems to want to talk about too much (what happens when the whole system is corrupt). Of course there are future job promises, not just for Senator Atrios, but for his entire network of family and friends. And, well, let's not discount giant sacks of cash maybe just being placed on the desks (that one might - might - be illegal).

For decades the entire Congressional impure thoughts conversation was about campaign donations. But, really, that's silly. No one is going to dance to the tune of their donors simply because they need campaign cash, something which is absolutely easy for incumbents to raise in other ways.

Do Clap Popular Clap Things Clap

Complaining about the absurd US military budget is a bit like complaining about the sun rising. It's inevitable and there's nothing that one can do about it.

But if we pretend that, say, $30 billion of that budget (the amount of the annual increase just passed by the Democratically controlled House) could be spent on "popular things" instead of, say, yachts for my friends in Northern Virginia, the way we pretend that these hard tradeoffs exist for everything else...

Sorry my "defund the military" post has now ruined the midterm chances!!!

Thursday Is New Jobless Day

184K new lucky duckies. Good!

By normal measurse, or at least measures in normal times, the recovery has been pretty amazing. Things are a bit more complicated because of the weirdness of Covid (still ongoing!) and there are some not good things on the horizon (expiring student loan payment freeze, for example). But at the moment, surprisingly good!

The really horrible jobless recoveries of the past few recessions did not have to happen.

Thursday Morning

Every single week.

Wednesday, December 08, 2021

Wednesday Night

Rock on.

Happy Hour Thread

Get happy.

America's Worst Police Department

Torrance. As for the headline:
Torrance police traded racist, homophobic texts. It could jeopardize hundreds of cases
Imagine many if not most of those case should be in jeopardy.

What Do You Think You Get Paid The Big Bucks For

This isn't in response to anything specific, or rather it's a response to various things, but I am always a bit surprised (not really) that people who get paid lots of money, in part because they have public facing jobs, feel unduly wronged when it comes time to fall on their swords.

Sure sometimes they do take the blame for something which wasn't entirely of their making. That might feel a bit bad! But that was part of what the giant salary was for. It included the "you might have to fall on your sword" duty! It was a nontrivial part of your job duties!

Lunch Thread

Waffle Wednesday.

Easy Peasy

I remember back in the early Obama administration when KagroX (David Waldman) would argue that getting rid of the filibuster was, actually, that easy, and all of official Washington reacted in horror and disbelief at such insanity.

Turns out it's true!

Clown People

Related to this, I certianly don't idealize my childhood specifically or that era of growing up (trust me, far from it), but for better or for worse (and it might be worse!) I managed to grow up thinking adults were generally fairly responsible serious people. Some were bad, of course, but they weren't just complete buffoons.

Trump aside, I think kids grow up now just seeing a constant parade of adult clowns shoving pies into their own faces and so when The Kids Today roll their eyes at gramps (I'm gramps, in this), that might be part of it!

I'm not making the 90s Republicans-weeping-as-if-in-pain WHAT WILL WE TELL THE CHILDREN ABOUT BILL CLINTON'S PENIS, AS WE TALK ABOUT NOTHING BUT HIS PENIS morality point. I just mean... these people are fucking ridiculous.

Boosted

Was mostly fine after the first two. We will see how this goes.

Wednesday Morning

Rounding the curve.

Tuesday, December 07, 2021

Tuesday Night

Rock on.

Happy Hour Thread

Technology fail day.

No Hurry

Congressional subpoenas are meaningless. Good job, all.
A federal judge on Tuesday set a tentative July 18 start date for the trial of former Trump advisor Steve Bannon on charges of contempt of Congress for refusing to cooperate with a probe of the Capitol riot.

Internet Down

Using the phone as a hotspot... well, it works ok sometimes!

Whoopsy Daisy

The fucking newspaper has a piece about how the extra savings some people managed to accumulate during the pandemic (support cash, less to spend it on) is going away. All that extra savings was presented by the usual ghouls as "proof" we did too much. Lazy people don't need to work they're so rich! By lots of indicators the job market is good, or would be in normal times, but things like schools and child care still being a bit of a disaster mean things are not normal. Ah, well, nevertheless.

Phobia

Above my paygrade, but bluetooth security concerns are hardly crazy.

The politico boys are in full whine mode as they always are when they get criticism. This is especially funny.

Oh the piece that essentially called her crazy is a serious look at her security practices is it? Let's check with the author. Just meant to be a bit of fun!
Oh no they didn't elaborate on their specific security concerns! Can't think of why.

Tuesday Morning

Again.

Monday, December 06, 2021

Monday Night

Rock on.

Don't Have A Cow, Man

Devin Nunes retiring from Congress to spend more time with Donald Trump.

People is weird!

Happy Hour Thread

Get happy.

And Then There Were 9

Fred Hiatt is the first of the 10 2012 WANKERS OF THE DECADE (1st runner up) to die.

Making Up Something To Be Mad At

I'm sure I fail regularly, but it is one of the dangers of having to provide CONTENT on a regular basis. "That thing you like is bad, actually" has long been a staple of internet commentary. I think I mostly avoid that one, but I probably sometimes get sucked into "pretending something is common or a trend when it is really just some random thing."

"This is proof of what I have been saying all along" is another, of course.

I try!

Oh, Elon

Long article in that fucking newspaper about Tesla, here's a funny bit.
Hardware choices have also raised safety questions. Within Tesla, some argued for pairing cameras with radar and other sensors that worked better in heavy rain and snow, bright sunshine and other difficult conditions. For several years, Autopilot incorporated radar, and for a time Tesla worked on developing its own radar technology. But three people who worked on the project said Mr. Musk had repeatedly told members of the Autopilot team that humans could drive with only two eyes and that this meant cars should be able to drive with cameras alone.
Two eyes are attached to a very big brain with memory, and as neato as Tesla's computers might be, they're basically reacting moment to moment without any kind of model of the future or memory of the past.

At 75mph your big brain has a reasonable chance of realizing that police car up ahead is actually parked in the lane in time to stop, based on the input from your eyes and your big brain. Not the car computer. More "senses" can provide extra information to supplement the limitations of the car computer.

Lunch Thread

Get your lunch on.

They Rarely Actually Admit This

Most of the time it's more, "oh, yes, of course we bump into each other socially sometimes at parties but that's inevitable." Not "yah of course it's all one big happy family." 

"Absolute Liars"

Of course they are. 
A former D.C. National Guard official is accusing two senior Army leaders of lying to Congress and participating in a secret attempt to rewrite the history of the military's response to the Capitol riot.

In a 36-page memo, Col. Earl Matthews, who held high-level National Security Council and Pentagon roles during the Trump administration, slams the Pentagon's inspector general for what he calls an error-riddled report that protects a top Army official who argued against sending the National Guard to the Capitol on Jan. 6, delaying the insurrection response for hours.

Matthews' memo, sent to the Jan. 6 select committee this month and obtained by POLITICO, includes detailed recollections of the insurrection response as it calls two Army generals — Gen. Charles Flynn, who served as deputy chief of staff for operations on Jan. 6, and Lt. Gen. Walter Piatt, the director of Army staff — “absolute and unmitigated liars” for their characterization of the events of that day. Matthews has never publicly discussed the chaos of the Capitol siege.

Flynn is Michael's brother, and while that isn't necessarily damning, it certainly invites a little bit of extra scrutiny!

Reminder:

The Army falsely denied for days that Lt. Gen. Charles A. Flynn, the brother of disgraced former national security adviser Michael Flynn, was involved in a key meeting during its heavily scrutinized response to the deadly assault on the U.S. Capitol.
That all the nation's "cops" think they can act with impunity is a problem!

Defund the military! (oh no I just doomed the midterm elections)

The Good Republicans

Coverage of Dole's death is a reminder that when old Republicans die, we're told how good they were and the proof of this goodness, aside from basic biographical facts (such as 'was a soldier'), is always their support for clear liberal causes (stuff like 'he supported the Voting Rights Act!').

Though those causes are never portrayed as unambiguously good at the time, or even later when they are contentious again. Later being now.   

Monday Morning

It's Monday again.

Sunday, December 05, 2021

Sunday Night

Rock on.

Afternoon Thread

Monday's looming.

RIP Bob Dole

Nobody eats Bob Dole's peanut butter without asking.

If You're A Star They Let You Do It

I actually liked this tweet from Dylan awhile back. Dylan's an incredibly dumb guy who has a buzzer on his desk that starts sounding every time a rich person is facing criticism. But being an incredibly dumb guy, he occasionally says the things that the rest of his colleagues are smart enough not to say. 

In this case:

What you fools don't understand is that journalism is just for profit entertainment, this is just how things are, and nobody cares about anything except money and it's absurd to expect any different, you stupid cretins. You might as well be criticizing the "ethics" of the Real Housewives of Chattanooga or Love Island.
And, well, ok buddy.. you said it!

Morning Thread

Wake up

Saturday, December 04, 2021

Saturday Night

Rock on.

Happy Hour Thread

Peace out.

Dignitude

I don't have kids so I don't have insight anyone should listen to, but I sometimes wonder about parenting/growing up in the Trump era. Whether in a Trump-loving household, or a Trump-hating one, kids grew up (for 4 years) seeing The President Of The United States as Donald fucking Trump.

Young millennials and the oldest Zoomers grew up seeing George Fucking Bush as the president. I know Bush was packaged on teevee as Commander Bunnypants, the great savior of Western civilization, Giver of Turkee to the world, but he was almost as absurd as Trump was.

That's separate from their policies or governance. Just, look at those fucking goofuses! The presidents!

Lock Him Up

A weird thing has been the number of Cuomo defenders out there, their perspective seeming to be, "no fair if your guy (Trump) goes free if our guy (Cuomo) gets in trouble."

And, I dunno, he ain't my guy and I don't know who 'our' is and how we all got teamed up this way.

Federal prosecutors have broadened their scrutiny of former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo to include a civil rights investigation after the New York attorney general’s office concluded that he had sexually harassed female employees and fostered a toxic work culture.
Not that Trump should go free, of course.

Lunch Thread

Try something new and exciting!

But What Are You Going To Do About It

Forget who it was (it might have been an anonyous telling), but someone in the Obama administration described how when Mitch decided he wouldn't give a hearing to anyone to replace Scalia, reporters basically treated it as a shrewd and funny move, and their only angle was, "what are you going to do about it?"

I'm not even entirely unsympathetic to the perspective of the reporters. Like anything else they should put such a development in context, making clear how this was or wasn't "normal" and not just doing a "one side says, the other side says." This of course did not always happen! That's a big failure of journalism, if we define journalism as "telling readers important things they need to know to understand what's going on" and not "performing a bizarre ritual which pretends to do that but doesn't."

But still, well, what are you going to do about it?

Oxford School Shooting

We can look forward to having lots of conversations about holding parents criminally responsible for the actions of their children, and the problems of trying minors as adults. All good conversations, except "we" only have them when certain types of people get involved in the criminal justice system.

Saturday Morning

Get your weekend on.

Friday, December 03, 2021

Friday Night

Rock on.

Friday Happy Hour

Heading home early, boss.

Time Keeps On Ticking Into The Future

I saw a college teacher on twitter observing with some distress that the students hadn't even heard of Abu Ghraib. And, yes, I wouldn't mind The Kids Today being aware of such things, but in about 5 years, college sophomores are barely going to be aware of 9/11.

I was a college sophmore in 1991 and I don't think I knew all that much about anything that happened in 1974...

2004 was a long time ago, already, is my point.

Friday Long Read

On the Boeing 737 Max.

GOP Daddies

An old observation, but the political press does love their supposed GOP tough guys, though usually they're just fake macho bullies and not even reasonably genuine tough guys. You know, Chris Christie types. Guys who just yell at people and "get things done" even though they don't get anything done. Corrupt belligerent assholes, every time.

This thought inspired by remembering that there hasn't been much news about the ultimate GOP Daddy, Rudy 911, lately.

Friday Lunch

Another exciting week almost over.

Tell Me How To Do This

And if not that, then something else, and if not that, then another thing.

There is tons of unused executive authority, and one can get creative until someone (a corrupt judge) tells you to stop.

I'm not referring to anything specific here, but in general it's a way to possibly achieve things as well as a way to make clear that you aren't going down without a fight.

But for some specifics.

Glibertarian Josh Barro And Neoconservative Bill Kristol Agree

Nationalize our health care system! True for covid tests, true for all health care.

JERBS

+210k. Normal fine not recovery fine.

Morning Thread

Jerbs day!!!

Thursday, December 02, 2021

Thursday Night

Rock on.

Happy Hour Thread

This is not the melancholy hour.

Can We Occasionally Err On The Side Of Doing Too Much And Not Declare Mission Accomplished Too Early

I don't know if Omicron will blow up or fizzle, but that a new vaccine resistant variant could come along was understood. I haven't followed closely enough to know exactly why "we" don't have cheap and plentiful tests, but the new Biden plan to have you send the bill for them to your insurance company, if you have insurance, is not very helpful and they really shouldn't be overselling it.

Best not to take credit for peoples' health insurance, because, uh, that's usually not a pleasant customer service experience.

Pennsylvania's Worst Senate Candidates

Dr. Oz

The Stupidest Man On The Internet

I suppose it was inevitable that Hoft would achieve prominence in the Trump era.
Two Georgia election workers who were the targets of a right-wing campaign that falsely claimed they manipulated ballots filed a defamation lawsuit on Thursday against one of the nation’s leading sources of pro-Trump misinformation.

The suit against the right-wing conspiratorial website The Gateway Pundit was filed by Ruby Freeman and her daughter, Shaye Moss, both of whom processed ballots in Atlanta during the 2020 election for the Fulton County elections board. It follows a series of defamation claims filed by elections equipment operators against conservative television operators such as Fox News, Newsmax and One America News.

Though I often I think that I am, for various reasons, the stupidest man on the internet.

Lunch Thread

Eat whatever you want.

Boycotts

When red states to bad things, there's the inevitable call for boycotts, and then the inevitable backlash to the boycotts (you're not helping, you're just punishing the people who aren't responsible). 

I don't run a big company, but if I did I couldn't in good conscience put an employment center of my company in a state where women couldn't receive necessary and proper medical care.

(I am not dumb, I am not claiming CEO's consciences drive many decisions)

And even if you're wrong and you don't think abortion itself is "necessary and proper medical care," once the supposed interests of the fetus are more important than the health and life of women, women will be unable to get treatment for their own health problems if "might disturb the fetus" is a concern.

Women already can barely step in a doctor's office without getting a pregnancy test, though that's for insurance/malpractice reasons mostly now. "Can't treat you, might hurt the fetus" will become the norm.

Addicted To The Show

I suppose it's because "being on TV and radio" never really appealed to me, except as a kind of funny story to tell, that I really don't get the addiction people have to being on The Show. Why the sex pests, especially, don't just go away forever is a mystery. And, yes, I know that for a sex pest, fame is an important ingredient to your favored pastime, but still.

Why Bill O' and Matt Lauer and Mark Halperin aren't happy just going away forever baffles me.

We all gotta eat, but I think they all have the money to do that. 

Honestly I do promise if someone gives me enough money I will shut the fuck up forever.

Subsidy Truffle Pig Needs More Subsidies

This is Elon putting out the begging (demanding) bowl.
On Black Friday, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk sent an anxious email to his company’s employees, urging them to work over the weekend on SpaceX’s Raptor engine line and describing the production situation as a “crisis.” In the email, a copy of which was obtained by The Verge, Musk argued that the company faces a “genuine risk of bankruptcy” if production doesn’t increase to support a high flight rate of the company’s new Starship rocket next year.
SpaceX is suppose to supply the rocket for a NASA moon mission, which will never happen, because Elon needs more money. Spend your own, rich boy.

He always pulls this "SLEEPING ON THE FACTORY FLOOR" bullshit.

"I was going to take this weekend off, as my first weekend off in a long time, but instead I will be on the Raptor line all night and through the weekend,” Musk wrote in the email. He also urged employees to come in for an “all hands on deck” situation unless they had critical family matters or could not “physically return to Hawthorne,” the location of SpaceX’s headquarters in California.
Whatever the merits of this sentiment, it's probably not the right approach at the moment.

Thursday Is New Jobless Day

222,000 new lucky duckies. Still in ok territory.

Thursday Morning

A new day filled with possibilities.

Wednesday, December 01, 2021

Wednesday Night

Rock on.

I Think My Opinion Is: "It's Bad"

Sometimes things are a bit too depressing and I don't really have anything to add, but on SCOTUS and Roe.... Well, it's bad. The good guys, when in power, made a series of bad decisions and here we are.

Happy Hour

Finally, your one hour of happy.

How They Fall

The kids won't remember, of course, but once upon a time Lara Logan seemed like one of the better journalists, someone who reported on our glorious imperial adventures with a bit more depth and skepticism than the rest of them.

Afternoon Thread

Still busy.

Trump'd

Unsurprisingly, Trump had a positive Covid test before the debate with Biden and spent the next several days infecting everybody.

I suppose it would be too much to ask of journalists (some who were infected!) to go back and see what they were told at the time by sources who undoubtedly knew the truth.

I suppose it would.

Lunch Thread

A bit busy today!

These Are Not Very Bright Guys, And Things Got Out Of Hand

That's the line from the All The President's Men movie, but I think it could be applied to all of our post-WWII military and adjacent foreign policy adventures. Not very bright guys running the most massive military power in the history of the world.

One thing about social media is that very many people do not obey the simple rule of, "never tweet," and we see quite regularly how most of our elites are, in fact, not very bright guys.

I've Been Trying To Explain The New York Times To People For Years And He Just Tweeted It Out

Clyde isn't just Maggie's Dad, he was at the Times forever.

(ht reader TW)

A lot to work with here ("fell into some trouble" lol), but I would submit that most of us would not actually do what Chris Cuomo did, or anything analogous, to help our "brothers." Sure I would help my brother, but I wouldn't do *that* to help my brother. Make sure he had a good lawyer. Help him figure out how to stop abusing people. That kind of thing.

And the point here isn't simply, "oh, well, family is family, you can sympathize a bit," it's "since you can sympathize a bit, it seems a bit harsh for the man to be suspended from his job." This is "there should be no consequences for people who are, in many ways, qwhite like me."

This is something I would do myself, therefore it isn't really wrong and there should be no negative consequences for it. QED. Boom!

Who amongst us would not abuse our power to smear victims of sexual harassment and assault (whatever "groping" would legally be in your jurisdiction)? Disobeying my employer's rules and edicts and lying to them? Why would we ask for anything different from the most powerful people in the country? And should we really face consequences for that? Famiglia.

What would elite journalists do to protect their families and people in their close social circles? People who they cover, but are also quite friendly with, even party with and see on vacation? What happens in the Hamptons... Believe people when they tell you who they are.

Birds of a feather.
Tucker Carlson praises Chris Cuomo: “It may have been the best thing he ever did”
...(yglesias deleted that tweet, because the top troll game these days is to troll, and then act the victim when people read your provocations and get provoked)

Wednesday Morning

The morning of Wednesday.

Tuesday, November 30, 2021

Tuesday Night

Rock on.

Happy Hour

Tequila Tuesday.

Freak Show

Just a little, as a treat.

Fish Hook

Ingraham's just echoing the sentiment we've heard in endless articles, except making it political by pinning on Democrats instead of "liberals" generally.

Some people love covid, love not seeing anyone, love being isolated, want everyone else to suffer in that glorious fashion, and that's why we published dozens of articles about this based on the fact that some people were spotted wearing masks outside last July.

That was the party line from a certain clique of centrists, before they moved onto to "akshually, black people are the real racists."

Priorities Change

You don't have to perceive all old people as heartless bastards who don't care about their grandkids to understand that certain priorities are going to slip a little bit. Fighting for, say, proper school funding is something you're more likely to do when you have kids in school, or even just have peers who have kids in schools.

That doesn't mean people inevitably oppose these things as they age, just that they will fall down the list at least a little bit.

I'm less likely than I once was to get excited about new infrastructure projects (SUPERTRAINS!!!) than I was a few years ago, in part because, well, by the time they come online I'm going to be not quite as young as I used to be.

Small shifts in priorities as the population ages (and the median age of members of Congress) can easily lead to big shifts in actual policy outcomes.

Lunch Thread

No more turkey.

Technocracy

One part of the liberal governance agenda has been, for decades, to put our faith in experts and to stress the independence of government agencies. Sure you don't want expert advice to be corrupted, and you want some protection from the massive power of the federal government merely being at the whim of one man, but ultimately we do elect a boss and that boss needs to step in and tell them what to do sometimes.

Even the best most expert staffed agency filled with nothing but benevolent public-minded civil servants are only on one piece of the puzzle at a time, and sometimes an agenda needs to be comprehensive.

Of course there's no reason to assume such expertise and benevolence, and in fact maintaining a sense of independence moves corruption into the hands of much less accountable individuals.

Some happy balance exists, but I'm pretty sure that for a lot of things we're waaay off balance all in one direction.

Nothing guarantees the people running these shops are smartest than the average blogger.

You're Making Us Look Bad, Chris

Years ago, most of the press freaked out when Obama's people considered shutting out Fox. "One of our sister organizations," decreed Jake Tapper. And of course there's a case to be made that the White House should be open to a variety of outlets, even opinionated ones, maybe even ones with a clearer agenda than that, but that's very different than pointing to an outlet like Fox and saying, "They is us."

I'm regularly struck by who supposedly serious journalists include "in the club." It can be a big club, but some members degrade brand journalism quite a bit, to put it mildly.

In any case, if Chris Cuomo gets to remain in the club, then, well...

The Election is Over, Campaign Season Begins

I'm not entirely sure the "election every two years" thing was a good idea, and it certainly isn't a good idea in an era when a lot of segments of the political-media-industrial complex prefer the campaigns and talking about the campaigns to the actual governing part.

Tuesday Morning

Another month ending.

Monday, November 29, 2021

Monday Night

Rock on.

Happy Hour Thread

Get happy.

Oh Dear Time For Another Blogger Ethics Panel

Crazy what they get up to.
CNN host Chris Cuomo used his sources in the media world to seek information on women who accused his brother Andrew Cuomo, then the governor of New York, of sexual harassment, according to documents released Monday by the New York Attorney General’s Office.

Gotta Play The Game Well

Readers of this very fine blog know that I have spent a lot of time faulting our prestige media outlets for many sins, especially the fact that they've consistently rigged the game for one side.

Still it is the game, and you gotta suit up even for a rigged game.

I have various theories (there isn't one reason) about why they continue to be bad at it, but ultimately Dems can't expect the news outlets to do their job for them, and they can't expect a duck to be a swan.

No point in yelling "unfair" after the final buzzer, either. Too late then!