In yesterday’s forum, re musicians and mathematical literacy, Mimai wrote:
A lot of them are [mathematicians]….Brian May, Tom Lehrer, Dan Snaith, to name but a few.
The reverse also holds…..most notably, Einstein.
And that reminded me of this story about Einstein. He was to participate in charity concert with the New York Philharmonic playing the violin. Stokowski was conducting. Things didn’t go well at the rehearsal. In the piece they were rehearsing, Einstein would come in late for his solo, or he would come in early. Late, early. Early, late, etc. etc. Finally, Stokowski in exasperation, threw down his baton and yelled at him: “Goddamit Albert, can’t you count?!!!”
Feeding seaweed to cows is a viable long-term method to reduce the emission of planet-heating gases from their burps and flatulence, scientists have found.
Researchers who put a small amount of seaweed into the feed of cattle over the course of five months found that the new diet caused the bovines to belch out 82% less methane, a potent greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere.
The finding builds on previous research that showed that seaweed could reduce cows’ methane output over a shorter timespan. “We now have sound evidence that seaweed in cattle diet is effective at reducing greenhouse gases and that the efficacy does not diminish over time,” said Ermias Kebreab, director of the World Food Center and an agricultural scientist at University of California, Davis.
…………………
The next challenge, according to the researchers, will be finding ranchers enough supply of Asparagopsis taxiformis, a crimson marine grass that drifts on waves and tides, given there isn’t a bountiful supply of it available to farms.
“There is more work to be done, but we are very encouraged by these results,” Roque said. “We now have a clear answer to the question of whether seaweed supplements can sustainably reduce livestock methane emissions and its long-term effectiveness.”
@sam: That’s a great story. I was not familiar. If only Einstein had a middle name, Stokowski could have triple-name scolded him. Or he could have trolled him with a “Goddamit Albert Niels Einstein!”
@OzarkHillbilly:..Feeding seaweed to cows is a viable long-term method to reduce the emission of planet-heating gases from their burps and flatulence, scientists have found.
Take them down town to the Dairy Queen.
Carrageenan is a carbohydrate extracted from red seaweed. HuffPost
@Teve:
I know I’ve said this before–that a certain group of Trump-worshipers adore him for being a churl–but this is the clearest short illustration I’ve seen of the phenomenon. Good God, how can anyone think he’s “manly” in any sense of the word?
@CSK: “American Thinker” has long been a bastion of far-right lunacy. For example, it’s the source of the theory that Obama’s Dreams from my Father was ghostwritten by Bill Ayers.
But I must disagree that the piece to which you link is the most delusional piece around. For one thing, it does admit Trump lost the 2020 election. That’s a pretty big admission among this crowd, one which you don’t usually see. I almost suspect the slobbering sycophancy is an overcompensation to avoid being labeled as a closet Deep Stater.
Yet with Donald Trump there’s never really an end. He’s been battered and bruised and knocked down time and again, but has always picked himself up to fight another day.
The Art of the Comeback.
This is just one more setback in his tumultuous yet extraordinary life. And the biggest mistake his critics and rivals have fallen into over the years was to underestimate him. One way or another, he always comes back. The harder he falls, the bigger the comeback. And this time his comeback will be the biggest of all.
Stay tuned.
For people who just can not let go. His health is deteriorating, there is no way he ever comes back. So – at what point does reality ever break through?
James Joyner wrote: “long after we’ve come to understand that the virus isn’t spread by coming in contact with objects…”
When did we come to understand this and is it even true that the virus is not spread by contact with virus contaminated objects?
Allowing that fomite contact is not the prevalent SARS transmission mode; I would challenge the notion that sharing used facial tissues or masks between infected and non-infected persons is not highly problematic.
As to passing a basketball between students, normally the risk ought to be low. OTOH, when a student sneezes on said basket ball, I, for one, would not accept that pass.
Seventy-three House Democrats have co-sponsored a resolution to expel Marjorie Taylor Greene. Jimmy Gomez, who will be introducing the resolution today, says that he spoke to some Republicans who supported the idea, but were unwilling to say so publicly for fear of threats of violence.
@charon:
Reality will never break through for some of them, I suppose, including Trump himself. I read in Vanity Fair this morning that no publisher will touch Trump’s presidential memoirs with a ten-foot pole, but that there are at least 2 dozen books coming out about him. Trump is cooperating with the authors, including Michael Wolff, who’s already written two scathing books about DJT. Apparently he wants to get his side of the story out.
For people who just can not let go. His health is deteriorating, there is no way he ever comes back. So – at what point does reality ever break through?
Except to play golf, he’s made, maybe one appearance somewhere at CPAC and an interview on Fox? Even his public statements have been few and far between. It raises the question as to whether there will be an effort to go out and promote the Trump brand. Mostly he seems content to be a greeter at Mar-a-lago and fret about his legal and civil liabilities.
Trump resembles more a punch drunk ex-boxer than an on his game, ready for prime time athlete.
It is a common refrain amongst small-c conservatives (i.e. people who believe it is best to preserve the status quo whenever possible, and that big changes are best dealt with gradually) that progress in civil rights should only come once you have won over the hearts and minds of those denying those civil rights, and those who suffer should resist the temptation to go to the courts as it won’t be a “real” victory. Rather, they should convince the citizens to vote… well I’m not sure where it all goes from here. It’s always seemed a crock of sh*t to me.
And here’s an example of how it turns out in practice when he racists get to write, and change, the rules at will. This is taking place in Tennessee, as racist a state as you can find. For years, decent people have objected to the fact that there is a frickin’ statue of the founder of the frickin’ Ku Klux Klan on display in the State Capitol building! Don’t for one second delude yourself that this is some ancient monument, as it was erected in the 1970’s to make it clear to the darkies that civil rights was not coming to Tennessee. And for years the incredibly racist Tennessee Republican Party has used one excuse after another to prevent that statue coming down, and when the tide turned against their foul hearts they started moving the goalposts. Finally they set up a 20+ person commission to spend years “studying” the issue, no doubt secure they could keep it in disarray endlessly. But that commission has finally ruled and voted overwhelmingly to send the Klansman to the ash heap of history.
But as we well know by now, Republicans will not accept any process, democratic or otherwise that takes away power from the privileged. So they are in the process of firing all the commissioners and starting over with ones appointed by them.
I don’t normally condone violence, but I would be happy to send money for the legal defense of some decent SOB who took a sledgehammer to that POS Klansman.
From TPM
defenders of the state’s neo-Confederate monuments have succeeded in the past in making it really difficult to remove those monuments. Really difficult. But opponents have not been deterred and have succeeded in jumping through all the hoops and are poised to get the bust of KKK founder Nathan Bedford Forrest removed from the state capitol.
…
Republican lawmakers sprung into action the following day, scheduling the bill to replace the commission for a committee hearing this week.
On Wednesday, the Tennessee State Government Operations Committee voted 5-4 to advance legislation that would entirely replace the commission’s members, and shrink it to a 12-person panel appointed by the governor and the leaders of the state House and Senate, all of whom are Republicans.
That Trump character in the article sounds like quite the guy. Maybe you should have elected him instead of the idiot with the same name who won in 2016?
@Sleeping Dog: I wouldn’t rule out a resurgent Trump. Based on what he did after his many past failures, I was expecting that he would drop out of sight as much as possible for some time, just keeping a toe in the water with favorable outlets. It’s what he’s done after every self inflicted catastrophe. And even one that you really can’t blame him for: the tanking of the ratings of “The Apprentice”. Although it was never as popular a show as he claimed it did have a couple of episodes early on that ranked high in viewership for that night, and then a steady decline set in. By the time the show went off the air it wasn’t even showing up in the top 100 lists for that week. But that’s a normal progression for a show, especially a gimmicky, cheap to produce reality show like this. But when it was finally cancelled, he dropped out of sight and rarely talked about it again for a while, other than to say he was “moving on”. He didn’t start bringing it up again until peoples memories had faded and he could start peddling nonsense about it being the number one show.
@CSK: @Northerner: It’s in roughly the same genre as that right-wing painter, and that cartoonist (Garrison?) who always make Trump look better than in real life–slimmer, younger, with normal-looking hair. I’m not even sure it’s self-delusion on the part of those who produce these pieces; it brings more to mind the state propaganda you see in North Korea and similar tinpot dictatorships.
For people who just can not let go. His health is deteriorating, there is no way he ever comes back. So – at what point does reality ever break through?
Never.
Remember Hugo Chavez? He had cancer, which was known publicly. It was known he got treatment in Cuba. Yet when he succumbed to it, which is common in many cancer cases, many of his faithful followers cried he was murdered.
@charon: Sure, but even a senile dotard can have delusions of grandeur. And even if he becomes incapable of counting the money pouring in from the suckers, his family and handlers can.
I suspect it will be a Frank Sinatra situation. He was the kind of guy who didn’t generate a whole lotta love and ruled his business associates and family with intimidation and anger. So when he became senile the enterprise had no compunction about dressing him in a tuxedo and sending him out on tour. I’ve seen videos of him standing on stage, rambling, not sure where he is or what he’s talking about. The band strikes up an number and he starts singing. He was an *sshole, but it’s still sad.
He may try, but most likely he will be the political equivalent of Willy Mays stumbling around in the Mets outfield at the end of his career. A good argument can be made that he lost his bid for reelection because his political instincts abandoned him and he couldn’t make a course correction when what had worked, stopped working.
He has a lot of legal issues including civil actions. Even is he avoids getting dragged into court he will have to give depositions – health issues will be hard to hide.
@MarkedMan: The bust of Nathan Bedford Forrest should be in a museum, as part of an exhibition on the civil rights movement and the reaction to it, so I wouldn’t support permanent harm to it.
The moment that statue goes down, the Republicans are going to pretend that it never existed, and they had nothing to do with it, and we need to preserve that history of their open embrace of racism.
However, I think every day that goes by where someone doesn’t put a Klan hood on it is a shame.
A good argument can be made that he lost his bid for reelection because his political instincts abandoned him and he couldn’t make a course correction when what had worked, stopped working.
Maybe. My sense is that the outcome to 2020 can be explained in other ways. There were significant thematic differences between his two campaigns–in 2016 he struck a much more populist note, and in 2020 he leaned more into traditional leftist-baiting. In 2016 he didn’t have a record as an incumbent. But it’s also important to realize that the effects of these changes were complex. He actually gained votes relative to 2016. It’s just that the Dems gained more, due to being more on their game.
I’m not sure if any of that had to do with any changes to his political instincts–I think it’s pretty much all a predictable consequence of Trump being Trump in the face of a different situation. Some of his problems stemmed from his inability to adapt to the new circumstances, and his old tricks being exposed as stale.
@Kathy:
Trump voodoo dolls are for sale on Etsy and Amazon, among other places. A woman in Orlando, Florida is selling them to benefit her local food pantry.
There are a lot of reasons he lost, the good thing, is that he did.
True, but I think exploring the reasons why can be useful for the future. For one thing, I definitely think it points to the importance of Democratic turnout. I don’t think we primarily won by converting Trumpists to our side; we won by making sure we voted.
I also think it’s an open question whether the people Trump won over from previous elections–both the Obama-to-Trump crowd and the nonvoters–stay with the GOP in future elections if Trump is no longer the nominee. There’s also the flip-side–whether Republicans who crossed to our side in the Trump era will return to the GOP now that he’s (for now) gone.
@Kylopod:
With respect to your penultimate point: I’ve previously mentioned an article I read that described first-time voters in Mississippi–people who were in their forties and fifties who’d sat out all prior presidential elections. Trump brought them to the polls in 2016, and maybe in 2020. They may not return if he’s not on the ballot.
There are doubtless similar cases in other states.
@CSK: I’ve seen such stories. I think the one that made the biggest impression was in appalachia. Maybe WV? An awful lot of people in that region have been disaffected R/T voting for decades. Since Wallace.
Turnout is a huge issue. Dems continually get creamed in non presidential elections because significant numbers of Dem voters don’t vote. While in 2020 too many Biden voters only voted against Trump and not for Dems down ballot.
My money is on Trump deciding his life was much happier before becoming POTUS. He will, of course, continue to half-assedly bilk the suckers for money as long as he can. He has significant legal and monetary issues in front of him, his old banker has disowned him….it’s a mess, and his golf schedule? That gig really messed with it.
A curious thing about the ending of the Wizard of Oz: When exposed as a humbug the great and powerful Oz was not tarred and feathered, instead he was honored by his adoring public and that feature of the plot raises no eyebrows. We all hate to admit it when we’ve been had.
What’s remarkable is that Bush wasn’t the head of the Republican Party all that long ago! We’re not talking about someone who led the GOP in the 1970s or 1980s. Bush was president in the 2000s — and was the last Republican elected president before Trump won in 2016. Less than a decade separate Bush’s presidency from Trump’s. And yet, Bush’s version of what it means to be a Republican is unrecognizable from where the GOP stands today.
I’ve seen such stories. I think the one that made the biggest impression was in appalachia. Maybe WV? An awful lot of people in that region have been disaffected R/T voting for decades. Since Wallace.
In cases like that it’s hard to know how much of that is uniquely a Trump phenomenon versus the continuation of trends that had been happening long before he appeared. WV has been trending red since 1996, with every Republican nominee doing better in the state than in the previous election–until 2020, when Biden did slightly better than Hillary but worse than any Dem before her. The biggest jump in Republican support between two elections wasn’t the one between 2012 and 2016–it was the one between 1996 and 2000, where it went from a 15-point Democratic victory to a 6-point Republican one, a jump of 21 points in the GOP’s direction.
Before 2000, WV had been considered one of the most reliably Democratic states in the country. It even stuck with the Dems during big GOP landslides, like 1980 and 1988. That all changed in 2000, and one of the theories is that Al Gore’s environmental advocacy played poorly in coal country.
14 House Republicans voted against a resolution condemning the military coup in Myanmar, per @kristin__wilson:
Lauren Boebert
Andy Biggs
Matt Gaetz
Tom Massie
Ken Buck
Mary Miller
Chip Roy
Jodey Hice
Alex Mooney
Scott Perry
Andy Harris
Ted Budd
Barry Moore
Marjorie Taylor Greene
A curious thing about the ending of the Wizard of Oz: When exposed as a humbug the great and powerful Oz was not tarred and feathered, instead he was honored by his adoring public and that feature of the plot raises no eyebrows. We all hate to admit it when we’ve been had.
I don’t think we primarily won by converting Trumpists to our side; we won by making sure we voted.
Absolutely.
Republicans have for years been more diligent voters. When I worked in politics, we always knew that in special elections, even if the weather was crap we had an edge.
The idea that Democrats could become as dedicated voters as Republicans currently are is exactly why we’re seeing all of these attempts to make voting harder. It infuriates me.
@CSK: Non-westerners don’t have much respect for pussies, that’s why they brush Biden off as the doting old fart that he is.
Great job electing a mentally failing corrupt racist/misogynist as the leader of the free world.
He’s a joke, how many times does he get to fall before y’all realize he’s ancient and feeble?
I guess it’s a crisis now? Maybe if Biden sent all these line cutters to the sanctuary cities they’d wake tf up? And when Mayorkas says publicly that he won’t send kids back across the border he essentially invited more. Great job everyone, we knew this was coming but apparently the administration didn’t.
@Bill:
If, indeed, you are replying to my link to the American Thinker piece–Kylopod has kindly pointed that out, and I think he’s correct–what on earth does my reaction to and citation of a laughably sycophantic article about Trump have to do with Joe Biden and how foreign leaders react to him?
Additionally, I’m not sure what you mean by “doting” old fart. Were you intending to say “doddering”?
Honestly, as said above: the irony meter has exploded. You’ve seen this video, right? He was supposed to get in that big, large, vehicle *right in front of him.* You remember the ramp he couldn’t manage, right? Or holding Teresa May’s hand to manage steps?
You don’t have permission to comment on anyone’s lucidity.
PS–I got my heel caught once in an elevator track, fell, and launched across the marble floor of the Missouri Capitol building. I was 28. Unsurprisingly, people do trip on occasion.
@Jen:
In 2017, Trump also summoned a golf cart to transport him 700 yards while the other G-7 leaders who managed to hike 700 yards waited for him to appear for a group shot in Taormina. The emperor must ride in style.
@CSK: um, who cares what kind of fart he is, he can’t negotiate stairs…..but sure, he’s your guy! keep scraping that barrel….it’s like your grandfather who tries to read the captions on the tv in the nursing home, and insists that he’s got it together. And yes, he’s the “leader of the free world”…thx to retards like you.
@Bill: Ohhhh, hey, isn’t tomorrow the “next” big day when Trump is supposed to be inaugurated again? Are you all prepped up and ready for your super fearless, never trips over anything and can DEFINITELY walk down a ramp, stairs and 700 yards without a golf cart or guide to take power again? And there’s supposed to be some resignations and flights to Gitmo, right? Do you have any idea what time that’s supposed to go down?
I damn near forgot, I was too busy watching funny cat videos.
In yesterday’s forum, re musicians and mathematical literacy, Mimai wrote:
And that reminded me of this story about Einstein. He was to participate in charity concert with the New York Philharmonic playing the violin. Stokowski was conducting. Things didn’t go well at the rehearsal. In the piece they were rehearsing, Einstein would come in late for his solo, or he would come in early. Late, early. Early, late, etc. etc. Finally, Stokowski in exasperation, threw down his baton and yelled at him: “Goddamit Albert, can’t you count?!!!”
Feeding cows seaweed could cut their methane emissions by 82%, scientists say
@sam: That’s a great story. I was not familiar. If only Einstein had a middle name, Stokowski could have triple-name scolded him. Or he could have trolled him with a “Goddamit Albert Niels Einstein!”
Wonder if the seaweed stuff will work on the wife?
Steve
@OzarkHillbilly:..Feeding seaweed to cows is a viable long-term method to reduce the emission of planet-heating gases from their burps and flatulence, scientists have found.
Take them down town to the Dairy Queen.
I don’t believe I’ve ever read anything more delusional:
http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2021/03/the_trump_swagger.html
@CSK: celebrating being an asshole.
@Teve:
I know I’ve said this before–that a certain group of Trump-worshipers adore him for being a churl–but this is the clearest short illustration I’ve seen of the phenomenon. Good God, how can anyone think he’s “manly” in any sense of the word?
@CSK: “American Thinker” has long been a bastion of far-right lunacy. For example, it’s the source of the theory that Obama’s Dreams from my Father was ghostwritten by Bill Ayers.
But I must disagree that the piece to which you link is the most delusional piece around. For one thing, it does admit Trump lost the 2020 election. That’s a pretty big admission among this crowd, one which you don’t usually see. I almost suspect the slobbering sycophancy is an overcompensation to avoid being labeled as a closet Deep Stater.
@CSK:
From your linky:
For people who just can not let go. His health is deteriorating, there is no way he ever comes back. So – at what point does reality ever break through?
James Joyner wrote: “long after we’ve come to understand that the virus isn’t spread by coming in contact with objects…”
When did we come to understand this and is it even true that the virus is not spread by contact with virus contaminated objects?
Allowing that fomite contact is not the prevalent SARS transmission mode; I would challenge the notion that sharing used facial tissues or masks between infected and non-infected persons is not highly problematic.
As to passing a basketball between students, normally the risk ought to be low. OTOH, when a student sneezes on said basket ball, I, for one, would not accept that pass.
@steve: I have lost my household championship in that area to my cheese-loving, mildly lactose intolerant daughter…
Seventy-three House Democrats have co-sponsored a resolution to expel Marjorie Taylor Greene. Jimmy Gomez, who will be introducing the resolution today, says that he spoke to some Republicans who supported the idea, but were unwilling to say so publicly for fear of threats of violence.
@charon:
Reality will never break through for some of them, I suppose, including Trump himself. I read in Vanity Fair this morning that no publisher will touch Trump’s presidential memoirs with a ten-foot pole, but that there are at least 2 dozen books coming out about him. Trump is cooperating with the authors, including Michael Wolff, who’s already written two scathing books about DJT. Apparently he wants to get his side of the story out.
@Kylopod:
I thought the slobbering would have subsided a bit by now. Obviously I was mistaken.
@charon:
Except to play golf, he’s made, maybe one appearance somewhere at CPAC and an interview on Fox? Even his public statements have been few and far between. It raises the question as to whether there will be an effort to go out and promote the Trump brand. Mostly he seems content to be a greeter at Mar-a-lago and fret about his legal and civil liabilities.
Trump resembles more a punch drunk ex-boxer than an on his game, ready for prime time athlete.
It is a common refrain amongst small-c conservatives (i.e. people who believe it is best to preserve the status quo whenever possible, and that big changes are best dealt with gradually) that progress in civil rights should only come once you have won over the hearts and minds of those denying those civil rights, and those who suffer should resist the temptation to go to the courts as it won’t be a “real” victory. Rather, they should convince the citizens to vote… well I’m not sure where it all goes from here. It’s always seemed a crock of sh*t to me.
And here’s an example of how it turns out in practice when he racists get to write, and change, the rules at will. This is taking place in Tennessee, as racist a state as you can find. For years, decent people have objected to the fact that there is a frickin’ statue of the founder of the frickin’ Ku Klux Klan on display in the State Capitol building! Don’t for one second delude yourself that this is some ancient monument, as it was erected in the 1970’s to make it clear to the darkies that civil rights was not coming to Tennessee. And for years the incredibly racist Tennessee Republican Party has used one excuse after another to prevent that statue coming down, and when the tide turned against their foul hearts they started moving the goalposts. Finally they set up a 20+ person commission to spend years “studying” the issue, no doubt secure they could keep it in disarray endlessly. But that commission has finally ruled and voted overwhelmingly to send the Klansman to the ash heap of history.
But as we well know by now, Republicans will not accept any process, democratic or otherwise that takes away power from the privileged. So they are in the process of firing all the commissioners and starting over with ones appointed by them.
I don’t normally condone violence, but I would be happy to send money for the legal defense of some decent SOB who took a sledgehammer to that POS Klansman.
From TPM
@CSK:
That Trump character in the article sounds like quite the guy. Maybe you should have elected him instead of the idiot with the same name who won in 2016?
Dogs,man. Fair warning, that video is a dust factory.
@Sleeping Dog: I wouldn’t rule out a resurgent Trump. Based on what he did after his many past failures, I was expecting that he would drop out of sight as much as possible for some time, just keeping a toe in the water with favorable outlets. It’s what he’s done after every self inflicted catastrophe. And even one that you really can’t blame him for: the tanking of the ratings of “The Apprentice”. Although it was never as popular a show as he claimed it did have a couple of episodes early on that ranked high in viewership for that night, and then a steady decline set in. By the time the show went off the air it wasn’t even showing up in the top 100 lists for that week. But that’s a normal progression for a show, especially a gimmicky, cheap to produce reality show like this. But when it was finally cancelled, he dropped out of sight and rarely talked about it again for a while, other than to say he was “moving on”. He didn’t start bringing it up again until peoples memories had faded and he could start peddling nonsense about it being the number one show.
@CSK: @Northerner: It’s in roughly the same genre as that right-wing painter, and that cartoonist (Garrison?) who always make Trump look better than in real life–slimmer, younger, with normal-looking hair. I’m not even sure it’s self-delusion on the part of those who produce these pieces; it brings more to mind the state propaganda you see in North Korea and similar tinpot dictatorships.
@Northerner:
“Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world like a colossus. And we petty men walk under his huge legs and peep about…”
@Sleeping Dog:
Not part of “the Reality-Based Community.”
I find most Bulwark stuff pretty trite, but I did like this piece:
https://thebulwark.com/conservative-fanboys/
@Kylopod:
Yes, it’s precisely like state propaganda. Jon McNaughton is the painter you’re thinking of.
@MarkedMan:
I would. He is in a race against senile dementia, that is not a winnable race.
@charon:
That’s exactly what the Trumpkins say about Biden.
@charon:
Never.
Remember Hugo Chavez? He had cancer, which was known publicly. It was known he got treatment in Cuba. Yet when he succumbed to it, which is common in many cancer cases, many of his faithful followers cried he was murdered.
@charon: Sure, but even a senile dotard can have delusions of grandeur. And even if he becomes incapable of counting the money pouring in from the suckers, his family and handlers can.
I suspect it will be a Frank Sinatra situation. He was the kind of guy who didn’t generate a whole lotta love and ruled his business associates and family with intimidation and anger. So when he became senile the enterprise had no compunction about dressing him in a tuxedo and sending him out on tour. I’ve seen videos of him standing on stage, rambling, not sure where he is or what he’s talking about. The band strikes up an number and he starts singing. He was an *sshole, but it’s still sad.
@Kylopod: i love me some Ben Garrison cartoons. That guy’s a loon.
Here’s an article about Sinatra’s last years performing.
@MarkedMan:
He may try, but most likely he will be the political equivalent of Willy Mays stumbling around in the Mets outfield at the end of his career. A good argument can be made that he lost his bid for reelection because his political instincts abandoned him and he couldn’t make a course correction when what had worked, stopped working.
@MarkedMan:
That was…melancholy.
@MarkedMan:
He has a lot of legal issues including civil actions. Even is he avoids getting dragged into court he will have to give depositions – health issues will be hard to hide.
@MarkedMan: The bust of Nathan Bedford Forrest should be in a museum, as part of an exhibition on the civil rights movement and the reaction to it, so I wouldn’t support permanent harm to it.
The moment that statue goes down, the Republicans are going to pretend that it never existed, and they had nothing to do with it, and we need to preserve that history of their open embrace of racism.
However, I think every day that goes by where someone doesn’t put a Klan hood on it is a shame.
This made me laugh:
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/news/trump-wax-statue-put-in-museum-storage-after-it-kept-getting-punched
@Sleeping Dog:
Maybe. My sense is that the outcome to 2020 can be explained in other ways. There were significant thematic differences between his two campaigns–in 2016 he struck a much more populist note, and in 2020 he leaned more into traditional leftist-baiting. In 2016 he didn’t have a record as an incumbent. But it’s also important to realize that the effects of these changes were complex. He actually gained votes relative to 2016. It’s just that the Dems gained more, due to being more on their game.
I’m not sure if any of that had to do with any changes to his political instincts–I think it’s pretty much all a predictable consequence of Trump being Trump in the face of a different situation. Some of his problems stemmed from his inability to adapt to the new circumstances, and his old tricks being exposed as stale.
@CSK:
Hmm. Marketing opportunity: Trump voodoo dolls.
@Kathy:
Trump voodoo dolls are for sale on Etsy and Amazon, among other places. A woman in Orlando, Florida is selling them to benefit her local food pantry.
@Kathy:
@CSK:
“Trump voodoo dolls”
Given what he has looked like in recent pictures, the voodoo maybe working.
@Kylopod:
There are a lot of reasons he lost, the good thing, is that he did.
@Sleeping Dog:
True, but I think exploring the reasons why can be useful for the future. For one thing, I definitely think it points to the importance of Democratic turnout. I don’t think we primarily won by converting Trumpists to our side; we won by making sure we voted.
I also think it’s an open question whether the people Trump won over from previous elections–both the Obama-to-Trump crowd and the nonvoters–stay with the GOP in future elections if Trump is no longer the nominee. There’s also the flip-side–whether Republicans who crossed to our side in the Trump era will return to the GOP now that he’s (for now) gone.
@Kylopod:
With respect to your penultimate point: I’ve previously mentioned an article I read that described first-time voters in Mississippi–people who were in their forties and fifties who’d sat out all prior presidential elections. Trump brought them to the polls in 2016, and maybe in 2020. They may not return if he’s not on the ballot.
There are doubtless similar cases in other states.
@CSK: I’ve seen such stories. I think the one that made the biggest impression was in appalachia. Maybe WV? An awful lot of people in that region have been disaffected R/T voting for decades. Since Wallace.
@Kylopod:
Turnout is a huge issue. Dems continually get creamed in non presidential elections because significant numbers of Dem voters don’t vote. While in 2020 too many Biden voters only voted against Trump and not for Dems down ballot.
My money is on Trump deciding his life was much happier before becoming POTUS. He will, of course, continue to half-assedly bilk the suckers for money as long as he can. He has significant legal and monetary issues in front of him, his old banker has disowned him….it’s a mess, and his golf schedule? That gig really messed with it.
A curious thing about the ending of the Wizard of Oz: When exposed as a humbug the great and powerful Oz was not tarred and feathered, instead he was honored by his adoring public and that feature of the plot raises no eyebrows. We all hate to admit it when we’ve been had.
George W. Bush is unrecognizable in the current Republican Party
@JohnMcC:
In cases like that it’s hard to know how much of that is uniquely a Trump phenomenon versus the continuation of trends that had been happening long before he appeared. WV has been trending red since 1996, with every Republican nominee doing better in the state than in the previous election–until 2020, when Biden did slightly better than Hillary but worse than any Dem before her. The biggest jump in Republican support between two elections wasn’t the one between 2012 and 2016–it was the one between 1996 and 2000, where it went from a 15-point Democratic victory to a 6-point Republican one, a jump of 21 points in the GOP’s direction.
Before 2000, WV had been considered one of the most reliably Democratic states in the country. It even stuck with the Dems during big GOP landslides, like 1980 and 1988. That all changed in 2000, and one of the theories is that Al Gore’s environmental advocacy played poorly in coal country.
WTF
@dazedandconfused:
It helps that the guy was likable.
@Kylopod:
Absolutely.
Republicans have for years been more diligent voters. When I worked in politics, we always knew that in special elections, even if the weather was crap we had an edge.
The idea that Democrats could become as dedicated voters as Republicans currently are is exactly why we’re seeing all of these attempts to make voting harder. It infuriates me.
A guy at a town hall asks Lauren Boebert if we’re ever going to see Hillary and other Dems perp walked for their crimes.
Promoting QAnon-linked Conspiracy, Boebert Says Resignations Will Soon Allow GOP to Control CongressThe audio is incredible. As soon as she says that the crowd of nimrods bursts into applause.
@CSK: Non-westerners don’t have much respect for pussies, that’s why they brush Biden off as the doting old fart that he is.
Great job electing a mentally failing corrupt racist/misogynist as the leader of the free world.
He’s a joke, how many times does he get to fall before y’all realize he’s ancient and feeble?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/politics/biden-stumbles-loses-footing-climbing-steps-to-air-force-one/2021/03/19/e5f3e679-f127-4080-8c86-73c6dba33e1a_video.html
I guess it’s a crisis now? Maybe if Biden sent all these line cutters to the sanctuary cities they’d wake tf up? And when Mayorkas says publicly that he won’t send kids back across the border he essentially invited more. Great job everyone, we knew this was coming but apparently the administration didn’t.
https://www.kmov.com/news/homeland-security-secretary-mayorkas-tells-lawmakers-the-border-is-not-open-amid-migrant-surge/article_54df7d09-40c4-5bac-8b88-0355b99591ef.html
@Bill:
What comment of mine is it to which you’re responding? The button doesn’t work for me.
@CSK: It’s a reply to your comment linking to the American Thinker piece.
@Bill:
My irony meter just wrapped itself around the peg, caught fire, and melted.
@DrDaveT: Fer real. I’m beginning to suspect poor bill probably has the posters of Trump as Rambo and Superman on his walls.
@Bill:
If, indeed, you are replying to my link to the American Thinker piece–Kylopod has kindly pointed that out, and I think he’s correct–what on earth does my reaction to and citation of a laughably sycophantic article about Trump have to do with Joe Biden and how foreign leaders react to him?
Additionally, I’m not sure what you mean by “doting” old fart. Were you intending to say “doddering”?
This is my shocked face.
https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-coronavirus-pandemic-mar-a-lago-32a7a9694c1f738eef6af6d3fc6e5aa1
@Kylopod:
I’m sure he’ll get around to giving Mitch a mechanical heart, Gohmert a diploma, and Lyndsey Graham a medal…Any day now…
@Jax: Just came here to post the same thing. No shock that Trump’s hangout is disease ridden too.
@Jax: @MarkedMan:
It’s the Beach Club (whatever that is; I’m sure it’s not the actual beach) and a la carte Dining Room that have been closed.
@Bill:
Honestly, as said above: the irony meter has exploded. You’ve seen this video, right? He was supposed to get in that big, large, vehicle *right in front of him.* You remember the ramp he couldn’t manage, right? Or holding Teresa May’s hand to manage steps?
You don’t have permission to comment on anyone’s lucidity.
PS–I got my heel caught once in an elevator track, fell, and launched across the marble floor of the Missouri Capitol building. I was 28. Unsurprisingly, people do trip on occasion.
@Jen:
In 2017, Trump also summoned a golf cart to transport him 700 yards while the other G-7 leaders who managed to hike 700 yards waited for him to appear for a group shot in Taormina. The emperor must ride in style.
@Bill:..Great job electing yada yada yada…
So you are conceding that President Joe Biden won the election and is the legitimate President of the United States and Trump is the loser.
@Jax: I read the linked article. It’s so sad that Taylor Dayne is reduced to singing at events at Trump resorts. She deserves better.-
@CSK: Wait… the others walked and still got there faster than he could drive a golf cart? WTF?
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
He had to wait around for a golf cart to become available and brought to him.
@CSK: CSK says:
Friday, March 19, 2021 at 12:15
This made me laugh:
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/news/trump-wax-statue-put-in-museum-storage-after-it-kept-getting-punched
that one –
@CSK: um, who cares what kind of fart he is, he can’t negotiate stairs…..but sure, he’s your guy! keep scraping that barrel….it’s like your grandfather who tries to read the captions on the tv in the nursing home, and insists that he’s got it together. And yes, he’s the “leader of the free world”…thx to retards like you.
@Bill: Ohhhh, hey, isn’t tomorrow the “next” big day when Trump is supposed to be inaugurated again? Are you all prepped up and ready for your super fearless, never trips over anything and can DEFINITELY walk down a ramp, stairs and 700 yards without a golf cart or guide to take power again? And there’s supposed to be some resignations and flights to Gitmo, right? Do you have any idea what time that’s supposed to go down?
I damn near forgot, I was too busy watching funny cat videos.