Thursday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Thursday, March 7, 2024
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88 comments
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a Professor of Political Science and a College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored
A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog).
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I’m curious about something. If I go to the NYT home page, these are the first four articles I see:
“How Trump’s Crushing Primary Triumph Masked Quiet Weaknesses” and when I click on the article, it opens with the same headline
“Psychologists say the looming rematch is prompting intense feelings of powerless and unease among Americans” and when I click on the article, it opens with a different headline “The Trump-Biden Rematch Is Here. Americans Are Processing”
“Mitch McConnell Endorses Trump, Whom He Once Denounced”, same headline when opened
“Read our fact check of Donald Trump’s Super Tuesday speech” and when I click on the article, it opens with a different headline “Trump’s Super Tuesday Speech: Assessing 10 False and Misleading Claims”
What do you guys see? You shouldn’t need a subscription to check headlines.
@MarkedMan:
I checked for you. All four were identical to what you found after clicking.
@MarkedMan: I don’t see anything. I don’t read the NYT.
Mostly because I’m poor but the quality has gone down too.
@Kurtz: I checked in private browsing mode and got the same thing. So they don’t appear to change the headlines based on your profile, or the order of the story. However, I’ve seen headlines change over time.
@MarkedMan:
The trump weakness article linked to the generic politics page for me. I didn’t bother w/the Moscow Mitch one. Me thinks that the whoever loads the articles didn’t have enough coffee. I finally reached the weakness article via Memeorandum.
They’ve either all changed, or I’m fed different stories. I see:
In State of Union, Biden will cheer the economy and draw a contrast with Trump
Here are six things to watch for during tonight’s address
Super PAC supporting Trump is airing an ad attacking President Biden over his age
These are the 20 guests who will sit with Jill Biden
In my experience, the headline I click on very often leads to a story with a different headline no matter what the site is.
Regarding the SOTU address – I am hoping that someone slips a sufficient amount of Prozac into the water bottles that Marjorie Taylor-Green and Lauren Boebert bring to the session.
@Jen: They’ve changed now for me too.
My look at the NYT’s headlines this morning was inspired by a thought I was having: We often blame businesses for giving us what we want. McDonalds is an obvious example. Incredibly successful, and they have kept a few healthy items on their menu despite them being money losers for decades. People complain about junk food and then go in a buy a Quarter King with Bacon Cheezbugga and a bowling ball sized mass of fries, and a soda pop the size of an umbrella stand.
On the media side, site after site that I go to has article after article that headlines as “What we get wrong about X”, “Why doing this X good thing will result in our doom”, and “Thing you care about is catastrophically threatened”. Should we blame the media? Maybe. But there are people there whose job it is to take the articles they are given and frame the headlines so they get the most clicks. We are rewarding them for giving us the most doom-saying headlines and in the next breath slamming them for doing that.
Your taxpayer dollars at work.
Republicans in a Texas county ditched technology and counted votes by hand. Here’s what happened.
@Jen: “They’ve either all changed, or I’m fed different stories. ”
The Times updates its digital front page every day at 6am. (Also throughout the day as news breaks, but 6 seems to be the official start time for the day…)
The heavy hand of God: Europe’s brutalist churches – in pictures
If you are into brutalist architecture (as I am) there’s some pretty cool stuff here.
I’d be really hard pressed to pick a favorite interior between L’Église Saint-Nicolas, and Władysław Pieńkowski’s Dominican church in Warsaw,
These people seem like swell human beings:
plus.thebulwark.com/p/taking-maga-death-threats-seriously
@OzarkHillbilly: To each his own, and private builders are free to build anything they want, but IMHO brutalism in public buildings causes too much disharmony and dissension. The god awful, hideously ugly Orange County Government Center in Goshen, NY is a perfect example. Every time I drove into that quant little Upstate New York village and saw that hulking concrete monstrosity centered in the middle, it made me sad for the people who lived there. They had been trying to get something, anything done about the eyesore, but the architectural community fought them every step of the way. Why should a public building, paid for by everyone, be built with a design that is off putting to such a large segment of the population?
@Charley in Cleveland: As long as you’re dreaming, why stop at prozac? I’m rooting for bath salts. I wonder if anyone will be able to tell the difference?
@Scott: Surprise, surprise, surprise!
@MarkedMan: Variety is the spice of life, and I enjoyed most of Ozark’s churches, but your example … yikes!
Reminds me of when the Pontiac Aztek came out. And while my father defended it, “everybody complains that cars all look the same these days, and then they complain when something different comes out …” I still had to argue that it was objectively ugly. And looking back at pictures of it now, it is still ugly. I was right.
Read All About It!
Just one click and this headline would have been relegated to the digital dustbin.
@MarkedMan: See, now, I have lots of thoughts about that story as presented. They are guesses, which are way worse than facts. They are questions.
Somebody hired that architect firm. Somebody who had seen their portfolio. Somebody looked at drawings and approved them. There’s a political process, the town council could have voted to scratch the plans and try again. It could not possibly have been only the architects fighting for the design.
And so, I seriously doubt that “everyone” in the town hates it. I like several kinds of art that many people do not like or understand. I’m ok with their not liking it, I just wish they were ok with me liking it.
I will note that the powerful reaction to these designs demonstrates that the designs are powerful. They make an impact, they are memorable, which is the point. One can make designs that make one feel good, but are forgotten the moment they are out of sight. One can also make designs that make one feel good and are memorable, but that is much, much harder to do.
I reject out of hand the idea that there even is such a thing as “objectively ugly”. Feel free to not like things, though. I’m not going to look down on you.
@Jay L Gischer: As I said, to each his own. I agree that “objectively ugly”. But the decision to go with brutalist architecture in 70’s was preceded by decades of controversy. This was deliberately sticking a finger in the eye of a large number of taxpayers. I still contend that public funds should not be used in this fashion.
For the record, my “objectively ugly” comment was tongue-in-cheek, but used to emphasize just how ugly I thought it was.
@CSK:
I’ve been wondering for a while now, what will it take to break a couple of these loons loose to start shooting people. I think on a fundamental level rightwing conservatives are cowards afraid of their own shadows. That’s why we they have this obsession with guns and machismo and nonsense. They make a lot of noise to cover up the fact that they are deathly afraid. Afraid of everything thing.
I thought that the loons that were trying to abduct Whitmer during the Pandy were going to be the ones to kick things off. I was kinda surprised they weren’t. What I worry about, and I hope to be proved wrong about, is that we are going to have a really hot summer, and guys like Carlson, Robinson and Trump spend all their time on tv telling the right wing that they 1. have to be afraid and 2. they should do something about it*. I’m worried some loon will decided to do something about it and that will inspire more. The incels are the most primed to do something bad. All it’s going to take is one.
*that’s a really ugly run on sentence. My brain no work gud todays.
@Franklin:
I was under the impression that Brutalist buildings were supposed to be objectively ugly. Brutally ugly. Isn’t that kinda the point.
For what its worth, I really hate them. UIC has an inverted triangle Brutalist building and you could feel it swaying in the wind at the top floors. I haaaated classes in there. Lol, good thing I didn’t get a masters in Russian history.
I think I accidentally swallowed a little vomit when I saw this:
“This is Martin Luther King on steroids,” Trump said of Robinson at a pre-Super Tuesday rally in North Carolina. “I told that to Mark. I said, I think you’re better than Martin Luther King. I think you are Martin Luther King times two,” he continued as he offered Robinson his endorsement in the Republican gubernatorial primary on Tuesday.
How could anyone who is black vote for this monstrosity?
@Beth: The sentence is fine. Stop beating yourself up.
@Beth:
“My brain no work gud todays.” Have you been taking elocution lessons from Melania Trump? 😀
I think about the possibility of violence, too, and that sooner or later someone, another Craig Robertson, will start shooting. Remember those two women on Jan 6 who videotaped themselves saying that they were “going to find Nancy Pelosi and put a bullet through that bitch’s brain”? Why this insane homicidal rage against someone they don’t even know?
Once a rapist, always a rapist, I suppose.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/tv/story/2024-03-07/stormy-documentary-donald-trump-peacock
I’ve always had the impression that Stormy wasn’t Trump’s willing partner.
@CSK: They’ve been taught to hate and to hate anyone not like them, and if they are not like them, they aren’t even human/American/etc.
@Beth:
Learn how to have fun with gramatical failures. When I go on a run-on sentence, I’ll add parenthetically at the end “run sentence, run!”
@OzarkHillbilly:
Yes, that explains the hate. Beth and I (and a lot of other people) are concerned with how that hatred will manifest itself.
@OzarkHillbilly:
South Pacific opened 75 years ago. Some things change; some things don’t.
@Scott:
I like many movie musicals but SP isn’t one of them. The yellow tinted cinematography, the uninspired casting that had to be dubbed and just too thin a plot.
ALW musicals suffer from thin plots on stage. For example, Phantom of the Opera that sort of dies after Masquerade.
Don’t get me started on Cats…..
Over the years I contributed to the building of a lot of… buildings. Most of which were not particularly memorable. Houses, office spaces, barracks, strip malls, churches, restaurants, gas stations, lecture halls, dorms, a few tall buildings, etc etc etc. Some were nice, some not so nice, but most were OK at least.
But a few… A few were just absolute monstrosities, cluttered up with damned near every architectural doodad they could shove into them, others just repetitious patterns through out as tho beating you over the head with a 2×4 (“See how clever I am???”). One thing I noticed is that the architects who designed these set pieces were the biggest pain in the asses who thought of themselves as first and foremost an *arteest extraordinaire* and to hell with functionality, so I have to wonder which I hated more, their designs or their egos.
For me, I can look at the great cathedrals of Europe,* appreciate them as unbelievable feats of engineering and be in awe of the craftsmanship that went into every inch of them. I recently watched a multi episode documentary on the rebuilding of Notre Dame and the over whelming emotion for me was, “Dawg, I would give my left nut to work on that.” At the same point when I look at them I can’t help thinking “Enough!”, like they just didn’t know how to turn off the spigot of praise for God and had to fill every nook and cranny.
** think FLWright or Gaudi wannabes
* I have only been to one, the Catedral de Mallorca in Palma, worth a stop if you ever go there, hopefully not on a Mediterranean cruise.
@MarkedMan: @Scott:
Goshen,
I have been there but a long time. Dad took me to the harness races there when I was 10 or 11.
Goshen is home to the Harness racing hall of fame. In the 1970’s my dad was co-owner* of horses with Bruce Nickells. Bruce, who is past 95 years of age and still alive, was inducted into that HOF in 2016. I’ve been to that HOF also.
Monticello, which isn’t too far from Goshen and where I have been to the harness races also, was the hometown of my cousin Catello Manzi aka Cat Man. Cat is in the HOF too.
One of my upcoming books** is set in and around Monticello. The father of one of my main characters trains horses there.
*- Their best horse was Fast Clip. Here’s a video of Clip finishing 2nd in the 1972 Little Brown Jug. The LBG is harness racing’s pacing equivalent of the Kentucky Derby. Clip broke the then record for 3yo pacer on a half mile track but still lost.
**- Book is about half written already. I have gone traditional publishing. My first such effort is being edited right now in preparation for sale, another finished ahead of deadline and next to be edited, and three more projects of which the harness racing set is one of them. 1- Yakuza, 2- aliens crashing in Kansas, 3- horse racing and all LGBTQ sci-fi. Oh my!
@OzarkHillbilly:
Ozark,
Please don’t go Gomer Pile on us.
Marjorie Trailer Queen says she’ll “decide in the moment” whether to heckle Biden at the SOTU tonight.
@CSK: TBH, I think most of them are full of shit. Their loud talk is just bluster and lame attempts at being a “real man”. Since the Ferguson riots/marches my truck has been a rolling billboard of liberal causes. What set me off was a group of blacks decided to march to Jeff City and have a conversation with Gov. Jay Nixon (D). They took US Hwy 50 and when they reached the fine, picturesque, southern town of Rosebud, they were met with a crowd of racist 2nd rate drunken WWC wash outs yelling racist shit and waving confederate flags.
It pissed me off. I decided fuck it, and put “Black Lives Matter” in big bold black letters on the back of my truck fully expecting somebody to shoot out the glass at the first opportunity and…
Nothing.
One guy stopped in the Wally World parking lot and was about to warn me (he had a look of concern on his face) that maybe I didn’t want to do that here and took one look at my face and just said, “Have a nice day.” I did get hate honked and the finger once while pulling off of Hwy 50 and I came out of my truck so fast with a double one fingered salute that he just kept on driving.
I currently have Matthew 6:5-6, BLM, “Stop the Stupid”, and “Pro-Life My Ass” on my truck and nobody ever says or does anything one way or the other. Mind you, when I park my truck at a river access I put the back of the truck pointing into the woods, and I don’t advertise my political allegiances on the rural road in front of our house because, to put it as simply as I can, if somebody driving by thought to put a slug or 2 thru the upstairs window while my wife was home alone I would not be able to forgive myself. The same if I was at home with her.
I understand that the calculation is different for you, a woman, and even more so for Beth who is trans but if I, a broke down, arthritic, 5-8, pot bellied, old man can drive around openly giving the finger to all the resident MAGA heads and not have even one of them so much as look askance at me, I suspect you’re OK. Which is not to say you shouldn’t be aware of your surroundings.
25 years on the South Side of STL taught me that paying attention was the first step in avoiding trouble. After awhile it just became natural.
@Bill Jempty: Too late! 🙂
Drip. Drip. Drip.
Poll released today. Biden 47 0- Trump 44
March 2024 National Poll: Trump 45%, Biden 45%Haley Primary Voters Break for Biden over Trump in General Election
@OzarkHillbilly:
How far do you live from Sikeston, Dexter, or Poplar Bluff, MO? I have relatives in all three.
@EddieInCA: I’ll be honest and just say I don’t pay attention to the polls anymore. Things have changed and they have not yet adjusted to this brave new world they are trying to get the pulse of. They have all been wrong these last few years in both big ways and small. I’d like to hope Biden’s team is aware of these short comings and not repeating them in their own internal polls but awareness of one’s shortcomings is not a natural thing for many humans.
@OzarkHillbilly:
For the most part I agree with you. But it will be interesting as we get closer to watch the polls change. Anyone truly paying attention has noticed a definite upward trend with Biden’s polling. But what’s maddening is the media trumpets the polls showing Trump winning, and underreport those polls showing Trump losing. Does anyone here actually know that Biden is leading in three of the five most recent national polls? Because if political junkies like you all don’t know it, what are the odds the regular folk know it?
I’m curious as to how long it will take the narrative to change.
@OzarkHillbilly:
You’re quite right, of course, and I do believe what you say applies to 99% of MAGAs. I have no fear for myself, not because I’m especially brave but because I avoid any situation in which I could antagonize certain people. It’s a different situation for Beth, because her very existence drives some morons into a frenzy.
@EddieInCA: I’m in Washington County, about 80 miles south and west of STL. Sikeston, Dexter, and Poplar Bluff, are practically in the Boot Heel, about 70 miles or so to my south and east. I don’t spend much time in that area, tho I did once get sewn back together at the Poplar Bluff hospital after a dog attack (my 10 yo self’s fault), and everybody’s been to Lambert’s in Sikeston so they can get plunked in the head with a badly thrown roll at least once.
@just nutha:
@CSK:
@Kathy:
So I was in, I wanna say second grade, might have been first, in like 1984. The freaking dark ages. The powers that be decided that I was “learning disabled”. Which was their nice way of saying retarded, which was a term that was still used. It couldn’t be that I was an abused queer kid with ADD* and gender dysphoria. Nope. I was stupid. Which was quite literally drilled into my head for the next 9 years. I was taken out of regular classes for part of the day and sent to a room to very slowly learn about commas and run on sentences. I have no idea how I learned how to write anything. I didn’t get out of special education until one day sophomore year when I threw a chair across the room at the chalkboard and a friend threatened to fight the malignant demon teach we had**. I told the assistant principal that I would make everyone’s life absolute hell if they didn’t pull me out of special education. The A. Principal knew I was serious because at that point I was wearing two 1.5 inch thick foot long chains on my wallet and fighting anyone that said anything shitty to me. At that point I was sick of being tortured at school by the special ed teacher and the students. Life was hell and if I was going down, everyone was coming with. This would have been 1994ish. Kids started shooting schools up in earnest a few years later. Anyway, I got pulled out and sent to regular classes. By senior year I was in two different honors classes; honors english and honors humanities. That english teacher was gay as hell. I’m sure he knew what was up with me right away.
So, even to this day, I use commas oddly and have a fear of run-on sentences.
*which is basically the precursor to the type of ADHD that I have.
** I wonder what Chuck is up to these days. We once blew up his mom’s microwave with an egg. We were terrible, but he had my back.
@CSK: Yes, it’s way different for Beth in ways I can’t begin to imagine.
Agreed. As to how long it will take for the narrative to change, I’m not sure it will. As close as the last few elections have been, I’m waiting to see statewide polls in the battleground states. Trump has never won the popular vote and post Dobbs I don’t expect a different result in this election, but it’s in MI, PA, AZ, etc that matter.
@Beth:
The name “Brutalism” comes from the French term “beton brut” or raw concrete, not ‘brutal’ as a descriptive term.
Maybe I’ve misjudged Lardass. He does seem to be an extraordinary negotiator, capable of achieving things one would think impossible.
For instance, there’s this case he was involved with in the UK. He was not the defendant, yet he managed to get hit with a monetary judgment against him.
It takes someone truly exceptional to obtain, or want, such results. Bravo!
@Kathy:
Well, Trump did sue Orbis.
One of the most intelligent people I know never got beyond grade school. He had severe dyslexia. He was a half native American child in an inner city school during the 1960s with a schizophrenic mother, absentee father, and he didn’t know one day to the next if he was gonna eat. He once told me he had only read 3 books and I had given him 2 of them: Black Elk Speaks and Huckleberry Finn. I’ve always been a little proud of that fact.
The man could barely read a store front sign but he could read a street in nothing flat and his instincts were flawless. Also one of the toughest hombres I’ve ever known.
@Scott: When I see this hand counting fetish, I think to whom is accurately counting repetitive items really important? Banks. What do banks do? They have machines count the money. What banks have their tellers count significant stacks of cash? Failed banks.
These fetishists claim to want to run government like a business. Business would like a word.
@CSK: So that’s a “yes” then? 😉
@Joe: Heh. Good point, one I had not thought of.
@Beth:
A kindred spirit, I see. Luddite and I salute you!
ETA: On a different level, your story doesn’t surprise me at all. One of the features I’ve observed in Sp. Ed. settings in several districts has been the degree to which behavior triggers the “need” to find that a student is a special ed client (forgive me for concluding that an abused child would show behavior problems, but that’s just who I am). Another is how much of the Sp. Ed. message is heard by the students as “you can’t do this” which translates to “I’m stupid.” It’s one of the things that set me on the road to declaring some sorts of skills as “labor intensive” rather than “hard.” Who wants to waste time trying to master stuff that’s “too hard” to begin with anyway? Particularly if they’re “stupid” to begin with.
Congratulations on your achievements upon “release.” That’s another story I’ve heard too many times. 🙁
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
Knowing MTG, she won’t be able to keep her big, fat. stupid mouth shut.
Maybe I missed it in this thread, but Sweden was officially accepted as a member of NATO today, and this will be brought up during President Biden’s SOTU address tonight.
@inhumans99: What’s the over/under on Republicans booing him when he brings it up?
@CSK:
Exactly.
Most people who sue someone intend to obtain money. It takes someone of very stable genius and unmatched wisdom to get the opposite result.
Steve Lawrence, 88, of Steve and Eydie fame, has died of complications of Alzheimer’s. RIP.
@OzarkHillbilly:
If NPRs story is accurate, Sweden’s Prime Minister will be one of the guests of honor tonight so it will be a particularly bad look for the GOP to make a scene, but that will probably not stop them from making fools of themselves.
@inhumans99:
Do you think Marjorie Trailer Queen even knows who the PM of Sweden is?
@inhumans99: Certainly not MTG.
Seriously? Are we sure he’s actually a human, and not one of the skin-wearing lizard visitors from “V?”
https://www.newser.com/story/347400/musk-just-cant-drop-grudge-against-a-fellow-billionaire.html?utm_source=dailyrundown&utm_medium=email&utm_content=17638454456152104827&utm_campaign=20240307
After browsing the web for slow cooker chicken recipes, it hit me that my own chicken and lentil stew would be a good recipe to slow cook. But then I thought it might go better with white beans and barely rather than lentils. It would also give me a feel for how beans slow cook.
I thought to also add some potatoes. I’m thinking big wedges, that I can later fish out, and liquefy in the blender with some broth and balsamic vinegar (my recipe for potato sauce). That would go back to the stew to thicken it and give it a creamier consistency.
Now, if I can only find sugar free chocolate milk powder, I’ll be all set to try the yogurt mocha ice cream*, just in time for the warming weather (don’t we all wish China weren’t so thorough with hoaxes?)
*I’m half expecting a colossal failure for some reason. Edible, but not the right consistency. I’m still undecided between regular yogurt and Greek, too.
@Flat Earth Luddite:
Well, in the original 80s miniseries, there were some good lizards with latex human skin.
So, most likely definitely probably not.
@Kathy: I’ve never liked the consistency of slow-cooked beans. So many of them just….disappear into mush.
@Jax:
One reason I’m starting with white beans, and barley, is they take longer to cook than most other varieties. Even in the pressure cooker, and after soaking for hours beforehand, they come off a bit more al dente than the other beans I use.
The other reason, is I’m working my way to cholent, which looks hard to get right. So, I’m approaching it in stages.
Biden to announce the deployment of US military to Gaza to be sitting ducks for Iran-proxies Hamas or Hezbollah rocket fire. Apparently, no one in the White House remembers the Beirut Marine Barracks attack. This they are calling a temporary port
@CSK: I doubt that Marjorie Trailer Queen even cares who the PM of Sweden is. Or even that Sweden has a Prime Minister for that matter.
@Flat Earth Luddite: Thank you for watching today’s episode. Tune in tomorrow for another episode of WGAF about What Elon Musk Thinks.
@JKB: Israeli Defense Forces, and Israeli civilians, have been blocking aid convoys from getting into Gaza. I would think that the right approach would be to cut support to Israel while they are doing this, rather than try to make an end run around them.
I also expect that there are a number of people in Gaza who know that some of the ordinance fired at and dropped on them are paid for by the US, and would like revenge.
The devil is in the details, of course, and we will have to see how they are arranging for security in and around this port, and how much cooperation the administration is getting from Hamas and any other groups on the ground.
Feeding starving people is a good thing. But fixing root causes is also important.
@Flat Earth Luddite: wealthy women seem so much less worse than wealthy men.
Dolly Parton, Oprah, Mackenzie Scott, Martha Stewart, Taylor Swift
… they all have problems (except for Dolly), but none of them are complete shitheads who go out of their way to be everyone else’s problem.
Even the wealthy women who are terrible try to keep it quiet. I appreciate that.
I favor a study of this, where we take one half of the men with over $100M and forcibly transition them to women with hormones, surgery, etc., and see if this helps. Elonia might just be a better person than Elon.
@Gustopher:
We saw the quality of senior US military leaders under Biden during the withdrawal from Afghanistan. Now they will be wasting the lives of American youth in a far more complex operation
Biden can’t cut off aid to Israel because the money goes to US munitions corporations not Israel. Israel just get to withdraw some munitions from the US forward positioned supplies in warehouses in Israel.
Radio Lardass WFUK Where the Hits Just Keep on Coming.
Reminds of a book I’ve heard about. Something about sowing the wind.
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
You’re welcome. I read this article, so you didn’t have to. But I didn’t click on the links to read the original articles. I also avoided the Newsweek links that were hovering on the edge panel.
@Gustopher:
Oh, I’d certainly vote for this one. But then again, I’m a sociopathic Luddite.
@JKB: , @JKB:
Glad to see your supply of bath salts finally arrived. You’ve been missed.
@Gustopher:
I assume you’re being sarcastic or joking, but, seriously, that’s not how things work. No amount of hormones or surgery can make someone a given gender.
Most trans women have perfectly normal male genitalia and endocrine system, much better than what can be achieved through surgery and hormone replacement therapy. This did not make them men. And vice versa for trans men.
I picked up a copy of Todd Rundgren’s “Nearly Human” on vinyl today. It completely destroys the CD. If you are into Rundgren, do yourself a favor and get this one. Arguably the end of his classic period, and it definitely ended on a high note.
@JKB:
And here you are, clearly hoping against hope for American KIA…
@Sleeping Dog:
Eh, thanks, it’s nice to gain some knowledge about things one dislikes. lol. And we can blame the French. Seriously though, thank you.
@OzarkHillbilly:
I really started thinking that anything between like before about 2005 was the absolute dark ages. I also think that a lot of the people trying to drag us back to that wish we never left.
oh and @OzarkHillbilly:
Oh, I’m with you. I keep my head on a swivel, but I absolutely refuse to not be 100% myself at all times. I’m also a brat that enjoys running her mouth with little regard for consequences. Always be someone else’s problem, or like the family motto says, “No. Fuck you!”
@Gustopher:
Dolly Parton is beyond cool, this much is certain.
She also wrote “Jolene” and “I will always love you” in a single day, which is more or less cosmic.
@Gustopher:
I wouldn’t think so, but it would make an interesting experiment.
Give ‘em Hell Joe!
Speaker Johnson was applauding right along with VP Harris early on. Now he looks like he has realized that is not the Republican thing to do and he would rather be somewhere else.
@anjin-san: I played A Wizard A True Star for my 13 year old granddaughter and she was grudgingly amazed. Recorded in his acid phase, btw.
It occurs to me that Joe should not bother talking about cognitive tests — he should flat out challenge Trump to prove on live TV that Trump can read. I suspect that would not go well for the Donald.
@becca:
When I turned 13 I was not quite ready to hang with the teenagers in jr. high school. Todd definitely helped me through a rough year. Wizard is just wildly creative.
Check this out. An alternate version with the complete songs in the Laura Nero medley – getting a lot of airplay here. It’s a quiet pressing with good dynamics, somewhat marred by a shamefully cheap sleeve that arrived split on the bottom.
https://store.rhino.com/en/rhino-store/special-edition-shops/rhino-reds/runt-early-alternate-version-bonus-7%22-rhino-red-vinyl/081227820954.html
Santos says he is running for the United States House of Representatives again.
Say what?!?!
Apparently LaLota has not told enough lies to be a strong Republican.
@JKB:
Since the military leaders are not political appointees, Biden inherited those leaders from Trump, and four years of Trump policies. (And some from Obama, etc)
Feeding starving people is not a waste of American lives. There are fewer things that are more worth spending lives on than saving more lives.
The risk is that Hamas wanted a war with Israel, and Israel gave it to them. If Hamas wants to drag the US into it, killing some US troops on the ground (or on a pier) in Gaza is a great way to make that happen. I don’t trust this administration or the American people to not want to join in on the war in that scenario and kill a shitload more civilians.
Let’s not give Hamas the war they want.
(I’m not sure that Hamas would want to drag us into a conflict, as the current war has driven a fairly decent wedge between a lot of (mostly younger) Americans and Israel, which is beginning to have policy affects and will likely have much greater effects a few years down the line, as the younger, more Palestinian-friendly Americans age into power. Dragging the US into the war would likely cause Americans to rally around the flag, demonize Palestinians, and make that wedge vanish. But, I’m not sure Hamas understands that — there’s a huge gulf in understanding both ways)
I mean, sure, there’s a conspiracy theory that this is all controlled by the arms manufacturers, who may also be lizard people.
One suspects you are just making shit up at this point, but on the off chance you aren’t, we can just not let them into the warehouses, or not restock the warehouses.