Thursday, April 11, 2024

Thursday Night

Rock on.

Happy Hour

Get happy

COUNTDOWN TO 22ND BLOGIVERSARY FUNDRAISER

6 days to go! Afternoon edition. Thanks to all!

Paypal or Patreon, your choice.

Paypal:

Or Patreon.

Bye Nordberg

Something I haven't seen anyone comment on yet, after OJ's death, is that after the OJ trial was done, cable news kept trying... and trying... to create another "OJ." It was the template for the Lewinsky coverage - not simply a news story, or an important news story, but complete saturation coverage everywhere. That was the successful one. Some other stories failed to launch, though you could see them trying.

Mommy He Hit Me Back

I have no idea what Iran will do, but this is a clear case of "Israel started it."
Mr Biden warned that Iran is threatening to launch a "significant attack" after Israel struck the Iranian consulate in Syria 10 days ago.
And started for the clear purpose of dragging the US into it.

Lunch

eat

COUNTDOWN TO 22ND BLOGIVERSARY FUNDRAISER

Well that is a significant chunk of my life! "What are you going to do after the election (of 2004)" they asked. April 17 is the magic day!

Thanks to all who support the site!  It is what it is and if you get some enjoyment out of it consider giving me some of your frappuccino money. My only pitch is: just in case you didn't notice, the internet ad market completely collapsed and that is why everyone is behind paywalls now.  I don't like paywalls - not faulting those who have them - so I ask nicely instead!


Paypal or Patreon, your choice.

Paypal:

Or Patreon.

Thanks to all!

The Republican Position On Abortion

It is very confusing to (some) political reporters.
Republicans in Arizona halted an effort by Democrats on Wednesday to repeal an 1864 law banning almost all abortions, which the state supreme court this week ruled could go into effect.

...

Some Republicans in the state had, surprisingly, come out against the court’s decision. “This decision cannot stand,” Matt Gress, a Republican state representative, said. “I categorically reject rolling back the clock to a time when slavery was still legal and we could lock up women and doctors because of an abortion.”

Gress had tried to bring forth a bill to repeal the ban but then voted with other Republicans to move to recess.
Not faulting this piece, but "Republicans (including Trump) will pretend to soften their views of abortion while thwarting any attempt to soften the law" is the strategy that every single person who pays attention to politics fully understands but some reporters will pretend not to!







Morning

 Go

Wednesday, April 10, 2024

Wednesday Night

Rock on.

Happy Hour

Get happy

A Well-Informed Citizenry

Republicans increasingly are going to pretend they love abortion and reporters are going to pretend to believe them. 

This is called journalism.

Now They Do!

 You weren't supposed to tell!


Joke, but there is a issue at the smaller scale.  I was talking to someone from Mallorca, and he was explaining how, not all that long ago, the island had plenty of special "hidden" places (picturesque coves, etc.) that mostly "only" locals knew about, or could find.  Sure maybe a few were in Lonely Planet, or whatever, but now every tourist can google "best hidden beaches in Mallorca" on their phone, have 20 pop up, and hit google maps for directions.  



Rules

"Funny" how it was the thing they emphasized, seeming to truly believe it set them apart from their predecessors (including Obummer), but then the opportunity to facilitate the slaughter of tens of thousands of Palestinians came along and they couldn't resist!
If the United States was frustrated by that negative reaction, imagine the reaction, post-Gaza, that awaits Washington the next time it seeks global support for the target of an adversary. The dead-on-arrival passage of resolution 2728 may very well be remembered as an inflection point in the decline of the rules-based international order — which is to say the world that the U.S. seeks to build and maintain.

Rising powers will be happy to cite U.S. precedent as they assert their own exceptions to international law. For as Gaza shows in a horrific manner, a world with exceptions to international law is one in which the least powerful suffer the most.

Lunch

Shop while you eat! (Ad, I get a commission).

Prematurely Anti-Ethnic Cleansing

Now that elite opinion has coalesced around the idea that Israel has (caveat caveat caveat caveat) gone a bit too far, I really would like someone to explain what changed between January (let alone October) and April?

I'm just a simple city blogger and my opinion was clear from the beginning: whatever the conflict, de-escalation is alway the right guiding principle, and the assertion of  "no red lines," combined with everybody with a microphone screaming at and trying to ruin the careers of people who thought otherwise, was not good! 

There was a weird regularly repeated notion after 9/11, that somehow the event of that day gave us "the right" to respond by killing a bunch of people, as if satiating the desire for wanton revenge killing was some sort of dispensation you could be granted.

You get to kill a lot of people, as a treat.

To be fair to Israel, their strategic goals are probably much more clear than ours after 9/11, though "clear" does not mean good!

Lock'em Up

Somebody, at least.
NEW YORK -- Former Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg was sentenced Wednesday to five months in jail for committing perjury and immediately handcuffed and taken into custody.

What A Shame

Ah, well, nevertheless..
Two right-wing political operatives who used a robocall campaign to try to discourage Black New Yorkers from voting in the 2020 election will pay up to $1.25 million for their actions, the New York State attorney general’s office announced on Tuesday.

...

The office said the calls came from a “sham” organization called Project 1599, which was created by the operatives, Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman.

Morning

Go

Tuesday, April 09, 2024

Tuesday Night

Rock on.