Holy cow. The city of DC is out here on 16th steeet behind the White House painting BLACK LIVES MATTER onto the streets — that it owns — stretching all the way to k Street. pic.twitter.com/PU7DW7XZHu
— Emily Badger (@emilymbadger) June 5, 2020
This is also going to be a real middle finger to any federal forces flying overhead.
— Emily Badger (@emilymbadger) June 5, 2020
The city also brought the sound system that’s blasting music out here, making the area in front of the White House feel more like a party today.
— Emily Badger (@emilymbadger) June 5, 2020
City bringing out all the pageantry across the street from the White House. A city worker in a cherry picker bearing the DC flag just put up a sign symbolically renaming 16th Street “Black Lives Matter Plaza NW” pic.twitter.com/ogrzkDmVe6
— Emily Badger (@emilymbadger) June 5, 2020
I hope that makes you as happy as it made me.
Not to make this about gender – but damn there are some strong, powerful women out there handing the criminal GOP and Trump their balls in a paper bag.
Open thread
Cheryl Rofer
I think I love her.
More:
Kay
Oh, good for her. Reclaim it from the Trumpists.
We all saw how the Trump Administration think cities should look- a big fancy house with a fence around it and armed guards stationed everywhere else. Yuck. Reject that.
Big Mango
Trump is being revealed to all as a blustering fool….he will try to lash out….the mayor and others will laugh and more folks will notice the emperor has no clothes….Evangelical support down 15% AFTER church stunts.
Cheryl Rofer
TaMara (HFG)
@Cheryl Rofer: It just keeps getting better.
Elizabelle
OK, this belongs in this thread. And thanks to rikyrah for making my morning!!
@rikyrah: Love it. I am loving the pushback against our Orange bunker inspector in chief.
As painful as Trump’s “electoral college victory” has been, I have always held out hope that it might be a crucible that results in even better and more far-reaching change. Recovering is going to require way more than “incremental” actions. This has been a dumpster fire.
The Republicans are electorally endangered. You cannot make a better case for voting by mail than allowing citizens to participate in democracy during a deadly pandemic that has killed over 100,000 in a few long months.
People of color have borne the worst of Trump’s actions, and of his outright negligence and sabotage WRT his pandemic “response.” But almost all of us have suffered, and a majority of us are willing to acknowledge that.
This has come at an immeasurable cost, particularly to the African American community. Lives.
But they are leading the way to fighting back. With more than words.
It’s incredible that protest in the streets has come into vogue. But look what it took. I don’t see us going home and just shutting up
Tom Levenson
Now this is how you do street theater!
Urza
Mayor Bowser really knows how to get under the skin of the real villain.
Elizabelle
@Cheryl Rofer: You go, Mayor Bowser. You nasty woman, you.
Sab
Deleted. Did nothing to deserve moderation.
gwangung
And if you think about it, these actions will ratchet down the tension and make it more likely the folks coming out will be peaceful.
Smart, common sense actions.
Emerald
Hoping all this crap will spur the country to admitting DC, which has a larger population than Wyoming, as a state. We sure could use the senators.
MattF
Not so long ago, 16th Street was the boundary between ‘white’ DC and ‘chocolate’ DC– so painting BLM on the street has some extra resonance for the natives.
Cheryl Rofer
Playing a speech by Martin Luther King over the sound system now. Too bad Trump is in Maine, but this is the leadup to tomorrow’s big demonstration.
VeniceRiley
DC statehood and PR statehood should be job one day one for President Biden. Mayors Bowser, Lightfoot, and the one in Atlanta whose name I just forgot … Bottoms? Slaying. But Bowser just shot to the tippity tip top for getting right in Cheetolini’s face.
TaMara (HFG)
@Sab: I pulled you out, not sure why you were being moderated, but you should be okay going forward.
WereBear
Now that’s some shade.
Ken
Next up: Zoning citation for putting up the extra fencing without a permit.
If that doesn’t work, a few strategic street repairs could probably preventing any vehicle traffic in or out of the White House.
TaMara (HFG)
@Ken: I’m sure Chris Christie might have some suggestions for snarling the traffic. ?
Ken
@VeniceRiley: If Dakota Territory had a big enough population to come in as two states, Puerto Rico should be four or more.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Cheryl Rofer: So Trump is in Maine today? No doubt dealing with whatever national crisis is occurring in Maine.
ETA: Trump apparently said he’d like to drive around in an RV, which is funny to start with, but then he added, “with the First Lady.” Try to imagine Melania Trump living in an RV.
Eric NNY
Thanks rikyrah, made my day!
Geeno
Hey, get sexist. This pasty white 60-year-old male has been sickened by the male fail parades of the last several years. The women, especially women of color, have been leading.
Elizabelle
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Poor MomSense
OTOH, Stephen King may not let Trump’s visit to Maine pass without comment ….
Ruckus
Why are they giving them back?
I realize that no one wants to keep them but still…..They could send them off as medical waste. Which they are.
Amir Khalid
@TaMara (HFG):
FYWP moves in mysterious ways.
I applaud Madam Mayor and her city government’s brilliant response.
Geeno
@Dorothy A. Winsor: One of his own making of course. Actually, I think he’s there to pound the final few nails into Collins’ coffin.
scav
Ah! Selfishly, This comes in the nick of time for my functioning shreds of non-raging sanity but more largely, THAT’S a bPoke in their eye. Keep that ball rolling and reveal the uniformed instigators for what they are on a stage the waddling idiot chose.
Ken
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I don’t know that I’d call Susan Collins a crisis, more of a chronic condition.
And if Trump did go there to support Collins – well, I’d love to have seen her face when she found out.
MattF
@Ken: My understanding is that Collins plans to be somewheres else.
Barbara
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Paul Waldman wrote a piece in the Washington Post that had a sentence that I thought could be used as the motto of the Trump administration: “Any problem he didn’t create he made worse.”
Whether it’s police brutality, the pandemic, income inequality, trade policy or what have you, it seems like a pretty accurate summation.
Elizabelle
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Melania might take that deal, if it was filled to the ceiling with money, and thousands of miles away from Trump.
mad citizen
@VeniceRiley: This is a great comment. The Electoral College needs to go as well.
Leto
@Elizabelle: Such a nasty woman. Fucking love it.
Barbara
@Ken: She’s probably hightailing her way to Canadian border as fast as she can until the “crisis” passes.
Skepticat
The Portland Press Herald has an editorial asking tRump to resign, so “welcome” to Maine, you jerk.
Mayor Bowser is my favorite badass today; more power to her. Now, if she just can get rid of the fences around the people’s house.
Ruckus
@Elizabelle:
It’s not just voting by mail that they don’t like, it’s that it leaves a clear trail, paper ballots that can be counted, how many sent out, how many returned, how many voted for whom, and they can be recounted by different groups and the counting can be verified and watched. They can be counted by machine and by people. It is of course not instantaneous but it is fair and it is accountable. Two things that conservatives fear and hate highly, a fair and accountable vote and government.
Jinchi
Isn’t he going to Maine just to thumb his nose at their Governor.
Leto
@MattF: Furrowed brow maintenance time?
Subsole
@Elizabelle:
I hope so. We have a baaaad habit of winning big then leaving the stadium at halftime.
Ruckus
@VeniceRiley:
Is it clear that PR wants to be a state at this point in time? Granted, being in limbo isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be but still……
And yes I’m being very snarky…. So unlike me….
Ken
Well that’s a slow easy pitch, isn’t it?
Wyrm
I will say the Black Lives Matter DC is pretty unimpressed with the whole thing, calling it performance art that ignores the consistent support that Mayor Bowser has given to the Metropolitan Police Department (the city one that she controls). They believe (probably correctly) that this is in place of putting in place any of the reforms that MPD needs.
I think the f**k you to Trump is very nice, but I agree with BLM DC that this is a gesture. I think it’s a really nice one, but Bowser is NOT a reformer, or really interested in hearing the voices of reformers.
TaMara (HFG)
@Ruckus: Funny story – when Bixby was neutered the vet asked me if I wanted his testicles. Now, admittedly, they were an awesome set, but really? She said some people want them. Gobsmacked.
CaseyL
Mayor Bowser is *chef’s kiss*
I love the idea of playing MLK Jr. speeches.
Not sure she’ll have them played tomorrow: the demonstration will likely have live speakers.
But before, between, and after? Sure!
Ruckus
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Has shitforbrains ever driven a car? Does he have a license? If he does, should the state that gave him one check for mental health issues that would preclude him having one? Senility, dementia, being a major asshole…..
Sab
@TaMara (HFG): Thank you. Your danes and ducks are lucky to have you in their world.
LuciaMia
The end of the week ending a teenier bit better than the way it began? Well, its still only lunch time.
Mike in NC
Fat Bastard is visiting some PPE factory, I think. Will Susan Collins be there to furrow her brow?
Will he spend the weekend at Merde-A-Lago rather than face angry protesters tired of his Putin act? I used to work in DC and would sure as hell be there if I could.
TaMara (HFG)
Not to spoil this thread, but this made my blood boil and I’m sure the WH is going to have to do damage control all day on it.
Burnspbesq
@Amir Khalid:
Didja hear that Liverpool got relegated?
(from the WSL).
Everton finished sixth.
MisterForkbeard
@Wyrm: I mean, a giant fuck you to Trump coupled with the official request to get the federal forces the hell out of town is pretty good.
It isn’t comprehensive police reform, but it’s good. I’ll take it and keep asking for the reform, too.
hueyplong
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Trump asking and being told that the vehicles are called RVs calls to mind the fact that the Access Hollywood video was (in part) shot in one.
Elizabelle
@TaMara (HFG): Meh. I think a few more voters checked in on their absentee ballot applications once they heard that.
MagdaInBlack
@TaMara (HFG):
? Some people are damned odd.
Ken
@TaMara (HFG): Gee thanks, now I can’t stop imagining why. “Bronze them and make earrings” is the least horrible idea crossing my mind….
Ruckus
@TaMara (HFG):
Hang them from the rear view mirror? Keep them in a jar?
OK actually, what the hell?
I have heard of this but then I’ve heard a lot of things in almost 71 yrs that have kept my neck muscles strong and having a wide range of rotation.
scav
@Wyrm: It’s generally been that we need both sorts of actions — rather like a see-saw action to bring down a statue rather than only a push or only a pull. Will it fix everything magically. Of course not. Is it emotionally on target on a few important levels? yup.
Nicole
Oh my goodness, this makes my whole day. I think “just paintin’ the streets” is going to be my motto for the weekend.
MisterForkbeard
@TaMara (HFG):
Trump’s comments there are ludicrously bad. The jobs report has been picked through very carefully to make it correct and highly misleading (‘3 million jobs created’ because they’re jobs that were put on hiatus and then brought back, only 14% unemployment due to a classification decision, etc.).
And he chose to say that George Floyd, killed by police because he was black is… going to be proud of America (and Trump) because the jobs report is only cataclysmic and not apocalyptic.
He won’t do a lot of damage control on it because we already know he’s awful and his supporters don’t care, but they’ll have to pretend to be concerned by it and the media will have forgotten by tonight. >_<
Elizabelle
@Ruckus: Exactly. And states are being left without a reason for not allowing it in 2020 elections. Vote by mail. Vote early. Bank that vote.
Voting rights has to be among the top emphases for a new Democratic administration. It underpins everything else.
Calouste
@TaMara (HFG): I hope that amoral pile of shit is also going to have a great day. Just as great a day as George Floyd, may he Rest In Peace, is having today.
TaMara (HFG)
@MagdaInBlack:
@Ken:
@Ruckus:
I mean, Great Dane testicles are a sight to behold…I suppose someone could hang them from their truck hitch.
Bluegirlfromwyo
@MattF: Susan Collins is planting something in the furrow of her brow.
Leto
@TaMara (HFG): This goes right along with that:
Law Enforcement Seizes Masks Meant To Protect Anti-Racist Protesters From COVID-19
Capri
@TaMara (HFG):
As a veterinarian I can attest to the fact that a lot of people want the testicles from their neutered pets.
Pro tip: Don’t try to put donkey testicles down a garbage disposal if you are tired of seeing them in your fridge.
Another Scott
Excellent. Thanks very much.
Cheers,
Scott.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Capri:
**Blinks into middle distance**
** stops blinking, just stares
MagdaInBlack
@TaMara (HFG):
My least troubling thought is that perhaps they have a little ceremony and bury them…….because if you put them in the freezer theyre gonna end up in “clean out day” soup…
Elizabelle
WaPost website: story immediately beneath that of Badass Mayor Bowser having the streets painted.
With White House effectively a fortress, Trump’s backers see strength while critics see weakness
And Trump supporters see “strength” in that? I can’t even…
opiejeanne
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I don’t think he could fit into the bathroom of an RV
Baud
Only on BJ could a post about Black Lives Matter street painting lead to a discussion of dog testicles.
Baud
@Elizabelle: I hope they brought in enough jars for Trump to pee in.
Elizabelle
I wonder if de Blasio and his staff have any ideas on what they could paint in front of and around Trump Tower.
Maybe the other cities’ mayors can have a friendly rivalry on how best to civically decorate the area near a Trump property.
Sab
@Capri: Life is full of problems I never even thought about.
Ken
An early entry for the Bulwer-Lytton contest? At the least, it’s surely a sentence that has never been written before.
Elizabelle
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Some of the things we learn on Balloon Juice are … disturbing.
Elizabelle
@Baud: Frozen ones yet. Yow.
Jinchi
They were seized by the Postal Service? I thought they were seized on the streets during the protests. It looks like they must have branded the organization itself as a criminal or terrorist one. Otherwise, why seize a box of cloth masks?
Subsole
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
This blog has taught me some shit.
Elizabelle
@opiejeanne: Everything is a bathroom once Trump is in the midst of it.
Sab
@Baud: We are who we are. Can’t do much about that.
MagdaInBlack
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
?????
Leto
@Baud: *obligatory* We’re a full service blog…
Barbara
@TaMara (HFG): I would rather be unemployed than dead. And that is true whether I died from COVID-19 or as a result of police brutality.
WestTexan
@Geeno: This 59-year-old whitish dude from West Texas couldn’t agree more. I hate that I look like these gooper assholes.
L85NJGT
“The 2020 election is just five months away, and prediction markets now price a 77%, 50%, and 51% likelihood of Democratic victories in the House, Senate, and presidential races, respectively,”
JustRuss
I don’t understand why the White House is called “the people’s house”. If the people elected the POTUS, Hilary Clinton would be living there. Let’s call it “the outdated compromise constructed to appease slavers also known as the Electoral College’s house.”
Leto
@Jinchi: From the article it sounds like they were seized in transit. It would go hand-in-hand with the other PPE shipments seized by Federal authorities.
HumboldtBlue
Breonna Taylor would have turned 27 today.
Elizabelle
Biden’s holding a news conference right now. Railing against Trump’s nonresponse to the pandemic.
You can watch on WaPost’s website, or C-Span.org
Here’s the C-Span link. You can watch it later, too. https://www.c-span.org/video/?472817-1/joe-biden-remarks-dover-delaware&live
“Donald Trump was more focused on the stock market than he was on the American people.”
Cheryl Rofer
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@TaMara (HFG): It’s also outright craven of Trump too. How can an adult male behave like Trump does?
Another Scott
@opiejeanne: If it happens, I wouldn’t be surprised if it were just a photo-op like Fred Thompson would do with “his” red pickup truck. One story I recall is that he would drive into some small town in it, give his spiel, leave town in it, then change to a limo or something similar and let a staffer drive the truck to the next town, rinse and repeat.
Cheers,
Scott.
Jinchi
Well then, I guess we can expect the medical staff at a hospital in rural Alabama to be wearing them soon.
Skepticat
Just read that they’re calling the new fencing around the White House a chicken coop.
Elizabelle
“Some of the sternest challenges the country has ever faced, and Trump is patting himself on the back.”
Says he’s in his bunker, out of touch, and takes no responsibility.
dexwood
@Capri: That’s the kind of advice I’m unlikely to ever forget. . . or need, but thanks.
HumboldtBlue
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
JPL
@Elizabelle: His and her’s R.V.’s. Selling R.V’s could be his new line of work when he gets out of jail.
Elizabelle
@Skepticat: Chicken Coop. And so shall we all call it. LOL.
Spanky
Is it too late to get a Maine skywriter to write “Resign Donald” overhead?
Or a witch. A witch could do that. Where’s Christine O’Donnell?
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Yes, what the F, .. is most of his base cowards at heart?
VeniceRiley
@Ruckus: It isn’t clear, but the sales pitch has certainly changed. They should be very aware how important it is to have representation in the house and senate should they ever have another natural disaster.
The Lodger
@Ken: Probably too long for a rotating tag, though.
HinTN
@opiejeanne: Boom
japa21
Just thought I would pop in and share a comment Mrs. Japa said to me this morning. I had commented that he said he was going to Alaska in 2022 to campaign against Murkowski. She, very quickly I might add, pointed out that “Alaska isn’t that far from Russia so it would be a short trip.”
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Ruckus:
I live in Glendale, being a major asshole does not preclude one from having a license to drive and automobile.
Elizabelle
@japa21: Hmmm….. we should let him go. Just think, he could be taking Maggie Haberman or Peter Baker with him.
sdhays
I think the national crisis is called “Susan Collins’ Poll Numbers”.
Jinchi
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Trump projects the strength of a Yanukovich.
Sab
@Skepticat: Seriously? I love that. Is it real?
dm
As, for instance Egg Beater One ferrying the occupant in and out of the White House?
Wyrm
@scav: I don’t disagree, I just want to put a little bit of a damper on this notion of Bowser as some sort of superstar. She is an adequate mayor with some issues with policing and a lot with education.
When the group you are allegedly supporting is tweeting crap back at you I think it is worth listening to.
Kay
@Elizabelle:
And you better because you won’t hear about it anywhere else. It’s weird that our massive, billion dollar campaign media industry can’t spare a single person to cover Joe Biden.
WaterGirl
@Sab:
There is a “t” on the end of your email address, making it end in “.comt”. That would throw you into moderation.
MomSense
Good for DC! The Apricot Asshole is comi by to Maine today to infect, oops inspect, the company that makes the swabs for the COVID tests. The town only has about 1,500 residents and he is going to turn it into a zoo. Our Governor asked him to check his rhetoric and gave a strong statement against him.
I think they are asking protesters and supporters to have their events in Bangor, but who knows. I’m in the office today so I haven’t been able to follow the news.
Sab
My facemasks came from Ray Gun, somewhere in Iowa. Very cool. Had to give half of them away to admirerers.
zzyzx
I’m so old that I remember when people were freaking out that Biden mentioning that not everyone is nice was going to be a big issue that we’d be talking about for months.
HumboldtBlue
NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — An 80-foot tall Confederate monument in the Virginia city of Norfolk could be removed as early as Aug. 7.
Baud
What’s a seven letter word for “lie”?
rp
@Wyrm: They have a legit point, but that tweet was kind of dumb. What’s more likely to move the needle with Bowser, saying “thank you! and now…” or saying “f*ck you! just performance!”?
TaMara (HFG)
@Sab: Link? (pls)
My friend made me three lovely masks, but I think, since this is going on a while, I may need some more and don’t want to ask her for more (since she made like 500 to donate and is understandably burned out).
trollhattan
The timing ensures this will get scant attention, but it’s actually a big Biden deal.
Remember that congress prevents the NHS from conducting such a study, and vote the bastards out to correct that.
WaterGirl
@Jinchi:
Seized by Law Enforcement. It shows that way on the US Postal Tracking Service.
I do not believe they were seized but the Post Office itself. But I can only imaging that it’s a post office employee who notified the “government” so they could illegally seize something.
sdhays
@Wyrm: Something that a lot of people are starting see is how widespread and deep the problem is. Whether or not Mayor X (for any given city) wants/ed to do Y to reform the city’s police, there’s been a very hard limit on what the police would be willing to tolerate. A politician in that position can’t afford to go to war against the police under normal circumstances, and that’s what seems to be necessary. Just look at De Blasio. He made the police halt Stop & Frisk, and they’ve been acting out ever since, to the point he’s scared to criticize them directly again. (Sure, he has his own problems, but the point still stands).
When people are out in the streets demanding change, having that discussion with the police becomes easier because mayors and council members and DA’s can point out the window and say: “I can’t let you just keep doing what you’re doing. All those people won’t let me.”
Baud
Paging Schrodinger’s Cat
scav
@Wyrm: I’d also wonder if at least some of the disagreement is more for public consumption. Two articles instead of one — or at least a longer one with more discussion. It’s not that the mayor thinks her actions are the be-all and end-all nor the others that symbols are useless. We’re likely always going to be stuck with people that want or hope for magic, effective, simple quick solutions. Long-term defunding isn’t exactly going to happen overnight either and there’s a lot more that needs to be accomplished with police (and allies) culture to achieve real reforms. They can be brutal with lower tech stuff.
ARoomWithAMoose
@Leto: Something else for the truth and reconciliation commission, if we ever get one, under what authority was domestic law enforcement getting the information on the content of these shipments (in the scheme of things, these aren’t big shipments)? Someone has been using the domestic surveillance apparatus for either stealing PPE (think Jared’s contractors in charge of distributing the federal PPE hoard) or straight up harassment (NY and Mass. getting their shipments seized).
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: As the Nixon Administration used to say, “mistakes where made”.
Kent
Cloth masks are not medical PPE.
ET
It seems the people behind the @DMVblacklivess isn’t impressed. What I am not sure they understand is that sometimes this kind of stuff isn’t so bad. And with a troller in Chief this will really sting. Of course going beyond that is essential, but trolling the president – particularly this on – can be cathartic.
Sloane Ranger
@Elizabelle:
As a citizen of a monarchy I resent this comparison. Have you seen Buckingham Palace? You can get a lot closer to it and it has railings at the front and a brick wall at the back and sides. And you can visit Windsor Castle, even if the Queen’s in residence.
Skepticat
@Sab: I read it on another blog, but it certainly is if we make it so.
clay
@Baud: “partisanship”…. “tribal”….
No, General Kelly, if you still can’t give a specific name to the root of all of this, then you can just shut right the hell up again.
louc
I wandered by there this morning after an appointment in downtown DC. I didn’t realize it was the city that set up the speakers. They were playing Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On” while I was there. The sound system was right next to St. John’s Church plaza.
I’m not a Muriel Bowser fan, but I have to give it to her — this was a great FU. Volunteers took over from city employees to keep brightening those yellow letters.
PS If you look at the rectory that had the fire, you can’t see any kind of burn marks because it was in the basement. The biggest damage all over downtown was lots of graffiti, especially on the Treasury building and monuments to buttholes. What an effing coward Trump is to close off Lafayette Square. DC has been through a lot worse with no national guard nor military police called in.
prostratedragon
Outstanding!
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Baud:
People generally think we should all be less partisan when their side is losing.
Skepticat
And now I’ve seen the chicken coop called “the world’s largest and most expensive playpen.”
Baud
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
“We need to come together as a nation. You start.”
Gravenstone
@Jinchi: Maybe they just saw that they were masks and are on another PPE seizure kick?
/least toxic explanation I can come up with
Ruviana
Since it seems to fit here in a way, I should note that I had a student whose parents kept his foreskin when he was circumcised as a baby.
HumboldtBlue
Trikinis
TaMara (HFG)
@Ruviana: I really did steer the blog off a cliff today, did I? (and yes, I take full responsibility)
db11
@Wyrm:
I agree, and I’m not about to criticize the group who’ve been the primary activists in this fight for being pissed at the mayor for paying (what they might see as) lip-service to the issue — instead of addressing the real core of corrupt, racist and brutal policing. (does it seem like there’s any other kind in light of the past week?)
But still, this is a win of a different sort for them… so take it, use it and keep pressing for more.
It’s also possible that recent events have put some steel in her spine, knowing that the overwhelming public support, and pressure, provides a previously-absent political counterweight to the power of the police union.
We can hope — with some evidence — that like Joe Biden has, she will continue to rise to this historical occasion.
Jinchi
With Trump, I’ve always found that I have to go with the most toxic explanation I can think of, then prepare to be surprised when the real explanation is even worse than that.
Leto
@Kent: yet they were still seized.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Jinchi: Trump admin, the question is what is the dumbest, most hamfisted and inept thing they can do? Seizing masks so they can hand them out at the MAGA rallies they planing has to be it.
Redshift
I don’t know if it’s already been mentioned, but apparently the National Guard has been staying at a hotel under a contract the DC government set up to house Nat Guard troops for pandemic response. The DC government has told the feds that the current deployment doesn’t fit that and canceled the contract.
Since they were Utah National Guard (which I hadn’t heard before), wingnut senator Mike Lee started shrieking that Bowser was “kicking them out” and invoking the Third Amendment. (Wingnuts seem to think that there is no law but the Constitution, which is unquestionable when they invoke it but awful when a Democrat invokes it.) Bowser’s administration calmly stated that they’re not kicking them out, DC taxpayers just aren’t paying for it, and they’re welcome to take it up with the hotel.
(The only local news report I’ve found is at the 11:12am entry here.)
Mallard Filmore
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Asshole driving starts in Bakersfield and goes to the Mexican border.
Redshift
@Wyrm: Yup. I think it’s entirely possible that this is an objectively good thing that she did, and that it’s appropriate for activists to respond with “now show us you mean it.”
Elizabelle
@Sloane Ranger: When we learned that Trump fled to his bunker, I thought of Queen Elizabeth. How she might be too genteel to ever reveal her contempt for his cowardice.
Thinking on her parents staying in London during the Blitz, and her own wartime service. Queen Elizabeth is tough. Trump just plays at it.
Frankensteinbeck
@Kay:
For once, I’m fine with that. I want nothing to distract America from Trump fucking up a good job report by saying George Floyd is happy about it. The man’s ability to shoot himself in the dick is incredible. Superhuman.
Leto
@Mallard Filmore: It starts at the Canadian border, down to the Mexican border, at the Pacific Ocean over to the Atlantic. Everything that light touches, asshole drivers.
Nora
@Elizabelle: No, no, in Trump’s view Queen Elizabeth can’t be tough. She’s just a woman, after all, not a he-man like him!
Elizabelle
@Redshift: Amazed they’re not at a Trump property. Paying full freight.
So unlike the Grifter in Chief and the princekin.
prostratedragon
@Baud:
Hmmm, not sure “lead” is the verb. “Veer,” maybe. Weren’t eunuchs sometimes given their balls in a box as a remembrance, and because, well, they were theirs.
Of course, this isn’t the dog or cat himself keeping them. Somehow, that matters.
mrmoshpotato
Oh look! More lies! Did Hillary ever release a list of potential cabinet members? Who would be her lying-ass Secretary of Labor? Oh wait…
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
OT – on today’s Trump regime labor numbers:
The Countess is a commissioned sales professional with a luxury unit of gigantic, multinational travel conglomerate that counts multi billions in annual sales. This week’s “what the fuck is going on in our company and it’s new acquisitions after a paralytic period of long silence” webinar revealed startling numbers:
1. April’s revenues were off 97% from the previous year.
2. May, never a great travel month, was off 90%.
3. The brass hopes that they can climb to 50% by December’s end, but the sales teams are pointing out the extent of cancellations and the absence of both destination and flight inventories well into next year.
4. She’s anticipating that some people’s travel in the direction of Asia that is scheduled for Fall 2021 will not be going.
When I consider that we can’t even get a passport renewed (much less get one issued), that our borders are sealed both ways and that leaving this shithole country appears impossible, I get very anxious.
Tdjr
@Redshift: I love it!!
Kelly
They soon will be.
opiejeanne
@Mallard Filmore: I would say it starts a little north of SF.
prostratedragon
@Cheryl Rofer: Peoples’ Congregational in da house!!
Boris Rasputin (the evil twin)
@Baud: That’s the beauty of this place. Think of all the odd things we learn here!
LuciaMia
@Skepticat: Well, it does LOOK a lot like chicken wire. Giving us tax-payers a break, I guess.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Mallard Filmore:
@Leto: OK, y’all have never driven in Glendale; you see, drivers here are in a great hurry because they are very important and demonstrate this by constantly holding a cell phone while they’re “driving”, except when they’re checking messages on said cellphone. I’ve been rather shocked that these late model Benz and BMW’s don’t come equipped with bluetooth connectivity, my 10 year old Prius has that.
MomSense
The Portland Press Herald welcomed tRump with a call for him to resign.
Ruckus
@opiejeanne:
How would he tweet?
prostratedragon
@JPL:
I’m old enough to remember Richard Nixon as the man you wouldn’t buy a used car from. Doubt that Bunker Boy could even sell a brand new RV.
Redshift
On the OT subject of Cotton’s op-ed, this twitter thread was a great response. Basically, Cotton lied about what the Constitution says, and without it, he has no argument.
He claims the constitution requires feds “to protect each of them (states) from domestic violence.” What it actually says is:
So it absolutely says that the feds only protect states from “domestic violence” when they request it. Great job with that “good faith argument,” NYT.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Jinchi:
Don’t forget when the FBI internally labeled BLM “black identity extremists” in 2017
We are all “Black Identity Extremists” now
cain
@TaMara (HFG):
Does the WH Comms people not feel exhausted? Constantly defending the stupid shit that this president does at all times? Crikey. What a soulless job.
Leto
@?BillinGlendaleCA: military people have a favorite game they like to play when bored: which state has the worst drivers? We compare things like, who can drive in the snow? Who can drive in the rain? Who knows how to properly manage a round-a-bout? Tailgating, cellphone driving, bumper-to-bumper rush hour morning/lunch/evening traffic… and the conclusion we’ve come to: assholes… assholes everywhere! Not unique to one state, locale, regionality. It’s just Americans.
Kent
Yes, my point was that there was no conceivable medical reason to seize cloth masks. That is a red herring. Hospitals can’t use them because they aren’t FDA approved. The only reason was to unconstitutionally squelch protected political speech.
Ruckus
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
He’s an adult in physical age only. In mental years he’s a spoiled 4 yr old brat.
Calouste
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Beemers don’t even come with working turn signals standard. They’re just decorative.
Chip Daniels
I want to be a fly on the wall when a staffer tells Trump that the official White House stationery is being changed to
1600 Black Lives Matter Avenue
Washington DC 20500
Mallard Filmore
@Leto: I have found that San Jose area drivers are too damn polite.
Ruckus
@Skepticat:
That’s cold. And perfect. The DC Chicken Coop.
Maybe it should be the DC Chickenshit Coop.
Leto
@prostratedragon: no no no, see… all those other failed business (Trumpov Airlines/Steaks/University/Casinos/etc…) were all just practice for this newest venture: Trumpov RVs! This time, this time it’ll be a winner! Just trust him, he knows what he’s doing. Also if you could pay in cash, small bills…
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Redshift:
Antifa and BLM are outside agitators, hence invaders. QED libtard
/Kavanaugh, probably
Miss Bianca
@Redshift: See, Cotton got this far…
And then he said, “Game over, man, GAME OVER!!”
What’s so hard to understand about that?//
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Leto: We have extremely aggressive and distracted drivers here in Glendale, they are different. Driving is not a means to travel from one place to another, it’s a competition. The wife commented that the drivers here are worse than drivers in Korea, and in Seoul they take left turn lanes as merely a suggestion on whether you will turn left.
Leto
@Calouste: is that why no one will get out of my way? I thought they were just assholes!
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Calouste: I don’t believe functional turn signals are standard on any luxury automobile.
Gin & Tonic
@Leto:
Sounds like a pretty pointless game when everybody knows the answer is New Jersey.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Gin & Tonic:
I’ve always heard Massachusetts has bad drivers, followed by NJ and then NYC
Ruckus
@VeniceRiley:
I do understand. But there are two sides to this issue here. We could do what is necessary for them to become a nation. (I have no idea what that is.) Or a state. It would be in our interest to make them a state, but I’m not sure if I lived there, I’d want that. And I’d ask, why has this not been done before now? Who is stopping this, or just not doing anything about it? If I had to bet it would be republicans.
Leto
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Yeah, that’s what people from California say. Then they get to Florida, NY, Texas, Colorado… and they all say that “this place has the worst drivers! Worst than California!” Now substitute California for every other state. But I will say that even if you think where you live is the worst, or South Korea, head to the Middle East (Saudi/Kuwait/Qatar)… hoooooooly shit! Nothing can really prepare you for that
Edit: see G&T and Goku’s response above, haha!
Barbara
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Yeah, me too. I have been daydreaming for a while about what a boffo vacation might look like next year. I keep thinking with some anxiety that a lot of countries might not actually let us travel there. To me, a lot of these things seem so obvious — that tourists won’t come here, much less international students and investors if they are afraid of getting sick.
Barbara
@Leto: People get very emotional about this, but as a pedestrian, I think the worst drivers — as well as the worst pedestrians — are in Boston. I think, however, that everyone is more inclined to break the rules and especially, to run red lights than when I learned how to drive. Mostly I attribute that to spending too much time in cars.
Ruckus
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
You could say that about any city in the country……
But shitforbrains has a double degree in asshole. He’s the asshole’s asshole. The asshole that other assholes aspire to be. The leader of assholes, the person most admired by other assholes. Mr Asshole of assholes. But the one thing you can count on is that he won’t be the last asshole, just one of the worst examples.
Ruckus
@Sab:
It is now.
mrmoshpotato
@cain:
What’re they exhausting – the souls they don’t have?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Leto: We have a lot of auto body shops here in town and they are so full that they end up parking some of the customer cars outside in the street. These cars are mostly late model luxury cars(Benz, BMW, and Lexus). The drivers here are aggressive, distracted and bad drivers(they’re quite important, in a hurry and have no fucking idea where they’re going).
joel hanes
@Sab:
I too have Raygun masks. Raygun delivered in six days; it took the highly publicized VIDA six weeks. The Raygun masks are superior in most ways: generously sized, well made, long upper and lower ties instead of ear loops. I do wish they had the wire in the upper seam to mold to the nose; I’m going to add that, somehow.
I’m going to get some heavy-duty hair elastics and tie the ties semi-permanently to opposite ends of an elastic loop, which will make the masks slip-on items.
Also, some of the Raygun masks are screen-printed with saucy slogans, etc.
mrmoshpotato
@Miss Bianca: Cotton apparently is also too stupid to realize that line was uttered in response to feeling like they were fucked. :)
Miss Bianca
@Barbara: I concur about Boston. They are maniacs. I will never forget the time my brother and I flew out to Boston and rented a car. We were following my sister, who lives in Cape Cod, when she suddenly signaled to get off at an exit. Well, we had to do an abrupt signal and shift and the guy behind us got so mad he FOLLOWED US OFF THE HIGHWAY, just so he could pull around us and cut *us* off!
Fortunately it was over 20 years ago – before people started carrying guns to road rage incidents!
Taken4Granite
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Seconded. As a New Hampshire resident, I can testify that the term “Masshole” originated in the driving habits of too many residents of our neighboring state to the south.
mrmoshpotato
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
@Leto:
@Mallard Filmore:
Not sure if you would enjoy or be infuriated by Scott’s Car Cameras and Dashcam Owners Australia, but look ’em up on YouTube if you want some stupid/asshole driving from Down Under.
joel hanes
@opiejeanne:
Hey! Silicon Valley commute drivers are among the most skillful and cooperative you’ll find anywhere. And almost all of them know how to merge, and what a yield sign means.
mrmoshpotato
@Ruckus: “Doc, what’s wrong with me? Give it to me straight.”
“Well, in my professional opinion, and from your physical, and your lab results, you’re a major asshole!”
joel hanes
@TaMara (HFG):
Link?
Raygun’s web site is here
prostratedragon
@Leto:
This time for sure!
Ruckus
@Mallard Filmore:
I’ve lived well north of Bakersfield. I’ve lived 2400 miles east of Bakersfield. I’ve driven across the US 4 times. I’ve traveled to 46 of the states for work. Been on 3 continents and several islands around the world. I think I’m qualified to say that there are assholes everywhere in the world. And also that we have more than our share here in the US.
Gin & Tonic
@Miss Bianca: I have lived in both Boston and NYC, and way back I had a friend who’d driven a cab in both cities, and the difference, accurately summarized by him, is that NYC drivers are aggressive but predictable; Boston drivers are aggressive and unpredictable.
The worst “cultural” difference is at a traffic light. In NYC it’s important to be already accelerating when it turns green. In Boston, the light turning red apparently means “still time for 3 more cars.” These two obviously conflict pretty badly.
mrmoshpotato
@Miss Bianca:
BWHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!! What a hilariously stupid waste of time and energy!
Leto
@Barbara: My accident gave me a lot of time to think about this subject, about how we essentially have 50 different sets of rules about driving. That’s part of the problem that America has wrt driving. Idk, I have a lot more to say about this subject but I’ll reserve it for another thread.
Miss Bianca
@prostratedragon: Ah, that never gets old!
I still find myself muttering, “Don’t know my own strength” every time I manage to cock something spectacularly.
Ruckus
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Believe me, that is not just Glendale.
Old saying:
“Everyone has an asshole, some people just have theirs on top their shoulders.”
prostratedragon
@Miss Bianca: I value the classics!
dm
@Miss Bianca: And yet, with all those terrible drivers, Massachusetts ranks 42nd in the nation for number of car accidents.
(Though Taken4Granite still has a right to complain — New Hampshire is even further down the list.)
mrmoshpotato
@Miss Bianca:
“Phooey!”
“You mean ‘Curses!’, darling.”
“Please Natasha. This is kiddie show.”
Miss Bianca
@mrmoshpotato: Yeah, it’s funny in retrospect, but trust me when I tell you it wasn’t funny at the time!
@dm: That does astonish me, I’ll admit.
Leto
@prostratedragon: haha!
@Ruckus: we share remarkably similar stories. I think the biggest experience changer for me/Avalune was living in Europe for about 4 years, finally coming back to the States for a vacation/visit, and seeing just how fucking crazy everyone here drives. Sometimes it takes being away from a particular place to really open your eyes. We had been driving in a pretty regular/orderly fashion for years, then came back to the wild Wild West! Driving in Texas, while visiting our son for his AF BMT graduation… again, insanity! When we finally moved back to the states in June 2017, we were involved in an auto accident less than a week after arriving (someone backed into us in our rental car). And then my own accident. Like I said to Barbara above, I have more to say about this but will reserve it for a different thread.
@mrmoshpotato: I’ve seen plenty of dash cam footage out of Australia concerning drivers trying to kill bicyclists, either with their car or getting out and assaulting the cyclists just for being on the road. JFC…
Jinchi
Unpredictable, definitely. Learning to drive in Boston the rule was “signalling just gives the other guy an unfair advantage.”
But I’d say Southerners are more aggressive. The rule in Texas is apparently: the biggest vehicle always has right of way. (Which is a problem if you’re a cyclist).
Jess
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Having moved from California to Mass, I have to disagree–people are pretty reasonable and polite here for the most part. CA on the other hand, has been totally taken over by assholes. I’ve driven through most of the states in the US, and the only one that truly shocked me with horrendous, rude, and just plain stupid driving was Connecticut. That surprised me
Edit: I’m not including Boston drivers in my assessment, but they don’t seem worse than the Bay Area drivers, IMHO.
Ruckus
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Next to where I work is a very large body shop. Probably over 80-100 cars in at a time, it’s a big place. And they specialize in BMW, Merc, Audi, and only late model stuff. Normally they are full and churning out a massive amount of repairs, most major work. It’s not just Glendale. But every city, state and nation has it’s share of asshole drivers. Some have more than their share. Some have far more. But I’ve lived in CA, south and north, OH, South Carolina, those 46 states I’ve traveled or lived in, I’ve driven in 45 of them. I’ve ridden motorcycles over 1/2 million miles, driven more than that in cars. I’ve ridden in cabs in several states and countries. I’ve even driven a fair bit in Glendale. Believe me when I tell you, there are asshole drivers EVERYWHERE.
mrmoshpotato
@Miss Bianca: I’m sure. I still find the waste of time and energy funny.
Ruckus
@mrmoshpotato:
I’ve known docs who have at least internalized that concept. I had to do that when I was in the shore patrol.
mrmoshpotato
@Leto: This is mostly car-on-car, or car-on-truck stupidity.
Btw, it’s a stupid, stupid, stupid idea to cut off a road train.
Mike in NC
When people complain about insane Boston drivers, I tell them to watch the Ben Affleck bank heist movie “The Town” just to see how we were taught.
Ruckus
@Leto:
A lot of it for me was ridding the motorcycle. In my first year (2 or 3 centuries ago) I had a Unocal double tanker (It was Union Oil at the time) try to hit me with his truck. Twice. I did manage to adjust his drivers side mirror for him, enough that he had to pull over to fix it so he could drive. I gave him a salute as I rode off. But staying alive for 50+ yrs of ridding required a special asshole radar. Not everyone develops that. I find that assholes have the hardest time at developing asshole radar.
James E Powell
@Wyrm:
It is also a Democratic Left tradition, whenever it looks like we are winning, to launch attacks on each other so we don’t get too far ahead.
MagdaInBlack
@Ruckus:
I work for a company that owns those kind of body shops all over the U.S.
Inside joke is ” God bless asshole drivers, they keep us living indoors. ” ?
Eta: except now, lack of work has many of us sitting home.
Leto
@Ruckus: agreed.
opiejeanne
@?BillinGlendaleCA: They come equipped with Bluetooth, the “owners” just haven’t bothered to learn how to use it.
Our 7-year-old Subaru came with it but we rarely use it now. We’re almost always in the car together these days, so there’s someone handy to answer the phone.
opiejeanne
@Kent: but how did they know what was in the packages they seized?
opiejeanne
@Miss Bianca: They were carrying guns in Los Angeles County in the 70s, mostly to wave at VW drivers.
opiejeanne
@joel hanes: Not sure if you’re kidding, but I didn’t mention them and I did drive through Silicon Valley quite a bit during the 9 years we lived there. There was one incident on the 101 in San Jose that is seared into my memory even though there was no resulting accident, just a lot of terror from every driver for a good five minutes. Idiot entered the freeway too fast and spun 180, and sped up going the wrong way for several hundred feet. The freeway just stopped until he turned around, but afterwards everyone was gasping for breath and looking at the other drivers around them.
I’m mostly remembering driving on the 680 North from Fremont to the 80, and it was no picnic but even worse was being driven by friends who grew up in the East Bay, on the 680 to go into SF. I tried to take the 580 whenever I could, and that strange little Warren Freeway when I went to Berkeley.
Massachusetts drivers are in a special category all by themselves, though, worse than San Diego drivers used to be in the 80s, worse than coked up OC drivers on the 91 in the 70s/80s. I’ve never driven anywhere where the drivers straddled the line between lanes for miles, and it wasn’t an isolated incident.
I’m not chicken, or I wasn’t back then. I have driven through NYC without fear (I used to go into SF every week from the East Bay so a NY freeway was no biggie), changed drivers in the middle of the George Washington Bridge when traffic was stopped and mr opiejeanne was tired. I’ve driven in Paris, and they are somewhat assholish but right outside the city they are extremely polite drivers and even inside the city they were very careful with pedestrians and bicyclists.
SWMBO
Probably close to dead thread but:
One of the fastest ways to get the cops to shape up is to make any civil liabilities shared between the city/county/state (which currently assumes the entire burden) and the police unions pension funds. If the bad cops cost the good cops some of their pensions, it will get their attention. A few civil suits in the million dollar plus range would hit them in the wallet. A few million here, a few million there, and pretty soon you’re talking a real hit to their wallets. If every time a few good cops covered for one bad cop and it cost them a few thousand out of their retirement, they are going to be less likely to cover up the next one. They may have a thin blue line but they personally don’t want to take a hit on their green bottom line. Part of today’s cop culture program is that there is no accountability or reason for them to hold each other accountable. Hit them in the wallet and see how fast it can change.
opiejeanne
@Gin & Tonic: The Bay Area drivers don’t stop for stop signs if they can help it, and run a lot of red lights. It was like that in the 90s when we lived there, and we almost lost the youngest when a carload of middle-aged women blew through a light across from the HS. Her big sister pulled her back Just in time. This was common all over the SF area, and it was blamed on losing the Embarcadero freeway in SF after the Loma Prieta earthquake.
SWMBO
Just now reading the thread and comments. This painting of the street with Black Lives Matter. Would it be visible from Marine One as Trump leaves or comes back to the White House?
That would be some serious shade.
Ruckus
@MagdaInBlack:
Didn’t put it in there but they have maybe 20 cars in right now and they have had far fewer in the past couple of months.
But. I just got back from shopping as I hadn’t been in about 2 weeks other than in/out, once. The traffic where I live is very close to normal. I’d say probably 80% back. I expect, from the driving I saw today, the body shop will be booming within a couple of weeks.
low-tech cyclist
Steeplejack
@Chip Daniels:
This is what I came here for!
low-tech cyclist
If people don’t blow smoke up my ass, I won’t have to point out that it’s smoke.
Also, the objective is for the people to win. When I see the Dems furthering that objective, I’ll say so. When I feel they’re not doing so, I’ll say that too.
And believe me, I want the Dems to win. I want them to win big, preferably so big that what’s left of the GOP can be drowned in the bathtub, because the GOP is a cancer on our nation.
But the Dems perpetually have me asking, “can’t anybody here play this game?” They’re great at policy, and they suck at politics, while the GOP’s the exact reverse. And because I want them to win, I want them to learn to play politics well. And I’m not going to pretend they’re making winning moves when they’re not.
low-tech cyclist
Now the thing that Mayor Bowser does deserve righteous credit for is telling the troops they had to get their asses out of DC hotels. That’s a hell of a lot more badass than the Sixteenth Street stunt: that’s tangible pushback against Trump’s current sequence of militarization moves. It’s probably her only available move in that respect, but she at least did the one thing she could. More than I can generally say for the Democrats in Congress.