Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The math demands it!

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

Reality always wins in the end.

This fight is for everything.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

The willow is too close to the house.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

Not all heroes wear capes.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

Just a few bad apples.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

Jen Psaki and Dr. Fauci (LIVE) and Alexandra Petri

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Straight from the horse’s mouth:  Jen Psaki & Dr. Fauci at 1:30 Eastern

While we wait, Alexandra Petri: Woman savoring last few hours before getting turned back into vessel

Those 49 years had flown by. But when the court’s clock struck, her run would in all likelihood begin to end. She would stop being a person with autonomy over her own body that the law was bound to respect. She would go back to being a vessel that might potentially contain a person, a vessel whose rights ended once that possibility was considered.

It had been so nice, thinking that she could go anywhere in the United States and the laws would have to acknowledge her right to decide whether she wanted to be pregnant, that any doctor who treated her could give her correct information about what risks she faced, that if her life were threatened, her life would carry weight.
…
She sat on a bench and watched the leaves fall. It had been nice while it lasted, being a person. Getting turned back into a vessel would be unfortunate. But maybe she would not stay a vessel long.

It was a little surprising they thought they had the power to do it.

She could see them salivating already at the prospect of having so many people transformed so quickly, and overnight. They seemed to think it was a real possibility.

As if they got to decide. As if she would not fight.

“As if she would not fight.”  Read the whole thing.

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I’m Not Listening

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I really have no desire to listen to the coverage of the Supreme Court abortion hearings because it’s a foregone conclusion. They’ve worked for decades to stack the court, they’re gonna do whatever they want to do, and pretending there is some legal justification for what they are going to do and providing a thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires, and I just have no interest listening to bullshit artists put on a show.

Literally the only thing holding them back is personal restraint and a fear of overstepping, and I think maybe only John Roberts is mildly concerned about that. The rest of these guys are fanatics and movement conservatives and like their counterparts in the House and Senate, they don’t give a fuck. They understand what Democrats don’t, which is just use your power now and worry about the consequences later, and 99.99% of the time there won’t be consequences. There never are for Republicans.

Right now we should be focusing on how we can help women get from the deep red states where abortion will be completely outlawed to providers in the remaining states where it will be legal. And sorry to be grim, there will be no solution at the ballot box, because Republicans have things so aggressively gerrymandered that until there are fucking riots, we are looking at majority minority rule for a while.

It’s gonna be grim, so keep your head up and keep working and getting out the vote, it is going to matter. And don’t feel like you failed, this has been inevitable since 2016 when Hillary lost.

And btw- they are coming for contraception and gay marriage next.

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Watching Roe Go (Open Thread)

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As you’re doubtless aware, the United States Supreme Court is hearing arguments in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case right now. If you’re an egg-bearer, chances are the court’s religious fanatics will remove your constitutional right to bodily autonomy this term.

My guess is they’ll strike down the insane Texas pregnancy bounty hunter law (which is in effect right now and drastically altering real people’s lives in all kinds of ways) as a ruse to make a decision to uphold the Mississippi law seem more “moderate.” This court’s conservative fanatics are exquisitely sensitive to suggestions that they’re activists who are using raw judicial power to overturn precedent when it benefits Republicans and drive an unpopular conservative agenda.

I look forward to Justice Sotomayor’s fiery dissent.

Open thread.

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Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Keep Calm & Carry On

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My online philosophy, made graphic:

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COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Tuesday / Wednesday, Nov. 30 – Dec. 1

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show full post on front page

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On The Road – 🐾BillinGlendaleCA – Lights in the Sky

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🐾BillinGlendaleCA

My quests to shoot fall color in the eastern Sierra has not diminished my mission to shoot the stars. My second and third trip up to the eastern Sierra included an early morning stop at the Alabama Hills to capture astro-landscapes. The first thing I wanted to capture was the Zodiacal Light(this has nothing to do with Ted Cruz).

The Zodiacal Light is a band of light that shoots up from the horizon just before sunrise(it’s also called ‘false dawn’) in the Fall and just after Sunset in the Spring around the time of the equinox. It’s caused by interplanetary dust that gets lit by the Sun and can be seen when the Earth is at the right angle based on the season.

The other celestial objects I wanted to capture on my journey’s to the Alabama Hills(not named after the state, but the CSS Alabama), was an astro-landscape shot of Orion and Andromeda(M31). I first attempted shooting Orion on my third and final Fall Color Extravaganza, but the battery on my star tracker died and I had to defer both the Orion shot and possible Andromeda shot.

I did get one, one minute exposure of Orion out of this trip. I headed back up to the Alabama Hills for another attempt in mid-November with half the night moonlit to get some foreground shots by the light of the Moon and shots of the sky once the Moon had set.

On The Road - 🐾BillinGlendaleCA - Lights in the Sky 6
Alabama Hills, CAOctober 10, 2021

The Zodiacal light to the east, the golden glow just above the horizon is from the Sun starting to rise. I posted this shot on Instagram and one commenter said the light was not the Zodiacal Light, but light pollution from Las Vegas which is 165 miles away.

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Tuesday Night Open Thread

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Are there any woodworkers or craftsmen on these here parts? I want a wood medicine cabinet to put in my kitchen near my fire extinguisher and fire blanket, and I want it to be wood and white and pretty.

In other news, Lily has been upset with me all day because I DARED to launder her favorite dog beds in my office. The looks of anguished pain she gave me traumatized me and I will no longer launder her beds without replacements for the two hours they are being washed. Sheesh.

Lots of news today and I don’t have the energy to talk about any of it.

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