HorsesAss.Org

Wednesday Open Thread

by — ,

– Full service Amtrak to Canada’s Vancouver. Very nice.

– I liked this article about implementing the Organics Management Law. A lot of getting into the weeds on everything from building facilities to all those stickers on your fruit.

– I am excited to see how unlimited vacation works out for Microsoft (First item under “Last Week in Corporations”). Hopefully it goes well for productivity and for employees. (I wrote, but didn’t publish this before the news of the layoffs. So addendum: Oof).

– Good information on possible Ballard Station options.

– Man, fuck Jim Jordan.

– Please wash your hands right now and get vaccinated or boosted if you’re eligible.

Comments

  2. 2

    @1. “You keep saying that but I don’t think it means what you think it means. ” -Inigo Montoya, The Princess Bride.

  3. 3

    1,

    Using this doll, can you point to the place where you were hurt the most?

    It will save us time in 2024.

  5. 5

    The last Hetero wedding I went to wasn’t held in a Church.

    Who the fuck wants to have a ceremony in a place where the Priest was diddling with the little boys.

    Really, they, like the desperate Repukilan Pary, needs all the sheep that they can get – Not a smart decision.

    https://apnews.com/article/anglicanism-england-wales-marriage-religion-5086b3376929156e5f41461193a67aa5?utm_source=homepage&utm_medium=TopNews&utm_campaign=position_08

    Maybe they can hold the next funeral for the next victim of Hetero Neanderthal (HN for the sensitive fellow) Disease.

  9. 9

    I hope to bring my unique insights from having been the first man to reach the surface of the moon to my new key position on the House committee overseeing NASA.

  13. 13

    @9 George – you forgot to put on the resume that you were former speaker of a house, you might have the gavel if you tried.

  14. 14

    @13,

    For now I’m focusing my efforts on leading the Congressional volleyball team and assuming control over the Republican pension fund.

  15. 15

    @14 feel bad for you buddy. That really was a lost opportunity. I mean you did own a house and you did speak in it, and you probably even had a hammer that resembles a gavel, all fitting for the resume. Just image…….”George Soros – Speaker of the House!”

    And you could have told that bitch MTG to go fuck herself and really showed her who the boss is. Maybe you could have even brought in a drag queen during the State of the Union address.

    But I think you’ll do ok with that Volleyball Team. That Republican pension fund has probably already been looted…..but maybe you’ll find some small change in there. Good Luck!

    Oh, and careful of that virus going around amongst the Repukes, it’s a doosey. Do you have any pets? It would be sad if something bad should happen to the pets.

  16. 16

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  17. 17

    I’d honestly consider not running for re-election next year if the right, ahem, (cough), opportunity came along.

    Anything in the low seven figures would do.

  20. 20

    Maybe this is why CNN is looking to slot in a comedian. The others are unintentionally funny.

    Ratings Implosion: CNN’s Entire Primetime Lineup Fails to Equal the Audience of One Fox Program

    In 2022, as Fox remained basically steady, CNN managed to lose -33% of its audience, and fell -36% in the advertising demo. Making this all the more staggering, that drop is off from the numbers of the year prior–when the network lost -90% of its coveted viewers.

    Things only continue to erode for CNN on the ratings front, with the reality of a very rare and eye-popping metric that emerged last Friday. When that day’s numbers came in, there was some surprise, but nothing too glaring – at first. First, Fox News held more than just the top 10 positions in the cable news ratings. Chris Hayes’ was the first non-Fox program to break the logjam at the top, coming in at #18 for MSNBC. CNN’s programs do not appear until Jake Tapper shows up, with the ironically and inaccurately named show “The Lead,” not appearing until #28 on the list.

    With nobody watching CNN and Twitter no longer a wing of the DNC, who are the Democrats going to rely on for their propaganda in 2024?

  23. 23

    @ 19

    What does a NYC liberal say about another NYC liberal who doesn’t take anti-Semitic violence seriously?

    NYC’s Top Prosecutor Lets Violent Jew-Haters Off Easy

    Two men charged with battering a Jewish man will spend little to no time in jail for their role in the anti-Semitic hate crime, the Manhattan district attorney’s office told the Washington Free Beacon this week.

    Manhattan’s top prosecutor, Alvin Bragg (D.), offered Waseem Awawdeh and Faisal Elezzi—two of four men charged with violently beating and pepper-spraying a Jewish man in 2021—reduced sentences as part of the plea deals, which will see Awawdeh spend six months in jail and Elezzi entering an intensive treatment program, according to the district attorney’s office. The four men allegedly participated in a gang attack on Joseph Borgen, who was beaten and called anti-Semitic slurs as he made his way to a pro-Israel demonstration.

    Jewish advocates said Awawdeh’s plea deal of six months in prison is particularly offensive due to a claim that he reportedly made to jailers: “If I could do it again, I would do it again.”

  24. 24

    George/Anthony/Snookie Santos/Devolder has been revealed to have yet another secret identity.

    For years the Republican Congressman has performed in Drag Story Hours under the stage name Kitara Ravanche

    There goes another “issue”.

  26. 26

    Just ’cause children are dying doesn’t mean y’all can’t have a little fun with war.

    Defense of Ukraine
    @DefenceU
    ·
    Ukraine government organization
    Western countries are so worried about sending tanks to Ukraine, they’re arguing about what is and isn’t a “tank.” We offer our humble suggestion.

    10:11 AM · Jan 12, 2023

  28. 28

    I see nothing wrong with forcing one of your citizens to have her baby in Afghanistan. Women always get the very best care there, especially now that the US has abandoned it to the Taliban.

    WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — A pregnant New Zealand journalist who was stranded in Afghanistan by her home country’s COVID-19 border policy said Tuesday she will return home after her government offered her a pathway back.

    The government offer amounted to a backdown by New Zealand after officials had earlier insisted that Charlotte Bellis needed to reapply for a spot in the country’s bottlenecked quarantine hotels. Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson said Bellis had been offered a voucher for a room.

    “I will be returning to my home country New Zealand at the beginning of March to give birth to our baby girl,” Bellis said in a statement. “We are so excited to return home and be surrounded by family and friends at such a special time.”

    Her case had quickly becoming an embarrassment to New Zealand, which has thousands of citizens waiting abroad for space to open in the military-run border quarantine hotels.

  29. 29

    It’s a good thing that Robinhood Dumbfuck Rabbit never amassed a million dollars, or anything close to it.

    After all, this guy doesn’t need the competition:

    NY oil tycoon lost billions with Enron, invested with Bernie Madoff, and struck out with FTX: report

    Robinhood Dumbfuck Rabbit’s headline is more like:

    Failed attorney lost hundreds with 3M, invested his family’s future in AT&T, and embarrassed himself to no end by a full-throated defense of GE’s dividend mere months before it was slashed by 95+%

    I know, I know: “Hundreds” doesn’t sound like much, but that’s my point. To Robinhood Dumbfuck Rabbit, it is.

  30. 30

    Miguel Estrada could not be reached for comment:

    Josh Kraushaar
    @JoshKraushaar
    New York Gov. Kathy Hochul taps first Hispanic to serve as state’s top judge, left-wing Dems refuse to confirm because he’s not progressive enough:
    nypost.com
    Latinos rally for Hochul top judge pick Hector LaSalle as Dems attack
    Latinos like ex-Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr. are giving centrist Judge Hector LaSalle some back-up ahead of a Wednesday confirmation hearing.
    1:24 PM · Jan 18, 2023

  35. 35

    @15 “Maybe you could have even brought in a drag queen during the State of the Union address.”

    He is the drag queen who’ll be there for the SOU address. See #33 above.

  36. 36

    @ 32

    The GOP House headcount is down by one. A couple more slippery roofs or slick roads and the debt ceiling won’t be a problem.

    I’m reminded of that time a nursing WA state GOP senator left a legislative session for a few minutes in order to breastfeed. I feel the need to explain that she was a woman and identified as such. A Democrat immediately moved for a vote so that the participants could take advantage of the nursing mother’s brief absence from the room to pass something that otherwise would have failed.

  37. 37

    @ 36

    Don’t think I’m telling the truth? I am.

    When Republican Senator Leaves to Nurse Child, Dems Take Advantage — Power Play Stirs Outrage

    While minority Democrats say they were making an important political point, outraged members of the Republican-leaning Majority Coalition Caucus say a greater principle of basic human decency is involved. They say they are incredulous that the Senate Democratic Caucus would take advantage of a situation created when a mother left to breastfeed her child.

    “I think it is shameful for them to make her choose between being on the floor and voting and nursing her child,” said state Sen. Ann Rivers, R-La Center. “This caucus, which presents itself as being the caucus of families, would willingly drive a wedge between a mother and her infant? I think that is shameful. Just shameful. And deeply disappointing.”
    …
    During a mid-afternoon session, as the Senate was debating a routine series of bills, Holmquist Newbry left the floor to care for her four-month-old son Makaio, who had been brought to the women’s lounge off the Senate floor. Sen. Jim Honeyford, R-Sunnyside, moved to excuse Holmquist Newbry from voting. That meant the majority coalition had 24 votes, not 25, and they were tied at least temporarily with the Senate Democratic Caucus.

    Sen. David Frockt, D-Seattle, took advantage of the moment. He rose to demand an immediate vote on a bill sponsored by a Democrat that did not appear on the afternoon schedule.

    The unusual motion quieted the chamber. Members rushed to their seats. Frockt demanded a roll-call vote. The assumption was that Lt. Gov. Brad Owen, a Democrat, would cast a tiebreaking vote to advance the bill to the floor.

    Members of the Senate Democratic Caucus voted yes as their names were called. Members of the Majority Coalition Caucus voted no. And just in time, Holmquist Newbry emerged from the lounge to cast her vote. The motion failed 25-24.

  38. 38

    @ 37

    Fain said a number of Democratic members apologized to Holmquist Newbry after the move on the floor. “I am heartened by that,” he said.

    This is what separates liberal adults from YLB. YLB can never admit fault. She’s weak enough as it is.

  39. 39

    who are the Democrats going to rely on for their propaganda in 2024?

    Vapid Boy See @19 and 21

  40. 40

    Ukraine Reclassifies U.S. Tanks as “Recreational Vehicles” to Skirt Restrictions

    Good. You reclasified your brain for Putin.

  42. 42

    I’m reminded of that time…

    Emotionally overwrought troll traveling into time again.

    His past will always be less humiliating than his future.

    Because he chooses to be Republican.

  47. 47

    The bad news: Nike’s 6th and Pike store closes on January 20th.

    The good news: There are plans to bust in the windows at the site, and move in tents. And Honey Buckets.

  48. 48

    @47 Why don’t you volunteer your barn, so they don’t have to? The homeless gotta live somewhere, unless someone plans to go Auschwitz on them.

  49. 49

    Didn’t think the second train North of Everett would be restored until the new trains are delivered. WSDoT is leasing rolling stock from Amtrak until then. One of the reasons Wisconsin TALGOs are in Nigeria instead being used here was tge maintenance contract WSDoT had with TALGO was up, and wouldn’t negotiate a good short term renewal.

    Tge Siemens Ventures, which Amtrak calls Airo won’t be ready until 2025-26. One of the reasons is it’s a massive joint order, second, Siemens California factory, business is booming. Finishing up a big order for LRVs from Sound Transit, then a order from TriMet.

  50. 50

    @47

    Large corporation gives up inflated rent at lease end on what was always a billboard more than a retail space for the much larger former Microsoft Store in Bellevue Square.

    (It will likely sit empty for a while until the real estate holding LLC realizes that downtown retail isn’t as valuable in the new WFH economy.)

  51. 51

    Where’s the federal civil rights criminal investigation in this case? How is it that no one will go to prison for this?

    “The Sebastian County jail in Arkansas is facing a lawsuit that accuses officials of letting a detainee die of starvation and neglect while in their care. … Larry Price Jr., 51, was found by guards lying in a pool of his own urine and contaminated water, unresponsive in August 2021 after having been detained for more than a year. His once 6-foot-2-inch, 185-pound frame emaciated down to 90 pounds, the lawsuit states. Price died of acute dehydration and malnutrition, according to the Arkansas State Crime Lab.”

    https://abcnews.go.com/US/arkansas-detainee-died-starvation-neglect-lawsuit-claims/story?id=96465663

  52. 52

    Vas Narasimhan, “who has previously warned that future pandemics are bound to happen, made clear that world leaders must learn from the coronavirus crisis to be in a better place for future pandemics.”

    https://www.cnbc.com/2023/01/19/novartis-ceo-says-covid-to-become-endemic-calls-for-better-pandemic-preparedness.html

    “Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said Tuesday that he wants to permanently ban numerous safety measures meant to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, including mask and vaccine mandates.”

    https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ron-desantis-covid-19-vaccine-mandate-ban_n_63c80785e4b04d4d18dba97f

    DeSantis has learned nothing, is unteachable, and must never be president.

  53. 53

    The stock market has begun to fall. It’ll fall a hell of a lot more if House Republicans keep playing debt chicken. I wonder how long before they hear from their wealthy donors?

  54. 54

    Dirty is dirty. Even a sane Democrat can tell.

    Poll: Two-thirds of Americans — including most Dems — favor investigation into Biden docs

    A new Yahoo News/YouGov poll finds that nearly two-thirds of U.S. adults (64%) favor Congress “investigating the classified documents found at [President] Biden’s home and post-vice-presidential office” — including a majority of Democrats (52%).

    Just 16% of Americans — and 27% of Democrats — oppose such an investigation.

    This broad bipartisan consensus represents unwelcome news to the White House, which has struggled over the last two weeks to manage a steady drip of revelations about additional documents discovered in various locations — revelations that echo the ongoing clash between former President Donald Trump and federal authorities over the “highly classified” materials seized from his Mar-a-Lago estate in 2022.

    Top Secret is highly classified, after all.

  55. 55

    @ 53

    I wonder how long before they hear from their wealthy donors?

    Those with real wealth – the ones who don’t lie about being “millionaires” – know that it’s a manufactured short-term blip, and that it’s really an opportunity for short-term profits at the expense of Chicken Littles like Robinhood Dumbfuck Rabbit.

  56. 56

    51,

    There is a quiet inquiry by DOJ civil rights division. But unless guards or nurses testify, the only evidence of any criminal violations is the autopsy, which was undoubtedly steered to reach false conclusions. And there is not nearly enough in the autopsy to prove criminal culpability on the part of any official.

    This is what cops do.

  57. 57

    45,
    A Republican whining about political dirty pool.

    Sure. But is it?

    Even when such procedural norms exists, in a post-Dobbs / post-Jan6 reality how on earth can Democrats rely on them to bind Republicans in the same way as Republicans would have them bind Democrats?

    After all, even Republicans now admit that they are a minority in America. But they exercise every institutional leverage and flout every norm in order to achieve power for power’s sake. Even resorting to drive-by shootings.

    Democrats can’t unilaterally disarm just to soothe the butt-hurt feels of crybaby trolls.
    Fuck their feelings.

  58. 58

    Trump charged with involuntary manslaughter.

    OK, OK, so it was the SNL embodiment of Trump. But still.

  60. 60

    Rep. George Santos also known as drag queen named ‘Kitara’ in Brazil over a decade ago: report
    Republicans won’t care so long as Santos is willing to burn down the libraries rather than reading them

  61. 61

    56,

    Republicans won’t care. They never do. Obviously because in truth they don’t give a fuck about gender conformity except as a weapon to attack children and frighten ignorant parents.

    Larry Craig can suck cock in an early morning bathroom stall in Union Station all he wants. As long as he delivers a vote to charge an adolescent rape victim with murder for getting an abortion.

    But unaligned voters will care.
    And a few more will swear off Republicans because of it.

  64. 64

    Texas State Sen. Bob Hall is taking anti-abortion measures even further by proposing a bill that would require labeling for food products that contain fetal tissue. What’s causing people to scratch their heads, however, is that no such food exists.

    Reminds me of an old joke from the Dahmer era, “Baby….the other white meat.”

    Seriously, Republicans are sitting around horrified that cannibalism, which is NOT happening, is actually happening. The lunatics think “Frazzledrip” is real.

    (IT IS REAL. I TALKED TO THE WIFE OF THE NYPD OFFICER WHO SAW THE VIDEO FROM WEINER’S LAPTOP – M T GREEN)

  66. 66

    Miserably weak and crippled Chief Justice hot boxed every single clerk with access to the draft opinion.
    But he was too squeamish and humiliated to interview any of his fellow justices, most particularly the one we all know deliberately leaked his own opinion in order to corner Roberts. And despite credible eyewitness accounts and contemporaneous emails and other documents describing a precisely similar leak by Alito as part of a widespread and carefully orchestrated effort to peddle influence on the court, Roberts is too weak to go there.

    Even Roberts knows that what he did was a useless exercise in face saving that has changed nobody’s opinion about what a colossal failure he is and how much his poor leadership has destroyed the court’s credibility. But mostly it’s the clerks who know it. And now, having destroyed public confidence in the court Roberts has now driven away its most talented employees.

    Brilliant.

  67. 67

    Will somebody please prop up MyPillow!

    “Are you kidding me, I have done nothing wrong. Absolutely nothing wrong. I want them to sue me. Please. Because I have all the evidence, 100%. I want all the American people and the world to see the horrific things that these (Dominion voting) machines are capable of and what they did to our country and what — they’re allowing other countries to steal our election and just to hijack our election,”

  68. 68

    “That woman, she’s really hot. That’s why I married her. I tossed Ivanna off like a prom dress and hopped on Marla. She did things to me you wouldn’t believe. I mean really hot stuff. But then she got old and not so hot anymore.”

    “Uh, sir….that’s a picture the woman you said isn’t your type. The one suing you. The one you say isn’t pretty enough to rape.”

  69. 69

    60,
    What Trump proved to everyone was that where conservative voters are concerned, a Republican politician can say or do anything and then later on skate by it all, dismissing it or waiving it off without even an apology, and it won’t change their voting.

    It’s been true since the beginning. It’s by design.

    Trump went on television and told them just weeks before the 2016 general election that he had a history of violent sexual assault. He didn’t apologize. He told them it was a long time ago and that it didn’t matter. And conservative voters accepted that, accepted that the Republican nominee had a history of violent sexual assault, and then went and voted for him anyway.

    We may just as well think of it as a form of mass insanity. It comports with all the normal markers. At the very least it’s pathological. And it now affects nearly every regular conservative voter in America. I said this would happen. I said that by twisting themselves into such cognitive contortions it would change them permanently. And it has. Conservative voters in America have now become a pathological voting block willing to abide by rape, willing to abide by treason, willing to abide by massive financial corruption, and willing to abide by political violence and insurrection.

    It is only to be expected that, having become this way, their political leaders who appreciate this will use it and take advantage of it however they can. That’s completely rational.

    What is not completely rational is conservative voters themselves. They are, for lack of a better term, completely insane.

    Consider for just a moment that George Santos was elected by the wealthiest conservative voters in New York.
    These are well educated, affluent, privileged, and to the extent that it is even possible, well informed voters. They chose George/Anthony/Jingleheimer?/Devolder/Santos as their preferred option with as much information about him as any voter can have. They weren’t tricked. They weren’t deceived. That freak is what they wanted representing them in Congress.

  70. 70

    Guy who coined the term “woke mind virus” now repudiates the entire exercise as the “new religion of contrarianism and conspiracy thinking.”

    https://www.thedailybeast.com/intellectual-dark-webs-descent-into-paranoia-and-trumpism

    Again, we are talking about a bunch of people you’d have to credit with being a certain kind of “smart”. Very high academic achievers with enormous intellectual advantages and more than a few with a talent for rhetoric and analysis.

    But Sam Harris, once an intellectual titan among them, describes them all as having gone completely insane over the last six years of Trumpism’s influence.

    He’s not wrong… for a change.

  71. 71

    @62 “Roberts has now driven away its most talented employees.”

    Isn’t that part of the plan? If you intend to politicize a court, you don’t want that kind of employee, you want Liberty University grads with poor grades who can’t get other work.

  79. 79

    The Seattle City Council will have a bunch of new faces next year. So far four incumbents have announced they won’t run for re-election: Alex Pedersen, Debora Juarez, Lisa Herbold, and Kshama Sawant.

  80. 80

    79)Still under the old system, don’t think RCV kicks in yet. Portland is gaurenteed to have new faces in the city council. Tgey voted to triple its size from 4 plus the mayor, to 12 plus tge mayor, using Proportional RCV in three districts.

  81. 81

    @80 Kshama Sawant’s announcement she won’t run for re-election is a big deal in Seattle politics.

  82. 82

    81)Wonder if she was afraid of redistricting? Probably going to be a new firebrand taking her place.

  83. 83

    Beat tge postgame traffic. Still, the trackwork on LINK must be an emergency, Sound Transit usually works around Kraken games.

  84. 84

    @82 She said she’s launching a national workers’ movement, so maybe she’s just moving on. But she barely survived a costly recall election about a year ago, and maybe her campaign donors are financially exhausted from that.

  85. 85

    84)Could be. Although the way her supporters fought the recall was weird, Trying to gather signatures to force it on a general election ballot.

    As for her launching a national movement, doubt it will gain traction, could be a spoiler.

  86. 86

    Isn’t there a reason that liberals would want to see the evidence in a case in which a far-right thug attacked the husband of a liberal political icon?

    News outlets seek access to evidence in Paul Pelosi attack

    During a Dec. 14 preliminary hearing, the San Francisco district attorney’s office introduced audio and video evidence against David DePape, the man accused of attacking Paul Pelosi. But it has refused to release the evidence to the media.

    Attorneys for the coalition said in the motion filed Wednesday that “the public and press have standing to assert their rights of access to court records and proceedings.”

    The coalition also includes The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, The Press Democrat, CNN, Fox News, CBS, ABC, NBC and KQED, an NPR-member radio station in San Francisco.

    Quite the Who’s Who of media outlets. NPR, the Chron, etc. I’m guessing it might be juicy stuff:

    Evidence introduced in the preliminary hearing against DePape included audio from a 911 call made by Paul Pelosi, portions of body camera video taken by the two police officers who responded to the Pelosis’ house, portions of video of a police detective interviewing DePape and footage captured by Capitol Police Department surveillance cameras.

    Let’s see the video. Let’s hear the audio. Why don’t we get to see the vdeo?

    I’m guessing when Pelosi opened the door to the police, his Viagra was working as intended.

  87. 87

    “’We are confronted with a lawsuit that should never have been filed, which was completely frivolous, both factually and legally, and which was brought in bad faith for an improper purpose,’ wrote Judge John Middlebrooks in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida in his order sanctioning Trump and his attorney Alina Habba. … Middlebrooks in his order Thursday noted that ‘Mr. Trump is a prolific and sophisticated litigant who is repeatedly using the courts to seek revenge on political adversaries. He is the mastermind of strategic abuse of the judicial process, and he cannot be seen as a litigant blindly following the advice of a lawyer,’ Middlebrooks wrote.”

    “Under the order, the Republican Trump and Habba, are jointly and severally liable for the total amount of sanctions the judge imposed to cover the defendants’ legal fees and costs: $937,989.39.”

    https://www.cnbc.com/2023/01/20/trump-and-lawyers-sanctioned-almost-1-million-for-frivolous-lawsuit-against-hillary-clinton.html

  88. 88

    Listening the DAVOS reporting.
    A crippling fraction of Amercians lost their shit being asked for the easy and reasonable COVID protection changes, those same Americans will never ever allow anything proactively that will mitigate Climate Change, that will require bigger changes.

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