Midweek Meh-Ness [DOT 4/12/24]

4/12/24 MegMegMcGee 48

YOU GUYZ…It’s still fucking snowing. This is insane.

MAGA is apoplectic over this

Judge ends gun case against Hunter Biden after pardon – US politics live
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2024/dec/03/white-house-joe-biden-hunter-pardon-donald-trump-jan-6-rioters-clemency-us-politics-latest-updates

I feel like a lot has changed since I stuck this link in here…

South Korean president declares martial law; parliament votes it down
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/12/03/south-korea-yoon-martial-law

How much can we Trump Proof?

Biden trying to ‘put Ukraine in the strongest possible position’ with new aid package, White House says
https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/03/politics/biden-ukraine-aid-package/index.html

What’s your word of the year?

Writer Thoreau warned of brain rot in 1854. Now it’s the Oxford Word of 2024
https://www.npr.org/2024/12/02/nx-s1-5213682/writer-thoreau-warned-of-brain-rot-in-1854-now-its-the-oxford-word-of-2024

First the cheese, now the pies. Someone’s holiday is looking UP!

Michelin chef appeals to Christmas spirit of thieves who stole 2,500 pies
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/12/03/thieves-steal-michelin-chef-pies-tommy-banks

Have a great day!

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48 Comments

    • It’s fucking weird cause it’s the first thing a kid does in the monkey bars, we just don’t need another person above us for no apparent reason.

    • He just gives off such big perv energy.

      Like I would not want to be in a locker room with him, an elevator with him, anywhere near him, in a pool with him, in the same city as him, anywhere near him.

      He’s got creeper uncle vibes. Every woman knows what I mean.

      • Some men do too. I’ve got a creeper uncle (he’s ancient now but still alive). We boys were charged with making sure no girls were ever left alone with him. Even at my aunt’s funeral a few years back, he started following one of my cousin’s daughters around. My cousin shot me a look and I intervened quickly to redirect him.

    • Even as I brace for the generational levels of damage Trump and his merry band of billionaire sex abusers is going to do, I still take some heart knowing that the American people are not going to be thrilled with his performance on the job because he will constantly and endlessly do shit like this. I know this because my superpower is, apparently, the ability to remember that HE WAS FUCKING PRESIDENT BEFORE AND IT WAS JUST LIKE THIS BACK IN 2017 AND I CAN REMEMBER THAT BUT APPARENTLY NOBODY ELSE CAN!

      Sorry for yelling.

      • Well, WE all remember.

        In fact, I remember that Trump told over 30,000 documented lies during his first term. Why anyone with a functioning brain would believe anything he promised is simply beyond my capacity to understand.

      • The massive flu epidemic of 1918-19 killed somewhere between 500-800K people in the US, a somewhat greater percentage nationwide than Covid. Within a couple of years it was almost completely forgotten, just like Trump’s complete dysfunction during Covid.

        There’s a fair argument there that the people and press were distracted by other major events back then, but to a large extent they simply moved on. Much smaller issues like “red scares”  ended up dominating headlines even as there was a significant rebound in 1920.

        We’re actually in a much greater era of press consolidation than back then. Newspapers were the overwhelming source of news until radio came along, but they operated in a single city and every city had multiple competing outlets. The Chicago Tribune only reached about 20% of the city, and they had almost no readership anywhere else.

        The decisions of a few people today make this tendency toward amnesia even more scary. If someone like AG Sulzberger decides Trump’s mental decline isn’t a story, but a modern day equivalent of the “red scare” is a story (college kids! it’s always college kids!) it’s hard to see how that doesn’t become the defining narrative.

  6. Applause for South Korea, who put down a right-wing coup attempt and protected their Capitol and has already starting removing the people in government behind said coup in [checks watch] about 36 hours.

    Was that, like, you know, an option here too? Could we sign up for that plan? Does it cost extra? Has anyone checked into this?

  7. My dad would be proud if he understood what was going on. He was among many who protested in 1960 which helped over throw the other side of the family (after SyungMan Rhee rigged one too many elections.) It might explain a lot of why my dad hates family nepotsm so much.

    It also might explain why he ended up leaving Korea shortly thereafter (when the military decided they had enough of this “democracy” and took over by coup in 1961.) He ended up working in Japan for a few years before immigrating to Canada.

    • I imagine that was a heck of a journey. I’m guessing that at that time, a Korean emigrating to Japan for even a short while was probably unpleasant for him. Glad he ended up in the Great White North.

    • A) that’s a hell of a story and

      B) it certainly is worth noting that democracies which have sprung out of nations that previous had coup issues tend to have really strict laws against future coups, and their societies tend to be real vigilant and feel real negative about that sort of behavior. South Korea, Brazil … they both elected someone who was thinking coup and once they hit that line both countries were just like “Nope, absolutely not.” It’s my biggest worry here; people are so sure it couldn’t happen that they won’t realize it’s happened until well past the point of stopping it from happening.

      • The ironic moment came a decade later after dad spent a lot of time working on nuclear fuel handling at Ontario Hydro. The same military government who helped push my dad into exile realized that my dad would be perfect to help them work on a secret project (so secret that Murrican government wasn’t told.) General Park wanted to build a nuclear bomb in case Murrica left South Korea high and dry like they did South Vietnam.

        “Strangely” Dad didn’t take to the idea of being stuck in international intrigue (when the CIA found out they were pissed) and being part of a team to build a weapon of mass destruction for a group of generals he didn’t like. So, nope.

    • I sort of feel bad because he’s a human being, but on the other hand…

      Being a greedy asshole might end up being a pre-existing condition that even insurance won’t/can’t cover.

      Can’t condone murder as a way of dealing with insurance, but when you’re in dire straits because the CEO approves of something like this…

      https://arstechnica.com/health/2023/11/ai-with-90-error-rate-forces-elderly-out-of-rehab-nursing-homes-suit-claims/

      It’s hard not to feel the anger/desperation welling up to send someone into a really dark place to murder. If I were living in Murrica then I could see this being be my parents and watching their finances and my own going down the toilet so that the insurance CEO could get another ivory backscratcher and giant bonus would send me off into a flying rage. I get it. Does it mean I would do such an act? Either I’m too much of a wimp or I’d like to think I’m sane enough not to, but my love of greedy ass CEOs is non existent.

      For example: I saw my former CEO crossing the street… would be a tough choice to hit the brakes or the gas.

      • I’m sure the perpetrator is either suffering from an incurable condition and was denied coverage or has a family member in that position.

        That’s not going to narrow it down much, though.

    • The Hilton, no less! VERY “Mad Men,” I’ve had friends and relatives stay there. It’s incredibly convenient but for that reason the area is just mobbed. Or it used to be pre-pandemic; it’s probably not anymore.

    • It also sounds like he was being extorted for crypto and maybe didn’t pay up? The pool of suspects is not gonna be small.

      That said, it’s honestly shocking that more CEOs aren’t getting pot shots taken at them, especially in health care, where people quite literally are dying from their corporate policies. Usually the system protects by being so diffuse — it isn’t really the CEO who’s setting the policy — but these are also the front men (yeah usually men) of the org and there are a lot of angry people with guns out there whose wife/husband/brother/daughter/grandma is dying because someone there said “Nah” to lifesaving treatment.

    • What’s even more ominous is that China doesn’t just have direct control over key elements, thanks to their deep influence over a lot of mining concerns in developing countries they can control a lot of other levers too.

      Idiots like Bezos slept walked through the rise of Trump and then condoned it, but they have no concept of what a trade war will do to them. Both online shopping and his much more valuable IT business will get slammed if supply chain issues blow up, but sure, it made a lot of sense back in 2021 to decide to stay neutral about the rise of a lunatic.

    • “It’s hard to conclude this is anything other than open partisanship,” McConnell declared.

      Gee, Mitch, you think? And what did you do when SCOTUS positions opened up? Did you behave in an utterly nonpartisan manner?

      Shut the fuck up.

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