Monday Mood [DOT 15/4/24]

15/4/24 MegMegMcGee 21

Ugh not only is it Monday, it’s also Tax Day.

U.S. pushing Israel not to escalate confrontation with Iran, officials say
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/04/14/israel-iran-attack-war-drones-missiles-news

Trump ratchets up attacks on judge and prosecutor ahead of hush-money trial
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/14/donald-trump-reaction-hush-money-trial

Sprots!

Unflappable Scottie Scheffler clinches second Masters title with virtuoso display
https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/14/sport/scottie-scheffler-the-masters-winner-2024-spt-intl/index.html

Stonks!

Dow futures rebound from worst week of 2024 even as traders brace for Israel response to Iran attack: Live updates
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/04/14/stock-market-today-live-updates.html

Ooh, interesting!

Sketch in N.Y. apartment turns out to be rare Revolutionary War drawing
https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2024/04/14/revolutionary-war-sketch-simitiere-museum

Today in things that made me legit lol:

Have a great day!

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21 Comments

  1. The whole Iran attack was such a weird moment to live through. We knew they’d attacked, we knew it could spark a wider global conflict (even up to a nuclear level) but it was such a slow-moving thing that we had to almost wait for the attack itself to catch up with where we were on the timeline.

    Also worth noting, again, that the IDF — propped up for years as the most careful and precise army in the world — bombed their embassy and made it a problem for Iran. I’m very happy Biden’s people were out there immediately saying “Don’t you f’n dare” to Israel about it. God only knows what Trump would be saying, especially given John Bolton was out flogging his “PLEASE CAN WE INVADE IRAN NOW” boner on every cable station.

    • Like Thomas Friedman, John Bolton has an impeccable foreign intelligence source, and that is his moustache. If John Bolton’s moustache is telling him that we should reduce Teheran to rubble, I say we’d better scramble the bombers and blitz the skies with wave after wave of weaponized drones.

      • A day in the life of John Bolton:

        8:12 a.m.: His coffee lid comes loose and it spills in the hallway. “IRAN’S FAULT!” he cries.

        9:03: His printer breaks. “THIS IS CLEARLY THE WORK OF IRAN” he shrieks.

        9:42: He thinks he needs to go to the bathroom, but he remains constipated for a second day. “THE REPUBLICAN GUARD HAS SNUCK INTO MY COLON TO CAUSE ME AGONY” he wails, his words echoing off the bathroom tile

        12:15 p.m.: His lunch place is out of his favorite soup. “THE AYATOLLAH MUST BE DEPOSED FOR THIS CRIME!” he screams as other people in the line back away from him slowly

        2:15 p.m.: He has run out of mustache wax. “WAR IS COMING AND WE MUST BE PREPARED” he thunders to a perplexed Walmart clerk as he’s being rung out.

        4:59 p.m.: Traffic jam. “WHY DO THESE JIHAD-LOVING DEMOCRATS REFUSE TO DO WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE AND INVADE IRAN?!” he shouts over his podcast about My Little Pony.

      • This is why it’s so hard to take people seriously who posit Trump as being a foreign policy neutral or even less war-hungry than Biden — like not only do we know that’s not the case (Trump droned the fuck out of the Middle East, killed a top Iranian general just for funsies, and was happy to open fire into fucking MEXICO) he also made vague threats on social media all the time at countries we don’t like AND at countries we’re allied with! Sorry, but that’s also foreign policy!

        • …first chance he got he just had to drop a MOAB…they call it the mother of all bombs but it apparently stands for Massive Ordnance Air-Burst…don’t remember the exact details but pretty sure it was dubious that smaller would have worked better…but…biggest non-nuke he could play with & accept no substitutes

          …he’s the sort who thinks that kind of thing makes him a big man…& those people shouldn’t be within a country mile of a nuclear launch code if we don’t want to LARP dr strangelove?

  2. Volkswagen Is the First Step to Shawn Fain’s Dream to Unionize Tesla

    A victory at a Tennessee factory this week would be a huge boost to a campaign to reinvigorate the iconic US union

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-04-15/volkswagen-vw-union-vote-uaw-is-winning-over-workers

    This is a reasonably balanced article which notes the significant gains the UAW has made recently at VW, Mercedes and Hyundai in Southern non-union states, but notes the challenges of winning at Tesla, quoting one labor historian: ““Believe it or not they think that organizing in the South is easier than organizing at Tesla. And they may be right.”

    Of course who knows where Tesla will even be in a few years.

      • I read a long article on … maybe Jalopnick? that ran down all the problems Elmo is having with Tesla. His design mandates are garbage (for example, he’s eliminated steering column  stalks in favor of you having to push a button to turn on your signal or your wipers, which means you have to look at the console — no doing it by feel). He also mandated steering wheel “yokes” instead of steering wheels, and customers complained so much that Tesla had to put steering wheels back as an option.

        All that pales next to the Cybertruck (aka the Incel Camino). Dozens of cases of it simply not working. People picking them up at the lot and having it die about a half-mile away for no apparent reason.  Others have it for two weeks before it stops working.

        I’m honestly at a loss to understand why anyone would buy a Tesla at this point.

        • …the yoke/steering wheel thing I remember from way back…& his QA was for shit to the point of people being able to put fingers between panels on factory-fresh cars

          …but…incel camino?

          …nailed it

    • The cynic in me would note that The Atlantic is, in fact, not journalism, but opinion. (It’s also, IMO, a lot of really shitty inbred rich guy centrist opinion, but YMMV.)

      The person in me who relies on a media salary to put food on the table and have a roof over my head would note that paywalls make that possible and a blanket “free media” jubilee would require some funding from somewhere and there isn’t really a “somewhere” that’s been established as a possible source.

        • Because the right has a “somewhere” where the money comes from: The billionaires who fund the whole operation. It’s always been their advantage over potential left-wing versions of right-wing media; the other side doesn’t have the billionaires (other than (((George Soros))) who apparently has a kajillion dollars and funds everything from left-wing media to grandkids not talking to their crazy MAGA grandparents to rainy afternoons in red states).

          Though it’s not even the right, necessarily: Propaganda is cheap and easy to produce and there’s always funding for some version of it depending on who and what you’re aiming at. It’s not like The Atlantic — THE TRANS ARE AT IT AGAIN SAYS JESSE SINGAL WHO SWEARS HE’S JUST ASKING QUESTIONS — is some big-time supporter of good journalism. And it certainly isn’t a huge outlay to get enough Russian bots chatting about something to get it picked up by actual news orgs as being a thing. While that tends to be something stupid and right-wing, it isn’t always! 

  4. …ho ho ho

    https://www.cnbc.com/2024/04/15/trump-media-shares-plunge-after-company-files-to-issue-additional-djt-stock.html

    …they said they aimed to drop a bunch more shares…& let the “original investors” AKA “the defendant” flog their stakes…& the price dropped another 15%

    …which…if it was then $13.something…I’m pretty sure means it’d already dropped below the $17.50 or whatever that it had to stay above for a period in order to push those extra shares through on the back end

    …dunno if it made it & that’s what dumped the price & screwed the faithful who bought in “small”…or if they didn’t make it & the announcement is some effort to bullshit their way into releasing them anyway

    …but…that’s probably because I’m too busy laughing my ass off that the man can lose billions even on a money laundering style exercise to fill his pockets

    …for a “rich guy” he sure does…poorly when it comes to clever moves with money?

  5. The prosecution in NYC is asking the judge to cite Trump for contempt for three gag order violations for his latest posts – including one this morning while he was in court.

    The fine would be only $1,000, but more significantly they want jail if he does any more

    The judge is already calling Trump’s team’s motions “frivolous” and is basically fed up with them. That doesn’t mean he’s ready to jail Trump yet, but six weeks is a long time. A lot of people think it can’t happen, or that Trump has some brilliant strategy, but I have doubts about both.

    I think the standard narrative is jail would help Trump energize his base, but I think they’re maxed out. What it may do is launch some nuts into extremist acts, and that’s awfully scary. We may be heading into uncharted waters.

  6. all israel has to do….is not retaliate

    you know…in response to the retaliation to its strike on iran

    call it tit for tat and be done with it

    simples

    so i guess we are probably not doing that….

    and the news over here is worried about irans capability for warfare?

    i mean sure….they arent allies..and apparently have a fuckload of drones to throw at shit…..but at mo im a little more worried about what israel might get up to

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