Home » Open thread 7/28/2025

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Open thread 7/28/2025 — 19 Comments

  1. Kate,

    So how does Cooper now running for the Tillis seat upset the GOP apple cart? Is it going to be much harder to keep thatcseat?

  2. I commented a few weeks ago that the Missouri State Legislature had done something Really Stupid. Specifically, the legislature undid a sick leave provision that the State electorate had enacted in the previous election. (They also put a provision on the next ballot to undo a protection of abortion that the voters passed in the previous election.

    The abortion effort is OK, it’s a suggestion that he electorate undo its own previous act, and it’s an issue that has a lot of grey areas in public opinion.

    The sick leave reversal was stupid. It plays right into the Democrat talking point of ‘party of the rich’ and ‘anti-worker’ and ‘hates ordinary people’. Fairly or not, the electorate in general is not very sympathetic to business interests right now. Out and out reversing a ballot initiative on the single subject where the GOP is weakest in terms of public perception was just nuts.

    And now the backlash seems to be beginning:

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/kicked-a-hornet-s-nest-missouri-gop-repeal-of-voter-approved-laws-inspires-backlash/ar-AA1JrYDB

    They may yet get away with it. Missouri is a very red State, and the Dems have huge PR problems of their own. But it was still stupid to try even if they end up getting away with it, kind of like trying ski drunk through a landslide area. Even if you survive it you still did something moronic.

    They could have put a ballot initiative to undo the sick leave provision on the ballot for the next election, and then tried to make arguments for it. Succeed or fail, that would likely not have hurt them much.

    But just reversing it was painting a target on their own backs.

  3. @physicsguy: Cooper was expected to run. The Trump-endorsed GOP candidate is now Michael Whatley, who was the NC GOP Chair before he took over the RNC. He’s a savvy politician. I assume he will run endless ads pointing out the damage Cooper did keeping the state, and the schools, closed way, way too long. Cooper also performed poorly in managing a recovery fund from previous hurricanes in eastern NC and did little to help western NC following Helene. I would imagine Whatley will have fundraising success for the run. I’m hopeful.

  4. Life with an OCD Wife
    Conversation from last night

    Me: What are you doing?
    Her: Studying the county code.
    Me: Why? We quit right?
    Her: Right.

    An hour later
    Me: What are you doing?
    Her: Studying the county code.
    Me: Why are you wasting your time? We made our decision right?
    Her: Right.

    An hour later
    Me: What are you doing?
    Her: Still studying the county code.
    Me: Argh!

    An hour later
    Her: Here is my summery…
    Me: Ok, we have paid for this part of the process. It is a sunk cost. We still quit, but you gave me two more cards to play and I want to playout the hand. If we quit, any restart means paying these fees again.

    Her: No! I want to quit!

    Me: It is your own damn fault. I told you to stop reading the code and you didn’t and then you told me what you found. That is also on you. I think they are bluffing. I think they exempt anyone who complains so no one has standing to sue and rubes like us just comply.

  5. Not birds but…

    BREAKING: Attorney General Letitia James is suing the Trump administration in an effort to keep illegal immigrants eligible for SNAP benefits.

    @GeneralMCNews

  6. TommyJay,

    President Trump should invite Joel to the White House for a private dinner with his family and explain. Even show him footage of the speech. President Trump’s Jewish daughter, son-in-law and their Jewish children should also be at the dinner. Kosher food, of course.

  7. Rufus,
    Yes, it’s ironic, & sad, that Joel is Jewish and Trump has strong Jewish connections.
    _________

    There’s been a shooting in mid-town Manhattan. 6 shot. Gunman kills himself on the 33rd floor of 345 Park Ave. The media says that the NFL and Blackstone are housed in that building, but the only thing I can confirm about the 33rd floor is that a company named POA Solutions is or was located there. A company focused on digital business solutions for communication and collaboration.

  8. Billy Joel: brilliant musician and dumb-ass citizen.

    Or just ignorant.

    We (meaning the public in general) have a bad habit of investing famous people with an assumption of knowledge and understanding that there’s no particular reason to expect them to have. That’s true of musicians and actors. Being brilliant at music or acting or sculpting doesn’t imply anything at all, either way, about understanding of current events or politics or public affairs.

    Ditto scientific talent. Being a brilliant physicist or medical doctor or inventor says nothing whatever about one’s political knowledge. One can be a Noble Laureate in physics and still clueless outside a lab. (Which is in fact relatively common, since it takes so much time and effort to become a physicist or a medical doctor or a concert pianist or whatever.)

    Of course, it’s equally true that there’s nothing preventing such people from being well-informed and insightful on public affairs, either. But there’s no inherent reason to expect it.

    I remember years ago when one of the popular science magazines interviewed a bunch of well-known scientific minds for their opinions on public affairs. Reading their comments drove home the fact that the stereotype of the genius who is clueless about practical matters may be insulting and simplistic, but it’s also often true.

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