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Home » Open thread 1/19/24

Open thread 1/19/24

The New Neo Posted on by

Can it really be true that they’ve never met before and haven’t worked this out in advance? I think that’s the case:

Here’s the same guy doing another improv with a different woman:

Comments

Open thread 1/19/24 — 52 Comments

  1. I am very envious of those that can dance like that. It helps the Man that the Women can dance too.

    There is a big push going on now for Michelle O. to be the Dem pick. Yes, that scares me. I just wonder how they will get rid of Harris, and tell Gavin to stay home.

  5. About MO as the candidate, which would enable a 4th(!) Obama term. I know all the libs/Ds I am in contact with would be wetting their pants over such, but I wonder about the rest of the MotR voters. Would they finally become suspicious that there’s an actual familial dictatorship in place?

  6. Nice dancing.

    The music wasn’t what you usually expect from “swing dancing.”

    “West Coast Swing” looks like fun.

    At least until the East Coast Swingers pull up for a drive-by.

  7. Yes, I’m envious too shirehome. I spent a couple months last spring trying to get into ballroom or partner dancing, to little avail.

    They just had a swing dance festival and competition at a local hotel all last weekend. A couple women I’ve gotten to know over the last year are dance fanatics, one of whom attended that festival. I was not there, but she posted a video of herself dancing with a randomly selected stranger in that part of the competition. They did well, but did not place.

    In my community, ballroom dancing is surprisingly popular but I’d say that the skilled women outnumber the men by about 3 to 1. It is very common, and expected, that a request to dance by one skilled dancer be honored by another. So relative strangers dancing together happens a lot.

    The other dancer friend of mine and I were attending a good dance band recently and she spied a guy, Stephan, she knew to be a great dancer. When an appropriate song rolled around the two of them tore up the dance floor. Very impressive. But amusingly, after that performance, several women flocked to Stephan. Oh, dance with me! Two of these ladies were not bad, but the third attractive one didn’t really know anything. Poor Stephan had to instruct her for a time.

    When one goes to these dance clubs or lessons, the number of men and women don’t always balance out. Usually, but not always, the number of women is greater than the number of men. So some of the better women dancers learn how to lead and are comfortable in either the leading or following mode. This is also helpful during a night out with a dance band where two women partner dancing together is common.

  8. About MO as the candidate, which would enable a 4th(!) Obama term. I know all the libs/Ds I am in contact with would be wetting their pants over such but I wonder about the rest of the MotR voters. Would they finally become suspicious that there’s an actual familial dictatorship in place?

    That wouldn’t even come up, bc those folks would all be wetting their panties at the opportunity to show that, not only are they definitely not rayciss, they’re also definitely not sexciss. Especially the men.

  9. From physicsguy’s GatewayPundit link responding to SHIREHOME:
    __________________________________________

    Plans are to grab Michelle for the Democratic presidency choice. Making the music is Barack the orchestra leader.

    Michelle says she’s “terrified” Trump will win. No casual burp. Was programmed. She’s sent a survey to Dem biggies asking their feelings about her candidacy.

    Obama’s quietly angling for Joe to go. He’s weaseled up to this for a few weeks. Mouths aren’t talking. But mouths are knowing.

    Over one year ago, summer of 2022, she was in NYC meeting several big hedge CEOs, and said, “I am running, and I am asking for your support.”

    https://nypost.com/2024/01/15/opinion/its-the-groceries-stupid-why-the-pundits-are-puzzled-by-bidens-putrid-polls/
    __________________________________________

    It would be fun to get this toldjahso on Art Deco, but I continue to believe this is a frighteningly real possibility.

    No anti-Trump voter is going to care if Michelle O. is purely a figurehead. She could spend most of her time on Martha’s Vineyard pruning roses or hanging out with the Tom Hanks’s or whatever the hell she does out there.

    I don’t believe Trump or any Rep could beat her.

  10. The Justice Department issued its report on the Uvalde tragedy. Scathing is the word used frequently. The bad news is that anything Merrick Garland is involved with is bound to be tinged with politics. Sure enough there was a mention of availability of guns that belong on the battlefield. Some time ago Dana Loesch (who has some expertise in these matters and she listed her receipts.) went on a controlled rant about how none, repeat none of any of the branches of our military use an AR-15 as a standard issue. It’s simply not a military grade weapon but Garland just had to get that in the report.
    I didn’t want to pass judgement until enough time had passed to allow for an unemotional assessment. My opinion is that the LEOs involved were less than brave, to be as kind as I can possibly be.
    Neo: A belated thanks for the series of articles you had written evaluating the tragedy. They were very informative and as fair to all parties as any reasonable person could expect. Well done!

  11. there is much to that report, that was left out, how much did the authorities know about the shooter, what was he consuming, why did the chain of command did not rebel at any point, was it they needed a blood price to get more gun restrictions

    I’m am not going to concern myself about miss snuffalupagus yet, I know Michelle is real, her threat is yet to be quantified,

  12. chazzand:

    You’re welcome. But I never finished – other events intervened. I still have more to say on it, and I bet it’s different than the DOJ report. Do you have a link to that?

  14. As for the Michelle O reports, Gateway Pundit is not a reliable source of information. Of course, anything is possible, but I would not rely on anything emanating from that source.

    We heard the very same rumors in 2020.

  15. A little non UFO tech.

    Follows is a link suggestion prompted probably by my viewing of Greg’s Airplanes and Autimobiles channel or Jay Leno’s Garage.

    Lousy delivery but some amazing deep focus, clear, and lingering camera work allowing you to really get the “feel” of the 1956 late model last of the pure Packards. Even the virtually just-off-the-showroom-floor upholstery grabs your arrention.

    This car of course was built before many of us were born, or of an age to remember it when relatively new.

    There is probably no guy here who would remember seeing one of these even used.

    But this Packard car is a mid 1950s’ time capsule preserved in like-new condition down to the unyellowed and relatively fresh looking documentation and seats.

    Patient viewing will be rewarded with some incredible close-up visuals, unlike the sweeping, almost perfunctory treatments seen in most classic car promotions that feature way too much narrator face time, and way too little precision camera work.

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QLLHJbApzO4

  16. As for the Michelle O reports, Gateway Pundit is not a reliable source of information

    neo:

    The part I quoted was from the NY Post, which isn’t the most reliable source either. However … where there’s smoke, it’s not always strawberry jello.

    I would like to know whether MO truly has been canvassing big Dem supporters on her running for President.

    Conservatives keep telling me that we now live in a banana republic. Well, MO as Prez is perfect banana republic.

    If Biden continues to weaken and it becomes certain that Trump could win, would anyone here put it past the Democrats and even MO’s preference for pruning her roses?

    Who thinks Trump or any R could defeat Michelle Obama?

  17. about 50% than the times or the post which denied the hunter lap top story,

    abandon all hope ye who enter here, not yet,

    they don’t always get it right, admittedly,

  20. We heard the very same rumors in 2020. –neo

    True, but it’s four years later, the Biden administration is a hot mess, Americans have noticed, and Biden himself is deteriorating before our eyes.

    It seems bizarre to me how so many conservatives instantly dismiss a Michelle Obama candidacy.

    Democrats have done this before. George Wallace was unable to run for Governor of Alabama in 1966, so he had his wife run as his proxy. She won.

    However, her tenure only lasted a year and some months.

    It’s a weird, kind of horrible story. She had been diagnosed with cancer in 1961. The doctors told her husband and he told them not to tell her. In 1965 she discovered her condition by accident. Later she cooperated with her campaign not to let voters know of her cancer. After she became governor, her health started failing immediately.

  22. Pope Deco:

    I’m never interested in what you think I ought do — in fact I find it condescending — but I understand you’re unable to do otherwise.

  23. we shall see, like arthur dent I won’t press the panic button yet on that score,
    https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2024/01/19/watch-davos-elites-treated-to-ballet-dancers-cellist-in-the-snow-to-ease-their-troubled-spirits/

    these people aren’t for real are they, these self appointed overlords

    If SNL were still around they would some humor at this exercise, they wouldn’t such a
    easy target, of course they would on the side of the shamans,

  24. It seems bizarre to me how so many conservatives instantly dismiss a Michelle Obama candidacy.

    Conversely it’s bizarre to me that so many conservatives seem so fixated on Michelle Obama’s potential candidacy. It’s been this perennial topic in the Conservative blog-o-sphere and social media going back to well before the end of Obama’s presidency. And of course it’s also been a fevered fantasy of the Left for at least as long too. But either way, it’s a well trodden and uninteresting topic to me personally. If and until it actually happens, what else is there to say about it? Rumors about it aren’t interesting.

  25. AR-15s may be military grade, they may be less than military grade, they may be better than military grade. One common upgrade is to replace the mediocre military grade trigger with something better.

  26. its the most popular rifle in the country, a miniscule amount of crimes are committed with said weapons, most with handguns, but they don’t want to go after them just yet,

    I’m given to understand the musical accompaniment is quite exquisite, the venue is just the issue as we spiral toward hunger games

    OT, the moral bankruptcy of media is seen in the season opener of law and order, it was tangentially about plagiarism, but that was quickly discarded by hot takes on Gaza, by this I mean, there is a shooting of a university professor, a young student radical, is involved, because his organization was banned by the victim for Hamas sympathies, so open and shut case,

    well this is hollywood there is no such thing, the suffering of gaza, outweighs the massacre of 1200 innocent men women and children, the newly minted deputy da, doesn’t really want to touch that issue, thelead witness is shot by an angry jewish student (of course that’s how it works) the recruiter is a woke Palestinian professor, and long story short despite the shooters testimony, and her own admissions in court,she is not convicted because reasons

  27. huxley:

    I followed your NY Post link and there was nothing whatsoever in it about Michelle Obama. But studying the NY Post page, I see there’s a different article that appeared in the paper, an op-ed by someone named Cindy Adams (never heard of her before), and that’s the one you’ve quoted. Adams states that Michelle O announced at a CEO meeting one and a half years ago that she is running. And somehow only Ms. Adams got the story? And who is Adams? She’s the Post’s 93-year-old gossip columnist.

  28. And the “pope” slur returns, sad, that for someone who say’s he doesn’t care yet does otherwise, it seems.

    But something different.

    Joni Mitchell – Both Sides Now (Live, 1970)
    https://youtu.be/bcrEqIpi6sg

    Nuance, production, artistry and interpretation.

  30. Huxley, I think Michelle O. could, and would, lose. Her whole schtick would be victimology and DEI-style racism. She has no qualifications other than having been a wife in the White House; the only piece of legislation she pushed was the very unpopular school lunch bill.

    But I’m with Neo on this. I think Michelle O. is happy with her high-income entertainment society lifestyle. As president she’d have to be there and at least look like she was doing something. I don’t think she’ll do it.

  32. neo:

    Ooo … my bad link. I had two NY Post windows open. Here’s the correct one:

    https://nypost.com/2024/01/17/opinion/dont-be-shocked-if-michelle-obama-sneaks-her-way-into-2024-race/

    I don’t know Cindy Adams either. I’m entertained to learn she is 93 years-old. I didn’t claim she’s reliable. I thought I was clear on that score.

    Nonetheless, I still consider it a strange conservative blindness to dismiss Michelle O. for POTUS.

    The stakes are high and the notion that MO couldn’t take one for the team is ludicrous. Being a figurehead for POTUS isn’t a hellish curse.

    Conservatives keep telling me that all the left cares about is power. But MO willing to endure some discomfort to be Prez and cement America into the dystopia conservatives keep warning me about.

    Nah, it’ll be fine.

  33. It sure looked worked out. I ran it several times and even popped full screen to look closely. The transitions are just too smooth for me not to think they knew where they were headed.

    I watched carefully and I don’t see either of them telling the other what’s to happen (in either clip), they just do it in the same step and in sync.

    I happen to like and watch dance comps and like the slidey-step swag.

  35. Oligonicella:

    I don’t think it’s worked out in advance at all. Apparently at these swing gatherings, these improvs are part of the festivities. Each dancer may have at least watched the other one dance prior to this, however.

  36. Huxley, I think Michelle O. could, and would, lose

    Kate:

    Bless you for considering the proposition. Respectfully, I disagree.

    Notice the whole “we have to destroy democracy in order to save it” meme we see everywhere. These people are not going to be ashamed at all that Michelle O. has no credentials nor any desire to be President she’s willing to declare.

    Earlier I mentioned the sad case of Lurleen Wallace who became governor of Alabama just because she was George Wallace’s wife.

    No. Michelle Obama’s credentials are not going to be an issue this year if she somehow parachutes in as the Last Best Hope to Save Democracy.

  37. huxley:

    I don’t think people are dismissing the possibility, but they (and I) think it’s fairly remote. The only reason I think that is that I’ve been hearing since maybe 2015 she’ll be running and she never has. A good time for her to have done it – good from the left’s point of view, that is – would definitely have been 2020. But she didn’t.

    The rumors are just rumors. I’ve seen nothing convincing to indicate that she’s serious. When and if I do hear it, I will take it very seriously.

  38. In re Baldwin, not sure what New Mexico law prescribes. New York law distinguishes between intent to injure, reckless acts, and criminally negligent acts in assessing homicides. A ‘reckless’ act is disregarding a known risk. A ‘criminally negligent’ one is failing to perceive a risk a reasonable person would have perceived. If New Mexico has a similar set of delineations, I would wager Baldwin would be quite vulnerable under the third stated standard.
    ==
    It doesn’t speak well of New Mexico courts that it’s taken them two years to secure an indictment in this case. The tatted-up patronage hire in charge of the guns and ammo has unaccountably insisted on a trial. The trial has been postponed until next month and no surprises if it is postponed again. (The assistant director, also in the chain of custody, negotiated a plea).

  39. Oligonicella,

    I’m hardly an expert on these matters, though I’ve tried some. I got pulled into ballroom lessons on something of a lark, with zero experience and no thought going into it. It was a bit of a shock to appreciate that as a man, I’m expected to lead.

    When taking a lesson, it is mostly imitative, like a piece of rehearsed choreography. But especially when free dancing, what takes place is dictated by the leader. Much of leading is signaled with the hands. A small lift of the hand by the lead signals the turn coming in the next instant. The following dancer must be very sensitive and responsive to the inputs she receives.

    Our instructor, in a rare instance of more extensive verbalization, described the correct amount of hand pressure for pulling, pushing, or resisting. Don’t yank her arm off, but a failure to pull will A) fail to communicate and B) fail to impart that little bit of initial momentum.

    Part of the problem with beginners leaning by imitation is that there is so much going on in three separate areas: footwork; gross body and torso movements such as spins or turns; and the arm and hand work. There are a few different types of hand holds that matter with respect to what comes next.

    I’m relatively sure that the dancing in the video was not worked out. Just good leading and following.

  40. I’m relatively sure that the dancing in the video was not worked out. Just good leading and following

    neo, TommyJay:

    Yes, I got pulled into the 1999 retro-swing thing in San Francisco. I had a great time. And I saw dancers on the local level who were pretty amazing.

    It’s not like Maya Plisetskaya, people! 🙂

  41. I think an “AR-15 style rifle” is not military grade, unless it has full-automatic capability. An actual AR-15 would have that capability, but it would be very expensive, hard to obtain, and never (as far as I know) has been used in a civilian mass shooting.

    https://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/ar-15

    ———————————————————————————

    Could Michelle be elected President? I think maybe, especially running against Don the Impaler.

    Could Michelle be elected President in a fairly-run election? I think that would cut her chances by 50%.

    ———————————————————————————

    Re Alec Baldwin, my church is studying the Ten Commandments, and I was interested to learn that under “Thou shalt not kill,” my Bible noted that the Hebrew word for “kill” here, means to murder, or to cause a person’s death by carelessness or negligence.

  42. Hmmm. I may be missing some communication. I know dancers will sometimes mutter them so – I missed. Some of those step outs on those spins are pretty polished.

    However – I’ll defer.

    ****

    OK, screw me. I just had a flash.

    In the stunt show, there was a segment of duels. Now, my people obviously worked with each other but there was no choreography on the rapier/dagger and stave stuff. My fencers also competed in tournaments where there was no familiarity.

    I can see that translating to other sets of familiar movements. Always said MA was like dance, don’t know why I didn’t connect that. Ballet is what lead me into kung fu to begin with, der.

    Gonna go rewatch some of the backwater swag dances now.

  43. AR-15 is a trademark of Colt. AR-15 style means non-trademark infringing versions built using Colt’s expired patents. Colt made select fire and semi only versions. Many select fire versions and the similar M-16 and M-4 have been altered for semi or 3 round burst only. Semi version can be converted to full auto by using a registered lightning link (RLL) or select fire by a drop in auto sear (DIAS). The RLL or DIAS is the machine gun as far the NFA is concerned.

  44. I have been teaching west coast swing for 15 years and can say with certainty that it is absolutely possible to improv like that with someone you’ve never met. The connection with your partner has to be exquisite, so it isnt something even advanceddancers can pull off well most of the time, but it’s doable for sure. There’s a chemistry that happens.
    It’s magical.
    This is no doubt a jack and Jill competition, which are are designed to make you dance with random people to random songs strictly to see how well each person leads/follows and what degree of musicality they have.
    Too fun.

  45. New light on the depths of political polarisation among Americans comes from Scott Rasmussen and RMG Research. The picture that emerges is truly “two different worlds.”

    The poll is based on in person interviews with 1,000 average American voters, and another 1,000 from the urban and rich Elite 1% in September.

    The latter were selected by post-grad qualifications, Elite University education (half from Duke, Stanford, Northwestern, or the University of Chicago), average household income over $150K, and living in zip code with over 10,000 people per square mile.

    Here’s the heart of its findings via JustTheNews.com:

    Comparison results for registered voters came from “independent surveys of 1,000 registered voters, each conducted between May and September 2023.”

    The survey asked the respondents if their personal finances were “getting better or worse these days.”

    “Only about 20% of all Americans say they believe their finances are getting better now. But among the Elite, that number more than triples to 74% who say they are better off,” the report says.

    The survey found a similar divide when it came to individual freedom.

    “When Americans are asked if there is too much or too little freedom, Elites are three times more likely to say that there is too much individual freedom in America than all Americans. Almost six out of ten of the graduates from Elite colleges think there is too much freedom,” read the report.

    The poll results found climate change to be an “obsession of the very rich and highly educated,” given that 77% of the elites – including nearly 90% of the elites who graduated from the top universities – favor rationing of energy, gas, and meat to combat climate change.” However, 63% of registered voters oppose this policy.

    In addition, 70% of elites indicated that they would “pay $500 or more each year in taxes and higher costs to reduce climate change, while nearly as many average Americans (72%) said they would only be willing to pay $100 or less a year.”

    Elites were at odds with the other registered voters when it came to the issue of banning gas stoves, gas-powered cars, air conditioning, SUVs, and “non-essential air travel.”

    Based on the survey results, “more than two-thirds of the Ivy Elite school college grads would ban each of these” but less than one in four of average voters were in support of such bans. Also, 70% of the elites surveyed “trust the government to do the right thing most of the time,” which Rasmussen’s report said is “more than twice the nationwide average.”

    The report on the findings concludes that the elite, a group of Americans with “extraordinary political and societal power, have views and attitudes that are wildly out of touch with the American people.”

    Rasmussen said the “administrative state as well as the regulatory state” have grown over the last few decades and the “elite no longer thinks they have to have permission from voters” to enact new rules and regulations.

    “They think if they decided something is right, it should be done.
    https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/elections/divide-among-elites-and-rest-electorate-widening-heading-2024-election
    ________________________
    In this JTNews summary, there is no discussion of immigration problems — the Elites don’t even recognise a problem.

    Out of touch with the median voter? The contrast is severe and starkly drawn. These findings are scary — yet good for our side.

    What does that mean? It could well mean a shellacking against the Establishment Party next fall.

    Trump simply has to keep breaking through the propaganda media drones and reach the people with the MAGA messaging. The people are so much more numerous than the “Elite.’

    The MAGA goal to defenestrate these “Elites” from the levers of the state is no humble task.

  47. The title of that post is “Who is responsible for political polarization in America?
    We know the answer. Maybe a few Washington Post readers will now learn it.”

  48. This term “curated’ is turning up more and more these days.

    Thus, an ad for an upcoming wine tasting event said that it was going to be specially “curated” by so and so.

    I’m really starting to get annoyed by this term “curated” as a lah-de-dah substitute for, say, “chosen” or “picked.”

  49. Thanks, AesopFan.
    This division and completely incompatible polarisation cannot go ignored.
    But isn’t Mirengoff late to sing to this tune?

  51. I have basically agreed with neo and others that Mooch simply doesn’t want to be POTUS, the take I heard that sticks in my mind is “She’s got room service lobster forever”.

    But her candidacy would solve so many problems for the Dems, especially the Kamala Konundrum that is making it a lot harder to ease Biden out of the picture. So I wonder if they will somehow find a way to entice/bribe/finagle/pressure/coerce her into running.

    Now a good answer to this, or other attempts to replace Biden, might be, “We don’t care who the nominee is, we’ll just fraud our way to a victory if necessary”.

  52. I taught West Coast for 20 years. I have been to the US Swing Dance Championships in CA over a dozen times. I have competed in WCS and competed at The World Championships of Country Western Dance (UCWDC). West Coast Swing is one of (8) required Country dances, Many former country dancers have become US Swing dance Champions.
    1) These dancers are the best in the world and have all danced with each other
    2) They all know the same moves and patterns
    3) They have memorized the songs and its “Breaks” and “Lyrics” etc,
    4) I have seen 1,000’s Jack and Jill competitions. They are great nonetheless.

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