Superlike this tweet by Matt, this needs to be said more often and without fear. And the tactics have to be way different than the very well calibrated civil disobedience of the Civil Rights Movement.
"One of my biggest skunk at the party takes is that 'activism' is systematically overrated in left of center circles as a way to make progress on issues — very few topics actually have the specific structure of the civil rights movement battling Jim Crow."
Every day I thank God we are not as infected with "activism = 'stand around in a public space representing murdered cows or whatever' " in the Western European tradition, and every day I think God more for it.
Isn't it also true that activism today is much less deliberately planned and structured than the most of what we think as the core effort of the Civil Rights Movement?
Shameless plug for a great recent book on the movement applying the lens of military history: "Waging a Good War: How the Civil Rights Movement Won Its Battles"
And my previous post on the subject, recommending it to David M:
The erstwhile struggle for same-sex marriage seems more similar than different. The overarching theme as I recall the latter (wasn't here for the former) was "mostly leave us alone and transparent in society, let us get along like you get along".
One of my law clerks on a student visa had to end their clerkship early with us because they're self-deporting. Sucks when it hits so close to home. I really hope they're able to complete their law school education as they're extremely talented and would be a great addition to the legal profession.
“I can observe from my non-American friends that living here without a passport does not feel very free. International travel, attending protests, writing blogs, switching jobs—these activities are all now fraught with risk.”
Trump’s ideal that only a small elite of American citizens should enjoy freedom completely discredits America whenever we try to advocate for “freedom and will be rejected by the rest of world—the US is now almost as unpopular as Russia—and get them to form a balancing coalition against us.
Since you’re here, I have to ask, did your wife get out to sea last week in Erin? The local coasties seemed really stoked about getting in some heavy surf reps.
The border patrol did a raid on firefighters fighting a wilderness fire in the Olympics in Washington State. They said there were undocumented workers there so they stopped the firefighters to check all of their papers and arrest a couple.
That people is the length maga will go to. If the world is burning they will want to do an immigration check on the rescuers first.
I recently read an article about the problem of respiratory illnesses with wild-fire fighters. Basically no one gives them any safety equipment because it’s expensive. And so they deny it’s a problem to breathe smoke for a living. So maybe they were doing those guys a favor.
OTOH, I really don’t give a fuck about the legal status of people willing to do that job, and this is just exhibit infinity why this whole thing is stupid.
With few exceptions, undocumented, oh hell, ILLEGAL, immigrants are doing jobs that American citizens don’t want at their current wages, and don’t need when we have a healthy economy. They’re not taking our jobs, and they are net positive for both our economy and our culture, just like those dirty Irish paddies and stinkin’, thieving Wops, who came before them.
My most heterodox (probably) SBOpinion is that I'm not sure that de facto HOAs are a better "solution" to the "problem" than local zoning.
I'm sympathetic to the idea of letting the market win, but we don't do that with police, fire, or most major municipal services.
It's close to axiomatic that the wealthiest, most powerful people will finagle themselves into the best spots, and the poorest, weakest will end up with the worst.
Fire away, I've been feeling shit today and will turn in soon.
The overarching notion, and I'm not looking to get into deep specifics this evening, is that if a group of residents wants to protect their local flavor of neighborhood blah blah blah, I think it's better that they do that through actual elections and civic processes rather than form an exclusive club and decide quasi-outside the law who is allowed to belong to that club.
This is adjacent to, but not the same as, "if you let public parks deteriorate to the lowest common denominator, the rich will form their own private parks and leave the quote-unquote 'public' spaces to those who can afford nothing else".
I am skeptical that making formal things informal is better! Now you have the apocryphal (but perhaps true) story of some neighbor shitting on Bill Russell's bed.
I don't like my HOA, but it's basically just an organization that gets on my case if I don't weed my front bed before I take off on a long vacation. Construction is booming in my area, led by big construction companies, and the HOAs have no say in who moves into the neighborhood. No one's really tried to change their house in a way that's caused any HOA intervention. (Newish neighborhood, medium income--we just don't have super historic houses or lot sizes large enough to incentivize big changes.)
Are we just not talking about Joni Ernst not running for reelection to the Senate, or Rebecca Bradley not running for reelection to the Wisconsin Supreme Court? Are we not doing politics this evening? ☹️
Rhetorical victory only; they'll stay in place pending appeal, and then the Supreme Court will say "Trump can do whatever he wants, because reasons" and that will be that.
Though in my more naive moments, I dream (and yes, it's likely just a fantasy) that Roberts and several others (not Alito and Thomas, of course) are being extra accommodating to the administration early on to mitigate the MAGA blowback when they render decisions on tariffs and birthright citizenship.
As an Iowan I'm cautiously optimistic about Joni stepping down. Unfortunately I imagine her replacement is going to be some creature from the IA-4th. That said, if the Dems put up a candidate that's not acting like they're running in a D+20 state (like they did in 2020/2022), they have a half ass chance.
Now, as a Packer fan, I'm more excited about the Micah Parsons trade. Joni stepping down was the icing on the cake.
I thought Theresa Greenfield was a pretty good candidate? All I remember was Greenfield knowing the break even price for a bushel of corn and Ernst flubbing the same question for soybeans.
She was an ok candidate, but I think her ads and the national environment in 2020 are what really sunk her. I remember one specifically mentioned things that Iowans care about like a $15 minimum wage. Her campaign on the ground focused on national issues.
As an Eagles fan I have mixed feelings about the Parsons trade. Anything bad for Dallas is good, any time Jerry Jones has his ass handed to him because he’s stupid is better, but I don’t want Green Bay getting more dangerous.
Brave, brave Senator Ernst. Another Republican who couldn’t actually stand up publicly against MAGA writ large, and will now slink away, safe in the knowledge that whoever else the jack booted thugs come for, they’ll never come for her.
Had to look up Bradley, she couldn’t quit soon enough, homophobic, racist piece of shit.
Tangentially related, Matt was saying recently that he hadn't heard anyone calling for abolishing property taxes, but, while this technically isn't "abolition" of property taxes, Vivek Ramaswamy *is* now campaigning on "putting a ceiling on" property taxes and "eventually bringing them down" to [checks notes] make housing more affordable for young people. Video here, in which Vivek also says that he would abolish the state capital gains and income taxes and try to finance Ohio state government primarily through taxes on tourists (so perhaps someone sent him Matt's piece about Maine?): https://x.com/VivekGRamaswamy/status/1960855452499267870
I did last weekend! My first ever visit to Ohio. Visited my sister, who moved there (Cleveland area) not too long ago. Houses are cheap! Lake Erie is big!
I did six years ago! Half of the trip was to enjoy some glorious football history and then baseball. But there's a quarter of something for you to like too, as I visited McKinley's presidential library, and his utterly massive grave. The other quarter was the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame.
When I was in high school, I received literature from the College of Wooster literally once a week for MONTHS. I never even expressed interest in it; I have no idea how I got on their radar.
Except in the same clip Vivek said he'd shut that small college down! (OK, no, not precisely, but his major example of potential cost savings for Ohio state government was consolidating state-run colleges and universities.)
I need to tug my collar on that one, unfortunately.
I think it's only a mildly spicy hot take that if your state university campus can't keep attendance above (picking a number out of my butt) 1000 students, it's just not practical to keep in operation. And I know a number of Midwest four-year state-school campuses are not keeping up with that number.
I actually would say that it's quite plausible that there could be savings in consolidating various state-run colleges and universities, but I'm skeptical that the savings from any reasonable consolidation effort would dramatically change Ohio's need for tax revenue. (It appears from the data here that Ohio already has substantially lower per-student appropriations for higher education than the national average while simultaneously covering a much larger share of higher education expenses with tuition than the national average: https://shef.sheeo.org/state-profile/ohio/ )
Relying on taxes on tourism is brilliant. I'm sure the wave of tourists flooding Ohio hasn't abated a bit since the movie "Stranger than Paradise" opened the floodgates: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaYEHeseLog
As someone who lived in Ohio for 20+ years, I can tell you no one ever came to visit me because of the other things they could do in Ohio. But I often vacationed in Maine. A tax on Ohio’s tourism industry will not replace their property taxes, and is probably pretty damned price sensitive.
It's okay Halina, we do not like sports here at Slow Boring. MORE POLITICS!
Also: Something the comments on the morning post made me want to say is that Democrats have erred - there ARE enemies to the left, and they are just as dangerous as the enemies to the right. Democrats must punch Nazis with their right fist and hippies with their left fist.
EDIT: We also do not like economics here at Slow Boring. We demand Pure Political Punditry™!!
Halina surely understands that there is an unavoidable intersection of economics and politics in every policy realm. Especially global thermonuclear war.
Sigh. I just want content about what sources at the DSCC think about Joni Ernst retiring. Who's in and who's out in the Senate Republican cloakroom? What is the chatter at the DNC about lackluster fundraising, or the primary calendar?
I'm not sure if it's SB but I've been on a Habsburg binge this year. I listened to like 4 Audiobooks about them while doing some minor home renovations.
Interested to see how that Saratoga Springs development shapes up. I used to work as a home health aide for a guy who lived in one of SF's "so affordable you can only buy in via lottery" complexes, and several tenants were of the variety that needs...uh...supportive housing. (I don't know if they literally had specific units set aside for such, or it simply wasn't a disqualification.) It was a really weird place to work? Modern development, all new appliances, interior courtyard, amenities like rec hall and gym and laundry...but selection effects from the tenants made it feel constantly hair-raising anyway. And the property management did not inspire confidence in the feasibility of government-supplied public housing. Can't even remember the number of times I'd report for work and my guy would be like "meet me at $HOTEL instead, sewage pipe burst and entire floor is undergoing repairs" or some other calamity. So fundamentally not that much different from a classic slumlord apartment complex in vibe, except there it's almost refreshing cause the lipstick on the pig doesn't cause one to set unrealistic expectations. Given how "affordable" units tend to pencil out quite poorly once one properly accounts for all the indirect costs and subsidies, that chapter of my life made me predisposed towards market-rate housing even before encountering the YIMBY movement. Sure, still better than actual homelessness...but at what cost? Money is fungible, but by George, land is not...
Also, Labour Day plans: earn extra money. I don't know what y'all with regular 9-5 M-F jerbs do on federal holidays, but one does not simply close a grocery store, so for us that means holiday bonus pay as an incentive to labour on Labour Day.
Hate in sports is really underrated--channeling our innate tribal human instincts for hate in something that ultimately doesn't matter is good for us, so that we don't unleash that on things that really matter a lot.
Seinfeld didn't get it, though, goofy New Yorkers. That's the best part. Their big state laundry is our laundry. It's an intentionally-appropriated membership. GO BIG STATE U.
Also, fuck the entire SEC. Dumb rednecks love to pretend that they own the entire fucking sport just because they don’t have anything else going for them — looking at you, Mississippi and Alabama.
Also, y’know, the Confederacy never really died, so double fuck them.
Important counter-point to this, and I absolutely implore you all to watch this clip even if you don't give a hoot about sports at all. Stephen Fry at the Iron Bowl:
The only thing I envy about the South is their dogged dedication to hate. As a hater myself, I admire the depths of depravity they’ve been willing to go to.
I have never understood the fascination with minor league sports teams. If I'm visiting a place with one, then, why not? Barring downpours on the stands, a bad day at a ballpark is better than a good day at the office, yadda, yadda.
Once upon a time, the most defining characteristic of U Blank/Blank State's team is that come hell or high water, unlike trash carbetbagger pro sports teams, they never could or would EVER leave. Conceptually, it's nonsensical.
Unfortunately, the post-2020ish era of Name-Image-Likeness and unfettered transfer rules means major college teams are not practically more tethered to "home" than the Houston Oilers or the Oakland Athletics. Such a loss, such a shame.
A lot of posters are not ready for how big the Taylor Wedding is going to be for Millennials. It's like, a Royal Wedding, but for Millennials
I'll be standing there with Lisa C. who has calluses built up from years of admin law, but still just wants hug her wife while watching. I'll look at Ben while Taylor is walking down the aisle in the heavenly dress "it's a love story baby just say yes" and say "Shut up Ben you're the one who's crying, I'm not crying!": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xg3vE8Ie_E&list=RD8xg3vE8Ie_E&start_radio=1
Big if true (also, one of the only reasons I still visit Twitter):
"Shaiel Ben-Ephraim: An IDF source has confirmed to me that the army has lost contact with an unknown number of soldiers. Probably fewer than ten. IDF protocol to prevent hostage taking is being undertaken right now. Rescue attempts have come under extreme fire. The IDF has put a gag order on this operation, so do not expect to see it in the Israeli media until morning there.
One soldier said: A missing officer was contacted on his radio — but a Hamas fighter answered. My God, this is what Netanyahu’s policies have led us to."
"Everyone is asking me about the Hannibal Directive in these cases. Officially, Israel cancelled that in 2016 due to controversy over it. However, it remains unofficial policy to kill IDF soldiers rather than allow them to be captured, but only when it has been determined that the possibility of preventing the capture otherwise is entirely impossible. Usually, by that time, the whereabouts of the soldiers are unknown, so Hannibal is unlikely to be enacted directly. Having said that, the amount of bombing occurring in Zeitoun right now could easily kill missing IDF soldiers through friendly fire."
To be clear, I think the most likely outcome is that any captured Israeli soldiers are killed by the de-facto implementation of the Hannibal Directive.
I'm also interested to see if Western and/or Israeli media continue to use the term hostage to describe soldiers captured in combat (personally, I would be insulted if that term was ever applied me in the event I was captured while in uniform).
ETA: I confess that IDF leaders like MG Avi Bluth who openly advocate for and direct the ethnic cleansing and murder of Palestinians (in the West Bank, specifically) make me less than sympathetic to the actions of Israeli soldiers in general, even though I have no love for Hamas:
"Avi Bluth, the head of the army's Central Command...ordered "redesign operations" to be implemented so that "[Palestinians] will be deterred, any village that dares to raise a hand against any of the [settlers]." And of course he's talking about settlers who are regularly murdering Palestinian civilians.
You seem to care about college football a lot more than I do. I don't even know the team "Ole Miss and the Vols." I guess now that you've put a name on them, I hope they win.
I care a little about the U. I have neighbors who care a great deal and they seem ok. An Army buddy came by years ago (pre-pandemic) with his HS junior son to see a U game at Hard Rock Stadium. I drove them around the area here and to the UM campus. (He ended up matriculating elsewhere, and that's fine.) Mostly if my neighbors or colleagues are upbeat because the U won, that's good as far as I'm concerned.
Bielema is one of the ugliest coaches I’ve ever seen but god damn has he just consistently improved our team almost every year. We’re almost respectable again.
As I don't do sports and certainly don't give a damn about them here in Chicago, I can only hope you are not insulting the WVU Mountaineers. I don't care about their sports either, but I will brook no disrespect of West "By G-d" Virginia.
Superlike this tweet by Matt, this needs to be said more often and without fear. And the tactics have to be way different than the very well calibrated civil disobedience of the Civil Rights Movement.
https://x.com/mattyglesias/status/1961386863362474099
"One of my biggest skunk at the party takes is that 'activism' is systematically overrated in left of center circles as a way to make progress on issues — very few topics actually have the specific structure of the civil rights movement battling Jim Crow."
Every day I thank God we are not as infected with "activism = 'stand around in a public space representing murdered cows or whatever' " in the Western European tradition, and every day I think God more for it.
WOW, SO ORIGINAL
Isn't it also true that activism today is much less deliberately planned and structured than the most of what we think as the core effort of the Civil Rights Movement?
Shameless plug for a great recent book on the movement applying the lens of military history: "Waging a Good War: How the Civil Rights Movement Won Its Battles"
And my previous post on the subject, recommending it to David M:
https://www.slowboring.com/p/monday-thread-593/comment/128767137
"...very few topics actually have the specific structure of the civil rights movement battling Jim Crow."
That's asking the question: Can anyone think of one such topic?
The erstwhile struggle for same-sex marriage seems more similar than different. The overarching theme as I recall the latter (wasn't here for the former) was "mostly leave us alone and transparent in society, let us get along like you get along".
One of my law clerks on a student visa had to end their clerkship early with us because they're self-deporting. Sucks when it hits so close to home. I really hope they're able to complete their law school education as they're extremely talented and would be a great addition to the legal profession.
Ugh, I hate to hear that we're just letting great talent go for very dumb reasons.
Here’s an interesting article I read today: https://jasmi.news/p/china-2025
“I can observe from my non-American friends that living here without a passport does not feel very free. International travel, attending protests, writing blogs, switching jobs—these activities are all now fraught with risk.”
Trump’s ideal that only a small elite of American citizens should enjoy freedom completely discredits America whenever we try to advocate for “freedom and will be rejected by the rest of world—the US is now almost as unpopular as Russia—and get them to form a balancing coalition against us.
To where are they self deporting. And why?
The only foreign students I knew in law school were Canadians cross registered with a school in Windsor ( I was in Detroit).
China, not sure why. It’s not really my place to ask them now so I don’t have details.
Since you’re here, I have to ask, did your wife get out to sea last week in Erin? The local coasties seemed really stoked about getting in some heavy surf reps.
She did not! She’s apparently totally swamped working such a busy port doing inspections and enforcement. I’ll ask her what her thoughts are!
Wow, fascinating that they would choose your practice area to intern in.
We’ve actually had several Chinese nationals as clerks!
The border patrol did a raid on firefighters fighting a wilderness fire in the Olympics in Washington State. They said there were undocumented workers there so they stopped the firefighters to check all of their papers and arrest a couple.
That people is the length maga will go to. If the world is burning they will want to do an immigration check on the rescuers first.
I recently read an article about the problem of respiratory illnesses with wild-fire fighters. Basically no one gives them any safety equipment because it’s expensive. And so they deny it’s a problem to breathe smoke for a living. So maybe they were doing those guys a favor.
OTOH, I really don’t give a fuck about the legal status of people willing to do that job, and this is just exhibit infinity why this whole thing is stupid.
As people have famously said, "nobody writes songs saying Fuck the Fire Department."
Makes Trump's policy look really stupid.
With few exceptions, undocumented, oh hell, ILLEGAL, immigrants are doing jobs that American citizens don’t want at their current wages, and don’t need when we have a healthy economy. They’re not taking our jobs, and they are net positive for both our economy and our culture, just like those dirty Irish paddies and stinkin’, thieving Wops, who came before them.
"Originally a supporter of the bill, Lamont’s veto came after he heard concerns about its intrusion into local zoning"
Local zoning needs to go, that's the whole point. Otherwise NIMBY will usually win
My most heterodox (probably) SBOpinion is that I'm not sure that de facto HOAs are a better "solution" to the "problem" than local zoning.
I'm sympathetic to the idea of letting the market win, but we don't do that with police, fire, or most major municipal services.
It's close to axiomatic that the wealthiest, most powerful people will finagle themselves into the best spots, and the poorest, weakest will end up with the worst.
Fire away, I've been feeling shit today and will turn in soon.
I don’t follow — what are “de facto HOAs” and who’s in favor of them?
The overarching notion, and I'm not looking to get into deep specifics this evening, is that if a group of residents wants to protect their local flavor of neighborhood blah blah blah, I think it's better that they do that through actual elections and civic processes rather than form an exclusive club and decide quasi-outside the law who is allowed to belong to that club.
This is adjacent to, but not the same as, "if you let public parks deteriorate to the lowest common denominator, the rich will form their own private parks and leave the quote-unquote 'public' spaces to those who can afford nothing else".
I’d just ban HOAs.
I am skeptical that making formal things informal is better! Now you have the apocryphal (but perhaps true) story of some neighbor shitting on Bill Russell's bed.
Shoot the neighbor.
I don't like my HOA, but it's basically just an organization that gets on my case if I don't weed my front bed before I take off on a long vacation. Construction is booming in my area, led by big construction companies, and the HOAs have no say in who moves into the neighborhood. No one's really tried to change their house in a way that's caused any HOA intervention. (Newish neighborhood, medium income--we just don't have super historic houses or lot sizes large enough to incentivize big changes.)
Are we just not talking about Joni Ernst not running for reelection to the Senate, or Rebecca Bradley not running for reelection to the Wisconsin Supreme Court? Are we not doing politics this evening? ☹️
Trump's tariffs just got struck down by the appeals court lol. I just assumed that's all anyone would be talking about here
I'm really hoping the Supreme Court blunts most of his craziest ideas.
Not happening, they're too afraid of making their irrelevance official.
Everyone is talking about sports. It makes me want to cry. 😢
I only just found out about the tariffs!
Rhetorical victory only; they'll stay in place pending appeal, and then the Supreme Court will say "Trump can do whatever he wants, because reasons" and that will be that.
Probably.
Though in my more naive moments, I dream (and yes, it's likely just a fantasy) that Roberts and several others (not Alito and Thomas, of course) are being extra accommodating to the administration early on to mitigate the MAGA blowback when they render decisions on tariffs and birthright citizenship.
There’s no blowback to mitigate. They have lifetime tenure. Every decision every justice makes is because that justice believes in it.
SB, the place where very online people (who are not on Twitter) go to talk to people who are even more online than them.
I'd somehow also not heard about them!
I only just found out about rhe sports!
As an Iowan I'm cautiously optimistic about Joni stepping down. Unfortunately I imagine her replacement is going to be some creature from the IA-4th. That said, if the Dems put up a candidate that's not acting like they're running in a D+20 state (like they did in 2020/2022), they have a half ass chance.
Now, as a Packer fan, I'm more excited about the Micah Parsons trade. Joni stepping down was the icing on the cake.
> not acting like they're running in a D+20 state
I thought Theresa Greenfield was a pretty good candidate? All I remember was Greenfield knowing the break even price for a bushel of corn and Ernst flubbing the same question for soybeans.
She was an ok candidate, but I think her ads and the national environment in 2020 are what really sunk her. I remember one specifically mentioned things that Iowans care about like a $15 minimum wage. Her campaign on the ground focused on national issues.
Can Obama move to Iowa? Carpet bag like hillary 2000 idgaf, we need every seat we can get.
Excellent idea.
I like 50 percent of your comment. 🙂
Lol I'll take it.
As an Eagles fan I have mixed feelings about the Parsons trade. Anything bad for Dallas is good, any time Jerry Jones has his ass handed to him because he’s stupid is better, but I don’t want Green Bay getting more dangerous.
Brave, brave Senator Ernst. Another Republican who couldn’t actually stand up publicly against MAGA writ large, and will now slink away, safe in the knowledge that whoever else the jack booted thugs come for, they’ll never come for her.
Had to look up Bradley, she couldn’t quit soon enough, homophobic, racist piece of shit.
Tangentially related, Matt was saying recently that he hadn't heard anyone calling for abolishing property taxes, but, while this technically isn't "abolition" of property taxes, Vivek Ramaswamy *is* now campaigning on "putting a ceiling on" property taxes and "eventually bringing them down" to [checks notes] make housing more affordable for young people. Video here, in which Vivek also says that he would abolish the state capital gains and income taxes and try to finance Ohio state government primarily through taxes on tourists (so perhaps someone sent him Matt's piece about Maine?): https://x.com/VivekGRamaswamy/status/1960855452499267870
> abolish property taxes
So that we can replace them with land value taxes?
Press-X-To-Doubt.jpg
A few things are true:
1) Property taxes are very efficient
2) Property taxes are paid in cash, not property
3) Governments forcing people to sell their homes in order pay property taxes will never, ever be popular
So, property tax reform, or even abolishment in favor of income and sales taxes, may be politically necessary in some places.
But Vivek's plan to fund Ohio via non-Ohioans is bonkers.
Allow property taxes to be paid in promissory notes against said property.
Some jurisdictions more or less allow this for old people. A lien is placed on the property.
We need to fund America via non-Americans
That's what Trump thinks his tariffs are doing
Not that Columbus isn't a nice city, but since when is Ohio any sort of tourist destination? It's almost as bad as Kentucky.
Well, there’s Cedar Point, and if you could get the Cayahoga river to catch on fire again that could become quite the attraction.
Isn't that just another Six Flags at this point?
Vivek is Sanskrit for discernment.
Nominative determinism is false.
Who visits Ohio recreationally?
Cedar Point exists
National Museum of the United States Air Force, yo
I said that! :)
I was elected to LEAD, not READ
I did last weekend! My first ever visit to Ohio. Visited my sister, who moved there (Cleveland area) not too long ago. Houses are cheap! Lake Erie is big!
Lake Michigan is the Greatest Lake, and it’s right here in Chicago.
Lake Superior conclusively answers the question right there in the name.
Well, I hate to give any credit whatsoever to Putinia, but Baikal has more water than all the Great Lakes COMBINED.
And Lake Baikal has freshwater seals!
You mean Gitche Gumee, you settler-colonialist.
Fake Name!
People doing "WKRP in Cincinnati" pilgrimages.
I know Cincinnati. I lived in Cincinnati. I would never make a pilgrimage to Cincinnati.
I did six years ago! Half of the trip was to enjoy some glorious football history and then baseball. But there's a quarter of something for you to like too, as I visited McKinley's presidential library, and his utterly massive grave. The other quarter was the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame.
I will accept the McKinley library. Also, the museum of the US Air Force is in Ohio!
I think James Garfield has an even bigger and more ridiculous grave to go visit there some day.
That's a good question. (Vivek claims in the same clip that Ohio needs to market itself better, as it should be "a summer tourism state.")
There are many pretty parts of Ohio. Wooster is a charming little town with a small college.
When I was in high school, I received literature from the College of Wooster literally once a week for MONTHS. I never even expressed interest in it; I have no idea how I got on their radar.
It me with Tulane. Given that this was shortly before 2005, I'm pretty glad I put it in the well-meaning-but-uninterested circular file.
Miami of Ohio did the same thing to me, and Washington in St Louis.
Except in the same clip Vivek said he'd shut that small college down! (OK, no, not precisely, but his major example of potential cost savings for Ohio state government was consolidating state-run colleges and universities.)
I need to tug my collar on that one, unfortunately.
I think it's only a mildly spicy hot take that if your state university campus can't keep attendance above (picking a number out of my butt) 1000 students, it's just not practical to keep in operation. And I know a number of Midwest four-year state-school campuses are not keeping up with that number.
I actually would say that it's quite plausible that there could be savings in consolidating various state-run colleges and universities, but I'm skeptical that the savings from any reasonable consolidation effort would dramatically change Ohio's need for tax revenue. (It appears from the data here that Ohio already has substantially lower per-student appropriations for higher education than the national average while simultaneously covering a much larger share of higher education expenses with tuition than the national average: https://shef.sheeo.org/state-profile/ohio/ )
But...College of Wooster is private.
Oh, it's probably safe then, at least as long as it doesn't need any property-tax-financed municipal services to operate!
Relying on taxes on tourism is brilliant. I'm sure the wave of tourists flooding Ohio hasn't abated a bit since the movie "Stranger than Paradise" opened the floodgates: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaYEHeseLog
As someone who lived in Ohio for 20+ years, I can tell you no one ever came to visit me because of the other things they could do in Ohio. But I often vacationed in Maine. A tax on Ohio’s tourism industry will not replace their property taxes, and is probably pretty damned price sensitive.
Ohio has tourists?
It's okay Halina, we do not like sports here at Slow Boring. MORE POLITICS!
Also: Something the comments on the morning post made me want to say is that Democrats have erred - there ARE enemies to the left, and they are just as dangerous as the enemies to the right. Democrats must punch Nazis with their right fist and hippies with their left fist.
EDIT: We also do not like economics here at Slow Boring. We demand Pure Political Punditry™!!
That first sentence is fake news!
I'm not Fake News, YOU'RE Fake News!
Your edit is even faker news, which can be demonstrated by voluminous Matt articles.
FAKE COMMENT!
"we do not like sports here at Slow Boring. MORE POLITICS"
Careful, don't say "sportsball" or you'll catch Hell!
Been there, done that.
"We also do not like economics..."
Speak for yourself. And you know you should take your economics like eating your [barely tolerated nutritious green vegetable].
Shh! I am trying to get more politics content!
Halina surely understands that there is an unavoidable intersection of economics and politics in every policy realm. Especially global thermonuclear war.
But do we have to TALK about it? I hate economics! Almost as much as I hate stupid old sports!
If you'd prefer we can narrow the topic just to the H-Bombs.
Yes, we do.
Sigh. I just want content about what sources at the DSCC think about Joni Ernst retiring. Who's in and who's out in the Senate Republican cloakroom? What is the chatter at the DNC about lackluster fundraising, or the primary calendar?
Habsburg Empire erasure.
I'm not sure if it's SB but I've been on a Habsburg binge this year. I listened to like 4 Audiobooks about them while doing some minor home renovations.
We can have Habsburg Empire. I'll even allow Dune maybe every six weeks. BUT NO SPORTS!
I can haz Habzburg Empire?
u can haz Habzburg Empire.
IM VRY HAPPEH WIF
"It's okay Halina, we do not like sports here at Slow Boring. MORE POLITICS!"
I approve!
"EDIT: We also do not like economics here at Slow Boring. We demand Pure Political Punditry™!!"
NOOOOOOOOOOOO economics is great! It's how to tell whether policy solutions will work or not (at least for non cultural war stuff)
Wait'll I start throwing out intersections of sports and economics, which is utter catnip for me.
Ask me how sports owners prove the merits of confiscatory estate taxes!
The fine citizens of Cleveland would definitely be on board with confiscating Jimmy Haslam's ownership of the Browns.
Well, he bought the team, so it wouldn't help that particular cause. It would have saved Cincinnati from Mike Brown, though.
My reading comprehension sucks as I start relaxing on this long weekend.
Interested to see how that Saratoga Springs development shapes up. I used to work as a home health aide for a guy who lived in one of SF's "so affordable you can only buy in via lottery" complexes, and several tenants were of the variety that needs...uh...supportive housing. (I don't know if they literally had specific units set aside for such, or it simply wasn't a disqualification.) It was a really weird place to work? Modern development, all new appliances, interior courtyard, amenities like rec hall and gym and laundry...but selection effects from the tenants made it feel constantly hair-raising anyway. And the property management did not inspire confidence in the feasibility of government-supplied public housing. Can't even remember the number of times I'd report for work and my guy would be like "meet me at $HOTEL instead, sewage pipe burst and entire floor is undergoing repairs" or some other calamity. So fundamentally not that much different from a classic slumlord apartment complex in vibe, except there it's almost refreshing cause the lipstick on the pig doesn't cause one to set unrealistic expectations. Given how "affordable" units tend to pencil out quite poorly once one properly accounts for all the indirect costs and subsidies, that chapter of my life made me predisposed towards market-rate housing even before encountering the YIMBY movement. Sure, still better than actual homelessness...but at what cost? Money is fungible, but by George, land is not...
Also, Labour Day plans: earn extra money. I don't know what y'all with regular 9-5 M-F jerbs do on federal holidays, but one does not simply close a grocery store, so for us that means holiday bonus pay as an incentive to labour on Labour Day.
Navy is my team, not because I like or watch sportsball, just like ships, officers, and angry sheep.
I have Liked this because you said "sportsball" and more people should say that.
Fuck Michigan. Fuck Ohio State, too. I guess now I also need to clarify: fuck Oregon, UCLA, and Southern Cal. And those weirdos in Eastern Time.
Thank you for coming to my TED talk.
Hate in sports is really underrated--channeling our innate tribal human instincts for hate in something that ultimately doesn't matter is good for us, so that we don't unleash that on things that really matter a lot.
As I think Seinfeld once pointed out, the players come and go, you’re rooting for the uniforms - laundry!
Seinfeld didn't get it, though, goofy New Yorkers. That's the best part. Their big state laundry is our laundry. It's an intentionally-appropriated membership. GO BIG STATE U.
Many people keep saying
Also, fuck the entire SEC. Dumb rednecks love to pretend that they own the entire fucking sport just because they don’t have anything else going for them — looking at you, Mississippi and Alabama.
Also, y’know, the Confederacy never really died, so double fuck them.
For me, SEC will always mean the Securities & Exchange Commission.
Something something Tommy Tuberville
This is one of my best Slow Boring comments ever: https://www.slowboring.com/p/trumps-incredibly-dumb-economic-mistake/comment/70950230
Yes, yes it was.
Important counter-point to this, and I absolutely implore you all to watch this clip even if you don't give a hoot about sports at all. Stephen Fry at the Iron Bowl:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuPeGPwGKe8
A true cosmopolitan loves both Steven Fry and (SEC) college football. C'est moi.
I love how charmed he appeared to be by the phenomenon.
Good actor. I'm sure he knew what was coming.
But you go to a big game 20 times and it still gives you the same chills.
Still love that William T. Sherman shirt declaring him SEC champion 1864 or whatever year it was...
It's okay, David. We understand. Envy is a natural human emotion and nothing to be ashamed of.
The only thing I envy about the South is their dogged dedication to hate. As a hater myself, I admire the depths of depravity they’ve been willing to go to.
I just deplore their actual causes.
We people from the South don't hate. We don't hate anyone. We seek to love everyone.
Unless you support Florida State. All I can say to an FSU fan is %^$^$!#$^@$&&!$%&($*)#^&@$%&@W*$
I believe you mean THE Ohio State University.
I believe I mean An Ohio State University.
It's always nice to hear from another SEC fan. I feel you.
Wash your mouth out with soap. I don't give a shit about ANY SEC team. You hate your neighbors the most.
Especially when they deserve to be shot for being in an HOA.
I have never understood the fascination with minor league sports teams. If I'm visiting a place with one, then, why not? Barring downpours on the stands, a bad day at a ballpark is better than a good day at the office, yadda, yadda.
But to really care?!
Once upon a time, the most defining characteristic of U Blank/Blank State's team is that come hell or high water, unlike trash carbetbagger pro sports teams, they never could or would EVER leave. Conceptually, it's nonsensical.
Unfortunately, the post-2020ish era of Name-Image-Likeness and unfettered transfer rules means major college teams are not practically more tethered to "home" than the Houston Oilers or the Oakland Athletics. Such a loss, such a shame.
Slow boring fantasy football league anyone??
A lot of posters are not ready for how big the Taylor Wedding is going to be for Millennials. It's like, a Royal Wedding, but for Millennials
I'll be standing there with Lisa C. who has calluses built up from years of admin law, but still just wants hug her wife while watching. I'll look at Ben while Taylor is walking down the aisle in the heavenly dress "it's a love story baby just say yes" and say "Shut up Ben you're the one who's crying, I'm not crying!": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xg3vE8Ie_E&list=RD8xg3vE8Ie_E&start_radio=1
Big if true (also, one of the only reasons I still visit Twitter):
"Shaiel Ben-Ephraim: An IDF source has confirmed to me that the army has lost contact with an unknown number of soldiers. Probably fewer than ten. IDF protocol to prevent hostage taking is being undertaken right now. Rescue attempts have come under extreme fire. The IDF has put a gag order on this operation, so do not expect to see it in the Israeli media until morning there.
One soldier said: A missing officer was contacted on his radio — but a Hamas fighter answered. My God, this is what Netanyahu’s policies have led us to."
https://twitter.com/academic_la/status/1961570563346108914
"Everyone is asking me about the Hannibal Directive in these cases. Officially, Israel cancelled that in 2016 due to controversy over it. However, it remains unofficial policy to kill IDF soldiers rather than allow them to be captured, but only when it has been determined that the possibility of preventing the capture otherwise is entirely impossible. Usually, by that time, the whereabouts of the soldiers are unknown, so Hannibal is unlikely to be enacted directly. Having said that, the amount of bombing occurring in Zeitoun right now could easily kill missing IDF soldiers through friendly fire."
https://twitter.com/academic_la/status/1961573226192191738
**********
To be clear, I think the most likely outcome is that any captured Israeli soldiers are killed by the de-facto implementation of the Hannibal Directive.
I'm also interested to see if Western and/or Israeli media continue to use the term hostage to describe soldiers captured in combat (personally, I would be insulted if that term was ever applied me in the event I was captured while in uniform).
ETA: I confess that IDF leaders like MG Avi Bluth who openly advocate for and direct the ethnic cleansing and murder of Palestinians (in the West Bank, specifically) make me less than sympathetic to the actions of Israeli soldiers in general, even though I have no love for Hamas:
"Avi Bluth, the head of the army's Central Command...ordered "redesign operations" to be implemented so that "[Palestinians] will be deterred, any village that dares to raise a hand against any of the [settlers]." And of course he's talking about settlers who are regularly murdering Palestinian civilians.
https://archive.ph/bfxWR (Haaretz)
Interesting question, would calling you a Prisoner of War validate the existence of the enemy as a legitimate combatant?
I don’t particularly care about college football, but I’ll always root for Ole Miss and the Vols to lose
We need an Oxford comma corollary.
Was it
"I’ll always root for Ole Miss and the Vols to lose"
or was it
"I’ll always root for Ole Miss, and the Vols to lose"?
No Oxford comma intended. I hate both teams
You seem to care about college football a lot more than I do. I don't even know the team "Ole Miss and the Vols." I guess now that you've put a name on them, I hope they win.
They're two of the many, many teams that would beat the University of Miami Hurricanes.
It's okay if you don't care about that either. The rest of us do, oh how we do.
I care a little about the U. I have neighbors who care a great deal and they seem ok. An Army buddy came by years ago (pre-pandemic) with his HS junior son to see a U game at Hard Rock Stadium. I drove them around the area here and to the UM campus. (He ended up matriculating elsewhere, and that's fine.) Mostly if my neighbors or colleagues are upbeat because the U won, that's good as far as I'm concerned.
It’s a pretty campus, though it’s changed so much since I went there
I care more about the Memphis Tigers than the Canes, though I hope the Canes win too. I don’t usually expect the Tigers to win
People are moving to South Carolina? After Murdaugh Murders?!?
https://maps.app.goo.gl/Tg72hWCZZgYzWPzj8
South Carolina is pretty. I do not like its politics. But I like South Carolina.
It’s the only southern state I haven’t really been to, minus a quick drive over from Savannah but not to do anything
I-L-L
I-N-I
Gonna fuck some shit up this year. It’s nice to be a contender for surprise team of the year!
BERTMENTUM
Bielema is one of the ugliest coaches I’ve ever seen but god damn has he just consistently improved our team almost every year. We’re almost respectable again.
I am contractually obligated to have contempt for all things Urbana.
Currently whupping on this week’s designated chumps like we ought to.
Has nothing to do with sports and everything to do with budget share in the U of I System, haha.
Same could be said for your own heinous pack of losers.
As I don't do sports and certainly don't give a damn about them here in Chicago, I can only hope you are not insulting the WVU Mountaineers. I don't care about their sports either, but I will brook no disrespect of West "By G-d" Virginia.
Thought you were defending OSU?
I've been pretty happy with Pat Bryant so far in the preseason, hopefully he can keep bringing it in the regular season as a rookie.