US Politics, May 2023: May 1 never happened

Still, with a deadline for a possible default looming as soon as June 1, Mr. Graves said four broad areas of negotiation have emerged for a potential budget deal: capping federal spending, reclaiming unspent funds designated for the Covid emergency, imposing stiffer work requirements for federal benefits and expediting permitting for energy projects.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/12/us/politics/garret-graves-debt-limit.html

Fuck you all

Fuck you all

Yep, it's bad.

A different approach in Minnesota where Dems have control

By the end of next week, the DFL-controlled Minnesota Legislature could spend much of the state's surplus, legalize marijuana, toughen gun control laws and create a state paid family and medical leave program. https://t.co/FVyBGyghiq

— Star Tribune (@StarTribune) May 13, 2023

It really feels like the DFL’s biggest swing in this state in quite a long time

I feel like moving to Minnesota to help the revolution succeed, like idealistic American Communists moved to the Soviet Union.

But you'd have to live in Minnesota, which I should remind you is halfway between Wisconsin and the Dakotas. Draw your own conclusions.

Heading there tomorrow for 10 days!

The Twin Cities are cool. The cold, as Prince was fond of saying, keeps dickheads out (yes, I’m paraphrasing).

Weather is not an issue for me I lived there from birth to age 10 and went to college there!

Interviewed Westerberg years ago, and this is what he said:

How did cold weather affect your development as a songwriter? Do you think you would have written the same songs had you formed the Replacements in Hawaii?

PW: Good question. We'll never know, but I suppose I would have. But I would have written less. The sheer volumes of songs have come from the hours of cold and darkness that one spends inside with the lights on. We make our own fun here, sort of. It's not like a constant summer day, like in L.A. I wouldn't get as much done if I was in a warm climate like that.

I considered moving to Minnesota about 10-12 years ago. Went to Minneapolis in mid-December to check it out. It seemed nice but we ultimately didn't pull the trigger, obviously.

The cold, as Prince was fond of saying, keeps dickheads out

It's just as cold in the Dakotas and Wisconsin, so... draw your own conclusions.

Not really sure what this is supposed to mean, Aimless, but Washington is next to Idaho, and also Oregon, which is an infinitely worse place that either of the Dakotas or Wisconsin afaic— perhaps this explains why most people on the west coast

are such dickheads about it?

Would be nice if the Biden administration got courageous and argued for these ideas to handle immigration issues instead of what they are doing now

https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/beyond-border-solutions

I'm to the point where I'm too old to spend many more winters in Minnesota. But come 50-75 years from now, it may well be the only inhabitable part of what will then be formerly known as the United States

. The cold, as Prince was fond of saying, keeps dickheads out (

The first draft of "Sometimes It Snows in April."

Sometimes it snows on assholes

Hi dere, weird racist nihilistic death cult part 567:

https://wapo.st/42XhQre

Oh and backing up a few posts, the utter ridiculousness of standing in a line to get into a show in Minnesotan conditions has more than once been suggested as reasons for the comparatively vibrant music scene there.

The usual names get mentioned. Dylan, Huskers, Prince, Replacements, but let us observe a moment of silence for what is of course the pinnacle of upper-Midwestern musical achievement - indeed, artistic achievement: Semisonic

Low! A ton of amazing punk, hardcore, and crust bands, too.

I still can't quite believe I moved from MN to WI

If the formula held true (bad weather = good music) then I would expect Fargo/Moorhead to eclipse Minneapolis/St. Paul.

Really Alaska and/or Antarctica ought to be dominating the indie scene hands down, and yet Jewel inexplicably fails to dominate the culture

Bad weather + state support for education, including the arts

A number of Seattle musicians have told me, on separate occasions, that they credit that city's music scene to the bad weather and lots of people having basements where they can jam ad infinitum.

Re DJP’s point, there is a reason why so many literary non-profits are based in Minnesota— the state has a fair amount of resources dedicated to funding such ventures.

Florida, Southern California, and Jamaica have nice weather and therefore have produced exactly zero notable bands

exactly what we’ve been saying

The Florida death metal scene, Paramore and Lynyrd Skynyrd would like a word.

But just one as they have a lunch engagement

Lol I read that backwards.

AS YOU WERE

I don't think Paramore is from Florida.

So now Cornel West's work appears on the WSJ op-ed page.

Take heed

'Cause I'm a lyrical poet

Miami's on the scene just in case you didn't know it

My town

That created all the bass sound

https://scontent-ord5-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.18169-9/13770461_10153986912238138_7270787845348080798_n.jpg

https://scontent-ord5-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.18169-9/13770461_10153986912238138_7270787845348080798_n.jpg?_nc_cat=103&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=9267fe&_nc_ohc=L5Nivi9rQhgAX_MsAA1&_nc_ht=scontent-ord5-2.xx&oh=00_AfBjlxFHQ0mneCVDKq61hgh0apL0EsTLTEwRUxVq9bXSRw&oe=6489897C

Pictured, top to bottom: Fred Durst, Florida

I am pretty sure Neanderthal could, in fact, wax a chump like a candle

a well-timed tornado watch kept Trump away from visiting here this weekend

not that I’d prefer a tornado, but….

Even at the height of 2000s right-wing Islamophobia you could anticipate this turn. pic.twitter.com/ORfU0ORkDY

— Adrian (@blagojevism) May 15, 2023

This is where we remember how much Adolf Hitler admired (and tried to emulate) the way the U.S.A. dealt with its indigenous people: continuous serial relocation, concentration into undesirable areas, occasional spurts of genocide.

Similarly, yeah duh, of COURSE U.S.ian Christian theocrats are going to admire the ability of Islamic theocratic to impose their worldview on entire nation-states. It is exactly what U.S.ian Christian theocrats would love to be able to do in Alabama / Mississippi / South Carolina / Texas etc.

The sense of "they're just jealous" was pretty palpable even then

compare the Handmaid's tale outfits to burqas and, well, you get the idea

many xps, i moved from MPLS to PDX and work in grants, and the funding environment is strikingly different here. it's taken some getting used to. but i'd also echo the sentiment that having 6 months a year inside + basements makes for a good deal of MN's cultural output. i'd also say it explains some of the angst/melancholy in these bands

Florida's lack of basements probably delayed Tom Petty's career trajectory by at least five years.

This is where we remember how much Adolf Hitler admired (and tried to emulate) the way the U.S.A. dealt with its indigenous people: continuous serial relocation, concentration into undesirable areas, occasional spurts of genocide.

Learning about this fascination was the best part about Caste.`

the democrats appear to be getting their asses kicked with the debt ceiling. not only are they giving in (after doing the same in the obama years to calamitous effect, and knowing it), but they gave in before the gop took any political damage from holding the country hostage in exchange for cutting social service spending. they're just going to do the same thing during the next federal budget negotiation (which is the time when it's actually appropriate to negotiate about the federal budget, amazingly)

Where are you reading about the latest movements?

not latest movements, more just that they're openly negotiating now

https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/14/politics/debt-limit-talks-biden-republicans-cnntv/index.html

Negotiators have been able to pinpoint some areas on which congressional staff and the White House can find common ground, including revising the permitting process, rescinding unspent Covid-19 relief funds and potentially cutting spending, the sources said.

this Giuliani thing that just dropped into the news, uh...

Ugh