DL Open Thread Thursday, June 17, 2021

The Intercept got ahold of a Zoom call between West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin and a centrist money-dispensing outfit called No Labels — founded by ex-Sen. Joe Lieberman — in which Manchin reveals his true feelings about filibuster reform, among other things. Most noteworthy to me was Manchin’s begging these donors to help him find the 10 Republicans he needs to keep Tinkerbell alive.

Do you like hard-shell crabs? Crab cakes? Crab imperial? Tough luck: The Chesapeake Bay is looking at its lowest crab harvest since 2007, sending prices soaring to as much as $400 a bushel this weekend. Smelts, anyone?

Interesting read at FiveThirtyEight comparing political polarization in the U.S. to other countries. You won’t be surprised to hear it’s worse here than elsewhere, or that all signs point to the two-party system as the culprit. Multi-party systems prevent such polarization because demonizing one opponent tends to take out both the attacker and the attackee, benefitting the third party. I’m oversimplifying for brevity; it’s a good, though sobering, read.

Here’s one reason I have a hard time taking the peril to democracy seriously: The Capitol insurrectionist from New Hampshire who was seen guzzling a bottle of wine he found in a liquor cabinet in somebody’s office has decided he’s going to run for office. He was telling a reporter all about it when this happened:

Riddle told NBC10 Boston that he’s running against Democrat Annie Kuster in the 2022 midterm elections. Kuster is in her fifth term as a U.S. congresswoman representing New Hampshire’s second district.

“I thought Ann was a state representative,” Riddle said during his interview. When it was made clear that Kuster was in Washington, Riddle responded, “Oh, well, I guess I have to run for that then.”

Why are conservatives so upset that schools might teach children that slavery was bad? Because it would replace lessons like this one from a Louisiana middle-school textbook about the hardships plantation owners faced in the Civil War. Have your hankies ready.

According to the Last Guy, many, many top publishers are vying for his memoirs, but IRL publishers are mocking him, pointing out that he's burned all the top publishing houses, and anyone who even flirts with a Trump manuscript faces mutiny by staff and authors.

For those of you who don't follow football (or as Americans style it, soccer), superstar Christiano Ronaldo caused a disturbance in the capitalist Force yesterday when he sat down for his post-match interview: He moved two bottles of Coca-Cola out of camera range and held up a bottle of his preferred quaff: "Agua." Coke dropped $4 billion in market value within hours.

The floor is yours.