Pecorino Romano is one of my favorites. There is no reason to buy shredded cheese. They have to add stuff to keep it from coagulating and it's so easy, if not a simple joy, to shred cheese yourself.

I didn't have a chance to mention this yesterday, but on Sunday The Seattle Times had an interesting story from one of their opinion editors giving a little look behind the scenes at how they police their comment threads, "Let’s keep those comment threads clean."
https://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/lets-keep-those-comment-threads-clean/

Wouldn't you know, they allowed comments on this story about comments (very meta). And here's an excerpt from the most-liked comment from the 304 comments so far on this comment thread:
"Contrast this to The Stranger's comment section. I don't know if anyone here has checked it out lately, but it has turned into a dumpster fire of MAGA disinformation influencers, bad-faith libertarian concern trolls, and Sawantists who are so extreme, you have to wonder if they're deliberately trying to give progressivism a bad name. And of course there's just a general air of nastiness. For a publication that bills itself as progressive, The Stranger has somehow managed to create a forum that comes across as an anti-progressive advertisement."

Slog AM commentariat, I guess I should say congratulations. Always good to feel the love.

In 2023, newspapers across the country dropped Dilbert when Adams called Black people “a hate group” on livestream. 

but But BUT 
shirley Adams
was Misquoted:

"Black people are a HATED Group!"
is likely what that racist
POS meant?

I Did Love, Catbert, however

"Dirty air must be worth an industrialist’s heavy pocket"

hey -- it's just Capitalism!
Who tf "needs" a stupid
fucking Biosphere? as
long as The Cunning
can live like Kings,
Who tF are WE
to quibble?

@2: Indeed.

@2 -- that sounds
like the Wormtongue!
you 'forget' to mention
the commentor's name?

from NY?

Calor Madanescht, the dude who drove a Uhaul into an LA demonstration whose attendants were expressing support Iran's anti regime protests, had the slogan "No Shah. No Regime. USA: Don't repeat 1953. No Mullah" emblazoned on the side of the vehicle, which suggests he enjoys playing anti-imperialsm hopscotch, the first blocks to jump into being Chomsky, Vidal, and Zinn.

Nevertheless, Los Angeles Police Captain Richard Gabaldon, in a bid to clinch the "Inspector Jacques Clouseau" award for 2026, told the Los Angeles Times that officials did not believe the incident was politically motivated.

Pointy-haired boss: "I know you're all worried about our competitor saying they would eat our lunch. So I've posted a security guard in the break room."

Catbert [with
Firehose]: "Thirsty?"

@5: Adams wasn't racist. Not when you see the complaints about "whiteness" in the by liberal media sick fucks.

"WOW. At least four attorneys in the US Department of Justice have resigned over the government’s political decision not to investigate ICE agent Jonathan Ross for shooting Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis last Wednesday."

What is the "Wow" about that? Some people of integrity become lawyers, and some even go to work for the Federal Government. They can only take so much in exchange for a meager government paycheck, so they leave.

What is Wow, is that we are four business days into this, and the Hennepin County Attorney (DA) doesn't think the video in the public domain is enough evidence to charge the ICE Agent under state law.

She has been endorsed by Progressive Groups and she is not seeking re-election in 2026, or seeking other office, so she has a free political hand to just apply Minnesota State Law.

Latest RCP Polling:

Republican Party Favorability

Favorable: 38.2%
Unfavorable: 52.5%

Democratic Party Favorability

Favorable: 32.5%
Unfavorable: 56.2%

It's truly astonishing that despite everything, people still hate the Democrat Party more than they hate Republicans. Will this lead to a change in strategy for the Democrat Party? No. But will it at least prompt some introspection by the Party? Also no.

@11: Yep, the far left is as frightening as the far right. So best to stay close to the middle.

@11, The more that Progressives have gained influence and sway in the Democrat Party the more people have viewed Republicans (as distasteful as MAGA increasing influence is) as the lesser of two evils.

Yet The Stranger, Boatgeek, Kristo, Mike Blob, et. al. keep doubling-down.

The Progressives keep doubling-down on their attempts to gain more influence over and control of the Democrat Party, and it resulted in Trump 2024, and may well give us J.D. Vance in 2028.

Savage Love today:

"I am a 45-year-old femme-presenting genderqueer AFAB person."

@11: Well, obviously the problem is that the Democrats just aren't progressive enough! 😁 They just need to go full progressive on all issues, and then everyone will love them: open the borders, no deportations, legalize fentanyl, squatters' rights for the homeless, double the income tax rate, abolish whiteness, eliminate women's sports, exclude Jews from politics, release all violent offenders, obligatory diversity pledges, stop fighting terrorism, surrender to Russia, tax the churches, racial quotas for employment, decriminalize shoplifting, outlaw private school, upzone white neighborhoods, ban cars, nationalize grocery stores, replace police with social workers, and every elementary school playground is now also a 24-hour safe injection site. 😆 There, that ought to turn the ship around! 🤣

@11 The question is why people disapprove of the Democratic Party. Some people (like you!) hate the party and what it stands for. Many other people wish that the party would actually stand up and do something about the hellhole our country is rapidly becoming.

I personally think that complaint isn't entirely fair--there's honestly not a whole shit-ton that the Democrats can actually do given their minority status in both houses of Congress. I would like them to be better on messaging, and making Republicans work harder for the stuff they're doing to the country.

Many of the people who disapprove of the Democratic Party will walk barefoot over broken glass to vote against Republicans in November. Far better metrics are the generic Congressional ballot (D+4-5 on RCP right now) or how Democrats have actually done in elections over the last year (D+8 improvements over 2024, indicating gaining ~40 seats in the House).

But that doesn't fit your narrative, so no doubt you'll reject it.

@15: best comment of the morning.

@18: Yeah, so heartwarming for Dr. Nelson to help a AMAB pee better.

@13 "The more that Progressives have gained influence and sway in the Democrat Party the more people have viewed Republicans (as distasteful as MAGA increasing influence is) as the lesser of two evils."

Legitimately what are you talking about? The most recent Democrat President used to be described at the Senator from (Credit Card Company) and bragged about "defeating the socialist." Their most recent candidate stood in lockstep with him despite being offered opportunities to disagree and lost an election where the economy was the major issue. Their House and (especially) Senate leaders are milquetoast centrists.

It's more accurate to say the more progressives are sidelined by the Democratic Party the more people view Republicans as the lesser of two evils. More to the point it's not at all surprising that, now we have essentially two corporate parties, almost nobody likes either one.

See this article with polling from 2010, when most people still preferred Democrats:

"Americans offer a wide range of responses when asked to describe in their own words what the political parties stand for these days. Some of the most common descriptions of the Republican Party are negative – that it is for the rich, corporate interests and greed, or that it is only looking out for its own political interests. By contrast, the most common descriptions of the Democratic Party are that it stands for the average person, the middle class or working class Americans."

https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2010/02/12/section-3-views-of-the-parties/

And compare to polling from October 2025:

"Majorities say the Republican Party (56%) and Democratic Party (58%) do not represent the interests of people like them."

https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2025/10/30/how-well-the-republican-and-democratic-parties-represent-americans-interests/

@20: But of the "two corporate parties," it turns out that people dislike the slightly-more-progressive one more than they dislike the slightly-more-conservative one. Americans are not a progressive people yearning to be unleashed, they are a conservative people yearning to be just a little bit more conservative but not too much. 😂

the uber wealthy've staged
a coup against the Citizenry
taken over 'our' government
and don't GAF about the 'bot-
tom' 80% -- far as they're con-
cerned, we the Peeps're merely
Freeloaders in this, Their USofA.

that 'our Politicians
reflect this is
inevitable

and the 'choice'
they present us
with an Illusion

we either lose
'Citizens United'
ASAP or we live in
a Cadet Bonespurs
America for Eternity.

@21,

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/republicans-voter-registration-gains-midterms-politics-desk-rcna231769

When is this happening? When the more Progressive candidates and voices in the party are being more vocal and after Hakeem Jefferies, who is more Progressive than his predecessor.

https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2025/06/26/voting-patterns-in-the-2024-election/

When did that happen? When a more Progressive candidate moved to the top of the ticket, as the more moderate, and getting senile, withdrew.

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/11/02/working-class-voters-think-dems-are-woke-and-weak-new-research-finds-00632618?nid=0000014f-1646-d88f-a1cf-5f46b7bd0000&nname=playbook&nrid=04289864-5979-40ad-9541-61a0277dc2e2

Dems are losing the working class the more the rhetoric of Progressive interest groups enters Democrat Party dialogue.

More detailed polling on party approval than just approve/disapprove, from October. A lot of Democratic disapproval is coming from within the party because a 2/3 majority feel they aren’t doing enough to push back against trump. More republicans than democrats think their own party is too extreme, and more Americans overall think republicans are too extreme vs the same question for dems.

https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2025/10/30/how-americans-feel-about-the-republican-and-democratic-parties/

"It's truly astonishing that despite everything, people still hate the Democrat Party more than they hate Republicans."

Republican = evil stupid
Democrat = well-meaning stupid

One could argue that just because a stupid idea is well-meaning, it gets a pass much faster than the obviously evil stupid of the right. People that see this over and over again begin to hate the source of it, because all the good feels that were supposed to materialize, didn't. "Well-meaning" doesn't guarantee the results you want.

speaking of Progressives:

"The Trump administration
froze billions of dollars in child care
assistance for nearly 340,000 children.

At a time when our child care system [and Parents]
[are] already struggling, this will be a disaster
for working parents and their kids.

This illegal order must be rescinded.

‪Senator Bernie Sanders‬; ‪@sanders.senate.gov‬

https://bsky.app/profile/sanders.senate.gov

yeah, why on
Earth would Anyone
want Anything "progressive"?

@27: That's very tough for both parents who need to work, but if one doesn't - far better for the kids to have that bonding and growth at home.

@28 Just what percentage of the population receiving child care assistance doesn't need child care so parents can work? Of course most or all of them need the help. Because otherwise they wouldn't be jumping through the hoops required to get child care assistance.

I mean, you're usually a Pollyanna about how easy stuff might be, but you're not usually this dense.

@37, Those voters losing the benefits were mostly not Trump's anyway.

Those that are on government subsidy or assistance, that voted for Trump, don't want those benefits, or more of them, when polled and put in focus groups. What they really want to be able to work, be paid enough, or have enough small business entrepreneur opportunity to not need whatever government assistants the "elites" have patronizingly have decided they are entitled to and under what rules and restrictive conditions that steals their agency and independence. hey want restoration of their own agency to get ahead and be independent. They want restoration of the so called American Dream.

Whether they are realistic that Trump intends to secure that for them, or can deliver assuming he does, is separate question.

What they do know is that if they are dependent on the government for healthcare, then they will only be able to get however much health care their so called "benevolent" overlords decide they should have, and with whatever limits on income, work, business, and investment choices their elite, "benevolent" overlord decides they should be limited to to get the benefits.

An overlord is an overlord. The debtor is the lenders slave and the beneficiary is the slave of the benefactor because either can recall the financing or the gifts to coerce them out of their agency.

Would you prefer to be a "serf" under a wealthy and generous overlord, or under a stingy and overbearing overlord? Or would you prefer not to be a serf at all, free to tell the Lord of the land or the manor, "Thanks but no thanks, I'm good?"

The voters that have left the Democrats for Trump, and that the Dems must reclaim in order to start winning again, are tired of Progressives in particular, or anyone, trying to control them by making them dependent on whatever the Progressives (or other Elites) decide is best for them.

@29: Your guess is as good as mine. Quite small I would assume.

A majority of voters across party lines support federal food assistance benefits. “Republicans don’t support government subsidies” is just a vibe. It’s rhetoric that people have mindlessly internalized as fact through decades of repetition. It’s not supported by polling or voting behavior wrt who receives federal benefits.

https://www.socialexplorer.com/home/post/political-explorer-counties-with-largest-increases-in-food-stamps-since-2010-went-for-trump-in-2020

https://www.dataforprogress.org/blog/2025/11/6/voters-are-highly-favorable-of-snap-want-trump-to-continue-providing-food-stamp-benefits

To add on to what barth is saying...
My take is that the disapproval rates between the R's & D's comes down to one word...
People disapprove of Repugs/maga because of what they are doing.
People disapprove of Democrats for what they are NOT doing.
I fall into both camps. Granted, I understand the limitations the D's have at the moment, but I think the D's could be doing more, for one example, holding town halls in R districts when those R reps refuse to do them. Great idea, talking directly to the people, but I haven't heard anything about that for a while. I still think it is worth doing, because it is hard to get people to vote for you if you don't actually talk to them.

BTW...
Haven't seen Bi-Pedo around here lately...
Did he give up?
Has he been finally ban-hammered?
Court mandated in-patient treatment?

I don't know, but I'm guessing the last one.

Oh well, what a shame. I kinda miss that guy...

not really

@30 Do you have any evidence for all of these claims, or is it just sensing the music of the spheres mixed with a liberal splash of Ayn Rand again?

Because a far more likely explanation is that MAGA believes that they deserve whatever benefits they're on, but that person over there definitely doesn't. In some cases, they are very much against the Obamacare exchanges but very much in favor of whatever the ACA exchange in their state is called. They hate Medicaid, but really like Apple Health (in WA) or whatever Medicaid is called in their state. Because they've been told to hate federal assistance but they know that they need the assistance that they're getting.

@24 "Dems are losing the working class the more the rhetoric of Progressive interest groups enters Democrat Party dialogue"

No. Progressives are the ones trying to support working people via programs like Medicare For All or the Green New Deal. The people who constantly focus on idpol, who do so to avoid having to enact meaningful structural economic reform, are the centrists. Voters like when their material conditions improve and don't like when they're instead given more 👏 female 👏 prison 👏 guards.

@34 -- turns out
replying to the lad in
anything other than 'The
King's' may've Bored derr Schlogg's
Biggest Loser to tears & to seek greener pastures.

see: Derr Schtormer
or KOMO or where-
ever it is the Nazis
hang these days.

When Dilbert first appeared, we engineers who worked for large companies all checked the directories of our employers (which, back then, were printed -- on actual paper!) because each and every one of us honestly believed he simply had to be working with us, at our company, every weekday. Everything Adams parodied really did happen all around us, every workday, for decades. It's sad that Adams, such a keen and fun observer of humanity on the personal level, developed such crazily bigoted hateful views of humans on the group level. While I would never wish death from prostate cancer upon any man, the cancer which developed in his body did seem to grow in parallel with the cancer which corrupted his soul. Still, the character of Dilbert, from inception until Covid, really represented the hapless everyman engineer, whom so many of us real engineers could and did sympathize with.

@2: That's a great comment, and I'm not just saying that to you in the hope of provoking an ejaculation from Libretto68. ;-)

We should note that, "Sawantists who are so extreme, you have to wonder if they're deliberately trying to give progressivism a bad name," just follow the lead of the Stranger. Not only did the Stranger absolutely refuse to admit Sawant had stumped for Trump, after she did so, they quoted some of her older, self-serving rhetoric about how she voted on behalf of working people. Comment threads at the Stranger have become the last haven of Sawantist dead-enders because the Stranger is itself the last haven of Sawantist dead-enders.

@36, The Working Class that is leaving the Democratic Party doesn't see it that way.

They want the ability to secure those things for themselves, not rely on a government program. See @30 and reply to @35 which follows.

@36 are you seriously arguing the wing of the democrat party that can’t even define what a woman is and think home ownership is a tool of white supremecy is not concerned with id politics? Thats a pretty brazen take.

@35,

See also @39.

"Progressive Democrats may be surprised to learn that working-class voters do not share their understanding of the proper role of government in the economy. Although 65% of working-class voters believe that the economy is controlled by the rich for their own benefit, just 19% of them want a large federal government focused on issues such as inequality and the distribution of wealth, compared to 34% who want a smaller federal government that spends and taxes less. A plurality of these voters—47%—opt for a middle course: a federal government that actively steers the economy, but mainly by promoting and protecting free markets."

https://www.brookings.edu/articles/what-todays-working-class-wants-from-political-leaders/

https://www.liberalpatriot.com/p/what-working-class-voters-really

@36

"... the wing
of the democrat party
that can’t even define what a woman is... "

see: 'The Culture Wars'
a Distraction from the strip-
mining of the Citizenry by those* who'd
prefer we Never Look Up at those Doing the Stripmining.

*the d13rs, e.g.

@42 you mean like deliberately devaluing property so the government can confiscate it or trying to steal the ownership of a company via a tax scheme?

@36: “The people who constantly focus on idpol, who do so to avoid having to enact meaningful structural economic reform, are the centrists.”

sorry but no. those priceless gems like “people who menstruate” and “latinx” and “unhoused neighbors” and “white fragility” and so forth all came from your side of the tent, not ours 😛

@44 -- originate, yes.

but blown up to
Epic Proportions?

to Drive YOUR
Culture Wars and
to Distract from Focusing
On what the Citizenry Requires"

that'd be on You,
thumpfnsorna
& your fellow
RWNJobs:

and
you're
DOING IT
right fucking Now.

"Never doubt
that a small group
of thoughtful, committed citizens
can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."

--American cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead

@46, Truth is that which conforms to reality.

The world is changing? Humans are becoming more peaceful, less prone to periodic bouts of fascism, less prone to civil war, less form to exploiting one one another? Look around. Really? Read history. Really? Look at the archeological record. Really?

@44 https://www.newsweek.com/joe-biden-saying-latinx-sparks-widespread-mockery-wave-jokes-1604032

@44 https://www.newsweek.com/biden-admin-replaces-mothers-birthing-people-maternal-health-guidance-1598343

@47 the
Pendulum
it Schwings
mister magoo

see: WWII &
its aftermath

and yes if
cadet bonespurs
has His way see also:

WWIII

which will
no doubt send
oodles of glee thru u magoo
as well as thru All of your fellow nihilists?

are human beings
just nothing but
Trash? yes!

well, too Many
of us, any-
ways

see:
above
and beyond

@44 https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/08/politics/democrats-criticized-kente-cloth-trnd

Why is thirteen12 proving thumpus's points repeatedly?

@52
perhaps 1312's
illustrating the dems'
'leading the way' to performance
as opposed to battling against rampant fascism

leaving them to wonder
why they Lose so
frequently?

see: 'Chuckles' Schumer
see also: Hakeem
Jeffries. see also
also: 'Feckless.'

see: Cadet
Bonespurs

see: any Actual,
EFFECTIVE Opposition?

@52: it’s his white fragility! 😂

@52 if you think Biden is a Progressive not a Centrist then I could see how you'd think I was proving thumpus's point, but that would be a really dumb thing to think

@55: Just so I'm clear: you're saying that terms like people who menstruate, Latinx, unhoused neighbors, and white fragility should all be retired? In your official capacity as a progressive, you are giving the rest of us permission not to say that stuff anymore? 😄

I ask because you guys change the rules on this identity stuff every five seconds and then scream discrimination if we normies don't keep up! 😆 But the new-new rule is, we can just talk like normal people again? OK, I'm gonna hold you to that! 😅

@56 I'm saying, unlike centrist Dems like yourself, I don't concern myself with what terms people choose to use I just want to help regular people afford healthcare and housing and groceries.

@57: look at that, the language police are turning in their badges and guns! 🤣

@58 -- @45, redux

😆 😆 😆 😆

mocking efforts
to aid the Citizenry

😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆

lololololololofuckingl!

😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆

who needs a fucking
Citizenry -- other than
cunning profiteers cuz who
Else're they gonna Harvest? them?

😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆

oh! they'll devour themselves
but that's Future Fascists'
Worry, not Theirs

😆 😆 😆 😆