I’m continuing my boycott of news because it just depresses me. I didn’t vaccuum for three days, so I need to get the house under control so I don’t panic the Asian markets. I will leave you with this:
I simply can not tell you how happy that makes me, for some strange reason.
Linda Featheringill
I can sympathize with household chores being left not done lately. It’s been so hot and humid here, a lot of things weren’t done. Since Sunday is the first day of my weekend, I got up this morning and started to work on chores, doing the most critical first. Now, of course, it is hot and humid again and I am tired.
ETA: Hey! I’m first!
General Stuck
I been trying to do this, but it’s like turning away from a giant pig falling from the sky.
JBerardi
Possibly because someone finally put a tiny bit of energy into the slowest, draggiest, most boring song ever?
Jennifer
Ummm…do you REALLY sometimes – or regularly – vacuum more than once in three days? If so, please marry me so my house will be clean.
The vacuum is my dreaded foe; I put off doing it until the dust bunnies & cat hair balls grow large enough that I fear attack. Most of my problem with it is the noise of the vacuum – and that’s even with buying the quietest vacuum I could find – my little Electrolux Harmony. I hate vaccuming so much that I have no carpet anywhere in the house. But it’s also because vacuuming is a sweaty, horrid chore. I manage to get by without using one very often with a broom & swiffer, both of which are blissfully quiet and less physically taxing, albeit less effective.
jake the snake
With the state of politics in this country, where the “fiscally responsible” party is trying to default the government and trash the ecomony, A Mariachi band performing “The Wall” seems mundane.
jeffreyw
I simply can not tell you how happy that makes me, for some strange reason.
Trollenschlongen
Good god, Cole, how often do you vacuum? Isn’t once a week enough for anyone else? Am I a slob and don’t know it? Isn’t vacuuming every other day kind of…OCD-ish? Is this a hyper-cleanliness thing left over from military service?
Amir_Khalid
That clip makes me happy too. And I don’t know why, either.
Tom Hilton
That is wonderful.
I didn’t plan it this way, but on August 2 I’m going to be in the Trinity Alps backcountry with no access at all to news. Which I think is really best for all concerned.
Sly
I like the Richard Cheese version better.
gogol's wife
Jennifer, I too am appalled that anyone thinks a 3-day interval without vacuuming is somehow remarkable. Try 3 months.
MikeBoyScout
Let us eat and drink and vacuum, for tomorrow we die.
You Don't Say
Three days. Gasp!
Dennis SGMM
@General Stuck:
I’ll be chalking up three years without television news or the bobbleheads this December. It can be done. YMMV, I’m happier for having done so.
John Cole
It’s 100 degrees here and I have three pets shedding CLUMPS of hair/fur. I can literally watch dust bunnies form in the middle of the floor. I went to brush my teeth and spit out a cat hair.
Mark S.
I’m trying to be Zen about the news. Just sit back and enjoy Captain Boehner’s Magical Journey Straight Into the Middle of the Sun.
Amanda in the South Bay
An uncomfortably large number of media stories are emphasizing the “both sides do it” meme, which makes me want to drink, at 0912 in the morning here in CA.
passerby
This is a real standout cover.
“…all in all you’re yusta nother breek in de wall.”
My face hurts from smiling.
Muchas gracias Senor Cole!
eemom
the violin is especially awesome.
As for the news, yep, it’s pretty much as the General says.
Bruce S
Vegas mogul Steven Wynn goes “Trump” –
http://titanicsailsatdawn.blogspot.com/2011/07/gambling-mogul-grapples-with-insanity.html
Corner Stone
Reason number eleventy infinity I will never have a pet.
WaterGirl
@ jeffreyw
In case you don’t know if you know what a PECHAKUCHA NIGHT is:
Anyway, I went to one on Friday night, and one guy did his whole presentation on hamburgers – how to make them, what to put on them, etc. He was quite fun and funny – I think you would have loved it!
beltane
I hate vacuumming above all other household chores, but with a dog a four cats I have to do it a couple of times a week until I can afford to install hardwood flooring in my bedroom. Sweeping and mopping are relaxing; vacuuming is noisy and makes my allergies flare up. There should be a special place in Hell for the person who invented wall-to-wall carpeting.
Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason
If you liked “The Wall” you might like this, which was the encore from my night out last night:
Psycho Killer by Victoria Vox. On ukelele. Backed by cello.
WaterGirl
@ John Cole
Record that on video, then speed it up – I think it would have a good chance of going viral! I know I’d watch it.
sukabi
pardon me John, but we’re hip to how this works… you declare that you’re ‘off the news’ and by the end of the day you’ve posted 30 times AND posted an EPIC rant about how we’re all assholes…
am looking forward to your rant… lol
RossInDetroit
Vacuums are my day job and I don’t hate vacuuming. That said, my house is pretty dusty and fuzzy in the corners. If it wasn’t for the awesome Windsor Flexamatic 15 we’d be up to our necks in it.
Second the ‘boring’ comment about the original of this song. Rich, famous rock stars beef about how much it sucked to be a kid. yawn…
This version is fun, though.
kdaug
@beltane:
Tear it out. We’re down to bare concrete in the majority of the house. Takes on a nice patina and shine after a while, particularly in high-traffic areas, and really helps to keep the house cool in the Texas heat.
Fair warning – you will be astounded at the amount of fine dirt and dust under it. Might want to wear a mask.
PeakVT
@Jennifer: Maybe a pair of these might help. 25dB reduction is enough for running a table saw, so it should be enough for vacuuming, too.
eemom
Check out George, the 7 foot tall British Great Dane.
That is a big doggie.
Earl Butz
Up is down today, and Kristof is bitching about how Republican are dragging the country into the abyss.
I no longer understand anything, and am going to play in the yard.
RossInDetroit
All I’ve done for the last month is ‘housecleaning’. I run the custodial staff at a 600 student elementary school. Management pulled my whole crew for project work except the guy with one hand, so we’ve been dismantling the whole building and cleaning everything ourselves. I think every supervisor should do this from time to time. But not for a month.
eemom
so, has anyone else noticed that Krugman has quietly slipped into full metal, 24/7 “Obama sux” mode?
cat48
@eemom:
Yep!
Alex S.
I love pets to bits but I hate the furry souvenir that goes with me whenever I leave my parents.
Constance
I got rid of the carpets because cats race from the linoleum to the carpet when they need to throw up. Four cats throw up a lot of fur balls and sometimes just liquid, I guess for the hell of it. And then there is the occasional fecal accident (?) that soaks into carpets. Unfortunately, I still have to vacuum because the dust mop doesn’t do a great job and doesn’t help at all with ants and other small insects such as baby black widows. I live in the desert and black widows are the bane of my existence. There was a short period when I vacuumed every other day and I did notice a big drop in the spider population.
It’s the getting it out of the closet and putting it back that I resist. All the winding and unwinding of cords, carrying it back and forth.
I’m pretty sure I vacuumed July 15 and probably need to think about doing it again. Soon.
David Brooks (not that one)
Today is my 40th wedding anniversary. It’s the first true summer weekend of the year up here. Yesterday, I took my daughter’s ex-Navy-pilot father-in-law flying around the Puget Sound and out to the Olympics, his first flight in a Cessna since Vietnam. Then, with all our kids, their spouses, and grandkids gathered in from around the country, they surprised us with a dinner created in our kitchen by a Tuscan master chef, and served on the outside deck. Finally I showed my grandson the Hercules Cluster and Albeiro through my 8″ telescope, and we watched satellites chase each other across the sky.
Right now, this mysterious woman who seems to have shared most of my life and I are alone with our grandchildren. Why am I blogging?
Happiness doesn’t begin to cover it.
realbtl
The guy on the guitarron (sp?) really rocks the bass lines.
Linda Featheringill
I don’t know but maybe Arab Spring has reached Israel?
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/07/24/998065/-Israel-Erupting-in-Protests,-Tens-of-Thousands-Chanting-Revolution?via=siderec
Sarah Loving
that version RULED, john. glad to have something upbeat this morning as our economy is fumbling towards idiocy.
love that nonplused trumpet player. my husband is from argentina and has reported they are purposely hamming up their accents for humorous effect.
PurpleGirl
To the people who don’t like wall-to-wall carpeting.
I live in an apartment. The People who live above took out the carpeting that previous tenants had left. While I don’t hear them walking across the floors, I DO HEAR EVERY TIME THEY MOVE FURNITURE. They’ve moved a table and/or chair or something 13 times this morning alone. Sometimes it is just a quick drag across the floor, sometimes it’s multiple picking up and putting back down in rapid succession. It is quite annoying. And although the Co-Op rules say that an apartment must have 80% of it carpeted, the management and board of directors do nothing about people who do not have carpeting or rugs. Yeah, I know, wood floors are beautiful and all that but wood floors are fine in private homes but when there are people under you, it is a problem for those people. Just a thought for you all…
Yevgraf
Doing dishes and laundry today. Spouse and youngest are going shopping….
becca
We captured a lovely cobweb, floating gracefully while it hung from an overhead light fixture, on camera. That was some months ago.
Might still be there.
RossInDetroit
John @ top
That’s me 35 years ago. Still not 100% recovered but I shudder to think what a daily diet of TV and radio news would have done to my mental health. It’s not light, air or water, it’s just a manufactured product you can live very well without.
eemom
Purple Girl, this old Paul Simon classic is for you.
RossInDetroit
@eemom;
Yeah, Krugman’s gone from scolding the WH about the size of the stimulus to picketing the gates of 1600 Pennsylvania with a sign that says ‘sellout’. The shift from criticizing policy to directly addressing policymakers is significant, and indicates extreme frustration IMO.
JPL
eemom, Gotta say I’m in full Obama sux also, too. IMO, he should have punched Cantor a few times to wipe that grin off his face. He should have Boehner sit in a closet for thirty days until he just becomes less colorful of an individual. Yeah I’m pissed cuz I thought Obama had some magic up his sleeves.
BTW.. It’s hot and humid here but thanks to netflix instant I can watch In Plain Sight.
CaseyL
Recovering from yesterday’s hike (it went well, and the group loved the trail). Today is house day: laundry, cleaning, groceries: feh.
BTW: I know we Seattleites represent a fair share of BJers. If any of my fellow Rain City folk here hike, and don’t mind a long drive, you must must MUST check out the Emmons Glacier Moraine trail in Mt. Rainier. It really is one of the gloriously beautiful mountain hikes I’ve ever been on, and it isn’t terribly strenuous. I’m thinking of posting a hike on the Dead Horse Creek trail next, but it’s more than 10 years since I was there myself; has anyone here hiked it more recently?
Bender
@ Bruce S:
What, a successful business developer criticizing Obama on job creation? Clearly, he’s crazy! Doesn’t he look at the great numbers? Crazy!
That blog left out this part of Wynn’s letter:
Clearly, that bit adds to their point about his insanity.
I wonder why they’d leave it out?
eemom
I’ll admit I’m not happy with Obama myself, at least if Krugman’s account of what he’s been willing to give away is accurate.
Of course it’s all based on reports by unnamed “senior officials,” and y’all know what Guru Glenn has to say about anonymous sources.
debit
I mowed my lawn, because for the first time 3 weeks it isn’t raining or a million fucking degrees in the shade. I also picked a tomato that was just perfectly ripe and had been hiding under a leaf. I shall have it on a sandwich later, and then possibly nap.
Hawes
That’s just like the Messicans! Come to this country and take all the English rock songs away from real Amuricans.
Why just yesterday I heard on Fox that Al Qaeda was slipping operatives over the border to mangle Boomtown Rats songs.
MikeBoyScout
@16 John Cole,
With 3 pets throw some money down for an iRobot or one of its competitors. You’ll still need to vacuum from time to time, but you’ll put the evil dust bunnies on the defensive.
TaMara (BHF)
@14 John Cole: try putting contacts in. No amount of hand washing can completely rid the air/towels/hands of dander.
and eemom, love the Great Dane story, thank you. Life is dictating that my adoption of a Dane rescue be put off once again, that was a nice reminder of why it must happen soon.
MikeJ
@Hawes: I don’t like Lunes
Up all noche
Jennifer
@ 14 John Cole – it’s over 100 degrees here and has been for most of the past month…I only have one pet though. But still, if I went by your formula I would be vacuuming at least once every 9 days, instead of the usual 90 or more….
…did I mention I really hate to vacuum?
The worst was when I came back from vacation the end of the first week of June. Eartha Kitty won’t let anyone else touch her when I’m not around (she hides from the neighbors when they come in to feed her), so she had gone unpetted in the house for 10 days by the time I got back. Add to that the cool spring, which meant she hadn’t done her shedding yet, and being stressed out by me being gone for so long…within an hour of walking in the door I had removed the equivalent of another entire animal from her without even brushing.
tamiedjr
I have been without a/c since Wednesday. The hottest week of the year so far. I hate this world. I didn’t think anything could make me laugh until I watched this video. Thanks John.
Elie
I guess I just have no idea what the better alternative would have been for Obama.
Most who criticize what he has or is proposing to give up, don’t have alternatives for how to get these crazy folks to accept ANY offer at all. We have acknowledged that it seems whatever Obama seems to support and even what the Republicans have supported in the past as acceptable, is also nixed. When pushed to say what they would do or say if they are in Obama’s place to change this dynamic, they ususally answer something like “use the bully pulpit” to beat on the Republicans, scream at them, just say “NO”, and other equally ridiculous approaches that for some reason they believe these other options would work.
I will be the first to say thay there is definitely a question about what will be given away or negotiated, but I don’t think any of us knows what that is yet. Somehow, beating our team captain who is negotiating with terrorists doesn’t seem to really be a good answer. (Krugman is a four star asshole. I wish he would get appointed to something difficult so that he might actually have to do something except sit on the sidelines critiquing. What skin does he have on anything. What a narcissistic creep)
As I said a couple of days ago, I personally do not see why Obama wants to be reelected to this awful role. That said, I believe that he would be willing to serve one term or be impeached to do the right thing. Not all will agree but I think he is very aware and mindful of leaving something meaningful to history. The Repubs want their faces saved. Unfortunately, having run so far, its hard to give them cover. We’ll see how it ends, but I believe that the Republicans have screwed themselves badly and any bad outcome will be placed (appropriately) on them. Won’t change the mess that has to be cleaned up, but they will lose a great deal for having taken this gamble.
karen marie
Dennis SGMM: I got rid of cable in 2004 and threw the TV out completely with the switchover to HDTV. Never been happier.
It wasn’t that hard for me though as I’ve had no TV for more of my life than I’ve had it.
Amanda in the South Bay: I’ve been fighting the urge since 10 am this morning. Only thing stopping me is that I have to drive later to take my dog to her play group.
David Brooks (not that one)
BTW:
And I couldn’t be happier to share the date.
karen marie
Constance : I recommend dosing your cats with mineral oil. Some cats will slurp it up voluntarily, others need to have it poured down their little kitteh throats. A measured teaspoon every two weeks during the season of falling fur is good.
Do not give your cats vegetable oil as it pulls the hair to the intestine and is then absorbed, glomming the hair to the intestine walls and piling up.
Mineral oil is the active ingredient in “hair ball remedies” available at pet stores.
It’s worked for my cats for over 20 years.
PurpleGirl
eemom — thanks
MikeJ
@Elie:
The same people who (rightly) thought John McCain was an idiot for his “put them in a room together and tell them to cut the shit” seem to think Obama should uhm, sit the Republicans down and tell them to cut the shit.
tomvox1
Unintentionally ironic lede of the day via the Paper of Record:
Norway Attacks Put Spotlight on Rise of Right-Wing Sentiment in Europe
Well, at least it’s only happening across the Pond. Phew.
Jager
Here’s a change up!
Interesting morning at Wells Fargo yesterday…
We bought a new car in May, when I bought it I had the dealer scroll through all the financing options and the best interest rate was from Wells Fargo dealer services. In June I got the first payment notice from Wells Fargo, on the way to the office, stopped at the bank and paid it at the counter. We normally pay most of our regular bills on line, but i don’t have Wells Fargo account, so I thought, what the hell, its easy to stop at the bank either to or from work….not so fast!
Yesterday morning at 10, on the way to the office, I stop to pay my loan, the smiling child-teller takes my check and the payment stub, begins enter the account number and then stops, tries again and again and again, no luck. She walks away, brings back a boy-child-teller, he tries, no luck. Another little kid banker shows up and tries, comes around the counter and says “how long have you had this Wacovia account?”. I said “what Wacovia account?” He says nothing. Then an Asian child banker walks over and takes me to one of 16 cubicles in the bank, this kid gets on the phone and calls 3 different numbers and turns to me and says, “Wacovia has no record of your account.” I looked at him and said “Of course, I don’t have a Wacovia account, look at the payment slip it says, Wells Fargo on it, not Wacovia, Wacovia went tits up and Wells Fargo bought the left overs!” A voice from behind me says “I won’t tolerate that kind of talk in this bank!” and suddenly another slightly older child appears, a young woman who seems to be the manager of all the little kids who work at the bank, she shoos the Asian kid away and sits down at the desk. Incredibly she begins to insinuate that I didn’t ever make a payment at the bank, since it was impossible to do, now I’m getting the feeling she thinks I’m crazy or trying to pull a fast one-apparently. Since I’m trying to make a payment that doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. Then she brings up Wacovia again…I stop her. “I don’t have a loan with Wacovia, my loan is a Wells Fargo loan, the paperwork says Wells Fargo, the first payment I made was to Wells Fargo and you can see by the statement it is a Wells Fargo loan!” She continues on the tack I’m a liar about making the payment at the bank, she looks at me and says “do you remember which teller it was?” I said ‘how would I remember which teller, it was a month ago, the transaction took less than a minute and why would I be here trying to make a payment, check in hand, I’m not trying to get money from the bank, I’m trying give the bank money! Why don’t you try Wells Fargo Dealer Services and forget the Wacovia nonsense”! She glares at me and calls dealer service, hangs up and says, “they are closed on the weekend, you can call yourself on Monday!” I said ‘okay, but by Monday this payment will be late, I’ll be charged a late fee and my credit will get dinged, why don’t you give me a note saying I was here, trying to make the payment.” She says, “I can’t do that, we don’t have anything to do with Wacovia loans!” I stood up asked her for my paper work and check, she gave them back to me, “This is bullshit, you know that don’t you, while you were on the phone, I counted 16 personal banker cubicles, 12 teller cages with only 3 of them open, you have 6 personal bankers holding the doors for people, filling your damn cookie plates and replenishing the water bottles, meanwhile there are close to 20 people in line waiting for a teller, you manage a bank that can do nothing but take applications, you can’t approve a loan, deny a loan, you don’t originate anything, counting you there are 7 personal bankers on duty this morning, why would anybody come in here for anything, everything you and your personal bankers do can be done on line, quickly, efficiently, you can’t even write me a note because you’d have to get permission to do it and you don’t dare ask, do you? If I were you I’d get some of the personal bankers into the teller cages because the people in line are almost as pissed off as I am, ever notice how they stand in line and look at your personal bankers opening and closing the doors like Las Vegas greeters. Know what they are thinking? They are thinking Wells Fargo is a bullshit operation!”
I walked out, drove to the office, spent 30 minutes on the phone and paid fucking Wells Fargo an additional 6 bucks to pay by phone. Assholes, morons, idiots and I still have no idea how Wacovia was involved!
There was a Wells Fargo story in the LA Times this morning, an editor at the Times with a time bomb 5 year adjustable rate mortgage, went to the bank and wanted to get her mortgage refinanced at a lower rate, she had perfect credit, never been late and spent 6 months doing all the right things to get a refi…couldn’t get it done, gave her house back to the bank after they refused a short sale offer of 400k (her mortgage was 511k and she wanted to refi the whole mortgage but at fixed rate, they refused) Wells Fargo sold her house for 245k
Stupid bankers! BTW, Mrs J is vacuming at the moment and the machine sounds like a 747, she loves it!
karen marie
MikeBoyScout: Have they changed the design on them? I got one about five years ago. Had all wood floors, two dogs and a cat, and the god-damned thing choked constantly from hair winding itself around the teeny brushes and was finally done in by dust in the moving parts that were open to the floor. I considered it a colossal waste of money.
burnspbesq
@eemom:
None of the bad deals that Obama could have made have been made (at least, not yet). And I’m hopeful that the Repubs’ latest play, throwing an end to the individual mandate on the table at the last minute, might wise Obama up to what he’s really up against. This was never a bilateral negotiation about the deficit. It was always holding the full faith and credit of the United States of America hostage to radically re-write the social compact, in ways that the vast majority of Americans would never vote for. Obama seems to be the only person on Earth who hasn’t figured that out yet. Maybe now he gets it.
Trollenschlongen
@ eemom #32:
Think there might be a reason for that?
Trollenschlongen
this is strange
WereBear
Yesterday I cleaned up and cleaned out the refrigerator, and we ate almost all the popsicles because our attic apartment was that hot.
Today the heat wave broke, after I chopped off half my hair out of desperation. But everyone tells me it looks good.
Ya’ll are welcome.
MikeBoyScout
@56 karen marie,
I don’t know if the design has changed or not. Owned mine for 2 years now and declare it a miracle. I’ve only one long haired cat and clean the thing a bit after each each room.
Elie
Tomvox —
Two years ago my husband and I travelled to Turkey and spent a couple of days at a resort with a large number fo Danish and Norwegian visitors We had dinner and hung out with several and had many conversations about life in their countries. All were well to do and frequent, sophisticated travelers. It was shocking how many expressed very negative feelings toward Muslims and were against increased immigration to their countries. Now you have to understand, they said this comfortably in front of me, an American black woman, married to a white Jew.
My mouth was on the floor. I actually got into a heated discussion with one Norwegian lady who one evening was chiding Americans for our racial problems. I reminded her none too gently about her comments on immigation to her country. Not surprisingly, she was somewhat blind to her own hypocrisy.
I think that many white Europeans are struggling with their own issues of racism and bias as the third world pushes their once relaxed views about pluralism in their own countries. As with many things in life, equality and pluralism are always easier as a general concept than a reality you actually want to live. I am personally glad that many of them will have to stop wagging their fingers at the United States since its clear that they are no different. Indeed, humans of all races and creeds are territorial animals who reflexively fall back on their reptile brains pretty often…
karen marie
MikeBoyScout: My dogs were spaniels but I kept them cut very short and the cat is a short hair.
I had to clean mine multiple times before it completed the living room and bedroom. It was more work than just using a regular vacuum.
Elie
Burnspeq @ 66 —
On what basis do you say that Obama has not figure that out yet? Just curious on how you know that he is too stupid to have figured out that the stakes are not just about lifting the debt ceiling. Huh? You actually think that?
RossInDetroit
@ Elie 71;
It’s puzzling to me as well. BHO acts like he expects the GOP to come to their senses and bargain in good faith. To everyone else it’s clear that they took leave of their senses long ago and have no intention of participating in anything that’s not a total political failure for him.
Renie
Jager – sorry about your experience at Wells Fargo but I loved reading your rant. Couldn’t stop laughing when someone told you they don’t like that language in the bank. LOL
Constance
Thanks Karen Marie. I will try that–look for photos of the bloodied cat handler.
karen marie
Constance: I first started the mineral oil with my first cat, Alice Springs. I would sit down on the floor with her in front of me, facing the same way, get her between my thighs, tip her head up and get her jaws open by squeezing gently but firmly at the jaw joints, and pour the mineral oil in.
I did that for something like seven years before I accidentally discovered that she would just drink it on her own.
Having had that experience, I tried offering it to my current cat, Our Gracie, and she thought it was fantastic! Our Mr. Mittens, on the other hand, thought it was nasty gross. He was mostly an outdoor cat though and never had a hairball problem, so I just didn’t bother dosing him. At 27 pounds, he would have been quite a challenge.
I never put it in the food but that might be an option.
WereBear
We just got a Pet Eraser canister vacuum, and I love it madly.
So quiet you can’t hear it from the next room, bagless, and especially; no moving parts that can’t be easily cleaned. I burned out three uprights because the cat hair gets sucked into places I can’t clean; never again.
And I like vacuuming; I like projects where there’s a machine to do most of the work, like laundry. I loathe dusting; there isn’t any reason for something that just sits there to get dirty. I feel that’s a violation of principle.
burnspbesq
@Elie:
I’ll answer your question with a question, if you don’t mind: what has he done to date that should convince me that he gets it?
Also note that I never used the word “stupid” to describe Obama, because I don’t believe it to be accurate. “Naive” might be accurate. “Believing what he wants to believe” might also be accurate.
burnspbesq
When all else fails, when the world seems too fucked up for words, listen to Bach. Bach is indisputable proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.
Yutsano
@burnspbesq: The inevitable question: which one? :)
Elie
Ross in Detroit @ 71 and Burnspeq @ 77:
No, I agree that you did not call him explicitly “stupid”. That said, there is an implication by both of you that he is somehow naive to how all this looks and what is being set up…That to me would mean that you DO at some level believe him incapable of grasping what is happening rather that YOU may be unaware or unknowledgeable of his strategy in “negotiating” this situation. Do you think you have the same information and knowledge of the players/what has been happening, who said what to who and any of the actual details between the key players? You can only go by what has been released in the press, what they say or signaled to various outlets (some of which is for positioning) and that we don’t have a definitive agreement. But somehow,from that you have figured out that he is being had.
I guess what ocurrs to me is that you are predisposed to come to a negative conclusion from incomplete information rather than giving him the benefit of the doubt. I actually think its an odd state of mind for someone who basically supports a leader that they basically respect in a situation that we all acknowledge is extremely perilous and high stakes.
I would also add this: negotiations of this level of complexity and risk are rare but even in lower scale situations, the temperature at any point can be very misleading if you are just going by what the public sees. Even in a freaking bridge game, you finesse and bluff by what you tell the other players and signal your partner with overt misdirection. I know you know that, but why wouldnt you assume that Obama would? That he is some simple minded, naive, goodie goodie who wouldnt play hardball with his opponents. That he would want to be weak and to be percived as being had…
I think YOU are the naive one.
Svensker
@ beltane
No animals here but I have Pigpen for a husband. How the HAY-ELL can one man make that much of a mess without doing anything? I mean, he’s just sitting there watching TV playing on his laptop. I have to vacuum the living room a couple-three times a week.
Kristine
@beltane @kdaug
This. I took Mom out of town for the weekend when Dad took up the 450 sq feet of carpet in the living room and dining rooms in prep for hardwood floor installation. I don’t know how long the carpet had been down, but the previous tenants had little kids and a dog, and my folks had been in the house maybe 10 years at that point. Even though Mom vacuumed every other day, Dad filled a 5-gal bucket almost halfway with dirt.
The difference in the smell was also very, very noticeable. There was a stale smell with the carpet that vanished after the hardwood floor was in place.
elftx
@ Elie
seems to me based on Obama’s past dealings with this Republican congress, he has certainly come across as being willing to throw us under the bus to appease them.
as has been stated here before he is a right leaning moderate who also happens to be quite wealthy…
I admire his intellect and sometimes admire his policy directions but have come to wonder why he is so willing to ignore his own teachings
eemom
@ Elie 69
heh. Your story reminds me of my Greek mother, who likes to talk about how there’s no racism or bigotry in Greece. Then I mention that that’s likely because 98+% of the population are white Greek Orthodox.
As with most things I say, it doesn’t make much of an impression on her.
Uncle Clarence Thomas
.
.
And to top it off, hate guru Digby Downer is all worried about some old bitch’s medicine fergawdsake –
Have these intemperate whining firebaggers no shame?
.
.
Yutsano
@eemom: Bring up the Macedonians. That should make for a fun nuclear explosion.
burnspbesq
@Elie:
I’m chuckling at this, because I have a very long paper trail on this blog of defending Obama against firebaggers and other idiots, on the stimulus, on health care reform, on DADT, and on other issues, on the ground that he got the best result that could have gotten under the circumstances. Simply put, I am not confident that in the current negotiation he is going to get the best result that can be gotten under the circumstances. The only reliably effective way of negotiating with crazy people is to convince them that you’re even crazier than they are, and nobody has any reason to believe that Obama is crazier than Cantor.
eemom
@burns
Yes. Sadly this.
Elie
burnspbesq —
I realize your stances from reading your past comments. I share your frustration and do not disagree that the outcome may not be as we would most like. Where we differ is in how much Obama can be blamed.
I frankly think that racism has a big impact here. Can’t prove it, but I do not believe that Obama is being accorded the respect by the opposition and the MSM. This rather banal debt ceiling raising has become a fulcrum to bring us and him to our knees.
I have no idea how this will end. Needless to say, like everyone else, I a pretty upset, angry and scared. I think that history will mark this time as a key threshold. To what, I do not now, but I believe that this is very much a bloodless coup attempt…
RossInDetroit
@Elie;
No, I don’t think BHO is stupid or naive, and I didn’t say that. maybe you were referring to someone else. I said I was puzzled at why he’s following a strategy of negotiating with no action from the other side at all. There’s no doubt that there’s more going on behind closed doors than in reported in the media, but usually something leaks out when there’s any motion at all toward a deal. But right now it looks like the WH has been tangoing without a partner. that’s what I find puzzling.
Elie
Ross —
I truly have no idea. I can’t make any conclusion yet since we know so little. You are guessing that the dance that we see is an accurate reflection of the status of who is up or down in these negotiations or whatever you want to call them. When lunch is brought in for the hostage taker, does that mean that they are winning the whole situation?
I just don’t know.
I guess I am very confused by people that say that they support the President — kinda. But it feels a little like the comments that I used to hear in the days of Jim Crow: “Uh huhn, none of this would have happened if he had just stayed in his own neighborhood. Colored folks have no business trying to (fill in the blanks)with those folks”. Black people in Chicago almost never left the South Side in the 1960’s. Bad things would happen to us and it was always our fault.
A large part of this is racism. They are pushing the black man to make the maximum sacrifice, knowing that its likely to cost him and those who dared vote for him, a lot. But instead of outrage, and people demonstrating about the injustice and downright reckless horror of the opponents, I seem to read a fair amount of criticism of the President — without anyone necessarily having any better idea but somehow, “he should have stayed in his own neighborhood”
fuckwit
I haven’t been really closely following the news for a month. Tonight I spent way too much time reading news.
Just Some Fuckhead
We are all firebaggers now.
Paul in KY
Jager, I could have told you years ago that Wells Fargo is a pustule in the financial universe. Don’t ever get another loan with them.