Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Americans barely caring about Afghanistan is so last month.

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

You cannot shame the shameless.

No one could have predicted…

Good lord, these people are nuts.

Consistently wrong since 2002

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

People are complicated. Love is not.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

Conservatism: there are some people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

Eh, that’s media spin. biden’s health is fine and he’s doing a good job.

The revolution will be supervised.

Being the leader of the world means to be the leader of peace.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

You are here: Home / Politics / Domestic Politics / They’ve enlisted all their family, they’ve enlisted all their friends…

They’ve enlisted all their family, they’ve enlisted all their friends…

by | 61 Comments

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I don’t usually pimp old threads, but I’ll make an exception. If you happen to be a rich tycoon looking to hire dozens of talented but out-of-work Balloon Juicers (or even if you’re just a talented but out-of-work Balloon Juicer), this morning’s jobs thread may be worth a read…

Reader Interactions

61Comments

  3. 3.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Did you know that New Hampshire is under attack by the forces of Obama?

    It’s true, Americans for Life tells me so!

    The wackaloons are on the warpath!

  4. 4.

    Erin

    @Jenny: His French accent is atrocious! Did you know he also speaks Swahili?

    I’m guessing he knows how to speak French because as a teen he went on a Mormon missionary mission to Paris, France. I recall reading somewhere that he failed to convert many, or any people. (Cannot find the article though)

  5. 5.

    jwb

    @Villago Delenda Est: It is August, crazy season, so there is that. And actually, by the standards of the past three Augusts, this one has been relatively sane. Just the end of the debt ceiling nonsense, the stock market going manic-depressive, and London burning. So wackaloons on the warpath seems rather quaint. Of course, we’re only a third of the way through.

  8. 8.

    Jenny

    @Erin:

    he knows how to speak French because as a teen he went on a Mormon missionary mission to Paris, France.

    That’s how he dodged the draft during Vietnam.

    He received deferments for 2 and 1/2 years to do missionary work on the Left Bank.

    While 12,000 body bags were coming home every year, the sandal wearing Mitt was hiding out in gay Paris, eating brie and garlic as he watched decadent Parisian movies.

    Mitt Romney: he’s too French.

  11. 11.

    Lolis

    @Erin:

    My dad did a mission in Finland. He left the Mormon church about four years later. He and his companion failed to convert anyone because Europeans do not go for that shit. The only missionaries who have success are in Latin America and Africa. Latinos ard so polite they will listen to anyone for a little while.

  16. 16.

    PurpleGirl

    @Shinobi: Thank you for letting us know about this. I’ll write my congresscritter (Joe Crowley) that he should support it and become a co-sponsor.

  21. 21.

    eemom

    um, y’all? I don’t usually play hall monitor, but this isn’t an open thread, and the topic is kind of important.

  26. 26.

    eemom

    whatever. Jesus Christ, by all means get your defensive on. I just thought an immediate plunge into idle chatter was a bit callous.

    ETA: ok, it is tagged as an open thread. My apologies.

  30. 30.

    eemom

    @Raven (formerly stuckinred):

    What do I CARE? Good question, since I am fortunate enough to have a job, and a husband who also has a job.

    I was just a little bit moved by some of the stories I read this morning. You know, kind of like watching Jean de Florette, except these are real people.

  31. 31.

    gogol's wife

    I wish I were in the kind of position where I could hire somebody. I actually don’t wish I were in that kind of position, but only for the purposes of being able to help some of the people here.

  33. 33.

    Amanda in the South Bay

    I’m halfway through a beer at a cafe, and am feeling pretty good. Halfway through the beer and I’m very, very buzzed. It means that I’ve been really good at controlling my alcohol intake, so I’m losing my tolerance to alcohol. There have been times in the past when I’ve drank too much, and it’d take a lot to get buzzed. Yay for moderation and controlling alcohol intake.

  35. 35.

    arguingwithsignposts

    FWIW,

    I think the original version could be a recurring post like the garden threads, and shouldn’t probably be an “Open Thread” in the traditional sense, although posting job stories, etc. is somewhat an invitation to an open floor.

  36. 36.

    eemom

    ok, FUCK IT. Open thread away. Sorry I said anything.

    Mrs. Sarah — please delete my comments. In future I will pay closer attention to the fucking TAGS before I open my yap. kthxbai

  37. 37.

    arguingwithsignposts

    Since I can’t seem to edit my own FYWP comment, there’s a feature in FYWP to make a post “sticky” at the top of the page, or to change its time stamp. I think that might have been a way to go with this type of thread, maybe “jobs thread monday” or something. Other posts would appear below it and if you didn’t want to contribute, you could scroll below it.

  39. 39.

    Linnaeus

    So I just poured myself a CC and ginger ale, and since this is an open thread of sorts, I’ll just throw it out there. I’m feeling anxious on two fronts:

    1. The personal: I recently got laid off and for the first week or so, it wasn’t so bad because it hadn’t sunk in yet and I was preoccupied with things like unpacking in my new apartment, going to a week-long conference in Canada, applying for unemployment insurance, etc. Now, particularly after the other jobless people thread, I’m getting more than a little nervous when I see how hard of a time people are having getting jobs and those people have a lot more experience and applicable skills than I do (or so it appears to me). It’s making me rethink my decisions in life and that’s making me think I’ve just dug myself a deep hole with only myself to blame. Not that I’m looking to blame anyone.

    2. Beyond the personal: I’m feeling kinda okay about the Wisconsin results, but at the same time, I’ve been reading a lot of right and rightish stuff lately and it’s really depressing. I made a turn to left-wing politics many years ago and while I still think it was in of itself the right thing to do, I despair about our chances. Especially if you are, as I am, invested in labor-related politics. Maybe there’s no future there. Maybe I should just say screw it and play the grab-all-you-can game. No, not really. But you get the idea.

    Sorry to get all “emo” on y’all. Just had to throw it out there.

  40. 40.

    Uncle Clarence Thomas

    .
    .
    Fortunately, a big-ass jobs program would derail more important national priorities such as President Obama’s re-election, so instead he has wisely implemented a plan to offer the unemployed continued leisure time to compose more and better-crafted paeans to his historic administration without the distractions of counting money or depositing paychecks.
    .
    .

  41. 41.

    soonergrunt

    @Omnes Omnibus: meeting and working with french army did that for me. They had several OMLT (Operational Manouvre, Liaison, Training) teams in my AOR in Afghanistan. Yes, there were numerous jokes about “french omelets”.
    A french Colonel (Commando-type, had been exchange instructor at US Army Special Forces school) told me right before a joint op that he was very nervous, because as a good officer should, he had made sure his men went through equipment issue before he did, and they had unfortunately run out of an important piece of kit, so he didn’t feel wholly prepared without his…white flag.
    I laughed so hard I had tears running down my face and couldn’t stand to complete my portion of the briefing.

  42. 42.

    Mnemosyne

    @Linnaeus:

    I hate to say it but it’s true: if you’re under 40, you’re going to have a hell of a lot easier time finding a new job. Under 35 is probably even better. It’s the 50+ crowd that’s getting totally screwed right now, because employers think that they’ll be too expensive both salary-wise and healthcare-wise, so they’d rather go with someone with less experience who’s less expensive to hire.

    It’s stupid and at best borderline discriminatory, but that’s what’s going on.

  43. 43.

    Chris

    @Lolis:

    He and his companion failed to convert anyone because Europeans do not go for that shit.

    Europe = much more atheist and agnostic continent than the rest of the world. And there’s a disconnect between these people and the religious that just doesn’t exist across religions. People from other religions will be able to relate to what you’re trying to tell you even if they think you’re wrong – atheists, agnostics and cultural Christians/Jews/etc will simply laugh at you and go “WTF’s wrong with this person? He’s crazy.”

    Other religions see missionaries as heretics and shun or attack them. Atheists and agnostics see them as glorified gypsy fortune tellers and laugh at them. (Broad brush, but you know what I mean). C. S. Lewis lamented this back in the day, observing that it had been so much easier “pre-Christian” (e.g. pagan) people than “post-Christians” (e.g. atheists and agnostics).

  44. 44.

    Chris

    @Lolis:

    The only missionaries who have success are in Latin America and Africa. Latinos ard so polite they will listen to anyone for a little while.

    There’s that… And, they’re Christian already.

    I attended a fundamentalist church for a couple of years back when I was still practicing. It’s weird: I met a ton of converts, but I don’t think I ever met a single person who started life as anything other than a Christian. All the emphasis seemed to be on bringing other Christians to their church, rather than bringing unbelievers to their religion. They’d give you a weekly bulletin about a missionary initiative in this or that country, and you’d read the info and it’d be like “Colombia: 90% Roman Catholic, 5% other Christian.” WTF are you trying to convert?

    Meanwhile, the Middle East was this big blank spot on their missionary map. Somehow, “laying down your life to bring people the word of Christ” seemed like one of those verses they didn’t want to take too literally.

    And I suspect that’s the rule for a LOT of those missionary churches.

  48. 48.

    Reality Check

    @opal:

    Hey wants riots!!! Revolution!!! Red October!!! Down with TEH DIEBOLDZ!!!1 Dizazter Capitalizm nooooooooooooooooooooooo!

  49. 49.

    Fulcanelli

    Politico’s Roger Simon is on Larry O’Donnell’s show right now.

    Does he always sound constipated?

  51. 51.

    Lojasmo

    My employer is hiring, if anybody with an interest in health care wants to livein a white bread town in the middle of a cornfield.

    World class institution, too. For serious.

  52. 52.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @soonergrunt: A long time ago I had a shot at a slot at French commando school, then, of course, it got eliminated. Concept was: 10 people from a battalion would go, 2 officers, 2 NCOs, 6 soldiers. We had chosen the people and we doing extra PT, etc., when we got word that the program had been discontinued. I was quite downtrodden.

  53. 53.

    geg6

    Hey, my John is looking for more accounts (read: actual work). He’s a terrific management consultant, experienced in LEAN and Six Sigma, with experience in food, health care, and retail. He is fucking awesome. Let me know if you need someone who can help your organization or company. He’ll go anywhere. He’s great, but the age thing is really problematic. Apparently, doing this shit for years is bad. Who knew?

  54. 54.

    Amanda in the South Bay

    Hehe, didn’t realize this was also a continuation of the jobs open thread before I bragged about getting super buzzed off of half a bottle of beer. Anyways, a bit more sober now, one thing that totally discourages me from applying for jobs is the issue of being trans. Its…well, sucks to realize that its usually a strike against you, just for being yourself.

  55. 55.

    Elie

    @Mnemosyne:

    You got that right… absolutely.

    Like enforced retirement before you are ready to retire and actually before you have exhausted what you can contribute.

    Anyway… you are right. I bear that in mind every single day during this search… try not to, but have to be realistic…

  56. 56.

    Elie

    @eemom:

    I am glad you have said what you did

    this unemployment stuff is pretty awkward — such a mixture of people, circumstances, etc.

    I was heartened to have the post this morning, but recognized even last evening when it was contemplated, that it would be difficult.

    It feels like asking for donations to defray your medical bills. You can’t help what happened to you, but there is immense anger on needing to reach out to others and fury that your worth is so in question after a lifetime of so much work and effort. I think for that reason I initially just wanted to start over on a whole new career rather than try to “plead my case” after what I thought was a career of accomplishment and skill. Seriously, I day dream about going to cooking school or back for training to coach women in labor or counsel people in terminal medical situations. I HATE feeling as though I have no worth.

    So, as I said, this kind of thread is fraught — useful, but not without its challenges…

    And let me add this… friends definitely stop coming around unless you stop talking about it. And since you lose many of your work colleagues, it can be a pretty lonely experience..

    I’ve rediscovered reading and writing verse/poetry. Its the only thing that fits anything anymore… even the verse that is almost inarticulate is closer to my reality than the workaday world most people are in day to day…

    I want to write about his some day .. some day to remember the wound and then hopefully also the healing…

  58. 58.

    Elie

    @eemom:

    again — many thanks to you…

    it WAs callous — that is because its so damned painful… its hard to face it, look at it and talk about it much…

    So thank you — I accept that we have to escape a little through talking about other things to soften the harsh edges of this…

    We are a personal blog and though we do not know each other one by one, we KNOW each other through our pets, cooking and other things. Its very intense snd therefore very painful…

    Bless you and others. I know all of you care…

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