Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I might just take the rest of the day off and do even more nothing than usual.

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

White supremacy is terrorism.

The willow is too close to the house.

The Giant Orange Man Baby is having a bad day.

Consistently wrong since 2002

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

“Until such time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin on.”

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

Be a wild strawberry.

These are not very smart people, and things got out of hand.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

To the privileged, equality seems like oppression.

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

If you voted for Trump, you don’t get to speak about ethics, morals, or rule of law.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

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

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

Democracy is not a spectator sport.

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

“Facilitate” is an active verb, not a weasel word.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

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51Comments

  1. 1.

    joeyess

    I had a dream this morning and posted it on my facebook wall.

    I’d like to share this you folks.

    Just before I woke up today, I had the most vivid dream. Now, I’m a lucid dreamer, so I stayed with this dream for a long time, allowing it to shift and controlling the shift as I usually do, but I remained centered on the main topic…… my father had died (In reality he died nearly 2 years ago).

    Since he died last August, I never really mourned Pop. I never really cried. I don’t know why. I just didn’t.

    But this morning, in my dream, he died. And all the people that I have loved throughout my youth and to the present, my closest cousins, my best friends, my enemies, everyone that I have loved and still love, they all came around to pay their respects to dad. In my dream I found myself in a shower room, naked, water turned on all around me. And I was crying. Crying so hard that my tears weren’t running down my cheeks, but rather were actually jetting from my eyes in a steady stream like water from a hose. Uncontrolled by any muscle, unabated by any will. I just let them stream out……..And as people came up to me to pat my back, give condolences, say their piece, the tears kept streaming. I received these visitors with joy and thankfulness, without shame……. In my naked, vunerable grief.

    I think I have finally grieved my father. I still miss him terribly. I still feel that loneliness of his absence, but I believe that the grief just moments ago poured out of me in one, beautiful lucid dream.

    Goodbye, Pop.

    I’m still your boy,
    Joey.

  2. 2.

    kerFuFFler

    Thanks for the link—–I think I played with this or something like it a while back but I could not find it afterwards.

  3. 3.

    Corner Stone

    I guess now it’s a crime to have terror babies in Afhganistan:
    NATO disputes report of casualties in airstrike
    “Afghan officials said an airstrike Saturday night killed eight members of a family, but a senior NATO official said that so far, there is no evidence of any civilian casualties. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to disclose the information.”
    …
    “In those cases, local residents claim civilians were killed, while the coalition says the victims had been identified as insurgents. Later, if investigations prove that civilians were inadvertently killed, the coalition acknowledges its mistake.”
    …
    “”Shafi was not a Taliban. He was not in any opposition group against the government. He was a villager,” Samon said. “Right now, we are working on this case to find out the ages of their children.”

  4. 4.

    PurpleGirl

    A good time waster. I’d played with this a while back but not bookmarked it. Thanks for the link. (This time I’ve saved the link.)

  5. 5.

    c u n d gulag

    Joey,@joeyess:
    Joey,
    I’m sorry for your loss.

    My Dad died 5 weeks ago, and I have mourned.
    And I still mourn…

    But I had a similar dream a few nights ago. I can’t remember all of the details anymore, but I remember, right as I was waking-up, that I was crying, and the tears were coming out of my eyes were like they from a firehose.
    Yet, when I put my hand up to them, they were dry.
    And then I cried.

    This being Memorial Day weekend, we’d have watched some classic war films on TCM’s. Good, bad, or dopey, we’d have watched a few of them.

    I really, really miss him…

  6. 6.

    SIA

    @joeyess: oh man. Thanks for that. My dad was career military and I always think of him on Memorial Day weekend. He died too young at 65 but the wars didn’t get him. Still miss him after 18 years.

    I’ve been dreaming alot about our beloved Maggie, the Great Pyr/Golden we lost September 09. Usually they are joyous visits. I miss her so much.

    I have a weird lump in my throat.

  7. 7.

    Lojasmo

    Rotten, humid, muddy five mile single track run this morning. Eighty-five torturous minutes.

  9. 9.

    j

    OK. How many people colored them all in just to see/hear what it sounds like? I did it about 4 times drawing different patterns to get different “songs”. An incredible time waster that I like!

  10. 10.

    joeyess

    @c u n d gulag: @SIA:

    My Pop was a ball turret gunner in a B-17 during WWII. 25 missions, Distinguished Flying Cross, countless medals, and you know, it never occurred to me this morning that tomorrow is Memorial Day when I wrote this.

    What a serendipitous dream.

    Thanks, to the both of you.

    j.

  11. 11.

    phoebes-in-santa fe

    Since this is early on an open thread, I’ll ask the question I’ve long wanted to ask. What is it about Mitt Romney that people seem to hate. (And I do hate him.) For people who say it’s his religion – Mormon – I have to ask, we support Democrats who are Mormons. I voted for Tom Udall, my senator, without even thinking about his religion, and if I lived and voted in Nevada, I wouldn’t hesitate to vote for Harry Reid. And, of course, we had Mo and Stewart Udall, both good Dems and Mormons.

    What is it about Republicans and Mormonism that is so odious? Is it the fact they’re Republicans, that no matter what religion they practice, they’d still be odious? (That’s my take on these politicians.) I think we have to separate the religion from the politicians, because we have our own Democratic Mormons, who seem pretty sane.

  12. 12.

    joeyess

    @c u n d gulag: Five weeks is so recent. I’m sorry for your loss. You have a journey ahead of you. We all know the 5 stages of grief, but that last one, the longing, loneliness? That one never seems to go. It gets easier with time, but it remains with you and eventually becomes a welcomed friend.

    Take care and easy does it. Remember, the more you love the more you lose in life. I try to be the biggest loser on the planet.

  13. 13.

    WereBear

    @joeyess: Maybe it took some distance to even start the mourning process.

    It may have been covered here, but Joe Biden’s Memorial Day speech (as covered on Rachel Maddow’s show) was incredibly moving. As he said:

    One day, you’ll smile before the tears.

    That is when it is done.

  17. 17.

    joeyess

    @WereBear:

    One day, you’ll smile before the tears. That is when it is done.

    And that is exactly what happened this morning.

  20. 20.

    gene108

    I too have been having vivid dreams, though mine aren’t as poignant as the one up thread.

    This morning I had a dream so intense I knocked the clock off the night stand.

    I was in my mom’s house in North Carolina, on speaker phone with an old fashioned phone-cord-hand-set-plug-in-to-the-wall-jack phone (i.e. not equipped w/ speaker phone) arguing with a vice principal in a Texas high school (I did part of the 5th grade in Houston) about why they were dropping me from AP English, since I’m in grad school right now doing an MBA part-time, while working full time and therefore even though I didn’t keep up with the assigned reading, I really should be exempt because I already have a bachelor’s degree, took AP English when I was in high school and some other similar points, which weren’t helping at all with this high school in Texas.

    Anyway, I have an itch to look for a new car. I’d upgrade “look” to “buy”, but grad school’s wiped me out temporarily.

    I found one local dealer that seems to be in a time warp, with regards to how to treat customers. The group has a Kia, Dodge and Mitsubishi dealerships all right next to each other.

    Very high pressure sales, basically if aren’t going to buy a car right then and there you aren’t worth their time. If you ever want to buy a car avoid the Cherry Hill (NJ) Kia, Mitsubishi and Dodge dealerships.

    Yesterday, I went to the Kia dealership (had gone to the Dodge dealership, but didn’t realized the other dealerships were part of the same group), told them I’m just looking right now and wanted to test drive some cars. Sales manager introduced me to a sales associate. We walked out of the show room and I figured the sales associate would bring a car around front for me to test drive, like most dealerships do.

    Waited 7-8 minutes and no one was pulling up with a car to test drive. I left.

    Sales manager said 82% of the people, who enter the show room don’t buy a car.

    He reduced his chance of selling to me from 18% to 0% by basically having a fuck you attitude because I wasn’t buying that day.

    I’ve done sales (a little) and recruitment and at some point you just realize there’s going to be uncertainty and you can’t pressure people beyond a point. If you’re confident in your product and your sales method, you figure if you don’t win them over right then and there you’ll get there business eventually.

    I just don’t get why all car dealerships haven’t figured this out by now.

    Saturn (rest their soul) was a huge hit 20+ years ago in large part because of their no pressure/no negotiating sales approach. Car Max and Car Max-esque dealerships (Car Sense, for example) thrive by having low pressure/no negotiating sales environment.

    I’ve gone to other dealerships and even though they’d like to make sale that day, they gave me space, when they realize I serious about just looking and if they pressure me too much I won’t come back.

    There has to be tons of research now about what sales tactics work and what don’t and why these guys act like they’re out of a bad 1970’s car salesman’s stereotype is beyond me.

  22. 22.

    joeyess

    @ruemara: that was great. I love people who love people. See what happens when we all work together? We can do amazing and wonderful things for one another.

    Thanks for that.

  23. 23.

    The Snarxist Formerly Known As Kryptik

    Well, it never should’ve happened, but I should’ve known it’d be the WaPo pulling it: apparently, ‘Dan Quayle was right’, regarding the burgeoning epidemic of single motherhood.

    And predictably, it’s all the fault of those Stupid Irresponsible Sluts for choosing single motherhood, and never the fault of the guy who might have left said mother to fend for herself. Nope, it’s always Stupid Irresponsible Fucking Sluts.

    Am I the only one galled that this bullshit seems to be actually gaining traction? Not to mention the minor existential crisis I had reading the goddamned comments where it was all “RAH RAH, DAN QUAYLE THE PRESCIENT, FUCK THE STUPID FUCKING SLUTS!!! LIBERALS ARE THE STUPIDEST EVER, FUCK THE SLUTS AND THEIR OPEN LEGS!!!”

    And yet, that’s less concerning than the fact that political winds seemed to actually be shifting to codify that into law, along with the ‘fuck the poor’ trend of legislation nationwide.

  24. 24.

    Yutsano

    @gene108: When I bought my current car, it was literally an all-day ordeal. I went to two dealerships, one could have cared less if they sold the car or not (plus I got the itch in the back of my brain to pas on it) and the second gave me about four other cars before I chose the Malibu. But it took him FOREVER to get the car to me. I almost up and left cause it took him so long. Then I didn’t bite on his first offer. But I drove it home that day. And I’ve loved it ever since. It’s kinda funny: you’ll know which car is yours. You just have to go through a lot of crap to get there.

  25. 25.

    Mino

    I think progressives need to start agitating for anti-disinfranching laws to hold election officials responsible for their violation of our specifically named constitutional rights. The Constitution doesn’t say a damned thing about voter fraud.

    Booman says Scott could be liable for errors in the voter purging. Is that true? If we had a Justice Department worth the air it breathes, we might get some action on all the shit going down in red states. Put a few in prison and it might cut down on all this enthusiasm for denying the vote to qualified voters.

  26. 26.

    Linkmeister

    I’m in the market for a new hatchback automobile. Anybody bought one recently and/or got a recommendation? I’ve looked at the Honda Fit and the Ford Fiesta. Also thinking of the Nissan Versa, the Mazda 2, the Chevy Sonic, and the Toyota Yaris.

    The only real requirement is that I be able to easily (easily!) get a wheelchair into and out of it, and that the wheelchair user get into and out of the passenger seat equally easily (i.e., no trucks/SUVs).

    Edited to add further info: I live on an island. I don’t need cars designed for long road trips.

  28. 28.

    c u n d gulag

    Thanks everyone.

    And especially Joey, for the advice.
    And thanks to your father for his distinguished service.

    My Dad’s father was executed in Russia, and he and his family spent WWII in Concentration and Work Camps, even though we’re not Jewish, so he had had his fill of war.

    But he was drafted as soon as he came to America, and he was in the Army during Korea, and almost ended up over there.
    But at the last second, his posting changed.
    He was in Texas during a drought, and then France during a wine glut.
    So he always joked about how the Army almost killed him – by eating too much steak when the cattlemen were killing off their herds, and drinking too much cheap and plentiful wine in Paris.

    He had a great sense of humor, my Dad.

  29. 29.

    Yutsano

    @Linkmeister: You could also look at a Volkswagen Golf, especially the diesel since those get excellent gas mileage and they run like work horses. Plus diesels nowadays burn a lot cleaner than in the past.

  30. 30.

    jeffreyw

    @Linkmeister: We have a 4-dr Fiesta and like it pretty well. Mrs J had some recent difficulty with broken pelvic bones and we were able to get a folding wheelchair into and out of the trunk fairly easily. There is a bit of a lift over to get it in there. Mrs J is getting into and out of the front seat well enough. She is driving it now.

  35. 35.

    gene108

    @Yutsano:

    I actually wanted to drive 2 cars. The sales manager was boasting about their huge inventory of Optimas, which I was interested in (along with the Soul and he suggested the Forte, so I added it to my list).

    I figured it wouldn’t take them that long to zip one out of the lot, since I could see a row of Optimas a few dozen feet from the sales entrance. Or at least let the sales associate should’ve let me know he would be a few minutes or to follow him or something.

    Anyway, my current ride is still in good working condition, so this isn’t a must have proposition even if I had the money saved up.

    I just don’t get crappy customer service in this day and age. At some point corporations have tons of data on effective customer service and would impose that standard on dealerships or franchises.

  36. 36.

    Origuy

    @Linkmeister: I’ve gotten my housemate’s wheelchair into the back of my Fit fairly easily. If I’m not carrying a third person, I can put it into the rear passenger area instead. The lower parts of the rear seats fold up, giving you a floor to ceiling storage area. I’m quite happy with the Fit.

    Make sure you try it first, though.

  37. 37.

    gene108

    @The Snarxist Formerly Known As Kryptik:

    never the fault of the guy

    Well Duh…men have nothing to do with women becoming sluts…

    It’s not our fault they get pregnant, when they screw around. They should just learn to not have sex until they are married.

    There’s really no male involvement at all with sluts, so I don’t see why men need to be dragged into this.

  40. 40.

    Linkmeister

    @Origuy: I’ve test-driven a Fit and liked it. We (wheelchair occupant and I) both did, although Mom felt it was kind of a squeeze getting in and out of the passenger seat. Maneuvering the chair into the cargo area from the back was fairly easy, although if only one back seat is down and the other part of the back seat is left up it’s harder. Standing it up behind the front seat is a little awkward, particularly seeing out the rear view mirror. If we get a smaller lighter chair (which is in the works) that might not be as big a problem as it currently is.

  41. 41.

    c u n d gulag

    @Mino:
    That’s what I told him after the results of the studies that showed the benefits of wine!

    He thought it was more likely all the vodka he drank before, then, and after.

    And who am I to argue?
    He died at almost 86 1/2, and was very healthy for 85 years, and 11 months.

  42. 42.

    gogol's wife

    @joeyess:

    My father died in 1984 (at 92), and I still dream of him and think in my dreams that I’m failing him because I’m not taking care of him. I’m sorry for your loss.

    My husband is a worshiper of the B-17 and all who served in it. Your father must have been a remarkable man.

  43. 43.

    donnah

    @gene108:

    For what it’s worth, we recently had to buy a car, as our van died an ugly death right at Christmastime in 2010. We went to a Kia dealership with the intention of buying a used car, as we are on a tight budget. We got lucky with a great salesman, who suggested that we could get a new car, a 2010 anyway, at a good price.

    We test drove a Soul and immediately knew it wasn’t for us. It’s not a bit aerodynamic and it was noisy and felt boxy like a cargo van. We tried a Forte next and we loved it. The size, gas mileage, and bluetooth feature made it a perfect fit for us. We got the one they used for test drives, so it had miles already on it, but we figured that had just worked the bugs out, and it knocked the price down.

    We’ve been driving it virtually every day since we got it without a bit of trouble. I’ve driven it for some long trips, packed to the gills with my teaching materials which include eight duffle bags and a couple
    of suitcases. It handles well and is fun to drive. I would recommend it to anyone.

    Just my two cents worth!

  46. 46.

    Nutella

    @gene108:

    Your story of the idiot car salesman reminds me of what happened to a friend of mine. She went into the dealership and fell in love with a 2-seater sports car that she really didn’t need but it was so beautiful and she had recently gotten a bonus at work so she could afford it. She asked to take it out on a test drive and the salesman very reluctantly allowed her to. She tested its acceleration by flooring it on the interstate and he flipped out. He sneered at her throughout so she left without buying. She figured it was because she was young and casually dressed so he thought she couldn’t afford it. Do you suppose sports car salesmen sneer at Mark Zuckerman when he slouches in wearing his hoodie?

    There are some businesses, cars and jewelery for two, where the salesreps often drive their customers away if they don’t look ‘right’.

  48. 48.

    JGabriel

    I think I need more that 16 notes. It should give you the option to expand it up to 64 notes. Or more.

    .

  50. 50.

    joeyess

    @gogol’s wife: If your hubby is interested in B-17’s, a friend of mine, Brian D. O’Neill wrote a book “Half a Wing, Three Engines and a Prayer” about the 8th Army Air Corps, the 303rd Bomber Group and specifically my Pop’s crew. Huller’s Crew.

    My father is all over that thing. Pages and pages of dad. It’s good book, well researched and holds a special place on my bookshelf.

    Check it out.

  51. 51.

    c u n d gulag

    @joeyess:
    My Dad probably read about your Dad, since he read every single book about WWII that ever was published.
    I kid thee not!

    I’ll go to the library and check it out myself.

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