Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

We’ll be taking my thoughts and prayers to the ballot box.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

How can republicans represent us when they don’t trust women?

Never forget that he train is barreling down on Trump, even as he dances on the tracks.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

“When somebody takes the time to draw up a playbook, they’re gonna use it.”

DeSantis transforming Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

“Joe Biden deserved better than he got from some folks in his own party.”

“Why isn’t this Snickers bar only a nickel?”

Donald Trump, welcome to your everything, everywhere, all at once.

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Fani Willis claps back at Trump chihuahua, Jim Jordan.

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Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Open Thread- My Car is Still in a Field

Open Thread- My Car is Still in a Field

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Had a funny conversation with AAA trying to set up a date to have my brokedick car towed. The lady at the call center asked me to verify my address, so I gave it to her, and she said she had a different mailing address. This is what followed:

Me: “Oh, I bet you have my dad’s PO Box. He buys my AAA every year for Christmas.”

Her: “Yes, that is what I have, and he already renewed it for next year!”

Me, joking: “What the hell, my car has been rolled and is totaled in a field, and now you are ruining my Christmas gifts?”

Her, laughing: “Wait. I made a mistake. I see your membership expires on 1 January!”

She was super sweet, funny, and helpful. Such a change from what you normally are used to from customer service.

Reader Interactions

56Comments

  5. 5.

    Hill Dweller

    Senate Republicans can’t block any of the President’s nominees, but they can refuse to wave the debate period after cloture. Consequently, the assholes have left town for the Christmas break, leaving the Dems to stay up all night and tomorrow confirming the remaining nominees.

    The Republican caucus is full of children.

  6. 6.

    Dead Ernest

    Thanks John.
    Surprisingly, reading just that little bit of playfulness, has cheered me up quite a bit.

  7. 7.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    This made me happy when I saw it:

    WASHINGTON — In a remarkable rebuke to Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), 10 other Senate committee chairs are circulating a joint letter to Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, urging him to reject an effort by Menendez to tighten sanctions on Iran and warning that his bill could disrupt ongoing nuclear negotiations.
    …
    The 10 senators who signed the letter are Banking Committee Chair Tim Johnson (S.D.), Intelligence Committee Chair Dianne Feinstein (Calif.), Armed Services Committee Chair Carl Levin (Mich.), Appropriations Committee Chair Barbara Mikulski (Md.), Commerce Committee Chair John Rockefeller (W.Va.), Environment and Public Works Committee Chair Barbara Boxer (Calif.)., Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee Chair Thomas Carper (Del.), Judiciary Committee Chair Patrick Leahy (Vt.), Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chair Ron Wyden (Ore.), and Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chair Tom Harkin (Iowa).

    and Rachel Maddow says this was nothing less than the defusing of war with Iran. I never had Menendez pegged for a neo-con, and his cosponsors include Gillibrand and Chris Coons. Fercrissakes, when you’re a bigger neo-con that Dianne Feinstein, get some help.

  8. 8.

    jl

    @efgoldman:

    ” If it’s going to be rusting in a yard, John wants it to be his yard, dammit! ”

    I still like the idea of making it an over sized automotive flower pot in Cole’s front yard. Then we can bug him for seasonal pix, as an added bonus.

    Edit: And how is Cole getting around now? Or did I miss one of Cole’s automotive updates?

  9. 9.

    raven

    @efgoldman: I had a problem with my dental insurance claim, my dentist submitted two bills that indicated two root canals on the same tooth in a few weeks. I called the insurance company and the person could not have been better. She listened, investigated the situation and identified the problem.

  10. 10.

    ruemara

    Have you considered pulling a Radar and just taking it apart, piece by piece and relocating it by hand? It might be faster than co-ordinating with the high pressure schedule of a retired farmer and AAA. But, I will say I”m glad both you and the customer service lady can laugh about it. It’s good to just treat people nicely.

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Good. I hope these people sit down and shut up. No one is looking for another war in the mid-east that they’re not going to go personally fight.

  12. 12.

    SiubhanDuinne

    John, we could bring some kudzu up from Georgia and turn it loose in the field. By mid-May, that car will be completely covered and look like a beautiful green sculpture.

  13. 13.

    Anya

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I just don’t get Senators like Gillibrand and menendez. Why do they think scalting things in the middle east will help Israel. I wonder where Chuck Schumer stands on this?

    On another crazier point, it turns out Sarah Palin (no surprise there) and Bobby Jindal don’t really understand the First Amendment. They think it covers how A&E deals with their employees.

  15. 15.

    koalaholik

    @efgoldman: That reminds me of when I was an operator back in the ’80s. This German lady was screaming at me because all the circuits were busy to Germany. I explained to her that it was Thanksgivong. She yelled “that is not a holiday in Germany” (a la Sgt Schultz) and I replied, no ma’am, but there are about 200,000 American troops and their families in Germany right now. Dead silence and then, amazingly, the most courteous apology I have ever received.

  16. 16.

    Hill Dweller

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    I never had Menendez pegged for a neo-con, and his cosponsors include Gillibrand and Chris Coons. Fercrissakes, when you’re a bigger neo-con that Dianne Feinstein, get some help.

    AIPAC

  17. 17.

    KG

    @Anya: they think it’s good for Israel because either Bibi or the Ambassador told them it was. As for Palin and Jindhal, of course they don’t.

  18. 18.

    Suzanne

    I still don’t know if I passed my exam. I am going to be fraught with anxiety until I find out. Hopefully I hear before Christmas.

    Spawn the Elder is practicing piano right now, and she has gotten good enough that she plays whole actual songs, and she sounds really good.

  19. 19.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Anya: @KG: Bobby Jindal was the first Great Republican Hope who was gonna take down President Affirmative Action T Teleprompter, wasn’t he? Or was that Bob McDonnell, then Marco Rubio…

  22. 22.

    Keith G

    I just opened a bottle of Bowmore 12 yr old.

    Certainly not the priciest single malt, but the way it’s pepper presence on the tongue dissolves into a wash of smoky peat makes it one of my favorites. A fitting end to a 12 hour work day.

  23. 23.

    KG

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Jindhal was, I think, but only because they thought they needed someone not so, um… White

    ETA: of course, it would have been helpful if the first time he was on national television after a state of the union speech, if he was wearing a properly fitted suit

  27. 27.

    KG

    Honest question… Is the left really worked up about the Duck Dynasty guy? I’ve seen a lot of conservative types upset about it, but I haven’t seen a lot of liberal outrage

  28. 28.

    Hawes

    Feinstein just wants to support fellow Club Member John Kerry…

    As for the car, have you heard of a tow rope, a friend’s pick-up and a six pack? Tow the damned thing to the edge of the road, then AAA can get it whenever.

  29. 29.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    I’m eagerly awaiting the part where the AAA truck goes in and gets stuck also, so then you have to send in the large flatbed tow truck to get that out, and then the giant crane, and so on. Like the story of the mouse and the elephant.

    Should end up with the National Guard called out eventually, ships, helicopters, a space shuttle pressed back into service…

    Well it is you.

  30. 30.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Such a change from what you normally are used to from customer service.

    Oh, great. The supervisor at AAA customer service is going to go into the call metadata to find out who exactly she was and give her a talking to for actually providing customer service.

  31. 31.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    I’m looking up the official GOP responses to Obama SOTUs
    2009- Bobby Jindal (…as Kenneth the Page!)
    2010- Bob McDonnell, in if memory serves the chamber of the VA state lege to look Presidimentional
    2011- Paul Ryan
    2012- Mitch Daniels
    2013- Marco Rubio
    not exactly a king-making slot

  33. 33.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @KG:

    Well, GLAAD is worked up, as in reporting on the asshole’s pre-Neanderthal views. so of course the utter scum of the right is jumping up and down and screaming that the entire “politically correct” crowd is demanding duckweed’s immediate summary execution.

  36. 36.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    Wait it just occurred to me… not to bring up a delicate subject, but I remember the stuff you were talking about recently — you haven’t been mixed up and calling AA by mistake, have you? And going to AAA meetings?

    That would sort of explain their inability to get your car.

  38. 38.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @KG:

    Also, not making fun of volcano monitoring, which is sort of like someone tut-tuting tracking hurricanes.

  39. 39.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Villago Delenda Est: he has some very Christian views on race as well

    “I never, with my eyes, saw the mistreatment of any black person. Not once. Where we lived was all farmers. The blacks worked for the farmers. I hoed cotton with them. I’m with the blacks, because we’re white trash. We’re going across the field,” Robertson said. “They’re singing and happy. I never heard one of them, one black person, say, ‘I tell you what: These doggone white people’—not a word!… Pre-entitlement, pre-welfare, you say: Were they happy? They were godly; they were happy; no one was singing the blues.”

    You see, no racial coding at all in talking about welfare, just like Uncle Tom Brokaw told us all.

  41. 41.

    Churchlady320

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Feinstein would never have done what he did – she is NOT a neo-con on these kinds of issues. I cannot understand what these Dems think they’re doing, but I sure applaud those who are pushing them BACK.

  42. 42.

    Churchlady320

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Feinstein would never have done what he did – she is NOT a neo-con on these kinds of issues. I cannot understand what these Dems think they’re doing, but I sure applaud those who are pushing them BACK.

  43. 43.

    Churchlady320

    @jl: Feinstein was the Senator who inserted the essential civil rights protections into the NDAA a couple of years ago. Her amendment guaranteed that citizens, lawfully present non-citizens would NEVER be summarily rounded up accused of abetting terrorists. Also that REAL terrorism suspect would have Constitutional rights. So she can come through in a pinch. The amendment survived into the final House bill and was passed into law. The fact no one KNOWS this has kept the “we’re losing our civil rights” mantra alive. But it’s not true – and it’s due to her.

  44. 44.

    Hill Dweller

    @Churchlady320: Steve Clemons said a lot of Dems are under immense pressure from outside groups(AIPAC) to undermine the current negotiations with Iran. It’s a zero sum game for Netanyahu and his flunkies.

  49. 49.

    Jamie

    I think you should declare it a new tradition, the Christmas Car. You can go out to it on Cristmas Eve and tell stories about all the fucked things that happened in the last year

  55. 55.

    Uncle Ebeneezer

    I had to call AAA Weds night because I locked my keys in the car with it running. It’s the second time I’ve done that. Anyways AAA arrived in under 5 mins and it took the guy like 10 seconds to shimmy into my car. My dad has also carried me on his AAA membership for years. I can’t complain, it’s helped me out several times.

  56. 56.

    Jay

    So, I was in Indianapolis today, where I live…and I was behind a dirty Subaru.

    It had WV plates, I noticed that and thought of our Bloghost. :-P

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