Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Cancel the cowardly Times and Post and set up an equivalent monthly donation to ProPublica.

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

The line between political reporting and fan fiction continues to blur.

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

’Where will you hide, Roberts, the laws all being flat?’

He really is that stupid.

The gop is a fucking disgrace.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

How any woman could possibly vote for this smug smarmy piece of misogynistic crap is beyond understanding.

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

This really is a full service blog.

If you don’t believe freedom is for everybody, then the thing you love isn’t freedom, it is privilege.

If you cannot answer whether trump lost the 2020 election, you are unfit for office.

Hell hath no fury like a farmer bankrupted.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

This blog will pay for itself.

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

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

Republicans firmly believe having an abortion is a very personal, very private decision between a woman and J.D. Vance.

75% of people clapping liked the show!

Fundamental belief of white supremacy: white people are presumed innocent, minorities are presumed guilty.

Stop using mental illness to avoid talking about armed white supremacy.

You are here: Home / Music / Sunday Morning Open Thread: Nice Cheerful Thoughts

Sunday Morning Open Thread: Nice Cheerful Thoughts

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Because on a Sunday morning, more people can spare twenty minutes and half an ear. Before the purists start explaining how you would never waste precious time watching trash tv like the above, Alison Kraus comes out to back up Ms. Parton at around the 15min mark.

I’m starting to make lists for my This-Year-Dammit-Fewer-But-Better mail order tomato plant purchases. Who in the warmer climes have already started their seeds?

More nice cheerful stuff, from the Washington Post:

Breathitt County, Ky. — The envelopes began arriving in December across eastern Kentucky, one of the sickest and poorest corners of the country.

“Dear member . . . We want you to be healthy . . .” read the letter to Mary Combs, and with it came a plastic card representing the first insurance she ever had: a Medicaid plan made possible by the nation’s new health-care law, effective Jan. 1.

Nine days into the new year, the 41-year-old call-center worker headed to the health clinic on Highway 15. She saw a doctor about her chronic stomach ulcers, had her blood drawn for tests and collected referrals for all the specialists she had been told she needed but could never afford.

The next week, she saw a neurologist, who found lesions on her brain and prescribed medicine for the cluster headaches, which are also called “suicide headaches” for pain that is far more intense than a migraine and which Combs had been treating with an alcohol-soaked cloth wrapped around her head. She lined up a gynecologist for abnormal uterine bleeding and a hematologist for anemia and an ophthalmologist for an affliction she called “arthritis of the eye,” which was diagnosed on one of the rare occasions she decided to see a specialist, a $250 visit her husband paid for by selling his lawn mower.

“She got mad at that,” Johnny Combs said now, waiting in an exam room with his wife, who was back at the clinic again, this time for an earache she would normally treat with sweet-oil drops.

“Well, we needed that mower, too,” Mary Combs said, and soon the nurse practitioner arrived, and a new conversation began:

“Okay,” she said. “We are no stranger to these ear complaints.”

“No,” said Combs, who soon had another referral for an ear, nose and throat specialist, as Week 3 in the world of the newly insured carried on….

Goddess bless the ACA/Obamacare, imperfect as it may be!

Finally, for those of you whose greatest joy is schadenfreude, today’s most-tweeted non-SuperBowl story is liable to be the Washington Post‘s “Republicans Face 2016 Turmoil“.

Reader Interactions

66Comments

  2. 2.

    Amir Khalid

    @kbuttle:
    Right above your comment, I see

    No Responses to “Sunday Morning Open Thread: Nice Cheerful Thoughts”

    FYWP insults Balloon Juice commenters!

  3. 3.

    James E. Powell

    Finally, for those of you whose greatest joy is schadenfreude, today’s most-tweeted non-SuperBowl story is liable to be the Washington Post‘s “Republicans Face 2016 Turmoil“.

    There’s no schadenfreude until FOX News calls the next presidential election for Not The Republican ten minutes after the polls close in California. Until then, they are all like a pack of cornered, wounded predators.

  4. 4.

    mai naem

    My first thought reading this is these people better remember which party fought for this and get out and vote for said party(hint:it was not the party of Mitch McConnell.)

    Second thought is that of Grover Norquist reading this story and thinking – ka-ching! eye doc, ka-ching! PAP smear, ka-ching! lab tests, ka-ching? CT SCAN. Waah! My money! Waah All of MY money going to these moochers!

  6. 6.

    Cermet

    During interviews a reporter asked Mr. Richard Sherman about …Strippers!?! WTF?! What a complete asshole that reporter is!
    Of course, Mr. Sherman answered as the extremely well educated and moral man he is (unlike so many thugs (the real ones who are repug’s) and their ass licking clowns in the media..) One needs to read Mr. Sherman’s response themselves

    http://www.salon.com/2014/02/01/richard_sherman_feminist_partner/

    I wish more people were like Mr. Sherman – total class act – know who I want to win the SB, now.

  8. 8.

    max

    Alison Kraus comes out to back up Ms. Parton at around the 15min mark.

    Not a big Dolly Parton fan. That originally came up as Shakira & Beyonce. Which was strange.

    Who in the warmer climes have already started their seeds?

    Not moi. I got at least a month before the hard freeze stops. So any seedlings started now will die of the fungus before long. Besides, I have to keep my living plants alive.

    today’s most-tweeted non-SuperBowl story is liable to be the Washington Post‘s “Republicans Face 2016 Turmoil“.

    Meanwhile, an enormous number of potential contenders are looking at the race, including, perhaps, a return of virtually everyone who ran in 2012. Come this time next year, 15 or more of them could be traveling the early primary states, jockeying for attention and money. […] Then there is the potential for a parade of formers and also-rans. Former Texas governor Rick Perry is preparing for another race, a do-over after his 2012 debacle. Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, who took the Iowa caucuses in 2008, has said he is thinking about it, too, as is former senator Rick Santorum (Pa.), who won Iowa in 2012. Asked whether he has ruled out another run, former House speaker Newt Gingrich — busy these days with a CNN show and selling a new book — was hardly Shermanesque. “Probably,” he replied by e-mail.

    And everybody told me, no, no way Newt or Mitt comes back. Or Perry!

    max
    [‘Out of the gene pool and into the primaries!’]

  9. 9.

    Cermet

    @Anne Laurie: @Anne Laurie: Teach me to scroll down! In my defence, I’m not normally up at that hour (I sleep in to 3:30 AM most days – Sat, I normally get to sleep to 5 AM.) so I was still out of it. A phone call woke me up (just in time for a minor home emergency – someone did a John Cole! – go figure) and I’m struggling to adjust to this issue and the time/sleep mess this has caused.

  12. 12.

    skwerlhugger

    Some time in the next 6 months a campaign will start to claim Republican credit for the ACA. It’ll begin with “it works because of our principled opposition forcing needed changes” and end up with “it was actually Heritage Foundation/Romneycare, anyway”. And Mrs. Combs will continue to vote Republican, because the Democrats aren’t very good at this game.

  14. 14.

    Baud

    @skwerlhugger:

    because the Democrats aren’t very good at this game.

    You mean the game of appealing to racist shitheads? Yeah, the Democrats have sucked at that game since the sixties.

    (With apologies to Mrs. Combs, since the excerpt did not reveal her voting habits.)

  15. 15.

    Botsplainer

    Dammit, I dropped my ipad yesterday and the screen cracked.

    My OCD self will ignore the fact that it is working fine, and I won’t be happy until the screen and/or ipad is completely replaced.

  16. 16.

    HeartlandLiberal

    If asked to describe what the voice of an angel might sound like, I would have to say immediately: Alison Kraus .

  17. 17.

    PsiFighter37

    Contemplating whether I should pull an all-nighter in Zurich to watch the SB tonight (if I had planned my trip better, I would have shown up here a day earlier and left today to be back in NY for it). Well, that’s if I can find a TV station here that is carrying it. There is a party going on with a local football team (which I find kind of funny…can’t imagine the Swiss playing American football), but given I have to hit the road tomorrow morning to get to the airport, I may have to pass (or maybe wake up in the middle of the night after getting a few hours’ sleep).

    Also, too, I think this experience proves they should never again hold the SB in one of these big cities, like an NYC or a Chicago. There’s plenty else going on, no NYer I know have has even paid a visit to that tourist trap known as Super Bowl Boulevard.

  21. 21.

    JPL

    @Baud: It’s unfortunate they didn’t choose Atlanta this year. Maybe our Governor would have handled our snow situation differently.

  23. 23.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Ultraviolet Thunder:

    Voices like that are once in a generation.

    Nope. A dime a dozen. It is only once in a generation that a woman manages to score the perfect storm of looks, luck, voice, good musicianship, good management,… what did I miss? Seriously, when I was hitting the live music scene up in St Lou, on any wkend I could pick from as many as a half dozen phenomenal voices, like Alice Spencer and the Geyer Street Sheiks. Given a choice, I always picked them when I could, just too much fun. They did my favorite version of “Dimming of the Day” ever. Breaks my heart every time I hear her sing it.

    But like so many, the breaks never went their way, and they all moved on with their lives.

  24. 24.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Reminder: any fans of novelist Wiley Cash (jJohn’s friend), he is going to be on Weekend Edition sometime this morning.

  26. 26.

    Ultraviolet Thunder

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I won’t disagree with you about there being many talented women who get little attention, but having seen Alison Krauss live a few times I think there’s a qualitative difference favoring her. I would also add hard work to the requirements for success. Effort alone is not sufficient but it’s necessary, and she toured relentlessly for years to gradually build momentum.

  27. 27.

    Poopyman

    @Poopyman: Fucking rodent.

    Punxsutawney Phil, the world’s most famous fuzzy forecaster, popped out of his burrow Sunday morning and predicted six more weeks of winter, much to the disappointment for the crowd gathered at Gobbler’s Knob in Pennsylvania.

  28. 28.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Ultraviolet Thunder: As have I. And I am taking nothing at all away from Alison when I say I have seen others just as good (different, but just as good) . I love Alison and every piece of music she has ever done. She is special. But so are so many thousands of hard working endlessly touring forgotten others.

    But we don’t remember them. Or at least, it seems nobody but me. I suppose that’s because a number of them are friends of mine.

  32. 32.

    Ultraviolet Thunder

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    For years my wife spent her vacations on road trips to bluegrass festivals. Those are always well attended by enthusiastic fans. Maybe mass appeal isn’t an appropriate standard for every musician. Alison Krauss has been ‘on the verge of a breakthrough’ for years but you wonder if more popular acclaim is necessarily what everyone would want. Certainly to bring their music to a wider audience, to work with musicians they want to and to have a reasonable lifestyle.
    She has done some crossover work, including Raising Sand with Robert Plant. That won nearly universal critical praise and some awards. I was a little surprised at how restrained and laid back that was. I mean, Robert Freaking Plant for heaven’s sake. Cut loose a bit!

  33. 33.

    geg6

    @Punchy:

    Hahahaha, it sure does! Been there though, and I can tell you that it is as far from pron as a Disney movie. To be truly honest, the movie actually captures the kind of town Punxsutawney is. Not exactly, but not that far off either. You should see the mansion Phil lives in. A groundhog mansion. Fattest damn groundhog you ever saw.

  34. 34.

    Anya

    OMG! This is the sweetest and most romantic story ever!

    Vows: Mr. Duckett and Dr. Jones

    Together 46 years, Lewis Duckett and Billy Jones wrote coded letters to each other during Dr. Jones’s deployment in Vietnam. They adopted a baby, became grandfathers and then, finally, got married.

  35. 35.

    jibeaux

    The WaPo story was very moving. Our poor citizens in NC deserve stories like that too, Gov. Dumbass McCrory.

    I just ordered some seeds yesterday. I still have seeds for sungold and black cherry — cherry tomatoes tend to be my most successful, if not my absolute favorites. Am trying out varieties called Glacier Early Tomatoes, Black Pineapple, and Early Pink, ordered from Scheepers Kitchen Garden Seeds. Should get them started in the trays by mid-Feb. and get them outside by mid-April. Hope springs eternal, I can’t tell you how many disappointing tomato crops I’ve had. Going to dig some new beds, but the yard is hemmed in by trees so adequate sunlight is still a worry.

  37. 37.

    debbie

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Listening to his interview now. I’d never heard of him, but the book sounds really interesting. I’ve already recommended that my library purchase a copy.

  39. 39.

    Tommy

    @Ultraviolet Thunder: Amen to that. Somebody suggested her to me and I was like I don’t like country music. They are like you got to give her a try. I was stunned. Blown away. Own a ton of her stuff now. And as you said I could listen to her read the phone book and enjoy it.

  40. 40.

    Tommy

    @Ultraviolet Thunder: My thinking exactly. I picked it up cause how can’t Kraus and Robert Plant not be stunning. I wouldn’t say I dislike it, but alas about the least favorite thing I own of hers.

  41. 41.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @debbie:

    I first heard of him a couple of years ago when his first novel (A Land More Kind Than Home) was published. John set up an online chat with him. Hope he can do the same for This Dark Road to Mercy.

    I’ve downloaded the new novel but haven’t started it yet.

  42. 42.

    Ultraviolet Thunder

    @OldDave:

    Everyone has their own favorite rendition of a song. The Dimming of the Day?

    I discovered it through the original Richard and Linda Thompson record Pour Down Like Silver some time in the ’80s. Covers of it appear as far afield as the pop band Any Trouble. I think June Tabor covered it with The Oyster Band.

  43. 43.

    debit

    @Anya: Thank you for that! I’m having a hard time articulating why it touched me so; there’s just something about seeing people who are still so deeply in love after so many years together that just moves me to tears.

  44. 44.

    Betty Cracker

    @Baud: I can’t understand why they decided to hold it in an outdoor stadium in a cold weather city. They did luck out by getting above-freezing temperatures and no significant wind or precipitation. But still, it’s going to be in the high 30s and low 40s for the entire game, and the attendees are gonna have to sit outside for six hours or so, what with all the hoopla. Sounds miserable to me, certainly nothing I’d pay thousands for.

  45. 45.

    Ferdzy

    Here in snowy Canada I doubt very much that the groundhog saw its shadow, given the cloud cover at the moment. (Not actually snowing at the moment, thank FSM). Still, if we don’t have 6 more weeks of winter, it will be a month and half, so what the heck. And given the mounds of snow we have, if we see our crocuses before the middle of May I will be much surprised.

  46. 46.

    Tommy

    @debit: Just watched it. Amazing! I am about as straight as you get, but IMHO you have to have a black heart not to want people like that to get married. I mean I don’t know how you can watch that and not be for same sex marriage.

  47. 47.

    Tommy

    @Betty Cracker: I am with you. I have attended more sporting events then I care to admit. At some levels I don’t attend any now. I think, and the NFL is at the top of the list, has made the experience of watching a game at home so amazing I am stunned at some level they still sell out stadiums.

  56. 56.

    JoyfulA

    That story brought a tear to my eye, too. I wish happiness and long, healthy lives to Mary and Johnnie.

  57. 57.

    danielx

    From da WaPo article:

    Meanwhile, an enormous number of potential contenders are looking at the race, including, perhaps, a return of virtually everyone who ran in 2012. Come this time next year, 15 or more of them could be traveling the early primary states, jockeying for attention and money.

    Oh please please please…..

    The only thing that could improve this would be the addition of Louie Gohmert to the field of candidates. GOP primary debates will be comedy gold.

  58. 58.

    Mnemosyne

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    It sounds like you may be the target audience for the latest Coen brothers movie, Inside Lleweyn Davis.

    (SPOILER!) It seems to bother a LOT of people that he’s obviously talented but spends the whole movie trying to get a break that never quite comes, but … unfortunately, life is like that sometimes.

  59. 59.

    danielx

    Also, too –

    Trump added: “I’m a popular guy because I have popular ideas, talking about how China is ripping us off and about how Obamacare is a disaster. Those are the big issues where people want to see leadership.”

    Donald Trump thinks he is a popular guy.

    Donald, I have a dictionary here. There’s a picture of you over the definition of “asshole”. AND you have the worst hair east of the Hudson Mississippi.

  61. 61.

    draftmama

    My peppers are already 4″ tall and will be planted into 3 1/2″ pots today, then its on to seed the big tomatoes – I’ll wait a couple of weeks for the cherries. We raise organic heirlooms and sell the plants at the farmers market which pays for my gardening addiction!! And we live in Montana lol

  62. 62.

    gbear

    @Ultraviolet Thunder:

    I watched that same documentary for the first time last night. I was lucky in that I’d read reviews of Radio City when it first came out so I was on the watch for their albums. I found both of the original Ardent LPs in the used bins for a couple bucks each. I always feel so sorry for Chris Bell. He was a troubled soul, and there were implications in the documentary that he was a closeted gay man who turned to born-again christianity to find an answer. Bad combo.
    I can understand Chilton’s frustration with the music business, but I bought a copy of Like Flies On Sherbert when it came out, and it put me off of everything he did from then on. It was an awful album. I saw him live at First Avenue with a local pickup band (including a thrash-metal drummer I knew) and he just seemed to be phoning it in. A drunken Replacements show would have been more coherent.

  63. 63.

    gbear

    @Ultraviolet Thunder:

    She has done some crossover work, including Raising Sand with Robert Plant. That won nearly universal critical praise and some awards. I was a little surprised at how restrained and laid back that was. I mean, Robert Freaking Plant for heaven’s sake. Cut loose a bit!

    That’s what bothered me about that album. It seemed like they were both battling to be the background singer. About 3/4 of the record didn’t do anything for me – everyone seemed afraid to put some energy or bite into their performances.

  64. 64.

    gbear

    @Ultraviolet Thunder: I know June Tabor and the Oyster Band covered ‘Night Comes In’ (an album that also had a neat cover of VU’s ‘All Tomorrow’s Parties’), but they also recorded a second album. Is it on that album?

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