Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

“Loving your country does not mean lying about its history.”

If you still can’t see these things even now, maybe politics isn’t your forte and you should stop writing about it.

The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.

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

People really shouldn’t expect the government to help after they watched the GOP drown it in a bathtub.

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

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires.

There are a lot more evil idiots than evil geniuses.

Books are my comfort food!

Shut up, hissy kitty!

The willow is too close to the house.

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

Consistently wrong since 2002

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

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

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

If you can’t control your emotions, someone else will.

This fight is for everything.

Hey hey, RFK, how many kids did you kill today?

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

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156Comments

  2. 2.

    Yatsuno

    Define fun.

    I’m in a hotel room in Fresno with a rental car and a general case of ennui. At some point I’m gonna look into maybe going to Yosemite or I got offered a tour of the Lemoore base from a friend. But right now it’s cold pizza.

  4. 4.

    Poopyman

    Headed to the dump. The very definition of “fun”. At least for some (other) folks.

  7. 7.

    Roger Moore

    @Yatsuno:

    I’m in a hotel room in Fresno

    I guess that’s a “No!”, then. Be forewarned that Yosemite valley is going to be crowded as fuck on any weekend with remotely tolerable weather. If you go there, try some other part of the park.

  9. 9.

    Anoniminous

    Looking at all the miscellaneous left over tile and stone (granite counter tops!) I’ve got laying around, trying to design something to get them out of my life express my artistic and creative soul.

  11. 11.

    CaseyL

    Yes! Volunteer stint at a local museum this morning; SIFF party this evening – gotta drive and park downtown, but other than that it should be fun.

  12. 12.

    bemused

    Bad news is spring has been dragging it’s butt getting to northern MN barely getting out of the 40’s most of the time even seeing some snowflakes one day last week. Good news is we are starting to see a few 60 deg days with some sun. Bad news is that we along with everyone else are far behind in getting spring cleanup chores done. I still have a snow/ice pile left on one of my shaded flower beds so heavy duty gardening will have to wait a bit longer.

  13. 13.

    Villago Delenda Est

    OK, the Noisemax fuckwits are fucking with us:

    Radio Host: NYT Fired Abramson for Criticizing Obama

    It had nothing at all to do with compensation, or uppityness. Jill Abramson is obviously Dinesh D’Shithead with tits!

  14. 14.

    Morzer

    Well, I’ve just made a well-reviewed brunch for Morzerwife, using my special, double-plus good, secret mushroom recipe and, after a cup of damn fine coffee I intend to sit on the balcony and commune with a cigar.

  15. 15.

    Amir Khalid

    @Yatsuno:

    I’m in a hotel room in Fresno with a rental car and a general case of ennui.

    As long as you’re not actually bored … ;-)

  16. 16.

    aimai

    Yes. I was hoping to take my daughter out to buy her some frocky frocks for prom tonight but she turned me down. We filled out college paperwork and now I’m driving her over to teach her dance classes. She’ll change into some old thing and get herself over to her prom and we will pick her up late tonight. The school is handling this prom (for a mere 37 students for christ’s sake) as though its the zombie apocalypse. But I’m having a nice day anyway.

  17. 17.

    dmsilev

    @Villago Delenda Est: I thought the New York Times was supposed to be the epitome of The Liberal Media. Is NewsMin now saying that the Times over the last few years (i.e. during Abramson’s tenure in charge) that wasn’t true?

    Or are they, as usual, throwing shit against the wall just to admire the splatter patterns?

  19. 19.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @dmsilev:

    Or are they, as usual, throwing shit against the wall just to admire the splatter patterns?

    Well, they’re certainly doing that in the case of the VA scandal in Arizona. They hate Shinseki for two reasons: funny eyes, and he dared to give a professional assessment of the military situation in Iraq that pointedly disagreed with the fantasy of the deserting coward, the Dark Lord, and their neocon minions.

  20. 20.

    The Pale Scot

    This is amazing/scary if its true

    Where the World’s Unsold Cars Go To Die

    Too much chafe on the google about “unsold cars” to verify the dimensions easily,

    Consider how much energy and raw materials it takes to make a car, I have to believe it’s another way big finance is sucking money out of the economy thru inventory loans. How many solar panels could be made from the resources to make 10 million cars?

  21. 21.

    schrodinger's cat

    I have to visit relatives in the suburbs of Bombay tomorrow, I am exhausted. Went shopping got some CDs, got batteries for my watches and nibs for my pens and shopped for some cotton shirts and tunics.

  22. 22.

    Amir Khalid

    Wow! It’s Hull City defending a 2-1 lead over Arsenal in the FA Cup final at Wembley Stadium. Can the little team (Hull finished 16th in the Premier League, Arsenal fourth) hold on and win?

  24. 24.

    Keith G

    I am at home right now cat sitting as this is day two of my bathroom being repaired – new sheet rock and new walls in shower area. So much loud noise and strangers (often careless with doors) leaves me no choice but to be here to protect and sooth. As I type this on the sofa, I have a kitty on either side of me. I worked from 3:30-7:30 this morning (making desserts at a cafe) and might go back if they get done soon enough – I am beginning to wonder if they will finish today as promised. Eeeee – Gads!

  25. 25.

    schrodinger's cat

    Crazy MIL is crazy she is not taking no for an answer and her rationale for religious rituals she wants me to perform and the actual rituals themselves keeps changing.

  26. 26.

    mouse tolliver

    I’m at da Warshintin monument. Here to ova tho the gummint. Where you at? Where you at!

  27. 27.

    R-Jud

    @Yatsuno:

    I’m in a hotel room in Fresno with a rental car and a general case of ennui.

    How did you get the rental car into your room? More to the point, why is it in your– oh. Don’t answer that.

  28. 28.

    dmsilev

    General question: Anyone have a recommendation for companies that will do small batches of printed-circuit boards for reasonable prices? These would be tiny little things, maybe an inch square at most, just one copper/soldermask layer, but with a complex enough overall shape that I wouldn’t want to just get some prefab blank board stock and roll my own.

    I have a couple of quotes in-hand, but it’s always nice to shop around…

  30. 30.

    dmsilev

    @Villago Delenda Est: Looks like we have a completely new set of headlines now. I like this one: “Tea Party Leader: IRS Probe Has Had ‘Chilling Effect On My Life’ “. Has Benghazi season ended so soon that it’s now the time of year to complain about the IRS again? I thought that it was déclassé to complain about the IRS probe until after Memorial Day.

  32. 32.

    Roger Moore

    @The Pale Scot:

    This is amazing/scary if its true

    That seems like a might big if. There are good reasons why manufacturers would build up large inventories temporarily, like the need to shut down factories for retooling. There are also accounting rules that would make it difficult for car companies to build up massive inventory that they intend to sell at full price without it showing up in their quarterly reports. And the suggestion that car companies are afraid to discount their unsold cars should be ludicrous to anyone who has been paying any kind of attention.

    I sincerely doubt that this guy has discovered some massive conspiracy to hide overproduction by the auto industry. It’s possible that there’s been an unexpected slowdown in car sales that has resulted in a temporary spike in inventory. It’s far more likely that this is something that the auto industry has been doing for a while, this guy has been made aware of it for the first time, and he’s drawing unwarranted conclusions about the state of the industry. If you want to know what’s going on, it would be a much better idea to check on the trade press and see if they know anything about a big jump in unsold inventory.

  33. 33.

    Suffern ACE

    Heading to the city to Chelsea to stroll through the remaining galleries pretending I have $100k to spend on art.

  35. 35.

    Scamp Dog

    Getting ready for some fun this afternoon. I’ll be heading out to Denver’s Five Points Jazz Fest. I need to find my iPad so I can sketch the bands. The sketches aren’t all that awesome, but it gives me an excuse to chat up the musicians after they’re done playing. Then I post them on my Tumblr page, if you’re interested.

  36. 36.

    The Pale Scot

    @Roger Moore: Agreed, I requested that the post be deleted.

    Having sold cars, I know defining the vagaries of inventory is playing three card monty, it was the number of 57,000 cars at Baltimore that struck me as odd.

    And there was no other info other than this article on google,

  37. 37.

    Amir Khalid

    @schrodinger’s cat:
    Your mother-in-law isn’t crazy; she’s working methodically to close off any possible escape routes for you. You’ve been aware of this from the start. Now is the time you need all your best DIL-fu to outsmart her. But fear her not, for fear is the mind-killer.

  38. 38.

    Ferdzy

    I’m in week 3 of a big Dadastrophe. His partner is in the ICU and will be for months. He was doing all the heavy lifting in taking care of Dad, literally and metaphorically. After 2 weeks and a tumble down the stairs (Dad, not me) I am utterly exhausted and Dad is still in mega pain. We have arranged for Dad to go to a local nursing home on Tuesday. I *think* we can hang in until then. Maybe.

  39. 39.

    gogol's wife

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    I told y’all on the first day that that was the analysis in the comments on Politico. She’s another victim of Obama’s jackbooted thugs.

    It’s probably not the reason they fired her, but it’s the reason I would have fired her.

  40. 40.

    p.a.

    @Anoniminous: mosaic 2nd and 3rd team small tables (the basement/outside tables) and plant stands. Granite won’t break up easily as tile, will it?

  41. 41.

    Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason

    @The Pale Scot: I can’t speak to the whole article but I know something about one piece of it. Cars are not stored at the Port of Baltimore Dundalk Terminal. The come in, they go out. The inventory of parked vehicles changes daily. I would assume that’s the same at any port — the space is to valuable to use it for storing unsold cars.

  44. 44.

    shelley

    Newsmax headlines

    My favorite “1 Million Americans Getting Wrong Obamacare Subsidies”

    When you read, it weasles from that punchy headline into a ‘maybe’, ‘perhaps’, ‘some people say could happen…’ kind of non-story

  45. 45.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @R-Jud:

    How did you get the rental car into your room? More to the point, why is it in your– oh. Don’t answer that.

    Yutsy was afraid a farmer in rural West Virginia might be casting a covetous eye on it.

  48. 48.

    Redshift

    @Villago Delenda Est: Remember, the business model of most of the conservative “movement” is finding extremely gullible people to add to the marketing mailing lists they sell. Anyone who would believe that story is a top-quality mark.

  50. 50.

    cmm

    Sick in bed with sinus infection/horrible cough. But glad I will have the next 2-3 days off work (yay doctor note!) Even if I do feel lousy. I am that sick of my job. Filed out a couple of job applications today. It is well past time to move on.

  51. 51.

    WereBear

    @SiubhanDuinne: How are the other cats reacting?

    We’ve assured James Bond the other cats will have their heads tackled by the new kitten. We’ve told RJ we’ve gotten him a little buddy. We’ve informed Olwyn it’s a new being for her to order around!

    And while Tristan is not Teh Baby anymore, I’ve told him he will always be my Baby Bean, and that he will finally have someone who likes to wrestle as much as he does!

    I sure hope that’s true, but knowing kittens, the odds are very good.

  52. 52.

    Suffern ACE

    Oh. And tonight I watch Godzilla stomp San Francisco flat. That’s always fun to contemplate.

  54. 54.

    satby

    No, not having fun so far. Went to get a replacement battery for the riding mower (26 mile round trip), put it in, the thing starts, and I find out when it moves back a foot that one of the front wheels is flat. Caved in flat. Sigh, go back to mowing with the push mower (acre of land remember), and it runs out of gas. Put gas in, spill it, now the push mower won’t start. I’m inside with a lemonade waiting to see if it will start after some gas evaporates. Or I could just Round-up the whole acre, which is starting to really appeal to me.

  55. 55.

    cckids

    @bemused:

    Bad news is spring has been dragging it’s butt getting to northern MN

    Trade you. Summer has hit like a hammer here in Vegas, it was 101 yesterday & looks to hit triples again today. And tomorrow. My plants aren’t ready for it, and are wilting fast. Dammit.

  56. 56.

    SectionH

    @WereBear: Congratulations! He’s adorable! Good name, too. I can definitely see a resemblance to Ian McKellan. ;->

  57. 57.

    Ruckus

    @Roger Moore:
    This.
    Big bankers are going to make huge loans to mfg to keep the lines running? When product is not moving? Bankers may be the scourge of the earth (I believe that this is open for debate, they may have to get in line with used car salesmen and lawyers is how the old joke goes) but they are not stupid enough to throw money at a situation they may have a hard time getting their cut for. They didn’t bail out the auto industry last time, why would they do it now?

  58. 58.

    Anoniminous

    @p.a.:

    If I had a way of selling the tables that’s what I’d do. The point of this endeavor is to get rid of stuff, not just transform it.

  59. 59.

    danielx

    It’s finally broken 50 degrees (51!!) and quit raining for a few hours….may even get grass cut.

  60. 60.

    The Pale Scot

    @satby: Pop the filter out and let the carb air out,

    you could try rotating the blade backward 4-5 times, I don’t know why, but worked when I was a landscaper.

    Can’t beg or borrow a bicycle pump? frack pushing a whole acre.

  62. 62.

    cckids

    @WereBear: Oh, congrats!! He is just adorable. I’m fighting kitten cravings; we’ve got 3 cats & a dog, all older. And we’re downsizing from our 3100 sq.ft house to a 1350 sq. ft. town house. I think that will be enough fun without adding a kitty to the mix :)

    Enjoy your little guy!

  63. 63.

    satby

    @The Pale Scot: thanks.
    I probably didn’t mention that changing the battery was a huge mechanical win for me, and that I was temporarily flummoxed when the red thingies on the battery didn’t line up with the red wire thingies. Then I realized I could turn the battery around!
    Air filters?? Mowers have air filters???

  65. 65.

    SectionH

    Not so sure about fun, but since the weather broke, I’m pretty happy. It was late yesterday afternoon, went from 94° to 74° in a couple of hours, and down overnight to 60°. What a relief! It was even hotter Wednesday and Thursday, and our condo’s HVAC isn’t working.

    First thing Monday, calling the guy our building super recommended to get the thing fixed or replaced. I just hope he can get to us before August, as I expect he’s had a whole lotta calls lately.

  66. 66.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @shelley:
    Is the implication that the subsidies are too high? Conservative racist resentment would be fed perfectly by a belief that minorities are getting bigger subsidies than they deserve and whites are getting less than they (who actually have jobs) have earned.

  67. 67.

    dmsilev

    @Frankensteinbeck: The headline in the original Washington Post story is just a tad less hyperbolic: “Federal health-care subsidies may be too high or too low for more than 1 million Americans”. It’s basically that there’s a paperwork backlog in terms of verifying people’s income levels for determining what the appropriate subsidies should be. Annoying, and needs to be fixed, but hardly the end of the world.

  68. 68.

    SectionH

    @Baud: Well, good luck to him. I’m not too sure about that job as a springboard to national political office, but we’ll see.

  69. 69.

    pamelabrown53

    @Baud: Julian Castro’s nomination to HUD secretary is great news: it gives him a national profile which would be hard to make in Texas. Barring scandals, he has a great career to be realized Just glad that the Obama admin. recognized it too .

  70. 70.

    Roger Moore

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    Is the implication that the subsidies are too high?

    TPM has an article that seems to be quoting the same source at WaPo. It sounds as if there are a million people who have reported a different income for their subsidy from the one on last year’s taxes, and the computer system to verify their claimed income isn’t up and running yet. That population is presumably a mix of people whose income has actually gone up or down since last year- maybe they got or lost a job- and people who are deliberately misreporting for one reason or another. So yes, there are a million cases of people who might possibly be getting the wrong subsidy, but most of those will probably turn out to be people who have honestly reported a change of income.

  80. 80.

    Jay C

    @WereBear:

    Soooo cuuute! I hope you’ve laid in a good supply of cat food for the future: when he grows into those ears, you’ll need it! (he IS part-Maine Coon, I think you posted?)

  81. 81.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Baud:

    Sounds like a good choice, and gives him exposure and experience for a possible national ticket down the road.

  82. 82.

    Botsplainer

    Lots of messages this morning exchanged with youngest daughter doing archaeology outside Shkodra, north of Tirana (Albania).

    She says the wine is like vinegar, but cheap, and comes with meals. The beer is good and inexpensive, the raki awesome. She and another young woman have been trying to teach the bartenders about mixed drinks, with varying degrees of success. Albanian women do not eat at the same table as Albanian men, farms are unmechanized and small, and horse carts are the most frequent mode of delivering agricultural products to local markets.

  84. 84.

    Sir Laffs-a-Lot

    Working on my novel (it’s work related therapy as a refuge from the week spent editing other people’s books) and will run errands and have the Sacred saturday Afternoon Nap if the FSM so blesses me.

  88. 88.

    WereBear

    @BubbaDave: You already know he is going to rule you with an iron paw, right?

    He’s a Maine Coon mix, so it’s in a velvet glove, holding a joke book.

    @Roger Moore: Is it just me, or does he look as if he’s plotting some kind of mischief?

    Add that look to tufty ears, and you’ve got Maine Coon Cat in the mix for certain.

  89. 89.

    shelley

    Is the implication that the subsidies are too high? Conservative racist resentment would be fed perfectly

    I’m sure they’ll find a way to insinuate that as well. Hey, that actually was one of the excuses over at Free Republic for the failure of Operation American Spring. Cause all us conservative white people have jobs and can’t just take the day off. Unlike all those deadbeat liberals who are sitting around on their butts.

  90. 90.

    WereBear

    @Jay C: (he IS part-Maine Coon, I think you posted?)

    I thought so from the photo the event used for promotion:

    One of these kittens is not like the others

    And seeing him in person nailed it right down. He’s the only one who takes after Mom, who is very Maine Coon herself. Though… feral. But TIny Guy is a cuddler already, though shy. I’m sure we can bring him the rest of the way along. 10 weeks old, and the shelter did a good job of socializing them.

  93. 93.

    Amir Khalid

    Shit. The Arse have taken the lead in the FA Cup, 3-2. Now Hull need to find an equaliser.

  94. 94.

    ? Martin

    Working. Trying to get a pile of code written before we walk into the next big activity Monday morning. Is the staff trained on the new system? Nope, I was too far behind to train them. We’ll have to train on the fly. Will it be tested? Nope. Testing will take place tomorrow in the simulation. Will it work? Yeah, mostly. It’ll be better than not having it, worse than it ought to be. I’ll be rolling out updates daily.

    But my staff never fails to impress me with how smart, flexible, and hard working they are. They tolerate flying by the seat of the pants as I routinely ask them to do. They deserve a higher salary than I can convince the higher ups to pay. They’ll have to settle for me bringing them treats as a salve for my inability to deliver better tools.

    On the upside, it’s 85 degrees out, so I’m doing all of my work on the patio with my feet up, an endless supply of Arnold Palmers thanks to my lemon tree, and daughter is making rainbow cupcakes because she’s 13 and still loves all things Rainbow Dash, which is 360 degrees of awesome because it means she’s not having sex yet. On the downside, everything smells like campfire, but it smells like campfire inside as well, so what are you going to do? It’s fire season. Well, no, fire season is 3 months from now, but climate change isn’t real because Benghazi so clearly these fires aren’t real and fuck everyone on the TV showing pictures of fires because they hate baby Jesus.

  95. 95.

    Botsplainer

    @Redshift:

    She’s pretty happy. Got a decent fellowship, and is by far the youngest there (she’s the only undergrad – just finished her freshman year with a GPA in the vicinity of 3.9, her only B in geology due to missing a mandatory outing due to an unresolvable schedule conflict with another course). She got her mentors lined up, they all adore her, and she talking graduate school and PhD already.

    The older ones there will look after her well, I think.

  97. 97.

    JPL

    @? Martin: It’s fifty-eight and raining lightly and I’m just north of Atlanta. I did some work outside and then called it a day.

  99. 99.

    bago

    Are bankers pricing rising oceans into their rates for 30 year mortgages? If in 30 years your investment will be underwater, literally…

  100. 100.

    Patrick

    @shelley:

    Hey, that actually was one of the excuses over at Free Republic for the failure of Operation American Spring. Cause all us conservative white people have jobs and can’t just take the day off.

    And I take it that these “patriots” don’t want to waste one of their vacation days on their revolution?

  101. 101.

    Elizabelle

    Any bets for the Preakness?

    Post time is 6:18 p Eastern.

    I’m going with California Chrome; high time for another Triple Crown winner.

  105. 105.

    raven

    Lazy my dyin ass. Took pics of the community evert til noon, mowed, weed eated, finished chipping the concrete of 100 bricks and stacked them all nice so I can finish the garden walk.

  106. 106.

    shelley

    Are we having fun yet?

    Funny, the ad that just popped up under that sentence was ‘How to get rid of Ringworm!’

  107. 107.

    ? Martin

    @Patrick: They’re all job creators, remember. They don’t get vacation.

    And this shit is complicated. Is Obama’s tyranny just a ruse to get them all to close the gun shops, at which point he’ll strike? And isn’t a closed gun store just another form of waiting period? What if someone runs out of ammo scaring off some girl scouts? Surely the blahs will use that opportunity to reparate their shit! NOBODY CAN LET THEIR GUARD DOWN! DID ANYONE ELSE JUST HEAR THAT DRONE?!

  109. 109.

    ? Martin

    @raven: Selfish. You’re gardening while Obummer destroys america? Surely you could have done something to stop this tyranny like add more lens flare to the gun picture on your blog, or take on Obambi’s thugs at the HOA to allow you to put up a 90 foot flagpole so your neighbors can better see your Gadsden Flag?

    It’s like you don’t even fucking care about this country.

  110. 110.

    Tripod

    @Roger Moore:

    He’s a paranoid loon.

    http://www.bbc.com/news/business-26880945

    Logistic channel capacity is fixed (at least in the short term), so product sits waiting for transport.

    There are a billion cars on the planet, sixty five million were produced globally last year. Even something stupid like a rail bridge washout on a lane serving a plant can lead to product being stacked up in very short order.

  112. 112.

    Patrick

    @? Martin:

    They’re all job creators, remember.

    I hate that term. Hell, were these folks job destroyers then in 2008 when we lost jobs? Instead of using the real term, “rich”, they are trying to fool gullible, low-information voters.

  114. 114.

    WereBear

    @WaterGirl: He does need to grow into those ears.

    I am squeeing every few minutes, I just can’t help it. He’s napping, but I’ll go by the cat tree hideyhole he’s sleeping in, and he’s awake… because he wants me to talk sweet to him and give him cat kisses and then he curls up and sleeps some more.

    He’s such a love already.

  116. 116.

    MomSense

    @Ferdzy:

    I will be thinking of you and sending you energy and patience to get through this. Hope everyone adjusts and recovers quickly!

  117. 117.

    WereBear

    @Josie: Such a sweet face. I’ll bet he is going to be a cuddle bunny.

    He has incredible potential, but apparently Mom & kittens came into shelter as a feral situation. However, they’ve reached a handleable point. When we took him from his cage, he allowed both of us to hold him and he nestled inside my hoodie (it’s a cold day today) without much protest.

    He’s a bit shy now, but shows so much people-focus we figure he’ll turn out just fine.

  119. 119.

    shelley

    I am squeeing every few minutes, I just can’t help it.

    Love at first sight is a beautiful thing.

  120. 120.

    Josie

    @WereBear: I once tamed an old male feral, a scarred veteran of many fights. He became my shadow and even protected me from an aggressive dog, kind of like the kitty in the recent u-tube video. Sometimes they can really surprise you.

  121. 121.

    Origuy

    @Botsplainer: Sounds like a great experience. I’ve developed an interest in archaeology; I’d go for a second career except I’m too old to spend all day in a trench and I like having an income. I looked up Shkodra; it has a lot of history. Is this a Roman or Illyrian site?

  123. 123.

    Thlayli

    And the most “WTF?” score of the day: the Rangers are winning 7-1. In Montreal.

  125. 125.

    Keith G

    @SectionH:
    Re: Julian Castro

    Well, good luck to him. I’m not too sure about that job as a springboard to national political office, but we’ll see.

    I have been hoping that at least one of the Castro Brothers stay in Texas and run for governor or Senator in 2018. Actually they both need to run – one gov and one for Senate. That would really charge up Texas’ Hispanic voters.

    That said HUD’s mission is so important for this society, yet at time it seems as if it is only treated as a patronage side track. Our urban areas are losing affordable housing at a god-awful rate and I see very little being done that might effectively focus on this important and quite fundamental issue.

  126. 126.

    Iowa Old Lady

    @Thlayli: My dad was Canadian and I grew up in Detroit, so we watched hockey. I still can’t get it in my head that it’s mid-May and the Stanley Cup hasn’t been awarded yet.

  127. 127.

    Roger Moore

    @Patrick:

    And I take it that these “patriots” don’t want to waste one of their vacation days on their revolution?

    What vacation days? Real Americans® are at will employees who receive neither vacation nor sick days, which are dirty communist inventions designed to sap and impurify our precious bodily fluids.

  128. 128.

    Anya

    No post about the 60th Anniversary Of Brown v. Board Of Education? I wonder if the Roberts court would overturn that if they had a chance? Maybe not….overturning it won’t serve corporate interests that much.

  129. 129.

    Tommy

    @aimai: My parents took me on a two week school trip. Almost the entire US for schools. I didn’t like it so much It is very hard for me to explain how stunning it was. I wish I could give all the faith to somebody

  131. 131.

    RobertDSC-Power Mac G5 Dual

    Glad to see my Rangers win in Montreal. One step at a time.

  132. 132.

    ? Martin

    @raven: Bit of a high risk taking a drone out on a small boat like that. Lots of room for failure. But quite cool. These drones are going to keep shrinking in size. I expect in a few years you’ll be able to get streaming HD video off of a drone no more than 4″ across, and it’ll have auto-landing features so it’ll come straight back to you automatically. This shit is changing fast.

  134. 134.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Patrick:

    Instead of using the real term, “rich”, they are trying to fool gullible, low-information voters.

    I think those voters are trying to fool themselves. They know damn well the rich are screwing them. That is less important than stopping liberals from winning anything, especially rhetorically. The rich are just another group whose freedom to oppress others liberals try to take away. The rich must therefor be described as noble victims who we should be grateful to for spitting on us. Thanks to MBA culture, this is also what a big, big chunk of rich people want more than anything else. Oh, and to top it off, most national journalists are rich. So… ‘job creators’.

  135. 135.

    ? Martin

    @Patrick: It’s a bit more complex than that. It allows them to lump small business owners and the self-employed in with the wealthy. They’ve been using farmers as a club against things like the estate tax for ages by lumping them in with the wealthy. This is just another chapter in that.

  136. 136.

    M.C. Simon Milligan

    Great games at Wembley and at the Nou Camp today, but Dortmund and Bayern are attempting to bore me to death in the Pokal final.

    ‘Course I am rooting for injuries, handbags and perhaps a timely meteor strike. Why can’t they both lose?

  137. 137.

    trollhattan

    @Elizabelle:
    Don’t follow the ponies but will root for CC because he’s the local guy. Well, as local as one could consider Yuba City.

    Two minutes well spent, but to hell with the preceding two hours.

  138. 138.

    Higgs Boson's Mate

    @Yatsuno:

    NAS Lemoore can be interesting. They practice carrier landings and shipboard firefighting, among other things, there. If nothing else, you can see where so many of your tax dollars are going.

  139. 139.

    Higgs Boson's Mate

    @Botsplainer:

    Wow! Congratulations to your daughter for her advancement in a crowded field. Congratulations to you for encouraging her.

  141. 141.

    Mary G

    @SectionH: I am having approximately eleventy billion zillion times more fun than I was having on Thursday. (Yesterday was slightly alleviated by laughing at Operation American Spring, but only slightly, because it was cooler, but only relatively, 91 instead of 99.)

    No one here has AC because it didn’t used to get hot near the beach, but now global warming has brought us not one, but two Santa Ana events in May.

    Thursday the local Wunderground station down the street had the temp at 102.7 degrees in the late afternoon and a big 6% humidity. And no, dry heat that dry is not comfortable. Despite constant watering (with the moisture meter, so not too much watering), dozens of succulent puppies and seedlings and sedums and plants mail-ordered from Michigan having been dying like flies in my garden. I had been counting on May Gray and June Gloom to get them established – ha!

    We live next door to Camp Pendleton where 22,400 acres burned so far this week, with fires like 5% and 0% contained. Smoke making my throat hurt and my eyes water woke me up at 5:30 a.m.

    But we went early to a eco expo with a lot of posers selling mostly extremely expensive plants, some great but out of my price range, but we met a guy that has a wholesale operation that was selling great succulents in 2 inch pots for $2, same price as Lowe’s, so in the triumph of hope over experience I was able to restock.

    San Juan Capistrano has a demonstration butterfly/hummingbird garden that has to be seen to believed – gorgeous stuff in full bloom, like Matilja poppies, many native salvias, Mexican primroses and many others. All full-grown, well established plants. We usually have a yard full of Monarchs at my house by this time of year, but the die-off really hit them hard and I’ve only seen a single Monarch four times all spring here, though we do have swallowtails and mourning butterflies galore. But the demonstration garden had lots of all three kinds and a ton of hummingbirds, I recommend it highly. They have restored an adobe there that was built for the Mission in 1794 – which is about a thousand years old in California building years. Really ended up having an awesome time. Higgs talked to a gearhead selling a 1963 VW bug that has been converted to electric and costs only $45,000.

    Now we are home and the onshore breeze is back and the temperature is down to average – 71 degrees with a high of 73 expected. Sheer bliss.

    Higgs Boson’s Mate asked me when we got home, just out of the blue, whatever happened to Joe Cocker, is he dead? Turns out he’s not and we are listening to a 2013 concert he gave in Cologne, Germany in 2013 that is exceptional – link.

    So yes, I am having major fun.

  142. 142.

    Amir Khalid

    @M.C. Simon Milligan:
    I know people love to hate Bayern München because they’re the Manchester United of Germany, but there’s a not very well-known part of their history: they’ve had many Jewish executives, coaches and players since their early days, and they opposed the Third Reich’s antisemitism and racism at no small personal risk.

  143. 143.

    Roger Moore

    @Yatsuno:

    I need food and they want to clean my room right now.

    Didn’t you tweet something about drive through sushi? That sounds like an idea whose time has come.

  144. 144.

    NotMax

    Extraordinarily dull day. Cannot seem to get motivated to do anything substantive. May just try to get back to sleep.

  146. 146.

    satby

    @The Pale Scot: Actually, I went out, figured out where, and took it off to let it air out. Still not starting, and I spill a bit of gas everytime I try.
    I will get this worked out, and I had already mowed 1/4 of the lawn and the dog and cat pens before it all went south. But I will forever resent every minute wasted on these efforts. A very childish thing for someone who’s 59th birthday is tomorrow I know, but I had to be the designated boy in our family and mow lawns starting at 9, and I really hate it now.

  147. 147.

    StringOnAStick

    My mail order xeric perennials just arrived and thunderstorms are a possibility today, so I’d better go get those in the ground and pray for no hail. Last week’s late snowstorm period started with a long bit of hail but at least I was home to protect the weakest things, followed by the 5 gallon buckets and bamboo/sheet “art” to protect form the 8 inches of snow we got afterwards. That’s the latest snow I’ve seen here on the far west side of Denver.

    Tomorrow I’m climbing up a 13,200′ mountain, and skiing back down it, and if the snow is excellent spring corn I may do the upper part twice. Another victim of global climate change is what used to be the reliable spring corn skiing in Colorado. You need days just above freezing and nights well below that to form it and it used to last for at least almost all of May. Now you are lucky to get a few weekends of it before it turns to bottomless, knee-killing slush. Get it while you can….

  148. 148.

    SectionH

    @Mary G: We’ve scarcely had a whiff of smoke down in the city, but saw plenty of it from our 7th floor condo first Pointsettia, then Cocos, the one in Alpine, and yesterday the new Pendleton one. I’m not surprised you’ve been reacting to the smoke – glad it wasn’t worse. I remember only too well the respiratory issues my aged aunt had in 2007. She was none too rational by then at best, and she could not be persuaded that the air was actually better at her house in Escondido once the evacuation was lifted, because all the smoke that had blown out to sea with the Santa Anas was blowing back on shore when the regular winds returned. Coronado and downtown were horrible air quality for several days.

    I knew – well didn’t everyone? – we were in for a bad fire season (season? ha!), but in spite of the temporary lack of cooling here, I am so glad that we sold the house in Escondido in February. We wouldn’t have been in any particular danger this time, being on the other side of Esco out near the Wild Animal Park, but FSM only knows what things will be like by October.

    We do miss our garden, though. We brought containers with our most important herbs and fruit trees (lime, lemon, blood orange, and sapote) with us. Mr S has added more things, like a tomato, chard, and arugula. Plus some ornamentals. It’s an on-going experiment. Our balcony is on the north side, which is frustrating, but at least this time of year we’re getting about 6 hours of sun a day on it, split between am and pm.

    One thing we have is ascelpias, mostly volunteers that came from Escondido. We’ve had a number of Monarch caterpillars. Unfortunately, I’m not sure if any of them made it to become butterflies.

    You’re a bit further from us than I’d realized. From something you said in one of the Garden threads, I thought you guys were in O’side. I will definitely try to get to the butterfly/bird garden you recommend. I’m frustrated that we didn’t manage to get to the butterfly exhibit at the Wild Animal Park while it was there, but we were still moving (gah).

    Good luck with your garden. I’ve taken so long to finish this, that everyone’s probably off to a new thread, but will try to catch you on Sunday Gardening.

  150. 150.

    Older

    @Mary G: Thanks Mary G! I am also having major fun right now, thanks to you. And believe me, I can use it. I have become mostly a cripple recently, and I don’t like it much. Like, who would; I know, and I try not to be tiresome about it.

    But this trip to yesteryear has really lifted my spirits. The old man can sure sing, even if he does have assistants to help him with the high notes.

    I associate Joe Cocker with hot summer days, driving around in my VW bug (the old kind) either going somewhere with one or more of my kids, or delivering mail (what I did in those days). And they could hear me coming, cause I blasted classic rock and roll all the way. The car wasn’t much to look at, but it had major sound.

    Hot weather, music, moving air, wish I was back there again.

  152. 152.

    Pogonip

    My son’s either getting better at taking tests or tests for the not-very-verbal have improved. His IQ has jumped 20 points since his last test 5 years ago. (Since he’s not a Wall Streeter, just an average citizen, the government doesn’t throw money at him no questions asked; every five years or so he has to prove he’s still disabled.). He’s actually smarter than me, and probably smarter than most FLs, but he’s not good at verbal so those tests really aren’t his forte.

    Now that we have finished all that, we are free to enjoy the weekend and have been doing so all day. We went to a picturesque little town whose people were struggling manfully to hold their Heritage Days festival in 45-degree weather and pouring rain. Then on the way home we encountered a completely unexpected Gay Pride festival struggling manfully to do the same. I mean WE disn’t anticipate the festival, the glum, dripping participants were well aware of it. Pogonip Jr. found his way around the blocked-off streets with his usual efficiency and we went home and did pleasant rainy-day things all day.

  153. 153.

    mclaren

    If you judge people, you have no time to love them. — Mother Theresa

    You are a dog-eating piece of shit of the lowest possible denominator. — typical Balloon-Juice commenter

  154. 154.

    Joel Hanes

    @mclaren:

    Your characterization suffers from selection bias.

    That’s a two-sigma response, presented as “typical”.

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