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Republicans cannot even be trusted with their own money.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

Come on, man.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

The republican ‘Pastor’ of the House is an odious authoritarian little creep.

The rest of the comments were smacking Boebert like she was a piñata.

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

SCOTUS: It’s not “bribery” unless it comes from the Bribery region of France. Otherwise, it’s merely “sparkling malfeasance”.

We’re watching the self-immolation of the leading world power on a level unprecedented in human history.

Petty moves from a petty man.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

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

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires Republicans to act in good faith.

I did not have this on my fuck 2025 bingo card.

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

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

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

This fight is for everything.

Republicans do not trust women.

We still have time to mess this up!

Tick tock motherfuckers!

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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Autumn Again

Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Autumn Again

by Anne Laurie|  September 23, 20145:43 am| 63 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads

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… or Spring, if you’re reading this from the other hemisphere. Happy shift season, either way.

Best Wikipedia edit of the week, via NYMag:

mitch mcconnel otherkin

Professor Krugman, on “Life in Belle Epoque America“:

The Atlantic has an article about a website that sets up “mutually beneficial relationships” between wealthy older men and college students. Yes, it’s prurient, and I’m probably a dirty old man for even linking to it…

But there is some economics here too. Thomas Piketty tells us that we’re living in a new Belle Epoque — and he’s right, in some ways contemporary society feels more like that era than the cruder, more hypocritical American Gilded Age — and one thing extreme inequality brings is, yes, a courtesan class…

However, Snopes.com shatters the dreams of straight men everywhere by classifying the rumor of a bodymodded three-breasted Florida woman as “false”.
***********
Apart from such frivols, what’s on the agenda for the day?

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Reader Interactions

63Comments

  1. 1.

    raven

    September 23, 2014 at 5:56 am

    It be 59 in Georgia!

  2. 2.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    September 23, 2014 at 6:07 am

    @raven: It’s 66 outside here, of course it’s 3:07am(it’s an improvement over last week).

  3. 3.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    September 23, 2014 at 6:11 am

    Being it’s an open thread, I’ve finished scanning all my slides(probably about 2000). Now I’m geo-tagging them. The slide that I just finished tagging turns out to have the oldest auto factory in the world in the background.

  4. 4.

    raven

    September 23, 2014 at 6:17 am

    @BillinGlendaleCA: My SIL in the valley loves to post all this shit about how wonderful LA is. Last week she whined and whined about the weather.

  5. 5.

    OzarkHillbilly

    September 23, 2014 at 6:21 am

    @raven: 46 in the Ozarks! (I am more impressed with your 59) My leaves are beginning to turn now. The days are cool with clear deep blue skies. I love it.

    Started pouring the concrete under the porch yesterday, and I can feel it this morn. Almost wish I had done more concrete back in my younger days, if I had maybe I would be more confidant in my skills and have a truck bring it in all at once. As is, I’ll mix and pour it one 3 x 5 pad at a time.

    Got all the posts for the wood shed set last week, so today I’ll frame it up. The rest of my week will be spent in STL getting an apt building ready for sale. I’ll be going up there off and on for the next month as that building has problems.

  6. 6.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    September 23, 2014 at 6:26 am

    @raven: It was hotter than the hinges of hades.

  7. 7.

    raven

    September 23, 2014 at 6:26 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: Damn, we are still in admin limbo on our sewer job and, when it’s finally done, the first thing for the addition will be to pour the pad.

  8. 8.

    raven

    September 23, 2014 at 6:26 am

    @BillinGlendaleCA: Good training for ya’ll.

  9. 9.

    Betty Cracker

    September 23, 2014 at 6:27 am

    It’s 73 here now, and the high is only 86. Thank FSM summer is over! I’ve always loved fall because of the weather and football and also because I’m fond of the holidays. It’s bittersweet this year since it’s our first without my mom and the mister’s dad, but we will make the best of them.

  10. 10.

    Alex S.

    September 23, 2014 at 6:34 am

    Andrew Sullivan (via Atrios, via Kevin Drum) begins to wonder if the GOP really cares about the deficit… (link to Kevin Drum)

  11. 11.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    September 23, 2014 at 6:34 am

    @Betty Cracker: We had the last dinner with the kid before the start of school. Yummy Korean food. Tomorrow she has to get her parking permit for the quarter; Wednesday, she’s doing mentoring for the new students; and Thursday is her first day of clinical for the quarter(12 hours in the hospital).

  12. 12.

    Betty Cracker

    September 23, 2014 at 6:37 am

    @BillinGlendaleCA: What sort of program is she in?

  13. 13.

    Amir Khalid

    September 23, 2014 at 6:38 am

    Now that I have a cellphone again, I am undergoing a week-long (at least) experiment in doing without a wristwatch. I now have a rather bulky pocket watch that I can phone and send text messages from. (And surf the net, and play games, and take photos, and note my appointments, etc., were I so inclined.) So far so good, although my now-unencumbered left wrist still feels curiously light.

  14. 14.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    September 23, 2014 at 6:39 am

    @Betty Cracker: Nursing.

  15. 15.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    September 23, 2014 at 6:40 am

    @Amir Khalid: You could get one of those keen android watches that communicate with your phone.

  16. 16.

    Amir Khalid

    September 23, 2014 at 6:43 am

    May I add, I am disappointed to learn that Ms Eccentrica Gallumbits is a phony.

  17. 17.

    Schlemazel

    September 23, 2014 at 6:47 am

    @Betty Cracker:
    I don’t remember summer breaking on the “Space Coast” till November. But from then till March it was glorious. No humidity, 70-80 degrees no afternoon flushing of the toilet.

    51 out here on the frozen tundra this AM. Highs will be in the 70s. Thats pretty normal but usually a couple weeks later than this. The down side is that it is all down side from here till March.

  18. 18.

    Schlemazel

    September 23, 2014 at 6:51 am

    @Amir Khalid:
    I love watches and have a half dozen including 2 pocket watches. I stopped wearing one a year or so ago as it does seem redundant when I have big digital in my pocket. I guess that watchmaking is another industry ground under the wheels of technology.

  19. 19.

    OzarkHillbilly

    September 23, 2014 at 6:51 am

    @Alex S.: What was his first clue?

  20. 20.

    danielx

    September 23, 2014 at 6:51 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Total sympathy….spent two hours using a circular saw to clear the space between deck boards for my sis-in-law yesterday and my forearms are hurtin’ this morning. LOT of boards on this deck and they were all spaced too closely. Two solid hours of it is too much, and more to do today.

    But yet another beautiful day in store.

  21. 21.

    Betty Cracker

    September 23, 2014 at 6:54 am

    @BillinGlendaleCA: Brava for her! The world needs good nurses desperately.

    @Amir Khalid: I gladly gave up wristwatches when I got my first cellphone, but my sister still wears a watch. She just likes them and couldn’t get out of the habit.

  22. 22.

    danielx

    September 23, 2014 at 6:55 am

    @Alex S.:

    Is that a question?

    Only if there’s a Democrat in the Oval Office and/or it doesn’t involve bombing brown people.

    Shorter: Nope.

  23. 23.

    OzarkHillbilly

    September 23, 2014 at 6:59 am

    @Amir Khalid: I haven’t worn a watch since… Well really, ever. I got whistle-bit a few times, but not being able to check the time always seemed to make the day go faster.

  24. 24.

    Baud

    September 23, 2014 at 7:05 am

    George Will: I Am an Atheist

    In other news, John Cole finds religion to get as far away from George Will as possible.

  25. 25.

    Baud

    September 23, 2014 at 7:11 am

    Google is to stop funding a major conservative group over its stance on climate change. Speaking in a radio interview with NPR’s Diane Rehm, Google’s executive chairman Eric Schmidt said that Google would not be renewing its membership to the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), because the group was “literally lying” by opposing efforts to reduce global warming. The right-leaning ALEC, which has received donations from fossil fuel companies such as Exxon Mobil, has fought against the US government’s efforts to pursue renewable energy sources, battled against regulations for coal power plants, tried to get ecological activists classified as terrorists, and questioned climate change research.

  26. 26.

    danielx

    September 23, 2014 at 7:16 am

    @Baud:

    Sort of begs the question as to why the fuck were they funding ALEC in the first place….

  27. 27.

    Mustang Bobby

    September 23, 2014 at 7:19 am

    76 F here in Miami. On or about October 15 someone throws a switch and we go from steamy summer with afternoon rain to clear and dry days and pleasant evenings until May 15 when we switch back. I don’t mind the humidity as much as some, and the orchids love it, but I do look forward to the days when I can have the patio door open for more than two minutes without making the A/C kick in.

  28. 28.

    Botsplainer

    September 23, 2014 at 7:20 am

    So there is no Eccentrica Gallumbits? Damn!

  29. 29.

    Keith G

    September 23, 2014 at 7:21 am

    From the Guardian: A very lucky Muscovite bicyclist survives a scene reminiscent of a Harold Lloyd movie.

  30. 30.

    Botsplainer

    September 23, 2014 at 7:22 am

    I’m goddamn frozen, BTW

  31. 31.

    MattF

    September 23, 2014 at 7:23 am

    CFO of Prince George’s county school system (budget of $1.8 billion, salary of $170,000) commits insurance fraud, resigns:

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/prince-georges-schools-cfo-resigns-after-state-said-he-committed-insurance-fraud/2014/09/22/a62585be-4286-11e4-b437-1a7368204804_story.html?hpid=z4

    Completely inexplicable.

  32. 32.

    Baud

    September 23, 2014 at 7:28 am

    Stop gap measures.

    WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew announced rules on Monday that are aimed at making it more difficult for American companies to lower their tax bills by relocating overseas and that would wipe out the benefits for those that do. It is the administration’s latest move to sidestep a paralyzed Congress and tackle a politically charged element of President Obama’s agenda.

  33. 33.

    danielx

    September 23, 2014 at 7:30 am

    @Baud:

    Naturally, banks and other financial institutions were excluded. Because financial competitiveness.

  34. 34.

    Baud

    September 23, 2014 at 7:30 am

    @MattF:

    Yeah, $6000 should have been worth it for that guy.

    As I get older and my mind goes south, I can actually see forgetting making the first claim when making the second. But it sounds like that’s not what happened.

  35. 35.

    Baud

    September 23, 2014 at 7:36 am

    @danielx:

    The Treasury fact sheet doesn’t explain why they were excluded, but it suggests that banks were excluded only from one aspect of the new rules.

    Limit the ability of companies to count passive assets that are not part of the entity’s daily business functions in order to inflate the new foreign parent’s size and therefore evade the 80 percent rule – known as using a “cash box. (Action under section 7874 of the code) Companies can successfully invert when the U.S. entity has, for example, a value of 79 percent, and the foreign “acquirer” has a value of 21 percent of the combined entity. However in some inversion transactions, the foreign acquirer’s size is inflated by passive assets, also known as “cash boxes,” such as cash or marketable securities. These assets are not used by the entity for daily business functions. Today’s notice would disregard stock of the foreign parent that is attributable to passive assets in the context of this 80 percent requirement. This would apply if at least 50 percent of the foreign corporation’s assets are passive. Banks and other financial services companies would be exempted.

    I’m not certain, but it may be that normal rules regarding valuation of passive assets doesn’t work for banks and financial institutions.

  36. 36.

    Baud

    September 23, 2014 at 7:37 am

    @Baud:
    @MattF:

    That should have read: “should not have been worth it.”

  37. 37.

    PurpleGirl

    September 23, 2014 at 7:39 am

    The article on the Courtesan Class in France during the Belle Epoque was interesting. But I was waiting for a reference to the Colette story and the movie Gigi</emi.

  38. 38.

    Betty Cracker

    September 23, 2014 at 7:41 am

    @Keith G: Good lord, that was scary!

  39. 39.

    Schlemazel

    September 23, 2014 at 7:49 am

    @danielx:
    Peer pressure, all their friends were doing it so they felt they had to do it too so their friends wouldn’t think they weren’t cool.

  40. 40.

    gelfling545

    September 23, 2014 at 7:50 am

    48 in Buffalo. Off to the park for Tai Chi.

  41. 41.

    Schlemazel

    September 23, 2014 at 7:52 am

    @Keith G:
    I saw that yesterday, it is hilarious because the guy is unhurt. That is as close to tragedy as you want to get though. Too bad the biker didn’t have a gopro on, the first person of that scene would have been a pants wetter for sure.

  42. 42.

    JGabriel

    September 23, 2014 at 7:52 am

    NewsMax Headline from Right Side of Home Page:

    Dick Morris Reveals Obama’s ‘Secret’ Agenda

    Which must be true because, if I were President Obama, the first person with whom I would want to share my secret agendas would clearly be Dick Morris.

  43. 43.

    raven

    September 23, 2014 at 7:53 am

    The summer wind, came blowin’ in from across the sea

  44. 44.

    JGabriel

    September 23, 2014 at 7:57 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I haven’t worn a watch since… Well really, ever.

    Same here, like I don’t already know Time is racing up on me without being handcuffed to the bastard.

  45. 45.

    JGabriel

    September 23, 2014 at 8:00 am

    @danielx:

    Sort of begs the question as to why the fuck were they funding ALEC in the first place….

    In the interest of efficiency, Google shortened it’s motto by one third: from “Don’t Be Evil” to “Be Evil.”

  46. 46.

    OzarkHillbilly

    September 23, 2014 at 8:01 am

    @JGabriel: Dick Morris would BE the first item on my agenda.

  47. 47.

    OzarkHillbilly

    September 23, 2014 at 8:05 am

    Cool carbon map of the world at the Guardian.

  48. 48.

    Chyron HR

    September 23, 2014 at 8:07 am

    @JGabriel:

    You’d think people would have noticed this secret Obama agenda after five and a half years of it.

  49. 49.

    Woodrowfan

    September 23, 2014 at 8:09 am

    a great comment on Krugman’s article, “the job creators never said what kind of jobs they’d create.”

    (and it’s 54 F in DC)

  50. 50.

    cmorenc

    September 23, 2014 at 8:24 am

    I wear TWO watches at the same time! One on each wrist! Strictly digital watches.

    Of course, the only time I ever wear a watch is when I’m refereeing soccer games – when whatever game (or set of games) is over, they go back into my referee equipment bag until next time I’m reffing. Sometimes when I replace one of them, it’s a month or more before I bother to set it to accurate time-of-day, cause the timer/stopwatch function is what I’m interested in using it for. However, I do need one of them to be approximately accurate, in order to start the game around the appointed game time.

  51. 51.

    raven

    September 23, 2014 at 8:44 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: Halperin called Quatar the Dick Morris of nations!

  52. 52.

    Botsplainer

    September 23, 2014 at 8:48 am

    @raven:

    What does that even mean? Two faced and lying?

    Clearly, this is great news for John McCain.

  53. 53.

    bemused

    September 23, 2014 at 8:53 am

    Paula Deen was on my tv talking about “what she learned” and just as I rushed to change channels, she said “we are putting together a documentary” on her fiasco. Barf.

  54. 54.

    MattF

    September 23, 2014 at 8:55 am

    @JGabriel: Not to be snarky, but do you think maybe that Morris has an agenda? Maybe a very small one, compared with Obama.

  55. 55.

    Matt

    September 23, 2014 at 8:56 am

    Three breasts? What about the man with THREE BUTTOCKS? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqosS6DBwhA

  56. 56.

    raven

    September 23, 2014 at 8:56 am

    @Botsplainer: Yes!

  57. 57.

    Cervantes

    September 23, 2014 at 9:00 am

    @Baud:

    Yes, I think Will called himself an “amiable, low-voltage atheist.”

    (Not the first noun or adjectives I’d use to describe him.)

  58. 58.

    Cervantes

    September 23, 2014 at 9:02 am

    @Baud: Someone should ask him what ALEC does not lie about.

  59. 59.

    GHayduke (formerly lojasmo)

    September 23, 2014 at 9:06 am

    @BillinGlendaleCA:

    That’ same very good profession (coming up on 20 years as a nurse myself)

  60. 60.

    ThresherK

    September 23, 2014 at 9:10 am

    Anyone up for a good comment bomb?

    If you are anywhere near the media footprint of CT public radio/TV, (or just want to anyway), submit a question for the Oct. 9th “debate” at CTFORUM.org.

    I would like to know what it God’s name the Connecicut Forum is doing having Karl Rove on a panel “Debating Our Broken Political System”.

    Charles Blow and Doris Kearns Goodwin are the other two panelists.
    CT public radio, who is hand in glove with the CT Forum, and provides a host, usually knows better than this. Their locally-made shows are much better than the NPR pablum.

  61. 61.

    Cervantes

    September 23, 2014 at 9:44 am

    @ThresherK:

    I would like to know what it God’s name the Connecicut Forum is doing having Karl Rove on a panel “Debating Our Broken Political System”.

    Who better than one of the schmucks who broke it?

  62. 62.

    ThresherK

    September 23, 2014 at 10:38 am

    @Cervantes: Rachel Maddow isn’t there to rebut or moderate.

    This will fail on the mount of “public radio polite”.

  63. 63.

    Linnaeus

    September 23, 2014 at 11:48 am

    Summer is my favorite season, so I always go through a mild down period when it’s over. There’s a lot about fall that’s good, so I don’t dislike fall, but I do not welcome the coming gray and darkness. I accept it, but I’m not enthusiastic about it.

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