Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Tide comes in. Tide goes out. You can’t explain that.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

This blog will pay for itself.

This fight is for everything.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

Just because you believe it, that does not make it true.

You are either for trump or for democracy. Pick one.

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

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

Those who are easily outraged are easily manipulated.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

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

“woke” is the new caravan.

That meeting sounds like a shotgun wedding between a shitshow and a clusterfuck.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

So fucking stupid, and still doing a tremendous amount of damage.

Let me file that under fuck it.

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

Nothing says ‘pro-life’ like letting children go hungry.

Innocent people do not delay justice.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

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

Quote tweet friends, screenshot enemies.

Beware of advice from anyone for whom Democrats are “they” and not “we.”

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Small Steps

Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Small Steps

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Of course the best news is that “the least-productive Congress in modern history” is over, at last. More sausage-ingredient details here, in the Washington Post:

… Asked about the conclusion of the unproductive congressional session as he boarded an elevator, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) paraphrased the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein: “That which cannot be spoken must be passed over in silence.”

***********
Apart from the ceremonial invocation of good riddance to bad rubbish, what’s on the agenda for the day?

Reader Interactions

74Comments

  1. 1.

    Mustang Bobby

    Countdown to winter break and a weekend of one-act theatre panic-infused rehearsal. (And no, I’m not talking about Congress.) I’m performing in my own work this weekend for New Theatre of Miami’s 1-Act Festival. I keep wondering “Who wrote this shit?”

  6. 6.

    raven

    Last day of work until the 5th of January and they start taking down trees to begin the sewer job today!

  8. 8.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Mustang Bobby: Can’t afford to throw up this one. Got too much to do.

    @raven: Cut down trees? sniff, sniff… I have some I need to take down and I keep putting it off. I just feel like they are old souls. Funny, coming from a guy who heats with wood.

  10. 10.

    Cervantes

    Of course the best news is that “the least-productive Congress in modern history” is over, at last.

    And yet we might miss this Congress sorely when we see how “productive” the next one is.

  11. 11.

    Elmo

    Going home going home going HOME. 0730 flight from PHX to IAD, arrives 1340 local, 90 minute drive, and then home for the first time since last Thursday early morning.

    I will be mobbed by barking happy dogs and get to kiss my wife after a decent interval of greeting the dogs first. The formerly feral Labrador will be beside herself and unable to stop jumping up and hugging my waist.

    It’s 0445. Time to get up!

  13. 13.

    Mustang Bobby

    @raven: Friday is my last day until the 5th. Between now and 4:00 pm on Friday, though, I have to put together a live webinar and brace myself for doing it without a script. I hate improv.

  14. 14.

    satby

    Today is the first day I don’t have job coaching to do or soap orders to get out and I could have slept later, but I’ve been up since 5:30. I guess I’m on the hook now to do all the housework that’s been put off for the last week. And maybe baking. Yeah, that’s it, time to bake for Christmas!

  16. 16.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Elmo:

    The formerly feral Labrador will be beside herself

    Labs seem to be the most loving animals, always great coming home to one.

  17. 17.

    Patricia Kayden

    Love love love Tim Kaine’s comment. So apt for this Congress and the one to come (shudder!!).

  18. 18.

    OzarkHillbilly

    New York magazine has issued an apology to its readers for publishing a story about a 17-year-old schoolboy it said had made $72m by trading on the stock market.

    And some people actually wonder why it is the press never calls BS on GOP talking points? There’s a sucker born every minute and they all go to journalism school is my guess.

  19. 19.

    Phylllis

    Last day of actual work until the break; tomorrow is the office Christmas lunch and Friday is a half-day. After making the rounds of the schools for their getaway Christmas programs, it’ll be time to hit the bricks until 1/5.

  20. 20.

    Baud

    Tech question for the group.

    For better security, I’m thinking of changing my online passwords from “BJ4ever” to a bunch of random symbols. (Ok, I don’t really use that password.) I access websites from a bunch of different devices plus my phone (Android), so I need a method to remember what these random passwords are regardless of what device I’m on. What’s the best method for doing that, without compromising the security that I’m trying to enhance?

    Thanks much.

  23. 23.

    JPL

    Sony is going to have a very bad Christmas. Theater chains are canceling the premiere of The Interview. The problem is, what’s to prevent someone from threatening other movies.

    @Patricia Kayden: The repubs will pass job bills, (aka tax cuts for the wealthy), and Obama will veto them. MSM will promote the bills of course.

  24. 24.

    HRA

    After a full day of texts from the bickering daughters, I wish they had been in opposite sides of politics like the Woodhouse brothers who were embarrassed by their southern Mom nationally on C-Span. All I could do was put my cell as far as I could from my location in the house.

    I have to accept there is no solution and it’s not at all easy to do..

  28. 28.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    @raven: Excellent! I hope you enjoy your time off and the job goes well.

    Not to jinx it, but be happy you don’t live in Seattle. :-( (via Atrios)

    Fingers crossed.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  29. 29.

    Elmo

    @OzarkHillbilly: She was so badly abused when she came to us that she was reflexively lunging and snarling at anyone who came near her crate. She had huge barrier issues, and would attack across a barrier anytime somebody came near her. She had been bred every heat, so that her mammaries dragged on the floor by the time she was 8 years old (when we got her). Of course no play, no idea about toys or fetch, and no Lab smile.

    It’s fifteen months later. She is devoted to me and my wife, she rolls on her back and grunts for tummy rubs, and “where’s your toy?” sends her scurrying off to grab and bring back the tug or ball. We had a houseguest a few weeks ago, and the final test – we took off the muzzle that we have always had her wear around strangers. Triumph!

  31. 31.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    @Baud: If you want random symbols, you’re probably going to need a password manager. I think they’re available for just about any platform. If you don’t want to go that route (I haven’t yet, myself), I’d suggest coming up with some sort of mnemonic that’s easy to remember but that gives you a different password on each site. Don’t use any of these, of course. ;-)

    I wouldn’t use any of the common password recipes (“replace ‘S’ with ‘$’) either. Use something that is different and that you’ll remember.

    HTH.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  32. 32.

    MrSnrub

    In the past 2-3 months, everytime one of Elon’s posts shows up on the front page, Chrome can’t load the page. Has anyone else experienced this?

    (reading BJ today in IE)

  33. 33.

    Mustang Bobby

    @Iowa Old Lady: I’ll let you know Sunday morning after both performances. Fortunately I have great people to work with and a director who really gets what I wrote. I have the lines down pretty well. We’ll see how I do in front of an audience.

  34. 34.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Elmo: Beautiful. Ours had/has issues from his abandonment, but they are/were limited to clinginess. Mostly gone now but he still has moments.

  35. 35.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    @MrSnrub: They work fine for me (Chrome on Win7-64). Check your extensions. (I’m using FlashControl and Adblock Plus without issues.)

    HTH.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  36. 36.

    raven

    @OzarkHillbilly: They are water oaks and one big regular that is gone inside and threatens the house under it. Our neighborhood is full of oaks that are rotten inside and it’s not happy when they go but they have to.

  38. 38.

    BretH

    “We literally could not have scripted a better end.”

    Nice to see you shoveling frosting over a moldy cake.

  42. 42.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @raven: Yes, there are times when it is necessary.

    I used to mushroom hunt in a small valley up by the MO river. There was an old granddaddy of an elm there that I fairly loved like an old friend. “His” trunk was at least 15 feet in diameter and his roots spread out 10 feet in either direction over the shelf of rock he was growing on. I looked forward to seeing him every spring and would always take a break and sit on his roots for 15-30 mins, and he always rewarded me with a plethora of morels. One early April morn, he was down. I practically cried.

  43. 43.

    normal liberal

    @satby:
    Satby, I wanted to let you know I ran across (and bought, of course) some of your soaps in a semi-local store yesterday. (Art Mart in Urbana, should you be wondering.). I recognized the goats milk bars right away after seeing them on your etsy site – I love the molds you use for those.
    They only had a few varieties, so I’ll be back to etsy for more.

  45. 45.

    WereBear

    @Elmo: She was so badly abused when she came to us that she was reflexively lunging and snarling at anyone who came near her crate. She had huge barrier issues, and would attack across a barrier anytime somebody came near her. She had been bred every heat, so that her mammaries dragged on the floor by the time she was 8 years old (when we got her). Of course no play, no idea about toys or fetch, and no Lab smile.

    These are the mothers of the puppies that get sold at half the going rate in petstores, on the Internet, and in newspaper ads.

    PLEASE, everyone! If you want a purebred, get them from a reliable breeder who shows you Mom and maybe Dad. Or get an equally fantastic dog from a shelter or rescue organization.

    Animal rights organizations keep trying to make puppy mills illegal and sick Republicans like Steve King keep the trade going. If there’s anything anyone should boycott, it’s Puppy Mills.

    /psa

  47. 47.

    MomSense

    Started the day with tears. I woke up early so I decided to unpack some Christmas decorations. Found the stockings for my dog and cat and it just hit me that they will not be with us this Christmas. The dog should spend Christmas day shredding all his new toys and trying to eat all our treats. The cat is supposed to obsessively chase and destroy all the ribbons before climbing in a box. We almost threw him out with the recycling one year he was so quietly tucked in with wrappings.

  51. 51.

    Emily68

    Answered my own question, or at least the first question. From yesterday’s NY Times:

    The Senate has now confirmed 41 of the president’s nominees with fewer than 60 votes. Many were named to powerful positions that would have prompted filibusters in the past, including seven federal appeals court judges and the chairwoman of the Federal Reserve, Janet Yellen, who received only 56 votes.

  53. 53.

    Joey Maloney

    “the least-productive Congress in modern history”

    …until the next one. You ain’t seen nuttin’ yet.

  55. 55.

    tybee

    @Baud:

    if you’re worried about brute force attacks, long passwords (10 or more characters and using phrases to help remember them) and account lockouts after a half a dozen wrong guesses will prevent that sort of thing.

    biggest threat to passwords is writing them down or being socially engineered into voluntarily giving them up.

    fer instance: “fUckAmaz0n.sideway$” is not likely to be guessed as your amazon account password without a few million attempts and account lockouts prevent the brute force algorithms from running endlessly until they do guess it correctly.
    and then “fUck.p4ypal.sidways$” and then on to the next one.

  56. 56.

    Cervantes

    @Emily68:

    That’s not the answer to your first question, precisely.

    This is: In 2014, the Senate has approved 76 federal judges, and Reid is planning votes on another 12, making 88 in all.

  58. 58.

    rikyrah

    but but but…Vlad showed POTUS who’s boss…right?

    ………………

    Russian Rate Jump Fails to Stop Ruble Crash

    By Vladimir Kuznetsov and Ksenia Galouchko

    Dec 16, 2014 12:18 PM CT

    The ruble plummeted into a freefall, losing as much as 19 percent as panic swept across Russian financial markets after a surprise interest-rate increase failed to stem the run on the currency.

    The ruble sank beyond 80 per dollar, a record low, before rebounding after Economy Minister Alexei Ulyukayev denied speculation that the government would turn to foreign-exchange restrictions to stop Russians from converting money into dollars. It was trading at 68 per dollar, down 5.4 percent on the day, at 8 p.m. in Moscow. Bonds and stocks also tumbled, with the RTS equity gauge dropping the most since 2008.

    “I am speechless,” Jean-David Haddad, an emerging-market strategist at OTCex Group in Paris, said in an e-mailed message. He said policy makers need to consider currency controls as “the last solution” to halt the ruble’s 52 percent plunge this year. “What a failure for the central bank.”

    bloomberg.com/news/2014-12-16/ruble-snaps-six-day-loss-on-surprise-rate-increase-to-17-percent.html

  59. 59.

    rikyrah

    President Obama: ‘There’s no black man my age’ who hasn’t been confused for a valet
    By Jose A. DelReal December 17 at 9:04 AM

    President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama spoke candidly about race relations in the U.S. in a highly personal interview with People Magazine, recalling their own experiences with racial bias before moving to the White House.

    “I think people forget that we’ve lived in the White House for six years,” said the first lady. “Before that, Barack Obama was a black man that lived on the South Side of Chicago, who had his share of troubles catching cabs.”

    The pair took turns giving examples of race-based assumptions about their social class, relating their experiences to broader racial profiling trends. The first lady recalled a black-tie event when the president, dressed in a tuxedo, was asked to fetch coffee by another guest.

    “There’s no black male my age, who’s a professional, who hasn’t come out of a restaurant and is waiting for their car and somebody didn’t hand them their car keys,” the president said during the interview.

    The president, who stressed that race relations in America are improving, also alluded to several high-profile instances of violence against black men and racial profiling.

    “The small irritations or indignities that we experience are nothing compared to what a previous generation experienced,” President Obama said. “It’s one thing for me to be mistaken for a waiter at a gala. It’s another thing for my son to be mistaken for a robber and to be handcuffed, or worse, if he happens to be walking down the street and is dressed the way teenagers dress.”

    washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2014/12/17/president-obama-theres-no-black-man-my-age-who-…

  60. 60.

    Shalimar

    @Cervantes: Next Congress depends on whether you judge productivity by bills passed or new laws. Republican House, Republican Senate, there is going to be a huge upswing in number of bills passed. On the other hand, “We are very disappointed in President Obama for vetoing our 486th bill defunding the entire federal government, We hope he will at least sign tomorrow’s bill funding research into proving that Elizabeth Warren is the devil. He keeps saying he supports new government spending.”

  65. 65.

    satby

    @normal liberal: How cool! Yes, Watergirl had brought some samples to the store and suggested they order them from me, but she’s only test marketing! Thanks for giving them a try, and that is my favorite mold too. Though now I’m all over the hand stamping designs and swirling colors, which is impossible in those molds.
    OMIGOD, I’m a soap geek.

  66. 66.

    satby

    @WereBear: This!
    Actually, I wish people would quit using even “responsible” breeders, there’s too many purebred dogs in shelters and rescue groups too. As long as there’s so much of an overpopulation, I think it’s irresponsible to breed pets at all.

  68. 68.

    delk

    The Senate confirmed three Texans Tuesday night for lifetime judicial appointments, capping an effort to fill vacancies in the state that have languished for years. The nominees — U.S. Attorney Robert Pitman of San Antonio, Texarkana lawyer Robert Schroeder III and Sherman Magistrate Judge Amos Mazzant III — were approved by a voice vote on Congress’ final night this year.

    Pitman, the first openly gay U.S. attorney in Texas history, will be the state’s first openly gay federal judge.

  72. 72.

    dance around in your bones

    @Baud: I’m a big fan of passphrases – easy to remember if you pick them right, Here’s a link on how to create them.

    That said, I DO keep a little notebook with all my passwords written down in a secret hiding place in my house because I have gotten so used to Firefox remembering for them for me I have to look one up once in a while.

    But passphrases! Those I remember :)

  73. 73.

    Bob In Portland

    While the banks and energy companies continue their war on Russia, look who shows up in Crimea!

    Interesting news this morning: Khasan Zakaev, one of the terrorist which organized and executed the 2002 attack against the Dubrovka theater in Moscow and an aid to Shamil Basaev was arrested in Crimea when he tried to enter from the Ukraine with false documents.
    I very much doubt that Zakaev wanted to visit Crimea to enjoy the beautiful sights, sample the local cuisine or to relax on the seashore. Not coming from the Ukraine. Not with fake documents. In fact, I would argue that it is pretty darn obvious that if he took the huge risk of entering not just any Russian territory, but a highly monitored and secured one, he was there on a mission.

    Considering the quasi-official Ukrainian support for Wahabism in Chechnia, it is also superlatively likely that the SBU knew about this mission and, at the very least, gave its tacit support for it. After all, since members of the Ukrainian Rada did openly support the recent terrorist operation in Grozny, and since a former commander of the Azov death squad and now Member of the Rada openly called for the murder of Ramzan Kadyrov, it only makes sense for the Ukrainian Nazis to be sending Chechen Wahabis into Russia to commit more terrorist attacks.

    Beautiful, no? The US, the EU, NATO and their allies are now openly supporting a Nazi-Wahabi alliance against Russia.

    Ramzan Kadyrov always calls the Wahabi terrorists “shaitans”, or devils. I think that this also fully applies to the rabid Ukrainian Nazis. But if we want to be logical here, shouldn’t this apply first and foremost to their masters?

    Was the late Ayatollah Khomeini not absolutely spot-on when he spoke of the “shaitan-e bozorg”, the “Great Satan”?

    Would “Hizb-Shaitan” (Party of the Devil) not be an accurate descriptor for the AngloZionist Empire today?

    Your tax dollars at work.

  74. 74.

    JDM

    So “the best possible” and oh so wonderful ending is that what should be routine business, and what has been routine business under Republican presidents and Democratic congresses, happened?

    The new normal sucks.

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