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You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Open Thread: Bernie Tries to Move the Window

Open Thread: Bernie Tries to Move the Window

by Anne Laurie|  April 1, 20156:00 pm| 159 Comments

This post is in: C.R.E.A.M., Local Races 2018 and earlier, Open Threads, Our Failed Media Experiment

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Dave Weigel, in Bloomberg Politics:

On Thursday, Vermont Senator and potential 2016 presidential candidate Bernie Sanders will become the first member of the upper house to stump in Chicago’s mayoral election. Sanders will officially endorse Chuy Garcia, the Cook County commissioner running a progressive campaign against Mayor Rahm Emanuel. One practical reason for the visit: United Airlines was routing him through the Windy City…

Sanders will campaign for Garcia and for Susan Sadlowski Garza, both of them opponents of the neoliberal governance that Emanuel has brought to Chicago. On the left, ending the former White House chief of staff’s reign has become the year’s first great cause. The reasons are many–Emanuel’s fumbling experiments with privatization, the closure of 50 schools, the subsequent school bond program with Goldman Sachs, the friendship with a new Republican governor who is using executive orders to take on unions.

To their great frustration, Emanuel’s opponents are struggling to get the press to cover what they know is true–that the “fiscally responsible” Emanuel has presided over five credit downgrades. In Tuesday night’s mayoral debate, Emanuel portrayed Garcia as a typical liberal spendthrift who promised to undo fiscal pain without ever explaining how he’d pay for it. “You’re walking along all over the place like typical career politicians promising everything like ‘Hanukkah Harry,'” said Emanuel. That narrative has defined the race, not only in Chicago’s media but in the reports that have been filed by national reporters.

“That 15 minutes I spent patiently laying out the facts for the Economist’s reporter why under Rahm Emanuel bond markets have puked over the prospect of investing in Chicago, but Garcia actually has a history of closing fiscal holes, was wasted,” wrote Rick Perlstein, the progressive historian and Chicago resident, over the weekend. “She couldn’t see past her knee-jerk ideological prejudices.”…

“I am not going to Chicago to attack Rahm Emanuel,” said Sanders. “I’ve known him for many years. I believe in my very heart that we need a political revolution in this country, because virtually all political power rests with very wealthy people. And I see in Chuy Garcia a candidate putting together the coalition to fight that.”…

Sanders, in the Senate, has been trying to draw the same contrasts between the parties in budget votes and amendments “I’m the ranking member of the US Senate budget committee, and I’ve just seen a Republican budget that threw 27 million people off health insurance, okay?” he said. “That is what Republicans consider to be responsible. I don’t accept what the right wing accepts to be responsible. I think it’s time for austerity of billionaire class. I’m obsessed with a statistic I saw just the other day: Did you know that over the last two years, the 14 wealthiest Americans have made $157 billion?”…

Apart from the neverending battle, what’s on the agenda for the evening?

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Next Post: Open Thread: I Admire the Invective »

Reader Interactions

159Comments

  1. 1.

    Violet

    April 1, 2015 at 6:07 pm

    How’s Chuy polling?

  2. 2.

    srv

    April 1, 2015 at 6:11 pm

    When I hear Rahm, all I can think of is “Marcia Marcia Marcia!”

  3. 3.

    Mike E

    April 1, 2015 at 6:12 pm

    My agenda: resting after herding cats humans over the phone…back at it tomorrow.

  4. 4.

    raven

    April 1, 2015 at 6:12 pm

    I jammed my old Army parka in the closet and realized that the next time I take it our we will have tons more closet space!!!

  5. 5.

    Gin & Tonic

    April 1, 2015 at 6:14 pm

    What’s on the agenda? Probably a good steak and a couple of beers. I’m on expense account this week.

  6. 6.

    CONGRATULATIONS!

    April 1, 2015 at 6:20 pm

    I’m sure Rahm will win because American politics has become an unrelenting hellscape of nightmare horror, but I hope Chuy beats his sorry ass.

  7. 7.

    WaterGirl

    April 1, 2015 at 6:22 pm

    @raven: You guys must be really jazzed that the project is finally moving forward after all this time.

  8. 8.

    Faction

    April 1, 2015 at 6:22 pm

    This is why I hate the whole “socially liberal/fiscally conservative” type of framing. See, when I think of social policies being liberal or conservative, I associate those descriptors and policies as they align with the Democratic or Republican parties. But on the fiscal side, “liberal” and “conservative” suddenly take on their stricter, dictionary definitions, unmoored from the actual track records of the two parties. And that’s a problem because Democrats don’t spend “liberally” and Republicans don’t spend “conservatively”.

  9. 9.

    CONGRATULATIONS!

    April 1, 2015 at 6:25 pm

    @Faction: If you use the strict definition, both American political parties are “conservative”. Just about different things.

  10. 10.

    Villago Delenda Est

    April 1, 2015 at 6:26 pm

    Did you know that over the last two years, the 14 wealthiest Americans have made $157 billion?”…

    I think the least appropriate word in this sentence is “made”. More like “leeched”.

  11. 11.

    Mike in NC

    April 1, 2015 at 6:27 pm

    New Republican governor taking on unions, huh? Where else did that happen? Oh yeah, in every state with a Republican governor!

  12. 12.

    Violet

    April 1, 2015 at 6:29 pm

    @raven: Has the construction begun?

  13. 13.

    Corner Stone

    April 1, 2015 at 6:30 pm

    Working to create a new role in my org to transition into. But if that doesn’t work, Steepman Time!

  14. 14.

    The Golux

    April 1, 2015 at 6:30 pm

    Someone needs to post a YouTube video on how to build tumbrels.

  15. 15.

    Mary G

    April 1, 2015 at 6:31 pm

    I am making slower cooker lasagna and I used tomatoes and oregano from my garden. Cross your fingers, I hardly ever cook!

  16. 16.

    WaterGirl

    April 1, 2015 at 6:40 pm

    @Mary G: Fingers crossed!

    I keep asking but no one ever answers – are you still hoping to get Ginger? There is someone here at BJ who knows a rescue group that is willing to do the inspection for you.

    Apologies if you have been asked and already answered a million times.

  17. 17.

    Bubblegum Tate

    April 1, 2015 at 6:43 pm

    California is implementing mandatory water use reductions. About fuckin’ time.

  18. 18.

    WaterGirl

    April 1, 2015 at 6:43 pm

    Is anyone watching DIG? I have been recording but haven’t watched it yet. Just checking in… I thought someone here said it was creepy. Mysteries I like, creepy, not so much.

  19. 19.

    WaterGirl

    April 1, 2015 at 6:48 pm

    @Corner Stone: As in leave your job and hang out a shingle?

  20. 20.

    Hildebrand

    April 1, 2015 at 6:49 pm

    Recovering from an ugly travel day. Flight from McAllen to Houston was turbulence city. First attempt at the flight from Houston to Detroit turned around after about 15 mins – smoke in the cabin. We landed surrounded by the entire airport Fire Department. Second attempt out of Houston – new plane, never left the gate, mechanical difficulties. Third attempt out of Houston is actually successful. I have not been a big fan of flying in the past, this has not helped. At all.

    And yipee, I get back on the plane back to McAllen on Monday.

  21. 21.

    germy shoemangler

    April 1, 2015 at 6:49 pm

    Male mice sing ultrasonic love songs to woo mates according to a new study published Wednesday in the journal Frontiers of Behavioral Neuroscience. In fact, the mice perform long, complex strings of syllables the same way as song birds.

    “Those songs are really high in pitch, above 50 kilohertz, and are not audible to humans,” said Jonathan Chabout, a postdoctoral fellow at Duke University. “When we pitch them down and play back at real speed, it sounds like a bird.”

    It also turns out the male mice are like the absolute worst kind of male humans. The Washington Post’s Rachel Feltman reports:

    The study authors believe the male mice may be expending extra energy when a female isn’t in sight, but doing the bare-minimum singing when she’s nearby. That leaves the male mouse with extra energy to physically pursue her and attempt to mate. So he’s basically wining and dining her when she’s elusive, then turning his sights to sex once she’s within reach.

    “I do think there is more going on with animal communication than we humans have been attuned to,” said Erich Jarvis, a neurobiologist at Duke University in an interview with Reuters. “There is a clear communication signal in the mouse songs and not just random sequences of vocalizations.”

  22. 22.

    WaterGirl

    April 1, 2015 at 6:52 pm

    @Hildebrand: Yikes! I bet you are relieved to have gotten there. So sorry you have to get back on a plane so soon. Maybe that will turn out to be a good thing, like getting right back on the horse? (she said hopefully) Surely the flight home will be uneventful!

  23. 23.

    pj

    April 1, 2015 at 6:53 pm

    Susan Sadlowski Garza is the daughter of Ed Sadlowski. It is heartening to see that name once again.

  24. 24.

    delk

    April 1, 2015 at 6:54 pm

    @WaterGirl: It’s been ok. So far I haven’t felt like bailing on the show.

    I like that it is just 10 episodes: a beginning, a middle, and an end. Not a drag on for years show.

    Too bad violence forced them to move the shooting from Jerusalem. The first episode, filmed there was amazing looking.

  25. 25.

    the Conster

    April 1, 2015 at 6:56 pm

    My favorite story today, and it’s not an April Fools thing – we need to stop using antibiotics so much!! It’s clear that the earth gives us everything we need, if we in the West stop being so fucking arrogant about re-learning what we used to know.

    ETA: no profit in that though, so never mind.

  26. 26.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    April 1, 2015 at 6:59 pm

    @Corner Stone:

    LOL, be careful what you wish for.

  27. 27.

    Doug r

    April 1, 2015 at 6:59 pm

    @the Conster: well, the FDA is cracking down on rampant overuse of antibiotics by farmers

  28. 28.

    Mike J

    April 1, 2015 at 6:59 pm

    I’ll repost this section of Mike Pence’s campaign web site from 2001:

    • Congress should oppose any effort to put gay and lesbian relationships on an equal legal status with heterosexual marriage.

    • Congress should oppose any effort to recognize homosexual’s as a “discreet and insular minority” entitled to the protection of anti-discrimination laws similar to those extended to women and ethnic minorities.

    • Congress should support the reauthorization of the Ryan White Care Act only after completion of an audit to ensure that federal dollars were no longer being given to organizations that celebrate and encourage the types of behaviors that facilitate the spreading of the HIV virus. Resources should be directed toward those institutions which provide assistance to those seeking to change their sexual behavior.

    as well as

    • (4) bringing an end to the “don’t ask/don’t tell” policy of permitting homosexuals to serve in the armed forces. Homosexuality is incompatible with military service because the presence of homosexuals in the ranks weakens unit cohesion.

    http://web.archive.org/web/20010519165033fw_/http://cybertext.net/pence/issues.html

  29. 29.

    Villago Delenda Est

    April 1, 2015 at 7:04 pm

    @the Conster: Short term profit, not long term consequences, is what the overuse of antibiotics is all about.

    It’s insane, it could in the long run doom us all. Assuming, of course, that other short term profit oriented activities (climate change denialist fossil-fuel assholes, looking at you) don’t doom us first.

  30. 30.

    WaterGirl

    April 1, 2015 at 7:05 pm

    @Mike J: What a pig that man is. I’m sure the media will be picking right up on that story.

  31. 31.

    Villago Delenda Est

    April 1, 2015 at 7:06 pm

    @Mike J: •

    (4) bringing an end to the “don’t ask/don’t tell” policy of permitting homosexuals to serve in the armed forces. Homosexuality is incompatible with military service because the presence of homosexuals in the ranks weakens unit cohesion.

    This paragraph dusted off from the “don’t racially integrate the military” playbook of the late 40’s.

    If military members are professional, as they are claimed to be by the military leadership, this is an utter non-issue.

  32. 32.

    Villago Delenda Est

    April 1, 2015 at 7:07 pm

    @germy shoemangler: And the translation of the sounds? “Hey, baby! My place or yours!”

  33. 33.

    sharl

    April 1, 2015 at 7:12 pm

    That Economist article – or is it in fact more of an op-ed? – which irked Rick Perlstein so much really does look like a hit piece on Garcia. The fact that the article ends with this:

    Whoever wins will swiftly need to placate the bond market.

    – without ever addressing just how Chicago’s bond rating fell in the first place, and who was responsible, gives weight to Perlstein’s complaint.

    I rarely read Economist pieces. Is it normal for their online versions to be posted without a byline? If a byline is present, I missed it, though it wasn’t for lack of trying to find it. Op-eds are often posted/published without author though, which is what made me wonder whether this hatchet job was the doing of a reporter who knew what would please her bosses, or whether editorial management decided to ditch her work in favor of their own preferred stance.

  34. 34.

    Roger Moore

    April 1, 2015 at 7:15 pm

    @the Conster:
    One of the things the Earth has given us is antibiotics; many of them are naturally occuring substances. Penicillin, for instance, famously comes from a mold and was discovered serendipitously. You can also count me skeptical the mixture in the article will work well as a systemic treatment rather than a topical one. It was cooked in a brass kettle, so it’s probably full of toxic copper ions, which are known to kill bacteria but which are absolutely not safe as a systemic treatment.

  35. 35.

    Baud

    April 1, 2015 at 7:15 pm

    @Mike J:

    Resources should be directed toward those institutions which provide assistance to those seeking to change their sexual behavior.

    The 50 Shades of Grey Institute appreciates your generous support.

  36. 36.

    NobodySpecial

    April 1, 2015 at 7:16 pm

    Funny, no comments about Sanders wanting his pony?

  37. 37.

    Mike E

    April 1, 2015 at 7:17 pm

    Al Gore proposes a Scientific Freedom Restoration Act!

  38. 38.

    PurpleGirl

    April 1, 2015 at 7:18 pm

    Plans for the evening: Do surface cleaning of junk and then make something to eat. I slept all day. This was not good. I missed the first session of a walking group at my development. I didn’t get some paperwork done that I needed to have done, in order to deliver it to the Co-Op office. I’m feeling discombobulated. Also I didn’t get to the hospital to pick up my Rx renewals.

    In summary: the day did not go well.

  39. 39.

    JPL

    April 1, 2015 at 7:19 pm

    @Hildebrand: The ex’s mother lived in McAllen and the Dad lived in Hendersonville, NC. Guess which one we saw more.

  40. 40.

    Roger Moore

    April 1, 2015 at 7:19 pm

    @sharl:

    Is it normal for their online versions to be posted without a byline?

    AFAIK, they don’t use bylines for anything. They certainly don’t for editorials, which are only given pseudonyms indicating the broad topic, e.g. the USA, UK politics, etc.

  41. 41.

    Baud

    April 1, 2015 at 7:20 pm

    @NobodySpecial:

    Why would there be? Sanders hasn’t let his liberalism prevent him from being a team player.

  42. 42.

    jl

    April 1, 2015 at 7:21 pm

    @Roger Moore: Maybe so, but seems to me that the fact that the thousand year old Anglo-Saxon icky potion worked against bacterial biofilms was emphasized in the story, and that seems interesting. My understanding is that it is difficult to get antibiotics to work well against bacteria that grow in biofilm colonies.

  43. 43.

    jl

    April 1, 2015 at 7:23 pm

    @Mike E:

    ‘ Al Gore proposes a Scientific Freedom Restoration Act! ‘

    Don’t see anything in it about individuals being able to discriminate, with impunity, against sundry types of people for arbitrary reasons. Not sure the reactionaries will go for it.

  44. 44.

    gwangung

    April 1, 2015 at 7:24 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est: As it is in Israel and a half dozen other Western armies.

  45. 45.

    raven

    April 1, 2015 at 7:25 pm

    @Violet: No, not until the 18th. My bride brought a big chest of drawers thingy that will become the bathroom vanity so I’m stripping off the vaneer and we’ll paint it. We’ll have to move everything out from under the screen porch (again) to pour the slab. We also have a storage space that we’re moving more stuff to so we do have stuff to do.

  46. 46.

    Hildebrand

    April 1, 2015 at 7:26 pm

    @WaterGirl: Yes, indeed. My hope is that I have exhausted my bad luck plane experiences for a while. Thankfully, as we are moving from Deep South Texas, that will be my last flight out of Texas. When I go back on Monday, I will finish off the semester, and then drive back to Detroit. All of sudden, three days in the car doesn’t sound so bad.

  47. 47.

    jl

    April 1, 2015 at 7:26 pm

    @sharl:

    Economist articles often blend news and commentary, with no byline.

    And, it is a natural tendency of The Economist to believe that the bond market always needs to be placated. Not sure whey they bothered to include that. Why waste space?

  48. 48.

    The Dangerman

    April 1, 2015 at 7:26 pm

    …the 14 wealthiest Americans have made $157 billion?”

    April Fools!

    No?

  49. 49.

    Violet

    April 1, 2015 at 7:27 pm

    @jl: Yeah, disrupting the biofilms is hard sometimes. The antibiotic can work well against the bacteria it sees but if bacteria is hiding in biofilms it doesn’t work against that. It may be that some of the other parts of that potion disrupt the biofilms. I think garlic can be effective that way.

  50. 50.

    BGinCHI

    April 1, 2015 at 7:28 pm

    Leave it to the fucking Economist to go and actually interview Rick Pearlstein and then not listen to a damn thing he says.

    This country is so wired for power and money it isn’t even interesting to talk about it anymore.

    We needs us a revolution.

  51. 51.

    the Conster

    April 1, 2015 at 7:30 pm

    @Roger Moore:

    Most pharmaceuticals are derived from plants – that’s not the point. The point is, that western medicine deliberately denigrates traditional and eastern medicines because there’s no profit in them. They’ve created a closed health system controlled by the medical/pharmaceutical/insurance industrial complex, because PROFIT! Most chinese herbal cures are combinations of certain plants that only work because of the way they interact. Pharmaceutical companies can’t patent them, or they would be used by everyone. Instead, the pharmaceutical companies patent a certain plant gene that they can monetize. If they can’t patent it, they won’t make them, and so they don’t, and disregard the efficacy and trash talk the herbalists. The drugs they advertise on the network news broadcasts are horrifying when you hear the contraindications – but you should ask your doctor if you need them, and guess what? Doctors will find a reason why you need them. It’s not just antibiotics that are overused, it’s all these other drugs for incontinence, constipation, joint pain, heartburn, etc. etc. that are so harmful, especially if you’re old and on Medicare which will pay for all of this shit.

  52. 52.

    Mary G

    April 1, 2015 at 7:35 pm

    @WaterGirl: No, it hasn’t been asked and answered. I did get the rescue person’s friend’s email, and she emailed me back, but I was having such a horrible week I didn’t pursue it. My house is a mess and I am afraid I would flunk an inspection right now, but I will go ahead and email her right now while I am thinking of it.

    I got the impression when John called me that the rescue was pretty adamant about not wanting anything to do with adopting her across country, which after I thought about it was pretty reasonable. I gave myself injections every day for three years on a clinical trial, so that would be no problem. I just worry about how stressful it would be for her to come all this way.

  53. 53.

    fuckwit

    April 1, 2015 at 7:36 pm

    @BGinCHI: The business of America is business.

    Capitalism and democracy are not compatible systems. In capitalism, it’s one dollar one vote. In democracy, it’s one PERSON one vote. In capitalism, the rich are different, they’re not like you and me. In democracy, they are just like you and me, and the playing field is level. What we have in this country is capitalism, not democracy. It really is one dollar, one vote… not one person, one vote.

    And the American system is already well on its way to taking over the rest of the world now, so there’s nowhere else to go. Game over.

  54. 54.

    Gin & Tonic

    April 1, 2015 at 7:38 pm

    @sharl: Their news articles and editorials never have a byline. There are about a half-dozen regular columns that run under a pseudonym, but that survives through changes in authors.

  55. 55.

    WaterGirl

    April 1, 2015 at 7:41 pm

    @Mary G: Now that she’s been diagnosed with health issues, she may be harder to place and they might back off their insistence on following some arbitrary rules.

    Plus, at one point in the past 2 weeks Cole had a front page post where (among other things) he was asking if you were still interested in Ginger. So things may have changed – certainly worth following up on if you’re interested.

  56. 56.

    sharl

    April 1, 2015 at 7:43 pm

    @Roger Moore, @jl – Thanks. Presumably they know what keeps their readers and advertisers happy (especially the advertisers, I would wager). They’re hardly alone among “news” media, unfortunately.

    @BGinCHI: Yup.

  57. 57.

    WaterGirl

    April 1, 2015 at 7:44 pm

    @Hildebrand: Perspective is a wonderful thing! Congratulations on your move.

  58. 58.

    Pogonip

    April 1, 2015 at 7:45 pm

    @WaterGirl: Hear, hear! Mary’s a wonderful person; it even comes through over the Internet.

  59. 59.

    Mary G

    April 1, 2015 at 7:52 pm

    @Pogonip: {{{blush}}}

  60. 60.

    Corner Stone

    April 1, 2015 at 7:52 pm

    @WaterGirl: As in spend more time doing naked meditation.
    I don’t have any pants on, by the way.

  61. 61.

    Corner Stone

    April 1, 2015 at 7:53 pm

    @Steeplejack (phone): At this point it can’t be any worse.

  62. 62.

    the Conster

    April 1, 2015 at 7:54 pm

    @Mary G:

    You are truly a mensch. Where is HBM?

  63. 63.

    Pogonip

    April 1, 2015 at 7:54 pm

    Wait a minute. It just sank in. I can see investigating to make sure a prospective owner isn’t planning to feed Ginger to his fighting dogs. But they want to inspect Mary’s house to see if a DOG can live there? That is ridiculous. Here’s Mary offering to take this elderly ailing dog off their hands and they’re not sure she’s good enough? If that don’t shave the cat’s ass, I don’t know what does. If poor little Ginger wasn’t caught in the middle I’d suggest that Mary flip them the bird and tell them to peddle their poodles elsewhere.

    Harrumph.

  64. 64.

    Gin & Tonic

    April 1, 2015 at 7:54 pm

    @Corner Stone: We can tell.

  65. 65.

    jl

    April 1, 2015 at 7:54 pm

    @the Conster: Best to denigrate traditional medicine and natural sources for medicines only after the patents are granted. Before then, best to race to find what works, no matter what the source.

  66. 66.

    Pogonip

    April 1, 2015 at 7:55 pm

    @Pogonip: And don’t anybody bake these people a fucking cake, either.

    Double harrumph.

  67. 67.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    April 1, 2015 at 7:57 pm

    @Pogonip: You can ask Cole about the shaving a cat’s ass part.

  68. 68.

    lamh36

    April 1, 2015 at 7:57 pm

    Today, my white boss called my newest coworker by my name! So she took a pic of us together and we shared it on facebook (if she let’s me, I’ll post it to my twitter later)

    We LOL so much all day.

    Hmmm, to check off: both Black, both wear our natural hair, and today she wore silver earrings (I always wear silver earrings)…yep I guess that makes us twinses…lol.

    FYI he’s a good guy though so we both just LMBAO! But the number of times this has happened to me in EVERY job I’ve ever had (especially if there’s only 2 of “us”) makes this old hat for both of us.

    ETA: she was cool posting pic on twitter so here it is…

    https://twitter.com/psddluva4evah/status/583418912328519681

  69. 69.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    April 1, 2015 at 7:59 pm

    @the Conster: I’ve seen him over at LGF.

  70. 70.

    Baud

    April 1, 2015 at 8:00 pm

    @lamh36:

    That’s crazy, Ruemara.

  71. 71.

    Tree With Water

    April 1, 2015 at 8:00 pm

    “On the left, ending the former White House chief of staff’s reign has become the year’s first great cause. The reasons are many..”.

    It’s not a matter of ‘many’ with me. I want to see Emanuel’s political career extinguished for the simple reason I don’t like the sonofabitch’s politics.

  72. 72.

    Omnes Omnibus

    April 1, 2015 at 8:00 pm

    @NobodySpecial: No, why should there be?

  73. 73.

    Pogonip

    April 1, 2015 at 8:02 pm

    @Violet: It also keeps the vampires away!

  74. 74.

    Violet

    April 1, 2015 at 8:04 pm

    @lamh36: Isn’t there a history of entertainment “reporters” or interviewers on the red carpet calling non-white actors or musicians by the wrong name?

  75. 75.

    lamh36

    April 1, 2015 at 8:04 pm

    @Baud: lol…“How Rude”

  76. 76.

    burnspbesq

    April 1, 2015 at 8:04 pm

    Putting the Menendez indictment in context, the Star-Ledger provides an illustrated list of other Hudson County pols who have gone down on similar charges. All i can say is “damn, that’s a long-ass list.”

    http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/2015/04/hudson_county_politics_convicted_of_corruption_cha.html#incart_maj-story-1

  77. 77.

    lamh36

    April 1, 2015 at 8:05 pm

    @Violet: well I don recall that time the interviewer called Sam L Jackson by the wrong name…Sam Jack was NOT amused

  78. 78.

    Violet

    April 1, 2015 at 8:06 pm

    @Pogonip: Maybe that’s why it got its reputation! I think if you eat a lot of garlic it can actually repel mosquitoes or lower your instance of getting bit or something.

  79. 79.

    Pogonip

    April 1, 2015 at 8:07 pm

    @Violet: It never worked for me. Garlic kept the vampires away but not the mosquitoes.

  80. 80.

    Roger Moore

    April 1, 2015 at 8:08 pm

    @Violet:

    It may be that some of the other parts of that potion disrupt the biofilms.

    I would guess it’s the bile acids, which are effective surfactants.

    @the Conster:

    The point is, that western medicine deliberately denigrates traditional and eastern medicines because there’s no profit in them.

    This is at best an exaggeration. There’s certainly a big profit motive, but what Western medicine is most after is things that work reliably and can be understood. When you make a medicine, it’s supposed to have a well known potency and efficacy, so the doctor knows the right dosage. They need to be made under rigorously controlled conditions so that unpredictable crap doesn’t get into them and ruin the effectiveness or poison the patient. And, perhaps most important of all, it needs to be tested under strict scientific scrutiny to make sure that it actually does what it’s supposed to do.

    For all the whining about Western medicine ignoring other traditions, it’s been amazingly effective at taking folk knowledge from other medical traditions and incorporating it. It’s just that when that happens it stops looking like traditional medicine and starts looking like Western medicine.

  81. 81.

    Mary G

    April 1, 2015 at 8:09 pm

    @the Conster: HBM is good. He was down to visit last week. He is home with his wife and son. She just finished a master’s degree and is job hunting. He told me he is just tired of politics, so he’s cut his blog reading and commenting way down. He does hang out at Little Green Footballs because he loves Charles Johnson’s coding and they can post pictures there. He is building a virtual house using Blender and it is a lot of work.

  82. 82.

    jl

    April 1, 2015 at 8:10 pm

    @lamh36: Look on the bright side, at least you work in a place where you do not fear your boss recognizing you, or being able to narrow it down to two people.

    I’ve had a crazy boss in a large department once, and the more he knew who you were, the worse it was.

  83. 83.

    Violet

    April 1, 2015 at 8:11 pm

    @lamh36: You’re both wearing blue scrubs (?) and white coats! No wonder your boss mixed you up. LOL.

  84. 84.

    schrodinger's cat

    April 1, 2015 at 8:11 pm

    @sharl: Economist: Supercilious Britsplaining at its best.

  85. 85.

    Germy Shoemangler

    April 1, 2015 at 8:12 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est: I wonder if cats can hear the mouse songs?

  86. 86.

    schrodinger's cat

    April 1, 2015 at 8:15 pm

    @Gin & Tonic: Are you undercover too?

    @Germy Shoemangler: Cats can hear everything.

  87. 87.

    Tree With Water

    April 1, 2015 at 8:15 pm

    ESPN redesigned its website, and I can’t find Grantland anywhere. Not saying it’s gone, just I didn’t find it during a quick look-see.

  88. 88.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    April 1, 2015 at 8:16 pm

    @jl:

    the more he knew who you were, the worse it was.

    I’ve heard the same thing said about military basic training.

  89. 89.

    Smiling Mortician

    April 1, 2015 at 8:16 pm

    Just got a memo from my boss prohibiting work-funded travel to Indiana. Win-win.

  90. 90.

    Hal

    April 1, 2015 at 8:17 pm

    Oh Michele Bachmann:

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/01/michele-bachmann-obama_n_6986936.html

    Former Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) compared President Barack Obama to Andreas Lubitz, the pilot who downed the Germanwings airliner that crashed in the French Alps last week.

    With his Iran deal, Barack Obama is for the 300 million souls of the United States what Andreas Lubitz was for the 150 souls on the German Wings flight – a deranged pilot flying his entire nation into the rocks. After the fact, among the smoldering remains of American cities, the shocked survivors will ask, why did he do it?

  91. 91.

    WaterGirl

    April 1, 2015 at 8:17 pm

    @Corner Stone: I guess I must have missed the naked meditation post.

  92. 92.

    WaterGirl

    April 1, 2015 at 8:21 pm

    @lamh36: Oh my gosh, you guys do not look the same. Take away the blue peeking out of the white smocks and you guys don’t look the same at all. You are much more good natured about it than i would be, I think.

    Edit: who’s the hot guy on the left? Just kidding, that’s our Prez.

  93. 93.

    the Conster

    April 1, 2015 at 8:22 pm

    @Roger Moore:

    Sorry, but I’ve had too much experience with both kinds of medicine. I’ve had in your face fights with a number of doctors over their prescriptions, their lack of concern, their disinterest in alternative therapies, their lack of interest in not just mine, but other family members’ diagnoses and treatments. I could write a book about the way my mother with Alzheimers was treated by her doctors, and the things they subjected her to. My own experience – in Boston – the epicenter of western medicine – when I suggest chinese medicine – is total condescension. They don’t want to hear about it. Their default is arrogance and dismissiveness about any alternative to what they know. They mostly can’t be bothered – they want to write a prescription and a referral in network, and get rid of you. What I’ve learned is to take my diagnosis to the chinese medicine practitioner and start there. That’s not to say that there aren’t drugs that work – they do. But mostly they treat symptoms, not underlying causes.

  94. 94.

    ThresherK

    April 1, 2015 at 8:22 pm

    @Tree With Water: Grantland.com is still a standalone, I think.

  95. 95.

    WaterGirl

    April 1, 2015 at 8:23 pm

    @Baud: Come on, Baud, everyone knows that’s rikyrah!

    (thanks for the belly laugh from your comment!)

  96. 96.

    Violet

    April 1, 2015 at 8:24 pm

    @Tree With Water:
    Here you go: http://grantland.com/

  97. 97.

    the Conster

    April 1, 2015 at 8:24 pm

    @Mary G:

    Yay for HBM – he’s home where he should be. Fingers crossed that it works out. I will never forget that night you fished him out of the abyss. Many blessings to all of you.

  98. 98.

    WaterGirl

    April 1, 2015 at 8:24 pm

    @lamh36: That little blond girl has curly hair, too. Why she looks jus like you!

    @lamh36: I saw that interview, he went on and on and did not give the interviewer a break. Well deserved. Though he was fairly good natured as he went on and on…

  99. 99.

    jl

    April 1, 2015 at 8:25 pm

    I’ve noticed a sad and catastrophic drop-off in West Virginia lifestyles and folkways blogging around here. So, I was very happy to find this nugget of very useful information:

    new poll finds that West Virginia has highest per capita mood altering drug use.

    All the deep southern states except Florida in the top half (though not sure Florida is really deep south).

    California (for those already laughing) is 48 out 50. And Alaska is 50th, which is hard to believe. The story says that nicotine and booze were included in the list of drugs, but polling organization says that they think respondents under reported those. Surely many Alaskans under reported booze.

    This State Has the Highest Use of Mood-Altering Drugs
    http://news.yahoo.com/state-highest-mood-altering-drugs-113441520.html

  100. 100.

    SiubhanDuinne

    April 1, 2015 at 8:30 pm

    @Baud:

    LOL, Baud!

  101. 101.

    WaterGirl

    April 1, 2015 at 8:31 pm

    @the Conster: Does anyone have a link to the Mary / HBM thread that started it all? I was MIA for 6 months when the tree hit my house, and it all went down during that time, I think. I have always wondered how it all came to be.

    How great for everyone that things worked out.

  102. 102.

    WaterGirl

    April 1, 2015 at 8:33 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: I know! I scared my cat when I laughed at that.

  103. 103.

    Tree With Water

    April 1, 2015 at 8:37 pm

    @Violet: Thanks for that- Grantland now bookmarked. I wonder if it’s ESPN’s intention is to shunt Grantland to the side, i.e., as a consequence of last year’s dust-up between Simmons and management? i just revisited the ESPN’s redesigned website (Grantland has its link to ESPN’s homepage prominently displayed), and if a link to Grantland is there to be seen, I’m missing it.

  104. 104.

    sharl

    April 1, 2015 at 8:37 pm

    Given some of the discussions of mental health issues that have arisen after the downing of the German passenger plane – including some pretty vigorous back-and-forth in B-J comments – The (hilarious and wonderful) Bloggess (twitter account here) has a book coming out soon on her own struggles: Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things Here’s a bit of background from a recent blog post:

    In the years since I started writing about mental illness I’ve received so many letters from people who were affected by this community, but there were special ones I kept in a folder that I named “The Folder of 24.” – It was called that because it contained 24 letters from people who were actively planning their suicide, but decided to get help instead. And not because of what I said…they did it because of you. Almost every single one explained that what convinced them that depression was lying to them was the amazing response to my posts. They could look at a single person like me and think it was still a rare illness or something to be ashamed about…but when thousands of strangers shout out into the darkness that they are there too, it makes ripples. And those anonymous strangers saved lives without even knowing it. If you ever left a comment or a kind word you may have been the cause of someone’s mother or daughter or son being alive. Being thankful to be alive.

    When I was on tour with my last book I’d sometimes talk about the Folder of 24 and how that folder is the best reason I’ll ever have for writing. And then something strange happened. After a reading people would lean in close and whisper “I was 25.”

    There were so many 25’s.

    This was what I went back to whenever writing this new book got too hard. Because I knew that to truly write about what it’s like to struggle with mental illness I’d have to go deeper and talk about things I haven’t written about, for fear that everyone would back away if I talked about self-harm, or mania, or the personality disorder that pushes me from “normal” crazy to something a bit scarier.

    I wrote and deleted and rewrote passages, and I’m still afraid of how people will react. I’m in the exact same place I was seven years ago…afraid to share but unable to tell my story without laying it all out. And so I’ll do the same thing I did before. Because I don’t have any other choice but to be myself, and hopefully you’ll still be here in the same wonderful way you have been.

  105. 105.

    danielx

    April 1, 2015 at 8:39 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    Did you know that over the last two years, the 14 wealthiest Americans have made $157 billion?”…

    At least it doesn’t say they ‘earned’ it.

    In other news, the Rolling Stones ain’t engaging in no boycotts of our fair state. Appearing on July 4th at the infield of Indianapolis Motor Speedway with room for up to 100,000 fans – opening act to be announced later. It’s the first time the Speedway has hosted a concert other than during racing events, although it most certainly will not be the first time that the infield has witnessed scenes of sin and degradation. As a matter of fact, that’s what the infield is for – that and golf. Don’t imagine I’l be attending, ticket prices of $77-$300 (with $995 “VIP” tickets available and that better include a helicopter ride to avoid the goddamned traffic) are a little pricey for what even an aging boomer like myself considers a nostalgia act at this point. Particularly when the best show of the four times I’ve seen them was in 1972 with Stevie Wonder as the opening act and pretty decent tickets for what one of my HS buds and myself regarded as the outrageous price of fifteen dollars! At least I believe it was fifteen bucks, some of my memories of that period are a little hazy for reasons I am at a complete loss to explain.

    Worth every penny and then some at the time…

  106. 106.

    SiubhanDuinne

    April 1, 2015 at 8:42 pm

    @sharl:

    I adore the Bloggess. She doesn’t post every day, and it’s always a treat to read her, so I try to ration myself to once or twice a week. The passage you quoted is astonishingly moving. Thanks.

  107. 107.

    lamh36

    April 1, 2015 at 8:43 pm

    @jl: Naw, my boss is a good guy overall. Thats why we both LOL the rest of the day. Cause I wasn’t there, but I can imagine how flustered he gets when he’s embarrassed…so I’m sorry I missed it.

  108. 108.

    NotMax

    April 1, 2015 at 8:43 pm

    Before April 1 slips away into eternity, an obligatory look at the video of one of the best-executed April Fool’s broadcasts ever, first shown 58 years ago.

  109. 109.

    Violet

    April 1, 2015 at 8:44 pm

    @Tree With Water: I checked it out. If you mouse over on the little tic-tac-toe -ish 9-dot box–the one between “Fantasy” and the search magnifying glass on the right side–another box pops up and lists their other affiliated sites. Grantland is first, 538 is there, etc.

  110. 110.

    ms_canadada

    April 1, 2015 at 8:46 pm

    @Hildebrand: When you get settled in Detroit, cross over the border and come visit/meet up with us in Hamilton, Ontario. We have 2 dogs and live on Hamilton/Burlington Bay. Peaceful & no guns.
    (We have a canoe)

  111. 111.

    Roger Moore

    April 1, 2015 at 8:47 pm

    @Germy Shoemangler:

    I wonder if cats can hear the mouse songs?

    Yes. Their hearing goes up to about 80 kHz, probably so they can hunt rodents that sing at those high frequencies.

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    Cats can hear everything.

    Whether they listen is another question.

  112. 112.

    delk

    April 1, 2015 at 8:48 pm

    @lamh36: My husband and I get, “Are you guys brothers?”

  113. 113.

    Corner Stone

    April 1, 2015 at 8:50 pm

    @Tree With Water:

    ESPN redesigned its website

    I completely fucking hate their redesign. Who the F did they put in charge of that? The contractor that did the Obamacare rollout website?
    HATE.HATE.HATE.

  114. 114.

    the Conster

    April 1, 2015 at 8:51 pm

    @WaterGirl:

    It went on over a period of time – in 2013 I think. It was scary because he was all GBCW, then the next thing we all knew Mary G said he was right near her and she retrieved him – in the Joshua Tree area IIRC- and then her garden bloomed and HBM was there to help. It was a miracle. Literally.

  115. 115.

    WaterGirl

    April 1, 2015 at 8:51 pm

    @ms_canadada: That’s so nice! You are surely their first neighbor to welcome them to the neighborhood.

  116. 116.

    WaterGirl

    April 1, 2015 at 8:53 pm

    @the Conster: Yeah 2013 was “tree” time for me. Maybe I can catch Steeplejack on some late night thread after he returns from his trip. His google-fu knows no bounds!

  117. 117.

    Corner Stone

    April 1, 2015 at 8:54 pm

    @WaterGirl:

    I guess I must have missed the naked meditation post.

    I’m happy to recreate the environment for you, but I know you’ll most likely rudely tell me something your mom said about boys and nudity.
    Oooohhhhmmm…Oooohhhhmmm…Oooohhhhmmm…

  118. 118.

    WaterGirl

    April 1, 2015 at 8:56 pm

    @Corner Stone: Nothing about nudity and boys. But in high school she did tell my sisters and I that if a boy ever tried to touch us “there” we were to cross our legs and keep talking.

    For real.

  119. 119.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    April 1, 2015 at 8:59 pm

    @WaterGirl: Nothing about aspirin?

    ETA: Beat again by the codger.

  120. 120.

    Cervantes

    April 1, 2015 at 9:02 pm

    @Baud:

    Sanders hasn’t let his liberalism prevent him from being a team player.

    You might want to look at how certain people responded to, and still cite, his vote re closing our Guantanamo Bay “facility.”

  121. 121.

    Corner Stone

    April 1, 2015 at 9:02 pm

    @WaterGirl: It’s not Steepman style stalking, but try this nugget and/or timeframe:
    https://balloon-juice.com/2013/08/04/rip-artie-donovan-one-of-a-kind/#comment-4562490

  122. 122.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    April 1, 2015 at 9:02 pm

    @efgoldman: Great minds?

  123. 123.

    Violet

    April 1, 2015 at 9:05 pm

    @WaterGirl: Starts here. Trigger warning: content can be difficult to read.

  124. 124.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    April 1, 2015 at 9:05 pm

    @efgoldman: I’m having a nice tall glass of water as I type.

    ETA: It’s still cheaper than Diet Coke, as least for now.

  125. 125.

    Belafon

    April 1, 2015 at 9:06 pm

    @lamh36: I don’t know anything about him, but I’ve known my kids all their lives and still get their names wrong.

  126. 126.

    Baud

    April 1, 2015 at 9:06 pm

    @Cervantes:

    Sadly, he was a team player with that vote as well. It just so happened that the entire team sucked on that issue.

  127. 127.

    Ruckus

    April 1, 2015 at 9:13 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est:
    Forty five yrs ago we had gay guys on our ship. Wasn’t a secret, everyone knew, everyone seemed to not give a shit. At least I never saw/heard any overt signs of a shit being given. I imagine that you had gays in your unit(s) as well. After all you have to have a pretty small or specifically picked group of humans not to have gay people in it.

  128. 128.

    Cervantes

    April 1, 2015 at 9:14 pm

    @Baud:

    Sadly, he was a team player with that vote as well. It just so happened that the entire team sucked on that issue.

    Still, “no comments about Sanders wanting his pony?”

  129. 129.

    Baud

    April 1, 2015 at 9:16 pm

    @Cervantes:

    You lost me.

  130. 130.

    WaterGirl

    April 1, 2015 at 9:19 pm

    @efgoldman: @BillinGlendaleCA: Nope, no aspirin!

    Good work, you guys. You are really in sync. I wonder if you guys wore the same color shirts today?

  131. 131.

    Ruckus

    April 1, 2015 at 9:20 pm

    @lamh36:
    You know if I close both eyes and squint real hard you both look alike. With them open even the slightest, not so much.

  132. 132.

    Corner Stone

    April 1, 2015 at 9:22 pm

    @WaterGirl:

    that if a boy ever tried to touch us “there” we were to cross our legs and keep talking.

    Better than trying to keep walking, one guesses.

  133. 133.

    Ruckus

    April 1, 2015 at 9:23 pm

    @Mary G:
    If you see or talk to him, tell him hello and good health.

  134. 134.

    WaterGirl

    April 1, 2015 at 9:23 pm

    @Corner Stone: Thanks. Even when he’s not here, Steep always comes through. In the link you provided? Steeplejack posted a link for someone and says “It started here”.

    @Violet: Thanks, and also thanks for the warning.

  135. 135.

    Roger Moore

    April 1, 2015 at 9:24 pm

    @Ruckus:
    It’s easier to prioritize keeping out Teh Ghey when you have a smaller, all volunteer military that people actually want to get into. When you’re having to draft people to fill in the ranks, you tend not to be so choosey.

  136. 136.

    Ruckus

    April 1, 2015 at 9:26 pm

    @BillinGlendaleCA:
    Boot camp. Keep as low a profile as possible. To do that you have to fit in, want to or not. The slightest sticking up of a nail is going to get (figuratively speaking) pounded down.

  137. 137.

    Corner Stone

    April 1, 2015 at 9:29 pm

    @WaterGirl: I know. That’s why I dropped him like he’s hot.
    I could’ve hit up the HBM GBCW, but it was the Mary G pickup that was asked for.

  138. 138.

    WaterGirl

    April 1, 2015 at 9:29 pm

    I have only looked at the Mary G “i scooped him up” thread, but wow is there a lot of love in that thread.

    I miss HBM posts, too.

  139. 139.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    April 1, 2015 at 9:30 pm

    @Ruckus: The kid ended up getting noticed on day one, they put her name tag on upside down(HO instead of OH). She survived.

  140. 140.

    Anne Laurie

    April 1, 2015 at 9:30 pm

    @Pogonip:

    It never worked for me. Garlic kept the vampires away but not the mosquitoes.

    Brewer’s yeast actually works pretty well against mosquitoes, but you have to remember to take it every day for a month or six weeks before mosquito season starts. The skeeters locate food sources by smell, and as I understand it, the brewer’s yeast makes you smell ‘wrong’.

    It also works to discourage fleas on dogs, assuming your dog will eat the stuff (some love it, some won’t touch it).

  141. 141.

    Ruckus

    April 1, 2015 at 9:30 pm

    @the Conster:
    I’ve had good docs and shitty docs. The good ones recognize what they don’t know. The bad ones think they know everything. The good ones want you to help get you well. The bad ones want you to pay your bill.
    ……..

  142. 142.

    the Conster

    April 1, 2015 at 9:33 pm

    @Corner Stone:

    good job – skimmed that thread and it was the one I meant, but my favorite comment was warning someone new on there about eemom. LOL.

  143. 143.

    Ruckus

    April 1, 2015 at 9:33 pm

    @jl:
    Aren’t many cities in Alaska dry? I know many of the villages are or at least were not that long ago.

  144. 144.

    Anne Laurie

    April 1, 2015 at 9:34 pm

    @Tree With Water: Auto-fill still takes me to Grantland.com — at least for now.

  145. 145.

    Cervantes

    April 1, 2015 at 9:37 pm

    @Baud:

    No worries. It was nothing serious or worth explaining.

    I’m off. Have a great evening.

  146. 146.

    raven

    April 1, 2015 at 9:40 pm

    @WaterGirl: you got mail

  147. 147.

    jl

    April 1, 2015 at 9:41 pm

    @Ruckus: Some Alaskan Native villages in the bush and tundra are officially dry. No city with mostly white people is dry (they would not stand for it!) ,that is for sure. And friends and relatives who spent time out in the Native villages tell me that it hard to make any place really truly dry, since visitors bring in booze, or people arrange to have it mailed in. They might look dry in public, is all.

  148. 148.

    jl

    April 1, 2015 at 9:48 pm

    @Ruckus: Woohoo, get your list of dry and ‘damp’ Alaska communities here. I don’t see one that could remotely be called a city, even by Alaska standards, and none is mostly white. I thought maybe Gulkana might be, but they are only about 20 percent.

    Alcoholic Beverage Control Board
    Dry / Damp Communities
    (Local Option Restrictions)
    http://commerce.state.ak.us/dnn/abc/Resources/DryDampCommunities.aspx

  149. 149.

    Ruckus

    April 1, 2015 at 9:50 pm

    @Roger Moore:
    Well you are correct about being less choosey when they run low on cannon fodder but I was more talking about the response of the guys on the ships. No one seemed to mind, and as I said there was no overt harassment. And that would be pretty obvious on a ship the size of the one I was on for most of my tour. My bunk compartment was 40×40 feet with 80 bunks. And lockers, operating room, steam sterilizer, missile magazine, passage ways, etc. Other bunking compartments were smaller but just as tight. You don’t fart without at least 40 people knowing.

  150. 150.

    Ruckus

    April 1, 2015 at 9:54 pm

    @jl:
    I’ve got them beat then. I worked in a reasonable sized town, on the outskirts of Columbus OH. Dry, dryer, driest. Of course they did have a temperance museum in the center of town as well.

  151. 151.

    Pogonip

    April 1, 2015 at 10:05 pm

    @Ruckus: Westerville! The home of the Anti-Saloon League.

  152. 152.

    Pogonip

    April 1, 2015 at 10:06 pm

    @Anne Laurie: Thanks! I’ll try it.

  153. 153.

    ms_canadada

    April 1, 2015 at 10:34 pm

    @WaterGirl: Why, thank you! Any Juicer who is interested in visiting is welcome to come on in. And the USD is worth 15-20% more in Canada.

  154. 154.

    jl

    April 1, 2015 at 10:40 pm

    @Ruckus:

    Sounds like a fun little town. But, then, Sin City was close by, so probably tolerable to live in.

    ‘ they did have a temperance museum in the center of town as well. ‘

    If it was a dry, drier, driest type of town, seems like a booze museum would be more appropiate.

  155. 155.

    ms_canadada

    April 1, 2015 at 10:51 pm

    @Violet: My husband took his life on March 2. I struggle to understand as I tried to use my deep love for him to save him. I am left with such an overwhelming sadness, I sometimes don’t know how to cope.
    The ‘if only’ tears me apart.
    The one thing that keeps me going is the news that I will be a first-time grandmother in August.
    The circle keeps going around and around.

  156. 156.

    Villago Delenda Est

    April 1, 2015 at 11:08 pm

    @WaterGirl: I just visited the “new” ESPN, and there is a link to Grantland, as well as 535. So it’s there, just not very prominent.

  157. 157.

    WaterGirl

    April 2, 2015 at 10:08 am

    @ms_canadada: I just came back to the thread this morning. I am so very sorry about this. I wish I had words that I thought could help. Big hugs.

    You seem like a lovely person, don’t let the “if only”s take you down too far.

    Congratulations on the upcoming birth!

  158. 158.

    Fair Economist

    April 2, 2015 at 11:32 am

    @ms_canadada: So sorry about your husband and glad you have some positive life events going to help.

  159. 159.

    sharl

    April 2, 2015 at 12:09 pm

    @ms_canadada: I am so sorry; my condolences to you. I suppose those ‘what if’s’ are an understandable early response to a loved one taking his own life, but questions that start like that are rarely (if ever) answerable, especially given that your husband took the action himself. Please be kind to yourself; you deserve (and are worthy of) that. And enjoy your new grandchild!

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