Here’s another view of Mobile Bay, this time from the less industrialized eastern shore:
There are many skeletons of destroyed docks — my guess is they were done in by Hurricane Katrina, which hit Mobile harder than many realize.
I haven’t followed current events much since I have other fish to fry at the moment, but President Obama’s proposal to make millions more Americans eligible for OT sounds encouraging. From the linked article:
Conservatives and business groups have bitterly opposed the idea, warning that it will cost jobs.
The right people are mad about it, which is always a good sign. They lied about Obamacare destroying jobs, so they’re probably lying about this too.
Anyway, that’s all I’ve got. Open thread!
Villago Delenda Est
No, it would cost these parasites hookers and blow.
The tumbrels cannot start rolling too soon.
raven
W have friends here in Athens that left Mobile after the storm and have settled in here. I remember a few years back we went to a 4th July party at their house. There were lots of younger folks there with high food consciousness so many off the dishes were labelled. Our friends mom fanned herself and said “my, I never heard of labelling food, where I am from you eat what you are served!”
srv
The favorite Republican of the John Cole’s of the Left throws his hat into the ring and doesn’t rate a mention?
raven
Of course now that they have started framing there is a big ass storm cloud coming.
Keith P.
And there was Hurricane Ivan the year before…a direct hit IIRC. That might have been the one that came back down and hit Louisiana for good measure.
Francis
So, I don’t comment here much. Mostly I just lurk. But since this is such a pet-friendly group:
Misha, my 13-year old Malinois/husky mix, died yesterday at home. He had been getting really old recently, with bad hips and a bulging disk. He also recently had recovered from a bad skin infection and the antibiotics really wiped him out. But his mood was good and his appetite was back.
Last night, he just ran out of heartbeats. I was at work; my wife was at home. She went to go feed him and she found him near his supperdish where he likes to snooze, gone.
He was my buddy! He was my best friend! And now he’s gone. My heart is breaking.
A few kind words would be much appreciated.
Francis
Betty Cracker
@raven: My granny is from the “you’ll eat it and like it” school of culinary arts too. I think people have gotten pickier with their aversion to gluten and intolerance for lactose, etc., but they can stay on my lawn as long as they contribute a side dish or bring frosty beverages.
jl
A poem in honor of ye olde tymey man woman kid marriage, back when we have character and values, every husband found joy and self-worth in supporting the home through hard work and deferential attitude towards his betters, every wife basked in the love of her strong man, and every child was above average.
Since our society, in the interests of restoring Standards, is restoring the economic conditions of the old and good way of our Ancestors, it can only be lack of character that is destroying traditional marriage and the family.
Posted in honor of David Brooks.
Mag
I wish to God I never saw you, Mag.
I wish you never quit your job and came along with me.
I wish we never bought a license and a white dress
For you to get married in the day we ran off to a minister
And told him we would love each other and take care of each other
Always and always long as the sun and the rain lasts anywhere.
Yes, I’m wishing now you lived somewhere away from here
And I was a bum on the bumpers a thousand miles away dead broke.
I wish the kids had never come
And rent and coal and clothes to pay for
And a grocery man calling for cash,
Every day cash for beans and prunes.
I wish to God I never saw you, Mag.
I wish to God the kids had never come.
Carl Sandburg
Betty Cracker
@Francis: I’m so sorry. It sounds like he went peacefully, though, which is the best we can hope for if we must lose them.
Steeplejack
@Francis:
So sorry to hear about Misha. It sounds like he had a good run. And that’s how I want to go out—snoozing by my food dish. In about 30 or 40 years.
Josie
@Francis: I’m so sorry for your loss. Thirteen years is a good run for a bigger dog, and it sounds like he went peacefully. The pain will lessen in time, but you will always have a little place for him in your heart. It’s the price we pay for loving beings whose life span is shorter than ours.
dedc79
Another judicial victory:
Sure this was an easy one, but then again, this is Oklahoma we’re talking about.
Mudge
My favorite comment about the overtime rules said that now, instead of all the income generated by the free labor for working over 40 hours going to the company, some will go to the employee. I also had to laugh at the threat to convert these salaried “managers” to hourly pay which will cause them to lose their benefits, like vacation. What benefits? Also, there is a threat to not allow overtime and hire part-time workers…the old hiring managers at hourly wages off the street trick.
raven
@Francis: Aw Francis, it hurts so much.
We who choose to surround ourselves
with lives even more temporary than our
own, live within a fragile circle;
easily and often breached.
Unable to accept its awful gaps,
we would still live no other way.
We cherish memory as the only
certain immortality, never fully
understanding the necessary plan.
— Irving Townsend
Elizabelle
@Francis: He had such a good life with you. And he could still make it to his supper dish!
Pets do not live long enough, bigger dogs especially. Know that Misha treasured seeing you and your wife, was a happy pup, even through the infirmities of old age, and that he would miss you just as much.
Hope there is another pup in your future, and relatively soon.
Paul in KY
@Keith P.: I know Ivan about destroyed Navarre Beach, FL. Never been the same, IMO (beach wrecked & just not the same after they dredged up a crapton of sand to reconstitute it).
Lynwood Allen
Euthanizing our Bichon-mix Libby was the hardest and most merciful thing I’ve had to do for a long time. sympathy to you.
raven
We’ve got plastic sheathing up where the siding was and it is blowing like mad outside.
Paul in KY
@Francis: Francis, I’m very sorry about Misha. He did get 13 glorious years with y’all. He knew he was loved.
Lynwood Allen
“Betty Cracker” is the dang best Internet name in the whole dang Internet.
JPL
@Francis: Hugs. The sadness of losing a fuzzy creature that loved you unconditionally seems unbearable, but it does get better.
Brachiator
@srv:
Wow! Holy cow! Thanks for this hot newsflash! It really means …. not a goddam thing.
Do you get paid for this weak stuff?
JPL
@Brachiator: I imagine that he made several calls that night, including to Hagel.
low-tech cyclist
Oh mama, can this really be the end,
to be stuck here inside of Mobile with the Memphis blues again?
low-tech cyclist
@srv: What, a President and his Secretary of State had a conversation, and the whole rest of the world doesn’t get to know every word of it?
MomSense
@Francis:
Hugs to you and your wife, Francis. He was loved and died snoozing in his spot. I know you will treasure your memories with Misha.
germy shoemangler
Comedian Jack Carter is dead at the age of 93… started entertaining back during WWII, continued on Broadway, nightclubs and of course the old Ed Sullivan show.
JPL
The way that I understand the overtime rules, if an employer wants to avoid overtime, they might hire an extra employee. There will be some who choose just to pay overtimes though. The Retail field is the biggest abuser of long hours and low pay for their managers.
Amir Khalid
@Brachiator:
Don’t you get it? The contents of the call are being WITHHELD! By the STATE DEPARTMENT!! Hillary ‘s got to be hiding SOMETHING!1!
Elizabelle
Ha ha. The New York Times editorial board comes out swinging. Welcome to the big leagues, Mr. Christie.
Gov. Christie’s Phony Truth-Telling
[litany of what Christie said, vs. what he actually did]
Tell us what you really think, NY Times.
Bravo!
Link to Tom Moran’s column from the NY Star-Ledger: After 14 years of watching Christie, a warning: He lies | Moran
germy shoemangler
@Amir Khalid:
Well, after this bombshell it looks like the democraps are finished. I guess we’ll be saying hello to President Trump in 2016.
JustRuss
Has anyone on the right actually laid out an explanation of how this will cost jobs? I get that argument regarding raising the minimum wage, it’s mostly BS but if you’re on razor-thin margins and wages go up, you might have to get by with fewer employees. But overtime? If there’s work to be done and paying your people OT is too expensive, you hire another position so you’re not paying OT. If anything, this is a job-creating move.
MattF
Cruz and Trump, Sittin’ In A Tree…
bystander
@Francis: For every moment of his whole life with you, Misha knew he was cared for and loved and had the best life any dog could want.
JPL
@Elizabelle: Wow!
CONGRATULATIONS!
This is a fucking lie.
Problem for those “conservatives and business groups” is that the rubes are starting to realize it’s a fucking lie.
jl
@germy shoemangler: Obviously, it was during that very phone call that Obama and HRC discussed the entire Benghazi plot in extreme detail, and not only that, but hatched, also in extreme detail (repeating the juicy bits and chucking fiendishly) the overly elaborate but in reality not very inescapable trap for Issa, that by a tragic quirk of fate, Issa did not escape. We are doomed.
Punchy
@dedc79: I will expect a OK State Consty Amendy OK’ing the placement of only Jeebus thingys on gubbment property to be debated by the end of the day.
Also, too, a law (like they did in KS) to strip all judiciary funding statewide if another court decision goes against the Admin.
tk
@Francis: thank you for giving him a good and happy life.
lurker dean
@Elizabelle: lmao at christie having his state newspaper and then the NYT call him a liar. couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.
Mike in NC
@Francis: So sorry for your loss.
Paul in KY
@germy shoemangler: Don’t forget VP Michelle Bachmann!
Jeffro
@Mudge:
Ah, that old trick! lol
This one’s such a non-brainer on so many levels. Robert Reich says it best here: youtube.com/watch?v=hWY9xD6rxnE
jl
@JPL: It just means the NYT editorial board loves Christie so much that they can’t bear to see him leave the neighborhood. Just like the good citizens of New Jersey. Why else would the NYT and most of the people be saying the same thing?
trollhattan
@Francis:
Am very sorry you’ve lost your good friend Misha. He’ll always be in your hearts, but there’s no replacing those moments when he put his muzzle on your hand, looking for a good scratching. We do love our doggies so.
Jeffro
@MattF: I can see Trump being Cruz’s sugar daddy, his Foster Friess or Sheldon Adelson, easily. There’s not a bit of daylight between them, especially in terms of shamelessness.
trollhattan
Here’s the DOL fact sheet on the proposed overtime rule. Pegging it to inflation (40th wage percentile) is the really important bit, IMO.
catclub
@Steeplejack:
I want to go out like my grandfather, in my sleep, not screaming in terror like his passengers.
trollhattan
@Jeffro:
Cruz clearly already thinks he’s HYOOUGE! so they have that in common.
JPL
@jl: I’m expecting him to fund raise off of the negative news.
the Conster
@Francis:
My heart is broken too, for you. Worst days of your life, these are. Now I’m going to go have a good cry for Misha and the life that you gave him, and he gave you.
trollhattan
@catclub: Emo Phillips?
Jeffro
@JustRuss: Yes – see Reich video at #43 above, it’s great at explaining this.
I do think most people will understand (because in all likelihood, they have a friend or family member in this situation) that the affected workers have essentially been having that OT work ‘stolen’ from them, uncompensated, by their company (meaning big business, shareholders, rich people). Under the new rule they’ll either get paid for it, or not have to work so hard for the same $, all while someone else picks up a PT or FT job to do the work.
Let’s see the Rs try and spin this one anyplace other than Fox News (and maybe not even then)…
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Obama: “So, Hillz, that attack happened, just like my Presidential Daily Briefing yesterday said it would? Damn, I with I hadn’t decided to play a night round of golf with Beyonce and Bill Ayers, instead of getting in my personal teleporter to stop it like John McCain would have! But I shot an 86! I just hope Darrell Issa doesn’t find out”.
Clinton: “Chill, Bamz. I was fiendishly plotting to get the Saudi royal family to pay for AIDS medication in impoverished countries, in return for selling them American weapons for the first time ever, but I had time to email Sid Blumenthal and order to break in to the glove compartment of your limo and burn the scorecard. I hope he deleted the order. But he is diabolically clever”
Obama: “Okay, you’ve covered my ass. You can stand down now.”
Clinton: “No worries. Now I just gotta break into my secret server to burn the copy of the email Lindsey Graham sent me that was entitled “Ansar Al-Sharia rumored to possibly be determined to strike a diplomatic mission in a provincial city in Libya”
Steeplejack
@catclub:
Heh, my brother and I laugh about that one on a regular basis.
Elizabelle
@JPL:
From Tom Moran’s article: 4th paragraph:
and
Yep.
PS: I take some issue with “They can’t be expected to know this stuff.” ABC TV is a national network, with lots of staff. Problem is, it’s more infotainment than seriousness. “This Week” is painful to watch (so I don’t).
Fox News channel? Republican propaganda. But if it was a “real” network, the same standard would apply.
rikyrah
it pisses me off that they remotely would give this case any consideration.
there were 42 WHITE students who got admitted over her mediocre ass, but the NON-WHITE students are why she didn’t get in?
GET DA PHUQ OUTTA HERE.
SlateVerified account
@Slate SCOTUS might destroy affirmative action because this white woman’s grades weren’t good enough: slate.me/1g71TY0
ET
That looks like the Mississippi Gulf Coast for 20+ years after Betsy. They are coming back from Katrina faster that Katrina.
dw
@Francis:
I’m so sorry on the loss of your beloved Misha.
Sherparick
@Francis: It is just a big kick in the gut for you and your family. I am so sorry.
“The death of a beloved is an amputation.”
― C.S. Lewis, A Grief Observed
But also, the memories will live on. He will always be there, waiting for you to come home.
CONGRATULATIONS!
@Francis: It has been almost two years since I had to put my dear heart Hannah down. She didn’t want to go (the world still had bacon) but there was no way to stay: when you can’t walk, or drag yourself out of the sun, or get to the food bowl, there’s not much left in the way of options. And making that call was easily the hardest thing I have ever done in my life, absolutely heartbreaking, and my wife and I miss her like hell to this day.
There is nothing that can be said to make this right. There will be, as my dad said (a stern, taciturn man who I would have bet my life savings didn’t have the capacity to say something like this, and then proved me to be fucking wrong and an asshole to boot by saying it, and at the exact right time no less) a dog-shaped mark on your heart for the rest of your life.
It’s OK. We are the scars we bear. It does get better. Very, very slowly.
I will offer you this: as deaths go, Misha literally had the best one possible. Napping in the favorite spot by the food bowl. Nobody posting here today is likely to go out that well. It’s a small consolation but it will become more important as time goes on.
mai naem mobile
@Francis: Francis, I’m so sorry. Thirteen is a good run for a big dog and it sounds like he was pretty healthy till relatively recently so thats good. You obviously loved him tons.
catclub
from Political Animal:
.
I am surprised that the early betting is favoring a yes. Of course, none of the reporting is from Greece.
Jeffro
Possible R spins (and some counter-spin thoughts) on the new OT ruling:
1) “Since Worker X was getting paid $120/wk to essentially do 60 hrs/wk of work, businesses are now justified in cutting Worker X’s pay to $80/wk since he’ll only be doing 40 hrs/wk now.” Possible, but most businesses won’t want to lose their best FT people this way. Also, that’s fine – there’s still 20 hrs/wk of work to be done (assuming the business is going to stay at the same level of productivity) – and someone’s going to get paid for it (instead of it being taken for free by the business).
2) “This will impact benefits now, too”. A) what benefits? B) Obamacare will cover the health end c) same as above – most businesses won’t want to lose their best FT people this way
3) “Businesses will just replace a 60 hr/wk worker with two 30 hr/wk workers – no OT and no benefits”. Yeah, but they could have done that already. And again, at least someone (or several someones) will be getting paid for all 60 hours.
Additional thoughts?
catclub
@ET:
Of course, 4 years after Betsy was Camille.
The gambling establishments were the first thing back. That did not happen in the 1970’s.
Betty Cracker
@ET: I grew up hearing stories about Hurricane Betsy.
Brachiator
@JustRuss:
The easy and lazy thing to do is to simply assert that “forcing” a higher wage cost on employers will always result in a loss of jobs. There are even honest economists who will do this, and prove it with the appropriate formulae.
But the real world is more complicated. Some years ago, California toughened some job rules related to who is an exempt vs an hourly employee, and other rules. The net result was to increase wage costs, including overtime pay, and benefits. The overall impact was to make sure that employees were treated fairly, but it eliminated a lot of flexibility. So instead of overtime pay, some businesses would give an extra day off, or a year end bonus that was good, but less than the equivalent OT pay.
Most companies adjusted. But some were actually tipped over the line and, because of other factors as well as wages, went out of business. One company I did business with moved to another state. In the new state, they had much lower wage costs, but also had trouble hiring sufficiently capable employees. This has resulted in an overall decline in the quality of their products and customer service, but their profits are still good and shareholders are happy.
Julie
@Francis: I’m so sorry about Misha. We just had to made the very hard decision to say goodbye to our ailing almost-11 year old Great Pyrenees girl Kayla. She was our 5th dog, and it never gets easier. Hugs to you.
Spinoza Is My Co-pilot
@Francis:
My heart breaks for you since I – like many others here – have experienced the very thing you are going through right now. Your sweet buddy died on his own, so you were spared the sad duty of easing him out yourself, which is always a difficult decision to make even when you “know” it’s the right time.
Fascinating (isn’t it?) how we can love creatures of a different species from us, and they (I have no doubt) can love us back. If we didn’t love, it wouldn’t hurt, of course.
Like all grief, only time heals, and even then there is always some pain to go with the happy memories no matter how long it’s been. The old cliché is absolutely true, though: better to have loved and lost…
In my 6 decades I’ve lost a number of such wonderful furry friends, and I remember them all clearly. Our current pack has 3 members, one of whom is the most “junkyard” dog I’ve ever had. He’s 13 and just this year has begun significantly slowing down. Still tough as nails, but I don’t expect we’ll have him with us very much longer. For some ineffable reason both my wife and I expect his passing will hit us harder than any other has yet. Between then and now we are giving, and receiving, all the affection that we can.
My heart breaks for you.
Paul in KY
@CONGRATULATIONS!: Man, that’s a nice writeup!
boatboy_srq
@Francis: [[HUGS]]
Losing a pup like that is never an easy experience. Sounds like you had quite the partner there with Misha. And sounds like (not tomorrow, but sometime not too far off) you’ll find someone much like him.
Riley's Enabler
@Francis: Sending white light your way. It’s so hard to lose our furbabies. I’m glad you were able to give him 13 wonderful years. I’m so sorry.
gelfling545
@Francis: So sad for you. At least you were spared an agonizing decision. I hope you soon can take comfort remembering having received all that love
trollhattan
In other news, Gov Jerry the Awesome has signed the new California vaccine bill, which eliminates opting out for anything but medical reasons. The anti-vaxxers have been pulling out the stops while it wound its way through the legislature, putting cartoon ads in the paper featuring the likes of children’s gravestones and today, a full-page plea to the gov to not sign it (complete with a photo of Jerry with dad, for reasons I cannot quite figure).
The political coin has completely flipped on the issue, going from all DFHs all the time to being the darling of the get-gummint-outta-mah-pants crowd. Am trying to find out whether the bill got a single Republican vote.
The anti folks are promising endless vigils at the Capitol until the law is reversed. Wishing them luck on day one, with a predicted 108-degree high.
ThresherK (GPad)
@Jeffro: Oh, no. That means I’ll only get to work 40 hrs a week at my now-OT-exempt salaried job!
ruemara
@Francis: I’m so sorry. My heart breaks with you. Take comfort in the joy you had together and that he went while at home, knowing his family was caring for him.
MazeDancer
@Francis:
So very sad for you, many condolences. The price we pay for all that joy we get from their all too short lives is having to let them go. He was happy, he was loved, he is not suffering. Actually, exactly what you would hope would be the case for your boy. But it’s such horrid pain for you. Everyone here who has ever had a pet understands.
May the wonderful love you and your pup shared get you through it all.
Tommy
@trollhattan: Good for Jerry. I’ve always liked the guy and this makes me like him even more.
Gavin
I spent a full week for each of 5 summers with members of my church in Ocean Springs, MS [across the bridge from Mobile] helping to restore homes destroyed by Katrina. It’s a great little part of the country..
Betty: One of your dinners while you’re there absolutely must be BBQ at The Shed! That restaurant was featured on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives.. and is pretty much amazing.
gogol's wife
@Francis:
You describe him so well. I’m very sorry — I’m sure he loved you very much and knew you loved him.
gogol's wife
@germy shoemangler:
I said to my brother, “I had no idea he was still alive.” He said, “Yeah, well, now he isn’t.”
My husband the Combat! fan remembers his guest shot on that program. I guess he was like Jerry Lewis, giving dramatic acting a try.
Elizabelle
@trollhattan: Have we figured out why the anti-vaxxers are clothing themselves in red shirts?
Is it in solidarity with disease markers?
Can they possibly get a clue that it’s not just about “their” children?
Linnaeus
This doesn’t look very good:
(h/t to LGM)
Iowa Old Lady
@Francis: So sorry. It’s hard to let them go. You did right by him, though.
ThresherK
@Francis: Condolences on the loss of your beloved pet and companion.
Tommy
@Elizabelle: How about it. I am a proud hippie liberal and I bet I fall pretty far to the left as it relates to alternative medicines. Not wanting to take a ton of pills. But these anti-vaxxers make NO sense to me. And as you rightfully noted it isn’t just about their children. If we as an advance society can’t agree that vaccines are a very good thing I really don’t even know what to say.
WereBear
@Francis: No such thing as “only a dog.” I’m so sorry for the loss of your best friend.
germy shoemangler
@rikyrah:
flukebucket
I need help and do not even know how to ask the question.
Way back in 2009, just after he was first elected, the Obama administration was going to implement some kind of economic policy stipulating that for any work over a specific amount of money done businesses were going to be required to file some kind of paperwork that the right hand side of the aisle just swore would completely destroy the economy.
Does anybody have any idea what I am talking about? Hell, I barely do.
Patricia Kayden
@Francis: ((hugs)) to you and your family. Sorry to hear of your loss but sounds like your beloved dog had a great life.
Roger Moore
@Jeffro:
It’s easier than you think. If they can’t steal wages, they’ll have to pay employees more for the same work, and that means they’ll have to charge more to avoid
reducing their hookers and blowgoing out of business. This is essentially the same argument they always use: improving the lot of people at the bottom of the ladder will mean less for the people at the top. It sells pretty well to people a few rungs up the ladder. They’re doing well enough that they don’t think the changes will help them, but they’re in a precarious enough position that they are worried about anything that might increase their costs even a little. And, naturally, it sells to anyone who has no empathy for people less well off than they are, who see their own loss and don’t give a damn about how much it helps anyone else.JustRuss
@flukebucket: Rings a bell, but my memory is no better than yours. But I do think that was a thing. Of course, everything Obama did was going to destroy the economy, so might be hard to nail down.
trollhattan
@Roger Moore:
The cruelest part of all: to stay in bidnez they’ll have to start serving the gheys!
Roger Moore
@Elizabelle:
I still think it’s a Star Trek reference.
Tommy
@Roger Moore: OK that is kind of funny.
delk
@Francis: “I have sometimes thought of the final cause of dogs having such short lives and I am quite satisfied it is in compassion to the human race; for if we suffer so much in losing a dog after an acquaintance of ten or twelve years, what would it be if they were to live double that time? The misery of keeping a dog is his dying so soon. But, to be sure, if he lived for fifty years and then died, what would become of me?” – Sir Walter Scott
gogol's wife
@delk:
Beautiful.
ETA: That goes for cats, too, although I doubt Sir Walter would agree.
Cacti
Rand Paul’s minority outreach efforts continue apace…
Cliven Bundy tells Politico he was given a 45-minute face to face meeting with candidate Paul.
Link
NotMax
@Gavin
Refused to watch that after it was revealed what a rabid homophobe Fieri is.
raven
@Elizabelle: This is a FB post from a kabala friend who lived in LA. Don’t bother telling me what I should tell him because I frankly don’t give a fuck what he thinks.
The War On Personal and Religious Belief Exemptions
Vaccination bills have been introduced all across the country seeking to end our ability and/or our children’s ability to opt-out of the vaccination program through the use of personal and/or religious belief exemptions. We are told over and over in mainstream media and by the pharmaceutical industry through their representative politicians that we have a health crises, that vaccines are safe, that vaccines are required, and that we must get them or we and/or our children will suffer severe consequences. Those consequences could include paying for an alternative education (e.g., needing to homeschool), getting a “deadly disease,” being publicly shamed, or that we are endangering the rest of the population by not allowing ourselves to be guinea pigs of the pharmaceutical industry.
trollhattan
@Cacti:
Get the heck outtahere. Li’l Randy is really that stupid, isn’t he?
bemused
@Francis:
My heart is aching for you. They give unconditional love and give us so much fun and joy. We have been through this many times and always remind ourselves how much they loved us and that they had very happy lives. Doesn’t make the missing them less heartbreaking but it is a bit of comfort.
And yet we still go on the journey again with the next sweet pup or kitty, 2 dogs and 2 cats right now. We think and talk often of our departed critters while enjoying and treasuring our current companions marveling at all their own unique personalities. One thing is the same about all of them is that unconditional love.
PurpleGirl
@Francis: Francis, I hope you come back to read more of the thread ’cause… BJers are great about sending condolences on the loss of a pet pal. {{{Hugs}}}.
Tommy
@raven: Wow. Some of my FB friends that can come off the rails from time to time don’t think this shit.
My grandfather was a small town rural doctor. But he spent almost every minute he wasn’t working reading medical journals and attending conferences. To say he wasn’t a big fan of the pharmaceutical industry would be an understatement.
When they wanted to give me some drugs because I might have ADD he stepped in and say no way you are doing that to my grandson. Heck when my brother was 11 he had the bone structure of a five-year-old. They put him in a test for human growth hormones. My grandfather was so against it, it actually caused a huge rift in the family. But in this instance they actually worked.
But the vaccines I didn’t get at school, and back in the 70s that was how that was done, he gave me. He had no problem with them because they freaking work!
CONGRATULATIONS!
@trollhattan: No vaccine against stupidity or heat.
I hope they all die of heatstroke.
Tommy
@Francis: I had a little kitten I loved with all my heart. She got very, very sick. The vet said they could keep her alive but almost everyday would be painful for her. She’d never really have any good days, just not so bad days.
I had to make the decision to end her life.
This was the first time I had a pet that died and it hit me far harder than I would have thought. Tore me up.
I had a friend that rescues greyhounds. Has 14 of them at last count. His passion in life. He told me I took that cat from a shelter where her death was sure. I loved her. Gave her a loving home. I made her apart of my life.
That was all she could have asked for and I should think happy thoughts and not kick myself. It was advice that wasn’t easy to take but I tried hard to do it and it did make me feel better.
bemused
@Tommy:
I said unconditional love from our pets but should have qualified that a bit for kitties. They love us in their own way, not what anyone would say unconditional but it is love and trust. I remember leaving one kitty at the vets and he had to stay there until I was done working. When I picked him up, he crawled into my lap and wrapped his front legs around my neck, he was so happy to see me. Sure, he wanted out of there and knew I would be taking him home but still it was a lovely kitty experience.
Brachiator
Some fun and interesting Twitter tributes to Bree Newsome, the woman who took down the Confederate flag in South Carolina:
bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-33250663
Cervantes
@flukebucket:
It is possible you’re thinking of additional 1099 reporting requirements (and associated penalties) introduced in 2009-2010, partly in the PPACA. Some of these were repealed when the new Congress came along in 2011.
MazeDancer
Bobby Jindal’s campaign thought it would be a great idea to stage an open Twitter Q & A with the candidate. Just use the hashtag #AskBobby.
As you can imagine, as anyone with just a couple day’s use of Twitter can imagine, it’s a disaster. I thought it was just another prank hashtag. But no. It’s real.
Interestingly, Conservatives and Liberals alike are zinging in the snarks and assaults. So, it appears, for Governor Jindal, “Both sides do it”.
Brachiator
What are you going to do with your extra time?
bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-33330301
Iowa Old Lady
@MazeDancer: What is so hard for these people to grasp about the perils of twitter?
They should take a look at the Ask the Author thing E.L. James just did.
Tommy
@bemused: My cats are odd creatures. My current cat I found eight years ago. I was at a Super Bowl party and these young kids where throwing her in a kiddy pool and laughing as she tried to live.
I marched over there and had some very stern words and took her home.
She was just a little kitten and so scared of humans she’d run into walls if I entered the room. I countless spend hours laying in a fetal position until she got used to me.
We built this bond. She is rarely more than a few feet from me at any time. She needs my attention almost 24/7 and I flat out love it. People come over to my house and are somewhat stunned she follows me around more like a dog than a cat.
When her time on this earth ends it will crush me. Not a day I look forward to.
Elizabelle
@Iowa Old Lady: If twitter did not exist, snark would have to invent it.
Betty Cracker
@Iowa Old Lady: I’m amazed at that too. Has any Twitter Q&A ever gone well for any candidate in the history of the universe? It’s always a troll-a-thon.
Tommy
@MazeDancer: I don’t like Stephen A. Smith much on ESPN. He yells too much. But he has this thing he says about Twitter.
If that isn’t about the best advice ever I don’t know what is.
Iowa Old Lady
@Elizabelle:
#AskBobby
A third of Louisiana Republicans blame Obama for Katrina.
Is this a result of their school choice?
ETA:
Did the same staffer who suggested the creepy stalker pre-announcement video suggest #AskBobby? If so, will you fire him?
#AskBobby Now that gay marriage is mandatory will you be proposing to Santorum or is he going to propose to you?
This is like shooting fish in a barrel.
MazeDancer
@Iowa Old Lady:
The idea that any alleged “Social Media Director” for any candidate for any office would think opening up the candidate to “questions” on Twitter is a great idea is impossible to compute.
Plenty comments on Twitter about #AskBobby saying basically if you don’t know how Twitter works, how can you run a country.
There was a West Wing episode where Josh decided to post on a forum that was actually about him. “LemonLymond” was the site name. And CJ and Donna did everything they could to stop him. But he did anyway. And, of course, craziness and hostility erupted from the forum posters.
Sadly, when Hillary’s campaign posts any basic “get on board” kind of tweet, the replies are filled with hate, vitriol, and beyond sexism to misogyny.
Elizabelle
@Iowa Old Lady: Some fish deserve shooting more than others.
Keep ’em coming!
Tommy
@Iowa Old Lady: Both myself and my dad went to LSU. We’re not from the state but still have a lot of friends there. After Katrina hit Bobby got a lot of good will. Moderates were praising him. He, at least to them, seemed like the “smart” person in the room.
Then he gets elected governor and goes off the rails. People that were at one time praising him now can’t find a single nice thing to say about him.
Brachiator
@Iowa Old Lady: Poor Bobby Jindal can’t catch a break.
Some folks in India are also having Twitter fun at Jindal’s expense, for apparently downplaying his heritage.
washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2015/06/25/why-is-bobby-jindal-being-called-white-on-twitter/
bemused
@Tommy:
We have 2 kitties, litter mates, and one is shy and nervous. She’s not that way with us, not anymore, because she trusts us. Our kids live far away so they are not here enough for her to learn that they aren’t boogymen and love kitties. She growls and spits at them. That frustrates one son who tries (too hard I tell him) to make friends with her. I told him on the phone that he should see kitty snuggling with me and kneading the heck out of me. He laughed and said I had to be lying. I need have my husband take a video to prove it to our son.
MazeDancer
@Tommy:
Very good advice.
For political candidates, Twitter is kind of like a nuclear warhead aimed at your foot and you don’t have the codes but everyone else does. “No open sessions” is the law.
Though for celebs to their fanbase having a spontaneous “Twitter Party” often works well. Celeb tweets to followers “I’ve got a few minutes, let’s have a Twitter Party” and happy fans gush and ask things. Rest of the time, fans tweet good, great, fabulous, bad, and disgusting like all of Twitter.
J R in WV
Francis,
I too grieve for your loss. Know that Misha loved you guys, and knew that you would protect him to the best of your ability. He died in his place, where he felt secure, and where if he had made it through the night, he would have had another dinner. And he knew that.
It was important to him, which is one reason you had a schedule to feed him by. And you know that he loved you too.
Don’t wait too long to rescue someone else who needs a safe place to be with you.
Best wishes!
JR
Roger Moore
@CONGRATULATIONS!:
I don’t. I hope they change their minds and get their kids vaccinated. That would be a much better outcome for everyone.
Tommy
@Brachiator: Ok that is pretty funny.
I really wonder what he is trying to run away from. When I lived in DC and worked in NOVA my last job was in a building owned by Cable & Wireless. Their Bluetooth division before anybody knew what Bluetooth was.
Most of the engineers were from India. I didn’t know much about their nation or culture, but became close friends with a few of them. He comes from a nation with a rich heritage I’d think he’d want to embrace.
But what the heck do I know ….
Mandalay
Some new laws kick in tomorrow in Florida:
– There are tax cuts on the cost of gun club memberships and luxury boat repairs
– There is a mandatory 24-hour waiting period before women can have abortions.
– People convicted of soliciting prostitutes now face harsher penalties. First-time offenders face a $5,000 fine.
All part of Governor Scott’s plan to roll us back to the nineteenth century.
Betty Cracker
@MazeDancer: CJ Cregg tells it like it is [YouTube].
catclub
@Tommy: Kathleen Blanco was governor of LA in 2005. She was absolutely sabotaged by the Bush administration in recovery funds and aid. Contrast with Mississippi and Governor Haley Barbour.
Also contrast with Chris Christie and how NJ fared under a different administration.
Tommy
@bemused: Yeah that is what I have going on to some extent. My parents visit about once a month and stay with me to see their grandkid since I have a lot more room than my brother does.
It takes my cat about 2 days to “warm” up to them. But when she does they are blown away by how friendly she is.
Tommy
@catclub: Yes I know. I maintained a blog for almost four years after Katrina hit logging what was going on. I read more about it than I care to admit and what Bush, FEMA, you name it did to the state was a crime.
bemused
@Tommy:
Dogs are pushovers more or less. Kitties are a challenge which makes it fun when you break through that “you looking at me” attitude. Our kitties follow us around too, grab our legs when we walk by and come when called even when it’s not mealtime.
Iowa Old Lady
@Betty Cracker: I love CJ. Thanks for the link.
Brachiator
@Tommy:
Strictly speaking, I got no problems with Jindal’s perspective:
A guy I know, who owns an Armenian restaurant, blows off customers, including some friends and relatives, who keep talking about the old country and who expect him to have strict allegiance to the old ways, religions and customs. He once gruffly noted, “I came her to get away from all that shit.”
But there is just something about Jindal that invites ridicule. And too many in his party talk a good talk about diversity, but go out of their way to single out and demonize people because of their ethnicity, and seem to only prefer people like Jindal or Nikki Haley who explicitly embrace Christianity and other approved emblems of being “American.”
MazeDancer
@Betty Cracker:
West Wing clip! CJ is so fabulous dressing down Josh to stay away from the crazies on the internet. (Yay, Allison Janney! Yay, really good, really wordy dialogue, Mr. Sorkin!)
IIRC, Josh does not heed CJ, but continues to post and the Internet delivers.
Tommy
@bemused: My cat comes when called as well. I make a clicking sound with my tongue on the roof of my mouth and she is here in seconds.
My cat is also very vocal. I can mimic her meows pretty well and at times it almost seems like we are talking, I am just not sure what I am saying :).
Aleta
@Francis:
Sending deep sympathy. Playing certain music helped me a lot during the worst part of my similar grief. Don’t know if this will help, but when I lost my amazing cat and I couldn’t bear it, here are some lines I grieved to. I took them out of a poem by Emerson. (He wrote it in memory of his brothers.)
My good, my noble, in their prime,
Who made this world the feast it was,
Who learned with me the lore of time,
Who loved this dwelling-place.
Hearken to yon pine warbler
Singing aloft in the tree;
Hearest thou, O traveller!
What he singeth to me?
Go, lonely man, it saith,
They loved thee from their birth,
Their hands were pure, and pure their faith,
There are no such hearts on earth.
Betty Cracker
@Iowa Old Lady: She’s my favorite character on the show. I think this is one of her funniest moments.
Roger Moore
@bemused:
Cats can be just as friendly to humans as dogs are. My cat likes to hang out by my bedroom window. He says hi to people who walk by and wants them to pretend to pet him through the glass. If they’re heading in the general direction of my door, he goes to the door, hoping they’re coming by to visit him. They aren’t all that friendly, but then again, not all dogs are friendly to strangers, either. It’s just that an unfriendly cat will tend to hide from strangers, while an unfriendly dog is a lot more likely to threaten or attack them. Why this is supposed to be an indication that dogs are much more people friendly than cats is beyond me.
Tommy
@Brachiator: I get what you are saying even if I disagree a little. I think a great thing about having immigrants from all over the world is them bring their culture (and food for me) here.
I grew up in rural small town America. When I lived in DC for all those years the diverse cultures was so freaking cool. That for most days I ate lunch at a Thai or Iranian place. Or about my favorite place was Moroccan and we sat on the floor and ate with our hands.
raven
@Betty Cracker: They are remaking “The Secret in Their Eyes”!
Roger Moore
@Brachiator:
I’ll accept that argument the moment rich and white Americans top treating poor and minority Americans like something nasty they stepped in.
Tommy
@Roger Moore: I’ve always felt that pets, if owned from a young age, are a direct reflection of their owner.
I’ve never had a dog but so want one. People joke that dogs often look like their owners. I so see this because when I ponder the type of dog to get I want a dog that enjoys the things I enjoy. I want an active dog. I got this fitness bracelet and I try to walk 20,000 steps a day. I want a dog that will bring his lease to me with the look in his/her eyes of LETS GO WALK!
chopper
@Roger Moore:
it’s also cribbed pretty heavily from a speech by TR.
jl
@Brachiator:
” But there is just something about Jindal that invites ridicule. ‘
Repeatedly saying ridiculous things, and repeatedly making disastrous and ridiculous decisions for Louisiana help.
#Bobbyjindalissowhite tweets are hilarious and clever.
it’s Jindal’s own business how he handles his heritage. Even though I don’t like his policies, i think a recent WaPo article on his heritage was a cheap shot, and gossipy BS. What do I care what some more or less random guy who knew his cousins (or whatever) in HS thinks about Jindal’s approach to his heritage?
But, if he inspires ridicule about it from public, here and in India, that is his problem.
jl
@Roger Moore: Or maybe after we get over white pols can celebrate their own ethnic or regional heritage (ham biscuit and grits anyone?) , while when others do it they risk getting slammed by Fox News and similar ilk for being divisive, or not being ‘real’ Americans and other BS. Which may be a more polite was of saying what you did.
trollhattan
@jl:
Running for president requires Jindal to hide and obfuscate pretty much everything he’s done as governor, which in turn requires him to literally be a liar and charlatan. Everything else is window-dressing, and a distraction.
Brachiator
@Tommy:
I don’t think we disagree. I figure that people who come here are free to be who they want to be. You see this also in the history of the nation itself, for example in men and women who moved out west after the Civil War and deliberately shook off the cultures they lived under in the cities they formally lived in.
In America pizza and hamburgers and frankfurters are American foods, not Italian or German. I live in Southern California, and during the Rose Bowl Game and Parade, the squares come out from the midwest, enter a Chinese or Thai restaurant, and stick up their noses and ask “what’s that?” Meanwhile, black, white, and Asian kids swoop in, order up the wildest combinations of stuff and go about their business, because this is not “ethnic food,” it’s just food. One of my favorite food joints downtown served up the Kosher Burrito, with pastrami, cheese and beans. A coffee shop in a largely Japanese American area served up scrambled eggs, white rice and cha shu (Chinese BBQ pork). That’s the way to have a breakfast.
And of course, in LA, you can drive up Sepulveda in your Toyota, hang a right on Rodeo, stop and get some sushi on your way to a yoga class.
The big lie is that the US consists of distinct communities. I cannot find it anymore, but I once ran across a journal on the Internets, in which a Frenchman wrote how all the English in the West Indies walked and talked like Africans. And it’s beyond ironic that some Southerners (and other folks) think that the banjo is a “white” instrument. This US has always been mixed, and always encouraged immigrants to add to the pile of whatever America is.
And it’s not just America. When I travelled in India, one of our guides noted how some of the (Muslim) Mughal architecture was built by Indian craftsmen. The Mughal rulers demanded that all decoration be acceptably Islamic. The guide then happily pointed out the distinctly Hindu lotus blossoms decorating many palaces.
Distinct, mixed, fully assimilationist. It’s all good.
Francis
TO ALL MY FRIENDS HERE:
Thanks very much from the bottom of my heart for all your kind words. On a very tough day, this thread has made my life a little easier.
Now go home and snuggle all the life forms who love you.
Love,
Francis
Tommy
@jl: I mentioned in another comment my father got his PhD from LSU. I got my MA there. My family has deep connections to the state.
Bobby is cutting $600M in funding. The University, and I am on their mailing list, is freaking out. They have a plan in place to declare bankruptcy.
Now I am a “homer” but it is the flagship university of the state. Some (I would) say the region. He is going to gut the place just so he can say he didn’t raise taxes on the campaign trail.
jl
@Tommy: I’ve loved the time I’ve spent in Louisiana, and am disgusted at what scoundrels like Jindal and Walker are doing to these great universities.
Roger Moore
@jl:
More or less. If rich white people don’t like how those categories are being used to divide us up, maybe they shouldn’t have invented them for that purpose in the first place.
Tommy
@Brachiator:
Yes I think we are in agreement. All you just said I agree with for the most part. You live in LA I guess. I used to live in DC before moving back to rural IL. Many here don’t understand that much of the food in my house because it isn’t “American.”
I just think there is a whole other world out there and maybe we should try to experience it. It seems you have by traveling, I need to do more of that, so good for you!
Tommy
@jl: LSU. LSU. LSU. My father and I fly LSU flags and banners outside our homes here in Illinois. LSU!!!!!!!
It pains me what is being done.
I don’t often give advice to people but if you had a son or daughter and they were looking for a school, I would suggest LSU and never fear I was wrong in the suggestion.
Oh and Baton Rouge is a wonderful town.
Brachiator
@Tommy: How does Jindal and the state legislature justify the cuts they are making? Do they have the guts to say that they don’t think that public education is important?
Is there some idea here that all of government must get smaller? I don’t get what the motivations here could be.
Elizabelle
@Francis: Hugs. Just hugs.
Tree With Water
@jl: William Tecumseh Sherman was the first president of LSU, and literally wept trying to talk sense to the same breed of cat in 1860. The school lost a lot of promising undergraduate talent over the next four years because the fools refused to heed his words.
satby
@Francis: Francis, I hope you’re checking back and reading this. I’m so sorry for your family’s loss. It was Misha’s time, and he must have gone peacefully to sleep. Isn’t hat the way we all would want to go? I know it’s so hard when they’re gone, I lost 3 of my own rescues this year. Always remember that you gave him what is a dog’s heaven on earth, a loving family and a safe home. They ask for nothing more, and when they have it they have everything a dog can dream of.
Deepest condolences!
Tommy
@Brachiator: They got nothing. Just no tax increases.
ms_canadada
@Francis: Hello Francis,
Losing your buddy is soooo hard. I lost my Hurricane Katrina rescue dog, Sally, in 2014. (Yes, quite a large number of dogs ended up in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada).
I still miss my girl, as she was a beautiful, loving companion. I truly feel your pain.
Within a month, I rescued an abandoned beagle hound, Scooter, who is the most loving dog I’ve ever had. My terrier, Rufus, was rescued from a puppy mill, back in 2007. He’s now blind and has diabetes, growths on his hips, and is incontinent. I cannot let him go, although he’s costing me a small fortune, as he was my husband’s buddy (my husband took his life on March 2.)
I truly feel your pain and suffering. Take care, my friend. It will become easier with time, although it will take a long time.
Elizabelle
@ms_canadada: Hugs to you too. And I love that you rescued a beagle hound. I heart beagles.
Sourmash
@Francis: I am so sorry. I lost a dog last fall and came here for support. The people didn’t disappoint. I hope your pain is eventually overwhelmed by the memories of joy and love your puppy brought into your life. Peace.
rikyrah
@Francis:
Sorry for your loss.
Another Holocene Human
@raven: Where I am from, party-interrupting drives to the ER are a thing!
Another Holocene Human
@Jeffro: Businesses will pay their scutwork managers over the threshold and continue to demand the 80+ hour weeks and total devotion to the company.
I thought I heard they’re proposing $50K (less than Robert Reich is calling for). Shit, most lesser companies pay their wannabe Hitlers more than that already. This will only impact the sleaziest businesses. Cellphone resellers, check cashing/payday loans, MV Transportation….
J/K, MV only pays their drivers less than $50K. Managers are paid blood money.
Another Holocene Human
@Brachiator:
Well, thank heaven for that!
Ruckus
Many mfg jobs used to pay overtime regularly. At my shop it was very, very rare to pay less than 44 hrs. (9 M-T, 8 on F) and quite often we worked 52 per week. And these were reasonably high paying craft jobs. And other than working people too much we could have worked more. Over time at time and 1/2 is cheaper than another worker at full time.
All the conservative bitching is the same bullshit as always. Someone may be getting a slightly bigger piece of the supposedly zero sum pie and therefore not suffering enough. Fuck them.
Ruckus
@Francis:
@ms_canadada:
It does get easier. Not a lot but enough. It’s tough losing your friends, especially the furry ones, because they didn’t really care that you are an imperfect being. You cared for them and that means a lot. You don’t have to stop caring for them in your mind. And you won’t.