I’m on my way to visit my old gran and had to stop at a car wash on the way. Otherwise, she’ll complain about being expected to ride in a besmirched conveyance. She’s fancy that way. Open thread!
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by Betty Cracker| 121 Comments
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MattF
I’ve had it with you-know-who, so here’s puppies. Note:
1) Pressing the spacebar brings up moar puppies.
2) The images are large animated GIFs, so be patient and let them load.
scav
May there be nothing lumpy, crumbled or otherwise disturbing under the car seat of the discerning aged one!
NotMax
After this week’s episode, haven’t a clue of the path the plot in Mr. Robot is going to take.
But anxious to find out.
Only one more episode to go this year, so know shall be on tenterhooks until the second season.
@Betty Cracker
Or maybe she just gets a little lift from riding through car washes.
Arm The Homeless
George Will has a piece comparing T-Rump’s policies to Nazis.
Ole Ben Domenech’s vanity project overrun with White Nationalists in the comments. 4Chan, /pol/ and Stormfront have made his site their new HQ.
I am both repulsed and elated at these happenings.
Popcornz for everyone!
Brachiator
Taylor Swift kicks off a series of sold out shows at Staples Center, is declared to be Princess of America by her fans. It’s cool to be preteen and not care about the world’s craziness.
Hal
Im still trying to figure out the difference between what Trump is saying and what the GOP is and has been saying for decades. The party of the southern strategy and the angry white man that openly embraced Jessie Helms and Strom Thurmon until the day they died is shocked and offended?
NotMax
@Arm The Homeless
That would be Ben “I’ve never met a paragraph I couldn’t appropriate and pass off as my own” Domenech, yes?
dmsilev
@Hal: Trump is saying out loud things that the GOP has preferred to whisper over the last few decades. That’s really about it.
low-tech cyclist
Betty – just in case you’ve stopped checking comments on that earlier thread, just how do you go from seeing some geezer’s obituary to trying to buy their car?
I’m clear on the nature of the opportunity, just not sure how one would go about taking advantage of it.
If you’ve already responded in the other thread, just ignore this comment and keep going. Thanks!
NotMax
@dmsilev
One almost surmises he’s paid to have a custom-made version of Blazing Saddles done up for himself, with the bell’s clang excised.
Arm The Homeless
@Hal: When life hands you roosting chickens, make chicken-aid.
@NotMax: Oh, yes, the plagiarist extraordinaire. I am having a great time picking out which of his commenters are simply trolling the nazis, and which are the real deal. The regulars are being used as chew toys while Ben has been branded a dirty jew, #cuckservative, and race traitor.
All the freudes will be shaden-ed
low-tech cyclist
@Arm The Homeless:
He’s ridden the conservative movement to the land of crazy, and now he’s upset that it’s arrived.
Arm The Homeless
@low-tech cyclist: I suppose he figured he would be dead by the time the bill came due. It’s hilarious to watch them being overrun by their own little Dylann Roof fan club.
A Ghost To Most
@low-tech cyclist:
Nah, G. Fucking Will doesn’t want tRump cutting in on his action.
SWMBO
@low-tech cyclist: I’ve not done this but I assume you get the person’s name and address from the obituary, then check to see if they are listing a car. Otherwise, I guess you call the mortuary and ask if they know if a car is available. Might have to sell the chariot to pay the funeral expenses. Maybe she’ll let us know the secret later.
Linnaeus
Let me tell ya it’s better than diggin’ a ditch.
MomSense
Trying to clean my house but all I want to do is scream and run away from it.
Arm The Homeless
@A Ghost To Most: The Nazis may be repugnant, but they make a few truthful observations. What modern “Intellectual” conservatives fear the most is being lumped in with the rabble they call their base.
Th calls for extra-judicial killings at the border embarrasses them while they make their cocktail party rounds.
sukabi
@NotMax: was wondering the same thing. Must be nice to be a talentless hack AND be paid to do it. Just don’t know how you’d sleep at night.
scav
I’m left somewhat wondering about what super-glasses they might be wearing in order to distinguish a policy from the Trumpetings Blaring Messcellany. Shouting louder at foreigners and having others pick up the bill?
Mike in NC
@low-tech cyclist: When in the past 40 years has George Will not been a buttoned-down crypto-fascist?
jeffreyw
Busily breaking down the beef in a crockpot Italian Beef recipe. Added too much liquid last night so it’s reducing with the lid off this morning. Mrs J is making a blueberry crumble topped dessert bar with vanilla creme fraich, it’s in the oven.
Brachiator
@Hal: yeah, no difference between Trump and the rest of the GOP. Keep on thinking that. When was the last time a potential GOP presidential nominee publicly appeared to support a man physically assaulting an illegal immigrant?
NotMax
@Arm The Homeless
All the more when the caterers utilize Hispanics on the wait staff.
“Not to worry, Paco, you’re one of the good ones.”
Arm The Homeless
@Brachiator: That’s a difference without distinction. Was “self deportation” a policy filled with comoassion and grace?
Arm The Homeless
@NotMax: I think some of the less virulent haters really believe there is a vast pool of Latina/os that are champing at the bit to kick out their neighbors’ abuelas. I heard it on Hotair, so it must be true!
NotMax
@Arm The Homeless
Guilt-free Ethnic Cleanser™.
Now with a free Confederate flag in every box!
Schlemazel
@NotMax:
AKA “Virgin Ben”
ThresherK (GPad)
@low-tech cyclist: Interestingly, I want to go upstream on this idea. There is a fair amount of elderly housing in my area, and I’m trying to Venn that with the folks who like Volvos.
Arm The Homeless
@NotMax:
Send in 5 boxtops and get your own Messican-hunting kit.
The other kids will be green with envy!
Jeffro
I will admit to a little bit of Trump fatigue this morning. Who knows how, where, or when this particular GOP clown will implode, but he’s certainly sucking up all the oxygen we could be using on all sorts of other hypotheticals…
…like, I really didn’t think Biden was even close to getting into the race, but I’m becoming less sure of that by the day (hour). He has to be thinking about Beau, Clinton’s perceived weaknesses, precedent (most Veeps take a run at the Oval Office, right?) and the improving likelihood of winning vs. the eventual GOP nom (considering how their race is going so far).
Hal
Tagging on to a post from Rikyrah in the thread below about Shaun King, a very good summation of my feelings about this bullshit “scandal” from the fine folks at Breitbart.
http://verysmartbrothas.com/this-shaun-king-takedown-attempt-is-fn-ridiculous/
It’s an odd world we live in when you have to VERIFY your Blackness to white people, ain’t it? There was a time when folks threw that at you to reduce your status and standing. Now you have to defend your ability to be a minority? I can’t even imagine what’s going to happen when I get famous enough to get questions about why this half-Black, half-white guy runs a site called Very Smart Brothas. I hope Damon’s ready. For eons, being half-white only made you Black. Now, being half-white is what you get called as a way of diluting your ability to give a shit about being Black. It’s amazing really.
People who want no parts of Blackness are trying to stop others ability to identify with the skin they live in. Odd times indeed.
pamelabrown53
@MomSense:
I don’t know if this would work for you but I just try to do 2 or 3 cleaning tasks per day. Today 1) scrub toilets (done), 2) clean stainless steel appliances, and 3) clean outside part of bedroom French doors. Keeps me from feeling overwhelmed.
@jeffreyw:
jeffrey, you and the missus sure seem to eat well. Mouth is watering!
srv
In any normal liberal world, when George Will is against you, it’s a good sign.
Perhaps so many people are blinded they could use a pass through the car wash to see the other side.
sukabi
@Brachiator: the key to your question is “publicly”, the others like to cloak their arousal for the beatings in public while encouraging the same behavior thru tolerance of the same language, actions in their followers.
NotMax
@Jeffro
Historically speaking, the odds aren’t all that favorable.
The last sitting V.P. to run for and win the presidency was G. H. W. Bush. Before him, it was Martin Van Buren.
jeffreyw
Mmm… Italian Beef
pamelabrown53
@Jeffro: RE: Joe Biden
I think maybe you’re feeling susceptible to some media hype. Unless, Hillary implodes, I don’t see Biden putting himself and his family through the rigors of a presidential campaign. Maybe, he’s making sure the dems have a Plan B?
Schlemazel
Public Interest REsearch published a new poll yesterday showing that 57% of Republicans polled believe Dump will be their party’s nominee.
I still think a demagogue is a horrible choice for President and an almost assured decent into hell; and of the true demagogues running Dump is the only one that stands a chance of getting elected. The others all lack any charisma and only excite a tiny number (Ayn Paul for instance). So, while he says out loud what the the GOP has been whistling for years I still think we need to be very careful about what we wish for.
Doug R
@scav: Yeah clean out the garbage and maybe vacuum as well.
jeffreyw
@pamelabrown53: Thanks! I’ll cut you a blueberry bar when everything sets – it requires a wait before dividing
pamelabrown53
@jeffreyw:
What cut of beef do you use?…and how many lbs?
P.S. Love the before and after pics of the blueberry bars.
Arm The Homeless
@srv: Was there a point in this comment?
Will is fighting for his own skin against the base of his party, the fact he is saying something obvious, that rounding up 11 million people would be electoral suicide, isn’t to be taken as anything other than self-service to his preferred electoral philosophy.
Baud
@NotMax:
And both of them sucked.
trollhattan
@low-tech cyclist:
I’m not reading the piece (naturally) but presume Will’s upset at Trump’s dungaree-cladding of those Republican values that demand extolling while in a suit and bowtie on a Sunday chat show. Reason enough to go Godwin. I won’t dare guess which candidate the muttonhead actually wants; none of them seems to construct a sentence in the Reaganesque fashion he reveres.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@NotMax:
You forgot Al Gore’s asterisk — won the popular vote, defeated by the Supreme Court.
Baud
@Schlemazel:
One man’s demagogue is another man’s populist.
Doug R
@SWMBO: Or you could show up at the funeral with a business card.
trollhattan
@low-tech cyclist:
99% sure Betty was cracking a joke re. shopping the obits. Regardless, the…well seasoned Florida population certainly comprises a big low-mileage, floofy-riding used car stream.
pamelabrown53
@Doug R:
Sounds tacky…like ambulance chasing :-) .
gelfling545
@Brachiator: It is not a difference of type; only of degree.
mouse tolliver
Just finished listening to the talking heads on MSNBC talk about how appealing Trump is. The guest host even laughed approvingly at one of his jokes during the open. Ugh! And that teenybopper who normally covers him acts like a squeeing fangirl at a Beiber concert when she talks about him.
They just flat out love the guy. It’s that simple.
On the flip side, most of the time when they talk about Bernie Sanders they do it without telling us what he had to say or even showing b-roll of him.
NotMax
@Menmosyne
Didn’t forget it.. Said “win the presidency,” not win the vote.
That’s not to imply I think Gore shouldn’t have been seated as president. He won the election (IMHO) but lost the presidency.
Doug R
@trollhattan: He has a disclosure statement at the end: Mrs Will works for the Scott Walker campaign.
Peale
@Arm The Homeless: While I am not pleased that Donald’s Candidacy looks more possible by the week, I am going to enjoy such wise old men as George Will’s discomfort.
trollhattan
@Doug R:
Whoa, now that’s blatant. Why hasn’t Scotty donned the bowtie yet?
Also, too, I suppose it’s hard to collect debate prep docs from nine opponents. He must be frustrated as hell.
NotMax
Marlene Dietrich day on TCM. Highlights:
4:45 p.m. – Judgment at Nuremberg
8:00 p.m. – Witness for the Prosecution
Helen
@low-tech cyclist: The money quote from Will
Heh.
Chris
@low-tech cyclist:
George Will probably looks at Donald Trump and sees a Roosevelt. Another uncouth demagogue, irresponsibly stirring up the unwashed masses who, bless their hearts, just don’t know enough to understand that their betters know best.
scav
Slight detour, but possibly of interest to those wondering about how their name and contact info gets into unexpected places and linked with others names etcetera. Spotify has run into a little bother wanting your contact list (amoung other things). But its your job to get the opt-in from everybody in your contact list! (sorry, can’t like from this machine: quote from BBC)
low-tech cyclist
@ThresherK (GPad): Thresher, where do you live? I’m not a Volvo person, but I could probably be convinced to try one if the price was right. (I’m in Maryland, a bit south of Annapolis, but regularly visit central Florida where my wife’s family is.)
Roger Moore
@sukabi:
On top of a pile of money with many beautiful ladies.
different-church-lady
@dmsilev:
Paraphrasing what Atwater said, you start off by saying “n-word, n-word, n-word”, but that started to backfire, so you start talking in code, and the code gets really abstract. Trump has solved that problem by just saying, “Fuck it, I’m going back to n-word, n-word, n-word!”
jeffreyw
@pamelabrown53: I threw the packaging away already but I think it was a chuck roast, about 4 pounds. There are a couple of onions in there, a few cans of beef broth, lots of garlic, about a pint of juice from a jar of pepperoncini, dried oregano and basil, a few bay leaves, salt and pepper. I added a few glugs of Marsala before I left it overnight.
Another Holocene Human
@MomSense: I know the feeling.
Wish I made enough to pay somebody on the regular.
Roger Moore
@trollhattan:
It’s going to be very hard indeed to steal Trump’s debate prep docs; I doubt he has any to steal.
trollhattan
Hey folks, our very own RtR (srv’s jeb-lovin’ Doppelganger) done gone and made himself internet famous.
Let us savor.
Matt McIrvin
@Hal:
Funny how that suddenly started happening right around 2008.
Peale
@Helen: yep. At least I hope so. But I’m kind of “meh” on the idea that kicking illegal immigrants and raving about wild and crazy Mexicans is going to do much to inspire a wave of Hispanics to turn out to vote, let alone make Puerto Ricans, Cubans and Dominicans find common cause to crawl over glass to vote for a Hillary. Those that do vote will vote overwhelmingly for the Democrats, sure. But if running around screaming “immigrants are icky” would inspire Hispanics to come out so republicans would shut the fuck up, I haven’t seen it.
trollhattan
@Roger Moore:
Is there a proper psychological term for stream-of-unconsciousness?
“Preparation is for losers!”
Roger Moore
@Peale:
You weren’t in California in 1994, then. Pete Wilson, the Republican governor running for reelection, put the virulently anti-illegal-immigrant Prop 187 on the ballot to help boost turnout. It worked in the short term, but its success led to a huge wave of voter registration among Latinos and the eventual destruction of the Republican party as a political force in California.
Tommy
@Peale: There is no chance they will vote for us. Have a client. Raging liberal. Cuban American. His parents came here on a boat and swam to our shores. When we started to normalize relations I picked up the phone and called him. He was all in, but parents not so much.
debit
@MomSense: Oh god, me too. Company tomorrow and I feel like I live in a hell hole pit of despair.
CaseyL
Open thread? OK: I arranged to have carpet cleaners come out; they haven’t arrived; and I can’t remember which company it was, so I’m not sure who to call.
*sigh*
About the 2016 race… it’s so strange. I don’t watch TV news, don’t follow the scandals de jure, and when I hear that the email thing is capsizing Hillary’s campaign, it’s like hearing dispatches from a different world. I don’t know how to gauge it: wishful thinking by the MSM, or real deal?
And I just can’t see Trump as President. GOP nominee, yes; he’d be exactly what they deserve. But President? Does the US really want P. T. Barnum as our President? Has the country really fallen that far down the rabbit hole? Holy spittoons!
NotMax
@Tommy
Don’t confuse Cuban-Americans as necessarily equating with the generalized group Hispanic or Latino-Americans.
No mutually exclusive, but much less similar demographically (and in voting history) then you might think.
ThresherK (GPad)
@low-tech cyclist: Suburban CT, all my life. That’s south of old-Subaru land, but well within new-Subaru land. The cliches about Volvos and Saabs here are true for a reason, too.
Not sure about NoVA and other parts of DC Suburbs. And I have never been to Fla, but there are enough 24 year old Buicks with dealer-installed vinyl roofs (with dealer installed sunroofs cut into them!) in my neck of the woods. No idea what is up in Betty’s land.
The S60 looks solid. But the S40-V50 haven’t been new for a few years, and their buyers typically hold them for a long-time (proving another cliche). Europe has the new V40 which I’d love them to import. Suburban familymobiles aren’t for us, as a twosome with two cats, and one large car already, otherwise there might be an XC70.
Tommy
@debit: I bet your household is pretty clean. I have often stressed about this. Never worked out well for me.
debit
@debit: And I have to remind myself that it’s really not that bad. Just a house lived in by a person who doesn’t mind clutter and has a lot of bikes. And bike parts. And bike tools. At least the wheel truing stand is off the coffee table. Progress!
Tommy
@NotMax: I don’t think nor did I seem to imply they are Hispanic or Latino-Americans.
Hal
@CaseyL: I’m of the impression that the only people who care are republicans, the media wanting a scandal, and some Sanders supporters who hope to make it easier for him to win the nomination.
Chris
@CaseyL:
I start from the principle that any Republican candidate, no matter how blatantly awful, can count on a worst case scenario of 45% of the vote.
After that, it doesn’t take much – voter fatigue with having the same party in power, a poor performance from an opposing candidate, a well placed scandal or two – to even the odds.
So Trump winning isn’t impossible. On the other hand, I don’t think he’d be any worse than the rest.
Mike E
@low-tech cyclist: I saw my ’93 Lesabre withthe a for sale sign sitting on a lawn…the elderly couple were moving to retirement digs and wanted to shed their accumulated dross, turning their property into a student sublet. For two grand (incl repairs) I got my all time best car, which I literally drove into the ground and donated its parts value to a public radio station.
NotMax
@Tommy
Oh, please, You replied to a comment referencing Hispanic voting. You may not think it but your very first sentence, using “they” without any further refining of who “they” are most certainly does carry the implication.
Matt McIrvin
@CaseyL:
In real life, I am hearing from Democrats, in puzzled/worried tones, that Bernie Sanders may have a chance because Hillary Clinton might be going to jail. I look at the polls, and I look at the substance I can figure out of the email thing, and I just don’t see it. But I guess if you follow political news you could easily get that impression.
Peale
@Roger Moore: yep. Keyword here is “eventually” and the fact that prop 187 won? Immigrant bashing was near the top of the list in 2010 and 2014. It wasn’t a loser then. All trump is doing is running his campaign like its an off-year election. I don’t think the Latino or non-Latino factions of the democratic tent care enough about it to drive turnout. Yeah, I know, state democratic parties are a mess and starved for cash, but I see very little downside to calling Mexicans “rats” if voters, especially White Democatic voters, go “that’s so mean” but can’t organize themselves to stop it.
Dolly Llama
@Arm The Homeless: Like that disclosure at the bottom of Will’s piece. His wife works for Scott Walker. Who’da thunk it?
Amir Khalid
@Matt McIrvin:
As I recall, The New York Times had to retract that story claiming that a criminal case was being prepared against Hillary. If the emails being referred to contain information that was classified after she left office, or that needs to be edited from emails being released to fulfil freedom-of-information requests, I don’t see how she could be prosecuted for that.
Brachiator
@Arm The Homeless:
You know better than this. Physical assault and a vague exhortation about “self-deportation” are very different.
gelfling545
People keep saying this. Completely understandable. But it’s just not true. The entertaining rhetoric here often wants to declare that being a Republican is a hate crime. But that is not the same thing as actually aiding and abetting the commission of a hate crime.
On the other hand, if you actually believe that Trump is exactly like every other Republican since 1968, then there is not much point in commenting about him, or complaining about him. And if the GOP base is nothing more than the usual gang of idiots, then all the Democrats have to do is to sit back and wait for the nominee to be chosen. No need to think about strategy, certainly no need to try to peel off any Republicans and get them to vote Democratic.
Ruckus
@Matt McIrvin:
Angels flying out of my ass has a higher probability rating that H. Clinton going to jail over her time as SoS. Tens of thousands of angels before.
Now if you see a photo of me standing in front of the Sistine Chapel with my pants down, all bets are off.
Hal
@Matt McIrvin: The problem is dems always react this way. It’s one aspect of the party I loathe. The constant freakouts over every thing. The IRS, Benghazi, that first debate in 2012 etc. Everything is doomed! It can be difficult to really focus on real issues vs. Unnecessary freak outs.
MattF
@Matt McIrvin: You don’t go to jail for being careless with stuff that isn’t actually marked classified. In fact, you don’t go to jail for carelessness, period. If (like Jonathan Pollard) you sell material that’s marked classified, that’s a different story.
MomSense
In addition to the usual dog hair, dirty dishes, laundry, and dust, it rained yesterday and my son and his friend tracked grass everywhere. They tried to rinse their feet off in the tub which just created mud and gobs of grass. They also tried to sort of mop up the floor – with my new bath towels.
Dear FSM this is horrible. Isn’t there a song about a woman who is so pissed off she burns her house down?
pamelabrown53
@Tommy:
Except for Southern Florida, the Cuban American vote is pretty diluted. You do realize that because of their favored immigration status vis a vis other Latino groups (wet foot, dry foot) they’re in their own classification. Even then, just like you said, there is a huge difference between the old and young guard Cuban American.
The old guard’s power is further eroding due to President Obama’s opening diplomatic relations with Cuba.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@NotMax: Losing battle that you are bravely fighting. Will be as successful as gentle ribbing. Gracious haiku,I tried and failed to make. Did I show you my tattoo?
Brachiator
@Amir Khalid:
This is not necessarily about looking for a criminal offense which can be prosecuted. To the degree that any of this resonates, you have people claiming that this is another example of a Clinton acting as though they are above the law, or typically parsing the truth to deny “obvious” facts. And then you have the “errors in judgment” that would supposedly make Clinton too untrustworthy to be elected.
The GOP would even be happy if they could generate something that would make Clinton worthy of formal censure by Congress.
And there’s the catchall suspicion that she must have something to hide, and that she deleted something important to something or something like that. Benghazi.
Steeplejack (phone)
@jeffreyw:
Did you brown/sear it before it went in the slow cooker?
Arm The Homeless
@Brachiator:
How much difference is it to drown someone as opposed to letting them drown without offering help?
From a legal culpability perspective? It makes all the difference in the world; from a moral and ethical standpoint, no difference at all.
If GOP ex-pats want to make their way over to another team, I am all for it, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have to be introspective and contrite about their associations with fascists, charlatans and sociopaths. I am in no mood to assuage the fee-fees of the recently converted. It’s about fucking time. Now get to the back of the bus and show us you’ve* learned something before I count you as an ally.
(*not you, personally, of course)
PurpleGirl
@pamelabrown53: The Old Guard influence is waning because the Old Guard Cubans are dying off and the children and grandchildren born here just don’t see things the same way. Their lives and futures are in the US.
I dated a Cuban who came here as a child; his family was lower Spanish aristocracy when they moved to Cuba about 300-odd years ago. For all that they tried to recreate their middle/upper class life in the US (coming of age parties for the girls, having a chaperone on dates, the family retainer/caretaker, etc.) the children grew up American (in New Jersey mostly). I haven’t seen him in years but I know his parents and some of his aunts and uncles have died. (And he was sent first to Jamaica and then the US — his father processed the the diplomatic pouches being sent to the US as head of Havana region post office. The family had time to prepare to leave.)
rikyrah
@Hal:
Keep on asking. Keep on asking.
The answer is….there is no difference. No difference at all.
Folks need to stop pretending that there is a difference.
Mike E
@Steeplejack (phone): Searing is a flavor enhancer, tho not necessary in a crock recipe. YMMV
Arm The Homeless
@rikyrah:
A-fuggin-mens
They rode the tiger, now they’re shocked it’s eyeing them for dinner. Fug-em. Maybe No Labels will have em for cocktails and commiseration.
At the risk of ending up on a watch list, I already told the crank at work that the day the round-ups of illegals begin, is the day I start ventilating the oh so willing brown shirts and their Stasi informers. Needless to say he was not amused.
jeffreyw
@Steeplejack (phone):
Yeah, and set off the smoke alarm doing so.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@rikyrah:
Of course they have to pretend if they want to keep their self image as “nice, kind, gracious, and gentle” folks intact.
We know they aren’t but they like to pretend.
satby
@NotMax: Gah! I signed up for Sling just to get TCM back but cancelled before my free trial week was up, the volume on that channel was barely audible even when I had my tv maxed out. Really a disappointment, I wanted it just for that one channel, though I probably would have occasionally watched others.
Steeplejack (phone)
@jeffreyw:
My smoke alarm is sort of finicky, beeping on some things but not on others that seem equally “smoky.” Maybe it’s a food critic and it’s judging me.
Arm The Homeless
@satby:
I have sling tv as well, and we notice the inconsistent volume on HGTV. But with that said, awesome deal for $20 a month, IMHO
satby
@Arm The Homeless: it was… but I signed up mostly for TCM, which was consistently inaudible no matter when I turned it. Even with the set volume at max. And I was kind of afraid I’d blow the speaker if I forgot and changed the channel in frustration without remembering to turn the volume back down. So disappointed!!
satby
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): I’ve started to wonder if the subject is on the spectrum.
Brachiator
@Arm The Homeless:
Bad analogy. What is the difference between drowning someone and saying that you think someone should go back to their own homes and saying you don’t care whether they fall into a puddle along the way.
Again, I know you know better than this.
But now let’s return to your own faulty analogy.
You admit yourself here that there is a difference between what is legal and what might be moral.
And I really don’t care if you want to talk about some moral high ground, and how it is wonderful that Democrats may be a great bunch of highly moral people.
There is clearly a different line crossed when a presidential candidate speaks with approval about someone committing a crime. It is not unreasonable to ask whether a Trump administration would look the other way while mobs attacked illegal immigrants. It is not unreasonable to ask whether Trump believes in the rule of law, or only selective administration of the law, or only the law of the jungle?
So, do you have a list of other current or recent presidential candidates who openly and publicly approved of people violently assaulting people they didn’t like? (There might have been some who flirted with anti-gay bigotry.)
Be careful about that high horse you might be mounting. Some people went ballistic here over the BLM people asking for Hillary Clinton to confess and account for her past racism.
And are you confusing politics with religion? Do you really require evidence of sincere conversion before a person can change their political affiliation? Who elects this priesthood?
But maybe I’m more cynical. I certainly may be more pragmatic. I want more votes for Democrats. I’m not really concerned about the souls of voters, although I think it more likely that they can be convinced about other policy if you get them on board for anything. I’ll do a deal with the Devil, because I’m sure that I have a satanic streak myself.
Arm The Homeless
@satby: we found that putting the device you’re using in the DMZ of your router smoothed out some of the inconsistencies, but most people aren’t willing or capable of trying that tactic.
gogol's wife
@satby:
I’m glad I’m not the only person in the world who only watches TCM.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@satby: First, I’m sorry to read in the new thread that you’ve had a bad week. It seems to be going around.
I’m wondering the same thing, and a left coast juicer I had the delight to meet agrees. It came up in the context of talking about an author we mutually admire, as opposed to a specific discussion of commenters.
low-tech cyclist
@PurpleGirl:
This. A Cuban who was in his mid-30s when Castro overthrew Batista is ~90 years old now, or more likely deceased. 1959 was a long time ago.
Arm The Homeless
@Brachiator:
I see no ethical difference between calling a couple drunk, racist thugs passionate fans, and working to ensure people have no access to healthcare paid by the Feds, or selling weapons to fund military juntas. Call it epistemic closure, or an inability to accept half loaves, I see no common human ground between a vast, vast majority of conservatives and myself. I want them politically destroyed, I want them to suffer and beg to make their pain stop. I make compromise with folks who can argue in good faith, the GOP and their conservative foot soldiers are not capable of that, at this time. So there it is…
It was painful to remove the blue dogs, now is not the time to rebuild their power base. Highlight the distinctions, don’t expand the platform to accomodate the cretins that are smart enough to escape the effluent pond before they slip below its surface.
I use John Cole as my template for how a political conversion should be handled.
BTW, you’ve obviously read far too much into my allusion to a conversion. I speak for myself, since I am quite sure most Dems and Indys wouldn’t agree with my assesments regarding the threshold for being introspective or contritite.
Tree With Water
That photo looks like a clip from the anti-drug film LSD 25 (circa 1968), a production that piqued the curiosity of many an eighth grader about the drug.
Betty Cracker
@low-tech cyclist: I was just being flippant — I’m not quite that much of a vulture. But if you look at AutoTrader in FL, you’ll see low-mileage, 100% garage-kept cream puffs whose owners have either died or stopped driving. That’s how I picked up my current land yacht.
PS: My snowbird in-laws live in one of those 55+ communities, and checking the bulletin boards in places like that is another way to get a great deal on anything — cars, boats, freezers, golf carts, golf clubs, you name it!
CaseyL
I think I’ll just be a spectator of the 2016 Presidential Election show until the actual primaries, and not try to make sense of anything before then. Because, um, nothing makes sense.
In other news, the carpet cleaners arrived, and now my carpet looks less like it should simply be burnt and a new floor erected on the ashes. Yay! Now I just have to wait until it’s dry enough to put all the furniture back.
Brachiator
@Arm The Homeless:
The thing is, there is much more in common than I suspect you realize, if only in terms of mutual hard-headedness, and mutual certainty that your political opponents are morally defective.
Of course, what you want is not achievable. And to want what is not achievable is unreasonable.
You’re right, I wouldn’t agree, and think that your views can actually be dangerous to people you profess to be your allies. But I appreciate the time you have taken to explain your views.
Tree With Water
“I see no common human ground between a vast, vast majority of conservatives and myself”.
Allow me to retort with this bit of beautifully phrased wisdom:
“…So, let us not be blind to our differences — but let us also direct attention to our common interests and to the means by which those differences can be resolved. And if we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity. For, in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children’s future. And we are all mortal.”
— JFK’s commencement speech at American University, June 10, 1963.
Van Buren
@Baud: Hey! That’s not nice.
low-tech cyclist
@Betty Cracker: OK, that makes more sense then – I really couldn’t connect the dots between obit and acquisition, and it makes me feel better to know that I couldn’t find the connection because it wasn’t there.
I’ll keep an eye on AutoTrader as our next trip south approaches. Thanks for the tip!