So Trey Gowdy and the Republicans of the House Select Committee On Hillary Clinton’s Presidential Campaign basically cut their own asses off and gave them to Hillary Clinton, who obligingly handed them their asses right back.
In other news today, A US Special Operator (probably Army Special Forces, but not confirmed) was Killed in Action in northern Iraq accompanying Kurdish forces on a raid to rescue prisoners of ISIS. 75 prisoners were liberated and 15 ISIS fighters were killed and 5 captured in the fighting.
Lincoln Chafee will probably drop out of the Democratic field for 2016 in the next day or so.
The Zombie-eyed Granny Starver will run for, and probably win the Speakership of the House.
Felonius Monk
Where is everybody?
Jerzy Russian
I am glad to see you haven’t left your post. All of the other front page personnel seemed to have gone AWOL.
feebog
I’m here, but I’m going to bed. Hillary knocked it out to the park. Stupid Republicans don’t even realize how badly they have been punked.
divF
@efgoldman:
Hey, I’m here…
Corner Stone
@Felonius Monk: I just finished baking a home made pizza on a new thin crust.
Pray for me.
FlyingToaster
@Felonius Monk: Still stomping on the reincarnation of RtR, and mocking the Benghazi! Committee! in the previous thread.
divF
@FlyingToaster:
Keep up the good work !
But you can do some of the mocking here.
Corner Stone
“The whole night?”
“Yes, the whole night. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”
Omnes Omnibus
@efgoldman: Linc is going to drop out and have a G&T? Odd, it’s more of a summer drink.
Felonius Monk
Some idiot called in to CSPAN today and wanted to know why their is no White Caucus in Congress. Sometimes I fear for the republic.
redshirt
UNLIMITED F. U. D. BRINKS TRUCKS
Corner Stone
@Omnes Omnibus: G&T is not, let me repeat that again, not a summer drink.
CONGRATULATIONS!
BOOK IT LIBTARDS
Peale
@efgoldman: Chaffee is the kind of guy who orders Rusty Nails and Negronis by the pitcher.
RaflW
I realized at some point today why Ryan had been holding off from wanting the Speakership. He thought he had a chance to run for President in 2020. Taking the Speakership means he’s given up on ever running for the W.H.
So that’s good news I think.
trollhattan
@Omnes Omnibus:
Bad timing on its part but my lime tree’s production peaks about now, so one does what one must with UNLIMITED HOMEGROWN LIMES.
They’re the size of olives in June.
RaflW
@Felonius Monk: I’m impressed that person could operate a telephone successfully.
Omnes Omnibus
@Corner Stone: Is so.
RaflW
News is Trump got the next debate capped at 2 hours. Meanwhile Clinton testified for 11 hours.
She’s gonna mop the floor with him.
Corner Stone
Holy shit. What the F is going on with Jerry Nadler’s left eyebrow?
CONGRATULATIONS!
But seriously, Hillary destroyed them. I think Gowdy thought this would be a cakewalk, not realizing that a legal career spent doing nothing but prosecuting poor people with no resources isn’t going to help you much when you go up against a good lawyer.
I spent most of the day reading the Fox News Facebook feed. The GOP voter shows all the bravado of a young punk who’s wandered into the wrong bar and has just let his mouth write a check his ass can’t cash. They are going to lose this election badly and they know it.
By far the best comment was “I don’t understand why the Democrats refuse to help Republicans find the truth! That’s all the country wants, the truth!”
Why indeed.
SiubhanDuinne
@Felonius Monk:
I’m here, but heading for bed. If I wake up to pee in the middle of the night, I’ll hang out with the Insomniac Crew. Otherwise, see y’all tomorrow!
Corner Stone
@Omnes Omnibus: I’ve lived some places. Places you may not even think about. G&T was never a summer only drink in those places.
Corner Stone
Did he ever stop by your house? {heavy breathing noise as he exhales}
/Pompeo
Felonius Monk
@RaflW: Ryan has, IMHO, fvcked himself. He gave a list of demands and the FreeDumbs said Hell No. Then Ryan’s ego took over and he said Okay, I still wanna be Speaker. Dumb move — he will have no leverage and will probably be even worse than Boner at getting anything done.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
My god, watching Pompeo ask HRC if C Stevens had her home address and ever stopped by. The buffoon actually thinks he has a point. Even after all these years, it’s sometimes gob-smacking how stupid these goons are.
redshirt
@CONGRATULATIONS!:
You poor soul. Why would you torment yourself so?
Anya
Forget about Gowdy & let’s focus on another icky republican. I just saw this photo of Trump and his teenager daughter
azlib
For the life of me, I do not understand why Ryan wants to be Speaker. He is going to have to raise the debt ceiling. He will also have to reach a budget deal. Both will piss off the Freedom Caucus. Only thing I can figure is he has worked out a deal with Pelosi on both issues or has the rest of his own caucus behind him.
Of course Ryan is a budget fraud as Paul Krugman has pointed out numerous times. His budgets never add up and are full of magic asterisks.
Omnes Omnibus
@Corner Stone: You’ve given me something to think about.
Comrade Luke
I’m loving the site redesign!
Anya
why is comment awaiting moderation?
Corner Stone
@Corner Stone: Everyone. Everyone!
My thin crust pizza turned out fucking awesome. Thanks for your support and please feel free to masturbate and then go to sleep.
Corner Stone
I think Taibbi is full on Rogaine. He’s got a lot more hair than he had a few months ago.
gf120581
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Pompeo impressed me as a real strong contender for the coveted “Dumbest Member of Congress” title with his performance today. Another great hit was him asking Hillary why she couldn’t just order a plane from Kansas to go and pick up Stevens and company from Libya or some damn thing. You know, just like how Jack Bauer is able to get across L.A. by car in 15 minutes. If he can do it, why can’t we?
Biggest asshole, however, was undoubtably Jim Jordan. Holy shit, that guy is a nasty piece of work.
amk
@Comrade Luke: what redesign?
Corner Stone
@gf120581:
That was like his go to line, the “why didn’t you scramble planes out of Kansas if need be?” as if not doing so was a damnation.
gf120581
@azlib: I imagine he feels he has no choice. The pressure he was under was insane. They almost literally were on their hands and knees before him to get him to take it.
But yes, I agree, he basically has fucked over any future Presidential hopes he ever had. And it won’t take him long to piss off the Tortilla Coast Gang.
Peale
@azlib: I like that Obama added “Fund the defense department without a slush fund” to Ryan’s todo list today.
Gin & Tonic
@Corner Stone: Hello?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@gf120581: If I understood one of their documentaries correctly, the X Men have a jet that can cross the country in, like, fifteen minutes. Professor Xavier made it. John Poderhotz agrees with us, which makes me feel a little dirty
Peale
@Corner Stone: I wish I could have watched some, but work is work. How she got through this is beyond me. “BECAUSE IT”S TOO FAR AWAY!” and “I DON”T HAVE A STATE DEPARTMENT AIR FORCE!”. Actually, I might have blown the lid on that one. “The existence of the State Department Air Force is classified. You sir, are now going to be terminated by my State Department Drones.”
RaflW
@Felonius Monk: Sounds good to me!
redshirt
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: That’s not true. It was The Beast who invented that plane.
Omnes Omnibus
@redshirt: Pure propaganda.
RaflW
@azlib: He’s just a fraud. I don’t think he actually has a plan for dealing with the debt ceiling. I’d love to see Nancy let him twist in the wind.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@RaflW: I wonder if he didn’t get assurances from Boner that they’d pass a clean bill on the debt ceiling on Boner’s way out. I hope so.
CONGRATULATIONS!
@redshirt: I’m a bad shallow person who delights in butthurt Republicans squealing like little piggies. Best day ever if that’s your idea of fun. It is mine.
@Felonius Monk: I give him 90 days. He’ll snap, probably well before then. He’s not going to be able to do his job unless he enlists the Democrats – and then he’ll promptly lose his job.
Fucking House of Representatives might as well be North Korea for the GOP these days, minus the execution by mortar fire thing.
RaflW
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: That I could see happening. I think Pelosi is willing to cut the Orange Man a deal.
But Ryan will all too soon face a hostile caucus that won’t respect him any more than it did Boner. Today’s shitshow is SOP for the Republicans. They have elected a large number of nuclear-grade morans, and if they can hand HRC this sort of a win today, their caucus can and will keep pinning on signs that say “kick me,” and Obama will oblige throughout the coming budget fiascos.
aarrgghh
have there in the history of the world been any more predictably incompetent cartoon villains than our current crop of republican ubermensch?
Corner Stone
@Peale: I told them they could fucking fire me if they wanted to. Otherwise I planned to twerk all over the conference room space if they didn’t put the hearing on display.
Omnes Omnibus
@efgoldman:
I know this place is full of cat people, but it is nice to see that dogs do occasionally get their props.
Steeplejack
@Corner Stone:
What recipe do you use for the thin crust?
JGabriel
@redshirt:
Because on a day like today, Fox News is less torment and more high comedy. Add to that the schadenfreude, and sweetly rejoicing at the bitter tears of Conservative wailing, and it becomes far more of a good time than one would think possible.
Mike in NC
Stonewall Jackson couldn’t meet the purity test of the current GOP.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mike in NC: Come on, the man had his left arm amputated.
Comrade Luke
@amk:
I was joking.
aarrgghh
if ryan dealt his shitty hand right, he asked for boner to clean up his own mess and a few pallets of shrinkwrapped cash before taking the deal.
SFAW
@efgoldman:
And the next such person to visit here will bring the total up to … let’s see … carry the one … sum the exponents … ah, here it is: ONE.
ETA: Or, as Jeebus might say: “Let he/him who is pure and without blame
Cornercast the first Stone.”JGabriel
@aarrgghh:
There must be … I mean … hmm … although I, um, can’t think of any …
Wait … wait … I think I’ve got … nope, never mind, it’s gone.
Also, instead of ubermensch did you maybe mean untermensch?
SFAW
@efgoldman:
No, that’s for creamed chipped beef on toast.
Steeplejack
I had a grand evening out. I met a friend somewhere around the D.C./Chevy Chase line to see Bridge of Spies, and then we walked down Connecticut Avenue a couple of blocks for dinner at Macon Bistro and Larder. The food was excellent, a little steep, but I hadn’t been out in ages, so what the hell. Pleasant drive home on lesser-traveled streets and across Chain Bridge into NoVA.
The movie was good, definitely worth seeing, with my usual Spielberg caveat—technical genius married to the storytelling aesthetic of a precocious teenager. A few too many instances of Spielberg bonking us on the head with the point to make sure that every single person in the audience gets it. Very tight, understated performance by Mark Rylance (late of Wolf Hall) as Soviet spy Rudolf Abel. Tom Hanks as amiable everyman (as usual), but he does that very well. As I said, worth seeing. Ignore my grumbling.
Sort of glad I missed the Benghazi hearing today. I got tired just reading the Juice remix. Sounds like Hillary kicked ass, though, which is good.
Steeplejack
@Corner Stone, @Omnes Omnibus:
How about “It’s not only a summer drink”? Can we all just get along? Wah.
Stacy
It’s really quite incredible how much Gowdy resembles Draco Malfoy. The looks, the personality, he’s got it all.
gf120581
@Stacy: I don’t remember Draco being so sweaty, though.
Steeplejack
@Omnes Omnibus:
You would not—let me repeat that, would not—last an hour in a place where a G&T is a summer-only drink. I mean, you just would not.
Omnes Omnibus
@Steeplejack: Not on this topic. I refuse to take seriously the opinion of a Texan who doesn’t experience proper seasons – even if he has lived some places. Places I may not even think about.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Tommy
@Steeplejack: Sounds like a wonderful evening. I couldn’t bring myself to watch any of the Clinton hearings. Sad really, because there should be an important topic on the table, the security of our foreign service personnel. Used to live in DC and had more than one or two friends that worked for the State Department. Heck one of my co-workers husband was a flipping Iranian hostage. Their protection is key. But of course having any type of adult conversation with the Republicans in control is just not possible.
Omnes Omnibus
@Steeplejack: I’ve lived in Fairfield County, CT. Just saying.
That was one of the most amusing ones ever….
Tommy
@Omnes Omnibus: LOL. Proper seasons. I am always a little skeptical of somebody that doesn’t know what fall or winter is like.
Omnes Omnibus
Me being good. Trying hard.
srv
Sander’s Soshulist Utopia:
Omnes Omnibus
@srv: And?
Tommy
@srv: In the world I live in interns are not paid. Kind of the point of being an intern. I say that as somebody that has been an unpaid intern more than once or twice. But it is troubling, with Bernie, to take a POV and not do it yourself. You really, really ought to practice what you preach!
Steeplejack
@Omnes Omnibus:
Deep breaths.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Haaretz has a paywall, but this seems significant
Omnes Omnibus
@Steeplejack: I am a work in progress.
eemom
Can the word “ingenue” be properly applied to a male blog commenter?
SoupCatcher
@Omnes Omnibus: As a Californian, who has spent most of his life living in the one-season areas of the state, I hear people talk about how much they love four seasons and I can’t grok it.
It’s the same way I feel about people who like huitlacoche or lutefisk. Um, sure, but why, when you don’t have to?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@eemom: if you drop the “e”
@SoupCatcher: not only do I like four seasons, I prefer winter to summer
Tommy
@SoupCatcher: Spring and fall where I live is flat out wonderful. Winter, not so much. Winter is “fun” for like a week. The first snow, then not so much. But I enjoy all the seasons and I get them in full force.
Omnes Omnibus
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Israeli defense experts have been down with the Iran deal since the get go. It is only Bibi and his ilk that have fought against it. It tells one something, n’est-pas?
Tommy
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: We are having a warm, late fall where I live. A high of around 75 and a low of 50. A warm breeze. Perfect days. Not a cloud in the sky. I find myself trying to figure out any excuse to be outside as much as possible. I like to joke that if everyday was like today, well it would cost a lot more to live here!
SoupCatcher
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I like playing in winter, but not living in winter.
When I was growing up in Los Angeles, it was theoretically possible to ski a half day in the morning and finish the day swimming in the ocean.
Omnes Omnibus
@SoupCatcher: That ain’t the same as living the seasons. Not a criticism. An observation.
SoupCatcher
@Omnes Omnibus: Yeah, that’s what I’m saying. I can’t grok living the seasons. I tried it while I was in undergrad and couldn’t wait to get back to a place that didn’t have seasons.
Tommy
@Omnes Omnibus: That is the best I can see looking from the outside in. I am no expert on said deal, but read about it more than a little and it seems like a darn good deal. I mean a really good deal. Frankly I am a little stunned we were able to pull it off. Seems to do exactly what we wanted, stop Iran from being a nuclear power.
There is something I have never understood about how we deal with Iran. It is not some backwards nation. But they only really have one export. Oil. Their second and third largest exports are rugs and figs. So it doesn’t seem strange to me they want nuclear power to well generate power so they can export their oil for cold hard cash. The French and Russians would love to sell them said nuclear power plants, so bringing them onboard for this deal was key.
Omnes Omnibus
@Tommy:
There is a difference between civil nuclear power and military nukes.
Tommy
@SoupCatcher: Given it is not for everybody. Last year it got to be -32 here in Southern Illinois. Normally it doesn’t get near that cold, but it did last year. Folks were like what are you doing, why are you going outside? I am like dude, l want to know what -32 feels like! I know most here get the seasons, but for those that don’t there is something you’d find very strange. That about this time each year I pull out some boxes and get my winter cloths.
Tommy
@Omnes Omnibus:
Clearly. But as I read the deal we are going to let them have as much nuclear power as they want, as long as we keep tabs on it. My understanding was this was a deal breaker if we didn’t allow it, because as I said it makes total sense they want to sell their oil, not power their nation with it.
redshirt
Anyone who says they like actual winter is insane or should be checked for insanity.
Omnes Omnibus
@SoupCatcher: W’evs. Others live differently. Enjoy the sameness of your world.
SoupCatcher
@Tommy: That’s too cold for me. I think the coldest I’ve ever been was around zero. I spent a couple of winters delivering pizza in snow and ice when I was younger – in my crappy rear-wheel drive beater – and it wasn’t something I’d like to repeat.
Now heat, on the other hand, is not a problem for me. As long as it’s a dry heat. Although the first summer after we moved to San Jose, when it was over 110 for more than a week straight and we were renting a house without air-conditioning, was a bit much.
Tommy
@redshirt: IMHO winter is “cool” for like a week then it gets old really, really fast. I live for spring and fall. Summer can be like winter, at times almost unbearable. When it is 100 with 85% humidity, it can be hard to spend a lot of time outside, which I like being outside and active.
Omnes Omnibus
@redshirt: I like winter.
redshirt
@Omnes Omnibus:
You’re insane.
Omnes Omnibus
@redshirt: I ski. I like skiing. Next question?
SoupCatcher
@Omnes Omnibus: I enjoy diversity in people. Climate, not so much.
redshirt
Winter: Ice slick roads, shoveling, plowing, always working for what – literally, to get to your front door. Air so cold you will lose your hands and feet if you stay out too long. Fun! Ice storms – freaking storms of ice!
redshirt
@Omnes Omnibus:
Live in LA, ski Big Bear.
Tommy
@SoupCatcher: Yeah it was a little cold those few days. I am hard pressed to understand climate change but clearly it is happening. I now live in the place I grew up after decades away. The climate is clearly not what it once was when I was a kid in the early 80s. We tend to go from summer to winter and winter to summer. Seasons like spring or fall, which used to span weeks or months seem to last like days.
I live in a rural area, lots of farmers. Not the most liberal group of folks. But talk to them about climate change and they are all in. Totally agree it is happening and it is a huge problem. I’ve always felt that people that work the land for a living, well maybe they are a good group of folks to listen to about climate!
mclaren
@Felonius Monk:
And so has Trey Gowdy, and so has Jeb Bush, and so has Donald Trump. It’s so delightful to see these Rethuglicans feed themselves into the meatgrinder with a superior smirk on their faces.
Omnes Omnibus
@redshirt: You are an idiot. Thanks.
Fair Economist
I thought winter meant needing a sweater and getting occasional rain. #SouthernCaliforniaLifestyle
(not really, I used to live in Chicago)
Omnes Omnibus
@mclaren: Dear god. You are right for once.
Fair Economist
In the Southern California coastal basin, climate change is very noticeable precisely because we have such a mild climate. It used to freeze every year or so – but it’s now been about 20 years since the last freeze. People are starting to grow bananas here.
mclaren
@redshirt:
I love the winter. And I grew up in New Jersey.
California is not a state, it’s an oven. Anyone who likes living in California needs electroconvulsive therapy to eliminate the delusions. People who live in California enjoy vacations in Hell, where it’s cooler, less crowded, and cleaner.
Tommy
@mclaren: The only time I thought Ryan was smart was when he said he didn’t want this job. I know a lot of sane, moderate Republicans. Yes they still exist. They are confused by Congress and the shit all stupid things they seem to care about. We disagree on many things but can have conversations that are sane and often come to agreement on stuff you might not think we could come to agreement on. That seems to be something that will NEVER happen in the House.
mclaren
@Fair Economist:
The high in downtown Los Angeles last year was 114 degrees.
Yes, that’s a “mild climate”…in the fucking Sahara.
Last time I visited California, I went outside for 12 minutes and got a sunburn.
“Mild climate.” Yeah, riiiiiiiiiiiiiight.
SoupCatcher
@mclaren: Around 1/8 of the United States lives in California.
We are the heartland.
mclaren
@Tommy:
“Sane, moderate Republicans” — your words are strange to me, friend. I know what ‘sane’ is and I know what “Republican’ is, but I cannot fathom what a `sane Republican’ is. Is that like dry water, or hot snow?
Tommy
@Fair Economist: There is a large lake as you come into my little town. As a kid in the 70s and 80s we’d play hockey on it. Go ice fishing. Something we did every year. I’ve moved back here in 2002 and it has not frozen over once. Not even close.
This is the example I use to talk about climate change with Republicans. It is something they can see, feel. I note of course it still gets really cold here. Snows. Heck I noted in another comment it got to be -32 here last year, the coldest day ever on record. But sometimes a little change here or there can have drastic effects on the climate.
Case in point, our lake no longer freezes. Even hardcore Republicans have to stop and think about this ……
trollhattan
@SoupCatcher:
There it is. We should have, like, twelve senators. I’ll just take Alaska and North Dakota’s right now, we’ll figure out the rest Saturday during football.
redshirt
@mclaren: California has every climate and season possible. You get to choose.
mclaren
@SoupCatcher:
Yes, many were not able to escape.
Everyone I know who still lives in California — literally everyone — wants to get the hell out, but has been trapped. They all envy me. “You got out when the getting was good,” they tell me.
Dante wrote an accurate description of California:
Steeplejack
@redshirt:
You live in Maine, don’t you? What’s up with that?
redshirt
@mclaren: What part of California tortured you so? Fresno?
redshirt
@Steeplejack: It sucks. Winter is like a war. WW1 – trench fighting.
SoupCatcher
@redshirt: Oooh ooh ooh. Are we playing armpit of California, now? Because I had Bakersfield.
Tommy
@mclaren: LOL. They are rare I will admit that. They are becoming, like my mother, Democrats. I almost wonder if the Republicans understand what they are doing. Mom is in her late 70s. Life-long Republican. Last election she called me and said:
It was the first time she ever voted for a Democrat. My mother could be the poster child for a Republican. White. Older. Rich. They’ve lost her.
Fair Economist
@Tommy: From freezing every year to never? Yeah, that’s a real obvious change. What do the deniers say when you point it out?
mclaren
@redshirt:
Absolutely.
You can choose from roasting, burning, searing, scalding, frying, sizzling, blasting, toasting, fricaseeing, blazing…loads ‘o choices.
I love those reality-denying Californians living in a sizzling blast-furnace desert and claiming it’s a tropical paradise.
“A guide to California’s drought and water crisis,” Sacramento Bee, 25 May 2015.
“California is entering the fourth year of a record-breaking drought creating an extremely parched landscape,” California Drought crisis, CBS News, 20 June 2015.
“California’s Drought Is Part of a Much Bigger Water Crisis. Here’s What You Need to Know,”
ProPublica, 25 June, 2015.
“California’s drought is ‘a harbinger of the coming global water crisis,” Business Insider, 23 July 2015.
Keep it up, Californians. When the water riots hit, it’ll be like “Night of the Living Dead,” except with mummified thirst-crazed creatures seeking water instead of brains.
Fair Economist
Almost everybody I know is delighted to live in California and many (including me) stay in spite of a huge financial incentive to leave (getting to sell my house). These past two years have been disturbingly hot – literally 5 degrees above normal – but even so the hot weather isn’t as bad as the South.
redshirt
@mclaren: You know there’s this big part of California that is cool and wet and covered in giant trees?
Tommy
@Fair Economist: It is kind of hard for me to find a climate change denier. I could throw my mouse from where I sit and hit a 10,000 acre field of soy beans. Rural area. Lot of farms and farmers. Not a liberal group of people in general, but they believe in climate change. The topic is not even up for conversation with almost everybody I talk with.
The few times it is and I use the example I noted, they are speechless. It is just a fact. It is something they can not debate. What I try to say is that a little change here, because of course it still gets cold, but a degree or a fraction of a degree there, can have massive effects on our climate as a whole.
Case in point our lake doesn’t freeze anymore.
redshirt
@SoupCatcher: It’s always one of the two, isn’t it?
I used to think of Riverside on this list, but that was long ago. How’s Riverside these days?
Fair Economist
The hottest month for Eureka, CA has an average high of 64 and the all-time high is 87 . I’m at a loss as how that could be described as broiling, roasting, or any adjective describing unpleasant heat.
mclaren
@trollhattan:
Here’s an idea: make the number of votes per senator proportional to that senator’s score on a test of general knowledge.
When a senator like Rand Paul says “”They’re coming after your donuts!” because the FDA banned trans-fats, he gets 1/10 of a vote.
When a senator like Patrick Moynihan says there’s a crisis in the black communities because of single parent families, he gets 10 votes.
SoupCatcher
@redshirt: I haven’t lived in southern California in a quarter century, so I’m not quite up to date. That said, it seems, from my Facebook feed, that quite a few of my classmates from the Glendale area ended up out in Riverside/San Bernadino area raising their families.
All I remember about Riverside was that was where smog went to die.
Tommy
@Fair Economist: Yeah I have a number of clients and a few family members in CA and they love the place. Bitch about the cost of living (family in LA) and wild fires and mudslides (family and clients in more rural areas), but you’d have to take them out of the state kicking and screaming.
A cousin of my father’s came to visit for a week. She was almost in tears wanting to go back home to the 100 acres on the side of the mountain where she lives.
I went over to see her and my folks were confused she was confused that a grocery store was just a few minutes away. That for her it was an all day affair to get food. I told my folks I so get it. She has 100 acres on the side of a fucking mountain. A different world than we live in, but a world I’d so like to have as my own.
mclaren
@redshirt:
Yes, and nobody but rich folks can afford to live there nowadays.
Ruckus
Lived in CA, south mostly, but north of the bay as well, lived in Mammoth a bit and in several other states for short periods, and OH for over a decade. I’ve seen winter up close and while living some place like Mammoth is fun in the winter, even when your car is buried in 6-8 feet of powder, OH in winter sucks. Don’t mind the cold, I mind the very wet snow, the ice and the salt that is used to keep the roads passable.
redshirt
@mclaren:
Eureka? Redding? Klamath? These are not luxury resorts. Normal people can and do live there.
Fair Economist
I tried to make a comment about Riverside, but it seems I got FYWP (for the first time in ages). Anyway, it’s not so bad anymore.
Ruckus
@SoupCatcher:
Smog didn’t go there to die, it went there to cook a little longer, just to let you know it could.
mclaren
@Fair Economist:
And almost everyone you talk to is delighted to live in Saudi Arabia. They particularly like the floggings and the crucifixions.
Guess you can’t blame people who don’t know any better…
redshirt
@SoupCatcher:
Same.
All I remember about Riverside was that all the houses were the same and almost touching.
Tommy
@mclaren: My experience, having lived in a lot of places, is where you live is often a trade-off.
My cousin and best client are in LA. I am often jealous when they talk about all the culture and things they do. Makes me miss living in DC. But then they often times get jealous when I talk about living in a small, rural town.
Trade-offs. Hard to find a place that has everything you might want.
redshirt
@Tommy: Live in a small town in California seems like the compromise answer.
redshirt
Anyone know Paradise, CA?
Fair Economist
@Tommy: Yes indeed, different strokes for different folks. Fortunately most (although certainly not all) people manage to live in a place they like. People who like big cities usually manage to live in big cities. People who like small towns usually manage small towns. And people who think a city with a typical summertime high below 65 five is “scorching” live – umm, actually a bit stymied on this one – in Alaska maybe?
mclaren
@redshirt:
Alas, many of the small towns in California are in the central desert in the inland valley, and they’re hellholes.
The small towns along the coast of California like Laguna Niguel and Santa Barbara and up around Monterey are really nice, but holy crap! Those places cost a fortune to live in nowadays. Five million dollar houses. A dumpster with a tarp over it in Santa Barbara costs two million today.
The ideal would be to live in a small coastal town in California 60 years ago, before the smog and the population and the incredible real estate prices and the hellish global warming in SoCal. But those days are long gone.
redshirt
@mclaren: Santa Barbara is the most perfect place on Earth, maybe.
Tommy
@redshirt: Maybe. I think most folks don’t get how large of a state CA is. I noted in another comment I have a cousin that lives on the side of a mountain. It takes an entire day to go to the grocery store. Heck I have a client that is only like 150 miles from LA and she likes to joke it takes her an hour to drive off the mountain and get to town.
Sure there are many large metro areas in CA. But it is my limited experience there are large parts of the state where not so many people live. Lots of land. The folks I know that live in those places do so for a reason. There is something to be said for owning land, living off the land, and doing whatever the heck you want.
SoupCatcher
@redshirt: Only from visiting a friend of my partner’s who retired and bought some property off Yankee Hill Road, on the other side of 70 from Paradise. Spent a nice week up there one summer, close to ten years ago. Highlight was getting over to Chico and eating at Sierra Nevada.
I shudder to think how low Lake Oroville must be right now.
mclaren
@Fair Economist:
Just places that get more than 6 inches of rain per year.
You do realize Los Angeles got 5.83 inches of rain last year, right? A new low record? And that record keeps going down every year? The same way the new record high temperature keeps going up every year?
redshirt
@mclaren: Please share what part of California disabused you so.
mclaren
@redshirt:
Santa Cruz gives Santa Barbara a run for its money. Gorgeous small towns. And Santa Cruz has a great university too.
redshirt
@SoupCatcher: I’ve never been, but Paradise, CA sounds so nice to me, and I’m intrigued about their latitude, and I knew Chico had Sierra Nevada and a UC school so it had some development. But I read it’s like a retirement village. Can anyone confirm/deny?
redshirt
@mclaren:
Yeah. The whole mid coast is just heaven.
mclaren
@redshirt:
Scam Dayglo, the white collar crime capitol of the world, and septic tank of Northern Mexico. Also the busiest land border crossing on earth, meaning more drug corruption per capita than anywhere in America.
Scam Dayglo is a truly special place. The entire city council and the mayor were indicted for accepting bribes from Ace Parking in 1967. The guy who was named “Mr. San Diego of the Century,” C. Arnholt Smith, got indicted for fraud the next year.
Between the drug trafficking, the corruption, and the hellish climate, there’s truly no place like Sandy Eggo, the sphincter of California.
Tommy
@Fair Economist: Yes. I grew up in small rural towns. When I moved to DC I eventually bought a house downtown. My parents didn’t understand. I was like I always lived in small rural towns, I want to know what it is like to live in a city. Why would I deal with all the BS related to DC and not live in the heart of the city?
You know it is kind of cool to say my local library is the Library of Congress. I was 1.5 blocks from Union Station. I could walk less than three blocks and go anywhere in the world. Three blocks and see the treasures of the world, like the only da Vinci not in Europe.
I miss it, but made the choice to move.
SoupCatcher
@redshirt: Retirement town was the impression I got. It felt like it was just far enough from Sacramento to be beyond bedroom-community range.
eta I go back and forth on where in California I’d love to retire. My grandmother lives in Santa Maria, and that stretch of the 101 is nice. We have friends in Fort Bragg and spend a lot of time up in that area. It’s hard to argue against redwoods. I used to drive quite a bit on the backroads of highway 49 around Angels Camp and there’s some good deals over there. And, if I ever want to join the state of Jefferson, Alturas is the place to be.
redshirt
@mclaren:
Ahh, San Diego. Which in the original German means a “Whale’s vagina”.
Seriously, San Diego did this to you? The city with perfect weather?
mclaren
@redshirt:
Our ideas of “perfect weather” differ. I grew up in rural New Jersey. That’s my idea of paradise. Green trees and living creatures. Not a roasting desert bordered by a septic bay.
redshirt
@mclaren: lol “rural New Jersey”.
I know it exists, it just makes me chuckle. It’s like a protected wildlife park.
J R in WV
@Tommy:
My Mom too. She died in 1997, and was bedfast with COPD from Pall Malls for several years before that. Dad took great care of her at home. They were both strong Republicans for ever.
But near her death, Mom told me “Don’t tell your Dad, but I voted Democratic the last two elections. The Republicans are crazy about abortion, and I couldn’t stand it any more!”
I’m sure she had a friend or cousin who died from an abortion back when they were forbidden illegal. She didn’t say so, but I could read her emotions. I was proud of her casting an absentee ballot privately, folding it up and mailing it in, and keeping her vote secret.
I never told Dad. As Mom asked.
Tommy
@redshirt: Is San Diego that bad?
I tend to be a creature of habit. The first time I went to CA I was supposed to go with this women I was dating. Spend a week in San Fran. Well I decided I didn’t want to go with her and this friend of mine said I’ll go with you. But we’ll only spend a few days in San Fran. Then we are renting a car and going to Tahoe.
He knew I was a hiker/walker.
I thought I knew beauty, but my fucking god I was blown away. That area of CA has to be one of the most stunning places in the world. So when I go back to CA that is where I go. Can’t bring myself to go anyplace else to be honest!
mclaren
@redshirt:
When you grow up watching deer rolling around on the lawn drunk from eating apples that have fallen and fermented in the autumn, peering out through nuclear-flash sunlight from a California window at a horizon that looks as though God wiped his ass on the sky doesn’t quite make the same impression.
redshirt
@Tommy: I don’t think so. I think the entirety of California from furthest South to Dankest North is amazing. It’s the best state in America – by far – and has literally changed the world on a continual basis.
Pollution controls exist worldwide because of California.
redshirt
@mclaren: Different beauty for different places. Maybe you should allow for more things to be considered beautiful?
Pie Happens (opiejeanne)
@Corner Stone: From the previous thread, Loretta and Linda Sanchez are sisters.
And the pizza sounds delicious. Why do you need prayers?
J R in WV
@redshirt:
The one time we drove through New Jersey I was amazed. The western part of the state is very rural, hilly, green with small towns and farms.
And they don’t let customers pump their own gas!! I hopped our and started up the pump, and they were very upset!
We weren’t there long, 3 or 4 days. We spent more time in Philadelphia, which was a good urban historic place for a few days.
Rural New Jersey, a true fact.
Tommy
@J R in WV:
Sorry your mother passed away …..
My mom said the same to me. Don’t tell your father and abortion was the straw that broke the camels back. I am 46. As long as I can recall, and we moved a lot, she found a women’s center/rape crisis center and gave until it hurt.
I only figured out maybe why this was the case, at the funeral of her father at 93. Some random dude asked if I knew my mom’s first husband. I was like WTF. Didn’t know my mother had been married before. Went to my dad, they have been married 47 years. Found out yes, mom had been married before. He hit her. Raped her.
Mom got out. Had to be so hard for a lady to do in the 60s. But she did it!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh and told never to bring this up with mom. Never have.
mclaren
@redshirt:
Obviously I’m prejudiced by my early childhood. Perhaps if I’d grown up in California, I would find it beautiful. YMMV.
Tommy
@redshirt: Best state? Don’t get ahead of yourself. Come to my state, IL ain’t half bad :).
redshirt
@J R in WV:
I know, right? It’s lovely. But everyone immediately thinks of NJ as chemical plants on I-95 and that’s not unfair. But Jersey does have a lot to offer.
Bad TV show excepted, the southern Jersey shore is very nice with excellent beach towns.
redshirt
@mclaren:
We all are, I think obviously. But look beyond that, and consider America as a whole, and then consider which part is most important.
It’s California. America’s secret weapon.
Pie Happens (opiejeanne)
@efgoldman: Dishonest John. Dudley Nightshade.
redshirt
I visit a town in New Jersey that is like a story book version of what a 1930’s suburban life should be like. It’s a freaking postcard.
Tommy
@redshirt: I won’t get in a pissing match over CA. Last I checked it is the 8th largest economy in the world.That is pretty rock star status! But there are other states. My state rocks. IL. We are about as “blue” as you get and not Vermont.
Pie Happens (opiejeanne)
@Fair Economist: We had a banana tree in Temple City in the 1960s. Freezes were rare in the San Gabriel Valley but they did happen. I remember smudge pots in the orange groves in Covina.
Pie Happens (opiejeanne)
@redshirt: Most of the year is nice in Southern California, and those beautiful clear days in late December and early January are really special.
Places in the mountains in SoCal that are quite lovely in the middle of August. The high temp might hit 80 but the humidity is so low that you don’t notice, and then there is the beach and the coastal towns where the temps stay lower than the inland areas.
I lived in Riverside for 23 years, I know from HOT, but I also remember that it would cool down to the 70s by about 7pm and we’d all go for walks around the neighborhood… except for that one week where it hit 112+ and only cooled to 100 by 7 and we’d have a brownout, and all of the skunks in the area perfumed the air so you couldn’t open your windows; that was hell. Then we lived in the East Bay just south of Oakland for 9 years, in a place that no one had AC because you really didn’t need it except for maybe a couple of days every year. We used fans.
We moved to the Seattle area 5 years ago but kept the little cabin near Lake Arrowhead; I still get homesick for California when the winter gloom sets in here. Neither place has or usually needs AC, but after this summer in Washington I am seriously considering it.
Pie Happens (opiejeanne)
@redshirt: We left in 1992. Our downtown neighborhood was not an armpit but parts of town were a bit sketchy.
Pie Happens (opiejeanne)
@redshirt: Where in Riverside was that? We lived in two different neighborhoods: downtown and the Wood Streets, and none of those houses were nearly touching.
Pie Happens (opiejeanne)
@redshirt: Chico is a California State University, not a UC. Different system. My BIL lived in Paradise for a year or two while attending Chico State. Lots of retirees, lots of college kids growing pot. Lots of almond trees, IIRC.
Pie Happens (opiejeanne)
@Tommy: Have you been to Yosemite? My Cod, go there, by all means next time you get a chance.
Pie Happens (opiejeanne)
@redshirt: When we moved to Washington we were amused to see that some of the laws about car safety and pollution referred to California law.
AxelFoley
@mclaren: If you think San Diego is hot, you wouldn’t survive a week here on the East Coast, particularly the South. I was in San Diego for the first time since the late 70s back in 2008. It was in the mid-80s all week, dry heat, and the people there were complaining about it being a “heat wave”.
Fuck outta here. That was like paradise compared to the heat and humidity we have to deal with in the southeast part of the country. I’d trade that type of weather for what we get here in a heartbeat.
Applejinx
Never been to California. Sounds nice.
Back to Ryan.
I think Ryan accepting the speakership can only mean one thing. He knows what he is: he’s a con artist who was hoping to become President, and he talks a lot of crap. He’s got self-awareness so that keeps him from fucking up too badly, as in he knows who he can lie to and how to weasel out of responsibility, and his dream was to do that straight to the White House.
If he’s accepting the Speakership, I think he’s going all in with the Teahadis. Ryan’s not going to be Boehner II Electric Scootaloo. I didn’t realise he was this nihilistic, but if I’m reading his character right, this means he’s going to preside over a Freedom Caucus-led government shutdown. If he can’t have the path to the White House—and he can’t, the pressure must have been unthinkable to force him to do this—then he’s gonna wreck the joint.
Be careful what you ask for. This isn’t going to help the Republicans at all, though the teahadis who literally want to wipe out all of Washington ought to be excited. I have a feeling the decision here has been, will Paul Ryan get to hedge his bets and dream of being President or is he forced to lead the charlatans as King Charlatan?
King Charlatan it is, then.
Matt McIrvin
@SoupCatcher:
Last winter in Massachusetts, it wasn’t even possible to go out and enjoy the snow that we got, because there was a blizzard in progress every single weekend.
Just One More Canuck
@Tommy: Mark Twain wrote repeatedly about how Lake Tahoe was the most beautiful place on earth
xian
@mclaren: there’s the batshit mclaren i remember
xian
@redshirt: doesn’t fit the batshit hyperbolic style
xian
@redshirt: doesn’t fit the one-note mouth-frothing narrative
The Very Reverend Crimson Fire of Compassion
@Tommy: Wait. You’re in southern IL? D’you mind if I ask whereabouts? I’m in SE MO, but I work in Southern Illinois (have for over 20 years now). I had no idea there might be TWO of us in this part of the country.
Paul in KY
@efgoldman: I was thinking a lime rickey, myself.
Paul in KY
@Corner Stone: Thank you!
Paul in KY
@efgoldman: Maybe Boris & Natasha from Bullwinkle.
Ajabu
For what it’s worth: I’ve lived essentially in two places my entire life – California & the Caribbean.
I’m good with either one. In California I’ve lived in L.A. (mostly in the valley where summers are hot),
in the Bay Area (which is essentially Mediterranean climate) and in Sacramento. (which has what passes for seasons in CA)
As a traveling musician, I’ve spent time in nearly every state and my living choices have always been CA or the islands. I just can’t abide winter. If it works for you, cool. You got it.
Unfortunately, California has become far to pricey for me to stay there permanently so when my wife retires it’s back to the Caribbean for us. That wouldn’t work for many of you but I don’t get bored with a temperature range of 70-85 or a 27 mi. land mass so it’s all good, YMMV.
AnotherBruce
@redshirt: Then check me in for insanity. I love to ski and I also love the winter storms. It’s pissing me off that winter is in fact disappearing where I live.