Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

How can republicans represent us when they don’t trust women?

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

It’s not hopeless, and we’re not helpless.

The words do not have to be perfect.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

Baby steps, because the Republican Party is full of angry babies.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

He really is that stupid.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

Let’s show the world that autocracy can be defeated.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

In after Baud. Damn.

Wake up. Grow up. Get in the fight.

When you’re a Republican, they let you do it.

I was confident that someone would point it out and thought why not me.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

Jack be nimble, jack be quick, hurry up and indict this prick.

I really should read my own blog.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Late Halloween Night Open Thread: Do Not Underestimate…

Late Halloween Night Open Thread: Do Not Underestimate…

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The above appeared sequentially on a San Francisco-based twitter feed. As a lifelong sf reader (who has a healthy respect for those ‘trash pandas’), it pleases me to assume that the raccoons are the ones posting the dudebro-bashing flyers…

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83Comments

  3. 3.

    SoupCatcher

    The Escondido Village – graduate student housing at Stanford – trash pandas were large, fat, and full of attitude. It was common for them to stand their ground and bare their teeth at me when I was walking home late at night.

    eta In our neighborhood in San Jose, they live in the storm drains. You’ll see them crawling out of the gutters at night. Not sure what they do when it rains, but I guess they’re playing the odds.

    It’s not unusual for them to travel in gangs and strip-mine front lawns for grubs.

  4. 4.

    01jack

    I just saw two of them while out walking the dog.

    Lately I’ve had to bring in the suet bird feeders at night. The critters are able to open the wire cages.

  5. 5.

    redshirt

    I live in the deep woods and have not seen hide nor hair of a trash panda.

    But I had a couple make love just outside my window in Boston. The screeching!

  6. 6.

    Suzanne

    I love all the alternate animal names. I am especially fond of “Danger Floof” and “Fart Squirrel”.

  10. 10.

    redshirt

    @efgoldman: I am far from water now, and my place in Boston was right next to water, so everything adds up.

    I have porcupines instead.

    They don’t give a shit as a general principal. I’ve almost stepped on one by accident twice now.

  11. 11.

    Matt McIrvin

    What subjects are verboten under threat of violence? Is it just office talk, or anything of a scientific or technical nature?

  12. 12.

    BruceFromOhio

    Do not fuck with raccoons, they are just fearless, mean, ornery little shits, esp if young’uns are involved. Skunks, when not rabid, can actually be reasoned with … unless your timing is bad. Both can tear the shit out of the lawn if the grubs are there.

    Whenever I have to go out into the yard after dark, the first thing I do when stepping outside is to clap loudly about five or six times: let’s everyone know I have something to do out there. Then some clicking or singing helps establish a perimeter if I have to move around the woodpile or composter.

  14. 14.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @BruceFromOhio: My younger brother’s garage got infested with them. Until he got them removed, they fucked with him if he tried to take the trash out after dark.

  18. 18.

    srv

    @Matt McIrvin: Unless you’re at Livermore, there’s really no science in any tech job out here. And if you’re from there, you probably can’t talk about it anyway.

  19. 19.

    Steeplejack

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Yeah, I know. I was thinking of a memorable group conversation over Mexican food and margs a long time ago on the topic of whether the lesser, or red, panda is a bear or a raccoon. The discussion got really complicated and loud. This must have been before easy access to the Internet and (probably) before they ran DNA tests to show that they are closer to raccoons than to bears.

    Since the current topic is trash pandas, or raccoons, I had to go farther afield for my joke material. (“Rodents” was right out.)

  20. 20.

    Steeplejack

    Looks like FYWP came through the time change okay.

    My computer changed its time automatically—no surprise. But so did the cable box and—real kudos for this—the on-screen channel guide. Now showing EST and with all the program times adjusted. Cool.

    Looking forward to an exciting time adjusting the time on watches and other devices tomorrow.

    ETA: Also looking forward to my semiannual moment of rage when I am reminded that the most accurate clock I own is on the control panel of the $20 microwave. It will be barely off by five seconds after six months.

  24. 24.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @redshirt: My parents and my brother once saw a wolf right outside our cabin in northern WI. I am still pissed that I wasn’t there. I mean, seeing a wolf in the wild? I would be like Archer with the ocelot.

  25. 25.

    Jim, Foolish LIteralist

    Great. Now the fucking raccoons are taking over. Maybe this is what Trump was sent for.

  26. 26.

    SoupCatcher

    Public service announcement for those living in the Bay Area.

    Bear Gulch Cave in Pinnacles National Park is fully open.

    One of the two weeks during the year when they open the upper cave. No idea when they’re going to close it again. We’ll be driving down tomorrow. It will be my first time past the upper gate.

  27. 27.

    eemom

    A few weeks ago I sustained a large bump on my head from a fall, and a couple of days later I had dark red markings under my eyes which made me look like a raccoon. The doctor said “raccoon eyes” from a head injury is actually, like, a thing. It’s from internally busted blood vessels from which the blood gradually oozes downward. I looked like something out of a horror movie. Anyway I’m back to normal now.

    /TMI

  28. 28.

    redshirt

    @efgoldman: When someone leaves a gigantic poo right on a trail crossroads, right atop a decaying log that I left on the trail since it’s practically ground by now, or soon enough, I ask some questions. I gather evidence, hit the books, make a few calls. Shake down a lead.

  34. 34.

    Mnemosyne (tablet)

    @srv:

    My brother’s goddaughter just graduated from Cal Poly (SLO). Her internship at Apple didn’t turn into a job, so she took her second-choice job at Livermore.

    (For non-Californians, Livermore is where they build nukes.)

  35. 35.

    Old Dan and Little Anne

    We used to get raccoons in our garage a lot when I was a kid. The woods across the street became a golf course and the raccoons disappeared.

  37. 37.

    Jim, Foolish LIteralist

    @Omnes Omnibus: I’m watching the latest season of The Walking Dead. I can’t judge.

    If raccoons could become zombies, these people would be seriously fucked.

  40. 40.

    srv

    @Mnemosyne (tablet): And lasers, lots of lasers. Good for her, she doesn’t have to live in a tent in the parking lot.

    Physicist cousins just tell their parents they do “lasers” whenever asked to explain what they do. That shuts everybody up.

  43. 43.

    Mnemosyne (tablet)

    @BillinGlendaleCA:

    Answer for you from the previous thread: the Ghost Train is on the Travel Town side of the park, at Los Angeles Live Steamers. It’s $15 per person this year, but it’s a pretty long ride. I think they’ve worked out between themselves that LALS gets Halloween and Travel Town gets Christmas.

  53. 53.

    Steeplejack

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    A watch is one of the few ways that a gentleman can accessorize. I have a couple of nice ones, a handful of nice-looking but inexpensive ones.

  59. 59.

    jl

    Yeah, I been talking about them darn SF raccoon. I think they are an advance guard, scoping out how to take over after humans start going downhill. Planet of the Raccoon! You wait, you will see, and you will not welcome your raccoon overlords.

    The internet tells me a group of raccoon is called a nursery or a gaze.

    Ha ha, a gaze.

    I propose that a group of raccoon be called a glare.

  62. 62.

    Steeplejack

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    As a semi-retired shut-in, I don’t get dressed up (or even dressed) enough to match the watch to the clothes. I tend to match the watch to the occasion: upscale-looking watch for going out, casual watch for daily mooching around. I can deploy a black band, a brown band or a steel bracelet as needed.

  63. 63.

    Steeplejack

    I’m out. The housecat is driving me nuts. Demands to be fed every ten minutes but isn’t really hungry, which is a sign that she’s just cranky and needs to go to bed. She has never mastered the concept that she can go back to the bedroom and go to bed without me. I guess I should applaud her work ethic or something. Stupid cat.

  65. 65.

    Nate Dawg

    Still remember camping in China Camp State Park (North Bay area) with my husband. A gang of 3 raccoons stole the bread right off the picnic table. When he engaged the perps, they resisted arrest, turned around, stood their ground, and bared their teeth.

    Wasn’t nearly half as annoying as the obnoxious techies across the path who stayed up talking about FUCKING BURNING MAN ALL NIGHT. They were “shushed” a few times throughout the night, but to no avail. At least it was California and not Florida. So no one got shot.

  67. 67.

    SWMBO

    @Nate Dawg: My cousin and I were camping and I took my dog. A fearsome poodle who did not wish to be trifled with. I kept him on a 30 foot lead while we were there. The first night we heard someone (something) on our picnic table and turned on a flashlight to catch the raccoons raiding our food. I held the end of the lead and let the dog charge out of our tent and scare away the burglars. The next night we heard the thieves at it again and I started to let the dog loose again. Turned on the flashlight just in case and saw it was a family of skunks. Go in peace my friends…They had quite a haul that night.

  69. 69.

    Another Holocene Human

    @Steeplejack: It seems to be an annual ritual at work for the newbies to start freaking on fall back day that they will not get paid for the fall back hour. Now add the new equipment that automagically switches over instead of us being able to change at shift’s end or on open, and people’s fancy watches that change, and now they all cry about that.

    Goddamnit, they told you in training our calendar “day” changes at 4am and not at midnight, and tonight you still work here, so what do you think, Sparky?!

  71. 71.

    Another Holocene Human

    goddamnit, fuck being up this early. tomorrow is shot.

    better go to bed. I sound like little sociopath.

  72. 72.

    Nate Dawg

    @SWMBO: My Sheltie has been skunked twice! Both times were right outside where we were living in an extremely urban area. So bizarre. Getting skunk smell out of a thick Sheltie coat is a nightmare.

  74. 74.

    Botsplainer

    @Steeplejack:

    Yeah, I know. I was thinking of a memorable group conversation over Mexican food and margs a long time ago on the topic of whether the lesser, or red, panda is a bear or a raccoon. The discussion got really complicated and loud. This must have been before easy access to the Internet and (probably) before they ran DNA tests to show that they are closer to raccoons than to bears.

    The Internet and the smart phone have genuinely ruined the barroom information exchange.

  77. 77.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @Botsplainer:

    So true. I was also reminded of how one time the Car Talk guys got off a phone call and one of them said they had just proved that it is actually possible for three people together to know less about a topic than one of them individually.

  78. 78.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Starfish: See, that is actually kind of alien to me, and I’m a professional programmer.

    I’m increasingly glad I never went to the Bay Area to seek my fortune; the place seems so messed up in so many ways. Around here, I don’t think you’d get the impression that people only talk about programming even on the Red Line under Kendall Square. They’d probably be going on about sports instead.

  81. 81.

    sharl

    @PaulW: Oh man. I don’t know Monkeyfister, nor where his location – “Armpit, TN” – is in Tennessee. I’ve been crossing paths (infrequently) with him in blog and twitter comments for almost as many years as I’ve been online.

    I’m not on Facebook, but I hope word is going out there and elsewhere. Unfortunately, I see no recent twitter activity where he is referenced. I posted something on twitter (for what that’s worth; I don’t have many followers), and also responded to this USN tweet pointing out the importance of suicide prevention. The post they link to is directed toward active duty sailors, with no mention of veterans. Also, given Monkeyfister’s account of how he thinks he acquired his current medical condition – due to chemical exposure during Navy service, in violation of existing Navy policy – I’m concerned that USN may respond (if they do) with a “take it up with Veterans Affairs” and walk away.

    He’s been silent on twitter and his blog since Weds., which doesn’t necessarily mean anything. Hopefully there has been good news for him since, or if not that, at least some time is being bought by him looking for a home for his two cats.

    I’ll try contacting him directly via Twitter, and other means (if available).

    Thanks for posting this.

    ETA: He reached out to Cole on Twitter on Weds., so maybe he did the same with other folks. Hope he at least provided his true location to Cole (& others?), otherwise helping him becomes even more difficult.

  82. 82.

    SWMBO

    @Nate Dawg: Shave them first if you can get close enough without gagging. The hair will grow back.

    @sharl: I hope JC can reach him. He’s (Cole) not been as active so maybe he’s preoccupied with this.

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