These messages, encountered on a foggy morning on the Venice (CA) boardwalk last week, seem on point:
Sorry for the soft focus — I had only time to grab a quick phone shot; these bearers of wisdom disappeared before I could unlimber some more sophisticated camera action. But the point is made, I think.
I had a ten-day Flagyl imposed alcohol break, but that ended last night. I plan to raise a cocktail tonight flavored with sweet, sweet wingnut tears. La lucha continua, certainly. But that doesn’t mean triumphs along the way can’t be savored. In fact the reverse.
Open thread, y’all.
Elizabelle
Adam, do you know why Comey was at the White House today? (Or so I am told.)
TenguPhule
Monday promises to be interesting. In every sense of the word.
danielx
It’s Friday afternoon, a beautiful day, the Butler Bulldogs tip off in two hours, and (to paraphrase an earlier commentor) Hair Furor and the Zombie-Eyed Granny Starver just did a simultaneous face plant into a pile of flaming dog shit.
I’m sure this day could get better somehow, but if it doesn’t I am a happy man.
amygdala
Here’s to it being a 10, rather than 14, day course.
*raises glass*
lamh36
HAHAHAHA…go cry in your cheerios Paul Ryan…ya poor hating bastard…
@AP
BREAKING: Speaker Paul Ryan says the nation will be ‘living with Obamacare for the foreseeable future.’
https://twitter.com/AP/status/845369965263900674
Tom Levenson
@amygdala: Actually 8 days plus three, in the end, of post pill abstinence. The story on Flagyl and alcohol is not quite as straightforward as the pharmacist said — it ain’t an Antabuse analogue. But I decided I could do with a my-body-is-a-temple couple of weeks and felt no desire to test the limits of the drug. Plus, Flagyl (w. an Amoxicillin chaser, no less) left me feeling queasy enough that adding more stressors to the system seemed like a poor idea.
But I intend to take in the evening with a rye smile, if you know what I mean and I think you do.
Elizabelle
@lamh36: Key word there is “LIVING.”
ArchTeryx
I did say that I’d eat a nice pile of medium rare crow with a smile on my face if this bill went down, because in my world, Republicans always fall in line at the end. For the most part, they do. But not this time.
At least I’ll get it with a nice Bearnaise sauce.
donnah
We may not win every battle against this garbage administration, but this one feels good. Whatever lies ahead, we have momentum and support to face it.
I hope Trump has a miserable, whiny, crybaby weekend. And Ryan can go pound sand.
Elizabelle
@Tom Levenson: Ah, Tom. Glad it was you in fog-shrouded Venice, CA.
Not sure why I thought “Adam.”
Be well, and enjoy that rye.
D58826
@lamh36:
yep and some significant number of people will remain ALIVE because Obamacare still lives. That makes it a very good day
Redshift
Since I’m in the DC area, I’m keeping an eye out for if there’a gathering outside the White House or the Capitol to celebrate and taunt Cheeto and Paulie.
amygdala
@Tom Levenson: I’ve always wondered if there’s some pharmacogenomics at play, since I’ve definitely seen patients drink through their metronidazole unscathed (and not because they weren’t taking their antibiotics). But I’ve also seen folks wind up in the ED when they didn’t get (or ignored) fair warning of what can happen.
Even better that you had a day to let it wash out of your system.
War’s not won, but it’s always good to win a big battle.
Chris
@donnah:
I have been dreading this vote for almost five months now. And while the ACA isn’t exactly safe, it looks for now like I’ll get to keep my health insurance after all. This is the best I’ve felt since before the election.
Hobbes83
I’m starting to get sick of all this winning. Anybody else there yet?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I’m sure Dean Heller and Jeff Flake are thrilled with this messaging
bluehill
“Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”
Winston Churchill
D58826
@ArchTeryx: As I said on another thread inspite of all the pissoing and moaning the GOOPERS always fall in line and vote the party line.
They would make Hitler the man of the decade for all of the jobs he helped create in the 1940’s if the GOP leadership demanded it.
So in that sense this is somewhat ‘unpresidented’
Elizabelle
Good read, from the Los Angeles Times. On The Zookeeper’s Wife; true story, film out shortly. Interview with book author Diane Ackerman.
The Sunday Conversation: ‘Zookeeper’s Wife’ author Diane Ackerman sees parallels between World War II and today
We were active this week and before, jackals. We have to turn back the evil afoot amidst us.
Now I want to see that movie, although it sounds difficult with the cruelty against humans and animals.
lamh36
raven
I was listening to Ryan’s remarks on the Atlanta news when they broke in for a traffic report and the guy said “and now for a system that is really not working!
The Moar You Know
Awww damn. Had to do the Flagyl thing last year for a c.diff infection (don’t let a doc put you on long-term antibiotics, folks!). The Flagyl was the worst experience I’ve ever had on a drug. Horrendous stuff.
Don’t get c.diff either, that disease is a motherfucker. Had I gotten it at age 80 instead of 50, I might not be here posting this.
ETA: I basically drink about 4 times a year, and certainly not while I’m sick…the Flagyl is just a punishing drug on your body.
Yutsano
@Tom Levenson:
You clever boy…
@ArchTeryx: Be careful what you wish for. There are crow recipes on the Internet.
And Béarnaise would work quite well for the gaminess I think.
(It works with the Twitter comment I just sent.)
tomtofa
Now that people have a slightly better idea of the issues involved in health insurance, seems like it would be a good time for Dems to offer their own plan to lower premiums, and improve and extend coverage, being sure to note how the Republicans have voiced how they want the current ACA to wither and die, hurting even more people.
Paid for, of course, by getting more than the current pathetic .9% tax on the wealthy. Point out how much the Trump/Ryan plan would have given the rich, and suggest that some of that windfall should instead go to the rest of us.
Corner Stone
Can you imagine being Speaker of the House and going up to a podium and saying, “Governing is hard.”
This is mind blowing levels of incompetence.
Corner Stone
Trump doesn’t have a fucking agenda! He does not believe or understand anything!
lamh36
HAHAHAHA
“stratey master”
Corner Stone
“He’s The Closer!”
pk
Obama made things look so easy when the reality was that he had to deal with these monsters in congress for a better part of his presidency. Trump is such a fool that even with complete control of congress and senate he fails. Yet again he’s going to be a failure. He’s not a self aware individual, but I hope that he dies knowing that his life has been an utter and complete failure.
Aleta
@lamh36:
amygdala
@Corner Stone: Nancy Smash has been trolling Ryan, hard, about his incompetence on Twitter and just twisted the knife a little more at the post-nonvote presser. If I were a more actualized person, I wouldn’t have enjoyed it all so much.
Xantar
Jill Biden throws epic shade
zhena gogolia
@pk:
He measures success in gold leaf.
stinger
@Hobbes83: But at least you have health care!
The Moar You Know
@Xantar:
I find most attempts at “throwing shade” weak at best but that is fucking brutal. Remind me to not ever piss off Jill Biden.
Roger Moore
This isn’t as big as the initial passage was, but it’s still a big Biden deal. This was probably their best shot at killing Obamacare outright. They can go back and try again, but every day they spend on Obamacare is a day they can’t spend on tax “reform” or eliminating the EPA. And they have to be worried that this has weakened them, so that every day they spend on it is also costing them the political capital they could be spending on those other projects. I don’t think Obamacare is charged up to full third rail power yet, but it’s enough that they aren’t going to want to touch it again any time soon.
PVDMichael
After being disappointed by some of the polls during the election, I’ve pretty much only watched Rasmussen (which has a strong R lean to it). I then figure that Trump’s real approval numbers are “somewhere less than this”.
Trump has moved from 50-50 approval in Rasmussen to 44-56 appr/disapproval – a 12 pt shift in 4 days. And the >real< numbers are even worse.
Hal
Judd Legum @JuddLegum
Trump has done everything possible to repeal Obamacare including 5 visits to Mar-a-lago, 9 trips to the golf course & sitting in a big truck
2:44 PM · Mar 24, 2017
lamh36
@lamh36: damnit…spellcheck didn’t work…
jl
@lamh36: Problem I have with that tweet is that there was no course to stay on the AHCA. Now that it has been pulled, and the US population’s health is safe for the time being, I can laugh my head off.
The mess was an incoherent and innumerate hash. “Incompetent’ doesn’t do it justice, since there is no way they were doing anything to which the word ‘competence’ would be relevant. Truly, 1 + 1 = minus 6 level work. But, I do apologize, in the spirit of comity and compromise, I guess I should say it was 1 + 1 = minus 4 level work and we are all good.
I predict all Trump/GOP lgislative and executive initiatives will meet the same fate, except tax cuts or the filthy rich and gutting needed regulation in order to puff up corporate profits even more.
Edit: and wonder where any giga-jobs infrastructure proposals might be hiding. I didn’t hear about them in the misnamed ‘Trump budget’ (actually it was the crazed GOP House reactionary budget). Anyone know?
Tom Levenson
@Xantar: Damn! Had to retweet that with a hat-tip for game.
MikefromArlongton
Does being morally and ethically bankrupt count as two more bankruptcies for Trump?
trollhattan
Flagyl? Did you have giardiasis? Hellofa weight-loss program if so.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
BWHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHA
Via Breitfart
XTPD
@Xantar: that ain’t shade that’s a sick burn (word to Kara Brown)
Corner Stone
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: That’s most likely just Bannon propaganda. But I’ll fucking take it and see if it starts to build Big Mo.
raven
@MikefromArlongton: Nice!
Chris
@Roger Moore:
I’m a big believer that the way you know a major political reform is here to stay is when the opponents of those who passed it gain power, and… accept, or are forced to accept, that it’s now part of the landscape.
Ur-example being the New Deal: twenty years of Roosevelt and Truman were nice, yes, but what finally cinched the deal was when a Republican president came to power in 1952 and… accepted it. (A less happy example would be Democrats governing by “Third Way” in the nineties after twelve years of Reaganism).
It’s too soon to tell for sure, but right now it’s looking hopeful that the ACA, like Medicare and Social Security, has become part of the landscape and is here to stay.
NotMax
@Tom Levenson
My body is a temple.
And I desecrate it daily.
:)
Elizabelle
On fuck the fucking NY Times website.
Chris
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:
I mean, whoever comes next will probably be even worse. But frakk it, that turd needs to be gone yesterday.
Immanentize
@Tom Levenson: Flagyl is the worst. Even thinking the name brings back that taste…. and the tongue stuff. Ick. So happy for you that you are done.
lamh36
Steve Kornacki talking about how “confident and unflappable” Cheeto Prez was in the face of defeat.
Jay S
@Corner Stone: The sporks are out now, will the knives follow?
Elizabelle
@lamh36: Did he get media coaching from Van Jones?
Why I don’t watch broadcast/cable news. Can’t spare the brain cells it kills.
Tom Levenson
@trollhattan: Nah. Problems w. my gums and local microbiome. Feh.
lollipopguild
@Corner Stone: We had a preznut who said the same thing-George W. Bush. “It’s hard, hard work”
MomSense
@ArchTeryx:
Hey AT we are still here and TrumpRyanDon’tCare is dead! Of course the GOP psychopaths will never stop trying to do harm but for right now we are both ok!!! Sending you the biggest hug.
Feebog
They were holding a 2/9 off suit and pretending it was a pair of kings. They will now try to kill it off with regulatory malpractice. We need to be vigilant and call them out on it. For tonight however, it’s champagne and a rare rib-eye. Woot!
Steeplejack (tablet)
@Xantar:
Great line, but unfortunately that’s a parody account.
lamh36
@Elizabelle: like he doesn’t follow Cheeto on twitter…smh
Dude was just fishing…
Mike J
lamh36
Waldo
These guys could f*ck up a wet dream. Heck, for Ryan, that might literally be the case.
jl
@lamh36: As long as he attributes Trump’s aplomb to complete ignorance and obliviousness, I guess it’s OK. And seems like Ryan is taking the bulk of the personal humiliation. So Trump don’t care.
danielx
@trollhattan:
Had a bout with a colon difficulty a few years ago and went through two courses of antibiotics – first AugmentIn and then Flagyl + Augmentin…..a month for each course. Naturally, this was in August and with augmentIn you couldn’t go out in the sun and with Flagyl you couldn’t drink. Oh, and on clear liquids the whole time. To this day, I cannot so much look at a Jello box at the grocery. After that meat/chicken/fish and potatoes for a month. Most miserable summer of my life, by the end of the whole deal I’d lost 26 lbs (thin and flabby at the same time, joy) and would have sold my soul for a green salad with vinaigrette dressing.
MaryL
@Chris: To paraphrase Jefferson in Hamilton: An American Musical, ” “I’ll give him this: His [healthcare] system is a work of genius. I couldn’t undo it if I tried, and believe me, I tried.”
hovercraft
According to Bob Costa, Twitler was shocked about the hatred between GOP factions in the house.
I guess he just thought that the previous Orange man just chose to retire and spend more time smoking, drinking Merlot and golfing. But now he’s just content to sit back and wait for the democrats to come crawling back to him when Obamacare explodes. He really was also surprised that they refused to make a deal with him on this.
People I think the man is insane, delusional and insane.
Mnemosyne
I’m on a short break at my conference, so all I can say is:
Ha-Ha! Your bill failed!
/pointing and laughing like Nelson
jl
@Mike J: Yeah, I heard a news report about the stock market rebound. The report attributed it to two things. First, probably right, that now Trump can get to the really important work of cutting taxes for the filthy rich and gutting regulations. Second, I think delusional, that now Trump can get on with his giga-mega-googleplex JOBS! infrastructure program.
lollipopguild
@hovercraft: Trump lives in a reality show world where he always wins.
trollhattan
@Tom Levenson: Ah, problems at the other end as it were. Hope all is better now, not the best of times to give up drinking/sniffing glue/et al.
lamh36
@hovercraft: was just saying Boozing Boehner made baby Ryan think this speakership-ing was so easy…
https://media.tenor.co/images/d85f21a214b7adbe1a95609809a05961/tenor.gif
WereBear
happy for @ArchTeryx and also President Obama..
debit
@Mnemosyne: I actually did that. At work. It was awesome.
tobie
We should take a moment to thank Nancy Pelosi for holding her caucus together. I suspect there might have been a few defections if Tim Ryan had been House Minority Leader.
@tomtofa:
I don’t disagree with you. It shows the Dems are the mature party, responsive to the concerns of Americans, and eager to get things done, but I have a hard time seeing any Republicans getting on board.
HinTN
@raven: Yeah, you right. Avoid Hotlanta at traffic time like the plague.
StringOnAStick
@Tom Levenson: Check into getting that gum issue treated by laser, either a Periolase or Biolase device through your DDS. Gum disease is no joke.
NotMax
As it’s an Open Thread –
Lesser film but for two things:
Seeing how smoothly Frank Sinatra does nefarious, and Sterling Hayden is always worth a watch.
Saturday, 8:30 a.m. Eastern time on TCM – Suddenly.
Iowa Old Lady
@lamh36: :Lost with majorities in both houses. They didn’t need a single Democratic vote. They still failed.
I was just in the car and an Alabama congresscritter was saying how the exchange in his state had only one carrier and this was terrible, but it didn’t seem to occur to him that he and his colleagues could act to improve that situation. They were apparently helpless.
Davebo
@Xantar: It’s great, but it’s not Jill Biden.
Iowa Old Lady
@tobie: They have an alternative: the ACA. They could propose improvements to it, I guess.
Hobbes83
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: we knew this was coming. I will bet anyone a sawbuck that Ryan doesn’t last past the midterms, and a double sawbuck that he doesn’t last past this year.
hovercraft
@lamh36:
Yeah I saw that, as was said in the last thread, Kornacki used to be good, but he’s developed into a real tool. I remember back during the campaign someone here said he had held a grudge against the Clinton’s going way back to something Bill did to I believe it was Tongas, or whomever it was who ran against Bill in the ’92 primary. His commentary on Hillary was very negative.
lollipopguild
@Iowa Old Lady: They are helpless and hapless.
Fair Economist
I’ve taken Flagyl twice with no medical side effects more serious than the mild diarrhea typical with antibiotics. The first time I didn’t have any trouble taking it. But, strangely, the *second* time it was the NASTIEST tasting stuff I’d ever had. I was involuntarily making faces and contorting like a Loony Tunes character being poisoned. It was so bad I swear I could taste the foulness just from it getting dissolved in my stomach. Eeyurgh.
gwangung
@Xantar: Aw, man. Brutal. Just brutal.
Josie
@MomSense: So happy for you and @ArchTeryx and all the others who got this reprieve. I hope we can continue to win this battle.
The Red Pen
Most delusional Freeper quote I’ve found (so far):
WereBear
@NotMax: I notch it a little higher than that: quite effective little thriller.
Immanentize
@Hobbes83: so Ryan’s career plan was that Hillary would win, he would loudly, aggressively, and publically pursue all bullshit claims for three years, then people would mostly forget his pathetic VP run and he could run for President. But that path to success for Ryan completely depended on Hillary winning.
Oopsie.
Immanentize
@Fair Economist: exactly. Tongue coat.
tobie
@Iowa Old Lady: That’s what I meant. Propose fixes to the ACA, not new legislation. That’s what was done in the past until the GOP became a nihilist party.
MomSense
@Josie:
Josie! Thank you. You are always in my thoughts. Sending love to you. ♥️
HinTN
@tobie: That doesn’t matter. They needed to put something or there and bang it into the public consciousness.
Steeplejack (tablet)
Meanwhile, in Trumpworld:
lamh36
If you follow Pete Souza on social media, you’ll see he’s been steadily trolling the new administration with photos from the Obama years with caption commentary…lol
Like this one today…a pic of Obama and Pence, I think after that GOP confab they invited PBO to, and he answered everyone of their questions and completely PWNED the room.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C7tgbP2VwAEdt85.jpg
is this the one where he was zinging GOP Congress left and right…at their confab or something?
Baby Paul and Cheeto, had such contempt for PBO, that they let themselves believe that what PBO accomplished was easy to do…
they learned the truth today: https://twitter.com/psddluva4evah/status/845394409504038912
lamh36
Hilary’s statement from twitter:
@HillaryClinton
Today was a victory for all Americans.
https://twitter.com/HillaryClinton/status/845385004389666816
jacy
@NotMax:
A good temple needs constant offerings: preferably cake and vodka.
zhena gogolia
@Davebo:
I thought that was a little indecorous for her.
hovercraft
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:
That is straight from shadow president Bannon.
I think they need to cancel President Toddlers play dates and keep him in class over the next several weekends, the ‘art of governing’ seems to be eluding him.
NotMax
@jacy
Or both together.
Elie
@Immanentize:
Flagyl IS a rough antibiotic but when its needed — its needed. The infections that it counters are usually serious and this is the stuff that is effective. C Diff is horrible — better to prevent cause its a bitch to have it and to treat it. Whenever you look at a negative experience in medicine (or life) — consider the alternative. Rarely are alternatives clean —
Hang in there. I hate the stuff but when I have needed it, I have needed it…
PS — be sure to take some probiotics. My fave is Kombucha tea which has lots of good bacteria to repopulate your gut with good things…
tomtofa
@tobie:
Oh, they for sure wouldn’t. Then they’d have to spend some time explaining exactly why they wouldn’t…
J R in WV
@The Moar You Know:
I will see your Flagyl (which I did many years ago) and raise you Itraconazole, which I am taking 1 week on and three weeks off for 6 weeks/months. I’m sure there are worse drugs, but this one is unique in my experience… a ton of fairly normal drugs interact with it. Three down and three more months to go.
For example, I have to stop taking my statin while I’m taking it. There’s a three page list of drugs you can’t take (or have to take extraordinary precautions) while taking it. And as I say, after taking it for a week, you get 3 weeks off to get ready for the next course.
It is apparently working, so that’s good.
I’ll be able to have a sip of brown whiskey with you Tom. Not rye, but corn.
And we get to keep that terrible Obamacare for a while longer, and they don’t get to use it as a vehicle to lower taxes on the rich either…. so many darns!!!
amygdala
@MaryL: And also:
You don’t have the votes.
You don’t have the votes.
You’re gonna need Congressional approval
And you don’t have the votes.
Frankensteinbeck
@tobie:
I think it’s likely they will, but no one will know. It would die fast in the Senate, would not even get a vote in the House, and the media will not talk about it. At all. During Obama’s time, I was floored by the number of things I found out in fiddly corners of the internet he was doing that got whole raging debates about how people wished he was doing that. And look at Clinton’s excellently liberal policies. The news does not want to talk about this stuff, so even most of the politically aware don’t know.
hovercraft
@The Red Pen:
Yes he’s also very popular and smart, and well respected, sure dear now why don’t you sit down if in front of the TV and watch some more FOX, while the grown ups talk.
hovercraft
@Steeplejack (tablet):
Sadly for him, even Chucky and his panel are saying that he actually would do it day one, and that his attempts to blame the democrats don’t make sense.
NotMax
Dolt 45 crew so inept that am half expecting them to supply the annual Easter Egg Roll with egg rolls
Elizabelle
@NotMax: Funny.
Elizabelle
@hovercraft: Funny, also. Especially about the grownups.
Immanentize
@Elie: thanks. I hope to never have to do it again (2 times for diverticulosis). I knew I had to. But sheesh. But I have noted your probiotic advice because it certainly burnt the whole Forrest to kill the weeds.
Another Scott
@PVDMichael: PPP from 3/15:
It must be highly unusual for equal numbers to want a new President to be impeached as not, less than 3 months into his term.
And even the Teabaggers are horrified by using ketchup on steak… ;-)
Cheers,
Scott.
Steeplejack (tablet)
@Another Scott:
Pineapple on a pizza?! Never! Now I know this country is insane.
Keith P.
$20 on the one on the right.
Gelfling 545
@lamh36: It’s easy to be unflappable if you don’t understand what’s happening- and don’t really care.
Ruckus
@MikefromArlongton:
Nah, he started without morals or ethics at birth. He would have had to have sold them at a loss for them to count as bankruptcies.
Ruckus
@Iowa Old Lady:
Far more than just apparently. They are fucking helpless. How many republican congress critters would be the night manager at a McDs (at best!) if they hadn’t been elected?
cain
@Steeplejack (tablet):
Mmm.. pineapple and jalepeno pizza with onions and italian sausage.. so good.
chopper
goddamn fucking hobbits.