Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I’m starting to think Jesus may have made a mistake saving people with no questions asked.

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

Donald Trump found guilty as fuck – May 30, 2024!

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Fight for a just cause, love your fellow man, live a good life.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

How any woman could possibly vote for this smug smarmy piece of misogynistic crap is beyond understanding.

… gradually, and then suddenly.

People really shouldn’t expect the government to help after they watched the GOP drown it in a bathtub.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

I’m more christian than these people and i’m an atheist.

Those who are easily outraged are easily manipulated.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

Dumb motherfuckers cannot understand a consequence that most 4 year olds have fully sorted out.

The current Supreme Court is a dangerous, rogue court.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

A fool as well as an oath-breaker.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

Hey hey, RFK, how many kids did you kill today?

Books are my comfort food!

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

If you thought you’d already seen people saying the stupidest things possible on the internet, prepare yourselves.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Writing Group Update and Open Thread

Writing Group Update and Open Thread

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I’ve been debating a writer’s thread this weekend and YES won out. So there will be an one at the usual time,  12:30/11:30/10:30/9:30.

Two things caught my eye today:

For our New England friends, the Tall Ships are coming.

https://twitter.com/TaMaraRullo/status/855456160819933185

There is a great slideshow at the link.

And this adorable video, love the kid giving CPR to the mascot. Thrilled he knows how!

My day is off to a very slow start. How are you getting through your Friday?

Open thread.

Reader Interactions

60Comments

  1. 1.

    Yarrow

    That kid is adorable!

    My day is off to a very slow start.

    Me too. Can’t seem to concentrate. Have a ton to get done today and can’t even seem to get started.

  4. 4.

    WaterGirl

    @brendancalling: If “this little gem” is supposed to be a link, it’s not working. If I hover over it, the 3 words are underlined but it’s not showing as a link.

  5. 5.

    WaterGirl

    What’s the Schrodinger’s Dog thing about on Cole’s twitter feed to the right? I don’t get it.

  6. 6.

    Another Scott

    @WaterGirl: I noticed that too. I assume it’s something in the last few days on his blog, if he doesn’t post the specific linky.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  9. 9.

    Uncle Cosmo

    Did I miss something? Late last night I thought I saw (in passing) a headline on MSN.com to the effect that Chaffetz is not resigning from Congress. Now I can’t seem to find it. WTF?

  10. 10.

    Another Scott

    @Uncle Cosmo: Politico:

    “I might depart early,” he said in the interview. “It’s not tomorrow, it’s not next week. If it is, it’s going to be in the months to come.”

    Asked if he is resigning because of a yet-to-be revealed scandal, Chaffetz said, “Absolutely, positively not.

    FWIW.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  13. 13.

    Marmot

    I’ve been debating a writer’s thread …

    So who is this writer?
    ::drops fountain pen::

  16. 16.

    Percysowner

    For those people who were upset that the ACLU is “pissing and moaning” about the announcement that Sessions intends to prosecute WikiLeaks and Assange, this just in Sessions won’t rule out prosecuting media outlets besides WikiLeaks.

    During a Friday morning CNN appearance, Sessions was asked by anchor Kate Bolduan whether “folks should be concerned that this would also open up news organizations like CNN and the New York Times to prosecution.”

    Sessions wouldn’t rule anything out.

    “That’s speculative, and I’m not able to comment on that,” he replied.

    The ACLU knew whereof they spoke, and they are sadly right on the money that the twerp Assange’s rights need to be defended and they kind of need to stop this in its tracks, no matter how repugnant WikiLeaks, et al. are because Sessions intends to come after anyone who reports what the Trump Administration and the Republicans don’t want reported.

  17. 17.

    Mnemosyne

    Yay writer’s thread! I’ll see if I can check in before I have to leave for the LA Times Festival of Books. For any locals going, I’ll be volunteering at the LARA (Los Angeles Romance Authors) booth from 3-5 pm on Sunday. Short, stocky bottle redhead wearing big sunglasses.

  18. 18.

    Mnemosyne

    @Percysowner:

    I’m fine with the ACLU defending Assange. I’m not sure he specifically qualifies as a journalist, or that Wikileaks qualifies as a news outlet, since they don’t do any actual reporting. It would be nice to have that clarified, however.

  20. 20.

    hovercraft

    Does anyone know anything about this Dina Titus? Is this a good thing?

    Nevada Dem rep considering Senate run against Heller
    By Jordain Carney – 04/21/17 01:11 PM EDT

    Democratic Rep. Dina Titus (Nev.) is eyeing a bid against Sen. Dean Heller in 2018, arguing the Nevada Republican is vulnerable.

    “It’s going to be interesting. I’m thinking about it. Some people have talked to me about the possibility. It’s a hard decision,” Titus told KNPR, a Nevada NPR affiliate station, when asked who could challenge Heller next year.

    She added that if she doesn’t run against Heller, she’ll run for reelection to her House seat because she’s starting to gain “clout” in the House.

    “That’s part of the consideration. … It is hard to walk away from where you think you can make a difference,” she said. “Whoever runs I’ll certainly be helping them, if it’s not me, and I think we can take him out.”

    Heller is viewed as the most vulnerable GOP senator up for reelection in 2018 during a Senate cycle that is very favorable for Republicans. Democrats are defending 25 seats, while Republicans only need to defend nine, including Nevada.

  21. 21.

    hovercraft

    @Percysowner:
    This is what I said last night, you can’t pick and chose, either you defend everyone or no one. Even the most despicable deserve to be defended. It’s the whole first they came for……….. and I said nothing…………..

  22. 22.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Another Scott:

    The piece you linked continues to quote Chaffetz:

    “Not in any way shape or form,” he said. “I’ve been given more enemas by more people over the last eight years than you can possibly imagine. From the Secret Service to the Democratic Party. I am who I am. If they had something really scandalous, it would’ve come out a long, long time ago.”

    Yesterday we discussed his weird instruction to Trump: “Open your kimono and show everything.” This is, to me, a really odd locution although it is apparently a common phrase in business dealings. But now this repellent image of being given multiple enemas? Who talks like this? Who thinks like this?

    Ugh. Just leave already and spare us your perverse images.

  23. 23.

    hovercraft

    These people are truly awful people.

    Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Friday defended his criticism of a Hawaii-based federal judge’s injunction blocking President Trump’s travel ban, saying that he wouldn’t have wanted to phrase it any differently.

    “I don’t know that I said anything I’d want to phrase differently,” Sessions said during an appearance on CNN. “No, we’re going to defend the president’s order. We believe it’s constitutional. We believe there’s specific statutory authority for everything in that order.”

    But hey, it’s working for them.

    The Republican National Committee on Friday announced it raised $41.5 million in the first three months of 2017, its strongest-ever total for the first quarter following a presidential race.

    “Our record-setting fundraising pace has been fueled by grassroots enthusiasm for President Trump and the Republican Party,” RNC Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel said in a statement…….

    The RNC said it brought in $12.2 million in March, breaking its record for biggest haul in the March after a presidential race. The committee has $41.4 million total cash on hand.

    RNC finance chairman Steve Wynn said the robust totals are proof voters approve of Trump and the GOP majorities in both chambers of Congress.

    “Americans across the country are expressing their belief that their best chance for a better life in our country is with continued Republican control of the House, Senate and the White House under President Trump,” he said.

  24. 24.

    PaulW

    I finished and submitted a short story for the Florida Writers Association collection contest, so that is safely out of the way.

    I am now finishing on that damned novel project to get it self-published in time for an August comic-con in Albany GA (this will be my first con as a person on the Artist Alley).

  27. 27.

    Yutsano

    @Mnemosyne: Calling him a “journalist” renders that word pretty meaningless. If anything he used to be a social critic. Then he went after those sweet sweet rubles and IMHO sold out any integrity he might have had.

  28. 28.

    hovercraft

    Reason number 58,734,094 that the NY Times is garbage.

    This from the GOS, no linky to the Vichy Times.

    Ted Nugent has said a lot of appalling things in the last few years, and the New York Times really does not want you thinking about that when you consider Nugent’s evening in the White House Wednesday. According to Glenn Thrush’s report on the dinner Donald Trump hosted for Sarah Palin, Nugent, and Kid Rock, Nugent is “a guitar demigod, knife-between-the-teeth hunter and conservative provocateur.”

    Serious question: Did Thrush lift that directly from a Nugent press release?

    Casually dropped into the middle of a series of gushing quotes from Nugent about how amazing the White House evening was, we learn that he “has referred to former President Barack Obama as a ‘mongrel’ and to Hillary Clinton with an array of unflattering epithets.” Uh, yes, that’s one way of putting it.

    To put it another way: “Subhuman mongrel.” “Toxic c*nt.” “Suck my machine gun.” “Worthless bitch.” And those are just the things this man who “continue[s] to use the word ni**er at one time or another” has said publicly. Makes you wonder what he said in his four hours hanging out at the White House with Donald Trump, doesn’t it?

    Thrush’s article has some cute little details if you think there’s anything cute about violent racists in the White House, but either way, there’s no excuse for giving Nugent a platform for this:

    Mr. Nugent chortled when asked if he regretted his comments about Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton.

    “No! I will never apologize for calling out evil people,” he said, arguing that Mr. Obama “intentionally dismantled the American dream for eight years.”

    By, you know, presidenting while black. Not that Glenn Thrush and the New York Times are indelicate enough to spell that out.

  29. 29.

    ruemara

    Maybe I should participate in the writer’s thread. I have too much writing to do and I’m not staying motivated to do it. Can’t fully blame it on the surgery, but it’s not helping. Goal is to film 2 shorts this year over the summer and I’m determined.

    @hovercraft: Making Republicans spend money on every seat is a good thing.

  30. 30.

    hovercraft

    @Miss Bianca:
    Of course I’ll take any democrat over a republican, I meant is she a strong candidate, does she have a good chance of winning? We need to get our strongest possible candidates to run against these assholes.

  31. 31.

    Yutsano

    @hovercraft: Comes from the safe district around Las Vegas. From what I understand pretty solid Dem. Also will have the backing of the gaming unions. And Heller has looked like a total idiot in his town halls. Could be worth kicking in for.

  32. 32.

    Mnemosyne

    @hovercraft:

    “Our record-setting fundraising pace has been fueled by grassroots enthusiasm for President Trump and the Republican Party,” RNC Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel said in a statement…….

    Multiple small “grassroots”-sized donations are a handy way for foreign governments to launder illegal donations.

    Just sayin’.

  33. 33.

    Mnemosyne

    @hovercraft:

    I don’t know about that specific politician, but Nevada is turning pretty strongly blue and they have a lot of crackerjack women Democrats there. I wouldn’t write her off, especially if Trump’s policies tank the one major industry in Nevada — tourism.

  34. 34.

    schrodingers_cat

    @hovercraft: NYT is garbage for one more reason, their movie critic for Hindi movies has no fucking idea what she is talking about. I recently checked a review recently about Shahrukh Khan’s 2017 release Raees (Rich)

    he “king of Bollywood,” Shah Rukh Khan, rarely plays the villain. His specialty has been goofball sweetie-pies: romantics, naïfs, the occasional superhero with a runny nose

    This wrong on its face, Shahrukh Khan made his name in negative roles, like really negative, a stalker who kills the family of the object of his affection, at the beginning of his career. The entire tone of her reviews is so damned condescending. Garbage NYT is garbage, Also, stop fucking calling it Bollywood.

  35. 35.

    hovercraft

    04/20/2017 07:28 pm ET | Updated 1 hour ago
    Georgia Is Trying To Block Newly Registered Voters From Taking Part In Fierce Runoff Election
    This is just typical, said the Georgia NAACP chief, who is suing the state.

    On Thursday, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law filed a complaint in the federal district court in Atlanta, arguing that the state is violating the National Voter Registration Act. That law sets 30 days before a federal election as the earliest permissible deadline for voter registration.

    Georgia complied with the provision for the special congressional election held this past Tuesday. But because no candidate won 50 percent of the vote, there will be a second election on June 20 ― a runoff between the top two finishers, Democrat Jon Ossoff and Republican Karen Handel.

    Georgia election officials contend that the June runoff is simply a continuation of the special election this week, so they don’t have to allow newly registered voters to participate. The registration deadline for Tuesday’s election was March 20, and officials say anybody who registers after that day is not eligible to vote in the June runoff.

    Ezra Rosenberg, co-director of the voting rights project at the Lawyers’ Committee, argues that under the federal law, Georgia can’t set the registration deadline for the June 20 runoff any earlier than 30 days before that election ― that is, May 22.

    “The case is actually a very, very simple case,” Rosenberg told reporters on a conference call Thursday. “Federal law specifically defines elections as including runoff elections.”

    The National Voter Registration Act, passed in 1993, defines the word “election” based on the Federal Election Campaign Act. That 1971 statute defines an election as “a general, special, primary, or runoff election.”

    I really hate these people.

  37. 37.

    Mnemosyne

    So G has been in Chicago all week, which means that all of the cat care he normally does has been falling to me. I was all proud of myself for keeping up on it until this morning, when I discovered I had been skipping the step of giving them fresh water. D’oh! ?

  38. 38.

    hovercraft

    @Yutsano:

    Good, we need more strong democratic women in the senate. I’ll keep my eye on her.

    @schrodingers_cat:
    At this point is there any part of the paper that’s worth the paper it’s printed on? The Book Review? Anything? Don’t say the crossword, that’s totally in it’s own category.

  39. 39.

    ruemara

    I have an odd question. Any of you have had surgery with very large incisions? I’m all healed up or sealed up, rather, but sometimes they ache and itch or feel tight and it makes no sense at all. I’m rather sick of them. And if you get a little sweat into some, it’s annoying. I know it’s just 8 weeks but I’d have thought that part would go away, even if the seams aren’t ready to fade. How long did yours take? I don’t need anti-scratch gloves, it’s not as bad as that.

  41. 41.

    Mnemosyne

    @ruemara:

    I had small incisions with my knee (laparoscopic), but it took quite a while for them to calm down. My surgeon advised me to massage them with cocoa butter to prevent scar tissue from forming inside — you may want to ask your doctor if it’s okay to do that.

  42. 42.

    LurkerNoLonger

    @hovercraft: Hate. Loathe. Despise. None of these words do justice to how I feel about Republican politicians and voters. We need a new, more powerful, word.

  43. 43.

    germy

    In 1998, Bill O’Reilly published his first and, so far, only novel: “Those Who Trespass: A Novel of Television and Murder.” The main character is a violently bitter journalist named Shannon Michaels, who, after being pushed out of two high-profile positions, takes revenge on four of his former colleagues by murdering them one by one.

  44. 44.

    schrodingers_cat

    @hovercraft: No idea.

    Here is Shahrukh Khan in Swades, where he plays a NASA scientist who returns to India to work on rural electrification projects based on RL person who started AID India. He is not playing a naif or a buffoon.

    Composed and sung by A. R. Rahman, Yeh Jo Des Hai Tera.(This land of yours…)
    Rahman is of course known in this country for Jai-Ho and the score of Slum Dog. India predigested by a British person for the global market.

  45. 45.

    JanieM

    @ruemara: I had a caeserean with a vertical cut when my son was born. Not to bring bad news, but the scar itched for at least a year. I wasn’t up on fancy skin care then (not that I am to any great degree now), but if that was happening to me now I might use Mnemosyne’s cocoa butter suggestion, or maybe massage it with argan oil, which I find incredibly soothing when my skin is dry and itchy, and which I had never heard of back then. (And as Mnemosyne suggests, maybe ask a doctor if that’s okay first, although I have never gotten much use out of doctor-recommended skin treatments.)

  46. 46.

    raven

    Got off the beach for a few hours. The families start showing up at 10:30 or so and leave around 4 so I’m chillin til then.

  49. 49.

    ruemara

    @Mnemosyne: Been doing it. I make an amazing shea coconut oil balm. But some days, it drives me nuts. I feel like a piece of oiled leather is stuck to me.

    @JanieM: Arglebargle. Looks like I’m in for a long, itchy summer.

    Thanks, you two! Gonna be one oiled up itchy gal with random skin issues.

  50. 50.

    jacy

    @ruemara:

    My abdominal incisions were each different. The c-section one was extra-large because the kid was sideways and apparently reluctant to enter the world — it was numb for years, and is still numb in spots but never itched. The abdominal laparoscopy healed quickly and never gave me any problems. I had two neck incisions for exploratory, one on top of the other a few months apart — those give me a hell of a time. Whenever I get stressed or upset or agitated, that incision itches like mad and it’s been healed for over a year. The doctor doesn’t know why it should do that, unless it’s that the blood flow patterns changes and it gets increasing blood flow when I get agitated. I’ve found that constant moisturizing with a high-quality moisturizer (and I mean like every hour) makes it better when it’s bothering me.

  52. 52.

    Mnemosyne

    @ruemara:

    Again, it may be different because my incision was over a bone, but he definitely said to get in there and massage it fairly hard to prevent scar tissue formation. Since yours are in areas where the squishy vital organs are, it may be advisable to ask the doc when you can safely put a little pressure on those spots.

  55. 55.

    Phillydude

    I thought the Tall Ships were all hurtling toward the Korean Peninsula? At least that’s what I was told.

  56. 56.

    Mnemosyne

    Back to writing: the fun thing about writing historical novels and looking for people of color for them is that you re-discover forgotten historical figures like the Chevalier de Saint-Georges, who was the son of a French aristocrat and a slave woman who became a champion fencer and a composer accomplished enough that Mozart swiped melodies from him.

  57. 57.

    ruemara

    @jacy: ugh. the human body is a marvel of disgusting and annoying things. ok.

    @Mnemosyne: Ok, I have my last follow-up next month. I don’t think I can massage much right now. I can’t even lay on my stomach.

  58. 58.

    Mnemosyne

    @ruemara:

    Healing takes time, and itching is one of the signals that the healing process is occurring. Annoying, but true.

  60. 60.

    Mnemosyne

    @Miss Bianca:

    True fact: the Chevalier de St. Georges was Dumas’ commanding officer during the French Revolution. St. Georges created the first black battalion in French history.

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