Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I really should read my own blog.

Prediction: the GOP will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

The GOP is a fucking disgrace.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

Accountability, motherfuckers.

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

In my day, never was longer.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

Innocent people don’t delay justice.

Republicans in disarray!

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

In short, I come down firmly on all sides of the issue.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

Take your GOP plan out of the witness protection program.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

A lot of Dems talk about what the media tells them to talk about. Not helpful.

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86Comments

  3. 3.

    Mnemosyne

    We’re at a beer festival at the zoo right now, so I assume we’ll be seeing similar sights.

  15. 15.

    Sab

    Damn that critter was fast. I am amazed the cars didn’t get out of the way faster. What country was this in?

    Florida isn’t that weird is it? I have been gone from there for almost fifty years. Back in the day we only worried about wild hogs, gators and assorted poisonous sneks.

  17. 17.

    Sab

    @Yarrow: Thanks. I assumed it was Africa for no reason whatever. Still think he/she is amazingly fast. Glad I am mostly dodging motorcycles and white-tailed deer.

  20. 20.

    Yarrow

    I love it when he tried to bite the car. I would have been scared! It’s at about 0.22 on the video.

  21. 21.

    ArchTeryx

    Boy, that would be a heck of a thing to have to call your insurance company about. Would Car Wreck by Rhino be classified as collision or comprehensive? ^.^

  22. 22.

    MisterForkbeard

    Open Thread question: Anyone here played Fortnite? I’m considering picking it up, but I know literally no one that’s even played it.

  24. 24.

    Mike J

    :(

    Heather Hurlburt‏ @natsecHeather 12 minutes ago
    Pls remember how workers were intimidated by @nissan next time you car shop “@MikeElk: Breaking: @uaw loses at Nissan 2244 no – 1307 yes”

  25. 25.

    Sab

    @Adam L Silverman: If we had tighter immigration we wouldn’t HAVE rhinos.

    Actually, I don’t even want to joke about that since I find it so stressful, on both a political, and also a personal family level.

    Some of my family has been here since Mayflower, but most of my favorite relatives came here in the last 30 years. Amazing, tough, resilient people who are also a lot of fun and good to their immigrant and American relatives.

  27. 27.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Sab: Ultimately this will be self defeating. They will overplay and in the pushback/backlash something similar to the Gang of 8 plan that Sessions and his staffer Miller killed in the house after it passed the Senate with 68 votes. The reason for it is that it is pretty much the poster legislation for a sensible solution that the majority of legislators and Americans can get behind. Remember it didn’t die because it was voted down in the House. Rather it died because Miller, on behalf of Sessions who lost the fight in the Senate, created a backlash among the Freedom Caucus folks so GOP leadership never even brought it up for a vote. Between the rest of the GOP House caucus and the Democratic House caucus there were enough votes to pass it. My understanding is that several of the Senate Gang of 8 immigration reform folks, starting with McCain, have decided in the wake of the Cotton/Perdue meshugas to push back on that, update what they did a few years ago, and try to push that back through.

  28. 28.

    Peale

    @ArchTeryx: ugh. With my luck, I would be in a rental that I picked up in Boston where I waived the insurance to save a few bucks thinking that my platinum card still paid for such things, only to find out that all insurance claims are denied when the car is driven to northeast India.

  29. 29.

    Sab

    @ArchTeryx: I think you are supposed to dodge the things, otherwise it’s not covered. Why did you hit/allow yourself to be hit by that obvious, large rhino in the road. You wouldn’t hit a bus, why would you hit a Rhino? Why were you on the road when you obviously could see there was a large rhino running down it?

    I am in Ohio. By world standards was this Rhino even Large? Some of the attached commentary sounds like he is a she and possibly smallish by Rhino standards.
    .

  30. 30.

    scav

    Personal favorites.
    A) They’ve got rather comparatively dainty legs for all that easy rolling lope of a meat tank.
    B) With all the cars and busses backing away? There was a guy following along on a bicycle.

  32. 32.

    Peale

    @Adam L Silverman: idk. I think the Cotton/Perdue plan is going to be very popular with voters. Not just Trump voters. If we thought voters are easily confused about healthcare reform, they are even more easily confused by immigration. They don’t tend to be immigrants themselves and while they may know immigrants, can’t really tell one class from another. Democrats should know about these things, but they don’t know how to speak about these things. “Immigrants should know English and there should be fewer of them” is not something I’d like to run against next year.

  34. 34.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Another Scott: He was acting as a part of/on behalf of leadership as the committee chair. He bottled it up in committee. Never came to the floor for a vote.

  35. 35.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Peale: I’m going to be very surprised if McConnell even let’s it get to committee. It is one of the last things he wants to deal with.

  36. 36.

    grammypat

    This could get interesting:

    Party loyalty is often cited as the reason that GOP leaders have not been more outspoken in their criticism of President Donald Trump and his refusal to condemn Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election. Yet there may be another reason that top Republicans have not been more vocal in their condemnation. Perhaps it’s because they have their own links to the Russian oligarchy that they would prefer go unnoticed.

  37. 37.

    gene108

    @Adam L Silverman:

    I also blame the “Boehner Rule”, which one upped the “Hastert Rule”, wherein it wasn’t enough for Boehner to require a majority of Republicans to support a bill, before bringing it to a vote, but rather he wanted to pass legislation with only Republican votes, thus entirely freezing House Democrats out of the legislative process.

    There were a lot of good bills that died in the House, because Boehner refused to bring them up for votes, despite a majority of the House – most Democrats and some Republicans- supporting the legislation.

    He yielded when it came to passing a budget resolution or on the debt ceiling, and passed those with Democratic votes and some Republican votes.

    Edit: That sort of compromise did him in.

  39. 39.

    ? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?

    More radio questions! This a multi-band weather radio this time that I have. One of the bands is called “TV2”. I’m tired and lazy so could any of you ELI5? Thanks!

  44. 44.

    Peale

    @Adam L Silverman: it gets confusing because as usual Trump acted like this proposal was a law he would be signing and I bet 1/2 the GOP voters think it’s already happened. It doesn’t matter if the vote happens. It’s something that can serve as “common sense reform that Democrats are opposed to because they are selling you out to foreigners”. It’s seems very practical. It has numbers. And if Democrats spend their time fighting English tests for Green Cards, they aren’t going to win this debate.

  46. 46.

    Another Scott

    @Adam L Silverman: That was kinda my point. It wasn’t Sessions and Miller, it was Goodlatte sitting on it in the Committee via his power as chair there.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  47. 47.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Another Scott: Miller, at Sessions behalf, wrote all the policy and strategy memos against it and worked with Goodlatte and other members of the House GOP majority to kill it. This has been extensively documented in almost every article about Miller.

  49. 49.

    Major Major Major Major

    I had a really weird day! I’m visiting my family back in Denver for a meetup at my old, defunct high school. I went to the university archives to look at the files that remain of the school, long story but we’re having a reunion of sorts so somebody got the archivist to dig them out, which was a trip. Not like what I assume a normal reunion is like where somebody knows what’s going on, just the ten yearbooks we managed to assemble while it was open, piles of half-categorized photographs, and two large photo albums from the drama teacher. Didn’t see many people I knew in the special collections room, other than the principal and his then-secretary-now-wife (good for them!). Tomorrow is the reunion dinner where I assume there will be nametags.

    In summary, here are three pictures of my mom’s dog, Bear.

  50. 50.

    ? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?

    @Sab:
    Never even knew about it tbh. Too busy binge-listening to the Welcome to Night Vale podcast. That and dinner. I’d also stick out like a sore thumb, being so young. Hope it was fun!

    @Roger Moore:

    That sucks. I guess I figured with the name, it had something to do with tv.

  51. 51.

    Another Scott

    In other news, from GovExec.com.

    1) Nearly entire SSA offered early retirement.

    Employees must have 20 years experience and be at least 50 years old, or have 25 years of service and be any age, to qualify under the Voluntary Early Retirement Authority. About 15,000 of SSA’s 62,000 employees meet those criteria, according to data maintained by the Office of Personnel Management. President Trump through executive order and the Office of Management and Budget through subsequent guidance directed agencies to develop plans to trim their workforces, including through requesting buyout and early retirement authority. SSA joins the Environmental Protection Agency and the Interior Department in offering separation incentives this year.

    Dorothy Clark, an SSA spokeswoman, said there is no limit to the number of employees who can accept the offer. She added the agency proposed the incentives to avoid involuntary relocations.

    SSA has for years warned of the cumulative effects of sustained cuts at the agency, saying last year congressional proposals would have caused delays in retiree benefit processing, a spike in the backlog of disability claims, reductions in field office hours and longer wait times for those calling Social Security for customer service. It also predicted furloughs of up to two weeks for employees and the shuttering of service locations.

    2) Why Americans wait two years to have their Social Security disability claims heard.

    About 85 percent of the executive branch judges serve at the Social Security Administration. SSA has struggled for years to keep pace with the influx of disability claims, which spiked during the recession, and now maintains a backlog of about 1.1 million cases. The average citizen filing a claim faces about a two-year wait.

    SSA cannot resolve the problem simply by adding more ALJs, however, according to Association of Administrative Law Judges President Marilyn Zahm. While SSA must hire 100 judges each year just to keep pace with attrition, Zahm said even an influx above that level would not sufficiently drive down the backlog.

    A shortage of support staff, such as clerks and attorneys, is the driving force behind the growing number of outstanding claims. SSA imposed a hiring freeze in May 2016 ahead of fears that its budget would continue to shrink. It remained in place after President Trump issued a governmentwide moratorium upon taking office. While the agency received authority from OPM to bring on 200 support staff while Trump’s freeze was in place, Zahm said that was a “drop in the bucket” that barely kept pace with the departures taking place across SSA’s 166 hearing offices. SSA lifted the freeze in May, but is hiring on a limited basis for direct service positions only.

    Hmmm….

    :-/

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  52. 52.

    Sab

    @SabMy post sounded hostile. Just frustrated. Where are the NE Ohioans. I know there are more than three of us.
    .

  53. 53.

    Another Scott

    @Adam L Silverman: I’m not disputing that Sessions and Miller had positions and wrote memos and so forth. I’m saying that Goodlatte had the power to move the bill or not, and he was always opposed to moving the Senate bill. He’s the one that killed it, even if he was doing something that Sessions and Miller advocated.

    Goodlatte had agency. He was the elected official in the action path. He’s the person – not Sessions, not Miller – who killed it.

    It’s important that we remember things like this when we talk about the history, because the elected officials in the action path need to be held accountable.

    My $0.02.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  54. 54.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @gene108:
    He only yielded because, being a total fuckwit, Boehner could not negotiate any budget or debt ceiling bills that could pass. He kept trying, and he kept failing. While the truth is that these are all details of the decades long desegregation backlash, McConnell and Boehner are the two individual people I think are the most responsible for the current godawful government mess. They’re the ones who decided to go total scorched earth.

  55. 55.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @Major Major Major Major:

    I can sort of relate. I graduated from a DOD high school on Okinawa decades ago. Reunions were not convenient, but “all years” get-togethers are held every few years. And I think there are maybe a few websites or blogs that keep track of things in a random way.

    Actually, I should check that, because I haven’t looked in several years, and I bet things have gotten more sophisticated and connected, like everything else on the Interwebs.

    Short version, I can relate to never being able to go back to good old Sweet Valley High in Anytown, USA.

    ETA: Mom’s dog seems nice.

  56. 56.

    sharl

    @? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?: Yep, I think Roger is correct. That TV2 band is for old (analog) VHF television channels 7-13.

    You might be able to find an analog-to-digital converter on e-Bay or similar, though those will likely be more commonly available for televisions rather than radios. I dunno – maybe the types sold for TV could be adapted for radio, although messing around with stuff like that could damage your radio and/or give you one hell of a jolt (different wattage/voltage/current requirements, stuff like that). If you have any radio or electronics hobbyist friends, they may have some ideas; I have no expertise in this area.

  57. 57.

    Major Major Major Major

    @Steeplejack (phone): Ours was very small and sort of experimental. The university ran out of funding and didn’t even graduate the final class. The building we were in is now part of the business school, and there’s a small piece of graffiti that says “This used to be a school, and it was a pretty good one, too.”

  58. 58.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @Major Major Major Major:

    Cool.

    Just Googled my high school’s name, and, yeah, there is a lot of stuff now, even an “alumni association” on Facebook.

    Maybe I’ll check it out at some point. I feel oddly reluctant right now.

  60. 60.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @Major Major Major Major:

    I haven’t been to any of the previous gatherings that I knew about. And whenever I looked up stuff on the Internet it was kind of depressing, because, even though my high school was big, there were so few people in evidence that I knew, or even strangers identifying from around my year, that it just seemed to add to a vague feeling of being unconnected that I wasn’t quite aware that I had.

    ETA: Sort of Edward Gorey-ish is the only way I can describe it.

  63. 63.

    Mnemosyne

    @Steeplejack (phone):
    @Major Major Major Major:

    Not quite the same since I’ve never bothered to go back for a reunion, but I drove past the place where one of my high school’s buildings used to be and discovered that they’d torn it down and built a track/stadium there instead.

    Marlon Brando had painted his name in the basement of the old building, so hopefully someone remembered to save that. I couldn’t drive past the main campus because I had my spouse, mom, mother-in-law, and aunt-in-law in the car with me.

  64. 64.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @Mnemosyne:

    I went to a high school in west Texas for two years before we moved to Okinawa, and for some reason I occasionally have thought about going to a class reunion at that school. I didn’t graduate there, but I have a feeling that it would be a more “coherent” experience—more rooted in a sense of a specific place. That seems important somehow.

  67. 67.

    Mary G

    @Another Scott: It saves money because many people die before their case is heard. I got approved on the first try in like seven months in 2004, but I sent a 46-page single-spaced set of answers to the essay questions and attached a file box full of annotated medical records dating back to 1979. I had also kept all the documentation from my job where they had bent over backward to accommodate me, even before the ADA. When they got it all, they sent me another batch of essay questions with only 10 days to answer. I just copy/pasted stuff from the original answers in a different order and sent another box of records just to fuck with them. I think they approved me just because they didn’t want to read it all.

  68. 68.

    patrick II

    My family and I were visiting the St. Louis zoo, checking out a baby elephant that had been born a couple of weeks before. We were standing at a railing about three feet away from bars that separated us from mother and baby elephant. In the cage next to the elephants was a rhino. It was standing in the back of the caged room seemingly minding its own business. A zookeeper stepped through a small gate in the railing in front of the rhino’s cage on his way to the elephants. From a standing start the rhino charged, you would not believe how quickly it covered the distance to the front bars. With a loud WHAM it hit the bars, thrusting its horn between them and nearly gutting the zookeeper. I was standing just about two feet away. I have never jumped so high. It moved more quickly and with more power than I could have imagined.

  72. 72.

    Shalimar

    @gene108: That it was compromise on the “Boehner rule” that ultimately doomed Boehner suggests he wasn’t the driving force in implementing it in the first place. I’m guessing Republican billionaires, FoxNews and talk radio hosts were the ones consistently enforcing party purity, and Boehner was just the leader who carried it out except in those rare situations where he had no choice.

  73. 73.

    Shalimar

    @rikyrah: All of them are horrible people with no morals, so you never know which will turn out to have been an actual child molester, but, in fairness to the GOP, I’m not sure any of them have even mentioned Hastert since his crimes became public.

  76. 76.

    arrieve

    That rhino just made my morning. I was in India for the first time earlier this year and riding on the highways is a white-knuckle experience. I saw lots of camels and cows, but no rhinos. The camels made it difficult to get out of the way when a truck was barreling down the road in the wrong direction coming at you head-on.

  77. 77.

    Tenar Arha

    @PaulWartenberg: heh, first thing I did was google. Can’t find it right now, but there was a documentary a few years ago about a country group that was NOT from the USA or Canada trying to make it in Nashville(?). Anyway i have a vague remembrance of reading it’s not as popular as hip hop which can be done w/o instruments, but that we export a lot of our country music too. (I mean there’s all the storylines & the roots & the kinship with blues in the songs).

    ETA typo

  78. 78.

    Another Scott

    @Mary G: Yup. It’s all about “saving money” for someone – but not the actual real people who paid for and earned the benefits, of course.

    :-(

    I’m glad you were able to get approved relatively quickly (but 7 months was still obscenely long). I try to remember that one is ultimately dealing with people, and the people that you’re are dealing with rarely are the people who make the rules. They just have to interpret them. Doing everything one can to guide the staff to reach the decision one wants is often the better approach than getting upset with them.

    Thanks.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  80. 80.

    delosgatos

    I’m shocked, shocked I tell you, that no one has pointed out that there should be two ‘r’s in Forrest.

  82. 82.

    Ohio Mom

    @Another Scott: It took about six months for my kid to be approved for SSI last year (if you have a developmental disability, you are eligible for SSI upon turning 18).

    It was a somewhat confusing process, in part because the system is mainly set up to process SSDI claims. My favorite question on the form: “When did the disability start?” Um, in utero?

    It didn’t help that I never had a contact person, that after I submitted paperwork, all I could do was hope it had been delivered to the right person, and wait until I received notice that some other paperwork was needed, and then go back to waiting in the dark until the approval.

    I was always aware that I was dealing with well-meaning and exceedingly overworked people. I assumed the best and it worked out. But it is not a user-friendly system and it does not bode well if the staffing is cut further.

  85. 85.

    ArchTeryx

    @Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD): Hyenas are just such neat animals. They get a truly awful rap in popular entertainment such as The Lion King, when the reality is: ‘yena pack makes the kill, lion pride rambles in and takes it (and, if they’re feeling particularly frisky, mauling a hyena or two just to emphasize the point).

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