Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

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

The willow is too close to the house.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

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

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

Second rate reporter says what?

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

You can’t love your country only when you win.

No one could have predicted…

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

The GOP is a fucking disgrace.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

Today’s GOP: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Everything is Awful But You Can Help

Reader Interactions

163Comments

  1. 1.

    Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.)

    I’m just so glad to know that this shit in Texas isn’t really happening, and it’s all fake news, and it must be fake news, since Czar Manbaby told us that climate change is a hoax, as did Ted Cruz, who so memorably spoke against the federal government giving any help to New Jersey, New York and New England when that other fake news-ass storm hit back in 2012. I know that the whole Republican delegation to Congress from Texas will speak out as strongly now against any wasteful government spending going to help clean up a storm in Texas that never happened as they did then, since they’re so intellectually honest about shit like this.

  5. 5.

    sukabi

    How long before Wolf Blitzer gets on the tv and makes amazed comments about skin color again as he did during Katrina.

  11. 11.

    Punchy

    I too look forward to all the TX politicians who so famously decried and dismissed Nawlins rebuild money similarly declining help for Houston on the same principle. Because intellectual honesty and consistency and all that….

  12. 12.

    JPL

    Years of uncontrolled expansion and developing on wetlands have repercussions. Who knew. I don’t mean to be flippant, and I do hope that they can recover from this.

  13. 13.

    Jay S

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: That didn’t sound quite right so I looked it up. The correct quote is

    “I like Ted Cruz more than the rest of my colleagues like Ted Cruz , and I hate Ted Cruz”.

  14. 14.

    Maeve

    Again? A thread to point people who want to donate/help in the immediate is all about what “should” have been done. “Should” is the most useless word sometimes.

  15. 15.

    dmsilev

    @Punchy: You don’t even have to go all the way back to 2005; both Cruz and Cornyn voted against relief aid for Sandy not even five years ago.

  20. 20.

    Davebo

    @JPL: While you certainly have a point, pick the city in the US that can handle 15″ to 20″ of rain in 28 hours without flooding.

    I’ll wait.

  21. 21.

    Davebo

    I’m a bit disgusted. Here I am in a city that voted Obama twice, then Clinton. The first major city with an openly gay mayor.

    And I hear this carping in the middle of an epic disaster? GFY

  22. 22.

    efgoldman

    @Davebo:

    pick the city in the US that can handle 15″ to 20″ of rain in 28 hours without flooding.

    True, but most major coastal cities aren’t in states where it’s against the law even to mention climate change in official actions and documents

  23. 23.

    Mike J

    2000 miles away from How-stun I got to assist in a water rescue today. Terrified as we motored up and I saw something orange floating in the water. Turn out to be a traffic cone attached to a piling to make it more visible. I had visions of every bad thing you can imagine (it’s a person floating face down!) was happy when it was nothing.

    Found the MOB[1]. We had been told he was hanging on to the log boom that makes a lagoon at the north end of our park. He had made it to shore and refused further assistance, so we stowed the boat hooks and lifesling and sent an all clear on 16. When we got back to the dock there were cop cars, a fire truck and paramedics all packing up.

    I think I prefer uneventful days, but it was nice to know we were ready to help (and faster than official responders[2]) if the need arises.

    [1] We typically use the phrase “crew overboard” but emergency radio labels usually say “man”.
    [2] They were there quick, we were just already on site and in a boat. Had it been a real emergency, we would have needed them desperately, but we could have brought the guy to them for treatment.

  24. 24.

    Thoughtful David

    I’d just like to lay out here that Houston went for Clinton by 160,000 votes.
    Not sure what that means with respect to the likelihood of getting hurricane aid if Cruz and Cornyn have anything to say about it.

  27. 27.

    JPL

    @Davebo: You are correct that is this is an extreme case, but Houston has a problem with flooding because of lack of zoning anyway. I understand this is an extreme situation, and I didn’t mean to sound as insensitive as I came across.

    What I find sad is that those living in low lying communities, tend to be the neediest among us.

  28. 28.

    Jeffro

    I see that Kasich has ruled out running on a “unity” ticket, so it’s time for more useless speculation: morons, starting with a bored Aaron Blake at the Post, are talking about Trumpov ‘ditching’ the GOP. You have got to be fucking kidding me. It’s his party now – why would he ditch them when he can single them out and pick them off one by one if/when they oppose him?

    Face it, Republicans: you have no good options here. Find some principles (if you ever had any) and be prepared to take your lumps – a grateful nation might, I say might, not give you the retribution you so richly deserve.

  31. 31.

    Davebo

    @JPL:
    Actually Houston has a problem with flooding mainly because it was built on a swamp.

    No amount of zoning was ever going to change that .

  32. 32.

    ArchTeryx

    @Davebo: No city could withstand that without flooding, yes. BUT, the lack of wetlands both makes the flooding more intense and greatly slows the drainage afterward. Wetlands can soak up floodwater given time. Concrete and tarmac can’t. And Houston is finding that out the hard way.

  33. 33.

    Jeffro

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    They’re God fearing people in Texas, so yes.

    Praying for rain was their strategy for alleviating drought a couple years back, as I recall, and now it can be their strategy for making the rain stop as well.

    One can only reasonably conclude that either God hates Texas, or Texans are praying to the wrong god.

  37. 37.

    JPL

    A CNN crew helped rescue an elderly couple and their dog today. Of course, that won’t stop Trump for leading the CNN sucks chant on Wednesday.

  40. 40.

    Fake Irishman

    @ArchTeryx:

    Upstream suburban development is also making the situation worse. Water that would have been absorbed in the Katy prairie 30 years ago is now running off parking lots and flooding places that were safe until recently. Climate change of course is another driver.

  41. 41.

    Mnemosyne

    @Baud:

    I still want Chuck Schumer to demand a signed, notarized agreement from Cruz and Cornyn that they will never again block a natural disaster relief bill before he allows a vote, though.

  43. 43.

    Fake Irishman

    Right now I am thankful my wife and I bought a house in a place called “The Heights” down here. Roof is a bit leaky, but we are light years better off than many. Thanks to all you for your donations on behalf of all our fellow Houstonians.

  45. 45.

    Davebo

    @Fake Irishman: I lived in the Heights 20 years ago. You wouldn’t recognize it as it looked then.

    I was on 18th right behind the old hospital and Heights theatre in a 109 year old Victorian that I believe still stands.

  49. 49.

    Suzanne

    @lamh36: I have been hoping that America’s hip-hop and punk musicians would show up for the challenge of Trump. I went to see Rise Against a few weeks ago, and they are all het up about the current situation, but I haven’t heard a peep out of anyone else.

    So hearing a “Fuck Trump” song makes me HAPPY.

  50. 50.

    BBA

    @Punchy: They’d be perfectly fine with denying all aid to the city of Houston. The very white, very Republican suburbs, on the other hand…

  51. 51.

    trollhattan

    @Davebo:
    There’s water management and there’s flooding. No city storm drain system can handle that much water but hilly cities such as Seattle and SF just direct it to the ocean with no long-term effects. I say this as a resident of the #2 floodprone city behind New Orleans.

  52. 52.

    JPL

    This is such a touching story.. NYTimes reporter trapped in his house because of the flood
    https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/27/us/hurricane-harvey-houston-a-reporter-disaster.html?action=click&contentCollection=U.S.&module=RelatedCoverage&region=EndOfArticle&pgtype=article

    Now there is six inches of water in our house and at least a foot outside.
    I have managed to salvage my Persian rug and hope that hangings and art that I have collected over the years will be safe. Funny how you sometimes think of relatively unimportant things in an emergency, but these things are like the museum pieces of my life. One of our toilets is already backed up, but we’ll have to manage since the local sewage system seems to be completely backed up. We expect to lose our power any time.
    After initially panicking a bit, the three of us got hold of ourselves and got to work. Paola cooked all our meat, figuring it is going to spoil anyway and we are bound to get hungry. Emilie and I filled garbage bags with our plentiful collection of classical and jazz CDs. I wrapped up a beautiful antique lamp I inherited from my father. Emilie salvaged a few bottles of wine, vermouth and gin, knowing I’m probably going to get thirsty for more than water and juice. We laughed together, as we focused on survival mode. This is a character building moment for her, and so I need to keep calm and be a good, fatherly example.

    Sad.

    I do hope that Baud is around to respond more appropriately.

  55. 55.

    Jeffro

    @Suzanne:

    I went to see Rise Against a few weeks ago, and they are all het up about the current situation, but I haven’t heard a peep out of anyone else.

    Every show I’ve been to this year has been one big middle finger to Trump, with the exception of the milquetoast plea for unity that U2 threw out there. Green Day was on him the whole show (and Against Me! opened for them – you can imagine how that went). Mike Ness let him have it. And I bought the last “Dirty Fucker” (with Trumpov’s raging face on it) t-shirt Dave Hause’s merch table had for sale…

    …Hause is great, folks. Go give “Dirty Fucker” and the rest of ‘Bury Me In Philly’ a listen when you have a few minutes.

  57. 57.

    Davebo

    @trollhattan:

    So true. My friends in Holland live near the largest pump in the world and 5 meters below sea level. Sure, it floods there at times but it’s controlled and the poor farmer who’s fields are flooded is compensated for his loss.

  58. 58.

    JPL

    @trollhattan: They had the good sense to take it off the front page, after they received calls saying wtf. I assume that’s why they took it off .

    The NYTimes is allowing all to view their hurricane coverage so enjoy the article. There’s a cockapoo that’s upset also.

  59. 59.

    satby

    Just going to repeat what I said in Cheryl’s thread:
    I still have friends working at ARC, so I hate to slag on it, but Charity Navigator has several 4 star charities listed that will be working in the areas affected by Harvey.
    Some of the biggest names, like ARC, are 3 stars.

  60. 60.

    Paul W.

    Hey gang! Long time lurker and infrequent commentator, I’m having a shit weekend because I fell in love with someone who told me I could never be what she wanted. I don’t normally open myself up and she was gung ho so I let it happen. Now I don’t know how to deal but I figured some of the folks here could help.
    Thanks

  62. 62.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Paul W.: most of the advice you’ll get here will be “Drink heavily!” or the occasional “That bitch!”. But hang in there–everyone gets hurt some time. The good news is that you don’t have a marriage to dissolve or, much worse, kids to fight over.

  63. 63.

    clay

    From WaPo:

    While Donald Trump was running for president in late 2015 and early 2016, his company was pursuing a plan to develop a massive Trump Tower in Moscow, according to several people familiar with the proposal and new records reviewed by Trump Organization lawyers.

    As part of the discussions, a Russian-born real estate developer urged Trump to come to Moscow to tout the proposal and suggested that he could get President Vladimir Putin to say “great things” about Trump, according to several people who have been briefed on his correspondence.

    The developer, Felix Sater, predicted in a November 2015 email that he and Trump Organization leaders would soon be celebrating — both one of the biggest residential projects in real estate history and Donald Trump’s election as president, according to two of the people with knowledge of the exchange.

    ….

    Trump never went to Moscow as Sater proposed. And although investors and Trump’s company signed a letter of intent, they lacked the land and permits to proceed and the project was abandoned at the end of January 2016, just before the presidential primaries began, several people familiar with the proposal said.

    Nevertheless, the details of the deal, which have not previously been disclosed, provide evidence that Trump’s business was actively pursuing significant commercial interests in Russia at the same time he was campaigning to be president — and in a position to determine U.S.-Russia relations. The new details from the emails, which are scheduled to be turned over to congressional investigators soon, also point to the likelihood of additional contacts between Russia-connected individuals and Trump associates during his presidential bid.

    ….

    The negotiations for the Moscow project ended before Trump’s business ties to Russia had become a major issue in the campaign. Trump denied having any business connections to Russia in July 2016, tweeting, “for the record, I have ZERO investments in Russia” and then insisting at a news conference the following day, “I have nothing to do with Russia.”
    Discussions about the Moscow project began in earnest in September 2015, according to people briefed on the deal. An unidentified investor planned to build the project and, under a licensing agreement, put Trump’s name on it. Cohen acted as a lead negotiator for the Trump Organization. It is unclear how involved or aware Trump was of the negotiations.
    As the talks progressed, Trump voiced numerous supportive comments about Putin, setting himself apart from his Republican rivals for the nomination.

    By the end of 2015, Putin began offering praise in return.

    ….

    Though Putin’s comments came shortly after Sater suggested that the Russian president would speak favorably about Trump, there is no indication that the two are connected.
    There is no public record that Trump has ever spoken about the effort to build a Trump Tower in 2015 and 2016.

    ….

    In an unrelated court case in 2008, Sater said in a deposition that he would personally provide Trump “verbal updates” on the deal.

    “When I’d come back, pop my head into Mr. Trump’s office and tell him, you know, ‘Moving forward on the Moscow deal.’ And he would say, ‘All right,’ ” Sater said.

    ….

    Trump has repeatedly tried to distance himself from Sater, who served time in jail after assaulting a man with the stem of a broken margarita glass during a 1991 bar fight and then pleaded guilty in 1998 to his role in an organized- crime-linked stock fraud. Sater’s sentencing was delayed for years while he cooperated with the federal government on a series of criminal and national security-related investigations, federal officials have said.
    During that time, Sater worked as an executive with Bayrock, whose offices were in Trump Tower, and brokered deals to license Trump’s name for developments in multiple U.S. and foreign cities. In 2010, Trump allowed Sater to briefly work out of Trump Organization office space and use a business card that identified him as a “senior adviser to Donald Trump.”
    Still, when asked about Sater in 2013 court deposition, Trump said: “If he were sitting in the room right now, I really wouldn’t know what he looked like.” He added that he had spoken with Sater “not many” times.

  65. 65.

    sukabi

    @Jeffro: sooo, pundits are speculating Drumpf will leave the gop, and go where? The American Nazi party?

    It’s not like any other party would have him.

  66. 66.

    Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.)

    @JPL:

    Hard to know what to say to that. I can kind of understand. I have a lot of things I’ve gotten from my family, and I’d hate to lose them. But when people are fleeing for their lives, it seems kind of amazingly stupid to write a column about how worried you are that you might lose your jazz records or your fucking gin. These people need some serious perspective. Or a serious beating. Maybe both.

  67. 67.

    clay

    @Jeffro: When I saw U2 in June, they played a clip from an old Western that had a villain named Trump trying to con a town into building a wall around it. They also played a moving short film about life in a Sryian refugee camp, which was clearly a direct rebuke to Trump’s policies. It was pretty clear what they thought, even if they weren’t direct about it.

  69. 69.

    Scott Alloway

    @Paul W.: The only salve is time. Went through a situation in 1973 where the love of my life (at the time) went to her best friend’s wedding, became enamored with the groom’s brother, came back, dumped me and married him three months later. Skip to 1980 and we bumped into each other. Went out four or five times and I realized, “No way.” Time teaches us lessons; one of them being what is good now may not be what one needs in the long haul. Your heart will heal and you will find a person who works with and for you. Be kind to yourself.

  70. 70.

    Jeffro

    @clay: I saw those as well (was the villain’s name really Trump, though? I don’t remember that). And yes, being pro-refugee makes one automatically anti-Trump. But still..the rest of the night was full of “can’t we all just get along?”-ish stuff from Bono…my answer then and now is ‘no’.

  71. 71.

    Ruckus

    @Paul W.:
    Many have fallen for the wrong mate. Life and love happens that way. As a fellow traveler down this road, I can guarantee that it will get better. Might take a while, might not. Learn from this and move on.

  75. 75.

    Jeffro

    @sukabi: They’re thinking (if you wanna call it that) that he’ll just ‘go his own way’, since he’s so fed up with them. They’re not really thinking it through, as you’ve noted. He can’t come over to the Dems, and he doesn’t have enough supporters to start an independent party that will win anything.

    More importantly, why would he leave the GOP? He’s more popular than any of their other figures, and he can pick them off one by one, as cowardly as they are. Look at how McCain, Graham, Cruz, Perry, Carson, etc all have been. He disgraced them beyond belief – they still lick his boots.

  76. 76.

    Ruckus

    @Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.):
    I’ve got a very good friend who has lost 2 houses to fire. One caused by an earthquake and one from an out of control brush fire. Both times they lost everything. OK they got out with their cats and their cars and the clothes on their backs. Everything else ashes. They wanted to save stuff, but they just couldn’t. They replaced stuff and moved on. All of that stuff in the article is just stuff. Can it be replaced? A good amount of it can, some can’t but if stuff is your most important concern then your life isn’t worth a shit.

  79. 79.

    Mnemosyne

    @Paul W.:

    Start putting this mantra in your head, Wow, that was a lucky escape. I’m glad she didn’t leave me dangling.

    It’s going to take a few days to click, but it will eventually click, because it’s 100 percent true. You won’t be wasting your time dangling after someone who will never love you the way you deserve, because she was kind enough to cut you loose.

    Take a few weeks to hunker down and lick your wounds, and then get back out there.

  81. 81.

    Mandarama

    @Paul W.: You are already getting good advice, but I would just like to affirm that “you can never be what I want” is an irresponsible cop-out. It’s not as weaselly as ghosting or an insincere wish to be friends — but it puts implicit blame on you, suggests you are less-than. It allows the speaker to abdicate responsibility for the initial relationship and often have a dramatic preen. I say this as a woman who has seen friends deliver lines like this, and called them on it.

    Just my opinion, but there are direct and honest ways to break up. And you learn a lot about a person from how they choose to do it or how they accept it when it happens to them. Hang in there– time really is a friend in this regard.

  82. 82.

    Another Scott

    @Paul W.: Sorry Paul. It hurts and it sucks.

    We’re all broken in some ways.

    Don’t wall yourself off. Remember the good times, learn from the bad times, and try again when the time is right.

    Hang in there.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  83. 83.

    MomSense

    @Paul W.:

    I’m sorry. Ugh. Someone really close to me is coming out the other side of a bad heartbreak. He’s only coming out of it because he started building a group of friends who are all artists so they share the same passion and similar struggles. Hasn’t found love yet but having a squad is pretty darn good.

    Maybe you can connect with a hobby or an interest and see who else in your area shares it. Please keep us posted. Sending you a hug.

  84. 84.

    daize

    Don’t post much, but. I had been following the storm all week.

    CNN had a live shot of an elderly man being evacuated from his house. Chest high water for him. I just can’t get over it. That poor soul. I am still sobbing. Donated to Red Cross.

  85. 85.

    Betty Cracker

    @Paul W.: I’m sorry. That’s a kick in the teeth. Something like that happens to all of us, not that that makes it any easier for you. Just don’t forget you deserve someone who loves you just the way you are. Sorry to go all Bridget Jones on you, but it’s true.

  87. 87.

    Jeffro

    @Ruckus:

    Seems like they are doing a bit more than that and a bit farther up the trouser leg.

    1) True, they are, and
    2) Ewww, and
    3) That’s exactly why I can’t believe the writer didn’t take just an additional 30 seconds to think it through: why would Trumpov leave the GOP, it’s his party, it’s his, um, back they’re scratching…

  88. 88.

    BKinNC

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    Did I capture what the Senator was saying? I left out 3 words…

    Without those three words Frankin could be interpreted to mean he likes Cruz better than he likes any of his other colleagues — then the punchline turns into “I hate everyone in the Senate,” rather than “Everyone hates Ted Cruz.” Not really as funny.

  89. 89.

    magurakurin

    @Amaranthine RBG: jesus. you are a fucking asshole. Please go die in a fire.

    maybe assholes like Ted Cruz play that game by refusing to help Sandy victims. But us Liberals…we don’t play that game. We help everyone. That’s the way we roll.

  93. 93.

    JCJ

    @Suzanne:

    I saw Roger Waters in Milwaukee at the end of July. Before an intermission he did “Another Brick in the Wall.” He had a group of kids dancing on stage wearing orange jumpsuits, then during the song they took off the jumpsuits to reveal they all were wearing shirts with “RESIST” on them. After the song the enormous video screen behind him had RESIST in gigantic letters. After the intermission for the song “Pigs (Three Different Kinds)” had all sorts of imagery of Trump. At the end of the song there were many Trump quotes on the screens and then it ended with “Trump is a Pig.”

    This is from the show in Mexico City

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWLBtMz5OuY

    And thus is “Another Brick in the Wall”

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPXk6VqIa6U

  94. 94.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Steve in the ATL: I truly understand your concern. Many of us have dark reputations to uphold. When I was in law school, the “meet your law review editor” questionnaire question regarding me was “What is OO’s favorite color?” and the correct answer was noted as “Black, like his heart.”

  96. 96.

    Betty Cracker

    Trump a while ago on Twitter:

    HISTORIC rainfall in Houston, and all over Texas. Floods are unprecedented, and more rain coming. Spirit of the people is incredible.Thanks!

    Thanks? THANKS?!? What a weird thing to say.

    @magurakurin: Co-signed.

  98. 98.

    Jeffro

    @Betty Cracker: Of course he thanked the people for showing spirit and…making him proud. It’s all about him. They didn’t let him down. This whole Harvey thing is going to go great, because Americans are rising to the occasion and therefore that reflects well on Trump.

  100. 100.

    Jeffro

    @Betty Cracker: Or to put it another way: Americans are helping each out out during this HISTORIC crisis, inspired by Der Leader, by his eminence, He Who Makes It All Happen.

    Otherwise, under that OTHER guy…it’d be all over, abandon ship, Houston!

  101. 101.

    Recall

    https://www.propublica.org/article/boomtown-flood-town-text

    The longtime head of the flood control district flat-out disagrees with scientific evidence that shows development is making flooding worse. Engineering projects can reverse the effects of land development and are doing so, Mike Talbott said in an interview with The Texas Tribune and ProPublica in late August before his retirement after 18 years heading the powerful agency. (His successor shares his views.)

    The claim that “these magic sponges out in the prairie would have absorbed all that water is absurd,” Talbott said.

    He also said the flood control district has no plans to study climate change or its impacts on Harris County, the third-most-populous county in the United States.

    Of the astonishing frequency of huge floods the city has been getting, he said, “I don’t think it’s the new normal.” He also criticized scientists and conservationists for being “anti-development.”

    “They have an agenda … their agenda to protect the environment overrides common sense,” he said.

  103. 103.

    Jeffro

    @lamh36: He’s ecstatic because now he has a big ol’ crisis on his hands and he gets a chance to claim credit for all the feel-good stories that are going to come out over the next few weeks. (Watch – he will indeed say that Americans were helping each other ‘just as I called for in my Charlottesville remarks’)

  105. 105.

    Ruckus

    @Jeffro:
    Yeah, that Ewwwwwwwwwwwwww part. I tried to make it as acceptable as possible to read on this fucking family blog.
    But really, isn’t that exactly what they are doing? I don’t care how they feel doing it or how much bleach they have to use to wash out their mouths, have they no scruples at all, I mean not a fucking one?

  108. 108.

    Jeffro

    @Ruckus: I don’t think so. I don’t think they even understand ‘self preservation’…keeping company with Trumpov will STILL get them dead, politically speaking (to say nothing of their souls)

  109. 109.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Ruckus: Thanks–it’s a great comfort knowing you guys don’t have my back!

    And WTF Donald? And WTF flood control guy?

  110. 110.

    Mnemosyne

    @JCJ:

    An artist in Chicago got permission from Waters to put some Pink Floyd-style flying gold pig balloons up to block the Trump hotel sign there, but the city wouldn’t give permission to do it this fall. They were afraid that far more people would show up to see it than the artist was estimating.

    They’re going to try again this spring to get the permit.

  112. 112.

    Paul W.

    Steve, monsense, baud, Betty, etc. Thank you for the “chin up” comments, I’m a young(ish) man of 32 living in NYC and it just gets real lonely sometimes. My family is back in Dallas, and this whole brief but painful episode makes me think I need to move on (to where I know not) but first steps are hard.

  113. 113.

    lamh36

    @ReignOfApril
    Rev. Robert Lee, IV. Descendant of Robert E Lee is speaking now. #VMAs

    “We can find inspiration in the Black Lives Matter movement, the women marching in the Womens March & Heather Heyer.” ~Robert Lee, IV #VMAs

    @ReignOfApril
    Heather Heyer’s mom announces non-profit foundation to provide scholarships to join Heather’s fight against hatred. #VMAs #Charlottesville

  114. 114.

    Ruckus

    @Jeffro:
    I don’t think so either. Not scruple one. Because this isn’t about getting their agenda through, this is sucking up at it’s worst. These shitstains define the words, Fucking Assholes.

  119. 119.

    Ruckus

    @Paul W.:
    It’s not the location. It hurts the same everywhere. Not saying a change of scenery will hurt but it may not help at all either. Time is your friend. You’ve been wounded, give yourself a bit of time to heal.

  122. 122.

    MomSense

    @Paul W.:

    The problem is that you build up expectation that you’ll feel better in a new place and you might for awhile but then when you feel bad again it can be even worse.

    You are a young (no ish about your age) guy in one of the greatest cities in the world. Go do something new that you’ve always wanted to try even if you think it’s stupid.

  124. 124.

    Immanentize

    My in-laws in Richmond/Rosenberg are still OK but they are heading west soon. The slough is up 10 feet and they are predicting another 4 at least. The problem isn’t the slough as much as it is the Brazos river is backing up all the drainage bayous. They will head to relatives in Brenham.

    Their daughter/sister just died of cancer
    My MIL has stomach cancer herself
    My FIL is having some bone damage from his prostate cancer
    My BIL’s entire business is garage door repair and depends on work from day to day.

    I feel like they are living out “As I Lay Dying.”. Very sad here for a multitude of reasons.

  125. 125.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Recall:

    “As bad as the April, the Tax Day flood, was this year, if you look at the number of people affected in Harris County, it’s less than 1 percent of the population. Is the other 99 percent willing to pay for a much more robust system?” he said.

    And Texans put up with a BSer like this ass clown?

  127. 127.

    Another Scott

    @lamh36: Andy Slavitt‘s response:

    Andy Slavitt ‏Verified account @ASlavitt

    A rule of thumb in anything I’ve ever managed: it’s not going well as long as we don’t know how big the problem is.

    6:56 PM – 27 Aug 2017

    Yup.

    Trump seems to think what’s going on in Texas and Louisiana is something out of a Hollywood movie or reality TV show… :-/

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  128. 128.

    Ruckus

    @MomSense:
    That letdown that the answer that you hoped would work even when told by experienced experts that it very likely wouldn’t, that can be a real kick in the crotch.

  129. 129.

    Immanentize

    @MomSense: makes me think of Divorce Song by Liz Phair:

    That it’s harder to be friends than lovers
    And you shouldn’t try to mix the two
    Cause if you do it and you’re still unhappy
    then you know the problem is you

  140. 140.

    Mnemosyne

    @Immanentize:

    2012 was the year from hell for my extended family. In the span of that year, my father-in-law, my sister in law’s mother, my ex-sister in law’s father, and my father all died. Technically, my dad died three days into 2013, but I think he was supposed to go in 2012 with everyone else and was just too damn stubborn to comply, just like he always was.

    I don’t know why this shit comes in clusters, but it does. You just wade through it as best you can, one foot in front of the other.

  144. 144.

    Mel

    @Paul W.: I don’t know if this will help or not, but here are the words that pulled me out of a dark place a few decades ago. My lifelong friend said to me that if a very serious relationship has to end, better that it end before there are children, blended families, and blended finances involved, and while it was devastating to have my heart broken in two by someone I loved and had put my trust in, at least I could try to heal without having to try to caregive at the same time for others whose hearts were broken by the same loss.

    She then said, “Someone either loves you for the good person that you are, and appreciates you the way you are, or they don’t and were going to leave eventually anyway. Better sooner than later. Would you rather find out when you’re 50 that you’ve spent the last 25 years with an asshole that never really loved you, and try to start over then after losing all those years?”

    At first, I was furious and I thought it was one of the coldest things that anyone had ever said to me. As time went on a bit, I started to see that there was some real wisdom in what she said.

    She wasn’t trying to minimize the very real grief and shock and mourning that comes with that kind of relationship ending suddenly; she was trying to focus me on the fact that my immediate job was to take care of myself (emotionally and physically). I needed to talk through the grief, eat right even when I had no appetite, try to get sleep, avoid isolating myself, and look for ways to look forward and to find small pieces of hope and happiness during the grieving process.

    She wanted me to work towards letting go of something that was never going to be a healthy situation in the long run, and to not focus on the heartbreaking (and in my situation, impossible) “what might have been” but to focus on just getting myself through those first days and then weeks as best I could.

    I would just add: surround yourself with the people who love you. Please be kind to yourself. It takes time to get through this, and the grief will likely wax and wane, but eventually it will get better. If you feel overwhelmed at any point, please don’t try to “tough it out” or go it alone. Talking to friends, loved ones, and / or a trusted counselor really helps.

  146. 146.

    Ruckus

    @Mnemosyne:
    They aren’t relatives but I’ve had 6 people pass away in the last 8 months. One was my best friend I’ve known for over 40 yrs, one a HS friend that was the only one older than me, and only by one yr. He died while I was still going through radiation treatment. One was a friends daughter who was 41. My friends are a year older than me and raising her two kids.
    We are never in a mind set to deal with this but we do anyway. Even though it seems like it comes at us all at once. I don’t have a clue but maybe it’s easier all at once, it’s so bad that we get a bit numb and then we have an opportunity to heal, rather than one after another where you never can catch your breath.

  147. 147.

    Ruckus

    @Mel:
    That was some damn good advice.

    I needed to talk through the grief, eat right even when I had no appetite, try to get sleep, avoid isolating myself, and look for ways to look forward and to find small pieces of hope and happiness during the grieving process.

    This holds true if it’s love or some major health event like cancer. I know this from recent experience. And it never hurts to be reminded of this regularly.

  149. 149.

    Mnemosyne

    @Ruckus:

    My mother in law’s best friend and a close cousin died within a couple of weeks of my father in law dying. They weren’t married anymore, but they got back together after he got sick … it’s complicated.

    It really seems to run in clusters. I don’t know why.

  150. 150.

    NoraLenderbee

    @Paul W.: Do you have good friends you can hang out with? Friends who will be happy to have you around even if you’re sad and no fun, and will let you talk or not talk as much as you want? You need to be around people if possible. That’s what helped me when I went through something similar.

    Or keep posting here. I have no words to lessen the pain, but lots of us here understand.

  151. 151.

    Mnemosyne

    @Immanentize:

    My mother in law said that the best thing she did was go to a spousal grief group sponsored by a local hospital. It really, really helped just being in the same room with other people dealing with the same kind of grief. If your Immp is at college (I seem to recall that he is), they should have similar group counseling available with his peers.

  152. 152.

    Texasboyshaun

    Thank you John and everyone for the support. Houstonians are tough, we help each other out, we´ll get through this. And maybe I´ll break through my awkwardness enough to start talking about my two pups here. Everything is awful, but we have each other, and dogs, to keep us going.

  153. 153.

    Ruckus

    @Mnemosyne:
    I did a group at the VA when I was still going through the acceptance phase of my cancer diagnosis and while not one of us was there for the same reasons, we were all there to learn how to deal with shit in our lives. It was formula counseling which helped some but the better part was just being in the room talking and listening. There aren’t many of us who don’t have some level of shit in our lives, you’d think that as a group of somewhat intelligent creatures we’d have learned to handle it a bit better by now.

  154. 154.

    Mnemosyne

    @Ruckus:

    I’ve been begging my own mom to go to something like that for years, but she flatly refuses. She had a really bad psychiatric experience as a teenager (involuntary commitment for depression, apparently) and now refuses any kind of professional counseling. It’s very frustrating.

  156. 156.

    Ruckus

    @Mnemosyne:
    We hate to see people suffer needlessly. That’s a given, there for the grace of whatever go I. But this was and an event that is out of the ordinary. It could be planned for but how much could actually be done? In CA we’ve toughened building codes numerous times and strengthened many structures and roads to make survival better in earthquakes. And it works. Every place has to work with the types of events that they have, the southern coastal areas have hurricanes, we have earthquakes, OK has tornadoes, the northwest had a volcano and all those areas have to work with the probabilities of how bad they normally get and how bad can they get. Nature isn’t all that safe, we have made it safer and can probably do a lot more, but at what cost? So far Houston has had a lot of flooding but few deaths. From a 100, maybe 200 yr storm. That’s pretty good considering the amount of water and the winds that brought it there. Of course we won’t know all the damage and deaths for a while and it could get worse but it seems to not be outside the level of the expected.

  157. 157.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Davebo: One break, coming right up. Look, I know how much rain LA gets, I LIVE HERE. I’ve lived in the LA area for 54 of my 57 years. What happened in the early part of the 20th century is that LA was plagued by flooding. In the late 30’s they built a shit ton of infrastructure to prevent flooding from even a 500 year storm. There are huge dams(Sepulveda, Hansan, Wittier Narrows, …) and areas behind them that you can’t build on even with Southern CA real estate prices. There are also dams all over the foothills in tributaries to the major rivers that catch debris from the hills so it doesn’t end up in the basin and back up our rivers. Also the LA basin isn’t flat, it slopes down from about 1000′ at the base of the mountains to the sea in the space of about 25 miles. What we do have problems with is mudslides after fires when all the vegetation is burned off and the hillsides end up in folk’s backyards(and houses sometimes).

  158. 158.

    No One You Know

    @Immanentize: I am so sorry. I hope it’s not to naive to think that they are, however effortfully, finding their courage in each other, and discovering anew the strength that is in family bonds.

  159. 159.

    opiejeanne

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Do you remember the catastrophic floods in … ’92 I think? The Sepulveda Basin (I think that’s the right one) flooded and people were rescued from the golf course by helicopter? I love people telling us all about how much it doesn’t rain so it can’t possibly flood, based on average rainfall or even record rainfall. They don’t understand the terrain.

    The cabin we own in the mountains is a mile high. The creeks all start higher up than that and by the time they come down and join with all the other creeks the flooding can be incredible, even with all of the flood control channels. We have people who die in the Los Angeles River or the Santa Ana River or Walnut Creek or Big Dalton Wash every time we have a flooding event. Those are all dry most of the time and visitors from out of state always laugh when they see how big these empty “rivers” are, but all of that water comes off the mountains.

  161. 161.

    opiejeanne

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: I forgot. Chino dairy land was behind the Prado dam, albeit several miles away; after a big flood the water backed up all the way to Chino. A lot of houses were built below that dam in Orange County, beyond Green Canyon so they can’t really let the water out of the dam. They raised that dam so that the water can back up even farther now. A lot of people thought the Army Corps of Engineers were nuts for raising it rather than fixing the drainage downstream.

  162. 162.

    opiejeanne

    @Immanentize: I am so sorry for your and everyone’s losses, and to add more illness on top is just the cherry on top of the… well, you know what kind of sundae. I haven’t read the book or seen the movie but I can feel what you’re getting at.

  163. 163.

    satby

    @Texasboyshaun: yes, get through this safely with your loved ones (furry loved ones too), and keep us posted! Then tell us all about your pups and anything else on your mind. The more jackals talking, the better.

Comments are closed.