.
Inappropriate catastrophic weather event topic: CLIMATE CHANGE
Appropriate catastrophic weather event topic: TAX CUTS pic.twitter.com/Zun8EYsAvD
— Schooley (@Rschooley) September 10, 2017
How about if we talk about guns during hurricanes and climate change after mass shootings?
— Schooley (@Rschooley) September 10, 2017
.
Apart from those big issues, what’s on the agenda for the evening?
***********
Because there are so many better people’s homes and livelihoods at stake, I’m glad it didn’t happen… but if Mar-a-Loco or one of Trump’s other Floridian properties had been flooded, would we already be hearing about a climate change “moon shot” project?
Miami's Republican mayor to the Trump administration: "This is the time to talk about climate change" https://t.co/usQbCoIYOm
— Kiley Kroh (@kileykroh) September 9, 2017
Florida Republicans are likely to be the vanguard of any shift in GOP climate change beliefs https://t.co/B7aVywd9gK
— Brendan Nyhan (@BrendanNyhan) September 9, 2017
Charlie Crist was at the vanguard when he was Florida's Republican governor. He was driven out of the party and now he's a House Democrat. https://t.co/H8hOkMALR6
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) September 9, 2017
Jim, Foolish Literalist
boatboy_srq
Yglesias nails it. The “Republicans” who would have been the GOP vanguard of this discussion/movement/mission/quest/thing have been primaried nearly to extinction. When Ted Yoho decides that AGCC is a real thing and he needs to do something about it, then Nyhan’s argument will be worth making.
TenguPhule
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Yay? Maybe?
TenguPhule
Every time you think Trump can’t get worse, he does.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Let’s not forget the whole spectacle of Rush screaming the hurricane is a hoax as he’s getting in the car himself.
It’s like this year is going to end up being a watershead year.
?BillinGlendaleCA
I have a question for Boston area Juicers: how is the weather in early November? The kid has a long weekend in early November and is thinking of seeing Boston(her Seattle vacation seems to have activated the travel bug gene that she inherited from her mother).
Mary G
Jennifer Rubin has a good column today on this:
boatboy_srq
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Rush will spin this, not as hurricane evacuation, but as evading all the Blah/Brown looters’ taking advantage of the evacuees fooled by liebrul soshulist media into abandoning their homes and businesses just because the meteorologists told them to.
p.a.
@boatboy_srq: When Ted Yoho believes in AGCC he’ll be primaried into retirement too. It’ll be too late, but we’ll win the argument “one funeral at a time…”
boatboy_srq
@Mary G:
BWAHAHAHAHA! Does she have any idea how deeply entrenched the “it’s all a pinko commie plot” AGCC denial is in places like FL?
Hal
You are safe
boatboy_srq
@p.a.: By then the Ocala horse farms will be converted into saltwaterfront subdivisions with zero bridges to the Gulf.
p.a.
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@boatboy_srq: For both the reply is, why did Rush, being the REAL American he claims to be, stand his ground and exercise his second amendment rights like a man instead of fleeing for a safe space like a surrender monkey with a Louis XIV fetish?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Mary G: I am almost as confused by agreement with J-Rubes as I am when I agree with David Frum. But then Rubin never did anything as real-world destructive as feeding President Alfred E Neocon that fucking “axis of evil” line so they could both get their Churchill drag on
and the media is as guilty as anyone in ignoring climate change. IIRC in 2012 the only debate question about climate came from a civilian during the town hall. In the 2016 town hall, the moderators couldn’t find on question on the subject, but found time for two thumb-suckers about why can’t we all just get along.
@TenguPhule: I have a hard time imagining G-C getting through the House, but yeah, I’ll give it a qualified Yay! I still think Rand Paul is killing repeal from the right so he doesn’t have to answer to his constituents about what will actually happen to them if it passes.
boatboy_srq
@p.a.: IOW, [San Francisco] – [some variable decrease in temp between 5 and 20 degrees F] + [potential rain or snow].
Cacti
This week is too soon to talk about climate change.
And it will stay too soon right up until it’s time to move on and put it behind us.
boatboy_srq
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: One White Man With A Gun is never a match for imagined dozens of Blah Persons, armed or not. It’s one-on-one or many-on-one when their Real Ahmurrrcan™ manliness manifests itself with firearms and casualties.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@p.a.: OTOH, last time I was there was in February and the east coast had a heat wave, it was in the low 70’s in Boston(mid 80’s in DC).
hueyplong
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Rubin plays for Team BItchez, so she was unlikely to be allowed into the inner circle of the GOP so as to do real harm. Her ceiling was “Cheerleader,” so that’s what she was.
Every time you think of how Trump made the scales fall from her eyes, think about the ones who are with Trump now.
VOR
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I recently re-watched the movie “Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell of Fear”, which came out in 1991. The movie was about Climate Change and how everyone agreed with it, even the Republicans. I was shocked.
Anne Laurie
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
In a “normal” year? Cool-to-cold (50s to 60s), frequently raw & mizzly, with one or more unpredictable gorgeous periods of “St. Martin’s Summer”. This year, who can guess?
In November’s favor, it’s probably the cheapest time of year to visit, unless you want to risk mid-winter. A lot of the outdoor tourist stuff will shut down after Columbus Day, but more & more guest houses and seasonal dining places will offer reduced rates after that & before the Thanksgiving rush. And IIRC, early November is when the young-adult social scene really takes off — my impression is that, since the colleges pretty much determine everyone’s schedules here, all the mid-20s to early-30s new hires tend to clump around early September, so the newbies are settled & looking for social contacts by Halloween…
Ruckus
@Mary G:
Really that’s all of us. There was a comment about farmers in the northern plain states not bothering to harvest wheat because of climate change caused it to not grow. There’s nothing to harvest. What do we do when FL becomes uninhabitable? Not everyone would have to move some where else but the population is 20 million. What about Houston and the surrounding areas or NOLA and surroundings. All told that’s probably 30-35 million that would have to move somewhere and with CA being just over 39 million that’s close enough to say that’s the same as our most popular state having to move. Where? How?
Barbara
@Mary G: A while back, the North Carolina legislature voted to prohibit its own agencies from considering the impact of sea level rise on the Outer Banks for a variety of economic and environmental forecasts. I think the rule should be that if someone denies climate change is real, the rest of us get to deny that a coastal deluge is a real catastrophe. When the Outer Banks encounters the Big One there won’t be anything left. It’s just blind luck that has left it in place. It makes me so mad that I won’t even visit any more.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Anne Laurie: While she’s a SoCal native, she’s lived in cooler climates(she was stationed in the UK for 2 years), so as long as she’s aware of the weather before leaving LA, she’d be OK. I’m a bit concerned about the outdoor tourist stuff, though. She did have to adapt her plans quite a bit for her recent trip to Seattle due to the fires, but still had a great time up there.
Schlemazel
@boatboy_srq:
When the time comes that AGCC can no longer be denied there will be hair on fire demands for the government to spend trillions to ‘fix’ it. Assuming the Dems have a say they will bring in the top minds who will have a series of steps, some painful, most expensive all designed to gradually reduce the impact. Crackpots will have quick and dirty solutions that sound really simple. That is what the morons will get behind and what will be done. This will make things worse and things will get out of control
Barbara
@Ruckus: Ask the country called the Netherlands how it has managed to survive for hundreds of years while being mostly at or below sea level. It can be done. It just requires a lot of collective action.
Ruckus
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
I think you answered your own question. And correctly.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Ruckus: i often wonder if in the future, 50 to a hundred years from now, the country won’t see a reverse of move to the Sunbelt, back to the broadly defined north-east, including the great lakes
Schlemazel
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
If should can time it for fall leaf season she really should. I thought the Midwest had great fall color but the extra 100 years New England has had to recover trees put MN & WI to shame. Coming from CA she will be cold!
Major Major Major Major
**shameless plug time**
Hey fellow jackals, from time to time you may see me talking about the comic I draw, Against Stupidity. Some of you have even said nice things about that drawing of a crow/raven I did recently. Well, the strip featuring that image finally went up today, and, with it, chapter one of the strip is finished. I figured now would be a good time to shamelessly plug it: you can read chapter one, ‘Over The River and Through The Woods’, starting here. (It’s a comedy/horror strip that follows a young man who inherits his grandma’s house and, unbeknownst to him, the family ‘business’. Also a cat and a parrot.)
I had a general sense of where I was going and what I wanted it to look like when I started. My drawing was rusty and the story wasn’t totally fleshed out, but if I waited until those were solved I would never actually start, so I just went ahead and did it. These issues have both been addressed now :) or at least I like to think so. It’s been a fun three months!
I’m taking a week in between updates to make sure I’m on track for the next chapter, so I keep feeling like I should be doing something… lol.
Schlemazel
@Barbara:
“collective action“?!? Sounds like gottamned commie BS to me!
boatboy_srq
@Schlemazel: Isn’t that what’s happening already? Just making sure you’re talking about a new crop of crackpots and not the same ones that whinge in Home Depot about Fat Al Gore and The Incandescent Lightbulb like that were some Roald Dahl dystopian fairy tale.
And IIRC AGCC is already deniable only by people who think lumps of coal in Christmas stockings are a good thing or who advocate fiercely for the health benefits of oral consumption of bleach.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Sarah Huckabee Sanders accused Comey of “giving false testimony”. She accused him of a crime. Is that slander? Is it actionable?
p.a.
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Since Nov is very late in hurricane season, her biggest threats are from distraught Sox fans if there’s a World Series loss, or Pats fans if they continue playing as they did week 1.
Betty Cracker
Finally on the way home (which neighbors tell me is intact) after hurricane hell and the Mad Max gasoline wars thereafter. Jayzus. Amazing how thin the veneer of civilization actually is.
One unintentional benefit of being without power and connectivity for a spell on this particular date is that I went most of the day NOT seeing Trump hump 9/11 for his own personal glorification. God, what a disgusting shit-stain.
Major Major Major Major
@Hal: awww, that’s sweet.
Kay (not the front-pager)
I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me sooner. Trump thinks super-regressive tax cuts will help the middle class because he thinks $2 million+/year is middle class.
Heywood J.
The next time Ted Yahoo or any of the rest of these bozos (or the idjits who keep voting them in) scoffs at climate change, just tell ’em to take it up with those Marxists at the Pentagon, who declared it our biggest national security threat several years ago.
Or they can drown, when the next one and the next one and the one after that hits. If they want to be Kevin Bacon in Animal House, that’s an option too. Some wiseguy once mentioned something about how choosing not to decide actually counts as a choice.
boatboy_srq
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Considering that’s the part most likely to still be above water…
Schlemazel
@Major Major Major Major:
I even turned off the ad blocker for you! Not my genre but I am intrigued, a nice start – thanks
Davebo
@Barbara: Really really big pumps.
That, and controlled flooding.
Ruckus
@Barbara:
It’s amazing to see what the Netherlands has done. Huge projects, amazing concepts. We won’t see it here until it’s way too late. And at that time it will cost way too much and take way too long so why bother. And even if we did they don’t look like the 1850s and dog forbid that we make anything look more modern that that or without a confederate statue on it.
You may notice that I’m not a climate change denier. We could fix a lot of issues with this country if we could convince people that their lives actually do depend on not being republican assholes.
bystander
I just heard Sarah Huckleberry Sanders say Comey gave false testimony.
I’m so sick and tired of these liars and grifters whose salaries I’m paying.
Schlemazel
@boatboy_srq:
There are still a large number of morons who know that AGCC is a commie libtard Chinese plot & not to be worried about.
The current crackpots will be the same crackpots demanding an simple, easy, inexpensive, quick fix to a problem that we have been creating for more than 100 years. Their story will change but it will be the same assholes.
Major Major Major Major
@Schlemazel: thanks, but you can keep it on, I don’t get any money. It’s a free hosting service so it’s their ads.
Another Scott
@Schlemazel: Yup. If we thought Ronnie’s “Star Wars” was a boondoggle, wait until Donald Trump IV proposes Stratospheric Aerosol Injection.
JobsJobsJobsJobs!!11ONE
What’s not to like, other than destroying the ozone layer, turning the lakes and oceans into vats of (dilute) sulfuric acid, killing trees, shifting the warming around but not stopping it, … :-/
Cheers,
Scott.
boatboy_srq
@Ruckus: In the case of AGCC, it’s their children’s and grandchildren’s lives that really depend on not being Teahadi arseholes. But it seems IGMFY has progressed to intrafamily-generational as well as interfamily-proximal conditions.
efgoldman
@Betty Cracker:
Some of us are old enough to remember the first OPEC oil embargo, with red and green “gas/no gas” flags, alternate odd/even license plate days, and 1/2 hour (or more) lines for fuel.
Anne Laurie
@Betty Cracker: VERY glad to hear from you, Betty!
(Also looking forward to you turning the evacuation detour into some patented BC wonder-tales, once you’ve had a chance to settle back in at home.)
zhena gogolia
@Betty Cracker:
So glad you’re okay.
Baud
@Betty Cracker: I am pleased to hear that you are safe. I hope your home has minimal damage, if any.
BethanyAnne
I’ve lived in or around Houston for almost 40 of my almost 50 years :) I’ve never seen hurricanes spin up so fast as Harvey, that I recall. Tropical storm to Cat 4 in 2 days? That usually takes over a week. We’ve had some bad storms – the eye of Alicia passed over my house – but there were reports yesterday of parts of Beltway 8 still being under 18 feet of water. I keep waiting for the conventional wisdom to be that Republicans have been trying to tell us that climate change is real, and Democrats just wouldn’t listen.
Major Major Major Major
@Betty Cracker: but how are the animals?
Davebo
@efgoldman: And if you slapped one of the magnetic business signs on your vehicle you could gas up on any day you chose.
People stole a lot of magnetic business signs back then.
Baud
With respect to the topic at hand, I’ve recently noted a bunch of stories about the high number of people who say they are environmentalists but who don’t vote. I wish we could get a handle on that. If they are reachable, it might be a relatively easy way to turn the tide.
Barbara
@Ruckus: Of the large states, Florida is totally fucked and North Carolina is probably fucked (as was demonstrated last year, its flat land goes on for hundreds of miles and is highly vulnerable to flooding). New York and New Jersey could still save themselves. Georgia has the good fortune to have its major city well inland. Texas is debatable. It’s so large that people could move but if Houston continues to have the extent and level of flooding that it has over the last few years, it will wither away. It doesn’t need to. That’s the message. It’s not necessary. This willed hopelessness is another form of denial (well we’re all gonna die anyway so why not smoke?).
Baud
@BethanyAnne:
Why couldn’t Al Gore take the train?
Schlemazel
@Major Major Major Major:
OH, well, I guess for you that is the tradeoff. Thanks for letting me know. Please do let us know when the next round is up
Betty Cracker
@Major Major Major Major: Animals are all fine. Even my fish, whom I could not evacuate to safety! I should have stayed home with the fish.
Schlemazel
@Another Scott:
I LIKE IT! Cheap, simple and quick!!
lets ignore it will be worse than the problem it is designed to solve
boatboy_srq
@Kay (not the front-pager): Well, that’s because the $2+million/year crowd around him a) tell him constantly that they really and truly are middle class, and b) aren’t particularly wrong when the 0.01% fall in the $2+billion/year and it’s that crowd that funded his campaign.
Ruckus
@Kay (not the front-pager):
There is a middle class in this country. Problem is there is also a class in this country that thinks they are middle class and they don’t make enough near money. I’m not sure where middle class starts but I’d bet absolute minimum it’s in the upper 5 digit range, like $80-90K or so. I just went to the CNN calculator. It said that in LA county CA the middle class ranges from $36K to $105K. I call bullshit. That makes me middle class and I can guarantee that I’m not.
eclare
@Major Major Major Major: I’m impressed! Cooper and Ginger are genius.
Major Major Major Major
@Schlemazel: Even though it’s not your genre? :P
Yeah, I mean, one way or the other you’re paying for something somehow.
@Betty Cracker: Hooray!
Did you end up evacuating the chickens?
@eclare: Thanks!
Schlemazel
@boatboy_srq:
I know part of this is my natural upbeat personality but I don’t think we will have to wait that long. The bleakest projections are that the thawing of the permafrost will release huge amounts of CO2 and Methane causing runaway warming much sooner than more moderate projections.
p.a.
@efgoldman: you mean when apoplexy set in as gas went above $.45/gallon?
Here’s a fun widget (well I think it’s fun) for historical inflation/deflation values. Upper left block contains the widgets.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
and an upper-class who think of themselves as middle class, there was a longish piece about them in the NYT yesterday
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Schlemazel:
The timing, early November, is pretty much set by her work schedule. As I mentioned in my reply to AL, she lived for 2 years in the UK(near Cambridge), so cold shouldn’t be a problem as long as she brings the appropriate outerwear.
eclare
@Hal: Cute! I’ve got my little pup snoozing beside me, hope she’s having good dreams!
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Davebo: and siphoned gas. My car then had a lock on the gas cap.
Schlemazel
@Betty Cracker:
Better to be safe & regret leaving than to be no longer able to regret having stayed! We here at BJ got lucky & very happy for you and Adam. Has anyone heard form Mustang? I’m sure I am forgetting others, maybe we need a check in thread
Glad it went well for you
Mary G
@Major Major Major Major: I want a Mrs. Winters instead of the wingnuts I have next door on both sides. She is cool and the crow (raven?) is a great cliffhanger.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Schlemazel: I believe Emma was going to hunker down with parents in a solidly built, post-Andrew house with a safe room. I think she was in Miami, or nearby
Davebo
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: I remember it well. Honestly I’m surprised locking gas caps didn’t stay with us.
Schlemazel
@Major Major Major Major:
I guess what I was trying – and failing – to say was that I am not a big graphic novel fan despite having read some I actually enjoyed, they just are not my thing. This one looks like it will attract me
boatboy_srq
@Schlemazel: Too many tRumpets will be retired or facing retirement then, and won’t have any interest whatever in impediments to their comfy golden years. Prior generations used to pretend to think about their grandkids: the latest crops, not so much.
Ruckus
@efgoldman:
Some of us are also old enough to remember during that odd/even gas days of driving into eastern BC Canada, on a weekday at 11pm and seeing competing gas stations on opposite corners with station attendants waving us in to buy all the gas we wanted, at much cheaper prices than in the US. It was a fucking scam to raise gas prices. The “shortage” was staged, at our expense. It taught people like the Kochsucker bros that they could fuck the public and get fucking fabulously wealthy doing it. And no one would say a word.
tomtofa
Humans: We’re going to destroy the earth.
Earth: Hold my beer.
Kay (not the front-pager)
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: This. Exactly this:
Major Major Major Major
@Schlemazel: Aw, cool, thanks!
@Mary G: It’s Ms. Winters, thank-you-very-much. She might be married but she’s still a modern lady!
And you might not like the other neighbors.
boatboy_srq
@Davebo:
A) Gas got (inflation-adjusted) cheaper.
B) locking gas caps still exist (or at least locking, remote-release gas cap doors). They’re a marker of the higher-value automobile. Kind of the way automatic power locks are designed to make people afraid of carjacking by Those People™ feel more comfortable behind the wheel.
Hal
@Major Major Major Major: I love how the man slowly moves from the shadows and becomes fully visible as the dog gets comfortable.
Schlemazel
@p.a.:
I remember when gas hit $1 a gallon. I bought a beater Pontiac Delta 88, a monster of a car. as a second car. When I bought it it was near empty so I stopped at a nearby gas station. The guy came out and put the hose in & started cleaning the windows. I got out & checked the oil & we talked about the car a bit (a grandma car, 12 years old with 33,000 on the clock). When we got done he looked at the pump & said “$6.75”, I paid him & drove off. When I got home it occurred to me that the 18 gallon tank was near empty so something was wrong. Turned out the pump only went up to $9.99 and then rolled over and I actually owed him $16.75!
Aleta
@Kay (not the front-pager): huh, good point.
Major Major Major Major
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
We also got Ken Bone asking some BS about job security as an energy company employee or something.
Ruckus
@Barbara:
You said it more straight forward than I did but yes. And the thing is all of it is saveable, if we wanted to do it. But with the reality deniers of the republican party being in charge……… (and I include the bible bangers, racists and robber barons in that group. IOW every last fucking republican)
Have you seen the new locks in the Panama Canal? Huge project, pieces built in several parts of the world and they did it without so much as a how ya do from the US as far as I could tell. Yes some of the eastern ports helped shape what was being done but mostly it was Panama.
Baud
So blue state Senators are piling on to Bernie’s single payer bill. I have my issues with him but credit where it’s due. I’m curious as hell to see what the new bill looks like since the wonks haven’t come up with a way to transition to single payer yet.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Kay
Women and minorities should be happy about that, though, really. The commission’s work is embarrassingly bad. Real garbage. Steer clear of that shitshow, ladies. Any random poll worker could produce better “ideas!” than this bottom-of-the-barrel commission.
debbie
Glad to see both Adam and Betty got through Irma okay.
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
A camera?
Mart
I know a loser policy, but where are the Dems saying we need to go back to the Clinton tax rates to pay for these and upcoming storms/protective infrastructure/resident and business relocation? Bush cutting taxes at a time of war was insane. Further cutting taxes directly following the costliest weather disasters in history??? The taxes (especially on the rich and net paid by large corporations) are too damn low.
Baud
@Kay: Women and minorities wanted to attend but didn’t have valid IDs.
debbie
@Kay:
I should be happy, but I am so, so sick of this White-Guys-Only bullshit.
SiubhanDuinne
@Baud:
You will be SO GOOD in the 2020 debates!
debbie
@Baud:
Win!
Ruckus
@Kay:
I”d bet any third grade class could provide better results than any group of republican politicians. And that’s without help from the teacher.
Davebo
@boatboy_srq: Not so much. Mercedes, BMW, just push in the gas cap door and it opens.
Major Major Major Major
@Baud: Sure would be nice if we could have a political system where the wonks get to weigh in on a policy before a bunch of senators are expected to pile onto it.
Baud
@Mart: As you said, that would be a politically stupid thing to do.
Fair Economist
@Ruckus:
Worse, they have to keep moving. There are economic reasons a lot of big cities are near the coast (ports, climate, and recreation, for starters) and the water will keep rising, making them have to move repeatedly.
Baud
@Major Major Major Major: Sure, but we have a political system that elected Donald Trump. I just hope this doesn’t end up biting people in the ass. That’s why I’m curious to see what’s actually in the bill.
Jeffro
@Schlemazel: I was about to say…there are c-words and then there are C-words…it doesn’t get any lower than “collective”
Kay
@Baud:
They have two pollworkers appearing. They had to work pretty hard to exclude women when inviting poll workers. It’s probably 5 to 1 women where I live. Maybe the female pollworkers (sensibly) turned them down, to protect their reputations and respectable standing in the community :)
Major Major Major Major
@Baud: Just because they’re bad doesn’t mean we should be bad too. Waiting to see the details of a bill that would drastically change how healthcare is delivered to three hundred and fifty million people before saying you support it is… I mean, what’s the rush here?
Baud
@Kay: I don’t think they had to work hard at all. They probably knew who would tell them what they wanted to hear.
Quinerly
My theory…Bannon needs a extra layer to absorb the vodka that is sweating out of him: theguardian.com/fashion/shortcuts/2017/sep/11/steve-bannon-shirts-60-minutes
Ruckus
@Davebo:
Same on my Ford. And there is no gas cap. Just a tube with a valve closing it off that you use the nozzle to push out of the way and fill up. But it’s also probably like my last vehicle, a full sized van, which had anti siphon blocks in place so you couldn’t get a hose into the fuel. Which was nice during the recession, what with a 35 gallon tank. A neighbor had a different brand full sized van and it had no such blocking. He lost a full tank. They tried to steal mine but didn’t get a drop.
Baud
@Major Major Major Major: I assume the Senators who have signed onto it have seen it.
My guess is that the bill won’t be a single-payer bill at all. It will have some incremental measures in it and establish a commission to study how to transition to single payer. But we’ll see.
germy
When I saw Bannon on 60 Minutes I couldn’t help but notice the weird throbbing thing on his neck.
Karen
There was a gas war, remember those? when graduated from high school. One gas station dropped price down to $.05 per gallon, 50 cents bought a lot of gas that week.
I had a 64 Caddy during gas “shortage” since that station was one who did all repair work I got a little more than was suppose to, but even with the shortage they were still checking under hood, air in tires and washing all the windows.
Baud
@germy: His head?
Humdog
@Major4 I’m hooked on your great strip! To the point I am a tad ticked you are wasting time here instead of creating the next panel. I’m gonna be worried about that gas mask and scarf wearing, hammer wielding whatever it was at the window until I know what it is up to. Thanks for the distraction. :)
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Yup, and yup
ETA: also, too, Danny Tarkarian is a nut job, in a way that should make Dean Heller nervous
Scamp Dog
I looked at the map of your character’s neighborhood and tried to figure out what part of Denver he’s in. It’s different from the location of the real-life Marczyk’s, so I’m guessing it’s a combination of various parts of Denver, maybe DU, Capitol Hill, some others? (I actually just left a similar comment on your blog, feel free to answer either, or not at all). Anyway, I’m enjoying the story!
Kay
@debbie:
They’re Fraud Fighters, debbie. That’s manly work. It’s their job to confront people and belligerently demand they prove they’re not felons.
Steve in the ATL
@debbie:
Yeah well my power has been out for almost ten minutes.
debbie
@Steve in the ATL:
You’re actually in ATL? You travel so much.
Baud
@Steve in the ATL: you should write a book about it.
Steve in the ATL
@Davebo:
Yes but the gas cap door is locked when the car doors are locked
Quinerly
Apologies if this has been posted. I’m looking for laughs and between Roger Stone thinking Kelly is drugging Trump and Bannon wearing multiple layers of black clothes (posted above) I got a few pathetic chuckles: mediamatters.org/video/2017/09/11/roger-stone-it-s-possible-white-house-chief-staff-john-kelly-havin…
Major Major Major Major
@Humdog: Thanks! It updates Mondays (like clockwork so far), but there’s an option to subscribe via email at the bottom of each strip too, unless you’re using an adblocker which sometimes hides it.
I’d love to update it more often but I have a job and husband and novel and friends and several video games to attend to.
@Scamp Dog: I replied on my blog :)
ETA: Around Exposition & University
@Baud: Who is he, Beckett?
Steve in the ATL
@Baud: on what, paper? Using a manual typewriter?
That’s impossible.
Baud
Damn that’s a big flag.
ruemara
@Baud: He gets no credit from me. I wonder where these folks were for John Conyers bill, HR 676. This is likely an attempt to curtail Grandpa Backstabber from using support as a wedge from today to the next 2 election cycles. Done with that mofo and all his fans.
Steve in the ATL
@debbie: arbitration in Florida this week was cancelled!
Quinerly
@germy:
It’s those layers of black shirts.? Kidding aside, the first thing I noticed was his voice doesn’t fit him. Look away…you would never match that voice to that person. Startling.
debbie
@Quinerly:
A little too high-pitched, right?
eclare
@Major Major Major Major: Not using an adblocker, where do I subscribe?
Brachiator
@Barbara:
Some close scares help, also. From the Wiki:
Major Major Major Major
@eclare: Should be a ‘follow’ button in the bottom-right. You might have to scroll up a smidge to make it appear.
Baud
@ruemara:
It’s a political win for him, at least for now. We’ll see how it plays out. I don’t disagree at all with the political motives involved with these Senators.
trnc
@Barbara: I think while we see stronger and more frequent storms as a result of climate change, a lot of climate change deniers will hide behind the hurricanes as an excuse for the coastal damage and flooding. Ocean levels and temperatures are rising slowly enough that the effects are only seen over a matter of years. They weaken coastlines, so hurricanes do more damage as a result, but this allows people to say, “Well, of course we had massive flooding and destruction. It was a hurricane. DUH,” and then carry on ranting until the next disaster.
ruemara
@Baud: I’m hoping Jane likes orange jumpsuits and Sanders has to deal with a trove of emails. I don’t normally personally detest anyone not a conservative pundit, but, I’ve learned to make exceptions.
Chyron HR
@Baud:
So how many steps does the Senator from VT make it out of the Capitol Building before a true believer shoots him for his betrayal?
Quinerly
@Betty Cracker:
Glad to hear this. Reading from bottom up and late to the thread. Get home and try to get some rest.
Ruviana
@Schlemazel: My favorite thing about that is that the melting permafrost may (probably will) free up currently frozen viruses and bacteria to come back and give everyone infectious diseases.
eclare
@Major Major Major Major: Got it, thanks!
Quinerly
@ruemara:
You and me both.
Baud
@ruemara: i hear ya. I’m also pessimistic about our future with him.
Quinerly
@debbie:
I guess. Just doesn’t fit him. I found it jarring. Different from his radio voice from the snippets I had previously heard.
Mart
@Brachiator: I got to see these Europoort Netherland storm surge locks up close. Designed to allow ocean vessels access to factories and ports when open, and keep the ocean out when closed. rijkswaterstaat.nl/english/water-systems/protection-against-water/delta-works/msl-storm-surge-barrie…
eclare
@ruemara: Come sit by me.
ThresherK
@Quinerly: So Trump is just like Ingrid Bergman in Notorious, he thinks.
Nobody in that White House is Bergman or Cary Grant. Plenty of weak mama’s boys (Claude Rains) and thugs, but no heroes.
chris
@Baud: environmentalvoter.org/
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Yup, that’s about what it would take. A cheep cellphone camera would work.
Ruckus
@ruemara:
There are a lot of other reasons to like you, but this is a good one.
Mel
A little bit of good news. Looks like the Hemingway cats made it through the Hurricane safely,
Brachiator
@Mart:
Impressive!
Shalimar
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: You mean the answer to every question isn’t “well, Obama also said blah blah blah?”
Baud
@chris: Good for them.
eclare
@Mel: Saw that yesterday, made me smile.
TenguPhule
@Baud:
Thread won.
TenguPhule
@germy:
I think most of us call that a head.
Gelfling 545
@Ruckus: There seems to be a strange conception that if you work at a desk, you’re middle class. Even at $10/hour.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
/somewhat Seinfeld voice/ Nunes!
ETA: Forgot the link.
Major Major Major Major
@TenguPhule: lol
Felonius Monk
@efgoldman:
I remember that well. How shocked we were when gasoline suddenly jumped from 35 cents a gallon to 55 cents a gallon. Oh, the humanity. glad we don’t have to pay those prices anymore — not.
tobie
@Baud:
In the absence of a transition plan, the single payer proposal is posturing and nothing else. I’m actually disappointed that Kamala Harris lined up so quickly to support it. Democrats could offer specific improvements to the ACA to bring us damn close to the Swiss or German system, which provides universal coverage at a fraction of the cost the US pays for healthcare and is still based principally on an employer-provided model. Obama was right: if we were designing a system from scrap you could go for single payer. Moving 50% of the population from employer-provided healthcare to a public system is incredibly disruptive and bound to have all sorts of kinks for a decade, if not more. Great way to feed the Republican line that govt is inefficient and ineffective.
Baud
@tobie: My understanding is that there will be a host of more manageable bills offered by various Senators, along with this one, which I agree is probably mostly posturing.
efgoldman
@Davebo:
I had a Benz rental a couple of years ago. Spent twenty minutes looking for the gas cap release before i realized that. [No owners’ manual in the rental]
tobie
@Baud: Thanks. I’ll try to follow what happens over the next two weeks.
Major Major Major Major
@Baud: My problem is I don’t like preening and posturing. Which makes you wonder why I follow politics.
TenguPhule
Fuck AG Sessions with a Rusty Chainsaw.
Ahem…/Deep Breath
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!
TenguPhule
@Major Major Major Major:
You have deeply repressed enjoyment of pain? //
Baud
@Major Major Major Major: You know the old saw about the importance of faking sincerity in politics.
Major Major Major Major
@TenguPhule: I want what’s best for people, and in a large, diverse, and relatively peaceful world, liberal democracy is how you do that.
@Baud: I do not.
TenguPhule
@Major Major Major Major:
When you can fake that, you’ve got it made.
Major Major Major Major
My friend has a writeup of the clown-only screening of It.
Schlemazel
@Ruviana:
And that is why I am praying for a meteor – much faster!
Baud
@Major Major Major Major:
Google says the quote has a nonpolitical pedigree.
quoteinvestigator.com/2011/12/05/fake-honesty/
Schlemazel
@TenguPhule:
He was clenching his jaw repeatedly. Seemed like a coke-related tic
TenguPhule
@Major Major Major Major:
Why would you do that?!
/Insert The Scream Face here
Mike in NC
Since Steve Bannon is literally a “man in black”, the throbbing thing on his neck is likely to be the alien parasite that controls his brain.
Kay
@TenguPhule:
I will be forever angry that man didn’t go to prison. I oppose overly long sentences – he didn’t have to do MUCH time- but there is one person who needs to go to prison. I think about all those years he was abusing people while they were in his custody– to me he’s the equivalent of a child abuser.
“custody” means “the protective care or guardianship of someone or something” When you take away someone’s freedom and ability to defend themselves you have a duty to keep them from harm. He failed as a jailer. He failed in his most basic duty.
Omnes Omnibus
@Major Major Major Major: Um, wow.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
W
Josie
@TenguPhule: I sure hope that judge tells the justice department where they can shove that short court filing. What a travesty!
Kay
@tobie:
I’m afraid we’re going to get into the same dynamic that happened with the ACA. People who have good health care (Medicare people) get panicky when you start talking about giving it to other people. There’s a “scarcity” dynamic in effect among voters and health care. They want other people to have health care, sure but what they also want is an iron-clad guarantee that THEY aren’t going to lose what they have. It’s doubly true for elderly people for a very good reason- they can’t work. They really ARE more vulnerable. The GOP campaign in 2010 telling people who had Medicare that Obama “cut” Medicare to pay for the ACA was wildly successful. It was a huge lie but it worked. They could do that here.
JPL
@Steve in the ATL: You are pretty lucky because earlier I saw that a few thousand were without power in your area. I lost power for a few hours, and now am charging my phone and computer for the next go around. The only person that I know who hasn’t lost power was my son in Sandy Springs, and he always loses power. Part of his street is without power now. Karma
Major Major Major Major
@Kay:
Not quite well enough though.
Baud
@Major Major Major Major: What do you mean?
JPL
@Steve in the ATL: It’s our first tropical storm warning, and it’s cold!!!!!!!!!!
Tenar Arha
@?BillinGlendaleCA: There’s lots of cool indoor museum & tourism things to do on rainy days, but closest to waterfront (yes yes, almost everything in town is technically near water ;) can be extremely raw & unpleasant when cold rain hits.
ETA ICA (waterfront), Gardner Museum, & Mapparium are few of my faves
Steve in the ATL
@JPL: it’s back on now, but we spent the half hour lighting candles and replacing flashlight batteries.
TenguPhule
@Kay:
I consider him a child serial killer.
Major Major Major Major
@Baud: it’s the law, isn’t it?
Steve in the ATL
@JPL: below 60 degrees! Only one degree below, but still….
Baud
@Major Major Major Major: Right. But they are wildly successful in 2010.
efgoldman
Is Bradford that good, or is Saints’ defense that bad?
zhena gogolia
@ThresherK:
And where’s Madame Constantine when you need her?
TenguPhule
@efgoldman:
Yes.
Major Major Major Major
@Baud: but still not enough to stop the law, is all I’m saying.
Baud
@Major Major Major Major: Lots of folks took a courageous vote. Saved some lives though.
TenguPhule
Trump shames America, another day ending in Y.
Anyone want to bet Trump is taking notes from this guy?
lgerard
@TenguPhule:
That’s crazy. What they seem to be saying is the president has the power to overrule the judiciary.
I don’t think that is what a pardon is.
TenguPhule
@lgerard:
They can as far as sentencing.
But what they’re asking for is that the crime itself never be counted as a crime. Which is completely bonkers and invites complete madness if allowed.
Another Scott
@Schlemazel: The Delta 88 was an Oldsmobile. The equivalent Pontiac was a Catalina or a Bonneville. ;-)
My over-a-dollar-a-gallon gas story was driving up to the neighborhood station in Chicago with the pumps having big signs “Price is 2x Pump Reading!” with about $6 to my name and getting distracted. Oh no! The pump says $5.50!
:-(
I had to leave my drivers license with them as I ran home to rob a piggy bank for the remaining $5.
Ah, the good olde days… :-/
Cheers,
Scott.
efgoldman
@lgerard:
That’s exactly what it is. Just that previous presidents have used it much more judiciously – and with much better explanations.
Cheryl Rofer
But with the way this zombie keeps rising from the dead, don’t breathe easy until October 1!
Cheryl Rofer
And here’s the other tweet from the committee chair:
Ruviana
@Schlemazel: Yep, asteroids, baby.
Emma
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Indeed. And the house came through beautifully. High impact windows are amazing. My father and I sat in the living room watching hundred mile and hour winds break the trees and we barely heard the sound.
On the bad news side, our yard was trashed to hell and gone. Fences down, coconut palms gone, lots of branches down on the taller trees. We’re already trying to find someone that can take on the big cleaning job. Also, file your claim quickly. My insurance company has a 72 hour window between “incident” and “preliminary filing.”
Baud
@Emma: Glad your are safe.
Thoughtful David
@TenguPhule:
I think it’s a travesty as well, but Arpaio was never going to do the hard time he deserves. It may make him feel better to not see it on his record, but for history, it’s too late. He’ll always be recorded by history as having been convicted, and then given a very political and racist pardon by the racist Trump.
We still remember Caligula 2000 years later. And not fondly.
eclare
@Emma: Glad to hear you are safe! Good luck with that claim, that’s insane.
SiubhanDuinne
@Steve in the ATL:
@JPL:
It could still happen, of course, but after quite a lot of flickering this afternoon, the power has apparently decided to stay on. Still, both phone and iPad are charged 100%, a flashlight is near at hand, and if I need any more, I have a drawerful of votive candles I can set up and light.
Understand lights are out all around Duluth and John’s Creek, so I’m grateful to be spared. And, as I say, it may not last.
Jeffro
@Cheryl Rofer: I guess they’re figuring out where the OTHER ‘third rail’ of American politics is, LOL. About time, jerk wads!!
Jeffro
Btw I love how Charlie Rose asked Steve Bannon, essentially, “aren’t all Americans except for Native Americans descended from immigrants?” and Bannon’s only response was “Charlie, that’s beneath you.” Say what now? ANSWER THE QUESTION, STEVE!! Jackass.
ArchTeryx
@Baud: Mine included.
Major Major Major Major
@Jeffro: heh. That was being reported on wingnut media as Bannon pwning Charlie’s Marxist talking points.
Aleta
@TenguPhule: “the Justice Department’s public integrity section”
No respect for the law or the judiciary if money is talking.
frosty
@Davebo:
The last few cars I’ve had have a fuel door lid with a latch that’s activated from inside the (presumably) locked car, accomplishing the same thing.
ETA: The cars without a gas cap can’t be siphoned. I tried a couple years back when we needed gas for something ot other.
Jeffro
@Major Major Major Major: Yes…he sure. showed. Charlie! By wingnut standards I guess a rational question automatically makes it Marxist, god bless…
I guess Bannon’s remarks and wing nuts’ interpretation in that case would have to be:
BANNON: Charlie, Charlie, Charlie…as a white man, how can you pretend that today’s much browner immigration is the same as when our ancestors came to America and took the natives’ land? Or when our European ancestors came to this country and worked that MIGHTY STEEL and BLESSED COAL?!?! And kept the benefits for white people? Jesus…even insinuating that America is about anything else is beneath you, Charlie.
WINGNUTS: That’s telling ’em Steve!! WOOT!
ROSE: Can someone get me a translator please? Or a baseball bat?
Kay
Ooooh! Liberal Senator fight!
Brown wants his bill – it’s a Medicare buy-in option at 55. People actually would love that. They might love Medicare for all “too” or “better” but buy-in at 55 is a definite win, IMO. That’s the age they start to freak out about health care.
Baud
@Kay: He should expect nasty tweets. And a primary challenger.
I wonder if that fact that he is not in a blue state played into his calculation.
Kay
I have been quite hard on Mr. Bernie Sanders but I must say it warms my heart to see Bernie Sanders and Sherrod Brown presenting two liberal health care plans. This is overton window territory :)
JPL
@Emma: I’m so glad that you are okay. Several years back, a small tornado came through and took down my fence along with several trees. Take pictures and make a claim. They won’t pay for all the clean-up but at least it will help.
There have been high wind gusts all day in the Atlanta area. I have to admit that a tornado is destructive, but quick. You are a brave soul to stay through that.
frosty
@efgoldman:
Kay
@Baud:
Right. I say that constantly. Sherrod has a whole different playing field. He’s the most liberal in a 50/50 state, which is always a close thing. Luckily he’s very good at this :)
This county went 70% for Trump and I haven’t met anyone who hates him. He seems to neutralize their wrath or something.
rikyrah
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Nice and Fall weather- pants, sweaters, light coat. If normal Fall…
If abnormal Fall…means early Winter: coat, scarf, hat, gloves.
Major Major Major Major
@Kay: I’m so old I remember the last time Bernie Sanders and a Democrat presented competing healthcare plans. It ended very well! For everybody
efgoldman
@frosty:
My 2016 Toyota Camry, and a 2015 VW Passat I rented, both have an obvious fuel filler release in the passenger compartment
Kay
@Baud:
It is true thought that 55 and over is when the health care panic sets in. It’s natural and reasonable. They start needing it.
Baud
@Kay: He’s still a neoliberal.
Baud
@Kay: Their own fault for being poor, as the people they vote for would say.
Kay
@Major Major Major Major:
Look, buster, this is my role. I’m a team player. Please try to act like a team for one second, okay? :)
It could work. COULD :)
TenguPhule
@efgoldman:
Passenger? Normally its on the driver’s side.
Schlemazel
@Another Scott:
You are right, it was an Olds. Grandpa is getting old
Jim, Foolish Literalist
For me it starts the day before any appointment, even the dentist.
I think merits of the Stabenow bill (buy in at 55) vs those of the Sanders bill will be good positioning, if we can keep the discussion on policy and not (cults of) personality
Major Major Major Major
@Kay: I do in person!
TenguPhule
@Kay:
it would be easier and less frustrating to try and herd cats.
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: That’s a big “if”.
Major Major Major Major
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: ‘even’ the dentist??
tobie
@Kay: I would support this proposal. It creates a bridge to a different healthcare system without blowing up the existing system all at once. Good for Sen. Brown for proposing it.
ETA: And good for Sen. Stabenow too.
frosty
@efgoldman: Lucky. I don’t remember the Toyota, but the Jetta was one where you just had to push the filler door. I never would have thought of it.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
there’s a House bill, I think, that starts the buy-in at 50
Bill Arnold
@trnc:
(Note: haven’t finished reading thread, hopefully not a conceptual duplicate.)
Insurers and rules (and perhaps an upswing in complaints/political action by taxpayers not in flood zones) will be the game changer IMO.
Decade of data shows FEMA flood maps missed 3 in 4 claims
Paywalled paper (I think) – ascelibrary.org/doi/abs/10.1061/(ASCE)NH.1527-6996.0000242 (August, 2017)
TenguPhule
Why is JC retweeting GG? I thought it was agreed that GG is a Russian backed scum of the earth?
Eric S.
@Davebo: locking gas caps were cheaply made. The lock itself and the interior release cable were prone to rust. Then you couldn’t open it to fill your tank. Plus any $2 screwdriver wad all it took to petty then open.
chris
@Bill Arnold: Heard this on the radio the other day. Closely followed by the same expert saying that flood maps in my neck of the woods, Nova Scotia, are 25 to 50 years old! Priorities I guess…
grandpa john
@efgoldman: And some of us are even old enough to remember( as young children , I was 8 at the end) WWII and rationing stamps for gas. We were lucky as farmers we got extra stamps
chopper
@VOR:
well, to be fair, it was a screwball comedy.
Omnes Omnibus
@grandpa john: Any of us who served in the military in Europe got ration books.
chopper
@Heywood J.:
geddy lee?
Lulymay
@Schlemazel: Absolutely! I’m from B.C. (west coast of Canada) and 20 years ago spent 4 months travelling across Canada to all provinces and our plans included being able to cross into New England at Bangor on October 1 specifically to experience the fall colours. What a display! One fellow from the US that we met in New Brunswick told us to be sure and take Hwy 2 and see the White Mountains of New Hampshire. It was not disappointing — beautiful scenery with a skiff of snow in the morning with all those glorious colours and evergreens draped over the highway it was breathtaking. Ended up coming right across the northern US all the way to Everett, Washington and then north to come home. We still brag about seeing those ‘fall’ colours in New England and that was 20 years ago!
Major Major Major Major
@chopper: LOL
SgrAstar
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I don’t think it’ll take anywhere near 100 years. In the southwest it is already really, really hot in the summer. That is not only expensive to mitigate personally, but is damned uncomfortable in general. I live in the SW and am no way staying.
Steve in the ATL
@SgrAstar: when airplanes can’t take off on the summer, it’s not a good place for a large city.
chopper
@Major Major Major Major:
helps that that song popped up on the radio as I was driving a kid into school today. I don’t actually deliberately listen to rush as I am not a dateless loser.
Major Major Major Major
@chopper: reminds me, as many things do, of a futurama joke.
FRY, who must win at Space Invaders to save earth, psyching himself up: “Alright, Fry. It’s Saturday night, you’ve got no date, a two-liter botte of Shasta, and an all-Rush mixtape.”
SgrAstar
@Baud: Did he expose the heavy application of makeup to the Bannonian visage?
chopper
@Baud:
apparently they ran out of Vaseline to smear on the lens.
Caphilldcne
@Major Major Major Major: bookmarked
Mike in NC
Who could ever forget Cillizza and Milbank’s putrid Mouthpiece Theatre, which was cancelled almost as soon as they aired it? Worthless shitbags.
coin operated
@chopper: For the win….
Omnes Omnibus
@coin operated: Rush (the band) never deserves a FTW. Jebus.
KS in MA
@Schlemazel: Nah … he thinks it makes him look like Gregory Peck.
J R in WV
@TenguPhule:
Barry
@Barbara: “Ask the country called the Netherlands how it has managed to survive for hundreds of years while being mostly at or below sea level. It can be done. It just requires a lot of collective action.”
Note that this was indeed a several hundred year project. And it was dependent on geography; in Florida, from what I’ve read, the water would just go through the limestone underneath any wall.