Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Chutkan laughs. Lauro sits back down.

Everybody saw this coming.

Baby steps, because the Republican Party is full of angry babies.

Republicans in disarray!

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

Let me file that under fuck it.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

So many bastards, so little time.

“Joe Biden deserved better than he got from some folks in his own party.”

The Giant Orange Man Baby is having a bad day.

I was confident that someone would point it out and thought why not me.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

There is one struggling party in US right now, and it’s not the Democrats.

Israel is using food as a weapon of war. Unforgivable.

T R E 4 5 O N

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson is the bland and smiling face of evil.

It’s not hopeless, and we’re not helpless.

My right to basic bodily autonomy is not on the table. that’s the new deal.

I desperately hope that, yet again, I am wrong.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Another Cheery Open Thread

Another Cheery Open Thread

by | 83 Comments

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I’m having a day, so any good news/happy things would be welcome.

I’m in shock over the SoCal fire photos and videos. I’ve driven the 405 past the Getty a thousand times while living in and visiting Santa Monica. I’m worried about friends/family (and Juicers) who are dealing with this.

Luckily, this guy makes me laugh every day and there is a surprise coming for him right after Christmas, but until then he’s in deep need of extra scritches, attention and hugs (boy can this pup hug) – which is all okay, because turns out I’m in need of hugs, extra attention and giving scritches.

Open thread

Reader Interactions

83Comments

  1. 1.

    marcopolo

    Don’t want to pollute any new threads but for those interested look at the last comment I just posted on the you know who thread: an article has just dropped. I guess I would recommend making your responses there.

  4. 4.

    Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)

    I’ve been worried about Honduras for the last week. The election went all right, but the counting has everybody all riled up. Looks like the sitting president “found” a whole lot of votes that put him over the top, and people are unhappy about it. There’s been marching and there’s a 6-6 curfew in the country. Things are heating up, and needless to say, our president hasn’t bothered to nominate an ambassador to Honduras or an undersecretary for the region. So far, everybody I know seems to be all right, but it’s kind of dicey right now.

  5. 5.

    Kay

    I have cheery news!

    4.5 hours later, @DonaldJTrumpJr is still testifying before the House intel committee.

  10. 10.

    Yutsano

    I’ve driven the 405 past the Getty a thousand times while living in and visiting Santa Monica.

    I was just down there about three weeks ago. Blows my brain now how much has burned.

  12. 12.

    mai naem mobile

    @Kay: I hope his stomach was all twisted in knots and he was sitting in his pants. I hope he had thoughts of doing time in some hard core prison somwhere. That’s just for what his ahole daddy has pute through the last 11 months. Also too, Bannon going after Rmoney and his kids being draft dodgers. Yet,he ignores Dolt and his idiot sons.

  14. 14.

    raven

    My brother an family are in Sherman Oaks on the other side of the 405 now but they used to be slap up against the hills.

  15. 15.

    Spanky

    Nobody caught on to the “surprise coming after Christmas”? Ooooh! Do tell! (Yeah, then it wouldn’t be a surprise.) Gonna need another, smaller leash?

    We here at Chez Spanky will also see the family regrow in the next week. I’ll something to either TaMara or AL.

  18. 18.

    The Moar You Know

    4.5 hours later, @DonaldJTrumpJr is still testifying before the House intel committee.

    @Kay: Hope it’s all day, and hope he can hear nothing but “but what if he’s a loser?”

    Damned from his father’s mouth. He did, indeed, grow up to be a loser.

  19. 19.

    TenguPhule

    @Major Major Major Major: The new accusation against Franken is that the woman is offended because Franken apparently squeezed/hugged her waist while they were having a photo taken together. And by together I mean right next to each other.

  25. 25.

    Jeffro

    What is this about Trump (through Flynn) working with the Kremlin to “re-colonize” the Middle East?

  26. 26.

    Mary G

    @PST: Aww, look at the cute worried face, who’s a good girl? Bernadette is!

    @Spanky: I bet you give presents 1.4 days after you buy them. Happy to see pictures, send lots!

  28. 28.

    But her emails!!!

    @TenguPhule:

    The article is so asinine that the majority of the right wingers in the comments aren’t jumping on Franken for the accusation, but rather as a deserving victim of excessive political correctness run amuck.

  33. 33.

    The Moar You Know

    First time my dog hugged me it was not at my urging. And it was a bit of a surprise, just about a year ago. He was not very physically affectionate at the time. I came to get him from the folks who had co-raised him (we had been raising him for Guide Dogs with another family, but we had adoption rights as they did not want a lifetime dog) and graciously kept him while my wife and I were in England. He normally just jumped on people. I dropped to my knees and he came up and very slowly, gently came up and hugged me. Everyone in the room was stunned. And then he wouldn’t stop licking my face! Really missed us, he did.

    Thanks for reminding me of just how far he’s come this year. Our aloof doggie is now a first-rate cuddler and sleeps in bed with us every night, and has shoved me off the bed twice because he’s such a hard snuggler. Thank Dog he is small; one of those 80-90 pound Goldens just would not work, but he’s only 65 pounds and very manageable.

  36. 36.

    Mnemosyne

    @ruemara:

    If having someone squeeze your waist while taking a picture is the worst thing that’s ever happened to you, you have been a very sheltered person. Jesus fuck.

    I had to read it twice to see that it was her waist, because I found it hard to credit that someone could write a long article based solely on that.

  37. 37.

    Mike in DC

    DJTJ sez he didn’t tell Dad about the Russia meeting; he told Hope Hicks instead. Lolz! Telling Hope Hicks is effectively the same thing. She was the filter/conduit to Trump during the campaign. If you wanted to notify Trump, you cc’d Hope Hicks.

  40. 40.

    ruemara

    @Mnemosyne: I’ve been groped on a red carpet and I’ve had to take PR shots where folks had their arms about my waist. A waist squeeze? Oh mighty Isis.

    One more bit of cat pyorn, because I love these guys.

  41. 41.

    Yutsano

    Good news thread? Good news thread.

    I might be getting my new treatment for my degenerated disc pain tonight. I might be getting a temporary high frequency spinal cord stimulation unit to test out. If it works then I get the permanent implant. That’s if I got the approval from the shrink, which I think I will.

    That and I sign a lease Friday. Which is why I can’t go to the ruemara meet-up. Dammit.

  42. 42.

    Mnemosyne

    @ruemara:

    Seriously, if I had not ripped three ligaments in my knee, I would have been on your doorstep to spend the day snorgling those guys when I was up north. They are frighteningly adorable.

  52. 52.

    geg6

    @Mnemosyne:

    Yeah, I had to go back and read it a second time to see if I missed something. I didn’t.

    As a rape survivor, I am disgusted by her. If she thinks that is a sexual assault, she has another think coming.

    And I am one of those people who really don’t like people touching me. I won’t even let my boss buy me one of the massages that are offered every finals week because I so dislike others touching me that I find that massage makes me tense up even more than I was to start. But many a person has put an arm around my waist while we took a selfie or someone else took a photo of us. Totally ridiculous and as stupid as Andrea Dworkin’s argument about intercourse.

  58. 58.

    Quinerly

    @marcopolo: I don’t understand the numbering either. I ran from the last threads and was waiting for a new one to post The Hill piece. My comment was #2 for 15 minutes then slipped to #4. Other two comments in moderation????

  60. 60.

    WaterGirl

    @geg6: We are through the looking glass. I truly hope that this last “he groped me by squeezing my waist for a photo” article puts Al over the edge and he says “hell no I’m not resigning”.

  61. 61.

    rikyrah

    @Mnemosyne:

    @ruemara:

    If having someone squeeze your waist while taking a picture is the worst thing that’s ever happened to you, you have been a very sheltered person. Jesus fuck.

    I know.
    I know.

    I am not a hugger. I just am not. Kids are ok, if they’re affectionate, but adults – I’m not feeling it. But, I know that’s ME, not other people.

    What I just read was phucking ridiculous.

  66. 66.

    Mnemosyne

    @marcopolo:

    And I know you had the best of intentions, but I just can’t get past the fact that she freaked out because he squeezed her waist, and that caused her to find new empathy for rape victims.

    We are so fucked.

  67. 67.

    Yutsano

    @WaterGirl: I’m hoping for the best on the back. I know my physiotherapist and back surgeon want to know the results. If nothing else maybe I can hold a vertical position without screaming like mad or needing drugs.

  70. 70.

    Miss Bianca

    @Mnemosyne: Yeah, when you find youself agreeing with right-wingers that political correctness has gone too far, it’s a terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad day.

  71. 71.

    schrodingers_cat

    My contribution to the thread. Fun number, features Ranbir Kapoor (fourth generation of Kapoors in the movies), Deepika (whose to be released movie, Padmavati is giving RWNJs in India a sad and Kalki Koechlin, who has done some outstanding work in many indie movies.
    Badtameez Dil (Literal translation would be ill-mannered heart)

  72. 72.

    Mnemosyne

    @schrodingers_cat:
    @Miss Bianca:

    G is my barometer for these things, because he was sadly accurate about the outcome of the 2016 election. It’s like he’s somehow still connected to a white dude hive mind even though he doesn’t believe any of that stuff, like when Picard still felt that eerie connection to the Borg even after he was freed.

    He was very gloomy this morning. I think we’re screwed.

  75. 75.

    ruemara

    @Yutsano: Aww, I want your spine better, but I am around Thurs-Sunday for evenings & can do a brunchy thing if you have the time. Here’s to positive news!

    @schrodingers_cat: I join you. I can’t afford despair. We’ve had darker times in US & World History. The door isn’t shut until it is and even then, we can blow out a window.

  77. 77.

    MoxieM

    @Yutsano: HOW! in the ever loving whatever do you get someone to give you treatment like that! I’ve had 3 (now 4) busted disks (L2-L4, now L5, lumbar spinal stenosis and no due to aging, arthritis too. Wheee. All I ever get is PT and more lousy PT. (Hint: it’s not really helping. And I can barely walk anymore. Tried acupuncture & cupping–I had a former Barefoot Doctor–cool conversations, but it didn’t help my back, alas; yoga; water exercise; hard-core PT; and, chiropractic as well as massage.) I am reduced to lying in bed crying, which really doesn’t help. Any hints as to convincing docs to provide actual help would be great–besides a sex change, and some time travel that is. Truth is, older women with bad backs are not interesting patients. I saw in in the care my mother got. Now, 20 years later, I see it in the care I get/don’t get.

  79. 79.

    WaterGirl

    @Mnemosyne: As I said on the other thread:

    I just called Franken’s DC office. My message said that I’m 100% sure that this is all a hit job, but that even if i’m wrong about that, the right thing to do is stay in the Senate and go through the Ethics investigation and set the stage for others to be investigated when someone comes forward.

    (202) 224-5641

  82. 82.

    Tehanu

    @Mnemosyne:

    If having someone squeeze your waist while taking a picture is the worst thing that’s ever happened to you, you have been a very sheltered person.

    I really am getting worried about the nasty smell of sanctimony and prudery I detect around all this. Squeezing around the waist is not equivalent to grown men feeling up teenagers or exposing themselves to subordinates, but to hear some people talk (or rather screech), you’d think we were in Queen Victoria’s drawing room.

  83. 83.

    marcopolo

    @Mnemosyne: I understand folks are pissed–if you think I am happy about any of this well I am not. Franken was just about my most favorite senator. But as ruemara said in an earlier thread, there wasn’t any good way out of this situation. Now we move on. Also, I disagree we are fucked period end of sentence. Most of the back on forth on this on the blog has been in good faith. I only see a few folks getting hyperbolic, willfully misinterpreting others, and declaring the end of the world. But honestly, the world keeps happening. As long as Trump is in office next week will be worse than this one. So I’ve got that to worry about and work against. And some day, sooner hopefully, he will be gone and we will have to clean up the mess. I just wish folks generally had a little bit better broader deeper perspective on events. A lot of things are shitty today but are they shittier than what Sojourner Truth faced in her life, just for an example? So let’s keep our heads in the game.

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