Tough day. Please accept this cute puppy as a balm for the troubled soul:
The ground cover reminds me of the background in the official portrait of President Obama.
Open thread!
by Betty Cracker| 153 Comments
This post is in: Dog Blogging, Open Threads
Comments are closed.
Elizabelle
Badger therapy.
He’s turning out fine.
?BillinGlendaleCA
Ahhhhhh.
debbie
My first thought. What a pair!
eclare
Those ears, so cute!
rikyrah
Badger is so cute ??
Quinerly
??❤️??
Mnemosyne
My pink protest parasol arrived today and it is even more adorable than I hoped.
For LA Juicers, Team Gimpy, Slow, and Grumpy will be assembling outside of the Red Line Civic Center Station, corner of 1st and Hill, at 10:30 am on Saturday. Lunch afterwards in Little Tokyo (place TBD). Look for the pink protest parasol.
Miss Bianca
Badger is looking up at you saying, “Mumma, why you drinking that stuff?”
We are definitely in “shit is going to get worse before it gets better” territory. Sigh.
It may be time to say “fuck it”, go home, play with Watson, and bottle some mead tonight.
rikyrah
Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) Tweeted:
RT @JoyAnnReid: Every single one of these rights is now in the balance. Democrats have not traditionally voted based on the court. And they… https://twitter.com/JoyAnnReid/status/1012051331597598720?s=17
rikyrah
@Mnemosyne:
Glad that it’s cuter than the picture ?
The Dangerman
Where I’m staying presently, there’s an orange tabby that comes in every night and just attacks a box sitting on the desk where I’m working on the computer. I’d swear it was a big box of catnip the way it acts (I should get a video and put it up). You know, aggressive rubbing, purring, et al.
Not catnip. Turns out the box is an urn for the cremated sister tabby. Can’t explain it.
I had a rescue come and find me up a couple flights of stairs when I lived in the Seattle area. I wasn’t allowed to have cats but I was a good tenant and the landlord cut me some slack.
Animals (and children) know. Can’t explain it. But that cat (and some loud music) is some good therapy right about now.
Mary G
He looks worried. Perfect for today.
EBT
As I said last night, with OK voting for medical; now only 98 million Americans live in a state without medical marijuana.
JeanneT
Aw, puppy!! That would make a nice painting….
I got good dog news yesterday – my 11 year old pup who had cancer surgery last August is still cancer free. 10 months down!
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@EBT:
Speaking of OK, I saw that turnout of Dmeocrats at the time with 42% of precincts reporting in, that Democratic turnout was higher than in the Republican primary. Did this hold true when all the ballots were counted?
WereBear
@JeanneT: good news! Very welcome.
Our kitten is not full grown yet. He’s 23 pounds.
Nelle
I have no clue on what Judge Kennedy is like but wouldn’t but I sure have a sense that it smells like a McConnell move. And Trump would relish telling Kennedy, nice grandchildren you have there. Shame if something happened to them. I wouldn’t be surprised if more moderate Repubs have gotten threats. The Dolt revels in threats.
Mel
He’s just perfect. Love his adorable fruit bat ears, and his soulful expression.
NotMax
Space news, always fascinating.
So at some point in the distant past Mars may have been the solar system’s largest wading pool.
Mel
@JeanneT: What good news!!
Elizabelle
Betty, you have done great with keeping us soothed and fresh threaded, on a despairing day.
Although: Kennedy was gonna go during Trump’s term. Rumors on that for weeks. Big deal is the timing, and Kennedy will not be well-remembered for what he chose.
Unless it’s rare cancer (a la Mnemosyne’s wish) and he is not expecting much quality of life after July 31. Wouldn’t be the saddest news any of us heard.
Stay healthy, RBG, and Kagan and Sotomayor and Breyer.
I guess, all of them. Until the next replacement can be made by President Pelosi!
Elizabelle
@JeanneT: Yea! Stay well, pup.
Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman)
50cc scooter advice.
I want to get a 50cc scooter for local urban transportation.
Eventually I may get a larger one, but I don’t need a motorcycle endorsement to operate a 50cc
My options (prices are quoted ride away) are:
1. Honda Metropolitan or Yamaha Vino.
Known quality brands with a warranty and wide service networks. Their disadvantage is price ($2700-$3000).
2 Kymco. Taiwanese scooter. A bit cheaper ($2300), 2 year warranty and the dealer is certified for warranty work. Reviews seem to be mixed from what I’ve seen.
3. Chinese. Tao-tao, Roketa, etc. Cheap (under $1000). Warranty is either 3 months or non-existent. Service and parts could be a problem.
I’ve pretty much talked myself out of #3, but is a Honda or Yamaha worth the extra $400-$700 over the Kymco.
Thoughts please.
HAL
Way back in 2016 the political arguments I had on Facebook usually ended with me saying if nothing else, think of the Supreme Court. It’s amazing what little momentum that gets out of some liberal progressives. Hillary Clinton would have in the very least had two fucking SC picks that would have shifted the court left, and these terrible decisions probably would not have come about. Oh well, different side, same coin.
EBT
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: The Rs had 453,179 votes cast and the Ds had 394996 votes cast. Though the Rs also had 5 candidates and the Ds only two. That may have some effect on turnout?
848,175 votes were cast for *a* gubernatorial candidate.
891,599 voted on the medical marijuana question.
lamh36
For real, for real…I’m moving to Canada…
Hm…where should I live. My credentials…I”m a VERY experienced Microbiologist…
I don’t speak French, I don’t konw the metric system measurements (outside of the once I use in the lab), oh and I hate the cold.
https://media1.giphy.com/media/a5viI92PAF89q/200.gif
jnfr
@JeanneT:
Excellent good news!
Anya
@Nelle: Justice Kennedy is terrible all by himself. He lost his shit when the black sheriff came to Washington. He was also the one just who fight the hardest to convince Justice Roberts to make the ACA unconditional. Yes, he made several brilliant ruling on gay rights but in the past few years, on everything else he was terrible.
CarolDuhart2
I joined my local League of Women Voters today. Gets me out of the house and active politically. Focused on local elections for now, but who knows?
There is power in numbers. If everyone joined something, there could be more of a pushback on a lot of this stuff. Also, there’s a lot we could do locally on some issues-and state houses are very important.
BTW, I just asked myself this question: what would have been different if Kennedy had just dropped dead? Probably very little.
Take a breath, nothing will happen for a year regarding rulings-and we could have Congress back, and several state legislatures as well. And by the way, it’s the states that regulate voting, so be sure not to leave those ballots undervoted in the State House races as well.
Kennedy had to retire now-it’s the end of the term, and he needed to tell his law clerks and staff he wasn’t coming back. Promises to stay on until the election wasn’t going to happen simply because leaving during a term would be more fractous than leaving now. Also I suspect he’s in poorer health than he lets on anyway, and would rather not die on the bench like Scalia.
The Dangerman
@HAL:
She could have picked two justices but they likely wouldn’t have been confirmed. McConnell was gonna let Scalia’s seat stay vacant for 4 years. No opinion on what would have happened to Kennedy’s seat. Likely the same.
cmorenc
…I never thought I would someday wish Scalia had lived a longer, healthier life. That’s how perverted these times are for at least the next decade. Well, ok let’s back off from the dead part for the girl and merely wish she’s a naked underage girl, but only for the sake of saving he country.
Ages of current SCOTUS members:
Ginsburg: 85
Kennedy: 81 (retiring)
Breyer 79
Thomas 70
Alito 68
Sotomayor 64
Roberts 63
Kagan 58
Gorsuch 50
We can only hope Clarence Thomas gets caught in bed with an dead, underage not-his-daughter girl next time we have a D President and D Senate majority.
NotMax
@Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman)
Main thing I think of when hear scooter is Vespa.
BTW, there are a some comparably priced zero emission (electric) scooters.
lamh36
Bernie Bros…is this your king? (stares Killmonger-edly)
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?
I love Obama but not using every procedural and other dirty trick he could use to get Garland seated was a huge mistake. He took way too long to realize that the Republicans would never play nice or fair or respect any norm or precedent if it meant giving up a short term win.
lamh36
I’ll believe it when I see it.
Mnemosyne
@Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman):
IMO, unless the extra $700 is going to put you into a serious financial bind or it’s a short-term solution, you’re always better off spending money for better quality. It saves you time, money, and frustration in the long run.
lamh36
Mnemosyne
@lamh36:
Vancouver. It gets cold, but not like Montreal, more like Seattle.
lamh36
Sigh…
Patricia Kayden
@lamh36: Because in a week where children are still separated from their parents and the country is going to hell in a handbasket, that is the most important thing Sanders could speak out about. **rolls eyes**
TenguPhule
@lamh36:
Russians must have one hell of a file on Brown.
Patricia Kayden
@lamh36: Senator Brown isn’t paying attention. Trump could give two figs about bringing this country together. The only people he cares about (apart from himself) is his rabidly racist base. That’s about it. If he could get away with it, he’d nominate Jeanne Pirro or Sean Hannity.
Mnemosyne
@What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?:
I remember the epic whining from the “left” when Garland was nominated. What support base did you think Obama was operating from? He had less support from self-proclaimed Democrats than Trump does from self-proclaimed Republicans.
You can wish over and over again that Obama had gone out on a limb with zero support from Democrats, but he learned that lesson in 2010 when they abandoned him after PPACA and still lost the midterms.
EBT
So now it turns out Manafort had a 10 million dollar loan from Deripaska. https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1012089447163125760
M4
Days like this remind me that we should have a BJ Minecraft server.
lamh36
Sigh…we need another platform…smh…all the complaints about FB…and Twitter ain’t no fuq’n better!
lamh36
@lamh36: @lamh36:
Today’s Mood
Aleta
Badger is so young for such a big job. But he is very good at it. Thanks B and B.
Elizabelle
Newlywed Alexandra Petri is back with some rules of civility. For situations beyond restaurants. WaPost link. Among them:
EBT
Oh and it turns out that the place that put out a transphobic hit piece, written by a noted transphobe, is actually transphobic when they think no one who isn’t is watching.
https://jezebel.com/private-messages-reveal-the-cis-journalist-groupthink-b-1827041764
lamh36
?BillinGlendaleCA
@CarolDuhart2:
That was pretty much my take in a earlier thread.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?: what procedure move or dirty trick could he have used to get 14 republican votes?
people seemed to forget the filibuster still existed in 2016 and Dems only had 46 votes.
jacy
@?BillinGlendaleCA: he can die in a ditch, preferably this afternoon.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
Magic!
lamh36
FUQ you Bernie.
Betty Cracker
@Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman): We inherited a Tao-Tao that the kids proceeded to beat the hell out of in every conceivable way, and it’s still running. I’ve been impressed.
M4
@Mnemosyne: even I couldn’t afford to live in Vancouver.
Felanius Kootea
I’m repeating what I said in the dead thread below. In the long run, I firmly believe the GOP, aided by a media that plays to them as though they represent the will of the majority, will overplay its hand. They will splinter into different factions and end up as a regional party. Right now though, they seem to have the upper hand because they cheat but we will fight
them. They do not represent the majority of Americans.
In the 2016 presidential elections, 71,791,044 voters selected a candidate not named Trump (Hillary Clinton, Jill Stein, Gary Johnson), while 62,980,160 voted for Trump. A difference of over 8,810,000 people. Let’s not forget that even now.
In 2016, there were 45.2 million votes for Democrats in the Senate and 39.3 million votes for Republicans but Republicans hold the majority of seats because every state gets 2 senators regardless of its population size. Lisa Murkowski got a total of 111,000 votes in Alaska, while Chuck Schumer got 4.8 million votes and Kamala Harris got 4.9 million votes. If 200,000 – 400,000 Democratic leaning voters from NY or CA moved to certain red states (Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, South Dakota, North Dakota, Idaho, Nebraska), that could end the nightmare (electoral college wise as well). So which Democrats would be willing to sacrifice their wellbeing temporarily to paint some red states blue? I think this is something Dems seriously need to consider, especially in expensive areas of the country like LA and NY. I am not joking.
NotMax
Sigh. In moderation for who knows what. Liberation requested.
Cacti
I had to have one of my dogs put down recently. Dog pictures give me a sad. :-(
lamh36
SMH…on that weak azz statement from Sherrod Brown
That doesn’t portend well that the current Dems in the Senate will stand together and opposed this shit. Maybe Brown is holding his cards close to his chest…but with Chump already signalling that he’s gonna put forth a nominee in weeks…
November is all we’ve got.
I’ve said before that I don’t think the Mueller investigatin will amount to anything even before the vacancy…I was told not to be a Debbie Downer by some folks…but now that there WILL be a vacancy…there is NO WAY the GOP majority will let this chance pass them by, def not by doing anything about what Mueller finds and certainly NOT enough to stop supporting Chump’s agenda
November is where we can win, it’s really about all we’ve got at this point and I’MA DO WHAT EVER IN MY POWER I CAN TO STACK THE DECK FOR A DEM WIN…
I’ll hold off on my move to Canada until after November.
Cacti
@lamh36:
There will always be some type of myopic lefty who believe that if things get just bad enough, everything will start to change for the better.
Ignoring the numerous historical examples where things can actually get much, much worse, to the point of millions of people dying.
Mnemosyne
@Felanius Kootea:
The problem is that most of the jobs are located in those expensive blue states. If I was retired or independently wealthy, I might consider it, but I gotta earn a living and have health insurance, and I probably get paid about twice what I would in a red state.
Aleta
Cat
https://twitter.com/TiticacaCat/status/1011841586571988993
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: Well Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo said there was at least arguably legit legal theory that Garland could have been seated after the Senate refused to hold hearings or a vote within a reasonable time. Failure to act = tacit consent. Josh isn’t a crackpot.
He could also have told McConnell to stuff it and acted on the Russia stuff before the election. I’m not going to get in a fight with anyone here…last thing we need is to fight amongst ourselves so this is my last word on the topic. Feel free to disagree, but we keep losing despite having more people and better issues and I’m fucking sick of watching McConnell gloat.
lamh36
Someone explain this to me in layman’s terms…my brain is too tired and revved up from the Kennedy news right now to be bothered to comprehend
Elizabelle
@Cacti: My condolences. That’s hard.
M4
@Aleta: cat indeed!
TenguPhule
@lamh36:
We’re about to find out just how bad the clusterfuck is when they kept no practical records.
Cacti
@Elizabelle:
Thanks.
Viva BrisVegas
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
McConnell didn’t allow a vote or any consideration of the appointment.
“[The President] shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the Supreme Court”
The Senate was requested by the President to do its duty and offer “Advice and Consent”. The Senate refused to do its duty.
From there I don’t know what action is legally possible, but maybe Obama could have set a time limit and stated that after that time, silence would be taken as assent. Maybe he could have made a recess appointment.
But the point was that Obama was entitled to a vote, even if he wasn’t going to get his appointment.
Doing nothing got the worst possible outcome.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@lamh36: Have you noticed how he hasn’t visited any of the child concentration camps like Merkley, Warren, Booker, and Harris.
Of course not. That would be at odds with his fetishization of the Archie Bunker vote.
rikyrah
@lamh36:
Vancouver is the San Francisco of Canada. Lot of foreign Chinese there that have driven the housing prices sky high.
rikyrah
@Cacti:
Sorry for your loss ??
lamh36
@Mnemosyne: I would def get paid more if I lived in California with my experience, but the cost of living would be much greater. To live the same standard of living I currently do now in say Oakland, I’m have to make 40K more than I do now!!!!
M4
@Cacti: oh no, so sorry.
realbtl
@Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman): I don’t know where you are but with 55 years of 2 wheel experience;
1. Go with a major brand. Parts, service will always be better. If Kymco in near they are on par with the majors.
2. Ride a 50cc. They are slow. I would be much more comfortable on a 125 even in city environments.
3. If you go larger take a MC training course. Bikes are easy to ride but tricky to survive.
PaulWartenberg
last week there was apparently an abandoned kitteh – maybe 4 weeks old – outside the library so one of my coworkers who’s a rescue person got a trap in and got her. Pretty little thing, but scared and nervous. One of my other coworkers took her home to see about fostering but the kitten did not do well with the husband, so another coworker is trying to foster her now and having some success. She’s apparently very relaxed in a warm home and doing well around humans.
I may ask about the adoption plans for her and if there are people in Florida willing to adopt let me know.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@Viva BrisVegas: If the senate doesn’t go into recess, he can’t make a recess appointment. And they use a fake device called a pro-forma session, where only a handful of senators periodically meet for 5 minutes to keep the senate in session, even though 97 of them are out of town.
Cacti
@rikyrah: @M4:
Thank you.
Shell
Aw, Miss Cracker, can Badger come over and play at my house?
Jay
@lamh36:
Victoria, Sunshine Coast, Inside Passage on Vancouver Island up to Naniamo, Niagara Pennisula Area, Oakanogan Valley from Salmon Arm south to Ossoyoos. Mild winters, affordable housing in places.
Bonnie
He’s cute; but, I prefer cats.
M4
@rikyrah: scary Chinese people buying apartments is… not the primary cause of the housing crisis in San Francisco or Vancouver.
eclare
@Cacti: Sorry to hear that
Jay
@Mnemosyne:
Vancouver’s not affordable. Median condo price is $1million, detached house, $3million. A two to three hour commute out in the vally get’s you down to a half million, but horrid air quality.
Mnemosyne
@M4:
Surprisingly, it is a factor here in So Cal (but by no means the largest one). San Marino (near Pasadena) had to pass a city ordinance that there had to be at least one adult guardian in any home where minors were living, because Chinese oligarchs were buying houses, enrolling their teenage kids in local high schools, and then going back to China leaving the kids unsupervised. And, since teenagers are alike all over, the unsupervised kids started throwing raging parties and the cops were showing up and discovering there was no one over 18 living there.
M4
@Mnemosyne: it’s a factor, sure, and moreso in Vancouver than other places, but it’s silly to list it as the factor.
Felanius Kootea
@Mnemosyne: Surely there have got to be enough left-leaning, about-to-retire white people to do this across the country. The cost of living is way cheaper in most red states so their retirement money would stretch further and they wouldn’t alarm the natives by being minorities ;-). As a person of Nigerian descent, I am not volunteering to do this either – would probably get myself shot in Montana or Idaho (named first and second most hateful states in the country in 2017). I wish there was a way to incentivize this on the left. We have the numbers distributed in the wrong places and it wouldn’t take that many people to right things.
Maybe Bloomberg should get on this in addition to backing moderate Dems in the next elections. We need some think tanks of our own to game this stuff out.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@Cacti: so hard to lose a loved one. we lost one a year a half ago that left a hole in our hearts. Then six months later a lost one showed up on our porch asking for food. shortly after he joined the family and rescued us..
Steve in the STl
@lamh36: French is an issue only in Quebec. The rest of Canada is your oyster! Can’t help on the metric system though.
Mnemosyne
@Jay:
I live in Los Angeles, so my idea of “affordable” may be a bit skewed. ?
My comment was meant to be about Vancouver having the most tolerable weather in Canada, but that may be why housing prices are crazy.
Skepticat
@JeanneT: You’ve made my day—and that took some doing.
lamh36
rikyrah
@M4: I didn’t say that they were scary, but there has been an influx of Chinese buying real estate. I compared it to San Francisco, because I know that lamh once considered moving there, but did not because of the high cost of living.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@Jay: why is Vancouver’s housing so expensive?
TenguPhule
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
They’re full up. They have asylum seekers living in dorm rooms. Lack of housing supply leads to higher prices.
Elizabelle
@lamh36: We have to see if he can outlast Scaramucci’s tenure. Is it the same job? It’s the Hope Hicks position, I think …. and talk about someone who has dropped out of public view and is probably thanking her lucky stars to miss the last few months.
Skepticat
@Cacti: You have my sympathy and way too much of my empathy, as I’ve been too close to that this year and thus understand too well.
Kayla Rudbek
@lamh36: Vancouver is supposed to be pretty nice and no snow. If I were single, I’d be filling out the emigration forms for New Zealand as they have preferred immigrant status for IP attorneys and patent examiners
Timurid
@M4:
Think the housing crunch in blue states is bad now? Wait until abortion, gay marriage and racial discrimination are all “matters for the states” again and entire neighborhoods and towns need to GTFO. In related news, I really do need to get the hell out of the South, but I have no idea how I’ll pull it off…
M4
@TenguPhule: they also do actually have a problem with foreigners just parking money in vacant units. Some are floating vacancy taxes.
@rikyrah: I’m sorry for adding the word ‘scary’, it was flippant. But I do think it’s weird to list that as *the* cause as opposed to factors like “Vancouver is an island” or “much of it is single family housing still”.
TenguPhule
These are the times that try men’s souls.
Jay
@Mnemosyne:
When my family moved to Vancouver in the ’70’s, the population in Vancouver proper, was a hair more than 250,000 with another 100k in the ‘burbs. The LML’s now over 2 million.
It’s a narrow valley, a bit more than 150km long, mountains north, south, east, and the Salish Sea west, divided down the middle by a massive river with the remains of an estuary.
Too many damn people.
opiejeanne
@lamh36: British Columbia.
zhena gogolia
I went to WaPo trying to find that Alexandra Petri thing and it’s all full of right-wingers gloating about how great it is that Trump was elected because now they’re getting their right-wing SCOTUS. “Turns out the ‘But Gorsuch’ was a good reason after all!” Disgusting traitors.
AND WHERE ARE THE NYMS?
Elizabelle
The FTF NY Times did a big story on Vancouver housing prices earlier this month. It’s quite good, and there are 303 reader comments appended that might be enlightening too. I really like the NY Times, except for their whack political coverage. Which is a big “except.”
In Vancouver, a Housing Frenzy That Even Owners Want to End
Facing a crisis of affordability, officials are trying to reduce real estate demand through a package of tax measures, some aimed at foreign buyers.
Calouste
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: There’s not much land. Sea to the west, mountains to the north, and quite a bit of water.
M4
@Elizabelle: ah, I was trying to track that down to share here!
Mnemosyne
@M4:
IIRC, that’s a factor in most large cities these days, including LA, NYC, and London. Lots of foreign money laundering going on without a lot of pushback from the local governments.
Kathleen
@lamh36: Brown is also supporting Trump’s tariff policies, based on what I’ve seen on Twitter.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@Calouste: I realize supply is tight, but you still have to be in a position to qualify for high loans.
I guess my question is why are there so many high income people in Vancouver – is it a financial or tech hub like NYC or SF.
lamh36
@Kayla Rudbek: I’ll be quite honest, any time, other than after Katrina, I have had to think about moving from NOLA to anywhere else, be it international or continental US, as a single African American woman, I really pay alot of attention to racial makeup of the state and the city, and the county that I am looking at.
There is nothing MORE uncomfortable than to be the ONLY OTHER in a city or crowd of people or even a workplace. I have the resources and I have no obligations (childless, no significan other) but I also have other things to consider as well.
Add to that, I hate the cold, and other nitpicking I do…and my choices becomes a much smaller pool of choices.
Anyhoo…it all comes down to what happens in November really
Mnemosyne
@Elizabelle:
High income taxes + low property taxes are also a huge factor in California’s housing crunch. People don’t want to move or sell houses because they’ll have to pay a lot more in property tax.
M4
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: I know that software engineers there don’t make nearly as much as in SF or even Seattle just down the road.
TenguPhule
I submit that we are now teetering on the outer edge of the event horizon of peak wingnut.
Elizabelle
@Mnemosyne: Yes. And it is so disheartening to find adult kids who cannot afford to live in the neighborhoods and towns in which they were raised. Found that a lot in Seal Beach and Long Beach.
Plus, “worker housing” has million dollar price tags now. I love, love, love California but wonder how folks do it.
zhena gogolia
I will say, I needed a cigarette after reading the comments to Thiessen’s op-ed (“Trump Voters Vindicated”), and I don’t even smoke.
JPL
Strange story.. When I was in high school, I saw a movie called In Harm’s Way. Since I don’t have cable I was searching to see what I could watch and it’s on. Anyway after I saw it the first time, I spoke to my dad about it. That was when I found out he was on the Nevada when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. My uncles spoke often about their experiences, but he never did. He did share with me a story after that about a black cook who carried up the injured after the ship was attacked and said those are the true heroes. My brother still has the telegrams and a flag from the ship.
B.B.A.
Justin Trudeau must resign. More proof that men don’t belong in politics.
TenguPhule
Via Wapo.
FUCK DONNELLY. And fuck civility.
Elizabelle
@M4: Glad to help. The comments look worth a scan.
Most recommended: someone says Denmark only sells real estate to those with a Danish passport.
Jay
@M4:
It’s also one of the few cities where you can make a damned fine living from being a speculator. Spend $750k on a Crack House, throw $150k in “pretty” and sweat equity, list it as “your residence” to cut the tax bill, make $250k and avoid Capital Gains taxes, ( Residence) in 6 months.
Still, Vancouver goes through booms and busts. In the early ’80’s when interest rates blew past 20%, people walked away from $240k houses, that the bank later sold for $8k.
The last major market correction was in the late ’90’s when houses lost 2/3rds of their appraised values.
lamh36
@TenguPhule: So the Dems are –3 already…so what can actually be done? Even if Mueller came forth with anything substanstial against Chump…why would the Republican majority give up a SCOTUS nominee out of any “fairness”?
They don’t care.
ETA: It’s all about November now.
M4
@Elizabelle: many countries do that. 100-year leases are popular in some places as a result.
TenguPhule
@lamh36:
if Mueller would be kind enough to drop an arrest warrant on McConnell, now would be the best time.
Jay
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
Tech, Financial, Insurance, Port, Education.
Salaries arn’t that high, since the late ’70’s, to have a home in Vancouver, required that you be House Rich and Mortgage Poor.
Elizabelle
@M4: Yes. London does that, don’t they? It’s a pretty good idea, for city real estate.
Time and tide.
JPL
@TenguPhule: He doesn’t matter. It’s up to the repubs to matter.
TenguPhule
@JPL: Its hard to rally the base when we have nothing to stand behind.
Take a fucking stand united together. Is this truly too much to ask from from our Senate minority?
B.B.A.
@TenguPhule: (a) Mueller is a Republican. (b) There’s no law against being a lizardperson.
Mnemosyne
@B.B.A.:
Gosh, an 18-year-old allegation resurfaces right after Trudeau stands up to Trump and threatens retaliatory tariffs?
That’s certainly … convenient. Very interesting timing.
Steeplejack
And Chris Hayes has Bernie on deck to discuss the issues of the day. Click. Over to something more useful, like the Humidity Channel or Flower Boy Next Door on the Korean channel.
Matt McIrvin
@HAL: It gets active pushback from the more partisan-voting-allergic lefties: they go on about “blackmail”.
JPL
@TenguPhule: We have to vote and rally the base. That is our only hope.
Matt McIrvin
@CarolDuhart2: Taking the states back is the most important thing now. I think it’s more important even than Congress.
Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman)
@realbtl:
My driver’s license is currently suspended because I have no liability insurance despite not owning a car (SR22 required until next May because of a DUI).
Now that I have an income again (won my SSDI appeal), I’m going to need transportation and either a 50cc scooter with no license, or a $4k Yamaha XMax or Honda PCX150, insurance, and a motorcycle endorsement fits the bill.
Though the new 2019 Honda Super Cub looks interesting as well.
I’m getting enough back pay to buy a scooter for cash, and I don’t want a money pit as a $4k used car would probably turn out to be.
I’m thinking of getting SR22 non-owner insurance in January just to get my driver’s license back, a motorcycle learner’s endorsement, and taking an ABATE BRC next summer.
I took the class 10 years ago, but didn’t finish it because something came up on the last day.
I probably should be patient and wait until January and get a 125 or 150cc instead of buying a 50cc right now.
Fair Economist
@M4: Foreigners parking money in condos can only be a problem if the housing construction rate is far too low. Before zoning cities frequently added hundreds of thousand of units per decade. The fundamental problems is requiring almost all land be single family large lot houses – including metro Vancouver with a population density of only 2,000 per square mile, about 1/20 of that famous hellhole, Paris.
chris
@M4:
Um, yeah, it is but the City Of Vancouver isn’t on it.
M4
@chris: peninsula like object, no edit button, realized right after.
NotMax
@Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman)
Would an electric vehicle suffice? A kind front pager released #32 above from purgatory; link is there.
chris
@M4: I lived on the island for 10 years so I’m a little touchy about it. surprising how many Canadians don’t know the difference.
Trabb's Boy
@Fair Economist: Toronto has been throwing up hundreds of thousands of units in the last couple of decades. The real problem is that there isn’t enough infrastructure to handle the rapid increase in population here and in Vancouver. Transportation, schools, public services are all massively overburdened and the governments are all stuck in AUSTERITY! mode. What we really need is some way to boost smaller cities to spread some of the growth out.
Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman)
@NotMax:
Chicken and egg dilemma.
Evansville is large enough to have Honda, Yamaha, and Kymco dealers with service departments.
It’s not large enough to have the same for any of those electric scoots.
Heck, the 50cc I’d love to have (Aprila SR50 motard) involves driving to Indianapolis or Louisville to buy and no factory authorized local service.
Louise B.
@Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman): Another factor is fuel injection. The more expensive models have it – the cheaper ones have carburetors and can be unreliable to start, particularly if you’re parking it outside. Speaking from experience.
NotMax
@Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman)
On the other hand, there’s just less stuff to break on an electric than on a gas engine.
Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman)
@Louise B.:
That leaves out Kymco and the barely used Honda Ruckus I was looking at.
Amir Khalid
@lamh36:
The metric system is way easier to use than the US system of measures. It might help to remember some basic approximations: an inch is 2.5cm, a foot is 30cm, a yard is 95cm, a metre is 39 1/2 inches, a kilometre is 5/8 of a mile. An ounce is 28 grams, a pound is 450 grams, a kilogram is 2.2lbs or 2lb 3oz. (In Europe half a kilo is sometimes called a pound, which may or may not be true in Canada.) A litre is four metric cups, and slightly more than a quart. A gallon is slightly less than four litres. A can of soda is 11fl. oz or 330 millilitres.Hope this helps.
NotMax
@Amir Khalid
Would never come up for you but I still miss buying liquor in fifths and half gallons.
NotMax
@Amir Khalid
When I first moved to Hawaii, all the gas stations’ posted prices were in dollars per liter.
Fair Economist
@Trabb’s Boy: Toronto is doing better than Vancouver but even there not enough. For all its rep as dense the metro area is still overwhelmingly zoned R1. It is true there would be a lot less pressure on the big cities if smaller cities allowed more development – but they don’t.
JustRuss
@Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman):
How about buying used? I just bought a 15 year old motorcycle for a fraction of what it cost new. Looks almost good as new and runs great.