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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Saturday Morning Open Thread: They’re Trying to Circle the Wagons, But the Wheels Keep Coming Off

Saturday Morning Open Thread: They’re Trying to Circle the Wagons, But the Wheels Keep Coming Off

by Anne Laurie|  September 22, 20186:32 am| 152 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Republican Venality, All Too Normal, Assholes

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Trump personalized the midterms for the 1st time tonight: “You know, a poll came out, they said everybody’s going out in 2020 because they want to vote for you…But they’re not maybe coming out in 2018. Get out in 2018 because you’re voting for me in 2018. You’re voting for me.”

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) September 22, 2018

Trump aides strangely happy with him citing impeachment, telling voters GOP is in challenging spot. He has been privately dismissing polls and saying all will be well, worrying those close to him his supporters will be complacent.

— Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1) September 22, 2018

Curious: Fox has promoted wall to wall coverage of Trump's rallies in the past, but last night Ingraham's show cut into part of a rally, and tonight Carlson's show is just "monitoring" it pic.twitter.com/Mne1nE2zVg

— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) September 22, 2018

Elsewhere…

Was this supposed to be a text? https://t.co/gAF7UPt8M0

— Blake Hounshell (powered by blockchain) (@blakehounshell) September 22, 2018

I'm starting to wonder if the Republican Party is involved in some sort of Brewster's Millions deal in which, if they succeed in getting zero percent of the women's vote this fall, they'll be rewarded with whatever they want.

— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) September 21, 2018

by the way Dems will use Fed Society endorsement to turn down candidates from now on.

— Greg Dworkin (@DemFromCT) September 21, 2018

When I was young and foolish, I believed that there were lots of bad ideas out there, but not that many truly horrible people. But it turns out that these horrible people not only exist, they run (much of) the world

— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) September 21, 2018

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Previous Post: « Late Night Horrorshow Open Thread: Trump’s Real Base Is Furious & Thrashing
Next Post: Open Thread: Whataburger, Whataguy »

Reader Interactions

152Comments

  1. 1.

    NotMax

    September 22, 2018 at 6:36 am

    Wizard of Oz (21st century edition).

    “Pay no attention to the man behind the Iron Curtain.”

  2. 2.

    Baud

    September 22, 2018 at 6:41 am

    “You know, a poll came out, they said everybody’s going out in 2020 because they want to vote for you…But they’re not maybe coming out in 2018. Get out in 2018 because you’re voting for me in 2018. You’re voting for me.”

    What a better world this would be if Obama voters realized this in 2010.

  3. 3.

    RandomMonster

    September 22, 2018 at 6:42 am

    That Krugman quote FTW.

  4. 4.

    JMG

    September 22, 2018 at 6:49 am

    I’d guess the percentage of people who attend any rally for any candidate who go on to vote is 100 percent. It’s the Trump voters who don’t watch cable news *a much larger group than those who do) the Republicans ought to be worried about.

  5. 5.

    MomSense

    September 22, 2018 at 6:51 am

    Good morning, Jackals. I’m cleaning my house early this morning before I leave to pick up an elderly relative in Massachusetts who is going to stay here for a week. She is selling her house and can’t cope with being there for the open house and visits this week.

    It’s a long drive so we are going to make some stops along the way and play tourist.

    In an ironic twist, I was apparently too pleased about being carded last night because I did something to my knee while dancing later. No swelling but it is definitely not happy with me. I heard a popping sound followed by discomfort.

  6. 6.

    rikyrah

    September 22, 2018 at 6:55 am

    Good Morning, Everyone ???

  7. 7.

    rikyrah

    September 22, 2018 at 6:56 am

    @MomSense:
    Ice that knee and stay off of it

  8. 8.

    NotMax

    September 22, 2018 at 6:56 am

    OT. For the foodies.

    Good idea but falls a little all over the map on the execution, International Chef Exchange on Amazon Prime. Still, there are much less savory choices of video pastimes.

    You won’t learn any recipes or cooking techniques. On the plus side, no competitions or up against the clock nonsense. Yet there’s something so amiable and comfortable, almost cozy about it that one becomes hooked. Two chefs, one from the U.K. and one from another country or province, cook in each others’ restaurants/kitchens for one meal. Only six episodes, so flies by.

    Favorite scene? The Dutch chef who mentioned he has worked for 23 years in the restaurant biz and looked (to this oldster) to be about 22 years old.

    @MomSense

    Ouchie. Take care.

  9. 9.

    JPL

    September 22, 2018 at 6:58 am

    Chuck Grassley is a mean man.

    @MomSense: Enjoy your time playing tourist, but be careful with your knee.

  10. 10.

    WereBear

    September 22, 2018 at 6:58 am

    @MomSense: Pride goeth before a fall. Hope it passes quickly!

  11. 11.

    NotMax

    September 22, 2018 at 6:59 am

    @rikyrah

    One might, if so inclined, call it rhumbago.

    And yes, ice is your friend, in moderation.

  12. 12.

    Barbara

    September 22, 2018 at 7:01 am

    @MomSense: Here’s hoping it’s your left knee and it’s nothing serious, because long drives can aggravate knee pain.

  13. 13.

    Baud

    September 22, 2018 at 7:06 am

    @rikyrah: Good morning.

  14. 14.

    Raven

    September 22, 2018 at 7:07 am

    Go Dawgs!

  15. 15.

    Bruuuuce

    September 22, 2018 at 7:19 am

    As a sideshow to the circus in the Senate, here’s one in Alaska:

    A man in Anchorage, Alaska, pleaded guilty to assaulting a woman who said he strangled her unconscious and sexually assaulted her.

    The man then walked out of court with no prison sentence.

    …

    [Prosecutor Andrew ] Grannik said Schneider had lost his job as an air traffic controller for the federal government as a result of the case. Grannik said that was a “life sentence,” according to KTVA.

    What a crock. Living free, drinking beers with his buddies, is not a “life sentence”; he was fired for cause, which is the very least that ought to have happened. And which is the least that should happen to the prosecutor and the judge, as well.

  16. 16.

    JPL

    September 22, 2018 at 7:23 am

    @Bruuuuce: Maybe the judge is auditioning for a seat on the Supreme Court.

  17. 17.

    Bruuuuce

    September 22, 2018 at 7:25 am

    @JPL: Once they install the Imperial Presidency with Kavanaugh. Or maybe he’s just a fan of Aaron Persky :-(

  18. 18.

    WereBear

    September 22, 2018 at 7:28 am

    @Bruuuuce: And they wonder why women don’t report their assaults.

  19. 19.

    Bruuuuce

    September 22, 2018 at 7:31 am

    @WereBear: Yes. With emphasis on “they”; I’m pleased to note that most of the folks I know (both jackals and other animaux) are all too aware of the real-world issues there and are working to make them nonissues

  20. 20.

    WereBear

    September 22, 2018 at 7:31 am

    In other news, Mithrandir the recovering feral is mostly tamed.

    And he is flat out gorgeous. Very fluffy, which means it is great for both of us that he loves being groomed.

  21. 21.

    Ken

    September 22, 2018 at 7:34 am

    @JPL:

    Chuck Grassley is a mean man.

    I thought the tweet sounded more whiny and sniveling, especially the last bit where he says “this really isn’t like me”. Actually the whole thing reads as “bully forced to back down”.

  22. 22.

    OzarkHillbilly

    September 22, 2018 at 7:46 am

    @MomSense: Popping not good. :-( Ice for the first 24-48 hours. Heat after that. If the swelling returns with the heat, go back to ice, then go to Doctor.

  23. 23.

    prob50

    September 22, 2018 at 7:57 am

    @RandomMonster: I also loved Krugman’s quote. BTW, last time I was here (quite a while ago) in response to a comment from another poster’s medical situation I mentioned that I was facing a similar situation and I received much support and many good wishes. It took several different tests and a couple biopsies, but the spot on my liver was found to be non-cancerous.

    I stopped posting at that point but it was not about my physical health concerns per se, but because I was just developing too much anger and frustration for my mental peace of mind to deal with.

  24. 24.

    OzarkHillbilly

    September 22, 2018 at 7:58 am

    “You shall see thangs, wonderful to tell. You shall see a cow, on the roof of a…. cotton house.“

  25. 25.

    prob50

    September 22, 2018 at 8:02 am

    @Ken:

    Chuck Grassley is a mean man.

    I thought the tweet sounded more whiny and sniveling, especially the last bit where he says “this really isn’t like me”. Actually the whole thing reads as “bully forced to back down”.

    I don’t think these traits are mutually exclusive. To me “Mean”, “whiny”, and “sniveling” quite accurately describe much of the collective GOP presence in public office today

  26. 26.

    Chief Oshkosh

    September 22, 2018 at 8:28 am

    The Grassley own-goal seems like it should be a bigger deal. I guess it’s just SOP for the GOP shitshow. What an embarrassment.

  27. 27.

    debbie

    September 22, 2018 at 8:28 am

    @MomSense:

    Is there ever really a compliment without a consequence? ;)

    Be proactive: Ice, Elevate, Rest. Slim down that touristy stuff today.

  28. 28.

    debbie

    September 22, 2018 at 8:30 am

    @JPL:

    But stupid. That tweet couldn’t have been intended for broadcast. I remember back in the early days of Twitter, Grassley was the one who sent out a talking point tweet, but neglected to add the person’s name, something like this: “We can’t allow (insert name) to get…”.

  29. 29.

    debbie

    September 22, 2018 at 8:32 am

    @NotMax:

    Nix the moderation. I’ve had five serious falls landing on my right knee. Constant icing saved me when nothiing else would have.

  30. 30.

    MagdaInBlack

    September 22, 2018 at 8:32 am

    @WereBear:
    I’ve been watching him grow up ?

  31. 31.

    OzarkHillbilly

    September 22, 2018 at 8:34 am

    Nasa launches satellite to precisely track how Earth’s ice is melting

    While Donald Trump doubts the scientific consensus around man-made climate change and his administration is rescinding standards to stall warming, Neumann said multiple federal agencies want to see the satellite data when it starts coming back in October.

    The US Geological Survey is interested in the elevation data, and the navy would like to look at how changes will affect shipping channels, he said. With ice melt, new routes are expected to open through the Arctic, significantly reducing shipping times.

    Nasa has an entire fleet of satellites observing Earth, including for signs of climate change. Trump this year proposed cutting the budget that funds many of the others.

  32. 32.

    Lapassionara

    September 22, 2018 at 8:38 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: Is it just me, or has Florence and the resulting floods fallen down the memory hole?

  33. 33.

    Immanentize

    September 22, 2018 at 8:41 am

    @Lapassionara: Who is Florence?

    @OzarkHillbilly:
    Why does the Guardian seem to be better than any American news source about things happening in the US of A?

  34. 34.

    zhena gogolia

    September 22, 2018 at 8:45 am

    @WereBear:

    I love the term “recovering feral”! I had three of those lovely creatures.

  35. 35.

    MagdaInBlack

    September 22, 2018 at 8:46 am

    Why does the Guardian seem to be better than any American news source about things happening in the US of A?

    Ownership

  36. 36.

    hueyplong

    September 22, 2018 at 8:49 am

    @prob50: Best I can tell, the country could use a sequence in which GOPers like Grassley consciously act in a way that “isn’t like me.”

    Seeing as how that will never happen, gotta vote them out ont.

    Which is kind of the point of the current narrative. Trump is little more than the assholes’ id and moral weaknesses on full display, like some kind of figurehead monarch for a rancid regime.

  37. 37.

    hueyplong

    September 22, 2018 at 8:50 am

    Man, I gotta get that Platinum Jackal Membership with Edit feature. Sorry.

  38. 38.

    OzarkHillbilly

    September 22, 2018 at 8:51 am

    Antibiotics crucial to human medicine are still being used in “unacceptable” quantities on US livestock farms, despite rules brought in last year to curb their use and combat the spread of deadly superbugs.

    Tests on thousands of meat samples by the US Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) show that powerful antibiotics classified as “critically important” to human health are still being used. The widespread use of such drugs on livestock is one of the key drivers of antibiotic resistance, a growing public health crisis.

    Regulations brought in by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in January 2017 banned the use of antibiotics on livestock without a prescription from a vet and made it illegal to use the drugs solely to make animals fatter, which for years had been common practice on industrial farms.

    The new rules aimed to ensure antibiotics were only used when medically necessary. But tests on livestock slaughtered at dozens of US meat packing plants – including some operated by major processors such as Tyson, Cargill and JBS – found “critical” antibiotics were still in use in many meat supply chains. There had been no reduction in the number of antibiotics found in samples from the year before the regulations came into effect.

    Analysis by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism also shows how a loophole allows US farmers to continue to use many antibiotics targeted by the ban in much the same way as they could before the ban, including drugs previously used for growth promotion.

    The findings indicate that more needs to be done to combat overuse of antibiotics on farms, critics say.

    But meat industry representatives said it was impossible to draw meaningful conclusions from the data. The samples only indicated the presence of antibiotics, they pointed out, with no information about what diseases were involved or how the drugs were administered. All the drugs in question were approved for use on animals by the FDA.

  39. 39.

    OzarkHillbilly

    September 22, 2018 at 8:55 am

    @Lapassionara: @Immanentize: Florence was a dirty girl who left a mess everywhere she went. People loved reading about all her sloppy wet bj’s, but the cleanups aren’t very sexy. Especially when it comes to the flooding of CAFOs.

  40. 40.

    debbie

    September 22, 2018 at 8:58 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I may stop eating any produce that could possibly have come from North Carolina. I don’t like the thought of eating something that might have soaked in pig-shit enhanced water.

  41. 41.

    paul robinson

    September 22, 2018 at 9:03 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Florence was a dirty girl who left a mess everywhere she went. People loved reading about all her sloppy wet bj’s, but the cleanups aren’t very sexy. Especially when it comes to the flooding of CAFOs.

    Much like the tendency in popular movies to emphasize Fx and explosions over actual plot & story lines. Houses and people floating away much “sexier’ than people shoveling muck out of their living room.

  42. 42.

    HeleninEire

    September 22, 2018 at 9:04 am

    Morning, morning crew. I am now up and +0. Yeah I hate that asshole again.

    I’d anyone is confused go see me at 53 in the Rod Rosenstein post from last night.

    Grey dry(ish) day here. Not unusual, but we were expecting a big storm. So it’s all good.

  43. 43.

    Immanentize

    September 22, 2018 at 9:04 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: @debbie:
    I like how Pierce refers to North Carolina as t”the recently insane state of N.C.” I don’t remember where I saw the map, but most of the pig shit pools and coal coffins were right near the shore most vulnerable to hurricanes. I get the pig farms — they used to just let the effluvient flow downstream. And I guess the coal Ash used to do that too. What a horror show for the people in the southeast of that State.

  44. 44.

    Kay

    September 22, 2018 at 9:04 am

    POLITICO
    ‏Sep 20
    More
    75 percent of voters said it’s “very important” to keep Obamacare’s insurance protections, according to a new poll, and there’s greater trust in Democrats to deal with the issue

    Oh, voters. When do you think you’ll figure this out? I’m all for reaching out to them but they’re going to have to put in some minimal effort here. 75%! So 25% are same people who voted to get rid of the protections 2 years ago.

  45. 45.

    Immanentize

    September 22, 2018 at 9:06 am

    @HeleninEire: You were — energetic? — at +3. I tried it out, just felt tired. ?

  46. 46.

    Immanentize

    September 22, 2018 at 9:06 am

    PS. Are you near Galway?

  47. 47.

    A Ghost To Most

    September 22, 2018 at 9:06 am

    @debbie: It’s the coal ash you should be worrying about.

  48. 48.

    debbie

    September 22, 2018 at 9:07 am

    @Immanentize:

    NC needs to build a pipeline to get rid of the effluent, perhaps channeling it all to a certain Florida resort community.

  49. 49.

    TS (the original)

    September 22, 2018 at 9:08 am

    @RandomMonster: Krugman is the only pundit I miss reading since I cancelled the NYT – which fact I told them when I discovered the only way to cancel was via a telephone call.

  50. 50.

    Immanentize

    September 22, 2018 at 9:09 am

    @debbie:. Would anyone in Mar a Lago (or the Villages for that matter) notice? Or just figure that their boy was back in town?

  51. 51.

    Immanentize

    September 22, 2018 at 9:10 am

    @A Ghost To Most: Because heavy metal toxicity lasts longer or is more dangerous than bacteria?

  52. 52.

    WereBear

    September 22, 2018 at 9:11 am

    @prob50: Thanks for letting us know!

  53. 53.

    Immanentize

    September 22, 2018 at 9:13 am

    Meanwhile, today will be a fine mostly sunny day around 70 here near Boston. Overseeding some of the holes in the yard and other outdoor projects await. Later, jackals!

  54. 54.

    WereBear

    September 22, 2018 at 9:13 am

    @MagdaInBlack: That’s wonderful!

    He’s such a darling. When we are handing out treats on the bed trays we use for such, he will get on his set of steps (so he’s not yet ON the bed) and look around with wondering eyes. Do I like cheese/treats/bits of dinosaur? Yes. Yes I do.

    And then he gets on the bed with the other cats.

  55. 55.

    HeleninEire

    September 22, 2018 at 9:14 am

    @Immanentize: LOL. It was wine. If I don’t mix drinks I can drink a lot.

    I stayed in the pub WAY PAST when I wrote that post because I met a wonderful couple from Birmingham and we talked and talked and then they left. Then a fabulous woman from Australia then came up to me and wanted to talk about women traveling alone.

    That’s why I love it here. I meet people that I would never meet in the US.

  56. 56.

    HeleninEire

    September 22, 2018 at 9:16 am

    @Immanentize: No I am in Dublin, but this is a small country. About as big as Ohio. Galway is only a 2 1/2 hour bus or train ride from Dublin and you are going clear across the country.

  57. 57.

    WereBear

    September 22, 2018 at 9:18 am

    @zhena gogolia: I am frankly amazed: we got Tristan as a feral at 3 weeks (here’s our failed foster kitten) and he would let me juggle him, but Mithy, at 5 weeks old when rescued, is a total Ninja. He weighs almost 25 pounds, yet lands on the bed without us feeling anything. And is still a bit shy.

    I suspect Mithy’s mama was a lot better at the feral game than Tristan’s mama.

  58. 58.

    OzarkHillbilly

    September 22, 2018 at 9:19 am

    @debbie: Most of the crops that got flooded are toast but it’s a problem to be concerned about.

    @Immanentize: The coal ash pits are by the rivers because the power plants need the water to create steam. There was a time not too far in the past, when our rivers were used as open sewers. I’m sure that certain industries would just love to repeal the Clean Water Act so they can once again use the rivers as God intended.

  59. 59.

    WereBear

    September 22, 2018 at 9:19 am

    @Kay: At least it is below the Crazification Factor.

  60. 60.

    opiejeanne

    September 22, 2018 at 9:21 am

    @Immanentize: I think she’s in Dublin, on the other side of the country.

  61. 61.

    OzarkHillbilly

    September 22, 2018 at 9:25 am

    @HeleninEire:

    That’s why I love it here. I meet people that I would never meet in the US.

    Well, yeah! Most Irish will never travel to the US. ;-)

  62. 62.

    OzarkHillbilly

    September 22, 2018 at 9:27 am

    The Followers of Christ is a Pentecostal church that believes in faith healing. Its members refuse to avail themselves, or their children, of modern medical care. In many states this exposes them to prosecution. But in Idaho, Nixon-era religious shield laws protect them from charges of child neglect. Critics – including ex-members – say that the Followers are getting away with murder, or something close to it. They also allege that the reclusive group permits other forms of abuse.

    The Guardian shone a light on the Followers in Idaho two years ago. Now the makers of a new documentary film have gained unprecedented access to the church.

    No Greater Law, directed by Tom Dumican, will be shown on A&E on Monday night, following screenings at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival and a nomination for best international documentary in Britain’s Grierson Trust Awards.

    If’ns ya gots nothing better to do on a Monday eve.

  63. 63.

    A Ghost To Most

    September 22, 2018 at 9:28 am

    @Immanentize: Because heavy metals bioaccumulate, and there are heavy concentrations of arsenic in coal ash.

  64. 64.

    HeleninEire

    September 22, 2018 at 9:28 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: LOL

  65. 65.

    PPCLI

    September 22, 2018 at 9:32 am

    @Ken: Indeed. Anyone who watches his reptilian performance in the Anita Hill hearings will realize that this is exactly who he is.

  66. 66.

    WereBear

    September 22, 2018 at 9:32 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: As I understand it, Christian Scientists created a lot of these laws. For obvious reasons.

  67. 67.

    A Ghost To Most

    September 22, 2018 at 9:33 am

    @HeleninEire:
    A Belgian once told me, “The English think 100 miles is a long way, and Americans think 100 years is a long time”.

  68. 68.

    gene108

    September 22, 2018 at 9:37 am

    @Immanentize:

    SE NC is pretty poor and has the larger concentration of African Americans. I don’t think it is a coincidence.

  69. 69.

    OzarkHillbilly

    September 22, 2018 at 9:42 am

    @WereBear: They had a lot of fundamentalist allies in the enactment of these laws. There is a very real fear of governmental intrusion on the far out edges of Christianity and for good reason. These people are complete whack jobs who in a same world would be committed.

    I really don’t care what they do to themselves in pursuit of the Divine, but when it comes to God’s Will, it is their Holy Duty to let nothing stop them in their imposition of it. Mere law’s are the work of sinful men, but the Bible is the Inerrant Word of God

  70. 70.

    The Pale Scot

    September 22, 2018 at 9:43 am

    @MomSense: If it doesn’t clear up a couple of days, go get an MRI if you can. a small tear in something can set off a chain reaction of chemical changes in the synovial fluid that aren’t welcome. From the voice of experience, I ignored injuries when I was young, and I’m paying for them now.

  71. 71.

    MagdaInBlack

    September 22, 2018 at 9:43 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Bubbly Creek is the nickname given to the South Fork of the South Branch of the Chicago River. It runs entirely within the city of Chicago, Illinois, U.S. It marks the boundary between the Bridgeport and McKinley Park community areas of the city. The creek derives its name from the gases bubbling out of the riverbed from the decomposition of blood and entrails dumped into the river in the early 20th century by the local meatpacking businesses surrounding the Union Stock Yards directly south of the creek’s endpoint at Pershing Road. It was brought to notoriety by Upton Sinclair in his exposé on the American meat packing industry entitled The Jungle.[1]

    MmmmHmmmmm

  72. 72.

    Chyron HR

    September 22, 2018 at 9:48 am

    @Kay:

    75%! So 25% are same people who voted to get rid of the protections 2 years ago.

    No, 25% of them wanted both nazi death camps and insurance coverage for white people’s pre-existing conditions, and Trump promised both.

  73. 73.

    MagdaInBlack

    September 22, 2018 at 9:50 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Even better!

    It eventually got to the point where a layer of black tar-like sludge rose to the surface, thick enough to walk on in some parts (stories exist of people accidentally wandering out onto it and sometimes falling through as if it were ice). These putrid, toxic, floating sludge-bergs caught fire (with the gasses) multiple times, and most disgustingly, were, as part of a scheme by some harebrained entrepreneurs, hacked into blocks like peat under the cover of night and rendered into a lard-like substance to be sold to consumers!

  74. 74.

    geg6

    September 22, 2018 at 9:56 am

    Like our esteemed blog host, I hate watch House Hunters. Last night’s episode took place right here in Beaver County, PA. It’s was kind of fun watching it and seeing them look at houses I actually recognize and could drive you to. They bought the one closest to our house. As always with this show, it was not the one I would have chosen.

  75. 75.

    PST

    September 22, 2018 at 9:58 am

    @debbie: Food from North Carolina and other hog producing areas may come from fields soaked in pig waste whether or not flooded. Its standard use is as fertilizer.

    To handle all that waste, farmers in North Carolina use a standard practice called the lagoon and spray field system. They flush feces and urine from barns into open-air pits called lagoons, which turn the color of Pepto-Bismol when pink-colored bacteria colonize the waste. To keep the lagoons from overflowing, farmers spray liquid manure on their fields nearby.

  76. 76.

    japa21

    September 22, 2018 at 9:59 am

    @geg6: Remember, the people have already bought a house and the show picks a couple other houses for them to look at which might not even actually be for sale.

  77. 77.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    September 22, 2018 at 10:04 am

    @geg6: I never watch that but I watched non-stop while I was in the hospital. It was the right degree of non-demanding.

  78. 78.

    Luthe

    September 22, 2018 at 10:08 am

    I got my first tattoo yesterday and I am so very thankful for the existence of Tylenol Rapid Release. My shoulder hurts like a mofo and I can only sleep in one position without in complaining (the rest of me is not thrilled with this situation). Getting the tattoo wasn’t as bad as I expected, but the aftermath is worse than I thought it would be.

    For the curious, here’s what it looks like.

  79. 79.

    Bruuuuce

    September 22, 2018 at 10:08 am

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Hm. Non-demanding is a good word for hospital TV. For me (in much of 2016 and some of 2017) it was Food Network, BBC America, and sports. Not really a time to be focusing on science lectures.

  80. 80.

    OzarkHillbilly

    September 22, 2018 at 10:10 am

    @MagdaInBlack: Bubbly Creek, great story, horrific results.

    In South St. Louis we have “the worlds largest open sewer” otherwise known as the River Des Peres.

    The River des Peres (French: rivière des Pères) (English: /diˈpɛər/) is a 9.3-mile (15.0 km)[1] metropolitan river in St. Louis, Missouri. It is the backbone of sanitary and storm water systems in the city of St. Louis and portions of St. Louis County. Its largest tributaries are Deer Creek and Gravois Creek.

    Back in the day when they were putting in the sewers they did not differentiate between storm and sanitary. There has been a very expensive (and ongoing) upgrade to the system done by MSD (Metropolitan Sewer District) to treat all the water that enters the system but it gets overwhelmed every time there is a big rain and raw sewage gets dumped into the area rivers. (I think most if not all of the older inner suburbs have been upgraded but the city is a couple billions $ job)

  81. 81.

    Bruuuuce

    September 22, 2018 at 10:10 am

    @Luthe: A Bryn Mawr owl! Cool! My wife has several times expressed a desire for something like that (and, if you’re interested, sells lantern pendants). Curious where you got it, in case you’re within our range and she decides to do it.

  82. 82.

    OzarkHillbilly

    September 22, 2018 at 10:12 am

    @PST: In Washington MO, you always know when they are fertilizing the fields.

  83. 83.

    geg6

    September 22, 2018 at 10:13 am

    @japa21:

    Nope, all of them were for sale recently. I haunt Zillow. ? Doesn’t mean that’s not how it works sometimes, but in this case, at least all the houses were really for sale.

  84. 84.

    OzarkHillbilly

    September 22, 2018 at 10:18 am

    Another Must Read from Michael Lewis: The Fifth Risk.

    To understand more about the kind of risk the US government helps cushion its citizens from, Lewis looked at three agencies that are little discussed and poorly understood by the public: the Department of Energy, the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Commerce. What results, in the new book, is a surprising “civics lesson” that seeks to reverse some of Americans’ deepest prejudices about government.

    Slothful, wasteful, idiotic – this is how the bureaucracy is often portrayed. Many people are fed a media diet of government flops, and are not encouraged to appreciate what it gets right. There are of course real failures. The rollout of HealthCare.gov by Obama “was unforgivable”, Lewis says, the result of not paying enough attention to the civil service. But he is quick to add that Obama learned his lesson, and was never at “Trumpian levels of neglect”.

    But Lewis found that many of the people working in the government are scientists and administrators at the top of their fields working on some of the thorniest problems facing the world, such as cancer and climate change. (Much of the innovation we attribute to Silicon Valley started life inside a government programme.)

    They are the opposite, in other words, of Rick Perry. And they often shared something else. Lewis not only found “hundreds of fantastically important success stories in the United States government”, but that “a surprising number of the people responsible for them were first-generation Americans who had come from places without well-functioning governments”.

    For Lewis, the most interesting character was a man named Ali Zaidi. A Muslim immigrant growing up poor in rural Pennsylvania, Zaidi became a staunch small-government Republican, devoted to the myth of pulling yourself up by the bootstraps. After volunteering in post-Katrina New Orleans, however, Zaidi began to suspect that “there were no bootstraps”. He eventually joined the Obama administration, where at a very young age he was put in charge of overseeing budgets at the Department of Agriculture. It was only then he realised that one of the services he was helping to administer, a school-lunch programme, had kept him from going hungry as a child.

    The people who eventually turned up to run Trump’s federal government were nothing like MacWilliams, Zaidi or the other public servants Lewis met. They are more like intellectually limp versions of the arrogant “Big Swinging Dicks” Lewis described on the Salomon trading floor. Many government positions remain unfilled, but those who are in office are there not by dint of intelligence or expertise, but through cronyism and loyalty to Trump.

    “The woman who ran the Obama department’s energy-policy analysis unit received a call from Department of Energy staff telling her that her office was now occupied by Eric Trump’s brother-in-law,” Lewis writes (Eric is Donald’s son). “Why? No one knew.” Trump’s people, Lewis makes clear, are largely inept and animated by greed, anti-government ideology and a “commitment to scientific ignorance”. Trump himself is, in Lewis’s view, “the single worst business manager that’s ever occupied the office. He’s obsessed only with himself, he doesn’t manage anything.”

  85. 85.

    Bill Arnold

    September 22, 2018 at 10:19 am

    @MagdaInBlack:

    Why does the Guardian seem to be better than any American news source about things happening in the US of A?

    Ownership

    Similarly, e.g. Bloomberg has been breaking interesting UK-specific stories, particularly related to Brexit.
    This ownership/intimidation dynamic is a good reason for having a few foreign news sources in one’s feed, just check the ownership first. (But skip RT, IMO, unless one is sufficiently skilled at seeing the propaganda and disinformation. And the US right wing news feeds are similar.)

  86. 86.

    Immanentize

    September 22, 2018 at 10:24 am

    I just read Brett Stevens op ed in the NYT today. He writes (after explaining how fair minded he is)

    I believe that Blasey has yet to offer definitive evidence of what she alleges.

    This is pig ash coal shit of the highest order. “I was the victim of a specofic criminal act and that person did it to me” is almost the very definition of dispositive and diginotive evidence. The whole world for these male fucks included the idea that the words of women are not enough. Ever.

    Believe me, there are hundreds, maybe thousands of people doing serious time right now on less than what Blasey Ford has testified to.

  87. 87.

    OzarkHillbilly

    September 22, 2018 at 10:26 am

    testing testing….

    In Moderation again! Something in the quote is verbotten, FYWP! (none of the usual suspects) NOW A 3RD TIME!!!!

    So go read the Guardian review of Michael Lewis’s Latest book, and then go buy the book.

  88. 88.

    Immanentize

    September 22, 2018 at 10:26 am

    PS, I am at the end of my thin rope over what is being done to Blasey Ford. No prosecutor anywhere would allow such treatment of a (white) attempted rape victim.

  89. 89.

    OzarkHillbilly

    September 22, 2018 at 10:27 am

    Let me try a link: Michael Lewis’s Latest book

  90. 90.

    OzarkHillbilly

    September 22, 2018 at 10:28 am

    OK, FYWP doesn’t like the link: So I’ll give the article quote again:

    To understand more about the kind of risk the US government helps cushion its citizens from, Lewis looked at three agencies that are little discussed and poorly understood by the public: the Department of Energy, the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Commerce. What results, in the new book, is a surprising “civics lesson” that seeks to reverse some of Americans’ deepest prejudices about government.

    Slothful, wasteful, idiotic – this is how the bureaucracy is often portrayed. Many people are fed a media diet of government flops, and are not encouraged to appreciate what it gets right. There are of course real failures. The rollout of HealthCare.gov by Obama “was unforgivable”, Lewis says, the result of not paying enough attention to the civil service. But he is quick to add that Obama learned his lesson, and was never at “Trumpian levels of neglect”.

    But Lewis found that many of the people working in the government are scientists and administrators at the top of their fields working on some of the thorniest problems facing the world, such as cancer and climate change. (Much of the innovation we attribute to Silicon Valley started life inside a government programme.)

    They are the opposite, in other words, of Rick Perry. And they often shared something else. Lewis not only found “hundreds of fantastically important success stories in the United States government”, but that “a surprising number of the people responsible for them were first-generation Americans who had come from places without well-functioning governments”.

    For Lewis, the most interesting character was a man named Ali Zaidi. A Muslim immigrant growing up poor in rural Pennsylvania, Zaidi became a staunch small-government Republican, devoted to the myth of pulling yourself up by the bootstraps. After volunteering in post-Katrina New Orleans, however, Zaidi began to suspect that “there were no bootstraps”. He eventually joined the Obama administration, where at a very young age he was put in charge of overseeing budgets at the Department of Agriculture. It was only then he realised that one of the services he was helping to administer, a school-lunch programme, had kept him from going hungry as a child.

    The people who eventually turned up to run Trump’s federal government were nothing like MacWilliams, Zaidi or the other public servants Lewis met. They are more like intellectually limp versions of the arrogant “Big Swinging Dicks” Lewis described on the Salomon trading floor. Many government positions remain unfilled, but those who are in office are there not by dint of intelligence or expertise, but through cronyism and loyalty to Trump.

    “The woman who ran the Obama department’s energy-policy analysis unit received a call from Department of Energy staff telling her that her office was now occupied by Eric Trump’s brother-in-law,” Lewis writes (Eric is Donald’s son). “Why? No one knew.” Trump’s people, Lewis makes clear, are largely inept and animated by greed, anti-government ideology and a “commitment to scientific ignorance”. Trump himself is, in Lewis’s view, “the single worst business manager that’s ever occupied the office. He’s obsessed only with himself, he doesn’t manage anything.”

  91. 91.

    MagdaInBlack

    September 22, 2018 at 10:30 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:
    St. Louis, and my dear friend.

    “Coldwater Creek—Just the facts please,” has more than 7,000 members. Another one of its members, Shari Riley, grew up in Florissant. She talked to News 4 in March, 2013, and recalled playing in Coldwater Creek as a child, finding crawfish “that were clear—you could see through them. Some had two heads.”

    In 2010, Riley was diagnosed with stage 4 appendix cancer. She has since been given a clean bill of health, but said she knew of at least two dozen other appendix cancer cases from the area. Appendix cancer is rare, with fewer than 1,000 new cases in the U.S. each year.

    That clean bill of health? She died in 2014.
    But who needs regulation anyway

  92. 92.

    Suzanne

    September 22, 2018 at 10:36 am

    @JMG:

    I’d guess the percentage of people who attend any rally for any candidate who go on to vote is 100 percent.

    SuzMom and I attended a Trump rally and heckled. We also enjoyed scandalizing the MAGAts with full-throated defense of Al Sharpton.

  93. 93.

    Bill Arnold

    September 22, 2018 at 10:38 am

    @Immanentize:

    PS, I am at the end of my thin rope over what is being done to Blasey Ford. No prosecutor anywhere would allow such treatment of a (white) attempted rape victim.

    A positive aspect of this is that America is getting an apparently-needed refresher course on how ugly the current aggregate Republican party is. (We all (well most of us) know decent Republican voters, though I’ve personally lost patience with still-proud DJTrump supporters. Walked out of a party over the weekend after losing control and using the word “bullshit”. gish gallop of radical right wing news feed talking points and QAnon stuff.)
    A few percentage points shift in the electorate away from Republicans and Republican Party is toast, or minority party at best. Measures like voter suppression and gerrymandering and encouragement of third parties that draw majority-otherwise-Democratic voters and etc will be what they have left, and these can be fought. (Redistricting in 2021 after new census?)

  94. 94.

    WereBear

    September 22, 2018 at 10:43 am

    @MagdaInBlack: I am sorry for the loss of your friend. Such things get me ragey when I don’t even know the person.

  95. 95.

    OzarkHillbilly

    September 22, 2018 at 10:47 am

    @MagdaInBlack: My older brother has a house 2 blocks from Coldwater Creek.

  96. 96.

    Luthe

    September 22, 2018 at 10:50 am

    @Bruuuuce: I don’t know where you are, but I’m in the wilds of western CT, so I went to Danbury Tattoo and Piercing.

    Does your wife have a website for her pendants?

  97. 97.

    OzarkHillbilly

    September 22, 2018 at 10:50 am

    @MagdaInBlack: And let me echo @WereBear:

  98. 98.

    Wapiti

    September 22, 2018 at 10:51 am

    @JMG: I’ve heard rumor that some fraction of Trump rally attendees are there for the $50 cash for 3 hour performance. It’s a gig.

  99. 99.

    Bill Arnold

    September 22, 2018 at 10:57 am

    @TS (the original):

    Krugman is the only pundit I miss reading since I cancelled the NYT – which fact I told them when I discovered the only way to cancel was via a telephone call.

    https://twitter.com/paulkrugman
    https://www.nytimes.com/column/paul-krugman
    (I do buy the hard copy every couple of days.)

    I disagree a bit with his tweet, unless I’m misinterpreting it. Poorly-formed morning musing: Very few of “the horrible people” think of themselves as bad; most think that they are good measured against the hodgpodge mostly-horrible value system that they order their lives with. Some of these horrible values are learned in adulthood; that’s one of the things propaganda is for. They can be unlearned/replaced. Similarly the fear triggers that people are (deliberately) taught can be unlearned.
    One point is high-profile defections. A respected pundit/commentator/vocal business person/politician/entertainer/etc who shifts to very different place in the ideological space draws followers with them.
    (Jennifer Rubin, for instance, has been surprising recently.)

  100. 100.

    Miss Bianca

    September 22, 2018 at 10:58 am

    @MagdaInBlack: The man I was engaged to once upon a time died of appendix cancer a few years back. He was an Oxford PhD, worked for the automotive industry – his specialty was carbon-boron-nitrate grinding wheels. I’m now wondering what kind of toxic chemicals *he* may have been exposed to, since it is so rare – hell, I didn’t even know your appendix *could* get cancer!

    This was outside Detroit, btw.

  101. 101.

    debbie

    September 22, 2018 at 10:59 am

    @Immanentize:

    I agree. Fuck him. And Kavanaugh. At the same time.

  102. 102.

    bemused

    September 22, 2018 at 11:00 am

    @RandomMonster:

    Krugman had another good tweet yesterday: The Kavanaugh mess has structural roots…R’s needed someone ideologically reliable and at no risk of developing a conscience when it came to defending trump. So it had to be a bad person which meant good odds of nasty stuff surfacing.

    One quibble is that I’d say Kavanaugh is at no risk of developing a conscience on any issue.

  103. 103.

    debbie

    September 22, 2018 at 11:00 am

    @MagdaInBlack:

    I am so sorry for the loss of your friend.

  104. 104.

    Bruuuuce

    September 22, 2018 at 11:02 am

    @Luthe: We’re in Queens (Jackson Heights), NYC, and I drive, so Danbury is not inaccessible. (We’ll wave as we turn the other way on I-84 today, as we head up to Fishkill to visit her mom. :-) ). Her store is at Shapeways, so you can have the pendants 3D printed in any of several materials. Here’s her store.

  105. 105.

    Immanentize

    September 22, 2018 at 11:06 am

    @debbie: Forget subpoenaing Judge. Subpoena Whelan to get at the whole horrible organized effort to smear a victim.

  106. 106.

    Bill Arnold

    September 22, 2018 at 11:11 am

    @Wapiti:

    I’ve heard rumor that some fraction of Trump rally attendees are there for the $50 cash for 3 hour performance. It’s a gig.

    Some raw links:
    How Much Does Trump Pay People to Cheer at His Rallies? (March 4, 2018)
    Democratic Underground threads, with some interesting links (August 3, 2018)

    And the projection corrolary of Cleek’s Law suggests that Republicans do it.
    Did George Soros Pay ‘March for Our Lives’ Protesters $300 Each? (False)

  107. 107.

    rikyrah

    September 22, 2018 at 11:14 am

    @debbie:

    any and all help with a list of agricultural products from North Carolina, please.

  108. 108.

    patrick II

    September 22, 2018 at 11:19 am

    I keep reading that Republicans have not learned anything since the Anita Hill hearings in 1991. I think they did. They learned they can appoint a misogynist right wing extremist who has been on the court remaking laws for partisan purposes for twenty seven years and they don’t seem to have paid a political price. It’s a different lesson than one might hope for, but a lesson nonetheless.

  109. 109.

    WereBear

    September 22, 2018 at 11:21 am

    @patrick II: Such assumes they had a reason to learn. They got what they wanted. Why should they change?

  110. 110.

    TS (the original)

    September 22, 2018 at 11:33 am

    @Bill Arnold: I’ve always agreed with Krugman’s economics which has been my main reason for following him. His tweets come and go but his financial methodology hasn’t changed. Jennifer Rubin is another story. When trump is gone and the GOP as usual wheedles its way back into power – she will probably return to being a conservative. She has, however, been the most consistent “never trumper” of all the pundits who claim to be that way. I subscribe to the WP because they offered a super deal for online access, which I thought was for 1 year only, they have since renewed it at the same price so I still subscribe.

  111. 111.

    japa21

    September 22, 2018 at 11:34 am

    @bemused: That is basically what he is saying. Kavanaugh was picked precisely because there was no chance of a conscience getting in his way.

  112. 112.

    MagdaInBlack

    September 22, 2018 at 11:34 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:
    Then your familiar with the the mess there.

  113. 113.

    patrick II

    September 22, 2018 at 11:35 am

    @WereBear:

    That is the point. We are the ones who should have learned a lesson — make them pay the price.

  114. 114.

    Duane

    September 22, 2018 at 11:36 am

    @Raven: Go Tigers!

  115. 115.

    TS (the original)

    September 22, 2018 at 11:36 am

    @MagdaInBlack: I also send sympathy in the death of your friend – and add that I have never before heard of cancer of the appendix, so to me it sounds rarer than rare. There surely has to be cause to have it grouped in an area.

  116. 116.

    WereBear

    September 22, 2018 at 11:37 am

    @patrick II: That is the point. We are the ones who should have learned a lesson — make them pay the price.

    I think the current hell we are living through is a lesson in itself: some people will not see the obvious until it does hit them with a 2×4.

    And they apparently comprise a “critical mass” because only NOW, after liberals have been screaming since W stole his first election, have they noticed the Republican party has become a craven travesty of humanity.

    I sigh and tell myself at least they notice now. When it’s late in the day and the cows are partying in the barn with shotguns.

  117. 117.

    Immanentize

    September 22, 2018 at 11:40 am

    @Duane: @Raven:
    Uh oh…. Regional loyalties at stake.

  118. 118.

    Bruuuuce

    September 22, 2018 at 11:41 am

    @WereBear: You just had to go do it, didn’t you? Fine, you can share the earworm you just gave me. Thanks. :-)

  119. 119.

    raven

    September 22, 2018 at 11:42 am

    @Immanentize: Rotsa Ruck Rock!

  120. 120.

    MagdaInBlack

    September 22, 2018 at 11:44 am

    @TS (the original):
    https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metro/as-epa-gathers-comments-on-landfill-documentary-highlights-north-county/article_71690589-e669-56da-86a4-62b909c4f896.html

  121. 121.

    OzarkHillbilly

    September 22, 2018 at 11:45 am

    @TS (the original):

    she will probably return to being a conservative.

    She is being a conservative now. It’s just that the GOP has gone absolutely whack-a-doodle insane.

  122. 122.

    Immanentize

    September 22, 2018 at 11:47 am

    @MagdaInBlack: I’m so sorry. For everyone who has met the cancer foe.

    I wish there were more things like this out there — NY State has a cancer (high and low) map

  123. 123.

    OzarkHillbilly

    September 22, 2018 at 11:47 am

    @MagdaInBlack: Yeah, I follow that situation religiously. My brother and his wife are still underwater on their mortgage from the 2008 crash and with that evolving situation I wonder if maybe they’d just be better off declaring bankruptcy.

  124. 124.

    WereBear

    September 22, 2018 at 11:49 am

    @Bruuuuce: You are welcome :)

  125. 125.

    OzarkHillbilly

    September 22, 2018 at 11:50 am

    @TS (the original): It’s not just cancer of the appendix, there are # of different cancers clustered in that area.

  126. 126.

    J R in WV

    September 22, 2018 at 11:51 am

    Well, I’m tired of commenting about how despicable these despicable people are. I’m still donating to good candidates, though.

    And the despicable people are, sadly, still and even more despicable than ever.

  127. 127.

    WaterGirl

    September 22, 2018 at 11:51 am

    @prob50: So happy for your positive outcome!

  128. 128.

    The Thin Black Duke

    September 22, 2018 at 11:52 am

    @WereBear: Bottom line, until Republicans pay a cost for being Republicans, they’re going to keep on doing the awful things that Republicans do.

  129. 129.

    Duane

    September 22, 2018 at 11:52 am

    @Immanentize: Let the upset begin. Much wailing, gnashing, rendered Georgia garments. Or we just get stomped.

  130. 130.

    raven

    September 22, 2018 at 11:54 am

    @J R in WV: A friend from here has been in WVA working on the Amendment 1 issue.

  131. 131.

    James E Powell

    September 22, 2018 at 11:54 am

    @Bill Arnold:

    Some of these horrible values are learned in adulthood; that’s one of the things propaganda is for. They can be unlearned/replaced. Similarly the fear triggers that people are (deliberately) taught can be unlearned.

    No doubt humans can change, but I’ve never seen it on anything but a small scale. 2016 showed that horrible values and fear triggers are still dominant.

    And the people who taught the horrible values and installed the fear triggers never stop. They own all the press/media, they have more money than anyone, and they are never going to stop.

  132. 132.

    Luthe

    September 22, 2018 at 11:57 am

    @Bruuuuce: If she chooses to go to Danbury, ask for Mikey Vee.

    I know another Mawrtyr who lives in Queens. She’s class of ’90. (if you want more deets, we should switch to email)

  133. 133.

    raven

    September 22, 2018 at 11:59 am

    @Duane: I harken back to the history of Mizzou ruining things for the Illini from Phil Bradley to Shorthose to Macklin! I hate that they ended the series but I’ve been a Dawg for 35 years so!!!!!!

  134. 134.

    AThornton

    September 22, 2018 at 12:01 pm

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Removing antibiotics from animal feed means the destruction of CAFOs meaning a major, major, financial hit to the big meat packers which simply are the meat industry. For example, IBP owns ~40% of the US meat industry. The meat industry doesn’t care about the long run and our institutions that are supposed to care are controlled by Republicans, which is to say sociopaths, psychopaths, and psychotics so they don’t care either.

  135. 135.

    AThornton

    September 22, 2018 at 12:07 pm

    @Immanentize:

    What a horror show for the people in the southeast of that State.

    They got what they wanted and voted for: the right of a property owner to do what he wants on his land without pesky gov’mint tellin’ ’em what to do.

    They should enjoy and revel in their freedumbs.

  136. 136.

    Ella in New Mexico

    September 22, 2018 at 12:11 pm

    He has been privately dismissing polls and saying all will be well, worrying those close to him his supporters will be complacent.

    This is the only thing that has me at all worried about this fall. What does he know that the rest of the country doesn’t? Why is he so sure he and the Republicans are safe?

  137. 137.

    leeleeFL

    September 22, 2018 at 12:14 pm

    @RandomMonster: I thought it memorable! The man can turn a phrase!

  138. 138.

    MagdaInBlack

    September 22, 2018 at 12:16 pm

    @AThornton:
    This is part of why I’m somewhat cynical about living a healthy lifestyle. I/We do the best we can, but ffs, it’s in the air, it’s in the water, it’s in our food, and our clothes and our cosmetics.

    Greed is an amazing motivator, they genuinely don’t care.

  139. 139.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    September 22, 2018 at 12:17 pm

    @Ella in New Mexico:
    Probably just his delusional arrogance more than anything

  140. 140.

    Bill Arnold

    September 22, 2018 at 12:17 pm

    @James E Powell:

    but I’ve never seen it on anything but a small scale.

    Only need a few percentage points of the electorate, in the current evenly-matched two-party system. (including gerrymandering and vote supression; without these Republicans lose).

    And the people who taught the horrible values and installed the fear triggers never stop.

    Progressives (and Democrats in general) need to compete. And so does anyone else, e.g. anarcho socialists or whatever, that can offer more ethical alternatives, at least in regions where this doesn’t throw elections to horrible people.

  141. 141.

    Duane

    September 22, 2018 at 12:21 pm

    @raven: You made a wise choice. Being an Illini fan is a rough way to go.

  142. 142.

    Bill Arnold

    September 22, 2018 at 12:29 pm

    @Ella in New Mexico:

    This is the only thing that has me at all worried about this fall. What does he know that the rest of the country doesn’t? Why is he so sure he and the Republicans are safe?

    Given 2016, one good possibility that he or rather his more competent evil minions have one or more October surprises in plan, and the plan/plans hasn’t/haven’t leaked yet.
    Another is that he has been assured by backers of some sort that the Republicans will win.
    Another is that his intuition, perhaps backed by voices in head, as Goku suggests, is telling him this; he thinks of himself as having a world-class intuition. Which I think was perhaps partially true in his younger days but he has an intellectual diet of near pure garbage and it and the “hard work” are taking a toll.

  143. 143.

    Doug R

    September 22, 2018 at 12:30 pm

    @Bruuuuce: So is a lantern pendant a pendant about lanterns or lantern pendants?

  144. 144.

    Origuy

    September 22, 2018 at 1:01 pm

    @MomSense: I heard a pop in my knee while dancing in May. After an MRI showed a torn meniscus, I had arthroscopic surgery in June. Get it checked out.

  145. 145.

    prob50

    September 22, 2018 at 1:05 pm

    I’ve been absent from the site for a while and I’ve been unable to see how to navigate from thread-to-thread. There used to be a list of recent threads and comments along the right-side of the page, but it’s no longer there. HELP!!

  146. 146.

    Raven

    September 22, 2018 at 1:50 pm

    @Duane: Being an Illini is not a choice. I was born in Urbana, lived there 16 years as an adult and did my undergrad there (in 9 years)!

  147. 147.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    September 22, 2018 at 1:57 pm

    @Bill Arnold: I’m suspecting a repeat of Karl Rove 2012. Everything about his behavior screamed that Ohio had been rigged, that he knew absolutely the fix was in. But the voters overwhelmed whatever fiddling had been done on the Republicans behalf.

    I’m sure Trump and/or his minions have been told by Putin (what was that mysterious meeting in Moscow this summer?) that the Russian vote-screwing machinery will be in full force.

    But I keep using the phrase “cautiously optimistic” because I think we have the numbers, on average, in most places, to overwhelm the fix again. Notice all the weasel words in that sentence.

  148. 148.

    Uncle Cosmo

    September 22, 2018 at 2:00 pm

    @Bill Arnold: Re intuition, pace Godwin, it may be worth remembering that a guy once known as Schicklgruber made a series of astoundingly successful intuitive foreign-policy/military decisions from the reoccupation of the Rhineland in 1936 through late 1942. Events had proven him right (& the supposedly knowledgeable professionals wrong) so often that it was more than the fear of punishment that kept diplomats & soldiers chary of disagreeing with him. Even when it became clear (post-Stalingrad) that his intuition had abruptly become deeply fallible – it took a whole string of defeats over 18 months before the opposition could organize an (unsuccessful) attempt to move against him.

    The current situation may be similar in that nimrods like Yertle & ZEGS are unwilling to lock horns with Twitler because they fear he understands the political landscape far better than they do. And he might. Until he doesn’t, & the whole house of Get-Out-Of-Jail-Free cards collapses on them.

  149. 149.

    Ruckus

    September 22, 2018 at 2:26 pm

    @Miss Bianca:
    Every bit of your body can develop cancer (link). Some cancers are much rarer than others but there isn’t any part that is immune to cancer. And on doesn’t get cancer, like one gets a cold. Cancer is your bodies cells going rouge. A change in cell reproduction, a mutation. Yes your cells can go through this mutation from outside sources, such as some heavy metals exposure or some infections. But it also can happen spontaneously or from genetics.

  150. 150.

    Ruckus

    September 22, 2018 at 2:33 pm

    @prob50:
    We are in a rebuilding phase right now.
    It’s like living in your house while an entire rebuild is being done. Very little is the same as you were used to.
    Edit is missing. Recent comments – what you mentioned, is missing. The reply button works funny for some of us – you hit reply and nothing appears to happen because you don’t zip to the reply box, but the reply name and comment number is in the box. I’m sure there are others.
    Alain is working on fixes, things are progressing.

  151. 151.

    WaterGirl

    September 22, 2018 at 2:43 pm

    @prob50: If you’re on a computer, you should be able to use the arrows to the right and left edges of the Balloon Juice screen. The arrow on the left takes you to the previous thread; the one on the right takes you to the next one.

    Other than that, yeah, what Ruckus said. The site it not functioning at its finest.

  152. 152.

    prob50

    September 22, 2018 at 4:51 pm

    Ruckus & WaterGirl – Thanks!

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