Saw this a while back at my favorite fishmonger (New Deal Seafood on Cambridge St. in Cambridge, for you Hub of the Universe Juicers)…
Which, inevitably, evoked this:
Meanwhile, Tikka asks, are you ready?
Early voting opened in my town today (yeah — MA does it by city and town)…
Just sayin.
Open thread.
schrodingers_cat
How many of those heads are you offering Tikka?
LAO
While this is a cat post, I have to share the single funniest thing a vet has ever said to me. So today, I took Maggie for her yearly vaccination/wellness vet visit. She is a staffy/beagle mix and I worry that’s she a little tubby. Anyway, she weighed 39.4 lbs and I asked Dr. K, if she need to lose any weight. He looked her over — she has a defined waist, large chest, big haunches and stubby legs — and says to me “look, she’s never going to look like a greyhound,” as if that’s the standard of beauty in the dog world. LOL.
For those worried she is too fat, according to the vet 40 lbs is her red line, so apparently she’s fine.
Elizabelle
Tikka has such presence.
I would be terrified if I was a mouse or chipmunk.
oldgold
This seems slightly relevant.
Recently a rare variety of sea cucumber was caught on film. It has been dubbed the “Headless Chicken Monster.”
No word on what it tastes like, but I have a good guess.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/22/world/australia/headless-chicken-monster.html
Jerzy Russian
What is Tikka asking? “Are you ready to meet your maker?”
JPL
@LAO: A vet that Finch occasionally sees suggested he lose a few pounds. Now every time I bring him to the practice I am so concerned when he has to weigh in.
Tom Levenson
@Jerzy Russian: Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!
LAO
@JPL: I hear you, I was very nervous weighing my chunky monkey today. People are always commenting on her “figure” because for a lap dog, she’s surprisingly dense.
schrodingers_cat
@LAO: She is not fat she is floofy and big boned.
Ohio Mom
@LAO: It has long seemed to me that the most reasonable, practical goal for all us, whatever species we are, isn’t to lose weight but to stay the weight we already are.
That can be enough of a challenge.
Jerzy Russian
Oh well, it was nice knowing you (if only virtually).
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
Yikes at that first picture!
I have no fins and I must swim.
Elizabelle
@LAO: My little beagles were on Hill’s Science reducing diet kibble their whole lives. And they lived long ones.
Beagles aspire to portliness. They are chowhounds. Hills seemed to help keep them relatively svelte. (Important, because the older one had a bad back.)
Aleta
Still life with three fish heads
pluky
Yes! Many moons ago I lived down on Fulkerson Street across from the middle school. Utterly amazing seafood, and impressive proprietors. Was in there one day when the Lady of the Shop was chatting with her husband in Greek, some of the locals in Portuguese and Italian, one of the workers in Spanish, and finally taking an order in Japanese from a couple that had just walked in. I had to ask, “how many languages do you speak?” Her reply? “Depends on how well you mean by speak?”
geg6
@LAO:
LOL! That’s how I feel when I take Lovey to the vet. She may look fat (fuck you, John Cole), but she hovers between 18 and 20 lbs. I always say that she’s very muscular. Which is true. She spends half her life wresting for toys with Koda, who weights 86 pounds. The other half is spent either sleeping, barking at whatever she sees out of the windows and jumping on my or John’s lap or whatever piece of furniture looks as soft as our laps. Her chest and rear haunches are very muscular.
cmorenc
@LAO:
I’ve seen what a (thankfully rare) really fat Greyhound looks like – it’s a disturbingly pathetic-looking sight that provokes disturbing thoughts about the possible deficiencies in its owner that contributed to producing such a grotesquely unhealthy animal.
Josie
@Elizabelle: No kidding. I am slightly terrified and I am neither. Tikka has perfected the menacing stare. I want to borrow it.
Salty Sam
Back in the mid-aughts, I worked as a fish cutter in the seafood dept. of a high end grocery store. A big part of the morning shift was setting up the display on ice. There was competition among the fishmongers as to who could set up the best display. Bizarreness counted…
I used to hum “Fish Heads” to myself whenever it was my turn to set the case…
Aleta
@geg6: She spends half her life wresting for toys with Koda, who weights 86 pounds.
One thing I admire about feisty small dogs is how they believe they are as big as anyone else on the planet.
ET
I keep thinking of all of those animojis that were so popular so I want to know what song those fish heads should be singing.
Aleta
COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Norway’s prime minister says World War II saboteur Joachim Roenneberg, who headed the four-man team that blew up a plant producing heavy water which Nazi Germany could have used to produce nuclear weapons, is dead at 99.
Prime Minister Erna Solberg says Roenneberg was “one of our finest resistance fighters” whose “courage contributed to what has been referred to as the most successful sabotage campaign” in Norway.
Roenneberg, then 23, was tapped by the SOE — Britain’s wartime intelligence-gathering and sabotage unit — to destroy key parts of the heavily guarded plant in southern Norway in February 1943.
… not a single shot was fired… .
Kelly
Yesterday we adopted 12 week old kitten, Phoebe. 12 year old elder cat, Annie does not approve. Annie’s objections are expressed with hissing and batting at Phoebe, but no claws.
MagdaInBlack
Your fish made me smile! High school friend married into a South Philly family who run a seafood store/restaurant. My favorite thing when visiting is to grab a couple dozen fresh steamed mussels there, go down the street for fresh filled cannolis, and go home to feast.
Thank you for stirring those memories.
http://www.anastasiseafood.com/about/
…if youre in the neighborhood.
My wonky wifi ate my first reply…hope i dont dupe.
Kelly
@Aleta: The Heavy Water War is a well done mini-series about that raid.
joel hanes
In an earlier phase of my life, my wife was the office manager for the Silicon Valley office of a Japanese aerospace outfit. She made good friends with the all-male Japanese contingent, and one night we set up our house Japanese-style, with a low table, mats, cushions, and eight of them brought groceries and made home-made Japanese dinner for us — miso soup, fish stew, rice balls, vegetables, hand-rolled maki, and many bottles of Japanese beer and saki.
I was given to understand that choosing the very freshest fish-heads for the stew was one of the secrets.
I was also warned never, ever to purchase “Hawaiian-style” miso or teriyaki: “too sweet”.
sukabi
You’re a strange, strange man Tom. ???
Matt McIrvin
Voted this morning.
Frankensteinbeck
Open thread? I dearly, dearly want Beto to win, not just for Senate control reasons, but because if he does “TED” will be all anyone remembers of Ted Cruz’s career.
Mo MacArbie
“Fish Heads”? Nah. Myself, I see a little silhouetto of a fish…
Kelly
A picture of our cats. Phoebe is a blur, Annie glumly watching from in front of the fire.
https://imgur.com/a/1oP7VZ8
ruemara
I’m Jamaican. I love fish heads. And I love eating the eyes, bwhahahaha! I could use some fish tea (thin broth made of fish heads & bones) right now. I seem to have a flu and my tum’s not right. I knew getting to the wrong side of 40 would make me go downhill, but this seems quite fast.
Edited to add that I also love the fish heads song.
rikyrah
Tikka is adorable :)
Raven
@ruemara: and breadfruit and akee!
BretH
Think I once posted this before, but this is my favorite Fish Head (from Adrian Belew):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ehXhjmayPA
ET
Tikka is clearly a cat with ATTITUDE and a very “distinctive” personality.
Sloane Ranger
Tikka is saying if I don’t get my share of the fish heads, you are one dead human!
ruemara
@Raven: I’ve begged my parents for some ackee and other supplies, since Queens & Brooklyn is filled with Afro-Caribe stores. Thankfully, Amazon actually sells that and will ship, so if you’ve desired some Solomon Gundy on a fried dumpling with bammy, ackee & saltfish, YES YOU CAN! All I need is mamey for batida de mamey at home.
Litlebritdifrnt
@Elizabelle: My Uncle’s Beagle Rex was *ahem* portly if you will. My Uncle owned a Pub that sold food and so we regularly made a sign for Rex “Please do not feed the dog, he is on a diet”. Somehow Rex got the “look at me, these people are starving me!” look about him and customers would regularly cut up their left over steak or gammon and feed him under the table.
delk
I’ll give you fish
I’ll give you candy
I’ll give you everything in my hand
Roger Moore
@LAO:
I think you’re misreading that. Greyhounds are the breed that the vet though of as looking the least like your dog: leggy and slender instead of short and robust. So the vet is saying you shouldn’t expect your dog to look like something she isn’t.
Origuy
I started singing that song as soon as the picture loaded. It took several seconds for the YouTube link to load and confirm what I thought. Dr. Demento fans, represent!
Raven
@ruemara: we used to go to Negril when there was nothing there but the Yatch Club and Redground. No condos, all-inclusive, Pewee’s, Bob Marley or jerk chicken! It was awesome in the early 70’s and we had a pipeline to a nice place on the beach called “Preserverence” run by the Jackson family. We’d take corn seed from Illinois and blue jeans and trade for local goods. It was wonderful and I’m sure it’s gone.
germy
HOW TO VOTE
I’m wondering if they’ll be any funny business this year at our polling place.
Back in ’12, a woman seated next to the voting place person asked the person if my wife was on “the list”. She was told “No, she’s not on the list” and my wife got to vote. I’m not sure wtf that was about.
Mnemosyne
I’m grumpy today and I’m not quite sure why, other than because I’m being lazy about getting my various projects done. It was cloudy when I woke up this morning and my tummy is a little upset, so there’s a good chance that a migraine is lurking and hasn’t made itself known yet. I should probably take some Excedrin just in case.
Anonymous At Work
@schrodingers_cat: I think that’s what Tikka is really asking, “Are you taunting me? Are you really dumb enough to taunt a clawed and nocturnal sociopath that lives in your house?”
Manyakitty
@LAO: Sounds like Maggie is the Mary Poppins of puppos: Practically perfect in every way.
Yutsano
Y’all are looking at the fish heads and I’m drooling over that bowl of scallops in the upper left corner. It’s been too long since I’ve had some good ones. Maybe I’ll spoil myself next month and get some Coquilles St Jacques going.
Edit because Monday hasn’t been my friend today.
SenyorDave
A new poll (not Rasmussen) shows Trump with a 47% approval rating vs. 49% disapproval. I understand that he starts with 35%+ but WTF has happened since September to increase his popularity? Not sure I want to live in a country where almost half the people approve this racist amoral pig.
In two weeks I’m driving people to the polls, and I will have to remind myself to keep my mouth shut. I live in Maryland which is as blue as can be, but we have a Republican governor and county executive, both of who will win big. Depressing as hell.
trollhattan
@Elizabelle:
The video of the beagle pushing the barstool from the kitchen island to the counter, so as to jump onto the stool, access the counter and then open the toaster oven and steal its contents taught me everything I needed about beagles and food.
Goldies can be quite the thieves, despite (because of?) their eager-to-please demeanor. Friends found an entire Wonder Bread loaf freshly buried in their garden. It seems Duke had raided the construction site across the street, stolen the workers’ loaf of bread and hidden it away “for later.” Easier to apologize for than another friend’s goldie who managed to steal a neighbor’s purse and bring it to his mom’s house. “Uh, here’s your purse. The dog stole it. Really.”
Belafon
They’re reporting 30 minute or longer wait times at early voting stations here in Texas: https://twitter.com/scottbraddock/status/1054389393455284224?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw.
trollhattan
@SenyorDave:
It would seem half the population is really awful. Trump has made it “okay” to let your freak flag fly high.
Amir Khalid
@SenyorDave:
Fuck Trump and his ratings. He’s not running in the midterms. Just vote as many Republicans out and as many Democrats in as you can.
LuciaMia
Ummm, sea scallops. Damn, theyre so expensive these days.
Mike in DC
Trump is held aloft largely on the support of non-college educated white males. Non-college educated white women and college educated white men are a tossup. College educated white women are hugely opposed to Trump now, as are pretty much all voters of color.
If we lose one seat in the Senate, then we have to pick up 3, which is doable. 4 or 5, I believe, is the best case scenario. AZ, NV, TN, TX and (maybe) Espy in MS.
germy
schooley has an interesting thread about how tRump’s approval ratings are reported vs. how Obama’s were reported:
Dog Mom
@cmorenc: I am hesitant to judge anymore. Sometimes it is not the owner, but unfortunate endocrine issues. I have two dogs with Cushing’s disease – the body fails to regulate the amount of the stress hormone, cortisol. Too much cortisol is like too much prednisone – Extreme thirst and hunger, muscle wasting and a big, big belly. Medication can help a lot, but can be hard to keep in balance. Now my third girl has the opposite disease – Addison’s. So she has to take prednisone for lack of Cortisol. She is nicknamed ‘ShortFat’ – it’s just the way she’s shaped.
Frankensteinbeck
@trollhattan:
Good. Very little has actually changed. They were always this awful. The Republican Party has been lying to our face and pushing Hellish, corrupt, unpopular, unscrupulous policies for decades. With mostly minor variations in foreign policy, this nightmare was inevitable the next time Republicans gained power. The real change is that a lot of white people who wanted to believe that Republican voters weren’t white supremacist level vile, hateful scum have had it rubbed in their faces. Hopefully this message will stick and those people will keep voting like their lives depend on it. They do. It’s the whole GOP, not Trump.
Catherine D.
I weigh my 14 year old cat once a week. The first sign of the big three senior cat diseases (hyperthyroidism, kidney failure, cancer) is usually gradual weight loss. He will have his 6 month old-fart checkup/blood work in two weeks, but I’m not expecting trouble.
Brachiator
@Frankensteinbeck:
OK. So, Trump, no big deal. Just another Republican. So, no special urgency in trying to stop or defeat him.
Mary G
Encouraged by reports of people camping out overnight to be first in early voting, but terrified of some October surprise by the masters of mayhem. It’s always hard to wait after I ‘ve mailed in my ballot, but I’m finishing up 75 postcards from Postcard Patriots today or tomorrow then getting more names and addresses.
tobie
@SenyorDave: Is Roemer winning in Baltimore County? I haven’t followed the race at all. I know Hogan is walking away with it.
Gelfling 545
@trollhattan: One of my many temp jobs after retirement was for a proberty manager who had his office in 1/2 of his home so one naturally became acquainted with his dog, a somewhat portly beagle. This dog had learned to open the refrigerator and help himself when he didn’t feel his food supply was adequate. Mostly they put easily eaten items in a refrigerator the dog could not get to – though he was also an escape artist – and kept bottled or otherwise inaccessible products in the main kitchen fridge but I still recall him meeting me at the door with a package of frozen pork chops he’d liberated from the freezer.
Frankensteinbeck
@Brachiator:
Exactly the opposite. Thank goodness people are noticing the danger that was here already. Trump is not particularly unusual, other than his obviousness. The Republican Party is that horrible, and has been for a long time. Trump didn’t block Garland or try to sink a stimulus package that was all that stood between America and another Great Depression. If Cruz or Jeb? were in charge, we would still be facing the prospect of Roe overturned, the safety net destroyed, civil rights stripped from everyone, the deficit exploded by cutting all taxes on the rich, and some sadistic racist attempt at genocide, although take your pick who’d they be going after. This urgency is the correct level of involvement we already needed, as demonstrated by the fact that we’re in this situation at all.
Shana
@Raven: Did they have phone service then? My parents used to go around then and they told me about a joke phone on the bar of their hotel that wasn’t attached to anything.
OzarkHillbilly
The VA House Incumbent Who Airs Dirty Laundry As His Re-Election Strategy
I applaud.
Jay
@SenyorDave:
Nate Silver only includes Rasmusson Poll’s in his aggregates towards the end of an election cycle, because Rasmusson typically polls R’s +3 to +7 more than any other polls, until the last month of the cycle, when they tighten up and start to reflect what other poll’s show.
Basically, you can ignore Rasmusson Polling on Hair Twitle until October 2020.
Raven
@Shana: I remember the Yacht Club had a phone. Where we stayed was a grass roofed hut a skeeter net over the rack. A lot of it was like the Nam.
Raven
From a Negril blog
Dorothy A. Winsor
Angela Merkel canceled arms sales to Saudi Arabia because of Khashoggi’s murder.
Yutsano
@Dorothy A. Winsor: That pretty much guarantees that Dolt45 won’t now. No way will a woman lead HIM down some namby-pamby weak path!
John Revolta
@Mary G:
Anybody else suspicious of the timing of this OMG 5000 BROWNS MARCHING THROUGH MESSICO thingie?
WaterGirl
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Go Angela. Someone with a spine!
Yutsano
@John Revolta: These days I’m suspicious of the timing of just about everything. This can’t be healthy or sustainable.
Mary G
Apologies if this has been posted before, but this 2-minute film advocating voting for Democrats, and scored to “Fortunate Son,” is great. I’m trying to stay off the internets as much as I can, but it has jazzed me up, so I am glad I took a break from the postcards.
OzarkHillbilly
@John Revolta: Desperate people don’t time their escapes around elections.
Yutsano
@OzarkHillbilly: Not to mention all the footage shown so far has shown them to be non-violent women and children. It’s not turning into a good look for the Repukes.
NotMax
@Dorothy A. Winsor
Technically, she has suspended them temporarily, not canceled them.
Jay
@John Revolta:
Nope. Since 2010, these caravan’s have been organized as both a protest, a means to avoid coyotes/human trafficing, a means to offer mutual support for travellers, from child care to food sharing, and as a means to provide self protection as a group.
There’s a convoy every 3-4 months, they ususally disperse in Mexico, after a symbolic protest in the border. In their travels through Mexico the ususally “bleed off” participants because Mexico is much safer and has greater economic opportunity than home.
In this case, some 1,000 crossed the border into Mexico, but their numbers have been swollen inside Mexico by people who left previous marches or crossed into Mexico on their own.
It’s more about how the US MSM doesn’t inform American’s than timing.
NotMax
@NotMax
Linky.
Jay
@NotMax:
Yup, and Eurofighter and other contracts are outside the review.
So far only Norway, Finland and Spain have shown a spine.
Ruckus
@Mnemosyne:
Excedrin works for a migraine? We must have significantly different reasons/types of migraine.
Only thing that works for me is zolmitriptan. Or a specific opiate pain reliever, that docs do not like to prescribe, and at max dosage (twice what is needed) it gives me hallucinations that are quite interesting. Last time I had to purchase zolmitriptan, by far the cheapest place was in Canada at $150 for 10. $240/10 in the US.
Jay
@Yutsano:
The Deplorables, Gullibillies, Trumpies and Nazis lizard brains turn off when they hear “brown”,
They don’t see women and children, because the lizard brain has turned off the ocular nerve’s connection with the brain and instead they visualize a Mongol Horde with some ISIS Fighter’s clad in black, flying ISIS flags.
The messaging is targetted at Hair Twitler’s base.
NotMax
@Ruckus
Probably it’s the caffeine in the Excedrin.
Yutsano
@Jay: It doesn’t matter what it looks like to THEM. It’s what it looks like to the majority of us who haven’t drunk the Orange Turd Tea. And it looks like they are bullying desperate folks who are just trying to escape madness. I don’t give two shits what they think. I’m sick that their view is in control of my country right now. And it’s incumbent on those of us who want to change it to take it back.
WaterGirl
@Mary G: I got goose bumps watching that, then I started crying. God, I hope we take this thing. Now I’m gonna go watch it again.
edit: that was the fastest 2 minute video I have ever seen. It grabs you instantly and takes you along for the ride. Well done!
p.a.
NBC info on the ‘caravan’ movement:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna862566
I agree w Ozark that desperate people don’t worry about timing to better their lot, but the Trickster God does often stick his thumb on the scales. Fucker has been sitting on the scale since 11/16.
germy
Now we see who the real victim is here.
WaterGirl
@germy: “You bastards, killing that guy put us in an awkward position; how dare you treat us like this!”
Jay
@Yutsano:
The Insane Clown POSus is yelling to his base about it, so of course, the MSM is “covering” a story the ususally ignore.
Yes, you and I see desperate people we would like to help, and you get to vote on this issue.
Jeffro
Didn’t I (and a few others) already call this a week ago?
Trumpov preparing to call midterms illegitimate if GOP loses
Hey GOP – what do you think about this? You’re ok with it? Let us know…we’ll be busy GOTV-ing like never before!
Jay
@Jeffro:
The Insane Clown POSus is actually “shopping” two different meme’s at the same time,
Meme #1 is that he won’t “recognize” the elections if the go badly for the ReThug’s, ( but he’s dropped China interference and Dem/Russian Collusion because they didn’t market well),
Meme #2 is that Hair Twitler didn’t lose the election, weak! sad! ReThugs did.
CapnMubbers
Re: caravans: Why people leave home. https://genius.com/Warsan-shire-home-annotated
germy
@Jeffro:
Then we must make sure they are not very close.
?BillinGlendaleCA
The kid was over for dinner yesterday and returned my NX500 and 300 pics from Australia and New Zealand. I’ll be spending the next few days going over the pics.
ETA: There will be an OTR.
Brachiator
@germy:
Dumbest thing I’ve read all year.
CapnMubbers
And for all the posters who referenced “Fish Heads”; that was the first thing that popped into my head.
Fish heads, fish heads, jolly jolly fish heads,
Fish heads, fish heads, eat them up, YUM!
Now I have an earworm for at least the day.
Amir Khalid
@Brachiator:
Don’t forget, this comes from MarcoRubio.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Brachiator: It was also “disrespectful” to Khashoggi.
Brachiator
@Jeffro:
I think that Bernstein is getting his chain pulled. I think that the GOP will do everything they can to retain their grip on the government, but Trump can say whatever he wants. It will have no impact on the Congress or a Democratic Party majority.
p.a.
@CapnMubbers: The (New Orleans) Radiator’s fans called themselves Fish Heads.
Barbara
@WaterGirl:
” . . . and expose us for all the world to see what toadying, servile, yes men we are when it comes to Saudi Arabia! You’re making us look bad!”
Barbara
@Brachiator: My theory here is that a lot of coverage we are seeing of the elections (e.g., Republicans are bouncing back, Democrats are nervous) is a direct result of having been so wrong in 2016. They don’t really know, but they sure as heck want to be able to point to a story showing that they weren’t wrong, so they seem to be writing a lot of stories suggesting a complete range of possibilities. Time to stop reading and just keep writing, calling, canvassing and donating.
Barbara
@Barbara: And I should have added, they are making us, the United States of America, look like a client state of Saudi Arabia, ready to do its bidding. I am sure Erdogan, whom I loathe, is fully aware of the strategic message he is sending to the world.
Ruckus
@Brachiator:
Consider the source.
One M. Rubio.
Bostondreams
Speaking of elections, my good friend and fellow Gator Michele Phillips is running a write in campaign for South Carolina Superintendent of Schools, to give voters there a choice after the Democratic candidate dropped out with his name still on the ballot. The State actually noticed and did a nice write up.
If you are in SC, please check out her campaign. She’s a former professor at the College of Charleston, a middle school teacher and a passionate educator! And while this is a long shot campaign, her belief in civic responsibility and democracy leads her to want folks to have a choice!
Brachiator
@Amir Khalid:
Little Marco is a veritable fount of stupidity.
The Moar You Know
@Yutsano: Not to you or I. The Foxbots in my office want us to go down and bomb the caravan. Seriously.
They’d settle for the Mexican troops shooting them all, but they’d really rather we do it.
For what’s it’s worth I’m also in the “timing of this is not a coincidence” camp.
Jay
“According to two people familiar with the conversations, Trump is distancing himself from a potential Republican thumping on Election Day. He’s telling confidants that he doesn’t see the midterms as a referendum on himself, describing his 2020 reelection bid as “the real election.” And he says that he holds House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell responsible for protecting their majorities in Congress.”
According to one person with knowledge of these talks, Trump has said of Ryan and McConnell: “These are their elections … and if they screw it up, it’s not my fault.”
https://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2018/10/baby-trump-is-getting-ready-for-yuge.html?m=1
schrodingers_cat
@Barbara: As long as you the price is right, national interest is for sale. Putin, MBS, T will do anyone’s bidding.
WaterGirl
@Barbara:
Two thoughts. 1. It appears that we actually ARE currently a client state of Saudi Arabia, as well as Russia. 2. It’s a sad state of affairs when I am counting on Erdogran, who is a thug, to help get justice for this man who was butchered. He is surely not working in our best interests, but I don’t care. I want the truth of this to come out. The act itself was horrifying; the cover-up is horrifying in a different way.
ruemara
Blech. Home sick. Hopefully not for long. Nice way to cap off the b’day.
Jay
@The Moar You Know:
“The Central American migrant caravans,[1] also known as the Viacrucis del Migrante (Way of the Cross),[2] are annual migrant caravans of Central Americans organized by Pueblo Sin Fronteras (People without Borders).[3][4] Viacrucis caravans have usually been organized since 2010 by the migrants themselves, who set off during Holy Week.[5][6][7][8]”
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_American_migrant_caravans
“Pueblo Sin Fronteras (English language: People Without Borders) is an immigrants rights group known for organizing several high profile migrant caravans in Mexico and Central America. The organization’s efforts to facilitate immigration and calls for open borders attracted considerable amounts of coverage in the American and Mexican media.[1][2][3][4][5]”
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pueblo_Sin_Fronteras
Brachiator
@Barbara:
I generally ignore these stories. Most of them are little more than space fillers.
And I recall a key missed call from the recent past. Here’s the Boston Globe on the Alabama election involving Roy Moore:
Also, the American Prospect:
Of course, Moore got his butt kicked, thanks to a strong black turnout.
I must confess that I did look at a story in today’s NY Times wondering why Latino voters seem to not care about the midterms, but I have not finished the entire thing.
Bottom line. Between now and November 6, it’s all about the actual voting, not the speculation about the voting.
NotMax
@ruemara
Devilish best wishes.
Barbara
@Brachiator:
“A week before Election Day, new poll finds tightening race for Va. governor” Source
I am not getting complacent, not by a mile. But I think it’s okay to tune this stuff out.
Litlebritdifrnt
So now Twitler is saying that they will pass tax cuts for the Middle Class before the election, which will be a hell of a feat considering congress doesn’t go back into session until after the elections. Is there no end to this mans genius? He must have a magic wormhole that can spirit all the members of congress back into session to pass his mythical tax cuts prior to November 6.
JMG
Because of the peculiarities (to put it nicely) of how Congressional districts are set up, there ARE a wider range of possible outcomes, from Republicans holding both House and Senate to the Democrats taking them both. These can be expressed as percentages, but most American political reporters are innumerate and the ones on TV are there to blah blah blah. There is also the audience imperative. Nobody’s going to click on stories saying an election is not close.
schrodingers_cat
@Brachiator: Indeed. Note to all Ds and everyone else who doesn’t want R control of all branches of the government. Fuck the media noise. Go vote.
Jay
Conditions really must be horrific for people in Central America for them to consider life in Trump’s America to be an improvement.
FlipYrWhig
@Barbara: That one went BANANAS. And the howling started with various leftier-than-thous who fastened on something Northam said about “sanctuary cities” and decided the sad-sack candidate no one ever wanted was demoralizing The Base and generally neoliberaling things right up and everything and everyone was DOOOMED. Then Northam won by 9%, the best performance for a D Gov in 32 years.
Gravenstone
I. Hate. You.
That is such a persistent earworm.
Yutsano
@schrodingers_cat: I’m channeling Tom Perez who actually inspired me on a talking heads show.
“When they go low, we vote.”
That’s all I’m focusing on.
SiubhanDuinne
Tikka looks baleful.
Full. Of. Bale.
Yutsano
@SiubhanDuinne: Tikka is beautiful tuxedo boy.
Yutsano
And the blog has gone silent…
debbie
Guess it’s too late to say those fish heads look like something out of the Creature from the Black Lagoon.
debbie
@Litlebritdifrnt:
I couldn’t believe it when I heard that this afternoon. He’s escalating so rapidly, he’ll be parting the Red Sea by Thursday.
Are we up to saving a gazillion jobs by sticking with the Saudi arms deal?
debbie
@WaterGirl:
Ah, yes. Erdogan and his Big Reveal tomorrow. What, The Apprentice needed a new boss?
Yutsano
@debbie: Jesu Christe. Have they all gone reality show carnival barker? WHERE’S THE FUCKING DOCTOR SO WE CAN FIX THIS SHIT???
SiubhanDuinne
@Yutsano:
Yes, he is gorgeous, handsome, distinguished kitteh. Also baleful.
Ohio Mom
@Yutsano: It’s dinner time in the East. Give us a chance to finish eating.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Barbara: remember the press cheery picks polls to get the narrative they want. I really find it hard to believe anyone’s mind is going to be changed in the next few weeks.
Yutsano
@SiubhanDuinne: Tikka does not need your lame excuses about not voting. Tikka will enforce this edict with his mighty claw. While looking dashing the whole time.
debbie
@Yutsano:
I know. To quote someone from somewhere else, the world has gone mad.
Yutsano
@Ohio Mom: Mea culpa. I get antsy when waiting for the doctor. No not that one my nephrologist. Although both are good.
chris
@ruemara: Sorry you’re sick but happy birthday anyway. Have a song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFxNC87HyLo
Woke up humming it this morning and can’t get it out of my head because I am 64 today. Never expected this to happen.
Yutsano
@chris: MERRY NEW YEAR!
debbie
@ruemara:
@chris:
Happy birthday to you both!
david
Welp. DId my civic duty. It was quick and easy. Was in a voting booth in less than 5 minutes after arrival.
Almost voted straight ticket; but, there was one state justice seat that had no Democratic candidate, but
did have a Libertarian, so the ticket had to be split. Plus, this technically makes me bipartisan. I think.
Good news: every seat at the state level (with that one exception) had a Democratic candidate this cycle.
Bad new: every county/local seat was Republican unopposed. Yeah, east Texas is deep red.
Ohio Mom
@Yutsano: Ugh, doctors. This week I am particularly irritated about having to chase one of mine down. She didn’t do what she was supposed to, and there is a fine line between being one’s own advocate and having to steer the entire boat yourself without knowing how to read a nautical map. Why isn’t she here at the helm?
Hope your doc today is on top of things, thorough, and pleasant.
hueyplong
@david: You were more bipartisan than I was (in NC).
Miss Bianca
I can’t believe no one has looked at those fish heads and not mentioned Starry Gazey Pie