Pro-coal Joe Manchin is poised to take the Democrat’s top energy policy post in the Senate, to the horror of environmental groups.
And climate hawk Bernie Sanders is showing no interest in thwarting him, even though he has the seniority to do so.
— ??????? ???????? ⚡️ (@Patrickesque) November 30, 2018
… “What’s in it for me, Bernie Sanders?”
Now that Bernie has all-but-officially launched his 2020 candidacy, he’s gonna be waaay too busy collecting tributes from his cultists to actually spend time or prestige on the job he’s already got…
… Sanders outranks Manchin in seniority on the committee and could block him. But the Vermont independent has shown little inclination to leave his perch as the ranking member of the Budget Committee — even though he made climate change and clean energy a major plank in his 2016 presidential run and plans a national town hall on the issue Monday…
Sanders, who is exploring a 2020 presidential campaign, wrote in an email to POLITICO on Wednesday evening that he is proud of his work on the Budget Committee, where he’s been for his past two terms, and suggested he’d likely stay.
“As ranking member I have helped fight for budget and national priorities, which represent the needs of working families and not just the 1 percent. I look forward to continuing the fight in the new session for social, racial, economic and environmental justice,” he said…
Manchin’s critics aren’t explicitly pressuring Sanders to seize the Energy spot. Some say it’s up to Schumer to reassess seniority rules or do whatever necessary to prevent Manchin from moving up. Other committee Democrats who are more senior than Manchin and could step into the role include Sens. Ron Wyden of Oregon and Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, who are currently ranking members of the Finance and Agriculture committees, respectively….
Stabenow would also have seniority over Manchin and could face pressure, though she expressed happiness with her current top slot on the Agriculture Committee this week…
Ron Wyden, as we know, has been an Intelligence workhorse for keeping pressure on the GOPers trying to hide Trump’s crimes. And the Ag Committee also controls food stamp regulation, where Debbie Stabenow has done important work protecting Michigan farmers and those who most need government support.
Unless I’ve missed something — feel free to update me! — all Bernie has done on the Budget Committee is make finger-wagging, social-media-friendly speeches complaining that none of his fellow members appreciate Bernie Sanders’ brilliance.
And I guess that’s all the “help” environmentalists should expect from Bernie Sanders, now or in the future.
Climate change is not an issue we can afford to ignore any longer.
On Monday night I'm hosting a national town hall with @billmckibben, @Ocasio2018, @VanJones68, @shailenewoodley and more on how to tackle this crisis. Tune in: https://t.co/AJPHmfyswT pic.twitter.com/DRIt4BWU3g
— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) November 29, 2018
different-church-lady
Solve economic inequality and you solve the climate crisis!
Mike in NC
This fucking guy could guarantee Fat Bastard’s reelection. DIAF!
Quaker in a Basement
It’s hard to become a leader when you’re not a joiner.
magurakurin
Bernie is a punk.
Cold and callous to say, but the Bernie Sanders is just another name on a long list of people whose departure from this mortal realm will make the world a better place. He does more harm than good. I wish he would retire, but I’m sure he will plug on doing whatever it is he thinks he is doing until he keels over in mid sentence.
Mnemosyne
I haven’t seen rikyrah around much today, and then I found out that there’s been a Twitter dumpster fire raging all day that involved both Black Twitter and author Twitter and, well, this is how stupid the YA fans got:
https://mobile.twitter.com/authorMsBev/status/1068316091460567045
Steeplejack
Damn it, I’m getting belatedly sucked into Fritz Lang’s The Big Heat (1953) on TCM. I don’t like Glenn Ford, but Lang makes the most of his stolid lumpiness, and it’s a good, nuanced script. Gloria Grahame is perfect as a gangster’s moll, and Lee Marvin is Lee Marvin at his creepiest.
Yarrow
I see AOC has signed up to speak at the Wilmer-hosted town hall. Along with Van Jones. Meh. Shailene Woodley’s Instagram post says she’s there to learn. Why’s she even speaking, then? I guess they need star power or no one will pay attention?
Maybe I’m just in a cranky mood but I fail to understand what this “Climate Change Town Hall” is going to accomplish.
Mnemosyne
@Steeplejack:
It’s a good fit for Ford, and one of Grahame’s best roles. IMO, the flmmakers don’t go the easy route of having Grahame’s character fall in love with Ford’s character. Instead, her character realizes that decent guys like Ford’s character actually exist in the world and she doesn’t have to knuckle under to abusive assholes anymore just because that’s how the world is. The ending is a little annoying from that perspective, but a 1950s movie made under the Breen office would be unable to formulate a different one.
ruemara
@Yarrow: It gets everyone media attention and the people who rightfully earned a bucket of spit for their behaviour in 2015-17, get to feel like really nothing they did or said was wrong.
joel hanes
Grifters gotta grift
Demagogues gotta gogue
Howie Klein at Down With Tyranny will carry a torch for Wilmer, no matter what happens.
SRW1
@Quaker in a Basement:
I suspect Sanders assumes that the Democratic party will grant him another transient membership card.
Mike Adamson
I think that animosity for Bernie and the progressive wing generally does not bode well for the future. Bernie is no saint but he has touched a lot of people whose support will be crucial in beating Trump in 2020. There is lots to criticize about Sanders but the condescension is just going to turn voters off so why do it? Keep your eye on the prize folks.
Cacti
@Mike Adamson:
Go jump up your own ass.
Mike Adamson
@Cacti: Not possible but your point is noted.
Steeplejack
@Mnemosyne:
Yeah, pretty much agree. Just got to the end, and I’m sort of correlating my impressions with the last time I saw it, which must have been decades ago. I saw that it was starting on TCM and just flipped over to take a look and got immediately sucked in. Much more nuanced than the usual 1950s take on things. But, yeah, still constrained by the boundaries of the time.
But there is some nice depth. Like when Ford goes to see the widow of the guy who knew all about the mob. She’s got all of his notes in a safe deposit box and is using that, and the threat that if anything happens to her everything will come out, as leverage and protection against the mob. She thinks that makes her invulnerable, but then she realizes that Ford would cheerfully kill her because he wants everything to come out. She’s saved only by the timely arrival of the tipped-off, semi-corrupt police. But that’s something you don’t often see in ’50s movies: “Yeah, he should have choked that bitch! Wait, what?”
The ending felt a little rushed and a little deux ex machina with Gloria Grahame going nuts on everybody, but what the hell. I’m still marveling that I got over my Glenn Ford hate for that length of time. He really was a complete rod.
Mary G
This is a test to see exactly how good of a leader Chuck Schumer is – you know Nancy Pelosi would already have a completed negotiation in her pocket, with six different members shuffling around and everybody winning something dear to their hearts to keep the person who blasted a climate bill with a shotgun on TV from leading the energy committee. Will Wall Street’s favorite senator rouse himself to please most of his party or just ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ?
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Mike Adamson:
The animosity is reserved for Sanders alone because he’s a phony little gadfly fake who promotes himself. He could have done something substantive now about Manchin but declined to focus on his own ambitions. I thought it was extremely appropriate in a mod for Hearts of Iron 4 that Bernie Sanders declares himself Supreme Leader in an American successor state after the Soviet Union won the Cold War. I don’t trust him and I’m a progressive/liberal.
gwangung
@Mike Adamson: Your own condescension and patronizing attitude is also noted.
Mary G
@Mike Adamson: You sound like a Republican complaining about civility. Thanks for sharing.
ruemara
@Mike Adamson: Whatever. Your candidate managed to lose a lot the races he wandered into. If your’e voting for a guy, that’s your prerogative. The rest of us are looking for results.
Cacti
The Clinton primary campaign was instructive for showing that giving Bernie the kid gloves treatment just emboldened him and his cult.
His 2020 opponent(s) need to hoist the black flag and attack without mercy.
Mike Adamson
LOL. It’s hard to argue with his success in attracting voters who haven’t been stepping up before. I think he would make a lousy President but this isn’t a parlour game. A lot of people are counting on the Democrats beating Trump next time and I don’t think America can afford petty animosity at this point. I’m Canadian so i don’t have a dog in this fight but i do know what has to be done and pissing off the folks who can help secure a good result isn’t it.
Steeplejack
@Mary G:
I don’t think I saw it here, but, at the risk of repeating something, I’ll air it out again. There was a devastating Twitter take on Schumer a day or two ago:
ETA: As usual, the comments are hilarious.
Chetan Murthy
@Mike Adamson:
Three points:
(1) we’d have a shit-ton less issues with Bernie if he’d stop SHITTING DOWN THE NECKS of Dems. Which he does on a regular basis, since the 2016 Apocalypse.
(2) The base of the Democratic party is women and people of color. Bernie has continuing problems with people of color and their issues. It’s clear that he really hasn’t understood that he needs to take us seriously, and if he can’t figure out how to do that in his heart, he needs to co-opt some people of color to ensure he doesn’t stick his foot in his mouth about these issues (something he does on the regular). IDGAF what else he believes, if he can’t get right on this. And he isn’t right on it.
(2) “progressive wing”? Seriously? Leftier-than-thou wing, sure. But not “progressive.” Unless you believe that all Dems who voted for Hillary over Bernie, aren’t progressive. In which case, -you- are a leftier-than-thou.
Chetan Murthy
@Mike Adamson:
Einstein, if you knew all this, you’d know that pissing off people of color is a great way to lose that election.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Mike Adamson:
I can. Where’s your evidence that he’s had any success doing this? A lot organizing this cycle has been grassroots and done by POC and women, with significant overlap between the two. Where was Sanders the past two years? Aside from being his usual fake blowhard self? Taking more money from the NRA? Defending ICE?
Mnemosyne
@Mike Adamson:
Except that … he hasn’t. The recent Democratic re-taking of the House was thanks to minority voters, particularly African-American women, not the fabled “white working class” voters Sanders courts. The Sanders-supported white dude primary candidate in Kansas was rejected in favor of a Native American woman … and she won.
Sanders’ great talent is charging to the front of the parade in progress and claiming that he organized it. Sad to see that people in Canada are so naive that they’re falling for his schtick.
Yarrow
@Mike Adamson: The voters will decide and St. Sanders isn’t going to get nearly as many votes as last time around. Nor will he be handled with the same level of non-scrutiny. And then there’s the Mueller investigation. Hey there, Tad Devine. What’s up, Old Towne Media. How about those $27 donations.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Mnemosyne:
I don’t get what his appeal is. He’s a shouty, finger-wagging phony. I think he’s a self-promoting fraud who was a useful idiot for the Russians.
I also don’t think our comrade Mikhail is arguing in good faith.
ETA: Do you work for Disney? You don’t have to answer if you don’t feel comfortable. I thought you mentioned in the past that you do.
Yarrow
@Mnemosyne: Heh. “Canada.”
Mnemosyne
@Chetan Murthy:
Oh, sweet Jesus, you just gave me a horrifying flashback to 2016 when the Sandersbots were insisting that people of color weren’t really progressives and straight white men were the only ones who could bring true progressivism to fruition.
Thank Christ the Democratic voters of 2018 recognized that as the crock of shit that it is and elected more women and POC to office than ever before, nationwide.
Yarrow
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: He’s more than just a useful idiot for Russia.
PeakVT
I get the Bernie hate, but really, the idea that he should give up the ranking seat on the very powerful Budget committee just to block Manchin from the ranking seat on a committee that has relatively little direct relevance to Vermont, and that is already overwhelming pro-coal, just to prove his purity on an issue? As if the Budget Committee has no avenue to influence energy issues? As if Vermont isn’t a taker state that would be better served with a Senator on one of the big money committees?
That is a stupid criticism. Also, it sounds like some right-wing trolling, from a source that isn’t exactly known for stellar journalism.
Mnemosyne
@Yarrow:
I bet his girlfriend lives there.
Yarrow
@Mnemosyne: Sure she does. LOL.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Mnemosyne:
Brian from the Breakfest Club, is that you?
Mnemosyne
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
Yes, I work for the Giant Evil Corporation, along with about 50,000 other people. I don’t know about anything that shows up in the news, though.
Well, except that Ralph Breaks the Internet: Wreck-It Ralph 2 is pretty funny and everyone here should go see it so I can continue to get a paycheck. Thank you.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Yarrow:
Full-blown traitor? I have a hard time following all of this sometimes.
piratedan
well… as the Cohen shoes continue to drop regarding the involvement of Russian money and logistical support for anything and everything GOP, we’ve also speculated regarding what other names might drop over on the Dem side… if such a thing were to happen, I would not be shocked to find our Senator Sanders on this list, and prominently so.
All you gotta do is follow the money and witness the behavior, the pieces almost fit themselves into the puzzle.
Steeplejack
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
Jesus, dude, let it go! As Kingsley Amis said (in The Anti-Death League), “Effective concealment conceals the fact of concealment.” If Mnemosyne doesn’t want to state explicitly where she works, that’s her choice. Accept it. Draw your own conclusions, if you will, but shut the fuck up about it!
What is the possible logic behind: “I know you want to remain incognito, but please let me know where you really work, then you can go back to being incognito”? Jee-sus.
ETA: And, seeing Mnemosyne’s comment at #37, are you satisfied now, and can you observe the proprieties?
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Steeplejack:
What…? I was only asking out of curiosity. I was like 80% sure she had mentioned it before. I gave her an out not to answer me anyway. Geez. This only the second time I asked and that had to have been a week ago.
Mnemosyne
And just in case anyone doesn’t know the Avenue Q reference:
https://youtu.be/dqcW9BUtt6I
Yarrow
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: Asset.
@piratedan: Yep. It’s pretty clear once you look at it.
Mnemosyne
@Steeplejack:
Meh, it’s pretty much an open secret, though I prefer not to use any references that someone could track down via a Google search. I am a very small cog in a very large machine, but I do like my tiny corner of the GEC and I would like to be able to stay there and not lose my job for being an asshole on the internet.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@Mike Adamson: did you feel this way when Sanders said Clinton was “unqualified”, when he refused to concede and accept the election results, when he delegitimized the primaries by pushing conspiracy theories that the vote was “rigged”, when he said states with predominantly black voters “distort reality” and should be moved to the back of the
primary calendarbus, when he shouted down BLM, when he said “aren’t most drug dealers black”, when he said blacks live in “ghettos”, when he vigorously defended NRA immunity, when he refused to release his tax returns while accusing his opponent of corruption without evidence, when his chief surrogates called Clinton a “whore” and when they said Drumpf would be a better president?Toughen up, snowflake. The 80 year old fart won’t get a free pass this time.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Mnemosyne:
I’ll probably watch it for the Sonic cameo, but the trailers for it look pretty good. Coincidentally, there’s going to be a Sonic movie next year. It’ll probably be mediocre though, unfortunately. Another movie I want to watch is Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, which takes actual alternate spider-men from the comics to create a cool, diverse cast; it looks pretty fun too.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Steeplejack: I think Mnemo’s been pretty transparent on who the Giant Evil Corporation is.
ETA: Though I refer to my former employer as Satan, I’ve mentioned them by name once or twice.
Steeplejack
@Mnemosyne:
Exactly. I get it, which, apparently, Goku does not. It’s the difference between “You can e-mail me at ‘Steep at the G-place'” and an actual e-mail address that could be picked up by bots or whomever.
Steeplejack
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
And in light of your statement that “I gave her an out not to answer me anyway” you couldn’t connect the dots?
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
Sanders blathers on about socialism, yet he refused to endorse two openly socialist women, Cynthia Nixon and AOC. the old fraud doesn’t actually care about anything other than himself.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Steeplejack:
(Updates Steep’s dossier.)
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Steeplejack:
I don’t remember all of the details of when I did ask. If she simply ignored it and continued commenting or stepped away and never saw it, I don’t know. I think it might have been at night and the thread was dying and I went to sleep.
I was just trying to strike up a topic of conversation because it seemed interesting. I never meant any harm. Which is why I gave her an out.
Steeplejack
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Thank you for pointing out the bleedingly obvious. But that’s not the point. Goku keeps badgering her about something that anyone with a trace of nuance should be able to figure out and accept without it being shouted from the rooftops.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Steeplejack:
This sounds familiar. Look. I asked twice. The first time a week or more ago. It’s not as if I incessantly asked her about it. It was an open secret as Mnem herself said. I was only curious. I didn’t mean any harm and I’m sorry if I caused any.
eemom
Good evening folks. Nice to have company at this hour, especially from Steep who I have reason to believe is in my same time zone.
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
Dude, as I’ve mentioned before, I’m not only old enough to be your mother, I have a daughter who’s the same age as you. You really, really, need to grow a thicker skin about what goes on in a place like this.
Anne Laurie
@PeakVT:
Okay, but what has he actually done for VT while on the Budget Committee? Are his accomplishments super-secret? Or is his mere presence at the meetings supposed to protect Vermonters from… something?
As for using Politico as a source — if anything, they usually give Sanders far too much credit, because he’s a useful weapon against Democrats. The updated version of EvenTheLiberalNewRepublic seems to be EvenTheDemcratsOwnBernie, and with just as much validity. So when they choose to side-eye St. Bernie, I figure it’s an indicator that he’s done something widely unpopular.
Mnemosyne
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
It can’t be a topic of conversation because I would like to keep my job. If you have a general question about the entertainment industry, I may or may not have a general answer based on public information, but I definitely will not provide any kind of inside or confidential information on this website. Because I would like to keep my job. Clear?
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@eemom:
I have a thick skin. That’s not the problem. I’m only defending myself. Steeplejack is being ridiculous.
Chetan Murthy
@Mnemosyne: And even after you change jobs. I call my former-before-former employer as Ye Olde Gynormous IT Company. B/c shit, last thing anybody needs is lawyers breathing down one’s neck for having told the truth.
Others here also obscure the names of their former employers, I presume for similar reasons.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Mnemosyne:
Sorry. I didn’t mean it like that. I don’t want any of that kind of info. I definitely don’t want to endanger anyone’s job. I just vaguely remembered you mentioning where you worked in passing a while back, was curious, and decided to ask. I thought maybe I had imagined it or something.
I forget this isn’t like having a casual conversion in meat space.
Steeplejack
@eemom:
Fuck, I’m just down the road from you in Falls Church. We should meet for lunch sometime. I’ll even come up to your favorite pizza place in Reston.
I will forever have your back because of the General Stuck affair.
ETA: Also, Christ, what are you doing still up?! I’m mostly retired. Don’t you still have a real job?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Steeplejack:
That’s why I’m known as Captain Obvious.
Amir Khalid
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
Really?
Chetan Murthy
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
I feel that: I cannot stress enough that one should always be aware of the fact that every byte one posts on this site (and elsewhere) goes on one’s permanent record. It’s why some of us think speculation about violent acts against Federal officials (howsoever hated as they are) are dangerous. B/c nobody wants a visit from the Secret Service. For myself, it’s why I stick with “gee, I hope he strokes out and get boxed-in syndrome”.
PeakVT
@Anne Laurie: In this Congress? Not much, since it has been controlled by Repukes. But the exact same problem would apply if he moved to the Energy committee, except more so, since Manchin would still probably vote the wrong way on many issues.
Criticize Bernie all you want. Both he and Leahy could be improved upon, as far as I am concerned. Just make sure you’re criticizing him and not just riffing of what obviously looks like a troll article simply because it caters to your Bernie hate.
eemom
@Steeplejack:
Thanks. ❤️❤️❤️. And I would love to meet for lunch sometime.
But when you say “favorite pizza place in Reston”, it does not compute. I haven’t had a decent pizza since I moved here 80,000 years ago. Here in Vienna, there’s a place called “New York Pizza” that used to be remotely tolerable, but then they hired a new chef who for some reason decided that a standard pizza was all cheese and no sauce, so fuck that noise. ?
NotMax
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
Presume you are aware that Netflix announced they will be working on a live action Cowboy Bebop series?
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Chetan Murthy:
That’s why I’ve learned to veer away from that speculation. Not that I’ve ever received a visit or anything, but it’s not healthy to do and people don’t like it.
eemom
@Steeplejack:
As for still being up, I work at home 99% of the time, thank God. So I can more or less do it my way in terms of hours. Thanks for asking.
joel hanes
@Mnemosyne:
I don’t know about anything
I work for a Large Tech Company You Would Recognize.
I have spent a decade insuring that I know nothing about decisions made.
There’s something wrong in that picture, and retirement will come as as a relief.
Seven months and counting.
Martin
@NotMax: I cannot express the wrongness of this idea.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@NotMax:
I wasn’t. I’ve never watched Cowboy Bebop, but I’ve heard about it. Cultural osmosis. I don’t remember it being Toonami when that was in it’s heyday on Cartoon Network, but it probably was. Do you recommend it?
Steeplejack
@eemom:
I’ve got you covered down here. Pupatella or Brick’s, although the latter has only one sit-down table that is a joke. But it’s great for takeout.
Okay, Vienna. I know you’re vaguely “up that way.” I thought that at some point you talked about a pizza place that you and your family liked. How do you feel about Mexican? Los Toltecos in Sterling is muy bueno.
joel hanes
@PeakVT:
Both he and Leahy could be improved upon
absolutely. and Hoyer. and DWS, who actually deserved maybe 15% of the shade case on her, so bad. and Steve Israel, what a sellout.
But they all caucus with the Ds when it comes time to determine the majority and select a Speaker.
Nancy is the SMASH.
I think I’m looking forward to the next House.
Steeplejack
@NotMax:
Do not want! The original series is fine and does not need to be fucked with. Even the movie was a bit of a letdown.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Steeplejack:
Just wanted to let you know, I understood the core of what you were trying to tell me before after I gave it some thought.
Steeplejack
@eemom:
Okay, good to know. Will update the mental file.
Is it wrong that I picture you as a bomb-throwing anarchist embedded in a middle-class life?
Steeplejack
@Martin:
Srsly.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Chetan Murthy: Yeah, making threats against government officials is actually a crime, and you will get a visit from the guys wearing earpices and maybe the FBI.
Steeplejack
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
Ultra highly recommended! Immediately.
rikyrah
@Mnemosyne: ..
I love that ??
One of my favorite authors
NotMax
@Steeplejack
Hearing Falls Church mentioned always cues the ear for The Mamas & the Papas.
Falls Church?
(Where’s that?)
The stomach remembers the Sir Loiner from Tops Drive-Inn (kept on the menu after it became a Roy Rogers).
Steeplejack
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
Okay, fine. Sorry if I came down too hard, but it didn’t appear that you would get the subtle approach. Alles klar now, kommissar.
Mnemosyne
@rikyrah:
My author friends on Facebook brought it to my attention since I only look at Twitter when someone gives me a link to something. It’s basically turned into Team YA vs Team Romance, only Team Romance has better writers tweeting for them. ? Note to self: never make Beverly Jenkins mad at me!
It’s interesting to see that the division doesn’t seem to be along racial or even nationality lines — there are a lot of self-identified Nigerians and Nigerian-Americans on Nora Roberts’ side. The divide is age and genre.
I suspect that the first-time author was trolling to get publicity for herself and didn’t realize that the puddle she thought she was stepping into was actually a pit until she fell in over her head. It’s too bad, because she is apparently a very talented author, and this is giving a whole lot of people who might have read her book a very bad first impression of her.
I’ll bet that Luvvie Ajayi will have something to say, and I’m curious to see what it is.
NotMax
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
Cannot say I recommend it or not as am, at best, ambivalent regarding modern anime in general. Those ginormous eyes, stiletto-pointed chins, and angel hair pasta-thin ankles are stylistic turn-offs for me, so personal experience with the genre is, shall we say, limited
Do know there are scads of folks here who do recommend it, though.
NotMax
@NotMax
Forgot the Falls Church reference music link!
Steeplejack
@NotMax:
The eyes aren’t ginormous, the story lines are very solid, and, in any case, the series is worth it for the music alone.
eemom
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
Before I drag my old ass to bed, I will take one more shot at explaining what I mean.
You worry too much about your interactions with people in this space. It IS a community, and it’s great how friendships form and people care about each other, but all cyber connections are still a new and evolving form of communication amongst humankind. By their nature, they are more removed and less personal than talking to people IRL, and one of the unfortunate effects of that is that people are more brutally, um, honest, and less mindful of the fact that there’s a human being on the other end of the dialogue, than they ever would be IRL.
The other thing is that it’s all so fleeting; new post comes up, and most people forget everything and move on.
So, when your dialogues here take a turn for the unpleasant, my advice, FWIW, is just go with the cyberflow: forget about it, and move on. Maybe try not to repeat whatever caused the unpleasantness in the first place. But in any event, don’t WORRY about it, and don’t try so hard to fix it with whoever you were talking to. It is just not worth that much emotional investment.
So, that is my Cyber Earth Mother $.02. Don’t tell my kids. Good night.
Steeplejack
@eemom:
Om.
Mary G
Well, except for Balloon Juice I stayed off politics on the intertubes all day and went to bed early with my coziest blanket and one cat on my hip and one nestled against my back. I listened to it raining out which is a rare pleasure here, read for fun and played music. I feel much less anxious and should do it more often.
NotMax
@Steeplejack
Saffron robes and finger cymbals not far behind.
:)
eemom
@Steeplejack:
Ah, if only. Perhaps if I were younger.
As it is, I’m just an aging stressfest clinging feebly to the hope that the advent of Amazon will wash in my long awaited home sale windfall ship, to mix a metaphor or two.
eemom
@Steeplejack:
Om indeed. #IAmMahatma
NotMax
@eemom
“Om-m-m-m-m. Om-m-m-m-m. Ra-a-a-a-ange.”
– Firesign Theater..
;)
Chris Johnson
Huh.
If Bernie is implicated in Putin’s machinations, then he HAS to side with the Dems in everything, as head of the Budget Committee (which, agreed, more powerful than Energy Committee: somehow not surprised that Politico is making divide-and-conquer posts to get Dems infighting)
I’m liking the implication here that Dems head SO MANY committees that we can end up getting stuck with Manchin simply because everyone else is already heading up something important.
I’m rather pissed off at all the ‘OMG Benries iz Russian spieeee!’ ranting, but at this point it’s difficult to rule ANYTHING out: and you gotta remember the very basic rule about power, that if you’ve busted somebody for being outside-influenced, you’re now the influence if you want to be. I think if Bernie continues to make establishment liberals this mad, it suggests he’s clean (or at least so far as HE knows: I do wonder about that staffer he had, but the guy’s suggestions could have gone nowhere) and if he’s stepped too close to the fire, that compels him to cooperate with Democrats where it counts.
NotMax
@Chris Johnson
Um, ranking members don’t head up committees, chairmen/women do. Senate remains R, so no Dems head up any committee.
joel hanes
@NotMax:
ambivalent regarding modern anime
I grew up on Warner Bros and Disney animation.
Anime just looks cheap and shoddy to me, with the changes between cels amounting to only facial expressions.
I am aware that I am wrong, and that much art has been done, particularly by Ghibli.
Nevertheless.
joel hanes
@eemom:
my long awaited home sale windfall ship
Next, Please
Always too eager for the future, we
Pick up bad habits of expectancy.
Something is always approaching; every day
Till then we say,
Watching from a bluff the tiny, clear
Sparkling armada of promises draw near.
How slow they are! And how much time they waste,
Refusing to make haste!
Yet still they leave us holding wretched stalks
Of disappointment, for, though nothing balks
Each big approach, leaning with brasswork prinked,
Each rope distinct,
Flagged, and the figurehead with its golden tits
Arching our way, it never anchors; it’s
No sooner present than it turns to past.
Right to the last
We think each one will heave to and unload
All good into our lives, all we are owed
For waiting so devoutly and so long.
But we are wrong:
Only one ship is seeking us, a black-
Sailed unfamiliar, towing at her back
A huge and birdless silence. In her wake
No waters breed or break.
Phillip Larkin
joel hanes
@Chris Johnson:
I’m rather pissed off at all the ‘OMG Benries iz Russian spieeee! ranting
as anyone sensible would be.
OTOH, “Wilmer has been an unwitting tool of V. Putin” is a much more sensible claim,
and may have the support of actual evidence, some day.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@joel hanes: perhaps not so unwitting tool of Putin. He has yet to explain why he strangely voted against the Magnitsky Act.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@Chris Johnson: If he’s “clean” why does he refuse to release his back tax returns.
Jack the Second
@joel hanes: Eh, most animation is not high quality, because high quality animation costs more than most people are willing to pay for live action, but if you’re willing to accept the crudely drawn stick figures as real people you can get some amazing SF&F because you’ll never have the jarring dissonance of bad special effects to ruin your immersion as so often happens in live action.
Another Scott
@PeakVT: +1
Let Manchin have his chair. He’s not great, but he’s with the LCV 45% of the time.
Cheers,
Scott.
Chris Johnson
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: Because he’s a MILLYUNAIH like fucking everybody else in Congress.
He’s a class traitor against the other millionaires, but being one of them at all is so against his image that he hides it.
Better he should be like Nick Hanauer and be openly a class traitor against his fellow wealthy, but that takes a different kind of brazenness. You don’t think he’s the only one saying this sort of thing? Look up Hanauer. And be grateful that younger people are taking up the banner, because you cannot have functioning democracy with income imbalance as severe as it is in the USA. It leads to nothing but Kochs governing the country and you know it: perhaps you picked your nym because you actually like that, but plenty of us do not, and Bernie was nothing more than an early call to action and a very repetitive, unwavering message that isn’t going away. It’s all about the BILLYUNAIHS and guess what? Yes, they are that toxic to society. No wonder Bernie will do anything to avoid admitting he is one of their number (well, MILLYUN if not BILLYUN)
Ken
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I knew it. This entire blog is a very slow version of those infamous Facebook polls that harvest personal information.
“Find out which Wreck-It-Ralph character you’re most like! That sounds fun! Let’s see, question 1, what was the name of your first pet… question 2, what giant evil corporation do you work for… question 3, what street did you grow up on… question 4, what are the last four digits of your social security number….”
kindness
Bernie Sanders is like Paul LePage for the Democratic Party. He needs to divide Democrats so Republicans win. Let’s not be like the woeful people of Maine. We don’t need this bullshit two elections in a row.
Percysowner
@PeakVT:
When your whole campaign for President is based around being the purity pony, you then should live up to what you demanded of others and do the right thing. Yes, keeping an important influential job is understandable, but he crapped all over Hillary for not being willing to so enough for purity.
J R in WV
@Mike Adamson:
I have no animosity for the progressive wing of the Democratic party, I am part of it.
My animosity is all saved for the Republicans, the Fundigelicals, and Bernie Sanders, who ruins the term “American Socialist” a little more every time he opens his self-centered and narcissistic mouth. In his own feeble way he is as damaging to our nation as Trump is, and would be as bad a president.
kindness
Several states have already passed laws (California is one) that state a person can not appear on a Presidential primary ballot unless they have released their tax returns. We know Trump will sue over that one. Will Bernie join the suit with Trump or will he do the right thing and release his tax returns. I’m thinking Bernie will try to do exactly what he did in 2016. Ask to delay submitting them until he isn’t a candidate any longer and then refuse to do so.
Xavier Onassis
What happened to Maria Cantwell?? Last I heard she was the ranking member of the committee.