Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

’Where will you hide, Roberts, the laws all being flat?’

Nothing worth doing is easy.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

Hey Washington Post, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” was supposed to be a warning, not a mission statement.

Let me file that under fuck it.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

A norm that restrains only one side really is not a norm – it is a trap.

“The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.”

There are times when telling just part of the truth is effectively a lie.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

I’m more christian than these people and i’m an atheist.

This fight is for everything.

America is going up in flames. The NYTimes fawns over MAGA celebrities. No longer a real newspaper.

The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.

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

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

Fight for a just cause, love your fellow man, live a good life.

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

In my day, never was longer.

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75Comments

  2. 2.

    trollhattan

    How is it a dog weighing N pounds can press their head on your leg with the force of 2xN pounds? It’s a mystery, I tells ya.

  9. 9.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    Judge Reed Charles O’Connor’s wiki page as of right now:

    Reed Charles O’Connor (born 1965) is an example of why third rate legal minds who have political friends should never be appointed to lifetime judgeships. He is allegedly a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas.

    […]

    On October 5, 2018, O’Connor overturned 250 years of Indian sovereignty law and ruled that the Indian Child Welfare Act was unconstitutional. The ICWA was a 40-year-old landmark piece of legislation protecting tribal children from exploitation, designed to keep Native families together, and inspired by an attempt to reverse decades of state courts stripping Native children away from Native families. O’Connor’s ruling ignored decades of direct federal government-to-government relationship and precedent that have upheld tribal sovereignty and the rights of Indian children and families.

    On December 14th, 2018, O’Connor ruled the ACA Unconstitutional, thus realizing the dreams of Republicans everywhere to erase one more aspect of President Obama’s legacy.

  11. 11.

    NotMax

    200 is average? Hell, would be surprised if I have anything remotely close to 20.

    Got too many passwords to remember? Just wait. It’s going to get a lot worse.

    Average consumers five years from now may face double the demands for passwords, said Emmanuel Schalit, chief executive of Dashlane, a consumer password security company.

    Schalit and other experts predict that passwords will explode in further use before they eventually fade, replaced by new technology.

    Digital devices in homes are growing more numerous, but Schalit said the real driver behind the steady increase in the need for passwords are the sprawling number of accounts for consumers to obtain public services, interact on healthcare and education websites and deal with retailers.

    “The problem is not passwords. The problem is to ask humans to memorize and manage hundreds of them,” Schalit said.

    Dashlane, headquartered in New York City, estimates that the average American currently has about 200 accounts that require some sort of password identification, and that number will rise to 400 within five years or so.

    One expert believes Dashlane’s forecast is low. Source

  14. 14.

    laura

    You look interesting to all the right “people.”
    My friend is in San Jose right now seeing forever FLOTUS and I’m awaiting a seriously delish debrief.

  20. 20.

    Kayla Rudbek

    @NotMax: that sounds about right to me. I called up the Old Man to wish him a happy birthday, and he got going about all the passwords that he has to change because he switched internet providers so he has a new email address and apparently couldn’t keep the old one.

  21. 21.

    laura koerber

    What a friggin’ nightmare

    So this is how I spent today.

    It started two days ago. I am trying to get a Medicare supplement and I sent in the paperwork a month ago, but heard nothing in response. So I called up the office… and found out that they didn’t have me in the system and had not received any paperwork. I screamed for a while, apologized to the nice lady (who was very helpful—or tried to be), and made I arrangements to redo my forms and hand deliver them.

    So I set out for the hour and fifteen minute drive to Olympia to hand deliver my forms to WPEBB. That’s Washington public employee benefits, to you private sector folks. And no, they are not an evil agency. I am getting affordable insurance through them in my retirement, which private enterprise does not provide.

    No, the evil government in this narrative is the city of Olympia. This is what happened: Parking meters. Parking meters have changed since my younger days. I had cash. But my cash got me nowhere. No, I was confronted by a parking meter that I had to access through my cell phone!

    The meter told me to pay through Google Play on my phone. Fat frickin’ chance of that ever happening. I looked around. No wonder there were empty parking spaces all around me! This is parking by an agency for retired people! How many of us even have cell phones, let alone know how to access Google Play? There was some fine print on the meter which appeared to be a phone number, but the type was too small for me to read. I had to get help from a passerby by to get the number.

    So that meant standing there on the sidewalk, juggling my cell phone, my charge card, and my piece of paper while I answered an interminable list of questions. They wanted my cell phone number, my credit card number, the two digit expiration date (it’s a four digit date, you jerks!), a personal ID code, and my license plate number. I was trying to enter all this crap while the sun glare made my cell phone screen invisible.

    And it was set up so if I made a mistake answering a question more than once, it threw me back to the very beginning. And of course I could not answer the questions right! I can’t punch in all those numbers without transposing or skipping a digit. Not that many numbers. Not when I can barely see my phone.

    I was seriously at the crying point. I gave up and drove around looking for a pay parking lot, but they were all restricted access, employing only etc.

    I gave up.

    I drove home with the intent of FAXing but called WPEBB first, because I had a question which I had intend to ask at the office. So I got a customer service person and discovered that…wait for it…they had found my papers! I didn’t need to refile at all.

    Argghh.

    I am composing a letter to the city of Olympia about how their businesses have lost a customer due to the impossibility of anyone over the age of twenty-five being able to access parking. Not that I shop there very often, actually. I only go to Olympia for protest marches.

  22. 22.

    Gin & Tonic

    This is really rich, but might be a bit obscure for those of you not up on Eastern ecclesiastical history. For hundreds of years, a very large portion of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church has been ruled by the Moscow Patriarchate. There are other, smaller branches, but this is the major one. As Ukraine has been independent for over a quarter-century now, there has long been movement to have it controlled from Kyiv instead of Moscow. So recently (in the past couple of months) Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, sort of a first among equals, decided to allow that. Tomorrow, Saturday, a conclave of Ukrainian Orthodox clergy in Kyiv is expected to take the next steps to declaring independence. So Patriarch Kirill of Moscow has written a letter to the UN Secretary-general, and others, asking for help. This is the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church that has been in comrade Vladimir Vladimirovich’s pocket for the last couple of decades.

    I expect the UN Sec-Gen to say, more or less, WTF? Unfortunately, this dispute may very well lead to an increased level of war of Russia against Ukraine.

  24. 24.

    Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho

    Vova not gonna be happy. This is not good news for Ukraine, as I am given to understand by people who know about the whole Patriarch and independence thing.

  26. 26.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Maybe I’m stupid — yeah, I’m probably stupid — but I’m having trouble unstanding how “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer” is sexist. I get, although I disagree with the interpretation, how people could parse the lyrics and decide the song normalizes bullying. But SEXIST? I’m honestly not seeing it. Please help me here. Genuine query.

  29. 29.

    PJ

    @laura koerber: @laura koerber: Does Olympia own their parking meters? I ask because there has been a trend over the last couple of decades for municipalities to sell long term sources of revenue, such as parking meters, to private investors in exchange for lump sum upfront payments, so that the cities can paper over budget deficits without raising taxes. One upshot of this is that the new owners DGAF about whether the meters are accessible to the public, they just care about whatever is going to get them the loot as soon as possible. Quarters take a long time to make it from the meter to the coffers of investment bankers, but Google Pay will be there within less than 24 hours

  30. 30.

    Ohio Mom

    @SiubhanDuinne: Do you mean the song or that stop animation TV special with Burl Ives narrating?

    The female characters in the special (Rudolph’s Mom, Mrs. Claus, and a girl deer Rudolph’s age come to mind) were pretty wimpy doormats as I recall. As was typical for entertainments like the special in those times.

    Other than that, I can’t begin to guess.

  31. 31.

    Keith P.

    I tried to lay down and give one of my kittens (red flame Siamese!) some laid-back attention. It lasted for about 30 seconds before the manx started playing with a grocery back in the other room, the sound of which is irresistible to her half-brother, so now they’re both off to attack grocery bags in the foyer (I never even bother to throw them away, since the kitties love them so much….my foyer floor is littered with them)

  32. 32.

    Gin & Tonic

    @SiubhanDuinne: There was a post here a couple of days ago from one of the professional musicians (maybe Ajabu?) giving a suprising-to-me exegesis of the Rudolph song.

  34. 34.

    Ohio Mom

    @laura koerber: Cincinnati was talking for a while about setting up the parking meters so you could renew them from a distance with a phone app — no need to get up from that bar stool to feed more quarters or swipe your credit card (most meters here take both these days).

    I haven’t heard about this in a while, maybe someone figured out it would work against ensuring turnover. And making money on expired meters.

  38. 38.

    laura koerber

    @PJ: I dont know. Tacoma’s meters work like the grocery check out–you just stick in your credit card.

  40. 40.

    Jay Noble

    @SiubhanDuinne: It’s the TV special that’s sexist. “No daughter of mine . . . ” from Donnar, and some equally bad Patriarchal stuff from Santa and Rudolf’s dad

  41. 41.

    NotMax

    @laura koerber

    Meters on the streets which have them in the town where Mom lives use something called “quarters.” My understanding is they are incredibly easy to find.

  42. 42.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Gin & Tonic:

    Hmmm, I’d be interested to see that. May try to track it down

    Alternatively, may just sit back and wait for Steeplejack to flex his amazing google-fu muscles
    and find the link for me. At which point I’ll owe him yet another drink. Sigh. Story of my life.

  44. 44.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:
    Somebody at Wikipedia with no sense of humor probably reverted it. I have a screenshot of at least that first paragraph as proof anyway.

  48. 48.

    NotMax

    @SiubhanDuinne

    Headlines we’d like to see:

    “Insurance companies reeling after massive increase in claims for damage to rooftop solar panels on December 24th.”

    :)

  51. 51.

    Ohio Mom

    Michael Brube (remember his blog?) often points out that there is a lot of disability in literature, and that it can drive the plot.

    There’s also the social theory of disability, which holds that what is ultimately the most disabling is the environment that society creates (an example is, add curb cuts and being in a wheelchair no longer hampers mobility).

    Certainly this is true for the Rudolph story — Rudolph’s “disability” in the form of his atypical nose, drives the plot. It’s a disability because everyone has decided it is one, that having a red nose means you can’t pull a sled. It’s socially-constructed.

    Ultimately we see that being “differently-abled” can bring gifts that enrich the entire community. Score one for diversity and another point for inclusivity.

    That’s my exegesis, don’t know what Ajabu’s is.

  53. 53.

    FlyingToaster

    @laura koerber: Wow. Even PITA places here in the People’s Republic (I’m looking at you, Belmont, Newton & Brookline) have those pillars in the lot or on the corner for those who can’t/won’t pay by phone. And Cambridge still has quarters on the street meters — though you have to keep track of where in the city you’re parking to figure out how many quarters you’ll need (‘way more expensive next to Harvard than northwest of Porter).

  54. 54.

    Ohio Mom

    @Another Scott: Well, there is an argument to be made for that interpretation too.

    Depends if you think Santa and the rest are remorseful and have changed their thinking, or if they are seeing Rudolph only in a transactional way.

    Not sure we have enough information either way.

  55. 55.

    Jay

    In town, they have these things called “pay stations” every half block where it’s pay parking.

    They take nickles, dimes, quarters, ( not 50 cent pieces or pennies), loonies, toonies, bills ($5, $10, $20), credit cards and debit cards.

    You punch in your lisence plate, long you want to park, and pay.

    You get a receipt, but no need to stick it in the window. Enforcement has connected IPads to check status.

  57. 57.

    Steeplejack

    @CliosFanBoy:

    Most of my metered parking is done in Arlington. I love their ominous notices:

    ALL MAY PARK
    ALL MUST PAY

    I think that was on a Revolutionary War-era flag with a snake or something. Pretty sure.

  60. 60.

    Ohio Mom

    In every store I go to, the credit card reader is configured differently. In some, you can’t put the card before it tells you to, in others you can put the card in at any time, there are ones you swipe, ones you insert, ones that want your signature, one that don’t…

    Now I am reading that parking meters are just as varied and just as confusing. Maybe I will stay here in the suburbs, land of free parking, after all.

  61. 61.

    Ohio Mom

    @NotMax: Unless you are driving with my 86 year old aunt. She just whips out the handicapped parking permit and chuckles gleefully. Her reward for a lifetime in NYC is that she finally does not have to worry about finding a parking space.

  62. 62.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    @Ohio Mom:
    I remember back in May or so credit card companies stopped requiring signatures entirely. It’s not like they would have been useful anyway, given most setups require you to sign electronically. You could sign it as Daffy Duck and they wouldn’t know the difference or care.

  63. 63.

    NotMax

    @Ohio Mom

    yet another reason I always pay in person with either cash or check.

    @Ohio Mom

    Have been noodging Mom (age almost 91) for a while to ask one of her doctors to sign off on her getting a handicapped placard.

    To no avail whatsoever.

  66. 66.

    NotMax

    @Ohio Mom

    Her usual response is, “I don’t want to take a space from someone who might really need it.”

    To which I reply that having it doesn’t mean you are required to park in those spaces, it gives you that option for times when you’re not firing on all cylinders.

  67. 67.

    Steeplejack

    @NotMax:

    To my mild embarrassment, I haven’t deployed it yet. I need to get the old TV to the county electronics recycling facility, and I’ve been thinking about rejiggering my whole “media setup,” which may involve getting a new stand/​console. Which would involve—eek!—shopping. In short: dithering.

    But I scored the TV at a good price—it’s already gone back up $200 at Best Buy—with minimal hassle, and that was the main thing. And streaming on the 8" tablet has been a surprisingly good alternative.

  68. 68.

    FlyingToaster

    @Ohio Mom: The places that have loyalty cards — well, the ones that I possess — don’t make me sign, since I swiped/scanned AND put in a chip card. Or had to enter my phone # and then chip card.

    Most of the non-chain stores still make me sign.

  69. 69.

    NotMax

    @Steeplejack

    At the very least, unbox it, hook it up temporarily and plug it in to ensure it works before the return window closes.

    Took the landlady’s expired microwave oven to the place that accepts those for recycling this past Monday, a major industrial area crammed with businesses, junkyards, etc., etc. Whole area wasn’t built up until relatively recently. Lots of big trucks and tractor trailers going in and out all the time, so of course the roads the county put in are barely wide enough for two vehicles side by side, and replete with curves and doglegs. Really, really dislike having to go there.

  70. 70.

    Ohio Mom

    @FlyingToaster: Now that I think about it, it is mostly the local, Mom-and-pop places where I have to sign. And the pharmacy, because it’s the pharmacy.

    When I’ve been running errands, and bouncing from store to store, I unthinkingly try doing whatever it was I did in the store before and it’s wrong this time. I feel sorriest for the cashiers who have to repeat the same directions all day long.

  71. 71.

    Steeplejack

    @NotMax:

    Good point about checking that it works.

    I went by the city electronics recycling facility—tucked away in an area much as you describe—which is much closer, but I found that my address is a stone’s throw outside the technical city limits, so I would have to pay $40 to drop off the TV. Grr. So county it is. (Good thing I didn’t have the TV with me.)

  73. 73.

    2liberal

    Tom Brady’s 113.0 passer rating vs. the #Steelers is the highest by any QB vs one opponent (min. 10 starts) since the 1970 merger.

  74. 74.

    NotMax

    @Steeplejack

    BTW, because wasn’t sure where exactly iwithn the industrial and warehouse maze the place is, I checked for door to door directions on Google maps.

    Which, as it turned out, were incorrect.

  75. 75.

    Steeplejack

    @NotMax:

    In my experience, Google Maps is usually great, but it can get a little sketchy in “private” areas—industrial parks, big shopping centers, etc., that are off public streets (or perhaps off public streets of a certain size).

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