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Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Friday Afternoon Open Thread

Friday Afternoon Open Thread

by Betty Cracker|  December 21, 20182:59 pm| 183 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads

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Here’s a mini-cypress dome that lives upriver:

The trees aren’t as tall as I am right now, but if you come back in a couple of hundred years, they will have formed a soaring cathedral of trunks, branches, leaves and moss, assuming climate catastrophe hasn’t drowned the entire state.

Open thread!

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Reader Interactions

183Comments

  1. 1.

    Elizabelle

    December 21, 2018 at 3:03 pm

    People can grab onto the branches for dear life, as they sweep by in floods.

    Happy Friday!

  2. 2.

    Baud

    December 21, 2018 at 3:03 pm

    @Elizabelle: Happy Friday, ‘belle.

  3. 3.

    rikyrah

    December 21, 2018 at 3:06 pm

    It is Friday.
    Be happy, people.

    I missed the Timeless Series Finale :(

    But, because I had bought Season 2 on Amazon Video, I got it :)

    That’s what I will spend this evening watching :)

    loved that show.

  4. 4.

    germy

    December 21, 2018 at 3:07 pm

    Some Peter De Vries quotes:

    Life is a zoo in a jungle.

    I write when I’m inspired, and I see to it that I’m inspired at nine o’clock every morning.

    The rich aren’t like us, they pay less taxes.

    Everybody hates me because I’m so universally liked.

  5. 5.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    December 21, 2018 at 3:08 pm

    @Baud:
    I might have told you this before, but your nym always reminds me of that old show Maude.

  6. 6.

    Roger Moore

    December 21, 2018 at 3:10 pm

    assuming climate catastrophe hasn’t drowned the entire state.

    That’s a big assumption.

  7. 7.

    Kent

    December 21, 2018 at 3:10 pm

    @rikyrah: You should check out the Spanish TV version on Netflix called “El Ministerio del Tiempo” that Timeless ripped off: https://www.netflix.com/title/80064235

  8. 8.

    raven

    December 21, 2018 at 3:12 pm

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??: The bar across from where use are staying in the Quarter shows it non-stop. NO, it’s not a SPORTS bar!

  9. 9.

    Betty Cracker

    December 21, 2018 at 3:12 pm

    @rikyrah: What was it about? Also, has anyone watched Bird Box on Netflix? The premise sounds interesting.

  10. 10.

    Baud

    December 21, 2018 at 3:13 pm

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??:

    One of the ideas I had for a Baud! 2020! slogan is “And then there’s Baud!”

    ETA:. Aren’t you too young for Maude?

  11. 11.

    Kent

    December 21, 2018 at 3:16 pm

    @Betty Cracker: It’s a time travel show. Government agents travel back to the past to stop other rogue agents from messing with the timeline. So they visit key historical moments like WWII, the Civil War, Revolutionary War, etc.

    It borrowed the concept from a very good Spanish TV show that is honestly better and more interesting as their scope of history goes back to the Roman times.

  12. 12.

    germy

    December 21, 2018 at 3:17 pm

    More Peter De Vries quotes:

    “The universe is like a safe to which there is a combination. But the combination is locked up in the safe.”

    “The idea of a Supreme Being who creates a world in which one creature is designed to eat another in order to subsist, and then pass a law saying, “Thou shalt not kill,” is so monstrously, immeasurably, bottomlessly absurd that I am at a loss to understand how mankind has entertained or given it house room all this long.”

    “What baffles me is the comfort people find in the idea that somebody dealt this mess. Blind and meaningless chance seems to me so much more congenial – or at least less horrible. Prove to me that there is a God and I will really begin to despair.”

  13. 13.

    debit

    December 21, 2018 at 3:18 pm

    @Baud: Will you wear the pant suit?

  14. 14.

    rikyrah

    December 21, 2018 at 3:21 pm

    Lips pursed.

    …………………….

    Where Government Is a Dirty Word, but Its Checks Pay the Bills

    The residents of Harlan County, Ky., depend heavily on federal assistance. That hasn’t deterred, and may explain, their swing to Republican voting.
    ———————–
    Harlan County is the nation’s fifth most dependent on federal programs, according to the government’s Bureau of Economic Analysis. In 2016 some 54 percent of the income of the county’s roughly 26,000 residents came from programs like Social Security and Medicaid, food stamps — formally known as SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — and the earned-income tax credit. That is up from 28 percent in 1990.
    —————-
    Surrounding counties are similarly dependent. Part of a coal-mining region in long, inexorable decline, this pocket of the nation exemplifies a political paradox: Why are so many American voters hostile to the government hand that feeds them?

    “The SNAP card works every month; the kids eat two meals a day, but people don’t think about where the food comes from and go vote for Republicans,” said Larry King, a farmer who is chairman of the Democratic Party in nearby McCreary County, whose residents get 55 percent of their income from federal transfers.
    ———————
    Take Daniel Lewis, who crashed his car into a coal truck 15 years ago, breaking his neck and suffering a blood clot in his brain when he was only 21. He is grateful for the $1,600 a month his family gets from disability insurance; for his Medicaid benefits; for the food stamps he shares with his wife and two children.

    “Every need I have has been met,” Mr. Lewis told me. He disagrees with the governor’s proposal to demand that Medicaid recipients get a job. And yet, in 2016, he voted for Mr. Trump. “It was the lesser of two evils,” he said.
    ————————
    Mr. Jones, a Republican who not long ago was a Democrat, speaks from a deep well of grievance over the fact that generations of Harlan residents have had to turn to the government for sustenance. That sentiment mixes in with a vague but powerful resentment across the county toward a political system that people here blame for allowing, encouraging even, the decline of coal, its economic backbone.

    Many people blame Mr. Obama’s Clean Power Plan for killing coal and credit their vote for Mr. Trump to his promise that he would revitalize the industry. Some are skeptical of a government that saved Detroit’s automakers but not Appalachia’s lifeline. And this feeling is going to be hard to shake.

  15. 15.

    jl

    December 21, 2018 at 3:22 pm

    @debit: ” Will you wear the pant suit? ”
    After Trump, Baud 2020! needs even more ridiculous gimmicks than he ever imagined before. So he better.

  16. 16.

    rikyrah

    December 21, 2018 at 3:22 pm

    SCOTUS — voting 5-4 — won’t block California judge’s ruling against Trump asylum ban. Order just issued: pic.twitter.com/8fs36IfTcn

    — Mike Scarcella (@MikeScarcella) December 21, 2018

  17. 17.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    December 21, 2018 at 3:22 pm

    @Baud:
    I like it ^^. I’m not your typical twentysomething. Also, there’s these things called cable/satellite television and reruns.

  18. 18.

    Baud

    December 21, 2018 at 3:22 pm

    @debit: It will be how I will honor Hillary.

  19. 19.

    germy

    December 21, 2018 at 3:23 pm

    @rikyrah:

    “It isn’t welfare when White people get it.”

  20. 20.

    Schlemazel

    December 21, 2018 at 3:23 pm

    Parts of that toilet with palm trees are gorgeous. I particularly love that there is always something in bloom. The parts least touch by the people who have made FL the disaster it is are the very best

  21. 21.

    rikyrah

    December 21, 2018 at 3:24 pm

    @Kent:

    Thank you..

    I love a good timetravel show.

  22. 22.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    December 21, 2018 at 3:25 pm

    @rikyrah:
    Wonder if Gorsuch and Kavanaugh are going to get angry phone calls today.

    “You guys were supposed to help me! You’re my goddamn enforcers!”

  23. 23.

    Raven Onthill

    December 21, 2018 at 3:25 pm

    I suppose eventually the shutdown will end before Trump is out of office. After enough pain, the various factions will find a way to compromise. But it’s going to be months.

  24. 24.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    December 21, 2018 at 3:26 pm

    @raven:
    Is it some channel for classic TV?

  25. 25.

    rikyrah

    December 21, 2018 at 3:28 pm

    @Betty Cracker:

    Also, has anyone watched Bird Box on Netflix? The premise sounds interesting.

    Bird Box looks terrifying to me. I’ll skip on the scary movies.

  26. 26.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    December 21, 2018 at 3:28 pm

    @Baud: He’s also too young to have seen a 9600 baud modem.

  27. 27.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    December 21, 2018 at 3:30 pm

    @rikyrah:

    Mr. Jones, a Republican who not long ago was a Democrat, speaks from a deep well of grievance over the fact that generations of Harlan residents have had to turn to the government for sustenance. That sentiment mixes in with a vague but powerful resentment across the county toward a political system that people here blame for allowing, encouraging even, the decline of coal, its economic backbone.

    Many people blame Mr. Obama’s Clean Power Plan for killing coal and credit their vote for Mr. Trump to his promise that he would revitalize the industry. Some are skeptical of a government that saved Detroit’s automakers but not Appalachia’s lifeline. And this feeling is going to be hard to shake.

    Fuck their feelings.

  28. 28.

    eclare

    December 21, 2018 at 3:31 pm

    @Betty Cracker: It sounds terrifying! But yes, I’m interested too…..

  29. 29.

    donnah

    December 21, 2018 at 3:31 pm

    Hey, folks! Remember the Christopher Robin and Winnie the Pooh hooked rug? Well, I submitted it to the Main Library here as a donation and the committee has accepted it! Apparently they get lots of art donated, so it’s a real honor to have been accepted.

    More details to be determined after the holidays, but what good news!

  30. 30.

    debit

    December 21, 2018 at 3:33 pm

    @donnah: Congratulations!!

  31. 31.

    Baud

    December 21, 2018 at 3:34 pm

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??:

    Many people blame Mr. Obama’s Clean Power Plan for killing coal and credit their vote for Mr. Trump to his promise that he would revitalize the industry.blackness. Some are skeptical of a government that saved Detroit’s automakers but not Appalachia’s lifeline. black people. And this feeling is going to be hard to shake.

    Fixed

  32. 32.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    December 21, 2018 at 3:34 pm

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:
    Eh. The first 9600 baud modem came out in 1991. I wasn’t that far off (’95).

  33. 33.

    HeleninEire

    December 21, 2018 at 3:37 pm

    Yeah. Happy Friday to everyone. I am off work until January 2. And then I have only 8 more days of work. Then 16 more days until I return to Queens.

    Not that I’m counting. :)

  34. 34.

    schrodingers_cat

    December 21, 2018 at 3:37 pm

    लाभले आम्हास भाग्य बोलतो मराठी We are lucky that we speak Marathi.
    I miss speaking Marathi, hearing it IRL. In India the real divisions (if you look at the history too) are linguistic not religious. That’s precisely why the current stupid experiment of Hindu majoritarianism is going to fail. Because culturally and linguistically I would have more in common with a Marathi speaking Muslim than I would with a Hindu from a southern state.
    Marathi is one of the oldest Prakrits (colloquial languages close to Sanskrit), about a 1000 years old, it is older than Hindi. It also has a fair amount of Farsi words.

  35. 35.

    trollhattan

    December 21, 2018 at 3:38 pm

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:
    9600 baud? Sheer luxury! Why in my day, we had to put the handset on the receiver, dial and pray we’d get 1200. And we loved it!

  36. 36.

    A Ghost To Most

    December 21, 2018 at 3:38 pm

    @Schlemazel:

    toilet with palm trees

    For the record, I didn’t say that. I call it a pool table with swamps for pockets.

  37. 37.

    raven

    December 21, 2018 at 3:38 pm

    It looks like there are about 500 people at the Bahama Bowl but I look fro big things at the Idaho Famous Potato Bowl!

  38. 38.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    December 21, 2018 at 3:38 pm

    @Baud:
    All you libturds want to talk about is race. Tell me this, wiseguy: how can you libs feel so superior when Andrew Jackson was a Democrat, huh? //

    Actual right-wing arguments I’ve encountered.

  39. 39.

    rikyrah

    December 21, 2018 at 3:39 pm

    @donnah:

    That rug was beautiful. They would have been crazy not to accept it. It was gorgeous, and Congratulations!

  40. 40.

    raven

    December 21, 2018 at 3:39 pm

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??: Huh, I assume it’s a dvd.

  41. 41.

    HeleninEire

    December 21, 2018 at 3:40 pm

    @Baud: Yeah he is probably to young for Maude. Of course because it was Norman Lear, Maude was the first TV person to have an abortion.

    Best show.

    ETA: “And then there’s Baud” would ROCK. I would contribute to that campaign.

  42. 42.

    schrodingers_cat

    December 21, 2018 at 3:41 pm

    @Baud: Isn’t everyone on Balloon Juice too young for Maud?

  43. 43.

    A Ghost To Most

    December 21, 2018 at 3:41 pm

    @trollhattan: You got 1200 baud? We had 300 baud; uphill both ways.

    Whippersnappers, get off my T1.

  44. 44.

    Schlemazel

    December 21, 2018 at 3:42 pm

    @trollhattan:
    HA! a wooden box about the size of a 4 slice toaster that got 300 baud. It has larger rubber ears you put the phone receiver in. Iused to be able to whistle the frequencies that set up the connection that was necessary for testing repairs

  45. 45.

    WaterGirl

    December 21, 2018 at 3:42 pm

    @rikyrah: Timeless is such a good show! I saved the last 5 episodes on Tivo (unwatched) until I could be sure they were really going to do a finale.

    The finale recorded last night – watching Timeless might just be what I do for New Year’s.

  46. 46.

    Kent

    December 21, 2018 at 3:42 pm

    @rikyrah: You will like it. It’s honestly more clever than Timeless.

  47. 47.

    Martin

    December 21, 2018 at 3:43 pm

    @Baud: To their credit, when Hillary told them that the coal jobs were going away and that the feds would help them retrain, they mocked her for that.

    History is awash with people that refused to accept the fate of their dying professions. I feel bad for them, but I’m not willing to back down even an inch for them. We’ve got people dying from climate change. If this the hill the coal miners wish to die on, I’m more than happy to get it over with quickly.

  48. 48.

    jl

    December 21, 2018 at 3:43 pm

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: ” He’s also too young to have seen a 9600 baud modem. ”

    But Baud 2020!!! can do really funny beep and buzz noises for press conferences.
    Will be a great Baud explainer for how his plans to deal with the cyber.

  49. 49.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    December 21, 2018 at 3:43 pm

    @trollhattan: First modem I had was a 300 baud in grad school, but it wasn’t the handset in the receiver type just the little box that attached to the serial port on my IBM/PC.

  50. 50.

    WaterGirl

    December 21, 2018 at 3:44 pm

    @Kent: English subtitles?

  51. 51.

    donnah

    December 21, 2018 at 3:44 pm

    Thanks, people!

    Here’s a link, in case you wanted to see it.

    https://imgur.com/gallery/PPeXdYd

  52. 52.

    Schlemazel

    December 21, 2018 at 3:45 pm

    @raven:
    I believe the local side is in the Larry’s Dry cleaning and Keys Made WHile You Wait bowl against a team from GA (I forget which one)/ I m sure they will leave MNs natural humble nature unchanged

  53. 53.

    WaterGirl

    December 21, 2018 at 3:46 pm

    @donnah: They would have to be crazy not to accept that!!! Congratulations.

  54. 54.

    Martin

    December 21, 2018 at 3:47 pm

    @Schlemazel: Ok, that’s badass. I had a 300 baud modem. I even remember saving software to audio cassette tape. But there’s no way I could have learned to whistle those frequencies. That’s some Captn Crunch shit right there.

  55. 55.

    Gin & Tonic

    December 21, 2018 at 3:47 pm

    For those following the Senate “drama”, Bloomberg’s Sahil Kapur is reporting that the vote on a motion to consider the funding bill (note, not the bill itself, but the question of whether to vote on it) is stuck at 44-46. This is from Twitter, so not much detail of who’s there and who’s not, etc. But they can’t (yet) successfully vote to vote on this. I’m sure all those Senators who yo-yoed on their flights back home yesterday are overjoyed by all this.

  56. 56.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    December 21, 2018 at 3:47 pm

    @jl:

    But Baud 2020!!! can do really funny beep and buzz noises for press conferences.

    That’s not the job for the President! How are you at doing funny beep and buzz noises?

  57. 57.

    Kent

    December 21, 2018 at 3:48 pm

    @Raven Onthill:

    I suppose eventually the shutdown will end before Trump is out of office. After enough pain, the various factions will find a way to compromise. But it’s going to be months.

    I believe the TSA is part of the shutdown. I would expect to start seeing massive sick-outs by TSA employees who can’t afford to keep showing up to the airports and not get paid. I, for one would be using up all my sick leave if I was in that position. Shut down air travel in this country during the holiday travel season and things will get resolved in a hurry. Especially if Trump is on his 15 day Mar a Lago golf vacation courtesy of Air Force 1 while the rest of the country is sitting still in airports.

  58. 58.

    raven

    December 21, 2018 at 3:48 pm

    @Schlemazel: The Gophers play the little bumblebees the day after exams.

  59. 59.

    Kent

    December 21, 2018 at 3:49 pm

    @WaterGirl: Yes. I speak Spanish so I don’t really notice. But it’s really good. There’s an astonishing number of really good Spanish TV shows on Netflix these days. More so than from other European countries. I’m not sure why. Maybe they can take advantage of the massive Latin American market easier than say a Dutch or French show.

  60. 60.

    A Ghost To Most

    December 21, 2018 at 3:50 pm

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: US Robotics? They were gods, once.

  61. 61.

    Marcopolo

    December 21, 2018 at 3:51 pm

    @trollhattan: Oh yeah? Try playing empire on a green monochrome monitor in you dorm room using a 300 baud phone/cradle link. You could get a lot done while the screen refreshed each turn. Those were the days!

    Also, since I not on that much atm happy Winter Solstice/Xmas/Festivus/Kwanza and everything else I am forgetting to everyone—I’m leaving out Han… cuz I can’t spell it.

  62. 62.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    December 21, 2018 at 3:51 pm

    @donnah: I remember that rug! Cool. Kids will love it.

  63. 63.

    Gin & Tonic

    December 21, 2018 at 3:51 pm

    Also, the 5-4 SCOTUS decision on the Trump asylum ban question had Roberts and the 4 Dems together, with the rest of the R hacks dissenting. This will be an interesting remainder of term.

  64. 64.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    December 21, 2018 at 3:52 pm

    @A Ghost To Most: Either that or Hays.

  65. 65.

    Schlemazel

    December 21, 2018 at 3:52 pm

    @Martin:
    I met Cap’n Crunch at a party in the 70s. We got high and he showed us a bunch of spiffy tricks on phones. It changed the way I saw the world but I never really thought much about it until ~1993 when I was at a security conference with a bunch of government security people. Something came up that reminded me of one of his tricks so I related the story & the reaction I got clued into he was someone ‘important’. before that I just thought he was another long haired freak.

  66. 66.

    oatler.

    December 21, 2018 at 3:52 pm

    @HeleninEire: Adrienne Boobaux

  67. 67.

    HeleninEire

    December 21, 2018 at 3:53 pm

    @oatler.: Ah, the daughter. GORGEOUS.

  68. 68.

    Schlemazel

    December 21, 2018 at 3:54 pm

    @raven:
    Unless the spread is ridiculous you should bet the bees cover with plenty to spare

  69. 69.

    Martin

    December 21, 2018 at 3:54 pm

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Presidenting is more of a bing/bong than a beep/buzz thing.

  70. 70.

    Kent

    December 21, 2018 at 3:55 pm

    @Schlemazel: Steve Jobs was a phone hacker in college long before he got round to inventing Apple. He mentions Captain Crunch as his inspiration.

    https://www.mac-history.net/apple-people/2013-02-02/blue-box

    Steve Jobs: Yes, we did call Pope. He pretended to be Henry Kissinger. We got the number of the Vatican. And we called the Pope. They started waking people up in the hierarchy, you know. I don’t know, cardinals and this and that. And they actually sent someone to wake up the Pope. When finally we just burst out laughing they realized that we weren’t Henry Kissinger. And so we never got to talk to the Pope. But it was very funny, so.

  71. 71.

    raven

    December 21, 2018 at 3:55 pm

    @Schlemazel: They suck and their genius coach is leaving.

  72. 72.

    Baud

    December 21, 2018 at 3:55 pm

    @Marcopolo:

    Estoy intentando de aprender español. Tendré que buscar esos programas.

  73. 73.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    December 21, 2018 at 3:56 pm

    @Martin: Exactly, that’s why the beep/buzz is jl’s job.

    ETA: I’ve also be informed that Presidenting is hard work.

  74. 74.

    WaterGirl

    December 21, 2018 at 3:56 pm

    @Kent: Alas, I do not speak spanish.

  75. 75.

    Baud

    December 21, 2018 at 3:58 pm

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    The TV doesn’t change itself to Fox News.

  76. 76.

    JaySinWA

    December 21, 2018 at 3:59 pm

    Aren’t you too young for Maude

    @Baud: He would make a good Herald for Herald and Maude.

  77. 77.

    lamh36

    December 21, 2018 at 4:01 pm

    I’ve been pissed about this since I saw the first tweet from the sports journalist praising it

    ‪High School Wrestling Ref Who Called Colleague The N-Word Makes Black Wrestler Cut Off His Dreadlocks  https://deadspin.com/high-school-wrestling-ref-who-called-colleague-the-n-wo-1831260042 via @deadspin‬

    This incident is a Rorschach test for racism. A white referee who once called a colleague “nigger” told a black wrestler to cut his dreadlocks off or be forced to forfeit. A white journalist called the young man a “team player.” I saw a kid being violated.

    I’m not suggesting that there are two legitimate ways to view what happened to this young wrestler. He was subjected to a racist standard, and he clearly realized it (even as he went on to win). You shouldn’t see that as him being a “team player” while ignoring his victimization.

    It is clear that @MikeFrankelSNJ saw Andrew Johnson choosing to have his dreadlocks cut off as a selfless, All-American sacrifice. But to ignore how wrong it was for that choice to be forced—upon a child, no less—isn’t merely white blindness. It is journalistic malpractice.
    https://twitter.com/jamilsmith/status/1076213745716621312?s=21

  78. 78.

    Schlemazel

    December 21, 2018 at 4:01 pm

    @raven:
    well then maybe it will be a fair contest
    although the local boys have a habit of underperforming and I don’t think they beat and decent teams this year.
    Little Sister of the Poor and the St. Vitus Dance were their stellar tp a 6-6 season

  79. 79.

    jl

    December 21, 2018 at 4:02 pm

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: ” How are you at doing funny beep and buzz noises? ”
    You’ve seen enough of my comments for an educated guess on that.

    Sorry that you are too behind the times on the innovative approaches the Baud base plans to make government more efficient.
    Thousands of Baud staffers making funny beep and buzz noises will foil cyber attacks. That needs to be explained to the public.

  80. 80.

    A Ghost To Most

    December 21, 2018 at 4:02 pm

    @Marcopolo: Shit, I remember seeing my first CRT terminal (Honeywell) in the USAF in 1976, and being blown away. It was IBM Selectric consoles, punch cards, and reel tapes then.

    In 1985, Telematics, one of the first commercial network switch companies, turned over their first switch with a C compiler to me and my GE comms team, and we laid down the switch architecture in C, the first commercial network switch written in C. It had all been assembler prior.

  81. 81.

    Baud

    December 21, 2018 at 4:04 pm

    @jl:

    Thousands of Baud staffers making funny beep and buzz noises will foil cyber attacks. 

    Brilliant! You’re my new cyber czar.

  82. 82.

    Patricia Kayden

    December 21, 2018 at 4:04 pm

    @rikyrah: Yes, it was the Black Kenyan who did coal in. Of course, that makes a whole lot of sense. I’m curious about what Trump has done to revive the coal industry because I haven’t heard that he has.

  83. 83.

    The Dangerman

    December 21, 2018 at 4:04 pm

    CNN reporting Jared and Pence meeting with Schumer right now. I assume some bribes are being offered and I assume Schumer has tape recorded his voice so he doesn’t have to keep repeating his “fuck you’s”.

  84. 84.

    lamh36

    December 21, 2018 at 4:04 pm

    @lamh36: So this kid grew those locs overnight then? Not one if his coaches who know the “rules” told the kid hey you’ll have to cut ur hair before joint the team? No they rather the kid be humiliated like this? Look at that kid’s body language for fuqs sake…he looks dejected!

    And number of folks, talking about it’s a rule…willing to make excuses for the ref cutting that kids hair, even after hearing about that ref’s history of racism and seeing the body language on that kid…makes me sick. I don’t care that shit should still hurt ur heart.

    Look at that kids demeanor as he is getting his car cut and pretty roughly by the woman cutting it, and even after he won…and tell me that shit it ok

  85. 85.

    Cermet

    December 21, 2018 at 4:04 pm

    @Marcopolo: I’ll meet your 300 baud and raise you punch cards.

  86. 86.

    Frankensteinbeck

    December 21, 2018 at 4:06 pm

    @The Dangerman:

    Jared and Pence meeting with Schumer right now.

    Ha ha ha ha! Well, they’re known for their vast charisma and problem solving abilities.

    @Cermet:
    I’m in the ‘cassette tape’ generation, myself.

  87. 87.

    Patricia Kayden

    December 21, 2018 at 4:07 pm

    @Gin & Tonic: I guess it’s reallybtrie that Roberts cares about his legacy and won’t rubberstamp everything coming out of this regime. Good to know.

  88. 88.

    eclare

    December 21, 2018 at 4:07 pm

    @donnah: Beautiful!

  89. 89.

    Brachiator

    December 21, 2018 at 4:07 pm

    they will have formed a soaring cathedral of trunks, branches, leaves and moss

    What a wonderful image! Hope that the trees are there, along with future generations to enjoy them.

  90. 90.

    dmsilev

    December 21, 2018 at 4:08 pm

    Rejoice, everyone! The shutdown is sure to be avoided now that Mr. Fix-everything is on the case:

    Now in Schumer’s office:
    VP Pence
    Mick Mulvaney
    Jared Kushner

    (Via TPM). You know, Schumer could earn himself a lot of liberal good-will if he leaves his office, locks the door behind him, and calls for a crew of bricklayers.

  91. 91.

    Kent

    December 21, 2018 at 4:08 pm

    Stock market crashed again today. This is going to start getting some GOP attention. The money boys are not going to be amused, nor are all the MAGA retirees in Florida living on their 401k portfolios.

  92. 92.

    Patricia Kayden

    December 21, 2018 at 4:08 pm

    @The Dangerman: I hope Schumer doesn’t cave in. I still don’t understand why Jared is so heavily involved in this administration.

  93. 93.

    A Ghost To Most

    December 21, 2018 at 4:09 pm

    @Cermet: I’ll see your punch cards, and raise paper tape.

  94. 94.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    December 21, 2018 at 4:09 pm

    @lamh36: I have never understood some adults’ obsession with kids’ hair.

  95. 95.

    Martin

    December 21, 2018 at 4:09 pm

    @Schlemazel: That’s super cool. Well, he was certainly important in the sense that he was inspiration and a bit of glue for so much of the early tech industry here. Probably also fair to say that some of the valley’s ‘move fast and break stuff’ attitude comes from him, given his frequent legal run-ins. I think the idea of of using the internal infrastructure of companies and markets to solve other issues really goes back to him. That’s certainly an important security area these days, as well as how many new industries have cropped up. Google mostly exists from scraping other people’s websites and giving users better access to a company’s information than the company did. That’s a very similar worldview to the phreakers.

    The long haired freaks charted some pretty important ground back then.

  96. 96.

    rikyrah

    December 21, 2018 at 4:11 pm

    @lamh36:

    Been mad ever since I read about it.
    Just…..ugh!!

  97. 97.

    Patricia Kayden

    December 21, 2018 at 4:12 pm

    @Kent: Who knew that a dangerously, out of control maniac would destroy the economy?

  98. 98.

    JaySinWA

    December 21, 2018 at 4:12 pm

    @Cermet: I’ll see your punch cards and raise you teletypes and paper tape. (well mostly exposed to them, not actually punching them) I hung around the teletypes in the newsroom at a tender age.

  99. 99.

    NotMax

    December 21, 2018 at 4:13 pm

    @Cermet

    Punch cards were versatile – fit perfectly in a shirt’s chest pocket to have as ready-made note paper – 1001 uses besides being run through a card reader.

  100. 100.

    gene108

    December 21, 2018 at 4:14 pm

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??:

    Best counter argument I encountered to “Democrats put up all those Confederate monuments, so take that libtard” is “yeah, we did and now we want to take them down, so what’s your problem Republiclown”

  101. 101.

    The Dangerman

    December 21, 2018 at 4:14 pm

    @Patricia Kayden:

    I hope Schumer doesn’t cave in.

    I can’t imagine he will unless the price is sky high. I mean, it would have to be a doozy.

  102. 102.

    chopper

    December 21, 2018 at 4:15 pm

    so, still 44-46 with NOs ahead. four dems have yet to vote and two goopers are sitting at home, so at best it’s 49-50 and the bill doesn’t advance. yertle’s held the vote open for the last four hours to no avail, and the live stream from c-span shows an empty chamber with a few interns yukking it up.

    mcconnell’s gonna be pissed that drumpf put him in this situation. it’s pretty humiliating, and i’m sure his caucus isn’t gonna be happy with him for making them all come back to DC just to lose a vote.

    this is a goddamned clown show.

  103. 103.

    A Ghost To Most

    December 21, 2018 at 4:15 pm

    @Kent:
    Last January, our stockbroker was pushing stocks, confident that there was little risk to the year. I asked, “What’s going to happen when the treason charges start rolling in?”
    He looked at me like I was crazy.

  104. 104.

    MattF

    December 21, 2018 at 4:16 pm

    @Schlemazel: Famous line from Dave Barry compares the sounds that an acoustic modem makes to a duck swallowing a kazoo.

  105. 105.

    Quinerly

    December 21, 2018 at 4:16 pm

    @rikyrah: an oldie but a goodie…. “Time Bandits.”

  106. 106.

    gene108

    December 21, 2018 at 4:16 pm

    @Kent:

    The money boys are not going to be amused, nor are all the MAGA retirees in Florida living on their 401k portfolios.

    The money boys probably shorted the shit out of stocks, so they will be okay.

    The retirees in FL will take a hit.

  107. 107.

    Schlemazel

    December 21, 2018 at 4:17 pm

    @Martin:
    I wish that I understood who I was with at the time and had spent more time learning from him. I was pretty young and ‘tech’ did not really mean much at the time.

    One of the tricks he pulled was to connect to a phone switch that was ’empty’ but anyone who connected could speak to each other like a big party line. Now I understand how that worked but at the time it was just a cute stunt

  108. 108.

    WaterGirl

    December 21, 2018 at 4:17 pm

    @lamh36: That is so very wrong.

    These entitled pricks need to stop thinking they can control everyone. Which means we have to stop letting them get away with it.

    edit: Okay, I thought I was enraged BEFORE I clicked the link and saw the photo of the lily white blond publicly cutting the dreadlocks off of that young man. Now my blood is boiling.

  109. 109.

    A Ghost To Most

    December 21, 2018 at 4:19 pm

    @gene108: Anyone equating pre-1968 and post-1968 political parties is not to be taken seriously.

  110. 110.

    lamh36

    December 21, 2018 at 4:19 pm

    @lamh36:

    An update from the… *looks directly at camera* …journalist whose tweet originally framed the incident as an upbeat story about team spirit and self-sacrifice: twitter.com/mikefrankelsnj…

    https://twitter.com/theferocity/status/1076221188110798848?s=21

    Here is my thing…the coaches putting the onus on this kid to make a decision like that is bullshit. Can u imagine the pressure that kid is already under at a school and sport where he is the minority? Of course he’d say “yes cut it”. He is not the adult in this situation thoughx the fuqn coaches are. When the ref refused to let him keep the cap on even though he kid was allowed the fuqn coaches are the one to shut that shit down. Not this fuqn kid in this situation??

    Again, look at that kid’s demeanor does it look like he was alright? He liked fuqn humiliated even after his win.

    The “adults” in this situation failed that kid and i sincerely hope thee are consequences and repercussions!

  111. 111.

    dmsilev

    December 21, 2018 at 4:19 pm

    @chopper: The thing is, it’s in Yertle’s power to not be humiliated by Trump like this. All he has to do is say “the votes aren’t there for WallCoin(tm)”, amend the House bill to strip that out, pass it, and punt the hot potato right back to Paul Ryan.

  112. 112.

    WaterGirl

    December 21, 2018 at 4:19 pm

    @The Dangerman: Jared and Pence. The new power couple?

  113. 113.

    Kent

    December 21, 2018 at 4:24 pm

    @gene108:

    The money boys probably shorted the shit out of stocks, so they will be okay.

    The retirees in FL will take a hit.

    There are plenty of big money people stuck in stocks. All the corporate types who’s compensation is tied to the market and all the wealthy families who own big chunks of stocks and can’t easily dump it without generating capital gains taxes. If the smart money was so smart then those hedge funds would be crushing the market. They aren’t.

  114. 114.

    J R in WV

    December 21, 2018 at 4:25 pm

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    He’s also too young to have seen a 9600 baud modem.

    When I started we had a 1200 baud modem, but never got that speed using the earmuffs, here from home. We were lucky to have a single-party private phone line!

    You could almost hear the dirt road in the dial-tone!

  115. 115.

    Burnspbesq

    December 21, 2018 at 4:27 pm

    @Cermet:

    Hundreds of punch cards. Now find the one with the missing period (COBOL syntax error) that is causing an entire semester of work to not run.

    The joys of being an Econ major in the mid 70s.

  116. 116.

    A Ghost To Most

    December 21, 2018 at 4:30 pm

    @Burnspbesq: You quickly learned to run a diagonal line across the deck, in case you dropped it.

  117. 117.

    chopper

    December 21, 2018 at 4:31 pm

    @J R in WV:

    1200? you were lucky! /yorkshireman

  118. 118.

    MazeDancer

    December 21, 2018 at 4:32 pm

    @Kent:

    Stock market crashed again today. This is going to start getting some GOP attention.

    This Dem paid attention.

    In 2009, I didn’t own any stock, so I could be sympathetic to the crash, but felt no pain.

    Now, I have a very modest IRA that is mostly 3 stocks: Apple, Netflix, Amazon. Making it even more modest, today. Really, really scary modest.

    Netflix lost $44 a share this week alone. Amazon $400 a share since Dec 3. Apple lost $70 a share since Nov 2. I bought Apple at $80, so haven’t lost any money, yet. Same with Netflix and Amazon. Bought Netflix when everyone was saying they were over. I knew they weren’t.

    But still, painful. So to everyone to whom I was not more sympathetic in 2009, many apologies.

    Apple has mountains of cash. Netflix and Amazon are doing well business wise. This is all Trump.

  119. 119.

    Patricia Kayden

    December 21, 2018 at 4:32 pm

    @donnah: Congrats Donnah!

  120. 120.

    Mnemosyne

    December 21, 2018 at 4:32 pm

    @lamh36:

    And number of folks, talking about it’s a rule…

    Assholes LOVE to talk about the “rules” and how society would fall apart without them as long as the rules are getting enforced at the expense of Black and Brown people.

    Try to enforce the rules on a white man and you’ll be able to hear the screeching from 10,000 light-years away.

  121. 121.

    Yarrow

    December 21, 2018 at 4:34 pm

    @lamh36: That is just wrong. It’s possible that some sports may have regulations regarding hair if it’s a safety issue but if that’s the case those rules should be stated up front and everyone should know ahead of time. Forcing some kid to cut his hair at the time of the match is just wrong.
    @lamh36:

    The “adults” in this situation failed that kid and i sincerely hope thee are consequences and repercussions!

    That’s the truth. No kid should be forced to do something like that. The adults didn’t stand up for him and they should have. The referee especially was way out of line.

  122. 122.

    trollhattan

    December 21, 2018 at 4:36 pm

    @Baud:
    Barron will be tres disappoint if he doesn’t continue to command the cybers.

  123. 123.

    J R in WV

    December 21, 2018 at 4:36 pm

    @Schlemazel:

    I used to be able to whistle the frequencies that set up the connection that was necessary for testing repairs.

    Why you young whippersnapper! I used to hold naked copper output cables in my bare hands and whistle the data straight into a pay-phone on a corner down in Fry’s Alley!! ;-)

    Not really, but my first programs were punched onto 90 column cards!

    There were several hundred freshmen and 4 terminals, quite a line for one. So I was lucky to strike up a friendship based upon being 10 years older than all the other Freshmen with a guy who maintained IBM punch machines, and he showed me how to correct typos on the cards. Still buddies 40+ years later. Short programs, just a little more than “Hello World!” which was harder than it sounds in PL/1 on an IBM ‘frame.

  124. 124.

    LuciaMia

    December 21, 2018 at 4:37 pm

    @donnah: Thats delightful! Could you pt up a pic of it again?

  125. 125.

    Kent

    December 21, 2018 at 4:38 pm

    @NotMax:

    Punch cards were versatile – fit perfectly in a shirt’s chest pocket to have as ready-made note paper – 1001 uses besides being run through a card reader.

    I spent one year at a small Christian college in 1982 that had required chapel attendance 2 or 3 times a week. All students were issued a stack of punch cards with their name on it and you turned them in one by one as you attended chapel during the week. We always tried to slip 2 or 3 into the hands of the ushers but they would mostly notice and scold you. They would haul them off campus to some corporate computer system at the end of every semester to run them and see who has been attending all their required chapels. Friends and I figured out where they stored them and broke in and stole the big box of all the turned in “chapel cards” right at the end of the semester.

  126. 126.

    jl

    December 21, 2018 at 4:38 pm

    @Baud: ” Brilliant! You’re my new cyber czar. ”
    But I want to stay Minister of Cheap Beer. Can I do both?

  127. 127.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    December 21, 2018 at 4:38 pm

    .@Cermet: Oh, 300 baud was for grad school, punch cards was undergrad.

    We had a punch card printer that never had a working ink ribbon, so you had to run the card deck thought the compiler to get a printout of what was on the cards.

  128. 128.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    December 21, 2018 at 4:39 pm

    @A Ghost To Most: Just Wednesday, I was at my writer group’s holiday gathering and found myself arguing with a guy about Trump. I said judging from the old guys I see around me, Trump was showing signs of dementia (specifically the wandering). This guy said I had to accept a president with dementia because the stock market was high and taxes were low. I hope he’s thought about that conversation in the last couple of days.

  129. 129.

    Mnemosyne

    December 21, 2018 at 4:42 pm

    @lamh36:

    Reading the update, it sounds like the referee decided to force the decision by starting a countdown clock, because he’s a ginormous racist asshole. However, once the asshole referee did that, the coaches should have called his bluff and said, “Fine, we’re cancelling all of the matches and taking our kids home.”

    If that referee doesn’t get fired for this, then we’ll know for sure what’s up in that area. ?

  130. 130.

    Lapassionara

    December 21, 2018 at 4:43 pm

    I’m sorry, I don’t trust Schumer. Wish he had Pelosi with him.

  131. 131.

    J R in WV

    December 21, 2018 at 4:44 pm

    @A Ghost To Most:

    In 1985, Telematics, one of the first commercial network switch companies, turned over their first switch with a C compiler to me and my GE comms team, and we laid down the switch architecture in C, the first commercial network switch written in C. It had all been assembler prior.

    So, That’s when thing started going to pot, the end of ASM, being replaced by C — and it’s all YOUR fault!!!

    ;-) I didn’t do well in ASM class personally, we were supposed to be learning IBM mainframe ASM and the teacher only knew 8080 ASM. Oops. And you prob’ly have read IBM books…

  132. 132.

    Schlemazel

    December 21, 2018 at 4:46 pm

    @J R in WV:
    I started the computer portion of my career life maintaining this sort of stuff. Teletypes, card readers, line printers (I once had a friend ask why anyone would ever need a 300 line a minute printer when nobody could read that fast)
    And a Xerox Sigma V computer. 8 Bit you had to put a paper tape bootstrap into the reader than set 8 switches to set up 6 memory location so it would read the paper tape. They if had 4 large reel to reel tape cabinets and a 50K (!!!) magnetic drum storage device.

  133. 133.

    cope

    December 21, 2018 at 4:48 pm

    @Cermet: And I see your punch cards and raise you flip-flop switches. A friend of mine made a flip-flop computer for our eighth grade science fair in ’63 or ’64. As I recall, it could add and subtract. Punch cards came later, in my college years. Now I sit here poking this out on a slab of glass, plastic and metal while watching a soccer game live from England.

  134. 134.

    trollhattan

    December 21, 2018 at 4:49 pm

    @jl:
    Can you be Minister of Good Beer at Cheap Prices? We have standards donchano.

    ETA I can be undersecretary for red plastic kegger cups.

  135. 135.

    Mandalay

    December 21, 2018 at 4:50 pm

    Li’l Marco’s words of wisdom on the wall:

    I am advocating for putting a wall on the border where most of the unlawful immigration is occurring & where most of the drugs which are killing Americans of every race & ethnicity is entering our country. If such an area exists on northern border we should secure it as well.

    He’s fucking nuts as well as spineless.

  136. 136.

    Brachiator

    December 21, 2018 at 4:51 pm

    @lamh36:

    He is not the adult in this situation thoughx the fuqn coaches are. When the ref refused to let him keep the cap on even though he kid was allowed the fuqn coaches are the one to shut that shit down. Not this fuqn kid in this situation

    According to the story, the kid’s coaches tried to be the kid’s advocate.

    “the wrestler’s coaches argued the referee’s decision for several minutes, until the referee started the injury time clock. At this point, the wrestler removed the cap, and agreed to have his hair cut.”

    The ref seems to have clearly abused his authority. The ref also appears to have deliberately ignored rules specifically designed to deal with wrestlers with long hair.

    The sports writer who tried to see this as a “heartwarming story” is full of it, so he doesn’t matter. I salute the kid for winning his match. He was clearly better than the bullshit move the ref tried to play on him.

    The ref would have been happy had the kid taken a forfeit. He would have peed himself with joy had the entire squad taken a forfeit in solidarity.

    But what I hope the school and other schools do, in solidarity with the wrestler, is to find a way to boot the ref out of a job.

  137. 137.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    December 21, 2018 at 4:52 pm

    @WaterGirl:

    Jared and Pence. The new power couple?

    Does Mother know about this?

  138. 138.

    JPL

    December 21, 2018 at 4:57 pm

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: i still imagine evenings in the Pence household when he yells out oh mother.

  139. 139.

    jl

    December 21, 2018 at 4:57 pm

    @trollhattan: ” We have standards donchano.

    ETA I can be undersecretary for red plastic kegger cups. ”

    Standards? You’re clearly not an orthodox Baudist. I’d point this out to the boss, but I don’t know how and don’t have the attention span.

  140. 140.

    jl

    December 21, 2018 at 5:00 pm

    @Mandalay: Marco’s bizarre attempt to be the thoughtful, detail oriented, and consistent semi-Trumpster always falls flat except as grim self-satire.

  141. 141.

    The Moar You Know

    December 21, 2018 at 5:00 pm

    I really hope Jared is not using his world-renowned “fuck you, do it because I told you to” negotiating skills. Schumer’s not my favorite but he won’t take that treatment. Probably why Pence is there, to keep Jared from going full dipshit. Which he might anyway.

    We may well end up with the federal government shut down permanently.

  142. 142.

    Kent

    December 21, 2018 at 5:02 pm

    If McConnell is smart (and we know he is), he’ll just have the Senate pass a 2 or 3 week continuing resolution then adjourn and go home for the holidays. On the way out the door just do a big press conference about how we need more time to negotiate over the holidays and they aren’t going to shut down the country over Christmas. If the House passes the same CR word for word then there is no need for a conference and the bill can go straight to the president.

    I gotta imagine that there are a lot of old GOP hands who are getting very weary of this, especially this week after the Mattis resignation.

  143. 143.

    Ohio Mom

    December 21, 2018 at 5:02 pm

    @Yarrow: The adults stink but from what I’m gathering, so do the kid’s teammates. They are old enough to recognize an injustice in front of them and to do something about it. At the least, they could have shaved their heads in solidarity. (Okay, just read some more and it wasn’t like that. But still, wish the other kids had had enough spirit to not just be do passive).

    In other news, my outgoing governor Kasich just signed a miserable bill that bans abortions after 20 weeks using the safest method, D&Cs.

    He did veto the slightly more horrible heartbeat bill — he’s trying to work it both ways for his next try at the presidency. As much as you think you want to see Trump gone, that’s nothing compared to Kasich (he was just quoted as saying he doesn’t think he could win against Trump up for re-election).

  144. 144.

    JPL

    December 21, 2018 at 5:02 pm

    Flotus is on her way to FL on the taxpayers dime. Of course she is. Trump is going to cave because he wants to go also.

    I’m shocked that she doesn’t want to spend the holiest of days with her husband, Mr. Merry Christmas Again.

  145. 145.

    trollhattan

    December 21, 2018 at 5:06 pm

    @jl:
    New Reformed Baudism. That’s my bag, man!

  146. 146.

    Mandalay

    December 21, 2018 at 5:06 pm

    @The Moar You Know:

    I really hope Jared is not using “fuck you, do it because I told you to” negotiating skills.

    Heh….is that something he’s known for?

    I can’t imagine him being a tough guy unless he’s flanked by four heavies. And how on earth is his high, squeaky voice going to scare anyone?

  147. 147.

    jl

    December 21, 2018 at 5:08 pm

    @JPL: It will be a permanent half-shutdown, until the current authorized funding for about half a dozen agencies shuts down. I think Defense and HHS are funded. FDA and Interior are not, IIRC.

    Trump Wall is idiotic. It’s documented that even Trump thought it was a dumb idea, until his rally crowds roared their approval. If by chance Trump hadn’t remembered the idea and tried it during a lull in one of his rallies, and made some jokes about loser Democrats instead, there would be no Trump Wall.

    Sooner or later, one would think the media would remember that Trump Wall, as a serious policy proposal, is a complete and documented fraud.

  148. 148.

    MomSense

    December 21, 2018 at 5:08 pm

    @rikyrah:

    I really like continuum and 12 Monkeys (until it jumped the shark at some point). I think continuum went a season and a half too long as well. It’s probably a good thing time travel shows stop before the plots get too whacked.

    The best one though is Outlander. Have you read the books or watched the Starz series?

  149. 149.

    smedley the uncertain

    December 21, 2018 at 5:08 pm

    @Cermet: 75 Baud Teletype…. RTTY for ever.
    Green Keys Uber Alles. Oh, and high speed paper tape reading assembler code into the ‘Machine”. 1965

  150. 150.

    jl

    December 21, 2018 at 5:10 pm

    @trollhattan: If there are standards I don’t see any point at all to Baud 2020! I’m out. I’ll get my own cheap beer from now on.

  151. 151.

    SFBayAreaGal

    December 21, 2018 at 5:11 pm

    @schrodingers_cat: Not me.

  152. 152.

    Frankensteinbeck

    December 21, 2018 at 5:13 pm

    @Kent:

    If McConnell is smart (and we know he is)

    We do not know that. We know he’s not an obvious moron like so many of his fellows, and we know he’s an extremist obstructionist, which is much, much easier than actually doing things. His only real accomplishment that required more than being a shit head who says ‘no’ to everything is passing only one of the two easiest bills every Republican congressman desperately wants to pass.

  153. 153.

    trollhattan

    December 21, 2018 at 5:13 pm

    @jl:
    Baud snowflake! Baud snowflake!

  154. 154.

    dmsilev

    December 21, 2018 at 5:14 pm

    CNN has a news alert saying “McConnell and Schumer to announce possible way forward to avoid shutdown”.
    No details beyond that.

  155. 155.

    Radiumgirl

    December 21, 2018 at 5:17 pm

    @rikyrah: This actually makes sense to me. Essentially they’re saying they think the government has forced them into dependency through its anti-coal policies. So they’re dependent, but resent it. That and the fundamental misogyny — anyone who sees Trump as the lesser of two evils is severely logic-impaired.

  156. 156.

    Quinerly

    December 21, 2018 at 5:18 pm

    @dmsilev: MSNBC chryon says McConnell is about to speak. Meanwhile, Hugh Hewitt is trying to convince Chuck Todd that Trump had a great week.

  157. 157.

    sdhays

    December 21, 2018 at 5:18 pm

    @JPL: Michelle Obama is heading to Flori…oh. You mean THLOTUS.

  158. 158.

    trollhattan

    December 21, 2018 at 5:18 pm

    @dmsilev:
    Could it maybe involve sacrificing Jared via fire?

  159. 159.

    Amir Khalid

    December 21, 2018 at 5:19 pm

    My weekend is good. Liverpool have won their last match before Christmas, and will top the Premier League table even if Manchester City beat Crystal Palace on Saturday. In eight of the last nine seasons, the side that led over Christmas won the title. The only exception was, um,Liverpool in 2013/14.

  160. 160.

    Cheryl Rofer

    December 21, 2018 at 5:19 pm

    Here you go… pic.twitter.com/yEQdI9jZpx

    — Cheryl Rofer (@CherylRofer) December 21, 2018

  161. 161.

    hueyplong

    December 21, 2018 at 5:21 pm

    Unless the announcement is that Jared has surrendered to authorities, I’m skeptical.

  162. 162.

    TS (the original)

    December 21, 2018 at 5:21 pm

    @dmsilev:

    amend the House bill to strip that out, pass it, and punt the hot potato right back to Paul Ryan.

    Isn’t there already this exact legislation that has passed both the house and the senate waiting for trump to sign?

  163. 163.

    Cheryl Rofer

    December 21, 2018 at 5:21 pm

    It's much better that he's playing with MS Paint instead of the nuclear football

    — Kelsey D. Atherton (@AthertonKD) December 21, 2018

  164. 164.

    Frankensteinbeck

    December 21, 2018 at 5:22 pm

    @Quinerly:
    I don’t honestly care about this wall vote, but I have so much leftover stress from those RBG headlines I’m anxious about how that worked out anyway.

  165. 165.

    trollhattan

    December 21, 2018 at 5:23 pm

    “True Detective” returns Jan 13 on HBO. Yay.

  166. 166.

    Corner Stone

    December 21, 2018 at 5:24 pm

    @dmsilev: Ruh-roh. Somebody get Scooby Doo and The Mystery Van Crew.

  167. 167.

    lollipopguild

    December 21, 2018 at 5:27 pm

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: It’s about Control. The USA spent megatons of energy in the 60’s and 70’s having loud public debates about hair and beards. It was all about CONTROL. Having a black guy in the White House made white racist crazy people even more cray-cray. Making the black wrestler cut his hair is all about giving all black people a white middle finger.

  168. 168.

    Corner Stone

    December 21, 2018 at 5:31 pm

    @trollhattan:

    “True Detective” returns Jan 13 on HBO.

    Every time I see this TV title I can’t help but see it as “Duck Detective”.

  169. 169.

    Corner Stone

    December 21, 2018 at 5:31 pm

    Call me whatever but I’m getting a bad feeling on Chuckie Schooms.

  170. 170.

    TS (the original)

    December 21, 2018 at 5:33 pm

    @Corner Stone: He needs Nancy in the room with him to keep him on the path of his party.

  171. 171.

    Kayla Rudbek

    December 21, 2018 at 5:37 pm

    @jl: Commerce is not funded but Social Security is. USPTO is user-funded so it’s staying open until it runs out of user fees (I personally estimate about 10 business days for that) and then the businesses can go screaming to the Republican Congress

  172. 172.

    JPL

    December 21, 2018 at 5:40 pm

    @Corner Stone: I don’t get it. McConnell can override any veto with a clean CR. He needs to take Ryan to a private office and say this is your legacy. Pass a clean CR.

  173. 173.

    MomSense

    December 21, 2018 at 5:42 pm

    @A Ghost To Most:

    Ha! When my mom did her PHD there was a language requirement. She chose FORTRAN.

  174. 174.

    Chris Johnson

    December 21, 2018 at 5:46 pm

    @Gin & Tonic: That’s pretty interesting. If Roberts wants to have a reputation as a real Supreme Court Justice of a real Court, he’s gonna have to be doing that a LOT. If it can happen once, it can happen more than once.

  175. 175.

    Chris Johnson

    December 21, 2018 at 5:49 pm

    @dmsilev: “For the love of God, Montressor!”

  176. 176.

    Mary G

    December 21, 2018 at 5:49 pm

    I know everyone is probably busy with holiday things, and I should be too, but bookmark this essay by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse on Crooked Media for when you have time for a long read:

    STOP LOSING: A SENATOR’S BATTLE PLAN FOR BEATING THE RIGHT

    Victory has traits. Victory must be organized. Organization requires strategy, preparation, tactics, training, and teamwork. Brave and able troops have been slaughtered throughout history in failures of organization.

    Losing has traits, too. As Democrats, we offer better and more popular policy positions, and we have flamboyant heroes. Yet, so often, we lose. Now we have won back a foothold on power, and the question is: what do we do with it? I’m sick of losing. I’m particularly sick of our “loser traits.” It’s time we faced up to them.

    Then he discusses:

    Walking Away from Fights
    “Messaging”
    Ignoring the Adversary Institutions
    Being a Ridiculously Cheap Date
    Being Disorganized and Incapable of Running Plays
    Circular Firing Squads and Purity Tests
    The Real Majority
    Lessons of Trump

    The bottom line? We’re not losing because we’re wrong, and we’re not losing because we don’t have the support of the American people, we’re losing because we have not yet organized ourselves for victory. With the House now in a Democratic hands, it’s time to up our game.

  177. 177.

    dmsilev

    December 21, 2018 at 5:49 pm

    @MomSense: My dad did exactly the same thing.

  178. 178.

    Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho

    December 21, 2018 at 5:55 pm

    @donnah: it’s such a stunning piece and it deserves a place of honor where both kids and adults can enjoy it.

  179. 179.

    donnah

    December 21, 2018 at 6:15 pm

    @LuciaMia:

    Thanks! I posted a link to it here at #51

    Thanks again, everyone!

  180. 180.

    Scamp Dog

    December 21, 2018 at 6:41 pm

    @trollhattan: Ha! When I bought my first modem, I went with the high speed one: 300 baud! Eat my dust, 110 baud losers!

  181. 181.

    Ksmiami

    December 21, 2018 at 6:54 pm

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??: moochers and losers- I have nothing but contempt and hatred for them- sorry

  182. 182.

    stinger

    December 21, 2018 at 7:11 pm

    @donnah: Congratulations! It is a beautiful piece!

  183. 183.

    Steeplejack

    December 21, 2018 at 8:15 pm

    @WaterGirl:

    It has subtitles! Clearly visible on the trailers at the page Kent linked to.

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