Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

One lie, alone, tears the fabric of reality.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

I would try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

There are some who say that there are too many strawmen arguments on this blog.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

Not rolling over. fuck you, make me.

Republicans firmly believe having an abortion is a very personal, very private decision between a woman and J.D. Vance.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

Donald Trump found guilty as fuck – May 30, 2024!

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

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

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

Giving up is unforgivable.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

He really is that stupid.

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

Wednesday Afternoon Open Thread

by | 158 Comments

This post is in: 

Fellow Florida jackal cope sent this photo of New Mexican wildflowers the other day, perhaps thinking it would cheer us up?

Something about the composition of this photo knocks me out, and I’m not sure why. It’s partly the color saturation. It’s partly the sunlit glow of the hair-like fibers on the stalks contrasted with the brightness of the slightly out-of-focus petals against that vaguely menacing background.

For me, these elements combine to inspire strange thoughts such as this: If those flowers were the last thing you saw before the effects of an extinction-level meteor strike on the other side of the planet overtook your location, it would all make sense somehow.

Damn, that’s not very cheery, is it? But art doesn’t have to be cheery — in fact, it rarely is in my experience.

Open thread, and for the love of dog, please share something that is not depressing! Or, share disconcerting thoughts if you need to — let’s call this a choose-your-own-adventure thread…

Reader Interactions

158Comments

  1. 1.

    Fred Fnord

    It seems so fitting that I see ‘please share something that is not depressing. 0 comments’

  3. 3.

    zhena gogolia

    Disconcerting thought, because I just saw this Trump quote (sorry, Betty) — I’m more convinced than ever that Sanders is working for Trump. Trump just said about Biden, “The socialists are really taking care of him.” He always says the quiet parts out loud.

    The recent tsunami of anti-Buttigieg news flashes is coming from the same source.

    I am now terrified of Sanders, because I think he has Russia behind him. Russia really wants him to be the nominee so Trump can crush him.

  4. 4.

    stinger

    the last thing you saw before the effects of an extinction-level meteor strike on the other side of the planet overtook your location

    That nails it for me! But it kind of goes against the theme of not-depressing….

  5. 5.

    Barbara

    @zhena gogolia: Look, if that’s true, then some other candidate needs to start calling the dogs out on Sanders without leaving fingerprints, on his tax returns, his porn writing history, and even his wife’s dirty history with the university, and so on. In the mean time, I am ignoring all of it.

  6. 6.

    Roger Moore

    @zhena gogolia:

    I’m more convinced than ever that Sanders is working for Trump.

    I don’t think that Sanders is working for Trump, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re both working for Putin. One more reason to want to see Bernie’s taxes.

  7. 7.

    Gin & Tonic

    Two not-depressing things – my grandchildren are visiting, and there’s not much that’s more cheerful than an almost-4-year-old in a good mood; and on Monday, my son, who’s about a month away from handing in his final Master’s project, had an opportunity to have lunch with the Harvard professor who first described the phenomenon (and coined the term for it) that my son is writing about.

  8. 8.

    delk

    10 years ago today, on April 3, 2009, The Iowa Supreme Court overturned the ban on same sex marriage.

  9. 9.

    SiubhanDuinne

    EFGoldman Memorial

    Glad to see a fresh open thread. I heard from EFG Jr a short while ago, and she provided details on the planned memorial service/reception for her dad.

    She requested that we NOT post the information directly on the blog:

    [B]ecause I do the kind of work that tends to attract angry internet mobs on occasion I don’t like to put too much personal information out there on the intertubes, so I don’t necessarily want the details posted up top, but I’m happy for you to tell the Balloon Juice crowd that anyone can email you for the place/and time for dad’s memorial, if they’re Boston / Providence local and would like to attend.

    Please put EFG in the subject line, and email me: SiubhanDuinne (at) gmail (dot) com, and I’ll send date/time/place.

    Wouldn’t it be great to have EFG’s sendoff attract a pack of jackals!?

  10. 10.

    lamh36

    ‪Great first hand account of the NAN conference today and the speakers including POTUS candidates

    ‬https://twitter.com/gothamgirlblue/status/1113435137121845249?s=21

  11. 11.

    TupeloPhoney

    Agree that art doesn’t have to be cheery. In fact I’m not sure that very much good art is cheery.

  13. 13.

    Kelly

    Here’s a lovely patch of trilliums in dappled shade near our house. Thank goodness I let the camera bracket the exposure. The standard auto-exposure evened out the light losing the dapple.

    https://imgur.com/a/qqsRACy

  14. 14.

    A Ghost To Most

    Good news – our lawn is showing some green. Anxious news – Denver Water is all over my front yard and my neighbor’s back yard, taking measurements so they will know if our foundations shift during the big pipe installation. What could go wrong?

  15. 15.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Gin & Tonic:

    on Monday, my son, who’s about a month away from handing in his final Master’s project, had an opportunity to have lunch with the Harvard professor who first described the phenomenon (and coined the term for it) that my son is writing about

    May we know the subject, or is it secret?

    ETA: Either way, congratulations to your son!

  16. 16.

    Lalophobia

    Hey, can I make an urgent bleg for my sister? She’s been unemployed since before Thanksgiving, has been applying everywhere, but it’s been really hard for her since her car’s brakes and engine failed simultaneously last year and she didn’t have the money for even another cheap used one and hasn’t been able to save up enough since. She’s got at least two potential jobs lined up but neither have gotten back to her yet and if she doesn’t scrounge together her overdue rent by tomorrow she’s getting evicted. We’ve both been calling every relative and homelessness prevention and Catholic charity number we could find and we’ve had limited to no success. The magic number is $2,250, and she’s got a paypal at [email protected]. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

    I wasn’t sure if I should do this, but I’ve been lurking around here since 2010 so I know that even if there’s nothing y’all can do to help her you at least won’t laugh at her misfortune or anything. And uh….it’s been kind of a crazy two years for the both of us, in which she’s accrued stories that could give Cole’s a run for their money. Not Betty Cracker’s, though, if anyone’s could. I might even convince her to share sometime. Everyone in our family has somewhat weird luck, but none of us more than her. Anyway, thanks for listening.

  19. 19.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    Or, share disconcerting thoughts if you need to

    Well, OK. We visited my beloved 94-year-old aunt this weekend. I suppose she’s looking a little more elderly but to me she has seemed unchanged and eternal my whole life.

    But I did the math and realized that I knew her when she was in her 30s. I found that very disconcerting. And I’ve also done much the same math and realized that the dad of my childhood was in his 30s. There’s something to me very disconcerting to realize I knew my dad’s generation when they were essentially still (from my current viewpoint) just kids.

  20. 20.

    VeniceRiley

    for the love of dog, please share something that is not depressing!

    I got one! Yesterday, at my regular lunch hangout, the manager came up behind me, grasped my shoulders, sniffed my hair and kissed the back of my head.
    I haven’t laughed so hard in a very long time.
    Best Biden joke ever.

  21. 21.

    Fleeting Expletive

    Opened this tab, scrolled down, thought “Yikes, apocalyptic sunflowers!!”
    You nailed it. What an extraordinary picture from one of our many intriguing commenters. Love this place.

  22. 22.

    lamh36

    a hearing that Stacey Abrams dazzled at NAN!

    “Identity politics is nothing more complex than saying I see you,” Stacey Abrams says at NAN. “I believe in identity politics and I believe identity politics are the politics that win.”

  23. 23.

    Leto

    Just finished my follow up appointment with the surgeon who basically saved my life. I last saw him four months ago. (Quick recap: I came in in a wheel chair, still had a major injury healing, didn’t have mich mobility). Today: only need my cane (no walker/wheelchair), got up and hugged him when he came in, and basically knocked his socks off with my progress. He’s very optimistic about my short and long term progress.

    It’s sunny, warm, and Avalune and I are off to get lunch. Be nice to each other ?

  25. 25.

    Plato

    Looks like corbyn is going to ‘collude’ with may and push the brits into brexshit.

  28. 28.

    Mandalay

    Biden just now: “The boundaries of personal space have been reset….I get it.”

    Well finally a flicker of recognition, but it’s just bullshit that “boundaries of personal space have been reset”. What he did is unacceptable now, but it was also unacceptable at the time he did it.

    Anyway, I guess that’s further confirmation that he’s running.

  29. 29.

    debit

    I am stupidly busy at work but wanted to check in and say thank you thank you to everyone who chipped in for kitten transport. I’m still working on getting the actual transport set up, but money is not going to be an issue. You guys are amazing.

  30. 30.

    StringOnAStick

    @A Ghost To Most: Waterton area?

    My good news is as of this past Monday my new knee is 3 weeks old, I’m walking without any assistance and I’m going back to my 2days/week job on Monday. Ok, so the first two are good but given the time pressure of my line of work,, Monday might really suck. I guess I’ll just have to see how it goes.

    I think cope’s photo looks like a perfect watercolor project!

  31. 31.

    opiejeanne

    My niece in Italy is in labor! Woohoo! First baby of that generation. We already know it’s a boy.

  33. 33.

    jl

    ” inspire strange thoughts such as this: If those flowers were the last thing you saw before the effects of an extinction-level meteor strike on the other side of the planet overtook your location, it would all make sense somehow. ”

    Wow. Lady Cracker thinks like I do. Great minds run in the same gutter. My personal answer is ‘No, it would not all make sense somehow’. Maybe if I was right there and had a chance to ingest some other types of Southwest flora it would. But I think Cracker took the hypothetical far enough.

    Nothing comes to mind that is more cheerful than imagining how I would gather my thoughts immediately before a major extinction event meteor strike on earth, so I’ll check in later.

  42. 42.

    Bill Arnold

    Copied from a thread below. This makes me … happier. This sunshine will burn the Murdoch family a bit. Also, spring is a phase change for me (winter worst, spring best).
    —
    A long and quite interesting Rupert Murdoch article for anyone who has missed it. (NYTimes gets positive points for this one.).
    How Rupert Murdoch’s Empire of Influence Remade the World (JONATHAN MAHLER and JIM RUTENBERG, APRIL 3, 2019)
    Part 1: Imperial Reach Murdoch and his children have toppled governments on two continents and destabilized the most important democracy on Earth. What do they want?
    Part 2: Internal Divisions President Trump’s election made the Murdoch family more powerful than ever. But the bitter struggle between James and Lachlan threatened to tear the company apart.
    Part 3: The New Fox Weapon The Disney deal left the Murdochs with a media empire stripped to its essence: a hard-core right-wing news machine — with Lachlan in charge.
    via
    9 Juicy Details From the Times’ Deep Dive Into the Murdoch Family and Fox News (Adam K. Raymond, April 3, 2019)

    New York Times reporters Jonathan Mahler and Jim Rutenberg spent six months on three continents, interviewing more than 150 people for their blockbuster three-part article on Rupert Murdoch,…

    I suspect that the Murdoch family is not happy with this article. It will do damage to their brand.

  44. 44.

    Emerald

    I have a question. When Twitler vetoed Congress’s bipartisan rejection of his wall money, he declared a bogus state of emergency to take the money anyway.

    Everybody said that taking the money anyway was completely unconstitutional, which of course it is, and that the courts would stop him.

    OK, so where are the courts? Has anybody filed the necessary lawsuit(s)? I’ve heard nothing. Is anything at all in the works? Or are we just going to say that Article 1 is overturned, the president now has the power of the purse and not Congress anymore?

    I mean, we have a new Scandal of the Week every week and we forget about all the other Scandals of the Week. I haven’t forgotten this one.

    Thanks to anyone who knows about this.

  46. 46.

    cckids

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:

    But I did the math and realized that I knew her when she was in her 30s. I found that very disconcerting. And I’ve also done much the same math and realized that the dad of my childhood was in his 30s. There’s something to me very disconcerting to realize I knew my dad’s generation when they were essentially still (from my current viewpoint) just kids.

    Agree! I had the unsettling experience of finding out a favorite grade school teacher recently died, at 100 years old. Which means, back when I was in her school, (believing she was ancient), she would have been in her early 50’s; or younger than I am now. So . . . yeah, that is a weird feeling.

  47. 47.

    jl

    @Emerald: I know that several lawsuits were filed. I think some property owners where some Wall would be built first won the race to courthouse. But other lawsuits got filed too. That’s all I know.

  48. 48.

    ruemara

    @NotMax: I am very attracted to this study, simply so I can sit in bed all day.

    Found out I lose 173 hours of sick leave once I get laid off. Even though part of the benefit of rehire prefs is reinstitution of benefits. I’m so confused by these people.

  50. 50.

    Gin & Tonic

    @joel hanes: Man, I remember seeing Pat Metheny playing with Gary Burton at the old Jazz Workshop on Boylston when he was still a student at Berklee.

  52. 52.

    leeleeFL

    @StringOnAStick: Funny you said the thing about watercolor subject….I am presently healing a stress-fractured knee and been sketching and such. I was wondering if any posters of photos would mind if I used some of them as reference photos. I mentioned this on BC’s fhread og the kingfisher and osprey photos, but I was late to the thread.

  53. 53.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: you have the best nym of anyone here. No offense to all the other posters, who are terrible disappointments.

    @Leto: I hope you are making lemonade out of lemons and whacking people with that cane on a regular basis, you know, if they don’t open doors for ladies or their pants are sagging or they’re on your lawn.

  55. 55.

    eemom

    @West of the Rockies: @Barbara:

    some other candidate needs to start calling the dogs out on Sanders without leaving fingerprints, on his tax returns, his porn writing history, and even his wife’s dirty history with the university, and so on.

    What he wrote was worse than p*orn. I have said this many, many times: Sanders has not a closet, but a fucking warehouse full of skeletons. None of it came out in 2016 because (1) Hillary didn’t sink to that level, and (2) the republicans were holding their tongues and pissing their pants with excitement in the hope that he’d become the candidate so they could unleash the treasure trove they were sitting on. Here’s the go to source on the subject, Kurt Eichenwald’s post-election Newsweek article:

    Here are a few tastes of what was in store for Sanders, straight out of the Republican playbook: He thinks rape is A-OK. In 1972, when he was 31, Sanders wrote a fictitious essay in which he described a woman enjoying being raped by three men. Yes, there is an explanation for it—a long, complicated one, just like the one that would make clear why the Clinton emails story was nonsense. And we all know how well that worked out.Then there’s the fact that Sanders was on unemployment until his mid-30s, and that he stole electricity from a neighbor after failing to pay his bills, and that he co-sponsored a bill to ship Vermont’s nuclear waste to a poor Hispanic community in Texas, where it could be dumped. You can just see the words “environmental racist” on Republican billboards. And if you can’t, I already did. They were in the Republican opposition research book as a proposal on how to frame the nuclear waste issue.Also on the list: Sanders violated campaign finance laws, criticized Clinton for supporting the 1994 crime bill that he voted for, and he voted against the Amber Alert system. His pitch for universal health care would have been used against him too, since it was tried in his home state of Vermont and collapsed due to excessive costs. Worst of all, the Republicans also had video of Sanders at a 1985 rally thrown by the leftist Sandinista government in Nicaragua where half a million people chanted, “Here, there, everywhere/the Yankee will die,’’ while President Daniel Ortega condemned “state terrorism” by America. Sanders said, on camera, supporting the Sandinistas was “patriotic.”The Republicans had at least four other damning Sanders videos (I don’t know what they showed), and the opposition research folder was almost 2-feet thick. (The section calling him a communist with connections to Castro alone would have cost him Florida.) In other words, the belief that Sanders would have walked into the White House based on polls taken before anyone really attacked him is a delusion built on a scaffolding of political ignorance.

    I cannot overemphasize how much the Bernouts’ ongoing ignorance and/or denial of this reality blows my mind. Bernie beat trump? They are fucking CRAZY.

  56. 56.

    Brachiator

    @Leto:

    Today: only need my cane (no walker/wheelchair), got up and hugged him when he came in, and basically knocked his socks off with my progress.

    Very cool! I wish you continued good progress.

  57. 57.

    Duane

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: When I was a kid my parents and their friends seemed old to me. They were of course in their twenties and or thirties.
    When I got older it was hard to accept they wouldn’t be here forever. My kids are the same way.

  58. 58.

    Betty Cracker

    @leeleeFL: It’s A-OK with me! I dabble in painting myself strictly for my own amusement and may use those same photos as subjects, but I doubt we’ll ever run into a copyright issue in a commercial space since I really suck at painting! I have confidence you’ll make better use of the images than I will! ;-)

  59. 59.

    A Ghost To Most

    @StringOnAStick:

    Fairmont, near N. Table Mtn

    They are running a 54″ water pipe from Ralston Reservoir to the Coors Water Treatment plant. Only two houses affected in 7 miles. Mine, and my neighbor’s.

  60. 60.

    stinger

    @Gin & Tonic:

    lunch with the Harvard professor who first described the phenomenon (and coined the term for it) that my son is writing about

    Well, that’s cool!

  61. 61.

    Gelfling 545

    So, my elderly cat Mewtant looked pretty certsin to be on his last days. He had stopped eating and was losing weight and was pretty lethargic. As near as we can figure from pictures he’s close to 20. I tried to interest him in various types of food, even people food, but no luck. He has some tooth issues which can’t be dealt with due to his age and a heart murmur. Anyway, to the not depressing part, I hit on the idea of trying baby food. I bought strained chicken and beef with broth. He gobbled them down over the weekend and yesterday started eating his kibble again. In fact, now he’s demanding refills. So, once again, my old boy serms to have cheated death. He was even batting his catnip mouse about the place today. Looks like he’ll be with us yet a while.

  64. 64.

    JAFD

    Well, the maintenance people came to inspect my apartment this mornin’, checked the smoke alarm and the circuit breakers, replaced leaky toilet valve and put new caulk around kitchen sink. Place is a mess, but feel stronger than I did over winter, ready to do a Massive Spring Cleanup.

    Had new apple variety at supermkt, ‘Snapdragon’. Great looking (want to be in school again so I could take one to teacher). Taste OK, but not great – I get Staymans or Winesaps when I can.

    Slowly but surely Spring is coming. OTOH, you may want to outcheck
    https://weeklysift.com/2019/03/25/confronting-season-change-denial/

    Hope all you jackals are healthy and happy. Any word on near-future NYC meetups ???

  69. 69.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Steve in the ATL:

    you have the best nym of anyone here.

    Thanks. It was a complete accident. I hate thinking up nyms, I’m not very clever, so my old one was just my name. One day, FYWP decided for reasons of its own that it no longer liked me and all of my posts started going straight into the bit bucket, no error message, no feedback of any kind, and the BJ gods couldn’t seem to do anything to fix it or figure out a reason.

    So I switched to a “temporary” one. I was going to use something like “not my nym” but then thought of this version and I liked the play on the famous Magritte painting. And after a while decided that (a) I kinda liked it and (b) I was never going to have a flash of cleverness again.

    If FSM-forbid wordpress decides to start throwing out this one, I may just give up.

  70. 70.

    Emerald

    @jl: That’s it? That’s all? Gotta say that I’m astonished that something far more major is not yet in the works to restore Article 1 of the Constitution.

    Um, Congress? Just willing to give that up? Or are those little, apparently slow-moving lawsuits enough?

  72. 72.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @JAFD:

    I get Staymans or Winesaps when I can.

    It seems like they didn’t come in this year in PA, or their season was unusually short. I remember when I lived in MD and waited every fall for the PA apples to come in, the guy at the market told me Staymans and Winesaps needed the cold weather to ripen. So I’m wondering if the unusually mild winter (we only got three significant snowfalls I can recall, none more than a couple inches) prevented most of the crop from coming in.

  73. 73.

    MomSense

    Very depressing day here. It started with insomnia, then snow and sleet, and finally a kid had an injury. He’ll be ok but it was scary.

    I’m going to sip a beer and listen to some music.

  75. 75.

    Betty Cracker

    @eemom: We’ll see how it shakes out, but I don’t think Sanders is the juggernaut within the party that he was in 2016. That’s a good thing, because if the crybabies who embarrassed themselves at the 2016 DNC and pout-voted for Stein are still a serious force, they’ll be happy to take a wrecking ball to whomever the 2020 nominee is too, especially if he or she is viewed as complicit in sliming Sanders with his own words, deeds and legislative record.

  76. 76.

    debit

    @Gelfling 545: That’s great news. Chicken baby food is my food of last resort. If I can’t get a cat to eat that, things are dire. I’m so glad he’s turned the corner.

  78. 78.

    Steve in the ATL

    @MomSense: blue skies and 70 degrees here, but…the entire metro area is covered in yellow pollen and we can barely breathe. Would prefer snow and sleet to that.

  79. 79.

    jl

    @Emerald: I hope some member of the illustrious BJ legal team chimes in to remind us of all the people and organizations that filed lawsuits. I hope the House and some state and local governments in on the action. IANAL and don’t know the details of who all can run to court on it right now, and I forgot the names of everyone and everything that filed so far that I read in a news blurb a while ago.

  80. 80.

    mrmoshpotato

    @eemom:

    warehouse full of skeletons

    Well put.

    As for Dump vs Wilmer, “Rusher, if you’re listening, I hope you can find my opponent’s tax returns.”

  82. 82.

    MomSense

    @Steve in the ATL:

    Do you also have flowers? Raven was saying that the azaleas will pass before the Masters. They’re going to have to get a new signature flower.

  84. 84.

    J R in WV

    @West of the Rockies:

    Sanders wrote pRon? Can’t imagine that’s any good.

    I haven’t ever seen any, thankfully, but IIRC I have heard there were lots of rape fantasies. Disqualifying, right? Thot so!!!

    ETA: Sorry, hope that isn’t depressing! Not intended…

  89. 89.

    Immanentize

    @Steve in the ATL:
    I saw the Clash at the Roxy in New York on their Sandinista tour and they had actual, honest to God Sandanistas in their little red berets up in the roof eaves throwing down leaflets onto the dancing masses. Weird scene inside the Disco.

  92. 92.

    Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho

    It is a beautiful photo – and otherworldy is a good description. Thanks cope.

    @schrodingers_cat: Obvious advice: wear something you’ll feel totally comfortable, capable, and in good cheer while wearing it. If it turns out to be the same thing as the last interview – it’s been a month, so I’m guessing you can pull that off.

    As to clothing, the photographer who took our bio page photos for the new/improved website has a make up day April 15. I’m getting a new one because I wore a black and gray top with a black sweater for the one last summer. I want to be more colorful, which I recognize is vain. One of my colleagues accused me of signing up to flirt with the photographer. Who admittedly is a cool guy and I was jealous that he lived close enough to go see the Henry Diltz exhibition at the Museum of Making Music before it closed without getting on an airplane. He said it would be worth the drive just to show their kids the museum, so I’ll be interested to hear if they went.

  93. 93.

    Immanentize

    @jl: I know that one suit has been filed by (at one count) 16 states. California is leading that effort I believe. Also, I think the House passed a resolution allowing it to file against Trump’s actions. Some day when I am not so exhausted, I’ll try to write up the arguments the House and states will likely bring. I think they have a very good chance of winning unless the Court opts out by declaring it an unjusticiable political question. They shouldn’t, but they might.

  94. 94.

    Lymie

    Sitting in my sunny living room looking down the valley and listening to the wind roar. The wind gives me a pass on raking leaves!

    Daughter transferred from a d3 precious liberal school where she played hockey to a big research state school and just walked on to the d1 crew team. She is happy which makes me happy.

    Taking the doggo to agility class tonight.

    Content as long as I don’t think about the state of the world.

  96. 96.

    Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho

    @Steve in the ATL: Well, my one feeling has now been hurt. Thanks, pal.

    @Leto: That is so impressive. I hope you and Avalune had a delightful l lunch.

  97. 97.

    VeniceRiley

    There is more shocking video of Sanders out there and back then with him saying he thinks ovarian cancer is caused by women not getting enough orgasms from good guys’ peen.
    he’s a classic nutjob and they’ve successfully kept it out of mainstream eyes because … her emails. Emphasis on the HER.

  101. 101.

    Betty Cracker

    @lamh36: AFAIK, no other Democrat has committed to direct-payment reparations because they don’t want Donald Trump to win reelection in a 50-state landslide. It pains me to agree with Sanders about anything, but every other candidate has hedged on that question too (media reports to the contrary), and for damn good reason. It’s political suicide.

  103. 103.

    Immanentize

    @Ruviana: I can’t figure it out myself — the Amber Alerts have been used in the vast majority of cases regarding child visitation overstays in contentious divorces. It is sad but true and has given the system a “cried wolf” reputation nationally.

    Maybe Bernie is remembering his days of failure to pay child support. Dead beat dad with a little red book.

  104. 104.

    Immanentize

    @trollhattan: I bet they could. As my friend used to say, nothing is as tiresome as political certitude. But did your friends dance?

  106. 106.

    Steeplejack

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Thanks. Sent you an e-mail.

    Perhaps you could reveal the memorial date, so people would at least know if there’s a chance for them to make plans.

  107. 107.

    trollhattan

    @Immanentize:
    Only on roller skates. ;-)

    ETA I should add that in the same office my Salvadoran friend had had family members kidnapped by whatever that leftest guerilla group was, courtesy of the Sandinistas and Cubans. The Yankee Sandalistas did not see how that was any kind of problem.

  113. 113.

    Immanentize

    @Steeplejack: agree with the “date, please,” request. I would like to go but why clutter in boxes if the date is undoable? Thanks for asking

  114. 114.

    Immanentize

    @trollhattan: In Miami I worked with a very beautiful young woman who had been a radio operator with the Contras. How weird were the 80s?

  116. 116.

    Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho

    @Immanentize: I never mention having seen that band lest Omnes notice, but if I’d seen them,it wouldn’t have been ( it was not ) at the Roxy.

  117. 117.

    Betty Cracker

    @Immanentize: That’s pretty much what Warren said too in her CNN town hall. I don’t disagree with anything Castro said, but it’s hard to think of an issue Trump could demagogue more effectively to escape justice for another four years. If I had more time, I’d look into how the issue bubbled up from a low-level debate that’s been going on for decades into a major campaign question that must be answered by every Democrat on every TV appearance. My (admittedly paranoid) guess is it wasn’t people who generally favor reparations.

  120. 120.

    opiejeanne

    @trollhattan: mr opiejeanne is a retired Civil Engineer who installed some big-ass water lines but 30″ is the biggest he ever installed. He says 54″ sounds more like a storm drain.

  121. 121.

    Immanentize

    @Betty Cracker: What’s funny about that position is that it prefigures a Congress that would actually pass such a bill!

    A colleague at Harvard, Charles Ogeltree, who was very close with the Obama’s, was a big proponent of reparations. Actually testified on the Hill once on the issue. I think that may well have been what doomed any chance he ever had of sitting on the Supreme Court

  123. 123.

    Ohio Mom

    @Bill Arnold: I haven’t seen the Times article on the Murdoch family’s many activities but talk about an untimely report — they couldn’t have run with this scoop I dunno, A QUARTER OF A CENTURY AGO? If my memory serves, Murdoch began wreaking havoc in the late 1980’s, early 1990’s.

    Oops, this is supposed to be a happier thread. Sorry. I’ll be back when my mood improves.

  124. 124.

    Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho

    @Immanentize: I think he never got to see them. NYC in those days – damn I enjoyed it, and Chelsea especially. Now I’d much rather go to a beach.

    The 80s were weird indeed and so was some of the early 90s for me, watching my worlds collide.

  126. 126.

    lamh36

    @Betty Cracker:

    My (admittedly paranoid) guess is it wasn’t people who generally favor reparations.

    Yeah, your paranoia is a bit unfounded…Not everything that comes up for a Dem candidate is ratfucking.

    Reparations is a definite part of conversations in the Black community…activist and non-activist.

    Especially now with the story of the past few years about the slaves that were bought and sold by Jesuits of Georgetown to get the money to build the university. And the stories that are being exposed about many insititutions that directly owe their existence to slave labor and selling of those slaves….not even to go to the plight of Black famers and sharecroppers.

  127. 127.

    A Ghost To Most

    @opiejeanne:
    It’s a silt line, to pump silt back up to the reservoir.
    There are already a 30″ and a 48″ pipe in the right of way.

  128. 128.

    Burnspbesq

    @Mandalay:

    but it was also unacceptable at the time he did it.

    Not even remotely correct. There are plenty of reasons to not like Biden without making shit up.

  132. 132.

    trollhattan

    @Immanentize:
    So very weird and yet (or maybe because) my 17YO intermittently declares, “I wish I lived in the ’80s!”

    Kids

    She plows through my clothing drawers and snags items for school. A kid offered her a hundred bucks for my Clash US tour (the last one) t-shirt. Today she’s trolling a 20YO North Face jacket; evidently they’re big in the resale trade.

  133. 133.

    A Ghost To Most

    @Immanentize:
    Eh, I they have been talking about doing it for years, so maybe they will do it this year. At least I’m not working, so I can document it if needed. I’m most concerned about the foundation, and losing utilities for some period. I’m also worried about the rabbit warren in the.direct path.

  135. 135.

    Betty Cracker

    @lamh36: Didn’t mean to imply no one was talking about it organically or that it’s not a worthy discussion — the TN Coates essay on it made it a hot topic a few years back. I remember hearing conversations about it even back when I was in college, when dinosaurs roamed the earth. But when David Brooks of the NYT came out in favor of it last month and every Democratic candidate was suddenly being asked to weigh in by Jake Tapper, etc., I started wondering about those rats…

  136. 136.

    trollhattan

    Chuck Grassley irked, Iowa’s governor proclaims “boff sides” after Trump’s determination that the wind causes cancer.

    An Iowa Republican senator is expressing irritation at what he calls “idiotic” comments by President Trump about wind energy.

    Mr. Trump, at the National Republican Congressional Committee’s annual spring dinner Tuesday night, said noise from wind turbines causes cancer. Sen. Chuck Grassley said in a conference call with reporters Wednesday that the comments “were first of all idiotic and it doesn’t show much respect for Chuck Grassley as the grandfather of the wind energy tax credit.”

    Grassley was instrumental in approving a federal tax credit 26 years ago that has spurred wind energy development. Iowa is a national leader in wind energy, with more than 4,000 turbines.

    Asked about Mr. Trump’s claim, Iowa’s Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds refused to say the president was wrong, saying it was not her place to do so.

    “You know how those things change. One year coffee is good for you and the next year coffee causes cancer,” she said. “That’s what happens. We’ve got a lot of people that are driving the industry and investing in the industry and we should be proud of our position.” [get a backbone installed you pork-gobbling, cornpone bowl of Midwestern mush]

    She noted Iowa generates 40 percent of its electricity from wind.

  137. 137.

    A Ghost To Most

    @opiejeanne:
    I’m not sure. It was explained to me that a lot of silt comes down the water pipes, so this pipe will send silty water back up. I don’t know what they do with it once it is there. Ralston Creek flows through an area of uranium; I don’t know if the silt glows.

  138. 138.

    debbie

    @Leto:

    This is so great to read! I guess a good attitude does count for something!

    I love that photo up top, especially the backlighting and the way the space is broken up. If I were still drawing, I’d draw it!

  140. 140.

    lamh36

    @Betty Cracker: He didn’t come out in favor or reparations…he came out in favor of Dems discussing it…and yeah sure I’d call that ratfucking.

    But there has always been conversations about it…and as young Black activist get more into politics, they are less likely than older ones to try to temper discussion of it because white folk won’t like it.

    You can’t tell the younger generation you want to hear from them…they see their white counterparts freely voicing their opinions bout hout button topics like abortion or other hot wire issues, but then tell them…oh but don’t talk about raparations…

  143. 143.

    A Ghost To Most

    @trollhattan:
    The pipe will be 14 ft. deep under my driveway.

    Denver Water did tell us that if we ever see water, we are to call them first.

  144. 144.

    debbie

    @Betty Cracker:

    I think you’re seeing these people coming out in favor of reparations because reparations are now being framed as providing economic opportunities rather than checks. I remember TNC’s earlier essays on reparations, but isn’t it only recently he’s specifically said he’s focusing on programs vs. cash? Also, hasn’t he said it’s progress that this is even being talked about?

    If I’ve misremembered, I apologize. But I think it’s the framing that has changed, not the palatability.

  145. 145.

    A Ghost To Most

    @opiejeanne:

    Luckily, Clear Creek (where Coors gets their water) is nearby, and a world-class class place to play in the water.

  146. 146.

    Dan B

    @Leto: Great to hear you’re healing so quickly! If there are any setbacks I’ll hazard a guess they’ll be temporary. Hugs to Avalune for keeping us posted when you couldn’t.

  148. 148.

    Dan B

    @opiejeanne: Skunk Cabbage . Named for the big cabbage like stinky leaves. The eastern US native is menacing blacks and browns. There is a gorgeous white version from Asia (prolly Siberia, mebbe China).

  150. 150.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Damn, that’s not very cheery, is it?

    Actually, that is very cheery. If that is the sight I take with me into the great oblivion, I will die a happy man.

  152. 152.

    opiejeanne

    @Dan B: skunk cabbage and skunk lily are two different things but they both smell like skunks. And yes, the east coast orange-headed skunk cabbage is quite dangerous.

  154. 154.

    seaboogie

    @stinger: I kind of feel like the dinosaurs are having the last laugh, what with fossil fuels befouling our atmosphere, and plastics befouling our oceans.

  155. 155.

    greenergood

    @Gelfling 545: Wow! I will remember this! Over the years, have been through trying to feed two elderly cats who went off their food, and never thought of baby food. If (or when) my current feline overlady stsrts getting choosy, I will remember this. Today I flew from my home in Scotland to New York to try to persuade my 89-yr-old (so far, non-dementiaed) Mum to leave her home of 50-odd years to go into assisted living. I was so lucky to meet people in the queues for the plane, or my in-flight seating companions who’d all gone through this torment already and gave me lots of advice and good thoughts. It really helped my mood when I turned up at my Mum’s doorstep tonight. The next six weeks are going to be hellish, but any advice from jackals is very welcome, especially because after 30+ years living in Scotland, I haven’t a clue how American health care works.

  156. 156.

    noname

    @greenergood: Not sure if you’ll see this but health care in America doesn’t work. I went through what you’re starting about 5 years ago with an already-dementiaed mother and an extremely stubborn father. Get an elder care attorney is by far the best advice I can give you.

  157. 157.

    greenergood

    @noname: Well said noname about the US health care NOT working. I was here in NY for six months 14 years ago when my dad was dying of neck cancer. Even with incredibly expensive health insurance, I had to fight for every service/wheelchair/aide/hospice programe, etc.etc. But that situation was at least finite – we knew he’d be gone and my main objective was to help my mum so that he could die at home. This is so much more complcated, but thanks for the advice regarding an elder care attorney – I’ll ask around amongst my US friends.

  158. 158.

    noname

    @greenergood: Best of luck to you. I can still feel my blood pressure spike when I think back on this. Attorney I used is no longer practicing; I hope you can get a recommendation from someone who needed them recently as I can’t imagine what has gotten even worse under the current regime.

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