What truly makes our country great is its diversity. I’ve seen that beauty in so many ways over the years. Whether we are born here or seek refuge here, there’s a place for us all. We must remember it’s not my America or your America. It’s our America.
— Michelle Obama (@MichelleObama) July 19, 2019
Michelle Obama is the world's most admired woman. https://t.co/TDsQi3Gamp
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) July 19, 2019
From the Washington Post:
?Attention educators! @MichelleObama has a special message for you.
Text TEACH to 21333 or go to https://t.co/8pma9Ylw0N to join her in making sure every eligible student is registered and ready to vote. #WhenWeAllVote pic.twitter.com/ZFSkG5T2wB
— When We All Vote (@WhenWeAllVote) July 11, 2019
Former first lady Michelle Obama is urging teachers throughout the country to make sure students who are eligible to cast ballots actually register and “are ready to vote.”
Obama made her call through a video address at two recent teachers union conferences: the annual convention of the National Education Association, the country’s largest labor union, and the American Federation of Teachers. Together, the organizations have as many as 5 million members, most of them educators.
Her outreach to teachers is the first piece of a voter registration initiative that she helped launch last year, a national, nonpartisan organization called When We All Vote. Other co-chairs include Tom Hanks, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Janelle Monáe, Chris Paul, Faith Hill and Tim McGraw. The teachers unions are partners with the nonprofit initiative, as are other organizations including the League of Women Voters and Rock the Vote…
laura
Dear beautiful forever FLOTUS, please cure my insomnia.
Mary G
You know Twitler is gnashing his teeth and throwing things because the Obamas still get to hang out with all the A-list celebrities.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone ???
rikyrah
That’s my Forever FLOTUS ???
NotMax
Curiosity found on Prime, Booth at the End. Risky proposition to produce an episodic series which entirely involves people talking in a diner booth. Ultimately a morality play in the tradition of Rod Serling, the crisp writing manages to carry the concept to fruition. Two seasons of five half-hour episodes each.
Mel
@rikyrah: Good morning!!
Mel
@NotMax: I liked it. The conceptual presentation reminded me a little of one of the best one act plays I’ve ever seen: Tennessee Williams’s “This Property is Condemned”. Vastly different set, but the same intensity and deceptively simple premise of two strangers meeting and a conversation revealing (at least one of) them in ways that the audience might never have predicted or anticipated.
satby
@rikyrah: Good morning ?
@Mel: thanks for those kind words yesterday.
Going to be rainy, hot, very humid all day today. I wish I could skip going to work. But I can’t, so off I go for a quick shower. Have a good day, stay cool everyone in the heat warning zones.
OzarkHillbilly
@rikyrah: Blech.
satby
@NotMax: @Mel: sounds good, I’ll add it to the list.
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: ? INORITE? ?
Ok, really going now….
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: My tenant texted me that his partner wasn’t able to sleep because the HVAC wasn’t “keeping up”. I called my guy and he asked for more info because he didn’t want to have to charge me for a service call that wasn’t going to yield results. I hit the tenant and asked what temp he was trying to get. 62 degrees! This is a hundred year old but the unit is just 10 years or so old. The tenant was not happy that my HVAC laughed his ass off.This is the dude who did a great job on the floor and is an electrician!
Spanky
It is 6 AM. The neighbor is mowing his lawn. I can’t complain, and sort of feel like doing the same. It’s now 82, with the dew point at 74. Both will steadily get worse until the heat index hits about 114.
Screw it. The grass can wait.
Mel
@satby: The forecast here is for temps up to 100+.
Whew. Not even a cool down in the evening hours for porch time.
Hope your forecast is a little more tolerable, especially if you have to be outside for work.
Strawberry ginger slushies with a little basil (yum!) are going to be on the hydration list today, I think!
Baud
Drum
Spanky
@Baud: And yet he is still Prezident, with no threat from within his own party.
Must be nice to be as sanguine as Drum about it.
JWR
Waitaminute…
WHAT?!! Donnie’s not gonna like this. (He came in 14th among men, 4 places behind pal Putin.)
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: Heh. I’d say “Get a window unit.” but you just fixed the floor and I’m not sure the inevitable condensation will do it much good.
JPL
@Baud: There is no bottom for trump, and the republicans will do nothing.
eclare
Everybody be careful, 32 yo died a couple of days ago in Arkansas.
eclare
@eclare: Can’t edit, died of heat stroke.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: White people suck.
RAVEN
@OzarkHillbilly: I was thinking about that. They are looking to buy and may be gone soon so I’m not sure what to do. We had a bit of a dustup about the whole think but it’s cool now. He said he had an hvac guy who owed him so we’ll see.
low-tech cyclist
@Spanky:
That’s my thought too. It helps that it hasn’t rained in over a week, so the grass hasn’t grown much. But even if it had, I’m not mowing this weekend, because it’s going to be insanely hot out there. Nothing wrong with skipping a week when circumstances call for it.
OzarkHillbilly
Can you say, “codependency”?
The beatings will continue until morale improves.
NeenerNeener
@RAVEN: I keep my whole-house AC at 75 degrees, but when that still feels too hot I run fans in whatever room I’m in at the time. Works for me and shouldn’t impact my electric bill too much.
low-tech cyclist
@OzarkHillbilly:
I dunno, I could see this becoming the new normal, where the UK is always theoretically about to leave but can’t ever get its shit together for the obvious reasons, and the EU keeps granting extensions. They could go on like this for years.
The fact is, they are codependent; their economies are deeply interconnected. A no-deal Brexit would be a disaster for the UK, and while it wouldn’t be nearly as bad for the EU, it would still cause problems.
Hell, the EU should give the UK a long extension, like two years, because why not?
OzarkHillbilly
Los Angeles police spied on anti-Trump protesters
Geee, I wonder why that is?
Yeah, that’s the problem. They didn’t “follow procedures.”
otmar
Beautiful day in rural Carinthia. I’m going to start the coals for BBQ lunch once I manage to leave the garden lounger.
I’m visiting the kids who are on summer holiday at grandma’s place.
Betty Cracker
@raven: Trying to cool a house in Georgia in July to 62 degrees is unreasonable, IMO. I don’t know if it wears out your A/C unit quicker to put that kind of strain on it. But if I had tenants, I wouldn’t feel obligated to facilitate cooling to temperatures below 70 degrees in the summer, FFS. Perhaps they should move to the arctic while there still is one.
Raven
@NeenerNeener: we feel funny at 72 but our Lil Bit has to stay cool.
OzarkHillbilly
@low-tech cyclist: “Sure I beat you about the head every other day but it will be even worse if I leave.”
All snark aside, I think that would be untenable. Not knowing wtf is going to happen for an indefinite period of time will be just as depressing on the EU economies as a no deal Brexit, maybe more so. Companies need to know so they can plan ahead. If they don’t know, they crawl into their shells, hold their money close, and do nothing, hoping to weather the coming storm.
Besides, the EU has been saying all along ‘no renegotiation” and now they’re going to say, “Well maybe?” Yeah suuuure, that’ll work out well for them.
As far as I can tell, for the EU it’s a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” dilemma and they are better off just getting it over with. As far as the UK is concerned, they’ve shit their bed and it’s time to stop pretending that a mere rearranging of the sheets is going to remove the stench.
YMMV.
Brachiator
@OzarkHillbilly:
Well, this is crazy. Uh, I mean, Interesting. Despite the fact that the Conservatives are split on the issue, Johnson ran for the leadership position on assurances that he could deliver on BREXIT by October 31. Also, while Parliament recently voted to prevent a no deal BREXIT, no one has ever indicated what type of deal might be acceptable. And BREXIT hardliners have never shifted from their insane no deal fantasies.
But while Parliament continues to linger in their no decision Phantom Zone, businesses are making decisions on what might be best for them, and for some that means shutting down UK operations or supply chains. So even though this means a loss of jobs, BREXIT supporters still refuse to get a clue. And I thought that Trump supporters were stupid.
Raven
@Betty Cracker: The most surprising thing is that HE doesn’t know that. You are right though, I think this is not new and they may have worn it out.
Raven
@OzarkHillbilly: same as it ever was
OzarkHillbilly
@otmar:
You suck. ;-)
OzarkHillbilly
@Raven: As it ever was as it ever was as it ever was….
But hey, this time they’re gonna “fix it”.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Betty Cracker:
Yeah, I keep my thermostat at 74° here in the humid hell of NoVA; that feels quite cool enough.
In winter I keep it at 70°. I could go a few degrees lower than that, but the housecat is old and skinny. And she has the heating pad under a throw at her workstation.
Betty Cracker
@NeenerNeener: My husband and I battle over the thermostat constantly. I am less heat and cold tolerant than he is, but it’s only a matter of a couple of degrees. One day I’m going to secretly install a thermostat that I can control with my phone and not just win the battle but win the war!
HinTN
@raven: MDFG, 62? Your guy was due a great guffaw. That’s nuts.
HinTN
@otmar: It’s a tough job but somebody’s gotta do it.
OzarkHillbilly
Philadelphia man scales down 19-storey building to escape fire I love the cops at the end of the video, all ready to help him down the last 6-8 feet, catch him should he slip and fall. “Hey guys… he just climbed down *at least 12 stories*. I think he can handle those last few feet.”
I really gotta wonder why they couldn’t get a hook and ladder to him.
HinTN
@Betty Cracker: Without the insulation required to limit the flow of heat to cold, the unit will just run forever exchanging heat at its capacity. Too much tonnage creates mold. Raven’s tenant is an ________.
SFAW
@eclare:
Mitch Petrus? [Former NFLer, played for the NY Giants.] It made CNN.com
Raven
@HinTN: it’s perplexing, the dude is as country as it gets, pit bull for hog hunting, runs trot lines for big cats, navy vet, electrician . . . and this.
Raven
@SFAW: 32
Raven
@HinTN: is that why the floor rotted?!
TS (the original)
@Mary G: And when he leaves the white house the A list will continue to ignore him. Brings a smile when most needed.
HinTN
@RAVEN: Do NOT let him overcharge the freon. That WILL ruin your compressor.
HinTN
@Raven: Probably not but you never know. Rot requires more moisture than mold and hvac driven condensation, unless very specifically concentrated originally can’t get to those levels.
Raven
@HinTN: he’s not going to do anything, he said he had an Hvac guy and I trust him.
debbie
@Mary G:
And when they call PBO “Sir,” they mean it!
debbie
@raven:
Tell him to buy a floor fan to run with the a/c/ They make a real difference.
debbie
@Baud:
I’m not seeing any downward trend in Ohio.
HinTN
@debbie: ?
Kay
The Centrists in the Democratic Party should make an effort to come up with an actual argument for their policies instead of dishonestly attacking liberal policy or whining about liberals. I don’t understand why they feel they don’t have to sell anything. Do your centrism thing! Tell people why you’re better! Biden has a public option plan. It’s identical to Klobachur’s, which is fine- there really aren’t 5000 ways to do this and one is as good as another. Let’s hear about the public option from the centrists and the advantage can’t be that Republicans are going to support it because, no, they aren’t. They are right now trying to “overturn” Obamacare. So nothing’s changed on that side.
Uncle Cosmo
@Mel:
IMO the biggest tell for the reality of global warming is not the daytime highs – summer days have been this hot before** – but the nighttime lows. We didn’t have A/C when I was a kid, but slept fine with window fans drafting through except for at most 10 days of summer. Now it’s a rare summer night when the temperature dips below 80. (FTR it appears to be a second- or third-order effect: increased heat energy in the troposphere increases evaporation which increases cloud cover which holds heat in at night. ETA: Clear skies & IR reradiation from the hot surface into space is why temperatures in the hottest deserts fall so rapidly after sunset.)
**One heart-&-everything-else-warming day in 1988 (June 22 IIRC), I flew home from a business trip to Idaho, where the highs had been 104 F with the locals beeching & moehning about the obscenely high humidity (25%), to a Bawlmer Merlin (Hon) high of, wait for it, 104 F with 55% RH.
debbie
@HinTN:
I keep my thermostat at 78-79 degrees to save money. The second floor can get a bit warm (flat roof, no insulation), but one floor fan (pointed up) makes it just as comfortable as the first floor. Even when it feels a bit too warm, I just step outside for a second or two to remind myself it could be a whole lot worse!
debbie
@Kay:
“I’m less worse than them!” isn’t much of a sales pitch.
Baud
@Kay:
According to this article, he did make a pitch for his plans too.
OzarkHillbilly
Girl with curlers, New York, 1949. I love this picture. The girl’s got attitude.
Kay
@debbie:
I do too – 78- and it’s fine. It’s not “cool” – it still feels like summer- but it’s not uncomfortable. They all gave up turning it down here because I watch them :)
I feel like I have to change the temp so much in the other direction (cold to warm) in the winter that I hate to do it in the summer too. Plus I don’t want to pay for it.
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
Yes!
Chyron HR
@debbie:
That’s must be why he’s barely even in first place.
Another Scott
@Steeplejack (phone): My autistic brother in NC keeps his apartment at about 65F in the summer (but hates being cold in the winter). He’s sorta like my dad was – he told stories about people in the ’60s at his work in GA feeling too hot if it was above 68F.
We keep our NoVA house at around 75F, and can keep it higher if we run a separate dehumidifier. I can’t stand static, clammy air, myself.
Different strokes!
Cheers,
Scott.
Kay
@Baud:
I read it. But he doesn’t need to pitch it to people who have Medicare and he can skip the intro where he tells people with Medicare they will lose it. If Joe Biden wins and actually tries to pass a public option (which is as much of a pipedream as anything else that won’t pass a GOP Senate) they will run the same ads they did in 2010, which consisted exclusively of telling people with Medicare they will lose it. For him to join in this, Baud? Jesus. It’s so lazy. I am completely underwhelmed with his campaign. For the “electability” candidate, one would think they would have a decent campaign.
He is going to have to earn this. Clinton worked her ass off and it still wasn’t enough.
debbie
@Chyron HR:
Fuck the ratings. Doesn’t make it right. Doesn’t make him the best candidate. As Kay’s quoted, it’s a very GOPesque tactic.
Tony Jay
@Brachiator:
I swear by Great Bearded Sky Fairy they are as firmly entrenched in their bubble as any Magat, feeding off each other’s denial in a national circle-jerk of delusion.
All of these companies aren’t really planning to leave the UK, you see. It’s all gamesmanship and ‘Project Fear’, trying to scam a few extra quid in tax-breaks and subsidies before Britain walks away without a deal and the E.U. surrenders, offering the Brexiteers whatever sweetheart trade deals they want to stave off the inevitable collapse of the German car industry, French wine exports, etc. I had one ballsack with a mouth tell me straight a few months ago that Land Rover were lying about shutting down UK production. How did he know? Well he worked for them, and his job would be one of the first to go if they did cut back on production, and he’d voted Leave, and he wanted a No-Deal = Can’t be true, then. Simple, no?
I picked the wrong week to give up injecting rat-poison into my tear ducts.
Another Scott
@Uncle Cosmo: And high nighttime temperatures are the most stressful for plants. SciendDaily:
(Emphasis added.)
We’re playing with fire by not doing more to quickly cut and reverse greenhouse gas emissions. :-(
Cheers,
Scott.
Baud
@Kay:
Here’s the video. The seemingly offensive part starts about at 9:45. I don’t think it’s a scare tactic when viewed on context. He’s accurate that it’s a new Medicare plan.
https://youtu.be/nibwrpQUYik
ETA: watching the video, what struck me more was his lack of energy.
germy
@Kay: I’m already seeing TV ads from these people:
https://www.onenationamerica.org/
A bunch of republican operatives who oppose “single payer” but call it “medicare for none” because they know their elderly target base actually likes their medicare.
Kay
@Chyron HR:
Sticking it to Bernie may be enjoyable but both Warren and Harris endorsed Bernie’s MFA bill, so this is straight-up negative campaigning vs the 3 behind him, which is a little surprising in a front runner, especially one who hasn’t done any actual positive campaigning. So far I have “gets along with mythical centrist Republicans, or would if there were any, and opposes MFA”. Oh, and he supports NATO.
Another Scott
Charlie Pierce on the 50th anniversary (today).
A beautiful piece.
Cheers,
Scott.
Percysowner
@NeenerNeener: When I’m at work, I keep my whole house air at 80. I drop it to 75 a half hour before I get home (yay, programmable thermostats). I just bought a window air conditioner for my bedroom since it seems foolish to cool the whole house when I sleep and I’m trying to not contribute too much to global warming. In this heat it will only cool my bedroom so much, but it pulls the humidity out like a champ, which is a blessing. This weekend I’m parked under my ceiling fan. Than goodness for Netflix and Hulu.
I did walk my dog when I got up this morning 77 degrees and with the heat index it felt like 90. I told the dog it’s going to be a short wank and the only one you get today. When we got back, she placed herself on the floor under the fan and seemed fine with the whole not going out again thing.
SFAW
@Tony Jay:
Do they spell “Rude Pundit” differently in Old Blighty? Because that is of whom you remind me. [To be clear: that’s intended as a compliment.]
“They” say “misery loves company,” but I’m not sure I’m enjoying the idea that England/Britain has succumbed to the same prion disease which controls our politics.
zhena gogolia
@raven:
Ours is at 72. We hope it will “keep up” today as we maybe hit 100.
germy
@Percysowner:
damn autocorrect!
Baud
@germy:
Don’t assume.
zhena gogolia
@germy:
Yeah, don’t give Cole any ideas.
germy
Our cat right now is stretched out on the wood floor. About as stretched out as she can be. Oddly enough, she’s positioned herself so that her belly is in a patch of sun, while her head and the rest is in shade.
Birds are chirping right outside the window and she doesn’t even care.
germy
@zhena gogolia: My worry is that this site goes dark suddenly one day after Cole is taken into custody for nude mopping, or some such charge…
Kay
@Baud:
Does Joe Biden have a campaign? It’s terrifying to me that the “electable” candidate doesn’t seem overly concerned with getting elected. This is going to be a FIGHT. I just find this “settle down, everything will be FINE” approach of his to be completely inadequate to the reality of this- the reality is it will be close. Trump is only down to him because Republicans who are currently claiming to be “independents” haven’t done the thing they do every single time, which is support the Republican.
Percysowner
@germy: OOPS! I didn’t even catch that!
germy
@Percysowner:
One of my first jobs many decades ago was as a proofreader. I remember an editor writing “Catch the spirt!” when he meant “Catch the spirit!”
I wanted to change “spirt” to “spurt” but at the time I valued my employment.
rikyrah
@eclare: .
A former professional athlete at that
Please be careful in this heat ?
Kay
@germy:
What I would like the D frontrunner to do is run against the incumbent, because that’s the advantage the incumbent has- he doesn’t have an opponent yet. The D frontrunner has to do this- it is their role in the primary period. Biden isn’t doing his job.
germy
@Kay: I agree. He isn’t a good campaigner. Its why he’s lost his other presidential primaries.
Tony Jay
@SFAW:
Ha! High praise indeed.
Same infection point. Murdoch in the water supply and all the rampant lunacy that follows.
OzarkHillbilly
Dershowitz Defends Himself Amid Lawsuit, Citing His ‘Perfect Sex Life’
No matter what happens in the years remaining to me, I will never have had to demean myself so.
Kay
@germy:
More and more I think it has to be Warren or Harris. They’re riskier but the other feels like just throwing in the towel and letting events take their course. That’s risky too. I’d rather try. Ya, know. Something.
Spanky
@Baud: Yeah, the damn L and N keys aren’t even adjacent.
otmar
@HinTN: BBQ is done. Family has been fed. Bach to the lounger for me.
debbie
@germy:
Years ago, I left the “o” out of “account” and the “l” out of “publication” (I was a very nervous typist at a very new job). It took more than a few weeks for my boss to stop ragging me about it.
OzarkHillbilly
@otmar: You really suck.
OzarkHillbilly
Time to get busy.
Kay
@germy:
I have this horrible recurring flashback of going to a Biden rally in Toledo in ’12 because this labor person here got me special tickets and I didn’t want to hurt his feelings. I don’t really have to go to rallies- I’m decided :)
Anyway, I took my youngest out of school for it as an educational event, plus he’s good company on trips, and it was so boring half the room wandered away 15 minutes into it. The reporters were so bored they were trying to interview my son, which I wouldn’t allow and which offended the young man who wanted to interview him because he thought that I was implying he was using kids. Couldn’t be trusted with them. Which is true- that is why I wouldn’t let him do it. This son is chatty and friendly and wants to be liked and I was afraid he would say something that would embarrass him if it were on tv. It was just a really bad political event.
Peale
@Kay: yep. I think they just believe they lost because of Hillary and just replacing her with him is a slam dunk. This is no different from progressives who think that if we do nothing, demographic change will assure us permanent majorities. It’s lazy. We need more voters in six or so states and I don’t think the “moderates” sat out 2016. Biden acts like they did. So I guess the strategy is to draw on our vast pool of non-voting moderates, who’ll magically vote this time, carrying PA and MI?
Kay
@Peale:
Gillibrand isn’t going to win BUT she has an actual theme- it’s families. Family leave, pre-k, affordable high quality child care- I think this is good and will be appealing to people. I am shocked at how difficult it has become for new families. They are genuinely stressed. It’s reaching “this is impossible- I’m not having kids”. A lot of it is housing. They plow so much into housing, but Gillibrand is looking at the other parts of their budget and adjusting those.
Biden could take that. It fits well with his personality and it would be refreshing in a male candidate- I think these issues are not a priority because they are put in the basket of “things women care about” and that’s not true. “Mommy” stuff. Families care about them. It’s beautiful against Trump because he’s so horribly uncomfortable with the whole set of issues he consigns to “girls”. Men do big things- deals, foreign policy. Women do little things- family leave, schools, etc. He may be able to completely ignore the practical realities of having a decent and dignified family life but regular men can’t, and they don’t want to anyway.
Kay
@Peale:
One thing Obama was really, really good at was putting forth the interests of families and making it a respectable and important MALE issue. I have never seen a male politician do this as well as he did. He approached it as a father. I am convinced white men – even the dreaded white working class men- connected to him on that. I think it was natural to him, but it was really pretty revolutionary, to be completely comfortable with what are dismissed as “mommy” issues, to the extent that in the 1990’s Republicans and media said D’s were “the mommy party”. I mean think about that! Only “mommies” care about this! What a horrible frame!
Trump’s vulnerable on it. He can’t do it. He has contempt for it.
JPL
@Kay: If Biden does win the primary, he’ll need a high energy V.P.
Sloane Ranger
@Tony Jay: I move between anger, frustration and just wanting to cry when I hear the arrogant, self deluding, illogical so called “arguments” put forward by the Brexiteers. And when you try to explain the economic issues, they either accuse you of treating them like they’re stupid or metaphorically put their hands over their ears and start humming loudly.
I’m currently trying to persuade myself that not all hope is lost and enough Tory MP’s will vote to stop Johnson if needed.
Kay
@JPL:
Oh, God, is this sarcastic? You’re not making me feel better. No one cares about the VP. No one. Which sadly takes us right back to Joe Biden. Ahem.
Alain
Sorry for mis-post folks. It was unpublished from earlier this week when my computer crashed and I just recovered and clicked without thinking. I deleted it. Carry on.
Ohio Mom
@Another Scott: Yeah, as you certainly already know,
autism often brings with it unusual sensory perceptions. My autie, Ohio Son, takes temperature extremes in stride and has an extremely high pain tolerance — a mere Tylenol was enough during a recent kidney stone episode.
Back when it looked like Hillary would be our next president and it would be smooth sailing ahead, I wondered what conversational topics we jackals would busy ourselves with. I thought I would suggest a thread for all of us family members of autistics (there appears to be quite a number of is). Now I am thinking it will be ten years at least until this country reaches any equilibrium and our attention can be focused elsewhere.
Kay
People in the justice system must know they’re completely discrediting their own system. I mean, I’m “in it” to a certain extent and I’m acutely aware of how this keeps happening. Not just “justice” system- legal system. That they would just piss credibility away because they’re so ridiculously and embarrasingly impressed with rich men just blows me away. It’s so small. Such a bad trade they made. They don’t even get anything! Asshole isn’t actually bribing them. They just hand it to him! “Here, sir, what else can I do for you? What other special privileges are you entitled to?” I have more contempt for them than I do Epstein. They’re worse.
ThresherK
@zhena gogolia: We are in a small apt with a window unit AC in one room. The AC’d bedroom could be 75 while the frontroom is 80. This is our second summer in this place; we both are pretty okay at about 76-77.
Town pool is a must for me today. It’s also one mile from the best home-made ice cream stand, too!
I’m in New England, so even though they say it’s a near-nationwide heatwave, I’m not getting its worst.
Kay
People may not be aware of this but sex offenders are rigorously monitored. Short of jumping bail on a violent felony or a robbery no one is treated as harshly as sex offenders. They are REGULARLY incarcerated on glitches in the ankle monitor that are not actually their fault or doing. When you read how the entire county, state and federal legal system bent over backward for this guy keep that in mind. In ordinary-world sex offenders are treated like rapists and murderers and robberies.
He got extraordinary special treatment. Unheard of.
Baud
@Ohio Mom:
We would have occupied ourselves with how Hillary had failed us, and probably metadata collection.
Trump broke a lot of self-indulgent fevers.
JPL
@Kay: Stacey Abrams would make people pay attention to the VP spot.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Baud:
from your keyboard to the campaign (and twitter) deities’ ears
germy
@JPL: Biden would make a fine VP for Ms. Abrams.
Villago Delenda Est
Meanwhile, the Slovenian whore limps in at number 19….
Kay
@JPL:
I don’t agree. You can’t fix a weak candidate with a VP. Biden got credit for some of Obama’s political skill. I thought it at the time and I still think so. White people in media wanted to think Biden’s was Obama’s white people whisperer, but the whole narrative was bullshit. Made up. Biden was never a populist. Never. I don’t think Obama picked him for voters. I think Obama picked him for “insiders”, Biden made THEM more comfortable. They’re much more conventional than voters are. They could all breathe a sigh of relief because they didn’t “know” Obama and they did know Biden. Personally. That’s what “know” means to them- it has nothing to do with anything but them.
If it’s Joe Biden or “risk” I’ll take risk because Biden is risky, in a completely dispiriting and exhausting and conventional way.
I hope D primary voters don’t get lazy. Risk-averse I get, I share that, but this isn’t the cure.
germy
@Kay: Biden’s reputation for “successfully” reaching across the aisle could have been a factor. Maybe Obama hoped the republicans would be more receptive to Joe’s schmoozing.
That didn’t happen, so now he’s running for president on the “I can successfully schmooze” ticket?
Kay
@JPL:
If he’s just going to sit in the top slot and do fucking nothing he should get out of the way and let another centrist have a shot. I don’t object to his ideology, although I don’t share it, I don’t think it’s too far Right I think it’s too conventional and boring and used-up, but I’ll take a better centrist candidate. Which won’t happen as long as he’s squatting on this.
Tony Jay
@Sloane Ranger:
Exactly. What’s the saying? You can’t use facts to argue someone out of a conclusion they didn’t use facts to reach. That’s where we are with a substantial chunk of the voting population. Not a majority of the electorate, not even close, but a majority among the voting membership of the current Governing Party, certainly. They want what they want, and what they want, because they are as mad as geese on bath-crystal, is Clown Prince Flobalob and the Second Battle of Britain.
I think I’m right in saying that I’m on record as saying for a very long time that the only hope we’ve got of getting out of this alive revolves around enough Tory MPs being brave and/or realistic enough to vote with Labour and the smaller parties when it comes down to nut-cutting time. That time is fast approaching.
Interesting times my arse.
Mnemosyne
@Kay:
I’m not worried about Biden because he’s not going to win the nomination. He just isn’t. I think he’ll probably drop out before Thanksgiving.
He’s been a part of two winning presidential campaigns and he knows this ain’t it.
James E Powell
@OzarkHillbilly:
If I say that our law enforcement agencies are filled with right-wing authoritarians who have no respect for the constitution or the human rights of those with whom they disagree, I would be painting with a very broad brush. Maybe filled isn’t the right word. But police misconduct of this sort is invariably right-wing.
Is it the nature of law enforcement or the nature of the people who choose that career? Both in combination?
J R in WV
@Raven:
We’re in the deep woods, so even in a heat wave, we still coll off a little bit at night. Days we set the thermostat at 75, or 74 if we go to work on a floor or something. then at bedtime, which for us is 11 or 12 in the evening, we turn it down to 72. Sometimes if I wake up all overheated I’ll turn it down to 71, as much for that cool wave against my back as I crawl back in bed.
62 is ridiculous except for dead of winter saving energy status. We go for 68 in the winter time.
Elizabelle
@Mnemosyne: Biden is in there to kneecap Bernie, whether that was his original intent or not.
If he sends that wagging scold back to the north, I am good.
Agree. Biden is solely a placeholder. I think and hope it is going to be Kamala Harris or Elizabeth Warren. Or both!
Elizabelle
Reposting this from downstairs. Learning this worries me a lot.
Public service announcement: if you have jewelry and other valuables in a bank safe deposit box, watch out.
NY Times: Safe Deposit Boxes Aren’t Safe
When Philip Poniz opened Box 105 at his local Wells Fargo, he discovered it was empty — and that he was totally unprotected by federal law.
The sad story of Mr. Poniz, who eventually recovered some, but not all, of his rare and sometime priceless timepieces.
Bank of America will cover ten times the box’s annual rent. Ergo: here’s your $2,500. Next!
I am heading for my safe deposit box Monday and cleaning it out. I can safeguard my stuff better at home. That’s sad.
J R in WV
Regarding home thermostat settings, we also have ceiling fans, in the “great” room, a combined living room, kitchen, dining room, there are two large Casablanca fans that have been spinning continuously since 1994. Except for brief shut-downs for rare dusting and cleaning. The more “modern” computer controlled fan in the bedroom shuts down when there’s the slightest blip in the AC power supply, and I turn it back on when I notice it’s off. This helps a lot winter and summer.
In the big room one fan is set to lift air and the other to push it down in the other end of the space.
The basement would be a refuge to escape the heat if there was a long power outage during a heat wave, a not impossible thing. I ask myself, is there still an inflatable air mattress from our camping days? But I never look!
Steeplejack
@Kay:
I went to the story because it wasn’t clear to me whether this was now or back in the day.
?
Amir Khalid
@Sloane Ranger:
It’s Tory MPs who made Boris the PM, isn’t it? I find myself doubting their willingness/ability to keep him from doing his worst.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
..
Citizen Alan
@Kay:
I call it the peasant mentality. The belief that people significantly wealthier than you and who are likely responsible in some way for your own poverty are nevertheless worthy of admiration. You see it in people who mindlessly support Shitgibbon despite being completely dependent on social security disability payments that Republicans would take away tomorrow if they could.
Citizen Alan
@Kay:
Personally, I like to think Obama picked Biden just to get him out of the senate so that he could be replaced by a younger senator who wasn’t an lickspittle for the cred card industry.