The lines at the food stands are always terrible, and it’s worse when some schmuck running for office is standing in front of the counter posing for a scrum of aides and reporters…
"WELL IT'S ABOUT FUCKING TIME" pic.twitter.com/sayYHl3ysH
— Paul Bronks (@SlenderSherbet) August 7, 2019
.
Warren and Harris campaigns sharing a chant in the pre-parade for the Iowa State Fair (“I believe that she will win”) pic.twitter.com/OpbEdjKKZy
— Jennifer Epstein (@jeneps) August 8, 2019
U.S. farmers' discontent bubbles over in confrontation with Trump's agriculture secretary at a fair in Minnesota https://t.co/sehoAZKIUf via @bpolitics
— Erik Wasson (@elwasson) August 7, 2019
‘The leopards were never supposed to eat *my* face!’:
… Gary Wertish, president of the Minnesota Farmers Union, drew applause as he leveled criticism of the administration’s trade policy at a forum with Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue in front of thousands of farmers gathered in a metal barn for a panel discussion.
American farmers took a fresh financial hit from Trump’s trade war over the weekend as China announced a halt to all U.S. agricultural imports after the president threatened Beijing with another tariff increase.
Wertish criticized Trump’s “go-it-alone approach” and the trade dispute’s “devastating damage not only to rural communities.” He expressed fears Trump’s $28 billion in trade aid will undermine public support for federal farm subsidies, saying the assistance is already being pilloried “as a welfare program, as bailouts.”
Others joined in. Brian Thalmann, president of the Minnesota Corn Growers Association, complained about Trump statements that farmers are doing “great” again. “We are not starting to do great again,” he said. “We are starting to go down very quickly.”
Joel Schreurs of the American Soybean Association warned American producers are in danger of long-term losses in market share in China, the world’s largest importer of soybeans.
Perdue sought to soothe the crowd as he defended the president’s policies. “Obviously this is a popular opinion. A lot of applause,” he joked after the audience reacted to Democratic Representative Angie Craig saying aid is not substitute for a strategy on trade. “There is a lot of stress out there.”…
Trump’s overwhelming support in rural America was crucial to his narrow 2016 election victory and maintaining farmer’s backing is critical to his re-election bid.
In June, 54% of rural voters approved of Trump’s job performance compared with a national approval rating of 42%, according to a Gallup survey of 701 self-identified rural voters.
The way we live now:
Iowa State Fair is Taking Measures After US Mass Shootings https://t.co/FFERBsYxEO #iowa #news #breaking #iowanews #gunlegislation #guncontrol
— MediaBros (@mediabrosdotorg) August 8, 2019
OzarkHillbilly
Blech.
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: ?
Thought this article in the Guardian was good this morning:
OzarkHillbilly
@satby: I am reading that right now. Thoroughly depressing.
OzarkHillbilly
@satby: From the end of it:
That statement says so much of what is wrong with where we are. Here we have this guy who knows the problem, studied it, worked to ameliorate it, lost his job over it, and he still characterizes white nationalism and the violence directed against minorities as “misbehavior”.
JPL
It appears that the mother of the El Paso shooter spoke with the police about her son’s ownership of an AK-47 a few weeks ago, but since it’s Texas there was nothing they could do.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
Like how bin Ladin misbehaved?
Our biggest problem isn’t white nationalisms? It’s their white friends and family who won’t do what it takes to fight them. The latter group is far more numerous. But like those farmers at the Iowa State Fair, most of them will cling to their own people rather than join us.
Ben Cisco
@OzarkHillbilly: Wow. That bit of mealy-mouth is FTFNYT-worthy. “Misbehave” my ass!
Kay
@JPL:
She wasn’t “concerned”, though – she asked a general question- I wonder if she called to ask if it was legal to own one.
Betty Cracker
Hubby took this photo at work a while ago of the rocket launch:
I thought something had gone wrong due to the weird cloud configuration, but it seems not.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone ? ??
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: @Ben Cisco: The part that gets me is that he knows what he is talking about, he knows the dangers of it, he knows who is responsible for it getting out of control, he fought the battle and lost,
And yet… White people misbehave.
It makes me wonder how many times over the years I have minimized the sins of white people without even realizing it, just by the words I speak with.
Ben Cisco
@Baud: Thanks for this. It seems like that’s what this boils down to – they hate us more than they love the country.
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
A Ghost To Most
@Baud: In terms of numbers, it’s not the nazis; it’s the good Germans. What do you do with ~60 million brainwashed fools?
p.a.
I thought I was voting for the Leopards Eat Dark Faces Only Party!
John S.
@Kay:
If a white woman walked into a police station in Texas and asked if it was ok for her son to own an AK-47, I wouldn’t expect a concerned response. Maybe even a joke would be made.
I highly doubt the same thing would happen if a non-white woman walked into the same police station and asked the same question.
OzarkHillbilly
“KEITH, SLOW THE FUCK DOWN, YOU’LL KILL US BOTH”
It’s Anne’s fault, she sent me down the Bronks hole.
AxelFoley
@Ben Cisco:
And as Sandy Hook proved, they love their guns more than they love their own children.
Baud
Forget yelling fire in a crowded theater. We now cannot make any loud noise in public for fear of causing a panic.
Kay
@JPL:
There are ways to get to the gun if a family member is going off the deep end. Because we have such ridiculously lax gun laws family members can (and do) use other laws to reach the person they’re worried about and can’t control and those laws include weapons prohibitions. You go thru the mechanisms designed to control people to reach the weapon and disarm them.
All of these gun nuts are claiming it’s not the weapon but in the real world the gun ups the ante a lot and they’ll get an order if they petition and include information that person is armed. Petitions to control a family member (an incompetency petition or some kind of protection order) who is armed versus one who is not armed are treated very differently in practice.
This is what happens with irrational policy- people figure out work arounds, and judges and police ARE using work arounds. They don’t have “gun laws” so they use what they have. This whole “debate” is a lie. Police and judges know damn well armed people are more dangerous than people who are not armed because of course they do. They act on the reality, not the ridiculous NRA fantasy. So you see people bringing harrassment petitions or domestic violence petitions or incompetency petitions, all of which are designed to reach behavior but which also reach the weapon. They’re using the laws they have and we’re all pretending it isn’t about the guns but it is about the guns. Obviously. If it wasn’t about the guns including information that the family member is armed to the teeth wouldn’t change the analysis by law enforcement and police and it DOES change the analysis. It’s treated as an emergency and you’re much more likely to get the order you’re seeking.
satby
@rikyrah: Good morning ?
@AxelFoley: truth.
John S.
@OzarkHillbilly:
White privilege is a hell of a drug.
I used to think that I was white until I was 14 and got jumped and beaten up by a group of teenagers for being Jewish (I used to wear a Star of David on a necklace). That was in South Florida in an affluent suburb in the early 1990s. And from that point onwards, I’ve experienced random acts of anti-semitism.
But those boys taught me a lesson I will never forget. It doesn’t matter how white I look in the outside – for those concerned about whiteness, I would never be white. And yet, once I removed my necklace, there was no visible way for anyone to know that I wasn’t white, and as long as I didn’t talk too much, my full white privilege was magically restored.
I’ve got it much easier than those who cannot hide the fact they aren’t white on the outside. They will never be able to enjoy the illusion of being white such as I have, a few mishaps nonwithstanding.
White privilege is a hell of a drug.
Baud
@Ben Cisco:
After 9/11, Bush hit a 90% approval rating simply because Dems put country over party and rallied around the flag. The reverse is inconceivable.
debbie
@JPL:
Has anyone confronted Abbott about this?
Baud
@Kay:
Last night, Chris Hayes adopted your message about how Second Amendment rights are restricting the rights of the rest of us because of all the new restrictions imposed on us to keep us “safe.”
debbie
@John S.:
Pity she didn’t take that extra step and also let them know he’d been suspended in high school for creating a hate list and a rape list. //
Baud
It also hurts Trump voting cattle farmers, so that’s something too.
Kay
@John S.:
I don’t know about Texas but I live in a very conservative county and this is not what is happening. There’s a real disconnect between the laws and what law enforcement and judges are doing. They’re terrified of a mass shooting and they are acting within the laws they have to prevent one. Every single elected judge in this county is a Republican. Every single one treats the inclusion of one fact “he is armed” as a fast track to some kind of order that reaches the gun.
The lack of gun laws is irrational and when policy is irrational people figure out ways to use other laws to get the same result.
But the family member has to blow the whistle, and that’s because of the lack of gun laws. But make no mistake. The focus is the gun. It’s an elaborate charade. “he threatened me with this text he sent” is treated very differently than “he threatened me with this text he sent and he has 22 guns”. File the second and things move very fast.
Jeffro
We used to love going to the Delaware State Fair, so this is a nice reminder to figure out when the Virginia one is (looks like Sept 27-Oct 6) and try to get there, even for the day – thanks!
Baud
Hear, hear.
Betty Cracker
Looks like Trump is going to commute Rod Blagojevich’s sentence. Trump noted that RB appeared on a couple of episodes of “The Apprentice,” and Trump says RB has been treated “very unfairly” since he received a long sentence “for a phone call where nothing happened.” I’m sure Trump sincerely believes that since he doesn’t see anything wrong with massive corruption and has conspired via telephone to commit crimes that did or did not happen, probably countless times. But it’s interesting how tone deaf Trump is on the topic of Blagojevich. In the press account of the conversation (on AF1), Trump comes across as expecting mad accolades for springing RB, maybe because he’s received praise for working with people like Kanye West and Kim Kardashian to free prisoners. He may find that people aren’t so keen about this potential act of mercy.
Ian R
He says that like those descriptions are in some way inaccurate.
Baud
Kay
@Baud:
I’m so glad! I don’t like him, though. I think he’s very earnest and I tried to like him but to me he’s the kind of liberal who is very invested in being “cool”. The kind of liberal who secretly admires libertarians :)
debbie
@Baud:
If I were a car, I’d be scared of him and would do whatever he wanted.
Baud
@Kay:
I feel the same way about him. And he’s awfully weak when he has Republicans on his show.
OzarkHillbilly
@John S.:
Indeed it is, and even when one knows they are gifted with it they can be blind to the thousand and one ways it makes one’s life easier.
My youngest and I were speaking of it on his latest visit and I mentioned that I could name hundreds, thousands, of occasions where I benefited and he remembered one that I had never even looked at in that light: I got pulled over for speeding and was kept on the side of the road for 45 mins w/o communication from the cop. I was just about to get out of my truck and say, “For God’s sake, arrest me.” when the cop walked up to my door, handed me back my DL, PoI, etc, and said,
“I’m sorry it took so long. Every time I ran your DL it came back as you having a warrant for your arrest, but it also said you were a large Hispanic male and I just couldn’t square it.”
I am darkly complected, especially when I was working on a framing job, but I’m 5-8 (and 150 at the time, don’t ask what I am now) with blond hair and blue eyes with very Caucasian features, so he let me go.
My son pointed out that if I had been black or Latino the cuffs would have been on me licketysplit and no amount of American English would have kept my ass out of jail.
Kay
@John S.:
I think we should find this heartening, the disconnect between what gun nuts and the politicians they bought SAY and what front line people on the ground DO when dealing with people who armed versus people who are not armed.
We won the argument. They know good goddamned well it’s the gun and they act accordingly. Despite the lack of laws. They just plug in other laws. Their worst nightmare is someone brings a dangerous gun nut to their attention in a way that can be proved (paper) and they let the gun go. They don’t treat people who aren’t armed as imminent threats. Another “debate” that is just a giant bunch of bullshit and lies. Anyway- we won. It’s the gun. The laws may or may not catch up to the reality but that’s the reality.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
Was the warrant legit?
Dorothy A. Winsor
All those complaining farmers will still vote Republican.
rikyrah
@Betty Cracker:
Great picture
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay:
My Business Rep was in such a situation and couldn’t get anybody to do shit. Restraining orders, warrants for the asshole’s arrest, etc etc. 1 dead, 2 wounded. But that’s rural Misery, eggs/omelets.
rikyrah
Undermine support for farm welfare?
You don’t say????
rikyrah
@John S.:
You think?
The son would be under the jail already if the mother had been non-White ???
rikyrah
@AxelFoley:
Morning Axel…
Tell that truth?
J R in WV
@Kay:
I see what you mean, but we’ve been watching MSNBC in the evenings and he is doing a pretty good job of exposing Trump’s corruption and racism almost every night. Good guests, usually includes a Republican, who is allowed to spew some poison, briefly, but then is exposed for the racist of Russian stooge that he is.
Also have watched Maddow many evenings, she has become less inclined to over-explain the issues of the evening, as there are too many to cover that way in an hour.
Obviously, some evenings are better than others, but both of those hosts are doing America’s work exposing the Russian stooge racists for what they are.
ETA: Chris Matthews is still an overbearing arrogant bully who really believes only his opinions matter… not a journalist!
Baud
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Did you win?
rikyrah
@Kay:
You have nailed him, Kay
Perfect description.
Kay
@OzarkHillbilly:
That surprises me. It’s akin to how all these Right wing judges who supposedly don’t want any weapons regulations build a goddamn fortress of security around themselves in THEIR workplace. If it’s not the fucking GUN why am I walking thru a metal detector? I’m not walking thru a “video game detector” or a “mental illness detector”. Oh, they KNOW. They’re safe as houses in there. They just won’t extend that same safety to you.
Another Scott
@Baud: Careful, you’ll wake the Popehat:
Cheers,
Scott.
(“Who thinks Popehat is a great teacher, too.”)
rikyrah
@Kay:
I wrote earlier that I was getting irritated by law enforcement talking about how fast they got to a mass shooting.
I thought, at first, that they were bragging.
Now, I see it as their way to attack the NRA and their gutless politicians.
Because, if law enforcement can show up in one to two MINUTES….Yet, that’s still time enough for a massacre…
Then, it’s the guns….
Not the good guys with guns bullshyt.
Kay
@J R in WV:
I think it’s important to have a liberal channel if there’s a conservative channel, so I’m grateful it’s there- I just don’t watch it because none of the hosts do anything for me.
I do pay for cable though because my husband needs this bizarre combo of sports that can’t be crafted out of streaming services so in that sense I hope I support them.
rikyrah
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Yep.
Which is why I have come around.
No mercy for when they lose everything??
Baud
@Kay:
I just wish the channel was better. But I’m glad it exists.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Baud: Not yet. The contest isn’t over until early on Sunday. But I have something like 48% of the vote at the moment, so that’s encouraging. I suspect shenanigans.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: It was for illegal immigration (i assume my identity got stolen on one of my many trips south of the border), so I called INS the next day.
I told them my tale of woe and they asked me,”Are you a relative?”
“No, I’m the guy you are trying to arrest!”
They said, “We can’t tell you anything.” and hung up.
The next day I went into the local cop shop and told them my tale of woe. They ran my driver’s license and…. Nothing. Nada. Zip. So I’ll never really know.
The good part is when the cop who originally pulled me over gave me back my stuff, he said, “I’m not giving you a ticket. I think you have enough problems already.” So it got me out of a ticket for 83 in a 55 zone.
Kay
@rikyrah:
Well, just look at how they act. Call them and say “armed” versus “not armed” and see how they treat it. It’s the gun. Of course it is and we all know it. It’s Tuesday in a high school and there’s a deranged teenager ranting in the hallway. One response. Add the gun. Now what’s the response? Reality won that argument, and it will continue to win because armed people are more dangerous than unarmed people. The laws will just be catching up.
Another Scott
RollCall – Coward Donnie is afraid to go to Baltimore:
Unsurprising.
Good for Cummings to keep after him.
Cheers,
Scott.
Betty Cracker
Just saw an excerpt from a NYT article that explains the proposed Blagojevich sentence communtation: Kushner advised Trump to do it because he thinks Democrats will like it. LOL! Good God, they’re all so bad at their jobs.
Baud
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Just let us know if you need more votes.
@OzarkHillbilly:
More white privilege. :-)
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
Why won’t you meet Trump halfway, Betty?
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay: I wasn’t clear enough, judges can issue orders but cops, in this case sheriff’s deputies, carry them out. Jim or his wife would drive past the asshole’s house every day because he lived on the same road. If he was at home they would call 911 and tell the dispatcher what was up. Nobody ever came for him. Until he was dead and Jim and his wife had been shot. Then they showed up.
I’ve always wondered if he was just one of those problem citizens that cops get tired of dealing with and slow walk any response because they are hoping somebody else gets there first or just decide they’re gonna stop and have a Big Mac and fries first.
There is also the aspect that everybody out here has guns, it’s just a given, nobody gives it a 2nd thought. When I got a restraining order between my ex’s asshole husband and my sons, I noted several incidences with guns (as related to me by the boys), noted his violent tendencies, his temper, his arrest for beating my ex and almost running over my son with his truck, even the fact that my oldest felt the need to sleep with a loaded shotgun.
But every confrontation I had with the asshole over the years following he was carrying, except for the confrontations in court of course.
Betty Cracker
WaPo:
They had to lure discharged patients back to the hospital and ask them to bring family members so Trump would have someone to meet. Jesus.
Anne Laurie
@Betty Cracker: Apparently Jared Kushner thinks pardoning Rod ‘will appeal to Democrats’. I know this because Dan Drezner, on twitter, said he wouldn’t have believed it but Jared has actually gotten dumber in DC!
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Betty Cracker: Ds are embarrassed by Blago! Apparently no one in the Trump family can conceive of being embarrassed by a corrupt associate.
@Baud: Thank you. I’ll do that. This place is full of shenanigan-prone people.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
It’s true. They don’t understand Democrats at all. I love how insanely coddled Jared and Ivanka are – wrapped in layers of soft swaddling. Ivanaka believes that she can make statements about racism and hate. She 100% believes she is credible and people turn to her for “leadership”. God almighty what a massive failure by their parents. They never grew up, these “children”. They’re giant infants.
Sally
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I have voted, for you, early and often!
Another Scott
A great placard from El Paso (Reuters via the BBC).
Cheers,
Scott.
Betty Cracker
The president of Finland has a fantastic dog!
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Sally: See? Shenanigans. :-)
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Betty Cracker: Their faces have the same expression.
Steeplejack (phone)
@p.a.:
Okay, funny. LQTM. (“Laughing quietly to myself,” not quite LOL.)
Mike S (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!)
@Baud: This is not a clear-cut issue. Most land used for grazing can’t be farmed for crops like soybeans and wheat, to replace the nutrition supplied by meat (about 38%) we’d have to farm a lot more land and there just isn’t much more available.
Also the amount of greenhouse gasses produced by the fertilizer industry (that supports our intensive row cropping system which give us about 41% of our nutrition) has been underestimated to a huge degree (methane anyone!). And finally rice production is a major source of methane which is a more potent greenhouse gas than CO2 although it cycles out of the atmosphere more quickly. Remember these new veggie burgers are an ultra processed food. This kind of article and propaganda is a Big Food industry ploy for profit over human scale farming. I have links for this somewhere, maybe I’ll find them after more coffee.
OzarkHillbilly
@rikyrah: The timeline at Dayton is now down to 30 seconds.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: Yep.
Tata
Postcards To Voters is looking for volunteers to help with a campaign to unseat Moscow Mitch. It doesn’t take much time. Please sign up, especially if you’re retired and have time.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: So true. They were raised by hyper-privileged sociopaths, and it shows. Neither could competently run a pop-up smoothie stand, yet here they are, influencing national and world events.
Do you think Ivanka meant to invoke the famous wingnut “but Chicago” dog whistle when she tweeted about the mass shootings the other day? I think it’s entirely plausible that she’s really that dumb and didn’t realize what she was doing, but I don’t want to let her off the hook either…
Betty Cracker
@Dorothy A. Winsor: You’re right — they do! That’s a fat little Finnish Boston. My Badger is far more svelte, but he’s still a baby. The mister is always admonishing me about overfeeding the dog. He’s afraid I’ll turn him into a cannonball with legs, like the Finnish president’s dog.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Betty Cracker: I realize this is naïve and a lost cause, but…
Ivanka theoretically has a job. She is senior staff in the WH. We pay her a salary, though supposedly she doesn’t take it. (What happens to it then? I realize I don’t know) Can you imagine any of Obama’s senior staff people commenting on events while he was in office? She feels she should be heard because of who she is with the job as an excuse. I have zero time for her.
Another Scott
@Tata: Good idea.
There’s also https://www.postcardpatriots.com/ by our own MazeDancer.
Cheers,
Scott.
Kay
@OzarkHillbilly:
I believe it and these are just my observations but it really is panic time here. Our cops and judges use “lights and sirens” to indicate urgency. So judge will say “lights and sirens?” to the cop and that means “treated as an emergency?” Add gun to X, Y or Z incident and you get “lights and sirens”. Reliably.
To me it’s akin to how they used workarounds to get to domestic violence before there was a whole code section on DV. They had an “assault” law so they’d use that. It wasn’t a good tool – they needed a better one for the job- but it’s what they had.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
I do think she meant it- she first used Windy City but felt that wasn’t loud enough so switched to Chicago. Her fans were like “where is… Windy City?”
The nepotism jobs have only increased their isolation because they’re surrounded by insane Trumpsters every minute of every day. Imagine that White House. LITERALLY an echo chamber, lies ringing thru the hallways.
Ben Cisco
@AxelFoley: Yes. The fact that they would sacrifice their own* is chilling.
*Metaphorically, I think – were any of those parents 2A types? God, how depressing would that be?
Ben Cisco
@Baud: Never happen. Pot of gold, sewer gators, etc.
Burnspbesq
@Kay:
True, and good, but as you know, it only takes one well-meaning, self-proclaimed “public interest law firm” to fuck everything up.
geg6
@Betty Cracker:
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
OMG, that cipher really is as stupid and vacant as he looks.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay:
It is here too, but the response has been to make concealed carry requirement free, no license necessary, no instruction necessary, no nothing. You know, “MOAR GUNS!” It really is instructional to watch Republican lawmakers hide in the state capitol behind metal detectors and armed capitol police as they pass laws that say anyone can carry a gun anywhere, anytime… except there.
MomSense
Remember when everyone freaked out because Obama invited Common to the White House Poetry Slam? Or when he said it was stupid for the Cambridge police to arrest ProfessorGates in the porch of his own house. He was the worst race card player who ever played the race card!!11!!!1
Now we have our so-called president inciting mass murder by white nationalist extremists and putting people in concentration camps and too many in the media still can’t call this what it is. Beto gained a lot of points with me for calling them in it. I read that Kamala Harris called Beto after that and then sent lunch to his whole staff in El Paso. I’m really enjoying how well the non-Russian supported candidates get along with each other. Wilmer and Tulsi can stuff it.
Things took a positive turn here. Dog is on the mend. Got one job offer yesterday, am a finalist for a second job, and have another interview today. Last night I had dinner with my oldest – just the two of us. We gabbed about all kinds of things like friends do. It was a really sweet moment.
kindness
I’ve come to believe that the American farmer, God love ’em, are surprisingly stupid.
They see the hook. They see the line. Yet they still gobble it down. Yea they’ll still vote for Trump in 2020. And yea, those ‘bailouts’ are just another corporate welfare.
Jeffro
@Betty Cracker: Yes…commute the sentence of one corrupt Democrat, and we’ll all just swoon and vote the Ill Douche back in for a second term. Absolutely.
That’s actually worse than ‘underpants gnome’ logic. At least they leave the middle step up in the air, instead of straight-up doing something that won’t work and expecting it will work.
Jeffro
@Dorothy A. Winsor: More importantly, can you imagine if Hillz put Chelsea and her husband on the WH payroll??? The mind, it boggles.
MomSense
@rikyrah:
That’s how I feel about the lobstermen around me. They didn’t give a shit that we would all lose our health insurance. They don’t care about babies in cages. They knew the racism and hatred wasn’t aimed at them so they endorsed it with their votes. Fuckem.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@MomSense: I’m so glad about the dog. That was worrisome. The job and companionable dinner with the kid are wonderful too. Some days, life is good.
Kay
@Burnspbesq:
We have a criminal defense lawyer here who took a court appointment to defend a juvenile who had accidentally shot and killed his school mate. They were waiting for the school bus inside his garage and there was a gun on a clothes dryer (their usual caution and prudence- just drop this here) – one picked it up and shot and killed the other. Lawyer decided to blame the adult who dropped the gun- that was the defense. If I Google lawyers name (as I have done to get his phone number) he is mentioned on Ohio gun nut sites as a “gun grabber”. So- absolutely. They’re very dedicated. They watch the cases.
Betty Cracker
@MomSense: Glad to hear things are looking up! Was hoping to see good news about the doggo. :)
geg6
@Kay:
Did either of you read the article about her in New York Magazine? The author’s tone is not to my taste, but I think it hit the nail on the head with Nazi Barbie.
https://www.thecut.com/2019/08/what-will-ivanka-trump-do-after-she-leaves-the-white-house.html#_ga=2.111649412.1268150146.1565008773-1080959291.1520371265
James E Powell
@Jeffro:
A never-ending supply of shrieking headlines and front page investigative reporting from the NYT, none of which would show any wrong-doing, but shadows & clouds, shadows & clouds!
Steeplejack
Medical status report:
Pain continues to ease, itching continues to grow. I took off my bandages Tuesday night. The shoulder looks fine: a long, thin slit about 7". No redness or irritation. I don’t think I will rebandage it, but I’ll try to keep it out of the direct blast of the shower.
My forearm looks . . . fugly. Lots of cutting there. I sent a photo to a couple of friends, and one wrote back: “For heaven’s sake, bandage it for its own protection as well as to deter any public outcry.” The other said she was glad she looked at the picture after lunch. I haven’t rebandaged it yet, because I’ve been at home, but I will do so before I go out. I’ll still use the Tokyokie sleeve in the shower. Follow-up with the surgeon is not until next Wednesday. The wound is completely dry, not “weeping,” so that’s good. But, man, there was a lot of cutting.
I canceled the housecat’s appointment for teeth surgery today. Her blood test showed that her kidney function is a little off, and that needs to get taken care of first. The vet dentist said I could bring her in and they’d look at her and see if she could have surgery, but I didn’t want to drive 45 minutes on the Beltway and have it not pan out. Or have it pan out, because then I’d be there sitting for a good chunk of the day feeling sore and miserable. I was exhausted after getting her to her regular vet on Tuesday—I still get exhausted after doing anything—so I’ll wait until I feel better and have both hands free.
But I feel pretty good puttering around at home, and I’m trying to rest as much as possible.
Chyron HR
@Betty Cracker:
Damn, Buster Brown’s had a hard life.
Steeplejack
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Post that link again. We can shenanigate with the best of them!
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Steeplejack: Even without pics, I’m cringing at the descriptions. It sounds as if you’re doing well though.
Kay
@geg6:
No, I didn’t and thanks. I’m really bothered by them. I feel like they’re symbolic of – not to get too dramatic- Decline and Fall.
It’s the whole package- the privilege, the nepotism, the dumb IGNORANCE that allows them to ignore what’s happening and create their own reality- the exalted opinion of themselves.
Kushner sat there like a exotic potted plant – like an ORCHID- while his douchebag FIL trashed the people of Baltimore, WHILE he is cashing checks from the people of Baltimore as a slumlord. They’re reprehensible and in such a banal and bland way. I prefer Trump. At least he does his own dirty work.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Steeplejack: Here you go! I never doubted BJ shenaniganing for a second.
BC in Illinois
@Betty Cracker:
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
@Kay:
“BC in Illinois” now lives in Missouri, but based on my 20 years in Illinois (including all of the time of Blago) I can say that Kushner is quite wrong. By the time that everything had come out, even the Dems in Illinois were ready for Blago to go to prison.
During this time, my brother in Maryland and I compared the corrupt governors of our respective states (we were old enough to remember Agnew, who avoided jail time so that he wouldn’t become President). And my other brother in Illinois came up with his own “term-limit”solution: election to Governor of Illinois should come with one six-year term, followed by an automatic eight-year prison sentence.
Pardoning Blagojevich will not be popular in Illinois.
It will merely reinforce the conviction [in all senses of the word] that Trump is in favor of corrupt politicians.
Ben Cisco
@geg6:
Absolutely nothingddelusionalhhere AT ALL. WTF
Betty Cracker
@geg6: Bad people so rarely get the comeuppance they’ve earned. As a schadenfreude enthusiast, I take what comfort I can in their minor travails since true justice is elusive. So, if Javanka end up exiled from NYC because they can’t bear social slights, I guess that’s something. It ain’t the orange jumpsuits they deserve though.
Gin & Tonic
@Steeplejack: Yeah, I grossed some people out when I posted a link to a picture (x-ray) of my arm.
Steeplejack
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Huh, that page doesn’t show me the actual voting gizmo at the bottom. I voted the other day—definitely over than 24 hours ago. I iz being disenfranchised!
Will try it with naked Chrome instead of armored Firefox.
ETA: Nope, blocked there as well.
Immanentize
@Burnspbesq:
WTF?
Yes, constitutional rights, legal representation and the law itself are so passe when it comes to your personal agenda.
chopper
that is one sassy fuckin’ panda.
Steeplejack
@Betty Cracker:
“Schadenfreude enthusiast.” Ha! Include me in!
Immanentize
@MomSense:
And just how are those lobstermen doing today?
rp
@kindness: Hello? They’re the common clay of the new west.
rikyrah
Some North Carolina Sheriffs Refuse to Comply With ICE. Republicans Have a Plan to Thwart Them.
“You bring me a federal warrant.”
JACOB ROSENBERG
Baud
@Steeplejack:
I voted for you.
Immanentize
@Dorothy A. Winsor: mischief managed
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Steeplejack: Huh. I wonder if it’s blocking you because I’m just pasting in the link I get and it knows I already voted? Let me enter it by hand and see if that works.
ETA: Imm, I knew I could count on you. How’s the kid today?
Steeplejack
I keep hearing this “credit repair” ad on TV as “critter repair.” And wonder what that would involve. That is all.
Which reminds me: There is a current ad for one of those “buy shit and get rebates so you’re really saving money” sites where a woman says she got a great deal on these “Lou Vuitton shoes.” LouVuitton all one word. Ugh. Does nobody catch these things in production? Rhetorical question.
Steeplejack
@Baud:
Why, you . . . [shakes fist] Ow! [switches to other arm]
Immanentize
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Things are a little ragged here. We are really starting the long road to normalcy and the first steps are pretty hard. Plus, I got some gut grippe that is making me logy. And salty (joining Satby).
Baud
@Immanentize:
Contest Putinized.
Immanentize
@Steeplejack:
Pain meds still working for you??
Steeplejack
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
No, the link’s the same, and I still get blocked. They probably dosed me with a cookie that isn’t really keeping track of the 24-hour thing. I’ll see if I can clear any cookies from them and give it another go.
Just One More Canuck
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Vote early, vote often
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Immanentize: I sympathize with you both. A drug I took for a short while left my digestive system irritated, which irritates me too.
I’m off to the gym. Everybody be salty.
Steeplejack
@Immanentize:
Heh. No chance. I did not get the 100 tabs of Oxy that I was hoping for. Harrumph.
Immanentize
@Baud:
I got this bathroom deodorant, “Pootin” for the Immp. Everything can be Putinized!
Immanentize
@Steeplejack:
That is regrettable. I really think the pendulum has swing way too far in the “just buck up, man!” Direction.
The Immp cannot take anything solid by mouth for a few weeks, so the only pain med he gets is liquid Tylenol in his J-tube as needed. Cherry or grape? I asked him. And a little anti-nausea patch behind his ear.
cmorenc
@Betty Cracker:
IIRC, the democratic reaction to the Gov Blagojevich scandal back in 2008 was anger and contempt that this asshole so quickly tarnished the magic of Obama’s historic win with Bagojevich’s blatant attempt to corruptly sell off an appointment to President Obama’s freshly vacated Illinois US Senate seat. I suspect Kushner’s advice was more likely motivated by thoughts of the effect that a pardon would have in bringing fresh publicity to a blatantly corrupt democratic politician in the run-up to the 2020 elections, and the purported rationale of attracting D voters with it is just a convenient cover story to distract from the real motivation of promoting the image of Democrats as habitualy corrupt. Even so, it would still be a clumsy, dumb move with more risk of damaging backfire than of electorally rewarding resuts, just not quite so spectacularly dumb as the nominal rationale makes it seem.
rikyrah
@MomSense:
YEAH…
Good to see all that positive stuff in one place.
Ruckus
@Kay:
Have a friend whose father had guns and is no longer mentally capable enough. Which may be the most oxymoronic statement I’ve ever written. In this case it has worked out, she managed to get him into a home and get the guns taken away and the story ending is dramatically better than it could have been.
Steeplejack
@Immanentize:
I have a high pain threshold and basically the constitution of a musk ox, but, yeah, a little sumpin’ sumpin’ would not have gone amiss. Even just a couple of days’ worth with no refill. But they said, oh, sure, you’ll be fine with OTC pain killers. I took an Aleve tablet the day after surgery, which seemed to help, but then kept forgetting to take another one. Sleep helps a lot. Recommended for the Immp, too, if he finds himself feeling “tired.”
VOR
@BC in Illinois: I remember visiting Illinois while Blago was Governor. All along the highway, all the signs said “Rod Blago, Governor”. Every toll booth, every rest area, even just normal signs along the road. I asked a friend how people in Illinois felt about use of tax payer funds to promote the Governor, he just rolled his eyes and said yeah, we think it sucks too.
Gin & Tonic
@Immanentize:
I’ve heard the good anti-nausea stuff is legal in Mass now.
Miss Bianca
@Kay: Not here. In Colorado, in response to red flag laws being passed, a lot of counties and towns – mine included – have freaked the fuck out and declared themselves “2nd Amendment Sanctuary Counties”. Law enforcement is actually leading the charge on this one. Maybe they’re just so rattled by the flying monkeys who swarm and shriek “RECALL!!11!!” every time someone threatens their Preciouses that they can’t admit, even to themselves, that these laws have any merit. Meantime, predictably, the “Recall Polis” (our gov) signs are out in front of the right-wing rag’s offices. Interestingly, however, since the weekend’s multiple mass shooting events, the open-carry guy who’s usually standing in the road in front of the office waving his sign hasn’t been there. Huh. Just a coincidence, I’m sure.
Miss Bianca
@Tata: Thanks for the tip! I should sign up. That will be my mite for now.
chris
I read the whole thread and there is not one mention of International Cat Day? Really, people…
Betty Cracker
@cmorenc: Could be, but I’m going with “spectacularly dumb.” These people have a track record.
Steeplejack
@chris:
Superfluous. Every day is cat day around here.
Served
Blago is cut from the exact same mold as Trump, so it makes sense. The narcissism, the hair, the impulse to play tyrant. He was massively unpopular with the D caucus in the legislature and was blatantly corrupt, but still won against a Republican who turned out to be the last sane R in the state.
TomatoQueen
Of interest to footy people: transfer window ever so slowly creaking and bumping and squeaking shut, Second Choice Schteve McLaren, Robby Earle, and wossname sitting around looking serious, and the scroll at the bottom of the screen says Andy Carroll, known drunk and broken toy, is Coming Home to Newcastle. A thumb in absolutely everyone’s eye. God why I spend so much money on footy tee vee.
Immanentize
@Gin & Tonic:
Not for those under 18. But the Immp is planning to go to a potdoc to get a medical MJ card.
Steeplejack
@TomatoQueen:
And the season starts tomorrow, I think! Need to dust off my Sky Sports page. Really good for fixtures and standings.
Kay
@Miss Bianca:
Well, they’ll say that, some of them, but watch what they do. Call the police and report that there’s an upset person outside your house yelling about something. Add “waving a gun around” and watch what happens. They can say whatever they want. It’s the gun and they know it and they don’t actually want to get shot so they respond rationally.
The red flag laws are kind of interesting because they put a person between the gun and the state action. The relative reports, the state acts. I think Republicans did that to get around this lunacy they have created. They CANNOT reach the gun directly because to do so would be to admit the fucking obvious- it’s the gun that’s the decisive factor here- so they craft work arounds to coddle their nutty base and indirectly reach the gun. They’re essentially deputizing family members to act in a regulatory role because they’re too chicken shit and corrupt to do it themselves.
Spanky
@chris: I don’t have any international cats. Frankly, the less traveled they are, the better I feel.
Ruviana
@Steeplejack: I’m wondering if it’s Louboutin shoes which could sort of sound like that. Just a thought.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: I’m surprised more cops don’t push back on the gun insanity. They encounter armed lunatics more frequently than Republican politicians, so it’s not abstract to them.
Immanentize
@Betty Cracker:
Many police do. Many cops, especially officers, testify in favor of restrictions — at least in cities where I have lived North and South.
To continue Kay’s point (which is so great) the whole expansion of stop and frisk was pitched as “getting guns off the street.”
Kay
@Miss Bianca:
To me, watching this, the rise in gun nuttery coincided with the rise in hyper-aggressive law enforcement. They were too captured to treat armed people differently than unarmed people in the strict legal sense so instead they put ALL OF US in the “super dangerous” category. This craziness has led to all kinds of bad ad hoc “solutions”, because it is irrational. It is harming every single one of us. Rather than regulating gun nuts, we all have to suffer. That’s just not fair.
They’re mad at red flag laws, the gun nuts? Well, the vast, vast majority of us are mad because we have to live in the armed to the teeth society they have created. Fuck that. Regulate THEM. You and I aren’t leaving our AR-15 on the kitchen table. THEY are.
Steeplejack
@Ruviana:
Ah, point taken. No-style me.
trollhattan
@JPL:
“That’s not a red flag, that’s a patriotic American flag! No ma’am, your son sounds wonderful, and perfectly normal. Please thank him for helping keep America free.”
rikyrah
@Steeplejack:
Keep on getting better.
And, the little critter too :)
rikyrah
@BC in Illinois:
I live in Illinois, and it will be a big shrug if the pardon happens.
rikyrah
@Immanentize:
Appreciate any update on Little Imma.
Always sending him positive thoughts :)
trollhattan
@Betty Cracker: @Immanentize:
I believe the unions especially, get entangled in conservative politics and that muffles their day-to-day concerns. And I’m coming to appreciate how many sheriffs are hardcore wingers–our blue county sheriff has overturned decades of restraint in handing out concealed carry permits and basically gives one to anybody who can fog a mirror.
The belief that sheriffs have some kind of special extraconstitutional powers is widespread as it is corrosive.
Immanentize
@rikyrah:
He is going slowly now. But progressing. The tube flushes (every 3 hours make him nauseous, but he has marvelled how soon such a weird thing becomes normal. He is feeling kinda low. We are watching comfort movies (LOTR, Indiana Jones, etc.). Today was a really big day as he gets to start drinking small amounts of clear liquids. Big moment as he had to get all his hydration through his flushes. We are off for a short walk now. Yay!
TomatoQueen
@Steeplejack: This is insane. NBC and Sky have eaten each other, like those disgusting amoeba things. All the talky-heads against this screechy-yellow background, the sets look like they were hauled out of storage at K-Mart. 49:49 to go before the window slams on all the fat knuckles. Rebecca is wearing blue with Diana polka dots, Graeme LeSaux and Robby Earle and another wossname now sitting on one of those stupid Sky sofas, Robby in Everton blue, blinding me. Still Andy Carroll is “in line”, not over it yet. And we’re starting tomorrow?
MomSense
@Immanentize:
They were making bank selling lobsters to China and now that is gone. The Canadians are happy to take that business and I don’t think we’ll ever get it back. Fuel prices are up. Waters are warming and the lobsters are moving north to colder water. Because permits are tied to specific areas the lobstermen can’t go after them. Some do, though and there is a lot more violence and sabotage taking place.
MomSense
@Immanentize:
Sending healing to Immp and to you. I’m dreaming of burgers and fries and all those bad and tasty things for him when he’s feeling better. We are all rooting for you both.
Steeplejack
@rikyrah:
Thanks!
Steeplejack
@TomatoQueen:
Oh, jeez, I don’t look at that stuff. I just watch the matches and cut away to something else during halftime.
Liverpool vs. Norwich City at 3:00 p.m. EDT tomorrow, then six matches on Saturday and three on Sunday. We’re off!
joel hanes
@Mike S (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!):
to replace the nutrition supplied by meat (about 38%) we’d have to farm a lot more land
No.
Much of the corn from Iowa and Illinois is used to “finish” cattle.
Some of the soybean crop is used to make bagged feed for calves.
If we were to eat less beef, that Iowa/Illinois land would be useable to grow food for humans.
You are correct that western ranchers, whose lands get too little water to grow row crops, would have difficulty remaining solvent. Given how they have overwhelmingly voted ever since the Sagebrush Rebellion, I have less than zero sympathy. They are a tiny minority in agriculture that have far too much influence.
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
@Ben Cisco – Not sure it this is what you mean but, in the case of Adam Lanza, the Sandy Hook/Newtown shooter he got the weapons he used from the gun safe in their house. As far as I know Nancy Lanza’s guns were purchased legally. Adam shot his sleeping mother 4 times, unlocked the gun safe and went to the Sandy Hook elementary school. As I recall from reports at the time(I try not to) the school had a locked door and buzzer system but the (?) principal went and opened the door because she knew Adam…
Adam’s mom was apparently a “prepper”
https://www.csgv.org/adam-lanza-took-didnt-take-sandy-hook-elementary/
Here we are 7 years later and nothing has changed except Trump’s election made the racists and misogynists bolder and Trump got rid of the gun safety measures Obama managed to get put in place after Sandy Hook.
Steeplejack
@Dorothy A. Winsor, @Steeplejack:
I cleared my cookies from that site and still couldn’t vote. I have been thwarted.
gvg
@Kay: Actually, I think BOTH facts are important, and should be even if we had rational gun laws. Anyone who threatens AND owns guns is more dangerous than someone who has never acted by buying weapons (or having prior incidents of violent acts). The laws should also consider that someone who makes threats or has prior incidents of violence (even if someone declines to prosecute) should have restrictions on gun ownership. And someone who doesn’t have a history of threats…what we used to call good character should have fewer restrictions (but not none). It is all related.
trollhattan
@EmbraceYourInnerCrone:
My recollection was Lanza blasted his way in by shooting the security door.
It’s been awhile and many hundreds dead, since.
Kay
@gvg:
They know more about school shooters now. They know the “bullied” theory was bunk and they are starting to distinguish between shooters. So there’s the shooter who essentially commits suicide and those who don’t. There’s the shooter who targets people personally – students they hate or their own parents- and the shooter who doesn’t. They think these are different motives. It’s sad but true that they have ENOUGH to put them into possibly useful categories.
J R in WV
@Steeplejack:
Yeah, me too. Seems like after I deactivated the 3 defensive shields I could vote last time, but not this time. Maybe try Chromium?
Also, too, is it shenanigans if the rules allows you to vote once a day? Shifty voting rules rule!!
ETA: Naked Chromium worked, then you gotta click on the “Cover Wars” link to get to the voting page… that may have worked with Firefox after turning off all the protections… also fix typo
TomatoQueen
@Steeplejack: OW! Transfer window sash lands on fat knuckles as TOON SIGNS ANDY CARROLL. Quick cut to Kevin Nolan blubbing at t’other table, “he said he’d come home, he said he’d come home” blub blub blub. Prediction: this will last until Saturday night, when Andy falls off a stool in The Strawberry and breaks his silly arse–again.
mrmoshpotato
But trade wars (wars, really?) are tremendous bigly easy to win!
“What’s that? We aren’t the only game in town? They can go play the game with someone else? Well, shit.”
Steeplejack
@TomatoQueen:
Yeah, after your previous comment I looked at the transfer show for about five seconds. It certainly was yellow! Maybe they had to hire a color-blind art director as part of their diversity program.
Miss Bianca
@Kay: Their alleged “reasoning” behind why they are so opposed to red flag laws? Despite the fact that it’s not just “anyone with a grudge”, but a LEO or family member who has to report them? “People lie!”
I’m like, “Buddy, if you’re saying that a family member or a cop is going to LIE about your mental health to get you…you got problems.”
sgrAstar
@Steeplejack: Louboutin.
TomatoQueen
@Steeplejack: I hope it’s not a trend.
swbarnes2
@Steeplejack:
It’s Louboutin, not Louis Vuitton. Very pricey shoes.