Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

Democracy cannot function without a free press.

Republicans cannot even be trusted with their own money.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“Facilitate” is an active verb, not a weasel word.

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

GOP baffled that ‘we don’t care if you die’ is not a winning slogan.

We still have time to mess this up!

These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.

If you can’t control your emotions, someone else will.

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

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

Let the trolls come, and then ignore them. that’s the worst thing you can do to a troll.

Weird. Rome has an American Pope and America has a Russian President.

This blog will pay for itself.

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

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires.

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

“The defense has a certain level of trust in defendant that the government does not.”

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Mr. Rainbow has outdone himself…

Mr. Rainbow has outdone himself…

by | 201 Comments

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Randy Rainbow, ladies and gents:

Usually I enjoy the fake interview portions more than the musical numbers, but they’re both top-notch in this tour de force. The Trump era revealed the awful people in all their awfulness, it is true, but we’ve got a bumper crop of comedic geniuses (Sarah Cooper anyone?), so we’ve got that going for us.

Open thread!

Reader Interactions

201Comments

  4. 4.

    Oklahomo

    Apparently the petty shitcreep isn’t scheduling the unveiling of Obama’s official portrait at the white House.

  5. 5.

    Betty Cracker

    @Oklahomo: I read that earlier. It’s petty and horrible, but on the other hand, it will spare the Obamas the horror of having to interact with the dreadful Trumps, so they’re probably relieved.

    If Biden wins, the Obamas can join him for a much more fun and joyous event during Biden’s first term. And maybe Biden will use the excuse that Trump delayed the Obama portraits to indefinitely delay Trump’s portrait.

    And possibly the shithead Trump will die in the interim and we’ll agree as a nation that, yeah, let’s just leave that portrait out. It’s embarrassing to all of us, and the hideous shade of orange clashes with the decor…

  6. 6.

    HumboldtBlue

     

    A pizzeria owner made money buying his own $24 pizzas from DoorDash for $16

    There are many things that don’t make sense about global capitalism that I enjoy anyway — the clearly inadvisable, venture-backed monstrosities like dockless scooters and ride-sharing that, in the before times, changed how I interacted with the places I went. The thing that doesn’t compute for me is how these companies continue to burn through a reality-warping amount of other people’s cash in a way that upends the basic economics of things like taxi service and food delivery and fail, intentionally, to turn a profit.

    @Betty Cracker:

    I’m fine with it, Brachiator and I were tossing it back and forth and I think the Obamas should stay as far away as they can.

  7. 7.

    jonas

    @Oklahomo:  To be fair, I expect Biden will either store Trump’s portrait in the basement, or have it hung over the kitchen dumpsters or something. The idea of that orange ass’s visage desecrating some public area of the White House for the next howevermany generations is sickening.

  9. 9.

    Major Major Major Major

    @HumboldtBlue: IANAEconomist, but it’s my understanding that the issue is related to the lack of inflation. It creates huge piles of cash that are just laying around, so investors start to get loopier and loopier with what they consider acceptable risk or acceptable metrics for a viable company. From there it’s just groupthink, since modern economies are sort of just a story we tell ourselves.

    A little bit of inflation, some redistribution, and we’ll find that real companies are going to start looking pretty good.

  10. 10.

    LuciaMia

    @jonas: Has he had one done yet? Which artist did he choose, the one who painted all the Republican presidents sitting around playing poker?

  12. 12.

    Major Major Major Major

    Samwise was making weird noises on the couch and wriggling around so I went to wake him up. He shot up and hissed at me! Then calmed right down. Bad dreams I guess? Hasn’t happened before, I assume this is normal. (I’m not worried.)

  14. 14.

    Amir Khalid

    @LuciaMia:

    There’s a whole genre of rightwing artists in America, and their collective oeuvre is at that dogs-playing-poker level of artistic sophistication. You know who I mean. Any one of them would be perfect.

  16. 16.

    Betty Cracker

    Question for the gallery: I was bitten on the forearm by something on Sunday while out spying on birds — I leaned against a tree to take a photo, and something bit me. I thought it was a mosquito at first, but hours later, there was quite a bit of swelling, redness and vague itchiness and also HEAT. That’s the weird thing about this bite; pretty much my entire forearm from elbow to wrist is 10 degrees hotter than my other arm and a bit swollen.

    My husband keeps trying to get me to go to the doctor, but I don’t want to because a) I don’t want to get COVID-19, and b) thanks to our shitty insurance, it’s expensive AF. Also, the pain and swelling are abating, so I think it’ll go away on its own. I think it’s a spider bite, but I’m not 100% sure. Definitely not a bee or wasp because when I’ve been bitten by those critters in the past, it hurt a lot right away, and there was a really defined bite location, whereas this one is barely visible.

    As a Floridian, I’ve been bitten by a wide variety of insects as well as wolf spiders and scorpions. But this is a weird bite — never seen anything quite like it. I am watching for any negative change in the symptoms or appearance of the bite and would obviously seek medical attention then. The question is — am I an idiot for not getting it checked out now?

  17. 17.

    HumboldtBlue

    @Major Major Major Major:

    OK, that makes sense.

    My take-away was that delivery already worked just fine for nearly everyone and they’ve even managed to screw that up. The stories of restaurants being linked unwittingly to startups like these and losing business are hard to read as well.

    @Betty Cracker:

    The question is — am I an idiot for not getting it checked out now?

    I must reluctanltly say yes. Sounds like the trip should be made.

  20. 20.

    Omnes Omnibus

    Randy Rainbow has never really appealed to me.  I am not much of a fan of musicals and his oeuvre seems to be very much derived from them.  Sarah Cooper was funny for the first couple of times I saw her do her thing, but she isn’t funny enough for me to listen to Trump’s voice of my own free will.  I welcome your hatred.

  26. 26.

    zhena gogolia

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Yes, Randy Rainbow won’t work for you if you don’t like musicals.

    I love some of Sarah Cooper’s pieces but I’m not watching them all obsessively. The first one was the best I’ve seen.

  28. 28.

    satby

    @Betty Cracker: If the pain, redness and swelling are going down and you haven’t had any other symptoms the immediate danger from a bite is probably over. But that’s a serious reaction. It may be smart to get an epi-pen to have on hand, because if whatever it was bit you again, it could be worse next time.

    edit, and yes, keep a sharp eye for any tissue necrotizing or infection. But absent any of those, going three days later (which tomorrow would be because it’s already late today) probably isn’t worth it now.

  31. 31.

    WaterGirl

    @Betty Cracker: In normal times, yes, see a doctor.

    Can you see if your doctor has a TeleMed sort of thing available?  My dermatolgist is only seeing patients that way.

    edit: First thing my dermatologist did (when I had a bad reaction to my first bee, wasp, whatever sting) was take a marker and draw a circle around it so we could determine whether the totally-pissed-off-red-area was getting bigger or was receding.

    I suggest that you do that first thing, even as you are trying to make a decision.  Still getting bigger a couple of days later, not a good sign.  Getting smaller, better news.

  32. 32.

    Betty Cracker

    @satby: Good point. I’ve never had an allergic reaction to a bite before, but I know that kind of thing can change over time. My late gran developed an allergy to peanuts in her 90s. I almost accidentally killed her with a bag of boiled peanuts!

    @WaterGirl: My sister-in-law is an ER doc, and I rarely ask her for medical advice, but this seems like a good time to do so. She can see my gnarly arm on FaceTime! :)

  38. 38.

    Jeffro

    Hey look, it’s the ever-odious Marc “The Hack’s Hack” Thiessen at the Post, using his valuable op-ed real-estate to let us all know that Stacey Abrams is the Democrats’ Sarah Palin.

    (no link on purpose – no extra clicks for Marc!)

    Ok, ok…the reason he seized on this monumental stupid comparison is that…get this…Stacey Abrams would be the least-qualified VP nominee since Palin.

    Yes, that’s right. The same slime ball who goes to bat for so-supremely-unqualified-for-office-we-need-new-adjectives DJT on a regular basis would like us to SIT DOWN AND LISTEN, DEMS! We’re about to do something really dumb and accept an unqualified VP on our ticket!

    (except it will be Warren or Harris, but whatever)

    Marc, congratulations: despite so many other strong contenders, you’re going back up near the front of the tumbrel line, you ridiculous little man.

  40. 40.

    WaterGirl

    @Betty Cracker: Excellent idea!  I just phoned my dermatologist, who is also a friend and was a tech support client for about 15 years.  I was going to read her your note and ask her advice, but your solution is better!

    Especially since Ellen didn’t answer the phone. :-)

  41. 41.

    satby

    @Betty Cracker: as a former health care worker I tend not to go to doctors unless there’s a real need. If it happened today and you said you were swelling up like that I would have told you to go ASAP, but given that it was Sunday and it’s starting to subside now they’ll just tell you to watch for signs of infection or increased redness and swelling. And then you can pay them.

    If you have Benedryl or Caladryl that may help. And I really would see about an epi-pen because you’re so far out in the sticks.

  45. 45.

    WaterGirl

    @satby: Oh my gosh, I had forgotten all about Caladryl.  Do they even still make that?  Such a hideous pink color and chalky texture.  :: shudder ::

  46. 46.

    trollhattan

    @Jeffro:

    Love also, too, how the proud self-declared centrists (trust ’em) are cautioning that Biden must govern from the center by keeping Republicans on his team after taking office. Sort of your James Comey model of high-functioning centrism.

  48. 48.

    satby

    @WaterGirl: Caladry is Calamine lotion with Benedryl added. Especially good for weeping rash type things like poison ivy.

    Better is staying away from poison ivy ?

  49. 49.

    WaterGirl

    My ground beef isn’t thawing as fast as I hoped/espected in the fridge, so I am trying the King Arthur Flour recipe for Chicago Style Deep Dish pizza for dinner tonight.

    Has anyone ever made that?  My bread machine is hard at work making the dough as we speak.  It never occurred to me to bake the crust for 10-15 minutes before adding the sauce, cheese and toppings.

    Kalamata olive, roasted onion and spicy peppers from my garden is my go to topping for my thin crust pizza.  Not sure how well that would work on a deep dish, plus I had to toss all my frozen peppers when I had to get the new refrigerator while in lockdown.  :-(

  54. 54.

    HumboldtBlue

    @satby:

    I got a terrible case of poison ivy on both forearms four weeks into 12 weeks of training at Ft. Benning in the Georgia summer. I was miserable.

  56. 56.

    donnah

    @Betty Cracker:

    You know, everything about Trump troubles me, but the fact that his portrait will hang in halls and his picture will be in textbooks and his fat, ugly presence will be right next to Obama…this depresses me no end.

  60. 60.

    Brachiator

    @Betty Cracker:

    Coming late to this message.

    I hope you are going to the doctor, doing tele-medicine or checking with some medical professional who can provide good advice.

  64. 64.

    Betty Cracker

    @donnah: That bothers me a lot too. It’s a national embarrassment. We’ve had awful presidents before, but Trump is in a class of his own — so fucking tacky and crude and petulant. The fact that he’ll be in the history books is awful, as is the fact that he and his entire shitty family will be in our faces for the rest of their/our lives. Ugh.

  66. 66.

    catclub

    I think pretending Trump never happened – no portrait – is the wrong thing to do.

    We (the US) need to own what we did – even if it was other voters than the BJtariat.

     

    never forget is HIGHLY appropriate

  69. 69.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Betty Cracker:

    Entomologist here:

    Short version:  Do not go to the doctor.

    Medium version:  If it’s only red and hot, but not black or ulcerous, and especially if it’s already fading, you’re fine.

    Long version:  That sounds like a bee/wasp sting, of a variety you’re not used to or you’re heading towards an allergy.  Still, nothing you described is weird.  Most bug venoms produce similar effects.  In Florida, a scorpion sting is definitely not out of the question.  It is not a dangerous spider bite.  Dangerous spider bites either produce neurotoxin cramping or a black necrotized spot or ulcer, and they do so fast.  A black widow bite hits immediately, and a recluse bite necrotizes over the course of six hours at longest.  It would already be obvious if you were in trouble.  If it were a tick, the tick would still be there.

  74. 74.

    Jeffro

    @trollhattan: oh HECK no

    Honestly, I’m not too worried about it…Biden already appears to be open to some left-leaning policies and bringing the Democratic Justice League into his cabinet.  Not a lot of room for a Republican anywhere and at this point, who would that be anyway?  They’re all in the tank for trumpov.

  75. 75.

    Suburban Mom

    @Betty Cracker: Can you do a telemedicine visit?  That could get you expert advice without in-person exposure.  I’ve been doing lots of them with my parents using a smart phone.  The doctors here in NJ are not anxious to interact IRL unless they absolutely must.  If you do visit in person here they are very good about social distancing and both patients and their advocates are required to wear masks.

  76. 76.

    Barbara

    @Jeffro: I want WaPo to run a contest to see who can come up with the most creative explanation why it publishes Thiessen.  I won’t click on his articles because I suspect that he truly is still there simply as click bait.  I am no longer biting.

  77. 77.

    Baud

    @trollhattan:

    Love also, too, how the proud self-declared centrists (trust ’em) are cautioning that Biden must govern from the center by keeping Republicans on his team after taking office.

    Who is advocating for this?

     

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    Entomologist here:

    Short version: Do not go to the doctor.

    You would take the insect’s side.

  80. 80.

    Jeffro

    @donnah: oh I think by the time the dust settles, his ugly mug will have plenty of well-deserved insults, asterisks, and (please FSM) convictions in any caption that accompanies it.

    And they can hang his ‘portrait’ in the WH bowling alley, with a Sharpie-drawn dartboard encompassing his bloated face.  It’ll provide the next several Presidents and their families with hours of entertainment.  =)

    (ETA I see Octillo beat me to it!)

  81. 81.

    Barbara

    @Betty Cracker:  It could definitely be a spider, but it could be a bee or a wasp.  Just because you have been bitten in the past doesn’t mean the bites can’t be worse over time.

    It’s been two days, and if it is getting better I would wait too, but you should definitely keep your eye on it.  If it’s itchy it could get infected.

  83. 83.

    WaterGirl

    @Delk:  My favorite pizzas are deep dish AND super-super-super thin crust.  So I could go with your tavern cut cracker thin crust, hold the RC.  I might have to crack open a beer with the pizza, though, now that you mention it.

    Nope, I think I’ll go with wine.

  89. 89.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Betty Cracker: go to a doctor– somebody who’s been in FL for a while and has seen the odd variety of monsters that  live in what I thought was a state but now, reading your posts, I occasionally think is another dimension reached though a rift in the space time continuum

    Late to the thread; has Betty gone to a doctor?

  90. 90.

    Ocotillo

    @Betty Cracker:   Should Biden prevail in November and Trump transitions the the office peacefully the new AG needs, must investigate all of the crimes and lock that mofo up.

    Otherwise, he is going to constantly be tweeting sh*t, on Fox or OANN or whatever plutocrat propaganda media trying to undermine the recovery.  Not only that, he likely will be making noises about running again in 2024.

    It has been all down hill since Ford pardoned Nixon.  GOPers have only gotten better at corruption and avoiding accountability.

  91. 91.

    Jeffro

    @Barbara: it really is amazing that they publish Hewitt, McCardle, Will, and Thiessen, and twice a month they publish that Abernathy clown from Ohio.

    It’s like, when Michael frickin’ Gerson is your most reasonable/likeable conservative on the op-ed page…yeesh…

    ETA I forgot Henry Olsen, who sucks just as bad as Thiessen.  His latest opus is also up: Biden talks from the center, would govern from the left.  Pretty weak sauce there Henry – have Marc give you some tips on how to ramp up the crazy/stupid factor.

  92. 92.

    WaterGirl

    @Omnes Omnibus: Order one for me, too, please.

    Pizza Hut of all places use to have a 5-cheese calzone that was actually good.  So of course they got rid of it!

    I worked with someone who liked pizza hut so that’s what I would order.  Haven’t been there in decades.

  93. 93.

    Baud

    @Ocotillo:

    Should Biden prevail in November and Trump transitions the the office peacefully the new AG needs, must investigate all of the crimes and lock that mofo up.

    I don’t understand that condition. Who cares what Trump does?

  94. 94.

    NotMax

    @WaterGirl

    Teaser:

    Keep an eye out for the next dedicated foodie thread. Got a mouth-watering link in the queue featuring a cook right out of central casting.

  95. 95.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Betty Cracker:

    Addendum:  If you get bitten by anything and see a little black spot or ulcer develop, do not go to the doctor.  Go straight to the ER, immediately.  Like I said, recluse venom moves fast.  If it’s a bad bite, it only takes a few hours to go from the bite to having a chunk of flesh carved out of your arm.

    I did misread one thing at first, that it’s your whole arm that’s hot.  Yikes.  All the same rules still apply, but you probably are developing an allergy to whatever got you.  A bad bug venom would either give you a fever or stick to right around the spot.

  98. 98.

    Amir Khalid

    Per The Guardian’s liveblog, Trump says the scientists who found that hydroxychloroquine doesn’t work for Covid-19 are conspiring against him. I think I read somewhere that one side-effect of the drug is paranoid delusions.

    Meanwhile, I’m finishing off my predawn meal with a few kernels of cheddar cheese popcorn.

  104. 104.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Ocotillo:

    Otherwise, he is going to constantly be tweeting sh*t, on Fox or OANN or whatever plutocrat propaganda media trying to undermine the recovery. Not only that, he likely will be making noises about running again in 2024.

    That’s what he thinks, but it’s not going to happen.  What Trump and people who don’t understand why the base love him don’t get is that Trump, himself, is not what they’re loyal to.  Right now he is the champion of white supremacy, and can do no wrong.  When he stops being president, he stops having the power to bring about white supremacy and becomes an embarrassing loser instead.  He will disappear from the conservative consciousness so fast it will make George W Bush’s head spin.

  106. 106.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @WaterGirl:

    Dr. Frankensteinbeck

    Heh.  It’s only a bachelors, but ‘what kind of insect bites/stings are dangerous’ is first year stuff, or stuff you already know going in because entomologists are usually people who were already enthusiastic about the subject in high school.

  110. 110.

    Humdog

    My cousin retired from nursing and moved with her husband to their dream retirement home in the CA desert. Husband was checking out their new back garden and got bitten by something. Retired nurse gave first aid and recommended going to the doctor but husband knew better. Next day bite was much worse and retired nurse insisted on emergency room. Husband refused and they had the biggest fight of their 47 year marriage. He even slept in the guest room. Nurse woke up the next morning to find her husband dead of poisonous spider bite.

    Betty, please call your sister in law right away. Worst that can happen is you feel sheepish for bothering her.

  111. 111.

    Ocotillo

    @Baud:   I am thinking about sore loser acts such as vandalizing of the country unlike what has happened the last 3 1/2 years, pardons of GOP criminals, executive orders never mind stonewalling the incoming administration of information and things needed for a successful transition.

    But of course there is the both sides factor, I read the Clinton people pried the “w’s” off of keyboards when Bush the lesser took office.

  113. 113.

    frosty

    @WaterGirl: @Betty Cracker:

    take a marker and draw a circle around it so we could determine whether the totally-pissed-off-red-area was getting bigger or was receding.take a marker and draw a circle around it so we could determine whether the totally-pissed-off-red-area was getting bigger or was receding.

    I did this with a case of cellulitis that started with a spider bite. I’d say contact your doc ASAP. It took a round of antibiotics to knock this back for me. Email and cell phone pics might be good enough to get a scrip.

  114. 114.

    jl

    I did note true joy in Trump’s face when he tried to sell a bar chart that supposedly showed how great the US was doing compared to Germany in controlling the epidemic  but which showed the opposite of what he said. In his mind, one could sense true and surpassing joy at his self-conceit of being a world historical master at his trade, the con. A swindler down to the marrow of his bones.

    Trump is fugue stating in and out of thinking he can sell the whole country on his swindles like he did a few sad marks with the steaks, the fake university rip-offs, and his tacky fake classy resorts.

  116. 116.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Ocotillo:

    I am thinking about sore loser acts

    There will definitely be sore loser shit, and it will be uglier than we have ever seen before… but it will also be either petty or selfish.  Trump just isn’t smart enough to destroy the country because he can’t have it.  He’s a bumbling moron who hires other bumbling morons, and as a narcissist he sees things on an utterly personal level, so his spite runs the same way.  I would not be surprised if he steals stuff from the Oval Office or orders things Obama liked destroyed, and he will definitely try to destroy a Hell of a lot of records to cover his criminal tracks.  He’ll do an incompetent job of that, which could get interesting.  My only real worry is that he might try to destroy all federal government records of every kind that he can get his hands on.  He has demonstrated an aversion to stuff like scientific findings records already, so he is quite capable of deleting everything in a whiny tantrum.

  117. 117.

    jl

    @Amir Khalid: I recall some Bush transition people fessing up much later that it was BS. They inflated very minor damage expected in a big office move into intentional major vandalism.

    Someone correct me I don’t recall correctly, please.

  119. 119.

    NotMax

    @HumboldtBlue et al.

    Shall once again recommend keeping a pack of cigarettes in the freezer for use as an old folk wisdom emergency first aid treatment for these kind of venomous bites. Not offered as a substitute for a trip to a med if warranted, especially if symptoms accelerate, but a useful immediate step.

    Remove some tobacco from a cigarette, moisten some it with your own saliva so it sticks together and apply that gunk as a poultice to the spot where the bite is. Dunno how, dunno why, but it does greatly help draw the toxins out.

  120. 120.

    Doc Sardonic

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I have always said that Godzilla or something similar ain’t showing up off the coast of Japan. It’s gonna come out of the ‘glades (for those that do not reside in the Sunshine State that’s the Everglades).

  121. 121.

    catclub

    @Amir Khalid: Centrists want centrism?! This is my shocked face.

     

    Actually Centrists want Republicans in charge.  They never seem to demand Centrist Democrats in GOP admins.

  125. 125.

    Sab

    @Doc Sardonic: Nobody ever nuked Florida. Wasn’t the whole point of Godzilla that we did nuke Japan? He was kind of the Spiderman of angry reptiles.

  126. 126.

    jl

    @Betty Cracker: You could check in via phone or televisit. Since that is easier to do now with the pandemic business.

    But note that some commenters here on BJ blog did warn you that you had moved from an idyllic swamp where all the creatures worshiped you, to an ordinary swamp, red in tooth and claw.

  129. 129.

    jl

    @Amir Khalid: I think some pix of damaged keyboards, and computer and office supplies piled around haphazardly (with implication people threw them against the wall to break them)  were circulated. Nonsense like that.

  130. 130.

    Baud

    @Ocotillo: The keyboard thing was fake, I think.

    Even if Trump does all those things, why would that affect whether the Biden DOJ should investigate?

  132. 132.

    Skepticat

    @Omnes Omnibus: Sarah Cooper was funny for the first couple of times I saw her do her thing, but she isn’t funny enough for me to listen to Trump’s voice of my own free will.

    I so agree with this. I’ll do almost anything to avoid that torture, which is why I don’t own a TV or stream video. My nephew alerted me to Randy Rainbow, but each of his things goes on a bit too long and has too much Dump.

  133. 133.

    Jeffro

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    That’s what he thinks, but it’s not going to happen.  What Trump and people who don’t understand why the base love him don’t get is that Trump, himself, is not what they’re loyal to.  Right now he is the champion of white supremacy, and can do no wrong.  When he stops being president, he stops having the power to bring about white supremacy and becomes an embarrassing loser instead.  He will disappear from the conservative consciousness so fast it will make George W Bush’s head spin.

     

    I think his upcoming embarrassing loss in November – assuming he makes it that far – causes the *cough’principledconservatives’cough* to finally realize he’s not invincible…but he’ll probably still have his wacko base as he continues to instigate trouble and fight off multiple investigations.

    The former will try their best to forget him…the latter will still consider him their idol (martyr?)

  135. 135.

    Doc Sardonic

    @Sab: True but given the melange of crap from pesticides, fertilizer, non native animal species cross breeding, military testing etc…there is some strange stuff that lurks therein. As an aside there is a theory out that in the not to distant future we are going to be the only place you will be able to find a Burmese python in the wild. If we don’t get overrun by them.

  136. 136.

    Skepticat

    @Betty Cracker: The question is — am I an idiot for not getting it checked out now?

    Not an idiot, especially as it seems to be subsiding, but telemedicine does seem like an excellent option.

  137. 137.

    Jeffro

    @Frankensteinbeck:There will definitely be sore loser shit, and it will be uglier than we have ever seen before… but it will also be either petty or selfish.  Trump just isn’t smart enough to destroy the country because he can’t have it

     

    He doesn’t have to be smart to destroy/severely damage the country even further.  Just vengeful and angry enough to take his rhetoric and instructions to his ‘very fine people’ to the next level.

  140. 140.

    Ohio Mom

    Humdog @110: That is a tragic, heartbreaking story. I hope your cousin forgives herself because she did all that she could do.

    It’s something of a stereotype, husbands refusing wives’ suggestion they go to the doctor, I know that has been my experience. Luckily so far, nothing as urgent as a poisonous bite.

  141. 141.

    Cermet

    @jl: Correct except the GA investiated and determined that nothing had occured outside of normal wear and tear. Yes, it was all lie’s and BS but what else do thugs do say and do?

  142. 142.

    catclub

    @Doc Sardonic: we are going to be the only place you will be able to find a Burmese python in the wild. If we don’t get overrun by them.

     

    No worries!

    I thought I heard that anacondas are outcompeting the pythons in the Everglades.

  143. 143.

    Humdog

    @Ohio Mom: I wondered if anger over having her expertise ignored lessened her loss for awhile, but I doubt it. She did move out of the new house immediately.

  146. 146.

    planetjanet

    @Betty Cracker: The heat worries me about an infection, which may not go away on its own.  It could be that the doctor could have an easy remedy to make it feel better much sooner.   Why suffer if you do not have to?

  147. 147.

    NotMax

    While you’re out hiking

    All full of pep

    Don’t neglect to

    Watch your step

      – Burma Glades

  150. 150.

    The Pale Scot

    @Major Major Major Major:

    A little bit of inflation, some redistribution,

    A tax on financial transactions, mark to market for assets, especially RE. Should be made progressive so small investors don’t get sheered by the system.

    If these gobs can look at a tranche with less than 20% rated AAA and say I’ll throw money at that, well, Rockefeller in the elevator and all that.

  151. 151.

    Fair Economist

    @khead: My rabbit is dreaming right now. I figure he mostly dreams about eating because he moves his mouth a lot. When he kicks his feet he often wakes himself up. He’s a very light sleeper, though. Almost any noise from me will wake him up.

  152. 152.

    HalfAssedHomesteader

    @Betty Cracker: Actually, I think it would be good to quietly hang Trump’s portrait in a “One of these things is not like the others” kind of way.

  153. 153.

    Sab

    @Doc Sardonic: I grew up in Florida. My childhood was idyllic. When I tell my Ohio husband that he roars with outrage. ” You had poisonous snakes! You had alligators! You had spiders as big as your hand! You worried about wild boars!”

    Yes, but we had glorious sunsets, boats and open waters, and pelicans and clapper rails in the backyard. Y’all just had softball in the park across the street, and pushing the schoolbus stuck in the snow all winter

    ETA also too we had armadillos, which are way cooler than woodchucks.

  154. 154.

    NotMax

    @HalfAssedHomesteader

    Or take a cue from Douglas Adams.

    “It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying ‘Beware of the Leopard.'”

    :)

  156. 156.

    debbie

    @Betty Cracker:

    Umm, my guess is that Trump’s already decided that that painting of him as Washington crossing the Delaware serve as his official portrait.

  158. 158.

    satby

    @Frankensteinbeck: thank you. The high point of the day in the doctor’s office was when someone came in with a problem already resolving that was days old and there wasn’t really anything to do for them, though to justify the visit the doctor would write some script for something. Or even better, when it got worse for weeks but they just refused to come in at all.

  160. 160.

    LuciaMia

     Better is staying away from poison ivy

    Good advice except the bastard weed is so good at disguising itself. Sometimes its a vine, sometimes small individual sprigs, other times like a ground cover. The “leaves of three” being the only constant.

  161. 161.

    Sab

    @NotMax: I live within walking distance of that river. It hasn’t burned in decades. (I guess I just proved your point.)

  162. 162.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    So I’m on an archaeological dig.

    In my backyard.

    I’m digging out a garden, in a place where I tried years ago (about 15 I think) to create a circular stone patio. But I didn’t know what I was doing (editor’s note: still don’t) plus I was a cheapskate and tried to minimize the number of stones, so they were spaced out. It didn’t work and over the years it kind of got overgrown with grass. Only the circular border was left. I’d forgotten what if anything I’d done in the middle.

    So now it comes time to dig up the same circle, and my shovel clunks on a buried rock, and as I pry it up I remember that I’d had stones around the middle, though I still can’t remember how many or where. And now I’m turning up the rest of the stones and I feel like I’ve found the ruins of an old civilization. Only the old civilization was me.

    But how the heck did it get buried beneath an inch of dirt and grass in only 15 years, with no visible signs left on the surface? But I guess that’s how it goes, and why archaeological digs are “digs”.

  168. 168.

    Mai naem mobile

    @Oklahomo: I have no problem with the Obamas not going to the WH. Seriously I don’t trust Donny not to do something stupid. I don’t mean any conspiracy, just that he’s completely losing it and out of control because he knows he’s f’d up big time and has no idea how to fix it but his narcissism won’t let the experts show in any way that he was wrong.

  170. 170.

    trollhattan

    Reason #infinity why we need to usher Trump and his bastard crew out the door, yesterday.

    “In its rush to roll back the most significant climate policy enacted by Barack Obama — mileage standards designed to reduce pollution from cars — the Trump administration ignored warnings that its new rule has serious flaws,” the Washington Post reports.

    “The behind-the-scenes-skirmish in late March between career employees and Trump appointees at the Environmental Protection Agency highlights the extent to which Trump officials are racing to reverse environmental policies by the end of the president’s first term.”

  171. 171.

    Another Scott

    @Betty Cracker: It might have been a mosquito that you haven’t been bitten by before.

    mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/mosquito-bites/symptoms-causes/syc-20375310

    More-severe reactions may be experienced by children, adults not previously exposed to the type of mosquito that bit them, and people with immune system disorders. In these people, mosquito bites sometimes trigger:

    • A large area of swelling and redness
    • Low-grade fever
    • Hives
    • Swollen lymph nodes

    Children are more likely to develop a severe reaction than are adults, because many adults have had mosquito bites throughout their lives and become desensitized.
    When to see a doctor
    If mosquito bites seem to be associated with more-serious warning signs — such as fever, headache, body aches and signs of infection — contact your doctor.

    FaceTiming with your sister sounds like a good idea.  Your regular doc may want to do the same thing before you visit, if you go that route.

    Good luck!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  173. 173.

    J R in WV

    @Major Major Major Major:

    Any danger it was a tick?

    Nope, Ticks dig in for the long count. If they’ve just now bit you, they’re still hard to get off.

    We have a paper cup with alcohol in it, we drop ticks we find on us in it, right now there are six of them! Having dogs makes it inevitable that we’ll get one on us from time to time. And it’s better here than over in KY, our vet grew up over there and she told us of taking 200 off her beagle in the long ago.

    Modern drugs help, wife is on an antibiotic as she found one after several hours.

    I’m thinking Betty C had a spider bite. They can really put the hurt on you, and it barely wakes you up at night if one falls onto the bed and jars down on you!

  176. 176.

    Doc Sardonic

    @Sab: Yes, would not trade my childhood in Florida for anything. Catching fish and cooking them right on the shore of the lake or beach, floating down the rivers…..those were the days, and then we got the Villages and it has gone to shit from there.

  177. 177.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @WaterGirl: For real.  I am waiting for it, then I shall watch a documentary on Henry VII, and follow that with bingeing some more Riverdale.*

    *You bastard, MMMM.

    ETA:  h/t to MMMM for recommending Riverdale.

  179. 179.

    Joy in FL

    @Betty Cracker
    I haven’t read all the replies yet, so maybe someone already suggested this: Can you use Teledoc? My FL Blue insurance charges $10 for the call. Any prescriptions or follow-up are separate. When I did it a few months ago, I had the option of audio only or video. So with video, you could show the area to the doctor. I asked my regular doctor about Teledoc. He and his doctor wife both are Teledocs. I asked him about it in March because I wondered if it was the real deal. My experience was satisfactory and I like knowing it’s there. @Betty Cracker

  181. 181.

    Sab

    @Doc Sardonic: On the other hand, my Ohio stepkids caught crawdads in the creek out back. They never told us there were crawdads there.

    Being multicultural, I don’t know whether to call them crawdads, crayfish,or crawfish. Also confused about the Oxford comma. Pretty sure I did it wrong. This being BJ that is okay. You guys will correct me.

  184. 184.

    Mai naem mobile

    @Betty Cracker: late to this. Hope you got your s-i-l or a telemed visit in. We had a yard guy years ago who had to have antibiotic  IVs and surgery resulting  from a bug bite.

  185. 185.

    Cheryl from Maryland

    @Betty Cracker:  If you don’t go to a doctor now, take images and you must go to a doctor later.  My mother was stung by a bee in her 40s, her foot swelled up as you described.  Next thing you know, she has shellfish allergies.  Next thing you know, her doctor DESPITE KNOWING ALL OF THIS prescribes a BP medicine that sends her into anaphylactic shock, puts her in intensive care, and causes enough swelling that the doctor was inches from a tracheotomy.  Have Benydryll with you at all times until you get an epi-pen.  Be careful with seafood.  Check any medications you take on Wikipedia to see if they are connected with insect bites. — per my husband who worked at the FDA,  Wikipedia is mostly reliable.  Keep safe.

  186. 186.

    Sab

    One of my best friends in Florida had John Bircher parents, and they had a wirehaired fox terrier that they had had stuffed when he died. Who does that? He was in their house, rolling around  on casters.

    When I was ten, this seemed normal. At sixty-six I think what was wrong with those people? Thank God my mother never knew, or I would not been allowed to have any friends in Florida.

  190. 190.

    tokyokie

    @Betty Cracker: We have some nasty bugs around here that we call asps. They tend to fall out of trees onto unsuspecting humans, and as you were leaning against a tree, that would fit their M.O. When I got bitten by one years ago in Austin, I felt something painful in my arm and saw what looked like a curled up dead tree leaf, but when I brushed it off, I noticed it had a sucker like a leach. It had poison in its sucker and on all its legs, and it left its outline on my arm. Shortly after being bitten, I started feeling dizzy and the bite site began swelling. Anyway, it cleared up after a couple of days, despite my pal Nick assuring me that it was already too late and that I was a goner. As your swelling has started to recede, there’s probably little point in seeing a doctor now. You might want to take some antihistamine to control the itching though.

  192. 192.

    Elizabelle

    @Sab:  It’s the Birchers and the casters that stick with one.  Oy vey.

    @ NotMax:  Sorrow floats.  Fido (RIP) rolls.

  193. 193.

    eachother

    Betty, I’m going with spider.  Same reaction after fingering and forearming in the garden.  Different latitude.  Same bugger perhaps.  Keep clean.  Ice if need be.

    Do you have hobo and recluse down there?  Even at the 45th parallel we have black widows.

    Whatever it was I never forgot it.

  195. 195.

    Elizabelle

    It bothers me no end that Trump’s portrait will end up in DC’s marvelous National Portrait Gallery, next to Kehinde Wiley’s portrait of President Obama.

    I hope that Trump’s portrait ends up a miniature, in a large, ostentatious fake-gilded frame, to best represent the man who cheated his way to the presidency and killed so many through depraved indifference.

    I think sometimes the Trump portrait should be obscured by a grey curtain hanging before it.  Just because.

    And do not get me started on fumigating Air Force One. Somehow, it bothers me more that he flies around on that than he parks his carcass in the White House.

  196. 196.

    frosty

    @Sab: We had those in our crick in South PA where I grew up. They were crayfish, not crawfish, and definitely not crawdads.

  197. 197.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Ocotillo: Specify that the Twitler portrait be executed in watercolor. Drain the WH swimming pool, screw it down to the bottom, refill pool. Problem solved!

  198. 198.

    patrick Il

     

     

    @Elizabelle: I hope his portrait is of him wearing an orange jump suit surrounded by kidnapped children and the ghosts of covid victims

  200. 200.

    Rokka

    @NotMax: I got to play a couple songs with Lester Chambers last year in a (checks notes) pizza place in Sonoma. We didn’t do the thyme thing but we did play People Get Ready…….for pizza.

  201. 201.

    SWMBO

    @Betty Cracker: Yes.   Delayed reaction may be worse than the original bite. My brother delayed getting treatment for a spider bite.  It started as a boil near his crack.  Got antibiotics on Monday.  Was hospitalized on Thursday with a possible heart attack.  In the interim, the pimple size reaction went from thumbnail size to septic gash almost overnight.  They had to surgically remove the necrotic skin and he was on IV antibiotics for 3 days to get a start on over a month of antibiotics and twice weekly checkups.  Get it checked so there is a baseline.

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