Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The Giant Orange Man Baby is having a bad day.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

with the Kraken taking a plea, the Cheese stands alone.

Somebody needs to explain to DeSantis that nobody needs to do anything to make him look bad.

The words do not have to be perfect.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!

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

“When somebody takes the time to draw up a playbook, they’re gonna use it.”

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

Conservatism: there are people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

Can we lighten up on the doomsday scenarios?

DeSantis transforming Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

Every reporter and pundit should have to declare if they ever vacationed with a billionaire.

There’s always a light at the end of the frog.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

Jack be nimble, jack be quick, hurry up and indict this prick.

Let there be snark.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

Today’s gop: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

The line between political reporting and fan fiction continues to blur.

Maybe you would prefer that we take Joelle’s side in ALL CAPS?

Live so that if you miss a day of work people aren’t hoping you’re dead.

You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 / Tuesday Morning Open Thread: ‘Rallying’ in Phoenix

Tuesday Morning Open Thread: ‘Rallying’ in Phoenix

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Per MarketWatch:

Regrouping after a humbling weekend rally, President Donald Trump faces another test of his ability to draw a crowd during a pandemic Tuesday as he visits Arizona and tries to remind voters of one of his key 2016 campaign promises…

First, the president will travel to Yuma to mark the construction of more than 200 miles of wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, an issue that he built his campaign on four years ago. Later, he’ll address a group of young Republicans at a Phoenix megachurch, where event organizers have pledged thousands will attend.

Throughout the trip, the COVID-19 pandemic will shadow Trump. The Democratic mayor of Phoenix made clear that she does not believe the speech can be safely held in her city — and urged the president to wear a face mask.

“Everyone attending tomorrow’s event, particularly any elected official, should set an example to residents by wearing a mask,” said Mayor Kate Gallego. “This includes the President.”…

The “Students for Trump” event will be held at the Dream City Church and broadcast to groups across the nation. It is being hosted by Turning Point USA, a group founded by Trump ally Charlie Kirk. Organizers said health and safety measures still were being finalized and it was not clear if attendees would be asked to wear masks or keep socially distant.

Since late May, Arizona has emerged as one of the nation’s most active hotspots for the spread of COVID-19. Use of hospitals, intensive care units and ventilators has set daily records over the past week…

On the positive side (this is snark), when things go badly (in every predictable & probably some entirely new ways), it might force Charlie Kirk far enough out of favor that he has to get a real job — or at least lie low — for the next few months. Yeah, right — as if a GOP grifter ever suffered ‘consequences’!

NPR:

… Trump will be joined by Chad Wolf, acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security; Ken Cuccinelli, the acting deputy DHS secretary; and Mark Morgan, acting commissioner of Customs and Border Protection.

Trump will then travel to Phoenix to deliver remarks at a Students for Trump rally at Dream City Church, hosted through Turning Point Action, a pro-Trump group.

The church, which can hold about 3,000 people, released a statement saying it only found out that Trump would be speaking at the event after it agreed to rent its facilities.

“Dream City’s facility rental does not constitute endorsement of the opinions of its renters,” the statement said…

I genuinely pity everyone in the greater Yuma / Phoenix area who’s not a registered GOP voter.

Reader Interactions

263Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    Finally! When you’re late with the morning thread, it throws off my procrastination schedule for the whole day.

  3. 3.

    Baud

    You know the media is waiting for just one good Trump crowd to run with their “Comeback!” headlines.

  4. 4.

    Punchy

     Later, he’ll address a group of young Republicans at a Phoenix megachurch, where event organizers have pledged thousands will attend.

    This church pays taxes, right?  Because I thought tax-exempt status required churches to refrain from politics….right?  Or did that change recently?

  5. 5.

    senyordave

    On the positive side (this is snark), when things go badly (in every predictable & probably some entirely new ways), it might force Charlie Kirk far enough out of favor that he has to get a real job — or at least lie low — for the next few months. Yeah, right — as if a GOP grifter ever suffered ‘consequences’!

    I sometimes think this but I almost never say it about anyone, but I do believe it would be a huge positive for society if he got Covid-19. I’d like to think it would change him but I don’t think that is possible. I wouldn’t be sorry if he didn’t recover, but maybe being laid up until after the election would be enough.

  6. 6.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    I’m signed up for Phoenix as a participant and all-session volunteer.  “Fiona Ann” is 20, has a really hot Insta (lifted straight from a phishing DM I got), and undoubtedly resides in a prominent spot in the spank bank of whichever Turning Point Trumpist red pill incel that got the job of creating my lanyard.

    It should be a sad, low energy event after I don’t show up.

  8. 8.

    NotMax

    Tuneage Tuesday: Then as now, yes it’s sexist as all get out, but the performers are having such a grand time.

    And a couple of quick programming FYIs.

    Coming to Netflix on Saturday is a new season of Dark. Season 2 periodically staggered in and out of the weeds; with hope this new season finds more stable footing.

    Next week Wednesday, new season of the Nordic noir Deadwind shows up.

  10. 10.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Baud:

    She’s a real keeper and clearly has daddy issues since she was so enthralled by my inactive Instagram that she reached out to me….

  13. 13.

    Baud

    Meanwhile,

    Tomorrow, President @BarackObama and I are hosting a virtual grassroots fundraiser. We’ll be answering some of your questions and taking a few trips down memory lane. You won’t want to miss it.

    Time is running out to reserve your spot. RSVP today: https://t.co/spYqBqnX0U
    — Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) June 22, 2020

  14. 14.

    narya

    Kitchen update: Gutted yesterday–to the studs. Good news: the floor is intact–needs to be refinished, but no missing boards, goes wall to wall, etc.–AND it looks like there’s wallboard (rather than lathe and plaster), so two of the “this could cost more” things may be okay. It’s only been one day, but these guys work really clean–paper down over everything, the pieces that are being kept (counter, fridge until the new one is delivered) handled neatly, everything taken away. They’ll be here in 45 minutes, so I’ll get more info then. I’m trying to take at least one picture every day.

  16. 16.

    Sab

    I am a serious Outlander fan. Diana Gabaldon is adamantly apolitical online. Yet she posts with Hetself in masks all the time ( she has doctoarate in biology, so hard to deny science even if politicized.)

    I will be extremely irked if bozos in AZ infect her. She is an amazing person, plus two more books are awaited. Nothing personal to AZ. God knows we have many idiots in OH.

  21. 21.

    NotMax

    @SFAW

    If you have to ask, you really don’t want to know.

    Let’s just say “diff’rent same strokes for diif’rent folks.”

    ;)

  23. 23.

    JoyceH

    Traveling from hotspot to hotspot — is anyone else starting to think that, consciously or not, Trump is actually trying to catch COVID?

  24. 24.

    NotMax

    Would be great TV to see about a dozen heads, one at a time, pop up over the top of Wall and then in unison perform a one-finger salute.

    //

  26. 26.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    Some light reading to start the day. This thread starts out looking like it will be depressing but ends up being hilarious.

    What's the dumbest reason you got fired? The Old Spaghetti Factory let me go because a woman, who was faking a British accent, ordered a cup of tea and I didn't bring it out on a saucer.

    — Ian Karmel (@IanKarmel) June 22, 2020

  29. 29.

    OzarkHillbilly

    … Chad Wolf, acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security; Ken Cuccinelli, the acting deputy DHS secretary; and Mark Morgan, acting commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, will join trump, acting President of the United States…

    FTFT and they will definitely get a bill.

  30. 30.

    Calouste

    @NotMax: I’m hoping the wall will slowly topple over in the background while the shitgibbon is rambling on again about the ramp at Westpoint.

  31. 31.

    R-Jud

    I got keys to my new house just now. Moving in on Monday. It’s still a rental but it’s a huge step up. Plus: it comes with cats.

  33. 33.

    Geminid

    Primary day in the Virginia 5th. I moved from the Valley to Greene County last year so I’ll be checking out a new precinct. The three Democratic front runners are all good in different ways, and I am optimistic about November.

  34. 34.

    NotMax

    @R-Jud

    Plus: it comes with cats.

    There’s always another shoe to drop, isn’t there?

    ;)

    Per one grandmother: “Always right foot first when crossing the threshold.”

  35. 35.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Steeplejack (phone): I once got laid off for wanting a day off every week for a few weeks to help take care of my Alzheimered father when my mother had open heart surgery. Does that count?

  36. 36.

    opiejeanne

    @narya: Good for you! I hope your new kitchen turns out very nice. Is wallboard the same as sheetrock? How exciting!

    ( I think you mean lath and plaster. A lathe is a machine for turning wood blocks into rounded and sometimes ornate shapes.)

  37. 37.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Steeplejack (phone): I love this one:

    My buddy was fired from McDonald’s cuz an old lady threw a (**gasp** unbuttered) McBiscuit at him, which he caught and held up saying “can somebody butter this lady’s biscuit?”

  38. 38.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    That church probably has something like what my dentist’s office uses to clean the place between patients. That’s fine. And then the people come in.

    Where do they think the virus hangs out?

  39. 39.

    Betty Cracker

    Maybe the K-Pop fans/TikTok teens/our own Le Comte here are onto something with the fake registrations. Perhaps the disappointing Trump klan rally turnout was just a first step in a full-scale data rebellion that could reach beyond politics.

    I don’t pretend to understand how data collection and micro-targeting work, but I’ve gotta think if we all get free burner accounts and follow Le Comte’s lead here, we’ll be doing our part to transform MAGA PAC datasets into pure garbage.

    I mean, they can cross-reference with preexisting data to verify some of the registrants for fundraising pleas, etc., but if every event is swamped with fake registrations, doesn’t that at least increase the workload (and therefore costs) of bad actors, including anyone who works for Trump?

    Couldn’t similar techniques be used to fuck with corporate bad actors? Hmmm.

  40. 40.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Steeplejack (phone): 

    I once got canned from a 3rd tier taco joint when my new replacement boss was speculating after her first week that she could park in the handicapped spot because she was manager. I told her she was weak, stupid and ineffective in front of the entire crew, so she inexplicably fired me.

    As a consolation, though, I don’t think she lasted more than 45 days total in the job.

  42. 42.

    NotMax

    @opiejeanne

    Near where I once lived in the Poconos was an ancient drunkenly-leaning former farm outbuilding. Inside was an operation which did nothing but move shipped-in square lengths of ash wood in one end, turn then into cylinders and then send them on to Louisville for a certain baseball bat concern.

  49. 49.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @NotMax:

    Wonder what the precipitous ash tree decline will do to the creation of baseball bats? I don’t have a single living ash left on my lot – we had 35 trees cut down this spring, and about 25 of them were dead ash.

  55. 55.

    Soprano2

    @Baud: Oh, they already have the “comeback” story written. Meanwhile, Anderson Cooper lets Maggie Haberman say that Biden’s campaign is “flawed” without making her say in what way she believes that’s true. They want the horse race so, so badly, they’ll do pretty much anything to get it. I still think a lot of them want Trump to win again, because they think it’s more exciting to cover him.

  59. 59.

    opiejeanne

    @NotMax: We went to an estate sale somewhere out in the country when we were stuck in Wilsonville, Oregon, and the garage was full of men. I wandered over to see what that was about and there was a huge lathe for making sailboat masts. All these men standing there, each one figuring out how they could move it to their garage and wondering if they could convince their wife why they needed a lathe that could create a 30′ mast. It was not new but a thing of beauty, something that should probably be in a museum..

  67. 67.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @opiejeanne: It worked out for the best. What I had originally thought would be a part time job became full time for 3 months. For all intents and purposes I moved back into their house as my mother went in and out of ICU, rehab, ICU, rehab, home, ICU, rehab, ICU, then finally home for the final 8 hours.

    I collected unemployment the whole time, which if I’d had to quit, I couldn’t have.

  68. 68.

    artem1s

    he’ll address a group of young Republicans at a Phoenix megachurch, where event organizers have pledged thousands will attend.

    finally! the pivot!  his Presidential moment!
    How many of these kids are being forced to attend this plague fest?  Or do they expect the Kool-aid to cure them?

    posted this video saying that newly-installed technology in the church “kills 99.9% of COVID-19 within 10 minutes”

    UV lights?  or mandatory injections of Clorox?  Dumbasses have already drunk the Kool-aid

  69. 69.

    hueyplong

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Haberman is not going to change.  Presumably, public perception of the importance of her job will change if she continues to be Jarvanka’s mouthpiece during a Biden administration.

  70. 70.

    Soprano2

    I got fired from a fast food job because I wouldn’t give up a day off to work for a woman who had asked off but got scheduled because the manager fucked up. They waited a couple of weeks to try to make it less obvious, but they said I was fired because I was “uncooperative”. They put on the full-court press to try to get me to work for her – the screwed-over worker called me (she totally understood why I wouldn’t work for her), the assistant manager called me, and the manager called me. The day off they wanted me to give up was the Friday before my boyfriend graduated from college, and we had already made big plans for that night. No way was I going to give that up; my position was that since the manager fucked up the schedule, he should work for her.   (I didn’t tell him that, of course.) I guess their position was that I was a serf who should do whatever they asked me to do without question, all for minimum wage.  That job sucked anyway, it was at Long John Silver’s, and I always had to work split shifts on the weekend, which screwed up the whole day – 10-2, go home until 5, then work 5-8, and always on weekends because they were unwilling to work around my college schedule. However, when I was in college it was hard to find a job, so it was better than nothing.

  74. 74.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Some are born to greatness. Others, through sheer chance, have it thrusted upon them. He saw his opening, took it, and is a legend as a result….

  75. 75.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Soprano2: I guess their position was that I was a serf who should do whatever they asked me to do without question.

    Always, SSDD.

  78. 78.

    rikyrah

    Someone asked yesterday that made me post that the NYT was up to NO GOOD.
    And, is desperate to find the BUT HER EMAILS for 2020.

    Here is the news that they announced:
    Remember. DON’T GIVE THESE MUTHAPHUCKAS ONE MILLIMETER OF THE BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT???

    News from @nytopinion: @marymsuh is returning to fill in as acting Op-Ed Editor, @cgreensit of The Intercept is the new managing editor and associate Editorial Page editor and @talmonsmith is promoted to staff editor. Read on in a note from @katiekings: https://t.co/oTgdVKqapA— NYTimes Communications (@NYTimesPR) June 22, 2020

  80. 80.

    danielx

    Since he finally got around to saying it out loud, wonder how much time he’ll devote to the whole “Obama = treason” thing today.

  81. 81.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: The only time in my life that I ever came up with a great line like that there was but one witness and it was directed at him. I was showing a new guy the ropes on a job and for 2 hours he talked, And talked. And talked. And talked. And talked… Finally he stopped and said, “So Tom, what do you like?”

    “Peace and quiet.”

    He blessedly STFU.

  82. 82.

    Kosh III

    @Soprano2: “lot of them want Trump to win again, because they think it’s more exciting”

    Not just more exciting but more profitable.

  83. 83.

    SFAW

    @Soprano2:

    I guess their position was that I was a serf who should do whatever they asked me to do without question.

    Soapbox time: Back during the dot-com “boom,” there were a number of “business leaders” who complained about all the perks and high salaries that the workers were getting (or in some cases demanding). When someone tried that whiny shit on me, my response was: business conditions are cyclical, and at some point, it will be management that has the upper hand (as they have throughout history), and during those periods, employees will get screwed once again. So if the peons get a few extra perks during a too-brief period, what’s the fucking problem? They’ll get dumped on later, far more (in the other direction) than they’re benefiting now.

    It didn’t take a lot of deep analysis to form that conclusion, but some people seemed confused, or extended their “but they want free soda/beer/massages/whatever!” whine.

    [Not that it matters, but I was director-level at the time.]

    ETA: Or, as Ozark noted in a much more succinct fashion: SSDD.

  85. 85.

    Rusty

    @NotMax: Thank you for this, I am working my way through season 1 and being able to roll right into season 2 is great.  Bordertown is the other excellent Finnish noir Netflix series to watch.

  88. 88.

    artem1s

    @Punchy:

    This church pays taxes, right? Because I thought tax-exempt status required churches to refrain from politics….right? Or did that change recently?

    they aren’t ‘hosting’ the event – according to their disclaimer that they didn’t know they were renting to the Orange Plague.  But the disclaimer may be their CYA for the ‘no funds spent on campaigning’ nonprofit mandate.  But they now have another problem on their hands. If the organizers are having to coverup who they are working for, this is a really bad sign for the campaign.  Everyone know that asshole doesn’t pay his bills.  Best take away here is the MegaChurch is gonna get stiffed.

  89. 89.

    SFAW

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I would buy that in a New York second, than figure out the why and where.

    I’m with you, kid. I mean, how could any real American guy NOT want one of those?

    Me (to Mrs. SFAW): Honey, I’m thinking we need a barn or large workshop.

    Mrs. SFAW: Why? You already have room for all your toys tools.

    Me: Well, see, there’s this lathe that I REALLY need, and it’s a little bigger than will fit in my current shop …

  91. 91.

    spudgun

    @Geminid:

    The three Democratic front runners are all good in different ways

    This is a good problem to have! I’m envious (having just moved to a red county surrounded by rwnjs and now repped by Republicans ☹️).

  92. 92.

    Anya

    Just found out Elizebeth Warren has endorsed Jamaal Bowmen who’s running against Eliot Engels for NY-16. Anyone else surprised Elizebeth Warren has endorsed a challenger over an incumbent?

    I am happy that she broke this tradition because I am all in for Jamaal Bowmen. We need to vote out a lot of old guards. Angels definitely needs to go.

  93. 93.

    dnfree

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: I miss ash trees terribly already. They have a distinctive fall color that to me outclasses even the showiest maples. I keep asking and apparently there’s no resistant variety.

    On the other hand, our new place has an elm  The leaves don’t even look like elm leaves, though. 

  94. 94.

    Geminid

    @Booger: well, there is a fourth candidate, a former supervisor in one of the counties north of here, but he is not considered a contender. He and two others are Marines (no such thing as “former Marine” I’m told). So the jarhead vote will be split.          Lots of veterans running in Virginia. Down in the 2nd District, three navy vets are competing to face Democratic freshman Elaine Luria, a retired navy Lt. Commander. The 2nd includes the Norfolk Naval Base, the Newport News shipyard that builds aircraft carriers, and has many active duty and retired military and DOD employees.

  95. 95.

    Raven

    The eyevet is apologizing for the procedures they have to do as far as getting the pups and me waiting in the car! No problem doc, I’m with the program!

  96. 96.

    O. Felix Culpa

    Good morning! All joking about AZ aside, my parents live in that benighted state and my mom has to go to Mayo for chemotherapy. I just sent her a bunch of pretty masks for her birthday, of which I hope she has many more, no thanks to Donald and his merry malignant band of dumbasses.

  97. 97.

    Punchy

    <Checks calendar>….

    <notices it’s late June>…

    Aren’t there a bunch more SCOTUS decisions….and some BIG ones…..due very soon?

  99. 99.

    Baud

    @Anya: I’m not surprised.  There’s a lot of that going on.  I leave to local folks to sort it out.  The key is rallying around the primary winner.

  101. 101.

    Amir Khalid

    @artem1s:

    Air ionisers. Apparently, they do work. From the Wikipedia entry:

    The frequency of nosocomial infections in British hospitals prompted the National Health Service (NHS) to research the effectiveness of anions for air purification, finding that repeated airborne acinetobacter infections in a ward were eliminated by the installation of a negative air ioniser—the infection rate fell to zero, an unexpected result. Positive and negative ions produced by air conditioning systems have also been found by a manufacturer to inactivate viruses including influenza.

  103. 103.

    spudgun

    @rikyrah: I think it was in the book thread, she said she was mostly tired but that her other symptoms were on the mild side.

    i hope she’s feeling better soon.

  104. 104.

    Amir Khalid

    @Anya:

    schrodinger’s cat will find this endorsement very suspicious. schrodinger’s cat finds anything Elizabeth Warren does very suspicious.

  105. 105.

    jimmiraybob

    @Gin & Tonic: 

    “If Fiona is not a redhead I will be sorely disappointed.”

    But I assume that Fiona will be angling for a spot on Fox News or Trump’s white house. I’m going with blonde.

  106. 106.

    NotMax

    @Rusty

    Got Prime?

    AFAIK there are still seasons of the Finnish cop series Roba there.

    And from the other side of the law, I “think” at least some of another Finnish production, Easy Living might still be available.

  107. 107.

    Baud

    @Amir Khalid:

    She finds anyone associated with Bernie suspicious, for which I don’t blame her.  She defines “associated with Bernie” more broadly than I would, however.

  108. 108.

    spudgun

    @Punchy: I’m worried about the taxes/financial records one…if it goes against us, it will set an awful precedent.

  109. 109.

    planetjanet

    @Geminid: Glad you hear that you are optimistic in the 5th. That would be a great win.  We have two good candidates in the 1st today.

  110. 110.

    Booger

    @Geminid: Gotcha–Lesinski is the outlier and 1 of 3 Marines. I absentee voted for Webb (jesus, this season’s writers have really gotten lazy, haven’t they…you couldn’t some up with a better name for a candidate in Virginia?) because frankly, I don’t get why three candidates are all campaigning as former Marines. It’s nice to have a list of decent choices on the ballot, and I vague know Lesinski, but having a young African American doctor who wasn’t a Marine seems really appealing; VA-5 has had more than it’s fair share of former military old white guys, and we see how that works out. Now we get to sit back and enjoy the R-Fratricide begin between the god-botherer and Bigfoot Wiggleroom.

  111. 111.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Amir Khalid: They do work in cleaning the air that goes through the ionisers, but they help not at all if the plague-infected person standing next to you coughs or sneezes on you.

  113. 113.

    jimmiraybob

    @artem1s:

    “UV lights? or mandatory injections of Clorox? Dumbasses have already drunk the Kool-aid”

    I looked into this.  Oxygen Ions.  Once you sneeze, cough, talk, or yell “praise Jesus, praise Trump” the released droplets and aerosols and any associated viruses will be breathed in by and deposited on those around you with the remainder taken up by the air-handling system where oxygen ions will………

    Wait a minute, something’s not adding up.

  114. 114.

    Amir Khalid

    @O. Felix Culpa:

    Thank you. I had a sense the claims made in the Dream City Church’s video weren’t credible, but I couldn’t put my finger on why.

  115. 115.

    Kay

    In May, for the first time, Mr. Biden and the Democratic National Committee outraised President Trump and the Republican Party, $80.8 million to $74 million, and receipts are on pace to surge even higher in June. Mr. Biden’s online fund-raising so far this month has already surpassed May’s $34.4 million total, according to people familiar with the matter. Now, some party officials see $100 million as an achievable goal for June.

    This is one of the few actual measures of “enthusiasm”, IMO.

  118. 118.

    cope

    @OzarkHillbilly:One day, I was walking home from 8th grade (yes, uphill both ways) with a couple of buddies when one picked an apple out of a tree in a yard we passed.  He took one bite and threw it in the creek.  Crab apples gotta crab, dontcha know.

    An old geezer across the street (certainly much younger than I am now) uttered the classic “You shouldn’t waste food.  Children in Europe are starving”.  My friend’s quick reply:  “Well, I couldn’t throw it all the way to Europe”.  He was a funny kid.

  119. 119.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @schrodingers_cat:

    I like all three candidates, but in the end, went with Booker. I found him personally more engaging – a better retail politician.

  120. 120.

    Kay

    About six weeks ago, the D.N.C. saw about 20 unsolicited $1,200 donations show up online — unusually large sums to arrive unexpectedly. Mr. Perez asked his team to investigate. In turns out, people had decided to essentially forward their government stimulus checks to defeat Mr. Trump.

    Guffaw.

  121. 121.

    WaterGirl

    @OzarkHillbilly: Right after I got my master’s degree, my mom was diagnosed with terminal cancer.  So I got a job as a bartender instead of in my field because I was going back and forth to Chicago all the time and I didn’t want to start my new professional life while that was going on.

    I was (essentially) fired when I asked for a few days off so I could spend my mom’s last Christmas with her.  I say essentially because they told me that if I left for Christmas with my mom, I wouldn’t have a job to come back to.

    I went home for Christmas.

  122. 122.

    Obvious Russian Troll

    @O. Felix Culpa: It sounds like it would make the inside of the mega-church more like the outdoors. So if they wear masks and keep their distance and the technology works as advertised it would not that be bad.

    Big ifs, though.

  124. 124.

    Booger

    @NotMax: Yep. You can get decent ozone generators for sanitizing rooms, up to fairly large enclosures. The good news is that ozone aggressively attacks cell membranes of any living organism–mold spores, bacteria, viruses, fungi, et cetera. The bad news is that ozone aggressively attacks cell membranes of any living organism–eyes, nose, throat, lungs, skin, et cetera and is not meant for use in occupied spaces. And it will bleach the shit out of any organic material very quickly, so can’t be used where artwork, furnishings, houseplants or pets are around.

  125. 125.

    Sally

    @Rusty: Also watching Occupied, Norwegian noir. Starts slow. It’s a bit too dystopian for these dystopian times, very chilling performances. It gives me the shudders because, except for the thorium, it could be true. And you know in those shows, no hero is indispensable to the writers, anyone can die.

  126. 126.

    Jeffro

    @Geminid: I got Mrs. Fro and Fro-ette to look over the D primary candidates with me and come to consensus so we don’t cancel out each other’s votes.

    Caucusing before the primary, as it were.  ;)

  127. 127.

    Amir Khalid

    @Baud:

    She finds Warren suspicious for reasons other than Warren’s association with Bernie — in particular Warren’s claim, based on family lore, to having a soupçon of Indian* blood. One can understand how such a claim would offend a person of Indian heritage, like schrodingers cat.

    *Okay, Native American blood. But I just couldn’t resist the temptation.

  128. 128.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Rex Chapman??@RexChapman
    In Georgia, there’s a stray dog who has made it his job to protect this kindergarten class — so they can cross the street safely.

    He shows up every single day — even cursing out the cars that don’t stop.

    Dogs, bruh…

    To quote Raven, “Who’s a good pup?”

  129. 129.

    spudgun

    @Kay: I know I sound naive, but these amounts are just staggering to me, that this is the level of spending required nowadays to win an election…

    Add campaign finance reform to the ever-growing to do list…

  132. 132.

    WaterGirl

    @Baud:  @rikyrah: Someone asked MomSense how she was feeling last night, and this was her reply:

    Mostly really tired, but I’ve got some other symptoms fortunately in the milder side.

    I assumed that she hasn’t gotten test results back yet, but that’s only a guess.  I am so furious with the people she works with that I could spit.

  133. 133.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    Mr DAW’s BIL is having some minor surgical procedure this week, so he had to have a COVID test ahead of time. He says it was done under local anesthesia, which I assume means they sprayed something up his nose before they shoved the cotton swab up there. Does anyone know how common that is? Because it would make me much more willing to be tested. This was in NJ

  139. 139.

    narya

    @opiejeanne: Yeah, sheetrock. And you’re right, I DO mean lath; I couldn’t remember if the wall-making-item and the machine were spelled the same and was too lazy to look it up. Sounds like today is Electrician Day, though not until later; they’ll need to figure out how they’re going to pull more power up to the unit (which he doesn’t think is going to be an issue). Then they’ll do the floor, I think (I am so excited that the floor is intact), which willl stink.

    ETA: The casual lack of human kindness in so many of these stories is depressing.

  140. 140.

    raven

    @OzarkHillbilly: So we decided it as a good time to clear off the porch, clean it and see about repainting the decking. We had a rubber mat and it was all sticky when we pulled it up and the paint was a totally different shade. I scrubbed the shit out of it and it did zip to that area so I looked in my supplies and found some stripper. I brushed it on, let it sit and some of the paint came up bu not all so I googled “Goof Off Stripper”. Shit is banned. So now I have some semi-gooey shit on the porch and trying to sand it just clogs the paper/ WTF!

  142. 142.

    Geminid

    @planetjanet: in 2018 the Dems blew it I thought, by going the caucus/convention route. Just a few thousand “activists” picked what I thought was a lacklustre candidate. Next door in the 7th, there was a primary, and the top two out of five candidates pulled in 55,000 votes between them. Abigail Spanberger went on to knock off Dave Brat, flipping a seat that had been republican for decades. The 5th district Democrat lost by 7 points.

  143. 143.

    Betty Cracker

    @Baud: Lots of sturm und drang on Twitter about the Greensit hire, and I think that’s understandable since she’s coming from The Intercept. But so far, I’ve been underwhelmed by the anti-Biden tweets I’ve seen presented as evidence of Greensit’s perfidy. Nothing at all about Reade (at least that I’ve seen), and honestly, I’ve read more hostile critiques of Biden here at Balloon Juice that the weak tea people are upset about. I’ve probably written more critical stuff myself. Maybe I’m missing something?

    Anyhoo, Greensit will probably be terrible if she hasn’t already been because The Times’ institutional pathologies seem to infect whoever works there. But so far, I’ve seen nothing to justify the outrage.

  144. 144.

    Chris Johnson

    @Amir Khalid: Yup. Me, I trust her judgement, so it sounds good to me.

    I know she’s not backed by Russians or up to dirty tricks because I watched the ‘dirtbag left’ bash her like maniacs starting very VERY early, in between ranting about Russiagate and praising Putin.

    Somebody seriously didn’t want Warren to become President, and that somebody lives in a different country from us, and had a lot of strings to pull. The word went out on Liz Warren very early, from what I saw. Half the left were reflexively hating on her, for no fucking reason at all. Definitely a Russian op.

  145. 145.

    narya

    @WaterGirl: My favorite birdseye maple story: A friend who is a woodworker knew of these folks who bought an old house, ordered carpet to replace the crap carpet in maybe a dining room or something, tore up the old stuff, and found beautiful, inlaid birdseye maple. They did not use the new carpet.

  147. 147.

    Baud

    @Betty Cracker:

    I haven’t heard of this person, so all I have to go on with guilt by association (in this case, both old and new).  At this stage, I’m comfortable leaving it there.  Only time will tell how it’ll work out.

  148. 148.

    WaterGirl

    @Obvious Russian Troll:

    It sounds like it would make the inside of the mega-church more like the outdoors.

    That seems like a pretty big leap to me.  People are going to be in much closer proximity than in the hospital study, and they are going to be doing a lot more talking, yelling and shouting than in the hospital study.

  151. 151.

    Kay

    @spudgun:

    I agree and I don’t think it’s naive to ask about it. I hate the “this is how it must be” attitude around the obscene amounts of money. But I think it’s a better measure than polling people on whether they’re “enthusiastic”. I just hope they spend it well. Republicans are inundated with grifters but Democrats have grifters too. I think if people give you money you have an obligation to spend it in ways that are effective and sensible and that applies whether they give you 3 dollars or 3 million.

    Trump’s campaign is paying one of his son’s wives and another’s gf – it’s gross.

  152. 152.

    Formerly disgruntled in Oregon

    @Amir Khalid:

    @Baud:

    It’s not polite to talk about someone behind their back like this. Especially with them right here in the “room”.

    We’ve all got our preferences and our peeves. That makes us human. No need to go on about it, esp. when it’s not in a loving way.

    I love you all. Let’s stick together.

  153. 153.

    planetjanet

    @Geminid: In the 1st, we have had primaries for the last several cycles.   I  firmly believe in them.  Especially with new candidates, it is good to get a test run in before the general.  The State party is behind them as well.  Wow, 7 points in the 5th is not bad.  I have been getting a lot of ads for Lesinski, but not the others.  Good luck today!

  155. 155.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Baud: Intercept is a Russian propaganda shop. She was the editor there. She has now scrubbed many of her tweets.  Garbage times want to fuck with the election again. I am done giving the uber lefties, the DNC rigged the election for HRC types a pass. DONE.

    Yesterday the Orange Ogre blocked the issuance of most of the  long term work visas. If he is elected again, its not these blonde and blue eyed people who will pay the price.

  156. 156.

    WaterGirl

    @narya:

    …and found beautiful, inlaid birdseye maple

    My eyes got really big when I read that.  I can only imagine how stunning that would be.  No shoes allowed in that room, I bet!

  158. 158.

    Formerly disgruntled in Oregon

    @Chris Johnson:

    Half the left were reflexively hating on [Warren] for no fucking reason at all.

    They went after Kamala early too.

    “They” being the folks who were trying to neutralize the best Dem 2020 pres candidates in favor of Bernie and/or Trump.

  160. 160.

    EmbraceYourInnerCrone

    @schrodingers_cat: Thank you for saying this.  I’m tired of being angry all the time but I can afford to be.  A lot of my coworkers are green card holders, or working to become naturalized and I fear for what will happen to them if Trump gets another term.  The people who moan that they hate politics and ” all politicians are the same so it doesn’t matter if I don’t vote” make me want to scream.

  163. 163.

    Kay

    @EmbraceYourInnerCrone:

    This thing is perplexing though, Covid. In Texas and Florida the median age is going down. It’s approaching 35 and it seems no one can explain why we’re seeing these lags (although I think people driven inside by extreme heat is a possible explanation). My daughter’s in NY and they’re right now, in practice, looking at recovered Covid patients seeing if there’s any pattern in lingering lung damage. They just don’t know. They know more than they did 6 months ago and she believes they are already much better at treating it, but they don’t know why it does what it does.

  164. 164.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @artem1s: Everyone know that asshole doesn’t pay his bills. Best take away here is the MegaChurch is gonna get stiffed.

    If MAGAChurch hasn’t gotten cash up front, they’ll go after the “event organizers” – in all likelihood an LLC with a PO box, website, phone number, voicemail & no other assets, which will immediately file for bankruptcy. And MAGAChurch will eat the loss – which will probably suit them just fine as an effective & perfectly legal contribution to the campaign of the bigmouth orange bigot they swoon over…

  167. 167.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Steeplejack (phone):

    Mine was a bit complicated.  I worked for Papa Johns at the time.  I made my way up to Assistant Manager.  I was almost immediately fired for my manager’s non-mistake.

    You see, there was a regulation where if the money count and the calculation of what the money count should be were different by more than about four dollars, a huge and time consuming set of procedures had to be followed, including calling and waking up the regional manager.  Except the money never adds up.  Ever.  It evens out over time, but each night the counts do not match, and the difference is usually around ten dollars.  Managers completely ignored this impossible to obey rule and if the difference did not even out over a few days, would throw in twenty dollars of their own money.  My store manager told me all of this and to ignore the rule.

    i was caught.  We had a new regional manager, a woman who had never worked in a store, because Papa Johns upper management is all cronyism.  She was also legendarily mean, and decided to audit a random store one night.  It was my shift, and I the money did not add up because it never does.  My manager did not admit I was obeying his orders, and I was fired without review.  That was illegal at the time, but I was poor and could not sue.

    So that’s it.

  169. 169.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @raven:“Goof Off Stripper”. Shit is banned.

    Sayyyyy WHAT???? That shit is GREAT! Works like a charm! I have about a half gallon in my shop I’m gonna have to hoard I guess.

    My neighbor who is moving out recently gave me one of her husband’s old shotguns. At some point somebody had put the ridiculous camo tape on it for turkey hunting (Ron was not a turkey hunter so I think he bought the gun used) and I could.not.get.the.glue.off. Tried every solvent I had and all of them worked, kind of, sort of…. with lots of elbow grease, LOTS of elbow grease. Looked at shelf of chemicals again and hiding in the back was glory be! the gallon can of Goof Off.

    Zippidy doo dah, zippidy day, my oh my what a wonderful way to remove that nasty shit.

  170. 170.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Amir Khalid: I don’t find what she does suspicious, she is pretty predictable. She behaves like the typical white female in academia who is politically clueless and thinks that she speaks for all women and other disenfranchised minorities. She will tell you what is good for you. I have seen this white woman’s burden schtick before and I say thanks but no thanks.

    She let the Orange Man, who we can all agree is no Einstein, goad her into taking that stupid DNA test for which she ended apologizing to the Cherokee nation.

  171. 171.

    EmbraceYourInnerCrone

    @Kay: There’s also a study based on 23 and me data and a couple of Italian and Chinese studies that suggest that blood type might have some affect on severity of illness in COVID-19 patients.  But they all caution that it’s too soon to tell what this means.

  172. 172.

    Obvious Russian Troll

    @WaterGirl: Hence the big disclaimer at the end.

    It’s like everything else–it could be safer but might not be if they don’t handle it properly.

  175. 175.

    Betty Cracker

    Quarantine haircut story! For 15 years or so, I’ve had long hair that I only get trimmed a couple of times a year. But for some reason it’s been driving me nuts lately, and since our governor is a moron and COVID cases are spiking, there’s no way I’m going to a salon. So, I asked my husband if he’d be willing to cut it for me on Sunday — just a trim straight across the bottom.

    I should have known this was ill-advised when I was seated in a patio chair and he gathered my hair into a loose ponytail and asked if he should just cut it off all at once. I said I think the way professionals do it is to make one cut on a strand at the desired length, then take up another strand with a piece of the previous strand and cut it to the same length, etc. I told him to feel free to cut off several inches of hair, and he kept making sure I really meant that before making the first cut.

    So, he started cutting away, then, he screwed up a time or two and had to go back and even it up. I ended up with a shoulder-length bob rather than a trim, which is fine! I’m actually really happy with it. But every time I forget I had a significant haircut and look in a mirror, I realize I look just like my mother, who always wore her hair like this. That’s not a bad thing, but it is startling. I guess I’ll get used to it eventually.

  176. 176.

    cmorenc

    @Punchy:

    Aren’t there a bunch more SCOTUS decisions….and some BIG ones…..due very soon?

    My strong hunch is that at least Roberts will craft a reason to punt on reaching any decision that overrules Roe v Wade until the next SCOTUS term *after* the 2020 election, though he may vote with the Troglydite four to further chip away at its edges.  Also, Roberts more likely has a long-game strategy of not ever actually overruling Roe v Wade, but rather incrementally whittling and hollowing out its reach until the practical extent of its protections is a meaningless nullity in states whose legislative majorities are bent on making it a practical impossibility to obtain or perform abortions within its borders while at the same time not standing in the way of other states inclined to protect women’s right to choose.

    The battleground will then shift to the extent federal legislation passed during times of GOP majorities + POTUS seeks to hamper the ability of pro-choice states to permit abortions.

  178. 178.

    Kay

    @EmbraceYourInnerCrone:

    I think people will forgive experts not knowing, but they have to say that, they have to say “we don’t know” and too many of them have been unwilling to do that. Many have been willing, and good for them, they’ll bank trust by admitting it, but while we do have a crisis of trust and people shouldn’t dismiss experts who have spent years studying these things, the experts also need to show some humility and admit they don’t know. If they don’t know why it took Florida months to start spiking they should just say that.

  180. 180.

    Kay

    @EmbraceYourInnerCrone:

    I;ve told this before but our youngest was born with a bad left eye. So we go to Cleveland Clinic and U of M children’s hospital and we pick U of M where we get the children’s eye surgeon who is an expert. So he’s impatient and sort of arrogant like a lot of surgeons but I’m persistent and I don’t give a shit if he’s mean to me or likes me so I ask a lot of questions. Ultimately he says “we don’t really understand how the eye works with the brain” then kind of flounces away, maybe off to blind my youngest child. To me, this doesn’t inspire fear, it makes me trust him more. Okay! Unknowns. That I can live with.

    He doesn’t need to be God. He just needs to know more than the vast, vast majority of other people and part of that is knowing what you don’t know.

  181. 181.

    MattF

    @Betty Cracker: I got an actual haircut early last week. My regular barber opened up his shop and I was the first (and only) customer. He took about four calls for appointments while I got trimmed. I didn’t have any cash on me, but came back later with the money. And gave a large tip.

  182. 182.

    cope

    @Betty Cracker: My situation is just the opposite.  I’m starting to look more and more like my mother because my hair is getting LONGER.  I am well past the point where I would normally have had it cut.  I hate it because it pokes me in the eye but the missus has always wanted me to have a ponytail.  That day may be here soon.

  183. 183.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Kay: My mother used to say, “I love it when a doctor says he doesn’t know.” She was a nurse and knew how full of shit and insecure so many doctors are.

  184. 184.

    Geminid

    @planetjanet: I’m glad just be in a winnable district, as my home in Stuart’s Draft was in the 6th, which is probably even redder than yours. A lot of nice people in the Valley, but they just don’t vote right. You folks in the 1st have a chance to knock out Wittman; I think this will be a tough year for republican incumbents. Good luck!

  185. 185.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @debbie: I donated, and I’m going. Even if it does make me weep at what we lost. Putting Joe in his boss’ old chair is the first step to recovering. (Sending McConnell out to the turtle pasture is the second).

  186. 186.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @OzarkHillbilly: I did grad work in biophysics. Often when attending a research seminar given by an MD I’d think to myself, “these guys aren’t really trained as scientists, are they?”

  188. 188.

    Quiltingfool

    @SFAW: My husband LOVES power tools.  Very easy buying gifts for him; he even tells me exactly what sort of tool he wants.  To store said tools, we built a garage – 30’ x 40’.  When his men friends expressed their admiration for the garage, I would tell them it’s bigger than our house, but we “have our priorities in order, lol.”  I joke, but I really don’t mind his tool acquisitions.  He works very hard, he’s a good guy, so he should have some joy!

  189. 189.

    Amir Khalid

    @schrodingers_cat:

    As far as Warren’s presidential candidacy is concerned, there was never such a group-think bubble. Not that I recall, anyway. Roughly as many jackals liked Kamala Harris as liked Warren. I myself thought them about equally good, but favoured Warren; she seemed to have really done her homework on policy, more so than any other Democratic candidate.

    Warren seems to have left Bernie well behind now, and I see no good reason to persist in distrusting her for associating with him.

  190. 190.

    Emma from FL

    @schrodingers_cat: You know what I find annoying about that DNA test? It PROVED THAT HER FAMILY STORIES WERE RIGHT. Like many, many “white” people in that area the Warrens did in fact have a Native American in the family tree.  She DID NOT ask for membership in the tribe, she DID NOT use it for any sort of political advertising. The whole “outrage” crap left a sour taste in my mouth, because everyone piled on her as if she had done an unforgivable thing.

    And as usual, democrats helped with pile up. Some day, some day,God willing and the creek don’t rise, we’ll learn to play hardball as well as the opposite side.

  191. 191.

    mali muso

    @Geminid: Up here in the 10th, Jennifer Wexton is running unopposed.  I’m just so delighted to finally have a Dem rep; living here for some 13 years it seemed like every election another sacrificial lamb would be trotted out to lose against Wolf (and then Comstock).  The times, they are a-changing.

  192. 192.

    Jeffro

    @Betty Cracker:

     

    @OzarkHillbilly:

     

    @MattF:

     

    @cope:

    My wife has been giving me haircuts for 3-4 months now and it’s great!  She just runs those clippers all over my head until we’re both pretty sure she got everything.  ;)

    (Not sure why I was paying other people for haircuts these past several years, but oh well.  I was already saving money on shampoo and now we’re saving the haircut $$$ too)

  194. 194.

    Steeplejack

    @Betty Cracker:

    I am going to try to get an appointment to get a haircut tomorrow. My guy has a very small place, it’s just him and one other person (overlapping only part of the time), and according to his e-mails he has been following pretty stringent procedures.

    In a perfect world I would get a trim every six or seven weeks, but I always go too long, and my hair starts to really bother me about week 11-12. I am currently at 13½ weeks. ? (Got a haircut on March 20, the week I came back from Las Vegas and knew I was going into lockdown.) He might be booked, so I’m going to try his co-worker, who is usually less busy.

  196. 196.

    tokyokie

    @schrodingers_cat: I somehow doubt that rubes in rural areas have figured out that the only reason there’s general practitioner within a 50-mile radius is because somebody from the Indian subcontinent on an H-1B visa is filling the position.

  198. 198.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Quiltingfool: My dad did EVERYTHING with his trusty 1 lb hammer and a crosscut hand saw. The only power tool he owned was his ancient drill.

    I only have a couple, a cordless drill, a jigsaw and a miter saw, but I feel vaguely guilty even owning that much. But I can’t cut a straight line with the hand saw.

    I don’t crave the big power tools, but I do kind of crave a big shed anyway. With a porch. And electricity, maybe a small fridge. It’s possible my dream of a workshop may not actually involve working.

  200. 200.

    Steeplejack

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I’ve had haircuts from her before. She comes in only a few days a week and in the before times did only walk-ins, so that affected her business. For me, she does about 90% as good a job as the main guy, and that’s close enough for me.

  201. 201.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Jeffro: My wife has been cutting my hair for years. It’s a simple buzz cut and even if she did screw it up I wouldn’t care. It grows back.

    That doesn’t mean she’s gonna let me cut hers tho.

  204. 204.

    tokyokie

    @schrodingers_cat:

    Has there been any reporting on how the immigration bottlenecks and outright bans have affected medicine?

    Not that I’m aware of, but I think it takes awhile for trends in rural medicine to be noticed in the large metro areas. But even in the large metro areas, I’m seeing more M.D.s who are over here on H-1B visas. The two physicians who treat the residents at the nursing home where I work are African and Hispanic. The nephrology practice where I’m a patient is entirely Indian, with a good portion of them Sikhs. And I think the infectious disease expert who finally figured out what organism was causing me repeated UTIs is from Guadeloupe or Martinique. Some of these doctors are U.S.-born, but I don’t inquire, but I assume several are or were on H-1B visas.

  205. 205.

    schrodingers_cat

    @tokyokie: They could be on J-1 or on GCs too. In fact it is rather difficult for doctors to qualify for H1-B.

    My friend who was a star student, and a hematology-oncology resident at Johns Hopkins and who had an NIH fellowship had to jump through the J-1 hoop first before qualifying for H1-B.

  206. 206.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    They just think trump is talking about somebody else.

    Yes.  You see this all the time in conservative voter thought.  It’s not just ‘I never thought the leopard would bite off my face’.  It’s a little weirder than that.  In fact, it’s almost literal magical thinking.  Does the political policy follow their prejudices?  Yes?  Then it will work.  No further thinking is required or will happen.  Proof that it does not work will be ignored.  Ideologically correct = Effective.  You can’t tell them that abstinance-based education increases abortions, or even that it increases teen sex.  It does not compute.  They know that if you do it their way it works.

  207. 207.

    Amir Khalid

    @schrodingers_cat:

    She is a leading expert in personal finances, and that field at least is eminently qualified to tell others what is good for them. Also, presidents generally tell the nation what’s good for them, and perforce so do presidential candidates . I don’t get why you hold that against her.

    As for the DNA test, I concur with Emma from FL at comment #190.

     

     

     

    @Emma from FL:

  208. 208.

    Cheryl from Maryland

    @Betty Cracker: you don’t even have to do that.  Set up a block this number on your phone for calls & text, set up a rule for any tRump email to go straight to the trash.  But before you block the text, send them a vituperative message.  It’s good for the soul.

  209. 209.

    Chief Oshkosh

    ozone aggressively attacks cell membranes of any living organism–mold spores, bacteria, viruses,

    @Booger:One of these things is not like the others…

  210. 210.

    burnspbesq

    @Punchy:

    There was a pretty important one yesterday: Liu. Reaffirmed that the SEC has the authority to order disgorgement in enforcement actions. Vote was 8-1, with Thomas the only dissenter.

    And they denied cert in Altera, a really arcane tax case with a huge dollar impact in Silicon Valley. Tech companies are going to collectively owe tens of billions to the IRS.

  211. 211.

    J R in WV

    @narya:

    Kitchen update: Gutted yesterday–to the studs. Good news: the floor is intact

    Thanks for the update!! Looking good from here, always best if after you dig into it things look like everyone imagined they would look. No surprises is the best look !! Maple floor, right?

    We used cheap ceramic tile, guess what happened when I dropped a cast iron skillet on the floor? Still a tile floor, just… more dramatic now. Image adjusted…!

  212. 212.

    SFAW

    @schrodingers_cat:

    thinks that she speaks for all women and other disenfranchised minorities. She will tell you what is good for you.

    I guess I have no agency to say this, since I’m in neither of those groups, but I haven’t seen that from her. She often talks like a teacher explaining things to a broad spectrum (re: students’ knowledge) of students, which may annoy some of the more advanced students (“yeah, yeah, I already KNOW that, stop talking down to me!”). But I’ve never gotten a talking-down-to-someone vibe from her, nor a patrician [sic] attitude.

  213. 213.

    Geminid

    @Amir Khalid: This fairly mild debate over Elizabeth Warren takes me back to February and early March, when the jackals were snarling and snapping at each other over their respective candidates. Except when a Sanders supporter showed up. Then they would all turn and bark at him.

  214. 214.

    debbie

    @Amir Khalid:

    If for no other reason, Warren deserves major respect for her work on setting up the CFPB. I’m not sure everyone here realizes the importance of the CFPB and how it’s helped any number of consumers since it was established.

  215. 215.

    opiejeanne

    @OzarkHillbilly: I’m glad getting fired that way worked out so well.

    About the lathe, to tell you the truth, if we’d already bought this place in Washington and moved here I would have bought the thing for David. I think they wanted $12k for that lathe, and that was just doable but moving it to Anaheim was a non-starter.

  217. 217.

    SFAW

    @opiejeanne:

    And did you think to ask if any of your fellow jackals wanted it, before deciding to punt. No, you didn’t!! Stunned and hurt, we are!!! Strong letter to follow!

    Anyway, thanks for the story/anecdote, it was pretty neat.

  220. 220.

    EmbraceYourInnerCrone

    @Kay: Exactly! I have more confidence in someone who is willing to say, I know a whole lot about “subject” but we are still learning and there are things we just don’t know yet.

  221. 221.

    sdhays

    @OzarkHillbilly: This is pretty good to:

    I once got “fired” from Best Buy, a place I did not work, because some old lady complained to the manager I didn’t ask if she needed help.

    The best job to be fired from is the one you never had.

  222. 222.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @Emma from FL: That’s pretty much my take on it. My dad and some of my siblings and cousins are white as Ron Howard. My uncle (dad’s bro) and my other sibs and cousins look like Wes Studi. Family stories abound. Who knows what really happened long ago, in the dark?

  223. 223.

    J R in WV

    @WaterGirl:

     

    …and found beautiful, inlaid birdseye maple

    My eyes got really big when I read that.  I can only imagine how stunning that would be.  No shoes allowed in that room, I bet!

    Actually, no need to take shoes off for that floor. Birdseye maple is probably the hardest variety of maple, which is the wood they use for bowling alley floors. Maple, not birdseye, plain maple.

    Really hard.

    Birdseye is even harder. Lovely wood. Our bedroom furniture is cherry with birdseye maple panels set into the cherry frames. That’s what the new puppy chewed the drawer pull on… they chewed everything, ate my tablet, even!!

  224. 224.

    frosty

    @jeffreyw: Looks a little like mine did a couple of years ago. Except you had sheathing! I had lath/plaster and then the wood siding. Nothing in between.

    They don’t make ’em like they used to (1923). Thank FSM.

  225. 225.

    opiejeanne

    @SFAW: I didn’t know any of you guys back then. It was in 2005; I discovered John Cole in 2007 but I certainly would have. You know I would have. heh.

  228. 228.

    SFAW

    @opiejeanne:

    I didn’t know any of you guys back then. It was in 2005; I discovered John Cole in 2007 but I certainly would have.

    Look, if you REALLY cared about us, you would have used Obama’s time machine to bring one or more of us back to then. And don’t try to weasel out of it by saying that no one knew about his time machine until 2008.

  229. 229.

    opiejeanne

    @frosty: We had a house that had horsehair mixed into the plaster. 1912-ish. We only know that because a previous owner had broken the plaster in one room, somehow. Probably moving a heavy piece of furniture.

  230. 230.

    opiejeanne

    @SFAW: Well, maybe I just don’t like you guys that much.

    Or maybe I do like you guys that much because I saved all the bloodshed that would have ensued if you’d known about that lathe. I don’t like to think of you and OH getting into a fight with those other guys already standing in that garage.

  232. 232.

    James E Powell

    @opiejeanne:

    I was looking over the John Cole Birthday posts and I was trying to recall when I started coming to this place and how that came to be. It’s probably age, but I can’t remember.

  234. 234.

    SFAW

    @opiejeanne:

    I don’t like to think of you and OH getting into a fight with those other guys already standing in that garage.

    I don’t blame you. The sight of my nose pounding Ozark’s fist into a bloody pulp, and my groin bruising his kneecap mercilessly, would make almost anyone quail.

    And when you consider the damage my skull would do to his 24-oz Estwing … well, even I would get queasy.

  237. 237.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Amir Khalid: I’m with sc: From what I have seen of Warren, she  is a politically tone-deaf technocrat with limited (though fairly substantial) patience for those who disagree with her. The fact that she appealed to a great swath of Jackals is actually a point against her, since the attitudes represented on this blog are shared by all of 0.1% of the electorate, and damn few here make even a token effort to understand anyone else – even though each one of them has one vote, same as all of us who are registered to vote in the USA.

    Remember the old Adlai Stevenson quip?

    Citizen to Stevenson: You have the vote of every thinking person!

    Stevenson to Citizen: That’s not enough, we need a majority!

    Snappy, funny – and a slap in the face to anyone who voted for Eisenhower.

    If Warren’s brand of Democrat were popular with the electorate as a whole, we’d all have studied President Stevenson’s two terms and President McGovern’s extrication of the nation from Vietnam. Both were intelligent, decent, altogether estimable Democrats, and both were crushed.

    If Warren wants to stay in the Senate (Massholes willing) & become the Maven of Manifold Plans, fine by me – it probably suits her better than any other role I can think of. But I’d damn well want to make sure those plans are thoroughly vetted by Democrats with a better sense of “the art of the possible” – ideally, someone in charge who (as Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. said of FDR) might be “a second-class intellect. But a first–class temperament.” (And political sensibility, for that matter.)

  238. 238.

    Gravenstone

    @OzarkHillbilly: 

    That shit is GREAT!

    That shit is dichloromethane, with a smattering of methanol and aliphatic hydrocarbons (per the SDS). Yes, it is a wonderful solvent. Used it in the 70s when it was sold as Zip Strip. It’s also toxic as all hell, carcinogenic, mutagenic and all around nasty shit.

  239. 239.

    Nora Lenderbee

    @Chris Johnson:

    Half the left were reflexively hating on her, for no fucking reason at all.

    Warren has *something* in common with Hillary Clinton, can’t put my finger on it …

  241. 241.

    Anya

    @Betty Cracker: I feel the same way. I am there for any have on NYT because one they’re awful they’re awful and there is no reason for them to be this awful but I think the new opinion page editor is not that bad if those tweets are all we have as proof of her bias.

  242. 242.

    Mohagan

    @R-Jud: Our current house came with cats and one of them was one of our best cats ever, so congrats. After we got to know Arnold, we couldn’t believe they had let him go. They did ask / I did encourage them to leave the cats since they were dog people. (The cats had been acquired by their son who had subsequently moved out).

  244. 244.

    Steeplejack

    @schrodingers_cat:

    C’mon, you’re splitting hairs. It was Warren’s brainchild:

    The agency was originally proposed in 2007 by then Harvard Law School professor and current US senator Elizabeth Warren. The proposed CFPB was actively supported by Americans for Financial Reform, a newly created umbrella organization of some 250 consumer, labor, civil rights and other activist organizations.

    On September 17, 2010, President Obama announced the appointment of Warren as Assistant to the President and Special Advisor to the Secretary of the Treasury on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to set up the new agency.

    [. . .]

    The CFPB formally began operation on July 21, 2011, shortly after President Obama announced that Warren would be passed over as director in favor of Richard Cordray, who prior to the nomination had been hired as chief of enforcement for the agency.

    Elizabeth Warren, who proposed and established the CFPB, was removed from consideration as the bureau’s first formal director after Obama administration officials became convinced Warren could not overcome strong Republican opposition. On July 17, President Obama nominated former Ohio Attorney General and Ohio State Treasurer Richard Cordray to be the first formal director of the CFPB.

  245. 245.

    Anya

    @Baud: I totally agree. They should leave it to New Yorkers and the local district. The community knows who they went and who’ll represent their interests. I am fully on team Jamaal Bowman but I am absolutely against nationalizing D+ races. It just creates an unnecessary intragroup fights and we don’t need that right now. We need to focus on defeating Trump.

    Having said that, I would be over the moon if Bowman defeats Engel.

  246. 246.

    cckids

    @Emma from FL:

    And as usual, democrats helped with pile up. Some day, some day,God willing and the creek don’t rise, we’ll learn to play hardball as well as the opposite side.

    We won’t, though. If we were willing to be evil, lying tools, we’d be Republicans.

  248. 248.

    cckids

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:Oh dear god, you were brave.

    Right? I cringed so hard, then read the rest of the story through my fingers. I would NEVER.

    But that’s my husband, I wouldn’t let him trim the dog. He’s not talented in that way.

  250. 250.

    Mike G

    a group of young Republicans at a Phoenix megachurch

    A location that will for a brief moment have the highest concentration of douchebags in the world.

  251. 251.

    Mohagan

    @SFAW: yes! I am a member of one of those groups (older w woman) and I’ve always gotten a “great teacher ” vibe off of SPW. I love her, and my husband does too.

    P.S. I love your nym

  252. 252.

    SFAW

    @Mohagan:

    P.S. I love your nym

    Thanks, I guess, although I’m not sure why anyone would. It’s not even half-witty, and its genesis/meaning is pretty pedestrian

    ETA:

    I’ve always gotten a “great teacher ” vibe off of SPW.

    From what I can tell, most of her students at Harvard loved her.

  253. 253.

    Mohagan

    @James E Powell: Me too. I think it was a link from another website, and I’m afraid it might have been The Dish, which I used to read because he ragged on Shrub so hard. John had already gotten Lily, and Tunch was still alive, so maybe 2007?

  254. 254.

    Mohagan

    @Steeplejack: I love this story. The Rs wouldn’t let her become head of her brainchild agency, so she became a Senator :-). The iron law of unintended consequences strikes again.

  255. 255.

    Mohagan

    @SFAW: Well, as you can see from my nym, I’m not even up to half witty, so I’m easily impressed. Plus I used to read this blog at work before I retired, so NSFW had a lot of resonance for me :-)

  256. 256.

    SFAW

    @Mohagan:

    so NSFW had a lot of resonance for me

    OK, but no word in “SFAW” is the same as any word in “NSFW.” I hope this doesn’t burst your bubble.

  257. 257.

    The Pale Scot

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I hope that very good dog get some pets and some treats. Obviously has some border collie genes.

     

    My sister lives on a dead end street that doubles as part of the walkway system so kids can walk to school. When she lets her Scottie hang out outside it’s like an elementary school flashmob shows up.

  260. 260.

    debbie

    @Steeplejack:

    Thank you, thank  you, thank you.

    Good grief. You’d almost think women shouldn’t get credit for their work, ammirite? Credit where credit is due, please.

  261. 261.

    debbie

    @schrodingers_cat:

    FFS, you’re parroting men! Think of Phil Gramm’s demeaning of Brooksie Born and others. Your catty comments are no different

     

    Good thing I was too busy working to see the nonsense in this thread before it died.

  262. 262.

    NotMax

    @R-Jud

    Tiny blink-and-you-miss-it hamlet in western Pike county. Closest town of any notable size was Hawley (in Wayne county). Building I mentioned was outside of Honesdale.

  263. 263.

    SFAW

    @SWMBO:

    You won’t find it in Urban Dictionary or anything similar. It has nothing to do with any popular saying, joke, meme, expression of note, nor “Internet traditions” (as in “I am aware of all Internet traditions.”)

    Unlike what I assume is yours (which, I have to confess, took me a long time before light dawned on Marblehead), which I like.

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