Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

“Squeaker” McCarthy

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

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

The GOP couldn’t organize an orgy in a whorehouse with a fist full of 50s.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

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

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

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

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

Hot air and ill-informed banter

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

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

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

You cannot shame the shameless.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

The revolution will be supervised.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Open Thread

Reader Interactions

73Comments

  6. 6.

    trollhattan

    @WaterGirl:

    Spanky knows what they did.

    Test results are taking so long in some parts of California that contact tracers find themselves with trace assignments more than ten days old. #winning.

  7. 7.

    Amir Khalid

    @WaterGirl:

    There was this recurring bit on The Mary Tyler Moore show:

    Ted Baxter would phone his mother. “Hi Mom! It’s me, Ted!” A beat. “Ted Baxter!“

  9. 9.

    MobiusKlein

    @trollhattan: ten days is pretty much unless for an exponential growth curve.

    My son is supposed to have a positive negative test before going to college.  Getting tested ten days before a flight leaves 9 days to be exposed

  11. 11.

    stinger

    Aleta, re Peter Gunn Theme by Henry Mancini: Yep! Though I’ve never seen it performed in red cummerbunds before! Also good for high school pep bands back in the ’60s-’70s: Walk Don’t Run, Wipeout.

    In general, I like songs that start with one instrument and build by adding others one at a time. Smoke on the Water, Dance to the Music (though not right at the beginning).

    ETA: Topic from the TBogg thread.

  14. 14.

    debbie

    Does anyone know which Chromebook has the best screen? Working on a Chromebook is aging my eyes more than I’d like.

  15. 15.

    HumboldtBlue

    US Navy honors John Lewis, naming a new class of ships in his honor. The first of the class will of course be, the USNS John Lewis and the other names will tickle you pink.

  27. 27.

    stinger

    @WaterGirl: Agreed. Cagney & Lacey, Hill Street Blues — great theme music. My gosh, those shows were HOW MANY years ago??? That makes me HOW OLD???!!!

  28. 28.

    zhena gogolia

    @stinger:

    Mike Post was a genius, as was Mancini. Can’t remember who wrote Cagney & Lacey, but that’s a great one too.

    ETA: Bill Conti, mais bien sûr.

  35. 35.

    Zelma

    Re the issue of the $600.  I got into a shouting match with my best friend over this,  But she had an interesting complaint.  She’s comptroller of a rather large scrap dealer who has hit hard times thanks to the virus.  He got two PPP grants and used them scrupulously to keep his employees working – largely because she insisted that he do it.  (Do you know hard it is to keep even more or less honest scrap dealers honest?)

    Her boss pays relatively generous wages and good benefits.  But he ended up with a lot of unhappy employees, not because they would have made more on unemployment.  They would have made about the same or a little less.  But rather because they could have made about the same or a little less and not have had to work for four months.

    Unintended consequences and all that.

  37. 37.

    WaterGirl

    @Jean: Really?  A new season?  I have not seen that.

    We’ll have a thread around 7pm about Sunday Night TV, but mostly because I want to talk about Perry Mason again after last week’s episode!

  39. 39.

    karen marie

    @trollhattan: One of my neighbors (in Mesa, AZ) said an elderly friend was not feeling well, got a COVID test ten days ago and still has not received the results.  Yeah, we are fucked.

  40. 40.

    karen marie

    @Zelma:   If they were laid off and collecting unemployment, they’d lose whatever (if any) work related health insurance, wouldn’t they?

  41. 41.

    gkoutnik

    @Zelma: By working, he and his colleagues probably kept the business afloat, which is in the long term a really good thing for him and his colleagues (and your friend and his/her boss).

  44. 44.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump· 35m
    Because of my strong focus on the China Virus, including scheduled meetings on Vaccines, our economy and much else, I won’t be able to be in New York to throw out the opening pitch for the @Yankees on August 15th. We will make it later in the season!

    man, the backlash on that Favre tweet must’ve been nuclear

  45. 45.

    Kent

    @BeautifulPlumage: 

    Wonder if it was a paid gig and part of the fundie welfare circuit?

    Who’d of thought that having a misogynist asshole on your board was bad for donations in MAGA-land. I expect a lot of those donations are from women.

  47. 47.

    Kent

    @karen marie:@trollhattan: One of my neighbors (in Mesa, AZ) said an elderly friend was not feeling well, got a COVID test ten days ago and still has not received the results.  Yeah, we are fucked.

    My wife works for Kaiser Permanente in the Portland region.   They just announced yesterday that doctors can’t authorize any more Covid-19 tests for walk-in patients because they are out of test kits and have to reserve the few they have left for hospital admissions.   I don’t know if that is just Kaiser or all the providers in the region.

    Good luck getting that required Covid-19 test so you can go attend college or go back to work.

    Yes, we are fucked.

    But hey!   Open the Schools!!!

  49. 49.

    Baud

    Can anyone recommend an Android app that costs between 2-3 dollars? I have a couple of coupons I don’t want to waste.

  50. 50.

    Ken

    @Baud: On a thread a couple of days ago, someone recommended an app that lets you figure out what a tanker truck is carrying from the safety code numbers.

  54. 54.

    Zelma

    @gkoutnik:

    Undoubtedly better all around if they can keep things going.  But it isn’t going to be easy.  Another local steel mill shut down.  A lot of what they did had to do with fracking and that has slowed up greatly.  Also some of their stuff was exported to Turkey and that market has dried up.

    There is no real sign that the metals market is recovering.  It’s bad out there.

  55. 55.

    Another Scott

    @WaterGirl: Wɐʎɥǝʍ and Wɐʎɥǝɯ look kinda the same, but are different!!

    (The snark is too thick in this thread!)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  59. 59.

    Another Scott

    @HumboldtBlue: May 2019 – https://johnlewis.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/rep-john-lewis-attends-keel-laying-class-navy-ships-named-him

    REP. JOHN LEWIS ATTENDS KEEL LAYING FOR CLASS OF NAVY SHIPS NAMED FOR HIM
    May 14, 2019 Press Release
    SAN DIEGO—Yesterday Rep John Lewis attended a keel laying ceremony for the first in a class of Navy ships named after him. There are 20 ships in the John Lewis class, which will all be Fleet Replenishment Oilers. The first of the class, the USNS John Lewis, is projected for completion in April of 2020. The rest of the John Lewis class of ships will be built over the next 10 years and will stay in service for 40 years, serving 85,000 service men and women and 11 air craft carriers. Yesterday’s ceremony took place at the General Dynamics-National Steel and Shipbuilding Company in San Diego.

    The laying of the keel is the Navy’s way of acknowledging the beginning of a ship’s construction. At that stage some initial components of the ship have already been built, and the keel laying ceremony involves joining those components together. At that time John Lewis’s initials were also etched into a ceremonial steel plate to be displayed on the ship, along with those of Ms. Alfre Woodard, the ship’s sponsor.

    The ship sponsor is customarily the honoree’s wife. Due to the passing of his devoted wife Lillian in 2012, Rep. Lewis asked actress Alfre Woodard to serve as sponsor. She is an award-winning talent who has faithfully and lovingly depicted the characters and struggles of civil rights and social justice throughout her celebrated career. Consistent with Rep. Lewis’s commitment to non-violence, the USNS John Lewis is not a class of combat vessels. They will serve the vital role of replenishing oil for ships at sea. They are part of the Navy’s Combat Logistics Force and will be operated by the Navy Sealift Command. They are the first class of ships named after a civil rights leader and a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

    “I was almost moved to tears,” said Rep. Lewis, “to meet and greet the many hard working, committed and dedicated men and women from General Dynamics who are building the USNS John Lewis.” Building the ship will require the work of about 3000 craftsmen, welders, and builders.

    “For the U.S. Navy and former Secretary Ray Mabus to see fit to honor me in this way is unreal and almost unimaginable,” Lewis continued. “I only try to do what is fair, what is right, and what is just and get in what I call good trouble, necessary trouble. This class of ships pays tribute to the powerful contribution each and every participant in the struggle for civil rights and social justice has made to help build a true democracy in America.”

    “We’re honored to have Representative Lewis and Ms. Woodard with us today as we lay the foundation for recapitalizing our nation’s critical fuel-replenishment-at-sea capabilities,” said Mike Kosar, Support Ships, Boats and Craft program manager, Program Executive Office (PEO) Ships. “These ships are steadfast, reliable and allow our warships to defend our freedoms for which Representative Lewis has dedicated his life to protecting.”

    Video coverage from KUSI-TV in San Diego. The ceremony was covered by most network affiliates in San Diego. Check your San Diego affiliate for clips. Other video clips will be loaded our website as available. ####

    Well done, and well deserved.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  60. 60.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Jonathan Bernstein @jbview ·32m
    Got to be 100 reasons more likely than “he’s tied up in meetings.”
    1. Saw Fauci’s pitch and realized he might screw up and get laughed at.
    2. Afraid of being compared to W’s pitch at Yankee Stadium.
    3. Watching Fox and thought the phony fans were real and would boo him.

  62. 62.

    trnc

    @stinger: Aleta, re Peter Gunn Theme by Henry Mancini: Yep! Though I’ve never seen it performed in red cummerbunds before!

    I knew a band in college who put words to it. The main theme was “TV cops are gonna getcha,” and the horn swells named various tv/movie cops or shows “Dragnet! Dick Tracy!” etc. Pretty creative.

  63. 63.

    Mike in NC

    @HumboldtBlue:  We can take some comfort that there will never be a USS Donald J. Trump, nor any other ship named for one of his criminal family or corrupt henchmen.

  64. 64.

    trollhattan

    @Ken:

    Used to keep my NIOSH guide in the glovebox to solve those highway and railroad puzzles, now you just need to google the UN number. Sometimes it’s pretty exotic shit.

    Was appalled to see parked in the nearby railyard a few months ago, a string of tanker cars with crude oil stretched from horizon to horizon. It was almost certainly Bakken crude, which is VERY explosive.

  65. 65.

    Wyatt Salamanca

    From the It’s About Fucking Time Dept:

    The eleventh-largest school district in the U.S. has renamed a high school formerly known as Robert E. Lee High School after civil rights icon John Lewis.

    The school board in Fairfax County, Virginia, voted Thursday to rename the school after the congressman, who died this month. The new name, John R. Lewis High School, takes effect this school year.

    h/t https://www.yahoo.com/news/robert-e-lee-high-school-231217689.html

  68. 68.

    tomtofa

    @debbie: Samsung Chromebook Plus for a small one in the $300-400 range, and Lenovo Yoga for a 15″ in the $700-800 range are worth looking at (so to speak).

  71. 71.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Doug R: Stellarium is better at some things(finding nebula) than Skywalk.  Skywalk has the advantage of being able to use the phone’s camera with an overlay.  I use both as well as Sky Safari.

  73. 73.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Doug R: For a first app, Skywalk is the best, it’s got the VR, it’s easy to move time as well.   I use Stellarium for coordinates that I use in conjunction with Photopils.  I’ve got the paid versions of Skywalk 2, Stellarium, and SkySafari Pro.

Comments are closed.