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Tick tock motherfuckers!

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the 10% who apparently lack object permanence

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You are here: Home / Politics / Politicans / NANCY SMASH! / Friday Morning Open Thread: Thank God for the Democrats

Friday Morning Open Thread: Thank God for the Democrats

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NBC reporter, last night:


Professor Krugman is not hopeful:

Reader Interactions

240Comments

  2. 2.

    rikyrah

    Had to submit the numbers of why we need overtime.  We do. Our work is time sensitive and must be done. Overtime is the only way it will happen.?

  3. 3.

    Ken

    So what would be in Meadows’ skinny deal besides the usual capital gains tax cuts?  Funding to remodel the Rose Garden and FBI building, and special subsidies for hotels and golf courses, perhaps? Oh, and liability protection for businesses who force employees into covid-unsafe working conditions.

  4. 4.

    debbie

    @rikyrah:

    I am so fed up with asshole corporations and companies. Workers shouldn’t have to justify anything. Their working despite the crappy state of affairs in this country should serve as sufficient justification. Where’s the fucking gratitude? Businesses do not deserve their workers, let alone their customers.

    And now I see that Trump hit the 20,000-lies mark almost a month ago, according to the WaPo. Gah!

  5. 5.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    I may have to quit Facebook because I’m coming to so despise the idiocy of my fellow white Americans, particularly among the herrenvolk. They don’t understand and are so entangled in an ideology of pain and naked stupidity that they can’t be made to understand. I’m coming so close to blowing off 45 and 50 year old friendships that it isn’t healthy.

    I think my favorites, though, are the Trumpist working class heroes that earn 25K to 40K that assume that everybody getting the $600 PUA is living the sweet life, and that the high 5 and 6 figure earners who are now furloughed or jobless should have saved better for this once in a century “rainy day”, and should be more grateful that they previously had those opportunities even though their lives have now blown up.

    It is because of those stupid fuckers that we can’t have nice things.

  7. 7.

    cmorenc

    Meanwhile, on CNBC this morning some real estate investor whining about how unjust and counterproductive increasing taxes on the wealthy would be for the real estate market and economy.  These assholes truly think they are the linchpins the economy depends on, not working people.

  10. 10.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @cmorenc:

    The real estate market – particularly the commercial real estate market – has been strangling entrepreneurship and small business for years. The money that chases dirt doesn’t produce anything and would be far more useful if it went into equities.

  12. 12.

    OzarkHillbilly

    A long read: Rural Missourians Protested for Black Lives — And Were Met By Armed Neighbors

    Main Street Memories, a small shop in Fredericktown, is best known as a vintage and antique gift store. But, in a pinch, it can also serve as a perfectly fine sniper’s nest.

    That’s the impression one might get from the scene that played out on the evening of June 24, when a group of protesters aiming to shed light on racism in the small southeast Missouri city were met by a larger group of counterprotesters — many armed to the teeth.

    Photos and video from the event show that gun-wielding townspeople were joined by members of the Three Percenters — a group described by the Southern Poverty Law Center as an anti-government militia — dressed in military fatigues and tactical vests. They carried rifles, pistols and zip ties similar to the ones used by law enforcement in lieu of handcuffs. A man spotted on the roof of the antique shop even had a suppressor on his gun.

    And on the other side, ostensibly in defense of the protesters, Hawaiian-shirt-sporting Boogaloo Bois, a loosely organized group that believes a second American civil war is impending, carried their own rifles and tactical gear.

    Not everyone had guns, though. Some townsfolk brought bladed weapons. At least two arrived on the scene with broadswords. Others wielded two-by-fours.

    For Frederick Dorsey Jr., the 21-year-old who had organized the protest, the weaponry was a little much. But it was nothing compared to the blatant racism hurled at him by many of those same armed townsfolk.

    “A lot of Confederate flags,” Dorsey, whose mother is white and whose father is Black, says of the scene. “And I also saw people threaten to hang me from a noose. A few people were making monkey gestures and telling me I needed to go back to my own community, when I’ve lived in Fredericktown for sixteen years. I got called many racial slurs. And then my own mother was protesting against me.”
    ……………………..
    “Me and my mom have never had a close relationship. Before this protest I haven’t seen her in several years,” Dorsey, who lives with his dad, says. “And she was on the other side, I guess you could call it the Back the Blue, pro-Trump side, saying that I was just doing all this to show my ass, and I’m putting my life at risk and everything. And then my stepdad and his kids said they were gonna kill me because I’m doing all this. He kept calling me stupid and saying I needed to grow up. And I was like, if anything, this is the most grown-up thing I’ve done.

    “I didn’t say anything back, because it wasn’t worth my time, because I feel like what I’m doing is right,” Dorsey adds. “And it’s much needed.”

    Fredricktown is about an hour away from me, and yeah, it’s all that. The story however ends on a hopeful note:

    By all accounts, the protest in Fredericktown on July 10 was a much tamer affair than the one held in June.
    ……………………………………
    Dorsey’s assessment is largely the same.

    “I think it was more that they realized we weren’t there to cause a riot; we were there to make a change and educate people,” he says. “And I guess they’re like, ‘OK, maybe they’re not as bad as we thought.’ So I guess people came into the mindset of wanting to listen and maybe change.”

    With July’s protest so carefully regulated and organized as MOSA continues to hone its tactics, Hindrichs agrees that they were simply better able to get people to listen to what they had to say. And that’s already paying dividends. Hindrichs says the group has since had a number of people reach out to them through the group’s Facebook page, as well as some of the pages of the individual organizers, to learn more of what they’re all about.

    “And I think that’s great, because it gets us out of that situation of high stress, tensions being thick, and I think with how the protest went it was easier for people to reach out to us afterwards without feeling threatened,” she says.

    All told, it’s heartening for Dorsey, a young organizer who just wants the best for his hometown.

    “I feel like change is coming,” he says. “And I think people are finally listening instead of just writing us off.”

  13. 13.

    Jeffro

    @cmorenc:These assholes truly think they are the linchpins the economy depends on, not working people.

    They do indeed.  And yet, it appears that teachers and grocery store staff might just be more important to keeping our economy humming along.

    Party’s over, 1%ers.  It’s past time for you to start paying your fair share.

  14. 14.

    MagdaInBlack

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:

    Please convey for me to those allegedly working class asshats that this working class woman was gd glad to have that $600 so I could continue to live indoors and eat for the 4 months I was furloughed because the whole gd state was shut down

    Eta : and yeah, I know some of those asshats too.

  15. 15.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @rikyrah: Gotta admit, one of the things that’s really chaps me during the pandemic is this sort of bean-counting of employee time/effort. It’s not a huge deal, but it’s not like anyone is going to do anything with those data. It’s just a type of administrative mindset that some (not all!) exhibit. It’s an indulgence of their mental problem, and they ought to be called on it, but they never are. Thankfully, one of the groups I work with has not gone down this path. A couple of others have, though, and it just so perfectly fits with their poor management styles

    I guess I’m just whining this morning…

  20. 20.

    AliceBlue

    @debbie:   Mr. AliceBlue says that the attitude among the corporate overlords he works for is “we’d have a great company if it weren’t for these damned employees”

  24. 24.

    Kristine

    Pelosi knew that if she and Schumer agreed to the skinny proposal, that would be all they’d ever get. There would be no follow-up.

  29. 29.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @MagdaInBlack:

    I was told by one of those asshats that airline pilots can drive trucks and airline mechanics can become truck mechanics.

    There’s that whole “1/3 of previous pay” thing.

  30. 30.

    Just One More Canuck

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: commercial real estate is likely in huge trouble. I deal with a lot of lawyers  who all think that when their leases expire they’ll be going from say eight floors down to maybe four – one floor for client meetings, One for admin work and a couple for offices on a hotelling braising. My wife works for Giant Ass Accounting Firm and they’ve been told that working from home will be the new normal post-Covid

  32. 32.

    MomSense

    @debbie:

    We are supposed to get pre-approved before we can get overtime.  It is usually crises or last minute issues that create the need to work overtime which means I do a lot of volunteer work for my employer.  Big projects or assignments usually come with lots of advance time to plan how to get it done.

  33. 33.

    germy

    Quote of the Day:

    When liberals said “eff it, let’s just go with who we really are” it was Obama. For conservatives it was Trump.

    — Oliver Willis (@owillis) August 7, 2020

  34. 34.

    NotMax

    @Dorothy A. Winsor

    Overall a lot of fun. Some wandering off into the weeds but that’s to be expected with multiple side plots. Alex Borstein does a bang-up job as Susie Myerson (never comes within waving distance of missing a single comedic acting beat).

  35. 35.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    Pelosi said Meadows slammed the table and walked out

    Trump has only one trick.

  38. 38.

    Joe Falco

    In God’s country, the Peach State of Georgia, local school officials are doing what’s really necessary for the safety of their jobs schools: suspending any students that upload pictures to social media that show how completely irresponsible and dangerous it is to reopen schools without requiring masks or opening up at all.

    From the AJC:

    Photos of a crowded high school hallway have propelled the 30,000-student Paulding County School District into the national news this week and into debates over school safety and free speech.

    The photos, reportedly taken by students on the first few days of classes and posted to social media, show the hallway packed with students at North Paulding High School, with few masks to be seen — both in conflict with the safety protocols advised by epidemiologists who say social distancing is key to fighting the spread of COVID-19 and masks are crucial when six feet of distance isn’t possible.

    The photos quickly drew angry responses from people questioning school administrators’ handling of the back-to-school safety plans.

    That anger intensified with reports that at least one student who photographed the crowded hallway was suspended after being applauded online as a whistleblower.

    My fear is that retaliation by school officials against students and teachers that speak out is not going to be limited to one school district, but it will become standard protocol across the state. And why not? If you look at the current state leadership, it’s become completely acceptable to punish or silence those who are trying to make things safer for everyone else. When cities across Georgia started requiring masks, Kemp reworded his state order to ban local municipalities from issuing mask requirements and sued the Democratic mayor of Atlanta. These actions at the top form the behavior of those at the bottom. They know nothing else to do but to suppress and punish anyone out of line or, worse, embarrass them.

  39. 39.

    Soprano2

    @Kristine: Oh yeah, 100%. The Republicans want the “skinny deal” so they can blow town and tell all their voters they made a deal and saved everyone from those bad, bad Democrats. She’s smart to hold out for the full thing. They did their job in May, it’s not her fault that Republicans wanted until the last week of July hoping they could jam her up with their stingy offer.

  41. 41.

    germy

    Reading “A Different Drummer” by William Melvin Kelley.

    Why have I never heard of him before?  It was his first novel and I’m enjoying it immensely.

  45. 45.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Soprano2: It’s really odd the GOP doesn’t get that if there is no deal it will be them as the party in power that gets the blame.

  46. 46.

    Another Scott

    @OzarkHillbilly: Thanks for that.  People in the RWNJ bubble aren’t all hopeless.  It’s good to be reminded of that.  The TV and radio and FB spews the most scary take about us and policies we like, but when people are forced to see with their own eyes it can and does have a positive impact.  It’s a painfully slow process most of the time though.

    Forward!

    Cheers,

    Scott.

  47. 47.

    MomSense

    @WereBear:

    I’m pretty sure they left the kids in the car when they got to the summer camp and forgot about them.  We never saw them again.

  51. 51.

    kindness

    I trust Nancy.  It’s funny how not so long ago some Democrats said she was too old and we needed younger faces to lead us.  Where are those Democrats now?

  54. 54.

    NotMax

    @MomSense

    As someone who worked at a summer camp for about 15 years, you’d be surprised how often that happens.

    “Architects cover their mistakes with ivy, young brides with mayonnaise. Parents send theirs to summer camp.”

    :)

  56. 56.

    NotMax

    @Jay Noble

    As instructed my employees back when had a retail establishment, “The customer is always right. Until they’re out of earshot.”

    :)

  58. 58.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Immanentize:

    Teaching would be the best job in the world if not for the damn students.

    Ain’t that the truth! Actually, most of my students were fine. My department head, on the other hand….

  60. 60.

    K488

    @Immanentize: I used to serve on the board of a regional orchestra in Michigan.  The president of the board told me how much he liked attending concerts, getting dressed up, seeing his friends and the cream of Jackson, Michigan.  The only thing he didn’t like was the music.

  61. 61.

    Immanentize

    @OzarkHillbilly: my my, the parents are the worst.  At the law school we still have parents calling trying to *something* for 21 plus y.o. students (calling  Deans, the registrar, bursar, etc.).  We have a firm policy — no talking to parents, they should talk to their kids.

  65. 65.

    K488

    @Immanentize: No kidding!  One board member thought we’d bring in more kids if they played arrangements of ’80’s rock tunes.  I passed along that idea to my (then) teenage sons, both interested in music, and their reply was “why the f**k would we want to hear that?”  I reported my findings to the board.

  66. 66.

    SFAW

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:

    It’s really odd the GOP doesn’t get that if there is no deal it will be them as the party in power that gets the blame.

    They’re trusting that the RWMF media will scream louder, and use their megaphone better, than the Dems can/will. It’s not an unreasonable belief.

  69. 69.

    SFAW

    @Morzer:

    I rather like the idea of architects covering young brides with mayonnaise.

    Whipped cream is a lot easier to remove than mayonnaise.

    Or so I’ve been told.

  70. 70.

    Sloane Ranger

    I used to work in a Library and we always said that the Library would be great if it wasn’t for the borrowers.

    We’d spend ages tidying the shelves, arranging the books in strict alphabetical order by author or Dewey decimal number and then THEY would come along, take books off the shelf to look at, then either just leave them lying around or put them back in the wrong place. It was even worse when they actually borrowed the books as this left gaps in the shelves that needed to be re-tidied. :)

  75. 75.

    gvg

    @debbie: If companies don’t monitor overtime, managers authorize lots of un needed overtime for their favorites while others only get part time.  Also some poor managers have a tendency if not pushed, to leave things undone until almost deadline and require employees to work overtime they didn’t plan on. Or fail to hire replacements for people who leave.  There are all kinds of reasons that it needs to be watched, not done just any time the supervisor feels like it.  Overtime means more pay but it’s also extra work and can be abusive to workers.

    Rikyrah I think is feeling sorry for the workers.

  78. 78.

    Haroldo

    @K488:

    @Immanentize: No kidding!  One board member thought we’d bring in more kids if they played arrangements of ’80’s rock tunes.  I passed along that idea to my (then) teenage sons, both interested in music, and their reply was “why the f**k would we want to hear that?”  I reported my findings to the board.

    Tho’ the Piedmont Regional Symphony doesn’t have a problem with mixing genres.  It seems to work for them.  Indeed, varying mileages, different strokes, and horses for courses…..

    https://www.piedmontsymphony.org

    P.S. I’m not crazy ’bout the rock stuff (even in its native form) but it puts bums on bleachers.

  81. 81.

    SFAW

    @Immanentize:

    Having washed mayo residue from more than a couple of dishes and bowls, I can attest to it.

    By the way: I didn’t take the opportunity to extend my best wishes (although that phrase seems kinda blah) on the Immp’s heading off to the wilds of Texas for college. I was trying to think of what to write, but rikyrah’s comment(s) were outstanding, and I’d rather second/steal them than try something on my own. I’m looking forward to hearing about what a great time he has. But not SO good that he doesn’t want to come back. [Not that I think there’s any chance of that happening, you guys have been through so much together.]

  89. 89.

    catclub

    @Haroldo: I went to their website. Since Piedmont is pretty generic I wondered what state they are in.  They virtually refuse to tell.

    Finally found it in their contact page. irritating.

  90. 90.

    catclub

    @Haroldo: not crazy ’bout the rock stuff (even in its native form) but it puts bums on bleachers.

     

    Dodger stadium is gone from Brooklyn

  92. 92.

    germy

    @Sloane Ranger:

    I used to work in a Library and we always said that the Library would be great if it wasn’t for the borrowers.

    I remember a twitter thread where the question was “What made you decide to pick the college major you did?”

    The answers were funny. Some were sad.  Many majors were snap decisions. Some people even chose majors (and careers) based on movies they’d seen and were eventually disappointed.

    My favorite reply was the guy who said he’d been in college and had no idea what to do with his life, but he knew he loved reading and didn’t enjoy talking to people.  So he chose Library Science as a major.

    And then his first job in a library:  You don’t actually sit there reading books, and you have to talk to people all day.

  93. 93.

    Haroldo

    @catclub:

    Their web presence is admittedly difficult to navigate at times.  My apologies.

    The Dodgers continue to exist on the graves of Zoot Suiters.

  94. 94.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @kindness:

     

    Where are those Democrats now?

    I hope they’re still here and elsewhere pushing for change, and hopefully still allied with the larger group. They are needed as a vanguard as much as wise oldsters are needed as a rearguard (I am an oldster, though not claiming wisdom).

  96. 96.

    germy

    Proud to be a Democrat.

    Last night I watched “Inside Edition” and they devoted a segment to what they called Biden’s “bizarre outburst”  (the interview where he was asked if he’d take a cognitive test).   I thought “Well, it’s inside edition” but the CBS news also devoted time to it, as if we should all be troubled by Biden’s response, rather than cheer him.

    I think that it was the Inside Edition reporter that mentioned Hannity had devoted a major chunk of time to this “scandal” which is why I suppose other journalists picked up on it. Fox, as usual, lights the way…

  97. 97.

    K488

    @Haroldo: I’ve got no problem with mixing genres, and I’m all in favor of getting bums in bleachers, but if the aim was to bring in the young folks, then, based on my admittedly small sample, the proposed solution was not going to work.  Now, if they’d do some death metal, or Anthony Braxton, my boys would have been there!

  98. 98.

    laura

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: the most saturated colors in beautiful clothes that are reminiscent of Funny Face. Alex Borstein is genius. The dialog is faster than His Gal Friday. Tony Shaloub just Shaloubing it up. Kevin Pollack! I tried so hard to not binge that show. I hope you’ll enjoy how it rolls somewhat merrily along. Lenny Bruce!

  99. 99.

    germy

    @laura:

    Yes, that’s one of the better portrayals I’ve ever seen of Lenny Bruce, and he’s been portrayed hundreds of times.

  100. 100.

    SFAW

    @germy:

    They’re just going after Biden because they’ve been told he wants to “hurt God.”

    I’m waiting for them to issue a pronouncement that the country formerly known as “Siam” shall henceforth be called “Thighland.”

  101. 101.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @kindness:

    I trust Nancy.  It’s funny how not so long ago some Democrats said she was too old and we needed younger faces to lead us.  Where are those Democrats now?

    Tim Ryan, at least, publicly ate crow. I don’t know about any of the others.

    Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio), who challenged Pelosi for party leader after Democrats failed to win back the House in 2016, now sings her praises
    “Nancy Pelosi is the absolute best politician that the Democratic Party has seen since Lyndon Johnson, in my opinion,” Ryan said.
    When asked if he could have done what Pelosi did if he were Democratic leader, Ryan added: “Probably not. … She’s literally in a class by herself.”

  102. 102.

    montanareddog

    @Immanentize: my wife and her two sisters and their kids got together in our garden last night for the 1st time all together in a couple of years. Things kicked off between the oldest and the youngest cousin (neither of them ours). Oldest was apparently snippy about something with the youngest, the youngest told her to go fuck herself, and the oldest then threw the most tremendous temper tantrum. Her mother then proceeded to nastily scold the youngest one (who is a 15yo girl), which is where I got involved, telling her to back off because the oldest one is 26 years old. I told the mother her kid ought not to be throwing such tantrums at that age and, anyway, she should let her adult daughter fight her own battles.

    As you say, some parents don’t know when to stop parenting their precious snowflakes.

  106. 106.

    germy

    @SFAW:

    D’Souza jumped in to defend trump’s pronunciation. With predictably hilarious results…

    I’ve been to Thailand, and it’s pronounced Tie-land, not Thighland. Nobody goes to a restaurant and orders Thigh food (except maybe in a chicken joint.D’Souza gives craven toadies a bad name. t.co/4kX1EsQYRu

    I’m highly amused to see supposedly sophisticated media types snickering at @realdonaldtrump for saying “Thighland.” These faux-sophisticates don’t realize Trump’s way of saying it is right. “Tai-land” is the crude lingo of people who have never been to “Thighland”

    — Dinesh D’Souza (@DineshDSouza) August 7, 2020

    — Clyde Haberman (@ClydeHaberman) August 7, 2020

    Of course if trump was “right” why did he correct himself immediately?

  107. 107.

    SFAW

    @K488:

    Now, if they’d do some death metal, or Anthony Braxton, my boys would have been there!

    What about Kenny G? I hear the youngs find him “groovy.”

  110. 110.

    Haroldo

    @K488:

    Gimme some Braxton, but death metal…..meh.

    I was trying to point out that there are different roads to regional orchestra nirvana, or, at least, not-hell. The PSO seems to be doing OK in these times (lots of web rebroadcasts of the greatest hits).  In the Before-Times, they had a very strong education program, lots of young uns.  I presume that’ll resume, if and when Covid19 is vanquished – tho’ who knows when that’ll be.

  111. 111.

    SFAW

    @germy:

    Yeah, D’Ouchebag is a piece of work. [NB: I had earlier mistakenly attributed the whole “Thighland” bullshit to KAC.]

  112. 112.

    The Pale Scot

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    The town’s early history saw it as a mining hub, with mines just east of the city that were, at one point, the largest source of lead in the United States

    Well that makes sense

  113. 113.

    montanareddog

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: It was, shall we say, embarrassing because non-family members were also present, and surely the neighbors would have heard a lot of it.

    You can choose your spouse but you have to take the in-laws in the package. Hence the French slang for a loudmouth moron is  “un beauf”, short for beau-frère.

  116. 116.

    dnfree

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: our kids thought we’d enjoy that one, but it really annoyed me. I guess I just couldn’t relate to the characters’ wealth and cluelessness, including Mrs. Maisel. And as you get further into it, they have characters (especially the mother) do things that seem quite out of character Just to advance the plot. I hate when that happens. But you’re an author so you may have a different perspective.

  117. 117.

    SFAW

    @laura:

    hey! Aren’t you a tad late with that birthday wish?

    Maybe it’s a request to his birthday twin, Mob Enforcer SubaruDiane?

  120. 120.

    patrick II

    I am just imagining the condition of the country for the last six months if we didn’t have a Democratic house.  The Senate, from the beginning, has had bills that did nothing but send money to the rich.  There would be many hungry people out there, and even more of them would be sick.

  122. 122.

    The Pale Scot

    @Just One More Canuck:

    My wife works for Giant Ass Accounting Firm and they’ve been told that working from home will be the new normal post-Covid

    And I’m sure that they’re going to pay for people having to move into bigger quarters. I’ve always lived in the smallest, cheapest place I can find, I Don’t spend much time at home, there are places to go, to see.

  128. 128.

    SFAW

    @Baud:

    I would be president now in such a world.

    Only if you voted for yourself. And I have heard rumors that you’d withhold your vote, because you don’t agree with your position on … something. Gorram purity pony.

  129. 129.

    montanareddog

    @Gin & Tonic: IIRC, Clyde was a respected journalist and it was the mother who was the Trump flack. I guess our Maggie did not fall far from her mother’s tree (I seem to be on a family dynamics theme today!)

  132. 132.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @germy: I’m no linguist, but I believe the English TH sound does not occur in a lot of other languages. Neither of the TH sounds. I think Greek has both of them but I really really doubt THIGHland does.

  134. 134.

    Matt

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    “A lot of Confederate flags,” Dorsey, whose mother is white and whose father is Black, says of the scene. “And I also saw people threaten to hang me from a noose. A few people were making monkey gestures and telling me I needed to go back to my own community, when I’ve lived in Fredericktown for sixteen years. I got called many racial slurs. And then my own mother was protesting against me.”
    ……………………..
    “Me and my mom have never had a close relationship. Before this protest I haven’t seen her in several years,” Dorsey, who lives with his dad, says. “And she was on the other side, I guess you could call it the Back the Blue, pro-Trump side, saying that I was just doing all this to show my ass, and I’m putting my life at risk and everything. And then my stepdad and his kids said they were gonna kill me because I’m doing all this. He kept calling me stupid and saying I needed to grow up. And I was like, if anything, this is the most grown-up thing I’ve done.

    Imagine being such a hateful bunch of assholes that you’re threatening to kill your wife’s _kid_ because you’re so butthurt that people are calling out your white supremacy.

  135. 135.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    OT but has anyone else had trouble connecting to Netflix lately? I’ve been getting “server not found” or weird text-only pages off and on for days. It comes up fine on the phone, but not on the laptop, on any browser.

    If it’s just me, what could cause that?

  138. 138.

    germy

    BREAKING: Rumored Biden vice presidential pick Susan Rice used a private unsecured email server to conduct US government business as Obama's National Security Adviser

    — Paul Sperry (@paulsperry_) August 7, 2020

    Well, we’re finished.

  139. 139.

    mrmoshpotato

    @patrick II:

    I am just imagining the condition of the country for the last six months if we didn’t have a Democratic house. 

    Amusing yourself these days by scaring the shit out of yourself? ?

    I personally am surprised the bastards didn’t do more damage in 2017-18.

  140. 140.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @germy: I hadn’t heard Rice was the rumored pick. I’ve seen twitter gossip that she was runner-up to Harris.

    Just heard on NPR that Brent Scowcroft has died at 95. IIRC Poppy sent him to try and talk Junior in from the ledge (and true to to form, that 50-something adolescent dug in his heels), and he watched his protégée Condi Rice morph into a neo-con with dismay.

  141. 141.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Frankensteinbeck: You really gonna bother Him on vacation?

    Thanks for the concern all, but I'm just taking time off to write My newest testament while on a working vacation on Bethselamin. I will return angrier, wittier, and more ineffective than ever in September, just in time for lack-to-school.In My absence, no one is in charge.— God (@TheTweetOfGod) August 1, 2020

  143. 143.

    germy

    @laura:  I collected them all in the 1970s (later sold the collection)

    Which album cover?  “Togetherness” where he poses with a multicultural collection of women, and  klansmen?

  144. 144.

    zhena gogolia

    @Morzer:

    I don’t have to read it. I’m with him all the way after reading one tweet. I will not abide any criticism of Biden until he’s sitting in the Oval Office. Even then.

  149. 149.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @SFAW: Well sure, that works for a +15 Red district. But unless they want to Californicate the GOP into permanent minority status they got to do better than that.

  150. 150.

    Ken

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: Also no linguist, but according to wikipedia Thai distinguishes aspirated and unaspirated stops, which is not uncommon in languages world-wide.

    So in transliterations, “th” means there is an aspiration (puff of air) after the t-stop, and “t” means there isn’t. I can make those sounds (control the puff) if I concentrate and speak slowly, but I can’t tell them apart when listening.

  151. 151.

    Amir Khalid

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:

    For what it’s worth, actual Thai people tend to say “Tai-land”. I don’t think that TH sound is in their language. “Thailand” itself, we should remember, is an English word.

  152. 152.

    SFAW

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:

    Well sure, that works for a +15 Red district. But unless they want to Californicate the GOP into permanent minority status they got to do better than that.

    In a rational country, sure. But given the apparent ability of a too-large segment of the electorate to behave stupidly/insanely, or to believe stupid/insane/evil things, I think there’s still some doubt on that.

  154. 154.

    Yutsano

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: In Europe, it’s: English, Icelandic, Catalan, some dialects of Castilian, Greek, and that’s about it. It drives my Dutch friends NUTS. If you want to sound fancy they’re dental fricatives. But only at those dinner parties. You know the ones.

  155. 155.

    Sloane Ranger

    To my mind, the point of this Thighland, Yo-semite thing is that both pronunciations would be a good try for someone who had never been confronted with these words before, but it beggars belief that someone could be born in the US and live 70 plus years there without once hearing the correct pronunciation of Yosemite, let alone be President of said nation for almost 4 years without Thailand coming up at least once.

    Of course, as he doesn’t read, he may not have made the connection between the places he’s heard about and the words on the page.

  156. 156.

    Ken

    Hmm, in addition to the aspirated/unaspirated stops, Thai also has the glottal stop and a palatal affricate, uses tones, and distinguishes vowels by length. I guess I know one language I’m not going to try to learn after retirement.

  157. 157.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Sloane Ranger: I find it quite believable that he has never heard of Yosemite.  I find it less believable that he has heard of Thailand  – but only in the context of sex tourism.  I used to say that Bush II was not an unintelligent but an incurious one;  Trump is both unintelligent and incurious.

  158. 158.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @The Pale Scot:And I’m sure that they’re going to pay for people having to move into bigger quarters.

    If you don’t have to come in five days a week you don’t have to live in a pricey urban core.

  159. 159.

    Immanentize

    @montanareddog: So, a pleasant evening was had by all?!

    I have no general advice or wisdom about parenting. Believe me. My parenting mistakes reach from here to hell. But trying to make independently responsible non-asshole adults does seem like job one. Other than keeping the little darlings alive until they are, say, 20

  160. 160.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Sloane Ranger:  but it beggars belief that someone could be born in the US and live 70 plus years there without once hearing the correct pronunciation of Yosemite,

    There is a video of Trump in Los Vegas insisting Nevada is pronounced “Neh-vada” to the boos of the audience.  Apparently Trump thinks mispronouncing these words makes him look sophisticated.

  162. 162.

    Immanentize

    @Gin & Tonic: OK, hear me out!

    The Immp just this week turned me on to a new coffee concoction — the bleeding edge of the genre —

    Iced espresso with tonic. I thought it sounded awful, but I tried it and it is fabulous. Somehow the bitterness and sweet (but not too) of good tonic balances and mellows the edge of the coffee.

    I have not yet tried adding gin.

    ***** Highly Recommended!

  163. 163.

    jonas

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: As I’ve had to explain to numerous overseas friend who are continually bemused at Americans’ rejection of a reasonable social safety net, all you need to know about American politics is that it’s almost entirely based on the gnawing fear that somewhere, somehow, an undeserving category of person (single mothers, immigrants, black people, etc.)  might receive public benefits.

  164. 164.

    Ksmiami

    @Enhanced Voting exaTechniques: exactly- I explained to my daughter that Nancy has extended a line to the GOP to save them but if they want to hang themselves with it well… Suddenly I’m feeling better about the election and the possibility of tumbrels on the White House lawn

  166. 166.

    germy

    @Sloane Ranger:

    it beggars belief that someone could be born in the US and live 70 plus years there without once hearing the correct pronunciation of Yosemite, let alone be President of said nation for almost 4 years

    “Yo, Semite!”

    I had forgotten that Yosemite Sam’s full name is Samuel Rosenbaum.

  167. 167.

    Fair Economist

    @montanareddog:

    Her mother then proceeded to nastily scold the youngest one (who is a 15yo girl), which is where I got involved, telling her to back off because the oldest one is 26 years old. I told the mother her kid ought not to be throwing such tantrums at that age and, anyway, she should let her adult daughter fight her own battles.

    As you say, some parents don’t know when to stop parenting their precious snowflakes.

    Sounds like that parent should never have gotten started.

  168. 168.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Yutsano: Nobody invites me to dinner parties. But my favorite coffee shop (pre lockdown) was next door to the local liberal arts college, and there was always somebody in there lecturing ad nauseam to their tablemates. Not just professors, just as likely to be undergraduates.

    That used to annoy the heck out of me but now I miss that place like crazy.

  169. 169.

    debbie

    @AliceBlue:

    At mine, it’s all “We’d be nothing without you!” as they slash and burn employee counts, expecting one person to do the job of five. Their rewards are cookies and candy rather than salary bumps which they can now afford even more than before.

  170. 170.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Immanentize: Which is known as Allemagne in French, Deutschland of course in Deutschland, and Germania in Italian, but the Italians call the language Tedesco.

  172. 172.

    debbie

    @MomSense:

    Volunteer? That’s bullshit. Years ago, there was mandatory overtime. They paid overtime rates, but I didn’t want to work any extra. Others would have worked even more hours just for the money, so the company would have had the same results. But no, everyone had to work.

  175. 175.

    PenAndKey

    @Sloane Ranger: Honestly I’d say for the popularity of Thai food alone I’m shocked he hasn’t heard the correct pronunciation before, but then I remember he’s a “well done steak with ketchup” guy and it all makes sense

    @debbie: And I’ll second the “voluntary overtime” eyebrow raise. The only kind of overtime I was ever offered as “voluntary” was the “you’ll work when you’re told and the alternative is performance demerits and eventual termination if you don’t” sort. Unless you’ve got really nice managers the power imbalance between employee and boss is simply too large for anything else.

  176. 176.

    frosty

    @Immanentize: My brother (reporter) interviewed a middle school principal once. He said his job was “Get them through adolescence with no permanent damage.”

    I decided I had been a successful parent when my two made it alive, with all their limbs intact, no addictions, no pregnancies, no jail time, no piercings, no tattoos*. The older one got the tattoos later on, but that’s OK.

    Alternate guidelines: I read somewhere long ago that your kids will be in the 40th percentile if you just don’t beat them, don’t fuck them, and teach them to read. It was helpful to have a lower bound.

    * I’m sure I’m forgetting some of these.

  184. 184.

    Joe Falco

    @debbie:

    Do we know if he’s planning to appeal the suspension?

    I haven’t seen anything yet about it, but I’m sure it will be reported if it does happen. It’s more than one person that was supposedly suspended for the same reason. I imagine this will snowball very quickly, and we’ll see more students defying school officials’ ridiculous clampdown.

  185. 185.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:

    That used to annoy the heck out of me but now I miss that place like crazy.

    I used to live in a college town and it was about 50/50 annoying/horrifically funny when you got caught next to those lectures. I may be underestimating the annoying with the benign fog of time passed. And being in a breakfast place next to somebody croaking “last thing I remember Tommy and I were at Stacie’s apartment….”

    And the shopping carts of 19 year olds learning to buy groceries… College towns can be a hoot if you don’t live too close to the undergraduates.

  187. 187.

    Immanentize

    @Spanky: I really haven’t noticed about the supply, but I have found myself buying various bottles of interesting gins every so often.  So the range has expanded!  (While the quantity diminishes?)

  188. 188.

    germy

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:

    there was always somebody in there lecturing ad nauseam to their tablemates. Not just professors, just as likely to be undergraduates.

    That used to annoy the heck out of me but now I miss that place like crazy.

    Visit LawyersGunsMoneyBlog and read the comments.  It’ll be like old times again.

  190. 190.

    debbie

    @Joe Falco:

    Yeah, the first mistake is to tell a kid not to do something because you know they take that as a challenge. I watched my brothers try and pull this off with their kids with zero success, even though they’d done the same thing with our parents.

  192. 192.

    CaseyL

    @Immanentize: Gin tastes like nail polish remover to me.  I wonder if there’s a genetic component to being able to taste it properly, like there is for cilantro (which is soap to me).

  193. 193.

    montanareddog

    @Gin & Tonic: In Italy, a coffee with alcohol is a caffe corretto – a “correct” coffee. In the Netherlands, a coffee with milk is a koffie verkeerd – an “incorrect” coffee. Italian catholics celebrating fun, and Dutch Calvinists disapproving of even the indulgence of putting milk in your beverage?

  194. 194.

    Marcopolo

    Good morning folks. Cook Political just made another five changes to US House races, four in the direction of Ds. The big one for me is MO-2 moving from lean R to tossup.

    New at @CookPolitical: five more House rating changes today, including four in Democrats’ direction – and two veteran House Rs moving into our Toss Up column. pic.twitter.com/6Vo6YqGk89— Dave Wasserman (@Redistrict) August 7, 2020

    I live about 3 blocks outside of it but since MO-1 is firmly D I have been putting my efforts into MO-2 for about 5 years now. I think this is the year we flip it–the results from Tuesday’s primaries certainly looked good. If you would like to send some cash love to Jill Schupp, our candidate, this is the link for her campaign website

    Also happy to see Sharice Davids in OK seems to be good to go in Nov.

  197. 197.

    germy

    @montanareddog:

    Dorothy Parker:

    Whisky became her drink of choice.  Gin, plain or in mixtures, made her promptly sick. After experiment, she found that Scotch whisky was best for her. She took it without water, because that was the quickest way to its effect.’

    At first, Parker thrived on her favourite tipple. According to her biographer Marion Meade, ‘Scotch helped her to function better. It seemed almost miraculous how little sips, spaced regularly throughout the day, could act as an effective tranquilliser… The liquor made her feel cheerful and loose, clever remarks spun spontaneously from her lips, until everyone was falling down with laughter and she felt appreciated and loved.  Never did Dorothy appear drunk. But she was seldom completely sober either.’

    Parker’s favourite Scotch was Haig & Haig. However, she did not earn a lot from writing and that brand cost ‘$12 a quart at bootleg prices’.  So, says Meade, ‘she was also known to drink “White Hearse”, as she called all rotgut Scotch whisky, and practically anything at a pinch except gin…’

    What’s funny is that nowadays I see there is a brand of “Dorothy Parker Gin”

  198. 198.

    Joe Falco

    @debbie:

    Yeah, the first mistake is to tell a kid not to do something because you know they take that as a challenge.

    Right. The other mistake is thinking if you punish one, the others will be cowed into doing what you say, instead of banding together in solidarity. Don’t let the Man keep you down!

  199. 199.

    catclub

    @The Pale Scot: My wife works for Giant Ass Accounting Firm and

     

    Randall Monroe’s  ‘slide over the hyphen rule’ applies!

    Giant-Ass Accounting Firm

    Giant Ass-Accounting Firm

     

    I am sure the firm will send all the money no longer spent on office rental to your wife’s salary.

  201. 201.

    Sloane Ranger

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: And don’t even start with town and city names.

    Horror of horrors, the Germans insist on calling the city of Munich, Munchen (with extra added umlauts), while those Italians aren’t much better. They call their capital city Roma and there’s this place in the south called Napoli. I wonder if it’s close to the city of Naples?

  205. 205.

    Ruckus

    @K488:

    At work the radio is set to a station that I sometimes listened to, over 50 yrs ago. Playing the same damn 30 songs they did then. It’s crappy advertising and crappy music. Over and fucking over. I often have to wear ear plugs so that I don’t go all godzilla. I think that’s why they call it work.

  206. 206.

    Brachiator

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:

    Coming late to the thread, but wanted to comment on your great points here.

    I think my favorites, though, are the Trumpist working class heroes that earn 25K to 40K that assume that everybody getting the $600 PUA is living the sweet life.

    There are pundits, business people and Republican leaders who keep harping on the notion that the $600 supplement results in people getting more than they would earn from their former jobs, and so business owners are having trouble getting people to come back to work. This lets these goons downplay COVID-19 related issues that might make people reluctant to go back. Also, it might suggest that in many cases, wages were too low.

    If Democrats are using the supplement as a stealth increase in the minimum wage, I applaud their efforts.

    and that the high 5 and 6 figure earners who are now furloughed or jobless should have saved better for this once in a century “rainy day”, and should be more grateful that they previously had those opportunities even though their lives have now blown up.

    I have known many people who have had to struggle hard to deal with job losses, the financial meltdowns, etc. Sometimes they have savings and investments, but this only means that they may have some buffer before things get too bad, not that they are immune to financial disaster.

    But there is a common misconception at play here. There are people at every income level who believe that those at some arbitrary income level are always, or should always be “set for life.”

    So, I know people who insist that sports stars and musicians must be set for life, totally ignoring how short these careers often are. And I know people who insist that anyone earning $1 million never has to work again.

    We don’t have a firmly set social class system in America, but we have a de facto aristocracy based on perceptions of wealth, and the American Dream is to become so rich that you never have to fear becoming poor again.

    The corollary to this is that people who are well off who ever have difficulty or financial problems must have somehow squandered their wealth and are betraying the American Dream.

  207. 207.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    THis is amazing, just flat out pandering to people who don’t know why all them elitists is giggling about Our President correctly pronouncing the word Thailand. Rare to see someone try to top Gretchen Carlson pretending to be shocked to learn that “czar” means king! in the Obama years.

    @DineshDSouza· 1h
    Trump is a cosmopolitan. He went to Wharton, he’s a billionaire, he’s traveled around the world. His critics are poorer, less educated, and many have not left their home states. No wonder he seems like such an alien to them. They view him with hostile incomprehension #Thighland

    he did slip up with the use of the word “cosmopolitan” though. The ones who have heard the word outside of a Ladies’ Nite at Nick’s Lanes and Lounge will think it’s an insult

  210. 210.

    Ruckus

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:

    Not enough server space/pipeline, what with a lot more people with nothing to do except sit at home and watch TV/computers.

    Pipeline might be a more likely reason, I get that server not found quite a bit as well, often of servers I know are still around. When everyone is trying to use the internet at once, there will be traffic jams.

  216. 216.

    Brachiator

    @Sloane Ranger:

    but it beggars belief that someone could be born in the US and live 70 plus years there without once hearing the correct pronunciation of Yosemite, let alone be President of said nation for almost 4 years without Thailand coming up at least once.

    I don’t know. It kinda reminds me of that famous New Yorker Magazine cover with Manhattan as the center of the world.

    I am continually surprised at how much “common knowledge” is not nearly as common as I think it should be, especially among some people who consider themselves to be worldly and well-educated.

  219. 219.

    Brachiator

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    @DineshDSouza· 1h
    Trump is a cosmopolitan. He went to Wharton, he’s a billionaire, he’s traveled around the world. His critics are poorer, less educated, and many have not left their home states. No wonder he seems like such an alien to them. They view him with hostile incomprehension

    Doesn’t this also describe Trump’s most devoted supporters?

    Dinesh is an odd duck.  He is even more stupid than David Brooks, and yet is still respected by right-wingers.

  221. 221.

    Brachiator

    @germy:

    Just watch Wolf Blitzer or Kevin O’Leary on Celebrity Jeopardy to see how little our elites know.

    Hell, I can watch Wolf Blitzer doing his job and see how little he knows!

  226. 226.

    Brachiator

    @Just One More Canuck:

    My wife works for Giant Ass Accounting Firm and they’ve been told that working from home will be the new normal post-Covid

    This creates its own set of problems.  You are Canadian, right? I do not know how things work there, but the recent Trump/GOP tax law changes here eliminated a lot of expenses that employees used to be able to deduct if they worked from home.

    Many people are working at home because of necessity, and also there may be kind of a sense that we are all in this together and must make sacrifices.

    But some people are finding that their personal costs, utilities, phone, Internet actually increase when they work from home. They also have to purchase work furniture, etc. Some tech companies are on top of this, and provide reimbursement, but most companies do not. And this is going to become a bigger issue.

    Companies may save on real estate costs. But they are pushing other expense onto employees who do remote work. And this is a problem waiting to blow up.

    And of course, most office workers don’t have unions to help push back and negotiate these issues.

    ETA: There is also a side issue of some companies insisting that their remote-working employees cannot devote time to helping kids who may be at home remote-learning. There are all kinds of nasty issues here of bosses extending control of employees into their homes and home life.

  227. 227.

    Brachiator

    @germy:

    But those impressive and explosive TV graphics around him! Surely they count for something?

    A futile attempt at distraction?

  230. 230.

    JAFD

    I once, decades ago, asked my relatives if we were starting Thanksgiving dinner with “horse doovers”.

     

    And later, was asked to help cover a young lady with chocolate syrup…

    But neglected to remove the syrup from refrigerator, and warm it up…

    When applied, young lady jumped a foot off the bed, and I had to remove it quickly and warm her up…

     

    The moral of this story, of course…

    is that you should always send your children to Sunday School

     

    … so they can learn how to be a sundae

  231. 231.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Ruckus: I finally figured it out. It really was restricted to my computer, not my wife’s, not our phones. The thought was nagging at me that it might have something to do with internet lookups… lookups… maybe DNS? How do I reset DNS? So I googled that, found out how to delete the DNS servers stored in my network preferences, and voila! Problem fixed.

    Which raises several questions:

    • why would these stored DNS servers go bad?
    • why only for Netflix, no other site?
    • what if I didn’t have just enough rudimentary knowledge of how TCP/IP and HTTP work to think of this, how the hell would your average user have stumbled on it?
  233. 233.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @JAFD: I once, decades ago, asked my relatives if we were starting Thanksgiving dinner with “horse doovers”.

    And later, was asked to help cover a young lady with chocolate syrup…

    Your Thanksgiving traditions are obviously a lot more interesting than the ones at my house.

  234. 234.

    rikyrah

    @gvg:

    I don’t feel sorry for the workers. I am sort of peeved that I had to do this. Since the Spring, we told the higher ups that this would happen. Honestly,  thought that it would be a month from now, but here it is. And, I am like, we told you. You didn’t believe us???

  235. 235.

    J R in WV

    @Sloane Ranger:

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: And don’t even start with town and city names.

    Horror of horrors, the Germans insist on calling the city of Munich, Munchen (with extra added umlauts), while those Italians aren’t much better. They call their capital city Roma and there’s this place in the south called Napoli. I wonder if it’s close to the city of Naples?

    In Italy the best example I am aware of is Florence, in Tuscany.

    AKA as Firenze in Italy, Florence is for English speakers. The British have been spending summers in Italy for so long the Italians have a whole set of place names just for the Brits.

  236. 236.

    Just One More Canuck

    @Brachiator: Sorry for taking so long to respond.  Yes, I’m Canadian – the government up here has gone out of their way to make sure that people know that they can deduct work-related home expenses, but they need to get a specific form issued by the company – that wont be a problem – it’s routine for GBA Accounting.

  237. 237.

    Ruckus

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:

    1. They are crap that like everything else human – can fail.
    2. That’s how Netflix was routed, the servers were saved that you used most.
    3. Who said they would stumble on it? There is a lot of information out there but it does no good if the user has zero idea of even close to the basics. It actually it always a balancing act to make human designed/mfg stuff to work, because they are humans, a species tired of waiting to fail, so they look for ways.
  238. 238.

    Brachiator

    @Just One More Canuck: 

    Yes, I’m Canadian – the government up here has gone out of their way to make sure that people know that they can deduct work-related home expenses, but they need to get a specific form issued by the company – that wont be a problem – it’s routine for GBA Accounting.

    This sounds reasonable. So far, I have not seen any US politician seeking to restore the deduction for employee business expense.

  239. 239.

    Captain C

    @germy: Some people in this country seem to have an unhealthy Butter Emails fetish, to the point of obsession.  We’re almost half a decade into them not being able to stop humping the subject incessantly.

  240. 240.

    ballerat

    If millions of people are evicted, that net effect is one of massive voter suppression. It is a lot harder to vote if you have no permanent address. And a PO box will not work for receiving a ballot.

    This is why McConnell and Trump are not interested in negotiating. They don’t want to do anything that will help. They wants millions of homeless people. Helping them means they lose.

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