Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

When do the post office & the dmv weigh in on the wuhan virus?

I didn’t have alien invasion on my 2023 BINGO card.

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

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

Take your GOP plan out of the witness protection program.

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

Accountability, motherfuckers.

Infrastructure week. at last.

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

I did not have this on my fuck 2022 bingo card.

You can’t love your country only when you win.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

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

This blog will pay for itself.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Saturday Afternoon Open Thread: That Seems…Like A Metaphor 

Saturday Afternoon Open Thread: That Seems…Like A Metaphor 

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Two different events…same metaphor.

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176Comments

  1. 1.

    SiubhanDuinne

    I’m sorry. It’s probably wrong of me, but this story has me laughing like a fool. Loved the comment downstairs that calls it “Dumbkirk.”

  3. 3.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    who will be the first Villager to scold twitter for laughing? Cillizza? Kristoff? Ruth Marcus?

  5. 5.

    prostratedragon

    Thanks, TaMara, this one needed a thread and the other open thread is dying. As noted there, some wicked genius has given it the hashtag #Dumbkirk.

     

    ETA: Wow, y’all are fast!

  8. 8.

    trollhattan

    Huh. I’m sure it seemed like a good idea at the time. The local morans are supposedly holding one on the local river this weekend. Sunday would be nice, it’s only predicted to be 111. Which makes me curious [BRB] Hoo doggies, Lake Havasu City, AZ: 117 degrees right now. That boat spontaneously combusted.

  16. 16.

    Mary G

    Quotes from the organizer in Texas:

    Chynow said the intention of the event is not to raise money, though people have made donations to fund some of the features of the parade. She added that the event is an example of people in the community coming together and expressing what they believe in.

    “My motivation, my true motivation for doing this is that I have a child, and I am fighting for her. This is my way of saying this is the future that I want for her to inherit,” Chynow said.”

    Sure, lady. Wait until the owners of the THREE boats that sank come after ya.
    The area of the lake she chose is apparently a difficult one to navigate. It’s totally a metaphor.

  17. 17.

    prostratedragon

    @dmsilev:  According to the emergency service people, it was generated in part by the very actions of the boaters. The times, they converge poetically.

  18. 18.

    RSA

    From the first article:

    Pacey Chynow, who began organizing a similar gathering for people in the area around June, said the Facebook page for the event has garnered more than 7,000 responses.

    “I never anticipated it becoming as big as it is. This is the silent majority and the people here speaking,” Chynow said.

    The silent majority: People with boats. Also, a silent majority generally doesn’t have flags everywhere and typically they’re not, you know, “here speaking.”

  21. 21.

    trollhattan

    Here’s yet more disturbing Trump admin shit, from his second-most dangerous cabinet member.

    US wildlife agency seeks to carve out areas from habitat protections

    By MATTHEW BROWN

    Associated Press

    BILLINGS, Mont. A Trump administration proposal released Friday would allow the government to deny habitat protections for endangered animals and plants in areas that would see greater economic benefits from being developed – a change critics said could open lands to more energy development and other activities.

    U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials described the proposal as giving more deference to local governments when they want to build things like schools and hospitals.

    But the proposal indicates that exemptions from habitat protections would be considered for a much broader array of developments, including at the request of private companies that lease federal lands or have permits to use them. Government-issued leases and permits can allow energy development, grazing, recreation, logging and other commercial uses of public lands.

    It’s the latest move by the Trump administration in a years-long effort to repeal regulations across government that has broadly changed how the Endangered Species Act gets used. Other steps under Trump to scale back species rules included lifting blanket protections for animals newly listed as threatened, setting cost estimates for saving species and a July proposal to restrict what areas fit under the definition of “habitat“.

    Wildlife advocates say the administration’s approach has elevated natural resource extraction and commercial development over the protection of sites that are home to dwindling populations of endangered species.

    Animals that could be affected by the latest change include the struggling lesser prairie chicken, a grasslands bird found in five states in the south-central U.S., and the rare dunes sagebrush lizard that lives among the oil fields of western Texas and eastern New Mexico, wildlife advocates said.

    Friday’s proposal and the habitat definition offered in July were triggered by a 2018 U.S. Supreme Court ruling involving a highly endangered Southern frog – the dusky gopher frog.

    In that case, a unanimous court faulted the government over how it designated “critical habitat“ for the 31/2-inch-long frogs that survive in just a few ponds in Mississippi. The ruling came after a timber company, Weyerhaeuser, had sued when land it owned in Louisiana was designated as critical.

    The new proposal would require federal officials to consider factors such as economic or employment losses when making habitat decisions. That includes decisions affecting federal land for which private companies have permits or leases, such as for drilling, grazing, logging or other development.

    In a parallel action, several western state governors are beseeching the feds to give them an equal place at the table making decisions on federal land use. There’s only one possible outcome of that scheme.

  28. 28.

    Lapassionara

    @Cheryl Rofer: Yes. Yes it is. A few weeks ago a proud Trump supporter praised a boat parade in Florida, saying it was like the Spanish Armada. So much winning!

  29. 29.

    germy

    Why all these mishaps with the boats?  Are these people drunk?

     

    EDIT:  We had one of these boat events in my neck of the woods.  One of the boats waved a confederate flag.

  31. 31.

    lamh36

    Alright…I HATE stairs. I just do…BUT I’m seeing a number of nice apartments with attached garages, but they are 2nd story apartments with the garage on the first floor. So now I’m having to decide if I want an attached garage MORE than I hate stairs. And I’m thinking I kinda do…especially if I think of the stairs as daily “excercise”. Which is something I def need to do more of…hmmm Besides, I’ve also decided if I’m gonna have to pay like $400 more for an apartment, then I want my nice kitchen and attached garage…so…

  32. 32.

    Ken

    @germy: Why all these mishaps with the boats? Are these people drunk?

    Are you suggesting recreational boating is possible without being drunk?

  34. 34.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    I was happy when CNN signed Christmas Cillizza cause I don’t watch CNN and it meant I wouldn’t have to hear his sniveling Broderism anymore on MSNBC

    CNN @CNN · 3h
    We’re left with this dilemma: Jeffrey Goldberg, who authored The Atlantic piece insists the story is true. President Trump insists the story is false. Both of those views can’t be right, writes Chris Cillizza

    They pay him money, I imagine quite a bit, to say things like that, out loud, on their air.

  36. 36.

    Ken

    @lamh36: Think of it this way, after a month or so you won’t even notice the stairs.  I have a second-floor apartment, and I don’t. In fact sometimes I do the whole thing on autopilot, only thinking “I must have walked up the stairs and walked the length of the hall” as I close my door.

  38. 38.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    so what do you think, are we twelve or twenty-four hours from: You saw those boats, beautiful boats. Some of them sank, tragically. Maybe it was the weather, maybe it was something else. We’ll have to look at it very strongly, but it might have been something terrible. We’ll have to see.

  39. 39.

    Ken

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: It’s almost as if one would have to investigate in order to report which story is right – as did the Washington Post, Fox News, and others.  But they don’t employ journalists of the same caliber as Cillizza.

  51. 51.

    germy

    Just a reminder that Trump officially threatened to veto this year’s defense bill because he wants actual losers in the Civil War to have bases and installations named after them.

    — Brian Schatz (@brianschatz) September 4, 2020

  53. 53.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @prostratedragon: According to the emergency service people, it was generated in part by the very actions of the boaters.

    That makes sense. The second picture looks dead calm, so the waves in the first one are probably wakes thrown by the kinds of assholes who like to make big wakes with their boats and swamp everybody else.

    Who are just the kind of asshole who would be in a Trump boat parade.

    Edit: As Kelly’s post at #37 confirms.

  54. 54.

    jonas

    @Sister Golden Bear: Guess they skipped the part of the history lesson about how Spanish Armada turned out.

    Kind of like Brad Parscale’s boast that his media operation was like the Death Star. What’s next, claiming your rally is so awesome, it’s gonna be like the real estate market in 2007?

  58. 58.

    germy

    @lamh36:I’m seeing a number of nice apartments with attached garages

    Someone once told me that attached garages are a bad idea because parked cars off-gas toxic fumes after they’ve been driven a few miles.  I don’t know if this is really a hazard or not, but it stuck in my mind all these years.

  62. 62.

    lamh36

    @Ken: my 2nd apartment in Texas was a 2nd floor townhouse.  And yeah, ur right, ya get used to it.

    A friend of mine was like “what about groceries” and I was like oh yeah…I’ll def be losing weight then…LOL.

    But most of the apartments do have 2nd floor front door entry, so if I had to I’d have grocery delivery

  64. 64.

    dmsilev

    Speaking of things that are sinking, how is it that we’re almost a week into September and Trump’s campaign has yet to announce their August fundraising totals? Surely, after the triumph of their convention and after so many boat parades, they must have a money haul worth boasting about?

    In related and I’m sure completely coincidental news, the Trump campaign has, no fooling, announced that will not be buying any TV ads in Arizona until October.

  67. 67.

    lamh36

    @Chetan Murthy: I’m trying to steer clear of flood zones, but my job is in Westchase area, and I’d like to stay close to work.  I hate traffic and I like being close to work.  I’m talking 30min in traffic.

  68. 68.

    Geminid

    @lamh36: Stairs are good exercise, but algae will make wooden stairs slick when wet, especially on a shady side. So if the landlord won’t  keep them clean you had better. Lowes has relatively inexpensive electric power washers. They’re a lot of fun, at least for the first ten minutes. A long handled brush and comet cleaning powder also work.           I hope Houston is a good home for you.

  69. 69.

    lamh36

    @germy: My last apartment in Texas was a 1 level 1 bdrm w/attached garage where I lived for almost 3 years…never had an issue like that.

    But I’ll keep that in mind

  71. 71.

    mrmoshpotato

    Pro-Trump boats take on water during Lake Travis parade

    That looks like some sinking Trump trash, Austin Statesman.  Get your shit together, headline writers.

    Also, why do these dumb motherfuckers not care about wind resistance?  Look at all of the flags – even up high – on that boat!  I have a bunch of money, to hell with knowing how to pilot a boat!

  73. 73.

    Barbara

    @dmsilev:  I saw the mention of ad buys in Arizona, and they maintained that they are targeting states based on when early voting begins, but that doesn’t explain why you would leave altogether. I assume that this does not affect digital or mail based advertising. For reasons I can’t fathom, I am being targeted hard by the Trump campaign this year. I don’t consider myself to be a good judge, but the sum total of the message I am receiving electronically and by mail seems to be that “Joe Biden’s body has been possessed by radical demons,” which I find to be kind of clownish.

  74. 74.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Robert Costa @costareports Sep 4
    Lou Holtz will be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom days after attacking Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s faith. Holtz called Biden a “Catholic in name only” during the RNC.

  79. 79.

    Barbara

    @lamh36: Most building codes require a tight fit between the garage door and the living space for that reason.  Hence, I had to get a new door made for the entry from the garage to the basement of my mother’s house before I could sell it, because her house had settled and the door was no longer true enough.

    I have two sets of stairs in my house so I run up and down stairs all day, but I would rather get exercise some other way.  I haven’t had an attached garage since I moved out of my parents’ house more than 40 years ago.  I guess I have the worst of all possible worlds! Which is a joke, but I think I would rather have a garage and steps than no steps and no garage.

  80. 80.

    Steeplejack

    Excellent thread on “dignified transfer”:

    The straight line distance between Washington, D.C., and Dover, Delaware, is less than 85 miles. It takes a helicopter about 40-45 minutes to make the trip. I was 19 years old, and it was my first time riding a helicopter. I barely remember any of it. I was distracted. (thread)

    — Charlotte Clymer ?️‍? (@cmclymer) September 5, 2020

  81. 81.

    SiubhanDuinne

    The boy stood on the burning deck
    Whence all but him had fled;
    The flame that lit the battle’s wreck
    Shone round him o’er the dead.

    The opening quatrain of Casabianca. I don’t have to translate that, do I?

  84. 84.

    lamh36

    @Geminid: I haven’t toured the places yet, plan on doing that next weekend, but I hope the garage stairs are cement since the apts I’m looking for are mostly newer constrution.

    If they are not, I’m def NOT gonna pay extra for the wooden bit.

  88. 88.

    Barbara

    @lamh36: It would be hard for me to believe that they would use wood in a high humidity climate like Houston.   Wood is now treated to avoid termite and rotting to some extent, but every garden apartment I ever lived in even further north had concrete stairs.  It’s also better for meeting fire codes.

  93. 93.

    geg6

    @germy:

    I’ve seen whispers that is exactly the case.  Not anything concrete, but it makes sense.  I read somewhere that Cheetolini and Adelson has a huge argument over something that I’m forgetting right now.  And I read that the Mercers were telling people they were sitting this one out months and months ago.  Again, no evidence but it makes sense.  Plus FSM knows how much Parscale and others have illicitly pocketed.

  96. 96.

    Ruckus

    Come on people, they were just throwing a water parade in the sort of fashion their leader would have done, if he wasn’t actually scared of water.

    It had all the elements – they threw boating sense to the winds and showed how manly they think they are and how that would make them immune to the laws of nature, some of them overloaded their boats, had no idea or care of what the water would do with an armada of stupid.

    Dumbkirk indeed.

  97. 97.

    JoyceH

    I just saw a Biden ad that really spoke to me! Started something like. “Remember when you didn’t have to think about the president every day?”  I can’t remember how many times I’ve said that!

  98. 98.

    J R in WV

    @lamh36: 

    …2nd story apartments with the garage on the first floor.

    Cars in garages often spontaneously catch fire, with grusome results for the upstairs apartment. DON’T DO THAT!!

    Plus, stairs are really dangerous if you have any slight injury in your legs, ankles, feet, even arms if you need to ever carry stuff like groceries up those steps.

    We have steps, terrible, wife has nearly fallen several times even with me helping her. Falling on steps can be fatal…

  99. 99.

    Frank Wilhoit

    @Cheryl Rofer: Where is Lindsay writing, these days?  Years ago she had a regular gig — so long ago that I don’t remember where! — and was one of my favorite writers.  Then it seemed like she disappeared completely for a good while.  We do not have a large net surplus of people whose heart is in the right place and who can sling a sentence.

  100. 100.

    JoyceH

    A month ago I spent a couple weeks in Northern Virginia clearing out my sister’s two story townhouse. I was so glad to get back to my one story ranch! If you do get used to stairs, it takes longer than two weeks.

  101. 101.

    JaySinWA

    @Barbara:

    the sum total of the message I am receiving electronically and by mail seems to be that “Joe Biden’s body has been possessed by radical demons,” which I find to be kind of clownish.

    They are working on the repetition creates belief thing.

  104. 104.

    Ken

    @JaySinWA: But how about boaters that sink other boaters?

    The Bully Principle (“Kick down, Kiss-ass up”) says to grovel before praise them, lest they do the same to you.

  106. 106.

    frosty

    @Barbara: I haven’t lived in a house with an attached garage since I moved out if my parents’ place in 1969. Every one I’ve owned was built before WW2.

    ETA: it makes me feel a bit out of step with America.

  108. 108.

    Frank Wilhoit

    @Barbara: It shows you exactly which voters they are worried about losing.  They’re not wasting any more $ than they can help on people whom they think (A) they have in the bag or (B) are unreachable.  They’ll do a little bit of perfunctory spending in places where the state Party begs them to.

  109. 109.

    Ruckus

    @eclare:

    I agree fully. There are jobs no one wants to do in the military and jobs that seem to be not too bad. I can’t imagine anyone wanting to do that job, but I can imagine most not complaining at all when assigned. It’s such a necessary job, how good would it be if it had to be done far less often?

  113. 113.

    LuciaMia

    I am probably a bad person for laughing, never mind ha ha ha a ha.

    Seems like nobody was hurt so, yeah, Im chuckling. Just a little damage to some over-priced toys owned by people with more money than sense.

  114. 114.

    Geminid

    @lamh36: Yeah, you’ll be able to get an apartment with steel and concrete stairs. I was extrapolating from friends here in Virginia with wooden decks and wooden stairs. They pretty much have to clean them twice a year, or walk very carefully when its wet.                           Still, whatever you find I hope it’s a happy place for you.

  118. 118.

    Kristine

    @germy @lamh36:

    A long ago coworker once left their car running in their apartment garage–somehow they got the key out, and didn’t realize the car was still running. Their roommate and her boyfriend were in the bedroom over the garage–he died, and roommate spent some time in the hospital.

  121. 121.

    J R in WV

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    September 5, 2020 at 6:43 pm

    @J R in WV:

    Cars in garages often spontaneously catch fire

    “often” is working overtime here.

    Once is more than enough if it’s your garage.

    Close friend wound up at his ex-wife’s with his current wife at 3 or 4 am in the winter with nothing but the blankets they scurried out of their burning house with.

    No one hurt badly, but OMG~!~

    ETA: Google tells me “According to the U.S. Fire Administration, each year there are approximately 6,600 garage fires in the United States. ” Often sticks for me! Architect wanted to draw a garage under our house, I said no way.

  122. 122.

    JoyceH

    lambh36, I don’t know how old you are, but consider that stairs are fine so long as you are fit AND uninjured. My sister’s townhouse had bedrooms and full bath upstairs, living and kitchen and half bath downstairs. She lived there 25 years and was fine with the stairs – until she had surgery and spent weeks living downstairs, sleeping in a recliner and bathing in the kitchen sink. When I inherited the townhouse, my other sister suggested I might want to sell my house in the country and move to the townhouse, closer to shopping, restaurants and other attractions. I was all, uh… no.

  123. 123.

    Barbara

    @Frank Wilhoit: I used to read her blog, the name of which I cannot remember.  But I do remember that it was through her blog that I first saw pictures of the devastating flooding in New Orleans, on Tuesday, August 30, 2005, one day after the estimated due date for the birth of my third child.

  124. 124.

    Cheryl Rofer

    @Frank Wilhoit: I love Lindsay. She writes occasionally for a few publications, occasionally enough that I don’t recall what they are.

    She is active on Twitter, and she and I go back and forth on some topics, mostly the pandemic lately. She is also a great fan of bears and has been posting about the great Alaska bear fat-off, in which people vote for the fattest bear getting ready for hibernation by gorging on salmon.

    ETA: Here’s her Twitter page, with some links.

  126. 126.

    Balconesfault

    @trollhattan: for what it’s worth, I live in an area where decades ago the Interior Department worked out a protected area with Travis county and the City of Austin for the golden-cheeked warbler. (Tie in, this area comes right up to the edge of Lake Travis where all the hullabaloo is going on).   instead of people who want to build having to negotiate individual parcel by parcel permits with Fish and Wildlife, a large area was desegregated as refuge and paid for via bonds, with lots in designated habitat outside of the refuge charged a fee that was used to pay off the bonding.

    It’s been a win-win, although I suspect with Trump’s imprint on it whatever Fish does right now will only have a win for one side.

  128. 128.

    RaflW

    BF & I moved into a townhouse about 15 months ago. The garage is below the living room. But there’s solid drywall, a very pushy hydraulic door closer for the person-door from the garage into the foyer, and a gasket seal on said door. I have never worried for a second about CO poisoning. Or fire.

    I suppose it helps that we have multiple fire and CO alarms around the unit. We also bring all the groceries up one floor.

    With high ceilings, it’s 31 steps from the entry (also laundry level) to the bedroom. My doctor was impressed last Oct that I’d lost 12 or so lbs from the previous year. I chalk most of that up to the forced exercise! (The stair climbing started before the move, as we did the remodel from hades first)

  129. 129.

    JaySinWA

    @Barbara: Electrical fires are a thing, and lithium batteries are highly flammable. That said, I haven’t read about an electrical car fire. But I am sure they will happen eventually. A lithium battery fire brought down an airliner, causing shipping restrictions on lithium battery powered devices and batteries.

  131. 131.

    Sebastian

    @Barbara:

     

    Electric vehicles catch fire too. If I remember correctly at the same rate as ICE  cars. However, electric car fires are really bad.

  132. 132.

    JaySinWA

    The irony is that the people that caused the wake sinking the ships are least likely to suffer the damages. With any luck they will be held accountable.

  133. 133.

    Chris Johnson

    @germy:

    Why all these mishaps with the boats?  Are these people drunk?

    I’ve been telling folks this for some time, and I mean it: the only way to keep the Trump people doubling down is to make them crazy. And it’s easy to see that. That’s part of what makes them scary, is they’re obviously crazy.

    BUT.

    You can’t effectively fight, or organize, or hold a boat parade (or govern, or run a business, or rescue people from a disaster) if you’re so crazy you’re not within shouting distance of reality anymore.

    They’re all becoming QAnons. It’s scary, but… but… BUT. You can’t function if you’re that twisted. These people can’t go out on their own damn boats into a lake without fucking that up and taking really heavy damages from their own fuckups.

    They’ll be doing things like forgetting to dog down hatches because they’re thinking about Hillary drinking child blood etc etc etc. They are just about at the point of walking into walls. The only people they trust anymore have them absolutely hysterical and out of control. They will be crashing cars more often, their boats are sinking (good competent boatmanship would likely have avoided these sinkings, but these people are really out there and they’re not keeping track of the real world around them). They are easy prey to coronavirus, to being preyed upon by scammers, they’re really in sad shape.

    That’s your Trump boat parade.

    Our enemies, and they are our enemies, ain’t much of a navy. They fall over BEFORE we hit them.

  134. 134.

    James E Powell

    @RaflW:

    Boatloads of black clad Antifa pirates. They’d just gotten off a 737 from Portland!

    With their special mortars that launch cans of soup.

  135. 135.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @JaySinWA: They are working on the repetition creates belief thing.

    File it under “every accusation a confession.” Uncle Joe is not the major-party candidate “possessed by radical demons.”

  137. 137.

    Another Scott

    @germy: Brad took all the money and changed all the admin passwords before he left.

    Hey, it’s irresponsible not to speculate, amirite??

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  139. 139.

    Chris Johnson

    @GregMulka:

    This takes, “Water is the metaphor,” to a whole new level.

    Ha! Lindsay Ellis fan! That was a good video. Juicers, if you’ve never heard of Lindsay Ellis you’ve got some nice viewing in store. Have a look for her intense video on the ‘Rent’ movie. And her series on the Hobbit movies is a hell of a powerful story and emphasizes some of the points us Dems like to make about money and power.

  140. 140.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Ruckus: Oh hm.  My understanding was that for certain such jobs (like honor guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier) only the most accomplished soldiers were chosen.   But I’m not a military guy, so I could be 100% wrong.  So not saying your wrong.  Just …. well, I could imagine that in fact commanding officers would want to send only their best soldiers to such an assignment.

  141. 141.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @J R in WV: Getting struck by lightning is bad if it happens to you.  The 6k number could be from any number of causes, a car going explodey is extremely rare.  The most likely cause of garage fires is flammable materials that are not properly stored.

  142. 142.

    sdhays

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I think it’s time for Congress to intervene next year and revoke all of Dump’s awards of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Or end it and invalidate all of them and reissue a new award for everyone who wasn’t given the PMF by Dump.

  143. 143.

    Kent

    @Barbara:  Wood is generally allowed in construction up to about 5 stories. Above that whole different other codes kick in and you are talking all steel and concrete and much higher construction costs. Also lots of laborers and builders know how to swing hammers (nail guns) in wood construction but commercial steel beam and concrete construction used in taller buildings is a higher level of skill and expertise and not as many contractors do it. That’s why you see so many apartment complexes in cities that end at about 5 stories high

    Here is an interesting blog on the topic https://granolashotgun.com/2020/01/14/американская-хрущевка/

  146. 146.

    smedley the uncertain

    @Cheryl Rofer: Judging from the tempest, it’s a result of incompetent boaters creating crossing wakes. Other weekend boaters don’t know how to navigate crossing wakes and get nailed broadside. COLREGS have no meaning with this crowd.

  147. 147.

    Steeplejack

    This has been a good week. The jackaltariat did a good thing for Mayhew’s niece Claire, Trump took a huge hit for his anti-military bullshit, and #Dumbkirk is the (injury-free) cherry on top of the slapstick pie. It feels good after so many weeks of ranting about Trump but feeling like we’re just talking among ourselves. Reality is showing its leftward tilt—finally!

    I picked up my Trader Joe’s friend at work at 4:00, and we got pizza to go from the Lost Dog Café on the way home. It really hit the spot, and now I’m nursing a second Hardywood Pils in the aftermath. The weather was great today. Barely broke 80° here in NoVA, and it’s supposed to be only 85° tomorrow. Low humidity (for here—40-50%), which helps a lot.

    I stopped driving my friend to work a week ago, as the East Falls Church Metro station reopened, but I suggested that I pick her up today because we had gotten into the habit of getting (separate) takeout on Saturdays and also because it felt like a good way to taper off from 5½ months of driving almost every day. Probably will continue to do that for a while.

    I feel so energized that I might go out to Micro Center tomorrow to get a new mouse. My Logitech M510, which I love, has been double-clicking more and more often, and I haven’t been able to figure out a way to clean it, if that’s even the problem.

    Oh, almost forgot: the Tour de France is back! I haven’t remembered to tune in every morning, because it’s “out of season,” but I love the scenery and the dulcet tones of Phil Liggett, one of the great announcers in any sport. I’m not a big cycling fan, but that’s optional. It’s on NBC Sports at 7:00 a.m. EDT every morning (but 7:30 tomorrow). Chintzy 90-minute recap at 1:00 p.m. on regular NBC tomorrow, if you just want a taste. Tomorrow is Stage 9, Pau to Laruns in the Pyrenees. It has been very scenic so far.

  150. 150.

    smedley the uncertain

    @germy: Yes.  By definition, boaters, gaggle,  weekend, equals Booze…  yes, I’m a sailor but I avoid gaggles/raft ups.  BTW, corona is riding the raft ups around here.

  153. 153.

    Frank Wilhoit

    @Chris Johnson:  I have been waiting for the right-wing hysteria machine to come out against stopping for red lights or stop signs. Clearly they are one of the most obnoxious (because ubiquitous) forms of nanny-state tyranny. If you’re in a big enough truck, you won’t get hurt much, and if you’re not, you’re a loser and you had it coming. Everyone gave up on speed limits long since….

  154. 154.

    Ken

    @Frank Wilhoit:  Or the “indecent exposure” laws, since masks are such an imposition.  I guess we’ve had at least one example of that, with the naked Portland woman.

  156. 156.

    Jager

    @Sebastian:

    Hey Brent, learn to handle your boat in all conditions, I’ve been out in 55-knot winds and the boat didn’t ship a cup of water for chrissakes. Oh, one more thing Brent, we were over 100 miles offshore. Get your shit together. Thanks.

  157. 157.

    Miss Bianca

    @lamh36: Stairs are a great conditioner. Just sayin’.

    My pal D calculated the other day that if we walk up the driveway to the Mountain Hacienda from the road, we are climbing the equivalent of a 40-story building! No wonder I feel so bushed afterwards!//

  160. 160.

    Ruckus

    @Chetan Murthy:

    I imagine they do.

    But.

    At least in my time most jobs were either whoever was closest and at the appropriate rank or who was the biggest screw up to get the shit jobs. Now some jobs were bad no matter who had to do them, like burning the waste tubs from the shitters in Vietnam.

    This job is a necessary job, has to be done right and yet while I can not imagine anyone asking for it, I can’t imagine very many that I served with that wouldn’t have done the job in the same manner as Charlotte Clymer wrote about doing. Most of us knew that while you weren’t likely to be killed, that could change for most of us at any time. On my ship we had a fellow who broke his leg, very badly, just going down stairs to get supplies. The seas were rough and the boat came up rapidly just as he stepped down. A bad compound double fracture a long way from a hospital, a long way from any doctor, he had to be transferred by litter basket from ship to ship and helicoptered to land and a hospital. We had two minor electrical fires aboard, in the middle of the ocean, in the middle of the night, what if they turned out different? At one point I was one of only 2 people outside during gunnery practice with the 5in guns. I was the rear gun misfire damage control person. A charged fire hose with an 8ft angle nozzle and an OBA and my job was to cool the barrel inside and out to insure that the gun didn’t blow up if there was a misfire. If it did blow up….. That’s one person’s experience. And a lot of people were constantly in far more danger than me. Some in far less. It is what it is, you take the bad with the good because that’s all there is at that moment.

  162. 162.

    Steeplejack

    @Jager:

    Uh, you realize Brent Terhune is a comedian, right? I hope you didn’t take that clip seriously.

    But he is very good at deadpan MAGA humor.

  163. 163.

    Origuy

    I posted this in the last thread, but it’s moribund and this thread is still going.

    It was just the old boats and most of them had preexisting conditions.— Melissa (@mykidsatemyhw) September 5, 2020

  165. 165.

    Aziz, light!

    @Jager: Parady fail, dude. Terhune is a Trump-hating comic who impersonates a pickup-driving MAGA nitwit. He’s so convincing that he fools both Trumpies and libs.

  167. 167.

    Chris T.

    @germy: Someone once told me that attached garages are a bad idea because parked cars off-gas toxic fumes after they’ve been driven a few miles.

    It’s not so much that, as garages in general may contain harmful stuff: antifreeze, paint thinner, and so on.  There is some risk of benzene or similar fumes escaping from a car’s fuel tank, of course … and then there’s the big one: carbon monoxide, which is in a running car’s exhaust.  CO binds to hemoglobin really well and you don’t want that.

    Code sometimes requires (or used to? http://www.inspectionnews.net/home_inspection/general-chit-chat-home-inspectors-and-commercial-inspectors/13739-attached-garage-floor-level.html) that the garage floor be somewhat lower than the living-area floor.  All of my houses have had a step up from garage to house.

    Interestingly, the density of CO (carbon monoxide) in otherwise-bog-standard air is such that at cold temperatures, the CO settles out at the floor, but at 20˚C (68F) it rises to the ceiling.

  170. 170.

    Chris T.

    @JaySinWA: That said, I haven’t read about an electrical car fire.

    They have definitely happened.  I had a hybrid that had a reputation for that problem (though what was wrong, actually, was a cooling fan), and at least one Tesla has had that happen.

    Electrical fires in general are tricky.  That said, while gasoline itself isn’t as flammable or explosive as (say) hydrogen, gasoline and fires is a pretty bad mix too.

  171. 171.

    Chris T.

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: The most likely cause of garage fires is flammable materials that are not properly stored.

    It turns out that linseed oil on cotton, stored in a container, is … well: the linseed oil oxidizes in an exothermic reaction (i.e., produces heat). When the temperature goes up, the oxidation rate increases, which causes still more heat, collecting inside the container where the oily rags are stored. Within a day or three, the temperature rises above the ignition point for the cotton, and now you have flaming oily rags.

    Other oils apparently can do this, but linseed is the #1 source.

  172. 172.

    MoxieM

    @Sebastian: Please tell me that was satire. “If they can’t make me wear a mask they damn sure can’t make me wear a lifejacket” (more or less). Really Really ??

    Now that I’ve moved to CT, I notice there is no motorcycle helmet law. Donorcycles. Eejits.

  174. 174.

    Sebastian

    @MoxieM:

    Yes, satire. Brent Terhune is a comedian who is amazing at parodying rednecks.

    He did a QAnon video recently where I had to do a double take, too. Check it out:

    A message from QAnon

    The duct tape on the garage door is next level

  176. 176.

    J R in WV

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    September 5, 2020 at 7:23 pm

    @J R in WV: Getting struck by lightning is bad if it happens to you.  The 6k number could be from any number of causes, a car going explodey is extremely rare.  The most likely cause of garage fires is flammable materials that are not properly stored.

    I don’t know why you are obsessed with denial here, but the 6,600 number is for cars igniting spontaneously inside a garage unattended. Not for a washer/dryer going up out there, or a runaway BBQ. THE CAR. They catch fire while turned off just sitting there.

    Including E cars, see the Porsche electric mentioned and linked to up above.

    My cousin’s house burned last October, all quiet at 1:30 am, his dog woke him up and saved his life. He got out with the clothes by his bed and his dog and his cell phone. The fire started in the laundry room, where his battery chargers lived, but the fire marshal couldn’t tell what caused it, too well burned. A total loss.

    So we have done the homework on house fires. I was trained as a fire fighter for weeks in the Navy a very long time ago, so I pay attention. Wake up Bil!

    Only good luck was that his huge collection of family photos from grandma’s home was at my house where I was and still am scanning them for posterity.

    ETA: the burn rate for cars outside garages is 178,000! Each year!!!

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