Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

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

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

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

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

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

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

The willow is too close to the house.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

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

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

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

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

The republican caucus is already covering themselves with something, and it’s not glory.

If you are still in the GOP, you are an extremist.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Open Thread: Grateful and Relieved

Open Thread: Grateful and Relieved

by | 103 Comments

This post is in: 

I am so grateful today for the verdict that came in yesterday.  Just so relieved.

I listened this afternoon to parts of a hearing in the Senate – from a day or two ago – because I wanted to hear what Stacey Abrams had to say.  What a bunch of Republican douches, all trying to play the gotcha game with Stacey, and it seemed like Tom Cotton in particular wanted to tear her down related to the 2022 governor’s election in Georgia.

Grateful also for Stacey Abrams and the for the quality of our senators.   Very impressed as usual with Rev. Warnock and Jon Ossoff.

I’m also grateful for the steady voices on the blog who speak their truth.  You know who you are!

Anyone else feeling grateful?   About anything?

Reader Interactions

103Comments

  2. 2.

    Sure Lurkalot

    My spouse had stomach issues after the first Moderna that didn’t quite resolve. He scheduled a battery of tests even as the symptoms eased. All is fine! Grateful.

  3. 3.

    MagdaInBlack

    I’ve been watching a few clips of that hearing. She was magnificent ❤️

    Eta: I’m getting my first shot tomorrow at 10:30. I snagged an appointment at a Walgreens less than a mile from work. 2nd dose May 20 ? Grateful

  4. 4.

    frosty

    Grateful that I could get vaccinations #1 and #2 in two different states I don’t live in while on the road. Also for vaccinefinder.org which found appointments for us and for my son back home.

    Other stuff, too.

  5. 5.

    guachi

    I’m grateful that the US Military got me fully vaccinated two months ago. First shot was one minute after Biden became President and the second was four weeks later.

    It’s definitely a relief.

  6. 6.

    zhena gogolia

    Grateful for Joe and Kamala.

    Grateful for my Pfizer and my husband’s J&J.

    Grateful for my husband.

    Grateful for the verdict yesterday.

    Grateful that Cycle Savages, a Bruce Dern masterpiece, is on Prime so I can reconnect with a memory of teenage drive-in movie hilarity. I think Bruce improvised his entire role.

    ETA: Didn’t mean to trivialize the verdict by putting it in this position. I have been following the trial with fear and trembling.

  7. 7.

    oldster

    So, so grateful that Biden won. Every day of his presidency has been a ten-fold improvement over how it would have been otherwise. A hundred-fold improvement. Thank you, all of you who worked to make that happen.

    So grateful that Sens Warnock and Ossoff won. Again: thank you to those who raised money, beat the drums, pounded the pavements.

    Grateful for the vaccines.

  8. 8.

    Elizabelle

    Very grateful for the triple-guilty verdict yesterday; an outcome that could never be taken for granted.  And find myself a bit sad today.  It’s done; court procedure turned out as well as could have been expected, and George Floyd can still never come back; can never see his young daughter.   Ah well.  A lot of work ahead of us.

    We had some wonderful high winds to listen to this afternoon.  Always enjoy that.

  9. 9.

    frosty

    Grateful that I could get vaccinations #1 and #2 in two different states I don’t live in while on the road. Also for vaccinefinder.org which found appointments for us and for my son back home.

    ETA: I don’t mean to hijack this for more vaccine stories. I’m grateful for other stuff, too. Carry on.

  10. 10.

    dmsilev

    Grateful to vaccines that made it safe for me to see my parents and other family for the first time in over a year. We did a Thanksgiving dinner; I spent three or four hours Sunday making this cake. Seriously good, but definitely a special-occasion endeavor.

    Also amused as hell at my mom’s travails in trying to source a whole fresh turkey ‘out of season’ as it were. She found one, eventually, by talking to the butcher at the local Wegmans.

  11. 11.

    Elizabelle

    Grateful every day for President Joe Biden and VP Harris and Nancy Smash Pelosi, and a return to sanity.

    Grateful for a beautiful spring.  For being at the beginning (or even further) of the end of rampant COVID in the United States. Albeit, not worldwide.  Grateful for the slow reawakening that is upon us.

    We have wonderful redbuds and azaleas and tulips.  Short-lived and so lovely to see when they are out.

  14. 14.

    WaterGirl

    We had snow and a freeze yesterday and last night, and we have another freeze tonight.

    I was thrilled when I looked out the windows this morning and found that all my tulips and even my peonies (that are coming up) looked fine.  It was warm-adjacent today, but getting down to 30 tonight, which is warmer than last night.  Hoping everything still looks good again tomorrow.

  15. 15.

    dmsilev

    @WaterGirl: Icing was a bit too sweet for my tastes, but otherwise a really tasty and very impressive-looking cake. And yes, being there and making it was therapeutic.

    Other bit of baking was teaching my niece and nephew (age 9) how to bake bagels. That was fun.

  16. 16.

    Subsole

    Grateful for my first shot, grateful for the Chauvin verdict, grateful the semester is almost done.

    Been a good week so far.

  17. 17.

    debbie

    I embedded a tweet in the last thread about Stacy being nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. That ought to warm your heart.

  18. 18.

    James E Powell

    I am so grateful today for the verdict that came in yesterday.  Just so relieved.

    Same here. Same all over.

  19. 19.

    Old Dan and Little Ann

    My folks got shot #2 today. My universe turns 6 tomorrow.  Super grateful.

  22. 22.

    WaterGirl

    As I sit here, Miss Willow stopped by to say hello, and then Mr. Bear. Tucker is sleeping in his new big, round, dog bed, and Henry is sleeping on the couch next to Mr. Bear.

    I am so grateful for all of them; I don’t know how I would have made it through this year without them.

  24. 24.

    RSA

    I’m grateful to have gotten my second shot over the weekend, with side effects limited to fatigue. Now to catch up on a haircut, doctor and dentist visits, and seeing my family again.

  25. 25.

    Gin & Tonic

    I am grateful that as of Monday, everybody living in this house has had Pfizer #1 and #2. My daughter and SIL have already gotten #1 through the VA, #2 is next week.

  26. 26.

    Yet Another Haldane

    Grateful and relieved by the Chauvin verdict, yesyesyes.

    I live a ten-minute walk from Hennepin County Government Center.  Yesterday, after the verdict, three Guard Humvees and an LMTV personnel carrier were parked on the street outside.  Later in the evening, a column of alternating State Patrol cruisers and National Guard Humvees drove by toward downtown.  They were ready to crack down fast and hard, but did not get the chance.

    As Keith Ellison and others have said, the verdict was necessary, but not justice.  Yesterday we (judge, jury, and all of us) failed to make a terrible mistake.  Good!  We avoided an error that we’ve made so very many times before, and for that I’m grateful.

    After the verdict, guy with a bullhorn outside Government Center led the crowd chanting, “It’s not over yet.”  I’m grateful for him.

    I’m grateful for the ladies walking through the crowd offering cookies.  I cried then, with gratitude, and I’m crying now.  Cookies!

  27. 27.

    raven

    I’m grateful that after 14 months of physical therapy for my mysterious motor issues I have a preliminary diagnoses (based on a second lumbar MRI) that I have a “tethered spinal cord). I see a neurosurgeon in a couple of weeks to see what can be done. I’m pretty sure I won’t have surgery while Bohdi is still with us because I have to be able to carry him but at least there is some hope.

  28. 28.

    CaseyL

    I am grateful every day for President Biden, VP Harris, and a Democratic Congress.

    I’m also, like nearly everyone else, grateful for and relieved by Chauvin’s multiple convictions.

    I’m grateful for my job, working for a terrific organization, with terrific people, and the chance to WFH for lo these many months (and still ongoing!).

    I’m grateful for my kitties, who have been my primary (and often sole) social outlet, also for lo these many months.  I’m not sure how much they enjoyed hearing reviews and analyses of the books I’ve read and movies I’ve streamed, but I certainly enjoyed giving those little talks.

    Very grateful for Spring! … and the chance to go see turtles sunning themselves at a local park.

  30. 30.

    Gin & Tonic

    @WaterGirl: Some years back, dear wife and I went to a fairly fancy Boston restaurant through some promotion she got. We were seated at a “chef’s counter” – but there was only a partial view of the kitchen through a sort of porthole. I remember the waitress describing one dessert as something-or-other “with chocolate ganache.” Minutes later I watched through that quasi-window as somebody was plating that very dessert and reached for the universally-recognizable plastic Hershey’s syrup bottle.

  31. 31.

    WaterGirl

    @CaseyL:

    I’m not sure how much they enjoyed hearing reviews and analyses of the books I’ve read and movies I’ve streamed, but I certainly enjoyed giving those little talks.

    That made me laugh.  And you have a job!  That you like!  Yay.

  32. 32.

    Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)

    As already said by others, grateful (and in my case, surprised) by the verdicts. Surprised that all three counts were adjudicated – wasn’t aware that was an option. I didn’t – couldn’t – watch the trial. I only saw Mr. Floyd’s death on video once; I found it more than sufficient.

    Mostly, I’m grateful that the word has been given that this is a beginning, not an end. There are more dead brothers and sisters whose murderers need to be held to account. January 6 seditionists and insurrectionists who need to face justice. Aiders and abetters in the Congress who need to be expelled and prosecuted.

    In short, more work to do. Make it so.

  33. 33.

    Villago Delenda Est

    I still want to know what happened with Cotton in Iraq: specifically, how a guy who screams “Asshole LT” made it back from there not in a body bag.

  34. 34.

    WaterGirl

    @Gin & Tonic: That’s just wrong.  So very wrong.

    Have I ever told you guys the story of going to a Steak ‘n Shake late at night on a vacation trip with an 8-year-old?

    While we were waiting to be seated, the waitress opened a mini-fridge, took out a bowl of big, fat, wormy looking spaghetti noodles, put some on a plate, squirted those babies with some red sauce from one of those squirt red ketchup bottles (the mustard bottles are yellow) and popped that baby into the microwave.  Ugh.

    In keeping with the “gratitude” theme of the thread, let me just say that I was so grateful that I now knew to NEVER order spaghetti at a place like that.

  36. 36.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant): Much more work.  Accountability must be universal, and every cop needs to be held to high professional standards.  If they can’t handle that, go to a more appropriate job, like asking people if they want fries with that.

  38. 38.

    Mingobat (f/k/a Karen in GA)

    I did photography for the grand opening of a thrift boutique in Athens on Saturday.  Proceeds from the sales at the boutique go to an organization that helps survivors of sex trafficking and substance abuse.  It’s always a relief to shoot an event, get home, load the images into Lightroom and find that they don’t suck — but it’s particularly gratifying when it’s a charity shoot for a good cause and you’re confident the organizer will be happy with what you give them.

    So it’s been a good couple of days. I’m grateful to be able to contribute in some small way to their grand opening, and I’m grateful to be shooting again after putting down my camera for the past year.

  40. 40.

    artem1s

    grateful for the April snow this morning and the reminder that spring and relief from COVID and justice are elusive and maybe just a bit out of reach but on their way.

    grateful for my job as much as it is stressing me out right now. I have requested the universe give me relief on that front and am keeping a hopeful heart

    grateful for Stacey and all the others who are in the right place at the right time to speak the truth and make righteous trouble

  41. 41.

    Gin & Tonic

    @schrodingers_cat: Navalny will likely die. Not enough Russians care enough to do enough about it. They’ve made their deal.

    No GC, not even an interview appointment. Son just spent three weeks in CDMX, so at least they’ve had some time together, but this is heart-rendingly slow.

  42. 42.

    Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)

    @Villago Delenda Est: ABSOLUTELY THIS!

    Mama Cisco opined that once it becomes clear that the policing model will exclude extrajudicial killings of black and brown people, mass resignations could follow. Not sure I agree, but I’d be fine with it.

    There’s been a member of my family, on either side, on the job since before I was born. None of them found it necessary to assassinate anyone, so I think others can stand up to that standard.

  45. 45.

    Mingobat (f/k/a Karen in GA)

    @WaterGirl: It was a volunteer thing that was going to be handled by the photographer who ran the studio where I used to intern until the pandemic shut it down.

    But then he texted me today to offer me a paying job in a couple of weeks.  Will it lead to more?  Who knows.  But I forgot how much I enjoyed this, so it’s nice to be doing it again at all.

  46. 46.

    Skepticat

    Grateful for some (but nowhere near enough) sanity in the political realm and the significantly lowered decibel level.

    Profoundly grateful for the Chauvin verdict and hoping it will be the crack in the dam to actually make a difference—though I don’t really expect that.

    Grateful for a generous neighbor who’s let me and the cats live in a two-room suite so I’m still on my island, although without a home—and we have power after 20 months.

    Grateful that so many friends have been immunized, though I’ll have to wait until I return to the States, and that I’m in a safe bubble so far.

    The rest of the list is very, very long but extremely mundane. And come to think of it, I’m grateful for that too.

  48. 48.

    LeftCoastYankee

    I feel like lately life has been one good thing, one bad thing, but after a year where it seemed like the ratio was one good thing, 100 bad things, this is OK.

    I’m appreciating the good much more. And the bad which is under my own control, I’m more forgiving of myself, and appreciating the work to come. For the bad in the wider world, I feel like I have more bandwidth and energy to do my part.

  52. 52.

    Rob

    I’m grateful for/about the Chauvin verdict too. Also, we didn’t loose electricity during today’s winds.

  56. 56.

    WaterGirl

    Closing the computer now and going to watch some TV and snuggle with my guys.

    We haven’t had a music thread in awhile, so whenever you guys get tired of being grateful :-) you can always talk music or anything else.

    Still exceedingly grateful that he didn’t get just one guilty verdict, or some compromise verdict, where he got off on the lowest charge. GUILTY GUILTY GUILTY!  What a balm for the soul.  Deep breaths today, tomorrow we get back to the fight.

  58. 58.

    NotMax

    About anything?

    Small stuff.

    Grateful that accomplished the semi-annual descaling of the coffee maker innards today. And for the delicious two hour nap afterwards.

    Not that the one necessitated the other.

  60. 60.

    mrmoshpotato

    One week until vaccination #2.

    Thanks again to everyone who voted Biden/Harris.  The alternative is too horrifying to think about.

  61. 61.

    LeftCoastYankee

    @Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant): ​
     

    Here in Portland, our “local” newspaper (owned by out of state conservatives), ran an article on police officers who are leaving the PPB, and a survey of the exit interviews.

    There was a good deal of “protestors bad, city council bad”, but later in the article they explicitly refer to a young Latino officer who said most of the force had no idea what the neighborhoods they served were experiencing, and that community policing wasn’t happening.

    It then indicated the vast majority of those leaving (and actually commenting on why in their exit interviews) were white men.

    Which made the exit reason of “it’s not fun anymore” referenced in the article seem more disturbing.

    Oregonian article

  62. 62.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Grateful I got the second Moderna yesterday, no side-effects today except a sore arm and jet-lag like fatigue

    @raven: NO! I’m not glad to be alive. I’m glad I’m not dead. There’s a difference!

    /Paul Dooley, Breaking Away, which should be a gif for those of us of a certain disposition

  63. 63.

    Ruckus

    I am grateful that I have picked a retirement date. In June.

    I’ve had jobs for 60 yrs. And yes I started with a paper route and working for my father in a machine shop but still 60 yrs is enough.

    I’m grateful that I was able to get vaccinated a couple months ago with the VA.

  64. 64.

    J R in WV

    We too are grateful to be vaccinated, and that most of our friends are also vaccinated. We actually went to a birthday party last Saturday for a dear friend, ‘W’ who is now 74. He has done wonderful work on both our home here in WV and the winter camp in AZ, a master carpenter and log home builder, currently building a small log building by his home to teach a young friend how it is done. Grateful for W…

    Glad to have President Joe Biden, who appears to be giving FDR a run for best president in the past 90 years, since 1932…

    Will stop now. Glad to have a list of things to be glad for, won’t bore with the whole list…

  65. 65.

    J R in WV

    @Ruckus:

    Retirement is wonderful. Regular income, no problem. No crazed boss, no problem. I’ll stop there. Enjoy the lead up to June!!

  68. 68.

    Suzanne

    Grateful that COVID cases are finally declining again here. Grateful that Mr. Suzanne’s asthma inhaler seems to be working. UNBELIEVABLY grateful that Spawn the Elder is here, finally, and is doing as well mental-health-wise as I have any right to expect. Grateful to be starting a new gig on May 10. So, so, so grateful that the right outcome was reached in the trial.

  69. 69.

    NotMax

    @Mingobat (f/k/a Karen in GA)

    Yowza! That’s great.

    Almost 50 years ago went to attend an amateur performance of a play in which a lot of acquaintances were involved. Was dragooned into running the light board (long, boring backstory). On opening night. Without ever having seen a rehearsal, nor any other production of that musical.

    Somehow it went off with but the one small hiccup of delayed timing of the first blackout. Afterward the father of the director, who was a Name (as opposed to a Big Name) in theatrical production circles pulled me aside, shoved his business card into my hand and said, “If you ever want a tech job on Broadway, kid, look me up.”

  70. 70.

    Other MJS

    Grateful for my second House Moderna tomorrow. Then the two-week countdown to an actual haircut and other stuff.

  71. 71.

    HumboldtBlue

    With all the thankfulness and gratefulness and stuff I figured I’d at least get some turkey, gravy, some potatoes maybe, a good dinner roll. Some greens?

    At least I brought dessert, a smiling donkey.

  72. 72.

    Ruckus

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    I’m picturing boots and overalls, shovels and a crap ton of cows. A crap ton is the amount of cow manure that each one of them would have to shovel every damn day.

    I offered the XO who was the last person to sign me out of the navy, an alternate to his prediction that I would reenlist in the navy. I informed him that I had a friend whose family owned 5 dairies and that’s a fair amount of cow shit every day, but I would rather shovel cow shit every day for the rest of my life than come back and work for people like him. Notice that he’d already signed my discharge and I held it in my hand at the time……

  74. 74.

    gwangung

    @NotMax: 50 years ago, that kind of performance would be something; manually doing the cues takes some skill.

    Nowadays, all you have to do is punch a button on cue (which is why low grade operations like mind combine the board op with the stage manager….)

  75. 75.

    Mike in NC

    Grateful that it has been a couple of months since I last spotted some asshole wearing a red MAGA cap.

  79. 79.

    pat

    @Gin & Tonic:

    No GC, not even an interview appointment. Son just spent three weeks in CDMX, so at least they’ve had some time together, but this is heart-rendingly slow.

    Huh? Are we supposed to know what that means?  CDMX? GC?

  82. 82.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    Related to Stacey Abrams, remember when I asked how Rose Twitter types would react to being confronted with voter suppression and how that’s a difference between the parties? Well, Zaid Jilani on Twitter basically did whataboutism and accuses Abrams of hypocrisy, so I guess I found the answer:

    Stacey Abrams has called Georgia’s new voting law a “redux of Jim Crow.” But a few years ago, she sponsored and voted for a measure to cut early voting days in half — justifying it as a cost saving measure. Was that Jim Crow, too?

    Even if this were true, this is not the same as the bullshit GA bill that allows unlimited numbers of challenges against voters, which will absolutely be used against black voters, or allowing the state to take over local BOEs and void election results they don’t like

  83. 83.

    Redshift

    I’m grateful that I’ve gotten my first shot, and eagerly awaiting my second.

    And I’m grateful not to have to wake up every day prepared to fight my government. But Joe and Kamala are so much better than just that, and I’m grateful for that too.

  88. 88.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    I’m grateful for myself and family to be fully vaccinated. I’m also grateful and relieved that Chauvin was held accountable by a court of law

  89. 89.

    Mo Salad

    I am grateful that the European Super League fell apart yesterday afternoon around the same time as the verdict.

    It would have been pretty ironic to have to give up on soccer the same day as my personalized “ANF13LD” license plate arrived in the mail.

  90. 90.

    Mai Naem mobile

    I am grateful and pleasantly surprised by the verdict. I still haven’t watched the whole tape of the murder because I honestly can’t handle watching stuff like that anymore.  I am grateful that Joe Biden was elected along with a Dem House and a Dem(barely) Senate. I  listened to Melody Barnes(Obama WH aide) do a long piece on LBJ’s Great Society on PRX. I know Biden doesn’t have the advantages that LBJ did but he certainly seems to know the ropes to make some big stuff happen.

  93. 93.

    Ken

    @NotMax: Somehow it went off with but the one small hiccup of delayed timing of the first blackout.

    A community theater group I’m involved with had a small glitch during a tech rehearsal. The scene ended with a kiss, and the director had told the cast members to hold the kiss until lights out, but told the lighting board the cue for lights out was when they broke the kiss. We never could get him to confess if it was deliberate.

    I’m grateful all my family has both their shots, except I’ve only had one. I’m also grateful that the theater group may be able to start up again in the fall.

  95. 95.

    dww44

    @Ruckus: Yep.  60 years is long enough.  I believe I’m older than you by a few years, but, even so, I’ve been officially retired for 19 years.  Do a lot of non-profit work with a couple of arts groups. So what exciting plans do you have?

  97. 97.

    Jean

    I am grateful that my family is vaccinated, but am waiting for my granddaughter to get her first dose, now that VA is open for her age-group.  I am grateful that I made it through the year without getting COVID, and that no one in my family became ill.  That I had a barn to go to all year where I could be outside and enjoy my horse SAVED my sanity.   My two little rescue dogs, Milo and Marcie, also did their part to keep us all walking and smiling through the bad days.

    I am immensely grateful for Biden and Harris and all the Dems in cabinet positions and Psaki!  Lately, I do not obsess about checking the news as if something horrible is about to happen.  I’m calming down.  Surprised and happy about the verdict–guilty guilty guilty.  I thought he might only get the lesser of the charges.  Still don’t understand how one can be guilty of all three, but glad it happened.

  100. 100.

    Ruckus

    @dww44:

    Relax. Possibly travel a bit, once this Covid thing gets better. Like to take the train to Vancover, Canada, then the trans Canadian to Montreal and then down to DC to see The Wall, the Smithsonian, etc, would like to do this with Biden/Harris in office.

    I’ve worked basically standing up physical jobs for my entire life, the closest I’ve come to an office job was my job in professional sports, and I was on the road, at events 30 or more weeks a yr, so not a lot of desk time. I feel like a little relaxation, fucking off, doing doodly squat is in order. Maybe I’ll get over that at some point……. who knows.

    I have a real good buddy (48 yrs worth) who is 3 yrs older than me who has been retired for 10-11 yrs. The large international corp he worked for let go most anyone past 30 yrs or approaching when the recession got going full bore. He had 29 yrs 10 months. They gave him pension as if he had done 30, and a retirement bonus. He was pissed off for about a year that he got retired. He got over it. Bastard.

  101. 101.

    Denali

    I am grateful that I am getting my seoncd shot today. I am grateful that TFG is gone, and that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have turned out to be so good at their jobs.  I am grateful that Spring is coming,  and that I’ll be able to be out and about. I am grateful for this blog.

  103. 103.

    thebewilderness

    I am grateful to the lovely people who created and maintain vaccine finders. Thanks to them I got my second jab and my birthday cake two days ago.

    I am relieved that one of the many killer cops that terrorize our streets was finally held to account.

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