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Hey Washington Post, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” was supposed to be a warning, not a mission statement.

Democracy cannot function without a free press.

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

Today in our ongoing national embarrassment…

Republicans do not trust women.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

With all due respect and assumptions of good faith, please fuck off into the sun.

Welcome to day five of every-bit-as-bad-as-you-thought-it-would-be.

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Jack Smith: “Why did you start campaigning in the middle of my investigation?!”

Dear Washington Post, you are the darkness now.

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We still have time to mess this up!

White supremacy is terrorism.

This blog will pay for itself.

Fight them, without becoming them!

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

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

“Facilitate” is an active verb, not a weasel word.

Do we throw up our hands or do we roll up our sleeves? (hint, door #2)

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Another Memorial Day Open Thread

Another Memorial Day Open Thread

by | 84 Comments

This post is in: 

This line from the last tweet in Anne Laurie’s morning post struck me as so very ordinary AND extraordinary:

After the service, President Biden took a few minutes to shake hands and chat with members of the community.

We are so close to getting back to the ordinary social interactions. I cannot tell you how many people I have hugged in the last two weeks, many whom I haven’t even been able to see in a year, and those I would see, but only properly distanced.

Here’s my first poppy this year:

I love these cream poppies.

My red poppies are late to bloom this year, because it’s been unseasonably cold, so last year’s will have to do to honor Memorial Day.

Another Memorial Day Open Thread

 

And finally, I grilled these  Stuffed Jalapeno Cheddar Burgers on Friday, before the rain began… If you’re looking for a way to up your burger game today. Recipe here.

This is an all-purpose open thread. I’m off to…work. Which is okay, because it is still raining.

Reader Interactions

84Comments

  1. 1.

    zhena gogolia

    I’ve been hugging people too, but last night I said to my husband, “OMG, now we’ll get actual colds, and we’ll freak out that it’s Covid.”
    Don’t know what to do about that. We have to start living again.

  2. 2.

    Ramalama

    Twitter Ireland is having a field day with Matt Leblanc, actor in Friends.

    eg:

    Matt LeBlanc tearfully: But I’m an Actor! I live in Los Angeles!

    The People of Ireland: No. Your name is Paudie. You live in Roscommon. You love Pints and GAA and you’re everyone’s uncle now.

  4. 4.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @zhena gogolia: I’ve had a persistent cough and sore throat for about a month now, just like I do every spring because of allergy induced post nasal drip. I wasn’t worried about it but there was a little niggle in the back of my mind…

    Got tested this past week in prep for a minor procedure and it was nice to hear I was negative.

  5. 5.

    patrick II

    I am here to give kudos to Antifa.  A new story in today in Raw Story describes that the new indictment reveals Oath Keepers wanted Antifa to attack the rally — and give Trump an excuse to declare martial law.  Antifa saw the trap before the rally and warned everyone away from the rally and actually had the self-discipline to stay away.  In spite of that, Republicans are still telling the storyline they hoped for and counted on — that it was Antifa.  That is, of course, not true for many reasons — in part because you could actually watch the MAGAS as tv cameras followed the MAGA from the rally to the Capitol Building.  And of course, as they sort out the pictures and videos of those inside the camera desecrating the Capitol and assaulting Capitol police, everyone being arrested is MAGA. That reality makes no difference to those who do not want it too.
    However, just think how much worse this would be if there had been a large contingent of Antifa there looking to punch a NAZI. The riot would have been worse, the blame more easily mixed, and Donald might have declared martial law — which seems to have been a goal.  Congratulations to Antifa for being sane if sometimes overexhuberant.​
    ​
    ​

  7. 7.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Qasim Rashid, Esq.@QasimRashid
    Three police officers showed up with weapons drawn b/c someone dialed 911 to report two Black locksmiths for *doing their jobs as locksmiths* in a predominantly white neighborhood.

    Terrifying & unacceptable. Apparently working while Black is a crime.

  9. 9.

    Soprano2

    I just got out of the first group Jazzercise class they’ve had for over a year. It was good in a weird way, to see people I hadn’t seen for a long time because now we’re all vaccinated.

  10. 10.

    Ohio Mom

    Zhena gogolia:

    That was my reaction every time in the last fourteen months I’d felt the slightest bit under the weather: Do I have Covid? I wonder if that fear will ever wear off.

    Nowadays most of my anxiety has glomped onto Ohio Dad’s so far eight month unsuccessful job hunt. I feel like I’m living one of those newspaper articles about older, higher-level engineers who send out resume after resume without a bite.

    Though he has gotten bites, but they haven’t panned out for all different sorts of reasons — the job is too junior, the headhunter lies about it being local, it’s really in Oregon, and so on.

    I know we can manage but it’s going to be a big adjustment, one that will be especially frustrating to logic-impaired Ohio Son. His autism makes him incredibly naive, gullible, inflexible and prone to deep funks.

    Thanks for listening, I guess.

  12. 12.

    Salty Sam

    From the last thread:  “I never hear the expression “second childhood” these days, although it was common when I was young to describe a stage in the life of the old. ”

    A Jamaican friend told me they have a saying there-  “Once a man, twice a child.”

  14. 14.

    Ten Bears

    A Sunday Morning Sidewalk? Takes us back to something lost somewhere, somehow along the way.

    Early on in this I suggested it were a good time to pause, to take the time to reconsider what we are doing and whether or no we want to continue to do it. I’ll admit that tugged a bit at my heartstrings.

    I also think even in our own mind’s eyes that stuff is more myth than not …

  15. 15.

    WaterGirl

    My eyes and brain kept trying to make that last photo into a flower. Only after several passes at that did I see the comment below the picture.  Handsome burger!  Presumably nothing that would grow in my garden.

    P.S.  I love poppies!  I have never seen a red one like that, so jealous!

  18. 18.

    WaterGirl

    @jeffreyw: I LOVE Italian Beef and I LOVE giardiniera, even if i had trouble spelling it.

    But rice?  Looks beautiful, but you will have to pry my soggy wet Italian Beef bread out of my cold dead hands.

  19. 19.

    SiubhanDuinne

    “They didn’t die just at Gettysburg or Flanders Field or the beaches of Normandy. They died in the mountains of Afghanistan and the deserts of Iraq.” POTUS at Arlington (from memory — might be a slight paraphrase).

    I’m glad, and moved, to be able to watch a Presidential Memorial Day address again. And a POTUS who stood respectfully upright during the national anthem and didn’t try to mouth the words.

  20. 20.

    WaterGirl

    In my younger days, I used to ponder the question of whether it’s worse to be looking for a job when you don’t have one, or looking for a new place to live when you’re lease is about to be up.

    I never could come up with an answer.  Both are hellish.

  23. 23.

    zhena gogolia

    @Ohio Mom:

    That sounds so difficult. I pray that your husband will get some good news soon. It only takes one! (hope that doesn’t sound glib)

  24. 24.

    Mike in NC

    Yesterday our last stop in Key West was a visit to the Harry S Truman Little White House near our hotel. They’ve restored the building to its c1949 appearance. Very impressive job, and it’s still used by the POTUS and other senior US government officials. Apparently the Bushes never went to it, preferring their place in Kennebunkport, Maine.

    They had an excellent gift shop, which maybe deliberately didn’t display a trace of the Orange Clown who spent four years embarrassing the nation.

  29. 29.

    Geminid

     

     

    @patrick II: I followed some of the pre-January 6 debate among commenters on the Twitter feeds of central Virginia activists Molly Conger and Goad Gatsby. Some people were saying, don’t play into the militias’ hands, and others said no, we have a duty to fight fascists anywhere and everywhere they march. The first camp seems to have won the debate.

    The tragic Charlottesville Unite the Right fiasco could have been far worse had the anarcho-streetfigter Black Block shown up.  I talked to a woman whose daughter was one of the organizers of the counterprotests. She said the Black Block had been specifically asked to take a pass on this rally. The anarcho-street fighters like their anonymity, so Virginia’s anti-mask law may havre been a factor also.

    Bad as the unite the right rally was, I always thought Charlottesville was lucky that day. There were enough firearms there for a bloodbath. As it was one shot, but only one shot, was fired. Authorities caught the Maryland klansman who fired it, and Charlottesville Judge Moore gave him 7-8 years penitentiary time.

  30. 30.

    Elizabelle

    Biden’s speech is really good.  The work of our time.  Defending democracy and keeping the faith.

    He just finished.

    I love President Biden.

    It was a travesty to have Putin’s money launderer pretending to be president.  Never again.

  31. 31.

    Soprano2

    @Ohio Mom: That’s tough, especially when you keep hearing there are jobs everywhere. I wish you all good luck, hopefully the growing economy will help.

  32. 32.

    Spanky

    What joyful Memorial Day celebration would be complete without semi-automatic and full automatic gunfire in the neighborhood? Because that’s what’s been going on here in Confederate Southern MD for the last hour.

    Sounds like it’s coming from one of the farms along the river. What are the odds that they’re doing it just to pwn the libs? 100%? Or more?

  34. 34.

    Elizabelle

    @jeffreyw:   Crockpot yet!  Thank you, JeffreyW.  I will let you know how it turns out.

    Would be good to have some of that in the freezer, for nights when just don’t feel like cooking.  As main course after corn and tomatoes.

    How is young Homer?  Do you still have him??

  36. 36.

    Elizabelle

    @jeffreyw:   Sounds easy.  How much broth does one use?  Just napping the beef, or covering slightly?  I know crockpots don’t need a lot of liquid.

    But for the beef and pepperoncini, I have all the ingredients in house.

  37. 37.

    jeffreyw

    <a href="#comment-8185012"@Elizabelle: 

    How is young Homer? Do you still have him??

    Homer is 11 now, and still an asshole. His only friend is Gabe and Gabe isn’t all that fond.

  39. 39.

    Mike in NC

    @SiubhanDuinne: We were all impressed when Trump made his last obligatory visit to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. A five minute detour on his way to play golf.

  40. 40.

    jeffreyw

    Watergirl, the comment box is not working as expected, again.  Failure to add proper @reply to info in visual, data mice infestation in text mode.  win10 firefox, adguard

  42. 42.

    Elizabelle

    @Mike in NC:   Haven’t seen the HS Truman summer white house.  Next visit.

    Did you get to see the Hemingway house?  I liked it a lot, and saw some of the six-footed cats.  But way too crowded, because a cruise ship was in port the day I visited.

    Key West:  I hope you are able to keep the cruise ships out.

    I hope DeSantis gets his balls handed to him, with all the damage he is trying to accomplish, for his own personal political gain.

  45. 45.

    Ohio Mom

    Thanks everyone for the good wishes.

    I think our favorite family story so far about this stage of our life is the job interview where, after being told to “tell us about yourself,” Ohio Dad launched into his elevator speech, only to be met with completely confused faces.

    Upon further discussion, and Ohio Dad pulling the job announcement out his binder, the mystery was solved. HR had posted the wrong job description. At least that interview ended with a good laugh all around.

  46. 46.

    debbie

    @Spanky:

    There was some of that here in central Ohio this morning, and I’m confident there will be more as backyard picnics get underway.

  48. 48.

    Citizen Alan

    @Ohio Mom: Two months ago, I drove 3 hours for a masked but in-person interview for a pro se law clerk position for which I was 99% the perfect candidate based on the job announcement. And then, once the interview started, I quickly realized that the missing 1% (social security appeal work) was 100% of  what the three judges on the interview panel were looking for. What made it even worse was how the judge who escorted me out told me I absolutely killed the interview.

  49. 49.

    WaterGirl

    @TaMara (HFG):  They sound wonderful, and I was already jealous.

    Poppies are tricky!  I had a great (orange) poppy patch that I decided to move to a different bed.  None of the ones I moved made it, but the partial one I left in the old bed by mistake has continued to come up, year after year, and not it has a couple of friends.

    Not moving the poppies again!  Though I did plant 10 more poppies this summer – two different kinds.  Bare root, so I doubt I will see blooms until a couple of years from now.

  54. 54.

    MagdaInBlack

    @WaterGirl: Mr. Beef on Harlem just south of Irving Park is my favorite hole in the wall beef.  I’m a big tease, I know, but now I want one too ?

  56. 56.

    Ohio Mom

    Citizen Alan:
    Ouch!
    Your story is a perfect metaphor for so much of Ohio Dad’s current job hunt. Good luck to you!

  59. 59.

    WaterGirl

    @MagdaInBlack: Carm’s Italian Beef for me.  On 12th street, bordering with Oak Park, and 2 other locations.

    My mom’s preferred was Novi’s Beef, and that was on Harlem Ave, too.

    At least they were there when I was growing up.

  60. 60.

    TaMara (HFG)

    I’m traveling to Boston in the next week or so and can I tell you all this talk of Italian beef actually reminds me, I have been craving an honest-to-goodness meatball grinder. And I know just the place to get it.

  61. 61.

    Gin & Tonic

    I didn’t hug anyone outside of my immediate family before the pandemic, and certainly not going to start now.

  62. 62.

    MontyTheClipArtMongoose

    @patrick II:  the black block from the 1999 battle in seattle wouldn’t have been so restrained.

    then again, i would think most of the windowlic–… windowbreakers in seattle 99 gave up their adbusters habit for the federalist & were at the insurrection of 1/6/21 as shock troops of the maralago coup.

  64. 64.

    Steeplejack

    I don’t know if it’s technically Italian beef, but I like Old Original Nick’s Roast Beef in South Philly. Need to get back there soon.

  66. 66.

    Catherine D.

    @Gin & Tonic:

    I didn’t hug anyone outside of my immediate family before the pandemic, and certainly not going to start now

    Me too, and I fervently hope handshakes stay dead. Also cheek kissing.

  72. 72.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @WaterGirl: Concur. The photo shows the coarse-chopped variety customarily served as antipasto. You are I presume referring to the finer-chopped relish that customarily garnishes a muffaletta samwhich ;^D.

    @jeffreyw: Why anyone would want to pile antipasto on top of a hearty beef-with-rice entree, I’ll never know. Then again, The Old Man (Dad’s stepfather, the only grandfather I ever knew**) used to say that it all ends up in the same place, and it’s going down your pie-hole, not mine so – enjoy!

    ** Who never understood why his stepchildren treated him so well as adults when he’d been such an SOB to them as kids.​​

  77. 77.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @WaterGirl: ​Both are hellish.

    Cosmo’s Nth** Law: When searching for a job or housing, one is an unstable number. You come up empty, then in a flash you have at least two acceptable prospects that must be chosen between (or among, if >2).

    ** I lost count after I ran out of toes.

  78. 78.

    sab

    @Ohio Mom: Good luck to you all on Ohio Dad’s search. Sounds like my job search years ago. I was moving back to Ohio. I’d been a Sr Mgr at a small but excellent accounting firm. I applied to a national firm in Cleveland. I set up the appointment weeks in advance and flew in especially for that interview. There was no one available to talk to me except someone jr from HR. I finally asked her why no one from Tax, or at least an accountant. She said, apologetically, that they were all too busy because it was recruiting season. Head bang.

  79. 79.

    sab

    @WaterGirl: We have been looking for a new place to live for my step-daughter and her autistic seven year old. They have been there four years and the kid is heartbroken about leaving.  And the housing market is hellish for buyers/renters right now.

    But we found a place that is perfect. Landlord has an autistic brother, and the house was remodelled especially to make the upstairs apartment suitable for him. He doesn’t need it anymore, so his brother is renting it out at below market rates for autistic families. Whew.

  82. 82.

    Miss Bianca

    @jnfr: I had to drive to Salida this morning and it’s so green it’s freaky. I kept looking around and saying out loud to myself, “Is this Colorado or Ireland?”

    That said, I heard from a friend of mine in town that the Western Slope is bone dry. So apparently, we’re only getting the moisture on the east side of the Divide.

  83. 83.

    WaterGirl

    @sab: What a good person the landlord is.  He knows first hand how hard it is and he wants to help families with autistic kids.  Good on him.

    Let’s trade T**** for 1,000 more of this guy.

  84. 84.

    sab

    Well, the pit bull finally moved in, and everything is going smoothly. She is wary of cats, and our cats are wary of her. Even my tuxedo cat is behaving. He saw her go by under the kitchen island and he didn’t pounce. The pitbull still thinks the cocker’s ears smell edible.

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