Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

Giving in to doom is how we fail to fight for ourselves & one another.

American history and black history cannot be separated.

Nothing says ‘pro-life’ like letting children go hungry.

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

Human rights are not a matter of opinion!

Dumb motherfuckers cannot understand a consequence that most 4 year olds have fully sorted out.

If America since Jan 2025 hasn’t broken your heart, you haven’t loved her enough.

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

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

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

Republicans: “Abortion is murder but you can take a bus to get one.” Easy peasy.

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

It is possible to do the right thing without the promise of a cookie.

“I was told there would be no fact checking.”

I swear, each month of 2025 will have its own history degree.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

You cannot shame the shameless.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

Come on, man.

You are here: Home / Pet Blogging / Dog Blogging / Monday Morning Open Thread: Be Of Good Cheer

Monday Morning Open Thread: Be Of Good Cheer

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Yes, please — I wanna see wingnut heads explode…

So many people (and not just Springsteen fans) are estatic about this:

And happy Pride Month Life to a brave young man:

Reader Interactions

200Comments

  12. 12.

    CaseyL

    Not only is “Meadowlark Boston” fun to watch balancing the ball, it looks like s/he is having a lot of fun doing it.  Zest for life: dogs has it.

    I managed to get a few hours sleep – downstairs, on the floor, right in front of the big box fan.  The temp here now (4:17 AM) is a manageable 74 º.  I’m trying not to think about what it’ll be like later on today.  Maybe I’ll put the sleeping bag down in the tub and try to catch some siesta.

  14. 14.

    Starfish

    Nate created a thread exclusively for people who want to dunk on him and Matthew for running their mouths without knowing what they are talking about.

    Recently there’s been the emergence of a small but distinct group of dudes (mostly) on here whom you might call anti-contrarians.— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) June 27, 2021

  16. 16.

    Betty Cracker

    My Boston terrier has exceptionally good balance. I’ve never tried to get him to balance a ball, but it’s worth a shot. He will stand on his hind legs and spin on command for a treat. My husband tried to get him to shake and Badger (the dog) would not, and he (my husband) said, “He doesn’t know how to shake?” And I said no, but he can pirouette, for chrissakes, which is a lot more impressive!

  19. 19.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Baud:

    after police found them naked and lost in the bush as they apparently fled from a wild animal. 

    “Officer, we were running from a murderous deer!”

    “Ok.  But your birthday suits aren’t actually clothing.”

  23. 23.

    germy

    NEW: As former President Trump starts his "revenge tour" of rallies against challengers to House members who voted to impeach him, some Republicans are worried that he'll do to the House what he did to Georgia Senate candidates. t.co/F0eKoGCPrh— Andrew Feinberg (@AndrewFeinberg) June 24, 2021

    We can hope.

  25. 25.

    mrmoshpotato

    @germy: As the Two-headed Monster would say, “S-AD! S-AD! SAD? SAD? SAD!  Cry harder, you traitorous, orange, fascist shitstain!”

  27. 27.

    Geminid

    @Baud: Texas Democrats will at least get a head start on organizing for next year’s legislative and statewide office campaigns. These Texas elections will be hard fought. I wonder if Texas Republicans can match the motivation and unity of Democats. Their election measures may be relatively effective. But people can see that they are a sign of weakness.

  32. 32.

    Baud

    @rikyrah:

    Not surprised.  A lot of black people supported the 1992 crime bill that has been vilified by contemporary progressives.

  33. 33.

    Baud

    @Geminid:

    Each year it seems like the Dems inch closer.  There will be much rejoicing across the land when Republican Texas finally falls.

  36. 36.

    tom

    Nothing subtle about Lil Nas X. And as a 65-year-old gay man who was deeply closeted in his teens and 20s, it’s great.

  39. 39.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Baud:

    Nude sunbathers running from deer fined for violating Sydney lockdown

    I want to know more about how the deer violated lockdown and how much it was fined.

    (edited)

  40. 40.

    Starfish

    @tom: Is he more subtle than Billy Porter, or is he Billy Porter’s aesthetic actualized? I cannot decide.

  48. 48.

    Suzanne

    @Baud: From that link:

      Jerry Akers, who owns 29 Great Clips salon franchises in Iowa and Nebraska, contacted some former employees about returning to the job, which entails some evening and weekend shifts. They told him they would like a different lifestyle and are willing to live on less money to achieve it.

    Finally, maybe people will hear this: hustle-and-work culture has been driving people insane, it is overtaxing them and their families.

    I would love if we could use this pandemic as an inspiration to actually rebuild a work culture that created great outcomes for people.

  49. 49.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @mrmoshpotato:

    To be fair, if it had been in rut, the species can get aggressive. I had an eight to ten pointer stand it’s ground by stomping and hissing at me when I was taking the dog out to pee one evening – and I was on my front steps. Wisely chose to turn around and delay the pee, which the dog agreed with.

  50. 50.

    rikyrah

     

    Dennis S Brotman ?? #DemCast #DemCastGA (@DenbrotS) tweeted at 5:01 AM on Mon, Jun 28, 2021:
    Rs definitely depend upon cheating to win.
    The definition of Election Fraud is—
    •Voter Suppression
    •Purging of Registration Rolls
    •Gerrymandering
    •Hacking of Vote Tallies

    As you document, the evidence is Rs use all of the above as their nat’l strategy.

    #GOPElectionFraud
    (twitter.com/DenbrotS/status/1409451867353063424?s=03)

  51. 51.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @mrmoshpotato:

    He should write a book on the experience of being stabbed in the back by weaklings and RINOs,, and it should be titled “My Struggle”.

  52. 52.

    Low Key Swagger

    @Suzanne: Seems like an easy solution…do what hospitals do.  They give a healthy hourly premium for night/weekend work.  Some people will choose weekends and nights to earn more.

  53. 53.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Baud: It can be hard to remember how genuinely scary the crime situation was from about 1970 through the early 1990s. We act as if hysteria about it was just racism, and certainly the reactions were intensely skewed by racism, but there really was a LOT of violent and petty crime about by today’s standards, and a return of that is something we really don’t want.

  54. 54.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @germy:

    Harlan Ellison he is not, but I can think of dozens of shitty pieces of pulp I read in the 70s and early 80s that he’d have fit right in with.

  56. 56.

    p.a.

    Mt GF’s tuxedo cat is a good mouser, usually leaving the heads as evidence (maybe she thinks there’s a bounty?).  Her newest trait is bringing in live chipmunks and releasing them in the house?????.  GF not as amused as I.  They- so far- have found their way out pretty quickly.

  57. 57.

    arrieve

    @MagdaInBlack: There were anti-vaxxers protesting outside the theatre opening night, with signs saying “Springsteen is a segregationist” because you have to provide proof of vaccination to see the show.

    I’m going tomorrow night. I’m a little nervous about sitting in a room with 1700 strangers, even vaccinated strangers. They have supposedly upgraded the ventilation and our positivity rate in NY right now is less than half of one percent, but even so….I’ll still wear a mask.

  60. 60.

    Suzanne

    @Low Key Swagger: Agreed. The answer is always — always — pay more. Buy the labor you need. If you don’t have it, it’s because you’re not willing to pay what it costs.

    I swear, half of the conservative freakout about American not having enough babies is the dawning realization that they will have to pay more for stuff.

  61. 61.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Baud:

    Maybe instead of opening that third shop, he should have considered beefing up staff and facilities at the other two while offering up pay incentives for new hires AND a putting on night crew with a differential so that work can turn faster.

    Of course, you can’t play mogul when you do something like that.

  64. 64.

    tom

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: All the state-wide offices in Michigan – governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of state, both US senators – are D. The most recently elected state supreme state justices are D. It’s the gerrymandered legislature that is R.

  66. 66.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    Never underestimate the ignorant tribalism of the Herrenvolk in this country.

    ”The people we elect may be venal, corrupt, ignorant fuckups, but at least they’re not liberals.”

  67. 67.

    Baud

    @Matt McIrvin:

    IMHO we always do that.  We’re reductionist in our thinking because we’re so focused on bringing attention to an aspect of the problem that the “system” has ignored, and then we end up looking like Trump’s “Who knew health care could be so complicated?”

  68. 68.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    They don’t want to have their hands anywhere close to what they rightly see as a modern Mein Kampf. Too many know about the side imprints and the breadcrumb trail would lead immediately back.

  70. 70.

    Kay

    Ohio follows Florida in criminalizing protests:

    Ohio House Republicans passed legislation Friday that would expand the definition of “obstruction of justice” broadly enough to capture protest activity, according to social justice activists and civil rights advocates who testified against the bill.

    If Minnesota had a law like this when George Floyd was murdered they could have arrested the people who gathered who tell the police to stop attempting to murder Floyd.

  71. 71.

    Betty Cracker

    @rikyrah:

    NYT: “A growing body of evidence indicates that large numbers of Black and Latino voters may simply take a more centrist view on the very issues — race and criminal justice — that progressives assumed would rally voters of color to their side.”

    It’s utterly unsurprising, and I don’t think it’s just those two issues. We have a two-party system that is supposed to represent a spectrum of political views from liberal to conservative, but “conservative” in the U.S. as represented by the modern Republican Party has been redefined as culture war bullshit (including racism, sexism, homophobia, etc.) in addition to favorable tax treatment for wealthy people and deregulation for business.

    That leaves black and Latino voters who are centrist to conservative with a shitty choice: 1) either throw in their lot with a party that is more liberal than they are on social and fiscal issues, which means there will be a lot of policy conflict within that party, or 2) join forces with a party that advertises its contempt for them in hopes that it’s mostly for show so they can benefit from low taxes, social conservatism and business deregulation.

    It’s a crappy choice for them, and it puts the Democratic Party in a situation that may be unsustainable long-term. We need two sane parties in a two-party system, and one of our parties lost its damned mind a long time ago and is getting more unhinged by the day.

  72. 72.

    Geminid

    @Matt McIrvin: A poll taken during the recent NYC mayo race showed that 55% of New Yorkers cited violent crime as their number one concern. The candidate who most emphasized fighting crime, Eric Garner Eric Adams, came in first in the election.* Garner did best in more Latino and Black precincts in the outer boroughs, and least well in whiter, wealthier, and more liberal Manhattan.

    The winner of this election is not yet determined. Garner won slightly under 32%; Wiley and Garcia were 2nd and 3rd, with 22% and 20% respectively. Ranked choice votes and absentee allots could possibly put Wiley in the lead. NYC Democratic Congressmen Hakeem Jeffries and Greg Meeks endorsed Wiley for first, Adams for second choice.

  73. 73.

    Starfish

    @Suzanne: The having to pay more for stuff still has not dawned on them. I live in a place with a lot of vanity non-profit projects where the leaders of the non-profit are paid well, and the front line workers are people of color getting paid garbage. They can’t imagine people of color in any role other than one that satisfies their white savior narrative.

    The desire for more babies is all racial panic that white people are going to be outnumbered. They want more white babies even though they are not saying white when they say it.

    They haven’t realized that companies making more stuff for a diverse audience is not “racial pandering” but actually profitable.

  74. 74.

    Suzanne

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: There are multiple solutions to this problem, and every one of them is unpalatable to conservatives. We could also financially compensate people for having kids or at least ease some of the burdens, like childcare costs, housing, college, etc.

    All of that gets in the way of the low-tax low-cost high-housing-appreciation regime they have created.

  76. 76.

    Baud

    @Starfish:

    IHMO crime is essentially conservatism without (usually) a state apparatus behind it.  Criminals are essentially people who think rules are for the little people.

  77. 77.

    Suzanne

    @Starfish: I know.

    One of the big things that conservatives still do not grasp is that when companies show support for Pride Month, or like Nike with Kaepernick, or #stopasianhate…. they don’t do that because they’re principled nice people. They do that because it’s good business. And not just on the consumer side. Conservatives don’t grasp that, despite their stereotype of college campuses being ruled by Critical Race Theory and Women’s/Queer/Latino Studies majors, most college grads are doing highly job-friendly majors like business and engineering and education, and that there are not enough college grads for the marketplace. So employers are trying to attract employees with degrees, and those newly-degreed people want to work for places that have a stated alignment with their values.

  80. 80.

    Soprano2

    @Matt McIrvin:It can be hard to remember how genuinely scary the crime situation was from about 1970 through the early 1990s.

    There are many, many people who cannot remember this, though. I belong to a FB group about living in Springfield; every time someone asks the group about where to live because they’re moving to Springfield, they get literally 100 replies saying things like “Don’t live in Springfield, it’s a crime-ridden hellhole, move to one of the surrounding towns”. What they’re trying to say, without saying it, is that the percentage of black people in Springfield has increased, so now it’s full of crime, and if you move to a surrounding “bedroom community” you won’t have to see or interact with any black people (well, there will probably be a few). *rolleyes* This city is 85% white (that may change some with the latest census, it may be a little bit less). Because we went from 90% white to 85% white, a lot of the white people think it’s “full of crime” here now. *News flash*, Springfield, MO is not “full of crime” –  crime is actually relatively low here now. Plus, they never adjust for population growth – there are a lot of comments about how “It was so much better ‘x’ years ago”. They also complain a lot about how “there are homeless people begging on every corner” (there aren’t that many). For a supposedly heavily Christian area, people here are extremely intolerant of these things. Where there are articles in the paper about religious groups helping the homeless, somehow the names of the largest Baptist and Assemblies of God churches are never featured as being involved – it’s always the smaller, more liberal churches doing the actual hard work.

  81. 81.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Baud: Related, I’ve never been 100% convinced by the lead-crime hypothesis as the sole explanation for all this. It’s very fashionable because it’s an easy-to-understand “one weird trick” explanation, but I suspect lead poisoning was one contributor among many. The market was flooded with handguns, there were shifts in the illegal drug trade (and draconian, racist drug laws made it the province of hardened criminals), development in inner cities was horribly mismanaged for racist reasons, there was a general breakdown of trust in institutions having to do with war and politics, etc. At the beginning of it all, the boomers had aged into their peak criming years.

  82. 82.

    Anne Laurie

    @p.a.: Mt GF’s tuxedo cat is a good mouser, usually leaving the heads as evidence (maybe she thinks there’s a bounty?). Her newest trait is bringing in live chipmunks and releasing them in the house?????. GF not as amused as I. They- so far- have found their way out pretty quickly.

    Chipmunks are hard to catch, or to keep.  Experienced cats take as much pride in a dead chipmunk as an experienced human hunter does in a trophy buck!

  84. 84.

    Geminid

    @Betty Cracker:  I don’t think it’s such a crappy choice. There is a rough balance of power between the moderate and liberal wings of the party that reflects the strength of both wings among Democratic voters. And most politicians of either wing understand that each side needs the other.

  85. 85.

    Soprano2

    @Starfish: They haven’t realized that companies making more stuff for a diverse audience is not “racial pandering” but actually profitable.

    I sometimes hear complaints that there are too many people in ads who aren’t white. I’ve actually heard it said that it’s “not realistic” (this from people who evidently think all black people live in the ‘hood).  I always say “They’re trying to expand the market for their products, like any company trying to make money does”. Just like society acts like the white male voter is the “default”, they also get upset because they think other groups should be persuaded to buy stuff by ads targeted at white people. We all know that a lot of the freakout on the right is white men realizing that soon enough they won’t be the “default” anymore, and they don’t know how to handle that.

  86. 86.

    Anne Laurie

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I’m actually kind of surprised that publishers seem to be resistant to taking on his book. It would probably sell well. I read that the fact checking would be a nightmare, and they’re worried about their employees quitting en masse. But still. I though they had imprints set aside for this kind of trash.

    My best guess?  Even the ‘dedicated’ publishers like Regnery think TFG’s a losing bet.  He’d be hell to work with, he’ll keep telling lies in public about how his words are gold and his publishers are trash, and he probably can’t get an agent without  paying a premium (that he can’t afford).   Not to mention, the Repubs-with-money elite aren’t exactly falling over each other to bankroll TFG at the moment, whatever the trailer-park MAGAts and political wannabes are doing; making TFG happy would no doubt involve making a lot of marketable people unhappy.  Even the pre-contracted 2016-2020 books by ‘reputable’ authors aren’t selling well!

    Also, what are the odds he’ll be dead or in prison before the final product can be slapped together?

  87. 87.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Baud: The reports of subtle brain damage from COVID infection do make me wonder if some of the pandemic rise in homicide is the direct effect of the virus on executive function. But the fact that it’s basically just homicide and nothing else points to mass purchases of guns as the proximate cause.

  88. 88.

    Cheryl Rofer

    I would like to know if the rise in homicides is people killing each other because they have been cooped up together too long. More specifically, if it is domestic violence. I have seen no analysis of what kinds of homicides have increased.

  89. 89.

    Soprano2

    @Low Key Swagger: Seems like an easy solution…do what hospitals do.  They give a healthy hourly premium for night/weekend work.  Some people will choose weekends and nights to earn more.

    You’d think, but Great Clips is one of those cheap haircut places where they hire people right out of school. They’d have to raise their prices to cover the differential, because they won’t charge more for a haircut that is done at night or on the weekend. If it’s a franchise that owner might not have any control over the prices he can charge. I agree that in general we pay less for a lot of things than we should, though.

  90. 90.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Soprano2: That’s the other side of the coin–people who cannot remember or perceive that crime dramatically decreased for somewhat mysterious reasons starting about 1995.

    I’ve heard the same things about Haverhill, that the place is going to pot and becoming a crime hellhole, and I suspect it’s mostly people upset that the whiter neighborhoods aren’t as white as they used to be. There’s certainly crime here, more than in some neighboring towns, but there always was.

    Of course, the recent rise in homicides suggests that this could creep up on us again. But it’s still nothing compared to what it was.

  91. 91.

    Betty Cracker

    @Geminid: That balance between moderate and edge wings is supposed to be the tension that animates both parties, but it no longer does in the Republican Party, which has gone all-in on the fringe. So, if you’re a socially conservative, pro-de-regulation, anti-tax voter who doesn’t have a high tolerance for racism, sexism, etc., you’re sort of political homeless. I think that probably affects some center-right white people too, e.g., folks who don’t support Democratic Party policies but can’t bring themselves to vote for the racist yahoos the Republicans are offering in their area. In a two-party system, you need two sane parties. We only have one. It’s a problem.

  92. 92.

    Immanentize

    @Geminid:

    The candidate who most emphasized fighting crime, Eric Garner, came in first in the election

    I am absolutely certain you do not mean “Eric Garner” was ahead on election night. Because, you know he was killed by NYC police in Staten Island. So, he is dead.

  93. 93.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Cheryl Rofer: I vaguely recall reading an article asserting that it wasn’t domestic violence but I can no longer find it and don’t know what their sources were.

  94. 94.

    Soprano2

    @Cheryl Rofer:I would like to know if the rise in homicides is people killing each other because they have been cooped up together too long. More specifically, if it is domestic violence. I have seen no analysis of what kinds of homicides have increased.

    I haven’t seen any either, but anecdotally here at least this doesn’t seem to be what’s happening. Most homicides seem to be connected to drugs in some way. It will be interesting to see if someone does look at this.

  97. 97.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Soprano2:

    “I want my kids to go to good schools in the exurbs or to some private school. I don’t want them with bad schools, bad teachers or bad kids.”

  98. 98.

    Betty Cracker

    @Cheryl Rofer: Great question. I heard a report the other day that mentioned specifically that gun violence is up along with homicides, but that could be any type of crime. Are car-jackings, armed robberies, etc., on the rise, or is it mostly domestic violence and/or random shootings? There seems to be an increase in random shootings in South Florida, but I don’t know if that’s because of the coverage or if data bears it out.

  99. 99.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Soprano2:

    Same thing here – it’s a bunch of business disputes, old scores being settled and a little in-family drama.

    Doesn’t hurt that this country is awash in cheap firearms.

  100. 100.

    Starfish

    @Matt McIrvin: I think people don’t know how to act around each other anymore, and this “let’s pretend this never happened” route that people are trying to take is not working out. During the pandemic, our social connections were more frayed than they already were. People lost trust in their communities.

  101. 101.

    Low Key Swagger

    @Soprano2: Right.  But you’d think the average American could withstand an extra dollar or two for a haircut.  It’s not a monthly expense.

  103. 103.

    Kelly

    80 degrees at 6 am here in Oregon’s western Cascade foothills. In my 65 years a low of 60 was a hot summer night. We have a heat pump so the cats and us have a comfy home to shelter in.

  104. 104.

    Ken

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Of course, you can’t play mogul when you do something like that.

    “There’s that famous mogul!”

    “What does he do?”

    “He owns three franchise stores in a minor Midwestern town.”

    The next line of dialogue depends on whether this is the moguls’s oft-played inner fantasy (in which case the above two, who are hot chicks, will hit on him) or reality (in which case they will burst into laughter).

  105. 105.

    Suzanne

    @Low Key Swagger:

    But you’d think the average American could withstand an extra dollar or two for a haircut.

    For serious. I have a hard time squaring the circle Americans consume a lot more stuff (both goods and services) than in other countries, but we can’t raise prices even by the smallest margin? It makes no sense.

    Chipotle is raising the cost of a burrito by 40 cents and the right wing freaked the fuck out. 40 cents.

    ETA: I will note that I dye my own hair to save money and time spent on salon services, but that’s because even the base price for that is expensive, and an incremental increase is not the issue.

  107. 107.

    Low Key Swagger

    @Suzanne: I used to shake my head when Walmart had those stupid “price-slash” signs that read something like, “old price: $2.90, price cut:  now $2.76!
    I get how volume works, but maybe leave the price and add that to the labor pool?  Incentives, bonuses, etc.

  109. 109.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Suzanne: Inflation is another genuine 1970s scourge that people never stopped being afraid of. Inflation a little higher than what we had in the 2000s is probably good for us, but it freaks people out.

  111. 111.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Suzanne:

    Senior citizens in paid for homes raise  their voices as one – “BUT MY FIXED INCOME!”

  113. 113.

    Suzanne

    @Low Key Swagger: I also always wondered who was genuinely persuaded to buy the thing now that it was FOURTEEN WHOLE CENTS cheaper. Like, is there really anyone who was like, “Nope, can’t do it! OH WAIT! Fourteen whole cents! All right, let’s do it!”?

    I am skeptical.

  114. 114.

    Geminid

    @Cheryl Rofer: The rise in homicide did coincide with a spike in gun purchases. I wonder how many people killed others with these newly purchased weapons.

  115. 115.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Matt McIrvin:

    Senior citizens with 60 year old passbook savings accounts or money market funds raise  their voices as one – “BUT MY CASH SAVINGS!!”

  117. 117.

    Soprano2

    @Suzanne: That’s what they need to do, but if it’s a franchise he might not have much control over the prices that are charged. That’s one problem with franchises. I read a long story about Steak n Shake franchisees who were about to riot over the company’s continuation of the $3.99 “value meal menu” that they started during the Great Recession. The franchisees wanted to raise those prices because they were losing money on these items, but the parent company wouldn’t let them, and continued to insist on this pricing long after the recession was over

    My point with all of this is that the possible solutions aren’t always as clear-cut as we’d like them to be.

  120. 120.

    Soprano2

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:Doesn’t hurt that this country is awash in cheap firearms.

    There was a still-unsolved homicide down the block from where I live. The man killed was acting as a bouncer at a private party, and he was killed around 4 a.m. on a day last summer. Who knows what it was about, but my guess is either drugs or he was trying to break up a fight between two people. It seems to me that at least here most of the shootings are between people who know each other. I do know of a guy here who works in public works who was hit a few years ago by a stray bullet that was fired into the air down the block from him by a man who was fighting with his wife. *sheesh

  121. 121.

    TomatoQueen

    Chain hair salons intersect with American tip culture, which the rest of the world does not understand and therefore points their collective judgy finger. Remember to tip your server, AND your stylist, especially when the rates posted on the wall are about half what they are at the salon downtown, where there’s a small business owner and three stylists who rent their stations–they’re not employees.

  122. 122.

    Suzanne

    @Soprano2: Then the corporate parent can continue to harm the business, until it is no longer a viable business, if they’re that dumb, and the franchise owner can accept it as part of the risk of franchising.

    Business entails risk. Why should that be borne solely by those who work for a paycheck?

  123. 123.

    MattF

    Somewhat OT WaPo column on how TFG’s lawsuit against NYC about a golf course may be a very bad idea. Of course any resolution of the issues in the suit is a long way off, and the likelihood of TFG changing his ways is zero.

  124. 124.

    Soprano2

    @Low Key Swagger: My husband was upset that his barber went from $8 to $9! And yeah, he can afford it. For me, it’s an every six week expense, and I pay a good amount for an experienced stylist who owns his own shop with a partner.

  125. 125.

    Soprano2

    @Suzanne: I know, all I’m saying is that it’s not always the fault of the business owner who’s there on the ground trying to cope with it. I’m somewhat frustrated with the idea I hear everywhere that these problems are easy to solve by changing just one thing. I hear it constantly from people who think if only the government would quit giving “those people” so much money, they’d all go to work (that’s literally the first thing out of almost everyone’s mouth when I say anything about the problems hiring people, that and “no one wants to work anymore”). I’m not any happier about it when I hear “Just raise your wages” when it’s more complicated than that.  We have a new cook starting today because he decided that the $17/hr job at Amazon’s warehouse wasn’t what he thought it was, and he didn’t want it after all. We cannot pay him $17/hr, so evidently it’s about more than money, at least for him.

  126. 126.

    Miss Bianca

    @rikyrah:

    @Baud:

    I kept trying to explain to white lefties who were dunking on HRC and howling over the term “super predator” that when I lived in Chicago, most of the black community leaders I knew were *in favor* of the 1992 crime bill. It was like pissing into the wind.

    Context. Context, people. Know your history. Is it really too much to ask?

    (oh, and it always chapped my ass that HRC never even *voted* on that damn bill, unlike Progressive Obi-Wan Bernie Sanders. Another historical contextual element that always seemed to get flushed down the collective memory biffy.)

  127. 127.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: I mean, they have a point–they do get the short end of that stick. But they’re not the only legitimate interest here.

    One difference between now and the 1970s, that I only learned about recently, is that before about 1978 or ’79, savings instruments available to consumers were decoupled from the prime rate. There were regulations strictly limiting them. So the Fed could raise interest rates all they wanted to try to squelch inflation, and while it affected loans and big-money investment, you and I still couldn’t take out a savings account that would pay any of that higher interest. So there was no way to avoid your money rapidly losing value aside from spending it, which sustained the inflationary spiral.

    That situation changed right at the end of the decade (I remember the amazing interest rates you could get on savings accounts and CDs in the early 80s), and it probably helped end stagflation, at least in the US. It doesn’t explain the situation everywhere, but the people pushing this hypothesis claim there were analogous things going on in other countries.

  128. 128.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Anne Laurie: If even the Far-Wrong Vanity Press (b.k.a. Regnery) is sashaying away from TFG, it’s a pretty solid tell that the Global Oligarchs have concluded he’s outlived (in several respects) his usefulness in their long-range program of destroying liberal democracy and installing a plutocratic autocracy worldwide. ​The only service remaining he can do them is to get himself jailed (or dead**) in a manner that riles up his base of mouthdragging knucklebreathing hatemongers to blame the Dummycrats & show up at the polls to vote against them.​

    ** TBH I’m a bit surprised that the GOs haven’t identified a Latino Army vet with significant firearms capability whose relatives were caged and abused at the border, worked on him to amplify his grievances, and told the agents they’ve winnowed into TFG’s SS protection to look the other way when said vet comes for Cheeto Benito…​

  129. 129.

    Starfish

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: This is a true thing. Some of those folks are house poor. That means that changes in their property taxes may mean they can’t afford their food or their medicine. If the surrounding community has increased in value the way their home has, they are not going to be able to downsize without a contingency. No one is even entertaining offers with a contingency at the moment. That is how warped the housing market is right now.

  130. 130.

    Ohio Mom

    That’s not really fair, to make fun of seniors on fixed incomes.

    Sure, there are a lot of very comfortable seniors but there are also scads and scads living on very limited resources. I don’t know the break-out but can only assume the number hanging on by their fingernails will be increasing since pensions are rarer and rarer.

    I agree though that a little more inflation would be good for most of us — would make the debt we hold worth less.

  132. 132.

    Leto

    (Via The Guardian) Revealed: neo-Confederate group includes military officers and politicians

    Leaked membership data from the neo-Confederate Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) organization has revealed that the organization’s members include serving military officers, elected officials, public employees, and a national security expert whose CV boasts of “Department of Defense Secret Security Clearance”.

    …..

    The national membership data was provided to the Guardian by a self-described hacktivist whose identity has been withheld for their safety.

    The data reveals the names, addresses, telephone numbers and email addresses of almost 59,000 past and present members of the organization, including 91 who used addresses associated with government agencies for their contact email, and 74 who used addresses associated with various branches of the armed forces.

    They noticed that the organization’s website had been misconfigured, allowing access to membership rolls, recruiting data, and other information about the internal workings of the group. The website has had the security issue for a number of years, according to the hacktivist.

    The membership data shows members’ names, addresses, telephone numbers, whether they are active or not, and their email addresses.

    The Guardian identified members who were listed as active, and whose contact information included addresses associated with government agencies, the armed forces, educational institutions, and non-government organizations.

    There was some previous reporting on an earlier version of the membership database, made public by Atlanta Antifa, which noted the presence of Georgia state legislators in the group’s data.

    But the Guardian has found additional legislators, and active members who are in positions of influence and responsibility that stretch far beyond the walls of state legislatures.

  133. 133.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    Steak and Shake struggled to avoid bankruptcy. I know that locally, they’ve been shut down for about three years.

    I assume that the long-running “value” concept was imposed by the lender they recently sued (the times we went, typically before or after a movie, the place seemed like a busy version of hell and overloaded with families with smaller kids).

     

     

    @Suzanne:

  134. 134.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Matt McIrvin: This is partly true, passbook savings accounts were at a set rate, I think it may have been 5%.  But in the mid-70’s, banks and S&L’s introduced Money Market accounts that paid more and I don’t think fell under the same FDIC insurance protections.

  135. 135.

    Soprano2

    @Suzanne:  I also always wondered who was genuinely persuaded to buy the thing now that it was FOURTEEN WHOLE CENTS cheaper.

    It’s a psychological thing. Ask J.C. Penny how well it went for them when they advertised “everyday low prices” and got rid of coupons. People love the idea that they’re getting a deal or a discount.

  136. 136.

    evodevo

    @Anne Laurie: ​
      Yes! Those little suckers have LONG incisors and can bite hard, and they are hyper as hell….believe me…I kept one in my lab for a time, and finally had to turn it loose…NEVER calmed down or became less aggressive…

  139. 139.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Ohio Mom:

    Part of it is rooted in how much I despise the memory of my maternal grandmother, but the other part is this: it is always the “go to” excuse for never paying anyone any more for anything at the consumer-facing end of the economy. I find myself angry and resentful about how America’s white senior citizens fucked up the world and human society with their venality, ignorance and greed; while I will acknowledge that there are many who are kind, empathetic, forward-thinking souls with decent intentions, there are multiples more who are not.

  140. 140.

    Suzanne

    @Soprano2: That’s a different mechanism at play. By getting rid of sales and coupons, Penney’s got rid of the time element. Sales and coupons give a sense of urgency, that if you wait, the deal won’t be there any longer. That has been proven again and again in market research. But that’s not what Walmart is doing with the low prices thing. Those lower prices don’t expire, so it’s not like buying Ziplocs today is going to be a better deal than next week. They’re in service of a different marketing strategy, which is to compete on price all the time so they become identified as the retailer of choice for price-sensitive people. But again, I have a hard time imagining that margins that small affect sales significantly. People, even pretty impoverished people, routinely drop fourteen cents on the ground and can’t be bothered to pick it up.

  143. 143.

    Low Key Swagger

    Soprano2 makes an excellent point about franchise limitations.  As a former restaurant owner I can’t even imagine not having control of what I buy and from whom, or what to charge for the product.  But I didn’t own a franchise either.  Franchise rules are like HOA rules to me…I want nothing to do with them.

  145. 145.

    Low Key Swagger

    @Suzanne: Around here businesses that deal with a lot of cash sales routinely have a little plate or jar next to the register with a “need a penny, take a penny” sign.  I am always shocked when I see it piled high with quarters and dimes as well as smaller denominations.  As someone who spent years doing laundry at public laundromats, I have to stop myself from filching those damn quarters!  I agree that even those on a fixed income can afford to either A) pay a few cents more, or B) do without said thing if it’s not a necessity.

  146. 146.

    evodevo

    @Soprano2: ​
      Yeah…we had an incident here in KY where a disgruntled kid who was thrown out of a party came back with a gun and started blasting away…luckily no one was hurt.

  147. 147.

    Soprano2

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: I worked with a woman who ran a women’s clothing boutique. She said that when she had an item or items that weren’t moving well, she’d put them on a display in the window, and the items would just fly out of the store! We all think stuff like that doesn’t work on us, but they wouldn’t do it if it didn’t work on most people.

  148. 148.

    Soprano2

    @Suzanne: I don’t know, I pick up pennies. LOL We have a “found money” piggy bank, because we were curious about how much found money you can actually accumulate. We’ve been over $20 for awhile now.  I take your point, but I still think it’s as much psychological as anything – “see, it’s a price drop, I should buy it here rather than at store ‘x'”. I told hubby you have to be careful; you can’t always assume WalMart has the lowest prices. What we’ve noticed is that WalMart has more higher-end type of stuff, and less of the truly bargain items. I’m not sure what that’s about, since their identity is the being low price leader.

  149. 149.

    Soprano2

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: it is always the “go to” excuse for never paying anyone any more for anything at the consumer-facing end of the economy.

    Also, you get all kinds of discounts just for being older! I don’t even try to get those discounts, even though I turned 60 this year, because I don’t want to have to show my driver’s license all the time (trust me, you’d never believe I was 60 if you could see me).

  152. 152.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Baud: A large swath of the Progressive Left seems to be very much in denial about how moderate (and even conservative) Black and other Voters-of-Color, are in reality.  They assume that these voters will jump onboard Defund the Police, Prison Abolition, Abolish ICE, etc. but those policies get significant skepticism from communities of color.  Our favorite Black Twitter Activists are not representative of their community (especially their older voters) on this stuff.

  153. 153.

    dww44

    @debbie: Same here.  Mostly gang related, some drugs.  Sadly, 90% of victims and perpetrators are young, very young, Black men and teens.  We are having our highest homicide rate maybe ever in this now minority-majority small city.

  155. 155.

    Geminid

    @Betty Cracker: It seems that in Virginia these moderately conservative Republicans and Independents haven’t had a problem voting for Democrats this past decade. They are not ideological so much as pragmatic: they want government and society to work. The bible thumpers and tea party cranks who now dominate the Virginia Republican party are as unpragmatic as they come. I think the Country Club/Chamber of Commerce types who used to call the shots are waiting the radicals out, hoping that after getting crushed a couple more cycles the crazies devolop a more realistic view of politics, or just give up and drop out.

    In a few states like Maryland, Massachusetts, and Vermont, the “fiscally conserative, socially liberal” Republicans and Independents have managed to elect similar Republicans as Governors. But these are exceptions. The realignment that took place from the 1970s on has just about wiped out the Republican Party in the Northeast. It used to dominate New England.

    Democratic Governor Beshear of Kentucky is a similar outlier in the Republican controlled South, but on the other side.

  158. 158.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @UncleEbeneezer:

    My perception based on anecdotal observations has always been that those older black women who vote with conviction are not sympathetic to the messages of “blow it all up” white saviors, but do want to be able to participate in the good things the economy and polity have to offer – hence the high voting rate.

  159. 159.

    Suzanne

    @Soprano2:

    What we’ve noticed is that WalMart has more higher-end type of stuff, and less of the truly bargain items. I’m not sure what that’s about, since their identity is the being low price leader. 

    The problem with being a low-price leader is that then a brand becomes associated with poor people in the minds of many customers and then middle-class people will turn away from it. So it becomes a bit of a spiral for those companies who try to get in on that part of the market. McDonald’s has been trying to appeal to both the low-price customers as well as the middle-class customers and still can’t square that circle.

  160. 160.

    Geminid

    @Geminid: Nationally, the radicalization of the Republican party is a problem. My hope is that they marginilize themselves like they have in Virginia. This may happen. If Democrats deliver good governance, and overcome Republican election theft, I could see us holding Congress and the White House the next three Presidential cycles. The radicals would still be a problem, but they would be a Republican problem.

  162. 162.

    debbie

    @dww44:

    Also, tons of carjackings and grab-and-run crimes involving elderly women and their handbags. These are mostly young people too.

  163. 163.

    germy

    @debbie:

    Trump wants a bigger advance than Obama got from his publisher.

    Since no publisher will pay Trump that much, the deal is off.

  164. 164.

    CaseyL

    A fixed income  is a problem if you own a home in a hot real estate market.  The townhouse I live in has appreciated in taxable value by nearly 400%: the property tax has gone from high three-digits to low-middle four digits.  It’s not a problem so far – I’m still working FT – but could become one in the future.

    And seniors on fixed incomes who need to pay HOA fees, or assessments, can also see those things price them out of their homes.

    This happens with heartbreaking frequency.

  165. 165.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Suzanne:

    When I think of “low price leader”, I get grumpy about the reformulation of Tilex soap scum remover.  It was the finest product of all time of any and all products of any type (soap scum just melted off walls – it was worth allowing some buildup just to watch. Was also great for removing engine grease from skin).  It was pricey, though.  They reformulated it so that it has about as much effect as a bar of soap in removing soap scum, and dropped the price by about half.

    Feh.

  167. 167.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @CaseyL:

    Playing devil’s advocate, could that not be the hint that it is time to downsize if one wants to maintain a pre-retirement standard of living?

    Or perhaps, it could be a hint that we overprivilege real estate holdings in the income and corporate tax codes, thereby driving up market prices for the purpose of local tax assessments.

  168. 168.

    NotMax

    @Suzanne

    McDonald’s took a bath on the ‘high end’ Arch Deluxe. Corporate institutional memory is long.

    Instead of seeing a fun-loving Ronald McDonald dancing around with kids, TV viewers saw commercials of kids grimacing in disgust at the latest McDonald’s burger. This new burger, dubbed the Arch Deluxe, was supposed to appeal to adult tastes with a secret mustard-mayonnaise sauce. That’s right: McDonald’s — the symbol of fast, low-priced American food — was seeking the sophisticated, urban demographic.
    [snip]
    Mickey D’s spent more money on the Arch Deluxe advertising campaign than it had on any other — $100 million — making the sandwich a pricey mistake. Source

    Other sources cite it was closer to $150 million or $200 million pissed away.

  169. 169.

    Geminid

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: During last year’s Presidential primaries, I was struck by the way Black Democrats had their feet on the ground in a way many white Democrats, myself included, did not. And in the Great Lefty/Democrat Twitter Debate going on now, it seems that some of the most forceful and articulate people standing up for Democrats are Black people. These include the earnest Sasha Beauloux, the level headed Chris Evans, and the sarcastic Ragnarok Lobster, among many others.

  170. 170.

    Baud

    @Geminid:

    Lefty Twitter pushes a high risk/high reward political strategy.

    The problem is that the “high risk” part disproportionately falls on people who are not the proponents of that strategy.

  172. 172.

    Baud

    @NotMax:

    It was because of that experience that the company shelved their plan to introduce a McBeef Wellington to the menu.

  173. 173.

    NotMax

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    There’s a pump spray product called (IIRC) Wet ‘n’ Forget which is superb for that purpose.

    Bought some for Mom to keep among the cleaning supplies a few years back. First time it was put to use by her housekeeper on the glass shower stall, that lady ran out to where I was and planted a big wet kiss on me for introducing her to a product that made the task so much easier.

    You might have to go to a hardware or big box store to find it.

  174. 174.

    scav

    @Suzanne: I’ve rather a feeling that the trick is having the reputation  of being the low-price leader but not actually delivering on it.  People tend not to check.  My mother is repeatedly stunned that AMZN doesn’t have the lowest prices on things.  I can’t even remember if that ever was a thing with them, even before they became the digital face of every wish-price vender.

  176. 176.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @scav:

    AMZN has some things that no big box retailer can compete with in terms of gaining my retail dollars – I shop from home with a click, quick delivery AND really responsive customer service on returns.  That’s worth paying a little more.

    I hate box stores.

  177. 177.

    rikyrah

    @UncleEbeneezer:

     

    I have a friend who lives in Washington Heights.
    Very involved with the community. They had a Mayoral forum. You want to know the ONLY topic they had for discussion?
    QUALITY OF LIFE issues.
    They have drag racing at all hours of the night – has already killed someone.
    Fireworks – every damn night
    ATV’s going up and down the street

    These were their issues. Quality of life.

    I wish someone would say ‘ Defund the Police’ in front of her. She gets up and goes to work everyday. She believes that she has the right to live in a peaceful neighborhood without leaving the city.

  178. 178.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Baud: @rikyrah: For most of us whose neck is on the line, BS, meemaw, the Squad and assorted rose emojis and “progressive” (read BS sycophants ) journobros is not where its at. We recognize them for what they are. Mirror image of the Orange One on the left. Their entire message centers on the grievances of white people just like you know who. They would be willing to sell us down the river for M4A and free college and we know that.

    It will never not be funny when white ladies of Balloon Juice  tell me that I don’t understand the unique danger the Orange One and his party of miscreants poses to me and mine. Is this what they call privilege the utter inability to put yourself in the shoes of someone else?

    Had he been reelected I have not the slightest doubt that he would have gone after GC holders their citizen children, naturalized citizens and their children. And the ability of citizens to sponsor spouses and parents for citizenship would also have been on the chopping block.

  180. 180.

    rikyrah

    @schrodingers_cat:

     

    Had he been reelected I have not the slightest doubt that he would have gone after GC holders their citizen children, naturalized citizens and their children. And the ability of citizens to sponsor spouses and parents for citizenship would also have been on the chopping block.

     

    No doubt whatsoever.

  182. 182.

    Nelle

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Have you looked at the price of real estate to downsize lately?  Many end up paying the same price and having similar taxes as their larger houses now.

    I hear there are some cheap houses to be had in small town, western Kansas, but there are no health services there either.  Even being pushed out of the center of cities means that we get more dependent on cars just when many of us shouldn’t be driving so much.

    I know that you regularly evince disdain for those of us here who are older.  Individually, none of us shaped our context and cohort any more than you are doing for yours.  Can you tone down the generalizing from personal experience a bit?

    We live in a society that has prized profit over people since its beginning and all generations suffer, as a whole, so a small slice can profit wildly.

  183. 183.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Geminid: In a few states like Maryland, Massachusetts, and Vermont, the “fiscally conserative, socially liberal” Republicans and Independents have managed to elect similar Republicans as Governors. But these are exceptions.​

    In MD, the GOP has won 3 of the last 5 gubernatorial elections. In those 3 elections (2002, 2014, 2018) Democrats have nominated a white woman (RFK’s daughter Kathleen, 2002) and two black males (Anthony Brown, 2014; Ben Jealous, 2018). In the two elections the Democrats won (2006, 2010) their nominee was a white male (Martin O’Malley).
    The problem with MD is twofold. (1) Despite Democrats holding a 60-40 registration advantage, as many as 10% of them are white DINOs who would crawl over their dying grandmothers to vote against a POC (or a woman Democrat if a male Rethuglican is available); and (as elsewhere) many “independents” are really Thugs ashamed to admit it. (2) African-Americans effectively control the Democratic gubernatorial nomination; in 2018 two AA candidates (Jealous and Rushden Baker, PG County Executive)divided nearly 70% of the (closed) primary vote between them.**

    The dilemma for MD Democrats is that if their AA majority nominate one of their own for governor, enough DINO-bigots could easily come crawling out from under their rocks in the general election to elect the Republican. Frankly, to return the Governorship to the Democrats, we need to nominate a Biden-clone, a white male whom African-Americans can trust to represent their wishes – and I honestly don’t know of anyone in contemporary MD politics who fits the bill.​
    ​
    ** It might have been a different matter had the one credible non-POC candidate, Kevin Kamenetz, outgoing Baltimore County Executive, not died of cardiac arrest at age 61 less than 7 weeks before the primary.
    ​

  185. 185.

    Quiltingfool

    @Soprano2: I pick up pennies too!  I just can’t help myself.

    On the topic of sales marketing, I think coupons, sales, etc. influence people to buy something now that they might put off buying, or they forget to buy it at a later date.  My Etsy quilt store has been in a slump since March.  Now, I’m not saying the quilts were flying out of the store, but I would sell one or two items a month, and I’m okay with that.  Anyway, Etsy suggested coupons.  So I chose to offer 10% off to folks who put an item in their cart, or favorited an item or if they bought a quilt, they could get 10% off their next purchase.  All of a sudden, several quilts are in carts and I just shipped one today.

    This may not be a great business practice, but I make quilts because I love doing it.  I could quit anytime I want (hmmm, sounds like an addiction, lol).  These quilts have to go somewhere, and not in my spare room.  My costs are covered.  My time, eh, not making much per hour, but my joy in quilting outweighs that part.  Shoot, I spent most of yesterday working up a quilt design – it has cats in it, surprise, surprise!

  186. 186.

    Geminid

    @Baud: I don’t keep count, but it seems like the lefties showing up on twitter are at least 60% male. Most of these do not seem to feel the urgent threat to women’s rights that woman Democrats do. And while they champion the working class in the abstract, they don’t appreciate what Biden and the Democrats have done and sre trying to do for working people.

    And they prioritize issues like M4A and student loan cancellation over more critical issues like voter suppression. They talk up the Democrat’s voting rights legislation, but mainly as an example of the feckless Democratic leadership enabling “conservadems” Manchin and Sinema.

    Next year, these folks will be all over the Justice Democrats primary contests in blue districts. But when it comes to crucial Senate races in North Carolina, Ohio, Arizona, and Georgia, they will likely sit on the sidelines and gripe. Except if John Fetterman is the nominee in Pennsylvania; they will wholeheartedly back him, even as they ignore the others. But that wouldn’t neccesarily be Fetterman’s fault.

  188. 188.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Nelle: Thank you. I’m [getting] old, have no pension, and have already downsized to reduce present and future costs. My savings are decent but less than they might have been, had I pursued a corporate instead of a social-justice oriented nonprofit career. The generational attacks by a so-called liberal are unhelpful at best.

  189. 189.

    Ken

    @Baud: The problem is that the “high risk” part disproportionately falls on people who are not the proponents of that strategy.

    The “I’m willing to break a few other people’s eggs to get my omelet” approach.

  190. 190.

    lashonharangue

    @rikyrah:

    “QUALITY OF LIFE issues.”

    I don’t think most white liberals realize how much of the Broken Windows concept was about quality of life issues. Assume it is the same thing as Stop and Frisk.

  191. 191.

    Soprano2

    @schrodingers_cat:Had he been reelected I have not the slightest doubt that he would have gone after GC holders their citizen children, naturalized citizens and their children. And the ability of citizens to sponsor spouses and parents for citizenship would also have been on the chopping block.

    No doubt, considering they were going through the files of naturalized citizens with a fine-toothed comb looking for an out-of-place or missing comma or period as an excuse to strip citizenship from people. I agree that the Bernie people are not nearly pragmatic enough for me; they want things to happen all at once, and complain bitterly whenever there is any kind of incremental progress. “Pissing inside the tent” comes to mind. I think some of them have lived in liberal areas all their lives, and have no idea how they come across to people in places like where I live. Even most of the liberals here cringe at the way they act.

  192. 192.

    Another Scott

    @Uncle Cosmo: Tom Perez is apparently trying to be that lighter-shade candidate.

    Congratulations @TomPerez & best of luck! t.co/scfz5z4q9T— Jaime Harrison, DNC Chair (@harrisonjaime) June 23, 2021

    (Someone mentioned that former US Sec. of Education John King is also running. He was secretary a few months before Obama’s term ended.)

    Here’s hoping the best candidate catches fire. Governor is an important job and the GQPers have shown how much damage they can do. Even “moderate” Hogan messed around a lot with the Purple Line, cancelled the Red Line in Baltimore, etc., etc….

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  193. 193.

    StringOnAStick

    @Kelly: it’s hot here on the other side of Santiam pass, but we’re fortunate to have a large Ponderosa shading the South side of the house, the garage is on that side so it’s a buffer, and the neighbours have another tall Ponderosa shading our West side; one story and the AC seems efficient and the house well insulated.  Still, it peaked at 107 outside yesterday.  Our friend who runs paving crews started work at 5 am today so they can be done before it gets over 100 at 1.  We don’t know how he can stand it. Just getting back to a more typical 90 for this time of year would be nice

  194. 194.

    J R in WV

    @Anne Laurie: ​
     

    Chipmunks are hard to catch, or to keep. Experienced cats take as much pride in a dead chipmunk as an experienced human hunter does in a trophy buck!

    Absolutely true this! We used to have a grey tabby cat we called Timidthy, because as a kitten the grown cat tormented him so he was pretty shy.

    Tim learned to bring rodents into the house and let them go in the bathtub. He didn’t have to injure them to keep them from escaping, and he could play with them for quite a while.

    I learned to look carefully at his mouth when he wanted in. If his voice was muffled at all, if he had his head ticked down, be warned. Then one day he brought in a sparrow, which he released in the bathtub. He was so confused and upset when it just flew up and away!

    He was a great hunter, and only very rarely caught a chipmunk.

  195. 195.

    Geminid

    @Uncle Cosmo: I think Kathleen Kennedy Townsend would have won the Governor’s race if she had picked a Black Marylander as running mate, instead of a Republican male.    This was not so consequential a bonehead play as when Al Gore picked Joe Lieberman for VP. When he could have chosen Senator Bob Graham of Florida.

  196. 196.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Geminid: Might, might not. That election showed for all the world that the vaunted Kennedy political machine wasn’t all that much – unforced errors all over the place. There was some talk of O’Malley (just finishing his first term as Mayor) challenging her for the nomination – hell, Martin’s dad Tom asked me what I thought of the idea at his St. Patrick’s Day party –  and I thought it smacked too much of “young dude in a hurry.” And – I have no evidence of this, but – I suspect that the Kennedys told MOM that unless he stayed out they’d squash any chances for him to fundraise out-of-state for future campaigns.

    Which is kind of a shame, because once on a debate platform it would’ve taken the audience about 90 seconds to know who had the real Kennedy charisma – hint: not the one with the genes – and it might’ve spared The Free State four years of Bobby Bowl-Cut Ehrlich, whom Martin subsequently thrashed twice.

  197. 197.

    J R in WV

    @Quiltingfool:

    On the topic of sales marketing, I think coupons, sales, etc. influence people to buy something now that they might put off buying, or they forget to buy it at a later date. My Etsy quilt store has been in a slump since March.

    Here’s a suggestion for free publicity… put the link to your Etsy store in the “Website” field when you comment. Once will save it IIRC. It’s right below the email field, and will turn your Balloon Juice Nym into a link to your quilt store.

  199. 199.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    @Starfish:The desire for more babies is all racial panic that white people are going to be outnumbered. They want more white babies even though they are not saying white when they say it.

    Exactly. Plus it has the added benefit of putting women in their place who either don’t want or only want a limited number of kids.

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