Psaki at the end of her response to a question about former President Trump's social media lawsuit and Section 230: "I think it's safe to say that the president spends a lot less time obsessing over social media than the former president."
— Jennifer Epstein (@jeneps) July 8, 2021
… is all we can do.
Everyone’s on edge right now, not least because of this AGW* weather. Some of us want this to be a safe space where we can vent, and some of us want it to be a safe space where they don’t have to face such venting, and some (I suspect the majority) are quietly flinching every time a potentially ‘touchy’ comment posts.
Let’s make an effort to remember that this particular Place Where Everybody Knows Your Name is for grownups, and partisans, so neither random violent insults for insults’ sake or the performative clutching of pearls is really in the traditions of the blog.
* I am trying to turn this acronym into a substitute for obscene substitions: AGW the AGWing corporations responsible for this AGWery!
Meanwhile, among the grownups:
With voting rights under attack across the country, it’s more important than ever that we act. Today, the Vice President and I met with civil rights leaders to discuss how we protect the sacred right to vote and ensure everyone can make their voice heard at the ballot box. pic.twitter.com/NwcSCueqRF
— President Biden (@POTUS) July 9, 2021
@VP says “we are going to assemble the largest voter protection team we have ever had to ensure all Americans can vote” as she announces expansion of DNC voting rights campaign
— Mario Parker (@MarioDParker) July 8, 2021
The Biden administration unveils new efforts to help protect voting rights to counter several Republican-led state legislatures which have restricted access to the ballot. https://t.co/mcCl9p7yNn
— The Associated Press (@AP) July 9, 2021
Like I said, everybody’s on edge…
… President Joe Biden met with civil rights leaders in the West Wing, while Vice President Kamala Harris announced $25 million in new spending by the Democratic National Committee to support efforts to protect voting access ahead of the 2022 midterm elections.
Biden and his team have touted ongoing legal efforts and have repeatedly promised a major legislative push on voting rights after Senate Republicans blocked a sweeping election reform bill last month. The president last week told reporters that he planned on “speaking extensively” on voting rights and that he would be “going on the road on this issue.”
So far, a major speech has not happened and a trip has not occurred, leading to rising frustration from those in his own party who view the GOP crackdown on voting rights as an existential threat to both Democrats and democracy.
That pressure has only mounted after a Supreme Court decision limited the ability of minorities to challenge state laws that Democrats say are discriminatory under the Voting Rights Act. Biden has brought in outside advocates for meetings at the White House and has consulted advisers on the best strategy for combating restrictive new laws…
Although not abandoning hope of a legislative solution, the West Wing has been shifting focus to other measures to protect the vote, including legal remedies pursued by the Department of Justice and in individual states, according to the officials. There also will be an emphasis on boosting voter turnout, with aides pointing to the successes Democrats had in getting out votes last year during the height of the pandemic…
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
Progress, of a sort.
In this feel-good story, a cop fucked around and found out. Up to about a few years ago, the citizen who rendered justice would have been arrested, beaten and tased, maybe to death.
https://www.counton2.com/news/national-news/off-duty-knoxville-officer-knocked-unconscious-after-racist-remarks/?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=socialflow&fbclid=IwAR3gIm6NjISc5sPfQ6oJCdbGEv2_BO7iMA6Qs7U6CCpA4OsobjBu8jST_XA
Mary G
It is a very hard time. I have been super depressed and feeling hopeless even though I always try not to give into it. Have so much I want to get done and just sitting around not doing anything.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Mary G: I saw an article in Salon this morning that said we’ve been traumatized by Trump, which you knew, but also that trauma can last longer than you think, especially since we fear his ongoing influence. So maybe that’s a factor.
I hear you though. I tend toward depression anyway, so it’s an ongoing battle.
Spanky
@Mary G: These things are not unrelated. Get going and do something, even if it’s just cleaning up the garden.
Just start one thing.
You don’t have to go from doing nothing to running (figuratively) flat out.
Just start.
Baud
I for one am always glad you came.
JPL
@Mary G: We are so fortunate to have leaders of the country that care for all us, and that should make us proud. It’s hard sometimes and I find myself wobbling back and forth. After reading about voting rights being stripped from us, I found myself wanting to do harm to those who don’t believe in majority rules.
We do need to support each other. Take care.
germy
(Tucker Carlson)
germy
Frankensteinbeck
What I have learned from the Biden administration is that good government takes time, both in the executive and legislative branches. Destruction is fast, creation is slow. And at least half the stuff Trump tried was overturned in the courts not because it was illegal, but because he and his goons were too impatient to follow the lengthy process.
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Our brains are waiting for the abuser to come back, and good times just emphasize the trauma victim’s belief that the trauma will return.
Chief Oshkosh
Wait, what? NOW ya tells me. Not fair!
Baud
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
I don’t want this to sound unsympathetic to people who are sincerely struggling, but I’m still running off the high I got when we kicked Trump’s ass.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@germy: Doesn’t “not smart enough for a real job” describe pretty much everybody at Fox and on the Wingnut Welfare circuit?
Projection. Always projection.
I must have missed the memo. I’m unable to decode this. Awfully Geeky and Weird? Anti-Government Wanker? Allegedly Gross and Wild?
Baud
@Chief Oshkosh:
Random violent clutching of pearls is still allowed.
narya
@Mary G: Hugs if you want ’em . . . sometimes I just focus on the smallest possible task. And then I pick another small task. (And I mean things like “put away the shoes near the front door,” or “put that one glass in the kitchen,” not “solve world peace”). ANY thing. Or maybe a walk? Dunno. Trying not to be hlepy here–if you lived near me I’d make you a beverage and invite you to sit on the porch and contemplate the nasturtiums that are blooming and the basil that’s growing, and later I’d make a snack for you
ETA: the one thing that has been a reliable help to me is exercise
ETAETA: but mostly? I see you. I’m sending you good thoughts.
germy
Low Key Swagger
Well, somebody (purposefully not naming because it’s not helpful) made a pretty innocuous remark yesterday that I believe was aiming for humor, and someone else immediately jumped in with “Oh so you’re okay with (this crime) as long as it’s directed at our enemies!!!!!” It was unnecessary and I see it more and more. It’s a shame really.
My particular bitch this morning is the amount of time that MJ spent on JD Vance and former guy’s love/hate relationship. Have they learned nothing? This props them both up, or at least gives oxygen where a vacuum might be better. I read somewhere long ago that Joe S. has enormous editorial and staffing control over MSNBC and that it was he who muscled out Dan Abrams (thank FSM). I could be wrong. But they helped propel TFG in 2016 and they keep doing the same stupid stuff.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
I am currently, for the first time since March 2020, sitting inside my favorite cafe with a cup of coffee by my side. It feels strange. I’m not sure I want to go back to spending quite as much time here as I used to pre-pandemic, but it’s kind of nice to sit here for a moment.
I’ve never been a regular at a bar, I have no points of reference to Cheers. Anyway this is a dry town and there aren’t any bars. But this place was like that. In fact the only other clients at the moment are three of the old regulars who used to be here ALL THE FREAKING TIME, sitting at their old table.
Anne Laurie
Anthropomorphic Global Warming / Weather. But it sounds like an obscenity, doesn’t it?
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone ???
mrmoshpotato
@germy: ”The amount and frequency of food has been sorely lacking, and glasses of water exist to be knocked over and run away from.”
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I’ve been busy the last few days… sounds like I missed some drama.
FelonyGovt
@germy: Not to mention the complete lack of any transition assistance from the outgoing (mal)administration.
germy
We’re working on it. We’re going to outvote them.
germy
@mrmoshpotato:
One of the replies:
Starfish
@Frankensteinbeck: I get so frustrated every time lazy journalists ask, “Why doesn’t Biden perform government for us the way that Trump did?”
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
Betty Cracker
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Didn’t see the Salon article, but I agree we’ve all been traumatized by Trump and the madness he unleashed. I also believe many of us have been traumatized by the pandemic, which Trump’s incompetence and malevolence exacerbated. I know living through this weird, dystopian nightmare hasn’t improved my mood! :)
Matt McIrvin
@Baud:
The whole business just makes me think of how close to a defeat that was, even though the popular-vote margin was huge. Any number of things going just slightly differently could have reelected Trump. And we only took “control” of the Senate by the skin of our teeth, and it’s control so weak that it hardly matters. Meanwhile the other side is openly plotting to cheat Trump back into office while loudly claiming that it’s legit and we’re the cheaters.
NotMax
Illegitimi non carborundum. Snatch back some time to sit back, unwind, enjoy the simple pleasure of a few deep breaths and recharge by finger snapping along with it.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Anne Laurie: Cripes. I’m glad someone asked because I couldn’t decipher it either
Baud
@germy: More projection from the right. Trump was handed the fruits of Obama’s presidency.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
The same is true for Trump’s win in 2016. Do you think the GOP spent time worrying about it? Close wins are wins. You build on them, you don’t waste time pondering alternative histories.
mrmoshpotato
That was infuriating.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
See the Cori Bush tweet above. Her attitude doesn’t just apply to black women and girls.
Chief Oshkosh
@Spanky
@Mary G:
Depression breeds inactivity and inactivity breeds depression. I am just coming out of it now — started at Thanksgiving. Everyday for months I just could not get started. Just barely got out of bed, and then just barely got through the day.
As Spanky says, just try to start one thing. I know that getting that ONE thing started is a major, maybe THE major, hurdle. Make that one thing easy to start. My “one thing” was sending an email to an old friend just to say hi. That developed into a call, which then went to a lunch on my porch (socially distanced, natch).
Good luck. You are not alone.
Josie
Anne Laurie, you are a jewel and absolutely indispensable to the high standards of this blog. It would not be the same without you. Thanks for this message.
germy
Starfish
@Anne Laurie: I hate to be THAT person, but I think you meant “anthropogenic.”
I was having a hard time deciphering it from the post so I am glad that you spelled it out for us.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Josie
@Chief Oshkosh:
This is so true. Early this week I called three friends with whom I had lost touch over the last year. They all responded with delight and I felt tons better after the conversations. We are, even the introverts among us, truly social creatures.
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
The GOP controlled government and only accomplished one thing legislatively — tax cuts for the rich using reconciliation. We control the government and so far have only accomplished one thing legislatively — the Rescue Plan using reconciliation. But the GOP is strong and tough and we are weak. Those are the rules.
Jeffro
@germy: I watched the Miller clip and at only 9 seconds, it’s hard to tell exactly what he’s referring to (the excellent ‘hand’ trumpov dealt Biden) but it’s clear that in addition to 1/6 never happening and the 2020 election being completely stolen by roving hordes of ballot-stuffing Antifa, the pandemic started on Biden’s watch.
Sure enough!
A Ghost to Most
“I hope I die before I get old.”
Jeffro
In regards to the Administration gearing up to protect voting rights: GOOD. That and the 1/6 commission are all I want to hear about for the next 16 months.
Well, besides all of the trumpov investigations/indictments/etc. But seriously: voting rights, 1/6, voting rights, 1/6, voting rights, 1/6.
Mom Says I*m Handsome
AGW = Anthropogenic Global Warming — climate change induced by human activity. The “anthropogenic” is used (futilely, of course) to head off the counter arguments about sunspots, volcanoes, and recurring ice ages.
ETA What Starfish said.
Baud
And here I thought AGW referred to the theory that global warming was caused by spiders.
Kathleen
Starfish
@Jeffro: One thing that I don’t understand is “What implication does the recent supreme court attempt to further destroy the voting rights act have on the administration’s attempt to preserve voting rights?”
germy
@Jeffro:
They have an uncanny talent for creating their own reality, and making their base believe it.
mrmoshpotato
@Mom Says I*m Handsome:
And roving bands of gassy extra terrestrials farting high up in our atmosphere then flying away.
Cermet
The NYT has an informative (but overall, grossly lacking in addressing the future issues) on the fact that night time lows are moving upward – in fact, setting records more often than day time highs. That this will prove the absolutely deadliest aspect of AGW (aka as human induced global warming) is critical to understand. Ocean rise, heavier storms, and other related issues pale in comparison for the human race. This fact will force not hundreds of millions of billions (note the plural) into leaving their homes in search of cooler regions. How these people will eat/produce food is not something that I can see any answer to. This calamity facing the human race is the elephant in the AGW room..
Dorothy A. Winsor
For folks looking for a short series to watch, I just finished “Vanity Fair” on Amazon Prime. I thought it was well done.
Betty Cracker
@Jeffro: I love that he’s so bitter about it though. Choke on bile, Miller, you grotesque, sociopathic ghoul! :)
prostratedragon
@germy: Only in the sense that almost anything he would do was bound to be greeted with pathetic relief by an exhausted nation. Or make that world.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Frankensteinbeck:
not to be That Guy, but we should have been able to remember that from the Obama administration. Prime example is repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”. The Blogosphere (remember that word?) wanted an executive order, Obama wanted a law, because of the pathologies of the Senate, he needed Joe Lieberman to pass it. Slow and complicated and frustrating, but it worked, and trump couldn’t overturn it.
Well put.
Ohio Mom
Mary G:
I’m going to suggest an alternative/complementary approach: please rule out any biological causes to your doldrums.
I learned that in a support group for families with autistic members, don’t assume everything is “behavior,” there may be a medical reason for whatever you are worried about.
I know for me that the hormone-blocker I take to prevent a breast-cancer recurrence saps my energy. That doesn’t mean I don’t have to use the tricks on myself like “just do one small thing,” but it helps me in keeping a slightly better outlook.
Kathleen
@narya: I do the same thing Narya. Most important thing this moment? Brush teeth. Stretch. Put on workout clothes. One. Thing. At. A. Time. Agree with exercise. Which ranges from hard run to just show up and move for 30 minutes.
Jeffro
@germy: speaking of which, the Faux News morning crew was actually bemoaning the Biden Administration’s CONSTANT focus on vaccinations…like, are you kidding me???!?
“Who does President Biden think he is, constantly talking vaccine this and ‘get your shots’ that? Pushy lib!” (not an actual quote of course but still).
Unbelievable.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Jeffro: missed it yesterday but just saw these tweets….
a reminder that Rupert Murdoch, probably with some strings pulled hard, had a ten car motorcade (at least that’s how I remember it) take him to get vaxxed as soon as it was not-quite-humanly possible
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Jeffro:
“Why won’t Biden just let our viewers die?”
germy
@Jeffro:
Vaccinations are the reason they’re able to sit safely with each other in their studio and criticize the vaccination effort.
Starfish
@mrmoshpotato:
The climate change newsletters that you read sound more entertaining than the ones I read.
Mel
@Dorothy A. Winsor: @Dorothy A. Winsor: I enjoyed it, too,
I’ve been watching “Escape to the Chateau” (streaming for free on Peacock; HGTV has it as well, but the HGTV version has condensed episodes and thus is missing a lot of the fun). It helps to lift my mood. Light, charming in good sort of way, and hopeful. Basically, you get to watch a deserted, neglected French Chateau being slowly brought back to life by a couple of very creative and likable people. Bonus beautiful garden restoration, and cute cats on the periphery.
Kathleen
@Betty Cracker: The malevolence of Trump and GQP along with some in media saturate the airwaves and produce a toxic white noise which will insinuate in our bones of we let it
sab
OT:Voces thermometer started yesterday morning slightly above $8000 and now it is over $12,000.
Betty Cracker
@Baud: I feel terrible for even thinking this, but I almost wish the goddamned virus would mutate in such a way to wipe those fuckers out. I know biology doesn’t work that way, and it’s much more likely to continue to mutate in a manner that makes the vaccines less effective. But I’m so tired of these whiny shits dragging the rest of us down, I’m at the “just fucking die already” stage.
Kathleen
@Josie: I love AL!
Frankensteinbeck
@Betty Cracker:
No, thankfully, that is the least likely mutation. ‘More deadly’ is in the middle, while the most common is ‘easier to catch’. We’re getting a lot of the ‘easier to catch’ mutations.
zhena gogolia
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
We really enjoyed it. Johnny Flynn was superb.
I saw this morning that North and South is on Britbox now. It’s been highly recommended to me, so I’m looking forward to it.
And thanks again to Cheryl in Maryland for recommending ShakespeaRetold “Taming of the Shrew” with Shirley Henderson and Rufus Sewell — brilliant! I’m going to watch it again (if I survive the flood). Great day to stay home but I agreed to meet a former student at my office at 11:00. Not looking forward to driving, even locally.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Betty Cracker: I just had this discussion with Mr DAW literally five minutes ago. I feel that way too, even though I know it’s both inhuman and illogical because unvaccinated people aren’t risking just their own well-being.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
Life as a working divorce lawyer: an 8:34 am text asking if I’d reviewed last night’s 10:27 PM email showing a timeline of negative custodial events in 2020.
*sigh
smith
This is the damnedest thing, isn’t it? Fox viewers skew old, and they know it. Republican voters skew old, and they know it. By far the age group most likely to die from covid is people 60+. No amount of Republican alternate reality can change those facts. Yet they double down on a coordinated message that can only result in thinning the ranks of their own supporters.
Mel
@narya: Good advice, especially about just getting outside a bit.
Just puttering around in a garden usually helps me. Too sick the past couple of years to do the garden, and feeling its absence. I’m thinking about just buying a few aromatic herbs (basil, maybe, and rosemary and lavender ) and putting them in pots on the porch steps.
Van Buren
@Baud: I would love to hear the FOX response to Biden saying, “Fellow Democrats, please get vaccinated ASAP. “
Uncle Cosmo
Not in the shape of a human, but caused (generated) by humans.
(ETA: Starfish at #38 beat me to it, damnitall. Also Mom Says I*m Handsome at #45.)
You’re very welcome! /pedant
RAM
I don’t like criticism but I don’t let it get to me very much, either. That’s a thing I learned my first year as editor of my hometown weekly newspaper.
I’d written an editorial about the sad quality of hotdogs served in the junior high cafeteria, and one of the cafeteria ladies braced me over the frozen food case at the local grocery store, complaining the edit had been extremely unfair. She’d been a cafeteria lady when I’d been in high school–only the high school had a cafeteria in those days–and I’d gone through nine years of school with her child. After stating her complaint in no uncertain words, she wrapped up by saying, “And you were always such a NICE boy, too!”
It was far from the last time I got complaints at the grocery store, not to mention the gas station, the local diner, and at family gatherings (my uncle was mayor at the time, which made for some interesting episodes). Journalists learn to cultivate the hard bark, which, 40 years later, stands me in good stead here, at other blogs and on Twitter and Facebook.
frosty
That seems to be what I’ve been doing. The weeding is done (for now) and the overgrowth is cut back. Now I’ve turned inside – all those piles of stuff in every corner of every room? Time to clear them out. Some of them have been sitting there for over a year.
And if I ever feel productive again I’ll learn some new songs on the guitar. Right now, though, it feels like work.
Dorothy A. Winsor
How often should you wash your jeans? Some lunatics in this article recommend WAY longer times than I expected.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
When the zombie apocalypse comes, Fox News hosts will all be all:
– Liberals want you to cut off Grandma’s head and destroy her brain over a little infection. It’s just like Nazis.
– Living as a zombie. Is it really so bad?
– Can we really afford the cost to fight the zombies with the economy in free fall? The last thing that we need now is a tax hike.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Mel:
We tried. They baked and won’t grow.
Just One More Canuck
@germy: that cat is almost as judgmental as Tikka
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
As far as I’m concerned, we’ve fulfilled whatever moral obligation we had on this issue. The bureaucrats and health officials still have day-to-day work to do to try to make incremental progress, and we have to recognize that a few people (including kids) haven’t gotten the shot for valid reasons, but the vaccine is widely available and free, so I see no reason to continue fretting about the bad cultural choices that bad people make.
The best thing we can probably do to defeat COVID is start of focus on getting the rest of the world vaccinated.
ETA: I will be interested in seeing what choices people make once the vaccines received their final FDA authorizations and are not in emergency use status.
Frankensteinbeck
@smith:
Because the overall message and their major philosophy is Fuck You. Not I Got Mine, Fuck You. Just Fuck You. Vaccinations are acting for the public good, admitting Democrats are right about anything, bonus points because it’s admitting the Democrats are right about anything when it’s a topic involved in them losing a major election, letting the government tell them what to do, and now that Biden is in charge letting a Democrat succeed. All of this is antithetical to the Republican voter’s morality.
EDIT – Most of them are willing to die and even let their loved ones die for this philosophy, as long as they don’t have to get up out of their chair. If death happens, abuser logic kicks in and it’s the Democrats’ fault.
Mel
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: That might well happen here, as funky hot as it is. Trying to grow them on the kitchen windowsill is a no go, with two hyperactive young cats and an extremely curious oldster cat.
I can’t keep track of how many times we’ve heard an ominous thump, and seen one of the kittehs go flying through the room seconds later, gleefully racing past with the entire plant, roots and all, dangling from its mouth.
It’s equal parts funny and “Oh, no – not again, damn it”.
Obdurodon
@Starfish: What’s frustrating to me is that they expect the same level of entertainment from Biden as from Trump but then they *also* expect Biden to solve every problem (including those Trump created) now now now. They might or might not be the “liberal media” when it comes to issues, but when it comes to *people* the double standard runs quite the other way. IMO it’s down to cowardice. They’re afraid to challenge the mean folks, but they’ll push the nice folks around every chance they get.
NotMax
@Dorothy A. Winsor
A bit o’ jeans washing beguilement for you.
;)
Steeplejack
@Baud:
While I enjoy all of the trouble Trump has had since the election, somehow it feels somewhat like “Ha-ha, the getaway driver got a speeding ticket while taking the bank robbers back to their hideout.” I’m hoping for more substantive trouble.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@NotMax: :-) That was very nice
Baud
@Steeplejack: I would like that too, but it’s hard. One thing Trump does seem good at is taking vaguely and letting others interpret what he wants and do the dirty work. I think Michael Cohen has said that repeatedly.
Cheryl from Maryland
Good News! I insanely volunteered to update the architectural standards for my HOA several months ago. I was recruited into the HOA late last year after using my skills as a museum exhibition developer to show off my knowledge of house paint.
After major battles with my two colleagues on the rewriting committee regarding allowing owners to pick their own style of porch lamps and house numbers and not worrying about garden decor (gnomes), the Board voted in favor of the 20 page document (including stuff like trash pick-up) with only two minor changes. Now I’m free for the summer!
Baud
@Cheryl from Maryland:
What?! You’re not going to enforce the new rules with an iron fist? That’s the best part!
ian
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Between the child tax payments and the amount of Americans in poverty going down in the pandemic the Democratic party has a ton of accomplishment to run on. The trick, as always, is getting our message out front and center to a public that has a million shiny distractions popping in and out of existence.
Jeffro
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
@germy:
“trumpov and Tucker got vaccinated, btw” = bestselling bumper sticker of late 2021 (I wish!)
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Mel:
We can’t keep houseplants for the same reason. The little shits look upon them as the salad course of their meal.
Jeffro
@Cheryl from Maryland: that was very brave and yes insane of you
Having served on three different HOA boards, those days are behind me forever. It’s like having a nice cool breeze that blows on me every time I think about it (the ‘behind me’ part =)
Betty Cracker
@Baud: In this case, the bad choices people make affect innocent people, so it pisses me off. In addition to endangering children who aren’t yet eligible to get vaccinated and folks who are immuno-compromised, the recalcitrant fuck-sticks who refuse vaccination are dragging out vaccine distribution in the US, which will probably delay deployment to other countries, thus prolonging misery on the entire planet. But I suppose it’s pointless to complain about it.
I agree it’ll be interesting to what happens when the vaccines get full FDA approval. I have a feeling a lot of employers/schools and other types of orgs are waiting on that to impose vaccination mandates.
?BillinGlendaleCA
I have the next 4 days off from the home of the orange apron. I’m headed out tomorrow for Little Lakes Valley north of the Owens Valley to shoot the Milky Way at the side of a lake up there. It’s a 5 hour drive, and a two mile hike(at 10,000 feet) to get there. Should be an interesting trip.
Steeplejack
@A Ghost to Most:
Too late for most of us here. ?
Spanky
@Chief Oshkosh: I’m on a high right now for having just replaced a broken toilet handle. Boo yah!
Spanky
@Baud:
Ticks. Ticks are arthropods too.
zhena gogolia
@Jeffro:
Oh, but when Ben Smith asked Tucker if he was vaccinated, he replied by asking him when he last had sex with his wife. Same thing, you know.
Cheryl from Maryland
Re Baud: I refuse to become an Architecture Fascist. Most of the work was getting my colleagues to loosen up. I hate garden gnomes, but life is too short to nag people about their taste in garden decor.
Just Chuck
@Spanky: Every Pastafarian knows it’s due to the global decline in the number of pirates.
(actually there’s a lot of pirates these days, but the ways of His Noodliness are tangled…)
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Just Chuck: I’ve seen the graph. If it’s on a graph, it must be true.
Steeplejack
@Cheryl from Maryland:
What is your position on garden gnomes? ? And mirror globes?
ETA: Answered at #102, I see.
yellowdog
@Dorothy A. Winsor: None of these experts seem to think that you should wash your jeans because they’re dirty. It’s all ‘preserve the fabric’ and mathematical calculations. I wash mine after about five wears.
Almost Retired
A particularly obnoxious acquaintance on Facebook (no one I have friended, but a frequent commenter on other people’s threads) is hospitalized in Iowa with a serious case of COVID. This, after months of anti-masking, this-is-a- hoax, sheeple etc, talk. I suppose I should wish him a speedy recovery, but the better angles of my nature have been wrestled to the ground by the devils dancing around and shrieking “fuck him, fuck him, fuck him…”
sab
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Wow. I thought I was bad about washing my jeans. Dirty jeans in the freezer is a disgusting thought.
Jeffro
@zhena gogolia: Tucker’s a fucking psycho, I swear.
satby
And yet, somehow, that’s most of what passes for comments here lately.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Just the usual juvenile rape/murder fantasies from people who claim to be woke.
Matt McIrvin
@Betty Cracker: There are a lot of antivaxxers whose first talking point is that the vaccines are “experimental” because they don’t have full FDA approval. I predict that actual FDA approval will make zero difference to these people–either they will repeat the talking point like nothing happened or they will move on to something else.
But FDA approval does seem to open the door to more coercive approaches.
Matt McIrvin
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I wash them when they look dirty. Often that’s after a week or two, but it depends.
Ohio Mom
Dorothy A. Windsor@78
I’m not following your link, I’m just assuming these people own blue jeans that cost in the $200 range.
If I had an article of clothing that cost that much, I’d coddle them as well — washing machines are hard on garments.
But all my jeans come from the thrift store and have proven they can stand up to being laundered.
sab
@Matt McIrvin: I wash my casual-Friday-work jeans a lot. My other jeans get washed when the dogs start to find them interesting, unless they got muddy in the yard first.
Amir Khalid
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Some say you mustn’t wash jeans, you need to keep them in the freezer between wears.
dave319
Biden ought to be meeting with Sinematic and Klanchin. Every day. Tell–not ask– them, every day, to destroy the filibuster.
Hell, civil rights leaders certainly know they busted their butts to get Joe and Kamala elected so they would Get. Shit. Done. Not, emphatically NOT, let Democratic leadership, always so very busy policing their left flank, slide off into their standard weak sauce torpor (Recess? Really, Nancy and Chuck, now? Now, only six months after the insurrection you might have been killed by? Shit.)
Just look at the lack of urgency. Biden only now picked up his pen, after weeks of reluctant hiatus, to enforce laws that are already on the books via executive action! I mean, good choices, right to repair, banning non-compete clauses, yes, but holy malarkey, Joe–there are thousands of passed-yet-unenforced laws you need to be waving the executive pen at, irrespective of Skinema, Klanchin and all the wee timorous beasties we Democrats are saddled with.
I don’t get it, the timidity and tone-deaf silence, Dems! Governing is hard, sure. But many pieces of said governing are a lot easier than convincing fools to step up and do the right thing. Executive actions laser target. They help specific constituencies. They make great headlines, that the WH press staff should be writing 24/7/365. They rely on sharp staff work and dedication. Y’know, exactly what it takes to even try to run a country as wide and whacked as this one, amirite?
sab
@Ohio Mom: My first pair of jeans were so stiff when new that the could stand by themselves.
artem1s
I’m awfully thankful the Party has decided to bring attention to these GOTV efforts and lawsuits against the voter suppression statutes. No matter the fate of the Voting Rights Act or Lewis Act, the struggle will remain at the state level. It will take decades to undo the damage of the Robert’s court striking down pre-clearance. And even if there were an immediate passage of the VRA, there will still be dozens of challenges in front of this bunch of Supremes to get thru before the states will be forced to follow the new law.
2022 and 2024 will belong to the campaigns who do the best job of turning out the vote. Whether that’s early, by mail or in person. The Democrats have a process and a lot of experience in what to do to counter voter suppression. The GOP only has one tool in their box and that tool is designed to help them primarily in POTUS electoral college races. All their tricks involve keeping more and more people away from the polls and the assumption they can cherry pick who get suppressed. Look what that got them when they cast suspicion on mail-in ballots.
Even if GA hadn’t passed all those laws and the VRA passes the Dems will still have to have a massive turnout in 2022 to keep those Senate seats. We can’t assume the VRA will solve the problem of voter apathy or disinterest. The VRA isn’t a magic bullet and neither is killing the filibuster. Both need to happen, but that’s not the finish line.
Chief Oshkosh
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: You may have been the only person in that thread who
jumpedcame to that conclusion.lol chikinburd
Climate change by furries would certainly be a thing.
Shakti
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Are bouts of out of proportion rage part of this trauma? What about decreased empathy?
If you had asked me five years ago if I was the type of person to laugh at other people’s pain, I’d have said no. But here I am, a superfan of r/GhanaSaysGoodbye (the dancing pallbearer meme).
And hearing, “his supporters suffer” just makes me angry. My reaction is: fuck them, fuck their suffering, fuck you for asking me to care about their suffering. For me that’s a trigger for rage.
If I see pictures of the Capitol storming or a story with additional details about it, like video, I start breathing shallowly through my mouth. I’ve said it before, I literally called my cousin who was visiting my uncle to make sure she wasn’t driving back home with her kids into that mess. Because she lived right off a stop on that metro.
I still overbuy rice. I still overbuy toilet paper and pasta. I still double mask in public indoor spaces.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Jeffro: that’s not a bad idea: “trump got the shot, you know”
Ksmiami
@germy: I shame them in real life. I’m done with their idiocy and ugly beards. Fuck them
Kelly
@Mary G: Yes, this has been a hard time to keep depression at bay. I was managing the assholery of TFG and his acolytes. We’Il beat those assholes I muttered thru gritted teeth. I was managing the plague with quiet walks thru soft green forests. Then Oregon caught fire and we had to flee the flames. Our home survived but many friends lost theirs. Most of my favorite nearby walks in the woods are gone. We won in November! Elation! The vaccines hove into sight years sooner than any vaccines had been developed before. Elation! What, are those sons of bitches going to steal the election in broad daylight? Those Confederate bastards are walking out of the Capitol after the our protesters got the shit beat out of them all over the country for months? Biden is in! Elation! We have our shots! Elation! The burnt stuff is gradually getting cleaned up easing my shock over the fires. But pictures of the backcountry trickle out showing beloved places changed forever. The record breaking, once in a 1,000 year heat wave tells me the PNW is changed forever. We have AC but I was low, kinda frightened.
So Mrs Kelly and I will kayak the N Santiam river below the fire with some friends this afternoon as we have every Friday this summer. Green woods, clear water. One of our granddaughters is coming to stay for a few days next week just like summer before the plague. The rest of the grandchildren will visit and play in the river soon.
Kathleen
@Ohio Mom: Most of my Jeans are from consignment shops. Since I started working from home I wear them up to 4 days. I love the lightened laundry loads. When I was in the office I wore different pair every day.
Ksmiami
@Shakti: I don’t care about Trump supporters. They are a domestic enemy.
Gravenstone
@Baud: I think that’s called strangulation.
Technocrat
@Chief Oshkosh:
Delurking long enough to agree wholeheartedly. And their characterization of the comment is just wholly divorced from anything I read.
Ksmiami
@dave319: agreed/ no deference to these clueless assholes. And everyday shout that Republicans offer nothing except destruction and pain and they know they suck so bad, they have to restrict voting to win.
Ksmiami
@Almost Retired: no sympathy- he probably infected a bunch of innocent people and just think of the traumatized healthcare workers who have to tend to his idiocy
Ksmiami
@Betty Cracker: Betty you have such a way of expressing exactly how I feel. Go on let these people be raptured by Covid and leave the rest of us alone
Ksmiami
@Matt McIrvin: I’m praying for a coronary…
Gravenstone
@Frankensteinbeck: If they’re that eager to die for their “cause”, I’m all in favor. Sadly, they don’t have the good graces to ensure no one else is harmed by their selfishness.
Kay
Done. I love these big batches. This is the third bunch of debt they have cancelled.
Jeffro
This is an excellent way to do it. Not just chucking buckets of money everywhere, but targeting it to these kinds of claims (of which, they will never run out of, unfortunately).
They can keep doing tranches of relief every two weeks for the rest of his term, and keep pointing to the climbing number of $$$ every time they do it, too. Smart
eta: tweeting this far and wide – thanks Kay!
Baud
Kay
@Jeffro:
I would make student loan debt dischargeable in bankruptcy. I think it solves the whole problem and changes the risk evaluation in a rational way, to shift some risk to the lender. Don’t even need a new agency. Bankruptcy courts are experts and they run really well, as a practical matter.
Kay
@Jeffro:
You have to reward people who paid their debt by dinging those who don’t a little. It has to be perceived as fair. Bankruptcy solves that. They already know how to evaluate debt. It’s all they do.
The debtor is harmed by the bk filing, not that much, but it is a hit which makes the people who paid feel better. Lenders are more sophisticated now. They can roll in a bankruptcy and still lend and they do.
Kay
@Jeffro:
This gross “using students as cash cows” would end quickly if the students could discharge the debt.
J R in WV
Welp, something heavy just fell on the roof… big limb or small tree…
Hope it didn’t Fqup the roof too bad… wish us luck!
tybee
?BillinGlendaleCA
@J R in WV: Good luck. Hope it didn’t do too much damage.
StringOnAStick
@Kelly: I finally took my SUP to the river, 5 minutes from home; it was glorious. Back in CO it was a 20 minute drive to a gravel pond in a state park that was often full due to the increased demand last summer, dusty and too much trash. Just being on a clear, clean river with others having a fine day was so very heartening.
Soprano2
@Ohio Mom: I was influenced in this by my grandmother, who told me that we wear our clothes out because we wash them too much. I work in an office all day, so I basically don’t sweat at work. I hang my work clothes on a hanging bar under our spiral staircase that hubby put up for me, so they can air out for the week; I don’t wash them unless they have an actual stain on them. Same way with my T-shirts and shorts/pants I wear at home, I wear them several days because I only wear them a few hours at a time. I usually have two T-shirts at time that I wear; I rotate them. My clothes last a long time, and I only do a couple of loads of laundry a week. Of course my workout clothes and anything I wear to do work around the house gets washed after one wearing. I agree that the jeans in the freezer thing is crazy, as is never washing your jeans. I don’t love their initial color that much!
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Betty Cracker: And the same people think that people should receive hydroxychloroquine and bleach for COVID, which very definitely doesn’t have FDA approval.
Steeplejack
@StringOnAStick:
I guess “SUP” is “stand-up paddleboard”?
Soprano2
They could do this, but they would have to safeguard against students borrowing a bunch of money and then filing bankruptcy as soon as they graduated. I think this is one reason they changed the law to make it not dischargeable in bankruptcy in the first place. Perhaps change the law so that you have to pay for “x” number of years before you can discharge it in bankruptcy.
Kelly
@StringOnAStick: Lots of beautiful river near Bend. Lovely lakes up past Bachelor. Waldo lake is a bit of a drive but a real treasure.
Kayla Rudbek
@Dorothy A. Winsor: do these people never sweat, bleed, or go to the bathroom? Or get yeast infections, or have problems with their skin?
They remind me of stories my husband would tell about a friend X of his at Notre Dame, who washed his clothes so seldom that people joked about taking up a second collection at the dorm Mass in order for X to do his laundry…
Chetan Murthy
@Soprano2: Or just raise taxes at the high end, so that the doctors and other high-earners who might declare bk to get out of their loans, will end up paying regardless.
Denali
It is ironic that Republcan voters are succeeding in killing off their own voters. Seems that they would figure this out.
J R in WV
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
On the plus side, don’t you get to bill for opening that email, and bill for reading it, and then for opening the 10:27 email, and reading that!??
J R in WV
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
These are people who shower twice a day, as opposed to 1.3 times a week…
J R in WV
@dave319:
OK, this is a great coinage of new American Slur of right-wing left wing Democratic pols. thanks so much for sharing this new term with us Kackals, … Er, Jackals…
J R in WV
@Kathleen:
When I still worked, the “Dress Code” was “No Blue Jeans” among other things. But now-a-days jeans come in a rainbow of colors, so I had tan and beige jeans, and pale green jeans.
No Pink jeans, tho.
Anyways, Polo shirts with the Wv DEP Logo stiched in on the left breast, and Jeans, NOT Blue, most every day. Fridays, a Tee with the Logo on it. I only wore a coat and tie if I had to testify at the Legislature. Or be on TV…