Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Trump should be leading, not lying.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

Stop using mental illness to avoid talking about armed white supremacy.

He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

“A king is only a king if we bow down.” – Rev. William Barber

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.

I’m more christian than these people and i’m an atheist.

“Alexa, change the president.”

People are weird.

A tremendous foreign policy asset… to all of our adversaries.

How any woman could possibly vote for this smug smarmy piece of misogynistic crap is beyond understanding.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

Oppose, oppose, oppose. do not congratulate. this is not business as usual.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson is the bland and smiling face of evil.

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

The revolution will be supervised.

Giving in to doom is how authoritarians win.

People are complicated. Love is not.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Friday Night Open Thread

Friday Night Open Thread

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I have been awol all week, because I have been super busy. Still alive, just swamped. I did have a super nice day yesterday, though, when I got to play Uncle Buck. Breyona’s grandmother had a catheter put in (she is doing well, thank you), so Breyona and I spent the afternoon hitting the big city, going to costco and other places, and eating Mexican since she never gets it with her parents.

Friday Night Open Thread 5

It’s nice spending time with kids because most of the time they are just so happy.

Reader Interactions

40Comments

  8. 8.

    NotMax

    @cain

    Carts offering food samples, both hot and cold, scattered around the aisles. One can take in a full meal while shopping.

    Pro tip: Buy a 25 cent bottle of water at the store’s vending machine first.

    ;)

  14. 14.

    Mike in NC

    Our holiday ritual includes watching 1989s “National Lampoon Christmas Vacation”. We’ve seen it dozens of times and never get tired of it.

  15. 15.

    Ohio Mom

    Phooey! My iPhone just updated itself. Now I can’t get out of the private mode, which I only use for Twitter, and everything else is upside down and backward: the name of the site is now on the bottom of the screen, instead of the top, and the X to close the screen got moved from the left side to the right.

    Every motion that I had memorized and was therefore intuitive, doesn’t work.

    I think I will go to the Apple store in the mall down the street tomorrow and complain. Maybe if enough little old ladies take up their time having to be tutored in how to work their updates, word will get out and they will return things to the way they belong.

    This whole thing just cements my belief that there are too many software engineers without enough real things to do so they make garbage “improvements” to make it look like they are needed.

    I was having a nice enough day until this….grrrrr.

  17. 17.

    Gozer

    It’s nice spending time with kids because most of the time they are just so happy.

    For real. My wife and I had dinner with some of her students (college undergrad/grad) and it was so refreshing. Things like that really give me hope (and yes, I know it’s a narrow range of experience and a narrow subset of the socio-economic strata, but da’ yoots give this black-hearted Gen X’er a little hope).

  18. 18.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Eighty-five years ago today, King Edward VIII signed the “Instrument of Abdication,” witnessed by his younger brothers Prince Albert, Prince Henry, and Prince George.

    A king, deposed, in the presence of, respectively, the Dukes of York, Gloucester, and Kent. Positively Shakespearean, but less bloody.

  21. 21.

    NotMax

    Well, that’s different. Right now (here) the next thread right-side flyout is directing to the Ch. Justice Roberts thread. The same flyout on the Roberts post comments page is directing to this thread.

    Left-side flyout on both pages is directing to the Not A Respite thread.

  23. 23.

    WaterGirl

    @NotMax: That’s because Anne Laurie moved her post.

    She posted originally at 8:02, then Cole posted at 8:10.

    If you look now, it says Anne Laurie’s posted at 8:45, and Cole’s still says 8:10.

    Refresh your pages and all will be good.

  24. 24.

    WaterGirl

    PSA for book club peeps.  There’s a plan in place, and meeting dates & discussion themes are set, so if you missed the thread from yesterday evening (that almost no one commented on) check out the link under Featuring in the sidebar.

    If you missed the posts and want to catch up or if you want all the details, just type “Adam Schiff” into the Search this website box at the top of the sidebar.  That will bring up all the book club posts for Midnight In Washington and the great tribute that zhena wrote to him in 2020.

  25. 25.

    Ruckus

    @Ohio Mom:

    My iPhone is updated to the latest version and I don’t have any of that. Is it possible that you have an older iPhone?

    If you bring up apple.com on a computer you can go to support and usually find an answer. Or call Apple support and give that a try.

    This won’t help you now but I turn off automatic updates. Both on my phone and computer. So I can check out what the update is supposed to do before I do update. Primarily because my waking hours sometimes are the same as the auto update times but also so I can see why they are updating.

  26. 26.

    MomSense

    Kid’s school was in lock down today.  He texted to say they were in their classroom with the lights off and the door locked.  It felt like a long time but it was only about 30-35 minutes.  A couple students found ammunition on the floor in one of the rooms and reported it.  The police were called and did whatever they do before giving the all clear.  In hindsight it probably wasn’t a big deal but because school shootings are so common  students and parents experience daily worry and stress that flares when something’s line this happens.  That text today hit me really hard and my reserves are low. Anyway I’ve stayed up later than usual and I’m ready to crash.

  28. 28.

    WaterGirl

    @MomSense: It may sound like no big deal once it’s over and nothing really happened, but when you’re in it, you have no idea if it’s a real threat or not, so it really is life-threatening in the moment.

    I’m sorry you guys and every family who has a kid in school has to deal with this.

  33. 33.

    dexwood

    It’s nice spending time with kids because most of the time they are just so happy.

    Kids, also, can be so damn wise and humbling.

  34. 34.

    Ohio Mom

    Ruckus and Watergirl,

    Thanks. I didn’t know turning off updates was possible. I’ll have to do some noodling around to figure out how to do that.

    I’m pretty round that I figured out how to turn off the part of the phone that wants me to type in my secret code. I am certainly never giving them my fingerprint.

  36. 36.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @West of the Rockies: No fucking kidding.  MAGAt scum who has no problem going back to slavery, apparently.  “You are a loose end that needs to be tidied up.  My Apprentice, Darth Vader, will take care of you.”

  37. 37.

    dopey-o

    @HumboldtBlue: https://www.stonekettle.com/2021/12/recap-december-9-2021.html

    Stonekettle is correct, but he misses an important point. Angry RWNJs do not have a concept of “community” or “society.”

    I was sitting outside a local coffee shop, trying to defuse a mask conflict between a sibling and a stranger, when a customer, obeying the shop’s mask mandate, passed by with a mask that read “THIS IS SOCIAL CONTROL.” (Yes, all caps.)

    I smiled and gave him a small wave. And went home and ordered a mask with the message “This is Christian Charity.”

    Were these people born alienated, or were they raised to be de-socialized? Either way, they live in an alternative nation that excludes me. Their motto is “Every man for himself, and God against them all.”

    ETA: the stranger and my sibling were deflected by turning the discussion to Medical Marijuana Dispensaries. Before the stranger strolled off, he gifted me a few grams of some high-grade dope and wished us Happy Holidays. I know which America i want my kids to inherit.

  39. 39.

    Mel

    @WaterGirl: Important point. It’s trauma that the kids (and parents, teachers, loved ones) might feel the effects of immediately, or might not feel until hours  later when the adrenaline wears out, or weeks later when something brings back that experience to the forefront.

    It’s important to watch kiddos closely  and be alert for behavioral and mood changes in the days and weeks following, because even for the most well-adjusted kids, that kind of life-hanging-in-the-balance experience likely is not going to leave them entirely untouched.

  40. 40.

    Mel

    @WaterGirl: Thank you for bringing that up.  I think it can’t be said enough.

    I’ve seen kids be reactive to the “realistic drills” that schools do. Sometimes, just the realization that something that bad could truly happen at a moment’s notice can knock someone sideways, whether kid or adult.

    Teachers, staff, counselors feel it, too, but often feel like they can’t discuss it afterwards because they feel they need to put forth a strong, calm front for the kids.

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