Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

A lot of Dems talk about what the media tells them to talk about. Not helpful.

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

An almost top 10,000 blog!

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

I didn’t have alien invasion on my 2023 BINGO card.

I did not have this on my fuck 2022 bingo card.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

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

The GOP is a fucking disgrace.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

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

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

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

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

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

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

You are here: Home / Politics / GOP Death Cult / Domestic Terrorists Open Thread: CPAC Dallas — Very Performance, Much Art

Domestic Terrorists Open Thread: CPAC Dallas — Very Performance, Much Art

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Rep. Biggs (AZ) is best known as chairman of the GOP House ‘Freedom Caucus’, and for being rabidly anti-immigrant. Kash Patel is a former aide to Devin Nunes and ‘Trump loyalist’. Brandon Straka, well… he participated in the Jan. 6 riot, but sold out his fellows in return for a lighter sentence. Per NPR, on Friday:

A federal judge reprimanded a prominent pro-Trump social media personality and Jan. 6 Capitol riot defendant for making “questionable” comments in the media about his plea agreement and cooperation with law enforcement. Those comments, U.S. District Court Judge Dabney Friedrich said, were “inconsistent” with what he previously told the court…

“What he needs to appreciate is he is potentially incriminating himself for [18 U.S. Code Section] 1001 prosecution,” said Friedrich, referring to the criminal law against making “materially false” statements to the federal government.

Straka, the founder of the conservative “#WalkAway” campaign, did not attend Wednesday’s hearing and was represented by his attorney. By this point, his case has largely been resolved.

Back in Sept. 2021, he agreed to plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge of Engaging in Disorderly and Disruptive Conduct in the Capitol Building or Grounds. At sentencing, he avoided jail time, and instead received 90 days of home confinement and three years’ probation.

Wednesday’s hearing was ostensibly focused on an apparent mistake made by the court, in which a clerk accidentally unsealed sensitive records detailing Straka’s cooperation with federal investigators. A coalition of media organizations, which includes NPR, had asked the court to unseal documents in the case. The court inadvertently made more available than the judge had intended.

The records described how Straka provided “significant information” about pro-Trump “Stop The Steal” organizers including Ali Alexander, Amy and Kylie Kremer, and Cindy Chafian. Prosecutors said Straka provided investigators with a voicemail he had received from another Jan. 6 defendant, and that evidence was “valuable in the government’s prosecution.” In another instance, the records say Straka helped identify yet another potential suspect who “was not previously identified by the FBI.” …

“I’m wondering: should I be anticipating a motion to withdraw his plea?” Friedrich asked Straka’s attorney. “Because I want you to know I would gladly hold an evidentiary hearing to address his claims. Is that something that I should be expecting?”…

Essayli explained that Straka “is more of a public figure. He faces a lot of reporting – a lot of it he views as false reporting or misleading reporting, and it is difficult for him not to respond or be emotional.”

Friedrich was unpersuaded by that line of argument.

“I suggest that you tell him to exercise some discretion that he didn’t show before Jan. 6, during Jan. 6, and apparently after Jan. 6,” Friedrich said. “And also inform him that I will be asking probation for periodic status reports about his performance on supervision.”…

Grifters gonna grift... (trigger warning: MTGreene-level unhingedness)


His profession per Google is ‘actor’, but I don’t find this performance very convincing, frankly.

Reader Interactions

189Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    I think this is a case where white conservatives are treated as individuals rather than as part of a culture.  Cringe leftists are taken as representative of all of us who are left of center.

  2. 2.

    Suzanne

    That looks like the set from one of those PBS after-school shows I used to watch when I was in elementary school. Square One! With MATHNET!

  4. 4.

    Urban Suburbanite

    If Brandon Straka wants to rat out his colleagues then be in a cage while people throw things at him, whomst among us can refuse him?

    The Seattle city attorney was doing Walk Away events with this guy (does anyone know who funded that thing? It always seemed like a gravy train for consultants – much like what Rick Wilson and his fellow operatives have been doing). She’s now heavily invested in prosecuting mentally incompetent individuals.

  5. 5.

    trollhattan

    Dude: “Hey, can we get a little privacy in here? She just told me she has a way to make it all better.”

    MTG’s modern prison garb isn’t really working.

  7. 7.

    Cameron

    So he dimes out his fellow rioters, and that makes him a CPAC hero?  These are very strange people.

  14. 14.

    Ruckus

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    If one is dumb enough or ignorant enough they might not know/understand how actually silly and stupid they sound. OTOH they may be so deep in organized stupidity that they believe every word salad sentence uttered. Or all of the above….

  18. 18.

    Ruckus

    @Cameron:

    These are very strange people.

    Yes. Yes they are.

    It will take a lot to reorient them to the real world. Just like a scientology convert.

  25. 25.

    Suzanne

    @Baud:

    The only thing they understand is defeat at the polls. 

    They also understand deep, abiding resentment and envy when costal elites, uppity minorities, and educated women outcompete them.

  29. 29.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Baud: Going by their reaction to the Kansas Abortion Amendment Vote they don’t even understand that now.

  33. 33.

    different-church-lady

    @Baud: Their reaction to lost elections has turned into attempting to seize power by other means. They no longer consider any election they lose to be legitimate. Defeat at the voting booth is a bulwark against their fascism, but it will no longer lead them to shame or understanding.

  36. 36.

    Baud

    @different-church-lady:

    It doesn’t matter.  If we can win, they will be forced to change. I get that that’s a big if even if the vote is legitimate and especially if they rig it.  But the idea that they are an unstoppable force even if we are dominant is something straight out of the GOP playbook.

  38. 38.

    Elizabelle

    MTG in a prison cell?  Moar of this, please.

    These people are unhinged jackasses.  I refuse to give them any more attention.

  39. 39.

    Chris T.

    Now Biggs in effort to recover his standing is calling to defund “bad agencies” like DOJ and FBI…

    Republicans want to defund the police!

  40. 40.

    raven

    @Ixnay:

    “This is a true story. The events depicted in this film took place in [location] in [year]. At the request of the survivors, the names have been changed.

  41. 41.

    kalakal

    A question for horror fans. Is there a twist on Zombie movies where the shambling semi sentient monsters are repelled by Braiiins and feed on stupidity instead?

    If not the GQP are hell bent on inventing it

  42. 42.

    different-church-lady

    @Baud: They’re not unstoppable, but they are relentless. They won’t ever slink away in defeat, and the modern strain of fascist-conservative has mutated into something incapable of shame or reflection. They’ll just keep trying and we have to hope there will continue to be enough sane people still in power to hold them back. But there will be no realization on their part.

  46. 46.

    Kent

    @Baud:Correct. The only thing they understand is defeat at the polls.

    Actually, they don’t seem to understand that either.  Wasn’t that what January 6th was all about?

  47. 47.

    Ella in New Mexico

    @Jager:

    I wonder how big of a campaign contribution it would take for MTG to blow him in public?

    OHMYGODNOOOHMYGODNOOOHMYGODNOO :-O

    Yet, I truly believe she could be persueded to do this for enough money and truly believe she’d still have a good chance at re-election afterwards

  50. 50.

    Dangerman

    @Kent: It seems they are entirely incapable of learning. A few days after getting spanked in Kansas, they pass the toughest Abortion law in the country in Indiana. That will cause their base unending joy, but it wont play well come election time…

    …or they can soften their position and piss off their base, which wont play well come election time if the base stays home.

    I don’t see how this ends well for them.

  51. 51.

    mrmoshpotato

    @kalakal

    A question for horror fans. Is there a twist on Zombie movies where the shambling semi sentient monsters are repelled by Braiiins and feed on stupidity instead? 

    If not the GQP are hell bent on inventing it

    I’ve never heard of that plot.

  55. 55.

    geg6

    @Suzanne:

    Welcome to Pittsburgh summer.  Humidity is insane today.  It’s not really all that hot (about 80, I think), but the humidity will take it all out of you.

  57. 57.

    Suzanne

    @geg6: I went to a hot yoga class earlier today and everyone in class was just wiping out with sweat. Even our instructor was like, “Oh my God, let’s get off this crazy train.” I completely soaked my clothes, hair, and my towel with sweat, as if I had jumped in a swimming pool.

  59. 59.

    geg6

    I just can’t with these CPAC idiots.  Their performance arts sucks.  Giant paper mache puppets are better than this shit.

    On another topic, due to the humidity (which seems to seep in regardless of AC), I am going the lazy route for dinner tonight.  Beef and broccoli stir fry sounds quick and easy enough.  I have some flank steak, jasmine rice in the pantry and broccoli and onions from a local farm.  I’ll make a brown sauce with soy sauce, honey, sesame oil, garlic and ginger.  Maybe some toasted sesame seeds and definitely some scallions I also got at the farm sprinkled on top.  Now I’m hungry!

  60. 60.

    Dan B

    @Suzanne: Hottest I ever was was in western Arkansas.  90° and heavy dew at 8 AM.  104° at noon.  Lay on the soaked bed with the fan on and was delirious until 6 PM.

    My grandfather put on his short long underwear – only to the knees, wool.

  66. 66.

    Suzanne

    @Dan B: I lived in Phoenix and Tucson for over 30 years, so I have certainly been hotter than I am today. (I am remembering the time I hiked Camelback on July 4… one of many dumbshit things I did in the heat.) But it is definitely sticky today.

    I want to note that the humidity means that my skin has stayed soft and supple all summer. I’m not used to that. The extreme dry heat in the summer just thrashed me. I have had to change up my skincare regimen!

  68. 68.

    HumboldtBlue

    Just saw my first John Fetterman commercial, He may be the most unique candidate I have ever seen. And from the poll numbers, he looks a good bet to be the next Senator from Pennsylvania.

  73. 73.

    HinTN

    @Baud: It’s an hour later, the vote is 50 Yea and 47 Nay. They’re trying to determine if they need MVP, which means they’re still (maybe) waiting on three straggling R votes. Why aren’t the Senators required to be present and just vote?

  76. 76.

    Kent

    @Dangerman:

    @Kent: It seems they are entirely incapable of learning. A few days after getting spanked in Kansas, they pass the toughest Abortion law in the country in Indiana. That will cause their base unending joy, but it wont play well come election time…

    …or they can soften their position and piss off their base, which wont play well come election time if the base stays home.

    I don’t see how this ends well for them.

    Indiana is one of the most egregiously gerrymandered states in the country.  I don’t think they are that worried.

  77. 77.

    MomSense

    Orban is a GD Nazi. Every person who spoke or attended CPAC should be asked if they support his policies and, if not, why they attended or spoke at that conference.

  78. 78.

    OzarkHillbilly

    I gotta say that this summer has been rather hard on me. Yestermorn I was out in the shop for about an hour and a half and when I came in I was soaked with sweat. That wasn’t the worst of it tho. About 2 AM I was awakened by muscle cramps in my calves severe enough that I had to crawl to the kitchen for the ice packs (still don’t know how I didn’t wake up my wife, maybe she’s just getting used to it). Today I have been dealing with bruising in both calves, bad enough that other than taking care of the new chicks, and filling the hummingbird feeders, I have not been outside.

    September can not get here soon enough.

  79. 79.

    Geminid

    @Baud: The New Republic’s Capitol Hill reporter, Grace Segers tweeted this about the late morning mood in the Senate:

       Getting  the sense from Senators on both sides that they would like to get this over with.

    @Grace Segers ~10 am Aug. 6

    She retweeted Erik Wasson from an hour ago:

       MANCHIN indicates that he won’t go along with any Republican amendments. “I’m protecting the integrity of the bill,” he says.

    @EricWasson ~ 5:40pm Aug. 6

    Now I wonder if there willl be the 20 hours of debate allotted before the “vote a rama, where Senators offer amendments. Retweeted by Grace Segars:

        8:30-9pm start time for vote a rama, per Stabenow.

    @IgorBobich ~5:40pm Aug. 6

  83. 83.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Baud: I really, really, *really* didn’t expect Cinema to go along with this.  I still have some fear that she’ll tank it in the end.  Until it’s done, it’s not done.  I guess I’m over my fear that Mansion would do the same: his name’s all over it, I guess he’s got some ownership interest in it and all.

  84. 84.

    CarolPW

    @OzarkHillbilly: ​
     I know you know about dehydration causing muscle cramps, but is it possible you need to drink really absurd amounts of water to keep them away?

  87. 87.

    Kent

    @OzarkHillbilly:@Kent: ​You can’t gerrymander a statewide vote.

    Yes, but none of the state legislators who just voted for the abortion ban have to run for statewide office.  And it is red enough that the governor and senatorial races are going to go GOP no matter what.

  88. 88.

    David 🌈☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

      MANCHIN indicates that he won’t go along with any Republican amendments. “I’m protecting the integrity of the bill,” he says.

    @EricWasson ~ 5:40pm Aug. 6

    To paraphrase LBJ: I’d rather have Manchin inside the tent pissing out than outside the tent pissing in

  89. 89.

    Geminid

    @Baud: Could be. I left off the last part of Bobich’s tweet:

      8:30-9pm start for vote a rama, per Stabenow.

    Everyone get comfortable.

  94. 94.

    trollhattan

    Worthless Dude 2 thinking about Worthless Dude 1.

    August 6, 2022 at 6:01 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard

    Sen. Ted Cruz told Fox News that he will “wait and see” if former President Trump decides to run before making his own decision about running for president in 2024.

    Said Cruz: “Everyone is going to wait and see what Donald Trump decides and make decisions from there.”

  100. 100.

    Dan B

    @OzarkHillbilly: This was before AC.  We were in a little town on the Arkansas River.

    I hear Bangkok is hot.  In India it’s not legal to require people to work when it’s over 50° C.  They “adjust” the thermometers when that happens.

  105. 105.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Dan B: I was in Death Valley one time waiting for it to get to 50C so I could send a pic to my European friends. Imagine my disappointment when it only reached 49.

  111. 111.

    Gin & Tonic

    We have some guests who wanted to see Boston today. Upper 90’s in the city. I’m home with a cold beer now.

  113. 113.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Suddenly, I 💯 understand your daily “Blech!” posts. Seriously, that’s scary stuff. I’ve had minor leg cramps, and they’re no damn fun. I hope you can get some relief.

  114. 114.

    Dan B

    @Suzanne: The hot day in Arkansas the pool was over capacity and cops were picking people up off the street who’d collapsed in line.

  118. 118.

    Suzanne

    @Dan B: We had an election like that. Primary was in May, so it was over 100, and the evil GOP-led Board of Elections closed many polling places, resulting in hours-long lines. People were passing out and giving up.

  122. 122.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Suzanne:

    Not quite as dramatic, but it hit 113°F when I was there in May 2012.

    May.

    I don’t even want think about July or August.

  124. 124.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Suzanne: I was talking to a park ranger in Death Valley who said “once it gets above 120 you can really feel it.” I thought, I can feel 117 pretty good, too.

  125. 125.

    Spanky

    @Baud: Actually, I just checked a Wunderground station in Pittsburgh (Beechview, gor those that care). Eighty degrees with dewpoint of 70. Mumbai with a 99% humidity must have a dewpoint around 78. Our temp here in Confederate Southern MD is currently 84 with a dewpoint of 76. Not quite Mumbai bad, especially since it’s 5 AM there – about as cool as it’s going to get for the day.

  126. 126.

    SiubhanDuinne

    O/T, but tell me, jackals: Is there any better flavour combination in the world than ginger and dark chocolate? I think not. Discuss.

  127. 127.

    Geminid

    Raphael and his wealthy friends are horrified:

         The Manchin Schumer bill will create 87,000 new IRS agents to target regular, everyday Americans.

    STOP BIDEN’S SHADOW ARMY!

    @SenTedCruz August 5

  137. 137.

    HumboldtBlue

    @Kent:

    Eli Lily issues a statement yesterday that they will now be forced to search others states for development opportunities because of the new Indiana abortion ban. The corporation is a native of the state and one of its largest employers, and they explicitly pointed out this law now makes recruitment of top people more difficult.

  140. 140.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Spanky:

    A nice red wine is definitely part of the experience. A CabSauv in my case, but none the worse for that.

  141. 141.

    Suzanne

    @SiubhanDuinne: The skin trauma. Holy shit. I ruined a few pairs of sandals when my heels cracked so deeply that the insoles got bloody.

    I also remember summer nosebleeds that were incredibly gross.

  142. 142.

    Spanky

    @SiubhanDuinne: Mrs. S and I just finished a 2018 Stags Leap CS to celebrate her breast biopsy coming in negative.

    Take your celebrations where you can get them.

    Now the chocolate!

  144. 144.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @CarolPW: I have tried everything, been tested for everything. Back when I was expedition caving I drank at every stop, and still woke up screaming every night. If I am sweating I drink at every opportunity. Truly, at this point I am certain I have a condition which isn’t quite known to science. I am out of cures (having tried them all) and consigned to managing my pain as best I can. Which to be honest, at this point is just my lot in life.

  145. 145.

    Cameron

    Wow.  All this desert heat talk.  I grew up in Saudi Arabia, but I almost never think about it nowadays.  This thread is really the first time I’ve thought about it in years; am reminded of how we all fried in the summer over there.

  146. 146.

    Spanky

    @Suzanne: For a time I worked at a job where I needed to go to Colorado Springs periodically. Nosebleeds by day three, pretty much like clockwork. Glad to get home to humid sea level.

  148. 148.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Kent: True, but gerrymandering has nothing to do with that. And if Kansas, yes by gawd KANSAS has shown us anything, these mf’ers are playing with fire.

  149. 149.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Glidwrith: I wish. I’m eating an (okay, fuck it, SEVERAL) English import called Borders Dark Chocolate Gingers. Bought them in the International Foods aisle at my local Publix. If you like your choc on the bitter side, and your ginger rip-your-hair-out peppery, these are for you.

    I will tell you that when I do bake ginger stuff — ginger cookies , gingerbread — I always use the darkest possible molasses, substitute strong black coffee for water or other liquid, and toss in about 1 tsp. of cayenne pepper with the dry ingredients. This is what I like; I realise it is very much not to everyone’s taste.

  150. 150.

    frosty

    @schrodingers_cat: ​
      Low 80s and muggy is better than Baltimore. It was in the mid-90s today when I was running errands. Couldn’t wait to get back home up into the Piedmont — five degrees cooler than the Coastal Plain.

  157. 157.

    kalakal

    I grew up in Indonesia and then Qatar. Moving from extreme wet to extreme dry heat, spoiler alert – they both suck.

    I remember my parents getting us to drink loads while popping salt tablets.

    Weirdly the worst sunburn I ever got was 6,000 ft up in the Pyrenees

  158. 158.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Dan B: ​I caved all over the Ozarks, no AC. For that matter, no heat away from the fire either. It sucks, I know better than most. A long time Arkie caving buddy of mine said there are 2 seasons: Caving season and lake season.

    I had a lot of good times on Bull Shoals Lake.

  160. 160.

    Suzanne

    I just saw a piece cross my FB feed “10 Fun Things to do in Pittsburgh This Weekend”. If it doesn’t include lying on the floor in front of a fan, in a dimly lit room, while listening to a great music stream…. I am not interested.

  162. 162.

    Dan B

    @OzarkHillbilly: Isn’t there a ferry on Bull Shoals?  Pontoon boats too.  My parents thought if buying a house on an island in Heber Springs.  There were Alligator Gar in the White River but don’t know if those nasty looking fish were in the lakes.

  164. 164.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Suzanne: ​ Speaking as one who spent a summer in Sheridan WY where day time temps routinely reached mid to upper 90s, I can state unequivocally that life at 20-30% humidity is far more comfortable than 70-80%. And having spent more than a little time in the Chihuahuan and Sonoran deserts in June, July, and August, I can say almost the same about them.

    I swear, to walk out in dry air is a luxury I have been rarely afforded. As a lifelong sufferer of excema, I understand where you are coming from. But in my experience the sweating aggravated my skin far more than the lack of humidity ever did.

  167. 167.

    Glidwrith

    @SiubhanDuinne: Thanks, I like to get warmth from the ginger, then just a touch more for an afterbite of spice. I will use instant coffee to deepen the chocolate flavor, roughly 1 tsp in the recipe. I hadn’t thought of the molasses, though it’s in a lot of ginger recipes.

  168. 168.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Suzanne: ​No shit story.

    I battled extreme excema my entire childhood. Won’t bother you with all the details, but there was one after school moment that is… Something.

    The first thing I did every day (if it wasn’t winter) was as soon as nobody could see me I would peel off my shoes and socks and more than a little blood encrusted scabs and skin. It was painful but the relief from the itching was heaven sent. Nobody at my school had any idea what I was dealing with (even if I was excused from gym every class and spent an hour soaking my feat in oiled water twice a day in the nurses office) (they all thought i was “faking it”) and I was damned if ever they would know the truth.

    For whatever reason I was late leaving school one day. Nobody was around so I sat down on the curb in the parking lot, took off my shoes, and began peeling my socks and skin off. And then I heard a gasp behind me.

    I looked up and there was Janice, a girl I had known for a couple years who once, in a teenaged game of tag I had given her head a tussle and her hair had felt strange. She stood over my shoulder looking at my bloody feet and said something along the lines of, “You are the bravest person I have ever known.”

    Me? I was mortified. Somebody now knew my secret and I couldn’t get away fast enough. I grabbed my shit and left without saying a word.

    I’m sure over the next 6 months Janice and I crossed paths in the hallways from time to time. I’d like to think I was brave enough to nod and say hello but I doubt it.

    And when she died of leukemia that spring I didn’t even go to her funeral.

    50 years later, this still sticks with me. Of all the people I knew growing up, she was the only one who might have understood, and I couldn’t even give her the smallest bit of acknowledgement.

  169. 169.

    Dopey-o

    @Spanky: It was 117 when we visited Lake Powell.

    Drove the truck thru Needles CA years ago. Pulled into the gas station, where the thermometer read 122. The highway was littered with the corpses of retread tires.

    Walking to the cash register felt like being hit over the head with a skillet.

  170. 170.

    Ruckus

    How about behind the boilers on a steam powered ship in summer in the Caribbean?

    Under the vent fans in front of the boilers it’s 120.

    Behind the boilers where our gear was it was 140+. 5 minutes back there was just a tad warm. 10 minutes felt like the melting temp of human flesh. It took 6-8 minutes to raise the equipment and secure it.

    And still the hard part was climbing the ladder to leave the appropriately named FIRE ROOM. Each step felt like your feet were on fire and the hand rails were going to leave blisters. Only been 5 decades since the last time I had to do that and it still feels like yesterday. The poor bastards that had to work in that room….

  173. 173.

    Suzanne

    @Ruckus: In the desert, a lot of homeless people get second-degree burns from coming into contact with steel or concrete because they don’t have sufficient blankets or footwear. The homeless shelters and relief pantries request more blankets in the summer for this reason.

  174. 174.

    MomSense

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Somewhere along the line you internalized shame about your condition.  It was so deep that you believed you had to suffer without any support.  What a terrible burden.  And then she surprised you and in that state there’s no way you could have felt safe enough to let her support you.  You did the best you could while dealing with pain, shame, fear, embarrassment.  I can’t imagine how much strength it took to get through every day.  It wasn’t that you couldn’t even – you were already shouldering too much.  Sending a big hug to you, OH.

  175. 175.

    kalakal

    @Suzanne: Yep, this is so true. Paving, concrete, tarmac etc becomes absolutely brutal in deserts. I remember in Qatar stepping out in bare feet on one occasion on concrete, I got 2 paces before having to leap back. We could afford footwear, I was just an idiot.

  179. 179.

    Salty Sam

    @SiubhanDuinne: I will tell you that when I do bake ginger stuff — ginger cookies , gingerbread — I always use the darkest possible molasses, substitute strong black coffee for water or other liquid, and toss in about 1 tsp. of cayenne pepper with the dry ingredients. This is what I like; I realise it is very much not to everyone’s taste.

    If I wasn’t already, I would marry you…

  180. 180.

    Salty Sam

    @Ruckus:  How about behind the boilers on a steam powered ship in summer in the Caribbean?  Under the vent fans in front of the boilers it’s 120.

    Line cook in a Galveston beach bar&grill in the summer, hung a thermometer up under the vent hood, regularly read 125-130*.  After a full shift of that, it was understandable that we would drink beer until unconscious.

  181. 181.

    Pennsylvanian

    @SiubhanDuinne: So far, my favorite gingerbread is a variation on a King Arthur flour recipe that included an optional 1/4 or 1/2 tsp of black pepper and a palmful of chopped crystallized ginger. Frickin awesome. Someday we will turn ovens on again.

  182. 182.

    brantl

    @OzarkHillbilly: Gatorade cures the cramps caused by lack of electrolytes, I have them, take the Gatorade (as much as half a small bottle sometimes) and the cramps go away in less than a minute.

  183. 183.

    AJ of the Mustard Search and Rescue team

    @Baud: Well said.

    I think this also applies to race and gender. You can have 10 incompetent White men go through a role in an organization, but then they’ll say “oh we tried a [woman, Black person] one time and it didn’t work out.”

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    @Kent:

    Oh, they understood just fine.

    They simply decided that they didn’t have to abide by what they understood. A small distinction, perhaps. But crucial.

     

    @Dangerman: What else, rationally, can they do?

    They’ve destroyed their rep with everyone else. All they have are the crazies. They have followed Atwater’s road to its logical conclusion. Anything sane will drive away the 25% of the country they have, which is 90% of their party. It’s all just gravity at this point.

     

    @AWOL:

    “Behind this plate of glass stands a real blade of grass! Be careful as you pass. Move along, move along.”

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    @HumboldtBlue: GOP don’t care.

    They’re the poverty party.

    The only reason they ever cared about a good, strong, vibrant economy was because it gave them more to loot. Sustainable growth? Nah, fuck that homie. These people want to dismantle the USA and sell it for parts.

    They only care about those parts being in working order because they figure they’ll get a better price for them.

    Yet another example of the media letting these yahoos coast on a reputation they never even tried to earn…

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    @kalakal: That happened to me, too. Colorado, not the Pyrenees, but…

    Thinner air, I guess?

    It was worth it. Colorado is a beautiful state. I’m not much for outdoors, but lord what pretty country.

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    @OzarkHillbilly: Never went into a cave unaccompanied by a guide. Was fun, the few times I did go in.  Always surprised at how warm it got underground. And when the guide turned their light off? It was neat, just sitting there and feeling the weight of the earth, all around you.

    Did you prefer wet or dry? Did you have a favorite? Or one you wouldn’t go back to?

     

    @Salty Sam: Ah, beer. Your water ration and your salt ration, all in one!

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