Area party that conjures up nonexistent caravans, gun-grabbers and groomers prior to each election is mad about a Democratic president ordering a popular executive action prior to an election:
"I happen to think that marijuana is a gateway drug."
— CNN's Republican strategist Alice Stewart, who also says "three-fourths of Americans think we should legalize marijuana … I see this as a ploy in the midterms to gain support and gain voters." pic.twitter.com/VmTix0ZG5D
— The Recount (@therecount) October 7, 2022
Die mad about it, assholes. The only regret I have is that Dank Brandon missed the opportunity to announce the pardon for people convicted of pot possession at 4:20 PM yesterday.
Open thread!
jonas
“Wiley Democrats! Doing things that are popular to attract voters to their party!”
Dorothy A. Winsor
@jonas: How dare they? We Republicans advocate only the most unpopular policies.
WaterGirl
We’re supposed to play by the rules. They just change the rules whenever it suits them.
So glad we’re starting to say “nope, that doesn’t work for us.”
FelonyGovt
This was a shrewd move. I think a majority in the US is in favor of legalization. Complaining about this just makes Republicans look even more like tightassed spoilsports who are out of touch with the modern world.
Tony Jay
A LETTER FROM BREXITANIA – “30 Days of Shite”
Long, long ago, before the Sun first rose to challenge the Moon and when the screens were small and square, in that mythical period known to historians as ‘The Early Nineties’, noted political commentator and semi-professional Monopoly piece Linda Perry emerged lean and raving from sixteen gruelling months of contemplative isolation at Jan-Michael Vincent’s Nevada sweat-lodge to pen a searing admonition of the outgoing Bush Administration’s many foreign policy scandals entitled “What’s Going On?”, an obvious call-back to (and some might even say, straight-out swipe from) the identically titled brickbat of vituperative lyricism released eleven years earlier by hirsute urban troubadour Marvin Gaye in which he drew attention to widespread opposition to the Vietnam War, glaring disparities in the lived experiences of White and Black Americans, and persistent questions surrounding the pedestrianisation of Ludlow town centre. To say that these are all well-known facts that barely require checking up on (so you can put that Google search down, chum) is almost beside the point, because these familiar cultural touchstones are so firmly welded into place by the metaphysical glue of ur-memory that they obscure a greater truth, in that Perry and Gaye were only the latest in a long line of alternative spokespersonages to take up this particular idiomatic interjection and wield it as a performative goad to the consciences of their listeners.
For example, relatively few people are aware that before Gaye ever darkened the doorway of a Motown recording studio there had been ‘Dixie’ Van Beddows’ 1955 Rockabilly Classic “What’s Buzzin, Cuzzin?” demanding free white T-Shirts and a sensible nuclear strategy from the Eisenhower Administration, 1932’s Jazz standard “Blow The News This Way” from Mack ‘Mack’ Mackie and the Sweet Trumpet Chorus, which lambasted everything from Herbert Hoover’s economic policies to the shortage of olives for martini cocktails, and perhaps the least well-remembered of them all, “Answer Me This You Fragrant Swiss Miss”, the 1908 Music Hall singalong popularised by Little Dicky Owenwilkie and the Pink Petunia Twins that channelled general unease over the Tunguska impact’s lingering climatological effects into political pressure on Leopold II to formally relinquish his personal control over the Congo.
Going back even further in time we hear echoes of Perry’s bellowed confusion in the late 18th century marching song “Ce Qui Se Passe? Mes Amies”, author unknown, that inspired both the violence of the French Revolution and Pope Pius VI’s threat to excommunicate any Vatican occupant found drawing willies on the noses of Michaelangelo’s cherubs. Gaye’s sexually charged plaintiveness resonates in kind with the bawdy Baroque call and response chant “How Flows My Tide? Ebb-water, Good Woman, No Coin For A Ride” from around 1658, which many experts on the period would argue precipitated Europe’s most virulent outbreak of herpes oyster and the fall of the Cromwellian Protectorate, and only the most philistine ear could fail to pick up on the thematic similarities evident between all of the aforementioned examples and both the early Tudor protest anthem for the harpsichord “Verily, Indulge Mine Curiosity Upon The Roots Of Thy Present Circumstance” and “Tristis Temporibus Gor Dei Populus”, the medieval Gregorian chant popularised by Saint Simbo the Limbless, the first (and last) Christian missionary to visit pagan Ikealund.
What has any of this to do with the latest black-comedy catastrogasm being inflicted upon poor old Perfidious Albion? Not a lot, and yet everything. Sort of. Mostly it’s just a delaying tactic to avoiding actually talking about the situation we’re in because, quite frankly, it’s as depressing a scene as can be imagined without sepia-tinged commentary from an over-ketamined Ken Burns, and nothing leads me to believe there’ll be any noticeable improvement in the status quo in the near to middle future. It turns out that the near total lockdown on ‘politics’ that took up the end of September was actually the high point of this Third Elizabethan Age, and it’s been all downhill slalom with hungry wolf outriders every day since.
I mean, come on. Truss was gifted the opportunity to follow Flobalob Johnson’s ghastly show onto the national stage, a warm-up act that might have started off with gushing reviews and a lot of buzz courtesy of his chums in the Press, but eventually wore out its welcome with the audience through a series of off-colour pratfalls and not entirely accidental wardrobe malfunctions, all of which concluded with a humiliating exeunt Hard Right pursued by bears. Any functioning politician with the common-sense of a damp roof-tile should have been able to slide into that gaping chasm of credibility and, merely by virtue of not being a petulant gasbag of selfish dishonesty, enjoy a honeymoon period where they literally couldn’t help but appear reassuringly solid and capable in comparison.
You see where I’m going with this?
In the person of Mary Elizabeth Truss, the writhing nest of ill-hatched wyrms and slimy parasitic ticks that comprise the Tory Party membership have managed to miss that mile-wide target by some kind of very large number of astronomical units (let’s call it the Musk Variable), saddling this country in the process with a Prime Minister of such intellectual vacuity that the combined weight of every single useful thought to have passed through her cranium over the last decade, if transmogrified item for item into lead pellets and stuffed into a sack woven from her most quick witted ripostes to policy questions, still wouldn’t be a burden sufficient to noticeably inconvenience a mildly arthritic ant.
It’s absolutely astounding to me how incredibly thoroughly the Tory Party has gone about October Surprising its own brand. They’ve been under new management for a grand total of 30 days so far, a good third of which were taken up by the ultra-slow-motion internment of Betty Windsor during which 24/7 coverage of our INTENSE AND SHARED NATIONAL GRIEF crowded out any talk of such mundanities as the lives and livelihoods of mere common-folk, and yet in that time they’ve managed to tank the pound on the currency markets, sabotage the mortgage market, trash the UK’s credit rating, compel the Bank of England to launch a £65 billion effort to rescue the pension market, align the UK with pro-Trumpian Christofascists over the location of Britain’s embassy in Israel, add about £100 billion to the national debt, promise lucrative tax cuts to the richest (partially) funded by brutal spending cuts targeting the poorest, refused to contemplate ‘hand-outs’ to help people deal with their energy bills, preferring to offer public money direct to the energy companies to guarantee their profits, threatened to break international law over trafficking asylum seekers to Rwanda, and a dozen or more other auto-mutilations I can’t even begin to stuff into this already swollen paragraph.
Twenty days. That’s all it took for them to make Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson look positively statesmanlike. Da Fuk?!?
And they did all of this, let’s not forget, just in time for Conference season. The one time of the year (other than any day that NuNew Labour’s authoritarians need a hand gaslighting the public vis-à-vis their ongoing Special Ideological Operation against British History’s Greatest Monster) that the national News Media are more or less compelled to give the Opposition some grudging coverage. Chancellor Kwarsi Kwarteng’s ‘emergency mini-budget’ of pseudo-erotic Randian fantasy triumphalism blew up in his vacantly grinning face just as NuNew Labour were stage-managing their mawkishly ‘patriotic’ celebration of everything Mittelenglisch and ringing the conference centre with bullet-headed securigoons tasked with keeping anyone on their ‘Too Lefty for the Daily Mail’ shitlist (i.e. the vast majority of the Party and 99.9% of Liverpool’s population) off the premises. Granted, Starmer’s brittle coalition of synthi-skinned careerists and lobbyists for Omnicorp have the combined political nous and reaction speed of Garth Knight’s Goliath sailing over the edge of a southern California cliff, but even they were able to cobble together a focus-group approved response that underlined the widening gulf between centre-right economic orthodoxy and whatever the hell it is Tory voters have unearthed from the Tomb of Kapitalizmahotep the Unchained.
Honest to Dark Brandon I don’t recall the Tories ever being quite this bad at the nuts and bolts of politics, and I’m old enough to remember the long, slow death of John Major’s sleaze-ridden post-Thatcher Government. In choosing Truss as their leader (against the wishes of a large majority of their MPs) the Tory membership have empowered the most extreme elements at the Rightward edge of their Coalition of C*#%s to take centre stage, with everything that implies for fangs out, hair on fire ideological policy making. Truss, Kwarteng, Raab, Braverman, etc, these nonentities are just finger-puppets for the Invisible Hand of those billionaire-funded ‘thinktanks’ (like the Taxpayers Avoidance Alliance and the Institute of Economic Chaos Affairs) who make 55 Tufton Street their home. This is their opportunity to turn the United Kingdom into a backroom slot-machine they can stuff pennies into for guaranteed multi-billion payouts, and quite frankly they couldn’t give two minuscule fucks about the state Britain is in once they’ve had their fun. The people behind the thinktanks will be richer for betting on the ups and downs of the UK’s collapse, and their placemen will be set fair for a lifetime of part-time executive directorships and overpaid speaking gigs at various international junkets for the temporarily useful, and if they leave the country a culture-war battlefield of cash-strapped regional militias when they take the last fuelled jet to Davos Island, well, it’s just shrugs and prayers, drone-stock, you clearly should have been less Woke and done more networking.
Many Tory MPs seem to be in genuine shock at the speed of their Party’s collapse and the size of the Loyal Opposition’s 30-percentish lead in the polls, but they shouldn’t be. This isn’t down to anything the Stamerstans have done, this is entirely their own work. It’s what you get when you’re so cringingly obedient to your own propaganda wing that you allow the lunatics to take over the asylum and act like a bunch of blue-pilled businessmen let loose at a pooch-screwing festival who’ve been told not to come back to the hotel until every canine is a micrometre flat and their wee-willy-winkies have been worn down to glistening nubbins. It wouldn’t be quite so bad for them if this was happening after a sustained period of smooth-sailing Government that had solidified the bonds that unite Tories together (money, xenophobia, bodily fluids) and built up a bank of unearned credit with the electorate via the establishment News Media, then they’d be able to look the markets in the eye and say, hey, don’t panic, we’re just indulging in a little mid-term beak-wetting, there’ll be plenty of time to purge the national memory archives of this wobble and reboot as the Party of Fiscal Probity once Election season comes around again.
But it’s not, is it? They’ve made this lurch to the outer limits and beyond after twelve years of ruthless austerity (350,000 dead and counting) six years of Brexitcide (which is a Nirnaeth Arnoediad and counting), three years of Covid (200,000 +, but who’s counting) and eight months of Russia’s madly overcompensating Tsar Rumpelstiltsputin fucking with energy prices while his army dissolves on Ukrainian soil. These disasters have all combined with increasing levels of Tory incompetence to plunge the country into an economic and social maelstrom where you don’t need to have a university degree in Practical Moneybusiness (IANAGOPMU) to see that we’re all pretty much fucked and the Conservative and Unionist Party was in the driving seat for ALL of it. Yes, the BBC’s loyal choir of castrato commentators can – and will -prettify things up as much as possible (I’m talking about you Chris ‘worse that Kuenssberg’ Mason and your “This is a newly hatched Government barely out of the shell” bullshit) but the simple fact of the matter is that the Tory Civil-War is now out in the open and can’t easily be papered over with bland assurances that all this recent unpleasantness is just the result of global economic turmoil and that massive tax-cuts for the wealthy are, in fact, a proven part of any Growth Plan.
On one side of the yawning divide you’ve got Truss and Kwarteng and the rest of the Glibertarian, ERG, Kulturkampfing Far-Right brigade, and on another Sunak and Shapps and the Not-Quite-As-Far-Right wing who would rather boil the frog slowly and at least pretend to care about the financial security of millions of traditional Tory voters once every few years. Then there’s the faction that are still loyal to Flobalob’s brand of ‘all things to just enough voters’ grifting bullshit, who blame the Brextremists for not sticking with him, the Traditionalists for betraying him, and the naughty, naughty News Media for not protecting him. In between them all are scores of horrified Tory MPs who couldn’t find their own arses with a compass and a helper monkey but who can read a poll well enough to see that the collapse of huge Tory majorities in recent by-elections could easily happen to them. All the constituency boundary rejiggering and fucking around with the electoral commission they’ve been doing can only go so far towards entrenching Tory rule, and they won’t mean diddley-squat if the Average Joe and Joanne continue to have their noses rubbed in the reality of what continued Tory Government – especially this kind of unhinged Tory Government – means for their chances of being able to light their homes and feed their families over Christmas. And rub their noses in it is exactly what Truss & Co have been doing.
We’ve had Tory Party Chairman Jake ‘I’m just bluff, I am’ Berry telling people concerned about the spiralling cost of everything that “When their bills arrive, they can either cut their consumption or they can get a higher salary, higher wages, go out there and get that new job”, which is… nice of him.
Higher Education Minister Andrea Jenkyns (she of the middle-finger gesture directed at people booing Flobalob as he left Downing Street) claiming that she would ban Universities from offering degrees in entirely fictional ‘Harry Potter studies’ (that’s the class where the kids are allowed to self-identify as Mandrakes) and stop students from “being fed a diet of critical race theory, anti-British history and sociological Marxism”, the latter of which is apparently that old standby ‘Cultural Marxism’ with the Jew-Hate scrubbed off, courtesy of whichever Heritage Institute pamphlet she cribbed that load of verbal rat-bedding from.
Then there’s the ever reliable source of drawling class-war clickbait Jacob Rees-Mogg, Truss’ Emissary to The Endless Darkness Beyond Mortal Ken Business Secretary who has been enjoying his latest opportunity to trigger outrage in the sane majority who don’t aspire to someday inherit one of the Nine Rings of Men from their Great-Uncle Dwimmerlaik Rees-Mogg by proclaiming both his eagerness to let frackers frack themselves silly in his spacious back garden (much to the displeasure of his NIMBY constituents) while rejecting the possibility of allowing local referendums on the issue (because of the displeasure of his NIMBY constituents) and dismissing all opposition to fracking in general as “hysteria” generated by groups “funded by Russia” (by which I assume he means the Tory Party itself, because many of its MPs are dead set against any fracking in their constituencies and it’s stuffed with more roubles than a babushka’s mattress) while simultaneously being outed as exploring ways to evade public scrutiny of the approval process for new fracking opportunities. Don’t ever change, Jacob (he won’t – Ed).
The new Home Secretary, lunatic barely-lawyer and serial liar Suella “I’m not brown, you’re brown” Braverman, was filmed ranting at the Tory Conference about how seeing asylum seekers forced onto planes and renditioned to Rwanda was her “dream” and “obsession”, for which clear evidence of mental illness and sociopathic tendencies she received a partial standing ovation. Partial, only because the other half of the audience had already spanked themselves into drooling lassitude at the very thought of shipping all the darkies back to Africa, even and especially the ones who thought to outwit the Bulldog British by coming here from Asia. Not so inscrutable now, eh, Johnny Foreigner? Harrumph.
And last, but also least, Truss herself, filling up much of her incredibly short maiden leader’s speech (they’re usually around an hour long, hers was just over half that length and included testimonial video from the team at Cyberdyne who constructed her from dough and old spoons) with sneers about people simply not being willing to understand that “with change comes disruption” and the creation of a new Enemies of the State list christened the “anti-growth coalition” which includes environmentalists, other political parties, militant Unions, anti-Brexit forces and some unnamed thinktanks, but not, as you might expect, Weight Watchers or the Pym Foundation. Missed opportunity there, Diz Liz.
It’s no great surprise that multiple Tory MPs have been running to friendly journalists to give (anonymous, natch) statements decrying the bonkers direction Truss & Co are dragging the Party and giving her until Christmas to pull her head out of her arse and become an entirely different and more capable person (uh huh, yeah) before the knives come out. Tory leaders are supposed to be immune from leadership challenges in the first year of their reign, but there’s rules and then there’s ‘rules’, in particular the Golden Rule (Do as thou wilt, but fucketh not with mine own future lest thou findeth out) and none of these rules were ever designed to deal with a leadership team so amateurish they’ve had to perform a series of U-turns on their very first policy priorities because they hadn’t even bothered to find out if their 71 seat majority in Parliament was united enough to get highly contentious legislation passed (it’s not – Ed). Cabinet ministers are already on record making statements in direct contradiction of what they know to be Government policy, which is supposed to be a sacking offense, but has now seemingly been downgraded to something Foreign Secretary James ‘nominative determinism lies a’mouldering in its grave’ Cleverly is dispatched to bullshit about on the morning News round because there’s simply no way of enforcing Cabinet discipline when the Tory Party is this fractured and self-destructive.
That’s not to say that the Tories are dead certs to lose the next General Election, far from it. Truss herself is absolutely, definitely, undeniably, a cast-iron certainty to get booted sooner rather than later, but that’s a different matter. She’s simply incapable of doing the job and lacks the ability to fake it. Every interview she does, even the soft-soap cuddle-ups with Tory loyalists like Kuenssberg and Robinson, quickly devolve into the robotic repetition of stock phrases delivered from behind a series of uncomfortable approximations of human facial expressions while her eyes remain as dead as a zombie rat’s. There’s an interview with a nameless Tory MP out there where he or she bemoans the fact that every single thing Truss says on any topic is always preceded by a static pause during which she retreats to her mind-palace (well, mind cottage, maybe) and goes over her list of “Things that sound like something a Tory Prime Minister might say” until she lands on the selection of mouth noises least appropriate to the question at hand. They could program an Alexa to do that, and it would probably come across on TV as warmer and far more on the ball policywise.
Who would replace her? God alone knows, or failing that you could ask His opposite number, who is probably considerably more in the loop regarding the average Tory’s innermost desires. Braverman obviously fancies her chances, hence the deep dive into Culture-War rhetoric and the manic grin she sports whenever she talks about hurting the people her lily-white audience don’t like, but she went out of the last leadership race in round two and would have to go toe-to-toe with Kemi ‘B-List Begbie’ Badenoch and Priti ‘Pure Venom’ Patel for the “Brown on Brown violence is the only thing that stirs my loins” vote, a fight I don’t see that chinless cheerleader coming out of in one piece. Michael Gove has returned from his summer of soul-searching on Mykonos to throw a little chaos into the mix by speaking for the average Tory MP in threatening to vote against her in Parliament, but it’s obvious that he’s only carrying water for some other Murdoch approved candidate, who may or may not be Rishi ‘D’ya like me now?’ Sunak. The other losers from the last leadership race are still there, ready to forgive and forget as long as their fellow MPs belatedly acknowledge their suitability for high-office, but given the hole Truss is driving the Party into, it’s possible a majority of them would rather wait until after the next Election to stake a claim to the smoking wreckage of the HMS Conservative Party.
Frankly, who cares. Whoever it is that leads the Tories into the next Election they don’t have a hope in hell of repeating Flobby’s 2019 victory margin, since most of his artificial advantages have already been squandered or simply slipped away with the passage of the years. The country is, basically, falling down around our ears, and there’s no unifying lizard-brain oriflamme like Brexit for the moronic minority to coalesce around, no simple three-word slogan like ‘Get Brexit Done’ to take the place of a policy manifesto, and while the News Media will certainly do their part to drag the Tories as close to the winning post as they possibly can, Starmer’s spineless kowtowing to the Right Wing Press and unwholesome embrace of Saint Anthony the Liar’s creed of ‘The Rich Know Best’ ensures that he and his handlers won’t face even a hundredth part of one percent of the concentrated barrage of lies and slander unleashed against his predecessor by the News Media and half of the Parliamentary Labour Party.
In fact, I’d hazard an almost-informed guess that the most prominent and successful axis of News Media attack on NuNew Labour won’t be from the Right at all, but will instead target the rift between its leadership’s aims and centre-left/minority voters. Once an Election is in the offing the BBC and the Press will suddenly wake up to the avalanche of documentary evidence sitting in their in-boxes proving beyond any reasonable doubt that the Labour Right are a bunch of racist, misogynistic, bullying shitbirds up to their fat necks in hock to very dodgy donors and desperate to avoid scrutiny of their alliance of convenience with the Tories that cost Labour in 2017 and 2019. Sure, that might be just the dating profile to appeal to the racist, misogynistic, bullying shitbirds (by which I mean people who devour Right Wing Media) they’ve been chasing after for the last two and a half years, but if the Tory Party continues collapsing in on itself at this rate it will be increasingly hard for NuNew Labour to play the Mandelsonian “Who else are you filthy trots going to vote for?” card at the ballot box. It would be blackly comical indeed if the ruthless Liebermanisation of the Labour Party pioneered by those Power (For Us) At All Costs ideologues surrounding Starmer combined with Tory self-implosion to cost the Party a majority because their backstabbing antics circa 2015 to Whatever Day It Is Today finally got the Breaking News coverage it deserves, and this drove millions of left-wing voters into the arms of the Greens, local ‘Real Labour’ alternatives and/or whatever the Enough is Enough movement morphs into.
But anyway, that’s a long way off. Tories don’t call Elections unless they think they can win them, and while they’re so far behind in the polls they’d be insane (the other kind of insane) to take that risk. I foresee a longish period of stalemated Government as Truss’ faction of hyper-ideologues ram face first into the cold, hard political fact that they don’t have the votes for their more extreme legislative priorities (ending child-labour laws, banning non-Government approved Unions, removing all taxation on corporations and the mega-rich, etc) and lack the institutional muscle to strong-arm truculent MPs without blowing the Party apart, but they will do a shit-ton of damage anyway by repealing as many of the regulations, labour-protections and human rights laws they can while cloaking it all under the worst kind of Culture-War division.
Eventually, the Tories will have to face a reckoning with their foreign-sponsored Far-Right or morph fully into a New British Union of Fascists, the only question is whether the country can survive long enough for them to collapse under the weight of their awfulness.
I haz me doots….
“What’s Going On?” indeed. Anyone got that sweat-lodge’s number?
Bostondreams
How are my fellow Gators feeling about Ben Sasse as our new university president? :/
WaterGirl
PSA: If you uploaded your calendar pics, please check your email. If the confirmation from Dropbox says “File Request 2022”, then the pics went to the wrong place and you need to resubmit. If it says “Pet Pics 2023”, they are in the right place!
jonas
Of course the bigger news beyond just pardoning people convicted on federal marijuana charges was tasking HHS with reviewing the drug’s Schedule 1 status. Removing that would make it possible for businesses in states with legal weed to use regular banks instead of being cash-only, which creates not only security risks, but makes regulation, taxes, and all that a huge nightmare and of course ensures that the business remains in a grey-market area dominated by gangs and other criminal elements. Whether removing pot from Schedule 1 would ultimately require Congressional action, or is merely a move the president can make with an executive order, idk.
Republicans are now behind the 8 ball on two enormously popular issues: abortion and weed.
BC in Illinois
“Pardons for those convicted of using marijuana are unfair to those who wanted to smoke marijuana, but were afraid to.”
Jeffro
I swear…if he had done it at 4:20, we’d be looking for a fifth spot on Mt. Rushmore. =)
In other light-hearted (or is it?) news, this piece cracked me up more than a little this morning: sandwiches must be cut diagonally, and I’m not taking questions
Baud
The Today Show, which isn’t supposed to be acting like Republican strategists, had the same take. Hopefully, voters are less cynical and decide they want to support actions designed to gain their votes.
Jeffro
@FelonyGovt: you know it’s shrewd and has majority support when you can’t find a trace of it on Fox, less than 24 hours later
Dorothy A. Winsor
@jonas: Not to mention student loan forgiveness
jonas
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
I dunno. “Make 12 year-olds carry their rapist’s baby to term” fits (almost) on a bumper sticker.
SFAW
I’ve only encountered Alice Stewart twice, and each time makes me think that the RNC is “not sending their best” to shill on CNN. Of course, maybe she is their best.
Jeffro
@Baud: “there goes that Biden again, doing things that the majority of Americans want done – hmph!”
SFAW
@Jeffro:
From the diagonal-cut piece you linked:
This pretty much nullifies anything else she wrote.
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone 😊😊😊
Geminid
There is a really good 30 second excerpt from Mark Kelly’s debate with Blake Masters. Kelly says of Masters, “Folks, we all know guys like this. They think they know better than everyone about everything, ” then turns to Masters and drives the point home before turning back to the camera and repeating the dismissive punchline, “Folks, we all know guys like this.”
I found this in a No Lie with Bryan Tyler Cohen tweet, retweeted by Ragnarok Lobster.
rikyrah
@WaterGirl:
ICAM 👏🏾👏🏾
rikyrah
@Geminid:
Very good clip
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
I have a bunch of MAGA dorks on my FB feed…the few who post on this issue have been in favor of legalizing for years and blame Democrats for the fact that it hasn’t happened. The GOP is grasping for a narrative because they know this is a wedge issue for their voters.
I also think an effective strategy for blunting the soft on crime attacks is for Dems to point out that the State with the highest murder rate in the nation is Mississippi and when was the last time Dems were in charge there? If GOP policies were really a solution the reddest State wouldn’t have such a bad violent crime problem.
John S.
@Baud: It’s rather telling how the two parties view their relationship with voters.
Democrats: Let’s use our power to pass legislation that is beneficial to our voters.
Republicans: Let’s use our power to stay in power, create fake culture wars, block legislation that is beneficial to our voters and pass legislation that is harmful to our voters.
Betty Cracker
@Bostondreams: Equal parts disgust and sadness. The current regime is hell-bent on destroying a fine university. They set the process in motion long before this Sasse bullshit, following the Orbán playbook to the letter. At this point, I just hope America doesn’t follow the same path to ruin.
Geminid
@jonas: Republicans are also on the wrong side of public opinion on the issues of gun safety and combatting climate change.
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
Marmot
@Baud:
In an earlier thread, you mentioned you hadn’t seen this kind of criticism of Repubs’ gimmicks. It might be confirmation bias, but I agree.
Generally it’s “how will this gambit play in Peoria?” I think.
Jeffro
@SFAW: well yeah, it can’t be JUST pineapple…you need Canadian bacon and jalapeños, too ;)
Jeffro
Also in the Friday morning funny stuff, a tweet from Vic Vela showing President Biden signing something at the Resolute desk
LOL
I heard the game was bad…like, bad bad…but a Broncos loss is a partial win for the Chiefs, so hey!
Roger Moore
@WaterGirl:
The Democrats are playing by the rules; pardoning people is one of the President’s enumerated powers. The Republicans are whining because Biden isn’t playing by their Calvinball rules.
Marmot
@SFAW: Seriously, try it with jalapeños. Or those banana peppers if you wanna take it down a notch. Pineapples are a revelation.
EDIT: Damn. I see Jeffro sort-of beat me to it.
mrmoshpotato
That’s entirely too nice for the god-damned, fucking fascist shitpile that claims it’s a political party in this country.
Baud
@Roger Moore:
You’re only supposed to pardon war criminals and co-conspirators.
matt
Doing something 3/4 of Americans want is a ploy to get votes.
The Republican Party needs to be burned down and replaced with a party that does democracy.
Baud
@Marmot:
Yes, the other day some media person said the Saudi action on oil would hurt Dems without suggesting a cynical attempt to influence the election.
Baud
Y’all are forgetting that our voters aren’t people, they’re special interests.
germy shoemangler
I LIVED IT: I Timed My Edible Wrong and Watched ‘Planet Earth’ Sober
Jeffro
@Marmot: banana peppers and sausage is to die for!
A co-worker also swears by drizzling either a little bit of honey or a little bit of chili oil on pizza, depending on your mood.
Sriracha also goes great on veggie pizza.
Dang it it’s 10am and now I’m hungry!
germy shoemangler
@Baud:
Special interests looking for “entitlements”
WaterGirl
@Geminid:
Shalimar
Apparently this is controversial, but I’m gonna go out on a limb and say political parties in a democracy should implement policies that 75% of their citizens support.
Gin & Tonic
@Jeffro: Canadians may call that stuff bacon, but we all know it isn’t.
mrmoshpotato
@Jeffro: I agree, and I also want a club sandwich at 9AM now.
OzarkHillbilly
I had a long day among the Mennonites yesterday getting my meat birds processed. It started at 2 am and ended at 8:30 pm.
I was a little surprised at the number of Trudy Busch Valentine for Senate signs I saw and the complete lack of Eric Schmitt signs. Not that the Mennonites are engaged in such shenanigans, I don’t even know if they vote. They are unfailingly polite and friendly. Their neighbors on the other hand…
My faith in my fellow Miserians was restored when I stopped at a tool store to check out their inventory. There are a couple of router bits I am in need of and I thought they might have them. I had several hundred dollars in my pocket (had to pay for the bird processing) and a mask going on my face when I reached the door and espied a sign that said,
“No Masks Allowed.
No Exceptions”
Yep, situation normal, all fucked up. So I, my mask and my several hundred dollars turned around and left. I’m going to send them a nice polite letter telling them their stupidity cost them $500 in sales. Not true, maybe only a hundred or so, but so what.
As to the signs, I don’t ascribe any great meaning to them other than that the “fine” people of Morgan and Moniteau counties aren’t big fans of Eric Schmitt. Don’t worry, they are still going to vote for the asshole, just not gonna to give him any money.
kindness
‘Gateway drug’. Hard to believe they are still using that one. The real gateway drugs are cigarettes and alcohol. Republicans who kvetch about pot are locking in the Police Chief contingent of voters and ignoring the flock. More and more, policy for Republicans has no reflection on what their masses think. More and more it is dogma handed down from above and their actual voters are expected to just swallow it. That works in an authoritarian system but does it work in a Democratic one? We’ll soon see.
Marmot
@Baud: Oh that’s a good one. Presenting OPEC actions like features of the terrain is a weirdly blind approach. Ahem.
Anonymous At Work
The only problem with Biden’s announcement is that it missed a few debates by a week, particularly Beto v. Abbottoir in Texas. Most Republicans, if they agreed to a debate, agreed to only one debate, too. Needed this to be an issue for governors’ debates as well as Senate/Congress.
germy shoemangler
Matt McIrvin
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?:
They have a readymade response to that: point the finger at black Democratic mayors. You just find a level of government where there’s a Democrat and that’s who you blame.
clay
@Bostondreams: As a lifelong Georgia Bulldog fan… even I am feeling bad for you guys 🙁
John S.
@OzarkHillbilly:
Mennonites can vote, they just tend not to. The only religious group that I am aware of that specifically abstain from voting or any involvement in politics whatsoever are Jehovah Witnesses.
mrmoshpotato
@Geminid:
twbrandt (formerly tom)
Whenever I lament that we are going to hell in a hand basket, Tony Jay reminds me that we have company in said hand basket.
Marmot
@Jeffro:
Yes to this. The honey and chili oil are both fantastic.
I’m not sure I could let Sriracha bust in and totally take over like it does, but I guess I could sacrifice a slice to science.
Jeffro
@germy shoemangler: (big grin here…good ol’ Mitch!) =)
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Marmot: Balsamic vinegar is always good
JCJ
He should have done it at 4:20 with both Willie Nelson and Snoop Dogg at his side.
germy shoemangler
Roger Moore
@Jeffro:
The flaw with the whole thing is it’s written from the standpoint of someone who only works with rectilinear sandwich bread. You can’t cut a sandwich on artisanal bread on the diagonal because it doesn’t have upper corners to form one. I refuse to be lectured to by someone who makes their sandwiches only on square bread.
JML
@kindness: I’ll admit, I used to buy the “gateway drug” thing. You know, when I was 19 and was only really thinking about this in the context of the friends I knew who had “graduated” to heroin. Back when I didn’t understand anything about addiction. For people with no experience with drugs or understanding of addiction, it’s the sort of thing that sounds reasonable. But I like to think we’ve learned a lot in society in the last 30 years or so about this.
It’s a good thing from Biden.
I have to laugh at the “he’s only doing this to get votes in the midterms!” complaint. GOP: “How dare he do things that people want and are popular! Doesn’t he understand that it’s not fair to us?!?”
Jeffro
It’s a novel approach, that’s for sure. (eyeroll at GOP)
I wonder if the President will tie it all together for America just before the midterms: “when it comes to improving our nation’s infrastructure…action on climate change…protecting reproductive rights…supporting Ukraine against Russian aggression…legalizing marijuana…supporting unions…student loan forgiveness…speeding our conversion to electric vehicles…and more, these things have one thing in common: they’re what the vast majority of Americans want from their government.”
italics = Biden whisper, just to irritate the shit out of the RWNJ dead-enders =)
Marmot
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Do you bake it on the top? Or like drizzle it? I see myself holding a slice and pouring vinegar onto my shirt like I do.
It sounds good though.
Jeffro
I just realized…legalizing marijuana means we’re going to get Kid Rock back! Woo-hoo!!
(kidding, people)
It would also mean the GOP still has Ted Nugent! Woo-hoo!!
(not kidding)
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Marmot: Try drizzling. Wear a bib!
Jeffro
@Roger Moore: diagonal-ish sound ok?
Marmot
@Dorothy A. Winsor: The things I do for science.
Another Scott
@Tony Jay: Obligatory HappyToast:
There is no bottom with the RWNJs, is there? :-(
Hang in there. And thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
Tony Jay
@Another Scott:
There really isn’t, but they do keep on looking.
germy shoemangler
Suzanne
Who’s going to tell her this is how representative government works? You might even call it…..republican.
Matt McIrvin
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: I know some pothead nihilist types who went full MAGA too–I think the idea that liberals are the real anti-fun tightasses is strong with them, and it would be hard for them to give it up.
I thought years ago that supporting cannabis legalization was a wide-open opportunity for Republicans to outflank the left and get youth cred, but by and large, they didn’t take it and now it’s too late for them.
Alison Rose 💙🌻💛
I really can’t believe they’re still using the “gateway drug” nonsense. The only reason pot is usually the first illegal drug someone uses is because it’s usually the easiest to get and the least intimidating to try. It’s not like if pot disappeared, no one would ever use any other drugs because, well gee, how can I start with meth if I can’t smoke weed first????
I started with pot, but the only other drug I ever tried was acid, which I did twice and absolutely hated. I had everything else on offer to me but never did any of it because I didn’t want to. For me, pot was only a gateway to……..more pot.
WaterGirl
@mrmoshpotato: see also, comment #40 :-)
germy shoemangler
sab
@JML: The real gateway drug is tobacco. “Here try this because your peers insist even though it is highly addictive and will probably eventually kill you.”
Josie
@JCJ:
Report on Political Wire:
“Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra retweeted President Biden’s 3 p.m. marijuana policy announcement at exactly 4:20 p.m.”
germy shoemangler
(see photo with second tweet)
Obvious Russian Troll
On reddit a few years I ran into a user who was convinced that Trump was going to cruise to re-election based on his legalization of marijuana. At the time, the AG was still Jeff Sessions.
Matt McIrvin
@Obvious Russian Troll: There seems to be a widespread belief that Republicans are or ought to be game for this (because it’s Democrats who are the big NERDS, right?), but they’re just not.
zhena gogolia
@germy shoemangler: Who is Anya Lehr?
Geminid
@WaterGirl: I thought those were great debate tactics on Kelly’s part. I like how he got Masters’ attention. Masters looked kind of shocked.
This could be a good 27 seconds to reprise in a TV ad: “Folks, we all know guys like this….”
germy shoemangler
@zhena gogolia:
One year ago, after I was given a start date, signed a lease and moved all my stuff to DC for a job with the Biden White House, I had it all pulled out from under me (on a video-off zoom call!). Why? Because I was honest on my background check and occasionally smoked weed.
BruceFromOhio
Indeed. Its amusing how easily these buttons get pushed. Ploy accomplished!
mrmoshpotato
@WaterGirl: The more the merrier. 😁
Baud
@germy shoemangler: So she wasn’t thrown in jail?
dmsilev
@Roger Moore: Also precludes baguettes, sliced rolls and the like. Any reality which doesn’t include banh mi and Italian beefs is one which I would prefer not to inhabit.
zhena gogolia
@Baud: Yeah, not too logical.
BruceFromOhio
@Tony Jay: A single sentence bit of art, that. When they gonna just break down and let you FrontPage these postcards from across the pond instead making you sit at the kids table?
Ohio Mom
I know one young Republican (a relative, not someone I chose to associate with) who is a MAGA pothead*, I will be interested to know how he interprets this Biden move.
* This son of my cousin majored in some sort of agriculture because his life goal was to be a marijuana farmer. Hasn’t worked out for him yet though.
Betty Cracker
I personally find this ad annoying because Dems don’t disagree with Repubs over trivial shit like whether to let Jr. upgrade the iPhone or have scalloped or mashed potatoes with the meatloaf. But this seems like a smart ad for a Dem in a red state.
Old School
Pardoning convicted pot possessioners is unfair to people taking their pot to national parks this weekend.
zhena gogolia
@Betty Cracker: Yeah, it’s good.
I know it’s unpopular to say here, but I like him. He gave a great speech at Hillary’s Dem Convention.
WaterGirl
@Betty Cracker: I especially liked the two teens with their phones. “Gross.” “Yeah, it’s disgusting.”
schrodingers_cat
@zhena gogolia: Unlike someone who sat red faced and pouting? BTW did you see, that same person is doing rounds giving TV interviews trying suppress the turnout by badmouthing Ds.
cain
@FelonyGovt:
Surprised that nobody complained that it would be unfair to all the other felons that didn’t get a pardon!
WaterGirl
@zhena gogolia:
Really? I haven’t picked up on that at all.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@germy shoemangler: 1) I very much doubt that’s the whole story
2) somebody who would tweet something like that isn’t someone I would want working with me in a high stress job that requires some degree of discretion
sab
@zhena gogolia: I like Tim Ryan a lot (he’s my Congress critter) but I think all of his general election ads are really annoying.
Another Scott
@sab: +1
A lot of that stuff is about peer pressure and doing things that are “thrilling” and “non-conforming”.
(Insert report on study that peers have much more effect on attitudes and behaviors of growing children than parents.)
There was a story on the BBC radio last night that made me think of this as well. Something about what causes people to join extremist groups and take up arms against their government. “Anger at poor economic opportunities”, “Resentment of discrimination”, etc. Very, very conventional analysis, I thought, and nothing at all about the thrill of adventure and peer pressure.
To be clear, I have no idea of the rankings of those factors, but there’s no doubt in my mind that drug use and non-conforming behavior and all the rest up to and including waging war on your own government have an element of thrill-seeking and wanting to fit in with one’s “popular” and powerful peers.
Once we understand that, and can find ways to effectively counter it, we might be on the way to solving lots of problems.
tl;dr – When the punishment is too severe, it makes the problem worse. Scofflaw behavior is corrosive. Take the “thrill” away by making it legal (and regulated). Biden did well, and more is needed.
My $0.02.
Cheers,
Scott.
Gvg
@Bostondreams: pissed.
He voted to impeach Trump the second time, so OK not treasonous.
He is anti abortion and anti gay rights. Very bad match for University culture. I foresee lots of student and faculty confrontations. The board is stupidly Republican nuts. Mostly appointed by recent Republican Governors. This is going to suck.
looked him up on Wikipedia, he has retreated to academia from politics before then gone back to politics. I just wish there was a chance of a democrat picking up his seat.
The Up and Up
I had a weird dream recently. Like most odd dreams it went all over. The first aspect of it was a “Down the Road” piece for the news. Rural Wyoming. An almost ghost town with a post office. One family had the same box number, 2, for decades. When officials went to contact the people as usual routine instead of someone as in the past stating the registered users of the box, a raspy voice on the other end of the line replied, “Satan.” “Does Satan have a PO Box in Wyoming?” “Why has no one seen these folks in years?” “What became of their general store in town now mysteriously vanished?”
The flip side or second half had my vehicle break down in West Virginia. John Cole earlier mentioned in a post he resembled Father Brown. So there is John Cole telling me to use one of the guest rooms in his Mountain State vicarage while the car is fixed. A mundane issue but as usual happens on the weekend, at night, when the auto repair shop owners leave for a week to the Grand Old Opry, or in this case all three. Luckily some family members are able to assist later to get the jalopy back into drivable condition. I don’t have to stay that long, just a couple days. They do want to see John Cole give service as it’s now Sunday. “He’s so mild mannered and well spoken.” “His sermon was so inspired.” I bite my tongue to avoid saying, “You should have heard him swearing the other day.” Christmas is approaching and the church is holding an ugly sweater contest to raise money for charity.
Hope everyone else is doing well or as best as possible.
zhena gogolia
@schrodingers_cat: No, I try not to notice.
zhena gogolia
@WaterGirl: Some can’t forgive him for making noises about challenging Pelosi.
Soprano2
@Marmot: They always take the caravans that mysteriously disappear right after the election absolutely seriously, as if they haven’t learned by now that they’re a ginned-up thing for the election.
sab
@WaterGirl: Years ago many jackals disliked him. I was among them back when he was anti-choice and pro-gun. Marriage to a female school teacher really improved him.
MazeDancer
@Tony Jay:
You are such a wonderful writer. And such a foot-shooting typographer.
You are rivaling Adam for the tl:dr impossible to read paragraph award.
You gotta break up those long paragraphs. No one will read them. More than 2 – 3 sentences per paragraph only works if the sentences are short.
This is scienticfic data that’s been known since the ’50’s. Learned it as a tot in Ad Biz. Please help us enjoy reading your writing.
zhena gogolia
@sab: Even this one? I thought it was kind of cute, for a political ad. His wife looks nice.
Tony Jay
@BruceFromOhio:
Christ, no, that sounds like too much hard work.
Any FPs who want to use it are always welcome to do so, I just appreciate the space to vent.
BruceFromOhio
@germy shoemangler: That site … is something else. Thank you for sharing.
trollhattan
“I happen to think” so many lies packed into so few words.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@zhena gogolia: that was dumb but he loudly and emphatically said it was a mistake, as I recall
lowtechcyclist
@kindness:
The only reason marijuana was kinda sort of a gateway drug was the distribution system. The same people you bought weed from were likely the same people who’d like you to buy other illegal drugs from. There was nothing inherent in marijuana that made one suddenly crave cocaine, heroin, LSD, or other more, um, advanced drugs.
But I’m curious about cigarettes and alcohol. What are they the gateway drugs to? I’ve been drinking assorted alcoholic beverages for fifty years, and AFAIK there’s never been an obvious connection to some more serious drug you might move on and up to if you drank a lot. My grandfather smoked and drank for probably 60+ years, and AFIAK never tried any other drugs.
sab
@Another Scott: Good point.
germy shoemangler
Not other drugs, just cancer, cirrhosis and early death
Geminid
@zhena gogolia: After the 2018 midterms, Ryan joined Seth Moulton, Kathleen Rice and several other Reps in publically opposing Pelosi’s candidacy for Speaker. She faced them down, and after they threw in the towel she invited other potential challengers: “Come on in, the water’s warm.”
Pelosi got over it but some of her “defenders” still haven’t.
Tony Jay
@MazeDancer:
Those aren’t paragraphs, they’re sentences!
But seriously, thanks for the advice, but that’s just how I write. Choppy Choppy doesn’t come naturally to me, so all must suffer for my art.
Ken
Having driven past Peoria last week and listened to the radio commercials, they are 100 percent in favor of legal pot.
Kropacetic
I like him too. He had rock-bottom expectations from me the first time I saw him on the Presidential stage because of his participation in the attempt to oust Pelosi, but he’s solid; insightful, contributes new ideas, and puts forward strong arguments.
zhena gogolia
OMG this clip is unbelievable.
Kropacetic
@germy shoemangler: Alcohol isn’t a gateway drug, from what I’ve seen it’s one of the top danger drugs on its own.
rikyrah
I shall not lie… I’m stunned as phuck as to what’s been happening lately in Ukraine.
And, I still can’t wrap my mind over the dudes making their way to Alaska to ask for asylum.
The New York Times (@nytimes) tweeted at 7:31 AM on Fri, Oct 07, 2022: “Right now they are in panic, they really are in panic.” After months of static fighting and holding the line under Russian artillery barrages, Ukrainian soldiers have now engaged the Russians up close and gotten a chance to size up their opponent.
https://t.co/mj6RHokzR2
(https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1578362291334135808?t=1-vObi4zhwwJYWL7Dadlug&s=03)
germy shoemangler
@Kropacetic:
It’s a carcinogen. I think some bottle labels are warning about that now
Oral cancer, stomach cancer, etc.
Miss Bianca
@The Up and Up: You’re right, that is a weird dream. : )
Kropacetic
@germy shoemangler: What’s more, it can end or upturn a life by far faster means than cancer.
Geminid
@Betty Cracker: Ryan’s messaging is conditioned by the voters he has to reach. Ohio voted for trump twice by 8%. He needs to flip more voters than do any of the other Democratic candidates.
In one article about Ryan’s campaign, an observer spoke of an acquaintance who, after listening to Ryan’s ads, wondered if the Republican primary hadn’t yet happened!
This wouldn’t bother me, but it drives some Democrats crazy. Hopefully they’ll see some more partisan ads from the Ryan camp as the election grows near. Right now, though, he’s trying to establish acceptability among Independents and disaffected Republicans.
GibberJack
@Tony Jay:
I believe this has potential as a rotating tag.
MazeDancer
@Tony Jay:
Okay, understand the power of long sentences. But just hit return for paragraph at every period.
You’ll get so much more readership. And so much less scrolling.
Betty Cracker
@zhena gogolia: I don’t think that’s an unpopular opinion here at all. Pretty sure all of us want him to win and think he’s running a smart campaign for the state he’s running in. He seems like a good guy to me
@WaterGirl: My favorite part of the ad!
Alison Rose 💙🌻💛
@zhena gogolia: O. M. F. G.
sab
@Geminid: I am afraid that in the process he is alienating Democrats. I was shocked when my dad’s nurse’s aide told me she is hesitant about voting for him. She lives in an adjacent congressional district and hasn’t followed him over the years. To her he is coming off as a Manchin type. If he is losing black women voters then there’s a problem
ETA I think politically or ideologically he is pretty much like a younger Biden.
C Stars
@zhena gogolia: What the fuck. I don’t even understand his point here. “Sorry ladies, if you were in my place you’d make a different decision but since you don’t have representation, as a man I’m going to have to just take away your bodily autonomy”???
Immanentize
@germy shoemangler: breast milk is the gateway to fentanyl overdose!
kindness
@lowtechcyclist: I call tobacco and alcohol the real gateway drugs because 1) many kids start using them in Jr HS & HS. So it is illegal for them to be using those things. 2) If someone is going to try smoking weed, I will say that almost all of them have already tried cigarettes and alcohol.
I don’t agree to the whole ‘gateway’ hypothesis myself. I know too many of my fellow friends who smoked pot when they were teens and never felt compelled to try anything harder. And in all my freaky drug using past, I never in my life had someone who I was buying weed from try to sell me hard drugs/heroin. It doesn’t work that way.
zhena gogolia
@C Stars: It’s like he was hired to present MALE PRIVILEGE in its starkest form, for some Intro course.
Betty Cracker
@Geminid: Fine by me. Just win, baby.
kalakal
@Tony Jay:
“I’ve suffered for my music, now it’s your turn”
frosty
@Tony Jay: I’m with @MazeDancer, unfortunately. Your writing (especially the invective – so creative!) is fun but I can’t get through it all.
Tony Jay
@kalakal:
Telling me you’ve read Chris Martin’s autobiography without saying you’ve read Chris Martin’s autobiography.
topclimber
@BruceFromOhio: Sometimes I think you are trying to win the longest sentence award from a certain philosopher. Probably you Kant. On the other hand, you are easier to understand.
Betty Cracker
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: The part about getting the offer rescinded because the applicant admitted she’d smoked pot occasionally in a state where it was legal sounds plausible to me because of stories I’ve heard from a friend’s brother who has had two low-profile White House gigs (Obama and Biden admins). Can’t say I blame that person on Twitter for venting now given that she’d received an offer and signed a lease, which probably cost her a shit-ton of money. It really has been stupid and hypocritical, the way the government deals with this stuff. It’s changing, and that’s good. But I don’t blame victims of those policies for being bitter about it.
Keith P.
I kind of got lost in her word soup after she said “3/4 of Americans support it”…did she have another point in there?
sab
@Geminid: Tim Ryan has been very outspokenly apologetic about going after Pelosi, and that he thinks she is a political genius.
Eolirin
@Immanentize: Dihydrogen monoxide is a dangerous compound, directly responsible for thousands of deaths a year, let alone massive amounts of property damage, and the imbibing of which leads to all other bad behaviors!
Geminid
@sab: Maybe Ryan will mix in more clearly Democratic messaging as the election approaches. He’s had to get his name out in the 90% of the state that doesn’t know him, and also get ahead of the inevitable “Ryan the Radical” attacks.
I’m curious, though. What are you seeing from the Vance campaign?
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
I don’t know. The attitude isn’t too different from the people who are mad because “I already paid all my student loans.” YMMV.
C Stars
@zhena gogolia: Yeah, the way he giggles and says “I know, it stinks,” and he’s literally talking about women dying because they are refused medical care. lol too bad!
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@Eolirin: Yep, watch out for DHM!
(Now please excuse me while I take a shower in that wonderful stuff!)
germy shoemangler
@Betty Cracker:
“Well, she wasn’t arrested so what’s all the fuss about??”
/
Baud
@germy shoemangler:
No fuss. The best thing is to ignore the whiners.
sab
@Geminid: All negative ads smearing Ryan by labelling him a Pelosi loving liberal. Nothing whatever about his own opinions or positions. I am hoping that Vance’s ads help Ryan with Democrats
ETA Vance did run a cute ad with his very pretty Indian American wife. That disappeared promptly. They may have realized it might play badly with the MAGA folks.
Marmot
@Ken: Ha! That’s wonderful.
SFAW
@Jeffro:
Get thee behind me, Satan!
ETA: And that goes for you, too, Marmot!
Immanentize
@Eolirin: I’ve read how dangerous it is! Not only can it cause suffocation, but is also a well known to be a significant corrosive — even on the toughest iron! But yet people use it with alcohol and certain drug delivery devices.
Meanwhile, given all the extra sparking up Dank Brandon is causing, I think it’s time to raise the prices of “Shakes the Clown” dvds.
Geminid
@Keith P.: That challenge never bothered me once it was over. I think there was a misconception that it was an ideological challenge by “centrists” to a “progressive” leader, and that riled people up. I’ve even heard people talk about the “Blue Dogs” challenging Pelosi but Ryan, Moulton and Rice are in the New Democrat Caucus, and I think it was more of a generational dispute. The Blue Dogs kept to their kennel on that one, and Pelosi’s always treated them well anyway.
Obvious Russian Troll
@Matt McIrvin:
Yeah. I felt this particular Trump supporter was just sad in a way that I can’t bring myself to feel for most of them. I mean, don’t they know what the people they vote for stand for at all?
(That was a rhetorical question. I know the answer all too well.)
topclimber
@Tony Jay:
So my #139 is for you, not the unsuspecting BruceFromOhio.
If you need inspiration for the record, consider this.
Ksmiami
The Republican Mantra… with a hat tip to the Vapors.. “No sex, no drugs, no wine, no women, no fun, no sin…, no wonder it’s dark.”
The Moar You Know
@kindness: this is probably a result of me growing up in SoCal, or a generational thing, but I was and am the only person I know who did not start smoking weed in junior high.
All my peers and I were drinking in high school. Most of us would do coke at parties. Nobody continued that after high school, although according to retired lunatic Madison Cawthorn, it’s a big thing in Congress (I am frankly inclined to believe this)
Almost none of us ever smoked tobacco.
None of us took the “gateway” to opioid addiction.
YMMV.
Marmot
@SFAW: Embrace the new flesh
EDIT: Ok, ok long live it too.
Ruckus
@FelonyGovt:
“……out of touch with the modern world.”
Out of touch with any world except the fucked up world that makes them in charge of an insane asylum that happens because all their rules get broken, especially by them, because they are asinine. Both their rules and they are asinine, mainly because they create rules and then demand that they can cheat, because.
sab
@Geminid: I think you are absolutely right on it being generational not ideological.
cintibud
“Taxing Tim Ryan supports Pelosi’s radical agenda!”
“Voted to give taxpayer dollars to criminals!” – i.e. covid stimulus checks
ETA: Possibly defund the police as well, but Chabot is making the same case against Landsman so I may be confusing that
James E Powell
@sab:
I sometimes feel the same, but then I remember I’m not the target audience.
There are at least a million people in Ohio that Ryan needs to vote for him who are so stupid & out of touch with reality that it is a miracle that he has any chance at all.
I’m assuming his ads are designed to appeal to those people. I sure hope they work.
Ksmiami
@The Moar You Know: same… even drinking wasn’t as popular as weed and coke esp in the beach cities
sab
@cintibud: Excellent summary of those ads.
Kropacetic
Insubstantial, as though made of vapor. Perfect for a party that stands for achieving nothing, not maintaining the status quo but nihilism.
germy shoemangler
But those people don’t want student loans forgiven.
I don’t think she’s saying “Cannabis should remain illegal because I lost my job a few years ago”
Mike in NC
I’m old enough to remember how that swine Nixon rolled out the white supremacist “Southern Strategy” and also the disastrous “War on Drugs” which are now cornerstones of Republican dogma.
trollhattan
@The Moar You Know: I thought I smoked weed in HS but on arriving at college I discovered I had not–whatever that HS stuff was, the effect was purely psychosomatic.
As to what my college buddies had access to, well, I learned it was a major roadblock to studying and such, so I had to pass from that point on. Yeesh!
The “bad kids” in my grade school were smoking tobacco already, easily raided from mom and dad or bought straight from the vending machine. I can’t imagine how badly that wrecks a 12YO’s body. I expect they’re all dead.
Tony Jay
@topclimber:
I figured it was.
One day I’ll go full on Ulysses in a post and then heads will well and truly explode.
trollhattan
@Kropacetic: It’s a fact that Social Security goes to some criminals. Clearly, the only way to fix that is to kill Social Security.
matt
@germy shoemangler: Knew it was Hedberg at ‘Alright, but we need more stipulations’
cintibud
Exactly. Same old BS hard to believe it could be effective except for those who had their minds made up from the start. Chabot’s ads are even worse – “No wonder Greg Landsman supports defunding the police – he’s a criminal himself!” That’s in reference to some crazily overblown “scandal” on the Cincinnati City council where he was one of 5 democratic councilpeople who discussed city business via private text messages. That’s apparently against the city’s open record laws. Who knew the GOP was concerned about properly keeping government records?
The Moar You Know
@Ksmiami: which is where I was and still am. Like I said, this may be a “specific to SoCal” thing.
Eunicecycle
@cintibud: don’t forget the ominous music and weird photography.
rikyrah
Andrew Wortman![]()
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(@AmoneyResists) tweeted at 4:19 PM on Thu, Oct 06, 2022:
If you or your colleagues are guilty of: sedition, treason, espionage, bribery, money laundering, insider trading, embezzlement, or helping plan/fund/organize/incite/execute a terrorist attack on the U.S. Capitol, spare us your lecture about the “severity” of marijuana possession
(https://twitter.com/AmoneyResists/status/1578132886552805378?t=7sAwgyySSFeHXJyYjjs4WA&s=03)
rikyrah
clap clap clap
Simon Rosenberg (@SimonWDC) tweeted at 7:41 AM on Fri, Oct 07, 2022:
American economy continues to be among strongest in the world:
– Under Biden we’ve seen lowest uninsured/poverty rates in US history, lowest peacetime unemployment rate since WWII. 10m new jobs.
– Deficit is plummeting, dollar is soaring, historic investments in future growth.
(https://twitter.com/SimonWDC/status/1578364959271944192?t=2Mp0TfZ_vZMAEgURMT_Thg&s=03)
Kropacetic
@trollhattan: Vance assume a couple things here I’m not vibing with; that criminals are irredeemable and should be cut off from all societal support, even to the point of difficulty getting and keeping a job; and that our criminal law is just.
They’re mightily concerned with Democrats keeping government records and will be sure to keep our record keeping processes as messy as possible to make mistakes inevitable, thus reaping pure political gold.
C Stars
To go bizarrely off topic, does anybody have a basic granola recipe that actually results in crunchy crispy granola? It seems like it should be an easy thing to make, but the last couple of recipes I’ve tried have turned out sticky and greasy.
sab
@C Stars: I hope your OT request is successful because I want a copy.
scribbler
@Tony Jay: A Tony Jay screed! I take my time, and savor.
Bhaall
Chill baby chill!
ian
@Shalimar:
such as banning pineapple on pizza.
Kropacetic
But that’s the only edible part of a Hawaiian.
West of the Rockies
@MazeDancer:
I concur. Such writing has a place on the lofty halls of literature. But as funny and informative as Tony Jay’s writing is, sometimes I pass over it.
Villago Delenda Est
EVERYONE! Follow this link to laugh you ass off.
trollhattan
@Tony Jay: Talent is rarely recognized in its time.
Grace Hall Hemingway
Letter to her son, Ernest Hemingway, 4th Dec 1926
The Young Hemingway
jonas
Unfortunately on those issues, they remain on the *right* side of powerful, wealthy donors and rabid base voters who punish any dissent, so it doesn’t matter if they’re way outside the broader public mainstream there. That was true of abortion as well before Dobbs, but now that’s unleashed a maelstrom of disaffected independents and not a few Republican voters who, as we saw in Kansas, can easily swamp the rabid base when they want to. Wish that would happen with gun control, but we’re probably a few more preschool massacres away from that.
Daoud bin Daoud
@John S.: in other words, both sides!
sab
@kindness: My stepson got his heroin from the guy who sold him weed. Then later same guy cut him off because he thought his heroin was turning into a health problem
ETA Dealer eventually died of a drug overdose. I remember when he was just a cute litle kid.
oatler
@scribbler:
Said to have been written on a single roll of butcher- paper so he wouldn’t lose time changing paper.
sab
@trollhattan: Yay! Nice to know we all have (and have been) parents who are wrong.
Kropacetic
@sab: I’ve never been wrong as a parent. #40and Childless
Betty Cracker
@Baud: The situations aren’t analogous IMO — the person who’s pissed about losing the White House gig is wholly supportive of the changes, unlike the anti-student loan forgiveness people. She’s advocating for abolishing that line on employment applications.
sab
@Kropacetic: I am counting step-parent as parent. Do you have pets for whom you have hopes or expectations
ETA I just realized that I probably haven’t read “The Sun Also Rises.” I thought I had read every Hemimgway novel but the wikipedia plot rings no bells. Maybe his mom was right?
The Moar You Know
@ian: you are dead to me
Kropacetic
I’m not ready for that kind of responsibility. Maybe when I can take care of myself…
John S.
@sab:
That is highly unusual for a drug dealer to sell both marijuana and heroin. Those are two very different customer demographics!
Back in college, the only other drugs that pot dealers usually sold were LSD, mushrooms or other hallucinogenic substances — or ecstasy, which was very popular in the 90s.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
Some people complaining about student loans are just complaining because they didn’t get relief, I’m sure.
sab
@Kropacetic: Any plants? Trick questions. My critters are thriving but my houseplants not so much.
Kropacetic
You’ll find plenty of drug dealers out there who are basically like the Walmart of banned substances. Or so I’ve heard…
No, in fact I regularly engage in the willful destruction of a small subset of very specific plants.
sab
@John S.: Midwest here. We do stuff wrong because we are out of touch.
ETA All these kids are working class not college kids.
The Moar You Know
@trollhattan: I frankly agree with her. Without the “you’re my kid” exemption she’s granting.
Had a way with words herself, that lady did.
Omnes Omnibus
@SFAW: You are correct, sir.
Miss Bianca
@trollhattan: Sadly, however, I concur with Ma Hemingway’s opinion. Altho’ I love me some Tony Jay, I never could stand Hemingway and thought him vastly overrated.
(Family lore has it that my grandmother thought so too – and since we’re related to the Hemingways in some form or other, she apparently made her feelings known to the author. Who thereupon took it upon himself to tweak her by sending her autographed copies of his books. Now I’m wondering if he did the same thing to his mother.
Kind of wish I still had them, if only for the resale value, but certain other family members seem to have had the same idea and made off with them – fairly certain I saw one of the tomes being hawked on a rare book site a few years back.)
Ruckus
@Jeffro:
I have so many questions!
Does the diagonal cut need to be at exactly 45 deg or is some other angle acceptable?
And if it is, why is say, 90 deg unacceptable
Why do sandwiches need to be cut at all?
Is it easier to discard the crust if the cut is diagonal?
Why if a sandwich has to be cut are the crusts left on?
Tony Jay
@scribbler:
Adds name to Nice List, passes it on to the Big Red Belly.
@trollhattan:
I know what you mean. I feel just like Jeebus too.
@oatler:
This is Tory Britain, we can’t afford luxuries like butcher-paper!
Daubed with a blunted hedgehog onto a toilet wall.
Ruckus
@SFAW:
The eternal question.
What is best?
Is there a best human?
Is best a relative term?
Because some of my relatives…….
Paul in KY
@Tony Jay: I wonder if the Liberal Party bigwigs are dusting off their macks or whatever they would wear. Good screed. Sorry about GB.
GibberJack
@germy shoemangler: “Wah! I told the truth and admitted to a federal crime and I signed it. So how come I don’t get a job at the White House?”
Jeez Louise.
She should have viewed those questions as specifying who is not qualified for the job under current federal law.
She shouldn’t have bothered finishing the application if she was honest with herself. She’s unqualified. But oh so entitled, obviously.
If she’s that clueless we should be glad she didn’t get the job.
Ruckus
@Geminid:
Yes but republicans do seem to understand how to double down when they are wrong, just because screwing large swaths of people seems to be their ever guiding light – at least it has been my entire almost 3/4 of a century.
gene108
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?:
Violent crime in Republican run states is because of Democrat run cities.
// Republican response
C Stars
@sab: Welp, we are alone on granola island. Back to costco it is…
C Stars
@scribbler: I finally had a time (7am) and a place (bathtub) to enjoy one of Tony Jay’s epic rants. It was a doozy. Nice to know the USA hasn’t fully cornered the market on venal ignoramuses.
kalakal
@Tony Jay: hey! There isn’t enough money in the world to get me to read the story of the story of that Welsh miserablist.
Here’s the original line by a much more cheerfull chappie, the late, great Neil Innes
https://youtu.be/qfTlGMCeuDE
Tony Jay
@Paul in KY:
That shameless fucker Blair was recently quoted bemoaning the fact that he hadn’t done more to purge the Labour Party of its historical links to such unwholesome influences as Unions and (shudder) Socialists, infamous of a more ‘Liberal’ tradition.
So it’s really no great mystery which direction his bannerman are heading. Though being shameless liars, they’ll deny it right up until the moment they’re given permission to announce the merger.
JaneE
A ploy to gain voters? You are surprised that when people like the policies you support and the things you do to help implement those policies that they are more likely to vote for you? You expect someone to do something to help the other party?
Never mind that it is the
rightcorrect thing to do.Paul in KY
@germy shoemangler: He was so so good. RIP, Mitch. I miss you.
Geminid
@jonas: Virginia went from red to purple to blueish purple in the last 20 years. Democrats used to be afraid of the gun control issue, but in 2017 and 2019 they made gun safety a winning issue. It was especially potent in the suburban districts that are now the battlegrounds in Virginia.. When Democrats used their newly won majority to pass six gun safery laws in early 2020, the proposals all polled at 70% or better approval.
Paul in KY
@Roger Moore: Hear, hear!!! I use bread that would be considered sort of oblong and rounded.
Paul in KY
@Jeffro: Kid Rock vs Ted Nugent is a Typhus vs Diphtheria choice.
Have seen the Kid. Have never (and will never) see Ted (unless he’s dead at a funeral home I happen to be passing).
Would have to hold my nose & vote for Kid Rock.
Paul in KY
@Matt McIrvin: Matt, these people you speak of have a cruel streak & they know where they can get that fix. Would stay away from them, IMO.
Paul in KY
@Alison Rose 💙🌻💛: Tried acid too. Way too much drug for the Paul. You want to get off the acid train 2 hours in…but that ain’t happening, man.
Shrooms are much, much better.
Paul in KY
@BruceFromOhio: Back in sophomore English in HS, I would have loved diagramming that one. Now, not so much.
eclare
@Paul in KY: That is exactly why I only did acid once, it was a twelve hour commitment.
Geminid
@Geminid: Reublicans barely won back a majority in the Virginia House of Delegates last year and proceeded to try and repeal five of the six new gun safety laws. They were smart enough not to touch the one requiring firearms owners to secure them in homes where minors are present. Senator Louis Lucas and her Democratic colleages then dropkicked the Republican proposals into the Dismal Swamp.
Both Virginia houses are up for election next year, and I think that once again Democrats will make gun safety a winning issue.
leeleeFL work
@Tony Jay: I will have to finish this later Sir Tony, as I have an early meeting today, because God apparently hates me! The first question I have though, and I ask with absolute respect for Her Late Majesty, do you think The Queen just said, “I can’t anymore with these people,” and just exited stage-left?
I find it just amazing how many piss-poor women politicians, and other occupations, are so vacuous as to make it near impossible for women to support them. They need to stop this trend! I’ve enjoyed reading this post, and will continue after meeting and work!
mali muso
@C Stars: I’ve used this recipe from King Arthur Baking to some success. In my experience, it can be helpful to lay parchment paper on your baking sheets (helps with stickiness and absorbs extra oil), make sure to spread the granola as thinly as possible and to cook it at a low temperature for at least an hour or more, stirring every 15 minutes. Good luck!
MrKite
@MazeDancer: Counterfactual: I read every word, and particularly enjoy the way each sentence takes us down a tiny road in the countryside, hemmed on both sides by towering hedgerows only to break into a screaming straightaway, cresting an ancient mound of buried rubbish to reveal a startling, if expected, Vista of Morbid Fascination and Chicanery. Don’t get me started! I may have to explain, as I do to my serious-minded son, that not every journey is about the destination. Seriously, Maze, lighten up sometimes. He could have said: In summary, Liz Truss sucks, as we all knew she would, and prospects for improvement are distant and dim. What’s the fun in that? So Tony, please don’t change a thing.
Layer8Problem
@Tony Jay:
“If it was good enough for Geoffrey of Monmouth then it’s good enough for me!”
Paul in KY
@zhena gogolia: That guy back in the Middle Ages would have had the same creepy smile (plus a skull cap) as he happily burned heretics.
Wanderer
@Tony Jay: Thanks for posting this. I find your writing so informative and reassuring in that our two countries seem to be in tandem. The special relationship continues right over the cliff. I hope both nations are spared that. I look forward to your next post.
Paul in KY
@rikyrah: Those 2 dudes who rowed across the North Pacific are so badass (and a bit crazy). They must have been so scared & drunk when they decided that was the thing to do.
Tony Jay
@MrKite:
Thank you, Mr Kite, that’s very kind of you, and beautifully expressed.
@Layer8Problem:
Hah! Can’t top that
Paul in KY
@Geminid: I need Tim Ryan in Senate. I do not give a shit what he feels he needs to say to get there.
Ruckus
@C Stars:
Try Nature’s Path Optimum Power cereals.
No work involved, taste great, not the cheapest but you do get what you pay for.
My favorite is Blueberry Cinnamon Flax.
I understand wanting to make your own, and I have the time, I just do not have that desire.
Paul in KY
@sab: I hope you told her: He has only one opponent: JD Vance, who’s miles worse than your worst idea of Tim Ryan (so is Joe Manchin). So get in there & hold your nose & vote for him. You’ll be glad you did.
Tony Jay
@Wanderer:
You guys are doing so much better. You’ve got your nutters, yes, but I would literally chew the wang off a three week dead horse to have a genuine guy like Joe Biden running the Labour Party.
Gin & Tonic
@C Stars: I often make granola according to Alton Brown’s recipe. Since I can’t abide coconut, I omit it. It works very well nevertheless.
Kropacetic
What is Paul’s recent history as far as support for the climate and human infrastructure measures that ultimately manifested the Inflation Reduction Act?
J R in WV
@WaterGirl:
One more reason I’m hitting up Senator Kelly’s campaign monthly.
Thanks for sharing that video bit, proves Kelly is the one in this race!
germy shoemangler
@GibberJack:
She should have lied on her federal job application?
Paul in KY
@Betty Cracker: She is sorta a dumbass or painfully naïve to really truthfully answer that question.
C Stars
@mali muso: Thanks for the tips! This recipe looks good–I like that it includes wheat germ for a little hidden healthiness…
@Ruckus: Thanks Ruckus, I have tried the Nature’s Path cereals and I like them. But yes, those boxes are little. The three hungry caterpillars that I live with would destroy one within minutes of getting home from school/work. I need quantity here…
@Gin & Tonic: Nice, thank you. I love coconut, but not in granola so I’d do the same.
Weekend plans: Make granola, get booster, feel shitty (but relieved). Oh and two soccer games, skateboarding sesh, and fix the back fence. Oh and and try not to worry about nuclear war.
TGIF???
C Stars
@Paul in KY: I really hope they were taking video on their phones. Kinda doubt it, but wow. What a trip. Also hope they had some водка aboard.
trollhattan
@Paul in KY: Using vodka’s powers for good. “Vitch vay Amerika?”
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Betty Cracker: Dead thread, but Alyssa Mastromonaco describes herself as a big pothead, and she got hired. She talks about it in her book.
Another Scott
@germy shoemangler:
I was under the impression that the question back in the Clinton years was “have you abused marijuana” or some such thing.
There was wriggle room, if one wanted to pay attention and take it.
Dunno about these days.
FWIW.
Cheers,
Scott.
Paul in KY
@Tony Jay: Who the fuck does he think is going to campaign & do party stuff?!?!? Those people he derides are the backbone of Labour. What a tool.
anonymous
@kindness:
I never used tobacco, ever, of any kind. I have helped neighbors with various tasks raising their tobacco crop, it was their only source of cash income, elderly bachelor brothers. But did Smoke a lot of pot from 1969-mid 1990s, dwindled away for the most part. Never decided to quit, just, use dwindled away to nearly nothing.
Like gin & tonics, good batch beer, wine, esp sparkling, also dwindling due to medical issues in my old age. May resume pot to replace alcohol…
cain
@Gvg:
First off, congratulations on your #100 – Betty will give you an award through email with your name, your pet, and a signed Baud 2024 campaign sign.
Secondly, I wonder if he’s trying to do what Mitch Daniels did – although interestingly enough, Purdue under Mitch seems a lot more liberal than prior. (I’m a purdue grad) So he’s mostly stayed the hell away from politics and focused on his job.
ETA there we go #250. This weekend is going to be lit. Because that’s how much ML of liquor I’m going to purchase.
Tony Jay
@Paul in KY:
A handful of shady mega donors, Zero hour contracts and agency workers, of course. NuNew Labour is ‘Open to Business’, if you know what I mean, and I think you do.
Political incompetents. Top to tail.
Paul in KY
@Tony Jay: Wow! My dad was in WW II and said to me once: ‘Paul, there’s nothing that smells worse than a 2 week old dead horse.’
Paul in KY
@Kropacetic: I stand by my comment vis a vis Mr. Ryan & Mr. Manchin (in relation to J.D. Vance).
Paul in KY
@germy shoemangler: Well, fuck yes she should have lied on it. She’s only ‘lying’ about maryjane.
Kropacetic
@Paul in KY: I was asking out of curiosity. I didn’t challenge your statement because I, too, agree with it.
Paul in KY
@C Stars: I think the video (if it exists) would probably make you seasick.
divF
@Tony Jay: If you’re still out there Tony, many thanks! I’ve been waiting for your commentary on the Tory trainwreck ever since Liz and Liz shook hands.
Paul in KY
@Kropacetic: I guess I just vote for Democrats, send certain ones money & am sane about climate change & our effect on it and state that to people when the situation warrants.
dnfree
@Jeffro: I like a sandwich cut down the middle, top to bottom, producing symmetric halves, especially if I’m splitting my sandwich with someone else. I don’t want to get stuck with the diagonal half that has the side and bottom crust.
GibberJack
@Betty Cracker:
Why on earth would anyone bother to apply for a federal job that asks about federally illegal drug use when that person uses the drug the feds consider illegal? You get a choice to lie, commit a felony and maybe not even get the job; or tell the truth and give them an excellent reason to be denied the job. Why do that to oneself?
She seems to think she’s owed the job for telling the truth why she shouldn’t be working there.
Ruckus
@C Stars:
Just got back to this post and now I pretty much can’t stop laughing.
Thank You!
Ruckus
@C Stars:
TGIF???
I’m not sure god invented Fridays, I believe that was one of us humans. But other than that Fridays used to be a very nice thing to come upon, once every 7 days. Now not so much – I’m retired and pretty much every day is Saturday. Get up, do what I damn please, eat what I want, no alarm of any kind, time is only for doctor appointments.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@GibberJack: I am surprised no one informed her beforehand how strict the rules were
Tony Jay
@Paul in KY:
My God! Were there no Germans to shoot?
GibberJack
@germy shoemangler: No. She never should have applied.
There is no good answer, only bad and worse.
Just move on, find a job where you don’t have to answer those kind of questions. Or not do the drug. Or look for employment where the drug is legal. Or work to repeal the law.
She made a bad choice. At least she didn’t make the worse choice.
Tony Jay
@divF:
You’re very welcome! I feel much lighter now. Well vented.
Quiltingfool
@Ruckus:
I’ve had people ask me if I like being retired. My thought, when I hear that, is “What an ignorant question — you need to cut back on the breakfast drugs!”. I do NOT say that. I just grin and say how great retirement is…
Paul in KY
@GibberJack: The job pays really well. Is a civil service job, etc. etc.
Paul in KY
@Tony Jay: There were and he shot em. Summed up his war experiences by saying ‘Paul, alot of them shot at me. They all missed.’
Paul in KY
@GibberJack: I disagree. Technically lie on that question and then make sure you don’t do the drug while you have that job.
Paul in KY
@Quiltingfool: I was retired for 11 months & every day was Saturday :-)
GibberJack
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Are you snarking?
If you ever think you are anything but a truthful No, don’t even apply. It’s not the right job for you.
Not complicated.
Geminid
@Tony Jay: Paragraphing be damned!
The Savvy Sassenach delivers the goods.
Tony Jay
@Paul in KY:
GIF of Captain Edmund Blackadder raising an eyebrow and nodding sagely.
“You see, George, that is what I’d call a ‘Good War’.
Tony Jay
@Geminid:
Truthfully, every one of those paragraphs is pared to the bone and stuffed with as much information as I can fit between the dick jokes.
I cannae do nae more.
GibberJack
@Paul in KY: A technical lie, huh. It’s your life man.
It’s also about having leverage to compromise you. If anyone knows you technically lied they own you.
Ksmiami
@lowtechcyclist: hey man , mushroom dealers are totally like independent..
Ksmiami
@C Stars: I used to be responsible for the granola at a hotel— the key is not over baking it but letting it dry out at 165-220 degrees for a long time before cooling it and storing. I would bake it for like 25 minutes then set trays under heat lamps for an hour…
C Stars
@Ruckus: Thank you!!
Very good point.
Retirement sounds like the good stuff. Oh, man, I remember sleeping in with so much fondness.
C Stars
@Ksmiami: I tried drying out a failed batch once in that manner (not heat lamp but low temp oven) and it turned into oat taffy. Must’ve been something off in my liquid proportions. In any case, I am looking forward to trying again with these new recipes.
Being responsible for granola for the hotel sounds like the start of an interesting story.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@GibberJack: I didn’t say she should lie. I would think someone would have said, ‘You can’t get high while you have this job. Not even on your days off, cause there are no days off”. I know a lot of people who are subject to testing in states where pot is legal, people in health care, who operate large vehicles. Or “it’s not legal for us”. something like that.
evodevo
@scribbler: I concur…I enjoy every word…PLUS the insight into the twists and turns of parliamentary govt…
cain
@Paul in KY: I want to try shrooms – acid sounds bad to me, I’m a control freak and so at some point if I want to turn off the ‘trip’. If I can’t do that – I’ll go into full panic mode.
Another Scott
Speaking of elections, there’s an official petition for Call an immediate general election to end the chaos of the current government with 567,287 votes at the moment (and clicking up a few per minute).
Only 100,000 are needed for it to be debated by Parliament.
Of course, there are “debates” and there are “debates“.
Maybe, and it’s certainly worth a shot.
(via IamHappyToast)
Cheers,
Scott.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@cain: it’s been over thirty years, but I just remember giggling a lot