This post was originally going to be for President Biden’s speech in Pittsburgh today before he headed to Philadelphia for a reception for John Fetterman.
They moved the time 3 different times, so this is now an open thread.
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WaterGirl
They changed the time from 1:15 to 2:15, so I pulled the post for an hour. Then they changed the time again, so now this is an open thread.
WaterGirl
Guessing that Fetterman gets a shout-out.
Old School
Looks like the speech has already been given. They fooled you!
WaterGirl
@Old School:
First it was scheduled for 1:15 so I put the post up at 1:00. Then they changed it to 2:15, so I set the post back for an hour. Now I see that they changed it yet again to 1:45.
Bastards!
realbtl
I received my Montana ballot and will cast my vote into what has become a R based howling. However I’m curious how things will go this time. MT was fairly D until recently and still have Sen. Tester. There is also a strong vein of “don’t tell me what to do and I won’t tell you what to do” here and a lot of tough women.
David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
Britain has a new Prime Minister (link)
JoyceH
Here’s an open thread topic. A few days ago, I logged into my bank account, and there was a deposit from Social Security. It was early, but also small! $107. Yikes. I wondered if there was some sort of deduction that had automatically happened, and that’s what I got for the month. On the other hand, it was several days before the usual deposit, so I waited and when I logged in a few days later, there was my regular deposit, same size as ever. So… what’s the $107 all about? Was there some sort of adjustment that I’d missed hearing about?
Anoniminous
@David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch:
News Boris Johnson is thinking of running.
That’d be a hoot
Update: “Boris Johnson is expected to run to be Prime Minister after Liz Truss’s resignation, according to reports. ” Source: The Standard
trollhattan
Christ on a cracker, our area crackers are no better than anybody else’s. As an aside, the residence in question is basically where the Camp Fire that incinerated Paradise, CA began. Maybe PG&E can pass the blame off to the lovely couple.
UncleEbeneezer
OT so, MIL has finally been approved for rehab and should be heading there today!! Meaning she should be released on 11/3 and my wife can finally come home on Sat 11/5!!! She’s been going crazy trying to prepare to move her folks to retirement home on 10/19. Her folks have been hoarding for 50 years and she’s struggling with trying to consolidate and trash a bunch of their shit. The whole thing has been incredibly depressing/stressful for her (and me too). So glad this nightmare is almost over and we can soon get back to living our own lives again.
R-Jud
After a bracing fistfight with my printer, I will be voting tomorrow via the red George V postbox at the top of my street. One more for the FetterMan.
Rocks
@JoyceH: Every year in October they look at your account and make adjustments based on a variety of things. They typically add the monthly adjustment for November and December to those checks, and deposit the cumulative adjustment for January through October as a single check. That’s probably what you got.
JoyceH
@Rocks: Oh aha. Thanks. I’ve been drawing SS for a few years so this must have happened before and I just never noticed.
WaterGirl
From Madeleine in a previous thread:
WaterGirl
@WaterGirl:
That inspired me go to Ballot Ready. It was helpful in the judge retention section – I never know what to do there. There were 2 judges up for retention, and Ballot Ready was helpful on one of them because it listed endorsements. The female judge was endorsed by the AFL-CIO and by the Education union I am part of since I worked at the University of Illinois.
No endorsements for the male judge, so I used the trick someone suggested on BJ recently. Since our judges are non-partisan races (ha!) now, but they weren’t several years ago. So I was able to use Ballotpedia to this:
That told me everything I needed to know. I voted NO on retention – I no longer trust any republicans with any power to make decisions that affect humans.
Ballot is now completely filled out and waiting for me to put it in a dropbox when my friend drives me to pick up my vehicle from the auto repair shop this evening.
WaterGirl
@JoyceH: Are you sure it’s social security?
I got a $100+ plus check from the government last week, and it was a one-time rebate on property taxes and IL income taxes.
Are you in IL by any chance?
WaterGirl
@R-Jud: Good job!
eclare
@UncleEbeneezer: Yay! Great news.
Ken
@WaterGirl: Oh god, they’ve lost WaterGirl. How long before we start seeing fundraising appeals for WinRed and TrumpVictoryPAC?
WaterGirl
@Ken: I know! Those bastards!
I may be mildly irritated, but I’m not stupid :-)
NotMax
There’s always room for
Jell-Oopen threads.eclare
@NotMax: Haha…so true.
mrmoshpotato
Wonderful weather in Chicago. Wish I had a balcony to chomp this gyros outside.
Madeleine
@WaterGirl: Thanks, WG. I hoped that you would pick up the mention and post it at a still active comment thread. I had to run away and write (well, revise) a recommendation letter. (And now I have to run away and write postcards.)
raven
My godson and his wife came for a visit Monday and left yesterday. I had a femoral nerve block injection that I thought was scheduled for today and just went out there and it was yesterday! They have bombed me with reminder texts on very appointment but not this one!
mrmoshpotato
@David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch:
Is it one of the Muppets? Apologies to the Muppets, Jim Henson RIP, and Frank Oz.
Old School
@raven: Were they able to give you the shot today? Or did you have to reschedule?
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@realbtl:
I feel like environmental policy, and more recently, COVID controls have moved some of those people into the GOP camp. I hope GOP overreach moves them back.
WaterGirl
@raven: well shit, I’m sorry about that. maybe they gave you the shot anyway?
I missed a good friend’s wedding because I thought it was the next weekend. And someone I know missed a work trip because he tried to check in for his flight on Sunday and they said sorry, your flight was yesterday.
How come we never fuck this stuff up in the “early” direction? That would at least give us a do-over for the real date.
zhena gogolia
The Crown coming Nov. 9. Looks juicy.
raven
@Old School: I’m waiting to hear, it’s a physician only procedure and I’m not encouraged that I can get it in time for my fishing trip.
raven
@WaterGirl: It’w weird, I looked and all the other appointments with this MD were proceeded by numerous reminder texts and nothing for this one. I think it may be because this was scheduled just a couple of weeks ago. It’ll be ok either way, I can suck it up.
raven
@zhena gogolia:
CNN —
Dame Judi Dench has played a British queen before and now she is sounding off about Netflix’s popular dramatization of the royal family.
In a letter to The Times, the revered actress shares her concerns about the forthcoming new season of “The Crown,” writing that “the closer the drama comes to our present times, the more freely it seems willing to blur the lines between historical accuracy and crude sensationalism.”
“While many will recognise The Crown for the brilliant but fictionalised account of events that it is, I fear that a significant number of viewers, particularly overseas, may take its version of history as being wholly true,” Dench write. “Given some of the wounding suggestions apparently contained in the new series — that King Charles plotted for his mother to abdicate, for example, or once suggested his mother’s parenting was so deficient that she might have deserved a jail sentence — this is both cruelly unjust to the individuals and damaging to the institution they represent.”
sab
OT Jojos are a thing we do with potatoes. Is that local or do other people do that to potatoes also? Sort of spicy dep fried,
sab
@raven: Dame Judi has been a class act for decades
NotMax
@zhena gogolia
1899 coming November 17. Same team as was behind Dark. Anticipation here running high.
Kelly
Here in the PNW we’re looking forward to a week of rain starting Friday. Way late for the first good fall soaking to knock down the fires and smoke. Worst air quality in the world yesterday in Portland and Seattle.
eclare
@zhena gogolia: Hoo boy.
sab
raven: I am trying to stare down my pitbull who is being too affectionate. The more I stare at her the more she stares back and the faster her tail wags. I am doing something wrong here.
ETA I quit staring and am now scratching her nose. Dog won this round.
eclare
@sab: *All* attention is good attention to a dog. I’ve had three terrier/pit blends, good luck!
And once I get some things done around here, I will go looking for number four.
zhena gogolia
@NotMax: I’m there for Anton Lesser.
Geoduck
@Kelly: Actually drizzled a little bit here in the Olympia area. Hopefully we’ll get more.
zhena gogolia
Why is this man’s approval rating not 95%?
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
👍
sab
@eclare: Pits are terriers, but large. So pit terrier mixes are large terriers’× smaller terriers. A good mix although I love all large dogs.
@eclare: Annoying attention hogs they are. Who could not like this breed? Twenty years ago in my city they were actually illegal. Silly love bugs that they are.
Dan B
@UncleEbeneezer: Sorry to hear about your wife’s trials. It’s great to hear that she’ll be back home. Hugs for you both.
I want through that with my mother who had moved into my house. She developed dementia but got sweeter. Still she got lost on the three block walk from the grocery store. It took three tries to get her into a good facility.
mrmoshpotato
@Kelly: That sounds good given all of the fires.
geg6
@David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch:
Well, he certainly looks like an improvement over the last three.
Kelly
@Geoduck: Here on the North Santiam river weak east wind has kept the air quality a little better than out in the main Willamette Valley. No fires directly east of us. Currently a yellow dot (moderate) on the Airnow.gov map while 10 miles west is mostly red dots (unhealthy) 10 miles east is green until you get near Bend.
zhena gogolia
@geg6: I can’t even remember who came before Johnson.
eclare
@sab: They are love bugs! They were also the Buster Brown dog. My three have been 80, 75, and 45 pounds. I prefer large, but I am going to have to continue to downsize as I get older.
eclare
@zhena gogolia: May?
geg6
@zhena gogolia:
Theresa May. But it’s understandable. She was truly forgettable.
Dan B
@Kelly: Our air quality in Seattle is currently between 190 and 300 depending on location. Ours is 215 now. And there’s been a very light drizzle. I hope there’s enough rain to extinguish the fires.
zhena gogolia
@eclare: Right. I looked it up.
mrmoshpotato
Exactly.
CaseyL
The air quality was awful in Seattle yesterday, but is a tiny bit better today, The drizzle didn’t last, but we’re supposed to have some serious rain starting tomorrow.
eclare
@mrmoshpotato: Hahaha…
Geminid
@realbtl: The Washington Post had an article about a critical state supreme court race in Montana. The court has used the state constitution to defend women’s reproductive rights. The odious governor is promoting a conservative candidate and hopes pushing out a veteran woman justice will make the court more conservative-compliant.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@zhena gogolia: Good answer. Roe was the compromise. The people who claimed it allowed abortion to the moment of delivery (and beyond) are lying
sab
@eclare: You forgot the silly part.
Mine is a doofus who chews up but does not eat her dog bisquits. Just grinds them up into kibble, and licks them up later. In her youth her only toys were sticks.
Grind them up. Old habits die hard.
sab
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Women I know are livid. I hope every single one of them votes.
mrmoshpotato
New Olive & Mabel!
Sea Dogs!
Baud
@sab:
I can’t understand being livid but not voting. There’s no ambiguity over where the two parties stand on abortion, and hasn’t been for a long time.
eclare
@sab: Hahaha…
Kropacetic
If some want to say that, far be it from me to stop them.
sab
@sab: Other side isn’t pro-life.They are anti-woman. If your wife dies in childbirth then just marry a newer younger model.
CaseyL
@David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch: Larry the Cat has been there longer than anyone else, and knows where all the bodies (of mice) are buried.
OTOH, he can be bribed with a bit of kipper.
raven
@WaterGirl: whoo hoo, I got lucky!! 7:30 am Monday!!~~
eclare
@mrmoshpotato: Yay! Love them.
eclare
@raven: Before your trip! Yay!
raven
@sab: The Craddock Terry Hotel was a Buster Brown Shoe Factory and they have a house doggie!
raven
@mrmoshpotato: Knuckleheads!
The Moar You Know
@sab: staring down a dog – any dog – is generally a poor idea, but in this case the obvious thing you are doing wrong is not petting the doggie. I am glad you have rectified your error.
raven
@sab: Artie’s tail sounds like a bongo drum on the couch!
sab
@Baud: Evangelical wives are weirdly trusting women. Life is complicated. Give up all choices to your husband. Good marriages have someone in charge.
I believe a lot of that, just not that my husband is always right. Often he is, but not always.
Jim Appleton
Omicron booster and flu shot about thirty hours ago, both in the same arm.
Nothing. Just a tiny bit of soreness, nothing like previous inoculations.
ETA: Noted because a number of commenters have reported much worse.
raven
@sab: Did you watch Mrs America?
sab
@raven: Didn’t . What did I miss?
sab
@raven:My favorite cat and I just spent the morning attacking Ponyo’s tail. We lost. It was incorrigible.
Redshift
Oh, hey, remember how the police and the FBI still have no leads on who planted the pipe bombs at the DNC on Jan 6? Turns out a Capitol Police officer who is on trial for J6-related obstruction of justice was the first to arrive on the scene there:
Baud
@sab:
I mean, that’s fine if that’s the choice they want to make about their lives. Seems like they shouldn’t stay livid then. No point being made about something you’re willing to accept.
Wapiti
@sab: As one of my cousins said on FB, “We’ve been married for a while, but I still treasure hearing those three magic words from my husband: ‘you were right’.”
kalakal
@mrmoshpotato: Whoever it turns out to be, they’ll be a muppet
Wapiti
@Redshift: coinkidink.
Seriously though, was he the first to respond, which means someone reported the bombs? Or did he “discover” the bombs?
sab
@raven: Ponyo’s tail sounds like a bongo drum anywhere, Stop wagging!
catclub
@raven:
But which week, smart guy?
raven
@catclub: Oh god! October 24!!!!!!!
Origuy
@Jim Appleton: I got the booster in my left shoulder and the flu shot in my right about 24 hours ago. A bit of soreness in the left, but that’s it.
Mimi haha
@Jim Appleton: I was pretty damn sure I was dying when I did that. I’m happy it doesn’t do that to everyone.
raven
@sab: Cate Blanchett played Schlafley (many women here refused to watch it) and I thought she was really good. It didn’t just center on her and the depictions of Gloria Steinem, Shirley Chilholm and Bella Abzug were great.
mrmoshpotato
@Kropacetic: I asked before I clicked on the link. (Honestly, it wouldn’t surprise me if they make BoJo the PM again. Muppet.)
Kropacetic
@mrmoshpotato: Honestly, to call any Tory MP a Muppet, Prime Minister or not, disparages Muppets.
Boris Johnson is a hastily crafted sock puppet and Liz Truss aspires to sock puppetdom.
patrick II
Last night Ari Melber interviewed Matt Schlapp, introducing him as one of the most influential conservative leaders to counter the arguments of Biden officials he had on earlier. Ari then let Schlapp fill the air with a Gish Gallop of exaggerations, false equivalencies, and outright lies.
I like Ari, but whenever he lets Schlapp on Ari gets run over and ends by thanking Schlapp for his reasonable discussion. It’s like thanking the truck that just ran over you for the lovely design of the treadmarks across your face.
I can’t stand it.
Jim Appleton
@WaterGirl: In 1977, I was flying home for Thanksgiving. My mom mailed the ticket.
Long story short, she bought it for the next day.
Because I was a broke HS student, I had money for two hotdogs, spent the night and the next day in the terminal at JFK.
The next evening, two strange things happened.
First, I got bumped when I politely waited for my row to be called, which never happened because the herd just went ahead and boarded whenever, then the gate agent explained the flight was overbooked and they’d put me on a later flight, different carrier.
While waiting for the bus to flight number two (this is after thirty-six hours at JFK), I ran into a teacher and several students from my previous high school — in Kuwait — who were flying on to visit someone’s family for the holiday.
JanieM
@Rocks:
@JoyceH:
I’ve been on Social Security for about three years and I’ve never seen any adjustments of any kind; 12 months of one amount, get an increase the following year, 12 months of that amount, etc.
JoyceH, do you have an online SocSec account? Even though my amounts have never varied, I log on every month and make sure their online statement matches what I’m seeing in my bank account
ETA: IOW, seems like there should be some explanation online.
prostratedragon
@mrmoshpotato: Ummhmm, see, that’s why you leave that stuff alone.
WaterGirl
@raven: Yay!
prostratedragon
@Redshift: What a coincidence. Wonder if it’s anything like this case which is back in the news this week because three men who were convicted nearly 30 years ago are being released as wrongfully tried:
Kropacetic
That was how I wound up in my current job, which I love, rather than the job I applied for.
Quiltingfool
I am getting the Covid and flu shot Monday! I was in town so stopped by the pharmacy and made an appointment, best thing I did today. Well, my quilt guild meeting was pretty good, too.
New cat update! One week has passed and Miss Allie is now lounging on the sofa instead of staying in her “safe” corner! She is quite the flirt, though. In the evening, while I read, she waltzes and flops about the room, and we talk. When my husband calls, she gets very energized (I guess from the one-sided conversation) and gallops here and there around the living room.
I do hope she gets the urge to be a lap cat! So far, she’s not quite ready for that, but she acts like she is thinking about it. She isn’t interested in being a quilt supervisor either, but who knows? It could happen!
In the meantime, she loves to be petted and isn’t temperamental at all. Such a sweet, chunky fur baby!
zhena gogolia
@Quiltingfool: I’m so glad.
eclare
@Quiltingfool: So glad that Miss Allie is settling in! It took months for one of my cats, so give her time and she may be a fine quilting supervisor.
Scout211
Sometimes the news makes me smile. Link
Or laugh. Ha ha ha ha, Lindsay!
Quiltingfool
I have a few photos of Miss Allie on Pinterest…
https://pin.it/2tb8bpW
dr. luba
@R-Jud: FYI: At election inspector training (MI), they suggested voting via dropbox at the township office building. Stated that the USPS wasn’t being good about delivery, and counting on the mail close to the election might not be a good idea.
Ballots have to be received by a certain time, and DeJoy is still postmaster general
ETA: based on your postbox, I suspect you are not in the contiguous states, so this may not apply to you.
eclare
@Quiltingfool: What a pretty kitty!
trollhattan
Trollin’ with the Times.
Those fuckers will see to it we all die extra quick via the climate. It will be someone else’s fault.
CaseyL
@Quiltingfool: She has a wonderfully attentive expression.
Billcoop4
Ari is awful on balance. Effing nebbish.
dr. luba
@WaterGirl:
I actually did once. Had a flight home form London once summer, in the midst of a several airline strikes. (Mine was not affected.) Booked a minicab to the airport, and got stuck in a massive traffic jam on the M-1 (I think). Got to the check-in counter just as they were closing the doors to the flight……
So I got into a huge long line to rebook, along with lots of folks trying to change their (cancelled) flights. After an hour or two, I got to the front of the line, only to be informed my tickets were actually for the next day.
The next day I took the train.
Geminid
@trollhattan: Republicans are definitely counting their chickens before they’ve been hatched. Even if such momentous stakes were not riding on the midterms I’d want Democrats to hold the House just so I could see the look on Kevin McCarthy’s face at his news conference after the races are determined. It would be one of his last as Minority Leader.
Omnes Omnibus
Bony Carrot summarily denies an emergency request from a right wing group challenging student loan forgiveness in WI.
Dan B
Lara Logan on NewsMax revived the blood libel accusation – Jews drinking the blood of children. NnewsMax has not distanced themselves from her yet.
Kathleen
@JanieM: Social Security usually informs you via email with a link to sign on your account or letter via snail mail when they will be depositing additional funds. If you have online account you may want to sign on and see what’s going on (as someone else has already suggested but I’m always 6 chapters behind the plot twist.
Dan B
@Omnes Omnibus: Thank Dog!
Scout211
@Omnes Omnibus: 👍
That was not expected, at least by the news talking heads who call themselves legal experts. They all were saying she would refer it to the whole panel.
Kathleen
@Dan B: I’m not surprised. She’ is vile.
Omnes Omnibus
@Dan B: What happened to her is becoming a thinner and thinner excuse for her awfulness. At this point, I would say it no longer works at all. But that’s just me.
Kathleen
@Omnes Omnibus: I agree with you.
WaterGirl
@Quiltingfool: Sweet!
I purposely got a cat that looked totally different from my kitty soulmate, Quiver, so I wouldn’t expect the new cat to be like the old cat.
Still sad for you that you lost your beloved kitty supervisor, but this new girl seems like she will be a joy.
WaterGirl
@Scout211: Please tell me this beautiful sentence isn’t too long for a rotating tag.
WaterGirl
@Quiltingfool: What a pretty girl!
WaterGirl
@dr. luba: Well, that sounds like a giant pain in the behind, but at least with a day early you had options!
Yutsano
Submitted without comment.
WaterGirl
@Omnes Omnibus: So many legal emergencies!
mrmoshpotato
@Kropacetic: Hence my apology. :P
Geminid
@Yutsano: A good one! I passed it on to three friends.
mrmoshpotato
@Omnes Omnibus: “Waaahhhh!!!!! I had to pay back my loans! Waaaaaahhhhhh!”
Fucking brats.
eclare
@Yutsano: That’s good!
mrmoshpotato
@WaterGirl: Rotating tag, not scrolling tag. Though I guess you MOT(his)U could have that changed. 😁🤣
ETA – stop suggesting German keyboard!
Dan B
@Yutsano: Nice!
mrmoshpotato
@Yutsano: Bravo!
trollhattan
@mrmoshpotato: Have a Das Keyboard–does that count?
cckids
Yes. Last week the spouse & I saw a news story about abortion restrictions, and I went on a mini-rant. I noticed he was giving me a strange look, and said “What?!” He said “You’re so mad-still! So, so angry.”
Yes, goddammit, I am, and will remain incandescently angry about this, and about what it revealed about how Republicans think of women.
There aren’t words for it. Vote, vote, vote.
Jackie
@Yutsano: Off topic, but you were wondering about the political attack ad by Newhouse the other day, and I found this article that kinda explains why:
https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2022/oct/06/newhouse-white-face-off-in-4th-congressional-distr/?amp-content=amp
David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
@mrmoshpotato: It’s Larry the Chief Mouser of No. 10
WaterGirl
@mrmoshpotato: It could be like the beginning of star wars with the text rolling across the screen!