Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Can we lighten up on the doomsday scenarios?

It’s a doggy dog world.

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

“But what about the lurkers?”

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

Innocent people don’t delay justice.

“Loving your country does not mean lying about it’s history.”

Republicans: The threats are dire, but my tickets are non-refundable!

Donald Trump, welcome to your everything, everywhere, all at once.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

Michigan is a great lesson for Dems everywhere: when you have power…use it!

Everybody saw this coming.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

Well, whatever it is, it’s better than being a Republican.

SCOTUS: It’s not “bribery” unless it comes from the Bribery region of France. Otherwise, it’s merely “sparkling malfeasance”.

The current Supreme Court is a rogue court. Very dangerous.

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

Everything is totally normal and fine!!!

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

Celebrate the fucking wins.

Hey Washington Post, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” is supposed to be a warning, not a mission statement.

Trump’s legal defense is going to be a dumpster fire inside a clown car on a derailing train.

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Open Thread: McConnell Is the Repubs’ Headache, At the Moment

Open Thread: McConnell Is the Repubs’ Headache, At the Moment

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‘Shaken & disoriented’ — sounds like concussion symptoms… At The Hill, “McConnell’s hospitalization raises questions for GOP’s future”:

Senate Republicans found themselves shaken and disoriented Thursday after finding out their leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (Ky.) was in the hospital after tripping at a private event, raising questions about his health and future leadership of the GOP conference.

McConnell, who in January became the longest serving party leader in Senate history, has led the Senate GOP conference since 2005 and has helped guide his colleagues through some of the biggest moments in recent history — the 2008 financial collapse, the near default of the U.S. government in 2011, the fiscal cliff of 2012, the two impeachment trials of former President Trump and the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol…

“I am a huge fan of Mitch McConnell. I think he has the ability to lead a very diverse group of individuals in a way that is masterful,” said one GOP senator who requested anonymity to discuss the impact of McConnell’s injury on the Senate GOP conference.

“I think, who would be our next leader and what kind of leader would that person be?” the senator added. “Yeah, I do worry about that.” …

Senate Republican Whip John Thune (S.D.), former Senate GOP Whip John Cornyn (Texas) and Senate Republican Conference Chairman John Barrasso (Wyo.) are viewed as McConnell’s three most likely successors.

But there hasn’t been any serious discussion of a future Senate GOP leadership race among Republican senators themselves because McConnell has a secure grip on the job and hasn’t dropped any hint about planning to retire.

He easily defeated former National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman Rick Scott (Fla.) by a lopsided vote of 37 to 10 when Scott tried to capitalize on Republican disappointment over the 2022 midterm election by challenging McConnell for the top job…

A second Republican senator who requested anonymity to discuss the sensitive topic said McConnell’s hospitalization raises questions about the future leadership of the Senate GOP conference but emphasized, “It’s not time to be talking about [it].”…

McConnell has been such a major political force in Republican politics for so long that his GOP colleagues have come to rely on his ability to pump huge sums of money into Senate battleground states and to insulate them from the turbulence in conservative politics that has roiled the House GOP conference.

He leadership is especially valued by mainstream and moderate Republicans such as Sen. Susan Collins (Maine) — one of McConnell’s closest friends in the Senate — because he gives them space to work with Democratic colleagues and practice the style of Republican politics they see as best suited to their home states.

Colleagues also value McConnell’s ability to get their party out of tough political situations.

One example came in the fall of 2021, when he rounded up his leadership team and other allies to provide the 11 GOP votes needed to pave the way for Democrats to pass legislation to raise the debt limit.

McConnell took enormous heat from Trump and other critics for the vote, but it took the danger of a federal default off the table.

And McConnell has historically shown a willingness to inject himself in Senate Republican primary politics to pave the way for candidates he views as the most electable in a general election — an approach he adopted after Republicans fumbled away their chances to win seats in Delaware, Nevada, Missouri and Indiana in the 2010 and 2012 elections.

Even senators who voted to oust him from his leadership job in November admit their respect and admiration for his toughness in battle…

Per the NYTimes:

… The anatomy of the aging brain can predispose it to more serious brain injury: For instance, older adults are at a higher risk of tearing blood vessels in their brains, Dr. Salinas said. And taking anticoagulation medications, like blood thinners, which is more prevalent in an older population, can elevate the risk of bleeding in the brain…

Most older adults will recover from a concussion in about a month, Dr. Lumba-Brown said, but around a third will take longer than that. Patients who have bleeding in the brain may have a more prolonged recovery time, she added, which is why it is important to seek treatment right away.

Reader Interactions

163Comments

  1. 1.

    different-church-lady

    Update: more rum has been had. Forecast calls for chance of scattered belligerence…

  5. 5.

    mvr

    Not going to wish ill on anyone who is not well.

    Parties that aren’t well are a different story, and it says a lot that the “fan” of the party leader needs to be kept anonymous for reasons that are not clear at all except perhaps that the potential successors all already have their knives out.

  7. 7.

    pacem appellant

    Earlier today I read a story about how the Democrats in the Senate are continuously wishing John Fetterman good health. And tonight I read that the Senate Republicans already have their daggers drawn.

    NGL, the 2024 Senate map doesn’t look good, but McConnell being a non-factor would ensure only the RWNJs get over the primary finish line.

  8. 8.

    James E Powell

    @mvr:

    I’ve been wishing ill on McConnell every day for many years now. Do I have to stop because he’s got health problems?

  9. 9.

    piratedan

    Mitch has had multiple opportunities to demonstrate humanity and has more often than not chosen not to do so and instead embraced partisanship and an agenda that rolls back voting rights, civil rights and disenfranchises millions of Americans.  Fuck him and the GOP

  10. 10.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    Senate Republicans found themselves shaken and disoriented Thursday after finding out their leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (Ky.) was in the hospital after tripping at a private event, raising questions about his health and future leadership of the GOP conference.

    He’s like 80 and in poor health. Why should this come as an unforseen shock to Republicans? I think they’ve become too reliant on him to hold the GOP Senate caucus together over the years, like the article alludes to

  11. 11.

    mvr

    @James E Powell: My private feelings are my own. I try to moderate my generally pissed nature when people are in trouble, even people whom I very much dislike. But I’m not telling anyone else what to do.

    But really my main point was the same as yours — why are they only commenting anonymously?

  16. 16.

    dmsilev

    @mvr:

    the potential successors all already have their knives out.

    The phrase ‘root for injuries’ comes inescapably to mind.

  17. 17.

    different-church-lady

    @Jackie: There’s too much rum for me to figure this out: did they actually implement Trump’s color scheme at some point?

  19. 19.

    different-church-lady

    I hope you mofos get back from dinner quick tonight, because I’m in a MOOD….

  22. 22.

    oldgold

    I wonder if Mitch will ever admit what a horrendous misjudgment he made in giving Trump a pass in the second impeachment trial. He screwed the country and himself with this unforgivably stupid decision.

  26. 26.

    dmsilev

    @different-church-lady: No. The AF reported that it would have (seriously) caused problems with the equipment on the plane which would have cost $$$ to deal with, and fortunately TFG was gone before he could have insisted on spending the money to have his preferred paint job.

  30. 30.

    different-church-lady

    I’m not going to wish McConnell burns in hell, but… wait, I already have wished that. In excess of a few dozen times…

  31. 31.

    Ohio Mom

    Whatever physical problems McConnell has, he’s still got all his marbles. I expect him to recover enough to return to work and be around for a while more. I could imagine him taking up a cane for balance.

    Re: Trump’s expensive plan for a new color scheme for Air Force One and Biden’s tossing it for a more economical one. Example number (insert high number here) of exactly which party are spendthrifts and which one is careful with taxpayer dollars.

  32. 32.

    different-church-lady

    @Ohio Mom:

    I could imagine him taking up a cane for balance.

    I could imagine him taking up  a cane to beat a senator from the North senseless on the floor of the senate.

  35. 35.

    different-church-lady

    I HAVE 22 DIFFERENT KINDS OF RUM IN THIS HOUSE AND TONIGHT IT STILL DOESN’T FEEL LIKE ENOUGH!

  37. 37.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    Reposting from below:

    I’ve been wondering if this (Silicon Valley Bank failure) is another possible Lehmann Bros scenario where there’s a contagion that affects the rest of the banking sector. Many businesses in California banked with SVB, so they could have trouble meeting payroll, at the very least. First Republic Bank, for example, apparently have a similar banking strategy to SVB

    From this thread on Bogleheads:

    According to the WSJ there is a $620bn unrealized hole across FDIC banks. So this isn’t only a SVB problem. Gonna buy some TP this weekend :)

     

     

    https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/10/business … index.html

    Apparently Roku, a large public tech company, had hundreds of millions of dollars worth of uninsured deposits with this bank…

     

    According to this information, only 2.7% of accounts at SVB were below $250,000 and therefore, FDIC insured. The second lowest percentage of any bank in the country

    https://twitter.com/GRDecter/status/163 … 79592?s=2

    Some speculation that money is just flat out gone.

  39. 39.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Origuy: He’s as bad as that bastard Greg Abbott.  Benefits from a thing, and then destroys the ability of those who come after him to benefit from that same thing.

  41. 41.

    Splitting Image

    I hope McConnell recovers sufficiently to be able to go back to his job, but only to find that he cannot do it as well as before, and that the daggers that have come out for him are hard to put back in the sheath.

    Then I hope that he hurts himself again, this time badly enough to force his retirement, and that he recovers enough to watch whoever wins the leadership botch it so badly that he can see all of his evil start to unravel before his eyes.

    Then I hope he dies in a lot of pain.

    Then I hope he burns in hell.

  42. 42.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Splitting Image:

    Then I hope he burns in hell.

    If there is a hell, one hopes that McConnell and a few select other GrOPers (say, 1000 or so leaders) are all condemned to listen to Li’l Donnie whine about how he was wronged, coulda won, if only those guys hadn’t screwed him.

    In that same hell, Li’l Donnie spends the rest of his time eating Vova’s shit.  And Vova?  He just get tortured for all eternity by the same demons that are currently having a go at the 9/11 hijackers.

  44. 44.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Did you say something similar to people who were worried during the lead up to the 2008 financial crisis?

    It might not be the same scenario I admit, we won’t know until afterwards, but this is fairly concerning imho

    Doesn’t it worry you that so many banks/financial institutions could be in the same boat as SVB? And that major tech companies as well as several other businesses in California could be put in peril because they had millions of dollars in cash on deposit with SVB?

    Imagine what it would be like if the US government defaults

  48. 48.

    VOR

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): The money at SVB is probably not gone. It’s a matter of liquidity. They had a run on depositors wanting their money back and ran out of liquid assets. Yes, they probably have been losing some money on investments but I highly doubt this is a situation like the crypto exchange where the money just vanished. The FDIC is going to sell off assets over time and make depositors as whole as possible. Any account below the FDIC limit of $250k is fine, but SVB had a LOT of accounts above that limit, many of them corporate accounts. That money will be frozen until the FDIC sorts it out.

    Roku filed an 8-K with the SEC today which states:

    The Company has total cash and cash equivalents of approximately $1.9 billion as of March 10, 2023. Approximately $487 million is held at SVB, which represents approximately 26% of the Company’s cash and cash equivalents balance as of March 10, 2023. Approximately $1.4 billion of the Company’s cash and cash equivalents is distributed across multiple large financial institutions. The Company’s deposits with SVB are largely uninsured. At this time, the Company does not know to what extent the Company will be able to recover its cash on deposit at SVB.

    There probably are a number of other companies in the same situation.

  49. 49.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    As much as I’m insulting myself by saying so, a broken clock is right twice a day

    I know I can worry a lot about different things and I have over the past few years, but sometimes I’m going to be right, if nothing else because of the law of averages

    IOW, what if I’m right about this?

  50. 50.

    Chetan Murthy

    @VOR:

    Approximately $487 million is held at SVB

    WTF!  Half a BILLION DOLLARS ?  the CFO needs to be draw-and-quartered!  There are COMPANIES that SPECIALIZE in spreading corporate cash holdings across large numbers of insured bank accounts, and then moving that money around for paydays, so that the money is *never* uninsured.

    WTH was Roku doing not using such a company?

  53. 53.

    different-church-lady

    @Omnes Omnibus: I don’t know how to tell you this, but… listen… the black family in the next cardboard box over also has a curtain rod…

  55. 55.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @VOR:

    Do you think there’s a risk this could spread to other banks, such as First Republic or Ally? There was a MarketWatch article about 20 banks that could be in the same boat as SVB

  57. 57.

    Amir Khalid

    I just got back from the shelter and I’m now getting acquainted with Scully. She’s a very sweet one-year-old DSH,  mostly white with calico markings.

  58. 58.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Ha, very funny. Take a look at this, from the NYT:

    The bank, founded in 1983 and based in Santa Clara, Calif., was deeply entangled in the tech ecosystem, providing banking services to nearly half of all venture-backed technology and life-science companies in the United States, according to its website.

    The fallout could be significant

  65. 65.

    Ruckus

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Well, you could do nothing. Likely won’t change anything.

    You could yell and scream and shout. Likely won’t change anything.

    If you drink you could have a tipple. Likely won’t change anything.

    You could write a 4,000 word paper on the financial industry. Likely won’t change anything.

    You could move on with your life like you don’t give a damn. Likely won’t change anything.

    Or, we can have a 300-400 comment post about it and…. Likely won’t change anything.

    OK I’ll shut the hell up now….

  68. 68.

    Steeplejack

    [McConnell] has helped guide his colleagues through some of the biggest moments in recent history—the 2008 financial collapse, the near default of the U.S. government in 2011, the fiscal cliff of 2012, the two impeachment trials of former President Trump and the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol [. . .].

    And was on the wrong side of, or at best cynically neutral on, all of them. A giant of the Senate!

  74. 74.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman has compared the fall of SVB to “bear Stearns”–the first bank to collapse at the start of the 2007-2008 global financial crisis.

  79. 79.

    Ruckus

    @Steeplejack:

    He’s been a rethuglican for a very long time and has shown that he can be for the rich and selfish and absolutely no one else. That’s quite an achievement for one of the leaders of the semi free world that rethuglicans want.

  84. 84.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Amir Khalid:

    I don’t mind having a drink every once in awhile, but the idea of my decision making being impaired is not a pleasant one. What if I get drunk and decide to get in a car afterwards?

  88. 88.

    Ruckus

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    How many muscles have you pulled worrying so much about things you really can not change?

    It takes a nation to get better, it only takes a few rethuglican politicians to fuck that up completely.

    You work to elect better people, you live with the knowledge that there is only so much any one human can do trying to better and it is far easier for one human to fuck up everything. Therefore you don’t vote for people like Shit For Brains. And you work within the system to make it better. And it might never get there in your lifetime. I’m an old and I’ve seen worse asshole rethuglican politicians than those diseased assholes of the current rethuglican party. I’ve also seen better. But most people do not like their way of politics, they just don’t know how fucking bad they are. If you are worried about all that you write about being worried about you will drive yourself insane. So work to make it better, even if it is just writing postcards or blogging. It takes work to make a country better. Be a person that takes better over the line because worrying and complaining doesn’t do squat.

    You are young, you want better, WORK AT IT.

  89. 89.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Major Major Major Major:

    I trust you and your knowledge, especially considering your work in the tech industry, but why all of the comparisons in the media to 2008, then?

    Like this:

    Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman has compared the fall of SVB to “bear Stearns”–the first bank to collapse at the start of the 2007-2008 global financial crisis.

    This also caught my eye:

    According to the WSJ there is a $620bn unrealized hole across FDIC banks. So this isn’t only a SVB problem.

    It is it really all just headlines? I’ve read that other banks could face similar problems, such as First Republic

  90. 90.

    Quinerly

    Crazy sleep schedule here in Eldorado, NM. Got back from our 10 days in Silver City, NM about 12 days ago. Weather has been perfect and jumped into the major work on the walled in side yard. I have been moving 2″ deep pea gravel out of there since moving here almost a year ago. Essentially, a very good exercise program….drywall buckets…from the back to front of the house. Put in several cactus beds and paths. Because of the layout with steps, walls, gates, paths…pretty much impossible for me alone at 125lbs to move with a wagon or wheelbarrow. I work for 6 hrs, drink PBR, fall asleep at 6 pm, and am wide awake at midnight.

    With this all said, I have 3 pallets of beautiful flagstones waiting to be laid for two patio areas and 1000 sq ft of the higher end fake turf (with a nice pile and fake thatch) arriving in 10 days. The turf was almost 50% off.  JoJo will have his own private dog park to entertain his girlfriends. And I am getting rid of gravel and some dust.

    Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would end up with fake grass in probably my final chapter.  They say this stuff will last 20 years. Fake grass sure has come a long ways looks wise. Solves a lot of problems. Walled in in the back of the house, like a little oasis.

  91. 91.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Ruckus:

    I have been writing postcards for the Wisconsin elections, just got today from the FedEx Office store. I only need to buy some postcard stamps : )

  93. 93.

    Amir Khalid

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    For your own sake, you really need to learn not to fret about stuff beyond your control. All that useless worrying is not good for you. We’ve all been telling you this for years.

  94. 94.

    Quinerly

    @frosty:

    Not really a rum drinker but that’s a good one. Friends who spend Februarys at the Truman Complex (I think that’s what that area is called, they rent a VRBO there) brought back several bottles at one point. A bottle actually made the move with me. Need to dig it out for the summer.

  97. 97.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Amir Khalid: @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Amir’s right.  Unless you have a half-mil in a bank account, you aren’t exposed in any way you can affect.  Instead of reading propaganda from jokers like Bill Ackman, maybe you should think about actually learning something of how the system works and fails to work ?  There are lots of good authors who have written excellent books on banking system failures, and you might learn a lot about how the system works by reading them.

    For instance, there’s a simple and obvious reason why I’m not too worrried about the possibility of “contagion”.  If you work thru the *mechanism* by which SVB failed, perhaps you can see what it is.

  99. 99.

    Ruckus

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    I am an old fart. I might have 20-25 yrs. I might have a lot less. None of us know how much time we get. But this incessant worrying does doodly squat for you. I wrote here about a 2 year period in my life not than many years ago when 14 people I know died. Only one of them was older than me and only by one year. Life goes on, I’m still here, they are not. You are young, you have the possibility of many, many decades, do not fucking waste them worrying about shit you can do ABSOLUTELY nothing about. Do the things you can do. If you want to make a change for the better, run for office, work for someone else running for office, figure out a better way. Humans like a better way. If you knew what life was like 75 yrs ago you’d wonder how the hell anyone lived. But they did, they lived they got older, some of them are shit, like the rethuglican leader of the senate. And some of them are like our president, working to make shit better. It’s always little steps, hell I wasn’t sure I’d ever see a black man as president. I have. I wasn’t sure I’d see a woman as VP and not only is she a woman, she’s black. Now me I’m almost as white as a sheet, but I’m so glad I got to see them there. But there is and always will be a lot of work to be done. In my book, it’s your turn, I’ve done my time my work, my effort. I worked for 60 fucking years and now it’s my turn to relax. It’s your turn to work at making this a better country. It takes a nation, be a fucking part of that.

  104. 104.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Amir Khalid:

    @Ruckus:

    I know you’re both right. I should worry more about things that are in my immediate control and do things that I have direct control over to influence the outcome I want

  105. 105.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    In other news, I recently bought an automatic mechanical watch, a Seiko 5 #SNKL23J1

    It’s a great entry level automatic. Sadly Seiko seems to be abandoning the Seiko 5 line in favor of moving upmarket. The Seiko 5 Sports collection appears to be the replacement, with most retailing between $220-300

    One of the downsides is the lack of self-winding and hacking features more expensive, newer movements have, but the price makes up for it

    What do you guys think? I’ve read the bracelet sucks, so I’ll probably either get a jubilee-style aftermarket bracelet or a leather strap

  106. 106.

    Quinerly

    @Steeplejack:

    Supposed to be pretty much indestructible. Scoop.

    It has drainage holes. Can’t see them, of course. Quite the process to put down. Leveling yard. A base of dirt mixed with some gravel, then a bed of sand, then turf. It’s tacked down with special stakes. Can hose off.

    I looked into the used “festival grass.” Usually used for a few days in music tents, pulled up and resold. More of an old astro turf look, but better. Then I am into chasing around on Craigslist or FB MarketPlace and trying to piece together so the nap is right so doesn’t look like a patchwork quilt. Plus, the stuff is heavy. We are talking close to 700 lbs for the amt I need. Logistics of finding someone to deliver that much used. I feel comfortable with what I got at the price. It’s 15ft wide. I’m configuring the area to fit the turf so maybe only one seam.

  107. 107.

    piratedan

    well…. in regards to the bank failure….

     

    #1 is to haul in the CEO and CFO who cashed out (along with an inner cadre) while they knew the ship was sinking

    #2 is to look in the mirror and wonder if they bear any responsibility for their current state of affairs by getting the Trumpies to ease off the Frank/Dodd measures that would have helped to mitigate this

    #3 is that there are businesses that I care about (solar, media, environmental orgs) that could end up on the dirty end of the stick with this,

    #4 if there are other banking entities that followed this model, then as long as the poor to middle income peeps are covered by the NDIC (as they should be) maybe/finally the people that made the shitty decisions will be the ones who actually pay for those shitty decisions.

  109. 109.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I’d suggest a little more:

    You’re reading stuff that gets you alarmed, and without context you just have to trust those sources (or not trust them, but that also requires more context).  So you’re prey for any propagandist who wants to manipulate you.  Don’t be that.  Actually learn how the world works, how the financial system works, so that you can start to detect bullshit, see thru the gaslighters.

    This requires that you actually learn a good bit of history, some econ, some poli sci.  But that’s OK: I didn’t know any of it when I graduated college (or grad school), so you can do it.

    Otherwise, you’ll always be susceptible to “but the NYT business section said it, it must be true” or “the treasury secretary said it, it must be true!”

  110. 110.

    piratedan

    @Quinerly: if you get a fair amount of canine traffic, and the odor starts to be tangible, most of it can be broken with a vinegar based solution to break down the pee smell, just saying, rain will also do the trick, but since you’re in a dry climate, you may want to keep that in mind…. just sayin’.

  112. 112.

    Steeplejack

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    Congratulations on your new Seiko! I like the case size—anything over 40mm looks too big to me, unless it’s a dive watch—and I like the crown at four o’clock. I am a Seiko fan and have several of them, although I tend to go for the quartz models (for accuracy). The one I have been wearing lately is my SRK005.

    Another good site for watch lust is Jomashop.

  113. 113.

    Quinerly

    @piratedan:

    Thanks! It’s a learning process for me, especially since I am originally from the Outer Banks. I think the piss will be OK. I still have trees that I am working around. An aspen, 3 Cottonwood, and two junipers. There’s a bed of ornamental grass that still has gravel, which really is his favorite potty area, along with the junipers.

    The stuff is pretty thick with the rubber back. I’m mostly concerned about how it heats up. This area is on the SW side of the house. I got the one that the owner of the company has all over his yard in Albuquerque. Not the most expensive but not the cheapest, plus the discount on the left over roll. This all started last spring when I was going to buy some of the used “festival grass” from a dog trainer with a huge facility near Cerrillos, NM. She had overbought and wanted to get rid of some. JoJo loved her facility’s grass and I was impressed seeing a sea of green. She was trying to unload twice what I needed. Plus, I was into the labor and materials to piece it together. Sure glad I waited.

  114. 114.

    Quinerly

    @eclare:

    Thanks!

    JoJo needs a job and to contribute. When I adopted him, Espanola Humane Society said he was a “working dog.” Someone lied.😉

  115. 115.

    Steeplejack

    @Quinerly:

    Cool. Scooping and hosing off were what I was wondering about. Sounds like a good solution.

    My RWNJ brother in Las Vegas (NV) has a small, walled-in back yard that could be a little oasis if he did just a little bit more with it. It has real grass on half of it, which I think is a hassle to keep watered. As I mentally renovate his house, I picture putting in fake grass and replacing his (usually empty) birdbath with a small fountain, which would provide the birds water and give a pleasant oasis sound.

  116. 116.

    Frankensteinbeck

    McConnell removed from American politics would be the greatest blessing feasible to our country.  Absolutely no one has his ability to abuse institutional norms.  It’s a rare talent to be the first guy who goes “What if we don’t vote for a replacement Supreme Court Justice?” even if it’s easy to be the second.  It is damned rare to find his equal in lying with a straight face to the press and public.  He is the king of bringing in oligarch money, the guy who started the current total obstruction strategy… the list goes on and on.

    His replacement will be an extreme asshole without the competence or control of his caucus.

    He may be begging to get back to work, but the hospital isn’t letting him go.  We don’t know squat yet about his real condition.  I wish him the minimum damage that forces him to retire.  If it is possible to deserve suffering, no one in America, not even Trump or Shrekli, deserves it more.

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman

    is a rich parasite who stands to lose money in this, not a Fed expert.  This article is packed with the phrasing used by journalists who have nothing but want to write a scare story.

    You will be inundated with these in life.  They are everywhere.  Deceptive fear mongering is a corrupt journalist’s job, and they’re almost all corrupt.  If you don’t learn to recognize that fact, you will live in constant terror, just like if you don’t learn to recognize scams you’ll lose everything.

    EDIT – The watch is so much better to focus on!

  118. 118.

    Quinerly

    @Steeplejack:

    The great thing about the set up here is there are two separate walled in yards. The main back yard has a large covered area off the dining room and master bedroom. There’s an uncovered courtyard with a koi pond, junipers, xeriscape beds. And a lower area with 6 fruit trees and shade. Separate from this area is this crazy gravel pit of about 1700 sq ft. It’s off the old garage which the previous owners had turned into a karate studio for their sons and I have turned into a den/library. This side yard is a perfect dog area. Plus, I am flagstoning an area in the corner for a winter patio. Heats up so nice against the stucco walls, plus no wind. That area is right off of my now den.

  119. 119.

    Amir Khalid

    We are getting along well, it seems. Scully has decided to nap right beside me in bed.

  122. 122.

    Steeplejack

    @Quinerly:

    That all sounds great. I am picturing it in my mind (I’m sure very inaccurately). 😹

    I really like Santa Fe. I only spent a week there about 20 years ago, but it felt like home. I have always liked desert climates.

  124. 124.

    opiejeanne

    @Steeplejack: My husband did French cuffs and nice cufflinks for several years while he was working for a private company. They went by the wayside when he went back to working for government agencies, partly because he stood out a little too much with his 3 piece suits in a place where most of the suits worn looked like someone had slept in them.

    I used to love having a nice watch, and later, after a burglar stole my nice watch,  I liked having a cheap, brightly colored plastic one. I bought my husband several nice Seiko watches over the years, but after a couple of years each of them failed in ways that could not be fixed and that was a several hundred wasted. We had a running joke that he bought me a station wagon because it had a clock that actually worked, and I was always forgetting my watch.

    We were both relieved when we got smart phones.

  127. 127.

    Quinerly

    @Steeplejack:

    I miss the live music scene in St.Louis. It was 40 years of my life. Can’t say that I miss my old 1880’s inner city Victorian. I did put my heart and soul into that house, though. Truly love the layout here all on one level.

    My social circle is pretty small here and that’s an adjustment. My Soulard neighborhood house in St. Louis was kinda ground zero for people coming and going. Here, I am the only single person…on the street. Really don’t fit in. I’m the odd single woman. Fortunately, I was coming out here for 11 years before buying. Made connections and friends in other areas. I do miss walking out my front door and going a couple blocks to hit a club for live Blues or Jazz. Not sure I could have made the move but for Covid Times and that period of adjustment, change, isolation. It’s nice having a big yard, expansive views. Life is trade offs, as we all know.

  129. 129.

    Steeplejack

    @opiejeanne:

    I applaud your husband for his French cuffs and cufflinks.

    I have a cell phone that gives me the time, of course, but I like watches! (Also clocks.) And they run the gamut from a cheap Timex digital watch to my Seikos and a Fossil Arkitect that I’ve had for over 20 years. I’ve had the Seiko I mentioned above for eight years.

  133. 133.

    WereBear

    I made it to the year 2000 and then realized they deliberately chose to be evil mfers.

    To quote Geena Davis’ vengeful mother in The Last Kiss Goodbye, “You’ll die screaming.”

    Hopefully from self-awareness. Poetic justice.

  134. 134.

    Steeplejack

    @Quinerly:

    It’s all trade-offs and changes. I grew up with a father in the Air Force, so we never lived longer than three years in any one place. Then as an adult I lived in Atlanta for 26 years, and I’ve been in NoVA for 18 years now. Might be ready for a change in a year or two, but I don’t know where.

  136. 136.

    Steeplejack

    @Major Major Major Major:

    Some of the Seiko automatics since they went upmarket are exquisite, but dang they’re expensive. If I found myself back in Japan would be about the only way I would get one.

  139. 139.

    Quinerly

    @Steeplejack:

    Night! My day starts in a few hrs. I think Miguel here by 7AM. Let the leveling and grading begin. I am ready to be done with winter!!!

  140. 140.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Steeplejack:

    I’ve never been fond of either, although I don’t hate them.  The smaller the brim, the uglier, certainly.  I like stiffer brims on flat brims, and the dented shape is drab and doesn’t coordinate well.  All it says is “I’m wearing a hat.”

  143. 143.

    Gvg

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): you need a hobby. May I suggest gardening? It’s soothing except for the weather. Everyone worries about the weather so it should fulfill all of your needs. It has a lot of good days which I hope will overcome your need to worry about something.

    Goku, you worry so much, so needlessly, that if you were by chance right, we would probably miss the signs because we have now been trained to reflexively talk you down from needless panic. You need to get training in well I am not sure what it would be called, but you dial it up too fast and are too stubborn about doom. I would say you need to learn to evaluate the odds more realistically except at this point I think you just need to stop looking at doom porn.

    Try gardening, or anything except doom.

  144. 144.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Splitting Image: Then I hope he burns in hell.

    Cue Kit Marlowe’s Mephistopheles:

    Why, this is Hell, nor am I out of it

    Problem is, he dragged the whole fucking country with him into the locally-infernal regions.  Bastard.

  145. 145.

    Thor Heyerdahl

    @Frankensteinbeck: I had been thinking about how Ackman and other MOTU shitheels are so desperately trying to crash the economy on Joe Biden. You have succinctly said what I felt.

    Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman

    is a rich parasite who stands to lose money in this, not a Fed expert.  This article is packed with the phrasing used by journalists who have nothing but want to write a scare story.

  146. 146.

    Chris Johnson

    My fanfic on the McConnell story is as follows:

    McConnell is one of the key Republicans who worked with Putin and Russia to screw over the country, thinking he could get power from this. And is also very intelligent. Intelligent enough to have figured out that it was a trap: Russia never wanted him or Republicans to be powerful, it wanted the US sunk in civil and/or race war, and was only using him.

    So, somewhere at the end of Trump’s presidency (and knowing full well Trump was Russia’s guy), McConnell chose to flip. And he defied Russia, and Putin, acting like he was just as powerful as them. And demanded more than just being used as a wrecking ball.

    Putin no likey. And so, now McConnell secretly has to have the balls of ten brass monkeys, with nobody knowing anything about it. He has enough power that having him killed would undermine the Russian wing of the Republican party. They can get to him, they can physically attack him (hands, this fall) but they can’t break him as he has correctly identified that he’s being threatened by a weak autocrat who’s just as old and sick as he is, but one that can’t win a war with Ukraine, one that is greatly reduced. And so McConnell is all defiance, but rather than patriotic it’s totally soulless and all he wants is power, same as Putin.

    They deserve each other, and one day we’ll hear the whole story… or maybe it will never be heard. For now, McConnell has become the enemy of our enemy, and he is blocking Putin, blocking Trump. Always hated them, but he used them for a time for his own purposes, with them thinking they were using him. The mask is off, and now he’s desperate to get out of the hospital, because there are too many opportunities for Putin to sneak some malefactor into a hospital and hurt him worse.

    That’s the fantasy :)

  151. 151.

    J R in WV

    @Omnes Omnibus: ​

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): ​
    Did you ask something similar about everything over the past couple of years?

    Goku has always been Very Afraid of whatever the latest news headlines are. At first I thought he was a typical youngster in college. Then I thought he was a youngster having problems.

    Now I think he’s a more sophisticated than most troll. . . More patient, more devious, more … whatever~!~

  153. 153.

    J R in WV

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    Truthfully, I was hoping you and others could convince me I was wrong to worry

    What good does it do the world for you to worry about a banking collapse? What good does it do YOU to worry about a banking collapse?

    Do you have more than $250,000 in a single bank account? Then relax !!

  154. 154.

    kalakal

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    Very nice! I’m something of a watch freak and love Seikos, you can’t go wrong with them. It’s very easy to swap out the bracelet. I tend to wear NATO or rubber straps, I find them more comfortable, espescially in warm, humid Fl. NATO straps are great, they’re cheap, comfortable, and because they come in a zillion styles and colours are a great way of varying the look of the watch. A bonus is they’re super safe, I wear dive watches a lot and it’s almost impossible to lose the watch off your wrist due to a strap malfunction.

    Regarding your fears of a financial meltdown, not going to happen, at least not over SVB. As others have said worry about things you can control not those you can’t, filter the self interested “opinion” pieces from the msm.Take up a hobby, gardening, walking, music, whatever. You’ll live longer and be happier

  155. 155.

    Bill Arnold

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    The fallout could be significant

    They were the Go-To bank for libertarian techbros who have to deal with fiat money because they interact with the real economy. (From news reports. Not wired into techbro CFO land.)
    The wealthier of them have been orchestrating (boards of directors) an objectively-coordinated round of tech layoffs for no avowed reason other than feelings about an ever-receding imminent recession, and more to the point, to shift the employee/employer power relationship back to the employer by increasing the size of the pool of people looking for tech work. This stuff isn’t much on the record. But the “moral hazard” stick is pretty much all about correcting the behavior of such greedy assholes. Any corrective action to block contagion should not include bailouts for them, and should otherwise be vigorous.
    And yes, I interact with such companies every day. (With the engineers, not L1 support.) When key employees were laid off, pre bank collapse, I noticed.

  156. 156.

    PaulB

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):  It is it really all just headlines? I’ve read that other banks could face similar problems, such as First Republic

    Yes and no. I recommend you look into the S&L crisis of the 1980s, in which a few thousand commercial banks and S&L institutions failed, at a cost of $200-500 billion (depending on whose numbers you use). The smaller number is roughly equivalent to the $620 billion that your worst-case-scenario panickers are reporting.

    The U.S. had no real problem weathering the crisis, although it did cause some concerns, led to some new legislation, and may have been a contributing cause to the 1990 recession. The time to worry is when we reach the multi-trillion dollar problem that led to the Great Recession. But, and here’s the thing, the Great Recession led to reforms that make another Great Recession much less likely.

    So, could the failure spread? Sure. Will it cause problems throughout the entire financial ecosystem? Unlikely, given the relatively small scale of the failure as compared to the overall size of the financial industry. Will it lead to another Great Recession? The chances are nearly zero.

    (I’m with all of the others above that your constant panicking is not doing you any good, that it’s counter-productive, and that it is definitely not good for your mental and emotional health.)

  157. 157.

    wenchacha

    @Amir Khalid: Worry is a killer! Goku, I don’t know you, but I know anxiety like the inside of my brain. For me, there’s a feeling of wanting to know how to prepare, how to protect myself and my loved ones. Pretty sure I inherited this condition, and I also learned this way of coping long ago.

    Hearing, “don’t worry so much,” is not real helpful, even if it is offered with love. My mom had anxiety, and she would scold me for voicing my anxieties, saying, ,”if you keep worrying, you’ll get colitis!” My cousin had to get a colostomy, so mom figured my thinking about the consequences would help me stop.

    All this just to say, talk to a therapist if you can. Maybe see if you can discover what it is that pushes your anxiety buttons. And maybe even meds. It was anti- anxiety meds that helped me get past severe dental phobia and my fear of air travel.

    I still find things to worry over. Kind of unavoidable, really. I smoke weed, and that also helps. I wish you well.

  158. 158.

    PaulB

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    Another thing to keep in mind is that there are a lot of people in the U.S. who would dearly love another 2008 on Joe Biden’s watch. One of the ways that they think they can make this happen is through the kind of “fear porn” that you consistently bring to our attention.

    Always ask yourself when you’re reading crap like that: who is it that’s feeding this fear porn to me, what is their background, what kinds of things have they said before, and why are they doing this now? My own estimate is that at least 90% of the time you’ll find ulterior motives that give you reason to disregard their doom & gloom pronouncements.

  159. 159.

    Ella in New Mexico

    @James E Powell:

    I’ve been wishing ill on McConnell every day for many years now. Do I have to stop because he’s got health problems?

    As much as we all detest the man, am I the only one that is worried that right now we need him to return to the Senate because he’s all that stands between us and Majority Leader Rick Scott or worse

    @eclare:

    I still wonder what was going on with his discolored hands a while back.

    So, I can’t imagine a good medical justification for even an elderly person being hospitalized for several days merely after falling and hitting their head other than it’s worse than a concussion.

    I’m guessing he’s on blood thinners and has a subdural hematoma which is not severe enough for surgery but large enough that they want him off the thinners and are doing serial imaging to be sure it doesn’t continue to seep.

    What is really sad about healthcare in this country is that if he weren’t Mitch McConnell there’s about a 75% chance the typical hospital ED would have basically assessed him the day of, imaged him and if no active bleed was happeningn would have turfed him to an outpatient setting in 12-24 hours for ongoing monitoring, which, TBH is NOT the safest thing for the patient but hey, insurance reimbursement algorithms rule the medical world now days, not optimal medical care.

  162. 162.

    S Cerevisiae

    @kalakal: Late to the thread again but I just started wearing a watch again after a decade or so without because I got tired of having to dig out my phone just to know what time it was. I bought a Citizen eco drive and really like it so now I bought another one with a nicer look and a titanium case with a sapphire crystal. I love that it will run basically forever as long as I don’t keep it in the dark.

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