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You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

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This really is a full service blog.

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If you are still in the GOP, you are an extremist.

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I’m sure you banged some questionable people yourself.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

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

I was promised a recession.

This fight is for everything.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

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You are here: Home / Politics / Domestic Politics / Friday News Odds & Ends

Friday News Odds & Ends

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Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas released a statement to try to quell the furor sparked by yesterday’s ProPublica report on his extensive luxury travel on the dime of GOP megadonor Harlan Crow: (NYT gift link)

“Early in my tenure at the court, I sought guidance from my colleagues and others in the judiciary, and was advised that this sort of personal hospitality from close personal friends, who did not have business before the court, was not reportable,” Justice Thomas said. “I have endeavored to follow that counsel throughout my tenure, and have always sought to comply with the disclosure guidelines.”

That’s bullshit. As the LA Times points out, Thomas used to report these gifts and stopped when the LA Times called attention to them. Thomas should resign, but he won’t. I’m afraid we’ll have to await actuarial arbitrage to see him off.

Tennessee Repubs went full fascist and kicked two duly elected members out of the statehouse. Two of the “Tennessee Three,” lawmakers who joined protesters to call for action on gun safety, were expelled. The remaining lawmaker, who survived by one vote, explained why:

“I think it’s pretty clear. I’m a 60 year-old white woman and they’re 2 young black men,” Rep. Gloria Johnson explained. Good for her.

The first Gen Z congressman, Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-FL), connects the dots between yesterday’s anti-democratic actions in Tennessee to fascist moves Repubs are making nationwide: (WaPo gift link)

“I find it very alarming, and I think what we are seeing is the Republican Party is really completely shifting to this very far right, authoritarian-type of fascist ideology where they really have gone to using the power that they do have to silence political enemies, to ram through agendas that people don’t want, and to use the power of the executive, or when they have majorities in these states, to poke people into submission, ” Frost said.

Yep. That same article references the recent arrest of Nikki Fried and other women for peacefully protesting Florida’s upcoming abortion ban:

Nikki Fried, the chairwoman of the Florida Democratic Party, said the growing tension within statehouses has meant legislative leaders are now effectively silencing even residents from speaking out in opposition to proposals. In Florida, it’s common for people to travel for hours to Tallahassee to testify — only to find out they are allowed to speak for 30 seconds.

“You are seeing the nation just sort of burst at its seams with political tension,” Fried said. On Monday night, she was among 11 abortion rights protesters who were arrested while holding a sit-in in front of Tallahassee’s city hall. She said abortion rights activists chose to hold their demonstration at city hall because they feared a harsh response from the state if they protested without a permit on nearby Capitol grounds.

The article covers flagrantly anti-democratic actions that are ongoing in Montana, Texas and elsewhere.

On the bright side, the U.S. unemployment rate fell to 3.5%. I figured the highly anticipated jobs report was good news — or at least not BAD news — because I had to Google it.

Open thread.

Reader Interactions

105Comments

  4. 4.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    @Geoduck: Right? How will we hire anyone? Especially with wages improving, people won’t want to take those second or third jobs.

  5. 5.

    Cameron

    That’s the problem with fighting these creatures via elections.  They don’t believe in elections any more than they believe in lightsabers.  Come to think of it, they probably believe more in lightsabers.

  6. 6.

    scav

    I’m not entirely sure the fluttering eyelash ingenue look “but some other people told me it was all ok occifer” is going to prove a good one for a supremely powerful jurist deciding decisions on the legality of things. Let alone address the caviar at the Walmart Marina backdrop.

  7. 7.

    bbleh

    @scav: alas, I don’t think Thomas cares at all what other people think of him. He strikes me as very unhappy, even bitter, but I think even loud calls for his resignation would be water off a duck’s back.  (And of course, there WON’T be loud calls; see, eg, Sheldon Whitehouse’s utterly ineffectual statement on the matter.)  Hell, I think Thomas would write a decision overruling Loving without a qualm.

  9. 9.

    sdhays

    Don’t forget the crazy shit going down in North Carolina, too. One woman, from a very Democratic district, switched parties, handing Republicans a supermajority. And now Republicans are going to jam new gerrymandered maps through legislature and legal system and ban abortion.

    The stakes are so high and the violence planned by the Republicans is so heinous that…that turncoat should hire body guards for awhile.

  11. 11.

    Almost Retired

    Madame Vice President is on her way to Nashville today. Keep this travesty in the news!!  Your friendly neighborhood Republican Legislative Super-Majority at work.  Now coming to a Carolina near you….

  13. 13.

    sdhays

    @bbleh: They are utterly unaccountable. He could literally shoot someone on Constitution Avenue, and they wouldn’t remove him from the bench, even as he was arrested and put in a DC jail.

  18. 18.

    scav

    @bbleh: Mmm, indeed, certainly in regards to his personal supremeness, but insofar as the general overt stench and look cementing itself all over the brand conservative powers that be . . . certainly won’t bother the current cultists, but might drive the factor below 27%.  Plus get a few more of the generally inert to the actual polls.  With great effort I’m attempting to hope for a generational instinctive distrust to get hammered in.

  20. 20.

    different-church-lady

    @scav:

    but might drive the factor below 27%.

    The factor has been above 40 for quite a few years now. But with some luck this will drive it back down to 27. (I doubt it will ever go below)

  21. 21.

    cmorenc

    @sdhays:

    The NC GOP will ram through a bunch of RW wet-dream laws that will be difficult to undo until such day as the NC dems regain a majority in both houses of the legislature, which extreme gerrymandering will make all that more difficult to do.

    Gotta wonder if this turncoat D house member from a blue district was already some sort of stealth “Manchurian” candidate in the 2022 election who had already secretly conspired behind the scenes to switch parties mid-session – I can understand a state rep elected as a D refusing to vote the party line on matters she disagrees with, but given the extreme consequences of her actually switching parties mid-session, I cannot fathom there not being something very fishy behind her Bernadette Arnold (Benedict Arnold) act.

  23. 23.

    cmorenc

    @Kelly:

    Lowest unemployment of my lifetime was 3.4% from Sept 1968 thru May 1969. Let’s go for the record!

    The Federal Reserve is currently arduously attempting to fix that low-unemployment bug in the system to assure favorable conditions for profitability of big businesses and stock prices, without having to raise wages to attract employees.

  24. 24.

    Betty

    I am guessing a possible cover story for the Tennessee vote is that she was a teacher in a school when a shooting occurred, making her a more sympathetic protester. That is, if they feel any need to cover their corrupt behavior.

  25. 25.

    J R in WV

     

    I’m about to start my own battle with cancer next Monday with an 8-hour infusion of cisplatin, a drug with platinum and chlorine among other sweet chemical ingredients. It is old fashioned chemo introduced in 1978, no modern immunological tricks, just poison that damages cancer cells a little more than non-cancerous cells.

    It has been a bit of a struggle even to get to this stage of my illness, I got out of the hospital for a punctured lung (while my chemo port was being installed0 last Monday, and I’m trying hard to maintain a sense of humor and optimism — any assistance will be welcome. The oncologist tells me if the chemo followed by surgery goes as hoped I have about a 50% chance of survival. I asked all the doctors not to sugar coat anything, bare facts please. They are compassionate, friendly and helpful.

    My oncologist is a grad of Peking University Health Science Center and SUNY for residency, Virginia Commonwealth for an oncology fellowship, and a very well spoken guy.

    I’ll keep you all posted as this proceeds. What a long strange trip it’s been…

  27. 27.

    James E Powell

    @Geoduck:

    Everybody having jobs is bad for the economy, haven’t you heard?

    In the cable & online financial chatter worlds, every jobs report – no matter what it shows – is bad news & Biden’s fault.

    Unemployment down? OMG! The Fed will continue to raise rates! Biden is destroying America!

    Unemployment up! OMG! Recession is coming! Biden is destroying America!

  29. 29.

    schrodingers_cat

    @J R in WV: I had left you a comment in the post you shared about your punctured lung.

    If you need any help in coming up with a menu when you are on chemo. Email me. I have some suggestions. Take care of yourself.

  31. 31.

    StringOnAStick

    @J R in WV: I’m planning on you being on the positive side of the those odds, and being here for a long time after you kick cancer’s ugly ass!

  34. 34.

    Wapiti

    Meh. Close personal friends don’t put you in an ethical quandary. If large gifts are flowing only one way, you’re being bought. If you don’t report the gifts, you know you’re being bought and are trying to hide it.

  38. 38.

    Redshift

    You missed highlighting the biggest bullshit in Thomas’ statement:

    who did not have business before the court

    I’m sure the guy who was paying didn’t have his name on any “business before the court”, nor did Leonard Leo of the Federalist society, who just happened to also be in attendance on Thomas’ all-expenses-paid luxury vacations. But you don’t spend decades and millions buying a Supreme Court majority out of the goodness of your heart.

  39. 39.

    Soprano2

    I had a P.T. appointment this morning. The therapist asked me if something had happened with TFG, because his neighbor was flying his “Let’s Go Brandon” flag at half-staff. He said he laughed and laughed when he saw it. I guess he’s so busy with life that he didn’t even know TFG was arrested on Tuesday! He did some dry needling on me, it’s kind of like acupuncture except it goes deeper into the body and hurts more. If it’s effective I’m all for it. I guess I’ll know in a day or two if it helped the pain.

  40. 40.

    sab

    OT But what is it these days with medical professionals going on vacation these days amd leaving their surgical patients abandoned.? Happened to me last summer and almost killed my husband.

    Same thing this week. Bad side effects from surgery and vet response was your vet is on vacation. Huh? Different doctor did see us and pooch did need antibiotics and better painkillers.

    ETA Veterinarian response was vastly better than my husband’s expensive fancy neurosurgeon. I want to blow up his fancy sportscar. His surgery was fine but the nonexistent aftercare did almost kill my husband.

  41. 41.

    jonas

    @sdhays: WTF was she thinking? Is she just crazy, or was the idea that her reelection prospects as a Dem were not looking great so if she switched parties and got to influence the redistricting process, she could draw a more favorable district for herself and stay in office? If so, that’s being one cynical POS.

  42. 42.

    JoyceH

    Hey, does anyone else think some of these state GOPs have gone just plain crazy?

    Texas passes a law outlawing men performing in public wearing makeup. Do they have no theaters? When their local news anchors and weathermen start showing up bare faced, that’s going to be a bad look, too. And since they have time to deal with men wearing makeup, are we to assume their grid is all fixed and in tip-top shape?

    And Tennessee! Dang! Yeah, the legislators were ignoring gun safety protestors weeks after a mass shooting, but even with the momentary floor disruption by the Three, that might have gained them a critical headline on page 15 of the Times and the Post. But by blowing it up into this big huge deal, by-passing normal procedures (complaint, ethics investigation, etc), and taking a full day’s session on their Expulsion Drama, they just Edmund-Pettis-Bridged the heck out of the statehouse! And turned the entire incident into national, even international, front page news. That wasn’t rational, that was a sheer tantrum. Plus letting the white woman off just made the racism of the whole thing almost embarrassingly obvious. I’ve seen in news coverage that Justin Jones was already a familiar figure to them before he joined the legislature – he was the activist who kept pressing the issue until they finally (FINALLY in 2019!) removed the bust of Nathan Bedford Forrest from the statehouse, so there were probably some grudges being held.

    Upside is that the two Justins are now national figures, and the Tennessee Republicans, when they die, will be able to see Nathan Bedford Forrest in person – in hell. But while we talk about the GOP’s turn toward authoritarianism, their racism and their misogyny, let’s not forget to also focus on the plain and evident insanity.

  43. 43.

    jonas

    @sab: Not only are they always on vacation when you really need an appointment, they’re always off on some safari, or snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef or something for two weeks where they’re totally incommunicado.

  45. 45.

    eclare

    @jonas:   Funny story, years ago I went on a trip to Peru to tour the rain forest.  No phones, little electricity, a LOT of doctors on this trip.

  46. 46.

    sab

    Good Friday and my Catholic husband has arranged a steak dinner here with his best ( Catholic)  friend. I am just an Epsicipalian and this seems a bit off to me, but whatever. I have tilapia in the freezer.

  50. 50.

    sab

    @JoyceH: Ohio our legislature is beyond insane. Even our horrible  Governor is trying to talk them off ledges. Laughing at you Gov DeWine.

  52. 52.

    Hob

    @different-church-lady: ​
      I’m honestly confused as to why anyone even gives a crap about “bigfooting.” I mean… I’ve been reading Balloon Juice for many years and I’ve never had any trouble scrolling down to see that there’s more than one new post on the home page. It’s a multi-author blog, that’s just a normal thing. For that matter, there are plenty of single-author blogs where sometimes the author puts up a couple of posts about different things close together. So what?!

  53. 53.

    Gretchen

    @cmorenc: there have been some rumors that the turncoat is having an affair with a prominent Republican. Not sure if there’s any basis to it.

  54. 54.

    frosty

    @J R in WV: You have my best wishes for a successful outcome. Hang in there and don’t hesitate to post comments on how it’s going if you need some friendly ears (eyes?).

  55. 55.

    Gretchen

    @JoyceH: I love the phrase that they Edmund-Pettis-Bridged themselves. I didn’t know that Jones was involved in getting the statue removed. I don’t think much of anybody outside TN had heard of any of them before yesterday, and now they have a national platform. Good work TN Leg!

  59. 59.

    Betsy

    We need to start talking about tyranny. This was the word the the Founders used to describe unaccountability on the part of those governing, to those governed.  In other words, laws made by some people to govern people who had no power to influence the people making the laws.

    “Conservatism .. binds some .. protects others ..” as the familiar quote goes.

    When right-wingers are TOTALLY UNAFRAID of how voters will react, that is because they have built into their power a certain amount of  UNACCOUNTABILITY via gerrymandering, voter suppression, or court-rigging.

    This has a 20th-century name — fascism. But it also has a good old-fashioned American 18th- century name, TYRANNY. And we need to reclaim that term from right-wingers who have been throwing it around to mean nonsensical “deprivations” that might be imposed on their need to clank around with AR-15s, graze their beeves for free on government land that the American people own, and act like racist idiots yet not be looked at funny by Negroes (/s) or uppity women with pink hair, etc.

  60. 60.

    Anoniminous

    @Hob: ​
     
    As I recall it started out because it seemed inevitable that WaterGirl (?) would put up a post and Cole would put up a post like ~5 minutes later and it turned into a jest.

  62. 62.

    snoey

    @JoyceH: TPM says that there is an interim appointment provision in Tennessee law that will send Jones and probably Pearson right back to their seats.

  63. 63.

    Matt McIrvin

    @JoyceH: Part of the MO of these kinds of people is that they pass intentionally broad, vague laws that outlaw huge swathes of ordinary behavior, just respond “oh, you know what we really mean” when someone brings up ridiculous consequences, and rely on prosecutorial discretion to make the choices about what to enforce.

    Which then means a bunch of tyrannical assholes get this arbitrary personal control over everyone’s behavior, which is exactly what they wanted. Don’t worry about the letter of the law; you’ll be fine as long as you stay on the right side of us!

    That was how the old laws against “transvestism” were generally used. They were supposedly intended to prevent a specific avenue for people to impersonate someone for criminal purposes, but really they just meant cops could beat up on trans people and drag queens whenever they felt the urge.

  65. 65.

    JoyceH

    @snoey: I knooooow! They didn’t really accomplish anything! It’s like they spent the entire day smearing poop on themselves in front of live cameras, just from sheer rage.

  66. 66.

    Betsy

    @James E Powell: I’m so glad I don’t have a television.  I miss all the dreck and braying and chyrons about everything from Gwyneth Paltrow’s favorite ski wax and its role in her purported negligence, to the endless freakouts over Wall Street, the fed, and unemployment, and I don’t even know that it’s (breaking news!!) about to snow a whole lot in New England in February.

    So peaceful!

  67. 67.

    prostratedragon

    @Cameron: Loose talk we were hearing earlier this week sent me to Bach/St. Matthew beforetimes — not for the “sacredness” so much as for the humanity. Will listen to this later.

  69. 69.

    JoyceH

    @Matt McIrvin: yeah, I suspect that’s the case with this “genital inspection” law. (In…Kansas?) The law itself says it won’t be universal, just something like when challenged or when questions arise. It’s not going to be the captain of the football team or the head cheerleader. It will be the “sissy” boys and the “tomboy” girls. And from my memory of high school, it will be another vehicle for school bullying and about ninety percent of the actual cases will be girls.

  70. 70.

    eclare

    @JoyceH:   They just couldn’t help themselves, it was bizarre.  The R’s here in TN are in such a bubble and unfortunately are pretty much protected, electorally.

  71. 71.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Betsy: I don’t think the tyranny is because they’re unafraid of how voters will react. I think it’s because they see a real threat to their hegemony, for the first time in ages, and are doing everything they can to neutralize it by antidemocratic means.

    Republicans at the federal level were publicly very big on democracy during the Reagan years. I remember it. It was because they knew that when people voted democratically, they usually won. Now, that’s not true. And the old bag of Jim Crow tricks comes out.

  72. 72.

    Betsy

    @snoey: I hope that’s right.  And if so: nicely done, right-wing assholes, great  publicity stunt you wreaked on yourselves and better for us.

  73. 73.

    Betsy

    @Matt McIrvin: True enough.  I guess the common thread in your point and mine is that they seek to insulate themselves (because they are afraid of democracy and its accountability mechanisms) and we have to call that out as tyrannical in nature.

  75. 75.

    JPL

    @J R in WV:  My now ex had stage 3 b or c, I can’t remember, and the survival rate was 50 percent.   He’s now living in WV and by all accounts enjoying his retirement.

    You can do this.    It’s not easy and I’ll be thinking of you.

  76. 76.

    Matt McIrvin

    I thing I always recall with gerrymandering is that it can backfire: the way it usually works is that you’re maximizing your party’s number of seats at the cost of spreading your own voters thinner around your districts, with narrower win margins for your side and bigger win margins for any remaining districts held by the other party; and if the partisan voter situation changes radically, things can flip hard and suddenly.

    When I say that, people usually come back “yeah, but if you look at the partisan lean of these districts it’s usually so hard R that it’s not going to be an issue for them.” But there’s always, always a limit to how far you can push that, and things like the post-Dobbs midterm and special elections suggest that there are places where people who were not usually part of the voter mix have had enough.

  77. 77.

    Baud

    @Matt McIrvin: That’s what happened in Virginia.

    What makes the modern gerrymander so secure is voter polarization makes it hard to have the type of wave you need to overcome it.

  79. 79.

    The Up and Up

    Montana lurching right is sad to see. I donated to Mike Cooney for the governor’s race in 2020. Cooney has family ties to the state but the ever growing MAGA crowd wanted out of stater New Jersey businessman Gianforte. The US Fascist Court threw out Montana’s long standing laws from the days of the Copper Kings against corporate spending and influence, in 2014. Another Citizen’s United. White supremacy reigns around Kalispell, primarily people moving from blue states to create their “Homeland.”

    There are a few pockets of democracy, college towns, larger cities, tribal lands. Zooey Zephyr represents Missoula.

  80. 80.

    Geminid

    @Baud: I thought the two dynamics that helped break Virginia’s Republican gerrymander were 1) demographic change within the districts, and 2) the radiclization of the state’s Republican Party. These contributed to Republican losses in the 2017 and 2019 General Assembly elections, as well as 3 Representatives lost in the 2018 midterms.

    The gerrymandering may have contributed to the radicalization. That seems to me to be the case generally now with the Republican Party. I have not seen the same effect among Democrats though.

  81. 81.

    randy khan

    Conveniently for Thomas, most of the people on the Supreme Court when he joined in 1991 are dead, and the likelihood that either Kennedy or O’Connor would contradict him is basically zero.  (Hard to believe he would have asked Souter, for that matter.)

    And, of course, that LA Times tidbit proves it was a lie.

    Not to mention his other lie about how he and Ginny much prefer the people they meet in Wal-Mart parking lots when they’re RVing.

  82. 82.

    Baud

    @Geminid: I can’t think of any nationally elected Democrat I would call radical (the media might disagree), but I do think gerrymandering has made progressives stronger in the party because it produces so many heavily D+ districts.

  83. 83.

    randy khan

    @Geminid:

    The point about demographic change is really important.  Northern Virginia is growing like crazy, and the definition of “northern Virginia” is expanding all the time.  All the places where the population is spreading are turning more blue by the day, and so previously safe red districts became less so.  And it’s no coincidence that the Dems had their success in the last two elections of the decennial census cycle, when the district lines were pretty old.

    The other thing is that both 2017 and 2019 were enormous – huge, one might say – wave elections in Virginia.  And even with the 2017 wave, the Dems fell just short of control of the House of Delegates.

  84. 84.

    dww44

    @J R in WV: Wish you the best as you travel this path.  I will be pulling for you.  Prayers too even though I’m not normally one of the religious sort.

  87. 87.

    Geminid

    @Baud: Gerrymandering may have added some members to the Progressive Caucus, but when I look at that caucus’s members, most of them are not that different than their New Democrat colleagues. Just comparing Class of 2018 members, how different in practice are Coloradans Joe Neguse and Jason Crow? Texans Veronica Escobar and Colin Allred? Kansan Sharice Davids and Marylander Jaime Raskin.?

    The two wings in the House had a wrenching blowup in 2019, over emergency border funding. They came out of it with stronger mutual acceptance and respect, it seemed to me. Since then they have been relatively unified.

    I thought the years 2016-2020 were a period of ideological polarization within the party, but that seems to have faded. An example of this could be Rep. Elise Slotkin’s bid to succeed Senator Debbie Stabenow as Senator for Michigan. Two or four years ago, more people might have said, “Slotkin’s a moderate and we must do better.” The mood now could be expressed by the commenter here who said, “She’s more conservative than me but I don’t mind.”

    Joe Biden’s election contributed some to this coming, but the elections of Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff made a big difference also. Instead of the two sides bickering over who was responsible for Democratic failure, they got to taste Democratic success achieved through unity. That’s taken some of the wind from the sails of outside critics on the Left as well.

  88. 88.

    Quinerly

    Re the legislator who left the Dem Party to join the Repugs…there has to be a strong backstory that will come out. She comes from a solid Democrat Party background. Her dad is/was a bigwig in party politics, her mother involved in Dem Party at grassroots. I also think I read that her ex-husband was/is a party chairman. Something is up.

    @J R in WV:

    So sorry to hear this. Pulling for you and sending positive thoughts.

  89. 89.

    CaseyL

    @J R in WV: Got my fingers, toes, and eyes crossed for the chemo to be successful, and you to be on the alive-and-klcking side of that 50%!

  90. 90.

    Geminid

     

     

    @randy khan: Nothern Virginia led the way in demographic change, but much of the rest of the state has seen increases in population of the college educated, and of first and second generation immigrants. Both these groups tend to vote Democratic now.

    This is a matter of economic growth. Central and Tidewater Virginia are growing fast. Southside and Southwest Virginia have been stagnant economically, with little demographic change. Their politics have been relatively static if not retrograde.

    Economic dynamism may be shaping North Carolina’s and Georgia’s political situations in a way similar to Virginia’s. We’ll know better after the 2024 cycle.

    And it’s possible that Virginia Democrats will backslide in this fall’s General Assembly elections, although I don’t think they will. These will be worth watching, and may indicate regional and national trends.

  91. 91.

    Geminid

    @randy khan: I give some credit for success in 2017 to Ralph Northam heading up the ticket. He was a good candidate, with a strong record of support for women’s rights and gun safety. He was also a good proponent for Medicaid expansion. Democrats used all three of these issues to good effect that year.

  92. 92.

    Mike in Pasadena

    @JoyceH: Does that mean the Great Orange Yam is barrred from Texass or he can only go to Texass in white face?  Or did they write an exception just for him?

  93. 93.

    JoyceH

    @Mike in Pasadena: ​
     

    “performing publicly in makeup”. They obviously didn’t think this through. Another aspect of modern Republicanism that needs more attention is the sheer incompetence!

  94. 94.

    Dopey-o

    @J R in WV: I’m about to start my own battle with cancer next Monday with an 8-hour infusion of cisplatin, a drug with platinum and chlorine among other sweet chemical ingredients. It is old fashioned chemo introduced in 1978, no modern immunological tricks, just poison that damages cancer cells a little more than non-cancerous cells.

    also bouncing off of Schrodinger’s comment for menu ideas, i have taken a drug Megestrol, which reversed a 30 pound weight loss. Actually makes food taste better, while increasing appetite. I recommend it.

    BTW: fuck cancer! Good luck.

  95. 95.

    StringOnAStick

    @sab: My fun medical WTF story is my doctor is leaving her practice and starting a new one, so I figured I’d just follow her.  Nope, she’s starting one of those fancy subscription (on top of your medical insurance) practices with a monthly membership.  Since I’m about to be 65, my cost, on top of my standard insurance, would be $499/month.  Such a great deal!  Ugh.  But I would get an appointment within 24 hours so totes worth it, right?

  97. 97.

    J R in WV

    Thanks, everyone, for the sympathetic thoughts. As I said, it had been hard even getting to the starting line, as I have neurological issues and failing joints which all need surgical intervention, which isn’t possible for some months at least.

    But the doctors and nurses are compassionate and caring, and capable of doing great work, so I remain cheerful in the face of whatever it is coming up. Will know more in a week, and will keep you online friends posted.

    Oddly, it is hard to ask even dear friends we have known for decades for help with ordinary stuff, surprising me… I guess it is at least partly that I’m independent and haven’t needed that kind of help ever before. Will try to return to the piano in the corner of the living room for distraction.

    Thanks again, everyone!

  99. 99.

    Jackie

    @JoyceH:

    “Texas passes a law outlawing men performing in public wearing makeup.”

    I guess TFG won’t be holding anymore public rallies in Texas!

  100. 100.

    Esme

    @snoey: I believe the way it works is their respective county commissions select someone to fill the seat on an interim basis until the seats are filled through special elections, in which both are expected to run. Lots of Nashville-Davidson commissioners have come out in support of reinstating Jones; haven’t heard yet how things are looking for Pearson in Shelby County (Memphis).

    I’m just so sad about what went down in Nashville yesterday. I’m a Tennessean (though I moved away years ago), and it’s not like I don’t know what the politics are like there or how gerrymandered the legislature is. But watching the floor speeches, and the expulsions, and the children chanting protests outside the chamber — it had me in tears. My home deserves better than this.

  101. 101.

    Gvg

    When I went through Chemo, they gave drugs first that made me sleepy to dull the nausea and pain impact, so generally I slept most of that day and the next. Then I was achy for awhile. Each dose is cumulative so it gets a bit harder as time goes on, allow for that and take your meds on schedule. Since some of it made me sleepy, I found it safest to write down every dose instead of trying to remember and when I was in a lot of pain, I set my alarm/phone to tell me when doses were OK. Keeping ahead of the pain right after a treatment session ,add it easier. My sessions were every three weeks so I was fine most of the time with a few days not so great every 3 weeks. I was able to keep working through it. People helped a lot and I had someone drive me to and from treatment. Lots of people I knew told me their cancer experiences that had never told me they had had it until they heard I did. Kind of funny finding out.

  102. 102.

    J R in WV

    @Gvg:

    Thanks for that information. I feel pretty vulnerable going in not knowing anything about it so far, so you are a big help !!

  105. 105.

    Kayla Rudbek

    @sab: I’m a lapsed Catholic and I wanted cake tonight,  but I didn’t think it was appropriate to bake a cake on Good Friday (even the vegan depression/wacky cake)

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