Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

A consequence of cucumbers

Republicans do not pay their debts.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

“Cheese and Kraken paired together for the appetizer trial.”

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

Bad people in a position to do bad things will do bad things because they are bad people. End of story.

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

It’s not hopeless, and we’re not helpless.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

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

In my day, never was longer.

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

Everybody saw this coming.

No one could have predicted…

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Never give a known liar the benefit of the doubt.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

Jack Smith: “Why did you start campaigning in the middle of my investigation?!”

Never forget that he train is barreling down on Trump, even as he dances on the tracks.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

You are here: Home / Pet Blogging / Dog Blogging / TGIFriday Morning Open Thread: It’s Been A Gniesbert-Intensive Week

TGIFriday Morning Open Thread: It’s Been A Gniesbert-Intensive Week

by | 261 Comments

This post is in: , , , , ,

For the curious, the author says they invented the name Gniesbert, which is an objectively perfect Shiba Inu name. And the ‘gaming pc’ seems to be a pet dryer box, which I hadn’t realized have become so popular.

Gniesbert’s trickster-spirit Wanna hear a funny joke? Cuz I’m telling one, regardless! expression just sums up these past few days. And Murphy only knows what the traditional Friday news dump will bring…

======


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Reader Interactions

261Comments

  7. 7.

    Fester Addams

    So there’s a hurricane named Hilary but it’s west coast, not making tracks for south Florida? I want to speak with the management.

  9. 9.

    zhena gogolia

    This is a funny new meme. But I’m afraid it will get old soon. It’s like that Civil War one a few years back.

  10. 10.

    Betty Cracker

    Saw an article about the TX woman who threatened Judge Chutkan, and apparently she (the racist asshole, not the judge) threatens people all the time! She’s been arrested for it before. Her dad says she’s an unemployed alcoholic who watches Fox News while drinking “too many beers,” becomes enraged and drunk-dials the people Fox News tells her to hate.

    Maybe the jail can put her to work in the laundry. But seriously, so many people seem to think it’s okay to threaten people’s lives as long as you don’t act on it. The drunk racist’s dad even said there was no way his wastrel spawn would or could carry out the threat on the judge’s life. Threatening to kill people is a crime all by itself! How do people not understand that?

  12. 12.

    Baud

    @Betty Cracker:

    an unemployed alcoholic who watches Fox News while drinking “too many beers,” becomes enraged and drunk-dials the people Fox News tells her to hate.

     
    I’ve heard Balloon Juice also has that effect on people.

  13. 13.

    Suzanne

    @Betty Cracker:

    Saw an article about the TX woman who threatened Judge Chutkan, and apparently she (the racist asshole, not the judge) threatens people all the time! She’s been arrested for it before. Her dad says she’s an unemployed alcoholic who watches Fox News while drinking “too many beers,” becomes enraged and drunk-dials the people Fox News tells her to hate. 

    I’m shocked to hear this news!

    The Republicans really are not bringing their best people.

  14. 14.

    Brit in Chicago

    @Suzanne: “The Republicans really are not bringing their best people.”

    Or maybe they are, and this is what they’ve got?

  16. 16.

    Jeffro

    “Gneisbert” is the new “nimrod” as far as I’m concerned.

    “Nice going, ya Gneisbert!”

    “I’m such a Gneisbert!”

    LOL

    Happy Friday, peeps!  I’m off to move Fro Jr into his freshman dorm  0_0

  19. 19.

    Ken

    @Baud: Not exactly. Around here we’re generally quite sober when we talk about who we want dead, and in what karmically-appropriate manner.

    (Speaking as one of the offenders.)

  22. 22.

    Central Planning

    @Jeffro: Good luck! I moved my youngest into his dorm on Tuesday. Did a little shopping for supplies on Wednesday with him. I helped carry things back to his room. I put them down and almost immediately he said “Ok, bye!” Lol, I took the hint, gave him a big hug and left.

  23. 23.

    Anne Laurie

    @rikyrah:  Rikyrah, I sent you a BlueSky invite code via the email you use for your comments here. Can you let me know if you got it, or if you don’t need it?

    If there’s a better addy to reach you, email me and I’ll re-send it!

  25. 25.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    The New College story just gets more and more stunning. There’s a piece at LGM with some more details. Rufo says they’re hiring to replace faculty and applicants should send their CVs direct to his email. So apparently, he’ll be hiring the new neurobiology prof (among others).

    Also, I have some bluesky invitations.

  29. 29.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    I never realized how much I depend on capital letters to signal sentences boundaries and proper names. Trump’s all cap postings are impossible for me to read, and this one takes real concentration.

    Rather than releasing the Report on the Rigged & Stolen Georgia 2020 Presidential Election on Monday, my lawyers would prefer putting this, I believe, Irrefutable & Overwhelming evidence of Election Fraud & Irregularities in formal Legal Filings as we fight to dismiss this disgraceful Indictment by a publicity & campaign finance seeking D.A., who sadly presides over a record breaking Murder & Violent Crime area, Atlanta,

  32. 32.

    TS

    @Betty Cracker:

    Her dad says she’s an unemployed alcoholic who watches Fox News while drinking “too many beers

    Too many think being drunk is a “get out of jail” card. My mom’s advice  “Never marry a mean drunk – people show their true character when they are drunk”

    The lady seems to be of that strain.

  33. 33.

    Kay

    COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, the most prominent Republican in the race to unseat Democratic U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown next year, has fired one of his top aides after social media posts surfaced in which the staffer criticized Donald Trump.
    LaRose’s office confirmed press secretary Rob Nichols’s departure on Wednesday. A longtime Republican operative in the state, Nichols held a similar position with then-Republican Gov. John Kasich before he ran for president and became a vocal Trump detractor.
    The abrupt dismissal followed Trump political allies on X, formerly Twitter, discovering and posting a cache of old tweets from Nichols’ personal account that took aim at the former president, including for his impeachments, indictments and appearance.

    LaRose is the sitting Sec of State in charge of elections. While serving in that office he spearheaded the campaign to eradicate ballot referendums in Ohio. His attempt got smacked down hard by voters – ahumiliating defeat- but he’s still out there pathetically begging for the Trump endorsement.
    LaRose is genuinely stupid – a dumb person. I hope he is Sherrod’s opponent. He’s the definition of a Trump low quality hire. Sherrod Brown was also at one time the Ohio Secretary of State, except not stupid and not corrupt.

  36. 36.

    CaseyL

    @rikyrah: ​
     

    Wow. I mean, I don’t do any of that to myself.

    Very nice touch that she moisturizes the doggo’s nose leather, though I’m not sure how much the dog enjoys having something with a scent rubbed into his/her nose.

  39. 39.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    Republicans in Ohio know exactly who is a “traditional” Republican and who is a Trumpist. LaRose knew Nichols was anti Trump when he hired him, but Nichols is a good hire so he took him anyway.

    So he’s lying when he says he didn’t know.

    It’s fun to watch. He’s approaching “flailing” and he’s only been running 5 minutes. My only concern is Trump may not endorse him because Trump would be aware of the humiliating Issue 1 defeat and wouldn’t want to endorse a loser.

  40. 40.

    lowtechcyclist

    Today’s the last day of our vacation here on Anna Maria Island.  My wife and I were in the water just now, and we had a *very* close encounter with a manatee. It briefly stuck its face above the water a feet in front of me, then went back under.

    I was just starting to point him out to my wife when the manatee bumped up against her legs, scaring the bejesus out of her. Then it disappeared. But neither of us had ever been that close to a manatee in the wild before, even though we’ve been coming down here for years.

    I was going to name it Odie Hugh, but my non-BJer wife wouldn’t have gotten the reference. 😁

  41. 41.

    narya

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: The copyeditor in me breaks out in hives at his posts when I see them. His rantings remind me of letters made out of cut-out newspaper words. And, frankly, while they’ve always been a bit unhinged, I think they’ve gotten worse lately–worse in the sense of “that person’s brain isn’t working right.”

  42. 42.

    hueyplong

    Trump’s all-caps thing is idiotic but it’s not unique.  It’s just childish internet screaming.  But what’s up with the initial caps? Who does that (outside of German language writers)?  Is that a right wing internet thing of which I’m as happily ignorant as I used to be of seemingly random 14s and 88s?

    Trump comes across as semi-(at best) literate, and it’s kind of messed up that that is considered a cool feature by the mouth breathing cultists “drunk-dialing” specific death threats to public servants.

  44. 44.

    Scout211

    Seems like a trend . .

    Trump is flailing desperately. Promising events and proof of innocence then scurrying away without delivering anything. Having lawyers make ludicrous and insupportable demands to courts. Inciting more violence. Peddling more lies. He's a cornered rat.— David Rothkopf (@djrothkopf) August 18, 2023

    Trump called off his presser to present his "irrefutable" proof of election fraud: shocker? NOT. The only shock is he listened to his lawyers this time-Import is that the criminal cases are in fact scaring him.— Andrew Weissmann (weissmann11 on Threads)🌻 (@AWeissmann_) August 18, 2023

  45. 45.

    BR

    From Scott Lucas on Mastodon:

    Fuel oil terminal in #Russia’s Novorossiysk, one of the largest ports on #BlackSea, is on fire

    Cause has not been established

    Novorossiysk is about 172 km from #Crimea — On Aug 3, a Ukrainian drone strike badly damaged a Russian military landing ship in the port

    https://journa.host/@ScottLucas/110910509000040391

  46. 46.

    Kay

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    The misogynist policy aims won’t get any attention but it’s sure interesting that Rufo and DeSantis admitted 70 baseball players with lower scores and grades in order to deny women some slots.

    The misogyny among the anti wokes doesn’t get enough attention. “Coincidentally” all of the belligerant anti woke policy harms women. Sure they’re racists – absolutely- but let’s not forget they also went to set women back 100 years.

  47. 47.

    Soprano2

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: You should see the daily logs of some of our cleaning crews. One guy writes books in the comments; I have to edit what he writes because it has lots of run-on sentences. Other guys don’t seem to understand that names need to be capitalized. Sigh…..

  48. 48.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @hueyplong: I’ve always felt conflicted about Trump’s reading and writing difficulties. I assume he’s dyslexic and from an era when he was shamed for it, which I don’t want to do. But he’s such an ass.

    It’s a lost opportunity, really. Joe Biden acknowledges his stuttering and models sympathy and understanding for fellow stutterers. Trump could do the same for dyslexia.

  49. 49.

    Another Scott

    @lowtechcyclist: [ snort! ]

    We were close to a couple of sea turtles in Hawaii once (in a swimming area behind a sea wall) – one maybe 3 feet long, and a smaller one.  Being close to big wildlife is thrilling!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  50. 50.

    Ken

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: @hueyplong: Maybe he thinks that makes it look more official?  All the old stuff has seemingly-random capitalization (“among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness”).

    The word “seemingly” is very important there, though; there were conventions for it. Trump’s is just random.

  51. 51.

    Kay

    @hueyplong:

    I think he does it because he thinks it’s Olde English – like the founders! – and gives his stupid rants more import:

    Anyone who reads the Declaration of Independence will notice that some words are capitalized when you wouldn’t expect them to be. Sure, there are some comparisons with modern English, like capitalizing “Government” when referring to a specific government. But others, like in “Safety and Happiness,” are less familiar. However, this capitalization was a common way to emphasize particular words at the time, so it only seems odd to modern eyes.

  54. 54.

    hueyplong

    @Kay: They’re looking to set POCs back 60 or 160 years, depending on their view of their success in nixing Reconstruction and implementing de jure Jim Crow.

    Saying the misogynistic parts so plainly and out loud is kind of new.  Before it was simply ingrained.  Smacks of a sense they’re making a Last Stand.

  55. 55.

    SFAW

    @lowtechcyclist: ​ Thank FSM the manatee was scared away. I can’t tell you how many people have died in a manatee feeding frenzy — do you know how big manatee fangs are? And manatee venom is something I don’t want to encounter.​

  56. 56.

    Another Scott

    @Jeffro: Careful of the ie/ei thing.  One means sneezes; the other probably means something awful on UrbanDictionary.

    ;-)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  57. 57.

    Frankensteinbeck

    There is nothing particularly special about Trump’s excess use of capitalization.  A temptation to capitalize any word you want to emphasize is special and refers to some specific, important thing is common.  It’s turning a common noun into a proper noun.  Trump, being a histrionic dumbass, overuses the technique to such a degree that it’s almost unrecognizable.  That’s all.

  59. 59.

    Lacuna Synecdoche

    Fox News Chyron via Anne Laurie @ Top:

    WE CANNOT CRIMINALIZE NOVEL LEGAL APPROACHES

    Lying isn’t a novel legal approach. It’s as old as sin.

  60. 60.

    Betty Cracker

    @lowtechcyclist: Awww, so glad y’all got to have a close encounter with a manatee! In my family, we grew up swimming with dozens of them every winter in a clear river spring, so I didn’t realize how magical an experience that is until I got to introduce friends to them later. My husband flipped out the first time he encountered a manatee close-up — they are HUGE. I still tease him about it!

  61. 61.

    Scout211

    K-File  has an interesting story up this morning: Chesebro caught on camera on J6 as more than a just a legal advisor.

    CNN — 
    When conspiracy theorist Alex Jones marched his way to the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, riling up his legion of supporters, an unassuming middle-aged man in a red “Trump 2020” hat conspicuously tagged along.

    Videos and photographs reviewed by CNN show the man dutifully recording Jones with his phone as the bombastic media personality ascended to the restricted area of the Capitol grounds where mobs of then-President Donald Trump’s supporters eventually broke in.

    While the man’s actions outside the Capitol that day have drawn little scrutiny, his alleged connections to a plot to overthrow the 2020 election have recently come into sharp focus: He is attorney Kenneth Chesebro, the alleged architect of the scheme to subvert the 2020 Electoral College process by using fake GOP electors in multiple states.

    When asked by the House select committee where he was the first week of January 2021 and on January 6, Chesebro invoked his Fifth Amendment rights. But a CNN investigation has placed him outside of the Capitol at the same time as his alleged plot to keep Trump in office unraveled inside it.

  62. 62.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: IIRC, they hired some idiot from a local fundamentalist Christian charter school grift-o-rama to be the baseball coach, so I’m sure that will work out fine. They’re probably paying him $400K a year. That seems to be the going rate for hypocritical frauds in the DeSantis administration.

  63. 63.

    Yarrow

    @hueyplong:

    But what’s up with the initial caps? Who does that (outside of German language writers)?

    I see it more often in the UK than in the US. I don’t think TFG does it to look more British, though.

  64. 64.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Kay: I’ve had the impression reading some older stuff, (maybe Ben Franklin?) that they were following the German convention of capitalizing all nouns. At any rate that is the German convention so it wouldn’t be too surprising if we had it in common at some point.

  65. 65.

    Yarrow

    For schrodinger’s cat, found on Threads:

    jimacosta

    During my interview with Ramaswamy, he reiterated his position that he would allow Putin to keep parts of Ukraine, block Ukraine from joining NATO and even visit Putin in Moscow. The GOP contender added: “Our goal should not be for Putin to lose.”

    Link.
    “Our goal should not be for Putin to lose.” Okay, then. Every Republican candidate seems to be a Putin appeaser. Kind of amazing if you’re old enough to remember when the Soviet Union was our enemy.

  66. 66.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    On the capitalization thing, it took me a while when learning Spanish to get used to the fact that they capitalize almost NOTHING. Days of the week, names of languages, nothing. In fact I think people’s names might be it.

  68. 68.

    Suzanne

    @TS:

    Too many think being drunk is a “get out of jail” card. My mom’s advice  “Never marry a mean drunk – people show their true character when they are drunk” 

    It’s a variant of the staggering entitlement that leads people to say racist, sexist, homophobic things…. and then be shocked when no one wants to be their friend or employ them any longer.

  70. 70.

    RandomMonster

    @Yarrow: “Our goal should not be for Putin to lose.” Okay, then. Every Republican candidate seems to be a Putin appeaser.

    The GOP’s most important donor has made it a plank of the Republican party.

  71. 71.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    they hired some idiot from a local fundamentalist Christian charter school grift-o-rama to be the baseball coach,

    Charter schools and grift – like peanut butter and jelly. Ohio and Florida have exactly the same problem with unregulated charter schools because they were set up by the same people.
    When one of our crap low quality charter operators got caught robbing 60 million dollars from the public, he moved his operation to Florida. Then he DIED, which is the only thing that stopped the ongoing theft.

  72. 72.

    Nelle

    @Yarrow: I mentioned before that I had a ten minute “conversation” with Ramaswany in the Iowa Capitol bldg right after  he had been schmoozing with Gov Reynolds.  I was trying to take a measure of the man..he’s so in love with his own certainties and his fabulous smile that I had to check if he actually has ears.  I told my friend, an immigrant from India herself, that I suspect he believes he is white.  He’ll be in for a rude awakening, as Tim Scott, at some point, will be.  Hang around with white supremacists….

    One of Ramaswany’s assistants, though, knew how to communicate, how to listen.  We traded some book reccomendations; I hope she gets away from him soon and far.

  73. 73.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Betty Cracker:

    Yeah, they’re big alright! From my brief glimpse, I’d guess this fellow was 5-6 feet long, but probably weighed well over 300 pounds. They’re solidly built!

    Tomorrow, alas, it’s back to Maryland for my last few months in the working world. Right now, I’m sitting on the deck, just a few feet from the water, looking out over the bay at the Skyway bridge, and wishing I could stay another week or two.

  75. 75.

    sab

    @Kay: What LaRose doesn’t realize is that we all remember that he started out quite publicly anti-Trump back when JD Vance was also. Nobody paid attention to what JD Vance said back then, but LaRose was already Sec of State.

  76. 76.

    Percysowner

     

    The shit has hit the proverbial fan in my life today. My 5 and a half year old grandchild (E) was AFAB and for the last 2 years has said they were both a boy and a girl. Finally a few weeks ago, he said he’s really all boy. I watch him and his brother, age 1, 4 days a week, with my son-in-law’s Mom (Grammie) watching them on Thursday. Yesterday, my grandson came out fully to Grammie. Grammie is very, very Catholic and has been pushing back on the “both” idea since E announced it. Grammie did not take being a boy all the time well. My SIL is furious and Grammie will NOT be allowed to watch the kids until she and Poppie respect E’s pronouns, at the very least.

    Frankly, I was pretty sure E was all boy even before he made the announcement that he was both. You can only play so many games where E is “the brother” or “the Father” or “the son” without noticing a pattern and that pattern is NOT girl. I’m fine with this and simply have to retrain my brain into saying he, especially since I was working on them.

    The thing is I’m going to lose my one day a week that was mine and I’m panicking a bit. I’m 70 SEVENTY and I’ll have 2 kids under the age of 5 to take care of. When I was 35 I decided I could handle 1 kid and stopped there. Now I’m SEVENTY. I know this shouldn’t be the biggest thing, and I know I’ll handle it. E starts kindergarten in about a week. But still I’ll be chasing after a 1 year old who is very, very active. This is obviously not the most important part. The most important part is making sure my kids and my grandsons are okay and happy and accepted and feel loved. But damn, I’m going to miss my one day a week.

  78. 78.

    Nelle

    @RandomMonster: Wasn’t there some weird plank in the GOP platform in 2016 regarding Russia or Ukraine?  Or has a week of vacationing with my son’s family (three little kids) made me lose all functioning brain cells?

  82. 82.

    p.a.

    lucidite.wordpress dot com

    “As you may know, people didn’t always use upper and lower case letters—also known as majuscule and minuscule. In Rome, manuscripts from the 7th and 8th centuries were written entirely in majuscule. Around the same time in Ireland, monks began doing something ground-breaking in their manuscripts. Important passages were marked with a large and elaborate first letter. But all the other letters were minuscule—and most of them were strung together with little or no spacing between words.

    In 781, the Carolingian emperor, Charlemagne, brought the English scholar, Alcuin of York, to his court in Aachen. Now, Charlemagne had his faults (a love of warfare and a hatred of pagans—especially the tree-worshippers, for some reason), but he supported education and wished all his subjects could learn to read and write. Alcuin was appointed director of the palace school, and he quickly got to work. In 783, the very first manuscript to use what is now known as Carolingian minuscule was completed. It is called The Godescalc Evangelistary and it’s a beautiful work of art (written in silver and gold ink on purple parchment). But it was also the first step toward making reading accessible to everyone.

    Carolingian manuscripts are some of the clearest and most legible hand-written documents from history. Why? Because they use majuscule and minuscule, they put spaces between words, and they even use punctuation.

    Although the Carolingian script fell out of use over the next several centuries, it was rediscovered in the early 1400s by Poggio Bracciolini, a secretary of the papal court, who added capital letters with straight edges to the curvy Carolingian minuscule. His friend, Niccolò Niccoli, also liked the Carolingian script, but adapted it by sloping the letters slightly and allowing some of them to touch, which made writing more comfortable (and inspired what would become cursive writing).”

  86. 86.

    geg6

    @Jeffro: ​
     
    Tell Fro Jr. to have fun! And study. And have fun!
    Been dealing with parents like you all week. Be nice to the money (billing and financial aid) people. It’s a rough time of year for us. Lots of yelling, family arguments and trauma. I’ve seen it all this week and it’s not quite over yet.

  89. 89.

    Kay

    @sab:

    I don’t know how people can stand Vance. He’s such a bitter scold. I knew he would be a sanctimonious douchebag but I thought once he had the job he would actually do SOME productive work of some kind.

    Nope. All he does is lecture us on how everyone is doing everything wrong. Their politicians are low quality hires but they’re also fucking miserable human beings. Never any humor or joy. Just a wagging finger. It’s as if it’s a sacrifice for them to take a public position. They’re probably all like Clarence Thomas – deluding themselves they “would have” made millions in the private sector.

    JD Vance isn’t doing me any favors. If he hates government he should get out of it. I don’t want to pay another Rightwing deadbeat who does no work.

  90. 90.

    Barbara

    @Percysowner: Oh, I can’t imagine running after toddlers at this point in my life. It’s so good of you to do this, although it obviously comes with big rewards. Still, let your son and DIL know that you might need a break and perhaps there might be some kind of compromise you can work out.

  91. 91.

    Steeplejack

    @Betty Cracker:

    The drunk racist’s dad even said there was no way his wastrel spawn would or could carry out the threat on the judge’s life.

    It kills me that they always offer these “explanations” like of course everyone should automatically know this.

  92. 92.

    Nelle

    @Percysowner: You have my sympathy.  We want to support our families, and yet…

    I’m 72 and have been watching grandkids since 2019, but just two days a week.  The 6 year old is off to first grade, the 4 year old to preschool, so after all three for two days a week this summer, we will go to two days a week with the one year old.

    He’s the busiest little boy I’ve seen, though.  I went back to the gym in May, to make sure I was fit enough to lift him (EGym says my bio strength age is now 46!  ), but he is fast now.  I don’t know that we (husband is near to 80) can get faster.

  93. 93.

    Betty Cracker

    @lowtechcyclist: Anna Maria is a nice beach. I’m not really a beach person since I could get a sunburn in a bank vault while wearing a lead-lined burka. But Anna Maria has a nice laid back vibe.

  94. 94.

    dirge

    @Nelle: Wasn’t there some weird plank in the GOP platform in 2016 regarding Russia or Ukraine?

    Indeed there was.

    The Trump campaign insisted on one and only one change to the 2016 platform:  removing support for lethal aid to Ukraine.

    Then nobody would admit to being behind that change.  Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think we ever found out for sure.  There was speculation about Manafort, obviously.

  96. 96.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Ben Cisco:

    @Baud: LOL!  I hadn’t seen one of Gertz tweets in a while, and it was nice to remember all the people who mistake Gertz for that toe-headed, alleged pedo from Florida.

  97. 97.

    Paul in KY

    @Kay: Sounds positively ‘Randian’ in his outlook. We have the real thing. A complete waste of humanity.

  98. 98.

    Spanky

    @Jeffro: I’ll never forget how I felt as I watched my parents drive away after getting me unpacked in my freshman dorm.

    “YESSSSSSSSS!”

  100. 100.

    Roger Moore

    @Kay:

    I don’t know how people can stand Vance. He’s such a bitter scold.

    I wonder if this is their religious upbringing.  They’re so used to authority figures being bitter, hypocritical scolds that they can’t imagine someone positive or happy being successful as a leader.

  102. 102.

    a thousand flouncing lurkers (was fidelio)

    @Kay: Alice Rolli, the Republican candidate in the Nashville mayoral* runoff, just had to fire because he is a little *too* closely connected to the Proud Boys. She says she guesses she should have maybe checked his references—this detail was uncovered with a simple google search by someone with an enquiring mind.

    *Technically, the mayoral race is technically nonpartisan. Technically.

  103. 103.

    sab

    @Kay: I am hopeful. Vance had an R after his name.

    Portman was a horrible Republican in private but a very innocuous senator in public. He only spoke out on issues like money for our national park.

    DeWine was an outspokenly obnoxious senator and only got re-elected once and that was on Bush’s coattails. Then Sherrod Brown beat him. He had really toned down his rhetoric when he ran for governor.

    I don’t think Vance has any chops other than being outspokenly obnoxious.

  106. 106.

    Geminid

    @sab: Do you see much from the campaigns of Bernie Moreno or Matt Dolan? It sounds like those two are LaRose’s main rivals for the Senate nomination. I think Moreno hopes to win Trump’s endorsement.

  108. 108.

    Rileys Enabler

    Completely off-topic, but the ling hand of COVID finally caught me. I somehow managed to skate through the entire pandemic without a positive test or symptoms. Until yesterday, and the freight train hit. Started Paxlovid, and feel a little better minus the bitter taste (any suggestions for mitigation?).

    *fully vaccinated, booster last fall. I’m in Texas, which is apparently having an early spike.

    anyway, UGH. Be careful out there.

  109. 109.

    Redshift

    @Betty Cracker:

    Threatening to kill people is a crime all by itself! How do people not understand that?

    Takes me back to years ago when I was on a (local) grand jury, and was a bit surprised to learn that threatening to kill someone was a misdemeanor, but threatening to burn their house down was a felony.

  110. 110.

    Subsole

     

     

    @hueyplong: I thiiiink what’s going on there is that you are supposed to capitalize formal things. Proper names, that sort of deal.

    To dipstick, the ‘rigged election’ was a massive era-shattering event. Ergo, it is a formal thing and must be capitalized, like World War II.

    Basically, numbnuts – excuse me –  Numbnuts thinks every MKUltra trigger code he hears on Fox is a formal thing that must be capitalized.

  115. 115.

    Eunicecycle

    @Dangerman: it’s like those who say, “Well the conspiracy didn’t work so everything’s good, right?” Yeah if you try to rob a bank but don’t succeed the FBI is okay with that, too.

  117. 117.

    Betty

    Here are two surefire ways to get comments to a Twitter/X post: disparage the sale of AR-15s and say we need to give Ukraine better weapons. Not 100% negative on the Ukraine post.

  119. 119.

    BellyCat

    @Percysowner: Lots of wow to unpack in your comment.  If it’s any consolation, the loss of your one free day may be what saves your AFAB grandchild from a life of pain inflicted by his rigid, unaccepting Catholic grandmother.  My heart goes out to you while fighting the good fight with two kiddos 5 and under. Zone defense and MOAR COFFEE?!?!

  122. 122.

    hueyplong

    Maybe Trump can assert the Texas Phone Terrorist Defense to the Georgia charges.

    “Reached in hell, Trump’s dad says he’s an unemployed alcoholic who watches FoxNews while snorting “too many crushed Adderall,” becomes enraged and drunk-dials the people FoxNews tells him to hate.”

    Like Raffensperger.

    Has just as good a shot as the Great Reveal will have.

  123. 123.

    Geminid

    @Betty: Mollie Conger, aka socialist dogmom, thinks the AR-15 got its name because every time she mentions one “there ARe 15 guys jumping into my timeline to explain them to me.”

  124. 124.

    catclub

    @Baud: ​
    &nbsp

    ;I’ve heard Balloon Juice also has that effect on people.

    Well, it would if they would supply phone numbers to call… but no. Do they expect us to look up that kind of thing ourselves?

  126. 126.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Rileys Enabler: Ugh.  I’ve been super-tired the last few days and this morning noticed my coffee tastes really bitter (almost like there was still soap in my coffee mug).  I guess I should try and get tested today :(

  127. 127.

    UncleEbeneezer

    Why I Doubt Trump’s ‘Sincere Belief’ Defense Will Fly Before a Jury:

    My point is that, given the accusations of the indictment, these nuanced legal arguments will likely be unnecessary. If the government can prove just a fraction of the factual allegations that the indictment charges, jurors should have no trouble concluding that Trump knew he had lost the election and was acting in bad faith.

    While Trump’s refusal to face facts may be unusual for an ex-president, it’s notunusual for a white-collar criminal defendant. Many such defendants are vexingly willful people who seem incapable of seeing themselves in the wrong. Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of Theranos, is a dramatic recent example, while Jeffrey Skilling, CEO of Enron, was another example from an earlier era. I suspect most white-collar criminal defense attorneys have encountered plenty of such clients who never ascended to public prominence. I know I did in my brief stint as an associate at a white-collar firm in the mid-1980s.

    Juries have no trouble convicting such people. When confronted with individuals who relentlessly and pervasively make false statements, jurors usually conclude that they are liars. Jurors get lying. They’ve met liars in their lives. They’ve been burned by them. They don’t like them.

    In this article I will outline the shock-and-awe panorama of lies and bad faith and malevolence that are sketched out in Special Counsel Jack Smith’s latest indictment. While the crux of its allegations have been widely reported, the challenge for journalists is that no 800-word newspaper article or 30-second television segment, no matter how skillful and conscientious, can do justice to the snowballing, cumulative impact that this cavalcade of mendacity and calumny is likely to have on jurors. Unlike citizens who casually learn about the case through glimpsed headlines or muffled sound bites drifting down from TV screens at bars or gyms, jurors will be immersed in the evidence for weeks on end. There will be no tl;dr for them. Whether spelled with a lowercase c or an uppercase C, the indictment describes fundamentally unchristian conduct and jurors will see it as such. Properly vetted jurors will not abide it. Glib catch-phrase defenses won’t save Trump; they will bury him.

    …

  128. 128.

    trollhattan

    Has anybody noted “scheiss Hund” means shithound? Okay then, that’s handled.

    It does look like an empty gaming PC case and scheiss Hund seems happy enough.

  130. 130.

    Geminid

    @Eolirin: Freshman Rep. Max Miller represents a district near Cleveland that has a fair amount of Ukrainian Americans and even more Polish Americans. The Poles and most other Eastern Europeans are on Ukraine’s side in this war. So when House Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Michael McCaul visited Kyiv last February, right after President Biden visited, Miller was one of 4 Republicans who went along.

    I wonder if the war will be a consequential issue in next year’s Ohio Senate primary. Republicans seem pretty polarized over it.

  132. 132.

    trollhattan

    @Rileys Enabler: Sorry! BTDT at the beginning of August, did the drug, tested clear after about a week, still have sinus and upper chest issues. All the shots they have to offer, who can guess how sick I’d have been otherwise. No idea which variant because I did not receive that kind of test.

    Get well quickly, it can be a real beyotch!

  133. 133.

    Betty Cracker

    @UncleEbeneezer: I hope he’s right.

    I’m not a lawyer, but my impression from a few weeks of listening to lawyers yammer about the case is that even if Trump claims he “sincerely believed” the election was stolen, that’s not enough — a “reasonable” person operating with the same information he had would have to find the stolen election theory plausible. And since multiple Trump-appointed experts debunked the theories to his face, that’s unlikely? Not sure this is correct, but that’s what I thought I heard.

  134. 134.

    narya

    @MomSense: Unless you find the barrel-aged stuff. That can easily run 12% ABV or more.

    Since everyone is dropping off their kids . . . I am currently arranging a trip east this fall, during which I will get to spend time with two friends I met my first day of college, in February 1977!

    @Percysowner: Good luck to you–and here’s hoping that Grammy finds her way to acceptance and understanding. I’m glad you can be there for E; his life will be materially better with your support.

  135. 135.

    trollhattan

    @UncleEbeneezer: Do you have any Biden tests left? Even if they’re expired my observation is they’re still able to pick up a positive result, perhaps not a borderline one with low antibody level.

  136. 136.

    MomSense

    @Percysowner:

    That’s  a tough situation.  On the one hand it’s soooo good for your grandson that he has your support and love.  He has a challenging path ahead of him and family support is so important. On the other hand you want to be his support as long as possible so you have to take care of your well-being too. Maybe you could set a timeline of two months to find another person to help with child care so you get your day or even half a day off.

  137. 137.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Betty Cracker: My understanding is that only one of the charges in the federal case (defrauding the United States) even partially, potentially has any relation to whether Trump believes he won the 2020 election. For the rest, it doesn’t matter at all–intent has to do with intent to do the thing that broke the law, regardless of whether Trump thought he had some moral right to do it.

    And I suspect this is even more true of the Georgia charges.

  138. 138.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Betty Cracker: Legally speaking, yes, I think that is right.  “But I believed otherwise” is not a valid defense.  And the Prosecutors will remind the jury of that over and over.  But as the article notes, even if it was a valid defense, Trump has lied at EVERY opportunity so why would the jury even believe this claim?  I was on a jury last year and it was a civil trial.  But when it became clear that one of the parties lied just ONE TIME in a sworn deposition contrary to the story he was telling us now, that was enough to make us find in the other party’s favor.  Juries are pretty good at common sense stuff like this and often lean much more heavily on them then on the complicated legal details.

  140. 140.

    BeautifulPlumage

    Good morning! I’m hoping I finally have everything I need to transfer my sister’s mobile home to my name when I go to the county offices today. Then it’s just her taxes to file and I can disburse the last of her estate.

    Now all I need to do is find a job and get back to work. So glad I took these past months off to enjoy the summer and de-stress.

  141. 141.

    Kayla Rudbek

    @Percysowner: my lapsed-Catholic take is that we live in a fallen world where anything that can go wrong will go wrong, including someone who was supposed to be born as a particular gender looking like the opposite gender at birth. Identity resides in the mind, not the plumbing. Also point her to the legend of St. Wilgefortis, who according to the story was a girl who grew a beard when threatened with marriage to a non-Christian: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilgefortis

  145. 145.

    Betty Cracker

    @trollhattan: Good to know — I almost threw out our stack of free Biden tests the other day because they’re expired. (We only had to use two of them, both negative.) I’ll allow them to keep taking up space in my pantry…

  146. 146.

    wjca

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    Trump’s all cap postings are impossible for me to read, and this one takes real concentration.

    It’s a core competency of his that you perhaps didn’t notice previously: big time run-on sentences.  To be fair, he talks that way, too.  So his writing really does give you “True Donald Trump”

  149. 149.

    EmbraceYourInnerCrone

    @UncleEbeneezer: It’s definitely a good idea to get tested.  At my office/building there have been a dozen people who have gotten COVID in the last 3 weeks, that I know of.  Additionally my friend and her husband, who does not go out much except to doctor appointments went to a dear friend’s funeral, and brought home COVID.  My cousin and his son both were diagnosed with it this week, they don’t know where they were exposed, they figure one of them brought it home from work(retail).  I live in Connecticut.  All of these people have been vaccinated and most have also been boosted.

  151. 151.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Rileys Enabler: I feel mostly fine.  Just real tired (but not completely exhausted).  But I also haven’t been sleeping well with my wife being away and dealing with her Dad’s death and I’ve also been out on court (tennis lessons) in the heat/humidity.  So it could easily just be a combo those things.

  153. 153.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Rileys Enabler:

    @EmbraceYourInnerCrone:

    We are getting on our first plane since 2019 in a couple of weeks for a long-delayed vacation. Our plan has always been to do at-home tests a couple days before travel, and to stay masked the entire time on the plane when not eating or drinking.

    But I just reviewed the airline’s COVID policy and there isn’t one. No testing requirements, no vaccination requirements, no masking requirements. I find that really bugs me. But what can you do? At least we’re as fully vaxxed and boosted as we can be and I’ve been getting lax myself in places, often forgetting the mask.

  155. 155.

    Ivan X

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: Also, and I do not mean to be one of them about this, getting Covid sucks, but it ain’t what it used to be. I realize one person does not a sample size make, but I finally caught it a month ago, and it was significantly less bad than getting a lingering cold (and they all linger, now). I actually canceled a conference I was going to attend because of it, and there was an outbreak there of 13 known cases (out of probably 100 attendees), but as far as I know, everyone recovered fine, including several seniors.

    It has been hard for me to adjust my mindset out of maximum paranoia but now that my win streak has been broken, I don’t care as much. I’m still wearing masks where it makes sense to, because I don’t want a cold or flu, either. Those suck, too. But I’m not as worried as I used to be, and even if I was, you’re correct that there’s not much you can do except protect yourself as well as you can and with vaccines and (K)N95 masks. (Cloth masks are for protecting other people, but don’t really do enough to protect you.) Society is now out of the “we’re all reducing the spread for each other” phase, and it is what it is, and even I find performing my own assessment about where I find not wearing a mask (e.g. restaurants) to be worth the risk.

    ETA: more words

  156. 156.

    NotMax

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym

    FWIW, on last year’s flight (and plan to do the same this year), masked inside the airport and on the plane until aloft and the ventilation system switched on. Opened my seat’s air nozzle full blast at that point, re-masked when taxiing to the gate

  159. 159.

    Bruce K in ATH-GR

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: Sounds like you’re already planning to do the best you can. Maybe bring some extra test kits with you, depending on availability and luggage space.

    (I just realized, I have no idea how difficult it is to obtain test kits and/or KN95-level masks in the US. I can still get them in batches of ten tests or a hundred masks here in Greece for not all that much money.)

  160. 160.

    UncleEbeneezer

    CNN exclusive reporting about pro-Trump lawyer Kenneth Chesebro and his whereabouts at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. He was the alleged architect behind the plan to submit a fraudulent alternate slate of electors. @ShimonPro has the details.

  161. 161.

    CaseyL

    @Ivan X: ​
    I also got Covid after avoiding it for 3.5 years, and also had the same…well, I was calling it “liberating,” but I think I-don’t-care is closer to the mark. I still mask some of the time, but not consistently: the more I go un-masked, the easier it is to forget to slip the little bugger on again.​

    (Plus, I don’t carry, like, 5-6 masks around with me at all times anymore.)

  163. 163.

    Bill Arnold

    @Soprano2:

    You should see the daily logs of some of our cleaning crews. One guy writes books in the comments; I have to edit what he writes because it has lots of run-on sentences. Other guys don’t seem to understand that names need to be capitalized. Sigh…..

    On the other hand, they are writing – turning their thoughts into text. Same goes for text messages, even with all the texting shortcuts and autocorrect errors. They are writing, and are also reading, in the other direction.
    I.e., those logs are not audio logs, or transcripts machine-generated from audio logs.

  164. 164.

    VOR

    @UncleEbeneezer: They need to screen out the MAGAts because they keep claiming Trump always tells the truth. A colleague made that claim. I pointed out the Washington Post had documented over 30k lies by Trump and the response was to claim Joe Biden or Hillary Clinton once exaggerated something. He also claimed Trump donates money to charity and routinely helps people out anonymously. I fear idealizing Trump is such a part of MAGAt identity that they are impervious to evidence saying otherwise.

  168. 168.

    NotMax

    @VOR

    helps people out anonymously.

    Because he’s so humble and wouldn’t for even an instant entertain self-promotion.
    //

  172. 172.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @VOR:

    They need to screen out the MAGAts because they keep claiming Trump always tells the truth.

    He started his presidency, day one, by lying about the weather at his inauguration and how big the crowds were.  Lying about it to press reporters who had actually been there and seen that it wasn’t true.

  173. 173.

    a thousand flouncing lurkers (was fidelio)

    @Ivan X: Look for Anne Laurie and see who she follows; if you don’t recognize the handle*, check out the bio & posts. Then follow whoever looks interesting, and check out who they follow.
    This is what I do, and it’s rarely failed me.
    Once the site has something to work with, the algorithms will offer suggestions. some may be worth checking out.

    *Maybe check anyway, just in case. 

  175. 175.

    NotMax

    Received a message on the landline answering machine from one of my college’s alumni groups directed to those on Maui. Presumably to confirm okayness. Trouble is the “please call back” number provided is so garbled cannot make it out at all.

    And so it goes.

  176. 176.

    dnfree

    @Central Planning: Somewhere I read that the first child watches their parents cry on the way down the dorm steps after dropping them off, and the last child watches their parents skip cheerfully down the dorm steps.  It was kind of true for us….

  177. 177.

    Ruckus

    @Ben Cisco:

    They may also have a desire to NOT understand it.

    They want a life that recognizes them as something other than useless. They blame a lot of things for their inabilities. Like people with darker skin. Or people that they don’t met in bars or liquor stores. Really anyone who doesn’t look, act, “think” like them. They really are outsiders to humanity, the lookie loos, that left themselves by the side of the road. They have to have someone to blame for their failures.

  179. 179.

    NotMax

    @dnfree

    Parents most certainly did not accompany this guy. In fact if they could am reasonably certain they already would have had my luggage packed and sitting out on the front stoop a month beforehand.
    ;)

  181. 181.

    Baud

    @Ruckus:

    They want a life that recognizes them as something other than useless.

     
    That’s dumb. People leave you alone if they think you’re useless.

  182. 182.

    Geminid

    @cain: Ramaswamy may hope to get financial support from people like David Sacks. A more or less successful tech investor and would-be political influencer, Sacks has decided he’s an expert on this war and says things a lot like what Ramaswamy put out. It’s bullshit of course, but it tracks with what some “realist” scholars say so there is a veneer of respectability to the position

    Ed. And Ramaswamy’s position on Ukraine will likely be shared by a majority of the Republican base by the time the primaries are held, if it isn’t already.

  183. 183.

    Ruckus

    @VOR:

    they are impervious to evidence saying otherwise.

    They get to adore a worse than useless asshole, with an operational IQ barely above his age, who is as angry as they are because their whiteness (and in his case money) was supposed to save them, elevate them to a place of power and admiration. They are special, just ask them. And the world is not rewarding them. They have to take down others because their entire lives have been about being better than someone. And they aren’t. And they never will be because they provide nothing to humanity other than negativity.

  189. 189.

    Paul in KY

    @Rileys Enabler: It got me last week. 1st time having it. Symptoms started on 08/07. Did the Remestivir one (4 pills in morn, 4 pills in evening). Mild case it appears.

  190. 190.

    Roger Moore

    @Betty Cracker:

    I think a bigger thing than some of Trump’s lawyers telling him the stolen election stuff was BS is the resounding rejection by the courts.  A reasonable person might accept the advice he wanted to believe if his lawyers couldn’t agree, but he can’t just ignore that the courts uniformly ruled against him.

  191. 191.

    Geminid

    @NotMax: I think Ramaswamy’s slicker than Yang. He reminds me some of Youngkin in that respect. Youngkin’s a slick motherfu- I mean, politician.

    But like Yang, Ramaswamy decided to start at the top, so to speak. Youngkin chose a slower but more promising path.

  192. 192.

    Ruckus

    @Baud:

    I see you got the point.

    Of course people leave them alone, that is the entire point. They are the reason that the only thing they have in common with anyone else is hate. It’s not a useless emotion but if it’s the only operational one you’ve got, it makes you useless.

    We all have to make our way through life. That’s being alive. We all can hate. But when that is your only operational emotion, it’s the one that you lead, operate, follow through with. The vast majority of humans live mundane lives, born, grow, learn, die. Some do amazing things, most do not. Some do shitty things, most do not. We have guard rails to make it easier for the majority to live, some see those guardrails as stopping them from something. There are 7+ billion humans on this planet, some are great, some are horrible and most fall somewhere in the middle. It’s still a wide range of behavior, hate, and life.

  196. 196.

    MattF

    Haberman sez TFG has decided to skip the first debate, will be interviewed by Tucker what’s-his-name. Article mentions that TC is still under contract with Fox, so, as usual, nothing is certain.

  197. 197.

    cain

    @Redshift: Makes sense – burning someone’s house down is arson and fires could spread from one house to another and so you’d end up doing a lot of property damage and possible lives lost.

  198. 198.

    Soprano2

    @Bill Arnold: Nope, they’re writing them out. I think it’s the lack of capitalization that bugs me the most, because it’s just a basic thing most people do without thinking about it.

  199. 199.

    RaflW

    @Anne Laurie: Saw today that the idiot wastrel who “runs” Xitter is going to get rid of ‘blocks’, except in the direct message mailbox.

    I’ve made a few “I need to quit” threats, but I decided months ago that if it came to this (it’s been rumored before) I really would be gone.

    And I will. Because that site is already so much more crappy and toxic than 18 months ago. Blocking is one of the few ways to keep it from being a middle school cafeteria, but 100x worse.

    (It’s true that I also block a lot of advertisers, but I mostly do that because the ads his crap-site serve up now are so dumb/uselss/mistargeted that I just don’t ever want to see that low-rent junk again)

    eta: I see people talk about bluesky. Is it worth trying to get on there?

  200. 200.

    Scout211

    Since we’re discussing COVID:

    Which arm gets the Covid-19 booster may make a difference, study shows

    When you go to get your newly updated Covid-19 booster this fall, you might want to choose the arm the vaccine goes in carefully.

    The immune response may be stronger if your booster goes in the same arm as your last Covid-19 shot, according to a study published August 11 in the journal eBioMedicine.

    . . .

    The researchers used the data of 303 people who received the mRNA vaccine as well as a booster shot as part of Germany’s vaccine campaign.

    Two weeks after the booster, the number of “killer T cells” was significantly higher in those who had both shots in the same arm, according to the study.

  201. 201.

    Ruckus

    @hueyplong:

    SFB is 77 yrs old and in such great health, eats well, has a fully socialized personality…  OK – other than his age I can’t believe I just typed that. He is a bottom feeder, with an operational IQ possibly just above his age, and a way over extended view of his value and worth to the world. He believes he is always the best person in the room, county – oh hell – the entire world, while the vast majority of the world likely rates him as just above pond scum. I give him the under on that.

  202. 202.

    Geminid

    @RaflW: I just follow other people on Twitter, and occasionally comment. I don’t tweet on my own, so blocking is not an issue for me.

  204. 204.

    satby

    @Baud: I do not load apps on my devices.  Especially now that every dive diner wants you to load their app for “specials”.

    The exceptions are very few and do not include any social media ones.

  205. 205.

    MattF

    @RaflW: Agree. I’m not persuaded that blocking works any more, but I still get some satisfaction from doing it. My ‘blocked’ list has hundreds of entries, but I still think the concept matters, even if the implementation is broken.

  206. 206.

    trollhattan

    @Scout211: Weird. Like, who keeps notes?

    My go-to is my off, left arm but one time I got the flu shot at the same visit as my booster, so have no idea which arm got what jab, given both participated that day.

  208. 208.

    Eolirin

    @cain: You’re only threatening to do it though, in the example. Not actually doing it. I can’t see why that threat should carry a higher criminal penalty than other threats that would also be major felonies if acted on.

    Except to enable domestic abuse and racial intimidation, anyway.

  209. 209.

    cain

    @Geminid:

    Ed. And Ramaswamy’s position on Ukraine will likely be shared by a majority of the Republican base by the time the primaries are held, if it isn’t already.

    As the atrocities pile up – we’ll make sure we hang it around their damn necks.

    Fucking fascist appeasers.

  210. 210.

    satby

    @RaflW: yeah, blocking on Twitter has kept my feed close the the way it was pre-elmo. But as more of the people I followed there end up on Blue Sky, it’s looking like old Twitter. I wish the Ukrainian tweeters would move over there so I could lock my  Twitter and leave.

  213. 213.

    Eolirin

    @cain: Arson, if carried out, would have a lesser penalty than murder if no one died.

    It really doesn’t make a damn bit of sense except to enable people to more casually threaten each other’s lives.

  214. 214.

    RaflW

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: BF & I have been quite Covid-cautious (though I let down my guard this summer, now trying to re-habituate to masking!). We’ve flown many times, starting maybe 1 year into all this mess.

    Diligently KN95’d for the risky parts of all trips except the last maybe 6 flight segments starting this July, when I’ve gone to just masking in crowded gates/jetways/boarding. Never got Covid from travel (only when camping at a group camp with a pretty breezy dining hall and sleeping in individual tents. Huh.)

    Key for me in higher transmission times has been masking from the door of the airport (or bus b4, if that’s involved), through the godawful TSA scrum, gate and onto the plane. I started unmasking after takeoff (with air nozzle on full blowing right at me), last October (10.5 hour longhaul Athens-Newark. I could not fathom being masked that whole time. And I had to eat!). I mask up again on landing, through deplaing, bag claim, and any mass transit.

    Right or wrong, I’ve generally felt that the fresh air intake/pasthru/HEPA on board is decent. Haven’t had a coughing person next to me, that would cause me to keep the mask on.

  216. 216.

    hueyplong

    It’s nearing the time when “fascist appeaser” or “Putin appeaser” becomes inaccurate and the proper terms are, instead, “fascist ally” and “Putin ally” (though “bootlick” also works).

  217. 217.

    Eolirin

    @Roger Moore: That could be, sure. But it’s still a cultural accommodation to the idea that death threats are relatively anodine and it’s fine for them to be at least somewhat commonplace.

    Says a lot about the culture for things to be that way.

  218. 218.

    sab

    My parents made two (me) and three (brother) drive ourselves to college. First-born and four (the baby) got full parental treatment. We didn’t envy them at all.

  220. 220.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @RaflW:

    Saw today that the idiot wastrel who “runs” Xitter is going to get rid of ‘blocks’, except in the direct message mailbox.

    Ouch.  That’s his hatred of minorities, and most likely specifically transwomen, turning into policy again.  A whole lot of minorities, especially queer minorities, rely on blocking because otherwise they get barraged with abusive replies.  Musk’s philosophy and goal from day one was to force liberals to put up with bigoted abuse if they want to operate in the public square.  Yeah, it’s going to drive another chunk of users away, and particularly the highly visible users that other people use the platform to follow.

  221. 221.

    MattF

    @RaflW: Note that getting rid of blocking violates explicit requirements in the TOS of both App Store and Play Store. Users of apps must have the ability to block abusive user-generated content.

  223. 223.

    satby

    @Frankensteinbeck: He’s stated previously that blocking “costs him money” and I have noticed that ads I block show up later anyway. But not being able to block abusive users could be a whole other thing.

  224. 224.

    RaflW

    @satby: I see stuff from time to time about Bluesky invites, but haven’t paid much attention. Is there info on how long the wait is w/o an invite?

    I got set up on mastodon but rarely go. Still at least a 2X daily Xitter user (was hourly or more pre-Elongation).

  225. 225.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @Frankensteinbeck: Also, Twitter (and I assume Truth) and other social media often lack the ability to bold or italicize words, so we see people resorting to workaround to emphasis words or phrases. E.g. this is *important*.

    Trump excessive capitalization seems to be analogous. Not sure why he capitalizes things, but it may be 1) residual German influences, and 2) doesn’t add additional character counts to Truths Lies.

  227. 227.

    MattF

    Jamie Zawinsky (aka jwz) has some thoughts about Mastodon. I’ve noticed that some comments on his blog now come through Mastodon, no idea how that works— maybe Mastodon replies can be rerouted.

  228. 228.

    Ohio Mom

    @trollhattan: Don’t give up hope. When I had Covid last fall, it took a full six weeks after testing negative to feel completely well again.

    The cough lingered, as did the fatigue, until they finally faded away. Very similar to the time I was unvaccinated and got the flu.

  229. 229.

    trollhattan

    @Ohio Mom: Appreciate it! It’s a chameleon, covid is, and the range of responses to infection are as wide as the Mississippi. Helpful to compare notes.

    And, I’m ready for the next booster, folks! Anytime.

  231. 231.

    frosty

    @NotMax: ​My parents didn’t accompany me either. Took me to Friendship Airport (now BWI) and put me on a plane to LAX. I was 17. I can’t believe they did that!!!​

  232. 232.

    Mr. Bemused Senior

    @Ruckus:
    We all have to make our way through life. That’s being alive. We all can hate. But when that is your only operational emotion, … [7+ billion people] …some are great, some are horrible and most fall somewhere in the middle. It’s still a wide range of behavior, hate, and life.

    This! Ruckus, I am always glad to read what you write.

    People sometimes paint with a broad brush. It’s good to remember that each person is an individual, with life experience distinct from everyone else.

  233. 233.

    Roger Moore

    @frosty:

    My parents accompanied me when I went to university, but that was for two reasons:

    1. I was taking an inconvenient amount of stuff, so it was easier to load everything in the family van and drive me there than to send me on a plane and then ship everything.
    2. My grandfather lived not too far away, so they were able to combine dropping me off with a trip to visit him.
  234. 234.

    cain

    @MattF: Not every day you see a jwz post on balloon-juice! :)

    That guy has been around forever. He had some observations about GNOME and KDE that are still famous that at times we still have to fight because it gets quoted by GNOME haters.

  235. 235.

    JWR

    Now he’s capitalizing whole words. (WARNING: TruthSocial link)

    Donald J. Trump
    @realDonaldTrump
    Many people are asking whether or not I will be doing the DEBATES? ALL AMERICANS have been clamoring for a President of extremely High Intelligence. As everyone is aware, my Poll numbers, over a “wonderful” field of Republican candidates, are extraordinary. In fact, I am leading the runner up, whoever that may now be, by more than 50 Points. Reagan didn’t do it, and neither did others. People know my Record, one of the BEST EVER, so why would I Debate? I’M YOUR MAN. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!
    Aug 17, 2023, 5:46 PM

    “clamoring for a President of extremely High Intelligence”? WTF?

  237. 237.

    BC in Illinois

    @dnfree:

    . . . the first child watches their parents cry on the way down the dorm steps after dropping them off, and the last child watches their parents skip cheerfully down the dorm steps . . .

    I don’t know whether that was true for me. I was #2, and my parents were pretty matter-of-fact — and happy — about the whole thing.

    What I do know is that my younger brother was moving into my room before the car was out of sight.

  240. 240.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @JWR:

    Did Reagan even have a primary challenger in ’84?

    “clamoring for a President of extremely High Intelligence”? WTF?

    He knows he’s stupid.  People call him stupid all the time, because he is.  So as a narcissist, he has to constantly assure himself that he’s actually the super smart person and make everyone around him say so, too.  Someone calling him stupid caught his attention before he dictated this, that’s all.

  241. 241.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @trollhattan: Unfortunately, I know of people who took 3-6 months to recover. I’m four months post-Covid and I’m still having problems with fatigue and chest congestion.

    Biggest advice I got from my doctor is to not push things. Unlike virtually any other illness where you want to start rebuilding your stamina, doing post-Covid will actually slow recovery, and worse case tip you into Long Covid.

  242. 242.

    Geminid

    @JWR: That’s the safer move for Trump. He’s definitely lost a step since he debated in 2016. If he debates now, we may find out he’s lost two or three.

  244. 244.

    Anyway

    @JWR:

    Mango Mussolini is great at limiting his “live” exposures to the public. Teevee keeps playing his old footage — wish they would timestamp it so it would register as a year old or whatever. I am looking forward to his  Fulton County courthouse appearance. He won’t be able to wave and duck as he’s been doing and changes in his demeanor since he left office will be apparent.

  245. 245.

    Ken

    @Geminid: If he debates now, we may find out he’s lost two or three.

    We might, but it wouldn’t matter to the Trump cult, who would (and do) simply deny that he was spewing random word salad. He could have a complete mental breakdown on stage and be led off sobbing, and the true believers would be explaining what a masterful performance it was.

  246. 246.

    satby

    @RaflW: every current user gets an invite to share every two weeks (I think). Plus there’s a waiting list too, that you can also sign up for. I know people think it’s a pain, but it’s kept it manageable as more people join. Unless someone else has a spare one, I should have another in about 10 days that I can share. Or someone else might chime in with one.

  247. 247.

    Origuy

    People have been pointing out that removing blocking from Xitter probably violates the App Store guidelines and could result in the app being removed from the store. I’m not sure if this is both Apple and Google; I’m pretty sure Apple is more restrictive.

  248. 248.

    Geminid

    @Ken: It does not matter to me what matters to the Trump cult. Other people will decide the November election.

    As for the Republican primaries, a strong candidate might exploit misteps and mental lapses made by Trump in a debate. That is, if there was a strong candidate which there’s not

    Anyway, I was using “we” in a more general sense than as in “people here.”

  249. 249.

    satby

    @MattF: yeah, he sums up a little  of why I bailed on it.  But there’s no perfect fit for everyone. Old Twitter wasn’t either, but it got the job done for the majority of users.

  254. 254.

    Ruckus

    @Mr. Bemused Senior:

    In some ways we all fit into broad categories but as we drill down deeper and deeper we can fit into smaller categories. But with 7 billion humans that smaller category will still likely be not insignificant. It’s the bit that we can be in separate categories and denounce other categories to seemingly elevate ourselves above others, say money or skin color or religion or birthplace but in reality it is how we treat other humans and how much we don’t elevate ourselves above them that makes us better. Sure some may run faster or be able to do calculus in their heads, or sing, or whatever the hell skill(s) one may posses, that isn’t equality. Equality is recognizing the living, breathing human being for being that. We as the human race seem to have a long ways to go to get there.

  255. 255.

    Jeffro

    @NotMax: FWIW, on last year’s flight (and plan to do the same this year), masked inside the airport and on the plane until aloft and the ventilation system switched on. Opened my seat’s air nozzle full blast at that point, re-masked when taxiing to the gate

    Mind-reader!

    (this is exactly what Team Fro does and will continue to do)

  256. 256.

    lowtechcyclist

    Anna Maria is a nice beach. I’m not really a beach person since I could get a sunburn in a bank vault while wearing a lead-lined burka. But Anna Maria has a nice laid back vibe.

    I’ve never been much of a beach person, because most beaches are like deserts – a quarter mile of sand between the water and the nearest shade.

    But at least on the north end of the island, the east side (facing the mainland) is very different.  There are pine trees with foot and a half thick trunks right next to the water, and the houses are almost as close – this house we’ve rented for all these years is less than 30 feet from the seawall which is the high-tide mark.  So there’s shade right up to the water, and if you’re outside and realize you forgot something, the kitchen is just a few steps away.

    The only bad thing is that the island has been Discovered, with a capital D.  It’s less than an hour from Tampa airport, and it’s a great place, so in retrospect I’m amazed that it took this long.  But the weekly rent on this place has gone from ~2K to ~5K just since 2019, and houses here now go for the mid 7 figures, which of course is why the rents are going sky-high.  I think we’ll be back here, but not every year like we were before Covid.

    Besides, I’ve been wanting to go back to Montana for roughly an eon now.  And after that, there are places neither of us has been to that we want to see.  And with retirement imminent, we’ll have the time to do that, especially a couple years from now when the kid’s in college.

  257. 257.

    Jeffro

    @Central Planning: Good luck! I moved my youngest into his dorm on Tuesday. Did a little shopping for supplies on Wednesday with him. I helped carry things back to his room. I put them down and almost immediately he said “Ok, bye!” Lol, I took the hint, gave him a big hug and left.

    Sorry for the late response here, it’s been a busy day!

    We dropped Fro Jr off after big hugs and well, that was about it.  I’ll follow up with him on Sunday to see what needs to come back and what we forgot.

    (We live 5 miles down the road, so it’s not that big a deal =)

  258. 258.

    Jeffro

    @Geminid: As for the Republican primaries, a strong candidate might exploit misteps and mental lapses made by Trump in a debate. That is, if there was a strong candidate which there’s not

    110% agree.

    I’m shocked that none of them save Christie are willing to go for the throat, as the saying goes.  There is SO MUCH to exploit when it comes to taking down trump.  Unfortunately, there’s also so much mystique when it comes to his blessed hold on the MAGA base.

    (hint to GOP candidates: they’ll all follow you in a heartbeat if you rip trump to shreds)

  259. 259.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Sister Golden Bear: ​
     

    @Percysowner: Glad E felt safe enough to come out to his family and you. Good for SIL for setting boundaries, although obviously it’s having an impact for you.

    Seconded. But yeah, you do get to a point where keeping up with a fast-moving small child just isn’t easily done. My wife and I adopted our son when I had just turned 55, and he was a year and a half old. I could keep up with him then, in fact I loved it. But it would be a lot harder now that I’m 69.

  260. 260.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Jeffro: ​
     

    I’m shocked that none of them save Christie are willing to go for the throat, as the saying goes.

    I’m not. And even Christie has agreed to support the GOP nominee, whoever it is. So even in his case, that willingness is conditional.

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