Looks like we could use an open thread. Is anybody still up?
I am not often up in the wee hours of the night, but I got my flu shot on Wednesday and I was so tired that I went to bed at 7 pm! That’s crazy early around here, so my little Henry just woke me up to go out, and here I am.
What a crazy time we are living in, with ups and downs coming so fast we can hardly recover from one before the next one comes. Not a fan of rollercoasters, but here we are. It’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon, so we have to take care of ourselves along the way.
With that not-so-deep thought, I am headed back to bed to get some sleep. But I will leave you with a picture of my sweet Willow. Miss Willow is her name most of the time. Before I named the two kitties (siblings) for a few days they were “Miss Girl” and “Mr. Boy”. Then they became Willow and Little Bear. Then they became Miss Willow and Mr. Bear.
P.S. I cannot believe that Christmas is just over two weeks away. How did that happen?
BTF AZ
Early to bed early to rise thanks for this post
WaterGirl
Wow, looks like no one is up!
Asparagus Aspersions
Good morning from across the Atlantic! I was scheduled to get my flu shot yesterday but in the afternoon felt a bit head-achey and stuffy, and thought it best to postpone. The nurse agreed, so I’ll try again on Monday. Sometimes I’m totally fine after the shot, and sometimes I feel like I’ve been hit with a two-by-four the next day. Given my current end-of-year workload, I didn’t want to risk being knocked out.
Today I slept until 10 minutes before my workday started, waved my husband and kid out the door, and am now settled into my workday. My face says “ready for the office” (well, I washed it, and put hair in a ponytail) and my body says “lounge lizard.” I love telework.
sab
@WaterGirl: Prior thread is still alive. Goodnight.
So Tony Jay, Steeplejack and me don’t count as thread activity? Good to know.
Steeplejack
I went down for a short catnap a little after 8:00 and ended up sleeping until almost 2:00. Been doing some light browsing and waiting to see if I can go back to sleep.
Tony Jay
@WaterGirl:
Good morning. It’s cold, wet and dark over here in The Land of the Cold Wet Darkness, but the Shambling Maws didn’t get us in the night, so I guess I have to put that down as a win.
Speaking of winning, great night of football. Liverpool amble half-asleep through an away fixture at Sheffield United to go 2nd, Villa absolutely dominate Sportswasher Cheaty to leapfrog THE CHAMPIONS (as the commentators insist on referring to them) into 3rd, and the weaker of Manchester’s two Premier League teams continue their habit of pulling off a vital but uncoordinated win that rescues Erik Ten Haag’s managerial career and gives false hope to their long suffering fanbase. Our upcoming games against Man Utd (another 7-0 thrashing, please) and the leaders, Arsenal, are now even more important.
Football Update concluded. Back to the Politics.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
Eastern Europe checking in, and wondering why all the news lately seems to be “same shit, different day”. Hamas is being awful, Netanyahu and company are being awful, Putin is being awful, the GOP is trying to strangle Ukraine’s defense against Putin being awful, Trump is awful, the GOP is awful, Biden is being portrayed as awful when he really isn’t…
Almost enough to make one want to emigrate to Mars, except that means getting in bed with Elmo, and he’s being awful too.
Doesn’t feel like a rollercoaster so much as the Alpine Slide at Action Park, back in the days when it hadn’t been closed down for safety reasons.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@WaterGirl: Just got off work here.
Tony Jay
Actually, on the Politics, that flatulent splat of congealed privilege known to future historians as The Disgraced Alexander Boris De Pfeffel Johnson has started giving evidence to the Covid Inquiry and holy fucking shit but is he digging a grave for himself. Petulant whining, buck-passing, lying about what he knew, lying about what he said, lying about what he’d done to hide incriminating evidence; generally just being the same old Flobalob that the Tory membership loves so much.
We’ve started getting opinion pieces in the Press asking the big rhetorical questions like “How did this person ever become Prime Minister?” and “Who should take the blame for his failures?”, which is just very, very funny, because not a single one of the hackitty hacks churning these pieces out points the finger in the right direction, namely at themselves and the entire British Political Establishment.
They made Flobby’s career possible. They protected him. They shielded him. They created the framework of lies and distortion on which he hung his Funny Old Boris personae, because they very much wanted someone just like that to give them a ‘character’ they could spin favourable stories about. And when it came to the most consequential political, social and economic decision in modern British history, they were the ones who went into Teflon Overdrive to ensure that the creature they all knew was a piss-taking charlatan remained in a position to wreck the country while simultaneously smearing the only viable alternative 24/7/365 as an untrustworthy racist bully because they couldn’t and wouldn’t countenance any challenges to their comfortable lives of meaningless fluffery.
Who made Flobalob happen? You people did. On purpose. And you know it. So get to fuck with your back-covering misinformation.
mrmoshpotato
Earth keeps turning. Silly Earth. :)
Splitting Image
I went out for groceries last night and noticed that the store was not piping in loud and obnoxious Christmas music. This is a trend which seems to have been gaining steam over the past few years.
They did play a cover version of “Happy Xmas (War is Over)” which wikipedia tells me is probably by Miley Cyrus, but it was at a more reasonable volume and was easy enough to tune out.
We’re winning the war, folks!
If I can somehow manage to get to the end of the month without having to shop somewhere they still think everyone wants to hear the same 15 songs over and over again, I may celebrate with some hot chocolate and a screening of the Grinch.
Martin
Good evening. Just after midnight here.
In local news, my city banned all gas lawn equipment. CA banned their sale starting next month, but over the next year all use in the city will need to phase out, which is great. It’s hard to imagine a city with more landscaping than this one, so it’s no small thing to do.
We’re also working on a single use plastic ban. We got a partial ban in place now while they continue to review the issues.The utensil ban was a big hangup because a decent number of newer restaurants with indoor dining that have been built in creative use of space don’t have any possibility for dishwashing equipment.
Next few weeks is finalizing the city’s carbon reduction plan which has some nice things in it. Not aggressive enough, IMO, but we’ll see how it goes.
mrmoshpotato
@Tony Jay:
This is an affront to flatulent splats, sir!
WaterGirl
@Tony Jay: Sounds just like most of the press here, too. Mainstream media seems to have lost the plot. I wonder if they have ever heard of the concept of the fourth estate.
WaterGirl
@mrmoshpotato: Why didn’t I think of that?
mrmoshpotato
@Splitting Image: Which Grinch movie?
Martin
@Tony Jay: I get a lot of James O’Brien in my feed, so I have a pretty good sense of how that happened.
I don’t know how you guys recover from this.
mrmoshpotato
@WaterGirl: Because my Internet is broken?
WaterGirl
@BTF AZ: So strange! The post showed no comments when I posted mine, but your comment was there well before that. It’s a mystery.
Splitting Image
@mrmoshpotato:
The original. Can’t go wrong with Chuck Jones and Boris Karloff.
mrmoshpotato
@Splitting Image:
That is the correct answer!
🎶Given a choice between the two of you I’d take the seasick crocodile! 🎶
Martin
Oh, I missed that Nevada indicted 6 fake electors. Good. What a stupid fucking plan that was – the legislature was controlled by Democrats. They were never going to allow that to happen.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@mrmoshpotato:
Yeah, and I have to pay for a skytracker to stop that shit.
Dangerman
Well, it all began about 2000 years ago; do you want the complete story or just the Readers Digest version?
There was a time when I always had time off at Christmas (ah, the Aero years) and I didn’t have to worry about mailing anything so I would start my Christmas shopping right around Noon on 12/24; the Malls (are there Malls anymore?) always got fun right around lunchtime on the 24th. I’d be done by Dinner. Now the only person I buy for is myself and that is a year round exercise.
Tony Jay
@mrmoshpotato:
That’s Elon’s best buddy you’re dissing there. Watch out or he’ll send a Cybertruck* after you.
* Threat not valid if target is standing on top of a small hill.
Martin
If gift giving isn’t your bag, you’re not alone.
mrmoshpotato
@🐾BillinGlendaleCA: “Excuse me! Can you stop your celestial rotation for a second so I can get this shot?”
“Ok!”
Global Windstorm
mrmoshpotato
@Tony Jay: I thought Melon Husk was in love with Mars. No?
Tony Jay
@WaterGirl:
@Martin:
Thing is, the Media are just doing their job. The problem we face is that it’s not the job they’re supposed to be doing. Rather than investigating and informing they’ve taken on the role of vendors of curated clickbait designed to lull, enrage or entice consumers (not readers) into emotional reactions.
I include that shitbag O’Brien in this as well. He plays the part of the ‘common sense man’ on radio, wading through a slough of deluded call-in loons every day and exposing their uninformed biases with his simple questions, but literally anyone could do that job. When it comes to his own biases though, like his full-commitment deep dive into ‘Corbyn is a Nazi’ shitspreading a few years ago, he brooks no counter-argument whatsoever. Mister ‘I only bring the facts’ is all too happy to mash that Call Ended button if anyone so much as mentions the Forde Report or the Al Jazeera documentaries, because under that thin crust of reasonableness, he’s just another stooge playing a part and being well-rewarded for it.
And no, until the Left gets a megaphone as big as the Right, I don’t see a way out of this. Far more likely the News Media will continue goosestepping into irrelevance and everyone else skitters away into their cosy ideological bubbles like water on a hotplate.
PBK
Magnificent whiskers on that pretty cat!
Tony Jay
@mrmoshpotato:
Oh? Mister Faithful? If Pluto glammed up as a black eyed goth waif in fishnets and a studded basque he’d be over there on his dodgy rocket faster than you can say “Mister 1/MTBF = R/T Musk is here to see you, Madam.“
NotMax
A least one old coot’s still kickin’.
Happy pre-Chanukah.
Van Buren
I have to believe that as soon as Ms. Willow was done posing, she got busy knocking the bunny off the table.
Anne Laurie
BTF AZ’s comment was stuck in the ‘new commentor, needs front-pager approval’ bin. You’re both welcome.
WaterGirl
@Tony Jay: where is Soros when we need him? Also, thank god for Pro Publica. Do you have anyone like that over there?
WaterGirl
@PBK: I had never noticed that, but you are right! When I look at her, I just see her beautiful face. But I bet I start noticing them now. Thank you!
WaterGirl
@Van Buren: happily, no! That bunny is one of my prized possessions. I worried a little when I moved it there, but so far, so good.
WaterGirl
@Anne Laurie: I am never logged in on my phone, so I didn’t see that. Thank you!
I didn’t want the commenter at #1 to think I was being rude when I said it looked like no one was up.
Tony Jay
@WaterGirl:
Not that I know of, but I’m awful at keeping track of who is doing what for the cause of freedom.
PBK
@WaterGirl: I hope Mr. Bear gets equal time in a future wee hours post!
Quiltingfool
The political news is awful and I hate it. To cheer myself up a bit, I listen to a song performed by Lily Allen (at the Isle of Wight concert). It’s a very lively song, “Fuck You Very Much,” written to honor GW Bush, but before singing it, she said the song was also for Trump and Boris Johnson!
It was posted at LGM awhile back. I find myself humming the tune when I need a bit of cheerfulness.
WaterGirl
@PBK: Mr. Bear thanks you for sticking up for his equal rights!
He’s black, so harder to photograph, but you will see him soon.
Miss Bianca
@Van Buren: I was wondering about the kitty/bunny proximity too!
EthylEster
Is that a real rabbit or a life-like statue behind the cat pic?
Ruckus
“I cannot believe that Christmas is just over two weeks away. How did that happen?”
Same way it does every year. Sun come up, sun go down. Do that enough times, it’s xmas again.
It does seem to happen that as we get older (no I did NOT say old, I said OLDER) time runs differently. I can’t tell if it runs faster or slower but it does seem that it does both… I know, an impossibility. Just wait till you are retired and you’ll find that time never, ever runs at one speed….