Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

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

An unpunished coup is a training exercise.

Democrats have delivered the Square Deal, the New Deal, the Fair Deal, and now… the Big Joe Biden Deal.

Let’s show the world that autocracy can be defeated.

The choice is between normal and crazy.

The words do not have to be perfect.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

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

One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

I am pretty sure Katy Tur wasn’t always such a bootlicking sycophant.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

Consistently wrong since 2002

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

I have other things to bitch about but those will have to wait.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

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

The frogs are rarely mistaken.

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

The republican caucus is covering themselves with something, and it’s not glory.

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

You can’t love your country only when you win.

Dead end MAGA boomers crying about Talyor Swift being a Dem is my kind of music. Turn it up.

You are here: Home / Politics / Biden Administration in Action / Another Saturday Morning Open Thread: Holidaze

Another Saturday Morning Open Thread: Holidaze

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Bob Crachitt would approve! Paywall-free version of the Washington Post‘s “Biden’s historic pay raise for federal workers set to take effect”:

Federal employees will receive pay raises averaging 5.2 percent — more in some high-salary areas — under an order President Biden signed Thursday that delivers the biggest increase to U.S. government workers since the Carter administration.

The salary hike for the federal civilian workforce of close to 2.2 million people is the heftiest since a 9.1 percent average raise in 1980. It’s 0.6 percentage points higher than last year’s increase, which itself was the highest in two decades, and will take effect in the first full pay period of 2024, starting Jan. 14 for most federal employees.

The military is set to receive a comparable increase in January in the $886 billion defense bill that Congress approved this month.

Biden’s executive order is the final step in the annual process of determining how much government workers will be paid the following year. That process has often featured a divisive debate in Congress over the value of federal workers and what they should earn compared to their private sector counterparts…

Congress has in some years adjusted the annual White House proposal on federal pay up or down. But this year, after Biden proposed the 5.2 percent raise in March in his budget for fiscal 2024, Republicans in Congress — engulfed for months in a partisan battle over raising the country’s debt limit and then in an internal struggle over the House speakership — have been silent on the raise this year. Absent any action by Congress, the recommended raise goes into effect by default. Most lawmakers have already left Washington for the holidays, signaling the end of the legislative year and allowing Biden to finalize the pay hike with Thursday’s executive order.

Since about 85 percent of the federal workforce is outside the Washington region, “ … this pay increase will benefit families and lift economies in every single state,” Doreen Greenwald, national president of the National Treasury Employees Union, said in a statement. “Higher salaries are essential to keeping these skilled workers in the civil service and helping agencies recruit new employees to their valuable public service missions.” The NTEU represents employees in 35 federal agencies and offices…

Or, if you prefer the old ways…


(The Mari Lwyd)

Reader Interactions

148Comments

  5. 5.

    Princess

    Looking forward to Laura Ingraham saying having Mariah Carey visit the WH is an insult to all Americans. I half expect Biden to put out a video with him and baby Jesus and Santa next.

  6. 6.

    WereBear

    Happy Festivus to all!

    I’ve had some overlapping health struggles, which are getting sorted out.

    But I wish everyone the best as I go back into hibernation :)

  10. 10.

    Rusty

    I don’t think we have ever been so behind on Christmas.   Other than some lights on the front of the house, nothing.  So I need to rally the 3 kids we have home for the holiday  (mid teens to mid twenties).  Find a tree if we can, get it up and decorated, shop for food, it may be too late to get gifts. Clean the house, get out some house decorations,  holiday meal prep and more.  Tomorrow is two services, the fourth Suday of advent in the morning, Christmas Eve service at night, choir for both (one kid volunteered to help sing for the later service) parents arriving.  Really, not enough time.  Oh, I’m supposed to be joyous and full of holiday spirit!!  Well, Christmas morning will arrive no matter how much or how little gets done.

  11. 11.

    Betty Cracker

    Pete (the dog, not the cabinet sec) is too fat, and we have his annual checkup next month. I have cut down his treats and increased exercise, but he remains spherical. :( The vet will scold us!

    Another Saturday Morning Open Thread: Holidaze

  13. 13.

    OzarkHillbilly

    This being Festivus, I am going to air a grievance for my youngest (2 yo) STL granddaughter even if I am short on details just now. She got her hand caught between (I assume) a car door and jamb last night. Went to the ER. Apparently lost the tip of one finger and has her arm in a cast from hand to above the elbow. There was no mention of a broken arm in the text messages but it is hard not to think more than a hand was involved in the incident. Would not be surprised if she strained her wrist and elbow trying to yank her hand out, maybe broke one or the other.

    When I was 4 or so I had a similar accident, the difference being I didn’t break any bones or even have any bleeding wounds. I think maybe they build cars too well nowadays.

  18. 18.

    NeenerNeener

    Popping in to say I’m thrilled to be back online after falling down half of a flight of stairs a few days ago. My fuzzy socks tried to kill me.

  23. 23.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @NeenerNeener: ​

    Poor Percy is getting old and decrepit, eyes aren’t so good anymore. Going down the 12/12 oak stairs had become a daily dance with death and 2 or 3 times he slid down the stairs on his face. Fortunately never got hurt. I decided not to wait until he did and ran a carpet runner down them. Big difference for the little guy.

  24. 24.

    eversor

    @Betty Cracker:

    I wouldn’t give Mariah the benefit of the doubt about anything Christmas related.

    She tried to copyright Queen of Christmas so that nobody else could use the term.  This despite the fact that multiple women have been called Queen of Christmas with one having released an album called Queen of Christmas in the 60’s and having been called it on Lettermans show back before and another being a full time Christmas song writer who had been called it before.  Mariah also tangled it up with some religious groups who asserted that Mary is the real Queen of Christmas.  She also tried to copyright variations on Queen of Christmas and Princess of Christmas as well.

    It got shot down.  But that’s some grade A rich entitled asshole bordering on comic book super villian shit.  Using your money and fame to destroy multiple peoples livelyhoods on a holiday and ruin it for millions may not be the crime against humanity that forcing retail and restaurant workers to suffer through All I Want For Christmas is you remains but it’s up there!

  25. 25.

    Betty Cracker

    @NeenerNeener: Glad you are okay! I never trusted fuzzy socks!

    Bill rebuilt our outdoor stairs to add a landing, mainly because I am a klutz. He says now I’ll only roll down half a staircase instead of the entire thing.

  27. 27.

    Kay

    I saw coverage of Project 2025 but no mention that it includes plans to rescind rights for women:

    THE SUPREME COURT announced last week that it would take up a case considering restrictions on the most widely-used method of abortion in the United States: the abortion pill. Under a worst-case scenario for American women, that case could have triggered a full reversal of the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of mifepristone, cutting off access to the medication across the country. That didn’t happen. The Supreme Court said it would only consider a more narrow set of questions about regulatory changes that have made the abortion pill more accessible in recent years. It could significantly limit access to mifepristone, but won’t end it altogether.
    But it may not matter how the high court rules if Republicans win the presidency next November. That’s because GOP operatives have already crafted an expansive blueprint, 887 pages long, laying out in painstaking detail how they intend to govern, including plans to leverage virtually every arm, tool and agency of the federal government to attack abortion access. The document explicitly names their intention not just to rescind FDA approval for the abortion pill if they regain control of the White House in 2024, but to revive a 150-year-old law that criminalizes sending or receiving through the mail any “article, instrument, substance, drug, medicine or thing” that could be used to facilitate an abortion. That law, the Comstock Act, is viewed as a de facto federal abortion ban by reproductive rights advocates and anti-abortion activists alike.
    Those plans — and many more, including proposals to attack contraception access, use the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to increase “abortion surveillance” and data collection, rescind a Department of Defense policy to “prohibit abortion travel funding,” punish states that require health insurance plans to cover abortion, and retool a law that is currently protecting pregnant women with life-threatening conditions — are outlined in Project 2025’s “Mandate for Leadership.”

  32. 32.

    MagdaInBlack

    @Betty Cracker: Is there a way to pie without pie-ing responses, because you got a cookie and I DO NOT want to miss your comments 😉

    Eta: I’ll  just skim past the needy one.

  35. 35.

    Frankensteinbeck

    I was telling a potential reader about Quite Contrary, which meant looking at reviews, and something hit me.

    Women talk about the ‘You should smile more.’ effect.  Something that comes up a lot in the reviews is that most of the people who hated it were absolutely repulsed by an angry tween girl heroine.  Beyond ‘not for me’ or ‘not fun to read.’  I got a lot of reactions as if an angry (for very good reasons) little girl was utterly beyond the moral pale.  That her kicking a bully in the balls or swearing was just… unthinkably unacceptable.  It’s a very dark book and doesn’t hide that, so why would people be so shocked?

    I wonder if those things are related?

  37. 37.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Brexit, the gift that keeps on giving: Hard cheese: Canada rejects British attempt to secure tariff-free exports

    A priceless opportunity to sell “more affordable high-quality cheese to Canada” was one of those many Brexit boons that Boris Johnson championed with his customary blather as prime minister.

    A bespoke UK-Canada trade deal was going to open up the Canadian market to cheddar, stilton and wensleydale in a way that had never been possible under a trading agreement struck between the EU and Canada.

    But after a meeting in recent days between Britain’s cheese makers and the UK government’s negotiating team there is a whiff to Johnson’s boasts that would put a stinking bishop to shame.

    Not only are the British negotiators getting nowhere fast on the terms of a comprehensive trade deal with Canada, but the UK’s attempts to at least extend a rollover of the EU terms of trade on cheese exports have been squarely rejected by their Canadian counterparts.
    ……………………………….
    Imports into Canada falling outside that quota will end up being slapped with a 245% duty, making them unaffordable for even the most dedicated fan of artisanal cheese. After months of reassuring words from the trade secretary, Kemi Badenoch, about working on a deal, the government is now advising cheese exporters on how to prepare for the worst.

    Thanx Boris.

  38. 38.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    Interesting. Would these people say the same about that annoying, angry (male) teen in “Catcher in the Rye,” I wonder? I mean, if they read the so-called classics, that is.

    ETA: I hated Holden Caulfield even when I was in my own angry teen phase. He seemed like such a shallow dipshit. But I guess that’s ok when you have external equipment.

  39. 39.

    Kay

    ” and retool a law that is currently protecting pregnant women with life-threatening conditions”

    This is what that means:

    The Biden administration on Tuesday urged a U.S. appeals court to let it enforce federal guidance telling healthcare providers that they must perform abortions for emergency room patients when needed to treat an emergency medical condition, even if it would conflict with Texas’s abortion ban.
    McKaye Neumeister, a lawyer with the U.S. Department of Justice, told a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans that the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) may conflict with Texas’s abortion ban in “narrow” circumstances

    There’s a federal law, EMTALA, that (among other things) requires hospitals to admit women in active labor and treat them, regardless of ability to pay. The Biden Administration is suing because red states are denying women emergency care- Republicans plan to rescind the law that guarantees they get it.

  46. 46.

    Layer8Problem

    @Frankensteinbeck:  “In my day young ladies didn’t do that sort of thing.  But nowadays with the video gaming and the tattoos and the Taylor Swift I guess anything goes.”  How about the good reviews?

  47. 47.

    UncleEbeneezer

    Well it happened.  I’m officially 50 today!

    Taos has been wonderful.  Yesterday we went to the Fechin House, which is a really amazing adobe house built by a Russian immigrant and artist who moved out here almost a century ago when the town was just getting settled.  The woodwork of the house is simply stunning and was constructed in only six years.  In the evening we went to the Rolling Still lounge and distillery for a couple cocktails and then to the Taos Inn for enchiladas.  The only bummer is that the snow we were supposed to get last night never got beyond rain :(

    Today we are gonna go to our friend’s excellent restaurant for breakfast and then getting a couples massage in the afternoon, dinner at Lamberts with friends then seeing a retro version of the Nutcracker by the local ballet company which are friends are very connected to (their daughter is studying dance in college and is a lead ballerina).

  49. 49.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    Interesting how that part of the 2025 plan got so little attention huh? The womens access to health care part? I don’t think it’s a conspiracy- I think political media just aren’t interested in what happens to women.

  50. 50.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: Good on the admin for suing. Also thanks for the heads-up on how Project 25 will strip even more rights away from women. None of the coverage I read mentioned that either. Weird, huh? 🤔

  53. 53.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @O. Felix Culpa:

    Note:  I love Catcher In The Rye and understand all too well how swimming in a sea of toxic masculinity made Holden a fucked up little shit desperately flailing for reasons to not be as bad as the people around him.  I can also completely understand how that’s not visible and doesn’t make sense to anyone who hasn’t had to escape that trap, making him just look obnoxious.

    That said, Mary is way less difficult.  From the beginning there’s a big focus on how she takes out her anger on predators and bullies, defending the innocent.  It’s a similar ‘If all my examples are evil, how can I be anything different?’ theme but Mary is both more coherent and more clearly dedicated to being good.

    But my god, people freak out.  Wouldn’t you applaud a child hero who kicks in the nuts an older boy trying to steal little kids’ candy on Halloween?  The negative reviews talk like that makes her evil incarnate.

  58. 58.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Layer8Problem:

    How about the good reviews?

    Uh… they come in two varieties, with a little mix.  “I sympathize so hard with Mary trying to make the best out of the abused child bad hand she was dealt” and “Wow, the characters are deep and the Wolf is memorably evil.”

    EDIT – I will note that the review that I appreciate the most and scares me the most came in person from a 14 year old girl, thanking me for writing a book about the things most people don’t have to deal with.

  59. 59.

    Kay

    I’m enjoying watching media reluctantly, grudgingly admit the economy is good. It isn’t supposed to work this way, where they have to be persuaded for months that their coverage of the economy is a big lie.

    Ridiculous. There won’t be any apologies or internal quality evaluation either- just on to the next bunch of flimsy bullshit they plan on selling!

    Anyway. Enjoy it while you can. It won’t stay good forever.

  60. 60.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Frankensteinbeck: I applaud Mary, and your creation of her character!

    As for Holden, it seems a failure in the novel if what he’s reacting to isn’t visible. No need to hit us over the head with brickbats, but some clarity as to context and motivation might be helpful. But maybe this is another case of the default population writing for the default population, so of course we understand one another. As a desperately bookish teen who read everything I could get my hands on to escape a desperately awful home situation, I never understood what the shouting was about when it came to Catcher. I just thought he was obnoxious.

  63. 63.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    Conversation with Mr DAW:
     

    Him: Shall we buy bagels before or after the grocery store?

    Me: I have a lot of bagels already.

    Him: I can get 3 for the price of 1.

    Me: I have over a dozen in the freezer.

    Him: Let’s go before. What kind do you want?

    Me: ???

  66. 66.

    NeenerNeener

    @Betty Cracker: ​
    “OK” is a relative term. I’ve still got a painful knot on my forehead and a purple raccoon mask around both eyes, but at least I can finally open the left eye. The right eye looked fine initially but some of the blood around the left eye migrated to the right the first night. I have no idea why the hospital thought it was a good idea to send me home but….Medicare.
    I’m taking baby aspirin to try to head off any blood clots, and just generally taking it easy.

    ETA: John Schneider is a MAGAT a**hole.

  68. 68.

    lowtechcyclist

    @NeenerNeener:

    Popping in to say I’m thrilled to be back online after falling down half of a flight of stairs a few days ago. My fuzzy socks tried to kill me.

    Glad your fuzzy socks failed in their mission – get those traitors off your feet!

    I don’t think of myself as getting old, but I do pay attention to what I’m wearing on my feet when I go up and down stairs, especially on the wooden stairs.

  71. 71.

    JML

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: bargains are hard for some people to resist. My mom is this person; she used to keep buying clothing for me that I would never wear by choice because it was on sale. “This shirt was 85% off!” Finally, I was able to break through by (gently) explaining that it didn’t matter how great the sale was if it was for something I didn’t want.

    But as her son, I find myself susceptible to the same temptation on occasion.

  74. 74.

    Phylllis

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Memories of Christmas from my youth, going to Walgreens at around 5-ish on Christmas eve with my dad to buy presents. Back when you never knew what you were going to find at any given Walgreens.

  75. 75.

    lowtechcyclist

    Good morning, y’all! I’m down here in Cracker country, spending Christmas with the in-laws. Stopped at La Segunda bakery on the way in, for Cuban bread, Cuban sandwiches, and more guava-filled pastries than you could shake a stick at.

    I don’t know what heaven will be like, but there’d better be a branch of La Segunda there, that’s all I’ve got to say.

  76. 76.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @JML: ​ bargains are hard for some people to resist.

    My Ex was like that. She would always say, “But I saved so much money!” to which I would reply, “You can’t save money by spending it.”

  77. 77.

    Betty Cracker

    @O. Felix Culpa: FWIW, I loved all of Salinger’s meager oeuvre as an angsty teen growing up in a dysfunctional family. Haven’t read his stuff in decades now, so I have no idea if it holds up, but I related to it back then.

  80. 80.

    Betty Cracker

    @lowtechcyclist: You’re damn right there would! I’m due for a La Segunda visit soon myself. I bring home bread to freeze since there is no proper Cuban bread in my town. Have fun!

  82. 82.

    frosty

    @MagdaInBlack: ​I toggle the responses to see if they’re worth reading.
    Also, irony: for the asshole commenter, the pie filter served up a Christmas cookie that said “JOY”. LOL​

  84. 84.

    Kay

    Threads is very uncool social media but I think it represents normies better (normies are also uncool)

    Anyway- Threads has this Trump Smells thing going gangbusters that is very amusing. Apparently Donald Trump smells bad and everyone around him is aware of it. Polite people say it’s an “odd” odor- it’s also been described as “BO and perfume” or, simply, “shit- like a dirty diaper”.

    The statement that initiated the recent chain of events came from former Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger, who wrote, “I’m genuinely surprised how people close to Trump haven’t talked about the odor. It’s truly something to behold. Wear a mask if you can.”

    Trump will HATE this, Lol.

  87. 87.

    Another Scott

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    It’s a very dark book and doesn’t hide that, so why would people be so shocked?

    I was a voracious reader as a kid, and in college, but wasn’t very sophisticated in my interpretation of many things. Like in The Death of Ivan Ilych the idea that he was an unreliable narrator never really occurred to me until I got my grade back on the final exam for the course. :-/

    Some readers are kinda thick, but they can and do get value from the experiences. ;-)

    Just added Quite Contrary to my phone. Looking forward to it.

    Thanks for the pointer.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  88. 88.

    narya

    @Kay: Totally agree. (I’m so glad you’re here in these comment sections–I completely agree with you, that the media think that we have forgotten, or will forget, what’s being/been done to our bodily autonomy. WE HAVE NOT.)

  89. 89.

    frosty

    @UncleEbeneezer: ​Sounds like a great way to spend a holiday break!​ And birthday!​

    When I was in my thirties I saw a book on my F-I-L’s shelf: Oh To Be Fifty Again. Didn’t make any sense to me then. Now it does! Enjoy every minute!​​

  91. 91.

    Timill

    @sab: Some of them seem to have thought that leaving the EU would resurrect both the Empire and the Empire Windrush, and there would be no more immigrants.

    [I voted remain from here in Tennessee]

  92. 92.

    Brachiator

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    That her kicking a bully in the balls or swearing was just… unthinkably unacceptable.

    I can see how kicking a guy in the balls would be a problem. I’m not sure that you can use “he or she deserved it” for certain levels of hurt and pain given out.

    The swearing would not be a big deal for me, but some folks have a traditional view about “bad language.”

    But I get your larger point. I don’t understand why some people insist on a narrow range of behaviors for protagonists who are young women.

  96. 96.

    Kay

    @narya:

    I thik the miscalculation (and cluelessness) of the anti abortion “movement” would be a really interesting story. Right after the Trump judges overturned Roe the New Yorker had a long interview with one of the architects – a fancy lawyer who works for an anti abortion group. She predicted the opposite of what has happened- she predicted blue states (she mentioned Minnesota) would pass new laws limiting abortion because they would feel pressure at how popular abortion limits would (now) be with the public.

    How did this lavishly funded huge group of paid operatives get public opinion so wrong when they had 50 years getting paid to think about it?  I bet it’s grifty as hell. I bet they had fake polls they sold to these dopes – all sorts of leeches sucking up the anti abortion donor dollar.

  99. 99.

    frosty

    @UncleEbeneezer: ​ Odd, for me downhill has always been more difficult. I got a pair of trekking poles a couple of years ago and I need them more going down than up.

    Way back in my twenties, coming down a path from a hut-to-hut hike in Switzerland, I ended up walking backwards because my quads were so tired from keeping the downhill at a safe pace.

  100. 100.

    Kay

    @O. Felix Culpa:

    I liked the book too- as a minor offenses juvenile delinquent I liked stories about juvenile delinquents-  but I was also interested in Phoebe and would have read a book about her, too.

  104. 104.

    Kay

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    I think it is. It’s come up before. Apparently they were aware of it on the set of The Apprentice.

    First I thought “would a germophobe smell?” but I think it makes sense- germophobes are afraid you will infect them. They think THEY are pure.

  105. 105.

    Another Scott

    @frosty: +1

    Going downhill was usually agony for me after the first day of a day-hiking vacation.  My knees would get stiff and painful (especially the outside of my right knee).  Until I learned that I have to stretch out my legs (doing leg presses works for me) to get rid of the tightness before the vacation starts. Since learning that, I haven’t had that problem recur.

    Now, though I haven’t been hiking on hills or mountains in years, I find that if I don’t do those occasionally I will aggravate an old lower back injury and be in pain for days if that flares up. Everything’s connected, and eventually connected to your lower back…

    We get stiff as we get older. Stretching is really, really important!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  106. 106.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Betty Cracker:

    I love everything JDS wrote about the Glass family. Every couple of years I reread “Franny and Zooey,” and the Glass or Glass-adjacent short stories from “Raise High the Roofbeams, Carpenters” and “Nine Stories.” A fascinating, exotic, utterly fucked-up family.

    Never cared much for “Catcher” or his non-Glass short stories, though.

  107. 107.

    narya

    @Kay: And I notice that the cognitive dissonance isn’t bothering them AT ALL (that they thought everyone would agree with them and it is instead wildly the opposite). Yes, I think it’s super-grifty–the republicans needed those votes, so pandered to them, too, and helped maintain the faux-righteous bubble. The thing to which I return, on many issues, is that many folks on the right ONLY consume RW sources, so it truly is an echo chamber. I realize I live in a blue corner of a blue city in a blue state, but I know there are lots of other folks out there who disagree with me, because I wander outside my bubble.

  108. 108.

    Princess

    @Kay: For instance, a germaphobe might find it disgusting to, um, wipe.

    I like this line on him. I remember class bullies getting kids shunned in grade school by accusing them of smelling bad. Since his supporters are basically class bullies and their acolytes, I think this attack could cause confusion in their ranks.

  110. 110.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @frosty: Yeah, downhill sucks for the knees and other joints.  But uphill requires exponentially greater effort, energy and time, because of gravity.  There’s nothing worse or harder, imo, then a mile of switch-backs and a serious climb (especially if it’s exposed, which it usually is).

  111. 111.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Another Scott: Interestingly, there’s actually very little evidence that stretching beforehand really helps avoid injuries.  Warming-up, absolutely.  But not so much for stretching.  Stretching is better afterwards.  At least that was the major scientific consensus a few years ago when I researched the topic a bit.  But also I was looking at it for competitive athletes, not lay-people, so that might be different.

  112. 112.

    NeenerNeener

    @narya: Yep, I have a dear friend in another state who swears she’s “done all the research and the Bidens are crooks but the Trumps are clean”.  I just tell her when she wants to argue that we obviously  aren’t reading the same sources and try to change the subject. As my mother used to say “A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still” so it’s not worth arguing with MAGATs.

  113. 113.

    Kristine

    @Frankensteinbeck: I recall reading an article years ago in which the writer stated/opined—and have the salt shaker handy b/c single source—that girls/women can overreact when responding to threat because they don’t have the experience in levels of scuffling/fighting that boys/men had. A kick to the balls just ends it right there. Was that escalation appropriate to the threat?

    M:M violence vs F:M violence—they’re just different. I can see two boys scuffling, then brushing it off. A fight between a boy and a girl, a man and a woman? Idk. So much depends on circumstances and training. Martial arts? Combat/military/self-defense? So a female may escalate because they know they don’t have the physical strength to go punch for punch and they just want to end it. Then there’s the reason behind the violent exchange. Usually it’s because the female is threatened with physical harm, so. You do what works.

    And some folks have issues with the idea of females being violent, period.

    It’s a spectrum.

  115. 115.

    Glidwrith

    @Frankensteinbeck: Having read your post and several of the responses, we’ve seen plenty of people that want women to be innocent children, defenseless and therefore prey.

    Personally, kick them in the nuts and don’t stop until you’re sure they can’t get up and come after you. Women don’t get second chances.

  117. 117.

    Captain C

    @NeenerNeener:

    who swears she’s “done all the research

    I’m waiting for a chance to tell some idiot who says this in support of their bullshit, “Oh, really?  Is it published somewhere I can access it?  I’d love to see your lit review!  What’s that?  You don’t even know what a lit review is…?”

  118. 118.

    Glidwrith

    @Glidwrith: Anecdote: daughter was matched in a karate fight against someone nearly a foot taller and easily 50 lbs heavier. She took him by surprise with sheer aggression and tagged him twice.

    But the match wasn’t over, he had time to adapt his tactics and took her down. Once with a punch to the gut, another with physically sweeping her up and putting her down on the mat.

    Lesson: once you have your opponent down, don’t stop.

  119. 119.

    CliosFanBoy

    …and the retirement pay my wife and I get from Uncle Sam goes up like 4% or so. That’s pretty good.

  125. 125.

    Kathleen

    @Betty Cracker: I’m terrified of falling down steps. I do the little old lady thing – one step at a time while holding hand rail, which is appropriate because I am a little old lady.

  128. 128.

    Miss Bianca

    @Betty Cracker:

    FWIW, I loved all of Salinger’s meager oeuvre as an angsty teen growing up in a dysfunctional family. Haven’t read his stuff in decades now, so I have no idea if it holds up, but I related to it back then.

    Yeah, me too. The Glass family got a little too precious for me towards the end there – my God, could Buddy Glass bloviate as a narrator! – but I do remember reading through all of it.

  130. 130.

    Kayla Rudbek

    @Frankensteinbeck: all right, I need to go check this book out.  I love angry heroines and I wish I could find more of them.  I’ve been playing Chapters and Whispers on my iPad (basically choose-your-own romance novels with graphics so pure catnip for this Gen-Xer) and one of the things I like about them are the options to let the heroine be angry and vengeful and expressing her desires to bury her enemies (male and female) under the jail.

  131. 131.

    Juju

    @O. Felix Culpa: women are always judged differently from men. Men are allowed to not smile when they don’t feel like it. I can give you an example from my life. My father was killed in an accident when he and my mother were attending a work conference. My mother wanted me and my brother to fly in to help with things and because she didn’t want to fly home alone. My brother and I went to the airport to buy tickets and while we were waiting in line standing next to each other,  a man I did not know asked how bad could it be?  It’s not like somebody died. I should try smiling. He did not say that to my brother, who looked as serious and sad as I did, but I was the one who was told to smile.  I told the man my father died the previous night. That shut the man up and I hope it also taught him a lesson.

  133. 133.

    zhena gogolia

    @Juju: Wow. I’ve been in that situation (buying tickets to go home the day after a parent’s sudden death), and I can’t imagine how painful it was to be challenged like that.

  135. 135.

    Brachiator

    @Barbara:

    Reverse the genders: would slapping or hitting be acceptable? Assuming no imminent harm is being threatened, I dislike this kind of violence.

    I think the key is that you and other readers may dislike certain kinds of violence.

    A young male protagonist kicking a bully in the balls might also be objectionable.

    I don’t read young teen fiction. I don’t know what level of violence is acceptable for two female combatants.

  136. 136.

    Juju

    @zhena gogolia: I was upset about other things. I don’t remember it being painful, as much as irritating.  It was much later that I thought how dare you, in regards to the man who told me to smile the day after my father died.

  139. 139.

    NeenerNeener

    @Kathleen: ​
     I did that and I still fell. The fuzzy socks and holding my phone in the other hand didn’t help, tho.
    My brother has since put on stair treads, and a railing on the opposite wall.

  140. 140.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Princess:

    For instance, a germaphobe might find it disgusting to, um, wipe.

    I’ve heard of cases of men never wiping properly because “nothing must go between a man’s butt cheeks”.

    Also men who have to hold in their urine when they poop because they’re terrified of peeing sitting down.

  141. 141.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Kathleen: I am pretty sure that the injury that wrecked my left knee was sustained running up some stairs–I didn’t fall, I just stepped wrong.

    In the hospital after the surgery they taught me how to climb stairs while I was walker-bound, going one step at a time with BOTH hands on the same handrail (I borrowed a second walker so I could have upstairs and downstairs ones). Eventually I got back to alternating feet, but I still don’t run up the stairs, skip steps or let go of the handrail.

  142. 142.

    NeenerNeener

    @Captain C:

     I’m sure she has done all the usual MAGAt research from the usual MAGAt sources…like the pinheads who infest Quora asking stupid questions. I was surprised when she told me she voted for Biden in 2020. Not so surprised when she said she hated Obama.

    Going back to Mariah Carey…the individual Beatles didn’t cover themselves in glory writing Christmas songs either. “Step Into Christmas” and “Simply Having (a wonderful Christmastime)” are dreadful too.

  143. 143.

    Formerly disgruntled in Oregon

    @Kay:

    There won’t be any apologies or internal quality evaluation either- just on to the next bunch of flimsy bullshit they plan on selling! 

    Kay, I love your comments about the low quality of the services provided by our over-paid media and political hacks.

    I work in quality management, and the first thing you need to do to effectively manage quality is to be honest with yourself about what the problems are and what is causing them.

    But if you can’t/won’t admit that you have problems in the first place, you’re stuck. No quality management for you.

  144. 144.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Betty Cracker: ​

    You’re damn right there would! I’m due for a La Segunda visit soon myself. I bring home bread to freeze since there is no proper Cuban bread in my town. Have fun!

    We always do that too when we head back north. :-)

    @Phylllis: ​

    Grew up in the Tampa Bay area. Now I’m craving guava jelly.

    I’ll bet you are! Guava goodies are the first thing I’ve got to have when I get in to town.

    How’s retirement so far? Speaking for myself, I’m totally digging it.

    One of the great pleasures of the first day of my retirement was clearing all the work crap off my desk that I’d been drowning in. Having that garbage out of the way, and being able to see my desk again, was very cleansing. I don’t even have to think of that crap anymore, I won’t have 200 emails waiting for me when I get back from vacation, and I can use that desk for my own stuff without its getting buried under piles of work stuff.

    Even down here in Florida, where I would have been on vacation anyway, the knowledge that work is not waiting for me when I get back is a BFD.

  145. 145.

    Ruckus

    @Betty Cracker:

    Are there actually functional families?

    Mine wasn’t.

    Had 2 older sisters. The oldest one stabbed me with a fork in the arm when I was 12 because she told me to get my arm off the table and I told her to fuck off. It took her a while to come around but we became at least friendly 2-3 yrs later, and 2-3 yrs later came to terms as adults. Even if neither of us really were.

  146. 146.

    Aussie Sheila

    @sab: Yes, yes they did.

    The wealthy Brexiteers used nostalgia for the ‘Commonwealth’ as a substitute for the EU quite openly.

    What they didn’t tell people is that the ‘Commonwealth’ as an entity is so passé in Cwth countries that no one under 50 even knows it exists. It is such a nonentity here that a state Premier cancelled the Commomwealth games which we’re going to be held in Victoria and apart from the batshit cookers in the RWbPress, no one gave a fuck.

  147. 147.

    Ruckus

    @lowtechcyclist:

    I sold my tool boxes and my tools for what one of my fellow employees offered. I wanted to walk away, never to even be able to think of coming back.

    It felt good.

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