Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

This fight is for everything.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

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

It’s the corruption, stupid.

The gop couldn’t organize an orgy in a whorehouse with a fist full of 50s.

There are more Russians standing up to Putin than Republicans.

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

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

We’re not going back!

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

Nikki Haley, who can’t acknowledge ‘slavery’, is a pathetic shill.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

Baby steps, because the Republican Party is full of angry babies.

When you’re a Republican, they let you do it.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

Republicans firmly believe having an abortion is a very personal, very private decision between a woman and J.D. Vance.

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

“woke” is the new caravan.

This blog will pay for itself.

The gop is a fucking disgrace.

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Saturday Evening Open Thread (and quilt raffle winners!)

Saturday Evening Open Thread (and quilt raffle winners!)

by | 121 Comments

This post is in: 

This thread is wide-open, but I do need a few volunteers for something raffle-related.

I need 4 people to supply a number between 1 and 87.

And I need 4 more people to supply a number between 501 and 610.

Other than that, what’s everybody up to?

đŸ’«

We have winners for the Alley Cat raffle!

1st place: lowtechcyclist

He gets the alley cat quilt, unless he prefers one of the other prizes.

2nd place: Mousebumples

3rd place: Andrya

4th place: PatrickG

đŸ’«

Congratulations to the Alley Cat raffle winners!

We have winners for the Star Path raffle!

1st place: Andrya

She gets the alley cat quilt, unless he prefers one of the other prizes.

2nd place: grandmabear

3rd place: KRK

4th place: Maxim

Congratulations to the Star Path raffle winners!

Quiltingfool will mail the 1st prize quilts on Tuesday, since the post office is likely closed on Monday.

Reminder: the quilt blocks haven’t been made yet, so for the 6 of you who won quilt blocks, let us know which one you want so Quiltingfool will know which ones to make.

Big thanks to everyone who participated in the raffle or just donated!

 

Reader Interactions

121Comments

  33. 33.

    wjca

    @Baud: Can’t believe you used Roman letters.  I can’t even look at you right now.

    And you using a Cyrillic letter was better how, exactly?

  38. 38.

    Suzanne

    My bourbon pumpkin bread is in the oven. The kids and the dog are all full of energy. Dog got two walks, kids went to trampoline park, and they’re still climbing the walls.

  43. 43.

    WaterGirl

    We have winners for the Alley Cat raffle!

    1st place: lowtechcyclist

    He gets the alley cat quilt, unless he prefers one of the other prizes.

    2nd place: Mousebumples

    3rd place: Andrya

    4th place: PatrickG

    Congratulations to the Alley Cat raffle winners!

  47. 47.

    Elizabelle

    @schrodingers_cat:  Our country would be better off if Nepo baby AG Sulzberger and rich kid editor Joe Kahn stepped down.

    Or stepped down an elevator shaft.  Whatever it takes.

    Talk about two men who are BAD at their jobs.  Fuck ’em.

  48. 48.

    WaterGirl

    I just talked to Quiltingfool, and since she hasn’t made the blocks yet, 2nd, 3rd and 4th place winners can each choose from any of these 4 quilt blocks.

    Quilt Blocks, Resumed!

    Quiltingfool Pictures of Blocks

    On The Road - Quiltingfool - Ukraine Block Photos, Part 2 7

  52. 52.

    wjca

    @wjca: You mean Macedonian?

    I suppose maybe I should make that North Macedonian…?  Or does Greek whinging only apply to the country, not the language?

  64. 64.

    wjca

    @SiubhanDuinne: Are Democrats doing so well (in special elections, referenda, etc.) because of Biden or in spite of Biden?

    Do I hold my breath waiting for someone to ask: are Republicans doing so badly because of Trump or in spite of Trump?

  73. 73.

    RaflW

    @Elizabelle: As far as I can tell, AG Sulzberger’s only job is to protect his and his family’s wealth. In that regard, he’s probably performing to spec. It’s not good for the US, or the news industry, but he’d doing what the rich do best – pad their lives with more cushion.

  76. 76.

    WaterGirl

    We have winners for the Star Path raffle!

    1st place: Andrya

    She gets the STAR PATH quilt, unless he prefers one of the other prizes.

    2nd place: grandmabear

    3rd place: KRK

    4th place: Maxim

    Congratulations to the Star Path raffle winners!

  80. 80.

    Nelle

    Open thread….we’re reeling to find out that old friends, with whom we’d been out of touch with since moving, have gone down the MAGA hole.  They acknowledge our shared past (45 years ago, my husband was key in saving her life; later, when we lived in the same region, we spent holidays together) but say that now we are such victims of propaganda, that they wish no further interaction.  They did refer us to Tucker’s interview of Putin, in case we choose to take our blinders off.  They are highly educated (at least 2 PhDs and an MD degree between the two of them).  Not anyone I would have suspected as being caught up in this.

  83. 83.

    wjca

    Realizing, just too late, when asked for “1 more number” I should have responded 604.  Adding the digits gives 10.  Adding the digits again gives 1.  Mission accomplished!

  85. 85.

    Quadrillipede

    @Urza: With all that info gathered in one thread, definitely something seems off about all those Republican “fostering” scenarios, especially given their otherwise general indifference to protecting children (or anyone non-white-male for that matter) from abuse and/or exploitation…

    đŸ€”đŸ˜ŹđŸ€”

  90. 90.

    wjca

    Open thread…most of the California ballot was easy.  But then, there was the “opportunity” to select 7 (of 9) candidates for the party’s county central committee.  The challenge: finding out anything about the candidates.  I managed to discover one is an anti-trans nutcase.  But beyond that?  Simply zero information found via Google.  No candidate statements.  No candidate websites.  Nada.

    Sigh.  This is where any change to the party infrastructure starts.  And we’re flying blind.  What is wrong with this picture?

  92. 92.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Nelle:

    Sorry to hear that. As Baud said, education isn’t total protection

    but say that now we are such victims of propaganda, that they wish no further interaction.

    Talk about the pot calling the kettle black

  93. 93.

    Quadrillipede

    @Mr. Bemused Senior: It’s OK, I got lots of numbers

    I have a spare hour or so — I might try and see if I can’t count them all…

    (If I’m in a rush, maybe I’ll just do all the rational numbers between 0 and 1!)

  96. 96.

    HinTN

    @Nelle: I know “smart” people who are all in on the Fox echo chamber. I just don’t talk to them except when absolutely necessary and then only about that necessary business.

  98. 98.

    Ohio Mom

    I’m so old, I remember when Ezra Klein and Matt Yglesais were just-out-of-college young and roommates and something of child prodigies of online punditing.

    Like almost all child prodigies, they grew into mediocrity. Playing Mozart like an adult when you are six is unusual and noteworthy; playing Mozart like an adult when you are an adult, so what?

    (At the same time, Josh Marshall was posting long, single-spaced, rambling essays about some piece of news or another — I could hardly plow through his digressions. But boy, did he come into his own!)

  99. 99.

    wjca

    @WaterGirl: It was, admittedly, a Republican county committee.  Which I got as a result if seizing the opportunity to vote against TIFG twice this year.

  106. 106.

    FelonyGovt

    @wjca: I happened to know 3 of them, and voted for those people only (I think we could vote for 6 or 7?) . And I only know them due to my brief involvement in a local Democratic club. How in the world is anyone supposed to know who to vote for.

  108. 108.

    FelonyGovt

    @FelonyGovt: missed the exit window. Sorry, didn’t realize you had a Republican ballot. But the same was the case for the Democratic ballot (minus, hopefully, the anti-trans nutcase).

  109. 109.

    Origuy

    There was some font geekery in a thread this morning, so I thought I’d share this. An Instagram poster named Elle Cordova has a series of bits about anthromorphic fonts. She plays Ariel, Helvetica, etc. Amusing. Fonts Hanging Out.

  110. 110.

    Nelle

    @Elizabelle: I just made contact with a mutual friend, also involved in saving the woman’s life.  He confirms what has happened and has also been banned from going to see them.  If he is out, then this is severe.  He was their best friend.

    This I didn’t see coming.  I’m stunned.  I met the three of them that long ago, three of the most intelligent and lively people I’d met up to that time.  What the hell happened to them?  I keep looking back and don’t see the antecedents but then, I guess I knew them less well than I thought.

  112. 112.

    Quadrillipede

    @Mr. Bemused Senior: Ooh, that book looks like it could be a fun read…👍

    I always found school-level math to be extremely intuitive, and had no trouble getting solid A grades. Went to University to pick up a Math degree, and found that not only was math no longer intuitive, I hadn’t needed to pick up any useful skills in high school for trying to apply myself to any subject I couldn’t instantly grok.

    I actually wound up switching to Philosophy in my second year — I found philosophy was actually less abstract than the kind of mathematical reasoning I was being exposed to (e.g. proving numbers exist, set theory, infinitesimals, Cantor’s diagonal argument, etc…)

    Philosophy did give me enough exposure to logic and analytical reasoning to land a job as a programmer (around the turn of the century, before computer science degrees became mandatory to enter the field), and these days after playing with some functional languages, I’m more interested in Category Theory than math per se.

    [ In the event that anyone does want a recent overview of category theory, this lecture at the Royal Institution isn’t bad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48VqWQ2YbGk ]

  113. 113.

    Mr. Bemused Senior

    @Quadrillipede: my story is too long to fit in the margins here 😁

    I luckily found my way into software so my other science and math interests are strictly amateur.

    Yes, that book is fun and I think you will enjoy it.

  115. 115.

    wjca

    @Quadrillipede:  I hadn’t needed to pick up any useful skills in high school for trying to apply myself to any subject I couldn’t instantly grok.

    I can so relate.  In high school, German was a shock to my system.  Suddenly, just listening in class and doing the homework didn’t cut it.  I had to learn how to, you know, study.

    Then I got to college, and discovered I had to study everywhere; and learning how to study German didn’t much help, beyond letting me know that I could (eventually) figure it out.  I did, but it definitely seemed like the high school curriculum had a serious lack.

  116. 116.

    Steeplejack

    @Urza:

    Re Speaker Mike Johnson: another thing I got reminded of today is that story about how he apparently does not have a checking account?! With no follow-up on where all the money comes from and goes to.

  118. 118.

    Quadrillipede

    @wjca: German was a shock to my system.

    When I was at school, I was once sent to France to live with a French family for some kind of “language immersion exchange” program thing. I very vividly remember them having long, involved conversations entirely in French, which I suppose is completely unsurprising, but for some reason I was amazed they were so good at it…

  119. 119.

    wjca

    @Quadrillipede: for some reason I was amazed they were so good at it
 

    I go to various international conventions.  Where I find people from all over the world who speak English like native speakers.  I’m amazed at how good they are at that.  Even the ones whose English is labored are amazingly good in reality.

    Also embarrassed a) at how poor I am at any other language, and b) that I get props as an American who at least takes the trouble to learn how to say “Thank you” (first priority), and maybe “Hello”, in the local language.  We mostly have no clue how much our economic (and, to some extent, entertainment) dominance advantages us.  Aided, admittedly, by the efforts of the British Empire in the previous century.

  120. 120.

    lowtechcyclist

    Late to this thread because of a busy night last night, but wow, I won the Alley Cat quilt!! My wife is so gonna love this!!!

    (IOW, no, I don’t want one of the other prizes instead.)

    Thank you, Quiltingfool, for designing and putting together all these wonderful quilts for us!

    And thanks, WaterGirl, for organizing this!

  121. 121.

    PatrickG

    Chanting: We’re number four! We’re number four!

    ETA: thanks to Quiltingfool for the awesome crafting that leads to fundraising! Truly the #1!

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