Republicans keep outweirding each other:
Tim Sheehy, a charismatic former Navy SEAL who is the Republican candidate in a U.S. Senate race in Montana that could determine control of the chamber, has cited a gunshot wound he received in combat that he said left a bullet in his right arm as evidence of his toughness.
“I got thick skin — though it’s not thick enough. I have a bullet stuck in this arm still from Afghanistan,” Sheehy said in a video of a December campaign event posted on social media, pointing to his right forearm.
It was one of several inconsistent accounts Sheehy has shared about being shot while deployed. And in October 2015, more than a year after he left active duty, he told a different story.
After a family visit to Montana’s Glacier National Park, he told a National Park Service ranger that he accidentally shot himself in the right arm that day when his Colt .45 revolver fell and discharged while he was loading his vehicle in the park, according to a record of the episode filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Montana.
I have no idea what really happened, and he has told so many lies about it I never will be fully confident in any version. Only two things are certain- there is a bullet in his arm, and he is a liar. As he is a Republican, you already knew the latter.
Had a fun day today. Breyana and I went up to costco, did a little shopping. I got the biggest jar of pickles I have ever seen, and I will eat every last one of them. It was fun spending some time with the kid. She’s very good company.
I have become completely sucked into Black Sails on Starz, so I am going to wrap this up. Be good to each other.
Wombat Probability Cloud
Very glad that your spirits have risen.
Quaker in a Basement
Black Sails? Oh, man, that’s a great ride. I should take it up again. I had to drop it after a while because it was a little too raw for the missus.
SpaceUnit
Yup. The GOP are all fruit loops, just a fascist, traitorous breakfast cereal for children.
trollhattan
Scoring 100 on the adorability scale, baa-baas spotted on today’s ride doing vegetation control along our river bike path. Lots and lots of sheepses, and goatses too, with plenty of little ones. Chatty lot.
Ohio Mom
@Wombat Probability Cloud: This.
RedDirtGirl
Yeah, I saw the story got prominent placement in the WaPo. I couldn’t really follow it, but it was a thorough article, so it seems like people think it’s a big deal.
Glad you are doing better John.
I just discovered Sneaky Pete on Amazon Prime. Really enjoying it.
BretH
Good to hear of fun times with kiddos. Ah Black Sails! A fun watch. A guilty pleasure of mine is Cutthroat Island (and Treasure Planet, but you didn’t hear of it from me).
Raven
He shot himself with a 45 and it’s still in his arm. Bullshit.
Martin
I’ve been informed by many people that Seals are almost to a one complete sociopathic assholes. Other elite military groups are much better composed.
Raven
What kind of damage does a .45 caliber do?
https://thegunzone.com/what-kind-of-damage-does-a-45-caliber-do/
Betty Cracker
Here’s a fact that might inspire those who haven’t already crossed me off their Christmas card list to do so now: I fucking HATE pickles. I’ve despised them since I was a child. My mom used to claim it’s because I accidentally smashed a giant jar of them at the IGA as a toddler, which caused a big fuss.
I think it’s the horrendous taste rather than formative year trauma. Every other year or so, I’ll get served a supposedly pickle-free food that has pickles in it and remember all over again why I hate those wretched cucumbers that surrendered all their sunlight and airiness to a ruinous and foul combination of vinegar and Satan’s semen.
Martin
@Raven: Maybe if his arm was still in Afghanistan…
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?
Watching The Holdovers.
Anonymous At Work
Has Sheehy tried to claim a Purple Heart from the “combat wound”? If so, that’s Stolen Valor violation.
VFX Lurker
I was going to ask if you might post a picture of that giant jar of pickles from Costco, but then I checked Costco’s own website and…WOW. I did not know pickle jars could come in the size of a gallon.
Enjoy the pickles!
SpaceUnit
I’m not a military guy but I’m guessing psychiatric discharge.
That story makes no sense.
Martin
Speaking of giant jars of pickles. 20 years old now, but was an illuminating read back then.
JoyceH
@SpaceUnit:
I had the same reaction. Read the whole article and said, “HUH?”
Villago Delenda Est
@Martin:
The SEALs I’ve met (admittedly not very many of them) seemed to be pretty good guys, but then again, I didn’t hang with them for extended periods to really get to know them.
JoyceH
I love pickles, including kimchi and deep fried dill pickles.
Scout211
Which version?
All of them, Katie.
Old Dan and Little Ann
I like pickles. I made them for the 1st time about 10 years ago. They were pretty good. On the flip side, my wife made pickle soup when she was pregnant. It was one of most offensive things I have ever tasted.
Mike in NC
So many Republican pols are ex-Navy SEALs. Most of the ones I met on active duty were bullies and assholes. Just a coincidence I’m sure…
Scout211
I don’t care for pickles but I’ve never hated them. But now I’m leaning toward hate, you brilliant wordsmith, you!
Chet Murthy
@Martin:
how odd: that link didn’t work, but googling, I found one that did: https://eng121.net/online%20textbook/cause-effect/The%20Wall%20Mart%20You%20Don't%20Know.pdfsame site. how odd.And once I posted that link, I couldn’t click-thru it, either. Even odder. Well, the way I found it was to google for “the Walmart you don’t know”. Then it was the second link provided.
Chris T.
Oh, I have a pedantry and/or technical-point question suitable for B-J Jackals: is there a difference between pedantry and technical-correctness, and if so, what precisely is it? (This question came to me when I was thinking about posting a technical correction…)
Omnes Omnibus
@Villago Delenda Est:
I only met a couple at jump school and they were kind of assholey. TBH, most of the SF guys I’ve met were that way too. Oddly, guys from the Ranger Bns weren’t.
MattF
There was a deli on the main street of the inner-Queens neighborhood where I grew up where the proprietor liked to insult the foreigners who would sometimes venture in. If they asked for a sweet pickle, he’d scowl and say ‘This isn’t McDonald’s’.
stinger
If he had shot himself THAT DAY, there’d be blood and pain and possibly a damaged shirt. As opposed to a 3-yr-old injury, which would have healed and he could use that arm normally. I don’t see how it’s possible for the ranger or the medical people to mistake the age of the wound. The whole story is just too weird to have much actual truth in it.
But my very first reaction was, a SEAL? Yeah, sure. Gets him free drinks in bars. I don’t buy that, either.
eclare
@JoyceH:
Agreed. He’s lying about something, probably multiple things, who knows what exactly.
Martin
@Chet Murthy: Maybe this one?
MattF
@Chris T.: Pedantry is based on a need to embarrass someone who is ignorant, technical correctness is based on… um, reality.
Anonymous At Work
@Chris T.: “I” am technically correct. “You” are pedantic.
Chief Oshkosh
@Anonymous At Work:
And if he hasn’t, seems that it suggests that he didn’t get wounded in combat and knows that real shit will hit a real fan if he does try to make the claim. Similar to Trump trash talking 24/7 until you sit his fat ass down and put him under oath.
Omnes Omnibus
@Chris T.: Technical correctness is when I do it. Pedantry is when it is done to me.
sdhays
@Betty Cracker: I’m now going to add you to my non-existent Christmas card list.
JCJ
Purdue in the National Championship game for the first time since 1969.
Boiler Up! Hammer Down!
Chris T.
@Anonymous At Work: Aha, it’s one of those Irregular Words.
Parfigliano
Never been shot. Im positive I would remember how where and when if I had.
Useless GOPer piece of shit.
Chet Murthy
@Martin: :thumbs-up:
NotMax
Dave’s pickles by any chance? Yummy good.
Jay
Open Thread,……………………………..
https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/05/middleeast/gaza-war-no-plan-israel-intl-cmd/index.html
sdhays
The Sheehy story is really bizarre. In his most recent telling, he lied to the park ranger (law enforcement) so that someone else on his team might have gotten in trouble over a ricochet in some firefight in Afghanistan years earlier. Oh, because some other SEAL in 2017 was charged with murder but found not guilty (…makes you wonder what else was going on when he got shot).
And he’s not worried about a Navy investigation now that he’s blabbing it all over national media? Let’s say his most recent story is true, why didn’t he just stick with the lie he told the park ranger and let the whole story fade away? Now, he’s an admitted liar and officially doesn’t believe rules (or laws) should apply to people he chooses are worthy.
A lot of people probably fit in that bucket, but none of them should be in Congress.
Martin
@Chris T.: Is the correction material to understanding what is trying to be communicated? Pedantry is usually referring to a correction that doesn’t clarify, just seeks to elevate the position of the person making the point. Oftentimes pedantic corrections make things *less* clear by insisting that a colloquial term be replaced with a more accurate, but less understood technical one.
I oversaw our technical writing program for a while which was a bit more focused on communication for broad clarity – how do you write for engineers vs customers, etc. Sometimes less accurate language is helpful for understanding when you shift the audience. Sometimes you’re just pushing against an existing trend to shift the definition of a term.
More accurate isn’t always more understood. You get the occasional debate over whether you pluralize ‘octopus’ as ‘octopuses’ or ‘octopi’. But ‘octopus’ is a greek word, so it’d be ‘octopodes’. You could then argue they’re both wrong, but if you say ‘octopodes’ as it’s supposed to be pronounced about 99% of people would have no fucking idea what you’re talking about (stress on the second, rather than first syllable). And the correct answer is ‘octopuses’ because you pluralize nouns according to the rules of the language in which you are speaking. Octopus is neither latin nor greek but English borrowed, and adopts English language rules for pluralization, and the only reason to mention any of this is as an example, not because anyone is confused what we mean when we say either ‘octopuses’ or ‘octopi’, and what you should use is what we collectively, culturally agree is right. If people like the flow of ‘octopi’, then octopi it is.
TaMara
As someone whose brother was injured in Iraq, along with his friend, who took an actual bullet to his neck – the remaining fragment that had to be removed several years later – dangerously- and not to mention an uncle and cousin who were both shot and wounded in Vietnam, I am beyond offended by this asshole.
BTW, I also have a great-uncle who died when his plane was shot down on D-Day, so I’m also offended by any of his descendants who are even toying with voting for the orange stain this time around.
/rant
Honus
@Raven: yeah, that’s kind of what I’m thinking. No way.
LiminalOwl
@Martin: Thank you. I thought that would be the story you meant to link to. But … twenty years ago? When did time speed up?
Martin
@Jay: I think we said that Israels goal was impossible somewhere around October 9.
But that’s nothing new – the US sets impossible/popular goals all the time.
LiminalOwl
@Omnes Omnibus: I’m not pompous, I’m pedantic. There’s a difference.
Danielx
@Raven:
He shot himself in the arm with a 45 and he still has an arm? Well…
sdhays
@Jay: I think Israel has set itself a lot of impossible goals over the last 20-30 years and they’re all going to start coming to a head over the next several years. The idea that you can just keep taking Palestinian land and playing different terrorist groups off each other in perpetuity instead of trying to set up a long-term glide-path to coexistence was never going to work, if your goal is to create a peaceful and prosperous Israel for the next 500 years.
Oh, and continually empowering a growing special class which is both more powerful and literally dead weight economically and socially was always going to create problems.
Danielx
@Betty Cracker:
Oh thanks loads, I’m never going to look at pickles the same way.
Princess
He probably shot himself while drunk.
Princess
@Betty Cracker: So I accidentally smashed a giant jar of pickles at Loblaws and I love pickles to this day.
evodevo
@stinger: Yeah…this…you would think the ER personnel would be able to distinguish between a fresh wound and one that’s months/years old LOL…but because of HIPAA I guess we will never know.
Martin
@sdhays: Unfortunately the UN also set an impossible goal with Israel. I don’t know how you maintain a democratic ethnostate. It can hold accidentally for a while, but at some point you have to violate the first or the second part of that arrangement which is what brings us to this moment. The public are undecided which to violate.
Same decision is happening in the US.
eclare
@TaMara:
That was a righteous rant, you have every reason to be deeply offended.
Princess
@Martin: You could say the same thing is happening in the Netherlands, is about to happen in France, and has already happened in Hungary.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@Martin
Ken
@Anonymous At Work: @Chris T.: It needs the third-person version, then. I suggest:
Honus
@sdhays: also, why is there a “…record of the episode filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Montana”?
Ken
Afghanistan bullet wounds are tricky; look at that of Dr. John Watson, which migrated from his arm in A Study in Scarlet to his leg in The Sign of Four.
Jeffro
um for what it’s worth, Biden/Harris 2024 is going for the throat tonight, calling out trumpov’s
financial saviors job creators worthless billionaire pieces of shitbig donors at tonight’s MAL fundraiser BY NAME and BY PICTURE on Twitter.methinks the next seven months are going to be far more ‘populist’ than anyone can imagine (especially these cretins)
sdhays
@Honus: I think the record in question is the “crime” he admitted to where his gun “accidentally” went off and shot him in the national park. Which he now says he lied about and is coming clean because…reasons.
Jeffro
@Jeffro: seriously, go check out the thread…what a fucking rogue’s gallery we have here, folks! All with pics and evildoer bios listed!! Top tweet notes that this is a list of “scammers, racists, and extremists”(!)
– ones I’ve heard of before: John Paulson, Kelly Loeffler (yes, from GA), Robert Mercer (yes, from Cambridge Analytica), Wilbur Ross (I swear I thought he was dead already), and Steve Wynn
-new additions to Scumbags R’ Us: Robert Bigelow, John Catsimatidis, Jose’ Fanjul, Jamie McCourt, Jeff Yass, Woody Johnson, Mike Hodges, Todd Ricketts, Harold Hamm, and Phil Ruffin.
Think about what message this sends to the rest of the (gag) donor class: we. will. out. you.
GOOD
sab
@Betty Cracker: My husband puts them on his peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, which makes me gag just thinking about it.
Uncle Cosmo
@Mr. Bemused Senior: From the conclusion of the same ditty-wah-ditty:
Jackie
@Betty Cracker: Pickles made me puke when I was pregnant with my son, and subsequently made my son puke when I ate them while breastfeeding him. To this day – 43 yrs later – neither of us eat pickles. EXCEPT in tartar sauce. I, on the other hand, love cukes. My son refuses them. Go figure.🤷🏼♀️
Jay
@Martin:
What is new is CNN covering it. Or any Lamestream Media.
It’s a major shift.
Jeffro
btw has anyone see trumpov’s latest 8-minute ad, narrated by “Thomas Klingenstein…writer, playwright, investor”?
holeeeeeeeee shit
The ad literally notes what a scumbag trumpov is, but says it doesn’t matter, because trumpov is strong and knows that the REAL enemies are the ‘woke mob’?
Joyce Alene notes that the tone and pacing of the ad are straight out of fascist propaganda 101 and she’s right. holy cow.
Craig
@Betty Cracker: I’m with you. I hate pickles. Even the smell makes me say, NO!
Gin & Tonic
@Betty Cracker: Proper pickles are made without vinegar, just brine.
wjca
Perhaps he’s a George Santos wanna-be.
SpaceUnit
@Jeffro:
Pretty sure the DeSantis campaign proved that the woke thing isn’t a vote winner.
It just makes you sound like an idiot.
SpaceUnit
Don’t understand the pickle hate.
The best burger without a slice of dill is like eating a plain baloney sandwich on WonderBread while a sad clown plays the trombone in your ear.
Redshift
@Betty Cracker: Didn’t hold back, tell us what you really feel!
Martin
@Jay: That’s true. Shifting it from the margins to mainstream means an awful lot.
wjca
Except that the US was not set up as an ethnostate. And has never one.
Granted, we have recurring arguments about one ethnic group or another. And each time, the previous “out” ethnic group is now part of the “in”. Our national ethnic group is, to the extent there is such a thing, a moving target. Correct label: “mixed”.
NotMax
@Betty Cracker
More’s the pity you don’t- relish them.
;)
rikyrah
Biden’s Wins (@BidensWins) posted at 7:43 PM on Sat, Apr 06, 2024:
BREAKING: The Biden campaign just put together this ad slamming all the scammers, racists, and extremists at Trump’s billionaire fundraiser tonight. Retweet to ensure all Americans see this. https://t.co/ClUqlelaIG
(https://x.com/BidensWins/status/1776772768442265950?s=02)
Gin & Tonic
Took long enough for UConn to find their groove. Game was surprisingly close for a long time.
wjca
@Uncle Cosmo:
Must we conclude from this that there is noone Baud adores? Say it ain’t so!
Sure Lurkalot
I like (dill) pickles but I don’t eat them often. I do quick pickle a mix of radishes, carrots, onion and jalapeño, Asian style or Mexican style with herbs/spices but no dill. These are good on sandwiches and tacos.
Got the Covid booster yesterday and felt pretty poopy, especially in the afternoon. Free thanks to Medicare which the lying sack of shit subject of this post likely wants to destroy, because Republican—that’s what they do “best”. Lie and destroy.
Chet Murthy
@Sure Lurkalot:
Me too! I asked my doc, and he was all “sure, let’s do it!” I was expecting a little “discussion” where I would have to convince him and all, but no, it was easy as pie! Such a change from during the pandemic!
Jeffro
@rikyrah: that’s the one! (I saw it in tweet-thread form first)
I knew we were going to have a reckoning with trumpov and MAGA this election…it is beyond smart (and long overdue) for Biden/Harris to run against this country’s utterly corrupt billionaires.
go try and spin it, Fox! (and good luck – you’ll need it!)
NotMax
Music time.
Louis Prima, Pickle in the Middle.
;)
smith
Eight minutes? Who’s going to sit through that? Judging from Truth Social’s traffic numbers, there’s a limited audience for even his one-paragraph rants. I can’t imagine that even those deluded souls will want to be propagandized for 8 minutes.
Steeplejack
@Chet Murthy:
PDF links will often download without warning on phones and tablets but leave you sitting on a blank page in your browser. It’s good to note if a link you post is a PDF, so people can decide how to handle it. (And you can’t always tell if a link is to a PDF by hovering over the link, because you may not be able to see all of it.)
Jeffro
@SpaceUnit: it isn’t a general election winner…this is trumpov & Co trying to shore up their hardcore base. (It was posted on TruthSocial)
I’ve never seen an ad before that OPENS with “our candidate is a complete asshole…but he is STRONG and hates all the people we hate”. Like, literally!
Eolirin
@wjca: I think you can argue Jim Crow was absolutely the establishment of an ethnostate, where White could be redefined to some degree, but Black could not.
Jeffro
@smith: check it out when you have a moment or eight.
His base will absolutely eat it up. It completely validates them. “Yes, he’s a 110% asshole. But he’s fighting for YOU…against THEM”. The message is clear: they should have no compunction about supporting trumpov, no matter how bad it gets, because he’s fighting…THEM.
Fascism 101
SFAW
@Jeffro:
Woody Johnson? Fuck him. After what he’s done to the Jets, I can only hope that a mega-tsunami hit Mar-a-Lardo while he was there (figuratively) sucking Fuckhead’s teeny-tiny-but-not-his-hands. Either that, or a well-targeted, decent-sized meteor.
SuzieC
Hey Narya if you’re around I made your citrus bars. Delicious.
Voting in favor of dill pickles. I love them.
NotMax
@Jeffro
For those who can’t make it in person to one of his Sluremberg rallies.
//
SpaceUnit
@Jeffro:
If a candidate is so desperately trying to shore up one’s base at this point in the election cycle, then they are in sorry shape. IMO.
At this point you need to have your base in your pocket and be moving to expand one’s appeal beyond that base. I truly think trump is swirling the bowl.
NotMax
@SFAW
Talk about lowest hanging fruit.
//
Origuy
Continuing my swing through the Midwest. Thursday I went to the Hopewell Cultural National Historical Park, which is a World Heritage Site. It’s actually a number of sites around the Chillicothe area. Then I stayed at the General Denver Hotel in Wilmington, which is nearly 100 year old. Wilmington is a nice little town. The hotel boasts the oldest elevator in Ohio, but the morning desk lady couldn’t get it to work so I had to haul my luggage down by hand.
Friday morning I took in the Fort Ancient Natural Preserve, which has more native mounds. Some were pretty impressive. The museum is worth a stop too. Then began the orienteering portion of my trip. I went down to Camp Freidlander, a Cub Scout camp near Cincinatti. The forests there are really dense and the ravines you have to cross are steep and muddy. Today we went to Hueston Woods State Park, which is also muddy and the forests are dense. Not so steep, but the mountain bike trails were a labyrinth. Tomorrow we’re back there for the final day of the US Masters Championship, then I head to my sister’s place in Indiana to watch the eclipse.
glc
This is a long and complex thread and I have just two remarks.
sdhays
@NotMax: “Sluremberg rallies”
You’ve outdone yourself this time. Bravo!
This also made me think: it’s certainly cheaper than holding a bunch of “Sluremberg rallies”, for someone who is apparently strapped for cash.
Jeffro
@SFAW: oh he’s THAT Woody Johnson? ugh. agree.
Wapiti
@sdhays: Yeah, the idea that someone in the military would hide a bullet wound, when revealing it would mean (a) a Purple Heart, and (b) potential disability coverage down the road, and his team covered it up… Suggests that if the wound happened in Afghanistan, he was doing something he didn’t want to get caught doing (stealing government shit, murdering competing heroin smugglers, whatever). He’s lying about something.
dmsilev
@Jeffro: ‘He’s our asshole!’.
Of course, leopards, face-eating, etc.
Anotherlurker
Continuing the pickle thread: I confess to being an absolute monster. I really like sweet Gherkins. Even more than I like a killer Kosher Dill.
A bit of chopped Gherkin in my sainted Scottish grandmother’s egg salad is a wonderful addition especially when the egg salad is liberally seasoned with Coleman’s mustard.
Brachiator
@wjca:
Bullshit. Racism was part of the political DNA of the United States. It was developed and refined over time. But it was centered in the idea that black people must be oppressed.
One quick example. In Louisiana, free people of color had a higher status than other blacks, slave or free. But after the Louisiana Purchase, the racism of the North and South was imposed into the Louisiana territories. Black people who previously had some rights lost them.
Gvg
@Mike in NC: Special forces don’t admit or deny former members I think so I have heard a few stories over the years where it turned out the claimed seals or green berets were not. Sometimes never even military. The first thing you need to check is see if they any proof of enlistment or honorable discharge like a DD214.
WaterGirl
@sdhays: Addressed to:
Betty Cracker
on the lake
Somewhere in Florida
Let me know when it gets there!
Gin & Tonic
@SFAW: Woody Johnson, completely incidentally, is a very generous supporter of Ukrainian causes (his current wife is a Ukrainian-American.)
Glidwrith
@Anotherlurker: At last! Sweet gherkins for the win!
Cucumbers taste like bitter green water.
mrmoshpotato
I hope you and Breyana went to lunch as well.
mrmoshpotato
@Anotherlurker: Goodness gracious Great Gherkins of Aldi!
frosty
@WaterGirl: I think that should be either on the river or in the swamp. I don’t recall BC mentioning a lake.
I believe I’m technically correct on this one.
Chet Murthy
Reading these comments about pickles, I gotta say,
timeo danaos dona ferentesres ipsa loquiturnil nisi bonumde gustibus non est disputandem! Ah finally! Love me some pickles, esp. cornichons.mrmoshpotato
Sounds like I missed a pickle fight.
Final Four!
Go Hawkeyes!
Go Boilermakers!
West of the Rockies
@SpaceUnit:
Isn’t “woke” really a new way of saying “politically correct”?
And what is wrong with being woke: awake, aware, conscious. Conscientious?
Do wingnuts have an antonym they embrace? What word do they use to say they aren’t woke?
Chet Murthy
@West of the Rockies: ahem, I suspect it’s two words: “HH”.
Jay
@Gvg:
There is a youtuber, Fmr. Navy Seal that has a “Stolen Valor” channel, exposing the fakes, which sometimes ends in arrests.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nW2OSsTuCxM
mrmoshpotato
@West of the Rockies:
I always saw it as whining about not being allowed to be a racist/sexist/misogynistic asshole without getting called out anymore.
Martin
@wjca: Doesn’t matter when half the country believes, as an article of faith, that it was founded as one. Until you fix that, it doesn’t matter if the US is one, or they just want it to be one.
Chacal Charles Calthrop
@Ken: I thought of that, too!
And ever afterward Doyle just has Watson complain vaguely of his “wound” without more specificity.
eclare
@Anotherlurker:
I use sweet pickle relish in my tuna salad, it would be pretty boring without it.
eclare
@mrmoshpotato:
I agree with your take.
Martin
@West of the Rockies: It’s a co-option of the quite old black saying about staying aware of white racists. It expanded use somewhat, but that’s pretty much it.
White racists co-opted it to mean any expressions that challenged shared white christian patriarchal heteronormative culture. It covers ‘politically correct’ but is much broader because it doesn’t just apply to speech but policy, any other expressions of culture that deviate from that, etc. It doesn’t even need to push back against that white culture, it just needs to validate something that white culture in this moment opposes (even if they only decided they opposed it in that very moment).
Sister Golden Bear
@Betty Cracker: Come sit by me.
Geminid
@Martin:
Melancholy Jaques
I stumbled onto Black Sails on one of those nights where I was totally bored with everything and just said, oh what the h Black Sails. I got hooked and really enjoyed. Watched it again a year later. I ended up doing a fairly extensive amount of reading on the history of that era and the pirates. In particular how some of the pirates were privateers during Queen Anne’s War. When the war ended, they just kept doing what they had been doing, only without the sanction of one of the belligerent nations.
Odie Hugh Manatee
I’m hitting this open thread doing the Snoopy dance! My wife and I probably just had a huge burden taken off our our and our autistic son’s shoulders. We found the proof we needed and they are more than happy to assist us!! I’m going to message a member here who has been assisting us about it tomorrow to loop them in and get their opinion but at this time it would be best to keep quiet about it. You can bet your ass that I’ll tell the whole story once we successfully close this chapter of it.
This is so fucking great and if we’re successful our son is going to cause some serious pain to some people and a company who fucked him over.
Mike in NC
@Odie Hugh Manatee: That sounds great. Best wishes.
eclare
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
Good luck with everything!
Brachiator
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
Very glad to hear the good news. Best wishes to you.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Chet Murthy:
How’s this link: link to pdf
Chet Murthy
@Odie Hugh Manatee: That didn’t work either. But no worries, Martin posted a link that worked, and besides that I was able to Google to find the PDF anyway.
Odie Hugh Manatee
Thank you all! We’ve been worried about this to no end and whether we had something or not. We learned what the other side was saying on Thursday and it absolutely both floored us and pissed us off royally. After some discussion with an ‘inquisitive person’, that person told us what we needed for them to successfully pursue this to a satisfactory conclusion. We have one more person to talk to tomorrow but the call I took tonight was the real winner as that person confirmed everything and more, way, way more than we expected. Wrap up that last call tomorrow to one last person, write up our response for the ‘inquisitive person’ to use and send that off Tuesday or Wednesday.
Then we wait. If things are what we think they are I don’t expect the wait to be for too long. One can hope! :)
One other thing is that the person we talked to does not believe one aspect of their story and it’s a biggie! He even told our son that.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Chet Murthy:
What’s weird is it works if you right click on the link and open it in a new tab. Directly clicking on it don’t work.
Weird.
wjca
Perhaps I misunderstand the term. But to me “ethnostate” means one where a single ethnographic group dominates all others. (Rather than one where a single group is dominated by all others.
In the US there is no such single dominant group. A group (those of English descent) dominated initially. They worried about a second group: those of German descent. As time went on, we worried about, and then integrated, a succession of other ethnic groups. And we continue to absorb and integrate new groups to this day. (Just as we continue to worry that the next group will somehow fail to integrate.) Which means that we simply do not fit my understanding of “ethnostate.”
wjca
Nope. It would have to be “HT” — “Heil Trump!” TIFG simply could not tolerate any other name than his being saluted.
prostratedragon
@VFX Lurker: Mrs. Miller used to keep two jars like that on her counter, one sour snd one dill. You could buy one pickle for maybe 10 cents. A dill was great on a hot day.
gwangung
@Martin: It’s sorta like the 21st Century version of blackface in my book, taking material from black culture in order to mock it and other concepts developed by black scholars and thinkers.
eclare
@prostratedragon:
Pickle juice is known as the poor man’s Gatorade for its hydration effects.
AlaskaReader
@West of the Rockies:
What one word?
Republican
Chet Murthy
@Odie Hugh Manatee: I’m using Chromeos. Two different ways to do what I *thought* was the same thing:
Those are supposed to do the same thing. And yet (just as you say!) #2 works, but #1 does not (get 404). How ….. fascinating.
Odie Hugh Manatee
In the last week I sawed up and hauled off our old couch, cleaned the carpets while at it, had a new couch delivered, cleared out the raspberry beds, added new soil to them, tore out one of the raised beds, built a new one to replace it, hauled in 2 1/2 yards of soil, filled the new box and am now building back the remaining four raised beds. We’re putting in pickling cukes, snap peas, purple beans, carrots, beets, lettuce and some herbs. Two of the beds already have strawberry plants and the whole back of the yard is blackberry bushes.
We’re just now pulling up the last of last years carrots. They keep (growing) real well all winter, allowing us to have fresh carrots whenever we want. One more carrot cake and that’s it until the next crop comes in.
Chet Murthy
@wjca:
sure there is: it’s called “white people”. Over time, different European ethnics were included in the definition of “white people”, but what never got included was those with, yanno, “one drop of blood”. It’s just possible that someday East Asian-Americans might be included. But the dusky hordes (including South Indians) never will.
rikyrah
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
✊🏾✊🏾✊🏾✊🏾
Gretchen
@Odie Hugh Manatee: we look forward to hearing the whole story when it’s settled. Good luck!
Brachiator
@wjca:
I don’t think that any of this is relevant to American history. And you don’t seem to understand how “whiteness” informed citizenship and civil rights.
@Chet Murthy:
We have moved beyond this as far as citizenship is concerned. But there is the question of how right wing nativism might rise to the degree of a threat to civil rights.
Also, I doubt that the average American has any idea of a difference between South Indians vs any other Indian.
Odie Hugh Manatee
Thank you, rikyrah and Gretchen! It’s gonna be gud, I promise. This took turns that my wife and I can’t believe, negative at first and then GOOD NEWS. It turns out the person who is coming through for us knows our son and adores him and has an autistic nephew herself. She had no idea what had been going on with our son and was outraged when she found out about it. She had a similar if not worse ‘event’ compared to our son, with a significantly different outcome for them both. She is more than happy to talk to that interested person I mentioned. That interested person told us that she would be the most important person if what we had heard was true and it turns out it was!
When she told me what had happened with her and how it all unfolded, I swear I saw fireworks I was so damned happy! Well, enough for now but I will close with our son fully understands the significance of this and has been grinning nonstop about it. Happy son, happy parents!
Thanks!
Chris T.
@WaterGirl:
A college friend of mine once tried sending a letter from MIT to his dad in semi-rural Virginia. The letter was simply addressed to: <Father’s Full Name> / <zip-code in King George VA>.
It got there.
Inside, however, was another envelope and the request “mail this back”. This one was addressed to <Son’s Full Name> / <zip-code of MIT>. This letter did not arrive.
We concluded that the letters probably went to the right zip codes, and then the post office for King George recognized the family name and delivered it, while the post office for that part of Cambridge MA just said “fuck it” and threw it out. The population density in Cambridge (a city of ~120k, probably with multiple zip codes like Berkeley CA, which is similarly sized and also holds a large university campus) is clearly a great deal higher than that in King George (now almost 5000, certainly much lower back then).
Citizen Alan
@Betty Cracker: I despise everything about pickles. I can’t eat food that’s been to close to pickles. Long before boycotting Chik-Fil-A was fashionable, I couldn’t eat there because the chicken was apparently cooked in pickle juice. I flinch when I see someone else bite into a pickle.
Citizen Alan
@Villago Delenda Est: My best friend on earth is a former Navy Seal who got dishonorably discharged after someone reported him coming out of a gay bar in D.C. when he was working at the Pentagon (this was in the late 80s). Ruined his life. He’s 58 now, has no retirement plans and lots of health issues, and he works at a hardware store in Shit-Town Mississippi,
opiejeanne
@Jeffro: Jamie McCourt. It figures that she’d be a Trumper.
Fans of the Dodgers were really glad to see her and her husband gone. One of the LA Times sports writers always referred to Frank McCourt, her ex, as the Boston parking lot attendant.
NotMax
@Chris T.
Remember back when some radio ads used to end with “Send a letter to [name of product] [call letters of radio station] and we’ll send you information, which includes full-color photos.” No street address or P.O. box, no city, no state, no ZIP.
The one dredged up from memory first was oft heard during the 1960s — for the Rover 2000 TC automobile.
sab
I just saw a story in the Cleveland Plain Dealer that has me gobsmacked. Frank LaRose, Ohio’s Secretary of State, wants to block Biden from the November ballot in Ohio because Ohio requires the certification by August 7, and that is before the Democratic convention later in August.
Ruckus
@Raven:
Does seem to be
just a tadfucking unbelievable….Military .45 pistol loads were not near maximum loads. A maximum load has quite a bit more kickback (and will do more damage) than military loads – and yes I’ve shot both. In the military a 45 was considered a close in weapon and as such could be rapid fired within a very small target area, because of the smaller powder load. I once rapid fired such a small pattern that the gunners mate was very impressed. Would not have been able to do that with a full powder load.
NotMax
@Ruckus
Keep Your Powder Dry.
;)
Ruckus
@Danielx:
It does seem to be a tad unfuckingbelievable….
What sort of dumbshit does it take to shoot yourself in the arm with a pistol?
TBone
Howard Buffet spoke about Ukraine to farmers, about farmers. I found this very interesting.
https://www.agweb.com/news/business/health/untold-farmer-stories-ukraine-qa-howard-buffett
Ruckus
@NotMax:
Why was I expecting what you linked to…..
jonas
@Raven: Pretty much. People with shrapnel or bullets “still in them” have that because the fragments were lodged too close to the spine or a major artery or something to risk the surgery to remove them. In his arm? WTF?
Ruckus
@SpaceUnit:
My opinion is that the hard core to at least the second degree, likely the third degree and above (or is that below….), the hard core is what is left because it is getting far more obvious day by day that ShitForBrains is becoming less and less human as the days go on, (And yes he was never very human to start with….) he’s losing not just it, but losing everything. He’s aging out, the stress of being him has taken a major toll.
Joey Maloney
@wjca: The more time I spend here, the less I think it’s even correct to refer to Israel as an ethnostate. And I’m not even talking about the 20% of the citizenry who are Muslim and Christian Arabs. The state is composed of people from many different ethnicities – from most countries in Europe and all of North Africa and the Arabian peninsula. In fact one of the biggest schisms in the society now is ethnic – between the Ashkenazim, the mostly coded-as-white Europeans who were the founders of the state and the mostly coded-as-nonwhite Mizrachi who for years felt discriminated against and belittled by the Ashkenaz who controlled most of the levers of power in the state.
Our man Bibi – despite being as white-presenting as they come – exploited this division to rise to power in the first place by championing the grievances of the Mizrachi.
I have not yet mentioned the black Africans who everyone shits on. We have our own scandals of forced sterilization of Ethiopian Jews.
JWR
Abu Ghraib… Now with antiseptic?
Much more at the link. All very, very bad.
Barry
@Mike in NC: “So many Republican pols are ex-Navy SEALs. Most of the ones I met on active duty were bullies and assholes. Just a coincidence I’m sure…”
Not are they America’s most famous secret fighting force, but also the largest, with millions of memebers!
Princess
@wjca: Anerica was established as a white ethnostate where the definition of whiteness is a bit fungible but remains dominant. The people who set up apartheid came to the US to learn how to do it. No one would deny that South Africa was once an ethnostate, despite the fact that the white people spoke different languages.
And the many Americans from Cuba, Colombia, Venezuela etc who support the GOP do it because the condition is that they are accepted as white. They dislike the Dems in part because we want to subsume them into a big class of Latinos they don’t identify with and despise.
Raven
@jonas: Artie has buckshot in her ass’
LiminalOwl
@Odie Hugh Manatee: Congratulations, and best wishes to your family.
Raven
@Barry: I knew a phony SEAL here, back in the day they had a SEAL Hall of Shame and he was on it.
evodevo
@glc:
Lemme tell ya, the hotel breakfasts in Prague have ALWAYS been peculiar, to say the least. The one I ate at back in the Nineties had lots of strange combinations and unidentifiable dishes LOL. I was expecting the usual European continental spread (sliced meats, cheeses, bagels, croissants, toast, etc.) and was flummoxed to say the least. I don’t want to have to do detective work on the buffet first thing at 6 in the AM. I ate a lot of croissants w jam that day. Thank goodness they had those …
evodevo
@Chris T.: Yep…mail carrier here…if the zip code destination is smaller than 40k or so, (our tiny office covered the northern half of the county and had 1500 customers), SOMEBODY will recognize the name and be able to route it. Carriers know around a thousand or more names on their routes (as long as it’s the family name, not a boarder or cousin staying temporarily or whatever). Just one more service DeJoy is fucking up…
Kay
@sab:
I wouldn’t worry about it yet, sab. This has come up before, for both Republicans and Democrats, and LaRose is the only person who has ever started screeching about it like it’s an issue that can’t be fixed.
As you know he’s an absolute hack and not very smart. He’s just trying to score points with media and Trumpsters.
He is, incidentally, also a Green Beret. People who work for election boards say if you DON’T know that you will know within 30 seconds of encountering him and be reminded every 20 minutes thereafter :)
TBone
I was at a parrot head concert on a Galveston beach one day with 2 girlfriends and a guy asked if he could take our picture. We linked arms and were all grinning from ear to ear, slightly inebriated, with our sunglasses on. A few weeks later, 3 postcards arrived, addressed only to “Three Cool Chicks, Galveston, TX.” We each received our copy of that photograph despite no names or mailing addresses, and I’ve still got mine.
Kay
@sab:
Worse comes to worst, Democrats could just tweak their own rules and nominate him in a 5 minute ceremony on 8/6 and then have a ceremonial at the convention. Republicans couldn’t do anything about it because political party rules aren’t justiciable outside the party itself – only the Democratic Party can say what their rules are.
LaRose is such a clown. He’s lashing out at us because he lost the abortion referendum.
Geminid
Virginia has a lot of retired military in politics. The last three Representatives for the Coastal 2nd CD were a Republican retired Navy Petty Officer; a Democratic retired Navy officer, Elaine Luria; and a Republican retired Navy officer, current Representative Jen Kiggans. Missy Cotter Smasol, Kiggans’ leading Democratic challenger this year, is also a retired Navy officer.
My 7th Virginia CD is represented by a former CIA officer, Abigail Spanberger. She’s retiring in order to run for Governor next year, and plenty of ex-military are running for her seat. On the Republican side, there’s Green Beret, a SEAL, a Marine and a regular Army officer.
On the Democratic side, there’s a Green Beret and two retired regular Army officers running.* Not a very diverse field, with no ex-Marines, no ex-Navy and like the Republicans, no Air Force veterans.
* Including Lt. Colonel Eugene Vindman, whose major fundraising advantage over his rivals can be credited largely to strong backing from the political outfit VoteVets.
Timill
@Kay: And somebody in his office is going to be in trouble for reminding the Democratic Party about the date problem.
sab
@Kay: What a relief. Looking at tje sources ( ABC, NY Post, the Hill) I think I just fell for some GOP agitprop. The PD part was not their story but a link to an Advance story, also suspect.
sab
@Kay: And he came in third in a three way primary.
Kay
@sab:
It’s real- there’s a real issue- so you didn’t fall for anything- it’s just that it’s always been fixed quietly and with a minimum of fuss before and it isn’t just Democrats – Republicans have had to get around it too.
LaRose is funny because he’s good at getting media attention but then he sort of doesn’t know what to do with it when he gets it – shouldn’t he be attacking his fellow Republicans for how corrupt they all are like the rest of them instead of bothering us?
Another Scott
@Kay: I knew a guy in the mid-1970s who was a “Green Beret” in Vietnam. Turns out, he was actually in “Supply”, I learned later.
The “Green Berets” seem to have morphed into “SEALs” over time. I’m kinda surprised there hasn’t been a pop song about the SEALs yet (or maybe there has in some genre that I don’t listen to (“Christian Rock”, “Prosperity Gospel”, …??))…
:-/
Grr…,
Scott.
SteveinPHX
@Betty Cracker: One of heaven’s bright spots in this drab life is a spear of good Kosher dill pickle when I take a sandwich to work for lunch.
Just had to confess!
wjca
Granted there are some few who have never got past “north western Europeans only.” And others are similarly behind the curve at other points. But today I’d say that, for most Americans, East Asians are already included as “us”. Southeast Asians are making the transition. South Asians are too new to have made the transition yet. Although I expect they will in another generation or two.
As for Hispanics generally, at the moment it may depend on where you are. In the Southwest, they’re already included. It’s helpful that they were here first; everyone’s had a lot of generations to make it a nonissue. Those who are newly arrived, with imperfect English, are an exception for some. But merely having a family name like Martinez or Gonzales or Lopez is an utter irrelevance.
I suppose you could argue that some of these aren’t considered “white people”. Largely true. BUT, they are included as “us” for most people. Half a century ago, if I walked in some places with one of my East Asian girl friends, I’d get raised eyebrows (or more) in lots of places outside big cities. Today? Nobody bats an eye. Granted, I don’t spend much time in deep red rural areas of the South. But otherwise? Nada.
Blacks remain an exception. But we’re a long ways past “one drop” (i.e. a single ancestor) for most people. DNA testing, which keeps showing up black ancestors for people whose families had buried that bit of family history, contributes. Sort of like the impact of discovering gay family members has changed the view of homosexuals for people who, a couple of decades back, one would not have expected to abandon that bigotry. And for kids the last generation or more, being gay is a nothingburger.
wjca
I’m aware of how all this impacted American history. I just think our view of who constitutes “us” has evolved. Again. (And I think that “us” is a more informative gloss than “whiteness” in these discussions. For some, obviously, the two are absolutely synonymous, but not for most. )
What has been my observation is that, for example, being visibly of East Asian ancestry doesn’t inform citizenship or civil rights. I’ll accept that there are places where that is not true. But then, there are places where having ancestors from southern Europe is still problematic for some.
glc
@evodevo: Yes, the pickled camembert wasn’t the only odd thing. Though the rest seemed more defensible.
Another thing they like to eat as the day goes on is fried breaded melted cheese – like mozzarella sticks but more unequivocally a single dose cardiac arrest delivery mechanism.