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Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

An unpunished coup is a training exercise.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

Republicans got rid of McCarthy. Democrats chose not to save him.

Donald Trump, welcome to your everything, everywhere, all at once.

Bad news for Ron DeSantis is great news for America.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

The frogs are rarely mistaken.

If you are in line to indict donald trump, stay in line.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

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

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

It’s a doggy dog world.

Everybody saw this coming.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

There is one struggling party in US right now, and it’s not the Democrats.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

We still have time to mess this up!

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

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Bogus polls are all they’ve got left. Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls a year from now.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

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You are here: Home / John Cole Presents "This Fucking Old House" / Saturday Night Open Thread

Saturday Night Open Thread

by John Cole|  April 6, 20249:06 pm| 181 Comments

This post is in: John Cole Presents "This Fucking Old House"

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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.

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    181Comments

    1. 1.

      Wombat Probability Cloud

      April 6, 2024 at 9:10 pm

      Very glad that your spirits have risen.

      Reply
    2. 2.

      Quaker in a Basement

      April 6, 2024 at 9:11 pm

      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.

      Reply
    3. 3.

      SpaceUnit

      April 6, 2024 at 9:12 pm

      Yup.  The GOP are all fruit loops, just a fascist, traitorous breakfast cereal for children.

      Reply
    4. 4.

      trollhattan

      April 6, 2024 at 9:13 pm

      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.

      Reply
    5. 5.

      Ohio Mom

      April 6, 2024 at 9:13 pm

      @Wombat Probability Cloud: This.

      Reply
    6. 6.

      RedDirtGirl

      April 6, 2024 at 9:13 pm

      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.

      Reply
    7. 7.

      BretH

      April 6, 2024 at 9:14 pm

      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).

      Reply
    8. 8.

      Raven

      April 6, 2024 at 9:15 pm

      He shot himself with a 45 and it’s still in his arm. Bullshit.

      Reply
    9. 9.

      Martin

      April 6, 2024 at 9:17 pm

      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.

      Reply
    10. 10.

      Raven

      April 6, 2024 at 9:18 pm

      What kind of damage does a .45 caliber do?
       

      https://thegunzone.com/what-kind-of-damage-does-a-45-caliber-do/

      Reply
    11. 11.

      Betty Cracker

      April 6, 2024 at 9:19 pm

      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.

      Reply
    12. 12.

      Martin

      April 6, 2024 at 9:20 pm

      @Raven: Maybe if his arm was still in Afghanistan…

      Reply
    13. 13.

      What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?

      April 6, 2024 at 9:20 pm

      Watching The Holdovers.

      Reply
    14. 14.

      Anonymous At Work

      April 6, 2024 at 9:21 pm

      Has Sheehy tried to claim a Purple Heart from the “combat wound”?  If so, that’s Stolen Valor violation.

      Reply
    15. 15.

      VFX Lurker

      April 6, 2024 at 9:21 pm

      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!

      Reply
    16. 16.

      SpaceUnit

      April 6, 2024 at 9:22 pm

      I’m not a military guy but I’m guessing psychiatric discharge.

       

      That story makes no sense.

      Reply
    17. 17.

      Martin

      April 6, 2024 at 9:22 pm

      Speaking of giant jars of pickles. 20 years old now, but was an illuminating read back then.

      Reply
    18. 18.

      JoyceH

      April 6, 2024 at 9:23 pm

      @SpaceUnit:

      That story makes no sense.

      I had the same reaction. Read the whole article and said, “HUH?”

      Reply
    19. 19.

      Villago Delenda Est

      April 6, 2024 at 9:25 pm

      @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.

      Reply
    20. 20.

      JoyceH

      April 6, 2024 at 9:26 pm

      I love pickles, including kimchi and deep fried dill pickles.

      Reply
    21. 21.

      Scout211

      April 6, 2024 at 9:28 pm

      @SpaceUnit: That story makes no sense.

      Which version?

      All of them, Katie.

      Reply
    22. 22.

      Old Dan and Little Ann

      April 6, 2024 at 9:29 pm

      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.

      Reply
    23. 23.

      Mike in NC

      April 6, 2024 at 9:31 pm

      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…

      Reply
    24. 24.

      Scout211

      April 6, 2024 at 9:32 pm

      @Betty Cracker: 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.

      I don’t care for pickles but I’ve never hated them.  But now I’m leaning toward hate, you brilliant wordsmith, you!

      Reply
    25. 25.

      Chet Murthy

      April 6, 2024 at 9:33 pm

      @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.pdf

      same 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.

      Reply
    26. 26.

      Chris T.

      April 6, 2024 at 9:33 pm

      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…)

      Reply
    27. 27.

      Omnes Omnibus

      April 6, 2024 at 9:35 pm

      @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.

      Reply
    28. 28.

      MattF

      April 6, 2024 at 9:36 pm

      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’.

      Reply
    29. 29.

      stinger

      April 6, 2024 at 9:37 pm

      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.

      Reply
    30. 30.

      eclare

      April 6, 2024 at 9:38 pm

      @JoyceH:

      Agreed.  He’s lying about something, probably multiple things, who knows what exactly.

      Reply
    31. 31.

      Martin

      April 6, 2024 at 9:38 pm

      @Chet Murthy: Maybe this one?

      Reply
    32. 32.

      MattF

      April 6, 2024 at 9:39 pm

      @Chris T.: Pedantry is based on a need to embarrass someone who is ignorant, technical correctness is based on… um, reality.

      Reply
    33. 33.

      Anonymous At Work

      April 6, 2024 at 9:39 pm

      @Chris T.: “I” am technically correct.  “You” are pedantic.

      Reply
    34. 34.

      Chief Oshkosh

      April 6, 2024 at 9:40 pm

      @Anonymous At Work:

      Has Sheehy tried to claim a Purple Heart from the “combat wound”? If so, that’s Stolen Valor violation.

      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.

      Reply
    35. 35.

      Omnes Omnibus

      April 6, 2024 at 9:40 pm

      @Chris T.: Technical correctness is when I do it.  Pedantry is when it is done to me.

      Reply
    36. 36.

      sdhays

      April 6, 2024 at 9:40 pm

      @Betty Cracker: I’m now going to add you to my non-existent Christmas card list.

      Reply
    37. 37.

      JCJ

      April 6, 2024 at 9:41 pm

      Purdue in the National Championship game for the first time since 1969.

      Boiler Up!  Hammer Down!

      Reply
    38. 38.

      Chris T.

      April 6, 2024 at 9:42 pm

      @Anonymous At Work: Aha, it’s one of those Irregular Words.

      Reply
    39. 39.

      Parfigliano

      April 6, 2024 at 9:44 pm

      Never been shot.  Im positive I would remember how where and when if I had.

      Useless GOPer piece of shit.

      Reply
    40. 40.

      Chet Murthy

      April 6, 2024 at 9:45 pm

      @Martin: :thumbs-up:

      Reply
    41. 41.

      NotMax

      April 6, 2024 at 9:45 pm

      Dave’s pickles by any chance? Yummy good.

      Reply
    42. 42.

      Jay

      April 6, 2024 at 9:48 pm

      Open Thread,……………………………..

      Several experts told CNN that Israel was facing an impossible situation because the goal it has set for itself – eliminating Hamas – is both unachievable and very popular domestically.

      Hamas has dominated Gaza ever since it seized power in 2007, controlling all government and security bodies, as well as the healthcare, education and social systems.

      “Israel cannot achieve its stated goal of eliminating Hamas, because Hamas is an integral part of the Palestinian society in the West Bank and Gaza. Its popularity has increased in the last several months,” said Nathan Thrall, a Jerusalem-based expert on the Arab-Israeli conflict and author of “A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: Anatomy of a Jerusalem Tragedy.”

      “After Israel declared that it has defeated Hamas in the north, you see that every week, Israeli soldiers are dying in the north, so it’s evident that Hamas will continue to exist after this war, whether Israel invades Rafah or doesn’t invade Rafah. Hamas is a major power on the ground and will remain so at the end of this war,” Thrall told CNN.

      This means that Israel’s leaders don’t have a viable way out of the conflict, Thrall explained.

      “The realistic options in front of them are to continue to occupy Gaza indefinitely, which most Israelis do not want to do, or, alternatively to leave Gaza and have Hamas be the strongest power on the ground whether or not it’s the official face of the government in Gaza,” he said.

      Elgindy also said the goal of destroying Hamas was never realistic. “I think even American officials realize, belatedly, that it’s complete madness, that people are allowing this horror to continue as though the goal of destroying Hamas was more important than anything else in the world, including Israel’s own future security,” he said.

      “It’s divorced from reality because even if you destroy Hamas, you’re creating something that will be much worse than the future. Because now you have 30,000 people who are dead, 17,000 orphans … what is their view of Israel and the United States going to be when they grow up?”

      Israel was a politically divided country before the October 7 attacks, paralyzed by months of large-scale protests against Netanyahu and his government, the most right-wing in Israel’s history, and particularly the prime minister’s proposed judicial overhaul.

      But while these political divisions remain, the vast majority of Israelis support the war in Gaza, despite the international outcry over the devastating impact on Palestinian civilians.

      “The Israeli public is still traumatized from October 7, they are still in the revenge mode, some don’t want even food to enter. Even if we don’t accept that it’s right, we can understand what their state of mind is,” Elgindy said, adding that while understandable given the horrors of the October 7 terror attacks, this mindset should not influence international policy.

      “We can’t allow that state of mind to dictate the policies of the US and the UK and the European Union. You need to have grownups saying ‘this is not acceptable; you cannot use starvation as a weapon’. In other words, it doesn’t matter that the Israeli public isn’t in the mood for stopping this war. It needs to be forced on them,” he said.

      https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/05/middleeast/gaza-war-no-plan-israel-intl-cmd/index.html

      Reply
    43. 43.

      sdhays

      April 6, 2024 at 9:52 pm

      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.

      Reply
    44. 44.

      Martin

      April 6, 2024 at 9:53 pm

      @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.

      Reply
    45. 45.

      TaMara

      April 6, 2024 at 9:53 pm

      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

      Reply
    46. 46.

      Honus

      April 6, 2024 at 9:54 pm

      @Raven: yeah, that’s kind of what I’m thinking.  No way.

      Reply
    47. 47.

      LiminalOwl

      April 6, 2024 at 9:57 pm

      @Martin: Thank you. I thought that would be the story you meant to link to. But … twenty years ago? When did time speed up?

      Reply
    48. 48.

      Martin

      April 6, 2024 at 9:57 pm

      @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.

      Reply
    49. 49.

      LiminalOwl

      April 6, 2024 at 9:58 pm

      @Omnes Omnibus: I’m not pompous, I’m pedantic. There’s a difference.

      Reply
    50. 50.

      Danielx

      April 6, 2024 at 9:59 pm

      @Raven:

      He shot himself in the arm with a 45 and he still has an arm? Well…

      Reply
    51. 51.

      sdhays

      April 6, 2024 at 10:00 pm

      @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.

      Reply
    52. 52.

      Danielx

      April 6, 2024 at 10:01 pm

      @Betty Cracker:

      Oh thanks loads, I’m never going to look at pickles the same way.

      Reply
    53. 53.

      Princess

      April 6, 2024 at 10:03 pm

      He probably shot himself while drunk.

      Reply
    54. 54.

      Princess

      April 6, 2024 at 10:05 pm

      @Betty Cracker: So I accidentally smashed a giant jar of pickles at Loblaws and I love pickles to this day.

      Reply
    55. 55.

      evodevo

      April 6, 2024 at 10:06 pm

      @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.

      Reply
    56. 56.

      Martin

      April 6, 2024 at 10:08 pm

      @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.

      Reply
    57. 57.

      eclare

      April 6, 2024 at 10:10 pm

      @TaMara:

      That was a righteous rant, you have every reason to be deeply offended.

      Reply
    58. 58.

      Princess

      April 6, 2024 at 10:10 pm

      @Martin: You could say the same thing is happening in the Netherlands, is about to happen in France, and has already happened in Hungary.

      Reply
    59. 59.

      Mr. Bemused Senior

      April 6, 2024 at 10:11 pm

      @Martin

      One hippopotami cannot get on a bus,
      Because one hippopotami is two hippopotamus

      Reply
    60. 60.

      Ken

      April 6, 2024 at 10:12 pm

      @Anonymous At Work: @Chris T.: It needs the third-person version, then.  I suggest:

      • “I” am technically correct.
      • “You” are pedantic.
      • “He” is being an asshole.
      Reply
    61. 61.

      Honus

      April 6, 2024 at 10:13 pm

      @sdhays: also, why is there a “…record of the episode filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Montana”?

      Reply
    62. 62.

      Ken

      April 6, 2024 at 10:17 pm

      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.

      Reply
    63. 63.

      Jeffro

      April 6, 2024 at 10:27 pm

      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 shit big 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)

      Reply
    64. 64.

      sdhays

      April 6, 2024 at 10:28 pm

      @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.

      Reply
    65. 65.

      Jeffro

      April 6, 2024 at 10:32 pm

      @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

      Reply
    66. 66.

      sab

      April 6, 2024 at 10:35 pm

      @Betty Cracker: My husband puts them on his peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, which makes me gag just thinking about it.

      Reply
    67. 67.

      Uncle Cosmo

      April 6, 2024 at 10:36 pm

      @Mr. Bemused Senior: ​From the conclusion of the same ditty-wah-ditty:

      With someone you adore, if you should find romance,
      You’ll pant and pant once more – and That’s.A.Pair.Of.Pants!

      Reply
    68. 68.

      Jackie

      April 6, 2024 at 10:36 pm

      @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.🤷🏼‍♀️

      Reply
    69. 69.

      Jay

      April 6, 2024 at 10:38 pm

      @Martin:

      What is new is CNN covering it. Or any Lamestream Media.

      It’s a major shift.

      Reply
    70. 70.

      Jeffro

      April 6, 2024 at 10:41 pm

      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.

      Reply
    71. 71.

      Craig

      April 6, 2024 at 10:42 pm

      @Betty Cracker: I’m with you. I hate pickles. Even the smell makes me say, NO!

      Reply
    72. 72.

      Gin & Tonic

      April 6, 2024 at 10:44 pm

      @Betty Cracker: Proper pickles are made without vinegar, just brine.

      Reply
    73. 73.

      wjca

      April 6, 2024 at 10:45 pm

      @eclare: Agreed.  He’s lying about something, probably multiple things, who knows what exactly.

      Perhaps he’s a George Santos wanna-be.

      Reply
    74. 74.

      SpaceUnit

      April 6, 2024 at 10:50 pm

      @Jeffro:

      Pretty sure the DeSantis campaign proved that the woke thing isn’t a vote winner.

      It just makes you sound like an idiot.

      Reply
    75. 75.

      SpaceUnit

      April 6, 2024 at 10:55 pm

      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.

      Reply
    76. 76.

      Redshift

      April 6, 2024 at 10:57 pm

      @Betty Cracker: Didn’t hold back, tell us what you really feel!

      Reply
    77. 77.

      Martin

      April 6, 2024 at 10:58 pm

      @Jay: That’s true. Shifting it from the margins to mainstream means an awful lot.

      Reply
    78. 78.

      wjca

      April 6, 2024 at 10:58 pm

      @Martin: 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

      Same decision is happening in the US.

      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”.

      Reply
    79. 79.

      NotMax

      April 6, 2024 at 11:01 pm

      @Betty Cracker

      More’s the pity you don’t- relish them.
      ;)

      Reply
    80. 80.

      rikyrah

      April 6, 2024 at 11:02 pm

       

      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)

      Reply
    81. 81.

      Gin & Tonic

      April 6, 2024 at 11:03 pm

      Took long enough for UConn to find their groove. Game was surprisingly close for a long time.

      Reply
    82. 82.

      wjca

      April 6, 2024 at 11:03 pm

      @Uncle Cosmo:

      With someone you adore, if you should find romance,
      You’ll pant and pant once more – and That’s.A.Pair.Of.Pants! 

      Must we conclude from this that there is noone Baud adores?  Say it ain’t so!

      Reply
    83. 83.

      Sure Lurkalot

      April 6, 2024 at 11:04 pm

      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.

      Reply
    84. 84.

      Chet Murthy

      April 6, 2024 at 11:06 pm

      @Sure Lurkalot:

      Got the Covid booster yesterday

      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!

      Reply
    85. 85.

      Jeffro

      April 6, 2024 at 11:06 pm

      @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!)

      Reply
    86. 86.

      NotMax

      April 6, 2024 at 11:06 pm

      Music time.

      Louis Prima, Pickle in the Middle.
      ;)

      Reply
    87. 87.

      smith

      April 6, 2024 at 11:07 pm

      @Jeffro: has anyone see trumpov’s latest 8-minute ad,

      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.

      Reply
    88. 88.

      Steeplejack

      April 6, 2024 at 11:07 pm

      @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.)

      Reply
    89. 89.

      Jeffro

      April 6, 2024 at 11:08 pm

      @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!

      Reply
    90. 90.

      Eolirin

      April 6, 2024 at 11:09 pm

      @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.

      Reply
    91. 91.

      Jeffro

      April 6, 2024 at 11:09 pm

      @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

      Reply
    92. 92.

      SFAW

      April 6, 2024 at 11:12 pm

      @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.

      Reply
    93. 93.

      SuzieC

      April 6, 2024 at 11:12 pm

      Hey Narya if you’re around I made your citrus bars.  Delicious.

       

      Voting in favor of dill pickles.  I love them.

      Reply
    94. 94.

      NotMax

      April 6, 2024 at 11:13 pm

      @Jeffro

      For those who can’t make it in person to one of his Sluremberg rallies.
      //

      Reply
    95. 95.

      SpaceUnit

      April 6, 2024 at 11:16 pm

      @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.

      Reply
    96. 96.

      NotMax

      April 6, 2024 at 11:17 pm

      @SFAW

      Woody Johnson

      Talk about lowest hanging fruit.
      //

      Reply
    97. 97.

      Origuy

      April 6, 2024 at 11:25 pm

      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.

      Reply
    98. 98.

      glc

      April 6, 2024 at 11:25 pm

      This is a long and complex thread and I have just two remarks.

      1. I like pickles, but I disapprove of pickled camembert, which I encountered as  part of the breakfast buffet at a hotel in Prague.
      2. (h/t Jerad Walker via Popehat:)

        Osama Vinladen Jiménez López (born 7 October 2002) is a Peruvian professional footballer 

      Reply
    99. 99.

      sdhays

      April 6, 2024 at 11:26 pm

      @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.

      Reply
    100. 100.

      Jeffro

      April 6, 2024 at 11:28 pm

      @SFAW: oh he’s THAT Woody Johnson?  ugh.  agree.

      Reply
    101. 101.

      Wapiti

      April 6, 2024 at 11:28 pm

      @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.

      Reply
    102. 102.

      dmsilev

      April 6, 2024 at 11:29 pm

      @Jeffro: ‘He’s our asshole!’.

      Of course, leopards, face-eating, etc.

      Reply
    103. 103.

      Anotherlurker

      April 6, 2024 at 11:32 pm

      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.

      Reply
    104. 104.

      Brachiator

      April 6, 2024 at 11:32 pm

      @wjca:

      Except that the US was not set up as an ethnostate.  And has never one.

      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.

      Reply
    105. 105.

      Gvg

      April 6, 2024 at 11:33 pm

      @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.

      Reply
    106. 106.

      WaterGirl

      April 6, 2024 at 11:33 pm

      @sdhays: Addressed to:

      Betty Cracker
      on the lake
      Somewhere in Florida

      Let me know when it gets there!

      Reply
    107. 107.

      Gin & Tonic

      April 6, 2024 at 11:42 pm

      @SFAW: Woody Johnson, completely incidentally, is a very generous supporter of Ukrainian causes (his current wife is a Ukrainian-American.)

      Reply
    108. 108.

      Glidwrith

      April 6, 2024 at 11:44 pm

      @Anotherlurker: At last! Sweet gherkins for the win!

      Cucumbers taste like bitter green water.

      Reply
    109. 109.

      mrmoshpotato

      April 6, 2024 at 11:45 pm

      I hope you and Breyana went to lunch as well.

      Reply
    110. 110.

      mrmoshpotato

      April 6, 2024 at 11:46 pm

      @Anotherlurker: Goodness gracious Great Gherkins of Aldi!

      Reply
    111. 111.

      frosty

      April 6, 2024 at 11:48 pm

      @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.

      Reply
    112. 112.

      Chet Murthy

      April 6, 2024 at 11:50 pm

      Reading these comments about pickles, I gotta say, timeo danaos dona ferentes res ipsa loquitur nil nisi bonum de gustibus non est disputandem!  Ah finally!  Love me some pickles, esp. cornichons.

      Reply
    113. 113.

      mrmoshpotato

      April 6, 2024 at 11:56 pm

      Sounds like I missed a pickle fight.

      Final Four!

      Go Hawkeyes!

      Go Boilermakers!

      Reply
    114. 114.

      West of the Rockies

      April 6, 2024 at 11:59 pm

      @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?

      Reply
    115. 115.

      Chet Murthy

      April 7, 2024 at 12:00 am

      @West of the Rockies: ahem, I suspect it’s two words: “HH”.

      Reply
    116. 116.

      Jay

      April 7, 2024 at 12:02 am

      @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

      Reply
    117. 117.

      mrmoshpotato

      April 7, 2024 at 12:08 am

      @West of the Rockies:

      Isn’t “woke” really a new way of saying “politically correct”?

      I always saw it as whining about not being allowed to be a racist/sexist/misogynistic  asshole without getting called out anymore.

      Reply
    118. 118.

      Martin

      April 7, 2024 at 12:09 am

      @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.

      Reply
    119. 119.

      Chacal Charles Calthrop

      April 7, 2024 at 12:14 am

      @Ken: I thought of that, too!

      And ever afterward Doyle just has Watson complain vaguely of his “wound” without more specificity.

      Reply
    120. 120.

      eclare

      April 7, 2024 at 12:22 am

      @Anotherlurker:

      I use sweet pickle relish in my tuna salad, it would be pretty boring without it.

      Reply
    121. 121.

      eclare

      April 7, 2024 at 12:23 am

      @mrmoshpotato:

      I agree with your take.

      Reply
    122. 122.

      Martin

      April 7, 2024 at 12:23 am

      @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).

      Reply
    123. 123.

      Sister Golden Bear

      April 7, 2024 at 12:24 am

      @Betty Cracker: Come sit by me.

      Reply
    124. 124.

      Geminid

      April 7, 2024 at 12:27 am

      @Martin:

        “They’re Woke, We’re Volk.”

      Reply
    125. 125.

      Melancholy Jaques

      April 7, 2024 at 12:33 am

      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.

      Reply
    126. 126.

      Odie Hugh Manatee

      April 7, 2024 at 12:57 am

      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.

      Reply
    127. 127.

      Mike in NC

      April 7, 2024 at 1:05 am

      @Odie Hugh Manatee:  That sounds great. Best wishes.

      Reply
    128. 128.

      eclare

      April 7, 2024 at 1:08 am

      @Odie Hugh Manatee:

      Good luck with everything!

      Reply
    129. 129.

      Brachiator

      April 7, 2024 at 1:09 am

      @Odie Hugh Manatee:

      Very glad to hear the good news. Best wishes to you.

      Reply
    130. 130.

      Odie Hugh Manatee

      April 7, 2024 at 1:11 am

      @Chet Murthy:

      How’s this link: link to pdf

      Reply
    131. 131.

      Chet Murthy

      April 7, 2024 at 1:13 am

      @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.

      Reply
    132. 132.

      Odie Hugh Manatee

      April 7, 2024 at 1:23 am

      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.

      Reply
    133. 133.

      Odie Hugh Manatee

      April 7, 2024 at 1:25 am

      @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.

      Reply
    134. 134.

      wjca

      April 7, 2024 at 1:36 am

      @Brachiator: 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.

      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.”

      Reply
    135. 135.

      wjca

      April 7, 2024 at 1:41 am

      @Chet Murthy: I suspect it’s two words: “HH”.

      Nope.  It would have to be “HT” — “Heil Trump!”   TIFG simply could not tolerate any other name than his being saluted.

      Reply
    136. 136.

      prostratedragon

      April 7, 2024 at 1:42 am

      @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.

      Reply
    137. 137.

      gwangung

      April 7, 2024 at 1:47 am

      @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.

      Reply
    138. 138.

      eclare

      April 7, 2024 at 1:58 am

      @prostratedragon:

      Pickle juice is known as the poor man’s Gatorade for its hydration effects.

      Reply
    139. 139.

      AlaskaReader

      April 7, 2024 at 1:59 am

      @West of the Rockies:

      What one word?

      Republican

      Reply
    140. 140.

      Chet Murthy

      April 7, 2024 at 2:20 am

      @Odie Hugh Manatee: I’m using Chromeos.  Two different ways to do what I *thought* was the same thing:

      1. control-click on the link
      2. meta-click on the link (same as right-click) and select “open in new tab”

      Those are supposed to do the same thing.  And yet (just as you say!) #2 works, but #1 does not (get 404).  How ….. fascinating.

      Reply
    141. 141.

      Odie Hugh Manatee

      April 7, 2024 at 2:22 am

      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.

      Reply
    142. 142.

      Chet Murthy

      April 7, 2024 at 2:23 am

      @wjca:

      In the US there is no such single dominant group.

      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.

      Reply
    143. 143.

      rikyrah

      April 7, 2024 at 2:36 am

      @Odie Hugh Manatee:

       

      ✊🏾✊🏾✊🏾✊🏾

      Reply
    144. 144.

      Gretchen

      April 7, 2024 at 2:38 am

      @Odie Hugh Manatee: we look forward to hearing the whole story when it’s settled. Good luck!

      Reply
    145. 145.

      Brachiator

      April 7, 2024 at 3:00 am

       

      @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.

      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:

      It’s just possible that someday East Asian-Americans might be included.  But the dusky hordes (including South Indians) never will.

      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.

      Reply
    146. 146.

      Odie Hugh Manatee

      April 7, 2024 at 3:01 am

      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!

      Reply
    147. 147.

      Chris T.

      April 7, 2024 at 3:21 am

      @WaterGirl:

      Addressed to:

      Betty Cracker
      on the lake
      Somewhere in Florida

      Let me know when it gets there!

      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).

      Reply
    148. 148.

      Citizen Alan

      April 7, 2024 at 3:31 am

      @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.

      Reply
    149. 149.

      Citizen Alan

      April 7, 2024 at 3:33 am

      @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,

      Reply
    150. 150.

      opiejeanne

      April 7, 2024 at 3:40 am

      @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.

      Reply
    151. 151.

      NotMax

      April 7, 2024 at 3:43 am

      @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.

      Reply
    152. 152.

      sab

      April 7, 2024 at 4:07 am

      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.

      Reply
    153. 153.

      Ruckus

      April 7, 2024 at 4:08 am

      @Raven:

      Does seem to be just a tad fucking 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.

      Reply
    154. 154.

      NotMax

      April 7, 2024 at 4:14 am

      @Ruckus

      Keep Your Powder Dry.
      ;)

      Reply
    155. 155.

      Ruckus

      April 7, 2024 at 4:20 am

      @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?

      Reply
    156. 156.

      TBone

      April 7, 2024 at 4:21 am

      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

      Reply
    157. 157.

      Ruckus

      April 7, 2024 at 4:22 am

      @NotMax:

      Why was I expecting what you linked to…..

      Reply
    158. 158.

      jonas

      April 7, 2024 at 4:50 am

      @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?

      Reply
    159. 159.

      Ruckus

      April 7, 2024 at 5:41 am

      @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.

      Reply
    160. 160.

      Joey Maloney

      April 7, 2024 at 5:41 am

      @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.

      Reply
    161. 161.

      JWR

      April 7, 2024 at 5:56 am

      Abu Ghraib… Now with antiseptic?

      Report: Israeli doctor says detained Palestinians are undergoing ‘routine’ amputations for handcuff injuries

      CNN — A doctor at a field hospital for detained Palestinians at Israel’s Sde Teiman army base has described “deplorable conditions” and “routine” amputations due to handcuff injuries, according to an exclusive report from the newspaper Haaretz.

      In a letter to Israel’s attorney general and defense and health ministers, obtained by Haaretz, the doctor said the conditions at Sde Teiman field hospital compromise inmates’ health and violate medical ethics.

      “Just this week, two prisoners had their legs amputated due to handcuff injuries, which unfortunately is a routine event,” the doctor said in the letter, according to the Haaretz report on Thursday. He wrote that inappropriate care at the detention facility has led to “complications and sometimes even in the patient’s death,” adding that “this makes all of us – the medical teams and you, those in charge of us in the health and defense ministries, complicit in the violation of Israeli law.”

      Much more at the link. All very, very bad.

      Reply
    162. 162.

      Barry

      April 7, 2024 at 6:19 am

      @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!

      Reply
    163. 163.

      Princess

      April 7, 2024 at 6:36 am

      @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.

      Reply
    164. 164.

      Raven

      April 7, 2024 at 7:41 am

      @jonas: Artie has buckshot in her ass’

      Reply
    165. 165.

      LiminalOwl

      April 7, 2024 at 7:41 am

      @Odie Hugh Manatee: Congratulations, and best wishes to your family.

      Reply
    166. 166.

      Raven

      April 7, 2024 at 7:43 am

      @Barry: I knew a phony SEAL here, back in the day they had a SEAL Hall of Shame and he was on it.

      Reply
    167. 167.

      evodevo

      April 7, 2024 at 8:00 am

      @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 …

      Reply
    168. 168.

      evodevo

      April 7, 2024 at 8:12 am

      @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…

      Reply
    169. 169.

      Kay

      April 7, 2024 at 8:18 am

      @sab:

       wants to block Biden from the November ballot in Ohio

      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 :)

      Reply
    170. 170.

      TBone

      April 7, 2024 at 8:22 am

      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.

      Reply
    171. 171.

      Kay

      April 7, 2024 at 8:23 am

      @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.

      Reply
    172. 172.

      Geminid

      April 7, 2024 at 8:26 am

      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.

      Reply
    173. 173.

      Timill

      April 7, 2024 at 9:29 am

      @Kay: And somebody in his office is going to be in trouble for reminding the Democratic Party about the date problem.

      Reply
    174. 174.

      sab

      April 7, 2024 at 9:35 am

      @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.

      Reply
    175. 175.

      sab

      April 7, 2024 at 9:48 am

      @Kay: And he came in third in a three way primary.

      Reply
    176. 176.

      Kay

      April 7, 2024 at 10:07 am

      @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?

      Reply
    177. 177.

      Another Scott

      April 7, 2024 at 11:52 am

      @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.

      Reply
    178. 178.

      SteveinPHX

      April 7, 2024 at 11:56 am

      @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!

      Reply
    179. 179.

      wjca

      April 7, 2024 at 12:20 pm

      @Chet Murthy: 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.

      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.

      Reply
    180. 180.

      wjca

      April 7, 2024 at 12:29 pm

      @Brachiator: 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.

      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.

      Reply
    181. 181.

      glc

      April 7, 2024 at 12:43 pm

      @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.

      Reply

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