Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

This chaos was totally avoidable.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

It is not hopeless, and we are not helpless.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

They want us to be overwhelmed and exhausted. Focus. Resist. Oppose.

President Musk and Trump are both poorly raised, coddled 8 year old boys.

These are not very smart people, and things got out of hand.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires Republicans to act in good faith.

Humiliatingly small and eclipsed by the derision of millions.

Decision time: keep arguing about the last election, or try to win the next one?

A fool as well as an oath-breaker.

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

No one could have predicted…

“In this country American means white. everybody else has to hyphenate.”

I like political parties that aren’t owned by foreign adversaries.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

Text STOP to opt out of updates on war plans.

The real work of an opposition party is to hold the people in power accountable.

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

Friday Night Open Thread

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On the thermometer, the temperature today was the same as it had been the last few days, but, for whatever reason, it felt sooo much hotter today. Maybe less wind? You stepped outside and it just felt like you were walking into a wall of pea soup. Here’s to hoping Geg6 got her ac fixed because if not she is gonna be miserable.

As I write this, both cats are engaging in a coordinated attempt to gaslight me into thinking they were not fed. I fed them at 5 pm, went downstairs and finished the end of Dune 2 and had dinner, and then came back up here to write this, and both animals are freaking out like it is dinner time. Maxwell is doing his performative dance in between and around my legs while crooning, and Steve is sitting next to a food bowl acting as hype man, occasionally throwing out a LOUD MEOWRAWR. I’m not fooled you fuckers, I’m not that senile yet.

Last night we had a touch of drama as I was watching tv. Maxwell started making a loud noise in the front hallway wile I was watching tv, and I was able to ignore him for a few minutes before he got really loud. So I walked over, turned on the light, and he had cornered a live mouse and was keeping it there so the idiot human could learn how to hunt. I didn’t want to kill the thing, so I got a dustpan and a magazine and scooped him up in the dustpan and covered it with the magazine. I was making my way to the door to let it out outside when it squirted out and plummeted to the wood floor and either killed itself or knocked itself out. Regardless, I scooped it up again and took it outside. No idea whether it lived or died, but I feel like I did my best.

Other than that, not much going on. Little reading, little tv, little quality time with the cats.

Reader Interactions

29Comments

  1. 1.

    Soprano2

    I guarantee the humidity was higher today that’s why it feels hotter.

    On another note, my new central air is working! Yay!

  2. 2.

    UncleEbeneezer

    We finished Becoming Karl Lagerfeld on Hulu last night and it was so much better than we expected.  I know a lot of liberties were taken with the history but the acting is superb, and the costumes were great. If you are into fashion and like these sorts of stories/series’, give it a look.

  3. 3.

    mrmoshpotato

    You stepped outside and it just felt like you were walking into a wall of pea soup.

    Haha!  YUMM-O!

    ETA – could you taste the ham? 😋

  4. 4.

    SiubhanDuinne

    A long time ago I caught a little mouse at work. Trapped it under a huge Big Gulps or something cup, one of those ginormous ones. Punched holes in the lid so it could breathe. My dad had some woods behind his house, so my plan was to take it home with me and release it. But on the drive home it must have had a heart attack because by the time I pulled in the driveway it was as dead as John Cleese’s parrot. I went into the living room where my dad was stretched out watching Wheel of Fortune. Sadly, I held out the cup and said, “Oh Daddy, there’s a dead mouse in here.”  Without missing a beat, he said, “No thanks, honey, I just had some chocolate milk.”

  5. 5.

    stinger

    Mr. Cole, I’m sure you are aware of what we just did for the NC Black Alliance group, and I want to thank you for making this space available for that kind of group endeavor and building this community. We’re better together! It takes a village, and we’re it!

  6. 6.

    Almost Retired

    @stinger:  Amen many times over!  John Cole’s support for fundraising sets Balloon Juice apart from the pearl clutching blogs.  He probably has no idea how much positive impact he has had.

  7. 7.

    Glidwrith

    Mice are wired for speed. I have found I can pick them up by the tail if I move slowly.

  8. 8.

    Frankensteinbeck

    No idea whether it lived or died.

    99% of the time the answer is ‘It ran right back inside as soon as its head cleared.’  It is very difficult to kill a mouse with a fall, although they are prone to stress heart attacks.  They find getting into a building laughably easy.  Nevertheless, you saved it from immediate death by cat, so good for you.

    EDIT – And by ‘very difficult to kill with a fall’ you can drop that little bastard from orbit and if it doesn’t die from lack of oxygen it’ll hop back up and run away when it hits the ground.  Fatal impact speed is way higher than terminal velocity.

  11. 11.

    CaseyL

    Good on ya, John, for rescuing the mouse.

    Between only feeding Steve and Maxwell one dinner per evening, and not being able to kill a mouse they had already gone to the trouble of catching for you, your cats probably think you’re a hopeless incompetent.

    But to that mouse? You’re a hero.

  12. 12.

    PJ

    99 degrees today on the first day of summer in Brooklyn.  That’s not official, just the temperature outside my building.  I may have to move to Maine.

  13. 13.

    Dan B

    87° at our house in chilly damp Seattle.  There are many plants  in our garden like Cannas, Tomatoes, and Daturas that are loving it after many days in the 50’s.  It cools back into the 70’s tomorrow.  Too bad the Fremont (formerly quirky neighborhood) Solstice Parade wasn’t today.  The naked cyclists might be the goosebumps and the shrinkages.  Cats are mostly outside but not in the sun except Milly who is in the sun on the downstairs bed.  It’s in the low 70’s down there.

  14. 14.

    mayim

    @PJ: it was miserably hot here in Maine the last few days, although it has cooled down for the weekend.

    I spent part of Wednesday evening checking job listings in Newfoundland and Shetland.

    The heatwave here was made even more miserable for me because I’m recovering from surgery and the post-operative wounds means I can’t use what my mother called Yankee air conditioning [a.k.a. go jump in the nearest lake].

  16. 16.

    geg6

    The saga of the AC continues.  A new unit was installed but was not putting out much, if any cold air.  We let it run a while in case the heat of the last week or so delayed the cold air but it didn’t seem to get better.  So we went around to all the cold air returns and nothing.  He had gotten here around 5 and it was now about 7:30.  He had to go into the attic!!  It had to be boiling up there but he searched around and found that whoever had put the original unit in had not hooked up a cold air return and where it had been was just stuffed full of insulation and broken.  So he pulled that out and some cold air started coming through.  He didn’t leave until about 9 pm.  He said he’d be coming back to fix that but couldn’t do it in the attic until the weather had moderated a bit so he could spend some time in the attic without getting heat stroke or dying.  So we have some relief.  Not enough but it’s better than it was.

  20. 20.

    pat

    Here in western WI the temp has been in the 70s and we have had cloudy weather for the last couple of days, but it ain’t the heat, it’s the humidity, as we used to say.  We have had a couple passing storms.  And they are predicting high water on the Mississippi from rain up north.

    Got all 5 smoke detectors replaced with a new brand.  The one in the bedroom has been going off in the middle of the night.  4 times in the last few weeks.

  21. 21.

    BellyCat

    @geg6: Sigh…. Attics are where lousy contractors commit many sins. Homeowners rarely inspect the work. Your current A/C person is a hero!

  23. 23.

    wombat probability cloud

    @mayim: Just out of curiosity, why Shetland? I spend some formative time there in 1972 but, unfortunately, haven’t been back. Yet.

  24. 24.

    wjca

    OT, so…

    Check out this little video.  Going to make it hard for voters, especially drivers, in Ohio to stay ignorant of what’s happening.   So . . . unsubtle those Democrats.  Probably a potential Dark Brandon ad in there.

  25. 25.

    Lily

    Yeah hot.  Heavy walking.  I swam in cold water.  After the first minutes it felt exquisite. The few others who were there said the same.  Almost no one was there yesterday or today, not even the people who bring their dogs every day who are all friends and run around leaping with each other.  Everyone else had decided it was too hot to walk up the hill to the water.   Only Fanny, the part chihauhau, maybe terrier, fastest dog in the neighborhood was there to leap around with our dog and a ball in her mouth for about an hour. Walking home I got just as hot again. The cold water on my head had lifted my mood though.

  27. 27.

    Another Scott

    @stinger: A village, indeed.  Led by Cole and Watergirl.

    Meanwhile, … ProPublica.org:

    How a Network of Nonprofits Enriches Fundraisers While Spending Almost Nothing on Its Stated Causes – by Ellis Simani

    […]

    Before the deal with the FTC was even finalized, Berkenbush filed paperwork to establish a new company, Office Edge LLC. Since then, Office Edge has been paid about $866,000 for fundraising from organizations that similarly claim to be working on behalf of cancer patients, veterans and firefighters. The difference? These groups are not charities, they’re political nonprofits that claim to use donations to influence elections and support broad political causes.

    The groups that are hiring Berkenbush are known as 527s, after a section of the tax code. They include federal political action committees — organizations that raise money to elect or defeat candidates and are regulated by the Federal Election Commission — but also a lesser-known group of nonprofits. These 527 groups limit their direct support to political candidates, removing them from the jurisdiction of the FEC or similar state agencies and leaving their regulation to the IRS. They do not have restrictions on how much donors can contribute, but the donations are not tax deductible.

    A ProPublica investigation has connected Berkenbush to a network of at least 10 of these 527 groups that have raised more than $33 million on the promise of supporting admirable causes, but that have spent little on activities that could be construed as having a political purpose. Most of the money goes to fundraisers who have only been paid by 527s in the group ProPublica identified.

    […]

    There are too many crooks and scammers out there. Having ways to support important causes and knowing that the money is actually going where’s it’s claimed is important. And TCFFG and his minions don’t have that – from the top on down they’re running a grift.

    Thanks, everyone.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  28. 28.

    Yutsano

    @Another Scott: ​Non-profit tax reform needs to happen like yesterday. And the part of the IRS that regulates non-profits needs both more money and a severe staff expansion. Oh and to keep Republicans out of power so they can’t starve the IRS again.

  29. 29.

    Jeffg166

    Mice travel in pairs. If you caught one there is another and probably a bunch of babies somewhere. At least you have the cats to help you catch them.

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