Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

The Supreme Court is corrupt. Democrats must win in November and force court reform.

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

Let’s finish the job.

We still have time to mess this up!

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

You’re just a puppy masquerading as an old coot.

Today’s gop: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

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

Happy indictment week to all who celebrate!

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

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

Republicans: The threats are dire, but my tickets are non-refundable!

If marriage is the equivalent of selling yourself into slavery, women with self respect should reject the offer.

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

Motown is Joe-Town!

Prediction: the gop will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

Trump’s legal defense is going to be a dumpster fire inside a clown car on a derailing train.

I desperately hope that, yet again, I am wrong.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

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

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

Republicans do not pay their debts.

We won’t go back.

You are here: Home / Elections 2024 / Energized Dawn Open Thread: The Convention Party Begins

Energized Dawn Open Thread: The Convention Party Begins

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As someone on the last thread pointed out: He’s giving his SecSer agents agita, but it’s good to know they *are* fully alert!

A viewing guide from watchful expert NotMax, lifted from the last thread:

1) C-SPAN: The network will feature continuous coverage — titled Campaign 2024 — beginning with a preview at 5:30/4:30c on Monday and 6/5c on Tuesday through Thursday.

2) MSNBC: The network will begin its coverage of the contention on […] August 19 at 6/5 with Ari Melber kicking off a special cohosted by Joy Reid, who’ll be on location in Chicago, and followed by coverage anchored by Rachel Maddow and Jen Psaki. Throughout the week, Morning Joe‘s hosts will provide coverage in the morning, with the afternoon shows hosted by Andrea Mitchell and Chris Jansing following suit during their regular hours. On Wednesday, August 21, the network will air MSNBC Live: Access for All as live coverage of the convention. MSNBC’s YouTube page will stream the DNC all four days, and the network’s website and app will feature additional coverage.

3) The DNC will feature a live-stream video on its YouTube channel. Link.

4) PBS: The network will air three hours of nightly coverage — titled PBS News Special: Democratic National Convention — starting at 8/7c, with Amna Nawaz and Geoff Bennett anchoring.

5) Noticias Telemundo: The network will feature daily convention coverage from Monday through Friday, with special editions of the newscast anchored by Juli Vaquiero. Damià Bonmatí will anchor coverage on the streaming channel Noticias Telemundo Ahora (which is available on Peacock and the network’s digital platforms).

Source

Also: Watch the Convention, on the offical DNC 2024 site.

Any other tips or queries, leave a message below!

Reader Interactions

140Comments

  1. 1.

    SpaceUnit

    This convention is gonna be lit.  Can’t remember Dems being so unified, energized and on point.

     

    Also, I’m going to bed.  Nearly 3am here.  Good night all.

  4. 4.

    Bruce K in ATH-GR

    I’m glad I was in the wrong time zone to watch the RNC convention; I’m sorry I’m in the wrong time zone to watch the DNC convention. I suspect there will be a lot of love for Joe Biden tonight, and I hope that it causes the Republican nominee’s ego to suffer a spontaneous catastrophic implosion.

  5. 5.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Blech.

    I’ll read about it in the AM. But probably not tomorrow’s AM. I have to be out the door by 4 to take 40 birds to my processor, 2 1/2 hours away.

  6. 6.

    Karen S.

    Up early and getting ready for my volunteer shift this morning at the DNC! I’m on the media logistics team. I’m not exactly sure what that entails, but I’ll find out soon enough. I’ll be at McCormick Place, the secondary site, where all the DNC caucus and council meetings are being held. I’m very excited even though it’s ungodly early, for me anyway.

  7. 7.

    sanjeevs

    I missed the thread on the 1968 convention so I have a couple of questions if anyone is interested-

    1. Since the anti-war groups had failed to get a candidate on the ticket in spite of winning many primaries , was part of the demands of the demonstrators that the candidate selection process be reformed to be primary based (which it was in 1972)

    2. Was this part of the reason Mayor Daley tried to shut down the process – was he a player in the Democratic party who stood to have reduced power if the primary system became the method to select the candidate?

  8. 8.

    ascap_scab

    FOX keeps ‘warning’ of full scale riots, if not by antifa/hamas, then by out of control cops. As proof, they have b-roll of -one- building with boarded up windows on a continous loop.

    I’m sure the terrorist caravans are on their way.

  9. 9.

    Suzanne

    Seeing Harris petting a cute dog is so refreshing. Remember the reporting that TFG hated all animals?! I fully understand having an allergy to cats, or a fear of dogs from a bad experience or something….. but hating all animals?! That’s fucken weird.

  10. 10.

    Gloria DryGarden

    OT

    IM UP LATE, AGAIN. I just read Heathers letter: yesterday, aug 18 is when women got the right to vote in the US, it got ratified on this date.

    one more important thing from yesterday. Alain Delon, the heartthrob French actor has passed away, at 88. I kept thinking about him all day.

    Have fun watching the convention, I’m off to try to sleep. May it all go well.

    ETA My friends who like rfk are saying dems are scared, cuz he’s getting on the ballots in more states. I sure don’t want rfk to pull votes from the Harris  walz voters.

  11. 11.

    Betty Cracker

    The river finally crested after processing the tropical downpour that fell on the swampy headwaters from Hurricane Debby. There are many flood control structures on this river. The closest to us is a dam about a mile and a quarter upriver. It was overtopped a few days ago, but we’re still high and dry.

    I’ve seen tons of vegetation and debris floating by during the past few days. Yesterday morning I saw a piece of a dock riding the current. It turns out it belonged to our friends down the road! It’s probably floating in the Gulf of Mexico now.

  12. 12.

    hueyplong

    @sanjeevs: In general, your two statements about the effects of their actions are correct, but as to motivations, I’m not at all sure the actors saw the future clearly.  For example, Daley would have had a ham-handed, violent reaction to pretty much anything lefties did that irritated him, and he wasn’t likely speculating about a potential future primary system when he went to Plan A (cracking heads).

  13. 13.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @Suzanne: if I were a dog, I’d growl at TFG, and I’d recognize him for the crap person he is, and I’d bite him right through his pants leg. I’m willing to bet, dogs recognize him as an unfriendly person, and usually dislike him.

    its just a thought.

  16. 16.

    mrmoshpotato

    Any other tips or queries, leave a message below!

    Convection!  Stay the fuck away from the far north side!

    Other than that, Party on, Wayne!  Party on, Garth!  Go fuck up the Gross Old Pu**y-Grabbers!  Burn them to the ground, shit on the ashes, and shove them up surviving Rethuglicans’ asses.

  23. 23.

    hueyplong

    @Gloria DryGarden: RFKjr’s main thing (other than being an a-hole) is being anti-vax, so a consensus has formed that he’d steal from Trump more than he’d steal from Harris.

    But RFKjr is slipping beneath the waves in any case.  I put the over/under betting line on RFKjr at 1% a couple of months ago and said I’d bet the under.  Still think that.  Bad faith refusal to certify votes and legal challenges are something to fear.  The difference between the RFKjr risk and the risk of a meteor is probably nothing more than rounding.

  26. 26.

    Baud

    @Karen S.:

    Awesome.

    I’m on the media logistics team. I’m not exactly sure what that entails, but I’ll find out soon enough

     

    Hopefully, slapping is involved.

  27. 27.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Suzanne:

     I remember reading, back in the 2016 election, that TFG thought the Pences were yokels 

    Can they be yokels and Christian fascists?

  29. 29.

    satby

    It’s going to be absolutely glorious weather in the most beautiful city in the nation for the week. Welcome to my hometown DNC!

  32. 32.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Baud:

    Hopefully, slapping is involved. 

    Yes!  Slap them all, Karen S!  Slap them with the force of a top 10,000 blog!

    And then go punch the yelly Safelife bastards!

  34. 34.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Baud:

    Of course, on MSNBC right now, they’re covering a Trump speech. 

    At this hour?  Why was Dump awake?  Shitting out his brains?

  35. 35.

    TBone

    @Baud:  nothing Pumpkin Spice Pol Pot does (adding: at this point in time) is newsworthy.  Absolutely no reason to show him on TV.  Just read the cra cra from a transcript while trying not to laugh.  I enjoyed your slapping suggestion very much.

  36. 36.

    satby

    @Baud: unfortunately, for a lot of them the intro was the (perpetual) traffic jam westbound on 80/94 going into the city, which I cruised by at 3 pm going eastbound back to the Bend. Pro-tip: when going to a large city use mass transit. Chicago’s is excellent (by US standards) and it’s cheaper and faster.

  37. 37.

    mrmoshpotato

    @satby:

    unfortunately, for a lot of them the intro was the (perpetual) traffic jam westbound on 80/94 going into the city 

    That’s just sad.  I see these asses have no self-respect.

    Pro-tip: when going to a large city use mass transit. Chicago’s is excellent (by US standards) and it’s cheaper and faster.

    South Shore promo like holy moly!

  38. 38.

    lowtechcyclist

    Good morning, y’all!

    @Karen S.:

    Up early and getting ready for my volunteer shift this morning at the DNC! I’m on the media logistics team. I’m not exactly sure what that entails, but I’ll find out soon enough. I’ll be at McCormick Place, the secondary site, where all the DNC caucus and council meetings are being held. I’m very excited even though it’s ungodly early, for me anyway.

    Have fun, and hope everything goes well for you!

    @mrmoshpotato:

    Can they be yokels and Christian fascists?

    Of course they can!

  40. 40.

    TBone

    At 4:30 a.m. the full moon, hanging low in the sky  (largest I’ve seen at this location so far), was radiating bright light so starkly that I almost put sunglasses on.  An omen.

    Jake and Elwood territory.  We’re getting the band back together.

    Director:

    “Landis said in light of how Chicago Police treated protesters at the 1968 Democratic convention, “it gave me great pleasure to drive through the Richard J. Daley Center.”

  41. 41.

    MagdaInBlack

    Over on reddit “whitepeopletwitter” I see trump has posted an AI generated Taylor Swift endorsement of him. This will not go well.

  47. 47.

    Soprano2

    Morning Edition just ran a story where they played TCFG angrily saying that tariffs are “a tax on countries that are very bad to us”. Then they explained that no, they are not paid by the foreign government, but by the companies that make the goods, who then pass the cost on to buyers. This is a basic economic concept, and he doesn’t understand it at all. You’d think they would explicitly say that!

  52. 52.

    David 🐝KHive🐝 Koch

    I’m so excited, and I just can’t hide it

    I’m about to lose control and I think I like it

  53. 53.

    Mousebumples

    Good morning!

    I’ve got a big work meeting out of town tomorrow, at HQ, so I’ll be going to bed early to wake up early and drive down. And then I’ll be in a clinical meeting all day, until driving back to get the kiddos from daycare.

    I’m excited to see (and probably cry) at the warm welcome I’m expecting for Joe tonight.

  56. 56.

    David 🐝KHive🐝 Koch

    NEW ABC/Washington Post national poll (B) among *likely voters*:
    🟦 Kamala Harris 51% (+6)
    📷 Donald Trump 45%
    — Look! Up in the sky! (@John_B_Tipton) August 19, 2024

  61. 61.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @SpaceUnit:

    I certainly thought that was the case in 08.

    As others have mentioned frequently, this reminds me more of that than any other Dem convention I can remember and that dates (vaguely) back to 68.

  62. 62.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    In that “coach energy” tweet, the Secret Service agents look tense. Maybe that’s good. Stay alert, SS

    ETA: I hope Swift sues him for defaming her character like that

  63. 63.

    Barbara

    @sanjeevs: I was just a kid but I remember that my parents fervently supported anti-war candidates and were disgusted by the whole process, so I think the answer to the first question is undoubtedly yes. Re: Daley, although he liked being a backroom player, I think he actually had more immediate goals to influence the outcome of the convention at the time. The upheaval in Chicago accelerated the change to primaries, but maybe Daley didn’t anticipate that.

  64. 64.

    Ken

    One of my (uncharacteristically unposted) thoughts about last night’s “the spirit of ’68 is a painful memory” was to briefly wonder what percentage of today’s delegates were even born in 1968, much less had memories of it. And now there’s Knowa in the first tweet up there, and I’m wondering what percentage even remembers 9/11.

  65. 65.

    Baud

    @Ken:

    Also too, the nature of the protestors is completely different. Whatever happens, it’s not a Dems divided situation. It’s a stupid analogy all around

  66. 66.

    Ken

    @TBone: I always suspected the “Use of unnecessary violence in apprehension of the Blues Brothers has been approved” line was also a dig at Daley.

  67. 67.

    TBone

    @Ken: 😎

    I have an original Life Magazine ’68 Convention edition.  It reads the cops and the mayor for filth, with receipts.

  69. 69.

    Baud

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    He has a super clean facility filled with happy Mennonite girls jabbering away as they go about their business.

     

    That could easily be turned into a horror movie.

  70. 70.

    TBone

    I’m not gonna cry about President Biden, who is still our President, riding off into the sunset.  Tributes to him are well deserved, and celebrating his accomplishments loudly is in order. I really hope that the next admin. taps into his reserves of wisdom for as long as possible, using dedicated landline lifeline Batphone-type communication.  I expect great things from Dark Brandon in the coming months.

  71. 71.

    Baud

    @TBone:

    I’m not gonna cry about President Biden, who is still our President, riding off into the sunset.

     

    It would be a cool video to see Biden on a horse riding off into the sunset.

    But save it for just before the inauguration. Not appropriate for tonight.

  74. 74.

    TBone

    @Baud: On his bicycle would be even better.  Or a unicycle 😂 while juggling.

    Not appropriate for tonight is correct! Giving them hell is!

  76. 76.

    Ken

    @Baud: That could easily be turned into a horror movie.

    You say that about every animal-processing facility run by minority religious groups.

  77. 77.

    TBone

    😭 other next door neighbor (not the ones who already removed ALL the great, old trees) had a branch come down on to deck and is now out in the yard pointing out to the chainsaw guys the remaining great, old trees.

    FUUUUUCK

    The trees are all healthy.  As evidenced by the healthy stumps with no rot visible on any of the trees already removed.

    One branch. Gatdamnit.  Now this is something to mourn.

  78. 78.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @Ken:

    Having gone to any number of my wife’s family events involving aunts and cousins in Tipton (it’s in Moniteau County) back when we were in Central Misery, I’d much rather hang with the Mennonite girls processing chickens.

  80. 80.

    Greebe

    @Mousebumples: (@55) What a wonderful tribute to Joe.

    I love the contrast knowing that, to date, whenever Trump’s employees talk about him, it’s in the form of a deposition.

  82. 82.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @TBone: Our Iowa neighbors cut down healthy trees all the time. As soon as the tree got big enough to provide shade, they’d point to the place under it and say, “Nothing is going to grow under there.” They were farmers at heart.

  84. 84.

    3Sice

    @Ken:

    “No, sir, Mayor Daley no longer dines here, sir. He’s dead, sir.”

    Daley was weirdly anti-Chicago for film productions, and The Blues Brothers was one of the first after his death.

  88. 88.

    TBone

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I’m sorry you also experienced this pain.

    My leafy suburb is situated next to many, many miles of already open and in use farm fields (and a golf course).  We need our trees!  I’m heartbroken that this neighbor, who carefully built their deck around a beautiful Sycamore with an opening large enough for it to grow, has changed their mind over one fallen branch that didn’t even do any damage.

  89. 89.

    satby

    Well, the roofers are here, tearing off my old roof, and I should be hearing from the vet hospital about Buddy any minute. Going to be a hectic day. Have a nice one y’all.

  90. 90.

    Fraud Guy

    2) MSNBC: The network will begin its coverage of the contention on […]

    You have to think this was them still hoping for a brokered convention.

  93. 93.

    Barbara

    @TBone: ​Building a deck around a tree is almost always bad for the tree. My sister is a horticulturalist and she tells anyone who will listen not to do it.

  95. 95.

    3Sice

    @hueyplong:

    kos just pummeled him the other day in an op-ed. I believe fighting off his nuisance lawsuits was a factor in the headcount cutbacks over there.

  96. 96.

    satby

    @TBone: when my kids were young an apparently very healthy tree dropped a giant branch on the path they walked through between back yards. Quiet day, not even a breeze, and they had walked through just a bit earlier. It would have killed them. When I had a tree guy come to look at it, he said it was rotting through water in the y between the main trunks, so I  had the entire tree taken down. And yes, the stump was fine.  Trees near houses can be deadly. Later a “healthy” maple unexpectedly fell on my Michigan house and basically destroyed it, same situation on where the rotting started. Same year: quiet day, no wind; huge end of life oak flattened the entire garage of my house in Chicago. You can’t be always judge healthy from afar.

  97. 97.

    TBone

    @Barbara: cutting the tree down to build is also bad for the tree, methinks.  My other side neighbors cut down a majestic oak to build an 8’x8′ “sunroom.” Gah!  Then they went to town cutting down everything else and I just can’t take anymore!

    The blazing sun has killed their lawns at least, while mine grows tall and green between infrequent mowing.

  98. 98.

    TBone

    @satby: I have narrowly escaped a widowmaker my own self.   I am more afraid of the neighbors than I am of the trees.  Cheating death only works for so long…trees have souls that speak to me, and I can’t help my sentimentality about them.  I adore trees.

    Most of this neighborhood has beautiful, tall, old trees – every house except my neighbors!

  99. 99.

    Soprano2

    @K-Mo: It is, but it makes him mad because he’s telling all his followers that he’s taxing China to help them! I wonder how many of them are dumb enough to believe that. They all seem to understand that other types of taxes can be passed along to the consumer in the form of higher prices; a tariff is no different. It’s honestly shocking that we had a president who a) doesn’t understand what asylum seekers are looking for, and b) doesn’t understand how tariffs work.

  100. 100.

    Leto

    He’s giving his SecSer agents agita, but it’s good to know they *are* fully alert!

    Coach Walz out here making his agents run suicides on the greeting line. I’m here for it.

  101. 101.

    3Sice

    You should probably pay to have someone prune on the semi-regular for any large trees with-in house crushing range.

  102. 102.

    cmorenc

    @sanjeevs:

    2. Was this part of the reason Mayor Daley tried to shut down the process – was he a player in the Democratic party who stood to have reduced power if the primary system became the method to select the candidate?

    Mayor Daley was powerful enough in D party politics up to 1968 that – it’s highly likely John F. Kennedy would not have narrowly won the 1968 election without Daley’s tireless support working the graveyard shift on election night.  That’s a cheeky way of saying, the GOP probably had a legit beef about D voter fraud in Illinois in the 1960 election.

    Daley’s old machine-pol ham-handedness was, however, in the long run destructive to the sort of grassroots support the D party needed to stay fresh and competitive, cynically useful though it was in 1960.

  103. 103.

    Starfish

    @Ken: A media focusing on ’68 is a media thirsting for chaos and violence.

    In that thread, I posted about ’64 and voter disenfranchisement which seems much more relevant. There are too many people who would say out loud that Trump won the 2020 elections in charge of other people’s votes.

    I am very concerned about Georgia putting up their website to allow people to unregister to vote and whether the recent very large data leaks can lead to shenanigans in that space.

  104. 104.

    Soprano2

    @Ken: When I went to see the 9-11 memorial, I looked around and realized that a large number of the people I was seeing either didn’t remember 9-11, or weren’t born when it happened. It’s hard to believe that was almost 24 years ago!

  109. 109.

    Ironcity

    @Soprano2: Just listened to that part of Morning Edition and several sentences on they explicitly say TCFG is either lying or ignorant.

  111. 111.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Starfish:

    A media focusing on ’68 is a media thirsting for chaos and violence.

    They absolutely are.  They drove Biden out in a frenzy of hoping for exciting chaos in the aftermath, and they’re pissed they’re not getting it.  Hell, they were fantasizing about ’68 style riots as a result of Gaza months ago.  They really, really want a story about absolute chaos in the Democratic nominating process.  I think they wanted it with Republicans too, but not as badly and they gave up after DeSantis crashed and burned.

  114. 114.

    Soprano2

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I had a healthy walnut tree cut down this summer because it was almost big enough to grow into our chain link fence. No way was I going to let it mess up our fence. We should have had it cut down before we put the fence in, but hubby didn’t want the expense. Plus, all those things do is make it impossible to plant anything near them and drop black walnuts in your yard. Now the oak tree that shades our house, I guard that one zealously. The local utility company would be there in a day if I told them they could cut it down!

  116. 116.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Soprano2: It’s honestly shocking that we had a president who a) doesn’t understand care what asylum seekers are looking for, and b) doesn’t understand care how tariffs work.

    FTFY, free to a first time user.

  117. 117.

    WereBear

    Our backyard neighbors don’t get the mountain vibe.

    We have a shared driveway but they keep using the unshared part, too. Instruct contractors to park equipment.

    Took down two gorgeous yellow spruces. They will miss the shade and wind protectIon.

    Put a yard light on all night to keep the deer away but all it does is annoy neighbors.

    I hope they get tired of the real woods and go back to Jersey. But I’m a NYer, and signed the oath.

  118. 118.

    Chief Oshkosh

    OT: Just told my wife about the JD Vance Family Kit sperm donation cups (she hadn’t heard about them). I couldn’t explain them and she couldn’t understand them, so…yay team?

  119. 119.

    cmorenc

    @Soprano2:

    Morning Edition just ran a story where they played TCFG angrily saying that tariffs are “a tax on countries that are very bad to us”. Then they explained that no, they are not paid by the foreign government, but by the companies that make the goods, who then pass the cost on to buyers. This is a basic economic concept, and he doesn’t understand it at all. You’d think they would explicitly say that!

    The economic purpose of tariffs on goods from selected foreign nations are purportedly to keep domestic suppliers of said goods competitive against “unfair” price advantages these foreign nations give their own domestic producers – often subsidies, though also low wages.  The downside for domestic US consumers is that they will pay higher prices for domestically produced goods of those types, which is inflationary, and either ends up reducing the demand for such goods, or if they are essential not discretionary products, divert money that could be spent on yet other domestic products.

    Originally back in the early 1800s, before there were any federal income taxes, tariffs were one of the primary financial supports for the (then vastly smaller) federal government.

  120. 120.

    lowtechcyclist

    The only healthy tree I’ve had taken down in my yard was a tulip poplar that, when the wind was up, it would sway back and forth along a line that went right through our bedroom. The tree was thirty feet from the house, but it was at least twice that tall. I feel a lot safer now when the wind blows.

    And it was one of a number of trees providing shade to that side of our yard, so it really isn’t missed from that perspective. We’ve still got a wondrously shady yard.

  121. 121.

    cmorenc

    @WereBear:

    Put a yard light on all night to keep the deer away but all it does is annoy neighbors.

    Deer are a feature, not a bug, to life in rural areas, with the exception of driving at night on rural roads.  Also, the dark and sounds of night critters in the dark is a feature, ot something to be feared.

    People from urbanized areas bring their irrational fears and hangups with them, destroying the things that make rural, mountain life a joy rather than an inconvenient slog to adapt to being farther from stores and services.  They destroy the pleasure of night with obnoxious dusk-to-dawn floodlights as a pacifier to assuage their insecurity they import with them to rural places.

  122. 122.

    satby

    @TBone: old oaks and maples are beautiful. But they all have an end of life. Which people often never plan for, somehow imagining those trees live forever. Forests constantly replenish themselves, suburban yards, not so much. Ironically, cities are often at the forefront of replanting trees to replace those list to diseases and age.

  124. 124.

    TBone

    @Soprano2: hope springs eternal!  The tree guys left and the remaining trees are still standing.  I can’t believe that “end of life” for trees is something that needed to be explained to me, like I’m unaware.

    I have lived in a cabin beside a beautiful mountain stream surrounded by 300,000 acres of State Forest and White Mountain Wild Area was practically my backyard.  I know from trees!

  126. 126.

    TBone

    @Baud: will you marry me in my next life?

    I mean, if you’re in a car it’s more dangerous than living near a tree!

  127. 127.

    satby

    @cmorenc: I hated living in rural areas because all my farmer neighbors killed bats, snakes, deer, racoons, everything was vermin to them… Had those polluting huge lights that kept it lit for acres around their property, not just their own yards; were simultaneously really nosey about the “Chicago lady” (they would watch me though the windows) and wouldn’t budge if I was being murdered *In Cold Blood* style. I told my oldest kid it was kind of weird and he pointed out to me that people move to the country because they don’t like or want to be around other people. My 8 rural years taught me how much of a city person I am. Edit: though to be fair, South Bend is more like a village than a city.

  128. 128.

    TBone

    PS I lived thru a tornado that took down all the trees the neighbors hadn’t yet cut down.  Another narrow miss, cheating death, and I still like trees better than people 😆

  130. 130.

    zhena gogolia

    @satby: Yeah. We unfortunately took down two after our neighbor’s identical one snapped off at the trunk and fell (sideways, thank God). You can’t tell by looking at them, even if you’re the tree service.

    ETA: And we have them pruned every year.

  131. 131.

    Starfish

    @Frankensteinbeck: What’s going on in Gaza still looks very bad. Fox News is blaming Hamas for not taking the deal, and Israel is still bombing Gaza in the run up to what is supposed to be a ceasefire that everyone is skeptical about. I believe our knowledge of the situation can never be good because there will always be information warfare (against Westerners) going on with this particular war.

    Netanyahu needs to not be running a country, and all the people who cross over from pro-Palestine activism into anti-Semitism need to STFU.

  132. 132.

    TerryC

    @TBone:

    @satby: I have narrowly escaped a widowmaker my own self.   I am more afraid of the neighbors than I am of the trees.  Cheating death only works for so long…trees have souls that speak to me, and I can’t help my sentimentality about them.  I adore trees.

    Most of this neighborhood has beautiful, tall, old trees – every house except my neighbors!

    You should see the large crack on my tractor’s hood that happened before I learned that it really wasn’t a bulldozer. Oh, and that when you push on something it might push on something else, which might push on something else … which causes a widowmaker to come in from behind!

    I, too, love trees and since retirement plant about 1,000 babies each year, reforesting about 16 acres of formerly tilled land. This year was three varieties of oak, red mulberry, paw paw, sycamore, and transplanting of volunteer black walnut, sugar maple, mulberry, red cedar, etc. In the 38 years we have lived here I have managed to get my entire house and close-in yard under a great, cooling deciduous leaf canopy. So beautiful!

  134. 134.

    Barbara

    @TBone: Sooner or later the deck position kills the tree, for reasons I don’t understand.  We have minimal lawn in my yard, we like trees and shrubs, etc., but being at risk of a tree falling on your house is more than some people can tolerate.  Anytime I have had to cut down a tree I have planted another tree, either in the same or a different place.

  135. 135.

    TBone

    @Barbara: 💚 I wish my neighbors had planted shade trees instead of the too many, too common arborvitae they replaced some former trees with.  I’m surrounded by those Xmas tree-looking bushes on both sides now and always have the urge to decorate them 😆

    The people who are afraid of the trees SHOULD be afraid of the cars instead!

  137. 137.

    Citizen Alan

    @Baud: It was pointed out to me recently that most comedies could be converted easily into horror movies, simply by changing the background music.

  139. 139.

    Citizen Alan

    @OzarkHillbilly: I’m convinced at this point that trump genuinely thought asylum seekers were people who had escaped from mental asylums and were coming to America to act like Hispanic Jokers in some a weird nativist Batman story.

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