Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

Weird. Rome has an American Pope and America has a Russian President.

He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!

The press swings at every pitch, we don’t have to.

Hey Washington Post, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” was supposed to be a warning, not a mission statement.

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

Those who are easily outraged are easily manipulated.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

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

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

After dobbs, women are no longer free.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

… gradually, and then suddenly.

Beware of advice from anyone for whom Democrats are “they” and not “we.”

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

With all due respect and assumptions of good faith, please fuck off into the sun.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

A tremendous foreign policy asset… to all of our adversaries.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Ought to be a Law, With No Bail, Smash a Guitar and You Go to Jail

Reader Interactions

235Comments

  10. 10.

    different-church-lady

    You know what would be a hoot?

    Taylor buys back the pieces. Auctions them off for ten times more. Then donates all the money to the Harris campaign.

  11. 11.

    Matt McIrvin

    This is a crime
    Against the state
    This is the verdict they reach:
    Never listen to electric guitar
    Never listen to electric guitar
    Never listen to electric guitar
    Never listen to electric guitar

    –Talking Heads

  13. 13.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @cain:

    Apparently it was for charity. Still, even for charity, I wouldn’t spend thousands for something only to destroy it. If Trump auctioned off his gaudy autographed gold sneakers, I wouldn’t spend money just to destroy them. That’s insane

  14. 14.

    lowtechcyclist

    I don’t even see what this guy thought he was accomplishing. Taylor can just sign a couple more guitars and put them up for auction with the proceeds going to some charity that this guy would hate, like a charity that helps young people who are transitioning

    ETA: looks like different-church-lady was there first with a similar idea. 🙂

  16. 16.

    Anoniminous

    A deeply meaningful political statement right up there with throwing soup on van Gogh’s “Sunflowers.”

  18. 18.

    Scout211

    If only Democrats stopped saying bad things about folks with obvious economic anxiety, we’d be able to convince these people to vote for us.

    Maybe this guy hasn’t heard VP Harris’s economic policy details yet.

    But wait! The Trumpies now have a new celebrity on their side.  Actor Zachary Levi who was an RFJjr supporter is now endorsing Trump.

    I may never watch another old episode of Chuck.  I have principles!  Just like the guitar smasher guy.

    However, if my grandkids want to watch Tangled I will watch that with them.  I do have priorities! 

  20. 20.

    Tony Jay

    What a great opportunity to redirect the White Power Dollar into productive channels!

    Taylor Swift should sign 1000 guitars and auction them off for rabid performagats to bash away at. Beyoncé could autograph 1000 gold cowboy hats for them to poke holes in. I’m sure Olivia Rodrigo could be persuaded to put her name on 1000 pairs of dangerously high-stack sneakers that angry middle-aged righties can vent their spleens into. There’s no end to the possibilities!

    All profits donated to the Harris/Walz ‘24 campaign, natch.

    ETA – See? It must be a good idea.

  22. 22.

    Steve LaBonne

    Fascism is not a movement of the economically downtrodden. It is a movement of the relatively privileged whose fear that their status is eroding is fed and manipulated by evil people.

  23. 23.

    RevRick

    What’s the difference between this guy’s performative stupidity and Trump’s economic policies, except one of scale?

    My wife and I, meanwhile, are enjoying lovely weather in Cape May,NJ. We’re staying at the Queen Victoria B&B, courtesy, in part, of a gift certificate our daughter and son-in-law gave to my wife for her 70th birthday. Of course, COVID immediately happened and the certificate got forgotten in the lock box, but I dug it out, called two months ago, they said they’d honor it, so I made reservations. And here we are.

  24. 24.

    FearItself

    Credit where credit is due: if this turkey hadn’t been shilling for a Fascist political movement, this could have been a pretty awesome bit of performance art.

  34. 34.

    theturtlemoves

    @Scout211: Old Zach’s statements about how he really trusts the opinions of RFKJr and Tulsi Gabbard leads me to believe that he’s a deeply stupid person.

  39. 39.

    Belafon

    @Scout211: Yep, and he’s calling it career suicide.

    If he makes films people want to watch, they’ll go see them. Most of the actors who endorsed Trump couldn’t get acting gigs because their acting stopped being entertaining.

  40. 40.

    Omnes Omnibus

    I’ve never liked the idea of smashing guitars.  The picture of Paul Simonon smashing his bass looks cool and punk af, but a part of me cringes whenever I see it.  I never played guitar, but I know my violin is different from other violins.  It has a different feel, a personality even.  If I ever played someone else’s instrument, it was different.  It wanted a slightly different touch with the bow, etc.

  41. 41.

    Shalimar

    @Scout211: I already stopped watching old Chuck episodes while it was still on the air because the last season was butchered so badly.  What’s the point of watching a seemingly optimistic story when you know it ends stupidly?

  42. 42.

    Mr. Bemused Senior

    At Groucho’s last performance (Carnegie Hall) he started by smashing a violin, saying “I’ve had quite enough of Jack Benny and so has the violin.”

  44. 44.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Omnes Omnibus: Me at 16: whoah cool…smash that shit…fire, Fire!

    Me at 50 (or really anytime after about 25): Whoah dude, chill the F out and treat that thing with some respect!

  46. 46.

    SatanicPanic

    @Omnes Omnibus: I have smashed one once and surprisingly, it’s not that satisfying. Probably smashing an acoustic guitar is more fun but I haven’t tried that and probably won’t.

    The guitar I smashed was a guitar I didn’t really want to play anymore, I wouldn’t have smashed one of my guitars that I really value.

  49. 49.

    Redshift

    @lowtechcyclist:

    My point exactly – how does this own the libs?

    As far as I can tell, the whole of the “owning” variant of trolling is “I do something designed to piss you off, and if you get mad, I win!” It’s an artificial accomplishment for people who don’t actually accomplish anything.

  56. 56.

    Scout211

    In other news,

    The FBI has agreed  to pay more than $22 million to settle a class-action lawsuit alleging female recruits were singled out for dismissal in training and routinely harassed by instructors with sexually charged comments about their breast size, false allegations of infidelity and the need to take contraception “to control their moods.”

    The payout to 34 women dismissed from the FBI’s training academy in Quantico, Virginia, still subject to approval by a federal judge, would rank among the biggest lawsuit settlements in the history of the bureau.

    “These problems are pervasive within the FBI and the attitudes that created them were learned at the academy,” said David J. Shaffer, the lawyer for the women. “This case will make important major changes in these attitudes.”

    Filed in 2019 and first reported by NBC News, the lawsuit contends that female recruits had been subjected to a hostile working environment in which they were judged more harshly than their male peers and “excessively targeted for correction and dismissal in tactical situations for perceived lack of judgment” and subjective “suitability” criteria.

    . . .

    Among the provisions of the settlement was that the FBI would offer the plaintiffs a chance to continue training toward becoming agents and “guaranteed placement,” for those who pass, in one of their top three preferred field offices. The bureau also has agreed to a review by outside experts who will work to ensure that female recruits face a fair evaluation process.

  58. 58.

    Melancholy Jaques

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I’ve been playing guitar since 1969. Never once felt the urge to smash one, not even the cheap ones. Not sure why that became a thing in the first place. And I was punk as anyone in the 70s.

  59. 59.

    EngineerScotty

    How long will the workers keep building her new ones

    As long as their soda-cans are red, white,  and blue ones…

  60. 60.

    FastEdD

    It’s just the wreck of the Barbie Ferrari. (Other John Hiatt reference I love.) I just had a talk with a friend who was the wife of a colleague who passed on last year. I loved that guy-played the uke at his funeral. She declares that she won’t vote for Harris because she’s “soft on crime.” My head hurts. Vote for the convicted felon held liable for rape. Hey, he isn’t tough on crime, HE IS CRIME. Won’t vote for the lady who spent her career putting people in jail. The very kindest thing I can do is not say anything. One third of our fellow citizens are total fucking idiots. It gets depressing when you face that IRL.

  62. 62.

    Peale

    @Belafon: he was good in Shazam 1. Horrible in Shazam 2 because he just rehashed his earlier performance. Then watching the trailer for Harold and the Purple Crayon dropped and it looked like he was just being Shazam in a different movie. He’s a character actor at this point.

  63. 63.

    trollhattan

    UPS delivered a bicycle wheelset just now. They’re proudly handmade in Asheville, NC, which makes me wonder how the folks who crafted them are doing today?

  68. 68.

    trollhattan

    Even in “blue” California this crap goes on. Difference being it can get the AG’s attention, and not in a good way for the hospital.

    A hospital in Eureka, Calif. illegally denied a pregnant woman an emergency abortion earlier this year, state prosecutors allege in a new lawsuit. The patient, Anna Nusslock, was 15 weeks pregnant with twins when her water broke, the lawsuit claims. Her doctor said the pregnancy was no longer viable and recommended an emergency abortion. But her health care providers at Providence St. Joseph Hospital Eureka in Humboldt County declined to perform the procedure. The hospital has a policy that “prohibits doctors and nurses from providing emergency abortion care so long as a fetus … has a detectable heartbeat,”

    Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a press conference Monday morning. Nusslock said she ended up driving to a smaller hospital 12 miles away, while she was actively bleeding, to receive care. “I needed an abortion,” she said. “Without abortion care, I risked infection and hemorrhage. I needed an abortion so my husband didn’t lose both of his daughters and his wife in one night.” Providence’s policy violated multiple state laws, Bonta alleges, including the Unruh Civil Rights Act, California Emergency Services Law and Unfair Competition Law.

    https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article293261489.html#storylink=cpy

    She’s fortunate to have another hospital in the area. Humboldt is remote north coast but fortunately has a CSU campus, which would tend to draw more services than normal for the boonies.

  69. 69.

    cain

    @Scout211: ​
     
    The blogfather will not be pleased. I too am displeased. But I also understand that as a human, he is on brand. So fuck him.

    He’s not Shazam or Chuck.

  70. 70.

    FastEdD

    @trollhattan: You’re right. There are people out there who haven’t had an original thought since 1974. It doesn’t help either that Mr. I Am Not A Crook, was a crook.

  72. 72.

    The Audacity of Krope

    @Scout211:But wait! The Trumpies now have a new celebrity on their side.  Actor Zachary Levi who was an RFJjr supporter is now endorsing Trump.

    Still won’t hurt my desire to watch the inevitable third Shazam movie as much as the second Shazam movie did.

  73. 73.

    TBone

    @FastEdD: sent me into a temporary fugue state recently because I’d forgotten just how… what’s the word?…they can be.  Fill in the blank accordingly, I guess.

  74. 74.

    Melancholy Jaques

    @FastEdD:

    There is nothing you can do or say with people like that. They decide they are not going to vote for any Democrat or any woman or any person of color, then they grab one of the reasons floating around in the discourse and hold onto it like grim death. Whatever you do, do not ask them to explain the basis for their opinion. That’s just rude.

  77. 77.

    OId Man Shadow

    @Scout211: Well… I hope Zach kept his Shazam movie money because he’s now bound for the Christian movie circuit starring opposite Kirk Cameron and Kevin Sorbo.

  78. 78.

    cain

    @The Audacity of Krope:

    The first Shazam movie was pretty good. The second one, not so much. The 3rd? Meh.

    DC movies haven’t been as good as the MCU ones. At one point it was the other way around!

    I kind of wish we did a Superman movie al 1977. With all the pulleys and the like. That was insane good special effects.

  82. 82.

    different-church-lady

    @Omnes Omnibus: ​

    The picture of Paul Simonon smashing his bass looks cool and punk af, but a part of me cringes whenever I see it.

    I read somewhere that Simonon came to regret it, as the rebuilt bass never sounded as good.

  83. 83.

    trollhattan

    @cain: ​
    TBH did not know Providence even was in California and see now they’re seven states.

    Our big regional Catholic chain is Dignity, nee. Catholic Healthcare West. With consolidation they all become larger with outsized influence.

  85. 85.

    The Audacity of Krope

    @cain:The first Shazam movie was pretty good. The second one, not so much.

    They should have kept the focus on the family.  There is too much of a push in superhero movies for spectacle.

    That’s why DC mostly does better as TV.  It allows smaller, more personal stories.

  87. 87.

    TheOtherHank

    I heard an interview with Pete Townsend where he was asked about how they used smash their instruments at the end of the show. It was something like, “When you’ve destroyed all the instruments, the show is over.”

  89. 89.

    Kelly

    @cain: Catholic hospital chain Providence is big here in Oregon. I wonder how many Catholic hospitals we have? Bend’s is St something if I recall correctly

  90. 90.

    SomeRandomGuy

    @Scout211:

    From that link, quoted without context:
    (Zachary Levi) added, “We are going to take back this country. We are going to make it great again … Of the two choices that we have, and we only have two, President Trump is the man that can get us there.”
    Zachary Levihad a mental health ‘breakdown.

  96. 96.

    Nora

    @cain: Unfortunately part of the problem is that Catholic hospitals are, in some areas, the only game in town.  Whether the locals are Catholics or not, the hospitals are run by them.

  98. 98.

    Tony Jay

    Oh, that’s who Zachary Levi is?

    I guess Gina Carano’s trailblazing plunge off the ledge of genre cool into magatty victimitude was just too edgy a pose for a nice boy like that to resist.

  104. 104.

    Kent

    Economic anxiety my ass.

    I lived in TX from the Bush years to the end of Obama.  When Obama was elected in the very height of the Great Recession Texas was in pretty bad shape.  And my community was pretty purple.  We had a Dem mayor and Dem Congressmen and Dem city council but also lots of GOP.   Over the next 8 years the region grew and prospered greatly as did the rest of the country and by any objective measure, 2016 was vastly better than 2008.  At the same time there was so much Obama backlash the county turned from purple to very deep red as did the rest of the state.

    So no, it an’t economic anxiety.  Unless that anxiety involves being anxious because non-white people are growing more prosperous as well.

  105. 105.

    Omnes Omnibus

    When I was the new kid in school when we moved to CT, I was bullied because new, not really big, and a violinist.  I got in a least one fight a week for the nearly two years.  The fights didn’t really bother me; I could hold my own well enough.  What bothered me was my worry that, when I put my violin case down to fight, someone might damage it.  It was always a bit distracting to keep one eye on the case while fighting.

  109. 109.

    Kent

    @Kelly:

    Not just the hospitals.  When we lived in Waco the local Catholic hospital chain (biggest in the country) also went on a buying spree and bought up most of the local independent primary care clinics that were previously doctor owned and independent.  Just offered them too much money along with the incentive that staying independent could jeopardize their privileges and billing with the hospital.   And so patients and employees who had no intention of associating with or working for a Catholic health care organization suddenly found the rug pulled out from under them and had no choice in the matter.

  111. 111.

    Maxim

    @Omnes Omnibus: Same. I hate destroying instruments. The only exception might be a really old piano that’s too far gone to be repairable, that gets turned into a planter. But otherwise, it just hurts me to see it.

  112. 112.

    Jeffro

    completely OT but I keep seeing clips of JD Vance on Twitter where he talks about how anyone who doesn’t have kids (especially teachers) are “deranged”.

    Is he just trying to get his otherwise no-chance-in-hell MAGA incel bros laid?  Frantically trying to make “must have kids to participate in society” a norm, so they’ll finally get dates??

    I’m at a loss here…

  113. 113.

    Eolirin

    @cain: This doesn’t work with hospitals. There may not be a non-Catholic owned hospital in a reasonable distance. It has to be handled via regulation. There’s no other way to do it.

  115. 115.

    The Audacity of Krope

    @Jeffro: completely OT but I keep seeing clips of JD Vance on Twitter where he talks about how anyone who doesn’t have kids (especially teachers) are “deranged”.

    I don’t have kids and that’s entirely because I don’t believe I would be able to provide for them.  This is the farthest thing from deranged.

  116. 116.

    scav

    Every time a Catholic hospital denies health care an angel gets their wings.

    And administrators presumably get a bonus because that is the purpose of the church, isn’t it, producing angels? The afterlife is the important bit.

  119. 119.

    Steve in the ATL

    Can’t support smashing guitars (though I’m ambivalent when it comes to the Flying V) but fully support smashing recorders, kazoos, and vuvuzelas.  I’ll withhold my thoughts on ukuleles out of consideration for our poster who apparently plays in a ukulele band.

  120. 120.

    ArchTeryx

    @Eolirin: The ideal would be to force the Catholic Church out of owning health care providers, period. And the way to do that is not via direct force. It’s by regulating them so tightly for reproductive care they voluntarily give up their holdings. And if they want to defy the law, then let them get sued out of their holdings. Either way is fine by me.

  121. 121.

    TBone

    I know you’ll all be shocked to learn that EPA scientists were suppressed and retaliated against for truthfully reporting on chemical harm.

    “The events covered by these reports began during the previous administration when the political leadership placed intense pressure on both career managers and scientists in EPA’s new chemicals program to more quickly review and approve new chemicals.” The agency added during the goings on the “work environment has been transformed under Administrator Michael Regan’s leadership.”

    Trump campaign spokes people did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

    Propublica, summarized by AngryBear

    https://angrybearblog.com/2024/09/epa-scientists-say-they-were-pressured-to-downplay-health-harms-from-chemicals#more-166983

  125. 125.

    SatanicPanic

    @Steve in the ATL: I messed up my shoulder and found out that while I could no longer play guitar, I could play Ukelele without much discomfort. I’ll say this- our birds enjoy it.

  128. 128.

    prostratedragon

    How it started:

    Congress approved a funding patch Wednesday without supplemental disaster money, even as Hurricane Helene bears down on Florida.

    How it’s going:

    Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) pleaded with the federal government to send relief funds to her state in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.

    “We’ve already signed a letter,” she continued. “We sent that letter to Joe Biden requesting relief that Brian Kemp, our governor, has already requested. So our entire delegation in Georgia has signed onto that letter.”

    “We need them to step in and send the funds and the relief that these people deserve.”

  129. 129.

    HumboldtBlue

    This Mets v Braves game is fantastic! I despise both team, but the offenses going back and forth makes for some riveting baseball.

  130. 130.

    TBone

    Mueller She Wrote on Donold being in Georgia:

    What a waste of valuable resources. What a selfish opportunist Trump is. How many could be rescued by the first responders diverted to protect Donald?

    Digby sez:

    Now he’s putting on a show in Georgia and will shortly be blaming Kamala Harris for Hurricane Helene and it appears that the media is prepared to help him by suggesting that she should have been down in North Carolina over the weekend rescuing people in a rubber dinghy or something.

    https://digbysblog.net/2024/09/30/getting-in-the-way/

  132. 132.

    TBone

    @Dman: NOW WE’RE TALKING! 😍

    Judge Robert McBurney, HERO and friend to women everywhere!

    That ruling is LIT.

    Eloquent and razor sharp!

  133. 133.

    Scout211

    Breaking:

    SAVANNAH, Ga. (WSAV) – A Superior Court Judge has struck down Georgia’s 6-week abortion ban, in effect since 2022.

    According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Fulton County Superior Judge Robert McBurney issued the order Monday saying abortion regulation must return to Georgia’s pre-2019 law, which allows the procedure up until about 22 weeks of pregnancy.

    “A review of our higher courts’ interpretations of ‘liberty’ demonstrates that liberty in Georgia includes in its meaning, in its protections, and in its bundle of rights the power of a woman to control her own body, to decide what happens to it and in it, and to reject state interference with her health care choices,” McBurney ruled. “That power is not, however, unlimited. When a fetus growing inside a woman reaches viability, when society can assume care and responsibility for that separate life, then — and only then — may society intervene.”

    The 6-week ‘Heartbeat bill’ has seen multiple legal challenges since first being passed in 2019. It was deemed unconstitutional in 2020, but the 2022 Supreme Court Decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization allowed the state to enforce the act.

    ETA: Not first with this, I see. Good news is worth a few repeats. 😊

  134. 134.

    Flanders Other Neighbor

    @trollhattan: I went tubeless about four years ago and no regerts.  I’d suggest that you mount the tires and add then add the sealant through the valve stem.  Stans sells a nifty syringe to facilitate.

  139. 139.

    The Audacity of Krope

    @Flanders Other Neighbor: I went tubeless about four years ago and no regerts.  I’d suggest that you mount the tires and add then add the sealant through the valve stem.  Stans sells a nifty syringe to facilitate.

    Late to the thread, are we talking about birth control…?

  142. 142.

    Matt McIrvin

    @prostratedragon: There is, as we predicted, apparently an effort to blame Biden and Harris for slow-walking aid to Tennessee that they legally could not provide until the state requested it.

  144. 144.

    Scout211

    @Matt McIrvin: There is, as we predicted, apparently an effort to blame Biden and Harris for slow-walking aid to Tennessee that they legally could not provide until the state requested it.

    And for congress to authorize it.  President Biden has already stated he may need congress to return to DC to authorize the additional funds.

    But they would like voters to believe that Biden has a big pot of gold that he is withholding from the devastated states, for political reasons.

  145. 145.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Jeffro: The natalist “women are incomplete without womb-seed” thing is huge in alt-right/MRA/PUA/incel circles, has been for years. Speaking of Taylor Swift, they were making such complaints about her long ago; that was probably why Elon Musk was so quick to go to his “I will gallantly impregnate you” act.

    It’s one of those things that seems completely normal if you’re in their little club and they’ve lost sight of how it even looks from outside.

  146. 146.

    Geminid

    @Dman: McBurney’s the judge who supervised the grand jury that handed down the indictments of Trump and others that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis sought.

    A friend who is a retired attorney sat on a in a civil case tried in McBurney’s court. McBurney impressed him as a very capable jurist.

  147. 147.

    Jeffro

    Wow.  A powerful piece from Rudy Giuliani’s daughter: trump took my dad from me, don’t let him take our country too.

    I am constantly asking myself how America is back here, even considering the possibility of electing Donald Trump again , after all of the damage he has caused, both in office and since.

    While Kamala Harris has gained extraordinary momentum by infusing this election with vitality and hope, I worry that too many Americans remain disconnected from the visceral, psychologically draining memory of trump’s deeply destabilizing presidency.  If enough people truly remembered what that chaos felt like, another Trump term wouldn’t even be on the table. But for those open to seeing the bare and unvarnished truth, there are unmistakable reminders of Trump’s destructive trail all around us, and it has broken my heart to watch my dad become one of them.

    As Rudy Giuliani’s daughter, I’m unfortunately well-suited to remind Americans of just how calamitous being associated with Trump can be, even for those who are convinced he’s on their side. Watching my dad’s life crumble since he joined forces with Trump has been extraordinarily painful, both on a personal level and because his demise feels linked to a dark force that threatens to once again consume America.

  148. 148.

    frosty

    @TheOtherHank: Pete Townsend started out playing Gibson SGs. I recall reading that he said something like “I didn’t start out trying to smash them but those things were basically balsa wood.”

    Well, mahogany. But broken headstock and heel joints were pretty common. Plus, you don’t need a whammy bar; just bend the neck back and forth a little.

  149. 149.

    JML

    I thought Levi was quite good in Chuck and had been…fine-ish in other things. but let’s not pretend he was exactly a superstar. he took a supporting role as a re-cast in the Thor franchise…and was unceremoniously killed off in the next movie. Tried to cash in on the Heroes reboot than bombed. Did a bunch of voice work. a glorified TV movie about Kurt Warner. Solid hit with Shazam…except the sequel cratered. Tried to do his man-child bit again with Harold & the Purple Crayon and that tanked too. getting into the right-wing crappy movie business might actually be his most likely opportunity to keep working consistently outside of voice work.

    I like his ex-wife better.

  150. 150.

    Jeffro

    @Sister Golden Bear: it’s beyond weird – it’s sick.

    Frankly if he wants to be permanently mad at some figure in his past, it should be his deadbeat dad and not his mom.  Go get some therapy, dude.

    @Matt McIrvin: I keep up on most things, but I had no idea how deep the rot is in this regard (so thank you).  More sunlight plz snooze media – send the cockroaches back to their holes!

  152. 152.

    prostratedragon

    @TBone:
    Grrr😡: Update on federal response, from an admittedly biased source, including [my bold]

    He also advised the FEMA Administrator that as soon as it will not disrupt emergency response operations, he intends to travel this week to impacted communities.

     

    @Matt McIrvin:
    More grrrr😡😡:
    President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. Approves Emergency Declaration for Tennessee

    The original emergency declaration of Sept 24 (two days before landfall) only included Alabama, Georgia, and the Carolinas: CRS report, pdf file. Guess Joe didn’t use his Sharpie effectively. Also, as you say, the TN governor might not have made a request yet.

  159. 159.

    MisterForkbeard

    @JML: I hadn’t realized he’d married (and then divorced) the actress who played Andi in Reaper. She’s fantastic.

    He’s always been pretty good, but not great. Sorry to see him fall into Trump fandom, because that’s pretty gross.

  160. 160.

    ArchTeryx

    @Scout211: Every accusation is a confession with these people. How long did New York City and NJ take to get aid for Sandy?

    For once, just for once, I’d love to see our side make a point that if we wanted, we could use our power of the purse and leave backassward places like East Tennessee out to dry like nature intended. But we don’t, because we have decency, and they do not.

    You don’t need to use people’s lives as pawns to make a political point. But some real threats need to be issued to these assholes. Maybe just send in the National Guard and tell the government of the state to pound sand, we’re going to help whether you want it or not?

  162. 162.

    rikyrah

    @Jeffro:

    his hatred of women is pathological.

    It would be one thing, if the Harris campaign was just repeating the same clip.

    But, they keep on finding NEW ONES, like every few days, of how he expresses his hatred towards women.

  164. 164.

    trollhattan

    Unalloyed good news: Today the last coal power plant in the UK closed forever.

    https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5y35qz73n8o

    How?

    In 2010, renewables generated just 7% of the UK’s power. By the first half of 2024, this had grown to more than 50% – a new record.
    The rapid growth of green power meant that coal could even be switched off completely for short periods, with the first coal-free days in 2017.
    The growth of renewables has been so successful that the target date for ending coal power was brought forward a year, and on Monday, Ratcliffe-on-Soar, was set to close.

  166. 166.

    prostratedragon

    @Jeffro:
    @Sister Golden Bear:

    It’s just dawned on me that it’s not just women in general (i.e. his mom), but he’s also putting down a little go piece to heighten the anti-trans war. I can imagine some saying it’s already plenty high, but as my brother and I often say, things can always get worse.

  167. 167.

    Searcher

    @Shalimar: I will never stop remembering the scene where the side kick is learning to dress like an adult, and when tucking in his shirt he says something like “I feel like everyone is staring at my junk”, to which Captain Awesome replies “Did you ever think that maybe that was the point?”

  169. 169.

    Spanky

    Still flying under the radar:

    (Reuters) -U.S. East and Gulf Coast port workers are set to go on strike in less than 10 hours with no talks currently scheduled to head off a stoppage threatening to halt container traffic from Maine to Texas and cost the economy billions per day.

    The labor contract between the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) union representing 45,000 port workers and the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX) employer group expires late Monday, with negotiations at an impasse over pay.

    “All signs are that there will be a strike,” said Rick Cotton, executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey at a press conference on Monday.

  173. 173.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @Baud: when some of you all tried to contact, or find Amir, did you hire an interpreter who spoke Bahasa  Malaysia to help with sleuthing and following leads over there?

    I discovered, on a different quest, that just by googling the language you want +interpreters, you get a long list. (I was searching for an obscure language, and got numerous hits in my own city. Bahasa Malaysia is not an obscure language. My Indonesian coworker tells me that’s the name of the language; hers is Bahasa Indonesia, which I would have never guessed.)

    I hope someone has the resources to find out more, I’ve seen his name mentioned here before.

  175. 175.

    JML

    @MisterForkbeard: It’s going to wreck his career because he’s made his living on playing nice dorks, and people will struggle to see him as nice the more he supports hate. he, of course, will see it differently and will claim persecution rather than the fact that he’s easily replaceable and there are 30 other actors who would kill for his niche.

  176. 176.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @Omnes Omnibus: I don’t like smashing instruments either.
    when my sister had her violin stolen it took her a lot of work and travel and instrument trials to choose another one. It was a huge deal. Musical instruments aren’t made to be disposable.

    they don’t have planned obsolescence, unlike cars, and toasters, coffee makers, and apple tablets.

  177. 177.

    Citizen Alan

    @Maxim: I once knew a guy who repurposed old unrepairable instruments into furniture. I regret now buying a $300 floor lamp made from an old bassoon, but at the time I didn’t have the spending money.

  178. 178.

    Citizen Alan

    @Jeffro: The more Couch Fucker talks like this, the more convinced I am that he’s a pedo. I genuinely worry for his three children.

  179. 179.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @The Audacity of Krope: TIA for whatever you do to take one for the team.
    If someone is able to hire a language interpreter, perhaps they can search that. Even though you’re making a joke, it might be a good idea. Maybe the records are all on the internet, deaths, obituaries, police records. I don’t know anything about the government or the cultural practices over there, nor anything about inconvenient people disappearing.

  181. 181.

    Matt McIrvin

    @ArchTeryx: Trump tried withholding disaster aid for California wildfires over some tantrum or set of demands, if I recall correctly. They should have raked the forest!

  183. 183.

    zhena gogolia

    @Gloria DryGarden: I think the practice here has been that a front-pager tries to contact the person, but doesn’t do any sleuthing. Sometimes the person left word with their family to get in touch in case something happened. Other than that, the blog people don’t do detective work.

  185. 185.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @Matt McIrvin: when the disaster hits his section of Florida, I’d appreciate his help getting a tad delayed, make him sign an apology first. Or suggest since he crossed zoning rules , or doesn’t pay taxes, or whichever civil violations he’s committed, that he’s got to wait for others to be helped first.

  186. 186.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @The Audacity of Krope: Thanks In Advance.
    is it just me that gets mocked when I don’t look stuff up in the urban dictionary ?

    but you’re right, it’s confusing. I know about those transitory ischemic things

  187. 187.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @zhena gogolia: ok, gotcha. Thanks.
    Many people have inquired about him, as if this were a sort of community.

    I guess I thought if a front pager tried to contact the person via someone who speaks the local language, they might easily get somewhere.
    well, then, nevermind

  188. 188.

    The Audacity of Krope

    @Gloria DryGarden: Mini-strokes. And Google wasn’t helping.

    Once I’ve been exposed to that usage of that acronym a couple times it will click. Thanks for letting me know.

  192. 192.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @The Audacity of Krope: no worries.

    I’d forgotten the medical def, too, even though I’ve been w a client when they had one, a TIA.

    I had to look up IIRC 3 times before google gave me a useful answer.  It was just fun for someone else, to get impatient w me for what I didn’t know, when they thought “everyone” knew.
    Thanks In Advance, TIA, might have been the only abbreviation I was previously used to. There are so many here.

  194. 194.

    The Audacity of Krope

    @Gloria DryGarden: There really are, there are even several acronyms that are the same but reference different phrases. BTW is the first that comes to mind and I will not rack my brain for another.

    It’s good to share, though. I like learning these. A recent favorite I hadn’t heard was HBIC.

  197. 197.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @The Audacity of Krope: no idea.
    nor a second meaning on btw.
    Oh jeez

    heal before I comment?

    hit before ingesting cannabis?

    im hopeless. I’ll look it up later.

    iirc kept giving me a corporation name…

  198. 198.

    trollhattan

    Any jackals having Verizon problems today? Network is on the fritz in NoCal and the spouse has not had a connection since early this a.m., while mine works as normal. The Apple vs. Android battle is real.

  206. 206.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Redshift:

    As far as I can tell, the whole of the “owning” variant of trolling is “I do something designed to piss you off, and if you get mad, I win!” It’s an artificial accomplishment for people who don’t actually accomplish anything.

    How about if I roll my eyes so hard, they almost fall out onto my keyboard?

  207. 207.

    The Audacity of Krope

    @Redshift: As far as I can tell, the whole of the “owning” variant of trolling is “I do something designed to piss you off, and if you get mad, I win!”

    And if you don’t get mad, you’re fronting. I still win, especially if you laugh patronizingly at me.

  209. 209.

    lowtechcyclist

    @TBone:

    I have a pilfered black & white photo of Groucho and Alice Cooper. Seated and engrossed in conversation.

    Still boggles my mind that Cooper was good friends with both Groucho Marx and Glen Campbell. There aren’t many celebs that I’d actually like to be able to sit down for a beer with, but Cooper’s one of them.

  210. 210.

    TBone

    @Gloria DryGarden: they replayed that paper towels video clip on Deadline Whitehouse a little while ago.  Then they switched gears & the female spokesperson for the Haitian group in Ohio who is pressing criminal charges against both Donold and JDivans had her say, along with Jasmine Crockett.

  211. 211.

    TBone

    @lowtechcyclist: 💙 I have an old friend IRL who used to follow Alice and get backstage a lot, he has so many cool photos!  They were good buddies outside of just taking photos too.  Not close friends but good buddies.

  213. 213.

    —ly Ballou

    @Steve LaBonne: But pretending it is a movement of the economically downtrodden is useful in a couple ways for a couple different types of people.

    For well-to-do right wingers, it allows them to cosplay as populist tribunes of the Forgotten Man.

    For well-to-do liberals and “moderates”, it allows them to indulge their own classism *and* deflect from the uncomfortably Trumpist and Trump-curious elements within their own demographic cohort.

    Something for everyone! What’s not to love?

  215. 215.

    AWOL

    @lowtechcyclist: First Yankee game I went to was against the Sens in 1970. Hot, humid July afternoon. Incredible seeing Ted Williams manage. Saw a young Frank Howard that day too, I believe. Then I remember the SHORT STINKS forfeit to end 1971, which was not televised in NYC.

  216. 216.

    PAM Dirac

    @lowtechcyclist:

    I remember when that was the v2.0 Washington Senators’ slogan! (1969, their one good year.)

    I went to opening day that year. The Senators were behind by 6 or 7 runs in the late innings and the PA announcer went into some promo that started with “It’s a whole new ballgame … ” and the booing was so bad that he just gave up on the promo.

  217. 217.

    TBone

    @AWOL:

    “I hate it when fans go, ‘Who should I vote for?’” he says. “Why do you think rock stars would know any more than you do? We’re rock stars; we’re dumber than you.”

    I met President Ford. Groucho Marx got me into the Friars Club, and I was always the only rocker at the Friars Club meetings; it was all comedians like Jerry Lewis and Bob Hope. But I would sit there and there would be presidents talking to Bob Hope, and they would call me over, and I’d say, “Mr. President. Mr. Hope.” And they’d go, “I’m pushing the ball to the right, what should I do?” All they were talking about was golf. I’d say, “Well, just relax your right hand and it’ll make the club turn over more.” It was so weird to me that it didn’t matter that I was a rock singer and that was the president and that was Bob Hope. What mattered was, how do you turn the ball over a little to the left? It’s really interesting that golf cuts through everything.

    You’re on the fence about Trump, but what do you think of his golf courses?
    You know what? They’re very good golf courses. I’ve got to give him that. You can’t slight him on that one. … That may be a deciding factor, but I doubt it. [Laughs].

    https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/alice-cooper-on-zombie-hillary-and-trump-demented-election-golf-249729/

    😆 He is nothing if not all show.

  218. 218.

    Steve in the ATL

    @frosty: doesn’t work with my style of play, which could be fairly described as “bad” but regardless involves lots of g string bends

  219. 219.

    lowtechcyclist

    @scav: ​
     

    Every time a Catholic hospital denies health care an angel gets their wings.

    And administrators presumably get a bonus because that is the purpose of the church, isn’t it, producing angels? The afterlife is the important bit.

    Until you bring up that those aborted ‘unborn babies’ are going straight to Heaven, and who knows whether that would be true if they were born. Especially considering those dirty sluts that would be raising them.

  222. 222.

    Scout211

    @trollhattan: It’s real.

    Verizon has confirmed that its cell service is beginning to come back online following a massive outage affecting some of its mobile phone customers.

    “Verizon engineers are making progress on our network issue and service has started to be restored,” a Verizon spokesperson said to CNN Monday. “We know how much people rely on Verizon and apologize for any inconvenience some of our customers experienced today. We continue to work around the clock to fully resolve this issue.”

    The outage appeared to start happening around 11 am ET, with roughly 100,000 reports from customers on DownDetector, a site that tracks complaints about service outages.

  225. 225.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Gloria DryGarden: ​
     

    Thanks In Advance, TIA, might have been the only abbreviation I was previously used to. There are so many here.

    For me, it’s all the damned laws. Cleek’s Law and all those others whose names I can’t even remember right now. I’ve had to look up the definitions of some of them three or four times and still can’t remember what they are when I see someone refer to one of them.

    I’m better with the acronyms, because at least there’s a starting point to work from, while there’s no clue in the word ‘Cleek’ that gives me any idea as to what it might be about. But I’ll confess I was today days old when I learned of TIA. Looks like it should be the airport code for Tampa International Airport, except that one’s TPA, which I know because the in-laws are down that way.

  226. 226.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @FastEdD: The very kindest thing I can do is not say anything.

    the struggle is real. Just yesterday my close friend, who seems to get her talking points from the alternative facts and twisted bias of RW media bias, sent me a new message, stating she’s sure the democrats are corrupt. And more refusal to even look at a news piece I sent her.

    It was so hard to hold back from trying to clarify my pov. She’s not going to listen. Trying to be kind to myself, by not getting into it, not wasting my time there. It sticks, like a lump of anger in my throat.

  227. 227.

    Eyeroller

    @Gloria DryGarden:

    Amir last posted around July 18, 2023, about his new kitten Aiofe.  Amir had cardiomyopathic heart failure and had taken very early retirement on disability.  He had been hospitalized during Ramadan a month or a few months earlier for dehydration, a potential problem for patients with heart failure.

    It may be that somebody who speaks Malaysian and is familiar with their online resources might have been able to find an obituary.  It’s difficult to say, but Amir left some clues–he was a journalist before being forced into early retirement, so there may have been something published online.

    Amir had mentioned a sister, but unless he had prepared some instructions, she would have had no reason to think she should contact a blog half a world away to inform us of her brother’s passing. And yet we really would have wanted to know.

  228. 228.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @Msb: and as a result, everyone who had any access to getting an Irish passport, returned from whatever country they lived in, to vote to make abortion legal in Ireland. It only took one death.

    I guess in Ireland, a mature women in distress during pregnancy, has a “detectable heartbeat”,

    plus, maybe women count for something there.

  230. 230.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @lowtechcyclist: I noticed about the laws, but haven’t mostly looked them up. They become TL;DR (I asked a friend what that was)

    I’ve  hung out awhile in a curated social media situation, mostly acquaintances and friends in real life, where we often request help, or information, or an opinion, and people often put TIA. Esp, in the Covid help in Denver group, when people request help w food, delivery, domestic or financial challenges. A lot of times folks get what they ask for, it’s very sweet. So TIA fit pretty often in that context.

  231. 231.

    Gloria DryGarden

    Re stalking. It usually involves prey. Or an intent to intrude, or get something, possibly to cause harm, or to control
    women, and celebrities, may have experienced it.

  232. 232.

    Geminid

    @Gloria DryGarden: What chafes me is how a commenter might type out 300 words with 1500 characters, but refrain from spelling out some acronym like they can’t be bothered. Too insidery for me.

  233. 233.

    Kayla Rudbek

    @Flanders Other Neighbor: the mere thought of running tubular aka glue-on tires on the tandem makes me shudder. I still have one of the old tandem magazines where someone did that for the Davis Double Century and the front tire came off the rim because the braking melted the glue off. Tandem bikes eat components and tires for breakfast and then go looking for more bike parts for lunch. I am a retrogrouch when it comes to saddles (Brooks) and pedals (toe clips), but tubular tires are a line too far for me.

  234. 234.

    barbequebob

    @Anoniminous:

     

    Well, in late October 2012, a couple of weeks before the Presidential Election, Hurricane Sandy slammed into, and wreaked havoc in New Jersey and New York, including pro-Trump counties like Richmond NY (aka Staten Island) . It clearly is no coincidence that these storms happen close to election day, so there must be some truth to this theory.

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