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Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

If you are still in the gop, you are either an extremist yourself, or in bed with those who are.

These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.

If you cannot answer whether trump lost the 2020 election, you are unfit for office.

Mediocre white men think RFK Jr’s pathetic midlife crisis is inspirational. The bar is set so low for them, it’s subterranean.

It’s a good piece. click on over. but then come back!!

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

“But what about the lurkers?”

If ‘weird’ was the finish line, they ran through the tape and kept running.

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

… gradually, and then suddenly.

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

Shut up, hissy kitty!

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

Let the trolls come, and then ignore them. that’s the worst thing you can do to a troll.

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

Stop using mental illness to avoid talking about armed white supremacy.

This is dead girl, live boy, a goat, two wetsuits and a dildo territory.  oh, and pink furry handcuffs.

75% of people clapping liked the show!

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You are here: Home / Elections 2024 / Sunday Morning Open Thread: GOP Hypocrites, All the Way Down

Sunday Morning Open Thread: GOP Hypocrites, All the Way Down

by Anne Laurie|  October 13, 20248:03 am| 295 Comments

This post is in: Elections 2024, Excellent Links, Kamala Harris for President, Open Threads, Religion, Republican Venality, Show Us on the Doll Where the Invisible Hand Touched You

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In a conversation with @KatyTurNBC, Florida @JaredEMoskowitz claims that House Speaker Mike Johnson is not reconvening Congress for additional disaster relief funds due to political motivations.

Watch the full interview: https://t.co/5cvbNVfwb5 pic.twitter.com/28pkTl8pbH

— MSNBC (@MSNBC) October 11, 2024

4 chances to admit Trump lost the 2020 election and Vance takes none of them.
My most resist-lib opinion is this alone should be disqualifying. Vance is a Yale Law grad & VC, he's smart enough to know Trump lost, but he's willing to trade American democracy for personal power

[image or embed]

— Joey Politano?????? (@josephpolitano.bsky.social) October 12, 2024 at 4:00 PM

===========

Hat tip to commentor VeniceRiley for this tidbit, which warmed my left-the-Church-long-ago heart. Per USAToday, “What to know about the Al Smith dinner: Harris plans to skip, Trump plans to attend”:

Vice President Kamala Harris plans to skip a historic charity dinner while former President Donald Trump said Monday he will attend.

The annual Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner, a white-tie charity event in New York City, is known for prominent political figures poking fun at one another and the issues of the moment.

The Harris campaign confirmed with USA TODAY that the Democratic presidential nominee will not attend the dinner scheduled for Oct. 17, as they want to focus on the battleground states so close to the election.

The campaign noted her commitment to engaging Catholic voters and said Harris would attend as president if elected…

In 2017, Archbishop of New York Timothy Dolan came under fire for his relationship with Trump, according to CNN, and he gave the invocation at Trump’s inauguration…

As far as I can tell, Cardinal Dolan has never been accused of personally raping a young congregant, bullying an LGBTQ+ individual, or even stealing Church funds for his own benefit. He’s just used his considerable education & institutional power to enable others who did all those things and worse, while meeping sadly about ‘secularism’ destroying ‘the roots of Catholic tradition.’

The parochial school nuns back in the 1960s/70s taught us that such institutional hypocrisy was at least as sinful in the eyes of Jesus as more overt crimes, but of course they held no authority over the men in charge, then or now. VeniceRiley linked to the National Catholic Reporter, “Cardinal Dolan’s ‘Al Smith dinner’ disappointment is misdirected”:

One could almost imagine the tears welling up in his eyes as New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan lamented the rejection he received from Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate for president, of his invitation to the annual Al Smith charity dinner.

He said he was “doubly disappointed” at her refusal to attend. The cardinal has tried to convince the world that she is receiving bad advice. Others have tried to convince her that a change of mind would allow her to show civility, to elevate political discourse, to show she doesn’t have anything against Catholics and so on.

Perhaps it would be best to stop here to collect our breath and spend a moment or two reflecting on just who should be placed on the spot for engaging in less-than-civil behavior, as well as contributing to the diminishment of Catholic identity and credibility in the public square.

Even in this era of the endless gush of stuff coming at us on every manner of device, it is possible to cull reality from it all. In the case of Trump, the material almost outruns social media’s ability to keep up.

But first, a quick look back at the cardinal’s role in all of this, which extends to a well-reported recording of a phone call he made to Trump with other Catholic leaders in 2020. The two exhibited a kind of unctuous, ecclesial-political bromance, the former president declaring the cardinal a “great gentleman” and a “great friend of mine.” He also gave a nod to an implicit quid pro quo to paying attention to what his eminence “asks for.”

He also hailed the then-president for his support for Catholic schools, saying, “We need you more than ever.” Trump, in turn, declared himself the “best [president] in the history of the Catholic Church.”…

The sin here is not that Kamala Harris had the good sense to reply, “No thank you, I’m previously engaged.” The real scandal is that the good Catholic cardinal of the great city of New York would not have the courage to say, this year, that the current Republican candidate is a walking example of so much the Catholic Church finds repugnant in today’s politics that he would suspend the normal invitations.

The real controversy is that an event that touts its history of raising funds for society’s most needy is going to host someone who is one of the culture’s greatest threats to that kind of caring. The real outrage is that Trump, given the public nature and extent of his repulsive record, should be invited to a fundraiser for an organization, Catholic Charities, that has long worked in the trenches to save and transform lives on society’s farthest margins. It is tragic that the guest of honor this year will be someone whose personal example and policy wishes are in a collision course with the principles of Catholic social teaching.

We are triply disappointed, Cardinal Dolan, that in the name of the church and its witness to the wider culture, you did not suspend the norm this year and invite someone worthy of the event’s cause. We are disappointed you didn’t have the courage to stand up to Trump, a looming threat to the democratic ideals that allow the church to host such a high-profile public gathering.

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Reader Interactions

295Comments

  1. 1.

    Spanky

    October 13, 2024 at 8:16 am

    Why would the good Cardinal feel the need to stand up to someone he so obviously admires?

  2. 2.

    Spanky

    October 13, 2024 at 8:18 am

    And I do take some comfort in seeing that the National Catholic Reporter doesn’t feel the need to kowtow to the Cardinal of the largest US city.

  3. 3.

    sdhays

    October 13, 2024 at 8:22 am

    You know, being referred to by the Pope as the “lesser of two evils” might have factored into MVP’s decision to politely tell the Catholic hierarchy to fuck off.

  4. 4.

    Steve LaBonne

    October 13, 2024 at 8:24 am

    @sdhays: That and knowing that Democratic-voting Catholics are not exactly enamored of the bishops, definitely including Dolan.

  5. 5.

    Rusty

    October 13, 2024 at 8:25 am

    The cardinal seems happy to sell out his religious principles for access and the acquisition of power.  There is probably a utilitarian calculation in there that getting power is worth the cost.  But someone that loves to attack people for not following the moral principles he believes in, the result is deeply hypocritical.   Good theology says you should never treat people as means, but he is happy to use Trump as a means to power (and he probably agrees with Trump anyway).  The result is he however that the cardinal ends using lots of other people as means to, making them objects, not humans.

  6. 6.

    Mousebumples

    October 13, 2024 at 8:27 am

    Good morning! As someone raised Catholic (including Catholic grade school for K-8),I’m more than okay with my current non denominational Christianity. Pope Francis is better than most Popes, but the American Bishops are a corrupt bunch.

  7. 7.

    TBone

    October 13, 2024 at 8:28 am

    @sdhays: good eye

  8. 8.

    Mousebumples

    October 13, 2024 at 8:30 am

    https://bsky.app/profile/scoiattolo.mountainherder.xyz/post/3l6dyzrhdj42p (must be logged in to view)

    Trump responded by calling host Alexandra Cooper “Dumber than Harris” so now Cooper is doing an episode on abortion and the experience of going to a clinic in North Carolina since the Trump abortion ban.

    She has 10 million listeners.

    https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/an-abortion-story-fbf/id1418960261?i=1000672648931

     

    https://bsky.app/profile/anamariecox.bsky.social/post/3l6ebd3p5tj2p

    The episode is from a couple of years ago — more proof that she was a great pick to talk to. Her audience already cares. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/digital/alex-cooper-spotify-call-her-daddy-podcast-abortion-episode-1235233021/

     

    https://bsky.app/profile/scoiattolo.mountainherder.xyz/post/3l6ebmatg6n2i (must be logged in to view)

    100% agreed. While the reaction was in part old media not getting new media, more widely, there was a lot of sexism embedded in the reaction to Harris going on her podcast. Harris made a great choice here

    I’m going to add this one to my Podcast rotation, I think.

  9. 9.

    TBone

    October 13, 2024 at 8:32 am

    I’ma need a whole pallet of palate cleansers this morning. Listerine strength.

  10. 10.

    MagdaInBlack

    October 13, 2024 at 8:33 am

    I had no high-minded reason for walking away from the Catholic Church after Confirmation: I was just bored with it. But they have certainly given me plenty of high-minded reasons since.

    Eta: my mother just said “Well, you’re old enough to make your choice” and that was it. She knew.

  11. 11.

    Mousebumples

    October 13, 2024 at 8:36 am

    https://bsky.app/profile/angryblacklady.bsky.social/post/3l6czkcbm3a2n

    You might be surprised to learn that the Department of Justice is arguing that the Equal Protection Clause protects trans people, including trans kids seeking gender affirming care considering no Democrats are talking about it. At least not that I’ve seen.

    I talked about it in this TikTok. https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMhUPTJdK/

    … the DOJ is going pretty hard in the paint actually. Elizabeth Prelogar is really fucking smart and really sick of this Court’s bullshit lol

    The case is being heard at SCOTUS this term. United States v. Skrmetti

     

    https://bsky.app/profile/phranklindb.bsky.social/post/3l6diwxslzw2w

    An audience member at the Equality Town Hall spoke from the heart of their fears about trans women of color being hunted down and killed.

    As DA of San Francisco, I tackled this crisis head-on. As president, I’ll impose a national model to ensure they are protected from violence.

    https://youtu.be/EUyETcJdOOc?si=3ZLltpj3BvErZVii

    Here are the Facts

    LGBTQ have no better advocates at the tip of the power spear, than Harris/Walz

    https://glaad.org/fact-sheet-harris-education/

  12. 12.

    Nukular Biskits

    October 13, 2024 at 8:39 am

    Good mornin, y’all.

  13. 13.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    October 13, 2024 at 8:40 am

    @Rusty:

    The cardinal seems happy to sell out his religious principles for access and the acquisition of power.

    A throwback cardinal, as in a throwback to the late Middle Ages.

  14. 14.

    Mousebumples

    October 13, 2024 at 8:41 am

    https://bsky.app/profile/faineg.bsky.social/post/3l6bpyeqcys2z (must be logged in to view)

    A forced-birth “crisis pregnancy” center *illegally intercepted communications* between a patient and a legitimate health center in MASSACHUSETTS.

    I hope these monsters go to federal prison, but this is also generally horrifying.

    https://therecord.media/anti-abortion-group-massachusetts-accused-intercepting-messages

    IANAL, but this seems like a federal crime with serious penalties likely.

    I also wonder if this has been done elsewhere across the country and not yet reported/uncovered. *rage face*

    Gotta run up the score. I want to see a big blue map next month.

  15. 15.

    Baud

    October 13, 2024 at 8:41 am

    @Nukular Biskits:

    Good morning.

  16. 16.

    mrmoshpotato

    October 13, 2024 at 8:42 am

    As far as I can tell, Cardinal Dolan has never been accused of personally raping a young congregant, bullying an LGBTQ+ individual, or even stealing Church funds for his own benefit. He’s just used his considerable education & institutional power to enable others who did all those things and worse, while meeping sadly about ‘secularism’ destroying ‘the roots of Catholic tradition.’

    What the?  Did one of these hypocritical bastards murder someone?

  17. 17.

    Baud

    October 13, 2024 at 8:43 am

    @Mousebumples:

    I hope the pro-LGBT community realizes this, but I hate to say it’s probably smart electorally for Dems not to spend a lot of time talking about it.

  18. 18.

    Baud

    October 13, 2024 at 8:48 am

    I assumed Harris didn’t want to pal around with Trump, but maybe it is about Dolan.

  19. 19.

    Stopthemovie

    October 13, 2024 at 8:48 am

    best [president] in the history of the Catholic Church.”…
    JFK would like a word.

  20. 20.

    Nukular Biskits

    October 13, 2024 at 8:50 am

    Personally, I don’t see the difference in blowing off a Catholic charity dinner and blowing off a Southern Baptist Convention prayer breakfast.

    Both are to be avoided, IMHO, lest a bolt of lightning or an asteroid strike.

  21. 21.

    TBone

    October 13, 2024 at 8:50 am

    A palate cleanser.

    The song title comes from a line in the James Joyce novel Finnegans Wake. Simon says she was also inspired by the poetry of Walt Whitman.

    https://steady.substack.com/p/let-the-river-run

    🎶

    https://youtu.be/cv-0mmVnxPA

  22. 22.

    Baud

    October 13, 2024 at 8:52 am

    @Nukular Biskits:

    Or blowing off the NYT for that matter.

    Historically, Catholics have been better than average when it comes to immigrants. So it’ll be interesting to see if Trump goes full final solution against immigrants at this event like he’s been doing on the campaign trail.

  23. 23.

    Weftage

    October 13, 2024 at 8:55 am

    @Baud:

    It’s a bit like trying to “debate” evolution with a creationist. You’re essentially forced to treat the nonsense as if it were a valid point of view.

    I do bridle a bit at “nobody is talking about it.” It’s not really true, and it’s a bit too adjacent to “those cowardly Dems didn’t even try.”

  24. 24.

    sdhays

    October 13, 2024 at 8:56 am

    @Baud: Yeah, I think it’s probably mostly about Trump. Trump’s presence makes this kind of event offensive.

    As @Nuklar Biskits said, I don’t see why Presidential candidates should show up to a Catholic charity event any more than a Southern Baptist event. People like Cardinal Dolan shouldn’t have more money to manage, especially money raised by candidates they hate.

  25. 25.

    JML

    October 13, 2024 at 8:57 am

    It’s important to remember that the American Catholic Church does not care about democracy, and isn’t concerned about any collapse in democratic norms and institutions. So long as the people in charge aren’t coming for their money or planning on trying to wipe them out as an institution, they think they’ll be just fine. And since the GOP has been so complicit in covering up sex crimes over the years and prefers a patriarchal structure, it’s no surprise that US Catholic bishops are in the tank for TFG. They’re monumental hypocrites that can justify any kind of crappy behavior in the defense of what they see as their prerogatives.

    Screw the Al Smith Dinner. Dolan is scum.

  26. 26.

    Nukular Biskits

    October 13, 2024 at 8:58 am

    @Baud:

    Or blowing off the NYT for that matter.

    Good point. All three events are nothing more than political performative art to massage the egos of the rich and powerful, IMHO.

    So it’ll be interesting to see if Trump goes full final solution against immigrants at this event like he’s been doing on the campaign trail.

    My guess? Yes. And those in attendance (or at least those sitting at the head table) will give him a complete pass on it, whether via making excuses for him/defending him post-dinner or sanctioning it through their silence.

  27. 27.

    A Ghost to Most

    October 13, 2024 at 8:58 am

    Hypocrisy is the LEAST of their crimes.

  28. 28.

    Nukular Biskits

    October 13, 2024 at 9:01 am

    @A Ghost to Most:

    Hypocrisy is the LEAST of their crimes.

    At least you don’t have a US Senator who, without fail, posts a Bible verse every Sunday morning despite being a flaming pro-Trump hypocrite.

  29. 29.

    Baud

    October 13, 2024 at 9:04 am

    @Weftage:

    I do bridle a bit at “nobody is talking about it.”

    Me too. Start the conversation or don’t, but don’t scold other people for not doing what you want them to do.

  30. 30.

    Baud

    October 13, 2024 at 9:06 am

    @Nukular Biskits: Yeah, the audience might laugh along, although I believe the audience will include some of the NYC elite, so maybe not all of them are in on it.

    But lay Catholics out in the real world?  I don’t know how it would play.

  31. 31.

    Starfish

    October 13, 2024 at 9:08 am

    @Mousebumples: In 2012, Baltimore tried to pass an ordinance that required the fake crisis pregnancy centers to put up signs saying they were not real medical clinics. The Fourth Circuit struck that down. Note how the archbishops were the ones against this ordinance. I am pretty sure at the time they were threatening to pull Catholic Charities out of Baltimore.

  32. 32.

    TBone

    October 13, 2024 at 9:08 am

    Protesters “invaded” the Media, PA GQP headquarters in DelCo shouting “Donald Trump lied, people died!” No arrests were made, despite the GQP howling about “intimidation.” Turnabout is fair play in the intimidation department, methinks.

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/delco-gop-says-protesters-cornered-its-volunteers-at-trump-office-it-was-total-intimidation/ar-AA1s9LLY

  33. 33.

    Baud

    October 13, 2024 at 9:10 am

    @sdhays: The difference is tradition. Al Smith was a Dem nominee and the first Catholic nominated to head a major party ticket. This may be the first year that a major party nominee has not attended.  It’s kind of notable. That said, as has been pointed out oftentimes here, there are many institutions out there that have chosen to squander rather than maintain their credibility with the public, and they always scream and whine when it finally catches up to them.

  34. 34.

    Nukular Biskits

    October 13, 2024 at 9:12 am

    @Baud:

    I suspect you’re correct.  Maybe that’s wishful thinking on my part.

    This is, perhaps, cliche’ and so general as to apply to just about everything but it’s my observation that the “leadership” of such religious groups/organization is often not representative of the laity.

  35. 35.

    Baud

    October 13, 2024 at 9:14 am

    @Nukular Biskits: Especially Catholics, where the laity have no say in the leadership.

    Sometimes, the leadership is better, like when clergy come out against Trump or in favor of treating LGBT people like human beings, and their congregation rejects them.

  36. 36.

    zhena gogolia

    October 13, 2024 at 9:14 am

    I remember that dinner in 2016. Everyone was sucking up to Hillary, and Trump was sitting there scowling. We all thought she was a shoo-in at that point. (Although I didn’t, but that dinner made me hopeful.)

  37. 37.

    frosty

    October 13, 2024 at 9:15 am

    @Nukular Biskits: No, I have worse. I have a US Senator who walks onto the floor of this hallowed building wearing a Carhartt hoodie and shorts.

    It is to weep.

  38. 38.

    TBone

    October 13, 2024 at 9:15 am

    @TBone: 🎶✊

    https://youtu.be/X2W3aG8uizA

  39. 39.

    Nukular Biskits

    October 13, 2024 at 9:15 am

    @frosty:

    Fetterman?

  40. 40.

    Starfish

    October 13, 2024 at 9:17 am

    @frosty: So long as he chooses the correct side in the battle between Wawa and Sheetz, it is fine.

  41. 41.

    frosty

    October 13, 2024 at 9:18 am

    @Baud: ​ Yes. My reaction on reading this was to remember Kay’s comments that all of our institutions have failed: the press, the Senate (impeachment), the justice system. Add the Catholic Church to the list.

  42. 42.

    TBone

    October 13, 2024 at 9:18 am

    @frosty: 💙😆

    I Vote In This Hoodie!

    That’s what made the day of the canvasser who knocked my door yesterday.

  43. 43.

    frosty

    October 13, 2024 at 9:19 am

    @Nukular Biskits: ​None other!

  44. 44.

    Starfish

    October 13, 2024 at 9:19 am

    @frosty: The Catholic Church failed first and hardest.

  45. 45.

    TBone

    October 13, 2024 at 9:20 am

    @Starfish: WaWa hands down.

  46. 46.

    Nukular Biskits

    October 13, 2024 at 9:23 am

    @Starfish:

    I have no dog in the Wawa/Sheetz fight… we don’t have those here down South.

    I’m sure I’ve probably gassed up at a Sheetz while on business travel.  I know I have at a Wawa and their chicken soup once saved me when recovering from a bout of food poisoning (it always sucks to be sick but doubly so when you’re on travel and staying in a hotel).

  47. 47.

    Booger

    October 13, 2024 at 9:25 am

    @TBone: This is self evident, simply by how the present their coffee.

  48. 48.

    TBone

    October 13, 2024 at 9:26 am

    @Booger: amen!

    But…beware 😆

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9kNfbx9QKPQ

  49. 49.

    topclimber

    October 13, 2024 at 9:28 am

    I hope Joe is up to going to the Al Smith dinner in her place. He just might be up for one “Last Hurrah”, certainly one that puts him in old Don’s face.

  50. 50.

    Chief Oshkosh

    October 13, 2024 at 9:29 am

    I will give them this, the Church hierarchy, from local bishop up to the pointy top of the pope’s hat, made it very easy for me to leave the Church in the 90s. My wife and I, due to her employment, came to know about just a tiny bit of the behind the scenes illegal maneuverings of the Church to shuttle rapist priests around various parishes to keep them one step ahead of lay councils and police. As it turned out, much of this spanned years, with rapists being allowed to prey on children at the various parishes for extended periods. The bishops, cardinals, and popes are nearly entirely unrepentant and continue to use every lever of power available to them to prevent a full accounting. They are the ultimate hypocrites. I’m glad Harris is blowing off the Al Smith dinner. Fuck ’em. I hope Trump and the other attendees get salmonella.

  51. 51.

    lowtechcyclist

    October 13, 2024 at 9:29 am

    @Rusty: ​
     

    The cardinal seems happy to sell out his religious principles for access and the acquisition of power. There is probably a utilitarian calculation in there that getting power is worth the cost.

    I recall something Jesus said about gaining the world at the cost of one’s soul. I guess in the utilitarian calculations of many who identify as Christian, that’s a positive outcome. But I have a hunch that isn’t what Jesus meant.

  52. 52.

    Ramalama

    October 13, 2024 at 9:30 am

    April 2024:

    Dolan has been fighting for the “right” to sexually abuse and re-victimize minors and vulnerable adults and then have others pick up the tab.

    The website Bishop Accountability is the repository for (possibly all?) documented case of crimes committed by Clergy towards children and other people. It needs a little TLC in terms of looks but has the goods.

  53. 53.

    Betty Cracker

    October 13, 2024 at 9:30 am

    @Nukular Biskits: We have WaWa in FL now. It’s pretty good. I don’t know about Sheetz.

  54. 54.

    Kathleen

    October 13, 2024 at 9:32 am

    @Spanky: Good to see NCR has been steadfast all these years. I was introduced to it when I was a student at an all girls Catholic high school in St. Paul in the 60’s! I found it refreshing.

  55. 55.

    ssdd

    October 13, 2024 at 9:34 am

    @TBone: this is the correct answer.

  56. 56.

    TBone

    October 13, 2024 at 9:36 am

    Indigenous Peoples Day.  As Dennis at Digby sez, what a difference an administration makes.

    https://digbysblog.net/2024/10/12/beds-are-burning-top-10-films-for-indigenous-peoples-day/

  57. 57.

    Nukular Biskits

    October 13, 2024 at 9:37 am

    @Betty Cracker:

    Probably 95% of the Wawas I’ve patronized were in VA.  In fact the last one I was in was to gas up the rental on the way back to Richmond airport.

    Didn’t think about ’til you mentioned it but seems there are some Wawas in Jacksonville area, maybe along I-10 there in FL.  It’s been a while since I last traveled to Mayport, though, so I’m not sure.

  58. 58.

    TBone

    October 13, 2024 at 9:38 am

    @ssdd: we don’t have a Wawa here in Union County yet but apparently one is being built.  They better have the good hoagie rolls!  A hoagie is just a ripoff if it’s on bad bread.

    Just walking into a blaringly gaudy Sheetz can induce a headache.  I am loud by nature, but they’re just…ugh!

    I type WaWa with two cap Ws because it means call of the goose in indigenous language but apparently that is not correct for the convenience store.

  59. 59.

    Barbara

    October 13, 2024 at 9:41 am

    @Baud: The Catholic church has tried hard and mostly succeeded at making Catholicism part of  mainstream religious identity in the US.  As culture has changed to make bedrock Catholic doctrine on divorce and contraception truly ooutlier positions the church seems to think it can preserve its role by supporting a more coercive and repressive government. This is nothing new. The church’s support of Franco for basically the same reasons probably killed off organized religion altogether in Spain.  It seems doubly stupid when such a high percentage of US Catholics are immigrants or their first generation of children, but current church leadership hasn’t reflected changing demographic trends for a while now.

  60. 60.

    Falling Diphthong

    October 13, 2024 at 9:41 am

    Front page of the Post today has a piece on how Trump is sounding like a Nazi. I had not expected this of them.

    (A small optimistic corner of me hopes that media figured “But wait, this other guy is very old! And sounds demented! And when he’s coherent sounds like a Nazi!” would land a few weeks out but fade into “Trump bein’ Trump” noise earlier.)

  61. 61.

    Spanky

    October 13, 2024 at 9:45 am

    @Kathleen: I had walked away to do some stuff so forgot exactly what my comment was, and my first thought was National Cash Register?

    I am old.

  62. 62.

    Layer8Problem

    October 13, 2024 at 9:45 am

    TFG will stand up on the dias in white tie and diaper.  He will talk, he will go off script, and among the disjointed word salad he will say all the horrible crap floating through his head.  He will trash Harris and immigrants and promise roundups of undesirables and possibly give a shout out to his great Catholic appointees on the Supreme Court doing his work.  The audience will be split between those applauding enthusiastically and the ones staring aghast like they were watching the opening of Springtime for Hitler.  And the Cardinal will sit there with a odd expression on his face wondering why TFG didn’t keep it all on the low down like he had promised and thinking that perhaps forging ahead with just the fascist/falangist candidate at the highly important Al Smith dinner wasn’t the best idea.  It certainly won’t get kids back into the pews.

  63. 63.

    rikyrah

    October 13, 2024 at 9:46 am

    Good Morning Everyone 😊 😊 😊

  64. 64.

    Frankensteinbeck

    October 13, 2024 at 9:46 am

    @JML:

    So long as the people in charge aren’t coming for their money or planning on trying to wipe them out as an institution

    And they are willing to indulge one Hell of a lot of wishful thinking to justify They Hate Who We Hate.  The American bishops really are vile.

  65. 65.

    TBone

    October 13, 2024 at 9:47 am

    @Falling Diphthong: YES!!! I said yesterday(?) I had hopes about this very thing! ✊

  66. 66.

    Frankensteinbeck

    October 13, 2024 at 9:48 am

    @Layer8Problem:

    This sounds about right.  If I understand correctly, the primary audience for this event is the rich New Yorkers who have been shunning Trump for decades.  They didn’t invite him, Dolan did.

  67. 67.

    different-church-lady

    October 13, 2024 at 9:49 am

    Others have tried to convince her that a change of mind would allow her to show civility, to elevate political discourse, to show she doesn’t have anything against Catholics and so on.

    Trump gets to break every “rule”‘ in the book and then gets hailed as a revolutionary, but when a Democrat doesn’t adhere to the stupidest little tradition The Village has a meltdown.

  68. 68.

    TBone

    October 13, 2024 at 9:52 am

    @TBone: chock full of good stuff:

    This May Be the Last Time — Did you know that the eponymous Rolling Stones song shares the same roots with a venerable Native-American tribal hymn, that is still sung in Seminole and Muscogee churches to this day? While that’s far from the main thrust of Sterlin Harjo’s documentary, it’s but one of its surprises.

  69. 69.

    TS

    October 13, 2024 at 9:54 am

    @Falling Diphthong:

    But I note they still have trump all over the front page (the online front page) – little about MVP – and usually what is there has a negative twist in the headline.

    They have 5 (or more) trump articles to every one on Kamala – and to trump all publicity is good publicity. They report his rallies – rarely say much on the rallies that main players have on the democrat side.

    I give the post no points.

  70. 70.

    TS

    October 13, 2024 at 9:56 am

    @Layer8Problem:

    And if the idea is to raise money for charity – trump believes the maxim that charity begins at home.

  71. 71.

    TBone

    October 13, 2024 at 9:56 am

    @TS: if they’re calling him a Nazi out loud in big letters, I award all the points.

  72. 72.

    Barbara

    October 13, 2024 at 9:58 am

    @different-church-lady: ​Because that worked out so well for Hillary Clinton.

    Harris defends civility every time she talks by, you know, BEING CIVIL, and gets zero credit. Any time she spends genuflecting to media ideas about what it means to “bring back” civility is a big fat fucking waste of time and just gives them the chance to give Trump credit he doesn’t deserve in their pathologic need to pretend that his rise is just an extension of normal political differences.​​​

  73. 73.

    Kathleen

    October 13, 2024 at 9:58 am

    @Nukular Biskits: When I visited my daughter in Tampa we stopped at a Wa Wa but I don’t remember what part of the Tampa area we were in. She loves the food at Wa Wa and they’re opening a couple of stores in Cincinnati so I’m looking forward to checking it out.

  74. 74.

    Scout211

    October 13, 2024 at 9:59 am

    I read the David Brooks dreg in The Atlantic  (web archive version) so you don’t have to.

    He wanders all around for paragraph after paragraph gazing fondly at his own navel, praising himself as a superb thinker who is always above all that partisan nastiness because he is just so smart. You know, a typical Brooks essay.

    But he does admit that he currently lands slightly on the Blue side of the political landscape today, for reasons.  But he is very uncomfortable with that, he would like you to know. Sincerely!

    He concludes:

    In Blue World, I find plenty of people who are fighting against all the things I don’t like about Blue World. In Red World, however, far fewer people are fighting against what’s gone wrong with the party. (There’s a doughty band of Never Trump Republicans, but they get no hearing inside today’s GOP.) A culture or organization is only as strong as its capacity to correct its mistakes.

    All of this leaves me on the periphery of Team Blue, just on the edge of the inside, which is where I believe the healthiest and most productive part of American politics now lives.
    I’m mostly happy here. My advice to other conservatives disaffected by MAGA is this: If you’re under 45, stay in the Republican Party and work to make it a healthy, multiracial working-class party. If you’re over 45, acknowledge that the GOP is not going to be saved in your lifetime and join me on the other side. I don’t deny that it takes some adjustment; I find it weird being in a political culture in which Sunday brunch holds higher status than church. But Blue World is where the better angels of our nature seem lately to have migrated, and where the best hope for the future of the country now lies.

  75. 75.

    There go two miscreants

    October 13, 2024 at 10:00 am

    But if you were a scammer, who would you think might be the easiest marks on the planet, ready to believe anything a conman might say? If you said Trump supporters, you’re clearly not alone.

    https://gizmodo.com/truth-social-users-are-losing-ridiculous-sums-of-money-to-scams-2000506604

    (via ritholtz.com)

  76. 76.

    Warblewarble

    October 13, 2024 at 10:02 am

    Timothy Dolan shared the platform at tRUMPS inauguration with Paula White, the hypocrisy says it all.

  77. 77.

    TBone

    October 13, 2024 at 10:02 am

    @There go two miscreants: heh.  Ronald McDonald and me:

    I love it!

  78. 78.

    Harrison Wesley

    October 13, 2024 at 10:05 am

    @Nukular Biskits: They have Wawas here in Manatee County.  There’s one only about a half mile from me.

  79. 79.

    TBone

    October 13, 2024 at 10:06 am

    @Harrison Wesley: how are the rolls?  Should I get my hopes up?

    We currently drive to another town to get all takeout sandwiches because they have rolls delivered fresh each morning from south Philly.

  80. 80.

    Frankensteinbeck

    October 13, 2024 at 10:07 am

    @TS:

    to trump all publicity is good publicity.

    This is conventional wisdom and it is wildly false.  The publicity he got from the debate sure as Hell was not good publicity, and he was loudly pissed off about it while simultaneously doubling down because how dare anyone think he’s not the greatest orator who ever lived.  His scandals drive people into Harris’s camp.  He rages about it online.  No, Trump is not ‘all publicity is good publicity’ or deliberately driving this process.

  81. 81.

    WaterGirl

    October 13, 2024 at 10:07 am

    @sdhays: I must have missed that.  Did the pope really refer to Harris that way?  That seems out of character for him.  How did that even come up?

  82. 82.

    TBone

    October 13, 2024 at 10:09 am

    @WaterGirl: I had high hopes for this pope until this.

    https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/259283/pope-francis-in-flight-press-conference-us-presidential-elections-harris-trump-catholic-vote

  83. 83.

    JML

    October 13, 2024 at 10:09 am

    @Scout211: There’s a patronizing attitude that constantly comes from the Brooks types that’s really quite infuriating. “Yes, we will deign to join you since the place we were most happy has been ruined” while they pretend the rot only set in when TFG took over and it hasn’t been happening for decades. Like the BS about brunch over church, as if A) there aren’t loads and loads of people with faith in the Democratic Party (it’s just not always David Brooks’ particular brand, so it doesn’t count), and B) as if many churches in the US haven’t destroyed themselves through the exact same kind of corruption and decay that allowed the GOP to turn into a Cult of Personality.

    Brooks is part of the political-religious cadre that goes to church on sundays to justify their bad behavior through the week, and give them a platform on which to look down on others. Talk about people that miss the point. They would have fit in nicely during the Inquisition.

  84. 84.

    different-church-lady

    October 13, 2024 at 10:10 am

    @Scout211: That over/under 45 thing has got to be one of the stupidest things I’ve ever seen.

  85. 85.

    Haydnseek

    October 13, 2024 at 10:10 am

    @Spanky:  Right there with ya.  I’m so old every time I see CRT I immediately think cathode ray tube.

  86. 86.

    Harrison Wesley

    October 13, 2024 at 10:12 am

    @TBone: Have not tried their hoagies.  I’m afraid I’m a purist – haven’t had a hoagie since I left Philly eight years ago.

  87. 87.

    lowtechcyclist

    October 13, 2024 at 10:14 am

    @Falling Diphthong: ​
     

    Front page of the Post today has a piece on how Trump is sounding like a Nazi. I had not expected this of them.

    Good for them! Nothing like a bit of accuracy in journalism.

    That must be the print edition, I’m not seeing it on the front page of the website.

    Wait, I checked – it’s not on the front page of the print edition either.

  88. 88.

    apocalipstick

    October 13, 2024 at 10:15 am

    @Nukular Biskits: Sinema.

  89. 89.

    New Deal democrat

    October 13, 2024 at 10:18 am

    @TBone:

    A hoagie is just a ripoff if it’s on bad bread

    Absolutely. Amoroso’s or die.

    In a similar vein, I get a kick out of the places in the South that advertise “Philly cheesesteaks” with lettuce, tomato – and mayo!!!
    No, no, and just simply – NO!

    BTW, Wawa’s gobbler is back! For those of you who don’t live in a Wawa’s-adjacent area, it’s Thanksgiving dinner on a hoagie roll. Yum!

  90. 90.

    Another Scott

    October 13, 2024 at 10:19 am

    Your quoted section about Dolan’s phone call reminded me of hearing a bit of C-Span Booknotes conversation with 91 year old Harvey Mansfield (1:09:29)

    He goes into a bunch of irrelevant ancient history about the importance of strong “executives” to argue that the SCOTUS giving the POTUS the power to do anything s/he wants with the presumption of immunity is a great thing. Because committees are a bad thing, you see. “Weaponizing” the government against the strong executive is a bad thing, you see.

    He taught at Haavaad for 60+ years.

    Those poor kids.

    :-(

    Grr…,
    Scott.

  91. 91.

    Harrison Wesley

    October 13, 2024 at 10:23 am

    Several years ago, after reading an online article by Charlie Pierce on Cardinal Dolan and some of the questionable activities he covered up, my alcohol-fueled brain immediately went to Rawhide and I posted “Dolan, Dolan, Dolan/Keep those pedos trollin'”  I shouldn’t have been making fun of something so serious, and hope I wouldn’t do it again.

  92. 92.

    frosty

    October 13, 2024 at 10:26 am

    @Starfish: No love for Rutters or Royal Farms???

    There’s an intersection on I-83 north of me that’s got Sheetz, Rutters, and Royal Farms on three corners. We need a Wawa to show South PA is the battleground!!!

    @Betty Cracker: So WaWa is redefining the battleground. Sort of like the NFL playing games in Europe. Circle K is going to have to fight back. And WaWa can forget about Texas: Buc-ee’s has a lock!

  93. 93.

    Betty

    October 13, 2024 at 10:27 am

    @Scout211: Brooks! What can you say? He is so full of it. For him to be given space to share such drivel in what was once a highly regarded publication says so much about where the country is now. Not a good place.

  94. 94.

    Ksmiami

    October 13, 2024 at 10:28 am

     

    @Scout211: unfortunately, a lot of moderate upper class voters, who used to be enthralled by the GOP follow Brooks, so maybe this screed will help in November. We need to win. Period.

  95. 95.

    Betty Cracker

    October 13, 2024 at 10:31 am

    @WaterGirl: If you’re brain-poisoned enough to confuse zygotes with cherubic baybees, it makes sense. That said, the current pope is still a huge upgrade over Ratzinger, imo.

  96. 96.

    Marleedog

    October 13, 2024 at 10:31 am

    @topclimber:

    I hope Joe is up to going to the Al Smith dinner in her place

     

    Being a Catholic, this is a good idea. Perfect surrogate and antidote to Dolt 45.

     

    FYWP, btw

  97. 97.

    TBone

    October 13, 2024 at 10:34 am

    @Harrison Wesley: I don’t blame you. I remember when I ordered a cheesesteak in Galveston because it was on a menu and I had to try it.  A slab of steak served on two pieces of Wonder bread.  WTF 😆 maybe they were punking me!

  98. 98.

    Another Scott

    October 13, 2024 at 10:34 am

    @Baud: +1

    I’m sure we remember the horrible “jokes” Tmurp threw at Hillary when they both attended, and the guy in the front row with the shocked face, etc.

    There’s no upside for her, or anyone sane who cares about charity, attending.  He will throw around monstrous insults, make it all about hisownself, and soak up the adulation.

    The idea that “we have to do these things because we have always done these things” is toxic.  We are not prisoners of the past.  We make a new future through change.

    Forward!!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  99. 99.

    Betty Cracker

    October 13, 2024 at 10:35 am

    Still no power after Milton and no crews addressing the giant tree that pulled down the power line a couple of miles up the road. Thanks to our noisy generator, we have indoor plumbing intermittently, so that’s good. But I’m going to miss another day of sports ball. It was a mercy yesterday, tbh.

  100. 100.

    frosty

    October 13, 2024 at 10:36 am

    @TBone: Don’t get your hopes up. BTW, I agree completely about rolls from Philly. I don’t know how they make them, but there’s no comparison.

  101. 101.

    TBone

    October 13, 2024 at 10:37 am

    @New Deal democrat: 👍 I just told my Texas cheesesteak story!  Wawa Gobblers are good, but they are no match for a Capriottis’ Bobby.

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PSQQvEx4uY0

  102. 102.

    Betty Cracker

    October 13, 2024 at 10:37 am

    @TBone: You deserved punking for failing to order BBQ or seafood.

  103. 103.

    Delk

    October 13, 2024 at 10:39 am

    Dolan should have been booted after Milwaukee.

  104. 104.

    peter

    October 13, 2024 at 10:40 am

    @Scout211: Brooks is such a pathetic wanker. Who the hell cares where all this “leaves” David Brooks? Why does that matter? Why would anyone want to “join” him where he is? Because he’s shown himself to be possessed of such insight and gravitas and depth of character? It’s impossible to parody such self-indulgent puffery.

  105. 105.

    TBone

    October 13, 2024 at 10:41 am

    @Betty Cracker: 😆 to me, Texas BBQ tastes like kerosene!  I stopped at a roadside BBQ on my first day in Texas on the way to Galveston.  Blech!

    I knew I wasn’t going to be pleased with the cheesesteak but since they had the temerity to advertise it on a menu, I fell for it.  This was about six months into my year there, and I was jonesing.  The seafood and Mexican food I still miss (and the breakfast colaches, oooh boy).

  106. 106.

    MagdaInBlack

    October 13, 2024 at 10:41 am

    @Betty Cracker: 😂😂😉❤️

  107. 107.

    TBone

    October 13, 2024 at 10:49 am

    @frosty: it’s the water and the old ovens they use, I think.  Like NYC bagels don’t taste the same anywhere else.

  108. 108.

    Torrey

    October 13, 2024 at 10:51 am

    @Mousebumples:

     

    Pope Francis is better than most Popes

    OK, I’ll award the points, but it’s a helluva low bar.

    Also, who’s the (intelligent and competent!) interviewer in the Politano bluesky embedding?

    Finally, a PSA. If you get your e-books from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, Google or Kobo, Adam Kinzinger’s Renegade is on sale for $2.99.

  109. 109.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    October 13, 2024 at 10:52 am

    @Scout211:

    I find it weird being in a political culture in which Sunday brunch holds higher status than church.

    I would find it weird to be associated with a person who’s been a water carrier for various right wing cultural issues over the years turn who dumped his wife for a newer, younger, less-mileage version.

    Years ago Driftglass called him a Republican Testicle Cozy and ultimately, that’s never changed.  He’s simply another Embarrassed Republican who’d have people think he had nothing to do with Trump’s ascendancy in the GOP.

    Just a year ago he was writing this kind of crap:

    https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/8/20/2188086/-David-Brooks-would-like-to-lecture-us-on-marriage-but-it-s-not-the-1950s-anymore

    The Dem Party has a big tent but our tent should never be big enough to include that wanker.

  110. 110.

    TBone

    October 13, 2024 at 10:55 am

    Brunch at the Galveston Hotel (Grand Galvez) was an hours-long celebration every Sunday. Oh my Lort it was good, and the mimosas flowed from pitchers (maybe fountains).  The Galveston Country Club also put on a great spread (ten bucks all you could eat), and was less crowded.  Way better than church!

    Dress code!

    https://grandgalvez.com/restaurant/grand-galvez-sunday-brunch/

  111. 111.

    Old Man Shadow

    October 13, 2024 at 10:58 am

    I mean, personally, I think refusing to attend a function hosted by one of the heads of a child rape crime ring (and who has succeeded in removing the human rights of American women thereby causing more human death and misery) is a good thing in a presidential candidate.

  112. 112.

    Betty Cracker

    October 13, 2024 at 11:00 am

    @comrade scotts agenda of rage: I didn’t think the NYT could top Brooks in sheer fake-moderate awfulness. Then they hired Bret Stephens.

  113. 113.

    WaterGirl

    October 13, 2024 at 11:00 am

    @TBone:

    Pope Francis replied: “Both are anti-life — both the one who throws out migrants and the one who kills babies — both of them are against life.”

    Kills babies.  Wow.

  114. 114.

    TBone

    October 13, 2024 at 11:02 am

    @WaterGirl: yeah, that really disappointed me.  I was a fan of his anti-wealth stuff and his setting an example in that regard.  But this is a bridge way too far.

  115. 115.

    WaterGirl

    October 13, 2024 at 11:03 am

    @Betty Cracker: Agree on both points!

  116. 116.

    Betty Cracker

    October 13, 2024 at 11:04 am

    Photo of Cheetos and a Hershey bar on counter.Bill: Were you by any chance STONED when you went to the store?

    Me: Why do you ask?

  117. 117.

    Parfigliano

    October 13, 2024 at 11:06 am

    The Catholic heirarchy cover-up of child sex abuse is proof they don’t believe any of the god gibberish they peddle.

  118. 118.

    Betty

    October 13, 2024 at 11:06 am

    @comrade scotts agenda of rage: Yes, he can stay on the periphery.

  119. 119.

    TBone

    October 13, 2024 at 11:06 am

    @Betty Cracker: 😆😆😆

    Breakfast of Champions!

  120. 120.

    Kathleen

    October 13, 2024 at 11:07 am

    @Spanky: I totally get it. I’m ancient and when I typed that acronym I thought “maybe I should spell that out” so I’m glad you confirmed I should have trusted my instincts to begin with!

  121. 121.

    WaterGirl

    October 13, 2024 at 11:09 am

    @Betty Cracker: Yikes.  That’s a lot of days with no power.

  122. 122.

    Nukular Biskits

    October 13, 2024 at 11:12 am

    @Betty Cracker:

    Thanks to our noisy generator, we have indoor plumbing intermittently, so that’s good.

    You may have mentioned this elsewhere, but I assume you are on  a well, not “city water”.

  123. 123.

    WaterGirl

    October 13, 2024 at 11:12 am

    @Betty Cracker: hahahaha

    But seriously, did you grab the wrong bag by mistake?

    THOSE ARE NOT THE CRUNCHY CHEETOS!

  124. 124.

    WaterGirl

    October 13, 2024 at 11:13 am

    @Kathleen: I still have no idea what NCR is.

    To atone for your sins :-) you could share your thoughts on any good candidates in toss-up races in OH that are not rolling in money.

  125. 125.

    Kathleen

    October 13, 2024 at 11:13 am

    @Haydnseek: Me to!!!

  126. 126.

    Another Scott

    October 13, 2024 at 11:15 am

    @TBone: I understand the disappointment, but I think he made as strong a case as someone in that position can make.

    Speaking aboard the papal plane, a chartered Singapore Airlines flight, on Sept. 13, the pope encouraged Catholics to vote with their conscience.

    “In political morality, in general they say that if you don’t vote, it’s not good, it’s bad. You have to vote, and you have to choose the lesser evil,” he said.

    “What is the lesser evil? That woman, or that man?” he continued, referring to Vice President Kamala Harris and her Republican opponent, former president Donald Trump. “I don’t know. Each one, in his or her conscience, must think and do this.”

    One of our strongest arguments is that elections are always a choice for the lesser evil because every political candidate is a flawed human being.

    He could have told people not to vote at all. He didn’t. He said that people have to look inside themselves, think, and must vote.

    I think it’s a strong argument for Harris-Walz, myself.

    FWIW.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  127. 127.

    TBone

    October 13, 2024 at 11:16 am

    I tinkered with beef stroganoff yesterday so it’s heart healthier (if such a thing can be).  I removed the sour cream and cream cheese completely and I must say the results are fantastic.

    Brown up good a marbled pot roast cut.  Place in crockpot.  To that pan now coated in fat and fond, add a very large onion that has been very thickly sliced. You don’t want onion to melt in crock. Salt & pepper go on the onions.  When onions are browned (not soft but have color), place in the crock.

    Add to the crock a bunch of freshly rough chopped garlic.

    Deglaze beef & onion pan with a goodly splash of chianti.  Place chianti in a bowl to cool.

    In another bowl, whisk one can cream of mushroom soup with a half can of beef stock and some generous glugs of Worcestershire.  Pour over beef, onions and garlic.  Add two packs of sliced baby portobellos.  Stir up the veggies & soup mixture in the crock.

    Whisk a tablespoon each of flour and cornstarch into the wine you set aside earlier.  Pour slurry over everything in crock, cover, and cook on low six to seven hours.

    So good!

  128. 128.

    Starfish

    October 13, 2024 at 11:20 am

    @frosty: I think in his campaigns Fetterman really played up the Wawa and Sheetz battle, to the point that there are some t-shirts that say “Fetterman: Wrong about Sheetz, Right for Pennsylvania.”

  129. 129.

    Kathleen

    October 13, 2024 at 11:21 am

    @WaterGirl: National Catholic Reporter, which is a “liberal” Catholic magazine and was downright revolutionary to a 15 year old born and raised Catholic girl in 1965.

  130. 130.

    Betty Cracker

    October 13, 2024 at 11:21 am

    @Nukular Biskits: Yep, you have to drive a mile and a half down a treacherous dirt road through the swampy woods to reach our place, so there’s no city water, road maintenance or municipal trash services. There’s also no pizza delivery, Uber, DoorDash or Instacart. It’s basically 1993 back here. Or 1893.

    @WaterGirl: Puffs rule!

  131. 131.

    TBone

    October 13, 2024 at 11:21 am

    @Starfish: 💙

    He is not going to pander to the Delaware Valley. Dude likes Sheetz better than Wawa. He’s wrong, but he sticks to his guns, and he’s true to his convictions. That earns you points in the Delaware Valley.

  132. 132.

    TS

    October 13, 2024 at 11:21 am

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    It is in the Washington Post – other than the left leaning pundits (few and far between) they put a positive slant on the worst of his behavior.

  133. 133.

    lowtechcyclist

    October 13, 2024 at 11:22 am

    @WaterGirl:

    Kills babies. Wow.

    Yeah, Francis is better than Ratzi, but as one commenter already said, that’s a very low bar.  He’s still totally fetus > woman, he’s been AWOL from any non-milquetoast condemnation of the American church hierarchy for their enabling of generations of child abuse, and last I looked, he was still bothsidesing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

    The one thing you could say about at least some Catholics is that they’re pro-life with respect to the eight billion people who’ve already been born, which would at least give some moral legitimacy to their stance about fetal life (though I would continue to disagree with them).  But just like the evangelicals that too many of them have made alliance with, most of them are fine with people killing other people once they’ve been born, in which case their love of fetuses is bullshit.

  134. 134.

    TBone

    October 13, 2024 at 11:23 am

    @Betty Cracker: yes puffs do rule – they are my Polish shrimp!

  135. 135.

    Another Scott

    October 13, 2024 at 11:28 am

    I would support this becoming a universal disclaimer (kinda like warnings on cigarettes and car displays and rear-view mirrors).

    Well done.

    THINK!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  136. 136.

    lowtechcyclist

    October 13, 2024 at 11:29 am

    @Betty Cracker:

    Bill: Were you by any chance STONED when you went to the store?

    Me: Why do you ask?

    :D

    Have I mentioned that when you put stuff on your placemats to take pictures of it, I always have fun trying to identify what part of the Florida coast is showing?

    This one was pretty easy, though. Even upside down, I immediately recognized Anna Maria Island above the Hershey bar.

  137. 137.

    Kay

    October 13, 2024 at 11:29 am

    The parochial school nuns back in the 1960s/70s taught us that such institutional hypocrisy was at least as sinful in the eyes of Jesus as more overt crimes, but of course they held no authority over the men in charge, then or now

    The entire parochial school system was dependent on the unpaid labor of educated women (nuns). The model can only work in a society that discriminates against women and denies them opportunity in fields outside teaching and nursing.
    Our local parochial school now gets only those teachers who the better paying public school system declined to hire.

  138. 138.

    TBone

    October 13, 2024 at 11:29 am

    @Another Scott: excellent and a good activist thing to DO. ✊💙

  139. 139.

    Tony Jay

    October 13, 2024 at 11:32 am

    David Brooks is, as always, a self-fellating chickenshit.

    “Hey, all you young Brooksies, you stay Republican and embark upon a 50 year mission to purge it of the racist toxins that just this minute appeared out of nowhere, yeah? Meanwhile the rest of us, the ones who played patty cake with the Nazis while they rose to control ‘our’ Party, we’ll just be right over here in Democratville enjoying the good food, functioning utilities, and general sense of non-homicidal civility while huffing down our noses at the paucity of Jeebus Saves collectables available in the lobby.”

    “So is your wife one of these people you expect to save the Republican Party for you, David?”

    “Oh, no. That’s not women’s work.”

    Such a terrible, terrible creep.

  140. 140.

    rikyrah

    October 13, 2024 at 11:34 am

     

    Covie (@covie_93) posted at 10:15 AM on Sun, Oct 13, 2024:
    If you force people to take shuttle buses to your rally then don’t provide them with shuttle buses to  leave…. then they can’t leave your rally early. https://t.co/OUiC3h6plI
    (https://x.com/covie_93/status/1845483622737805753?t=B0ZX9LIxLRB1IqbJjKj37A&s=03)

  141. 141.

    Kay

    October 13, 2024 at 11:35 am

    That’s essentially what JD Vance wants – he doesn’t object to women working. His mother in law taking care of his children is work.

    He just doesn’t want to pay women for work.

    The yearning for the 1950’s and 1960’s is a yearning for a time when women did a ton of work – they just didn’t get paid for any of it. So like Catholic schools and hospitals in the ’50s and ’60’s, where the model only worked because they had a source of free female labor – nuns.

  142. 142.

    TBone

    October 13, 2024 at 11:36 am

    @rikyrah: jeesus, last time he pulled that stunt, people got frostbite walking back to their vehicles.

  143. 143.

    HumboldtBlue

    October 13, 2024 at 11:37 am

    Fuck Dolan and fuck the Catholic church.

  144. 144.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    October 13, 2024 at 11:37 am

    Johnson does come across as the type of god botheror wouldn’t call congress back because he think it would weaken of the morals of the hurricane survivors. Bet he also stiff the wait staff on the tips too.

  145. 145.

    New Deal democrat

    October 13, 2024 at 11:38 am

    @TBone: I’ll have to try Capriotti’s on a road trip.

    I think you may have mentioned you had a connection to Birmingham AL. I’ve only been through once. I thought it was a nice modern city with only one obvious drawback.

    Anyway, I ate at a dive in the southeastern suburbs somewhere, at got introduced to a Conecuh sausage hot dog. Was instantly hooked! Fortunately my local grocery store does sell it.

  146. 146.

    TBone

    October 13, 2024 at 11:39 am

    @Another Scott: I like your differing perspective on that.  I just don’t like the both-sidesing he did.  It sticks in my craw.

  147. 147.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    October 13, 2024 at 11:41 am

    @Tony Jay: David Brooks is, as always, a self-fellating chickenshit.

    To be fair, Books is able to write whole books and no say anything.

    I imagine Brooks doesn’t fellate himself as much as people think because Brooks finds his partner boring.

  148. 148.

    VeniceRiley

    October 13, 2024 at 11:43 am

    Thank you got the hat tip! The story twigged my whiskers as another smart step by Democrats sharp step away from institutions participating in the normalisation and sanewashing of the fascist dementia patient (for whatever selfish reason.) And Harris being the leader in this regard.

    I’m currently defrosting in the hills outside of Tenerife in a small villa in a not rich neighborhood. It’s modest but has a nice big patio area with a lovely long skinny pool, lounge chairs, outdoor table, and even raised platform waterproof mattress outdoors. So, lots of swimming and recovery stretching and lying out.

    The wife is shocked that a liter of Smirnoff is €14 Vs £20 at home.

    Reggie is at an in home dogsitter, and she’s so in love with him that if we crashed on the way back, she probably wouldn’t even be sorry. I wash you all could meet him in person. He really is an extraordinary dog. My wife has had many dogs, and often says “I’ve never had a dog that … before!”

  149. 149.

    Kathleen

    October 13, 2024 at 11:44 am

    @WaterGirl: I ‘ve been donating a few dollars to Emelia Sykes (OH13). She flipped seat in 2022 so her path is more precarious because her District is purple.

    Cook has OH 13 R+0.6%  As of July report (per the Hill) she’s raised $1,104,159 compared to her R opponent who has raised 475,464.

    My congressman Greg Landsman (OH 1) who also flipped a seat and whose district includes solid Red (Warren County) is up  1.8% per Cook and has raised $755,953 to his opponent’s 225,803.

    We have state legislature & Ohio Supreme Court races also but I’ve not followed closely. My ballot was 4 pages which included almost 1 page of Frank LaRose word salad designed to confuse voters about Issue 1 which proposes to make the map drawing/approval process less partisan (Ohio Supreme Court rejected 7 Republican proposed maps which Republicans totally ignored.)

    I early voted on Day 1 and while this is strictly anecdotal but Hamilton County BOE rings a bell and applauds first time voters when they cast their ballots. One of the poll workers said she heard more bells that first day than she’d ever heard before (I was there about 4 PM and there were 3 bells while I was there).

  150. 150.

    lowtechcyclist

    October 13, 2024 at 11:45 am

    @Kay: ​
     

    The yearning for the 1950’s and 1960’s is a yearning for a time when women did a ton of work – they just didn’t get paid for any of it. So like Catholic schools and hospitals in the ’50s and ’60’s, where the model only worked because they had a source of free female labor – nuns.

    And even the public schools didn’t pay very well, since most of the teachers (nearly all, in elementary school) were women. AFAICT, more than half a century later, K-12 teaching is still having to contend with local governments’ expectation that they shouldn’t have to pay teachers very much, because that’s the way it’s been. I’m sure the same is true for nurses.

  151. 151.

    JaySinWA

    October 13, 2024 at 11:45 am

    @different-church-lady:

    That over/under 45 thing has got to be one of the stupidest things I’ve ever seen.

    He’s riffing [ripping off] that British no heart no head divide. Maybe it’s an AI assisted column.

  152. 152.

    TBone

    October 13, 2024 at 11:46 am

    @New Deal democrat: my only real connection to Birmingham, AL is that a guy from Philly moved there and opened a cheesesteaks joint called T-Bones – good memory on that detail!

    The Capriottis’ magic is the fresh roasted, hand carved real turkey (not lunchmeat sliced turkey).

  153. 153.

    Melancholy Jaques

    October 13, 2024 at 11:46 am

    @frosty:

    Circle K’s corporate owner is trying to acquire 7-11’s corporate owner.

  154. 154.

    The Thin Black Duke

    October 13, 2024 at 11:47 am

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: As a recovering Catholic, I recognize the neutered speaker of the House as the type of True Believer who equates cruelty with “holiness”.

  155. 155.

    HumboldtBlue

    October 13, 2024 at 11:48 am

    This is forever hilarious:

    Catching up on Trump’s rally at Coachella and apparently all the cult members got stranded 5 miles from the parking lot

  156. 156.

    TBone

    October 13, 2024 at 11:48 am

    @VeniceRiley: 💜🥰

  157. 157.

    Another Scott

    October 13, 2024 at 11:48 am

    Meanwhile, KyivIndependent.com:

    U.S. President Joe Biden will visit Germany on Oct. 18 after an earlier trip was postponed due to Hurricane Milton in the Gulf of Mexico, according to media reports published on Oct. 13.

    Biden will meet with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Chancellor Olaf Scholz during his visit, according to the German publication Der Spiegel. The leaders are expected to discuss the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.

    Biden was supposed to convene a leader-level meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, also known as the Ramstein summit, in Germany on Oct. 12. President Volodymyr Zelensky was expected to present his victory plan during the meeting.

    The visit was delayed and the summit postponed in order for Biden to oversee the emergency response to Hurricane Milton.

    The Germany trip, originally planned as a formal state visit with a banquet and formal events before a new U.S. president is elected in November, has now been pared down to primarily work events, according to Der Spiegel.

    The reduced agenda likely spells further delays for the Ramstein summit, where defense partners are expected to discuss additional aid to Ukraine. No new date for the summit has yet been announced.

    The Ukraine Defense Contact Group is the U.S.-led group consisting of over 50 countries, including all 32 NATO members, that convenes at the U.S. Ramstein Air Base in Germany. The last Ramstein meeting on Sept. 6 was the group’s 24th gathering since its establishment in April 2022.

    I assume and hope that Biden will also visit Kyiv while he’s over there – it’s an important coda for him and the US.

    The meeting delays are a little curious and revealing, I think. If it were to be a routine meeting where no policy changes were expected, there would be no reason to delay it. I assume that there are some pressing for substantially increased aid and/or relaxation of some terms of engagement in the war. All this politics of war is complicated – especially with so many players in NATO.  Incremental progress is important, and I expect more of it when the meeting happens.

    Slava Ukraini!!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  158. 158.

    Melancholy Jaques

    October 13, 2024 at 11:49 am

    @Ksmiami:

    I am appalled at the many tote-baggers I know who regularly quote Brooks and admire him as the Voice of Reason.

  159. 159.

    lowtechcyclist

    October 13, 2024 at 11:49 am

    @JaySinWA:

    He’s riffing [ripping off] that British no heart no head divide.

    What, if you have no heart, you shouldn’t get any head? ;-)

    Makes sense to me.

  160. 160.

    New Deal democrat

    October 13, 2024 at 11:51 am

    @WaterGirl:

    Kills babies.  Wow

    There’s only so much you can expect out of even the most liberal Catholic hierarchy. That life begins at conception and abortion is murder has been official Catholic doctrine for at least a century (I’d say “centuries” but there I’m not totally sure.)

    Even sex within marriage for pleasure as opposed to conception was considered sinful until at least the 1940’s. And that Monty Python bit, “Every sperm is sacred.”? Yep! Catholic doctrine as well, which is why masturbation was (maybe still is) considered a sin.

    Justice Powell supposedly encountered a pro-life demonstration in Washington DC in the mid-1970s, and cluelessly remarked, “I don’t understand. We decided that issue several years ago.” Gives you an idea of the tin-eared cluelessness of Supreme Court justices.

    People used to think anti-abortion forces would ultimately be forced to “get over it,” just like segregationists. My perspective was, “You don’t understand the Catholic hierarchy. Those people think in terms of decades and centuries.”

  161. 161.

    TBone

    October 13, 2024 at 11:51 am

    @Another Scott: at Biden’s NATO speech just after “the debate,” I watched the German Chancellor and our President hug before their photo opp.  They gave me hope with the warmth in their eyes.

    Godspeed.

  162. 162.

    Uncle Cosmo

    October 13, 2024 at 11:53 am

    I had no high-minded reason for walking away from the Catholic Church after Confirmation: I was just bored with it. But they have certainly given me plenty of high-minded reasons since.

    I abandoned the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church on the 6th Sunday after my Goyishce Bar Mitvah. Mom was not amused but so what.
    In my case I was fed up with every goddamned sermon being obsessed with more $$$ for whatever…

  163. 163.

    zhena gogolia

    October 13, 2024 at 11:55 am

    @New Deal democrat: Did he really say that?

  164. 164.

    lowtechcyclist

    October 13, 2024 at 11:55 am

    @HumboldtBlue: ​
     

    I laughed at the comments saying that someone needed to reach out to “President Trump” to get to the bottom of this. The Cossacks work for the Tsar, folks! You’re just sheeple to be sheared, and he’s not gonna waste an extra dime on you while he does so.

  165. 165.

    artem1s

    October 13, 2024 at 11:55 am

    @Ramalama: Look thru the timeline in the Archives. There are ongoing investigations and grand juries in several states about how the Church used charitable funds to cover up the sex scandals. As former AG of CA, Harris may actually have been involved in some of these cases. And the US AG may have grand juries hearing cases and testimonies right now. It doesn’t surprise me a bit if she’s avoiding being at a Catholic Diocese fund raiser and Dolan in particular. Dolan’s betting on TCF and the Church’s puppet SCOTUS sending the whole scandal down a memory hole forever.

    When she’s elected, I hope she appoints special counsel to lock up his ass before he flees to Italy like Bishop Law did.

  166. 166.

    Sister Golden Bear

    October 13, 2024 at 11:55 am

    @Mousebumples:

    You might be surprised to learn that the Department of Justice is arguing that the Equal Protection Clause protects trans people, including trans kids seeking gender affirming care considering no Democrats are talking about it. At least not that I’ve seen.

    There’s actually a fair amount of fear among trans people that the Clerical Six will use the case to declare trans people have no rights at all, and that it’s open season to discriminate against us. But given what’s already going on, we don’t really have a choice to not pursue the case.

    The current anti-trans laws are already having horrific effects. A study released last week found at 1 in 4 trans kids in the U.S. had attempted suicide, with 40% of those attempts being serious enough to require medical treatment. There’s been other studies showing dramatic increases in suicide attempts after states passed bans on trans healthcare.

  167. 167.

    Baud

    October 13, 2024 at 11:55 am

    @Uncle Cosmo: you broke blog.

  168. 168.

    Another Scott

    October 13, 2024 at 11:56 am

    @Uncle Cosmo: You broke the right margin on phones with all the “zzz”.  Can you shorten it?

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  169. 169.

    different-church-lady

    October 13, 2024 at 11:58 am

    @VeniceRiley: ​I’m sorry but… Smirnoff? Really?

  170. 170.

    NotMax

    October 13, 2024 at 11:58 am

    Weekend long watch.

    That movie opened in NYC.

  171. 171.

    Uncle Cosmo

    October 13, 2024 at 11:58 am

    Stuck key. Fixed. Let Baudie know.

  172. 172.

    Baud

    October 13, 2024 at 11:59 am

    @Uncle Cosmo:

    👍

  173. 173.

    Chief Oshkosh

    October 13, 2024 at 12:00 pm

    @Another Scott:

    I understand the disappointment, but I think he made as strong a case as someone in that position can make.

    The pope could have said almost ANYTHING else except “the one who kills babies” and still gotten his point across. So, no, he did not make as strong a case as someone in that position can make. He didn’t even half-ass it.

    Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.

  174. 174.

    different-church-lady

    October 13, 2024 at 12:00 pm

    @Baud: ​The blog knows what it did.

  175. 175.

    HumboldtBlue

    October 13, 2024 at 12:02 pm

    Saturday Night Live cold open.

  176. 176.

    Sure Lurkalot

    October 13, 2024 at 12:03 pm

    @different-church-lady:

    That over/under 45 thing has got to be one of the stupidest things I’ve ever seen.

    Classic David Brooks, actually. Because as usual, he misses the forest through the trees, that “today’s” Republican Party is just the logical and inevitable result of all that came “before”, including the “before” our lowly esteemed Mr. Brooks felt compelled to step ever so slightly inside the blue dot. He is one of the least observant pundits overpaid in America and he has a fuck load of company.

  177. 177.

    Uncle Cosmo

    October 13, 2024 at 12:03 pm

    @artem1s: ​When she’s elected, I hope she appoints special counsel to lock up his ass before he flees to Italy like Bishop Law did.

    To coin a phrase, Amen. I like Pope Frankie but IMHO the one beeeg mistake he made was not taking the Popemobile down to St Johns Lateran or whichever of the extraterritorial churches Bernie Law was skulking in while the barstid was still breathing & telling him it was high time to go back to the USA and swap his cassock for an orange jumpsuit.​(I guess then he could say Mass from the Orange Catholic Bible, no?)

  178. 178.

    Baud

    October 13, 2024 at 12:03 pm

    Did the OP say GOP hypocrites?

    Members of my family actually got private health insurance, at least, for the first time … under Donald Trump’s leadership,” Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) said at this month’s vice-presidential debate

     

    Vance was referring to his mother, who purchased private health insurance through the Affordable Care Act’s insurance marketplace

  179. 179.

    Hoodie

    October 13, 2024 at 12:04 pm

    @VeniceRiley: My wife’s mother was of Canarian descent by way of Louisiana (and about 400 years) and we have a good friend whose parents grew up there, moved to Venezuela and then the US, and finally returned to Tenerife to retire.   Her mom passed a while ago but her dad is still going at 97.   Drinks half a liter of wine and smokes 5 cigars every day.  He goes fishing every morning, takes a nap, and then hits the cafe in the afternoon where he acts like a don among some of his old comrades.

  180. 180.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    October 13, 2024 at 12:07 pm

    @Betty Cracker: OK, that’s kind of weird to hear about a WaWa that far away from here. I’m imagining a WaWa spore hitching a ride on a delivery truck or something, like how the spotted lanternfly arrived and is spreading here.

    Beware, WaWa’s are invasive species.

    Is it the new variant with the gas pumps? Those are gradually replacing the old ones here.

  181. 181.

    TBone

    October 13, 2024 at 12:09 pm

    @NotMax: yeah, baby!!! ❤️

  182. 182.

    HinTN

    October 13, 2024 at 12:09 pm

    @Barbara:

    ooutlier

    I like this word!

  183. 183.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    October 13, 2024 at 12:09 pm

    @NotMax: “Despite Trump’s Attempts to Block Anyone from Seeing It”.

    Because, as JV tells us, Trump is the candidate of Freedom of Speech.

  184. 184.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    October 13, 2024 at 12:11 pm

    All this talk about the Catholic Church reminds me of their veneration of Augustine of Hippos book “City of God, or I had sex with all those women in my own personal Gothic War, so you didn’t have too, bois”  No surprise the Catholic church leadership is pro-Trump when one thinks about it.

  185. 185.

    Scout211

    October 13, 2024 at 12:11 pm

    I’ve never heard of Wawa or Sheetz.  But have you heard of In-N-out Burger?   Ha!

    😉

  186. 186.

    Betty Cracker

    October 13, 2024 at 12:14 pm

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: Yes — all I’ve seen offer fuel. Until I read your comment, I wasn’t aware there was any other kind!

  187. 187.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    October 13, 2024 at 12:15 pm

    @HinTN: Canadian statistics? “This sample is far outside the distribution of the rest of the samples, so we consider it an ooutlier, eh?”

  188. 188.

    NotMax

    October 13, 2024 at 12:15 pm

    @Scout211

    Howzabout Piggly Wiggly ?
    ;)

  189. 189.

    Gin & Tonic

    October 13, 2024 at 12:15 pm

    @Another Scott: I’d be very surprised if Biden went to Kyiv again. A “coda” to a weak and widely-derided strategy is stupid.

  190. 190.

    TBone

    October 13, 2024 at 12:18 pm

    @NotMax: Food Lion!

    (The Mrs. Piggle Wiggle books are a childhood favorite.  And so the grocery stores in the South made me remember that every time).

  191. 191.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    October 13, 2024 at 12:18 pm

    @Betty Cracker: ​

    Pumps must be incredibly profitable, or pull in a lot of new convenience store business. Because the Wawa corp is finding it worth the cost to tear down old ones and build new bigger stores with pumps on the same land, if space is available, or build a new one a couple of blocks away if not.

    There are still a few of the old-style ones around, but I think they’re definitely in the minority now.

    This is my opportunity to complain about all the people who park at the pumps while they go inside to shop, so that I am unable to get my gas. I certainly hope Harris-Walz have plans to address that burning issue in the first 100 days.

    /curmudgeon

  192. 192.

    HumboldtBlue

    October 13, 2024 at 12:18 pm

    Carl Sagan speaking on climate change… in 1985!

  193. 193.

    JaySinWA

    October 13, 2024 at 12:29 pm

    @Betty Cracker: But I’m going to miss another day of sports ball. It was a mercy yesterday, tbh.

    Did you find an audio playoff source? I posted a late possibility in a 3 month free trial of Siriius/XM streaming on phones and computers as well as [or in lieu of] cars. I’m not a sportsball fan so YMMV.

  194. 194.

    satby

    October 13, 2024 at 12:31 pm

    @Stopthemovie: best [president] in the history of the Catholic Church.”…
    JFK would like a word.

    So would Joe Biden. Who is arguably even better than JFK.

  195. 195.

    NotMax

    October 13, 2024 at 12:32 pm

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym

    On the slim chance you ever see my vehicle parked at a pump while I hike inside, please refrain from cussing me out. I pay in cash and there’s often a short line to stand in at the register.

  196. 196.

    Old Dan and Little Ann

    October 13, 2024 at 12:42 pm

    I taught at an Uber Catholic school in 2003 because there were no jobs to be had elsewhere and I was desperate.  When I asked about benefits the answer was, “You’ll receive spiritual benefits.”  My salary that year……14,000 dollars.

  197. 197.

    AWOL

    October 13, 2024 at 12:42 pm

    @Scout211: “I am forced to slightly favor the evil Blue Side because I find the brand of Zyklon B on the Red Side rather distasteful because it follows unnecessary, Democrat-imposed EPA rules.”

  198. 198.

    emjayay

    October 13, 2024 at 12:44 pm

    @lowtechcyclist: Checked their website. It’s all anti-Harris and Walz propaganda, pro-Trump propaganda, and stupid celebrity junk

    Oh wait, Washington Post or The (NY) Post?

  199. 199.

    narya

    October 13, 2024 at 12:46 pm

    @New Deal democrat:In a similar vein, I get a kick out of the places in the South that advertise “Philly cheesesteaks” with lettuce, tomato – and mayo!!!

    When I lived in Philadelphia, that was known as a “cheesesteak hoagie.” Best when purchased from a food truck around Temple U. (No clue if those are still around; this was nearly 40 years ago.)

  200. 200.

    lowtechcyclist

    October 13, 2024 at 12:47 pm

    @Betty Cracker:

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: Yes — all I’ve seen offer fuel. Until I read your comment, I wasn’t aware there was any other kind!

    Same here in southern Maryland – they’re a gas station with a convenience store attached, just like all the other gas station/convenience store combos.

    I go years without being inside any of them, the only thing I notice is the price of regular unleaded on the big sign by the road.  So the distinctions between what’s inside the doors of WaWa, Circle K, 7-Eleven, Sheetz, Fastop, etc. are totally lost on me.

    I’m certainly not going to buy a cup of joe at a place where I’d be inhaling gasoline fumes the moment I walked out the door with it, that’s for sure. To quote our dear departed friend, “Blech.”

  201. 201.

    TBone

    October 13, 2024 at 12:49 pm

    Here’s an off the beaten path recipe for crockpot Barbacoa Beef Bowls – I’m gonna try this!

    https://recipes.foodlion.com/recipes/251770/slow-cooker-barbacoa-beef-bowls

    I forgot to say shred the beef at the end of my Tinkered Up stroganoff recipe.

  202. 202.

    HinTN

    October 13, 2024 at 12:52 pm

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: 😂 – perfect

  203. 203.

    lowtechcyclist

    October 13, 2024 at 12:52 pm

    @TBone: ​
     

    Food Lion!

    Lion Food!

  204. 204.

    TBone

    October 13, 2024 at 12:53 pm

    @lowtechcyclist: Wawa coffee is really good.

  205. 205.

    TBone

    October 13, 2024 at 12:53 pm

    @lowtechcyclist: tee hee!

  206. 206.

    lowtechcyclist

    October 13, 2024 at 12:56 pm

    @emjayay: ​
     

    Good question! I had assumed he meant the WaPo, because I certainly wouldn’t expect the NY Post to publish anything critical of Hair Furor. But I may have been wrong.

  207. 207.

    StringOnAStick

    October 13, 2024 at 12:59 pm

    @Betty Cracker: LOL!

  208. 208.

    WaterGirl

    October 13, 2024 at 1:00 pm

    @Kathleen:  I had no idea!

  209. 209.

    WaterGirl

    October 13, 2024 at 1:01 pm

    @Betty Cracker: Those are fighting words!

  210. 210.

    TBone

    October 13, 2024 at 1:01 pm

    Oooh, ghostly pasties FTW!

    https://recipes.foodlion.com/recipes/253959/ghost-chorizo-hand-pies

    I’ll be taking these with the Mummy pumpkin cookies – a little sweet and a little savory livens up the party.

  211. 211.

    narya

    October 13, 2024 at 1:02 pm

    Today’s menu: venison, caramelized onions, wine reduction/deglazing; roasted purple sweet potatoes (new to me; looking forward to them); cauliflower and broccoli, prolly with some cheese; and blondies with diced dried apricots. Maybe make a maple frosting for the blondies (in which case I’ll reduce the sugar in the blondies a bit).

  212. 212.

    TBone

    October 13, 2024 at 1:05 pm

    @narya: I want those Blondie’s!  YUM get in mah belly!

  213. 213.

    Ruckus

    October 13, 2024 at 1:06 pm

    @Kay:

    You are correct about what jdv wants for the world, it’s a very specific concept that all women do as told and all by men. It is not humanity, realistic, rational, it is bullshit. This isn’t the 17th century.

    I had a longer rant, but the above is enough.

  214. 214.

    TBone

    October 13, 2024 at 1:10 pm

    @narya: yup, that’s the only time such ingredients are acceptable on a cheesesteak.  I’ve never had one, being satisfied with either or.

    When Mom was a student at Penn (I was very little), we had Mommy and Me Day lunch at the food trucks. My truck fave was a pizzasteak.

  215. 215.

    Jacel

    October 13, 2024 at 1:11 pm

    @Baud: As I recall, in the past Al Smith Dinners that Trump participated in during an election, he churned out insults against the Democratic candidate with no aspect of good-natured jibbing. No sign that he wouldn’t do the same or uglier with Harris.

  216. 216.

    narya

    October 13, 2024 at 1:13 pm

    @TBone: I have yet to find a recipe that achieves what I want; I’m trying a new one today, so we’ll see how it goes. I WANT to replace some of the sugar with an invert (liquid) sugar–I have corn syrup, honey, maple syrup, ginger syrup, date syrup–but for once I’m going to FOLLOW THE RECIPE BEFORE I MAKE CHANGES.  As you might guess, that is not my Best Thing. The two things I’m changing: adding apricots instead of nuts, and using whole wheat flour rather than AP. And I rescaled for a 9×9 pan instead of 9×13, but that’s where using weights instead of measures makes the task easy.

  217. 217.

    TBone

    October 13, 2024 at 1:16 pm

    @narya: I am certain that what you are changing now will result in a delightful batch, and that you’ll also keep tinkering in the future and come up with a block buster. Write it down and please share when you do!

  218. 218.

    StringOnAStick

    October 13, 2024 at 1:17 pm

    @HumboldtBlue: My environmental geology classes talked about climate change as obvious, no question, need to deal with this, etc, in 1978.  Ask me how disgusted I am.  Even the Mormon bishop, ex-oil and gas worker professor was all in.

  219. 219.

    Anotherlurker

    October 13, 2024 at 1:18 pm

    When I worked as a technician in NY sports, Dolan came into a broadcast booth I was working.  He immediately gave off, to me, a vibe that strongly resembled the vibe given off by the glad handing pedophile who plagued my LI parish.  The pedo who cornered me, an 8th grader,  in the boy’s locker room.  The predator who told me to come to the rectory after school for his special brand of “instruction”.  When I didn’t show, he passive/aggressively bullied  me for the next 5 years at that school.  He was so worried about my soul.

    When I meet these types, I am revolted. It is a triggering response, full of disgust and the urge to remove myself from the situation.   I got the same vibe from gulianni.

    The Catholic church can fuck off and die and the world will be a much better place.

  220. 220.

    TBone

    October 13, 2024 at 1:19 pm

    @StringOnAStick: in third grade our teacher had us all make our own terrariums to see what climate change would be doing, up close and personal.

  221. 221.

    JoyceH

    October 13, 2024 at 1:19 pm

    Hey, I love my Sheetz. They have a drive-through! During the worst of the pandemic when I was certain that getting COVID would be a death sentence for me and I was terrified to go into indoor public spaces, Sheetz came through – I could get my cigarettes there!

  222. 222.

    TBone

    October 13, 2024 at 1:20 pm

    @Anotherlurker: palate cleanser, stat!  What treats do you like?

  223. 223.

    TBone

    October 13, 2024 at 1:22 pm

    @JoyceH: In DelCo, that’s what Swiss Farms is for. They have had drive through only service for a coupla decades.

  224. 224.

    narya

    October 13, 2024 at 1:25 pm

    @Anotherlurker: That’s horrible. I’m glad you were able to avoid the “hands-on” portion of the program, but so sorry you still paid a high price.

  225. 225.

    Ruckus

    October 13, 2024 at 1:27 pm

    @Mousebumples:

    As someone not catholic and sent to an all boys catholic high school I couldn’t agree more. (Did freshman year. Made it very, very clear that was 2 years too much and wasn’t going back. How I won was never actually clear to me. (Possibly in the concept of why and how I stated this to the person sending me. It is entirely possible that I may have used some 4 letter words….)

  226. 226.

    Gin & Tonic

    October 13, 2024 at 1:27 pm

    Fuck Francis with a chainsaw. The crap he Tweeted this morning about Ukraine is worse than useless. No, I’m not giving him a link. Asshole.

  227. 227.

    TheOtherHank

    October 13, 2024 at 1:30 pm

    Vance is a Yale Law grad & VC, he’s smart enough to know Trump lost, but he’s willing to trade American democracy for personal power

    Actually, that’s exactly what I would expect from a Yale Law grad and venture capitalist.

  228. 228.

    Kay

    October 13, 2024 at 1:30 pm

    @Old Dan and Little Ann:

    It shouldn’t surprise anyone they’re so angry – they had a huge pool of workers they didn’t have to pay – women.

    Vance brags in the audio of one of the podcasts that his MIL has a graduate degree and is taking care of his children for free. The degrees add extra value to her work taking care of his children but he doesn’t have to pay for it.

    They want to continue to not pay women for work. I mean, my God. Who woudn’t want that deal.

  229. 229.

    Baud

    October 13, 2024 at 1:31 pm

    @Kay:

    It shouldn’t surprise anyone they’re so angry – they had a huge pool of workers they didn’t have to pay – women

     
    Makes sense. They’re still not over the Thirteenth Amendment.

  230. 230.

    Anotherlurker

    October 13, 2024 at 1:32 pm

    @TBone: All of them!   As a palate cleanser, I am listen to Traffic, the Mr. Fantasy album.  That and Humble Pie and numerous other musical masterpieces for that time in my youth.

    Also, Cozy Shack rice pudding.

  231. 231.

    Kay

    October 13, 2024 at 1:33 pm

    @Old Dan and Little Ann:

    Homeschooling, right? THat’s how that works too. The teachers don’t get paid. If they can force women back into the home and out of the workforce they won’t have to pay for schools anymore either.

    Once you realize this is mostly about exploiting women it all makes sense w/in Right wing economic theory.

  232. 232.

    Anotherlurker

    October 13, 2024 at 1:34 pm

    @narya: Yup. I’m 72 now and still get that feeling of revulsion everytime I see a clerical collar.

    My apologies to Rev. Rick and other moral clergy.

  233. 233.

    TBone

    October 13, 2024 at 1:35 pm

    @Anotherlurker: 💜🥰 I too am in currently in possession of a container of Cozy Shack pudding!  But I got chocolate.

    The munchies haint got a chance!

    🎶

    https://youtu.be/Ukrpq5p3yNM

    ☝️ is badass!

  234. 234.

    HinTN

    October 13, 2024 at 1:35 pm

    @Betty Cracker: Welp, that casts me back about 50 years. I missed it because I’ve been toting 45 bags of salt (for the water softener, I’m not planning to dessicate anyone) into the nether reaches of the hacienda. This old fart ain’t doing that again!

    The real question is, “Were they good together?”

  235. 235.

    Old Dan and Little Ann

    October 13, 2024 at 1:40 pm

    @Kay: It was a horrible year.  I am a your average white dude and there were several teachers there that had been there for years.  I felt badly for them.  We went to mass every day and there was a crotchety, old, angry asshole priest who would drone on and on.  If memory serves, he spend September telling these poor school children that Katrina was a sign from God to wipe away sin.  Fucking nauseating.

    edited.

  236. 236.

    HinTN

    October 13, 2024 at 1:40 pm

    @Anotherlurker:

    numerous other musical masterpieces for that time in my youth

    Oooooh, oooooh, oooooh Rubber  Soul and Surrealistic Pillow

  237. 237.

    lowtechcyclist

    October 13, 2024 at 1:43 pm

    @narya:

    And I rescaled for a 9×9 pan instead of 9×13, but that’s where using weights instead of measures makes the task easy.

    Aw c’mon! Who can’t estimate 9/13 of a teaspoon? ;-)

  238. 238.

    trollhattan

    October 13, 2024 at 1:45 pm

    Credit where it’s due/he didn’t have time to ruin this company yet: Elmo’s booster recovery thingie actually worked, and is utterly cool to watch.

    https://www.bbc.com/news/videos/cly57d5jw7eo

  239. 239.

    narya

    October 13, 2024 at 1:49 pm

    @lowtechcyclist: well ackshully . . . it’s .69 x 1 tsp (because 81 is 69% of 117, with 81 being the square inches of a 9×9 pan and 117 being the square inches of a 9×13 pan). /pedantry

    but, to your point, good luck figuring out what 69% of a teaspoon is. I used to have a scale for very small weights, but it disappeared into the mists of time somewhere. And a little extra baking powder won’t hurt anything. :-)

  240. 240.

    Librarian

    October 13, 2024 at 1:49 pm

    Harris won’t be the first Democratic candidate to skip the dinner. Mondale did it in 1984.

  241. 241.

    Torrey

    October 13, 2024 at 1:51 pm

    @Another Scott:

     

    He could have told people not to vote at all. He didn’t. He said that people have to look inside themselves, think, and must vote.

    The thing is that, if he’d said “don’t vote,” the people who would disobey would more likely be the ones who disobey the RCChurch on contraception, that is, the cafeteria Catholics, rather than the ones who obey the claims to authority of the RCChurch. As a practical matter, I’m pretty sure he netted more Trump than Harris votes with that line.

    Also,

    The pope went on to say that the science supports that life begins at conception,

    (which, no it doesn’t, not the way he means it), so he’s pretty clearly putting his thumb on the scale for Trump. He may not mean to, but he is.

  242. 242.

    Jackie

    October 13, 2024 at 1:52 pm

    @WaterGirl: My daughter still doesn’t have power in Winter Haven; they’ve been told not to expect it until “maybe” Wed. The grandkiddos’ schools are still w/o power. It’s gonna suck having to make up 10+ days come late May.

  243. 243.

    Harrison Wesley

    October 13, 2024 at 1:52 pm

    Lots of lovely food comments here.  I’ll continue feasting for the next few days from the Milton Menu, which consists of stuff in the cupboard and anything in the fridge that doesn’t appear to have gotten funky.

  244. 244.

    The Audacity of Krope

    October 13, 2024 at 1:57 pm

    @TheOtherHank: Actually, that’s exactly what I would expect from a Yale Law grad and venture capitalist.

    Vampire capitalist. Their pattern of behavior was well established during the Romney Presidential campaign. The “vulture capitalist” moniker that was popular at the time is both insufficiently descriptive and unfair to vultures. 

  245. 245.

    Abnormal Hiker

    October 13, 2024 at 2:02 pm

    @narya: 81/117 =0.692

    9/13=0.692

  246. 246.

    Baud

    October 13, 2024 at 2:03 pm

    @Librarian:

    Not helping.

  247. 247.

    A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)

    October 13, 2024 at 2:07 pm

    @Starfish: Learn something every day. I had never heard of either Wawa or Sheetz, and now I have. Pretty useless info for a N CA person tho, since 7-11 is dominant out here, but if I ever travel to PA I’ll  be ready.

  248. 248.

    Ruckus

    October 13, 2024 at 2:07 pm

    but he’s willing to trade American democracy for personal power

    I’m SHOCKED, amazed and have no words. SHOCKED I SAY!

    OK, that’s BS I have a lot of them…. and I’m not amazed or actually shocked in the least.

    Was he ever not willing to for the power? NO. His type is ALWAYS in it for the power. He deserves the power – just ask him. Oh wait, give him 5 seconds and he’ll open his mouth and tell all of us in one way or another.

  249. 249.

    lowtechcyclist

    October 13, 2024 at 2:08 pm

    @Kay: ​
     

    It shouldn’t surprise anyone they’re so angry – they had a huge pool of workers they didn’t have to pay – women.

    Talk about holding a grudge – they’ve had half a century to get used to women being able to handle just about any job a man can do.

    An expression in my wife’s family is “deal with it or die mad.” Apparently they’ve chosen the latter.

    Vance brags in the audio of one of the podcasts that his MIL has a graduate degree and is taking care of his children for free. The degrees add extra value to her work taking care of his children but he doesn’t have to pay for it.

    But what’s with Vance? He’s just turned 40. He would have begun college in 2002. Maybe in his hillbilly upbringing in the Cincinnati suburbs, women were still treated as second-class citizens, but ever since then, he’s been around women who were every bit as bright and capable as he is. If he hasn’t gotten used to that by now, WTF is wrong with that boy? He needs to go work it out on his therapist’s couch, and leave the rest of us out of it.

    They want to continue to not pay women for work. I mean, my God. Who woudn’t want that deal.

    ‘Continue to’? In my world, that ‘deal’ went away decades ago. They need to check the expiration date on that coupon before they try to redeem it.

  250. 250.

    Jackie

    October 13, 2024 at 2:14 pm

    @HumboldtBlue: 😂

    ”Someone needs to contact the mayor of Coachella right now!”

    ”Somebody screwed us up!”

    🎻  🎻  🎻

  251. 251.

    barbequebob

    October 13, 2024 at 2:16 pm

    @mrmoshpotato:

    Timmy Dolan, frontman for The Pedophile Patriarchs.

     

    Seems that one of his famous predecessors, Cardinal Francis Spellman was a well know groper, though no mention of him being  a pedophile.

     

    https://www.salon.com/2019/02/09/i-was-groped-by-a-man-called-mary-the-world-changes-but-not-the-catholic-church/

    https://queerhistory.blogspot.com/2011/09/cardinal-francis-joseph-spellman.html

    https://www.theamericanconservative.com/cardinal-mary-francis-spellman-gay-frederic-martel/

    The Catholic Church is such a mass of hypocrisy and not very good at following the teachings of Jesus. Has been for centuries. There are many good Catholics, but they do not/have not run the institution.

     

    And yes, FU to the American Bishops

  252. 252.

    trollhattan

    October 13, 2024 at 2:20 pm

    There’s not one thing he can say that will disqualify or sink him. But you already knew that.

    October 13, 2024 at 2:16 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard

    Donald Trump suggested sending the military after U.S. citizens on Election Day, The Independent reports.

    Said Trump: “I don’t think immigrants are the problem in terms of election day. I think the bigger problem are the people from within, we have some very bad people, sick people, radical left lunatics.”

    He added: “And it should be easily handled by, if necessary, by National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military.”

    Damn good thing this time he’s not IN office for the election.

  253. 253.

    narya

    October 13, 2024 at 2:22 pm

    @Abnormal Hiker: Ah–thank you! didn’t see where that was coming from!

  254. 254.

    M31

    October 13, 2024 at 2:26 pm

    @lowtechcyclist: Vance saw all these women around him that were smarter and better than him, and he wants them back to the kitchen to clear the way for more mediocre men.

  255. 255.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    October 13, 2024 at 2:28 pm

    @Jacel: Her absence won’t stop him from hurling racist/sexist insults at her anyway.

  256. 256.

    A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)

    October 13, 2024 at 2:33 pm

    @Betty: David Brooks is almost tolerable compared to Hugh Hewitt!

  257. 257.

    The Audacity of Krope

    October 13, 2024 at 2:38 pm

    @A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan): David Brooks is almost tolerable compared to Hugh Hewitt!

    Once in a while I see Brooks talking about building and connecting communities and he sounds downright sensible. Wonder why he seems to think the Republicans are the ones doing the work in that regard, smdh…

  258. 258.

    David 🐝KHive🐝 Koch

    October 13, 2024 at 2:43 pm

     

    The Democratic Party’s presidential nominee, Kamala Harris… favorite screen production is the 1992 comedy thriller, My Cousin Vinny, starring Joe Pesci.

    Wow! Looks and brains. She’s perfect!

  259. 259.

    A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)

    October 13, 2024 at 2:45 pm

    @Betty Cracker: Oh God, no lie told!

  260. 260.

    Baud

    October 13, 2024 at 2:46 pm

    @David 🐝KHive🐝 Koch:

    “The defense Donald is wrooong!”

  261. 261.

    karen marie

    October 13, 2024 at 2:46 pm

    @HumboldtBlue: The people who found themselves in that disorganized mess will vote for Trump because “he alone can fix things.”

    If you cannot figure out  logistics for moving your own supporters back to their cars, how can you be put in charge of running the world’s largest economy?

  262. 262.

    A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)

    October 13, 2024 at 2:47 pm

    @WaterGirl: Being and old and having worked in a bank, NCR means National Cash Register to me.

  263. 263.

    A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)

    October 13, 2024 at 2:51 pm

    @Betty Cracker: but you seem to have line of sight cell phone towers since you can post without electricity. We live down a canyon and when the electricity goes out, so does the router and all internet and cell phone access. This is why we still have a land line.

  264. 264.

    TBone

    October 13, 2024 at 2:53 pm

    @David 🐝KHive🐝 Koch: oh my goodness, REALLY?

    IS THAT A FACT??!?!

    😆😆😆

    Mona Lisa is my spirit animal!

    Removed clip – voice fake grinds my gears.

  265. 265.

    lowtechcyclist

    October 13, 2024 at 2:56 pm

    @narya: ​
     

    well ackshully . . . it’s .69 x 1 tsp (because 81 is 69% of 117, with 81 being the square inches of a 9×9 pan and 117 being the square inches of a 9×13 pan). /pedantry

    Pedantry back atcha, you just cancel a pair of 9’s to go from 9×9/9×13 to 9/13.

    The 3-digit decimal expansion of n/13 is actually kinda cool – since 13*77=1001, so 1/13 = .077, to 3 places anyway. (It’s got an infinite decimal expansion that repeats every 6 places, but that’s waaaay more than even a numbers geek like me needs to play with.) So to find 9/13, you just subtract 4*.077 = .308 from 1, so that’s .692. Geeky enough, huh?

    but, to your point, good luck figuring out what 69% of a teaspoon is.

    That was a joke, hence the ;-) at the end.

  266. 266.

    Elizabelle

    October 13, 2024 at 2:56 pm

    @Scout211:

    Well, Brooks has his advice ass backwards, doesn’t he?  If you’re young, stay in the GOP.  If you’re old, get out.  Right.  Has anyone told Bobo about Fox News?

    If you’re under 45, stay in the Republican Party and work to make it a healthy, multiracial working-class party. If you’re over 45, acknowledge that the GOP is not going to be saved in your lifetime and join me on the other side. I don’t deny that it takes some adjustment; I find it weird being in a political culture in which Sunday brunch holds higher status than church. But Blue World is where the better angels of our nature seem lately to have migrated, and where the best hope for the future of the country now lies.

  267. 267.

    lowtechcyclist

    October 13, 2024 at 3:03 pm

    @Jackie: ​
     

    ”Somebody screwed us up!”

    “Somebody set up us the bomb!”

    AYB seems to be stuck in my head these days.

  268. 268.

    Baud

    October 13, 2024 at 3:06 pm

    @Elizabelle: I get that right wingers think they’re “working class” because they hate the “liberal elite” on social issues, but end of day, the Republicans becoming a working class party would be a change on par with the Dems changing from the party of white populism to the party of civil rights. While Republicans  began life as the morally superior party, they have been the party of capitalist owners since Lincoln

    ETA: Relatedly, /r/ibew on reddit has been stellar. Kudos to them.

  269. 269.

    wjca

    October 13, 2024 at 3:06 pm

    @Stopthemovie: best [president] in the history of the Catholic Church.”…
    JFK would like a word.

    Heck, Joe Biden might have a comment as well.

  270. 270.

    catclub

    October 13, 2024 at 3:09 pm

    @NotMax: Howzabout Piggly Wiggly ?

     

    The best is Jitney Jungle.  They should be called Jitney Jingle, for the jingle the jitney played, but some ad got it wrong and they switched the name of the store.

  271. 271.

    Kathleen

    October 13, 2024 at 3:10 pm

    1. @HinTN:  I love both of those albums!
  272. 272.

    New Deal democrat

    October 13, 2024 at 3:11 pm

    @TBone: Seconded. And I don’t recall if mayo was even acceptable on the hoagie version. I think I only had one once. When I wanted variety, I got a chicken cheesesteak.

  273. 273.

    catclub

    October 13, 2024 at 3:15 pm

    @Elizabelle: ​
     

    If you’re under 45, stay in the Republican Party and work to make it a healthy, multiracial working-class party.

    … while it is funded by billionaires who have two goals:
    Lowering taxes for billionaires and lower regulation of companies owned by billionaires.

    By the way, who do you vote for while waiting for that working class party to appear?

  274. 274.

    Abnormal Hiker

    October 13, 2024 at 3:25 pm

    @narya: You are too subtle for me

  275. 275.

    Ruckus

    October 13, 2024 at 3:29 pm

    @Baud:

    As an old I can say with certainty that the rethuglican party has always been about conserving whatever the hell it is that they want. And it isn’t always about the same thing – other than power. Because it is always about having the power to do whatever the hell it is that their leaders  think is best. Which for my entire life has been control as much as possible so that the world looks like they want it to, which is them in control/charge/command/power. It doesn’t have to make any sense whatsoever, it just has to be their decision. And in my experience it always, always, always revolves around their power and control – because they of course always know best – just ask them. I’ve thought for most of my life that it must be rather difficult to know what’s best when one has placed their head up their exhaust port, where it’s dark, smelly and normally a tight fit, except in their case where their oversized egos fit just fine.

  276. 276.

    wjca

    October 13, 2024 at 3:31 pm

    @different-church-lady: That over/under 45 thing has got to be one of the stupidest things I’ve ever seen.

    When he says that, if you’re over 45, the Republican Party will probably not be fixed in your lufetime, he’s not wrong,

  277. 277.

    Baud

    October 13, 2024 at 3:35 pm

    @wjca:

    If you’re over 45 and a Republican, you’re the main reason it won’t be fixed (with the exception of the few true patriots who have put country overseas party).

  278. 278.

    Citizen Alan

    October 13, 2024 at 3:39 pm

    @Starfish:  The Catholic Church had structurally vulnerabilities to the pedophilia scandals that the Protestant churches do not. Quietly firing a priest and then giving him a bad reference so he can’t get a job as a priest elsewhere was not an option for the Church the way it was for the Baptists/Evangelicals who, I believe, have probably always had the same issues and rates of abuse as the Catholics.

  279. 279.

    Baud

    October 13, 2024 at 3:43 pm

    @Baud:

    Ugh. Overseas = over

  280. 280.

    Ruckus

    October 13, 2024 at 3:44 pm

    @wjca:

    I am a lot older than 45 and it hasn’t been fixed in my lifetime.

    Actually because of things like what we are doing right now – better overall communications, we have been able to see that it has not just remained the same as when I was born, it has gotten worse. They have gone through several losing periods and have turned up the heat, trying to regain lost ground. We haven’t had to do a lot to retain better until now. But this full frontal assault is also a demonstration that they have lost a lot over time and are going to do most anything to get it back.

  281. 281.

    VeniceRiley

    October 13, 2024 at 3:50 pm

    @Anotherlurker: I’m angry that happened to you! And I think your instincts are spot on.

  282. 282.

    trollhattan

    October 13, 2024 at 3:53 pm

    @Ruckus:

    Fucking Reagan HATED the yoot of ‘Murka and earned his bones acting on that hate–first as governor then as preznit. Nixon hated those dirty fucking hippies along with him, and yet the voting age dropped from 21 to 18 whilst he was in office. Didn’t matter, he still was reelected while shipping more of those darn kids off to that infernal jungle.

    When has the Republican Party ever been a home for the young? Not in my lifetime.

  283. 283.

    wjca

    October 13, 2024 at 3:56 pm

    @narya: good luck figuring out what 69% of a teaspoon is.

    Two 1/3 teaspoons.  But heaping, not level.

  284. 284.

    Citizen Alan

    October 13, 2024 at 3:56 pm

    @WaterGirl: To be fair, I would agree with him that “killing babies” is bad. We just disagree on the gestational point at which a clump of cells becomes a baby. For me, it’s when the newborn takes its first breath that it joins the human race, but I’m willing to compromise and say “at the point of viability but with the understanding that the life and health of the mother take precedence before delivery.”

  285. 285.

    Bill Arnold

    October 13, 2024 at 4:06 pm

    @The Thin Black Duke:

    neutered speaker of the House as the type of True Believer who equates cruelty with “holiness”.

    AKA a “Tool of Satan”. (Quite seriously.)

  286. 286.

    Citizen Alan

    October 13, 2024 at 4:10 pm

    @lowtechcyclist:most of them are fine with people killing other people once they’ve been born, in which case their love of fetuses is bullshit.

    None of the anti-abortion religious nuts care about “teh baybeez.” It all comes down to the belief that pregnancy exists as a punishment from God on all women after Eve ate the apple. I have seen fundamentalist preachers argue that we should ban epidurals because they prevent women from experiencing the pain that God wants them to suffer.

  287. 287.

    Another Scott

    October 13, 2024 at 4:24 pm

    @HumboldtBlue:

    Jo

    @JoJoFromJerz
    46m

    I didn’t spend my Saturday night walking in the dark for two hours with a bunch of people in matching Harris hats after we were stranded in the middle of nowhere at the end of a rally we were bussed to but not bussed from because I’m not an idiot, and I’m not in a fucking cult.

    Oct 13, 2024 · 7:34 PM UTC

    Me neither!

    Forward!!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  288. 288.

    Citizen Alan

    October 13, 2024 at 4:32 pm

    @Ruckus:  I remain absolutely convinced that, at some point, Couch Fucker’s drug-addicted mother told him to his face that she wished she’d gotten an abortion, and that’s why he hates women so much.

  289. 289.

    Citizen Alan

    October 13, 2024 at 4:37 pm

    @Librarian: That’s … not the most reassuring precedent.

  290. 290.

    Jackie

    October 13, 2024 at 5:03 pm

    @Another Scott: Too bad those are CA MAGAts; Getting them pissed off by only providing them a one way bus ride won’t lose a state TCFG wasn’t going to win in the first place. Too bad Coachella isn’t in Arizona.

  291. 291.

    Ironcity

    October 13, 2024 at 6:44 pm

    @frosty: Royal Farms has very good fried chicken.  (ducks for cover from everyone with their favorite/best fried chicken source)

  292. 292.

    Slightly_peeved

    October 13, 2024 at 6:55 pm

    @lowtechcyclist:

    I am comforted that even if there is a hell, and I end up there, all the priests will help shield me from the flame and pitchforks

  293. 293.

    prostratedragon

    October 13, 2024 at 6:57 pm

    @HumboldtBlue:
    It’s a new tradition:
    Summary;
    Recent addendum.
    Lousy lohistics indeed. It’s almost asif they didn’t even try.😗

  294. 294.

    Gloria DryGarden

    October 13, 2024 at 9:06 pm

    @Citizen Alan: thank you. Agree. Vehemently

  295. 295.

    Gloria DryGarden

    October 13, 2024 at 9:08 pm

    @lowtechcyclist: half a teaspoon and a quarter t. Then Just a tiny bit less.

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