Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Oppose, oppose, oppose. do not congratulate. this is not business as usual.

Dear media: perhaps we ought to let Donald Trump speak for himself!

Find someone who loves you the way trump and maga love traitors.

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

If you can’t control your emotions, someone else will.

The “burn-it-down” people are good with that until they become part of the kindling.

After dobbs, women are no longer free.

He really is that stupid.

Second rate reporter says what?

If you don’t believe freedom is for everybody, then the thing you love isn’t freedom, it is privilege.

We can’t confuse what’s necessary to win elections with the policies that we want to implement when we do.

We’re watching the self-immolation of the leading world power on a level unprecedented in human history.

There are a lot more evil idiots than evil geniuses.

How stupid are these people?

Not all heroes wear capes.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

Since we are repeating ourselves, let me just say fuck that.

Baby steps, because the Republican Party is full of angry babies.

“A king is only a king if we bow down.” – Rev. William Barber

Also, are you sure you want people to rate your comments?

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

Just because you believe it, that does not make it true.

“In the future, this lab will be a museum. do not touch it.”

People are complicated. Love is not.

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Monday Morning Open Thread: Resisting

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… And have been a much happier seal!


That seal is my new spirit animal. Why did I need to know about gnarly lizards?

Monday Morning Open Thread 21

On it!…

Per the Washington Post, “Biden races to Trump-proof his climate legacy” [gift link]:

On the morning after Election Day, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan convened several of his top officials for a somber meeting.

Most officials had woken up Wednesday to the news that Donald Trump, who once vowed to eliminate the EPA in “almost every form,” would return to the White House in January. Regan sought to reassure employees that their achievements under President Joe Biden would “stand the test of time,” and he encouraged staffers to “run through the tape” and continue making progress during the 76-day lame-duck period between Election Day and Inauguration Day, EPA spokesman Nick Conger said.

In just the past two days, the administration has finalized plans to limit oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and to save an imperiled bird — the greater sage grouse — by restricting drilling, mining and livestock grazing across nearly 65 million acres of its habitat in 10 Western states. Officials have met behind closed doors to wrap up work on a study justifying the administration’s pause on approvals of new liquefied natural gas exports — a pause that Trump has promised to end on his “very first day back.” And they are hustling to issue at least a half-dozen other significant policies, affecting toxic chemicals as well as California’s push to phase out gas-powered cars and trucks by 2035.

Across the federal government, Trump’s election has set off a scramble among political appointees and career bureaucrats alike to lock in Biden’s landmark environmental initiatives. Some staffers say they learned a lesson in 2017, when Trump swiftly dismantled some of President Barack Obama’s signature environmental achievements…

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Things to do in 65 days

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So what is next?

What should one do in the next sixty five days or so?

There are three immediate health care things that I can think of that will be relevant to do soon.

First, if you are eligible for an ACA plan or Medicaid today, sign up now.  We know from 2017 that the first executive order signed was to substantially reduce outreach and availability of ACA plans.  We know that this led to a substantial (25-30%) decrease in average applications submitted per county immediately after the inauguration of Trump than before during the Obama administration.  We can anticipate a substantial increase in administrative burden to prove “deservingness” and eligibility on January 21st.  So if you are eligible, sign up NOW.  Get the contract signed and initiated for January 1 coverage.

Second, if you are at all thinking about reproductive health care for you, your partner(s) or other people in your life, get what you can get done now.  If you want an IUD or other LARC, go get it.  If you think that Plan B is part of your package of reproductive autonomy, go order a few extra packages as it is shelf stable for most of a Trump term.  We know that there are large natalist factions in the GOP and the plain logic of Dobbs indicates that Griswold is not safe.

Third, if you have medications or other medical consumable goods that have substantial foreign components in them, see if you can stockpile or extend your script to a longer prescription in December.  If we are to see 20-30-40-50-100% tariffs the entire supply chain is going to be an omni-shambles.  Extending a 30 day scrip to 90 days might let you skip the initial ombi-shambling implementation and give you until March until you need to figure out what to do next.

I’m thinking about a lot more things, especially on the home health workforce angle, but these are three concrete steps to do NOW.

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Life In A Eudora Welty Story

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A week from today, I’m hoping we will wake up in our own house. Bill checked on our place over the weekend. Previously, he had to visit by boat, but this time, he drove as far as he could on the crappy dirt road until the water got too deep and walked the rest of the way home in waders.

The water level drop is accelerating, and the calculations I made in mid-October about how long we’d need a flood refuge seem to be bearing out, but it will be close. As of this weekend, there’s less than a foot of water downstairs, but since it’s a stilt house and the living quarters are upstairs, the salient issue is whether the road is passable. Not quite yet but maybe next weekend. We’ll just have to wait and see.

***

Tree-lined lake in the sunshine

Meanwhile, life in a Eudora Welty story continues here in town. The neighborhood we’re in could best be described as a downscale vacation spot. There are lots of lakes connected by canals and bordered on one side by our flooded river, so water levels are up here too but in a less bothersome way. The houses are mostly small, wooden structures that look like they were built without regard to codes in the 1950s.

My family has been in this county for generations, so the oddball vibes are familiar. The swampy portion of the county where we normally live is a Southern Gothic tale too but with outlooks shaped by isolation, whereas here the quirky characters are more densely packed and interactive.

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On The Road – Albatrossity – California Dreaming – Day two in Pebble Beach

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On The Road - Albatrossity - California Dreaming - Day two in Pebble Beach 10

Albatrossity

A slight digression before we get to the images.

The day after the election was a hard day. Like many of you, I was unable to sleep the night before, and unable to function much on that day. I know that self-care is important, and needed to eat, but I wasn’t hungry at all. I tried to eat a banana, it made me feel nauseated, so I left most of it for later, or whenever. Today, Thursday, after a decent dinner and a good sleep, I see that Anne Laurie headlined her post “Now we cultivate our own gardens”. That is, I believe, very sound advice.

We need to take care of ourselves, and the people and places and critters that we love. We need to keep fighting, for each other and for the planet we all share. Figuring out how we do that is for each of us to determine for ourselves, but collectively we must persist. I have tried to figure out my niche, my role, and will be fleshing that out a bit more as the days turn into weeks and months.

But I already know that what I can do is seek beauty in the world, and share it with anyone I know, virtually or otherwise. I do know that we need beauty, and we need to appreciate the natural world, more so than ever. I also know that it is therapeutic for me, personally, to be out in the world as much as possible, and to give that therapy time to heal the wounds of this most wretched year. I feel best when I am hanging out in a thicket, or sunflower patch, or on the open prairie, waiting for some bird to finally get out in the open for 5 seconds to let me get some photos. All other concerns seem to melt away at those times; it is a blessed thing.

So I think my role includes bringing a splash of beauty, a touch of joy, and sometimes a moment of wonder to your Monday mornings. OTR on Monday is my metaphorical garden. My role includes more than that as well, but right now, for this post, it is enough. Happy Monday, and please persist, for your sake, for your friends and family’s sake, and for the sake of our planet. We all need each other, now and always.

Now for some images. These are from a day in Pebble Beach/Pacific Grove CA in late September. Enjoy!

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On The Road - Albatrossity - California Dreaming - Day two in Pebble Beach 9
Pacific Grove CASeptember 23, 2024

Brewer’s Blackbird (Euphagus cyanocephalus), striding purposefully across the beach. Like a boss. Click here for larger image.

Sunday Night Open Thread

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Made some solid work of the drive to Tday, making it about 950 miles, which means tomorrow I can easily make it to Albuquerque or maybe even Gallup, leaving a short remnant (by comparison) for the third day so I can arrive early enough to unpack and be in a somewhat talkative mood and not murderous. In a cheap 70 buck a night hotel next to a waffle house, so I had a gut bomb breakfast for dinner, which I needed because all I ate all day long was two bananas and a handful or two of dill flavored sunflower seeds.

I don’t like to eat or drink anything when I make long drives- just a coffee in the morning with a banana, a couple liters of water, and that is it. I dunno why, I am weird. I just have a dinner when I get to where I am stopping.

Maxwell was a complete and total asshole for the first 273 miles, yowling like a madman until finally his meds kicked in. Asshole.

Gas prices were absurd, ranging from the lowest at 2.35 a gallon to the highest at 2.95. These motherfuckers did not vote for Trump because of the price of gas, but I have no doubt they will credit him on 21 January when all of a sudden the economy is great. Fuck them.

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War for Ukraine Day 991: Trying Something a Bit Different

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Two quick housekeeping notes. First, Rosie is doing well. She’s sitting next to me on the sofa chilling out. Thank you all for the good thoughts, well wishes, prayers, and donations.

Second, I’ve created a curated list of accounts on BlueSky that either mirror their hellsite accounts that I used regularly or are people I would occasionally post in the updates. It doesn’t have everyone I want, but a lot of them have the imagery and videos we’re now missing without the hellsite embeds, so I’m going to be using more of them. A number of the usual sources do have accounts, but they’re basically dormant. Hopefully, they’ll pick up posting at BlueSky given the Starlink Snowflake’s malignancy site.

As of 6:30 PM EST/1:30 AM local time in Ukraine, all of eastern and central Ukraine is under air raid alert. Most likely another  thermobaric Shahed drone swarms.

Another night. Another air raid siren in Kyiv. Terror never stops…

#UkrainianView

— Andrii Katriuk 🇺🇦 (@andriikatriuk.bsky.social) November 10, 2024 at 5:31 PM

Overnight, Russia launched another massive drone attack. Out of 145(!) launched Shahed drones, 129 were taken down (62 regular, 67 electronic warfare). Another 10 left Ukrainian airspace in the direction of Russia, Belarus and Moldova.

[image or embed]

— NOELREPORTS (@noelreports.bsky.social) November 10, 2024 at 4:05 AM

Here is President Zelenskyy’s address from earlier today. Video below, English transcript after the jump.

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Medium Cool – What Puts Your Mind at Ease?

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Medium Cool is a weekly series related to popular culture, mostly film, TV, and books, with some music and games thrown in.  We hope it’s a welcome break from the anger, hate, and idiocy we see almost daily from the other side in the political sphere.

Arguments welcomed, opinions respected, fools un-suffered.  We’re here every Sunday at 7 pm.

Who knew when we created Medium Cool that our tag would be just as true today as it was 5 years ago when the first Medium Cool post went up?

Culture as a Hedge Against This Soul-Sucking Political Miasma We’re Living In

And not just as true as it was, but quite likely more true.  Nah, better make that most definitely more true.

Some might say that we have no time for happy talk about books and music and TV and culture because the world is on fire.  Some might say that we need those things more now than ever, as a balance to keep us sane, stable, and functional.  I’m on Team More Now Than Ever.

For tonight, let’s talk about culture-related things that help put your mind at ease, that give you a break from the stress of this new world we find ourselves in, or things that allow you to fall asleep at night.

Medium Cool – Your "Go To" Comfort Movies

Political podcasts were my staple for listening when to as I fell asleep.  Now I can’t listen to any of them.  Wednesday night in desperation I searched for Hallmark or Christmas in Netflix just so I could have something that stopped my brain from chattering.  Truly “break glass in case of emergency” choices for me.

The first one featured the teacher from Glee (who has a soothing and familiar voice) and a silly story about dancing and (of course) falling in love in Paris.  I can’t really recommend that one, but I did fall asleep, so there’s that.

The next night Netflix suggested the The Noel Diary, which had nothing to do with Christmas, really, but it’s a lovely story starring the brother from This Is Us and one of my favorite female characters from Station 19, both of whom have lovely voices, and an actor I loved from the TV show Black Panther.

Decades ago, after my Dad died and my relationship ended, I would put my VCR tape of Murphy’s Romance in the VCR and would fall asleep on the couch before James Garner could reply to Sally Field: “Only if I can stay for breakfast.”

If you list shows or movies, please tells us where they are streaming, if you know.  I wasn’t able to read Betty’s post about Mission Impossible because I had out-of-town company, but maybe shows where the good guys prevail would be good.

Or  maybe books on tape?  Great readers are essential for books on tape.  Voices matter!

Or maybe it’s music that soothes you?  Something else altogether?

Boy was I ever sorry on Wednesday that I had made my way through all the “unattempted” Waffle puzzles on Tuesday while waiting for election returns.

P.S.  I could use some ideas for Medium Cool topics because right now I am running on empty.  Speaking of books on tape, I asked Grover Gardner if he would be interested in doing a guest post for Medium Cool; that was quite some time ago, but I thought he would have an interesting perspective, and maybe that can still happen.

Note: for those new to Medium Cool, these are not open threads.

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