Very frustrating day. In every aspect.
I am glad I am here and not enduring the storm back home, although I did remark to Joelle I miss snow. But I don’t mean an inch and shitty slush and grey for weeks on end. I mean real snow. I miss that.
On the other hand, as Joelle replied, “yeah, but look how much easier life is when you don’t have to plan around the weather every day/”
And she is right. Obviously you just survive for four months here, but for the rest of the time, it’s pretty much the same every day. Some days it looks like it is going to rain, but then it doesn’t.
It will have to do.
War for Ukraine Day 1,048: A Brief Monday Night Update
weasel
Wow, quiet around here tonight. Understandable!
One big non-frustrating thing on my end was the kiddos going back to school. Getting them down has been _so_ much easier tonight that I might get to eat dinner before 9 tonight!
PNW is in no danger of snow, unless you’re at elevation I guess, and I’m looking forward to a slightly less rainy week as well. Not exactly sunny skies, but could be worse.
So my whimsy of the day was that Harris resign as VP rather than certify a felon that, to my reading of the Constitution, has no legitimacy whatsoever. Sure, there’s a risk that Biden kicks off and we have President Johnson for a week or so, but I think a different kind of Jan 6th, one of standing on principle rather than rioting based on grievance and lies, would be remembered positively by history (if we get to have much of one). Going back to dreaming my dreamy dreams now…
eemom
Well, your blog has achieved new levels of stupid today, so there’s that aspect as well.
Urza
@eemom: did I miss something?
Another Scott
Meanwhile, …
Sounds bad!
[ rofl ]
Best wishes,
Scott.
ArchTeryx
@Urza: Nah. You didn’t miss anything. Just a bunch of GIR wannabes posting the Doom Song over and over again and arguing about the lyrics.
Pappenheimer
@ArchTeryx: Nobody does the Doom Song better than Deekin.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HowVkIzBixc
I’d recommend this instead, courtesy of Stan Rogers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fhop5VuLDIQ
prostratedragon
We can only hope: “Something’s Coming”
weasel
@eemom:
Egad, I hope my comment didn’t provoke that. I’m normally a lurker but saw how little chatter was going on and tried to make a topical reply to the post. Haven’t had time to read the rest of today’s posts (but I’ve got the tabs open! and OTR was nice, did check that one), but I wonder what blogs you prefer?
Melancholy Jaques
@ArchTeryx:
GIR?
eemom
@weasel:
No, your comment did not. The last two idiotic posts by FPers before the daily Ukraine post did.
KatKapCC
@Melancholy Jaques: Cartoon character.
Melancholy Jaques
@KatKapCC:
That is one very obscure reference.
prostratedragon
@eemom: I can imagine worse ideas than a go-to panel of Dems in Congress to focus opposition on our platfrom points. It need not be called a “shadow cabinet,” since that term seems to be overloaded with assumptions.
Gretchen
@eemom: Perhaps you should go away and start your own blog that meets your high standards since this one is too stupid for you. Bye-byeeee!
SpaceUnit
@Gretchen:
Actually, @eemom has a good point. I love this blog and its community, but we’re really struggling to catch up with our current reality.
Every time I see a post about “messaging” or some related shit I just want to puke.
KatKapCC
@Melancholy Jaques: Maybe? The show was pretty popular among my friend groups when it was new. But then again…my friend groups were mostly weirdos.
eemom
The “shadow cabinet” post was stupid, but my disgust is really more directed to MM’s “all hail trump’s political skills” before that.
Gretchen
@eemom: Why would you do this? This blog is run by a group of good people who put in a lot of time and effort, without any compensation, to help a grieving community try to find a way forward, and you come in and smear shit on the walls. Contribute something constructive or go smear shit somewhere else.
eemom
@Gretchen:
sorry, I couldn’t possible leave before you brag about reducing my comments to “pie”. You’ll never be a cool kid here without that.
scav
@SpaceUnit: A solid part of why people are struggling to get to grips with the current reality is that things are really complicated, massive in scale and not really reducible to easily logical fixes. And they keep coming. It’s not exactly helpful to have self-assured people wander in and give everyone else failing grades for failing to conform with their assessment of proper decorum and thought.
Gretchen
@SpaceUnit: Ok, what’s our current reality and how should we respond to it? « That’s stupid » works if you’re in middle school. We’re not in middle school.
SpaceUnit
@scav:
I agree.
But folks who think we can win by tweaking our messaging and talking points, or by throwing some people under the bus are the ones looking for easy fixes.
hitchhiker
@eemom: Maybe skip posts that you don’t like? I don’t see who it helps to be wanking here in this one about what you found stupid in other ones earlier in the day. You posted there, you made your points, and here you are, still gnashing your teeth.
Guess what? We’re all gnashing our teeth. The bullies actually won an election that a lot of us tried very hard to take from them, and they’re gloating. It sucks.
It sucks balls.
SpaceUnit
@Gretchen:
For quite some time, we’re only going to be in position to react to the assaults on our democracy.
But feel free to rearrange the deck chairs all you want.
scav
@SpaceUnit: They’re probably as wrong as everyone else, but there are probably parts of the proverbial elephant even there. And my gut instinct against anyone waving solutions is prone to missing parts of elephants so, to no small degree, it’s choose your error type and recognize it’s imperfect.
SpaceUnit
@scav:
I do not claim to know the way forward.
scav
@SpaceUnit: It wasn’t specifically about you, it was bouncing off something you said. hence the link.
SpaceUnit
@scav:
Okay, sorry if I sounded chippy.
scav
@SpaceUnit: Chippy is the new baseline! And I can utterly be confusing.
Rusty
I had one of those days with a few small victories that make yiu feel it’s not all completely out of control. I dragged myself to the gym at lunchtime and managed a very slow workout, but got through a half hour of rowing plaus warm up and warm down. Getting older I fall out of condition so much faster and it’s a slower climb back, but you have to start somewhere. After work I did a grocery shop and when home completely emptied the fridge, scrubbed it out, and threw out all the holiday leftovers, old half jars of weird stuff and and anything with an indeterminate date of use. Small stuff but it made for a decent Monday. Move a muscle, change a thought. My classes start up again next week, between two classes, full time job, spouse, family, an old house, ill be plenty distracted from the coming political chaos.
Gretchen
@SpaceUnit: You are characterizing ideas to react to assaults on our democracy as rearranging deck chairs. So what are your better ideas? If you dont have any, maybe stay out until you do.
SpaceUnit
@Gretchen:
Take your own advice.
sab
Going back to the weather. Just took the dog out, and saw that I will have to shovel the walk and the steep part of the driveway yet again. We moved last summer from a quiet street to busy street. So if we don’t keep the driveway clear our car might slide down into the busy street. Yikes.
Our winters have been almost snow free for years, and yet this year it has been snowing almost non-stop since Christmas. Not a huge accumulation but enough to bother with,
Very pretty. I will give it that.
Geminid
@sab: Be careful. What with the off-center loading, shoveling snow is a common way to hurt one’s back.
Ramalama
I brought back with me from the US a coupla boxes of Jiffy corn bread mix. Feeling nostalgic. Made a killer batch of chili last night and was going to make some Jiffy to go with but was reminded that we’re using an app to lower our hydro bill and we were in the middle of a challenge to suffer cold for a while in exchange for a few dollars. No baking, Wife said. Heat was easy to deal with since we have a wood stove and eleventy cords of wood to burn. But it occurs to me, awakened from my slumber, that perhaps I should have put it on the stove top. Anyone do that?
my chili was homemade; my proposed corn bread was a mix.
Seems like America has been getting some of our snow. Feels like a really mild ( lame amount of snow…oh oh I dared Mother Nature) winter in the laurentian mountains o’ Quebec, so far.
sab
@Geminid: This snow has been powdery, so lightweight.
We are in the process of signing up for a snowplow service. They already mow our lawn. We are too old for this.
Gretchen
@SpaceUnit: My advice is to not call other people stupid if you don’t have any good ideas yourself. Or even if you do have good ideas, don’t call other people stupid. It’s not helpful, or kind, or smart, especially if they’re on your side and trying to figure out what to do next.
mrmoshpotato
@Ramalama: Is your wood stove hot enough on top? Got a Dutch oven or pan and suitable lid?
sab
@Ramalama: Husband made a great batch of chili after Christmas, but visiting children and grandchildren ate it all. I was hoping for a week of leftovers.
I hadn’t even thought of cornbread to go with it. Thanks. I don’t know if you could cook it on the woodstove. I would be surprised if you couldn’t. Isn’t that how they used to make it?
Ramalama
@Rusty: what kind of classes?
sab
When we moved we divided our cast iron up between the kids, so it has been passed on. I realized my grandparents’ cast iron is 100+ years old. Told the kids if they don’t want it they should sell it not dump it. That stuff is valuable. They don’t make it like they used to. The most recent piece was purchased by me fifty years ago.
Ramalama
@mrmoshpotato:
Yes! The stove is large enough to heat 700 sq feet. I can and do boil water on it when it’s roiling. We don’t use it exclusively to heat the house because it’s exhausting to make sure a large enough piece is in with the damper just so. But we always have it on to supplement a base level making it ambient warm because heating with just electricity ain’t all that.
@sab: if it’s any consolation I made what I thought was a big batch for leftovers, and nope. Even without the cornbread, all gone! My wife is one of those who don’t like repeat performances of food. Has to be different mostly day to day. I am the complete opposite. Most normal people plan their meals…I scheme.
Gonna try the Dutch oven idea, next time. We were living a little like Little House on the Prairie for about a month a few years back when a storm nearly wiped us out. Hydro couldn’t get the power on for nearly 30 days. Had to get gigunda trucks from neighboring New Brunswick to get the electricity flowing again. no corn bread then. Canada doesn’t import Jiffy.
sab
@Ramalama: Does Canada allow Jiffy to be mailed in privately?
Ramalama
@sab: I have a few cast iron dealies one of which I can do no wrong to. It’s only a 9 inch skillet but it’s completely the most perfect pan. Nothing sticks. Cooks perfectly evenly. And I can abuse it and it will never let me down. A friend gave it to me as a gift from his failed vegetarian restaurant so I don’t even know how he seasoned it. It’s like a pet.
tell your kids those pans can be used on the latest technology of stove tops, the inductions? Or make quesadillas on the pans to rope them in.
sab
@Ramalama: They do like the pans. My stepson likes them because they are so good. He has a flat skillet, and a couple of frying pans, and the chicken fryer with the cast iron lid.
My daughter likes hers because they came from me and my mom. Sort of proof that we love her enough to trust her with the heritage.
Ramalama
@sab: never thought to ask but yes.If my siblings can mail me Aldi peppermint fake Oreos (how I love them) or peppermint bark from Costco, then yeah sure. I never thought about Jiffy with that same level of scheming.
But who knows if that fcker Polievre gets into power. Then it’s going to be hardship, I think. sorry. Trying not to be a bummer here since there’s such a level of dread with the Trump 2.0 coming in.
SpaceUnit
@Gretchen:
Couple of things:
I did not call you stupid. You’re clearly not.
We are on the same side.
I’ve been shaken by this election. Words don’t even work.
And it’s okay that we’re all crossing swords right now. We just don’t know what else to do.
But we’ll figure it out.
And it’s getting really late here. I gotta hit the hay. Peace.
Ramalama
@sab: well….what do you use if your kids have those pans? If nothing else cast iron is a workout, heavy lifting for better bone density (she says avoiding her own deep fryer…doctor heal thyself)
something fabulous
[trying not to have my feelings hurt that the day of stupid postings… includes my guest post. greetings, night shift.]
sab
After we gave the kids our cast iron we have found a lot of modern cookware that works really well and doesn’t weigh a ton. Excellent for the elderly. Not telling the kids because hoisting cast iron is good exercise at their age. At my age (70+) not so much.
My husband gave me three amazing greenware frying pans from Williams Sonoma. Expensive, but nothing sticks to them. I fry things up and no soaking required. Just rinse it off under the tap and it’s clean. Sensitive about the utensils (no steel) but otherwise amazing. Lightweight!
I used to be able to haul out the whole stack of cast iron pans one-handed. Now I have trouble with one if it’s full of food.
eclare
I don’t know how you survive those four months. Lows that don’t go under 100…
Ramalama
@sab:
noted for future use!
sab
@something fabulous: That was a lovely post. Not a lot of comments but the commenters there loved it. Not appropriate for snark or bickering is why yours had no chance of a huge comment number.
Mayhew Anderson (the health insurance guy) doesn’t get a lot of comments either but we all read him. Quality not quantity.
sab
@eclare: It’s a dry heat.//
My mother lived in Texas in the early 1950s when my dad was stationed in there in the Air Force. She always used to respond to “It’s a dry heat” with “it’s still a hot heat.”
Ramalama
@something fabulous: your guest post was indeed fabulous. Congrats on getting published in such a storied publication. I just read it, realizing I missed the earlier posts because I was bummed by the posts coming just before it. I love that abbreviation.
Geminid
When things get too rough on this blog, I turn away from the bitter strife and look at more peaceful places– like Syria.
There is still fighting in the Florida-sized nation of 25 million people, but for the most part it’s confined to the nation’s northeast, where the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces are battling the Turkish proxy Syrian National Army for control of a strategic dam on the Euphrates River.
The rest of the country is fairly quiet. In Suwayda Governate southwest of Damascus, two Druze militias have accepted in principle the control of the HTS-led government’s Defense Ministry. It sounds like they’ve reached an accomodation under which they’ll keep their weapons and continue to keep the peace in Suwayda.
Yesterday the U.S. Treasury Department announced sanction waivers for humanitarian assistance to Syria including aid to the transitional government. This six-month waiver is less than Syria’s advocates hoped for, but they’ll take it.
Meanwhile, the transition government has overcome initial scepticism on the part of Gulf Arab states, and Qatar and the United Arab Emirates are flying relief supplies to Damascus International Airport. The airport will officially open for international commercial flights today. Saudi Arabia is both flying supplies in and trucking them in by way of Jordan.
Israeli journalist Yair Navot reported on developments concerning Russia’s presence in Syria:
Russia has already transferred assets from Syria to eastern Libya, where the Benghazi-based Haftar regime has been aligned with them for over a decade. So it looks like eastern Libya will now be Russia’s gateway to a number of African nations where its Africa Corps mercenaries operate. That’s the successor to the Wagner Group.
something fabulous
@sab:
@Ramalama:
Aww thank you both very much; very kind (and I figured out how to reply to two at once! Achievement unlocked!). I figured after a second it didn’t all mean including mine, but I actually was a bit alarmed, for a moment. We’re all a little raw these days, indeed. Sigh.
Gretchen
@SpaceUnit: @eemom said « your blog has reached new levels of stupid today ». That’s what I was objecting to. I don’t think it’s helpful to call one’s allies stupid. I appreciate that you aren’t calling me stupid. Sleep well.
Geminid
@Ramalama: I use to cook on a woodstove, mainly pork roasts with potatoes and carrots in an iron pot.
You could probably cook a lot of stuff on your stove, although you might need some separation between the stove and the pot to avoid scorching. Some quarter coins or nails might do the trick, or an iron trivit if you just want to keep stuff warm.
Ramalama
@Geminid: there was a freelance journalist who rode with me in my car, Boston to Montreal (my weekly commute). Took his bicycle with him. Was the worst asshole ever. Ever. To the point where I kicked him out of my car early, not early enough, forcing him to ride his bike in a Montreal snowstorm from the gay neighborhood to somewhere far. He went to Montreal to get on a plane to Syria, with his bike.
While in the car he Forced one of my riders, a regular, to practice Russian with him. We usually dished and caught up on the rides but not that trip.
I forgot all about that turd till I saw in the news that the Taliban had captured an American journalist writing for the new republic and was so disagreeable that the taliban let him go. I did a search of super old emails and YEP … same guy.
That’s what I think of whenever I see Syria now. Also the fact that what used to be a city is an utter shell. Is that Damascus? Is the rest of the country that badly ripped up ?
sab
@something fabulous: I hope you can get a FPer to run that next year. It really deserves to be a seasonal regular.
I will nag them next year if you are okay with that.
Nancy
@scav:
@SpaceUnit:
And to other participants: Thank you for reconciling in the comments. You’re demonstrating the maturity and compassion that keeps me coming back to Balloon Juice comments. It’s like watching siblings and cousins on a too long holiday visit finding ways to repair the ruptured relationships and move on.
I’m recovering from fairly major surgery and trying to manage pain meds. It’s a challenge.
I need to be able to walk and to do my ever expanding list of physical therapy exercises.
Taking the pain meds helps with that but brings the side effects of emotional volatility and mental fog.
I hope this comment is coherent. I’ve stopped commenting at places where the content of my statement got lost in the back and forth about the word I misspelled.
In short, I appreciate that you and others you sparred with stepped back and repaired.
Gretchen
@Ramalama: a Ransom of Redchief situation, where the kidnappers pay to get rid of their hostage? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ransom_of_Red_Chief
Gretchen
@Nancy: yes, that’s what I hope for: that we can realize that we’re all on the same side and be gentle with each other.
Good luck recovering. The mental piece is sometimes as challenging as the physical piece. I hope Balloon Juice can help keep you moving forward.
Ramalama
@Gretchen: wow and holy merde … never heard of it. I used to watch all those ABC specials. Where have I been?
Nancy
@something fabulous: oh my,
I’m so sorry that rancor in comments affected you. I read your piece and connected to memories of hanging tinsel one strand at a time at 4 AM while home on break. And that sense of continuity created by repetition of traditions that have limited meaning unless the elders are repeating the stories around the tasks.
Ramalama
@sab: hard (cider) agree.
Geminid
@Ramalama: Damascus’s center is more or less intact but parts of its periphery were heavily damaged during the civil war. Aleppo in the north has been pretty torn up ever since the Assad regime and its Iranian and Russian allies crushed the rebels there in 2016. I think Aleppo is Syria’s largest city. Other parts of Syria were heavily damaged as well.
Nancy
@Gretchen: thanks
sab
@Nancy: If you are willing please keep us posted. My husband had back surgery with hardware about four years ago. I have always admired his fortitude but especially through his recovery.
eclare
@sab:
“It’s a dry heat.”
So’s my oven.
MagdaInBlack
@something fabulous: Your post was lovely. I wanted to comment about Skokie and the wonderful Rabbi with whom I became friends when I was working there, but it just seemed trite. Plus I was at work.
I look forward to more of your writing.
sab
@eclare: Yes.
something fabulous
@sab: WOW! That is truly an honor. I’d love it!
something fabulous
@MagdaInBlack:
@Nancy:
Gosh thank you as well! I love how the very tiny details are often what bring shared memories back: my favorite!
sab
@Geminid: So Russia destroys another country’s ancient history while in search of preserving Russia’s ancient culture, which is not all that old. Not newish like USA, but more like UK which really only goes back to Norman conquest. Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Iran, China go back forever.
Rusty
@Ramalama: in my late 50’s I’ve decided to go to seminary. Plan is when I no longer need the income of being an attorney (4 kids, spread out in age, lots of tuition bills, youngest is a sophomore in high school) I will become a part-time pastor. More and more churches can’t afford a full-time one, so it should work out. The denomination is the United Church of Christ (UCC), it’s at the Liberal end of the mainline churches. I started Modern Theology and Intro to Pastoral Care next week.
p.a.
Had a tongue lesion removed yesterday for biopsy, pretty much same location as one in 2019 (benign), different doc yesterday, said it seemed to match ’19s report🤞🏻, sent it off to Tufts. 2019 they dream-zoned me (yay), yesterday a local (I should have said: no fuken way). I don’t remember 2019 being as bad as this. Incision is fine, rest of tongue on that side so swollen it feels like I have an earache and infected lymph nodes. Ibuprofen helps, but if swelling hasn’t eased by the time they open I’m giving them a “FIX ME” call.
sab
@Rusty: Wow. That is so interesting and hopeful.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
High noon here in Athens is the witching hour back home, and a time I generally dread reading last night’s news and commentary. I think it’s made somewhat worse these days by the fact that so many of us are enraged or terrified or grief-stricken or multiple combinations thereof.
satby
@something fabulous: That’s just eemom.
eclare
@p.a.:
Oh gosh, hope you get better meds.
eclare
@satby:
Hi there! William is on my tummy.
sab
@something fabulous: I hope my little Christmas story amuses instead of offends.
I am Episcopalian (Church of England Anglican in the rest of the world.)
My first husband (ten year marriage) was Jewish. He was unobservant but I tried as best as I could to run as good a Jewish household as I could although being a shiksa wife. (I have always thought the wives were the strength of Judism’s survival.)
Anyway the first year he asked where is Christmas dinner. He had been looking forward to that.
I told him no tree no dinner.
So next year I got an 18 inch tall hannakha bush. No lights. Tiny blue and white ornaments. And he got a turkey dinner, sugar cookies and a mince pie for dessert. Not Christmas. Just December light festival ( every culture has one.)
We have been divorced for thirty years, and I am remarried for twenty-five, and I still have that little tree with its little blue and white ornaments and bring it out every December.
MagdaInBlack
@sab: I love that story enough to risk a ❤️
Rabbi Bob (from Skokie) would send me Christmas cards and I would send him Hanukkah cards. We liked to discuss how Jesus was a rabble-rouser.
Ramalama
@Rusty: Have you always had a vocation? Very cool to pursue it later in life.
satby
@eclare: I think the orange outside boys become the biggest snugglers. My Simba sure did, after hissing and swiping at me for a year outside as I fed and tried to familiarize him. Now every time I go upstairs he sits at my bedroom door staring at the knob hoping I let him in so we can “take a nap” for a little while. He’s a snuggler now.
Ramalama
@Geminid: right. Aleppo. Thanks.
sab
@MagdaInBlack: Jesus, messiah and son of God, or first Reformed rabbi? I am still on the fence (undecided) on who he thought he was.
satby
@MagdaInBlack: A rabble rouser AND an observant Jew. Too many of the Christian nationalists forget that. Christ was not Christian.
satby
@sab: And also an important prophet in Islam.
sab
@satby: My little black cat (stolen from a neighbor) had a big orange housemate who still belongs to the same neighbors. Good people except their cats are outdoors. He is thriving and he adores his owners. She would have been killed by Halloween freaks or squashed by a car because she is black and invisible at night and is fearless and has no common sense at all.
Barry
@eemom: ”
Well, your blog has achieved new levels of stupid today, so there’s that aspect as well.”
Bye now!
Ramalama
@Geminid:
I feel seen.
eclare
@satby:
So precious.
MagdaInBlack
@satby: The christian nationalists seem to completely forget Jesus in their version of Christ.
(wish you could have seen my mil’s face when I pointed out one Easter that Jesus was a Jew. Lapsed catholic that I am)
Rusty
@sab: That’s a wonderful story.
p.a.
@sab: GF “had” a male orange semi-feral who would show up to eat, sleep sometimes, but was no cuddler. You could pet him, usually without earning a “thank you” swipe. Her cat, female tuxedo, would take occasion at times to bully him. He would disappear for a week at a time, causing concern, the turn up.
Finally a long term no-show. We hoped Sir Louis was ok, and a month or two later we saw him as a regular at a house around the block. Definitely him: rear claws didn’t retract.
sab
@satby: Echo is doing well upstairs. Wary of the pitbull but no longer afraid. Snuggles with me a lot. Gets on well with the other cats. Wary of Tim (who is big and loud and wants all cats to love him.)
Solomon is afraid of the pitbull so still in the basement. He mostly lounges on his loveseat, but he also uses his cat tree and cat condos and big boxes. He wanders upstairs a lot at night when the dog is asleep. Husband has found him in the bathroom on the counter. I have foumd him in the kitchen, mostly on the counter but once on top of the fridge.
I think they are settled in.
Rusty
@Ramalama: i started thinking g seriously about this a decade ago, but with young children it just couldn’t work. Three are out of the house now the time felt right to start. My spiritual path is complicated, I refused to be confirmed in high school and for 15 years didn’t go to church. I came back after joining AA, first finding a higher power and then a return to God. With the birth of our oldest, and my returned faith I went back and slowly got more and more involved. The strangest part was talking with the pastor at the time (I was on council at that point), and he just said, “I was sure you were going to tell me today you want to go to seminary.” I had started thinking about it but never said a thing to anyone! It took another 10 years, but here I am in seminary.
sab
@Barry: That was seven hours ago. We have moved on already.
Geminid
@sab: There’s been a reaction against Russia in the Arab world and its role on Syria has contributed to it. During tbe Cold War Russia backed Egypt, Syria and other Arab nations like Iraq, Algeria. That’s when Russia leased portions of Tartus on the Syrian coast and established its naval base.
Now it looks like Russia’s presence in the Middle East and North Africa is pretty much down to eastern Libya. Plus they have ties with the Houthis in northwest Yemen and they play a part in the terrible civil war in Sudan. Russia’s Africa Corps mercenaries are active there and in several nations in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Turkiye on the other hand has patched up it’s frayed relations with Arab countries. Five years ago President Erdogan had just about every Arab government but Qatar’s mad at at him (and relations with the U.S. weren’t that great either). But after being reelected in 2023, Erdogan picked his intelligence chief, Hakan Fidan to be his new Foreign Minister and he has made a big difference. Fidan is a disciplined and systematic thinker, and is much smoother than his cranky, undiplomatic boss.
Turkiye is a nation a lot of Westerners like to hate, and consequently it is often underrated. But Turkiye is a major regional military power and fields NATO’s second largest Army and Air Force.
With a population of 85 million, Turkiye is tied with Germany as the second most populous NATO nation after the US. This happens to be the population of another regional power and rival, Iran.
Anyway
Resells?! Not my experience at all. I travel a lot internationally and have friends, acquaintances from all over the world. Turkey is very popular in my RL cohort. Not sure about Twitter or other online spaces I don’t buy this.
Anyway
@Rusty: Thanks for sharing that and good luck in your endeavors. I am a firm non- believer but your posts about your long journey sounds very hopeful and real. Wish you and your family the best in the new year.
Professor Bigfoot
@eclare: I loved it. Lived in Phoenix four years with a car with no A/C.
But now I live in Ohio and I see I’m gonna have to go shovel snow again today…
TBone
@something fabulous: greetings, your post was indeed fabulous. So fabulous that I actually STFU for a while in honor.
Good morning, happy January 7!
Ramalama
@TBone: deleted comment due to coming off like a Trudy cool
sab
@Professor Bigfoot: How is your Eco snow shovel?
TBone
@p.a.: I hope you get help pronto!
Anyway
What?! Unpossible!!
I love the cold, enjoyed yesterday’s snow that I had to shovel old skool. No electric blower here. Gotta go clear the driveway again before heading out …
Sally
We have a son’s FIV positive cat again this year to mind while he’s away. For six weeks. So far, husband has let him escape the house only twice, for those who remember my travails from last year! This cat seems very relaxed, chilled, and makes himself completely at home. He’s not afraid of anyone or anything. He has accepted a harness easily, so he comes into the garden with me while I mess around with plants or put out the washing (solar and wind energy). He sits on his tower by the back door waiting for the dog and me to return form our frequent walks. He loves TV, and I put cat videos on for him. I send son daily proof of life pics. Hopefully it’s better than life on the streets! For cat, not son, just to be clear. Ed: Son doesn’t live on the streets either, just to be clearer.
Princess
@Urza: Only the comments on just about every post.
ETA *reads further* Oh, oops, the comments on this post too. *closes blog. walks away
KSinMA
@Rusty: Good for you! And good luck!
TBone
@Ramalama: that was yesterday! It is a new day and I anticipate clapping loudly for reasons other than coffee. Someone posted here a while back that whenever she sees tortillas, she claps loudly three times and yells “SALSA!” So I do that at the supermarket.
Mostly, I’m doing loud, brash, irritating music that will piss off the neighbors. I have already got a good start on that.
ETA Trudy Cool is ok in my book!
p.a.
What will tRump admin do to turn that around!?
Professor Bigfoot
@sab: It works! I mentioned it elsewhere, but I was able to clear the 15 meters or so of my sidewalk with it in less than five minutes. WELL worth the investment (I already had the power head for the edger and the weed-whacker).
It’s heavy as a sumbidge, which takes a little getting used to– but then all the EGO stuff seems to be made “heavy duty.”
I’m verra happy with it.
satby
@sab: Sounds like it! Good for you, and on saving the black cat too, because you’re correct about the likely fate of an outdoor black cat.
satby
@Sally: That’s great! Most of my FIV cats (I take the hard to adopts) have lived to decently old ages of 15 or so. Only the ones who were taken in from outside already ill didn’t make it as long.
Professor Bigfoot
@Anyway: Somehow it just didn’t bother me– my mantra was “drink plenty of water, stay out of the sun and you’ll be fine.”
It didn’t hurt to have a pool in the back yard, of course…
I have photos of my dad, working in his garden in Tennessee in midsummer wearing long pants, long sleeved shirt and a hat… so I figure it’s kinda genetic.
Geminid
@Anyway: Well, I certainly don’t hate Turkiye, and its people are well known for their hospitality. But I know from time spent on Twitter– and that is the most widely followed platform for Middle East news– that there is widespread animus towards Turkiye. Some of this is due to its longstanding feud with Greece over Cyprus, and some to Turkiye’s long war with the Kurdish PKK. Now, any given debate about Turkiye’s role in Syria or the mutual antagonism between Turkiye and the current Israeli government features multiple calls for Turkiye to be expelled from NATO. This is despite Syria and Israel having nothing to do with the NATO alliance.
TBone
The Inky newsletter includes this in their Reasons To Be Hopeful today:
Also, Fly Eagles Fly!
TBone
Today I will be making many futile, stupid gestures. They are so satisfying.
Anne Laurie
Those of us who grew up with Armenian, Greek, or Cypriot neighbors have an inculcated suspicion of Turks & Turkiye… and I suspect it’s much worse for those with actual ties of blood & culture! But it’s been a long time since System of a Down released any new material, so quite possibly anti-Turkish attitudes are gradually ‘aging out’ of general American consciousness…
satby
To the topic of John’s post, hot climates are my version of hell. I only visit them in the dead of winter. It’s 24° outside right now, and my furnace is keeping the house a cozy 64°. Admittedly, when I’m not moving around a lot I wear a sweatshirt or shawl just as President Carter advised all those years ago. Well, he said sweater, but my preference is shawls or pashminas.
Sally
@satby: Yes, this cat was enticed off the street by another son, badly injured and very unwell. Second son nursed him back to health, with significant vet bills. Then had to find a safe home for him elsewhere as he had another cat. Eventually persuaded his brother. This is now a well pampered cat, and no one loves anyone as much as this cat loves son. Positively moons over him. Son loves cat similarly. He is healthy and happy, and we hope for a long life for him, as an indoor cat, that should be possible. He gets an A+ from the vet on his annual check ups.
p.a.
@Anne Laurie: Besides those peoples, other folks who were under Ottoman rule in the area. Memories are looonnnng in some cultures.
Geminid
@p.a.: I couldn’t say. But the Arab nations are for the most part are independent actors and I don’t think Trump has the leverage to make them accomodate Russia if they don’t want to.
Anyway, the Gulf states seem to have learned how to handle Trump during his first term. He’s not that hard to figure out.
satby
@Sally: yes, he should have a good long life. Kudos to you for raising such good, kind men!
Ramalama
@TBone: That was me! I clap my hands as though I was born Flamencan (I think I made that word up). I make salsa pretty regularly and like to yell out “Tortilla!”
I look a little like a home plate umpire calling the third strike doing that.
But your version works, too
Edit: Trudy Cool is my bastard-French way of saying Asss hole. (tru de cul)
Sally
@satby: Thank you, but I don’t like to take credit. I think they have agency, and decided what kind of person they each wanted to be.
eclare
@satby:
Agreed. I keep my heat at 60. I will survive.
The summers in Phoenix…JFC.
p.a.
@eclare: I worked outside 12+ years in Southeast New England in all seasons, so a big Weather Channel fan at the time, and I would look at the Southwest temps in summer, and Dakota/Minn/Wisconsin in winter, and think “how the eff do the guys doing my job there do it?”
Worked with a Wisconsin native. Winter he’d have a crap cotton zip hoodie & a KMart poly-fill, like 3mm, vest, with wind chills in the teens. Laughed at us in our 1-piece insulated “Gumby Suits.”
One thing I will say (without any actual evidence; New Englanders back me up here): nowhere else can a 50°f day feel as miserable as New England. (OK, British Isles too I bet.)
Geminid
@Anne Laurie: I think some animus dates back to the Siege of Vienna in 1682. For a while, Europeans regarded the Ottomans with a fear similar to how we feared the Communist Soviet Union for much of the Cold War.
Then in the 19th century the Ottomans had the shocking gall to do to Balkan Christians in the what the Europeans were doing to North Afric Muslims. The Armenian Genocide of 1915 cemented the Ottomans’ reputation as a uniquely violent and bloodthirsty people. Rightly or wrongly, the Turkish Republic founded eight years later inherited that reputation.
Geminid
@p.a.: Memories there are long. When the Gaza war began, a lot of Turks– and their government– took the Palestinian side. But there were contrarians who would show documentary footage from the First World War of Turkish soldiers being led off to captivity, along with the admonition “Never forget how the Arabs took British gold and stabbed us in the back!”
I saw another picture a lot back then; it was from the 1970s and showed PLO leader Arafat and Cypriot leader Archbishop Makarios grinning at each other. That one was only 50 years old.
jimmiraybob
@Professor Bigfoot: “It didn’t hurt to have a pool in the back yard, of course…”
I lived in Phoenix for a couple of years without a working furnace but can’t even imagine no A/C. I still fondly … and by “fondly” I mean with horror … recall my first 125 degree day.
I had friends with pools and by midsummer they were more like not-quite hot tubs.
Miss Bianca
@Rusty: Damn, late to the party but you’ve just described my day yesterday (finally dragged my ass to the gym, did a class, bought a membership and everything!) after 3 months of no serious training, and as for cleaning out my fridge of all the old gunk, well…that’s aspirational! Kudos to you!
Miss Bianca
@Geminid: Washers. Three large-ish washers on the woodstove will do the trick nicely.
Chigail
@Pappenheimer: thanks for reminding me about the Marry Ellen Carter. Made me smile. Here’s another positivity themed music videohttps://youtu.be/UgaXmAGUFIA. Hope you enjoy it.
satby
@p.a.: San Francisco. As a native Chicagoan used to very cold temps who doesn’t even look for my jacket unless it’s below zero, 50° in damp San Francisco left me feeling chilled to the bone.
robtrim
F*ck snow…
I grew up in Erie Pa, on the lake. It’s great until you’re old enough to drive. After that it sucks!
dnfree
@eemom: A long time ago (teenager), I would make absolutist statements like “This singer is terrible”, or “That author is stupid”. Sometimes it turned out that the person I was talking to loved that singer or author, and then I felt stupid.
The lesson I learned was simply to identify the opinion as my opinion, and to temper it a little. Like “I don’t really like this singer”, or “I disagree with what I know of that author”, or “I find that author boring”.
Therapists suggest making “I” statements rather than “You” statements to improve communication. So you could say “I disagree with this post, or person”, rather than “This post or person is stupid”.
Geminid
@Miss Bianca: That’s the kind of brilliant idea I would expect from a Western pioneer woman!
Ramalama
@Geminid:
@Miss Bianca:
This thread is dead but wanted to thank you for motivating me to cook on my wood stove, during normal times and not just in a crisis. We light a fire everyday anyway. Three large-ish washers indeed.
Manyakitty
@something fabulous: your post is beautiful 😍 . Left you a comment over there.
TBone
@Ramalama: glad I checked back in to see that it WAS YOU hahahaha and I mixed up the order before coffee this morning. I won’t forget now, I hope!
Gretchen
@something fabulous: Please don’t let that unkind remark detract from your day. It wasn’t aimed at you, but it shouldn’t have been aimed at anyone.
I love the idea of making it an annual posting. The older we get the more we need to hang on to the memories of the people who are no longer with us, and figure out how to leave those memories for the younger generations.
@dnfree: Well said.
something fabulous
@sab: Aww, no I think that’s sweet! though the marriage didn’t survive, some acknowledging of each other’s traditions did! perfect.
Nancy
@sab:
It’s hip joint replacement for me. The doc has already said I’ll need to have the other one done in a few years. My last major surgery was more than 20 years ago. I didn’t remember just how intense the experience was til now. I do admire fortitude, not so sure I have it.