The kids across the street are having a party, and I don’t mean that facetiously, it’s four young women who all go to ASU, and they stopped over to say they were going to have a banger and asked if there was some place that we did not want their friends to park. I thought about it for a second, and told them we didn’t cafre, and in fact they should park their personal cars behind ours in my driveway so they had more space for their friends in case some of the neighbors cared. I said “we’re old and if we go anywhere after sundown it will involve an ambulance, so park behind us if you want.”
I thought it was nice they asked but still a little odd because I am new to this whole urban mindset. Where I live in WV it’s just never an issue. Hell, I know the neighbor’s adult kid’s cars and when I see them I pick up extra apples or peaches or whatever because I know the grandkids are in town.
Oh, and I got to meet the neighbor’s dog who is super sweet.
This is super cool:
The Inspectors General refuse to leave until the action is taken legally, which they do not believe it was, and neither do senators like Chuck Grassley. This is what not backing down looks like.
static.politico.com/b3/3e/5baf92…— Ariella Elm (@ariellaelm.bsky.social) January 25, 2025 at 11:48 AM
Just say no, mates. And when that won’t work, play stupid. Slow things down. Then malicious compliance. Be smarter than them and slow things down. They are so close to what they want they are going to make mistakes. They are stupid, and going to make mistakes. They are arrogant, and will make mistakes. Use that.
Joelle is going to watch some new movie with Demi Moore. I intend to game. She loves A24 movies but they are just not for me. They always feel like watching the middle book in a trilogy with no explanation of why we are where we are and then no conclusion. The credits roll and I am always “wtf did I just watch and why?” She says they are supposed to be like that to be thought provoking and I don’t need that in my life I have eight to en thoughts bouncing around my head all day long I can look at anything and be provoked by thought against my will.
Y’all be good.
Reader Interactions
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Scout211
Thank you for the news about the inspectors general. That just lifted my spirits.
And yes, it’s super cool.
different-church-lady
I was never a “Garland is a fuckup” type, but when his JD decided they needed to wind down all the Trump cases before the inauguration I couldn’t help but think he was all along.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Yes, good news.
Starfish (she/her)
It has been snowing all day so I have been sitting inside and watching Welsh people try to do regenerative agriculture by using guinea pigs to mow their lawn.
Old Dan and Little Ann
My 5th and 6th grade girls bball team won earlier today. I was excited for about 2 minutes before an upset dad walked across the court to ask me how I determined playing time. It’s a numbers gamee ffs. 13 kids. Sub every 5 minutes. The stronger kids play more but everyone plays. It has been bugging me all day. 26 years of teaching has taught me how to deal with parents but this was a 1st. It’s only my 2nd year. Can’t make everybody happy. /rant
Edited to add he obviously wants his daughter playing more.
eclare
Two actresses who are very good but continually star in movies that I have no interest in seeing: Demi Moore and Nicole Kidman.
I finally discovered how good Kidman is when she starred in Big Little Lies.
John S.
@John Cole
A24 movies are definitely funny like that. Either people love them or hate them. But they really do broach some strange topics, like in Midsommar (which also boasts a strong performance from Florence Pugh).
ETA: Joelle is watching The Substance. Definitely not for everyone, but some excellent work from Demi Moore, Dennis Quaid and Margaret Qualley.
zhena gogolia
That movie with Demi Moore sounds pretty horrible.
I am watching Maria with Angelina Jolie, I Am Love, and Uncle Vanya with Olivier in shifts. All pretty good.
Suzanne
LOL, Tempe is a suburb. That is just normal neighborly niceness.
zhena gogolia
@eclare: Now I’ll watch anything with Kidman.
She is so good in Eyes Wide Shut.
wombat probability cloud
Cole, thanks for the AG news and glad that you are experiencing some of the sweetness that can be had with urban neighbors. And the dog, of course.
Dorothy A. Winsor
I hope Denmark and Canada both tell Trump to fuck off. As a matter of fact, they should literally say that, then terminate the phone call.
Suzanne
I have been having extreme skin freakout due to the cold weather. The “arctic blast” or whatever they call it that brought us into negative temps with wind has left my face raw. Aquaphor to the rescue, I hope. Looks kind of like a sunburn.
John S.
@zhena gogolia:
Eyes Wide Shut fell a bit flat for me in the pantheon of Kubrick films. I’m a total sucker for Barry Lyndon though.
eclare
@zhena gogolia:
I saw that in the theater and walked out thinking “meh.” Not about her, but about the movie.
ArchTeryx
@John S.: Midsommar was a (really, really disturbing) sort-of satire of death cult stories, where in this case the death cult, rather than being shadowy and otherworldly like in most such stories, operates literally in perpetual daylight, right out in the open for the world to see. And like most actual cults, they were extremely good at identifying weaknesses in the protagonists and exploiting the hell out of them, either to make them sacrifices (mostly) or recruit them into the cult. A lot of the horror came from stuff based on actual Scandinavian pagan rituals from ancient (pre-Viking) times.
More or less, Ari Aster’s take on the original Wicker Man. It’s ending manages to be every bit as disturbing as the original, too.
eclare
@zhena gogolia:
I haven’t seen Maria but based on all of the press I was surprised that Angelina did not get an Oscar nomination. I read somewhere that Hollywood is 100% Team Brad and that could be the reason.
JoyceH
Uh, is it just me? What’s an A24 movie?
Mrs Ragbag
@Starfish (she/her): I didn’t watch that five times. Who says I did?
eclare
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
I think Denmark’s PM did. Well, not PM but elected official.
huffpost.com/entry/anders-vistisen-donald-trump-greenland_n_67906ad3e4b0607b3af77dfd
ArchTeryx
@JoyceH: A24 is an independent studio that mostly specializes in horror movies such as Heredity and Midsommar, or weird stuff such as Everything Everywhere all at Once or Death of a Unicorn. They also run the adult animated series Hazbin Hotel, set in a version of Dante’s Hell that looks suspiciously like an ordinary city. It’s about a hotel run by Lucifer’s daughter to rehabilitate souls in order to elevate them from Hell to Heaven.
NeenerNeener
@Suzanne: My knuckles crack open and bleed when it gets this cold. I’ve had to stock up on Aveeno hand masks this winter.
tobie
Isn’t “Please don’t hesitate to contact me, if you have any questions,” bureaucratise for “Go fuck yourself”? Slow burn. I like it.
Anyone dealing with massive increases in heating costs not because of consumption but because of what my utility company calls “distribution” charges? The utility company didn’t build the natural gas pipes in my area, and they certainly haven’t updated them, so I don’t know why I’m forced to pay 2 x my actual consumption for “distribution.” This is so infuriating.
Parfigliano
@different-church-lady: Not a popular opinion around here….Garland is, was, always will be useless trash.
Suzanne
@NeenerNeener: My fingers do, too. But I am especially unhappy about having red, scaly splotches on my face ATM.
Jay
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
We have initiated legislation to change the names of all the Great Lakes to “Stay The Fuck On Your Own Side”.
MagdaInBlack
@Starfish (she/her): When I had a guinea pig, my father built a little 3′ x 3′ square portable shelter of 10″ boards, with chicken wire across the top and a shade on one corner. This is where Billy the guinea pig spent much of his time in good weather.
Steve in the ATl
@John S.: loved that soundtrack when I was kid! Though apparently my appreciation of fife and drum music was not so common.
eclare
@Jay:
Hahaha…
lowtechcyclist
@JoyceH:
Nope, it wasn’t just you. Glad you asked, so I didn’t have to!
@ArchTeryx:
Thanks for your explanation!
Oh, and:
gives me a mental picture of St. Peter saying to one of those souls, “kid, have you rehabilitated yourself?” ;-)
Scout211
@Suzanne: What you are describing has a name. Here’s an article from the Cleveland Clinic: winter rash.
Jay
@Suzanne:
Also known as windburn.
I use either Glucosamine, (unscented) or olive oil.
A balaclava will prevent that.
Clearing a 2km driveway in -40C several times a week from November to April taught me a few tricks.
Michael Bersin
Resistance – OSS Manual (1944)
“….(12) General Devices for Lowering Morale and Creating Confusion (a) Give lengthy and incomprehensible explanations when questioned. (b) Report imaginary spies or danger to the Gestapo or police….”
“….(c) Act stupid. (d) Be as irritable and quarrelsome as possible without getting yourself into trouble. (e) Misunderstand all sorts of regulations concerning such matters as rationing, transportation, traffic regulations….”
“….(f) Complain against ersatz materials. (g) In public treat axis nationals or quislings coldly. (h) Stop all conversation when axis nationals or quislings enter a cafe….”
“…(i) Cry and sob hysterically at every occasion, especially when confronted by government clerks. (j) Boycott all movies, entertainments, concerts, newspapers which are in any way connected with the quisling authorities. (k) Do not cooperate in salvage schemes.”
“…(10) To lower morale and with it, production, be pleasant to inefficient workers; give them undeserved promotions. Discriminate against efficient workers; complain unjustly about their work…”
“…(11) Hold conferences when there is more critical work to be done. (12) Multiply paperwork in plausible ways. Start duplicate files….”
“….(13) Multiply the procedures and clearances involved in issuing instructions, pay checks, and so on. See that three people have to approve everything where one would do. (14) Apply all regulations to the last letter.”
RevRick
“Y’all be good.”
I feel attacked.
lowtechcyclist
@Jay:
I’d be all for it, except then El Trumpo would insist on naming each one something really, really stupid. Best that he not be given a reason to even think about them.
TaMara
@Starfish (she/her): Okay, first I’m glad they are grazing other livestock, LOL. But the guinea pigs are adorable and in the comments, it sounds like they are not the only ones who do that. Who knew?
Nice bookend to a Roots So Deep live Q&A I participated in today.
Starfish (she/her)
@MagdaInBlack: We got to take care of the neighbor’s two guinea pigs over the holidays, and they have such personalities. They have a big pen that is probably 3×5. In the evenings, we would try to let them out to play. They would discuss it at length and then usually decide that they were not leaving their house.
TaMara
@Michael Bersin: That really deserves to be front paged.
ArchTeryx
@lowtechcyclist: The whole thing plays out much more like Milton’s Paradise Lost. Lucifer is actually a decent guy (if an absentee king), heaven is run by corrupt assholes who don’t even know why some souls end up there and some in Hell, God is conspicuously absent, and most of the demon lords consider Charlie’s little hotel project to be absolutely laughable – except for one, Alastor, who supports it for his own mysterious reasons. She’s the only one that takes it deadly seriously. Hilarity doth result.
prostratedragon
@Jay: Also a touch of Vaseline. Real cheap.
lowtechcyclist
@ArchTeryx: Sounds worth watching!
TheOtherHank
@Old Dan and Little Ann: I coached my sons’ AYSO soccer teams until they were old enough to be beyond my skill level to coach. One of the main tenets of AYSO is Everybody Plays. This translates to everyone has to play at least half the game. I told the parents that since we’re trying to make sure everyone has fun, I woiuld maximize play for each kid independent of the skill level. If a kid played 2 quarters one week, they played 3 the next. I only got push back on that once and told that angry mom that perhaps her son should play in a selective league rather than AYSO
noncarborundum
@prostratedragon: Or Bag Balm.
Michael Bersin
When Eric Schmitt (r) was Attorney General of Missouri he set up a snitch email address so that people could turn in their schools and school districts for “illegal mask mandates” during the pandemic. The good people of Missouri responded in an appropriate fashion by submitting thousands of emails turning in their pets, submitting photos of their extended middle finger, etc.
A personal favorite:
RSMo § 610 – Missouri Sunshine Law – email submissions – part 8
Be the monkey in the wrench.
Gretchen
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Kay had an interesting report earlier today from her son who lives in Denmark. She says that, while Trump may think that the Danes are weak socialist patsies, they think of themselves as warrior Vikings who dominated their world in the Middle Ages. And that they know how valuable Greenland is, they’ve dominated shipping in that part of the world for a thousand years, and they won’t fold. I found this encouraging.
PaulWartenberg
If trump declares war on Canada, will the Blue states even respond at this point? The nation will split, and we’ll have a civil war anyway.
Michael Bersin
@TaMara:
Simple Sabotage Field Manual (OSS) (1944) [pdf]
ArchTeryx
@lowtechcyclist: It absolutely is. The pilot, by Vivienne Mordreno, was mostly nihilism and shock comedy, but once A24 bought the series and took it over, it told a much more balanced story. And an extremely subversive one when it comes to evangelical Christianity. When the Big Bad of the series is the First Man himself, the angel Adam, you know nothing is sacred.
Sadly, AFAIK, it’s only on Amazon Prime right now, but I could be wrong.
eclare
@Gretchen:
I didn’t see that, thanks!
TaMara
@Michael Bersin: Thank you!
Bostondreams
@ArchTeryx: I want to get into that show as a lighter follow up to Arcane. I caught one episode on a streamer preview that I think had Adam (of Adam and Eve) as just this pure douche angel type? Looks interesting.
prostratedragon
@noncarborundum: Good stuff. But could be harder to find, though I have found it in the city.
grumbles
An analogy occurred to me, reading Cole’s second-to-last paragraph.
When ideologically-poisoned assholes attacked us on 9/11, one of the things that happened afterwards was, we learned how to deal with hijackings, at least with a few folks with knives – bum-rush the shitheads. This became a talked-about Thing. And that plus cockpit door security means at least that tactic doesn’t work anymore.
One of the things we learned after WWII is that, during the fascist takeover, there were missed opportunities for action that would have made a difference. I’m hoping enough folks are starting to think about what they’ll do, given an opportunity.
different-church-lady
@grumbles:
It looks like, given the opportunity, enough folks will vote for the fascists.
ArchTeryx
@Bostondreams: Yep. Adam is the big bad, and he is a genocidal douchebag. He’s mostly running the show because of a vacuum of leadership in Heaven, but not everyone’s on board his kill ’em all agenda, even in Heaven.
MagdaInBlack
@ArchTeryx: Just watched a bit of the first one, “Overture.” I think I’ve just found something new to watch on prime Thank You !
P.s: I’ve always liked A24 movies.
Jay
@PaulWartenberg:
Dolt 47 is not going to declare war on Canada.
While the US is #1 on the Military Power Index.
Canada is #21.
ruZzia was #2 and has been seriously fucked over by Ukraine, who were #25.
Short educational video.
youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=ktSPMzKqVPo&t=54s
Leto
@TaMara: Here you go: Office of Strategic Services: Simple Sabotage Field Manual
Thor Heyerdahl
I was thinking today about the situations that piss Trump off the most is when he is not the centre of attention either from abusive insulting actions – or a weak response from the target. Donald only sees things as winning or losing.
Given ongoing NFL playoffs, I thought about the football watching public – and the majority of the replay highlights that people watch are either of an offensive drive, or a game changing defensive play (e.g. an interception or fumble recovery).
It is imperative to push the offense every day – over and over. Make Donald play defense by needing to respond rather than the initiating.
Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde played offense with her commentary. She drove the conversation – and pissed Trump off.
AOC (for example) appears to get this. She knows what she needs to do to be on offense move the ball of public opinion forward. Playing offense gets the public to see replays of her taking action. Too often Democrats are playing an unorganized defense – and both Trump and the media expect it and take glee in it.
Situations like the Inspectors General are from a defensive position, but they have intercepted the conversation and now have possession.
wombat probability cloud
@Jay: Please retain “Mother Superior,” though. It will take on a new meaning.
Old Dan and Little Ann
@TheOtherHank: I’ve also been watching my daughter play soccer for about 5 years. I’ve never offered her coaches other than encouragement over the years even though I had more to offer. Lol…
Thor Heyerdahl
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Canada will give Trump the diplomatic equivalent of a Larry Robinson bodycheck
brendancalling sivr
Apropos of nothing but an open thread, my country band finally recorded some songs. We laid down drums and upright bass for five tunes—2 covers, 3 originals—with guitars and steel to follow next week. I’m really excited about this. Meanwhile, the pop band I play on releases our next single this Friday! Very excited!
Also too, fuck Trump.
Princess
@PaulWartenberg: if Trump declares war on Canada, nice Americans will do what nice Russians did when Russia attacked Ukraine.
Id be grateful to be proven wrong.
Jay
@Princess:
Aside from tariff’s, Canada’s real fear is waves of refugee’s from the US, flooding into Canada.
prostratedragon
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
There might be a free market solution in the offing there:
brendancalling sivr
@Michael Bersin: that’s a magnificent piece of writing.
Ksmiami
@Parfigliano: hard agree. To the dustbin of history. Biden’s worst hire.
Dan B
@Jay: I’ve seriously considered showing up at your doorstep in Vancouver (Burnaby?) because I don’t know what Project 2025 will do to gay men after they’re done with trans people. American Christianists want us gone. They’re not saying it out loud but eliminating all DEI and coverage of LGBTQ stories in every aspect of government is not reassuring. It follows Hitler’s playbook.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@brendancalling sivr:
That’s great. Good luck. (Longtime ‘hobby musician’ and writer for an edrum magazine for years, also did an album back in 2006).
Where are you based out of?
Jay
@Dan B:
Burquitlam. short walk from the Skytrain Station, just give me a heads up if you are coming
Canada can barely handle, but we will try, 5 million US refugees.
We can’t handle the possible 100,000,000 plus.
brendancalling
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Philly!
Joelle
@John S.: I looooovve Midsommar and everything Flo!
ArchTeryx
@Jay: I don’t think there’ll be near that many, but you may end up with a whole lot of LBGTQ+ people fleeing the U.S. until the madness passes. If they start going after disabled people like me, though, Katie bar the door. It’s going to get ugly.
TS
@tobie:
My part of the world they now charge a “daily rate” – started when too many people were using solar & just on the grid for backup (well according to the power companies). So if you want to be on the grid you pay “x per day” plus the usage charges. For a single person, “x per day” is way more than the usage charge. They spun it as paying for line installation/maintenance.
Eric S.
@tobie: 25 year utility man here. For all the investor owned, regulated utilities I’ve known a customer bill typically has 3 major components. A “Fixed” or “Customer” charge. This is the base fee for having service. A consumption charge for the energy used. In every case I know of this is a straight pass through. The utility charges the customer the same amount as they paid to buy the energy. The third is the distribution charge. This is volumetric. The fixed charge and the distribution charge is what the utility uses to run the business, maintain the system, pay their employees and make a profit. Utilities petition state regulators to set those two amounts.
Redshift
@Michael Bersin: Youngkin set up a similar snitch email here in VA for prior to report teachers for critical race theory. People flooded it with emails praising their teachers, it was reported, though I suspect there were plenty of less polite submissions. It was shut down a year later without any results ever being released.
Jay
@ArchTeryx:
Canada is projecting, given Project 2025 and the nullification of the 14th, over 100,000,000 will try, and most will be officially “stateless”.
Mexico is predicting 50,000,000.
We can strain our selves to the brink to take in 5,000,000 at best.
Mexico, less than 1,000,000.
And they won’t be “immigrants”, but instead, refugees in camps, like the Palestinians.
Gloria DryGarden
@JoyceH: I wouldn’t have known what A24 was either, except I just watched one on my library streaming, Kanopy. Seems to be a supplier or production company.
I loved the movie so much I watched it twice: “Past Lives,” in Korean and English with subtitles. Excellent acting. A boy and a girl, old school friends in Korea, reconnect 12 and 24 years later, after she immigrated to North America, and explore what they meant and might have meant to each other. Beautiful filming.
Not an action movie, nor a political exploration, nor a romance, just personal relationship stuff, not too deep, slow and gentle, about connection, having space with each other.
Right now people connecting with each other, or reclaiming lost connections, is a nourishing theme.
ymmv
Princess
@ArchTeryx: people with US citizenship, ie LBGTQ people will not be accepted as refugees and should not count on Canada as a place to escape to.
Betty
@Old Dan and Little Ann: Every little league, middle school and high school coach has to deal with parents like this. That can make it hard to find people who want to the job.
Pittsburgh Mike
Good approaches — stall, create study groups, wait for new budgetary authority, agree to do something and then don’t do it.
Reminds me of why nearly all Italian Jews survived until Mussolini was deposed and Germany invaded Italy (and most did afterwards, as well). Every time Mussolini met with Hitler, Hitler asked M. to deport Italy’s Jews. He’d agree and then ask his generals to do it. And they’d point out that the trains that would be used were busy right now moving material and troops around, but just wait until that’s done, and *we’ll get right on it*.
I’ve seen this approach IRL in a startup I worked at. We were working on something that clearly was going to be too expensive to sell. I’d bring this up, and the guy in charge of building it would say he just needed another week to ‘sharpen the pencil’ and get a better price estimate, even though the price was never going to be competitive. Think of proposing to sell ice cream cones for $1000 each — if you’re trying to figure out whether it is $995 or $1100, you’re missing the point.
Anyway, these schemes can be very effective.
Matt McIrvin
@Michael Bersin: How can we do this to them when they’re busy doing it to themselves?
Michael Bersin
@Redshift:
RSMo § 610 – the “Missouri Sunshine Law” – open public records. The law is “liberally construed” by statute – that is, when in doubt, it’s a public record. I made a request for the submitted emails and eventually received thousands in four electronic files. One of the files wouldn’t open, but there was plenty of content in the others.
One poor schlub “turned” in his employer (a school district), asking in his email to keep his report anonymous. There is no provision in the statute to do so. His name and email address were provided in response to the request. At Show Me Progress we don’t dox, so we blacked out all names and email addresses in our published posts.
While there was a substantial number of mocking reports submitted to the snitch email address, the sobering reality was in the large number of Americans who quickly, easily, and in many cases, viciously, “turned in” teachers, schools, and school districts.
There are plenty of “Good Germans” in 21st Century America. Don’t ever forget that fact.
It can happen here. It happens here.
Miss Bianca
Oh, JC. Never, ever change.
I had to search “A24 movie”, as I had no idea what that meant. That said, after searching I’m still unclear on the concept. A24 is a streaming channel, I guess?
ETA: Never hurts to read the comments first, sometimes your questions get answered…
dstraws
@Michael Bersin:
Thank you for this reference. I look forward to implementing as many I can.
BruceFromOhio
Always tell the neighbors when there is big ass party. Easier to deal with issues without the cops.
WTFGhost
One thing to be aware of: Project 2025 might have semi-sorta-inside-voice decided to push the SCROTUS (Supreme Court Republican OTUS) to decree the Unitary Executive is the law of the land, and no law can constrain the President bee-yotches (is “bee-yotches” still a thing? Probably not…).
It’s crazy how the SCROTUS has already decided we need a muscular, active, law-ignoring Presidency when we haven’t for 240+ years, but hey, the right wing media has been driving a popular narrative, “Trump needs to be able to lie, cheat, steal, *and* murder, to be President,” which, if you think about it, really shouldn’t be popular.
WTFGhost
@different-church-lady: Winding them down *might* – I can’t render an opinion – have been a defensive measure. I recall hearing it said that some actions were taken to avoid seeking an outright dismissal with prejudice, which the Trump DOJ would do, under orders.
Similarly, a lot of could-have-been regs were destroyed, because leaving the nearly-done regulations would have allowed a search-and-replace to do the opposite.
Always remember: if Republicans had remembered their oath to see impartial justice done during either of Trump’s impeachments, he’d be *gone*. Be careful blaming anyone but the entire power structure (from the lowliest shit-poster to every Russian secretly running RPUSA) that said “Trump is as innocent as a newborn babe!”