Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

Second rate reporter says what?

Jesus watching the most hateful people claiming to be his followers

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

Live so that if you miss a day of work people aren’t hoping you’re dead.

Republicans firmly believe having an abortion is a very personal, very private decision between a woman and J.D. Vance.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

Quote tweet friends, screenshot enemies.

We know you aren’t a Democrat but since you seem confused let me help you.

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

There is no compromise when it comes to body autonomy. You either have it or you do not.

’Where will you hide, Roberts, the laws all being flat?’

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

Compromise? There is no middle ground between a firefighter and an arsonist.

Never give a known liar the benefit of the doubt.

Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls 2 years from now.

Fear or fury? The choice is ours.

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

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Overnight Open Thread: A Simple Kindness

Overnight Open Thread: A Simple Kindness

by | 62 Comments

This post is in: 

Hello! I’m your cruise director, Julie McCoy*…

It looks like we could use someone to do a few overnight fill-in posts while Anne Laurie continues to be on the mend. So, I volunteered to add a post before I sign off for the night. Being in the Mountain time zone, it should help the overnight folks have a place to chat.

Mine will be squishable and lighthearted.

 

If you’re good, I might share some pet pics in subsequent posts.

This is a wide-open thread…

 

*and if you get that reference, you are officially old

Reader Interactions

62Comments

  1. 1.

    Quiltingfool

    Say, Tamara, I’ve just about finished a little project for you!  Maybe by Saturday?

    I’ll send you an email with a photo.

    Working on it has been stress relief for me.  Boy, howdy, we ALL need some stress relief, amirite?

  2. 2.

    H.E.Wolf

    Thank you for this endorphin boost! Much appreciated… on so many levels.

    “Joy is a fine act of insurrection.” – Rebecca Solnit

  4. 4.

    Steve in the ATL

    I used to use a court reporter named Julie McCoy. I imagine that the jokes got old faster than Gopher struck out with Barbi Benton.

  9. 9.

    cain

    Love…exciting and new. Join aboard, we’re expecting you… [fill in whatever you want here]

  10. 10.

    NotMax

    Thing I learned recently.

    The luxury ocean liner Queen Mary did not have a laundry on board. An extra day in port at the destination when crossing the Atlantic was scheduled in order to move mounds of dirty laundry off the ship, to be cleaned at a commercial establishment and returned to the ship. The area where soiled laundry was stowed during the crossing must have been quite, um, aromatic upon arrival.

    Unclear from the source where I encountered this nugget of trivia whether or not the same situation also applied to the original Queen Elizabeth liner, but the odds tilt toward presuming yes.

  12. 12.

    Martin

    Looks like a number of US companies have halted textile imports due to tariffs. Wonder what we won’t be able to buy next month.

  13. 13.

    eclare

    I get the reference!  I’ll be Doc.  That plus Fantasy Island was Saturday night tv gold.

  14. 14.

    Ten Bears

    Those tear-jerkers are kinda’ hard to handle first thing in the morning

    She was a cutie (are we allowed to say that?), a kool aide …

  15. 15.

    Ten Bears

    Those tear-jerkers are kinda’ hard to handle first thing in the morning

    She was a cutie (are we allowed to say that?), a kool aide …

  16. 16.

    NotMax

    The name by itself says nothing to this wizened guy. Take it from the comments it is a reference to The Love Boat, a program which I’ve never had an iota of interest in watching.
    ;)

  18. 18.

    WhatsMyNym

    Saw a Japanese roll-on/roll-off passing Port Townsend on it’s way to Tacoma to unload this afternoon. So it looks like autos are still coming here.

  21. 21.

    Bruce K in ATH-GR

    @NotMax: I know there’s been at least one sinking of a Greek island Ro-Ro ferry directly attributable to shifting vehicles on the garage deck. The Chryssi Avgi (translated as “Golden Dawn”, not to be confused with the now-illegal neo-Nazi party of the same name) went into stormy weather, the fuel trucks in its garage shifted, collided, and caught fire, and of 42 souls aboard, only 14 were saved.

    I distinctly remember taking an island-hopping trip aboard that ferry; it must have been either the previous summer or the year before.

    They’re probably the most common type of ship going among the Greek islands, they carry up to a thousand passengers apiece for the larger ones, and mishaps can threaten a lot of lives.

  22. 22.

    Origuy

    @NotMax: That reminded me of touring the USS Midway, now a museum in San Diego Harbor. The laundry was enormous. Of course, the whole ship is, but the laundry and the kitchens show you the scale of the ship that you can’t grasp just by looking at it.

  23. 23.

    prostratedragon

    @NotMax:  My father mentioned learning that the phrase “loose cannon” was testimony when being transported with his unit to Japan in summer 1945. Something down in the hold was rolling as regularly as a pendulum. There was an understanding that one did not speak of it.

  25. 25.

    YY_Sima Qian

    FFS, 3 weeks left in his final semester, after going to the US in 2016 for high school:

    Carnegie Mellon student with one semester left learns his visa was revoked with no explanation
    By Erika Stanish
    Updated on: April 10, 2025 / 8:40 AM EDT / CBS Pittsburgh

    Apparently, the justification was a DUI in 2023, which had already been expunged from record after the student took ARD.

    A PRC citizen in this particular case, but 7 current student or recent graduates at CMU have had their visas revoked, including at least one Indian citizen.

  27. 27.

    Rusty

    This year I turn 60.  Up to now I could still claim middle aged since I was just “in my fifties”.  Soon I will just be old.  I’ve got a few friends that are retiring at this age, but I’ve got a long while to go for that, four kids, one each still in high-school,  college and grad school, (plus I’m back in school at night) so I need the regular paycheck.  Don’t mind, it’s been a good life.

  28. 28.

    p.a.

    Worked in a hospital laundry 2 or 3 summers in high school.  2nd floor underground, the washroom itself was nasty.  No a/c, just big fans, the guy who ran it, still remember, named Kenny, would lose 10-12 lbs per day, changed up his sweat soaked scrubs 3-4 x a day.

  29. 29.

    ColoradoGuy

    @YY_Sima Qian: Xenophobia running rampant through the MAGA/Musk hordes.

    Sigh. I guess this is a side of America the world needs to see … the Confederate side. Xenophobic, racist through and through, and deeply anti-intellectual.

    And with the GOP the way it is, even after T**** leaves, the USA can no longer be trusted to keep its word. No more brave talk of “the shining city on the hill”. The GOP/Confederates have made the whole country into a corrupt small town in 1950’s Mississippi.

  31. 31.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @YY_Sima Qian:  The Trump Admin gave quotas every month for ICE to deport  and turns out actual illegal immigrants aren’t that easy to find without the cooperation of the locals.  Legal immigrants are much easier to locate.

    So a bit of sample of 1930s Soviet Union Red Terror going there.

  32. 32.

    Baud

    Trump confused H.R. McMaster with South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster and talked to him on the phone for over 20 fucking minutes before realizing he was talking to the wrong guy… and this is the guy with his finger on the “nuke button”

  35. 35.

    MagdaInBlack

    Apropos of nuthin, but: yesterday I learned that Cook County Forest Preserves ( Chicago area) have frog monitors. These are volunteers that keep track of the frogs waking up in the spring, what ones, and how many. They can identify the sounds of different frogs, which I thought was cool.

    So of course I thought of Ozark and spring peepers.

    And now I want to be a frog whisperer.

    Good Morning !

  36. 36.

    Soprano2

    @YY_Sima Qian: i think they’re sending a message – “Foreign students, don’t come here.” I bet colleges everywhere are freaking out over this.

  38. 38.

    Jackie

    In keeping with cruising…

    “All of the full-time employees in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Vessel Sanitation Program are now off the job, gutting the agency’s ability to investigate outbreaks and conduct health inspections on cruise ships,” CBS News reports.

    “The steep cuts to the program’s inspectors baffled CDC officials since the small team’s staff is not paid for by taxpayer dollars. Fees from cruise ships companies pay for the program, which is supposed to inspect large vessels at least twice a year.”

    *snip*

    This year there have been 12 outbreaks of gastrointestinal illness on cruises calling on U.S. ports. Ten of these outbreaks were caused by the very contagious norovirus. Last year (2024), there were 16 gastrointestinal (GI) outbreaks on cruise ships. In 2023, there was a total of 14 cruise outbreaks. At the current rate, on an annualized basis there will be 48 GI cruise ship outbreaks if the cruise sicknesses continue at this record rate.

  41. 41.

    Princess

    @YY_Sima Qian: According to NBC, DHS is combing through 1.5 million international student visas, looking for reasons to deport. This, and the fact no new students will apply, is going to kill the universities and colleges of the US. They float on international students paying full fees. Once these colleges and universities are gone, they won’t come back. And no one (by which I mean my former colleagues in academia) seems to care.

  43. 43.

    Scout211

    @Baud:

    Sununu: No young person thinks retirement should be in their mid 60s

    All people in their mid-60s wished retirement had been in their mid-50s.

  44. 44.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Princess:

    According to NBC, DHS is combing through 1.5 million international student visas, looking for reasons to deport. This, and the fact no new students will apply, is going to kill the universities and colleges of the US. They float on international students paying full fees. Once these colleges and universities are gone, they won’t come back. And no one (by which I mean my former colleagues in academia) seems to care.

    This is looking like our version of Pol Pot.

  45. 45.

    Gvg

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: I don’t think there actually were ever that many illegal immigrants. I think they were working with made up paranoid numbers and pandering to the innumerate racist voters with exaggerated numbers. Now the elected leaders have been brought up on this bullshit and believe it, so they are attempting to fulfill the promises they made.

    They are also so racist, they really think all immigration is really illegal. I don’t follow the reasoning if there is any, but that was really what these bastards meant. That is why any minority or immigrant that votes for them is a fool voting for their own slaughter.

  46. 46.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Scout211:

    All people in their mid-60s wished retirement had been in their mid-50s.

    My FIL worked a number of blue-collar occupations, but mostly he was an electrician working on refrigeration equipment, which involved a lot of crawling into tight spaces to get to the things he actually needed to work on.  His body was breaking down in his late 50s; he couldn’t have kept working past 62.

    Fuck these fucking assholes.

  47. 47.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @Baud: For full benefits, Sununu, that would be 67.

    ETA: And btw, lots of young people think retirement should begin in their early 60s or sooner. Just ask my son who turns 49 this weekend.

  48. 48.

    Jackie

    Yah right. And I have a bridge to sell you…

    “President Donald Trump suggested at a Cabinet meeting Thursday that undocumented people working on farms and in hotels would be allowed to leave the country and return as legal workers if their employers vouched for them,” NBC News reports.

    Trump said at the meeting with reporters present that “we have to take care of our farmers, the hotels and, you know, the various places where they tend to, where they tend to need people.”

    Said Trump: “So a farmer will come in with a letter concerning certain people, saying they’re great, they’re working hard. We’re going to slow it down a little bit for them, and then we’re going to ultimately bring them back. They’ll go out. They’re going to come back as legal workers.”

  49. 49.

    YY_Sima Qian

    The tariff evasion/avoidance, the pass-through trade, the fraud, & the smuggling has already started!

    China’s formidable logistics sector challenges Trump tariff enforcers
    One-stop services help merchants sidestep duties, including by undervaluing goods
    STELLA YIFAN XIE and PAK YIU
    April 11, 2025 06:00 JST

    Round of applause for the agile entrepreneurs in the PRC & the broader Asia!
    This is a good thing, it will help mitigate the inflation & shortages caused by the embargo on PRC imports (because that is what a 100+% tariff is in essence). Unfortunately, such channels probably work better on consumer goods than capital equipment, industrial inputs or intermediaries, & they can only operate at smaller scales that do not attract the attention of US Customs. So, inflation & shortages will still come. This is like an artificially instigated COVID-19 shock of early 2020.
    The grey/black market activity will itself create opportunities for all kinds of ugly. Some US importers will lose their shirts being cheated by the unscrupulous operators.

  51. 51.

    YY_Sima Qian

    @Soprano2: White Herrenvolk ethno-nationalism, but apparently targeting all foreigners regardless of origin, so w/ a side of nativism.

  52. 52.

    lowtechcyclist

    @YY_Sima Qian:

    Nope, and they probably wouldn’t care anyway. They just want to tear it all down.

    ETA: Unless you meant the university administrators, who surely do. But you can see that Trump won’t listen to them.

  53. 53.

    YY_Sima Qian

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: In the late ’10s, the local Public Security Bureaus in Xinjiang were apparently given quotas of members of the Turkic minorities to arrest & send to the detention camps for “de-radicalization”, generated by big data & “AI”.

    During times of tight fiscal conditions, police departments around the world are given targets for the number of tickets to issue.

    A common pathology of the Kafkaesque bureaucracies, multiplied by the sociopaths that often populate such bureaucracies.

  54. 54.

    YY_Sima Qian

    @lowtechcyclist: I meant the college/university admins. I know the MAGA reactionary counterrevolutionaries care very much, this is deliberate on their part.

  56. 56.

    YY_Sima Qian

    @ColoradoGuy: The US has to be rebuilt from the ashes, but also an opportunity to do better.

    A couple of weeks ago, I commented that I was more confident that MAGA will be defeated, 2 months into the Trump 47 term, than at the beginning. The reactionary counterrevolutionaries were/are making too many enemies too quickly, causing too much disruption & creating too many immediate losers, rather than slowly & steadily subverting liberal democracy (a la Orban or Modi). I still believe that, but after the events of this week I am even more pessimistic about the state of the US at the time of their defeat.

    The accelerationism of the reactionaries is mind boggling.

  58. 58.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Denali5:

    You are not old until you turn 75.

    I turned 71 last month, and I’m not old.  (ETA: I’ve just lived a long time, that’s all.) I bet I still won’t be old at 75.

    I’m sure I’ll get old eventually.  I’m thinking maybe 90.

  59. 59.

    Matt McIrvin

    @YY_Sima Qian: I was heartened by the moneybags guys starting to turn against Trump when his stupidity actually tanked the markets… then depressed by how rapidly some of them flipped back to calling him a strategic supergenius when he backed partway down and the market partway recovered.

    No, Bill Ackman, the person he’s playing is you. (The notion of Ackman being some kind of brilliant thinker has to die. I guess the idea of vibe coding has caused him to run on vibe politics.)

  60. 60.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Gvg:

    They are also so racist, they really think all immigration is really illegal. I don’t follow the reasoning if there is any, but that was really what these bastards meant. That is why any minority or immigrant that votes for them is a fool voting for their own slaughter.

    To Donald Trump, his word is law and “illegal” means anything he doesn’t like. He uses the same word talking about protests. It’s an illegal protest if it’s against him.

    To the Archie Bunkers of the world, anyone they hear speaking Spanish in public is an “illegal” and that’s been true as long as I can remember.

  62. 62.

    George Kennan Was Right

    Not only do I get the reference, I was in theatre classes with Lauren (née Cindy) Tewes in college. She is as charming in person as she is on stage and television.

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