Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

They don’t have outfits that big. nor codpieces that small.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

Not all heroes wear capes.

Museums are not America’s attic for its racist shit.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

Disappointing to see gov. newsom with his finger to the wind.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

Everybody saw this coming.

“Perhaps I should have considered other options.” (head-desk)

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

I like political parties that aren’t owned by foreign adversaries.

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

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

Human rights are not a matter of opinion!

Every decision we make has lots of baggage with it, known or unknown.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. keep building.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

The fight for our country is always worth it. ~Kamala Harris

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

You are here: Home / John Cole Presents "This Fucking Old House" / Hell is Any Mandated Workshop with the Word “Collaborative” in the Title

Reader Interactions

164Comments

  2. 2.

    Old Dan and Little Ann

    My better half is chained in a cold room in Salt Lake City grading AP exams all week.

  3. 3.

    Josie

    I have always been an introvert in addition to having a bit of a problem with authority. So you are on target in describing a required workshop that forces one to collaborate with others. It is a form of torture. We used to have these at the beginning of every school year (public school librarian here). Longest week of my life–every year.

  4. 4.

    JustRuss

    Our division had a big end-of-year awards and feel-good 4-hour event a couple weeks ago. Came back from vacation today to learn our department is doing their own version this afternoon.  Shoot me now

    Edit: I see we’re hiring a new director for our Collaborative Innovation Complex.  I had no idea it existed or what it even is.  Shoot me again.

  6. 6.

    Leto

    @Old Dan and Little Ann: ​ my dad did that for a decade, first in San Antonio and then in Trenton, NJ, for AP history exams. I think he enjoyed SA more than Trenton, but he was always happy to be home.

  8. 8.

    Old Dan and Little Ann

    @Leto: Nice.  Next year they are switching to Cincinnati.  No comment. She joined a group of people to visit the Great Salt Flats the other night. Then she made the driver who needed gas get it in Nevada so she could check that off her State visited list. LOL

  12. 12.

    Kelly

    I’m very good help collaborating with others working on real tasks. I’m terrible collaborating with others on made up training scenarios.

  14. 14.

    Gretchen

    @tam1MI: Tapper’s book sold 53,000 copies during the first week. For comparison Bob Woodward’s sold 1.1 million the first week.

  16. 16.

    Redactor

    @Avalune: In my day this was called a  “morale event,” and people went to extraordinary lengths to avoid attending

  17. 17.

    zhena gogolia

    And contrary to current pedagogical wisdom, I don’t inflict this on my students either.

  20. 20.

    suzanne

    “Collaborative” is number one on my list of words that no longer mean anything. See also: “integration”, “literally”, “innovation”.

  21. 21.

    bbleh

    @tam1MI: LOL that makes my day!  Thank you!

    As to Required Team-Building Exercises, IIRC in the days of the Soviet Union the term “iron butt” (or whatever it is in Russian) referred to someone with the ability to sit stoically through uncounted hours of meetings and lectures and whatever without ever losing his/her sh!t.  I am not so endowed

    @zhena gogolia: whenever I heard that, I couldn’t help but think of acne eruptions.

  22. 22.

    suzanne

    @tam1MI: Liberals are the main audience for political books! Certainly newspapers. I don’t know what Tapper was thinking.

    (I know what he was thinking.)

  30. 30.

    Old Man Shadow

    Meetings: Because you know what you did in a past life to deserve this.

  32. 32.

    suzanne

    In another example of a Total Failure to Read the Room, I just read that Target’s customer woes continue since it backed off its DEI efforts.

    Silly rabbits. Alienating their core customers.

  33. 33.

    Ohio Mom

    @Old Dan and Little Ann: Hey! Cincinnati has a few pluses. If she opts to come here, let me know, we’ll have a welcoming party for her.

    P.S. We are across the river from Kentucky if she needs to check the Bluegrass state off her list. And not far from Indiana, either.

  34. 34.

    Ohio Mom

    @Gretchen: I wonder how many sales were from public libraries which are basically guessing what will be popular, they are probably agnostic on most of the books they order.

    ETA: I see Suzanne got here first.

  36. 36.

    piratedan

    nice to see the collaborative effort made to reject Tapper’s hit job,  now if there were only some ethics in media journalism that could be applied short of simply not watching him.

  39. 39.

    Old School

    Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered the Navy to take the rare step of renaming a ship, one that bears the name of a gay rights icon, documents and sources show.

    Military.com reviewed a memorandum from the Office of the Secretary of the Navy — the official who holds the power to name Navy ships — that showed the sea service had come up with rollout plans for the renaming of the oiler ship USNS Harvey Milk.

  40. 40.

    Hoodie

    @cmorenc: Stewart at TDS had a bit on this, showing the desperation of CNN and right wing media to flog this as the coverup of the century but, as Stewart jokes, it was a pretty ineffective coverup.  Just as silly as the conspiracy theory of killing Joe Biden and replacing him with a robot clone that wasn’t any more effective than Joe Biden.  Tapper is like a guy trying to sell a container full of knock off Beanie Babies after the craze had passed.

  41. 41.

    Elizabelle

    @satby:  Tapper should just go sit his ass on a Fox News couch or chair and be done with it.  Ugly ass partisan.

    WRT libraries buying Tapper’s books:  if and when I see that thing in mine, I will reposition it  to somewhere in the Fiction aisles.

    And we don’t know how many of the books will eventually be returned to the publisher.

  42. 42.

    Ohio Mom

    @suzanne: I am waiting for the day we find out Walmart was behind the Target boycott.

    @Old Man Shadow: I think you would like the Weird Al song/video, Mission Statement. Lots of references to synergy. But I can’t seem to make working link!

  43. 43.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @bbleh: Just FTR in chess history the equivalent to “iron butt” was Sit​zfleisch – and it vanished from the lexicon with the invention of the chess clock and its widespread use in imposing N-moves-in-M-minutes time controls. Adjournments after limited playing sessions (customarily 5 hours) in tournament games also helped, until they (along with unmonitored “bathroom breaks”) went the way of the dodo with the advent of superhuman chess engines and cellphone-mediated cheating…o tempura o morays /tmi

  44. 44.

    Elizabelle

    Drama.  Hearing thunder cracking at Big Bear Lake, via the Eagle cam. Sky is darkening, and Sunny and Gizmo are calmly chilling in their nest.  The sisters are grooming themselves, and waiting.

    Another roar of thunder.  Wind not kicking up yet.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4-L2nfGcuE

  46. 46.

    Ohio Mom

    Maybe this ink will work?
    https://www.google.com/search?q=weird+al+mission+statement+video&client=safari&sca_esv=b42e03ff43b61ad3&hl=en-us&udm=7&biw=326&bih=478&ei=LFY_aJjXD56q5NoPw8PMiQI&oq=weird+al+misdion+statement+video&gs_lp=Ehltb2JpbGUtZ3dzLW1vZGVsZXNzLXZpZGVvIiB3ZWlyZCBhbCBtaXNkaW9uIHN0YXRlbWVudCB2aWRlbyoCCAAyCRAAGLADGA0YHjIIEAAYsAMY7wUyCBAAGLADGO8FMggQABiwAxjvBTILEAAYgAQYsAMYogRI4WhQrg5Y9jpwBHgAkAEBmAFooAGNCaoBBDEyLjK4AQHIAQD4AQGYAhGgAr8JwgIIECEYoAEYwwTCAgUQABjvBcICCBAAGIAEGKIEwgIGEAAYBxgewgIIEAAYBxgIGB7CAgcQABiwAxgewgIJEAAYsAMYCBgemAMA4gMFEgExIECIBgGQBgWSBwQxNS4yoAfxPrIHBDExLjK4B6IJwgcGMC4yLjE1yAdC&sclient=mobile-gws-modeless-video

    yes, it does!

  47. 47.

    Hoodie

    @Elizabelle: I’d say that Tapper is more a self-important clown than a partisan, but that’s pretty standard for media personalities these days.  They’re mostly just celebrities and star fuckers.

  49. 49.

    Old School

    @Old School:

    Related:

    The documents obtained by CBS News also show other vessels named after prominent leaders are also on the Navy’s renaming “recommended list.”

    Among them are the USNS Thurgood Marshall, USNS Ruth Bader Ginsburg, USNS Harriet Tubman, USNS Dolores Huerta, USNS Lucy Stone, USNS Cesar Chavez and USNS Medgar Evers.

  50. 50.

    Jackie


    THIS:

    In its continued attempt to erase diversity, equity, and inclusion from U.S. history, the Trump administration is planning to rename several navy ships currently titled for civil rights leaders like Harvey Milk, Thurgood Marshall and Harriet Tubman, among others, CBS News reported.

    The first ship to be renamed, according to documents reviewed by CBS, is the USNS Harvey Milk, which honors the navy veteran and the first openly gay politician in California’s history. Milk was assassinated while serving on San Francisco’s board of supervisors in 1978 and became an LBGTQ icon.

    The proposed timeline for renaming the ship comes during Pride Month, “the monthlong observance of the LGBTQ+ community that also coincides with the anniversary of the Stonewall uprising of 1969.”

    Also on the Navy’s renaming “recommended list” are the USNS Thurgood Marshall, USNS Ruth Bader Ginsburg, USNS Harriet Tubman, USNS Dolores Huerta, USNS Lucy Stone, USNS Cesar Chavez and USNS Medgar Evers.

    I keep telling myself I’m not surprised, because I’m NOT, but I still find myself stunned at how much hatred and cruelty one man can hold in his chest – because there is no heart in the cavity where a heart would be.

    Beat by Old School.

  55. 55.

    Jay

    When I worked in Tech, (late 80’s, 90’s) we had a “Social” every Friday. Attendance was not mandatory.

    Free booze and pizza.

    In the early days, the HR/Software/Engineering/MGMT/IT and Accounting were all in Airport Square, in Vancouver.

    Production, (Purchasing, QA, Stores, Shipping, Receiving and assembly) were all at #5 Road in Richmond, about 15km away, across the river.

    So, “socials” alternated, one Friday at Airport Square, next Friday at #5 Road.

    Other than the Social Committee, (mostly HR Staff), we never mingled in the early days, which was kinda a sad.

    At Production, well, you have not really lived until you have played a drunken game of office chair hockey on a plant floor, or “rocket war”.

    (Paper “rockets”, a foam tip, paper tube, paper fins, launched via office supply woven rubber bands, one side at the start of the production line, the other on the far other side in receiving).

    Later, the Corp was doing well enough to build it’s own place. Getting it up and running was intense, and social were cancelled for a while, mostly because almost all of us were working 16 hour days and parts of the weekend.

    Once we all had moved, and had things running, we had a “Grand Opening”, with assorted “dignitaries”. That was f/n epic. Some couple, (I know who they were), “christened” the bed in the First Aid room. I was on one of the balcony’s giving chaste back massages to all the women in HR/Sales/Marketing/Software and a couple of guys. A bunch of the Production people, (including me),  and some IT people, played a pick up game of Australian Rules Footie on the plant floor with a packing foam/duct tape ball. Yes, with Office chairs.

    Being mostly sober, I got tagged by Alice, the Social Committee Chair, to drive a bunch of the black out Drunks home. I drove to Langley, Maple Ridge, Coquitlam, Vancouver, dropping off people, carrying them to their front doors. My ex was supposed to attend, but she begged out. You know, kinda like you go to your spouses Christmas Party, even though you know you will be making small talk with strangers and it won’t be “fun”.

    So, one of the people I was asked to transport, well, I couldn’t get into her building. There was a keypad security code, which I did not have. So I took her home, carried her from the car to the couch.

    The ex was not impressed, (kill joy) but I got quite a few baskets of muffins for staying semi-sober.

    Just telling a story.

  56. 56.

    Elizabelle

    @Hoodie:  They’re the mean kids, not the nerds.

    I hate Jake Tapper.  I hope his penis falls off.

    The nerve of excoriating Biden, when you have Trump — who has exponentially more of any mental aging and deterioration that Biden is being accused of (and never had the decency or concern for democracy and improving the lives of Americans that is Biden’s makeup).  Trump is a liar, a swindler, convicted felon, a sex pest, a fascist, Putin’s puppet, and intends to implement Project 2025 ….  and all these press corpse douches are out masturbating over Tapper’s expose of Biden’s lapses.

    Fuck them all.  I don’t read anything by them any more.  They are clowns.

  57. 57.

    Elizabelle

    @Jackie:  What garbage.

    I think people (men, I guess) should put up stickers on every urinal they find:

    USS Hegseth

    USS Trump stickers can go on the commode.

  61. 61.

    Jay

    @Jackie:

    Sailors lore, is that you never rename a ship, it’s asking for disaster.

    If you have to, well the ceremony is complex and might not work.

  62. 62.

    tam1MI

    @Gretchen: Tapper’s book sold 53,000 copies during the first week. For comparison Bob Woodward’s sold 1.1 million the first week.

    I don’t have the link right handy, but I saw on a ratings tracking website that CNN’s ratings nosedived even further during the period they were desperately flogging Tapper’s ludicrous conspiracy theory book. Of the Big Three 24 hour news stations, they now sit dead last. Thanks, Jake!

  66. 66.

    Jackie

    @Jay: Question is, disaster for whom? The innocent commanded to do the dirty deed, or the commander who ordered it?

  68. 68.

    Baud

    Rejection of Tapper may be the most uplifting news I’ve seen since the election.

  70. 70.

    worn

    Sweet Jesus, John, get the fuck out of my head. I only wish I was better at keeping the internal revolts from manifesting externally. My luck with that varies wildly, more often than not in a non-advantageous way.

    This particular aspect of my personality – a strong will coupled with introversion – is probably the most challenging thing I have to deal with in terms of maintaining my personal relationships, doubly so if they’re romantic in nature.

    It is all the more poignant for me at the very point in time for last weekend while in up in the San Juans for the holiday weekend with my gal, I had a seizure. That was a completely new experience for me.

    The seizure arrived minus any physiological warning that I could sense, although the 2 dogs that were also in the wine bar where we had stopped for lunch did perceive something, for they both ran up up and started barking at me just before the tonic clonic brain glitch took me out (I have no recollection of this, however).

    So at the moment I’ve been asked by my doctor not to drive (*) nor to consume alcohol or cannabis until there is a better idea of what’s going on. All tests done to date show me completely healthy with nothing out of whack. MRI is scheduled for 5 weeks from now and a consult with a neurologist in August. In the meantime, my independence as well as my summer plans just got completely washed away. It’s limbo for the time being. This, plus a prescription that that dulls my cognition, coupled with dependence on others, is hardest thing of all to swallow.

    I’m still trying to wrap my head around this mess. It ain’t easy.

    * My place of employment is 15 miles from my residence, with no good public transportation options; it is an hour minimum of travel in each direction.

  73. 73.

    zhena gogolia

    @schrodingers_cat: Yes — he takes Daphne (at her request) to a religious ceremony at which they wear necklaces of marigolds, if I recall correctly. He isn’t really happy about it.

  77. 77.

    Kristine

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    But if I somehow sold 53K books in a week, I’d faint dead away.

    I was thinking exactly the same thing.

    That’s “get the driveway and the roof done” money and more. Even after taxes.

  78. 78.

    Old Man Shadow

    @worn: I’m sorry that happened to you.

    Any chance you could work out a “work from home” situation with your bosses?

  79. 79.

    Harrison Wesley

    Didn’t “collaborator” used to be a pejorative to politically committed people?

  81. 81.

    prostratedragon

    @suzanne:  I’m sure it was a last straw for Black customers, since for years their store-closing patterns have suggested slight regard there. That business ain’t coming back.

  85. 85.

    sab

    @zhena gogolia: There are a lot of reporters writing their own books, and someday their own book will nwed to do a publicity tour, so they all buy his book so that someday he might have them on his show.

  90. 90.

    Jay

    So,………………………………. which  Joe Biden is Tapper writing about?

    The Real President Joe Biden?

    The robot Joe Biden?

    Or the clone Joe Biden?

    I don’t think the QANON book market is all that large.

  91. 91.

    Redshift

    I was very restrained today. I saw a post in reply to Will Bunch’s article about the upcoming protests that said, essentially, “if you want to get young people to come to your rally, make a rally that actually appeals to them” (plus a gratuitous bit pretending the article had said something about organizers being “shocked” about not attracting young people, when it didn’t mention it at all.)

    In keeping with my policy of “don’t get into arguments with idiots,” I refrained from replying “oh, goodie, the same people who couldn’t be bothered to vote against authoritarianism because they weren’t provided with candidates that excited them enough also aren’t going to do anything to stop it now because someone else isn’t organizing protests that cater to them specifically.” But I was sorely tempted.

  94. 94.

    sab

    OT I saw three Goodyear blimps go over my house this afternoon, two of the old kind and one of the new ones.

  95. 95.

    Aunt Kathy

    That dreaded sentence, “Let’s break up into small groups.” Goddammit!

  97. 97.

    Elizabelle

    Nearby crack of thunder had both the eaglets jumping in surprise.

    May have just discovered how to get through the Trump occupation.  Animal cams.  And skip the Tappers and rest of the press corpse.

    Animals are where it is at.

  98. 98.

    Redshift

    @Baud:

    Young people know how to hold rallies.

    I know there are many who do, that’s part of why I was so annoyed by this one. Also the weird lying about what they were responding to just so they could plug their personal hobbyhorse.

  101. 101.

    Elizabelle

    @Jay:  Now to look for Moose Cam.

    Got to say, I am loving the sound of the passing thunderstorm and the rain on the nest.  The girls seem less enthused.  “Why me?” looks.

  103. 103.

    catclub

    @Ohio Mom: they are probably agnostic on most of the books they order.

     

    I would say the opposite of agnostic. They know what their customers are requesting the most.

  104. 104.

    zhena gogolia

    @Baud: Frankly, although I’m not among the “the young people are going to save us” crowd, I do sympathize with young people who started out with Obama and then saw Trump get elected twice, with Covid in between. They’re not in the mood to go out and wave signs. I kind of get it. I wish they had voted, though.

  106. 106.

    worn

    @zhena gogolia: Thanks! And no truer words have been spoken. Up until a few days ago I was the very paragon of health – at my young age of 57, no less. Now shit’s up in the air. Not a happy unit, but trying with all my might to keep my thoughts oaway from the bad place.

  108. 108.

    cain

    @Jackie:

    The red states in conjunction with the feds are going to make the Pride month a month to remember I bet. Where they erase every progress we’ve made in gay rights.

    I hope that fucker, Peter Thiel is happy.

  109. 109.

    pajaro

    My dear spouse just retired as professor of collaborative piano at the school where she’s taught.  It means she specializes in teaching in situations where the pianist needs to work well with others, whether its in a duo, trio, and up, as well as in accompanying vocal soloists, or in playing piano when there are orchestral parts.  For a long time, her field was considered second tier in the classical music piano world, as real men (and it was mostly men) played solo piano, and it was the lesser folk who were accompanists.  And yes, the word collaborative was deliberately chosen, to convey the idea that the pianist was acting as an equal partner with the other instruments, rather than as just the hired help.

  110. 110.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @Elizabelle: thank you!
    agree w each thing you’ve said.

    now I have to check my libraries, and find places to set books down.

  112. 112.

    Elizabelle

    @worn:  Wishing you all the best, and a good diagnosis and prognosis.  May this be a passing problem.

  113. 113.

    catclub

    I just got handed a youtube video that was a mouthpiece for Putin as the strategic genius who is bravely fighting the US surrogate war to destroy his ambitions.

    Not a fan.

  114. 114.

    zhena gogolia

    @Baud: Maybe I expressed myself badly. I think a lot of young people voted for Kamala, but now feel so hopeless that they’re not going to protests. I feel the same way. Those who didn’t vote for Harris-Walz are certainly not going to any protests. I’m just thinking of those who did and are bitterly disappointed and don’t really see the efficacy of protests at this stage. Trying to be empathetic!

  115. 115.

    zhena gogolia

    @pajaro: Okay, well, that kind of collaboration I love. I love to play music with other people. But not sit around and bloviate with other people about non-issues.

  116. 116.

    catclub

    At CNN:

    Elon Musk on Tuesday lashed out at President Donald Trump’s agenda bill — which the president is pressuring GOP senators to support — calling it a “disgusting abomination.”

    “I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore. This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination,” the tech billionaire posted on X. “Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.”

    He added in a subsequent post: “Congress is making America bankrupt.”

    In another, he said: “In November next year, we fire all politicians who betrayed the American people.”

    haha. Only one genius king in Elon’s world.

  117. 117.

    cain

    TPM backchannel had a great article where Josh Marshall is telling the Dems to stop analyzing and actually start doing tings. Unprecedented corruption in govt and the polling is not going well for Republicans. But apparently, at least to Josh not a lot of action on behalf of the Democrats.

    I’m not paying attention so I don’t know if the Dems are being quiet or not. Are we seeing anything from Dems or is it just the media busy with Trump and sane washing shit?

     

    ETA:
    https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/hakeem-jeffries-pushes-democrats-flood-zone-opposition-trump-rcna209287

    https://www.politico.com/news/democrats

     

    Not a lot of news out there it looks like. Just blank. Meanwhile every day is a news day. Just the the media likes it.

  119. 119.

    zhena gogolia

    @cain: The media is busy sanewashing Trump or slandering Biden. Democrats have done all sorts of things.

  123. 123.

    zhena gogolia

    @Baud: I guess I’m reacting to a friend who goes to a protest every Saturday (she’s retired) and keeps reporting back to me that everyone is wondering where the young people are. I’m not wondering all that much.

  129. 129.

    Trivia Man

    “If you want to travel fast, go alone. If you want to travel far, go together,”

  130. 130.

    Jackie

    @catclub:

    In another, he said: “In November next year, we fire all politicians who betrayed the American people.”

    I thought he was “done” with politics. Muskrat’s as big a flip flopper as TACO.

  131. 131.

    worn

    @Old Man Shadow: Yes, I am working on that. During the pandemic I worked at home for a year plus. But during that time I simply hauled home all the computer equipment in my cubicle. I’d like to leave a viable workspace set up at the office because I’ll be able to catch a ride with my partner a couple of days a week (she has to drive from Portland to Salem and so passes our office park on the way). I find that being here in person greatly improves project communication & coordination.

    Since I do architectural & engineering construction documents for a living, the rub is spinning up another viable workstation (& dealing with Autodesk’s recent & draconian software licensing hoops). I’ve got most of the first part set up and honestly will probably just hit the seven seas as regards the second part. I won’t feel the least bit bad about this because the software was originally purchased with a perpetual license, but later they shut down the license server so as to force their customers move to the subscription service. So, theoretically when this box croaks, that’s it. To quote efgoldman “fuckem”…

  133. 133.

    Glory b

    @Old School: AND a spokesman said the timing, during Pride Month, was very deliberate

     

    Someone said sailors consider renaming a ship to be bad luck.

    Just saying…

  134. 134.

    cain

    @zhena gogolia: By Democrats, do you mean voters or politicians? I was just searching around a few places and I haven’t heard too much from individuals attacking Trump.

    Plenty of comments from people like Joni Mitchell. I suppose Joni “die and let me eat my cake” mentality plays better for clicks than “Dems are saying stuff”

  135. 135.

    cain

    @Jackie:

    Naw, he’s gonna be a Democrat now! haha! Gotta get more people on his electric car biz. It’s certainly not coming from Republicans.

  136. 136.

    Trollhattan

    We’re going from 50% to 80% in-office and it was decreed everybody would work the same remote day each week “because business reasons.” Mind, they don’t technically have space or in some cases facilities for everybody but hey, bidnez!

    What we’ve been doing these last few years to keep the doors open shall remain forever a mystery.

  138. 138.

    pajaro

    @cain:

    I’ve tried really hard to follow what is happening. Democrats are doing plenty, but it’s just really diffuse.  A lot of what Democratic Reps and Senators are doing are directed at their districts and states, and the same goes of the empty chair town halls that have been held.  Congressional democrats and State Attorneys Generals have filed dozens of lawsuits, but there are more going on than even lawyers who are trying to keep up can digest.  Each democratic governor is representing his/her state.

    It would be great if all of us in the resistance had our radios where we could tune into the reports in the evening, with a single authoritative voice letting us know what was happening and what we were doing to stop it, but we don’t live in that world right now.

  142. 142.

    prostratedragon

    More on Beattie’s own propaganda plans, which naturally involve creating something like wikileaks:

    The exercise Beattie is planning is a replay of the Twitter Files playbook: leak “found documents”—emails stripped of context, interesting because they were previously private, and because they relate to villains in the cinematic universe —and wait for suspicious people to turn innuendo into massively viral moments.

  144. 144.

    cain

    @cain: What good does attacking Trump do when you have no means of stopping him in Congress?

    I don’t think you attack Trump. He only gets stronger when you attack him.

    No, you start talking about the blatant corruption – everyone is uneasy about it. He’s not hiding that. A lot of folks are getting a clearer picture on what the federal govt provides and they don’t like what’s happening.

    Every infrastructure is under attack. We talk about our civil rights, but for most people the economy and govt services are the issue. Even MAGA are not happy about the bill the House passed in regards to how much money is being spent. The spending is  completely out of control. They are just getting started – they’ll want billions for going after women, queers and immigrants and do nothing for disasters, healthcare, education, and the economy.

    You can talk about how the economy doesn’t support raising families or living in a home. Lots of stuff you can talk about that people can understand without nuance.

  146. 146.

    lowtechcyclist

    @zhena gogolia: ​
     

    The most dreaded words in the universe: “Breakout groups.”

    “OK, group, how do we break out of here?”

    Seriously, the phrase ‘break out’ always brings to mind breaking out of a prison or concentration camp or something along those lines. Or the 1970s video game Breakout. So anytime we had ‘breakout sessions,’ calling them that just seemed really bizarre to me.

  147. 147.

    rekoob

    @pajaro: When our mother died roughly five years ago, we made a donation to Mu Phi Epsilon, the music honor society, since she was the President of her chapter. She was a piano, organ, and voice performer for many years. Mu Phi Epsilon established a Collaborative Pianist Award in our mother’s name. We believe it is a fitting tribute to her. We gave her Steinway (which had just been painstakingly restored) to a local university, where she sang with a community group.

  151. 151.

    Elizabelle

    @opiejeanne:  That or take a baseball bat to it.

    Glad you were able to stay for the rest of your European vacay.  Alas, now you deal with US healthcare industrial complex.

    But stay on the mend.

  155. 155.

    A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)

    @Ohio Mom: I once changed planes at the Cincinnati Airport years ago and was startled to discover it was in Kentucky.

  157. 157.

    Ruckus

    @Elizabelle:

    You should have heard the thunder just south of the LA mountains just a bit ago. I’ve lived in this area most of my life and can recall some major storms but not thunderstorms this loud. I have seen every river and storm drain channels where water moves openly from one place to another full to the brim around SoCal and seen storms that lasted days and have never heard thunder like this. Couldn’t see lightning but could sure hear that thunder.

  158. 158.

    Ruckus

    @Elizabelle:

    Doesn’t need a sign, we just think about who we’d like to _ _ _  on and call it that. Now a sign might be nice but someone would just change it to something else 15 minutes after it was put up so the concept is not worth the paint.

  159. 159.

    RevRick

    Today I played well with some Lutheran colleagues as we contemplated the pericope texts that included the story of the Tower of Babel. I shared the backstory, a snippet from the previous chapter about Nimrod, who’s described as a “mighty hunter before the Lord,” and who controls the plain of Shinar, which encompasses the early empires of Akkad, Nineveh (Assyria), and Babel (Babylon).
    So, we talked about the ideology of empire, how it’s based in violence, domination and injustice. Nimrod probably imagined himself invincible, because he stood astride the world powers.
    Anyway, the people of Babel decided they wanted only the best reputation by building a tower that would pierce the heavens. And God wondered what hare-brained schemes they would come up with next. So, in an act of grace to put a halt to their madness, God fixed the confusion of being high on their own supply by confusing their language (their ideology of empire).
    Funny how a myth three millennia old is still applicable.

  160. 160.

    Ruckus

    @Glory b:

    Having been a USN sailor long, long ago, ships names didn’t change because the effort and change for all the people that work live on one. And because there is a lot of hand me down concept of the danger of the ocean. I’ve crossed the Atlantic 6 times and only once did we have to do differently than normal shipping lanes – which aren’t a one lane road but a concept so that you don’t run into each other. We had 50+foot waves heading sort of southeast. We normally would end up around home port, Charleston, SC. However that one east to west crossing with the 50 ft waves would have capsized even a big ship so we had to sail north west towards the Saint Lawrence River and when we got close enough to the US we could then sail south along the coast. A normal 5 day crossing took 12 days. Up and down, up and down for days on end the bow (the front) would be way out of the water and then slam into the ocean and submerge the bow about 5-10 feet. The bow was normally, while sitting still, about 20 feet or more above the water. And then do that over and over and over and…… day and night. There were more than a few who did not feel well that one trip. It was fun to go up on the bridge and watch though.

  164. 164.

    Chris T.

    @Mr. Bemused Senior: (and @suzanne)

    “Collaborative” is number one on my list of words that no longer mean anything. See also: “integration”, “literally”, “innovation”.

    [showing my age] paradigm

    Join us for a collaborative workshop on integrating the paradigm shifts driving today’s innovative synergistic blockchain AI immersive experiences! Our regular price is $1000 but today only, it’s on sale for a mere $999!*

    *per minute

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