Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Those who are easily outraged are easily manipulated.

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

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

The unpunished coup was a training exercise.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

Second rate reporter says what?

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

When you’re a Republican, they let you do it.

Dear Washington Post, you are the darkness now.

There are a lot more evil idiots than evil geniuses.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires.

This fight is for everything.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

Balloon Juice, where there is always someone who will say you’re doing it wrong.

Donald Trump found guilty as fuck – May 30, 2024!

You passed on an opportunity to be offended? What are you even doing here?

She burned that motherfucker down, and I am so here for it. Thank you, Caroline Kennedy.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

People are weird.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

Jesus watching the most hateful people claiming to be his followers

Washington Post Catch and Kill, not noticeably better than the Enquirer’s.

You are here: Home / John Cole Presents "This Fucking Old House" / Monday Night Open Thread

Monday Night Open Thread

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Pretty long day cutting fields so I am gonna make this quick. Some pretty serious (as in making national news) flooding down in Wheeling right where I was for the first rally. Even though my home town is only about 11-12 miles as the crows fly and 15-16 by road, we got none of the rain. At any rate it is pretty terrible.

Four inches of rain in an hour is fucking CRAZY.

Reader Interactions

37Comments

  3. 3.

    Booger

    I have experienced a storm of 4-1/2 inches in less than an hour on our little hilltop. It was terrifying, and gravel roads don’t know what to do with it so they just give up and leave.

  4. 4.

    Scout211

    So many damaging natural disasters lately with lives and property lost.  Very scary.

    But Trump will likely do what he has done since he started TACO term two: He will ignore it.

    WASHINGTON ― After making political hay of a train derailment and a hurricane during his campaign to return to the White House, President Donald Trump since retaking office has failed to visit a single natural disaster site on his watch and has slow-walked aid to victims.

    On Feb. 14, windstorms and torrential rains caused floods and mudslides in Kentucky and West Virginia, killing 25. Trump did not visit the affected communities, but did spend the following five days playing golf at his clubs in South Florida.

    Exactly one month later, strong winds, tornadoes and wildfires wreaked havoc across Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas and Mississippi, leaving 34 people dead. Trump again did not visit but instead spent that weekend at his course in West Palm Beach, Florida, and the following weekend at his club in Bedminster, New Jersey.

    And on May 16, tornadoes and heavy rain again ravaged Missouri and Kentucky. This time, 25 people died, but again, Trump did not go to either state in the coming days — but did manage a round of golf at his course in Virginia that weekend, and at Bedminster the weekend after.

    In all, close to 100 Americans have died in dozens of tornadoes, straight-line windstorms, floods and wildfires since Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration. None has merited a presidential visit.

    What’s more, he has reneged on promises he made to Tropical Storm Helene victims in North Carolina during the one trip he has made to sites of disasters that took place under his predecessor, Joe Biden.

    “We’re going to get you the resources you need and the support that you deserve and we’ll be at your side through every step of the rebuilding,” he told residents of Swannanoa on Jan. 24. “The highest responsibility and deepest obligation of the American government is to protect its people and that’s never truer than in times of emergency like this.”

    In the five months since, though, Trump and his administration have not delivered new aid, including billions specifically targeted for North Carolina in December’s spending bill, and has instead cut back on paying for the cleanup costs.

  5. 5.

    WaterGirl

    It looks like I stepped on Cole, but i had mine scheduled, so it’s not my fault. :-)

    As soon as I saw it, I thought about pulling my post til later, but it already had comments.  That’s okay, they aren’t really in competition with each other.

  7. 7.

    laura

    We’ve been conditioned not to prepare and so here we are suddenly thrown into grief and sadness in a summer deluge, and (gestures broadly where FEMA used to be). Billy Bragg, like, Cassandra has thoughts: https://youtu.be/lWPZeQzN_Ws?

  8. 8.

    Scout211

    @WaterGirl: Hey WaterGirl, in case you are interested, TNT has started showing Cold Case this week, starting with season one. They are showing 2 or 3 episodes a day, in order.  I have my DVR set.  I remember you loved that series, too, so I thought you might be interested.  You’d have to FF through commercials but it would be good for treadmill watching, I would think.

  11. 11.

    NotMax

    Posted in another thread by mistake.

    GAZ* shamed out of Canada summit.

    Savor the elixir of schadenfreude.

    *Greatest American Zero

  14. 14.

    Geminid

    @NotMax: Turkish analyst Levant Kemal posted this about Trump early departure from the G7 summit:

    So, the time for decision is approaching.

    Trump is leaving the G7 summit early to return to Washington D.C. and has requested that the Nation Security Council be ready to meet him in the Situation Room.

    Kemal thought Trump telegraphed his intentions earlier to today in remarks to reporters:

    A deal will be signed, or something will happen. Iran should have signed the deal.

    Kemal posted this with a comment in the form of a countdown:

    23:59:59; 23:59:58; 29:59:57…..

    I assume Trump’s talking about the deal Steve Witkoff presented about two weeks ago.

  15. 15.

    RaflW

    We had an absolute deluge this afternoon (I called it “Neptune puking” in a text to my BF who was at the airport watching the skies darken). Was maybe 80° with a dew point around 70, so not even that saturated atmosphere at the surface, anyway, but street flooding aplenty.

    Fortunately it was short enough that I don’t think much bad happened around here. Later storms in the region had 1″ hail. Oww.

  16. 16.

    WaterGirl

    @Scout211:  LOVE LOVE LOVE Cold Case.

    Looks like I missed episodes 1-3. :-(

    But I have Tivo set to record all the rest, so I can skip thru all the commercials. I won’t be able to watch it on the treadmill, but it will be great TV watching.

    Thanks so much for thinking of me.

  17. 17.

    rikyrah

    LarryO reading the letter from Senator Smith’s office to the azzhole Senator Lee, concerning the BULLSHYT Lee did this weekend in reference to the Minnesota assassinations

  18. 18.

    KrackenJack

    Haven’t been following the G7, but my guess is he didn’t feel like the center of attention, so he huffed off to do something to steal the limelight. Mastodon posters noted a large number of military tanker airplanes heading east last night. That doesn’t sound like peace treaty activities.

  19. 19.

    RaflW

    @satby: Interesting. Rogan reads the polls? Isn’t the worst person in the world?

    (That was the first Rogan clip I’ve ever seen/heard btw. I remain wildly ignorant of how many of the big deal figures in the online manosphere sound or look. Part of my self-protection circuitry)

  20. 20.

    Alice

    Helping Paws Inc. is creating a fund in honor of very good boy Gilbert, who was murdered with his people Melissa and Mark Hortman a few days ago. Helping Paws trains and places assistance dogs with service members and first responders. The Hortmans helped raise pups for the organization – Gilbert was a floofy, goofy dropout who decided to stay with their family instead.

    Info is here. https://www.instagram.com/p/DK-XPBXyV4t/?hl=en&img_index=1

  21. 21.

    Marc

    @RaflW: Rogan is a libertarian, not a MAGA head.  One thing real libertarians do not like is out of control government law enforcement.

  22. 22.

    Scout211

    Remember when Trump said he would reduce ICE raids on farms and service workers, like hotels and restaurants? When was that? Two days ago?

    Well, ICE Barbie says, “PSYCHE!”

    https://bsky.app/profile/washingtonpost.com/post/3lrreubdi7c2q

    Breaking news: ICE agents should continue conducting immigration raids on farms, hotels and restaurants in a reversal of guidance, Department of Homeland Security officials told staff on Monday.

  23. 23.

    RaflW

    @Booger: I go to a sort of super rustic gay summer camp most summers kinda near the BWCA of Minnesota. It’s 19 miles in on a county maintained gravel road.

    A good decade or more back, we had the wettest August I can remember up that way. County worked it’s ass off to keep things driveable. There’s a surprising number of both year rounders up there, + summer cabins and some business that have to make 6 months money in three (the other 6 in 3 is snowmobiling, or last winter 6 months needed to be earned in like 6 individual days – rough!).

    Anyway. Yes. It’s queazy feeling like the road you’re driving on is maybe just gonna slump off in a mudslide at any moment.

  25. 25.

    RaflW

    @Scout211: Stephen Miller, thinking he can just announce whatever is in his black, miniscule heart the moment Trump is on a plane to Canada.

    Also, who could imagine chaos, contradictory orders, and flailing from a Trump Administration? Never happens!

  26. 26.

    RevRick

    @satby: Dr. Timothy Snyder of On Tyranny said on Rachel Maddow that we will need to enter into coalitions with people we don’t like in order to successfully oppose Trump. He also said that we need to let opposition arise organically, which means we don’t get to pick occasional allies.

  27. 27.

    Leto

    I posted about this earlier this afternoon, but wanted to bring it up again:
    The Guardian- ‘Extremely disturbing and unethical’: new rules allow VA doctors to refuse to treat Democrats, unmarried veterans (more at the link)

    Doctors at Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) hospitals nationwide could refuse to treat unmarried veterans and Democrats under new hospital guidelines imposed following an executive order by Donald Trump.
    The new rules, obtained by the Guardian, also apply to psychologists, dentists and a host of other occupations. They have already gone into effect in at least some VA medical centers.
    Medical staff are still required to treat veterans regardless of race, color, religion and sex, and all veterans remain entitled to treatment. But individual workers are now free to decline to care for patients based on personal characteristics not explicitly prohibited by federal law.
    Language requiring healthcare professionals to care for veterans regardless of their politics and marital status has been explicitly eliminated.
    Doctors and other medical staff can also be barred from working at VA hospitals based on their marital status, political party affiliation or union activity, documents reviewed by the Guardian show. The changes also affect chiropractors, certified nurse practitioners, optometrists, podiatrists, licensed clinical social workers and speech therapists.
    In making the changes, VA officials cite the president’s 30 January executive order titled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government”. The primary purpose of the executive order was to strip most government protections from transgender people. The VA has since ceased providing most gender-affirming care and forbidden a long list of words, including “gender affirming” and “transgender”, from clinical settings.
    Medical experts said the implications of rule changes uncovered by the Guardian could be far-reaching.
    They “seem to open the door to discrimination on the basis of anything that is not legally protected”, said Dr Kenneth Kizer, the VA’s top healthcare official during the Clinton administration. He said the changes open up the possibility that doctors could refuse to treat veterans based on their “reason for seeking care – including allegations of rape and sexual assault – current or past political party affiliation or political activity, and personal behavior such as alcohol or marijuana use”.
    The Department of Veterans Affairs is the nation’s largest integrated hospital system, with more than 170 hospitals and more than 1,000 clinics. It employs 26,000 doctors and serves 9 million patients annually.
    In an emailed response to questions, the VA press secretary, Peter Kasperowicz, did not dispute that the new rules allowed doctors to refuse to treat veteran patients based on their beliefs or that physicians could be dismissed based on their marital status or political affiliation, but said “all eligible veterans will always be welcome at VA and will always receive the benefits and services they’ve earned under the law”.
    He said the rule changes were nothing more than “a formality”, but confirmed that they were made to comply with Trump’s executive order. Kasperowicz also said the revisions were necessary to “ensure VA policy comports with federal law”. He did not say which federal law or laws required these changes.

    Vet affected by the VA housing foreclosure program.​

  28. 28.

    Scout211

    @Leto: The story had some impact today:

    White House denies reporting by Guardian on VA benefits: ‘Totally FALSE story’

    According to the documents it obtained, The Guardian reported that “doctors and other medical staff can also be barred from working at VA hospitals based on their marital status, political party affiliation or union activity.”

    VA press secretary Peter Kasperowicz, a former politics editor at Fox News Digital, reportedly did not deny that veteran patients could be denied care and physicians could be dismissed based on their marital status or political affiliation when reached by The Guardian.

    But White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly adamantly denied The Guardian’s reporting. Writing on social platform X, Kelly addressed the article’s writer, Aaron Glantz, saying, “Aaron, this is a totally FALSE story that The Guardian should retract immediately. Fearmongering with our Veterans to try to score clicks for your failing ‘news outlet’ is pathetic and shameful.”

    The VA also responded on X, writing, “This story is disinformation. All eligible Veterans will always be welcome at VA and will always receive the benefits and services they’ve earned under the law.”

    The spotlight was shining brightly today.

  30. 30.

    Leto

    @Scout211: Good. They’re always in disarray (left hand has no idea what the right is doing), and the VA spokes shill Kasperowicz already confirmed it, as well as multiple people within the VA. They’re t-ing it up akin to the all the bullshit christofascist religious rulings they’ve gotten over the past decade, and trying to expand it into the government. The defunding of the VA housing foreclosure program is still fucking people over. Just another day ending in -y in the Republican led country.​

  31. 31.

    Leto

    @Scout211: also this fucking bullshit:

    All eligible Veterans

    They’re currently redefining the eligible categories such as transgendered troops, and trying to include all LGBTQ+, so this phrasing just abso-fucking-lutely infuriates me.

  33. 33.

    Jay

    @Leto:

    90% of the comments I have seen on line are:

    “VA Personnel are competent professionals and will not follow the guidelines”.

    Denial is not just a river in Egypt.

    27% will eagerly embrace the new guidelines, 35% will go along to keep their jobs.

  34. 34.

    Hidalgo de Arizona

    Completely random note – hey, it *is* an open thread – John, you should *really* try Carnitas Cochiloco next time you’re in Phoenix.  They just opened their physical location in Mesa a few days ago, I tried it tonight, and it’s some of the best Mexican food I’ve ever had.  Handmade tortillas, decadent carnitas, amazing salsa, and pickled Mexican-style veggies.

  35. 35.

    TerryC

    That’s a lot of rain, Cole. I grew up in East Liverpool and Chester and have seen some decent floods. I would like to have experienced that in the Valley. Brother and I got stopped JIT by my parents, as we were on a raft about to enter the main stream from a creek during a flood when I was about 10 in 1957.

  36. 36.

    Paul in KY

    Bonnaroo was cancelled due to flooding/wind, etc. Big bummer for me. Did get to see the Insane Clown Posse though!

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