First off- Happy Bobby Bonilla day for those of you who celebrate. For those of you not in the know:
The first day of July marks Bobby Bonilla Day, an annual celebration of one of the strangest deals in the history of Major League Baseball.
Bonilla, a six-time All-Star who played his last game in 2001, has been receiving a $1.19 million check from the New York Mets every year since 2011, the result of a decision 25 years ago to delay paying the $5.9 million they owed him.
Looking to dump Bonilla after the 1999 season, the Mets opted to defer his payment – with 8% interest – giving him $1,193,248.20 annually on July 1 from 2011-2035 – adding up to nearly $30 million.
“It’s bigger than my birthday,” Bonilla told USA TODAY Sports. “When that day comes, I get texts all day long, and couple of days after and maybe a day or two before. Everybody just seems to love that day and have fun with it. It’s become a pretty big thing.”
His agent should be in the Hall of Fame before Pete Rose. At any rate, Bobby Bonilla was part of the reason I gave up on Pirate baseball long ago- when we lost Bonilla (who was originally a Pirate), over the span of two years we lost two twenty game winners and two one hundred rbi hitters, losing Doug Drabek, John Smiley, Bobby Bonilla, and Barry Bonds. And of course Sid fucking Bream in the 1992 NLCS.
So the Senate Republicans passed the big beautiful bill, as we all knew they would, and it is going to be devastating:
Millions of low-income Americans could experience staggering financial losses under the domestic policy package that Republicans advanced through the Senate on Tuesday, which reserves its greatest benefits for the rich while threatening to strip health insurance, food stamps and other aid from the poor.
For many of these families, the loss of critical federal support is likely to negate any improvements they might have seen as a result of slightly lower taxes, experts said. That reality could undercut Republican lawmakers and President Trump, who insisted anew this week that their legislative vision would benefit the entire economy.
The latest evidence arrived in the hours before lawmakers finalized their signature legislation. Studying a since-amended version of the Senate bill, experts at the Budget Lab at Yale, a research center, concluded Monday that it would parcel out its benefits disproportionately.
Americans who comprise the bottom fifth of all earners would see their annual after-tax incomes fall on average by 2.3 percent within the next decade, while those at the top would see about a 2.3 percent boost, according to the analysis, which factors in wages earned and government benefits received.
On average, that translates to about $560 in losses for someone who reports little to no income by 2034, and more than $118,000 in gains for someone making over $3 million, the report found. Martha Gimbel, the co-founder of the budget lab, described the Senate measure as “highly regressive.”
I have no idea how the process in the House will play out, with reports it is dead on arrival, which I think are complete bullshit. They’ll lie, cheat, steal, bully, and blackmail their way to passing something there.
Fuckers.
I am under the weather and have had a dry hacking cough for a couple of days so I went and got some mucinex dm but at any rate because I am nuts I have now convinced myself I have Barret’s Esophagus, lung cancer, and emphysema. Maybe a hiatal hernia, too. And of course, because of that, I have been going through anxiety attacks all day long, having had to pull the car over for thirty minutes earlier today. I had another one halfway through writing this and went and took a cold shower then got dressed and listened to the birds for a while. Had a rose breasted grosbeak. I also had a marvelous little tufted titmouse scurrying around on the porch rail just three feet away from me.
Although my self-loathing is both deep and wide, one thing I really wish I could dispense of is this fucking hypochondria. I can handle physical pain like a champ. Fall off a roof? No problem, walk it off, go home, and go get the broken foot treated tomorrow. Shatter your shoulder in 18 pieces? No big deal. Use a doorknob to try to pop it back in place and when that doesn’t work, drive yourself to the hospital using your left arm. Fuck it. Why not?
But cough twice and I turn into Howie Mandel and Richard Lewis and Fred Sanford combined. It’s cancer. It’s a heart attack. You finally got the stomach cancer form the gulf war that several of your buddies got. YOU’RE DYING. It’s fucking brutal and I do it to myself every fucking time. I have not allowed myself to visit WebMD for over fifteen years- at least since I got diagnosed with generalized anxiety, depression, and ptsd. Back then I convinced myself I had MS because every time I had an panic attack my hands and feet went completely numb and I lost peripheral vision.
After you decide you have cancer and are dying then you work yourself into a froth after convincing yourself you have cancer or whatever to the point you have a full blow panic attack, and then you can play your favorite fucking game, only available in the middle of a panic attack, called Is this a panic attack or a heart attack. “It feels like a panic attack, but what if it is a heart attack? Should you go to the hospital? No? Ok we are staying here. Is there anything out you don’t want the first responders to see when they find your corpse? Gerald knows to get rid of anything that would upset mom and dad. Alright. This is it then. We’re riding out this panic attack and if we’re wrong we’re dying in our sleep. Let’s start the breathing exercises. Oh, cool, time for the profuse sweating and drymouth. I wish Lily was here.”
There is a reason I used to drink. Man, the human mind is something. And if you just read these paragraphs and none of it makes any sense to you, good, you lucky bastard. To the rest of you, if you are not seeking therapy, do so, it makes it easier, and for the rest of you in the same boat, I get it.
I’m very much struggling to understand what the Republicans think they are accomplishing. They really can’t be stupid enough to think these things are only going to impact people they don’t like- poc, lgtbq, urban, educated, etc. Like I said last night, they are like Stannis Baratheon burning his daughter at the stake for the promise (against all current knowledge) that it might be good for the country. It’s like these fuckers are Heaven’s Gate cultists.
It’s really a crazy era we are in. It’s so hard to lose your bearings because there are just so many shenanigans going on. All the guiding principles and things you believed in and trusted your whole life are just gone or failing miserably and you keep watching the elites kowtow to or join the dark side. It’s really fucking bonkers, but I suppose the last 80 years of relative peace is kind of unheard of in historical terms.
Up is down.
War for Ukraine Day 1,223: Genteel Isolationism
Old Dan and Little Ann
My sister got me a book titled , why we love baseball by Joe Posnanski. It’s got all kinds of wonderful stories in there. Most of them I know about but there’s some that I don’t. The Syd Bream play in the World Series definitely was a couple pages. It’s been a nice distraction reading the last few days with all of the horrible s*** that’s happening.
Priest
Monday?
Splitting Image
Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if the bill fails in the House. If it does, it will be because the hardliners don’t think that it is cruel enough.
But if they do make changes, it will be back to the Senate for Round 2.
As crazy and evil as these loons are, Yogi Berra still had the right idea.
bbleh
They really can’t be stupid enough to think these things are only going to impact people they don’t like- poc, lgtbq, urban, educated, etc…
But “they” in this case are Republican legislators. And if you think they “like” — or have any respect for, or would jeopardize a single PENNY of this gigantic upward transfer of wealth for the sake of — the majority of people who voted for them, I believe you are mistaken.
You think the Orange Guy likes the marks he sold Trump U. courses, or shares in an AC casino, or spray-painted sneakers, or memecoins, or cares at all what happens to them?
They. Don’t. Care. They know enough will vote for them because they profess hatred against the right people, even as they rob the poor fools blind. (See also Lyndon Johnson on emptying pockets.)
John Cole
@Priest: fixed
Ohio Mom
First, just about everyone who makes it to middle age develops a hiatal hernia.
Second, I hope Mom Cole doesn’t still read the blog, if so, I am sure she is wondering about what Gerald will be hiding.
I also have anxiety. It’s can be very debilitating and I feel for you, Cole. I should probably be on a med for it.
Finally, I am so freaked out about that bill that the place on my lower right lip is getting a cold sore. I’ve gone years without one but today was too much stress.
SW
I’m as old as dirt now and I have the same tendencies. Whenever I exhibit some symptoms my mind automatically goes to the worst possible thing it could be. I don’t get the panic attacks because like I said I am old and fatalistic. Everyone dies from some god damn thing. The upside is that usually after a couple of weeks I figure out that it is some relatively benign ailment and then I get to feel good about the future until the next thing pops up in the queue.
HinTN
The R’s believe they delayed the pain long enough to get through another election cycle. They believe that’s what matters. They may be right.
As for all the rest, I got nothing
ETA: I’m glad you’re still light blue, Cole.
la caterina
@John Cole: You will get to know the difference between “just” a panic attack and something more serious. You’re finding your coping skills, like taking a shower. One of my coping skills is reading something funny.
When in doubt, go to the ER.
CaseyL
Yikes, John. I knew you had to deal with depression, anxiety, and PTSD, but didn’t know about the hypochondria. I am sorry you go through that.
I just don’t know what to make of anything anymore. I see establishment Democrats saying and doing stupid things and want to write them off; then I see them manage to hold the line and get some awful stuff out of the Kill Everyone Bill and think they might be of some use after all. I read about news on social media, on the Guardian and BBC, and then see the sanitized, pablumized versions carried by US news outlets and want to hurl – that is, I want to vomit, and/or throw lightning bolts at them all.
Pocket, which I get when I open a new tab online, is an aggregated collection of articles, some old and some new, covering a wide range of interests. It’s free (though the articles themselves are sometimes paywalled) – and, therefore, naturally, closing down soon. Anyway, among today’s collection, was an article from CityLab originally published a few years ago on how the Bauhaus School of Design tried to resist the Nazis back in the 1930s. It’s an excruciating read on how the Fourth Reich slowly and inexorably took over – excruciating for the echoes of what’s happening to academia now, in the US.
The Red Pen
I for one will enjoy my $118,000 windfall.
Which I will get when I make more than $3 million a year.
Which is definitely in the offing, because I work hard and that’s what does it.
No firm date, though.
Josie
@SW: Old age is just a barrel of laughs, right?
But it’s better than the other option.
tam1MI
So, after stating unequivically that Zohran Mamdani suppoted “global jihad”, Kirsten Gillibrand now gives the most grudging and minmal walk-back humanly possible.
Don’t strain anything, Gilly.
stacib
@Josie: My aunt used to say “getting old wouldn’t be so bad if it wasn’t so damned inconvenient”. I wholeheartedly agree!
No One of Consequence
At times like these, I find it helpful to consider Karma. Nearly always too slow but so, so relentless. Karmic debt has been incurred. The scales will balance.
Tie a knot, hold on. Change is coming. Be ready.
-NOoC
Steve LaBonne
Our beloved ~13yo cat Martti, whom we took in as a stray 12 years ago, will be helped across the rainbow bridge by the vet tomorrow morning. He had stopped eating and became very lethargic. The vet did X-rays and bloodwork and the bloodwork was really awful- very anemic, very low white count, undetectable platelets (!), and terrible liver numbers. We can’t see any sense in lengthy intensive care at the emergency vet without any real reason to expect a miracle. We didn’t see this coming and it really hurts. At least after we got him home my wife was able to get him to eat some baby food meat to get his (very low) blood sugar up and that seems to be helping him to rest a little more comfortably.
Lobo
Feeling a bit crazy too. Here is how Christian Petersen summed it up:
@iwantyoustudio.bsky.social
Jackie
That’s EXACTLY what Joni Ernst told you, and all of us, Cole.
But, seriously, take care of yourself! Panic attacks aren’t something to take lightly. Get thee to thy doctor and address this issue. You’ve got a wedding coming up, and while it will be the BEST THING EVER, it’s also stressful in its own way.
Said with love and concern.
Steve LaBonne
@Lobo: So much fun to live in a dying empire, isn’t it? But we have to believe that better times will come and work to make them happen.
MagdaInBlack
@Steve LaBonne: I’m very sorry. I lost my 17 y/o Gordita (my Siamese mix) a little over a week ago. It sucks.
They Call Me Noni
@Steve LaBonne: I am so sorry. It’s not an easy thing to do, but it’s the right thing. I hope you are all able to get a little sleep tonight before facing what morning brings.
Sister Golden Bear
Ugh. I’ve been hammered for the past week by the worst cold I’ve had since Covid. (I keep testing, but the Covid tests keep coming back negative.) But yeah, for a couple days I had a sore throat and was convinced I was getting the latest “razor throat” Covid variation.
Sister Golden Bear
@Steve LaBonne: I’m so sorry.
Joy in FL
@Steve LaBonne: I hope Martti has an easeful passing. I’m sorry that you have to let him go, but you aren’t going to make him suffer. I hope you feel how much Martti loves you and your wife, as you love him.
Steve LaBonne
Cole, my wife, long before I knew her, had bad panic attacks with such severe agoraphobia that she would be unable to leave her house for days. The advent of Paxil (these days with a low dose of Effexor on top) has enabled her to lead a normal life. Panic disorder is a serious and debilitating illness but it can be treated. Please don’t take it lightly- see someone about it.
Lobo
@Steve LaBonne: So sorry to hear. My condolences.
John Cole
@Steve LaBonne: I am so sorry steve
Jackie
@Steve LaBonne: I’m so sorry. Martti is well loved, and knows he’s well loved. Baby food meat was what I turned to when my very senior kitty started declining. It didn’t prolong her life, but it helped make her final days happier. She LOVED the chicken mush.
Steve LaBonne
@Joy in FL: My rule of thumb is that I won’t put an animal, who can’t understand why it is suffering, through something I wouldn’t do to myself. Even at my age, but all the more in 10 years when I’m 80, there is no way I would accept treatment if I were in that bad shape. Keep me comfortable but otherwise leave me the fuck alone. I’m a big fan of hospice.
Steve LaBonne
Thanks all for the kind thoughts.
Lobo
@Steve LaBonne:
My hope too!
Chacal Charles Calthrop
I’m going to say something to the contrary.
Decades ago, when the Berlin Wall fell, and everyone was celebrating on the TV, I knew of a place in NYC called the “Anarchist Switchboard,” a hole in the wall in then-dangerous, then-radical East Village. So I stopped by to see what their take was on the collapse of East Berlin and the coming collapse of the Soviet Union. (In those days everything was in person, nothing was online, and if you wanted to know what someone thought you had to talk to them, and there were many more public hangout spaces).
So I stopped by and while the communists and anarchists of the Anarchist Switchboard were glad the wall was down, they were also solemn, because they knew certain things were going to be lost along with the Stasi. That was the first that I heard that rent stabilization was going to go away, that health care from your job was not going to be something you could expect, and that the rich were going to own everything and inequality was going to skyrocket.
Well, we have proven that we can get healthcare, NYC repealed “luxury” rent deregulation, and not all the evil prophecies I heard there in 1989 have come true.
But it is going to take a lot more work, a lot more organizing, and a lot of hope, because the capitalists can no longer be threatened with a communist revolution. We have not won what we hoped for, but we have also not lost as much as was expected.
Chacal Charles Calthrop
@Steve LaBonne: so very sorry. I know how much it hurts.
prostratedragon
Peaceful voyage to Martti, and condolences Steve and all.
Binky
It doesn’t help that there are real things to panic over in WV. Governor Morrisey’s signature legislation is poised to put a huge power plant and hyper scale data center on top of Davis and Thomas WV, and the fact that hundreds of local people showed up to a five hour long public comment meeting to oppose it means nothing to the WVDEP. Someone’s going to make a pile of money but it’s not the people of Tucker County.
Omnes Omnibus
The Murder Bill isn’t law yet. The things in it can still be stopped. I can’t promise that they will be. But they can be. Let’s try.
FDRLincoln
In derelict sidings
The poppies entwine
With cattle trucks
Lying in wait
For the next time
mrmoshpotato
No cancer? You didn’t go to WebMD!
brendancalling
Lucy Parsons was right, and maybe some of the people impacted by this shitty bill will take her sage advice.
japa21
@mrmoshpotato:
@mrmoshpotato:
He did mention lung cancer. However, having Barrette’s esophagus, it really isn’t anything major. Can it turn into something major? Yes indeed, which is why I have an endoscopy done every 4-5 years.
Omnes Omnibus
@mrmoshpotato: Last I checked lung cancer is a type of cancer.
p.a.
@Steve LaBonne: Sorry for your pending loss. My girl has a 12-ish year old female tuxedo. She’s her cat but I’m the cat’s hooman. Both rear legs shaky, but moves ok- looks a bit drunk- she has several portable pet-steps to get her where she needs to get: table for food (dog-proof) and couch for scritches. Floor access for water & catbox is fine. I know when it’s her time I’ll be a mess. Assuming I outlive her…
Professor Bigfoot
@Steve LaBonne: So sorry to hear; but you’re doing right by him.
Aziz, light!
Let’s dispel with the notion that the Republicans don’t know what they are doing. They know exactly what they’re doing.
Paul in KY
@Steve LaBonne: Sorry to hear that, although it appears to be his time to go frolic with our other beautiful cats and dogs that we’ve loved and then helped on. I bet he’s a wonderful boy. You are a great owner to give him this last help in his time of need.
Soprano2
You have my sympathy, Cole. Anxiety attacks are terrible. I had to start taking Prozac to stop them. They were making it hard for me to make decisions for my husband. The downside is that they blunt emotions, but it’s worth it for now. I used to have them maybe once a year, but since my husband got sick they increased to an unbearable amount.
Ohio Mom
@Chacal Charles Calthrop: That is an interesting story. The anarchists may have gotten some details wrong but they nailed the bigger picture way ahead of schedule.
Ironically, with such a talent for predicting, they could have done well in the stock market.
No One of Consequence
@FDRLincoln: ISWYDT. And I approve.
(Was a fan of that album in high school and all my friends thought I was nuts when compared to their majors, but I always thought the lyrics on that album were absolutely cutting.)
-NOoC
Ohio Mom
@Aziz, light!: Lol.
rikyrah
Thanks ,Cole
Happy Bobby Bonilla Day🤗
JoyceH
@mrmoshpotato: Saw a cartoon a few years back – Charlotte’s Web MD. The pig is watching with awe as the spider starts to spell in her web “It’s”. Second panel shows the completed message – “It’s probably cancer.”
BTW – did anyone see the video of Trump talking about maybe deporting Musk? He’s on the way to Marine One, and he looks BAD. Face all saggy like it’s melting and he’s not even wearing his makeup.
different-church-lady
Cruelty is its own reward.
NotMax
Not a baseball fan but can recommend The Catcher Was a Spy, about big league player Moe Berg’s mission during WW2.
Currently streaming on Netflix, AMC Plus Apple TV Channel , AMC+ Amazon Channel, AMC+, Philo, Sundance Now, Netflix Standard with ads or for free with ads on The Roku Channel.
FDRLincoln
@No One of Consequence: The Final Cut is exceptional in my opinion. I understand why people don’t like it musically but the lyrics are among the best war poetry ever written and several songs are as good as their best albums, notably The Gunner’s Dream and the title track.
Jackie
I’m trying to recall the last time FOUR MLB games were suspended/delayed at the same time… we, in the West are cooking hot.
mrmoshpotato
@japa21:
@Omnes Omnibus: Distracted by the ballgame.
Geminid
@JoyceH: Yeah, Trump’s looking rougher and rougher, and he’s only 200 days into his term. Sad!
mrmoshpotato
@JoyceH: Has Dump looked decent in the past 10 years?
eclare
@Steve LaBonne:
I’m so sorry about your kitty. What a shock.
Another Scott
Peace and comfort for everyone dealing with losing their pets. It’s very hard.
:-(
Best wishes,
Scott.
mrmoshpotato
@Jackie: East coast getting soaked.
WTFGhost
I recently had a talk with my doctor. “I think my lungs have some kind of weird adhesions, so, when stuff in my abdominal cavity moves, it might make me cough, or just lung-burp, or even *wheeze*. Now, you need to tell me if that’s not a thing…”
She said it was a thing, but we had to go through my use of THC via vaping. I explained that it correlated perfectly to muscle issues, and not at all to vaping. (In fact, once my lungs improved, I’ve been able to vape a lot more, and a lot more easily.)
Here’s the thing: when my body is spasming, and forcing me to cough, I can cough loudly, and deeply, and sometimes I’m coughing uncontrollably, and sometimes, sometimes I feel my effing mortality, because I start to lose consciousness, but, I’m so used to the sensation, I know how to remain conscious, each time, so far.
I won’t say it will scare the shit out of you, but it might fill your drawers – cough hard enough, that sphincter *opens*, and if there’s anything in the bomb bay, it’s getting dropped. Up to and including this dusty (I know, it’s wet, and it looks dusty) substance that you realize is kind-of pre-shit. It’s not even proper diarrhea yet.
It is, however, SCARY. Like, “HOLY SHIT I COULD DIE HERE!” scary. And if this is happening, I’m betting you’re a mess of neurological pain, sometimes, which just saps away your ability to push nasty, negative thoughts out of your head. “So what if I have cancer? There’s nothing I can do about it in this very instant!” gets hit with “HOW DARE YOU WASTE GOOD PANIC TIME!!!”
So, that might be the problem, or part of the problem.
Another Scott
A Fritschner thread:
That last bit is important and we have to keep that call to action in mind until the monsters are out of power.
Fritschner is not always right, but he knows how the House works (he works for Rep Don Beyer).
The monsters have the majority. If they want to pass it – and they do – they’ll find a way to pass it.
Grr…
Eyes on the prizes.
Best wishes,
Scott.
TheflipPsyd
Thank you for that dead on description of anxiety — you described my version to a T. I also ask myself whether it’s a panic attack or a heart attack I’ve struggled with anxiety off and on for years. Sounds like you have some good coping skills. My main two are grounding exercises and animal videos. The world now is nothing but anxiety provoking. So I have been avoiding the news off and on as well. Just remember that anxiety does pass and to be good to yourself.
Edited to fix typo
cain
@Steve LaBonne:
I feel that way about any disease ever my mind is going to go south. Force a divorce, leave everything to the wife and then fucking disappear never to be seen again.
WTFGhost
@mrmoshpotato: He’s slurring his speech a heck of a lot more. He’s getting worse and worse at spinning simple phrases. “Enrichment isn’t something good, like adding air conditioning to your car, no, it’s a BAD WORD!”
His mind has the stench of rotted cabbage, mixed with the proper mixture of demonic ichor, and stool, that occurs when one demon eats another for the pleasure of pooing the victim out again, later.
Ah, but it inhabits the body that probably stinks worse.
And as with a sudden, horrifyingly, nauseatingly, sorry, but better you puked it out early, stench, it has an outsized impact for what it _should_ have, but then, the contents of those thoughts start to erupt, and people learn that “stench” has another meaning, a kind of “stench squared” that makes you need to throw up again, no matter how much you know there’s nothing left (per Richard Pryor) but your nuts down there.
So, yeah, pretty bad.
WTFGhost
@Steve LaBonne: You have my kindest thoughts, but there’s no need to reply. (I am sometimes too exhausted to reply so I know specifying it can be helpful.)
WTFGhost
@Jackie: Oh, yeah. And, yes, panic attacks aren’t something to take lightly, they matter too. Even if you “just” had a panic attack, and no weirdness causing your cough (just a cold, say), you deserve treatment, and relief, though this often consists of “meditate, do your breathing, make sure you’re still living on the other side, but otherwise, you’re going through hell, so keep going.”
MagdaInBlack
@WTFGhost: KInd of on an expelling theme tonight, aren’t we?
(Not that that’s bad thing, just noticing a theme)
WaterGirl
@Steve LaBonne: I am so sorry. Sending love.
lgerard
Bobby Bo is also, amazingly, getting a cool half mill every year from the Orioles as well. He still has a few years left on that deal.
At least the Met’s deal ended up, in a roundabout way, with the Mets getting David Wright.
snoey
Bobby Bonilla Day is of course a Mets story too.
They calculated the deferred money payments at 8% or so and invested it to earn 10%.
Profit!! – except that the money was invested with Bernie Madoff.
JCJ
Another part of the Bobby Bonilla Day saga – it has been reported that the owner of the NY Mets at the time did not simply buy out the contract because his money was invested with Bernie Madoff. Oof.
randy khan
As a Mets fan, every year I think of Bobby Bonilla day as simultaneously amusing and appalling.
One funny thing about the article is that it doesn’t quote Steve Phillips, the GM at the time, who always seems happy to talk about it. He always seems happy to talk about it, and throw some indirect shade on the Wilpon family. (You realize after hearing him talk about it several times that he is essentially blaming it on the Wilpons, which likely is accurate, without actually saying so.)
Jackie
@WTFGhost: It doesn’t matter; “his enablers have his back and are covering/protecting him, in order to get what they want passed into law.”
Hmm, where have we heard that before?
WTFGhost
@TheflipPsyd: Hee. I realized, there’s one way I’ll never discover a heart attack – from “feeling a sense of impending doom.”
I wouldn’t notice that out of the ordinary!
Still: if you’re short of breath, even though you shouldn’t be, or feel weak musculature, you want to lie on the floor, call 911, tell them your address, tell them you are afraid you’re having a heart attack. “1313 mockingbird lane, Redmond, WA; heart attack. I think I’m having a heart attack.” Paramedics can do a metric fuqueton (which I believe is roughly 10% larger than a standard fuqueton) for you with that critical information.
Staying on the floor will keep you conscious longer than if your body has to fight gravity, and, it keeps you from falling.
You’ve all heard the rest, chest pain, especially radiating toward the left, but your body does tend to sound several alarms loudly when something is wrong with blood flow. (Whoo, I could tell you stories!) Better a red face in the emergency department, than even the prettiest red flowers at your funeral.
Steve LaBonne
Thanks again to all for the additional kind words.
YY_Sima Qian
Ha! Watching Sid Bream slide across the home plate for the winning run was one of my formative experiences in baseball watching. I have been a Braves fan ever since. (I had been ever since the incredible WS between the Braves & the Twins in ’91.)
Philbert
To add to the medical advice, you can get a pocket ECG device for $90 or so, and an O2 finger thing cheap from Amazon. Cheaper than an apple watch. Just put your fingers on it and you get an ECG you can show the doc later, rather than just telling him how you felt. . Also reassuring if it is normal.
YY_Sima Qian
Atrocity of the day in Gaza (click through the link for the news clip):
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Steve LaBonne:
As fellow animal nuts, we like to share in the joy as well as the sorrow of having these creatures in our lives for an ever so brief period. Losing them is never easy and it never gets easier.
I know as humans we’re wired somehow to believe in an afterlife so I always imagine our pets are out there somewhere, either waiting for us or floating along supported by the love we gave them during their lifetime.
And the loving memories we carry with us until we’re gone.
Thanks for sharing.
Chacal Charles Calthrop
@Ohio Mom: the NY communist party, which owned a small building in Chelsea that served as its headquarters, officially disbanded, sold their building, and divided the proceeds among its members.
the 90’s were a different era. Nobody was in the stock market because you couldn’t invest online, you had to have an account with a stock broker.
and then mutual funds became a thing…..
CaseyL
@Steve LaBonne:
I am so sorry. You’re doing right by Martti, but by god it hurts.
Wishing him a peaceful passing, knowing he is loved; and may his memory be a blessing for you and your wife.
cain
@Steve LaBonne: sad regards to your pet. I hope they have a peaceful journey across the rainbow bridge. Glad you are taking care of them.
Old School
@Steve LaBonne: My condolences. Wishing you strength for tomorrow.
Ohio Mom
@Chacal Charles Calthrop: My memory is you could go on line and dry trade starting in the 1990s. Though those guys were analyzing anything, just gambling.
Whatever. They were certainly right about the Cold War being a stabilizing force on our economics.
WTFGhost
@different-church-lady: Well, it’s also a laundry list of every effing thing every conservative person always swore was what we needed to “return to sanity!” so it’s also epic, it’s humongous. THEY WILL BE HEROES!!!
You know, I recall how, once, a truly epic flame war erupted when a computer guru said “sure, you could call Hitler a hero, by saying a hero performs huge deeds… not necessarily good ones.”
Surprisingly, I was not the computer guru. But, I mean, it’s a point. In the Trojan War, people agreed that Achilles was a hero, but to those in Troy, that didn’t mean they thought it was good he was out there… quite the opposite!
So I say “they will be heroes!!!” without a hint of irony, and please note, I didn’t once directly compare in any Godwinesque manner, though if you read minds when they’re broadcasting *that* loudly, I won’t say you were wrong.
The Up and Up
I have panic attacks also, a generalized anxiety/depression/other diagnosis. The election and other events made it worse. Antidepressants do little to cure rampant fascism. I see a therapist but they were gone on vacation then got COVID. In anticipation of dwindling federal funding the clinic is prioritizing clients. I am not one of them. I went a month and a half in between sessions. I get you Cole. Today after work called to rearrange my schedule I went to a park … it’s name is apt for current events in fact, Chinese Reconciliation. History repeats itself, again.
No One of Consequence
@FDRLincoln: Yeah, the title track got me to read the history to understand what he was talking about. One might imagine the dichotomy of needing to be a star in order to eventually have the freedom to actually really say what you want, and not have to worry about the commercial success of it.
Even though good wisdom is typically brief, I posit that it is difficult to convey in a pop song.
There have been exceptions.
-NOoC
Paul in KY
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Hope that’s true.
mardam
Sid Fucking Bream!!!
thalarctosMaritimus
@Steve LaBonne: I’m so sorry. May your memories of Martti bring you solace.
thalarctosMaritimus
@MagdaInBlack: I’m sorry to hear the news about Gordita. I wish you comfort and support.
Steve Finlay
John, you’re helping in ways that you may not know. I don’t have hypochondria, anxiety, depression, or PTSD. But kniwing that you feel our fouled up world the same way I do — I’m not alone, which means a lot.
Ruckus
@Steve LaBonne:
Old age is fun. OK that’s not true. The reality is that old age (I should know…) is part of life. And it’s a far better part than not getting old. I had a cousin who lived for 6 months. He had an aunt who lived for 94 years and 364 days. There is no logic in how long we live. I’ve been shot at walking down the street, long, long ago. I’ve walked a lot of miles in this life, I’ve seen a lot of (as have a lot of us here) ignorant, horrible people. I’ve seen and known people who’d give their lives so others can live. I’ve traveled a lot of the world, seen its humanity, in all its glory and all its pure shit. The glory is better, the shit will always exist along with it and is often all one sees. It’s life, it can be grand and the next minute it can be horrible. Sometimes we cause the horrible – even if we don’t mean to. I’ve been shot at, just walking down a street. Never knew I could run a 3 minute mile….
Life is good. And better than the alternative – no life. Being better is not difficult, it just takes a tiny bit of effort. And the desire not to be a mammals exhaust port.
dearmaizie
If you had cancer you’d be losing weight. And you’d be too goddamned fatigued to even think about anything, much less working up heart attack.
Reflux causes coughing. So do allergies. Don’t you have a thing about mowing? You’re probably covered in grass pollen. Blah, blah, blah.
We all have the same disease and it’s called donald trump. The effects just show up in different ways.