I feel like I am living in a simulation or an alternate reality like the Man in the High Castle. A day after deciding to throw tens of millions off their healthcare and taking away their food stamps, wealthy american communities will gather together to gorge on burnt tubes of processed meats, alcohol, and spend billions blasting warlike objects into the air to noisily explode
Happy 4th, we’re surrounded by sociopaths.
Steve LaBonne
Let America Be America Again
Boris Rasputin (The Evil Twin)
John, that sounds like large parts of Murica any given day, but with firearms instead of fireworks.
eclare
Everyone look at Calypso!
Photo at bottom.
Suzanne
John, that’s not a very nice thing to say about Baud.
ETA: Busting Baud’s chops is my favorite 4th of July tradition that I just made up.
Ohio Mom
I experienced a lovely moment earlier today. We were at the Northside parade, which is Cincinnati’s hippie-bohemian-arty-heavily GLBTQ neighborhood. It’s the kind of parade where you can expect to see giant puppets, though there weren’t any this year, alas.
There were a smattering of anti-Trump groups along with the high school bands, non-profits, gay bars, junior high girl drill teams, etc. The public library system, City waterworks, Metrobus system showed up, as they always do. I love the miniature Metrobus, reminds me of Shriners in their little cars (no Shriners at this parade but their spirit lives on in that little bus).
Everyone running for Cincinnati City Council was represented, including a dark blue pick-up truck carrying Cory Bowman, Vance’s half brother who is running for Mayor.
As soon as the pickup truck got near enough so everyone lining the street could read the sign on its side, a mass of Boos and thumbs down spontaneously arose. I realized that along the entire one mile route, the Boos were following him like a wave — as soon as he was out of sight, everyone was cheering the next community group and their lovingly put together display and costumes.
I know it doesn’t mean much but for that one moments, I felt hopeful.
sab
@eclare: Is that the bearded collie holding his own leash?
Mathguy
One of the local real estate agents stuck small American flags by mailboxes in our neighborhood. Sorry, I’m not in the mood to look at one this week on my property, so it ended up in the trash. Maybe when this country regains its sanity I’ll rethink that position.
Baud
@Suzanne:
I’m not that fat.
sab
Some country station is blasting away in my favorite classical station’s bandwidth. That used to be a big no-no. I wonder if it still is.
JKC
Low-key day here at casa de la JKC. We’re smoking some baby back ribs and staying as far away from fireworks as possible.
Steve LaBonne
@Mathguy: Our flag still flies from our porch- upside down to denote the distress our country is in.
Raoul Paste
Here’s to those who wish us well.
All the rest, etc
Happy 4th.
ruemara
Happy fourth, Jackals. I just don’t have the heart to celebrate this year, I couldn’t get it cut out of that guy I captured in one piece.
I went to the local youth 4th bike parade. I didn’t feel like sitting around for the jingoistic adult parade later. Just enjoy what you can, and rest up, it’s going to be a busy year.
Nukular Biskits
I’m going to screen-cap that and post it on Bluesky.
Wapiti
My brother was over earlier. He had been grumpy yesterday, I asked “… if it was about the Billionaire Blowjob Bill?” He smiled and said that was a good description. I told him Betty Cracker came up with that name.
Baud
@ruemara:
Good to see you. Been too long.
WTFGhost
As I said to Kalakal (assuming I spelled that), our first Independence Day was us getting ready for the fight of our existence, with the Crown believing in hanging, drawing, and quartering, for traitors.
Well… so, this one isn’t all that different, and, we’re less likely to be hanged by the neck until almost dead, and then experience first hand vivisection, where they pull out your organs to show them to you, and try to keep you alive as long as possible while doing so. You know, then shipping off parts of the body to be displayed.
So: are you ready to put your John Henry on a new declaration, and fight for freedom, once again?
Nukular Biskits
@ruemara:
Yeah. Same here.
Most of my neighbors on the neighborhood WhatsApp channel are sending July 4th memes & GIFs (non political, thank FSM) but I really don’t feel like participating.
Went to a July 4th celebration up in what we call “Hurleywood” (community called Hurley, about 20 miles north of Pascagoula, right in the middle of what Ms. Biskits calls “Yahooland”) held at a big Pentecostal church. Lotsa folks, lotsa food vendors, music (mostly gospel & patriotic … and, yes, I had that fucking Lee Greenwood song inflicted on me at least once). The ONLY reason I went was to spend time with two of my grandkids and watch the fireworks. Otherwise, I would have noped right out of that.
Baud
@WTFGhost:
Sounds like work. Can I just sit on my couch and post comments about how everyone else is doing it wrong?
WTFGhost
@Wapiti: I got to sing the chorus of “The Ballad of Don Schitzenpants” to someone at the marijuana store. (Okay, I confess, I practiced in the car, to make sure I could.) This big, bad, fugly bill might end up helping us win the war for true independence.
@ruemara: Would some beef heart work? I know some butcher shops, do halal meat.
@sab: Any violation of the public airwaves used to have the FCC ready to STOMP, but, with Trump, he wouldn’t care if a portable transmitter was screwing with your reception.
It’s one of those things that *should* be done. It’s like, some asshole shows up, toting an AR-15, just because they can, should get the warning, “Now, look, you’re upsetting people. I don’t like upset people. So, you’re right, I can’t arrest you as long as you’re just being a first amendment dickhead, but if I see you step a foot outside the effing crosswalk, I’m gonna make those upset people very happy, by transporting you to the lockup, and making you fill out a bunch of forms, including your fingerprints and a mug shot. Got it?”
Why? Because if loonies with guns can walk around with abandon, they can try to assassinate the President, just as an example.
Same thing with the airwaves. The FCC should be super-careful, because there’s all kinds of crap you could do, by polluting the public airwaves, at the right time, in the right way, in a localized area. Terrorists, or a foreign adversary, would salivate at the idea of causing the kind of damage screwed up signalling could cause us. If that’s not the case today, it will be sometime in the not-distant future.
Oh, dear, I’m babbling again.
WTFGhost
@Baud: I’d worry about the potential sexual harassment case, friend.
(I said “harassment” with the British emphasis – HAIR-ass-ment.” Just so you know.)
(What? Of course I type in accents. Usually a Philly/Ohio/Seattle accent, but it does vary, especially if watching Dr. Who or Lucifer.)
WTFGhost
@Baud: Yes, but you might become a right wing radio personality if you do that. It’s just one of the risks you take. If that happens, let me know if the sale of your immortal soul is explicit or implicit, okay? I’m just curious….
Eyeroller
@Mathguy: A local real-estate agent did that years ago and my now-late husband used it for chipping (golf) practice in the backyard for several years.
trollhattan
@Steve LaBonne:
You are Sam Alito and I claim my prize.
(Bet Sam’s missus is completely hammered this 4th.)
JoyceH
Well, I’ve got my plans for the 4th settled. Just found out that Tubi has Bulletproof Monk available so I’ll GrubHub some pad Thai.
zhena gogolia
We went to two gatherings yesterday, so sitting at home today. Quiet so far, but I don’t expect that to last.
I always hate the 4th of July, but boy, this year . . .
zhena gogolia
@JoyceH: I thought you were going to try Jamaican?
lowtechcyclist
@Baud:
I’m not that fat.
So you claim. ;-)
JoyceH
@zhena gogolia: I actually found a bbq place that delivers on its own and was going to go with that, because that’s my usual 4th thing. But a couple days ago I woke up with the most awful acid reflux and couldn’t get back to sleep, so I’m avoiding spicy for a while. (I’m on Zepbound and very positive about it, but some foods that I used to have no problem with can cause unpleasant reactions.)
JPL
@trollhattan: Probably celebrating with Ginni Thomas.
In honor the day, my son brought over Chinese. It was good.
Cheryl from Maryland
For the 4th, I made watermelon, tomato, feta cheese, balsamic vinaigrette salad. Best thing about this salad is that one can use grocery store produce (so inferior, especially for tomatoes) and it still tastes great. Also put out an American Flag as I will not let those bastards take the US from me.
bbleh
Happy 4th, we’re surrounded by sociopaths.
Hey now! I take GREAT exception to your characterizing them as sociopaths!
They are merely ignorant tribal savages indulging in rituals they don’t fully understand but that amuse them in their childlike naïveté.
JPL
Will Ferrell’s interpretation of patriotic outfits
Scout211
The Madre Fire in San Luis Obispo, Kern and Santa Barbara Counties in California is now over 70,000 acres. And “catastrophic” fast flooding in West Central Texas has already claimed lives and swift water rescues are continuing.
Do we even have FEMA to respond anymore?
Juju
@JoyceH: I know that’s English, but I have no idea what any of that means.
zhena gogolia
@Juju: Haha, I understand everything except Bulletproof. I understand Monk, but why Bulletproof?
JPL
@Scout211: TX will at least get thoughts and prayers
BREAKING: At least 13 people killed, 23 girls missing from summer camp after flash flooding in central Texas
trollhattan
@Scout211:
With no Weather Service to report the problems FEMA be like: “Hey, we got the day off here to go watch rasslin’.”
mayim
This is the weekend that really shows that Maine = Vacationland, which means people. Too many people. Too many people everywhere.
So I stay home with the cats, a couple new books I picked up at the library the other day, and some low-effort food [air fryer does corn on the cob really well]
Anecdata: many fewer Canadian license plates than usual this dual holiday weekend week.
Juju
@zhena gogolia: I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed today, so parts that I normally would understand were interpreted as white noise with the monk tubi part.
JoyceH
@zhena gogolia: the Monk (with no name) is a bulletproof monk because he’s the mystical guardian of a sacred scroll. It’s one of those totally unrealistic martial arts things and quite funny. Chow Yun-Fat.
Jeffro
There’s nothing wrong with all the various ways that Americans celebrate the 4th – hot dogs, fireworks, all of that. Although I am liking the trend of drone lights shows replacing fireworks for multiple reasons!
The only reason it sucks this year is because we’re all in fear for our democracy (and rightly so). We did all the same things last year, only Biden was president, and it was great.
Celebrate if you can; get through it if not. Either way, let’s regroup next week and really go after these fuckers!
Kelly
Our local volunteer fire department is currently winding through all the streets of the small town (pop. 1200) across the river. Children line up along the curb. The firemen honk the big air horn and whoop whoop the sirens for each cluster of kids. This is a 4th of July tradition.
Baud
@JPL:
Holy cow. That’s dreadful.
Baud
@Jeffro:
Last year at this time, we were embroiled in the Great Age Civil War. Two years ago was great, however.
zhena gogolia
@JoyceH: Oh, I thought it was Tony Shalhoub in Kevlar.
zhena gogolia
@Jeffro: My husband reminded me that last year, Biden was being shit on from all sides.
Chetan Murthy
@WTFGhost: I think the more relevant question is: why aren’t the leaders of Blue States willing to put their John Hancocks to such a declaration? Or at least, openly defy the Fascist Feds? Civilians like us can’t do this: we need for organized local&state governments to do it, otherwise it’s just a rabble.
WTFGhost
Oh, hell, yes, it does! It can caramelize the corn sugars a bit, and make them a bit chewy. Not good if you have dentures, but cut them off, or chew them off properly, and you have a real treat. Mix them with salsa and black beans for a real treat!
Chetan Murthy
Today I went to Trader Joe’s to pick up a bottle of Two Buck Chuck Pinot Grigio to make wine coolers. Cheap and cheerful.
The lady who checked me out (YAY! She was wearing a mask!) complimented me on my tshirt ( amazon.com/dp/B0DP64KVTH?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_configurable_asin&customizationToken=MC_Assembl… ) and she told me she knew what it meant (“Tread on me Daddy” HA!) And we had a chuckle that I can still wear such a shirt in SF this week. Maybe not next week, but this week, yeah.
ETA: I was so tickled that I wished her a Happy Independence Day. Which, TBH, I’m not feeling, but then, when somebody is nice around Christmas, I wish them Merry Christmas too.
trollhattan
Mood one year ago:
Baud
@trollhattan:
No lie told.
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
I’m not your husband.
JPL
@Baud: Brave Old World. There’s a tropical depression off the SE Coast but since we no longer have monitoring systems who knows how much warning we will have. Trump does like the Gilded Age
rikyrah
Happy July 4th, Cole 🇺🇸
rikyrah
@JPL:
🙏🏽🙏🏽😢😢😢
Baud
@JPL:
Meteorology is a gateway to liberalism.
Chetan Murthy
@Baud: that, that, that is a cold, cold cut. Also, I detect no lie. But still, -cold-.
schrodingers_cat
@zhena gogolia: My theory, is that white people see him as a race traitor. From MAGA to tankies to PodBros. This includes a fair number of people on “our” side. Not consciously perhaps but subconsciously.
MobiusKlein
@Chetan Murthy: What will happen if Blue State Governors start opposing the Feds in a notable way?
We don’t have to guess – what has already happened in CA is the National Guard gets taken over, and the Marines occupy a city. Then the guard does not do normal things like fight fires. Promised money stops being sent. Floodgates are opened wasting water. Selective enforcement.
If more opposition happens, then the above x10 starts.
It’s quite a major step you are asking for.
Gin & Tonic
@Jeffro: The United States that gave refuge to my parents and so many others after WW II no longer exists. It now sides with the tyrants that they escaped from.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
Just got back from last minute gear prep for our Girls Rock Denver summer day camp that starts on Monday.
Denver is deserted (everybody goes to the mountains on a 3-day, holiday weekend which means the traffic coming back on Sunday will be EPIC..ally bad. )
Driving past the Capitol, there were maybe 20-30 ‘No Kings’ protesters all setup and getting reliable honks as we went by. Nothing big but the presence is a good one.
Chetan Murthy
@schrodingers_cat: I remember when Biden was campaigning in 2020, and he said (to white voters) that nothing was going to change. And it turned out, that was not completely true: he nominated and hired large number of nonwhite folks and women. And nonwhite women. And he did other stuff too, but ….. I think his hiring decisions were viewed by a certain part of White America as a betrayal.
I mean, I have my problems with Karine Jean-Pierre’s …. public pronouncements since the end of the Biden admin, but ….. her presence at that podium every day had to have been a massive affront to MAGA America. Just massive. I can imagine the Cletii just strokin’ out on the reg’lar watchin’ clips on Fox with her at that podium. And that’s just for starters. Imagine the apoplexy when Biden nominated Justice Jackson!
Shorter: I hadn’t thought of it that way, but once you said it, it was strangely compelling.
Gin & Tonic
@Baud: I bet she wakes up every day thanking some deity for that.
JPL
@Baud: WOKE
zhena gogolia
@Baud: Ну и слава Богу.
zhena gogolia
@Chetan Murthy: You think Cletus watches White House briefings?
zhena gogolia
@Gin & Tonic: GMTA
zhena gogolia
@Gin & Tonic: My father is spinning in his grave.
lowtechcyclist
@Chetan Murthy:
The question I’d have is, what exactly would they declare that would not at least implicitly be a rejection of the Federal government’s authority over their states, i.e. secession? Is there room to thread that needle?
I think sooner or later it may come to a choice between secession and knuckling under to authoritarian rule well beyond the scope of law, but that’s an extremely serious business. None of us are ready for that yet.
ETA: Looks like Mobius Klein (nice nym, btw) beat me to it.
Baud
@Gin & Tonic:
@zhena gogolia:
It could be worse. I could be her kid.
Chetan Murthy
A very well-posed question. And my answer is that there is no room there. None at all. You cannot fight a lawless Federal government, while obeying all the laws, b/c of the Supremacy Clause, right?
There are many things about which I am angry at my state&local officials (sitting here in SF). But the biggest one is that they don’t even have the -stones- to tell their constituents that if they are denaturalized, if they are picked up by ICE, there is nothing CA & SF can do for them. They’re on their own. Instead they mumble -bullshit- about SF and CA protecting all residents, and being a safe place, and other -bullshit-. The truth is that we are on our own, and our state&local governments are either inert or actually (as in the case of the po-po) Quislings.
They need to say this, and say it loud and often. B/c maybe, just maybe, that might wake Californians. If all Blue state officials said it, maybe it’d wake up Blue State Americans.
ruemara
@Scout211: No I don’t think we do. Damn, I don’t even know these things are going on any more.
Kathleen
@Ohio Mom: Quite a few of Vance’s neighbors in East Walnut Hills had Harris/Walz signs in their yards.
WTFGhost
I think I’ve decided this is *probably* an open thread, and I’ll let the FPers swat me with a rolled up newspaper otherwise:
So, everyone, open thread, and, please remember, no circular firing squad is desired, but: over at Crooks&Liars, I saw “Sui*ide”.
Today, I’m channeling anger, okay? “I won’t despair in the face of injustice, I will be effing ANGRY.”
The effect is ruined if you say “effing” instead of the actual eff-word, but, that’s life.
And I felt angry about that. Why? Well – suicide is something I need to consider (if we’re being truly honest) every effing day. “Will the action I’m taking tend to keep me alive longer, or kill me more quickly? Will it tend to cause me to want to die, and want to enough to, say, spend enough for a double barrel (Just to be sure), etc., etc..”
Suicide isn’t a naked breast, bush, penis, or asshole, where you put a pasty over the bit that’s too risky to show. It’s something I face every day. As I recently said in a personal statement, “every year, it feels like a shame that I didn’t die, because I’d have lost so little, and, ‘no more pain, no more suffering, no more yearning for acceptance.'”.
So suicide isn’t ever far from my mind. Brutal truth: at one point in my life, I kept the means for suicide right next to me. Why? Because it meant I never had to commit suicide on impulse. “If you still feel this bad, you can blow your brains out tomorrow, right? But if you don’t, then…?” and, of course, it worked, for me.
Please note, when I say “it worked, for me,” that I might be Casper, aged > 60, and yes, still DEAD. But I also might be the kind of crazed fool for whom “if I can do it tomorrow, I don’t need to do it now,” worked.
I don’t like the idea of making suicide a shameful thing to discuss, something that requires a pasty to display it publicly. But I’m also aware that I’m a uniquely unique individual, and I might just have my crankypants on.
Chetan Murthy
@MobiusKlein: @lowtechcyclist: Yes, it’s a big step I’m asking them for. But
(1) the alternative is to -abandon- us to the depredations of a lawless Federal government.
(2) My thinking has been very much influenced by William Sheridan Allen’s _The Nazi Seizure of Power: The Experience of a Single German Town, 1922-1945_. In that book, he explains how the Socialists (at the moment of Hitler’s ascension to power) had a lot of resources, including armed militias of considerable size. But their leaders did nothing, and in their inaction, allowed Hitler to systematically take them apart, defeat them in detail. Eventually, all those resources, the organizations, unions, clubs, newspapers, militias, they were all dismantled by the Nazis. And the Socialists just remained there, inert.
This is why I get so irate at Gov. Goodhair Newsom. All he’s doing by refusing to confront the Feds, is allowing them time to eat away at any possibility of resistance. And to the extent that that is the case, -because- that is the case, the only hope I see for our salvation is thru a colossal, truly stupendous failure of governance. We need a Great Depression with Trump’s fingerprints all over it, to save our Republic. Because the people with the power to stop this descent into Fascism are unwilling to act.
There are apparently massive flash-floods in Texas right now — washing away dwellings in large numbers. The way I look at it, THE MORE THE BETTER. B/c it’s the only way that things might change. Any thing that harms Red Staters, is a good thing for the preservation of our Republic. Anything. Anything.
Because that’s all there is left.
schrodingers_cat
It would be a mistake to cede what it means to be an American to the party currently in charge of the federal government
JMG
Our town’s 4th of July parade is so cringe, corny and delightful it’d make Normal Rockwell’s teeth ache. I’ve lived here 75 years and I am damned if I’ll let our fascist moron would-be overlords take the simple fun of American community out of my life. Come Monday, it’s back to (so far) cold war.
Ohio Mom
@Kathleen: Yeah, I don’t see East Walnut Hills voting for a store-front preacher without any relevant experience for Mayor ( for the non-Cincinnatians, I’m describing Vance’s half-brother).
Haven’t seen you around these parts in a while, Kathleen, nice to see you again.
schrodingers_cat
@Kathleen: Nice to see you in these parts again.
JPL
@WTFGhost: I turned off the news. not because I wanted to be ignorant, but I wanted to survive so I could piss on his grave. Maybe I’ll win the lottery and can piss in Mar Lagos pool
Torrey
@WTFGhost:
Strangely enough, I initially read that as a somewhat unhinged claim that you had been a pro-independence/non-loyalist colonist on July 4, 1776. Surely that wasn’t your first Independence Day?
Kathleen
@Ohio Mom: Aw, thank you! That is so sweet of you! I think about you and your son and I pray things can work out for you when it’s all said and done.
zhena gogolia
@schrodingers_cat: Yeah!
prostratedragon
High Noon theme by citizen Dimitri Tiomkin (Ukrainian born).
Baud
@Kathleen:
Getting the band back together.
Ohio Mom
@WTFGhost: You are entitled to have your cranky pants on, you live a hard life. Just say you’ll stay with us a little longer, I enjoy your comments
I stopped visiting Crooks & Liars long ago. Too much like a sensational tabloid. I stopped LGM because they were too defeatist. Like Goldilocks, Balloon Juice is the place I’ve found that is just right for me.
Chetan Murthy
@Ohio Mom: LG&M has more lawyers than B-J does. That’s useful when discussing law&politics. But it’s a talking-shop, and nobody ever -does- anything. B-J is not that: people get shit done here.
And LG&M is insufficiently pet-centric. That’s really disqualifying TBH.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Chetan Murthy:
However, it is sufficiently douche-centric. And that has nothing to do with the lawyers.
middlelee
Couldn’t agree more about being surrounded by sociopaths.
Kathleen
@Baud: Are you thinking of the Baudettes?
Baud
@Kathleen:
Whatever it takes.
WTFGhost
Well, and: if Matthew Sheppard isn’t brutally murdered, people don’t see gay rights as a big deal.
You are correct. We are well past the time we can expect sanity to save us, so consequences is all there is left. And I know what you mean – you mourn every lost home, every lost life, in specific – but in general, you recognize “we need people to *see*, and see clearly, why we don’t do what Trump does. And, alas, now it’s going to hurt, because we decided sanity was negotiable.”
Kathleen
@schrodingers_cat: Thank you SC!
NotMax
@JoyceH
Made me think of the enjoyable The New Legends of Monkey series, still available on Netflix.
Kathleen
@zhena gogolia: Smiley face emoji!!!!
WTFGhost
@JMG: Good on ya.
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Now *that* is a burn. I think even the lawyers who hate the lawyer jokes would give that a laugh, whether they disagree or not.
@Kathleen: I thought it was “Baud and the Squig-Tone“?
zhena gogolia
@Kathleen: 😂💜
I’m not ashamed of my emojis.
Geminid
@prostratedragon: My Congressman is from Ukraine. Eugene Vindman (VA07) was born in Kyiv June 6, 1975.
Rep. Vindman posted this today
Spanberger, Jones and Hashmi are the Democratic candidates for Virginia Governor, Attorney General and Lt. Governor.
Like Vindman, state Senator Hashmi is a naturalized citizen. She was born in Hyderabad, India on July 5, 1964.
Rep. Vindman posted pictures of the march and it looked like there was a good turnout for the march and rally. I wasn’t surprised; Virginia Dems I talk to are excited about our ticket.
Kathleen
@Ohio Mom: I went to event for gubernatorial candidate Dr. Amy Acton on Monday. One of the most uplifting people I have ever heard. She has a plan. She also informed us that the real younger than Z kids are now using “Ohio” as a term of disdain or contempt (the new “cringe”) and that she even heard someone say it when she was in London. This is a link to a tweet of a picture with her:x.com/urbanmeemaw/status/1939995745576255660
Chetan Murthy
Honestly, -not anymore-. Not. Anymore. I doubt there were very many Brits in London during the Blitz, who mourned the lives/homes of Germans under Allied bombing raids. It was a war. And this is a war too, even if too many on our side don’t see it that way …. -yet-.
I’l mourn those losses once and only once we’ve restored our Republic, when my rights as an American are restored. Right now? Those people losing their homes in Texas are -collateral damage- at best, and if they’re MAGAts, righteous winnings.
It is what it is.
Kathleen
@zhena gogolia: If I knew how do an emoji from scratch on my laptop I would LOL. I have poor tech fu.
Baud
@Kathleen:
Windows key + .
Chetan Murthy
Even though … what is it? HALF the women of America no longer have access to reproductive health care, it seems that it’s not a big deal. This is ….. -enraging-. But it’s just the way things are now. It seems like nobody gives a damn. Or at least, for sure, our elites and our media DGAF.
Kathleen
Just saw a great quote from Hakeem Jeffries during his marathon speech: “Their shamelessness is their super power.”
Matt McIrvin
@Kathleen: Oh, the “Ohio” thing is a Gen Z thing that’s been going on for a while, my daughter told me about it years ago.
Kathleen
@Matt McIrvin: Thanks!
WTFGhost
@Torrey: On the advice of counsel, I decline to answer, citing my rights under the Fifth Amendment.
Geminid
@Kathleen: I don’t mess with emojis much, but I am tempted to post about Azerbaijan just to show their flag emoji: 🇦🇿. I like the colors.
Fun fact: there are more Azeri citizens of Iran 🇮🇷 than there are Azeris in Azerbaijan 🇦🇿. Their flag isn’t as cool though.
Torrey
@WTFGhost:
Aw, dang it all! I was gonna ask if Alexander Hamilton really was as fine a rapper as I’ve heard tell.
Ohio Mom
@Kathleen: That is a great photo of you two!
I hope Acton has a chance. I’m certainly all for her, and maybe the backlash against MAGA will pick up steam by then — but I don’t know, Ohio gets more and more backwards. I’m heartened to know she is a inspiring in person.
lowtechcyclist
@Baud:
Is that browser-specific? (I’m in Firefox, fwiw. And on a Lenovo Thinkpad laptop running Windows 11.) Because I’m doing that (Windows-shift-+, that is, since without the shift, it’s Windows-=) and nothing’s happening. Windows-= gives me a screen magnifier.
ETA: By ‘Windows key,’ I assume that’s the key with what looks like a four-pane window on it; on this keyboard, it sits between the Ctrl and Alt keys.
Another Scott
@lowtechcyclist: The notation for multiple keypresses invites multiple interpretations.
To bring up the emoji picker on Winders:
Press and hold the Windows key (left side of spacebar somewhere).
Then press the period key.
Voila!
HTH!
Best wishes,
Scott.
Baud
@lowtechcyclist:
This says my memory was accurate.
lowtechcyclist
@Another Scott:
Thanks, that worked!
“It’s just this little chromium switch here.” 😁
MobiusKlein
@Chetan Murthy: The last folks who went that way in the US got crushed – and they actually had armies at the ready at the start.
So far, the plan is Underpants Gnomes
1) California tells the the Feds to fuck off
2) ???
3) Freedom
I don’t see a plausible way where CA has real resistance (yet) without it being a bloodbath.
Geminid
@Ohio Mom: I’m wondering if Ohio’s Lieutenant Governor will join the race on the Republican side. Jim Tressel would be tougher to beat, I think, than Vivek Ramaswamy.
Ramaswami is just a slick, fast talker. Maybe he’s upped his game since his Presidential run, but I doubt it.
lowtechcyclist
@Baud: Your memory was accurate, but it can get confusing when different keys can be interpreted in multiple ways.
I interpreted your “Windows key + .” as hit the windows key and the + key. I read the period as the end of your sentence, not part of the instruction. And didn’t realize you were using the + as a conjunction, not as which key to hit.
Anyway, Another Scott made sense of it for me.
Baud
@lowtechcyclist:
He usually does.
Gvg
@Chetan Murthy: I think privacy laws are currently preventing hospitals and doctors from giving out the stories and info to the public. They are not allowed to say.
I saw something similar when I had cancer. My bosses were not legally able to say I was out sick with cancer or explain anything to coworkers even though I was being open because I figured how could people understand I wouldn’t be back the next day if they didn’t know what was going on. I also needed them to use email or the phone and not see me in person like they used to. So I just said what I had. It would have been obvious once I lost my hair, but still. And all through it, the bosses could not say anything because that was revealing private info, and we weren’t a medical office, just a regular one with strict legal compliance.
Dr.’s have even more rules, but we heard very little even during Covid. For this, it has to come from families, by their choice.
I n the past, it didn’t as much.
I am guessing somewhat though.
sab
I only just realized that the fake Tudor mansion across rhe railroad tracks from my neighborhood has fireworks on the fourth.
So boom-boom-boom tonight.
Six of the seven cats are handlimg it well. Echo was running around frantically mewing while I changed the bedding. Once the bed was remade she went u der it and I haben’t heard a peep out of her since.
Sadie the black cat just strolled in and ate Echo’s dinner. Oh well. Echo isn’t likely to eat anything tonight.
chemiclord
@Chetan Murthy: Ya know… no one is stopping you, Mr. Fawkes. Be the change you want to be in the world. Go get your gunpowder, and do it yourself.
Otherwise, sit down and stop trying to pick fights for everyone else.
Listen, there very well might be no choice but to water the tree of liberty with bloodshed. But that’s a line that no one is going to know exactly where to draw it, and it might be different for a lot of different people. But I know at least two people who don’t get to draw it.
One of them is me. The other one is you.
Gloria DryGarden
@Kelly: that is really charming. Positive feelings all around.
Gloria DryGarden
@WTFGhost: sweet pea. I’m glad you’re still here.
I had a year of very frequent suicidal thoughts, like labor pains, man, so I have some vague idea of the daily courage and fiercness it takes to stay alive anyway. I used to negotiate with myself to stay for another 5 minutes. Like “5 minutes, ok, honey, then we can revisit this. Can you make another 5 minutes?”
I used to collect others stories of why we didn’t do it, even though we maybe had a plan, or felt it was close. Those of us who know this journey, we know we are amazing. People should wonder at us, for sticking around. I only did a year of intense chronic pain, so I only sort of understand about that part. I find pain above a seven pretty distracting.
so all I can say is congratulations. And thank you. And I toast your courage and persistence.
WTFGhost
@Gloria DryGarden: Well, I won’t say I was saved by a good woman, though, that’s kinda true, because it’s not really fair to either of us.
See, I knew this woman, R., and she was the first woman who I realized found me attractive. I flubbed handling the situation, but, I never forgot her, and, the reasons I was so enamored of her never left me. See, I respected her, her brains, and her sensibilities, and even where we disagreed, she was someone who’d make me stop, listen, and consider her situation from first principles, as best as I could.
She had a friend who died of suicide. Now, to me, that’s like “she had a friend who was run over by a bus.” This was the first time I had to come to grips with how suicide really affected another person, and I realized it was *earthshaking*.
Heh. She also had a chronic pain condition, but, at the time, I thought that was how she was *different* from me, ha ha.
Now, me, I always understood the concept of choosing a night to die. “Look, I don’t want to start a new book, or anything. Let’s call the doc, and tell them to prepare a death certificate for tomorrow night, and spend the rest of our time making as much love as exists in this limited world.” (Note that may or may not include *sex*.)
Where was I? Right! Oh, R, she hated the concept of physician assisted suicide. See, “at every other point in every person’s life, we try to make them happy to continue living as long as their expected lifespan is. Why would that change, just because their mortality is much closer than most people’s? Why don’t we want them to be *happy* to live, until one day, they go to sleep and don’t wake up?”
Well… that’s a compelling argument, except, again, I always understood, on some basic level, the desire to say “it’ll be within a week or two, and, you know, I’m ready for all this to be over.”
One day, I realized that this was precisely what the world needed. (I was young minded, and very naive, you see.) Sometimes, really good people will take contrary positions, for the best of reasons, and, well, sometimes it’ll hurt, and get ugly, and, you might hate people you’d otherwise love, but…
But… if she’s not riding the brake on people like me, who understand the notion of “I’m choosing to check out at X time” but don’t understand the other pressures a person might feel, nor understand that this might be treatable depression, allowing weeks of happy life, etc., well, we might not save the people we can. (Not that I’ve saved anyone, but….)
There were no *right* answers, I realized.
That the suicide of her friend moved her so much, that it wounded her so deeply, and, most importantly, because she *never* blamed her friend for her pain, she just *expressed* her pain, that caused me to realize I could “almost never” kill myself. In the end, I wouldn’t expose anyone to that much unworkable pain.
Plus, I’ve always felt that if I killed myself, everyone would say “oh, he just did that to hurt soandso” and “what a selfish asshole” and, let’s be brutally honest, right? It ruins the drama of the moment to think no one will be at a rainy funeral scene, bawling because they hadn’t realized how badly their thoughtlessness hurt you.
When you accept “that ain’t happening, they’ll just crap on your name one final time,” you stay alive until you really, honestly, just *can’t* bear it any longer. One advantage of this, is, it eliminates the possibility of an aggressive suicide, a suicide to hurt someone, dying on your ex’s doorstep, that kind of crap. Your brain just kind of sheds that like Marshawn Lynch in beast mode sheds tacklers, you know, maybe you pause for a moment, to deal with the annoyance, and then continue your journey.
But honestly, the biggest thing was just the sense of the complete alteration of R’s life, plus, the fundamental change in thinking she triggered in me on certain issues, like “assisted suicide.” Without both, I’m not sure I’d have been *as* able to pull back from the brink.
So, if she’d smile to know maybe she saved me, cool, she deserves that, but she doesn’t deserve the load of “OMG YOU SAVED MY LIFE!” and, really, I might have made it without her, but… goddamn, I’m really glad I didn’t have to. Even though it’s been many years since I’ve been sure she’s alive.
Ruckus
@Suzanne:
Busting Baud’s chops is my favorite 4th of July tradition that I just made up.
OK I’m still laughing out loud at that.
I’m going with you’ve just earned ten points for this. Now you can’t hoard those points, they earn you nothing – but respect and the Baud Award.
Ruckus
@Ohio Mom:
It actually did mean a lot. It meant that normal humanity is still with us and that normal humans do not have monetary narcolepsy, a disease I just made up but which is a disease where one has a patient who only sees dollar signs and absolutely nothing else.