Dogs & their sticks: #AGoodPlace
Source: www.reddit.com/r/MadeMeSmil…— Michelle says: Be kind. Always. ?? (@snarkysillysad.bsky.social) June 24, 2025 at 3:47 PM
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Looming Epstein vote has Republicans eager to leave Washington.
— Politico (@politico.com) July 17, 2025 at 12:44 PM
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trump is insanely unpopular and declining in popularity as more voters realize he was tied in with the most famous pedophile in US history. his power is propped up by two things: 1) corrupt control of the judiciary 2) conservative control of the information environment through media and social media
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The scandal of Jeffrey Epstein isn't a secret pedophile network, it's that when rich guys learn one of their friends is a pedophile they just go "haha, ol' Jeff and his kiddy diddlin', what a character."
— Everything Price Sufferer (but especially eggs) (@agraybee) July 18, 2025
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"Hitler purging Jews from the civil service is just a distraction from him reoccupying the Rhineland."
"Hitler demanding Czechoslovakia is just a distraction from his euthanasia policies."
Nothing is "just a distraction". It's all just different parts of the same story.— Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec.bsky.social) July 18, 2025 at 7:39 PM
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The answer isn't to say "look at this tree not that one." It's to say "look at the forest".
— Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec.bsky.social) July 18, 2025 at 7:40 PM
Friday Night Open Thread – How About a Little Music?
danielx
Incoming rain.
raven
Ah, the days when doggies played stick, now it’s tennis balls!
Anonymous At Work
Why does the Spineless Cowards Caucus (GOP) think that skipping a vote on Epstein will save them from their own cultists
EDIT: Any ideas about the Senate? There are some known raving lunatic monsters, such as Blackburn from TN but are there enough to make votes uncomfortable?
UncleEbeneezer
@raven: At least dogs have the common sense to reject pickleball.
zhena gogolia
Chovanec is right.
SFAW
@Anonymous At Work:
Because their cultists are morons? Maybe because they’ll tell their cultists that “the Demoncraps are the REAL pedophiles, and I’m trying to get that report released, but LOOK OVER THERE!” and their cultists will, in fact, look over there?
I long for the days — OK, not really, but still … — when Cole (or someone else here) posited that there is no Peak Wingnut. At least in those days, it was asymptotic craziness, not asymptotic evil where the sole purpose was to harm much/most of this country.
MagdaInBlack
@zhena gogolia: Yup. Sure is.
H.E.Wolf
Let’s look at the forest… and choose a stick to carry away. The smart doggo dismantling-of-tyranny method.
Good morning, all. Gotta dash – I have a full day ahead. I’ll plan to include at least one stick. :)
MattF
I’ve started watching Adolescence on Netflix. Four hour-long episodes, I’ve seen the first two so far. It’s at the OMFG level.
rk
Why is it that no one seems to ever talk about the fact that Virginia Giuffre worked as a locker room attendant at Mar-a-Lago when she was a teenager and was picked up by Maxwell there. That’s the most obvious connection to Trump.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@raven: In our house, the dog only goes for the tennis ball when he’s tossing it around to show me how fun it is. He figures humans like tennis balls and it’s a good way to get them off their sss and off the internet.
It doesn’t work the other way. If I toss it he just looks at me. “It’s not MY toy”
martha
@MattF: Just wait until Episode 3…when you’ve finished the series read about how they filmed each episode. Really interesting
eclare
@MattF:
I have heard and read about that show. Not sure I’m up for it.
kalakal
I needed to see those dogs. I love how overambitious they are, there’s some unfeasibly large sticks
I’m beginning to think this could destroy TFG. It reminds me of what I’ve often seen with politicians in the UK. They get away with all sorts of stuff that should have ended their careers for years and then something, often in the scale of their wrongdoings seemingly small*, comes along and from then on they can’t win for losing. Everything they try makes it worse, their past misdeeds come back to bite them hard, and before you know it, everyone, the public, the msm, and their party is publicly declaring that they hardly knew them, didn’t they used to make the coffee? , and they’ve always known they were a wrong ‘un.
It’s all self- inflicted as well, had you asked me a month I’d have said that TFG had not only skated on his past links to Epstein, he’d successfully misdirected all the anget at his opponents
*Epstein’s crimes were not small, they were monstrous
u
You know … this is the most unoriginal of all of my unoriginal thoughts, but … WHY THE FUCK DOES CONGRESS GET A SUMMER BREAK OF ALMOST TWO MONTHS IN ADDITION TO ALL OF THEIR OTHER BREAKS THROUGHOUT THE YEAR???? They’re very well paid, they have great benefits, they make a ton of extra money through bribes and insider trading, and they have POWER. Why don’t they work for a living? And no, they’re not “meeting with their constituents” during this time off. They’re sucking up to wealthy donors. The Republicans are the worst by a couple of orders of magnitude, but Congress as a whole pisses me off.
u
@rk: Ha. I didn’t know that one. Look — Donald Trump has been using his “money” (real or imagined) to hook up with young women for more than a half-century. Would it be so surprising if some of them were underage girls procured by his buddy Jeffrey Epstein? Trump committing statutory rape with a fourteen-year-old girl would not be surprising at all.
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
@MagdaInBlack:
I’ve seen an uptick in “distraction from Epstein” trolls on Blue sky in posts discussing other news.
Dorothy A. Winsor
I just saw a tiktok video of a funeral the deceased woman had planned for herself. It included a flash mob dancing to “Another One Bites the Dust.” I laughed my head off. We all should be so audacious
espierce
“Kiddie diddler” is going to leave a mark!
Elizabelle
Dogs get it done.
@H.E.Wolf:
To your sticks, jackals.
Baud
Not sure why the Republican Congress is excluded from this list.
trnc
You’ve answered your own question.
RevRick
@SFAW: The GOP and its media networks have peddled the lie that Democrats are evil child predators since the early 2000s. It’s all tied up with the gays and drag queens are grooming children, which was essentially part of Bush’s 2004 reelection campaign of keeping us safe from threats foreign and domestic. The MAGA cult has already thoroughly imbibed this narrative. And the expectations, nurtured by Trump, is that he would expose this Democratic cabal.
Now that he and his Congressional enablers are stonewalling, many in MAGA are howling about the betrayal. They’ve been frothing at the mouth for two decades now in anticipation of the exposure of Democratic elites as perverse and immoral. They want revenge for all the times liberals condemned them for racism, sexism, xenophobia, and homophobia. They want to be washed clean of their shittiness… or at least be shown that Democrats are even shittier.
RevRick
@Elizabelle: Dogs are just frustrated beavers.
Citizen Dave
The Epstein activities were wide and deep involving some of the most most immoral behavior possible. It is not just friends laughing it off about what their friend does. A terrible take.
Donald Trump is a pedophile.
Soprano2
That video was great, thanks for sharing it! My dog doesn’t care about toys much, but Lewis is obsessed with the cat fishing pole! I keep it in the top drawer of the secretary; he often sits in the hall looking at that drawer and then looking at me with a plaintive stare that says “Please please get the toy out!” I swear he’s addicted to it.
Kayla Rudbek
@u: historically, dating back to there being no air conditioning in DC during the summer (and trying to get out of the city for that reason). The English regarded DC as a hardship/subtropical post in the 19th century. Of course, you also had all sorts of mosquito borne diseases present in DC and Philadelphia back then too (yellow fever IIRC, maybe malaria?)
Heck, I would happily go up North or to the beach or mountains for two months if I had the vacation time (I am a damnyankee Minnesotan but I have been living in the DC suburbs since 2010).
I tell Mr. Rudbek that my retirement relocation plan is to keep driving north until we don’t need the AC in the car anymore (I would also happily move back to Minneapolis but I don’t think I can convince him to move back into the icebox, as he calls it. I think I can sell him on New England, particularly Maine).
HinTN
@Anonymous At Work: That’s the first good thing I’ve ever heard said about my horrible Senator.
Baud
@RevRick:
QFT
oldgold
I did not think Trump would sue the WSJ. I was wrong, but I still believe it was a boneheaded move.
Like most of Trump’s moves on a multitude of fronts, he strategizes only through the next several news cycles. He depends on our short memoried media that is always more than ready to focus on the next shiny thing.
Trump most likely intends in a to quietly dismiss the suit late on some lazy Friday afternoon before discovery kicks in. The WSJ to thwart this, might consider including a counterclaim in its answer.
RevRick
@u: It all stems from pre-air conditioning days and times when D.C. in the summer was a malarial swamp. Now, it’s because… it’s traditional!
Nukular Biskits
Good mornin’, y’all.
WRT what RevRick said above, for some reason I woke up this morning with imaginary conversation going on in my head between me and a MS Republican. In that conversation, the MS Republican asked why I assumed the worst of him. My answer was that I was assuming nothing, that they had demonstrated repeatedly they were horrible people who, through both direct action and indifference, harmed millions, all in fealty to a single man.
As to why that was in my head this a.m., damfino. Dream remnant?
And speaking of which, did y’all know T-Rex’s could fly?
Kayla Rudbek
@Dorothy A. Winsor: that and the Dropkick Murphys “Going Out In Style” would be fun for the wake or the meal after the funeral (I suspect my sibling or godson will have a Catholic funeral for me and I don’t think they could bribe the Jesuits into playing either of those during the funeral Mass. At least not with the lyrics.)
Geminid
@Elizabelle: As Teddy Roosevelt might say:
“Bark softly, and carry a big stick.”
RevRick
@oldgold: He’s bluffing, because a civil trial would involve a ton of discovery. No sane, ethical lawyer would take his case, though someone out to make a quick buck might.
geg6
@MattF:
Wait until episodes 3 and 4. Amazing work.
Glory b
@oldgold: Dow Jones says their research was meticulous and they will vigorously defend it in any lawsuit.
Another Scott
@u: Nice rant.
One of mine is: Why does Virginia still treat being a legislator as a part-time job?
The job doesn’t stop when the legislature is not in session.
If we want only the independently wealthy to go into public service, then the way to do that is to make it impossible for any normal person to stay ahead of the bill collectors while doing the job. And so, the legislature is dominated by views of the wealthy and powerful by default.
It the same with the US Congress – the system was set up in a far-away time when things were different, when life was simpler, when rich (or near-rich) white gentlemen obviously knew better than anyone else, and when the job was easier. Friction in the system intentionally makes changing it difficult. And too many vested interests – the rich and powerful, lobbyists, political hangers-on – know where the levers are and how to work them, so they don’t want the system to change.
When I’m elected Benevolent Despot, there are going to be some changes, believe you me!!11
Grr…
Thanks.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Shalimar
Speaker Johnson said Trump’s popularity is enormously high, 90% in the most recent CNN poll. Surely, he isn’t lying?
Oh, right. That is 88% just among Republicans. The rest of us aren’t human and will end up in a death camp eventually.
Mike E
@Another Scott: heh, now do North Carolina.
Nukular Biskits
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
I don’t do Tiktok but I’d love to see that.
I’ve told Ms. Biskits repeatedly I want a New Orleans style funeral party, with emphasis on the word “party”.
My thinking is I want those who loved me to be happy and those who didn’t to rejoice they finally got rid of me.
lowtechcyclist
@RevRick:
Fortunately for him, the GOP has plenty of lawyers who fail at least one of those disqualifications, if not both.
Nukular Biskits
@RevRick:
LOL. What’s interesting is that not all dogs are stick freaks. Summer of the House of Biskits is a tennis ball fanatic. I have never her express any interest in sticks, thrown or otherwise.
Quiltingfool
@Soprano2:
Sassy loves her cat fishing pole. It’s on the coffee table. When I get to the living room in the morning, she is sitting by the toy, rubbing her face on the string, and giving me “the Look.”
I have found the toy in my bedroom. She will drag it back there when I leave the house. I don’t know why she does it, but it’s cute.
We have another ritual. When I go to my sewing room, she races in, and sits by her grooming glove. So, groom the cat!
She has me well trained.
wenchacha
I’m late to last night’s earworm thread, but I feel compelled to share the work of robby roadsteamer, comic, activist, performance artist. I’m sure he is not everyone’s cup of tea. Maybe not even mine if he lived next door! Nevertheless, some jackals may appreciate the cheerfulness he radiates as he twerks in front of the cultists.
youtu.be/IyLTWa3T3Ew?si=w-M7iV5kplEIuGIr
MagdaInBlack
@Baud: I saw a clip of Nancy Pelosi saying it. I love Nancy, but I think she’s wrong here.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Nukular Biskits: Here’s a tiktok link. I hope you can see it.
https://www.tiktok.com/@sassy.classy.smartassy_/video/7188241702962957611?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id=7520285633756644878
Geminid
@Another Scott: There are many different types of Virginia Delegates and Senators who are not independently wealthy, including plenty of lawyers, along with medical doctors and college and high school teachers. For instance, before he was Governor, Senator Ralph Northam practiced medicine when the General.Assembly was not in session. My long-time Senator, Emmet Hanger, was a commercial real estate broker. I think my current stste Senator is a lawyer.
There are many more states with part-time legislators. States like New York, Illinois and California are more or less exceptions, and I don’t see Virginia joining them any time soon.
But if you want a full-time legislature, you can always talk to your State Senator, Scott Surovell about it and see what he has to say. Surovell makes his living primarily through his law practice, but he seems like a solid legislator despite that.
Anyway
Palate cleanser- I got to see the awesome Ms Stacey Abrams on Thursday. She was in town promoting “Coded Justice” newest addition to her Avery Keene legal thriller series. So refreshing to hear a smart, thoughtful, accomplished, funny, SANE public voice in contrast to the nonsense we are subjected to on the daily. The talk was at the public library and she kept it “non-partisan “ but mentioned “democracy-that-delivers” more than once.
The Good Troubles rally was getting started across the street and she stoped by there -surprise! -and addressed the crowd. She was more critical of the administration – defended DEI, spoke up against ICE was doing and fighting for our country. I’ve been so depressed about things and it was a nice change of pace.
Baud
@MagdaInBlack:
I wish people would strike the “distraction” idea from the brains.
The problem isn’t that Trump is distracting us. The problem is that we’re inherently unfocused as a group.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
@Glory b: Someone on Bluesky translated that from lawyerese into English as “We’ve got receipts, we know what to ask in discovery, and you mofos aren’t going to like where this goes.”
geg6
@MagdaInBlack:
What she said shows she’s lost a step in reading the room. What’s happened to “just win, baby”? Whatever works, right? What she suggests already didn’t work and what is it they say about repeating mistakes and hoping it will turn out differently? I’m out in Pelosi these days. Have been for a while. This confirmed that I was right. She’s lost the thread of where we are and where we’re going to have to go.
Betty Cracker
Trump posted this on his janky platform less than an hour ago:
As Doug Jones said on Bluesky, it’s an empty gesture. It’s meant to placate the rubes.
Prediction: it won’t. The issue won’t go away for at least four reasons, in no particular order:
1) Trump won’t/can’t shut the fuck up about it.
2) The Epstein issue uniquely embodies a foundational myth of Trumpism, i.e., that elite impunity is intolerable and that Trump would blow up the corrupt system that supports it. Elite impunity is real enough and intolerable. Yes, it’s gob-smackingly stupid to think Trump (of all people!) would oppose it, but here we are — sharing a country with millions of deeply gullible people along with millions of bigots, misogynists, xenophobes, homophobes, etc.
3) Too many people know what’s in the files to bury/falsify records now. According to NBC News, Sen. Durbin sent a letter to Bondi yesterday alleging that 1K FBI agents were tasked with combing through the files and flagging all mentions of Trump. That’s a lot of people.
4) More stuff will come out. The bombshell WSJ report about the Epstein birthday book says reporters “reviewed” the letter from Trump with the creepy doodle and weird “shared secrets” dialogue. Trump threatened to sue them before they published it, and they published it anyway. They also say the letter is part of the FBI’s cache of evidence against Epstein.
My guess is the letter will come out, along with more stories about Trump and Epstein being creepy with girls and young women, like the casino story that came out a couple of days ago. They were elite creeps who operated with impunity for decades. There will be more witnesses with stories that confirm that.
trnc
@Citizen Dave: If that’s a response to the agraybee tweet, you’ve misinterpreted his point.
Bill Arnold
@Shalimar:
This not-counting-of-non-Republicans is a common rhetorical trick among extremely partisan Republicans. It should be called out as the fascist rhetoric that it is.
Miss Bianca
@kalakal: Boris Johnson being the latest most notable of this example?
geg6
@Betty Cracker:
Rupert had two days, after Cheetolini was told about the story, to decide whether or not to publish. He went for it. Remember that Trump cost him $787 million. I guarantee the DJI/WSJ lawyers went over that story and the evidence cited in it with a fine toothed comb. And they published it. Never thought in a zillion years I’d ever stand up for Murdoch, but I’m cheering for him in this one instance.
Miss Bianca
@Kayla Rudbek:
A sentiment similar to that attributed to Odysseus:
I’m marching inland from the shore/Over my shoulder I’m carrying an oar
When someone asks me what/Is that funny thing you’ve got
Then I know I’ll never go to sea no more no more
Nukular Biskits
@Another Scott:
This. A thousand times, this.
When I ran for state senate a few years ago, I had already determined that, had I won, I’d have to take an unpaid leave of absence from my employer, which meant no benefits like health insurance. Most people can’t afford that.
Which is why the MS Legislature (probably like so many others) is comprised of business owners, attorneys, pastors, retired folks, etc, and very few average working stiffs.
Which explains, IMHO, why legislation is so often skewed towards the interests of those groups.
Shakti
I don’t have hobbies :)
This is my “hobby” — “research K holes
I wrap about a fandom I’m part of,and then use what I learned as Snapple facts to deploy in conversationwithout talking about the fandom?For example: I knew old film deteriorates in color quality but I didn’t know that prior to the mid fifties film stock was made out of nitrocellulose, they had rayon that was made out of nitrocellulose (they called it “mother in law silk” and made it that way until 1939, until the last factory caught on fire) and photographic film (like for X-rays) was made out of the same material, and they made plastics out of that stuff for things like combs and billiard balls.
This is the same stuff they made a substitute for gun powder out of, and (armed forces decided it was too dangerous for that and used something else) and it’s highly explosive and flammable. Water can actually make it worse. Theaters caught on fire all the time even with asbestos lined projection rooms. We don’t have a lot of early films because they caught on fire.
But I’m sure a lot of the TCM fans knew this.
This is why we need OSHA. And um standards. I would rather every day objects not randomly explode and self ignite.
Nukular Biskits
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
LOL! Awesome!
Miss Bianca
@Kayla Rudbek: My father got the organist at our church to play “Anchors Aweigh” on the carillon for my mother’s funeral.
From what I recall, he (the organist) wasn’t too enthused about the request, but he did it in fine style. :)
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@u: As a federal worker who is still clinging on to my job for now, it does piss me off because they, or at least the Republican reps, are prone to calling us lazy.
Another thing I’ve noticed on my now 5 day a week commute is that traffic is really light on Mondays and Fridays, whether I bike in (fewer cars) or take Metro (trains are empty until I get near the stops where Federal offices are adjacent). I’ve come to the realization that contrary to the general perception we’re the only fucking people in this town putting in a 5 day work week anymore. And I suspect this is not a new development but I just didn’t see the evidence because I used to assume it was telework schedules.
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone😊😊😊
mrmoshpotato
@Nukular Biskits:
No. Do tell! 🦖🚁🛫
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
Baud
@Nukular Biskits:
When they fly, do they sing I Believe I Can Fly or Wind Beneath My Wings?
p.a.
Everything Price Sufferer (but especially eggs)
@agraybee
The scandal of Jeffrey Epstein isn’t a secret pedophile network, it’s that when rich guys learn one of their friends is a pedophile they just go “haha, ol’ Jeff and his kiddy diddlin’, what a character.”
Not just “what a character”, but “Share, you
characterpervert!”mrmoshpotato
@Shalimar:
No. Pastor Mike just stoned off his ass on porn at the time.
Shalimar
@Betty Cracker: As I have been pointing out since they first floated this, Grand Juries for Epstein and Maxwell were convened when Donald Trump was president. There is no way in hell that SDNY prosecutors asked any questions or submitted any evidence that implicated their notoriously vindictive boss. Trump himself won’t even be mentioned in anything that comes from this request.
The evidence against Trump is in FBI files seized from Epstein and Maxwell, and in interviews with victims. There is no way this administration will ever release that.
Nukular Biskits
@mrmoshpotato:
Not sure what was going on in my subconscious before I went to bed last night, but I had the weirdest and most vivid dreams all night long. At least those I can remember.
The T-Rex one was really strange as I don’t recall reading about, thinking about, talking about, hearing about dinosaurs at all yesterday, so WTF did my brain conjure up a flying T-Rex?
rikyrah
@u:
They were supposed to get the break in order to go back home and get in touch with their constituents, but we know that the GOP has no interest in that😒😒
Nukular Biskits
@Baud:
LOL! Well, the one I saw wasn’t singing that but his (her?) roar sounded more like a squeak.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@Kayla Rudbek: I grew up in Michigan and have been here since roughly Y2K and that’s basically my retirement plan too. Either back to West Michigan – a lot less expensive and the Lake Michigan shore is awesome – or to Vermont where I have family. I’ve investigated a little in WI and MN too but just North in general sounds good.
Ramona
@Anyway: The awesome Stacey Abrams is a mystery book author in addition to all the other fine things she does?
evodevo
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
Yes..that’s exactly what my doggo does lol. If it isn’t her idea, it’s just ignored.
Miki
@Shakti: See, e.g., the fire scene in Cinema Paradiso.
Nukular Biskits
WRT this:
from the mtsw Bluesky post (sorry, I just can’t bring myself to call them “skeets”), take a look at this:
On Data and Democracy (Mid-Year Roundup): Charting the Assault on American Democracy and A Path Forward
lowtechcyclist
@Another Scott:
And of course, Virginia is just one example. The vast majority of states are like that. Last I checked, Maryland was better than most, with a salary of ~50K for state legislators.
The other side of it is those 45- or 60-day sessions. If you aren’t paying attention at the right time, you look up and see your state legislature is done legislating for the year, and it’s still springtime. If you have concerns you’d like your state rep to do something about, most of the year I feel like I’ve missed the boat.
Being a state legislator should be a full-time job with a full-time salary, in the upper 5 figures at least. More depending on the cost of living in the places where most people in a state live.
You don’t necessarily have to be rich (or retired) to be a state legislator in most states, but if not, you have to have an occupation that you can schedule around the legislative session, like lawyer or realtor. Most people can’t do that.
Jackie
@Soprano2:
Hah! My daughter’s high energy pup is, too! Maisel turns her nose up at playing fetch, but will play with the cat fishing pole until her mama’s arm is exhausted. LOL!
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Betty Cracker: There are 1000 witnesses to what’s in the Epstein file. Each of them a potential whistleblower / press leaker.
Wait till Asshole pardons and pays off Ghislaine Maxwell in a deal to try to shut her down as a potential witness. The base is going to love that.
patrick II
my first dog loved to play fetch — right up until she was supposed to give the ball back at which time it turned into tug-of-war or catch-me-if you-can. I just wanted to play “fetch”. A few years later I saw the solution and it made me feel so dumb — two balls. A guy on the beach was playing fetch with his dog. When the dog returned the first ball he showed the second ball in his hand and threw it.The dog immediately dropped the first One and tore out after the second. I was embarrassed for not having figured that out long before.
cope
@Betty Cracker: And 5), grand jury testimony cannot be released to the public without a judge’s order.
I suspect Donnie Tiny Digits is hoping this will allow him to run out the clock long enough for the Epstein stuff to melt into the background just like everything else has.
catclub
@Baud:
3. The third of the voters that cannot be bothered to fucking vote.
NotMax
Weekend watch.
Teasing out clues to a crime and its aftermath 125 years later.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Ramona: I thought Abrams was writing romance novels. She must have switched genres.
Kayla Rudbek
@Miss Bianca: yes, he had the right idea
p.a.
May have posted this in a previous thread. From the intertubes!
“We wouldn’t need the Epstein files if we just believed women the first time.”
lowtechcyclist
@Baud:
Every last T-Rex alive today sings “you can’t take the sky from me” while flying.
catclub
Insurance agents! Real Estate too.
Nukular Biskits
@NotMax:
Here’s one for you (H/T Cheryl Rofer who reposted it on Bluesky):
Youtube: Five Men at Ground Zero High Resolution 4KUHD
Nukular Biskits
@catclub:
100% yup!
H.E.Wolf
@Ramona: Yes: both fiction (romance, sometimes romance/suspense) and non-fiction.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stacey_Abrams#Books
Geminid
@Nukular Biskits: I wonder if one of them remarked, “It’s a dry heat.”
catclub
Not sure. I bet Kash Patel would be happy to destroy it.
Also, the 1K FBI agents know that blowing it open will cost them at least their job and pension.
Kayla Rudbek
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: I am on the mailing list for a yarn store in Cedar, MI (I haven’t ever been there) that does knitting group on the beach https://woolandhoney.com. I have no idea what the health care is like there, though, which is going to be a major consideration in deciding where to retire to.
lowtechcyclist
@catclub:
Used to be more like half. Just one-third is a huge improvement.
Most of that one-third, you don’t want voting. They haven’t bothered to think about political matters enough to have anything remotely like an informed vote. We’d need re-education camps to bring them up to speed.
Nukular Biskits
@Geminid:
As I noted in my repost of that:
Eolirin
@SFAW: Given the EPA cuts, the broad cancelation of grants, and stepping back from categorizing greenhouse gas emissions as pollution, and pulling back everywhere on foriegn aid it’s not just the country that’s in trouble, it’s the whole world and the entire species they’re going after.
drdavechemist
@Miss Bianca:
I’ve heard a similar apocryphal story about a guy who hated winter and strapped a snow shovel to the front of his vehicle, vowing not to stop until someone asked him what it was for.
Myself, I like a change of seasons, though I prefer to use the AC as little as possible. YMMV
Geminid
@catclub: Sally Hudson, who represented Charlottesville in the Virginia House if Delegates for two terms, was an economics professor at U.Va. The former Republican leader of the House of Delegates was a high school teacher. School districts are glad to accomodate the schedule needs of teacher/legislators.
Mai Naem mobile
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: if she gets pardoned she can be subpoenaed under oath to testify in front of congress. She could lie but chances are they’ll be several legit people contradicting her so that would open her to perjury charges.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@Kayla Rudbek: I’m not familiar with Cedar but Leelanau County is close to Traverse City which is the biggest city “up North” and I’m sure has decent basic health care. It’s popular with retirees so I’m sure the hospital can handle anything acute pretty well – heart attack, stroke, consequences of a fall, etc. Some forms of cancer may require specialty care in Grand Rapids or Detroit/Ann Arbor. But in that case your choices are pretty limited to major Metro areas.
I have been to other towns in the Leelanau peninsula – Leeland, Sutton’s Bay, Glenn Arbor and a couple others and it’s a great area.
Melancholy Jaques
@MattF:
Adolescence is chilling. Should be one of those shows that people sit and discuss with friends and family like we did more often when there were only four TV networks.
Side note: Stephen Graham is a great actor who does not get the recognition he deserves.
Betty Cracker
@cope: 100% that’s what Trump is hoping happens, and maybe he’ll slither out of a jam yet again. I wouldn’t bet the farm on it though. Trump has bamboozled the MAGA horde since day one, but he did it by reflecting back what they already believed. Here he’s telling them a foundational belief is a hoax after stoking outrage over it literally for years. Some will swallow it, but probably not all. Steve Bannon, for all his many faults and depravity, knows his marks, so he was probably right when he said there’s the potential to lose 10% or so of the MAGA base over this, which would be enough to render it ineffective as a political force in tight elections.
geg6
@Melancholy Jaques:
Agree with everything you said. I’d also call out young Owen Cooper who was acting for the first time (he’d taken some acting lessons but never actually performed in anything). And to think that third episode was the first one they filmed! A true prodigy.
Eolirin
@Betty Cracker: Which is why they have people out there trying to get access to voter rolls and election systems.
If they start losing their base, they can try (and we have to hope ultimately fail) to rig things by attacking our voters or corrupting the whole process.
Sister Golden Bear
@raven: Gen Z is ruining everything. /s
lowtechcyclist
@Eolirin:
I thought accessing voter rolls was SOP for political parties, and that anyone with the money to pay for whatever type of copying was involved could get hold of them.
Cliosfanboy
@raven:
I blame Gen X. Bastards!
raven
@Sister Golden Bear:
@Cliosfanboy:
There is a woman at the dog park (a former tenant) who doesn’t want her dog to play with tennis balls so she throws them over the fence into the woods!!!
Sister Golden Bear
@RevRick:
It’s become their foundational myth. Telling them never mind, and they should STFU about it, is gonna be a tough sell.
Old Dan and Little Ann
Whelp. I finally got my dog to the vet after his attack on Thursday. He could not put any weight on his front leg due to the bites and swelling. I feared his leg was broken. Luckily there was no fracture according to the x-ray. It was an uncomfortable walk to the neighbors to let them know the vet bill is nearly $1,400. They agreed to pay before I even asked. I feel terrible, still. They are such nice people. Why do I feel guilty?
Another Scott
@Geminid: Something something the exception proves the rule.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Cliosfanboy
@Another Scott:
I tried to get help from my state rep (a Democrat FWIW), but couldn’t get a response, until I asked a rep from a neighboring district, with whom I am friends, to intervene. THEN my rep helped, but with a grumbling note from her aide that “we don’t normally do this sort of thing.” Really? Helping your constituents deal with the Richmond bureaucracy isn’t part of your job????? My previous state rep helped me get my street plowed during Snowmegiddon. If I have issues with the county, I go to my county district rep. When I’ve had to deal with the Feds, my Congressman is very helpful. It’s part of the f-ing job!
geg6
@Old Dan and Little Ann:
You shouldn’t. I know that’s not helpful, but take care of your sweet doggo. Thank the FSM he’s going to be okay.
Citizen Dave
@trnc: I guess I’m missing his point. My interpretation is he is saying the “aw shucks” of friends is “the scandal”–or is a greater scandal than the central crimes of Epstein, and his crew. For me, the scandal is both things–the pedophilia, sex trafficking, blackmailing, paying off victims, etc. AND the other thing of peripheral men shrugging it off. I read an internet comment that criminals also groom their character witnesses. A good point.
Cliosfanboy
Oh, you’ve met my wife’s sister-in-law!
Cliosfanboy
@Old Dan and Little Ann: I had the same thing happen. And I felt guilty, but I took the money. His dog attacked mine while we were out for a walk, and my dog LOVED everybody. People, other dogs, cats, whatever. I wouldn’t trust him around small rodents, though. I used to take him to the pet store to watch the mice and gerbils. He was a Fox Terrier, and boy was he ALERT as he watched them scurry around.
But yeah, I felt a bit guilty, along with anger. But it worked out ok.
raven
@Old Dan and Little Ann: My Artemis is reactive (possibly due to the horrible abuse she suffered) and she nailed the dog of a friend right below the eye. I told him immediately that I’d pay the vet bill. It was only $375 but I hope he’s not feeling guilty.
Betty Cracker
@Eolirin: I think that’s right. Democracy Docket (a credible source, IMO) has an article on which states are being targeted here. We are incredibly fortunate that the machinery of voting in the U.S. is decentralized. As far as I know, every former democracy that became an autocracy had centralized voting, which made it much easier for the autocrats to eliminate competition and hold sham elections.
Matt McIrvin
@lowtechcyclist:
Ignoramuses get to vote, and indeed SHOULD vote. I’m hardcore enough about democracy to believe that.
If that results in bad outcomes, then we failed at informing or exhorting them. The way I figure, many will come around once disasters touch them personally, and that may be the best you can hope for– the most basic, ground zero case for democracy.
Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq)
@Nukular Biskits: We are all having that dream. And that is because we are living in the consequences of their malevolence.
Matt McIrvin
@Betty Cracker: The trouble is, several of our states that should be swing states already are “managed democracies” a bit like Orban’s Hungary, and that affects the balance of federal politics. I think you can make the case that the US as a whole was only a full democracy for the period between the VRA of 1965 and Shelby County v. Holder.
RaflW
Ohhh, poor baby! Y’all rode this paper tiger back into office, and now it’s a problem? Hahahahahaha.
Deputinize America
@Nukular Biskits:
Men’s trousers off the rack in that era – particularly uniform trousers – were inexplicably badly tailored. I’ve never understood this.
Librettist
@Kayla Rudbek:
Malaria was endemic to North America. Those New Deal socialist do-gooders finally eliminated it from the south in the 30s & 40s.
File under: “what have public health services ever done for me?”
Kayla Rudbek
@drdavechemist: I heard that story with the snow plow attachment on front of the pickup truck.
Cliosfanboy
Our dog, Jazz (who is on the BJ Calendar A), is a double-dapple standard weiner dog, born deaf and almost blind. So, no “fetch” for her. She can’t see what you’re throwing or hear the SQUEEK.
Sure Lurkalot
Trump and his devoteds will be sending forth a bunch of shiny objects which our worthless legacy media outlets will chase. The FTFNYT is all over the “releasing the grand jury testimony” gambit this morning, with headlines promoting the idea that this will reveal all.
I can’t believe I subscribed to that rag for decades.
Betty Cracker
@Matt McIrvin: I agree. Decentralized elections provide a window of opportunity that we MIGHT be able to leverage to save our asses, but it’s by no means guaranteed. Another “asset” — the ineptitude of the fascist opposition.
Cliosfanboy
@Miss Bianca:
My wife, a native of far northern New Hampshire, bought her first car without (!) A/C. That’d be okay, but she accepted a job in DC. #badtiming
Anyway
Yes, she writes romance novels under a pseudonym but the Avery Keene legal thrillers are more recent. Fiction junkie that I am I went more to hear her talk about writing than current events. She was promoting Coded Justice
While Justice Sleeps. is the first in the series.
ETA Romance novel pseudonym is Selina Montgomery. Haven’t read any of those yet …
Matt McIrvin
@Betty Cracker: I think Trump is beyond the reach of justice at this point, but even authoritarian political movements require popular support, and Trumpism can lose.
Harrison Wesley
@Betty Cracker: I don’t see why DOJ is monkeying around here in Florida. State gov does a fine job of screwing with the electorate.
The Pale Scot
I have say that Vance would be a more dangerous than the Creature known as Trump. He understands the goals of the 2025 Project
Harrison Wesley
@The Pale Scot: Though if Trump gets dumped,it will be tough to get him off the couch.
raven
@Cliosfanboy: My deaf and blind Lil Bit was the same but she could find cat shit like a champ!
zhena gogolia
@RaflW: They act as if it wasn’t all perfectly well known a long, long time ago.
Shakti
@Miki: Frightening. That kid is brave — apparently as those reels burned they released poisonous gases. I’ve never seen that movie — is it good?
zhena gogolia
@The Pale Scot: He’s not more dangerous than Trump.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@patrick II: With our beloved labrador, that’s how it always went. Then there would be a complicated game in which sometimes I had the stick and sometimes she did. I always got the feeling that she was the only one who knew what the rules of the game were.
Our beagle is much more straightforward in his games. In fact, I’m not sure he had ever played games with a human before he came to us from the shelter. Nor do I think he’d lived in a house before.
Sammy the beagle is the only dog I’ve known who could throw.
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
Especially to couches.
MagdaInBlack
@raven: Ha! They do love those little “tootsie rolls” don’t they.
Lobo
@Matt McIrvin: I think the US is now a “(mis)managed democracy”. As part of this it is tough for the average person to run for elected office and serve due to constraints on time, money, etc. Just look at the median wealth of Congress regardless of party.
WTFGhost
@H.E.Wolf: You remind me of a favorite comic strip, on a suicide prevention support site.
The main character – an owl? – talk about how heroic it is to be mired deep in the depts of depression. “Please, give me something, I know I’m stuck in a wilderness, and I know you can’t draw me a map or anything, just… give me something I can use! A *STICK* for crying out loud!”
And the message is, “but you need to understand – *you* are the hero in this scenario. I’m just the guy trying to hand out a few sticks.”
Now, me, I don’t think of myself as some survival hero (until some poor sap tries playing misery poker in a group I belong to, in which case, I *do* tend to have the winning hand). I don’t need someone to say “you are a *hero*, and here’s a good stout stick you can use.” 30, 35 years ago, yes, that message was good for me, a reminder that it really is heroic to choose to continue to live, over and over, and effing over again. Today, it’s just, meh, yeah, I know.
So, yeah, grab sticks, especially if’n you need ’em.
NotMax
Tuneage time.
Saturday in the Park.
;)
Anyway
@zhena gogolia: They’re all dangerous and are adept at undoing in six months achievements that take Ds years to put in place.
Miki
@Shakti: It’s a brilliant film.
NotMax
Ack. #147, wrong thread.
NotMax
Mmmm. Nosh for a weekend morning.
3-Ingredient Big Jiggly Pancake.
NotMax
Not my best day. #151 also wrong thread.
Archon
@The Pale Scot: Whatever dark art Trump has to rewire voters brains Vance doesn’t have. Not even close.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@oldgold: Trump’s whole thing is dominance by any means necessary. That has worked well for him. The GOPers always knuckle under. Murdoch’s publication can not be allowed to defy him. No attacks against him can ever be allowed to stand. It’s part of his appeal to his base.
kalakal
@Shakti: Our archives contain a lot of microfilm ( old newspapers and such) . Thankfully in the 30s they stopped using the self combusting celluolose nitrate and used cellulose acetate instead – Safety Film as it was known. Problem is that, that is also chemically unstable and breaks down within a few years, espescially if not kept dry and cold. It was thought the stuff could last 450 years under ideal conditions, in practice you do well to get 50 , and in non ideal as little as 10. Ours have not been kept cold and the smell of vinegar is everywhere as cellulose triacetate release acetic acid as it decays.
These days we use polyester based film
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
“Wait till Asshole pardons and pays off Ghislaine Maxwell in a deal to try to shut her down as a potential witness. The base is going to love that.”
He doesn’t need to do that. His base won’t believe her.
WTFGhost
@Lobo: Well – if you can raise enough funds, you are perfectly permitted to pay yourself a salary out of your campaign donations. That’s nice, if you start from a strong fundraising operation, but, fundraising is one of the reasons it’s easier to run if you have rich friends (assuming you’re not personally rich, yourself).
@Matt McIrvin: Nitpick: Trump may be beyond our criminal courts, not “justice”. That said: if his polling were to become sufficiently toxic, I think Republicans would try to flush him from the toxic toilet they’ve turned America into, but those floaty-massive turds are the last to go, and they can cause a clogged overflow, to stretch the metaphor.
@Matt McIrvin: I’m not sure the VRA succeeded sufficiently well, but, I do agree, the courts eviscerated it for partisan reasons, which is perhaps the most antidemocratic means possible.
Gvg
@u: they get all the “breaks” because they are supposed to go home to their district and check on what their own voters think and feel about issues. Stay connected to their own voters. They are supposed to have lots of meetings with constituents to be told how to vote and do their jobs. They are not even supposed to live most of the time in Washington. Now those ideals were set up when our nation was not as big and definitely not as powerful. Back then what they did wasn’t as consequential AND the facts and impacts weren’t as complicated. At least I think so, maybe I am biased by my time. I also know that republicans have been hiding from their constituents lately, but this is why it’s a big deal. The breaks are NOT a vacations though and I think the reporting has not made that clear in a long time, so on the one hand a lot of lazy congressmen do act like it’s vacation time and two a lot of voters think all of the congresspeople are lazy fat cats and resents them.
Geminid
@Another Scott: Scott Surovell is good, but I don’t think he’s that exceptional among Democratic General Assembly members.
But I’m not sure either one of us could identify just ten out of our 22 Senators or 51 Delegates. That would reflect more on our lack of interest than it reflects on their abilities.
I don’t think I could name one independently wealthy General Assembly member.
Geminid
@Geminid: This notion that Virginia should have a full-time, professional legislature reminds me of proposals to double or triple the size of the House of Representatives. I see people talk about this very seriously. like it’s an obvious and neccesary reform. But I don’t see any candidates pushing this issue, which is the first step towards effecting such a basic reform.
I’m not sure I’ve even heard of an organized effort to increase the size of the House, like there was in Virginia pushing for the “independent” redistricting commission. Same with proposals for a full-time General Assembly.
Matt McIrvin
@kalakal:
Oh damn, is that what that is?
Matt McIrvin
@Archon: Vance rose to fame because *liberals* were interested in what he had to say as a liberal-friendly MAGA whisperer. And then he just reinvented himself as a Trump toady to win political power. Without Trump ascendant he’s nothing, either way.
kalakal
@Matt McIrvin:
Yep, look up ‘vinegar syndrome’
It’s irreversible all you can do is slow/stop it. The only real answer if you can is to get the film scanned to a polyester base. You can test for it using AD strips eg
Test strips
zhena gogolia
@Matt McIrvin: I’m proud to say I never fell for it for one second.
different-church-lady
I see reports of Dumbfuck Hitler’s unpopularity and I’m still all, “IT’S TOO FUCKING LATE, IT WON’T DETER HIM ONE BIT.”
different-church-lady
@Matt McIrvin: I blame the book club people.
different-church-lady
@The Pale Scot: I’m not sure the cult would make the transition to the new leader.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@Cliosfanboy: I grew up on the Peninsula (south of SF) and didn’t even think about a/c when buying my first and second cars. Then I moved to the Ukiah (inland) valley and a/c became a car necessity. Oddly enough, the Santa Rosa area (also an inland valley) runs about 10 degrees more reasonable, both winter and summer. Apparently has some moderating marine influence.
different-church-lady
@u:
Still no air conditioning in the Capitol.
different-church-lady
@RevRick:
The hell they do: they want their shittiness to be praised as virtue.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@MagdaInBlack: cat shit is high in protein.
different-church-lady
@Matt McIrvin:
When you take a look at how despots fall, you see that they’re strong men right up until the point they age and look weak, and then the end comes really fast.
WTFGhost
@NotMax: And how could jiggly pancakes be a mistake? It’s like releasing an equally large boa constrictor, a perfect solution for any problem.
Anyway
@zhena gogolia: Same. I didn’t read it despite the fawning reviews – I wasn’t taken in. But we’re in the minority. sigh
Tazj
@Archon: Here’s hoping Vance doesn’t. I didn’t fall for his BS. I grew up poor so I don’t need a whisperer.
However, I was very disappointed to see how many people were impressed with his VP debate performance. Oh, this is how a debate should be! I preferred the one where Trump got his ass kicked thank you. Just because he sounded more polished than Trump doesn’t mean he wasn’t promoting the same garbage.
Matt McIrvin
@different-church-lady: He’s not beyond the reach of time or death, but that’s just the same as any of us.