I went looking for a sidebar pic this morning, and as I looked out the window at the snow and the ice, I thought I would look for a winter photo, so I typed Ozark in the search field because Ozark had shared some amazing winter pictures with us. But the first thing that jumped out at me was this picture of our beloved Ozark and his beloved pup.
It’s probably no coincidence that my unconscious led me there, because I heard from Ozarks wife yesterday. It’s been awhile since we last talked and it was so good to hear from her. Micky offered to share the story of how she and Ozark met. We didn’t talk long, but we are going to talk again in a week or two.
Anyway, maybe we can use this space to share whatever or whoever we are thinking about this morning.
Baud
I hope you conveyed to Micky how much we miss Ozark.
Old Man Shadow
My father.
Easy going guy. Friendly. Kind. Never complained around me. Did his job every day. Was present every day. He didn’t teach, he showed me by his example what sort of person I should be.
Been missing him a lot lately.
It’s unfair that the good ones die early so often while it seems the wicked keep going and have to be dragged to the grave kicking and screaming.
WaterGirl
@Baud: Yep, 2024 was a tough year, every much missing Ozark and Steep.
Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq)
@Baud: Ditto.
Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq)
My clan are mostly gone, and deckhand_srq is 6000 miles away, and I am still job-hunting. Humbug holidays for me.
At least I have friends to get me through (hmmmmm sounds like a Beatles song….)
Josie
My oldest son. He was a big, tall, beefy guy, and his hugs were completely enveloping. I’d like just one more of those hugs.
WaterGirl
@Old Man Shadow: Not sure you can ask more from a father.
For some inexplicable reason, your comment brought up the image of me in the bathroom with my Dad, showing me how to shave because I had asked him to teach me that so many times!
He also let us sit on the top of the couch behind him and put up his hair in pin curls. Three daughters, what are you gonna do?
Professor Bigfoot
@Old Man Shadow: Feel you there.
I lately feel like I’ve been channelling my father, the late Rev. JB ___.
I am dealing with some of the very nastiest family drama that you simply cannot imagine; and I feel my Pops’ calm, loving wisdom settle over me whenever I can talk to that part of the family; “hang in there, I know it’s hard but it’s not anything you cannot handle.”
Pops was a Christian pastor; but under other circumstances I think he’d have been a counselor of some sort anyway. He was just that kind of guy, and I miss him terribly right now.
Old Man Shadow
@WaterGirl:
Aw. That’s a great dad.
WaterGirl
@Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq): Are you getting interviews? Because I find it hard to believe that a smart, smiling happy guy like you wouldn’t crush an interview.
The place my neighbor had worked forever closed its doors and he was having no luck getting any interviews. I asked him if we could revamp his resume, which we did, and then he suddenly got 4 or 5 interviews. There might have been more, but he took one of those jobs.
Old Man Shadow
@Professor Bigfoot: Thank you for sharing that. I wish every kid had a dad like ours.
WaterGirl
@Josie: What a terrible loss. And you taught him how to give a real hug! In my family, it’s the stiff momentary hug, no warmth at all. There’s love of course, but it doesn’t come through in the hug. Not sure how I came out so different from the rest.
raven
I just came from a CT scan that showed no damage from my two falls in the last two days. I have two MRI’s next week to see if there are any new. MS lesions . I’m still checking in so there is that!!
Omnes Omnibus
Jan 6 pipe bomber a Trumper per MS Now
WaterGirl
@raven: That’s great news about no damage. Not so great that you fell! Are you feeling okay?
raven
@WaterGirl: Yea, I feel ok but my balance isn’t what it used to be!
thx
Jackie
@WaterGirl:
Oh what a memory you evoked! My sisters and I used to do that to our dad, too!
Omnes Omnibus
@raven: Sorry to hear about the falls. Glad you weren’t hurt too badly. Drive on, brother.
Rusty
I’ve been thinking often of Doug, my best friend from 4th grade on, who passed away 5 years ago this month. It’s hard to believe it has been that long. He was one of those people who made everyone around him better.
We welcomed into the world our first grandchild three weeks ago yesterday. My wife down in D.C. to help our daughter with our new grandson, sh and is back tomorrow. Then in two weeks the whole family will be there for Christmas and to meet him. I can barely wait. This is the full arc of existence, life and death, death and life, and hopefully love and beauty in between the two.
Jackie
@Omnes Omnibus: Guaranteed a pardon, then.
raven
@Omnes Omnibus: As they say down here. “preciate it”!
Raoul Paste
@WaterGirl: There’s a new experiential museum in Columbus, Ohio called Prototype. One of the hands-on displays is a hug dummy, where the unit evaluates what type of hug you give.
dnfree
@WaterGirl: My mom grew up in a family that didn’t show much affection, and she was a great hugger. In their later years, she and my dad took a class in autobiographical writing, which my dad very much enjoyed. My mom agreed to write things like how she met my dad, but nothing from her childhood. She didn’t like to focus on herself much; she was very caring toward others.
I’ve often wished I had asked her more questions but I’m not sure she would have answered them.
She grew up in West Virginia and moved to San Francisco with a friend in the early 1940s. My dad was an Iowa farm boy who came to San Francisco with the Navy. They met at a USO dance, didn’t have a lot of time together before his ship left for the Pacific, wrote letters to each other, and married after his ship was bombed and limped back to Southern California for repairs. He was on his way to Japan in August 1945 when the first atomic bombs were dropped. That’s their origin story.
Karen Gail
I was thinking about a reel I watched the other day, and missing grandpa, how everything is connected. People lose jobs, they can’t spend money they don’t have nor can they buy “luxuries” which translates for many Christmas presents. So where they would have bought gifts is down in sales, which might mean no seasonal workers or even letting some workers go. A lost job is a pebble dropped into a calm puddle of water, the ripples spread until it reaches edge; we are seeing the pebbles dropped and a little of the ripples.
And there is push for another big tax break for the wealthy, for big companies; more money being taken out of circulation. When a poor person has $20. they spend it, where they spend it will often spend it. When a rich person get big bucks they keep it and sit on it; they don’t ads to the economy they take; the US is destroying own economy and the question seems to be no longer if there will be another big depression but when will the depression be so big that it will destroy.
hueyplong
@Omnes Omnibus: Of course he’s a Trumper. Dems slag one another in comments sections, not with pipe bombs. Who TF did they think wanted to bomb a Dem HQ?
Josie
@raven: It’s good to hear from you. Falls are no fun. The hurt involved plus the loss of confidence. I’m glad you were not injured.I’ve been doing Pilates and it has helped my balance significantly. (My balance issues are from being old, not a medical reason.) There are classes on Silver Sneakers for chair Pilates that might be helpful for you. I hope you get good results from your MRI’s.
Gretchen
@Professor Bigfoot: I know the feeling. I still want to pick up the phone and ask my mom for advice, and she’s been gone for 20 years.
hueyplong
@Karen Gail: Who’da thunk that reducing the number of consumers with spending money would hurt a consumer economy? Tis a mystery.
Josie
@WaterGirl: Thanks. I didn’t get many hugs growing up, so I made sure my boys got lots.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
I don’t miss living in Central Misery.
I do miss OH.
Belafon
@Omnes Omnibus: The only twist this story could have had is if they had determined it was actually MTG.
dnfree
@raven: Maybe time to start using a walker all the time instead of telling yourself you can do without it? Of course, I don’t know your personal circumstances, but the next fall could be more serious. It sounds like you are dealing with a progressive condition. I’m sorry you are going through this.
dnfree
@hueyplong: The bombs were at both Democratic and Republican headquarters.
Belafon
@hueyplong: Sadly, not enough people.
eclare
@raven:
Good to hear from you! Best of luck with the MRI’s.
Belafon
What if Egypt’s ICE had send Mary and Joseph back to Nazareth?
eclare
What a great photo.
eclare
@Belafon:
Some churches are putting up Nativity scenes with Jesus missing. The signs say taken by ICE. Perfect.
WaterGirl
@Raoul Paste: how awesome? Do you remember any of the possible ratings?
UncleEbeneezer
Today is the lighting of Christmas Tree Lane, the oldest public holiday lighting ceremony in America, in Altadena just a block from our old street. One of the strange aspects of the Eaton Fire is that there are stretches of streets/areas that were somehow spared even though the blocks around them were obliterated. The fabulous deodar trees on Santa Rosa (Christmas Tree Lane) luckily survived the fire.
I didn’t know any of the people who died in the fire but there will be a special tree with white lights and 19 green lights to commemorate them. I’m going back to visit on Thursday and I will definitely drive up Christmas Tree Lane while I’m there. So my thoughts are definitely with the people of Altadena today.
Layer8Problem
Thanks for the picture of Ozark. I’m glad to finally see him.
My maternal grandfather was more of a quiet handshake sort of West Virginian with few words and a ready smile. Conversations were tougher as he aged because of progressive deafness. I would give a lot to walk with him again. Up the hill on his street, or down to the railroad tracks and the West Fork River.
WaterGirl
@UncleEbeneezer: that will be heartbreaking but also likely restorative at the same time.
KrackenJack
Been thinking about how much is lost between generations. How many stories aren’t shared despite knowing someone for decades. How even that is whittled down to a few anecdotes over time.
Guess it’s the short days and the nature of the human condition.
p.a.
Any Christmas Carol plays putting Scrooge in orange makeup yet? OTOH expecting redemption a waaaaaayyy too far suspension of disbelief. Maybe a rewrite where the xMas future vision comes true.
Melancholy Jaques
@Omnes Omnibus:
Shocking, isn’t it?
Melancholy Jaques
@raven:
Sorry to hear about the falls. Haven’t seen you around for a while. Am I just missing the right threads?
Omnes Omnibus
@p.a.: Scrooge was capable of redemption and Marley sought the opportunity for him. Would Trump have any friend who would do that?
RedDirtGirl
@WaterGirl: I also shaved with my father. He took the blade out of his razor (this was back in the early 70’s – the double-sided kind), lathered up my face, and let me go at it. Thanks for reminding me of that pleasant memory.
Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq)
@WaterGirl: NOW I am getting interviews. Now that my cash is exhausted and rent is going to be “interesting “. I could have used this response rate months ago.
But I get a lot of “we’re moving forward with other candidates that more closely align with our requirements” emails, when I actually get rejections. And salaries are awful compared even with last year. The 2025 job market (to use Mustang Bobby’s phrase) sucks out loud with feathers.
Today I have an interview with a company who thought I was “overqualified” four months ago, for example. I have learned that “overqualified” is HR-speak for “too old”; I deal with it in terms of challenge not ageism in interviews, which seems to work reasonably well.
The only thing I have going for me is that I have private-sector experience which the DOGE casualties can’t match.
But thank you for the blisters of confidence.
Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq)
@Josie: You can borrow deckhand_srq for those when he gets here. He’s a big boy.
Trivia Man
@dnfree: bet: dems got one because EVIL and repubs got one for not being sufficiently pro-trump and shutting down the count
Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq)
@Professor Bigfoot: Family drama sucks. I know.
At least you have good memories to help guide you.
Ohio Mom
@Raoul Paste: Prototyoe looks interesting, I’m putting it in my list of “Things Ohio Family Could Do When We Need a Change of Scenery,” though at $39 a ticket, times three, that going to be pricey.
Have you been there? Would you go back? Is it worth it?
Baud
@Omnes Omnibus:
So he is guilty!
tam1MI
My dad. I think of him every day and I miss him every day.
Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq)
@raven: Congrats on the scan results. Maybe you just misplaced your balance, and one day you will find it while tidying up. 😉
Belafon
@Raoul Paste: I wonder if some of the evaluations are “Creepy”, “Stay away from my child”, and “Give me back my wallet.”
Josie
@Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq):
Thanks. Good luck on your interview today and the job search in general.
David_C
I’m thinking of future lives that will be lost.
cbsnews.com/amp/news/cdc-acip-vaccine-panel-hepatitis-b-birth-dose/
KRK
@Rusty:
Congratulations on the new grandchild!
Dorothy A. Winsor
@raven: Glad you’re unhurt and being checked out. Mr DAW has Parkinson’s, so he falls pretty regularly. It’s alarming
Sid_Viscous
My best friend of over 50 years. We met at school, he was the best man at my wedding and an incredibly talented, successful and relentlessly creative person. Small cell lung cancer in April.
Jackie
For your morning laugh!
Jimmy Kimmel says Thank you, Mr. President!
I really, really hope FFOTUS personally sees Kimmel’s appreciation!
raven
@Josie: Thanks!
Belafon
@David_C: We should start blaming gasoline on rising autism rates (no, I don’t believe any of this is causing autism, but that’s not the point).
raven
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Yea, I feel lucky to just have MS! I knew something was going to come calling!
WTFGhost
What am I thinking about? Life is what I’m thinking about.
When I was about 2years old, my face was squeezed, and I was maybe shaken by the head, by another child. Because my face was squeezed, it felt like I’d taken an injury in the TMJ region (“behind my ears” is what my two-year-old self remembered), which I think affected both TMJ region, and neck. That twisted my shoulders inward; that twisted my hips. I don’t think it would have been as severe if I’d been larger, with harder bones and less cartilage and such. Plus I’d have been too heavy to shake!
The TMJ injury has left me feeling like strong, super-thick elastic bands are wrapped around my head. That’s an improvement – they used to feel like solid steel. It’s also left my whole body feeling tangled up – there are significant subluxations to every part of my body, so it is, actually, twisted.
I’m as certain as a patient can be that this is the root cause of the neuro pain which has caused almost every problem in my life. I mean, the rest of the problems were small potatoes compared to this.
Neurological pain interferes with thinking, and not just the way ordinary pain does. Neurological pain is the root of some kinds brain fog – it’s essentially static. Neuro pain might cause fatigue, and might actually be fatigue. Neuro pain can mimic any psychological condition, because it can triggers thoughts and emotions and memories that seem to come from nowhere, but actually came from an expression of neuro pain. It can be severe enough to destroy cognition, even to the point of stealing language usage.
Normally, the only time I ever feel good is when I’m going crazy due to lack of sleep, so, feeling good is bad news. Recently, though, I’ve had a strange feeling of good among the bad, and that is, it feels like I’ve mobilized my hips. I’ve told you my TMJ/neck feels mangled, twisting my shoulders, twisting my hips? Yeah. I think I’m moving my hips back to where they belong. And if the way my body has treated me for the past 15 years is any indication, that will pull the rest of my body back into alignment, because… because it feels like the whole pain is a long, complicated thread that needs to be undone just right – in order to break the connection, I need to reach both ends of it, and then pull, just right, and it’ll all hyperextend one last time, and slip back to its normal, expected alignment. That’s the simple explanation.
Does it make sense? Yes, I feel strings of tension, which could be caused by two sticky-points. What makes something sticky? Well, you can feel it need to release, you see. And, remember, there are actual, visible, misalignments of the bone. Something is “sticking” them out of alignment. Hence, “sticky,” right? Well, if one big, bad thing happened, that might have been one big line of hyperextension that got stuck, and hence, a big line of bad stickiness, which is far too innocuous sounding for my taste, but anyway.
Because this whole condition might be ending, or it might last forever, and lasting forever is more likely. This could all be a delusion I’ve built up. Even if I’m right about neurological pain (and that’s one hill I’d fight on), I could have been inventing a structure to a skeletal-muscular disorder that’s just going to kill me some day, without ever getting better.
And I hate that, because this disorder makes me everything I hate.
Stupid, and fumbling. Unable to protect myself. In need of other people’s compassion and understanding. Needing to trust, when I know some 5% of my country is willing to kill millions, if need be, to hold on to power, and that nearly ten times as many will follow them willingly, with another unknown percentage saying “they did win the election, we must murder and torture and terrorize in their name.” What kind of world is that to have to trust in? You can’t even trust elected leaders to spread accurate public health information!
On the other hand, if I have this problem, and I’ve understood how to fix it , other people have a similar problem, and if I can get the right people to understand what I fixed, they can put it into medicalese. If it reduces my neuro pain, I get to find out how right I was or wasn’t about what neuro pain causes.
Hey, able-ist, say something funny about how we disabled people just sit around the house and get stoned on our medical marijuana all day, just, say it in my house, where we have some lovely stairs for you to fall down. (explains in perfect courtroom voice) I told you it was the downstairs, and not a deep coat closet! “DON’T STEP IN!” I cried, but noooo-oooo, you knew better than I what a coat closet looks like.
(It really does take careful coaching to say “noooo-oooo” in a perfect courtroom voice. Very measured tone, you’re on 8th-note measure time, so watch the metronome you now see in your head… never mind. Just remember, judges sometimes have younger brothers too, and must have grown up sometime!)
Anyway. That’s what I’ve been thinking of. Well… and head protection for the base of the stairs. Add or remove?
VeniceRiley
My mom and dad were born in ’22 and ’25. Three older half sisters and two have passed, with the third turned 80.. I feel close to my sister just a year older- she’s the one that would devastate to lose… My maga brother not so much, but a little. It’s amazing how much that culty bullshit can erase your feelings for some family.
Geminid
@Trivia Man: Yeah, there was a lot of anger towards Republican leaders on the part of hard-core Trumpers. They believed the establishment had let their guy down, even stabbed him in the back.
Feelings were especially acute in Georgia, where Governor Kemp and Secretary of State Raffensperger were visible targets. There was even a campaign to boycott the January 5 Senate runoffs, led by a pro-Trump attorney.
It may have worked too. By dint of organization and hard work, Georgia Democrats limited their vote drop-off to ~90,000 votes less than in November, while the Republican vote dropped by over 200,000. This reversed the historical pattern in Georgia runoffs, and Warnock and Ossoff won by ~40,000 and ~20,000 votes respectively.
Geminid
@Jackie: I saw that California Rep. Eric Swallwell announced he was running for governor on Kimmel’s show.
Baud
Via reddit, study published yesterday
Relatedly, the HHS cafeteria now calls them Freedom Fries.
lowtechcyclist
@Belafon:
I’m all for “creepy,” “kooky,” “mysterious,” and “spooky” but that’s just me.
pieceofpeace
@raven: Good to know you’re getting positive results! I try to stay alert to falling dangers whenever going about, but damn, it can be the smallest, unthoughtful moment or movement. And boom.
Thanks for sharing this info about yourself. I’m certainly not the only person rooting for you. Miss your postings….
WTFGhost
@WaterGirl: A lot of people are just waiting to learn how amazing touch can be. Hugs are one of the few times we can touch people, and try to make them feel good at the same time, and it’s perfectly socially acceptable. I know a lot of people who bloomed beautifully when they discovered no more than that simple fact, “greeting a friend can be a wonderful experience”.
Baud
@Baud:
Meanwhile in the US
geg6
@Omnes Omnibus:
Well, duh. Of course he is.
CaseyL
I’ve had a couple falls in the past couple months. Neither did any serious damage.
One thing I noticed, and I don’t know if it’s an age thing or what: usually, when you fall, it seems to happen in slow motion. You watch as you plummet, able to observe but not able to do anything about it.
The two falls I had recently didn’t have the slow-motion-disaster part. One instant I’m up, the next instant I’m down. This is potentially worrying, since it gives me no chance to change how I’m going to land.
Has anyone else noticed this phenomenon?
Baud
Via Reddit
WTFGhost
@Jackie: He won’t even know who he pardoned, again, saying he just heard the fellow was railroaded by the Biden justice department, which probably didn’t arrest him in a timely manner, so as to avoid politicizing DoJ activity, by revealing a Trump supporter was the pipe bomber….
@Karen Gail: Yes, and this is the part of income inequality everyone should get behind. American workers are the most productive in the world; the value of that productivity is almost entirely being given to the most wealthy, for the least value-add. Don’t get me wrong: I’m not saying Elon Musk isn’t a *good* CED, but he’s a *REPLACEMENT* level CEO. You could easily find someone from India or Pakistan to replace him, for far, far, less money, and then, you’d have more money to pay to workers, and other real stakeholders, in the company.
So Musk isn’t adding jack; they just don’t look for CEOs the way they look for IT workers, because…
Anyway. You know the corporate overlords won’t ever try to treat workers well; you need to regulate, or you need government to step in for the greed of the wealthy. Me, I think regulation is better than having the government step in because the wealthy are too greedy to hand out bowls when it’s raining soup.
Deputinize America
@lowtechcyclist:
Is their house a museum?
Jackie
Oh noes! FFOTUS HATES being compared to “Sleepy Joe!”
Fun substack read :-)
Castor Canadensis
@CaseyL: Not offhand, but I do have a suggestion. When I was a young chap, my sergeant-major taught us how to fall, especially on ice. If you’re falling backwards, the usual case, you slap the ground as hard as you can with both hands. That tends to turn you toward doing a semi-controlled roll. Of course, when you’re carrying a slung rifle, you can still pick up bruises in unexpected places (:-))
Baud
geg6
@KrackenJack:
We had an amazing discovery when my mom died (dad was already gone 2 years). My mom had a journal she kept all through her experiences during WWII and after when she met my dad and they got engaged. She had graduated high school in 1941 and was in business school when Pearl Harbor happened. She documented going to work as a bookkeeper at one of the local steel mills and her life as a young, single working woman, having fun with her girlfriends, dancing up a storm, dating guys home on leave or 4F. Things she did that we never knew, like make out sessions and things she would have killed us, her daughters, for. And then the story of meeting my dad just after the war ended and he came home from service. Their romance and engagement and wedding plans. And then it ended and there were no more journals. Knowing how it turned out with almost 55 years of the happiest marriage I’ve ever witnessed and the affection my parents always showed one another, it was a great gift for us to get the real story as it happened and know that our mom wasn’t any different than we were at that age. I miss my parents and their true love.
Baud
@geg6:
Wow. That is a find.
Scout211
@CaseyL:
This is an aging phenomenon. Most people think it’s our balance that is getting worse (which may be true for some people) but it’s our reflexes that are getting worse for pretty much all of us.
From the study that is quoted everywhere:
Age-related increases in reaction time result from slower preparation, not delayed initiation
Edited.
geg6
@Baud:
Truly. We saved reading it until a few weeks after her funeral and we sisters got together and read it aloud to each other. We laughed, we cried and we got shocked. It was wonderful.
WTFGhost
@CaseyL: This is very concerning, but it might not be a big deal. You definitely want to see your doctor.
When you fall all of a sudden, that usually means something cut off your cranial blood supply. You may, or may not, remember the vasovagal symptoms, and, you may, or may not have them. You might just fall, instead.
Now, this might not be anything super-serious, but, it’s not something you can ignore. It could be a cardiac issue, or a brain issue. Or, maybe you will find that it only ever happens shortly after standing, which usually means “just be more careful getting up.” It’s just not something you want to ignore.
Sure Lurkalot
Deleted dupe.
Sure Lurkalot
Too big to fail is back, baby.
What a world.
Professor Bigfoot
@geg6: That’s just brilliant!
You and your sisters are very fortunate indeed. What a wonderful discovery. I hope you can digitize it, and preserve it for your own grandkids and theirs and…
Deputinize America
@geg6:
What a beautiful find!
eclare
@geg6:
What a sweet story and great thing to pass on: journals.
Denali5
@dnfree: My mother-in-law was one of the best people I have ever known – always loving, smiling, and caring. She had a terrible childhood; her mother died when she was 10, her father left her and her sister in the care of her aunt(who was kind) and then her sister was killed in a car accident. And she still was an amazing person. I guess people are who they are.
frosty
@raven: Yeah, the thing about getting up there in years is you know something will come calling. It hasn’t for me yet, but it will. I’m already nine years older than my dad was when he got the Parkinson’s diagnosis. Every day when I wake up and my hand isn’t shaking is a good day. Maybe that one is going to pass me by.
But something is out there.
JoyceH
Since the pipe bomber was a Stop The Steal enthusiast and acted near the Capitol on or shortly before Jan 6, an argument could be made (and I’m sure his lawyer will) that he is covered under the blanket pardon for J6ers that Trump issued.
And we need to stop falling for the “we all have to tone down the rhetoric “ guff and start talking about the real issue, which is Trump’s bizarre Rasputin-like appeal to the violence-predisposed mentally ill. I can’t think of another political figure in my lifetime or in American history who gathered among his adherents those who would physically attack people he criticized.
Geminid
@Geminid: Speaking of Eric Swalwell, a new Emerson poll showed him tied for second in the California governor race.
The poll was released yesterday, and showed Riverside County Sheriff Chad Blanco leading with 13%; Rep. Swalwell and media personality Steve Hilton with 12% each; and former Rep. Katie Porter with 11%. Blanco and Hilton are Republicans.
Former LA Mayor Antonio Villaragairosa polled at 5%, while former Representative and HHS Director Xavier Becerra came in at 4 percent, as did investor Tom Steyer. Thirty-one percent of voters said they were Undecided.
raven
@frosty: Lenny Cohen said: “There’s a mighty Judgement comin’, but I may be wrong,”
Ruckus
As I live in CA I am almost always late to an early post, like this one. I found Balloon Juice early on and I liked (and still do!) the concept of it. A rather large back fence. Old farts may recognize that concept, although it seems much more likely today to be the apartment next door, if for no other reason than it’s difficult to do much visiting over an 8 foot high fence rather than no fence or a 3-4 foot one. A lot has changed in my just over 3/4 of a century, a hell of a lot. We discuss a lot around here and yet most of us will never met the rest of us, past maybe a few in our area. Now I’ve traveled for one job and been to all 50 states, lived south, north, west and east, and often a mix of 2 of those directions. I’m old enough that I’m the only one left in my immediate family, I am the oldest of my cousins and the previous generation has all had their time walking and breathing. I look around and see how different life is today than a few decades ago, how much longer most cars live and work far better. How we communicate, how this is possibly the world’s longest back fence, that we even have back fences that cover this much territory. How healthcare is actually health care, not just survival. I may or may not be the oldest on this blog, and I’m not asking, but this is also one of the best back fences ever built. I’ve traveled a lot for work, been told I was in the top 5% of customers on one airline, have crossed both the Atlantic (6 times by ship) and the Pacific – airplane, have stood on Antartica, and on Norway – above the Arctic circle and crossed the equator – 8 times. I’ve been rather lucky to see as much of the world as I have, to meet and talk to people in so many countries. Oh and btw this is still a pretty nice country to be born into and have lived here (3 different states) for over 3/4 of a century. And yes there are a lot of other nice places and I’ve seen a lot of them up close. We should remember that this world is big, it is different in many ways and places, some good, some not so much.
JoyceH
@WTFGhost: My sister was falling a lot, it got so she couldn’t walk the dogs. It took ages for them to work out the issue, but somehow her body has difficulty creating or absorbing B12. She takes a weekly B12 shot now and they’re talking about that trip to Paris they’d postponed for several years due to her falling issue.
ARoomWithAMoose
@Baud: JWZ has been fighting the good fight. He has found scrapers don’t obey the robots.txt normally, and with his initial whack-a-mole the scrapers came back in mass with benign looking user agent strings, proceeding to hammer exposed webservers in parallel, since the machine is looking for a natural language corpus for LLM training, not seeding a WWW search DB.
jwz.org/blog/2025/10/exterminate-all-rational-ai-scrapers-redux-redux/
Some of the “previously’s” he links as well as some of his comments threads for the posts have some interesting stats and findings.
WTFGhost
@JoyceH: Nod. In my case, it might be plumbing related. I think muscle spasms cut off my major veins that are supposed to return blood to my heart. It’s definitely neurological, in any event.
Which means I’m hoping it might be affected by what’s happening right now, which is a fools hope, but one I can’t avoid.
Ironcity
@raven: Nobody’s balance us what it used to be.
Scout211
Sadly, they did it.
Belafon
@WTFGhost: After you reach manager and above, you are making money off of other’s people labor. I have no problem taxing at higher incomes because they didn’t earn that by contributing that amount to the economy or society.
Ruckus
@Geminid:
I really do not want a County Sheriff as governor. Now he may be a nice person and possibly could be a good governor, but. The concept that a county sheriff could see and agree with different sides of a state as big as CA seems not all that realistic. It is absolutely possible but to me he’d have to be one hell of a human being. I’m not in any way saying he’s a bad human, I’m saying that he’d have to be a damn good one to have lived in that world a long enough time to become a sheriff and have a wide enough world/human vision to become a governor of a population as big as California. Sheriff and governor are 2 rather widely different jobs, with widely different requirements and widely different responsibilities. I’m not saying it’s impossible, just not very likely.
Belafon
@geg6: You should use it as the basis for a fictional story.
Baud
hueyplong
@Ruckus: I’m open to hearing more about the guy, but I also had a negative knee-jerk reaction to seeing the words “county sheriff” in the context of running for governor of one of the world’s largest economies. Sure, they’ve had movie actors as governor twice, but these are perilous times in which a gangster federal executive is liable to attack the place both figuratively and literally.
Of course, as a resident of a former Confederate state, whether the candidate appeals to me is the very definition of irrelevant.
laura
My friend Bill Fabre. Driving to the dentist in the summer, realized he didn’t know where he was, how he got there, how to get back home. He called his partner and she took him to the ER. Glioblastoma. Surgery successfully removed it and he had a chemo/radiation dance. Cancer free till he wasn’t. Bill’s Mother died of same. He wasn’t having it! California, like 13 other states, has an Aid in Dying law. Monday of Thanksgiving Week, I accompanied his partner, my dear friend, to fill the prescription and learn the protocols. Gut wrenching knowledge I can now never unknow. Bill declared Friday Liberation Day. So after we brave faced through Thanksgiving, Spouse and I went to Bill’s. She mixed the medication, he made himself comfy on the couch. Hospice arrived. Bill wished us all the best, told us how much he loved us, drank it down. We held his hands and his feet and she cradled himn in her arms. Gently down he went. A quarter of an hour passed, his heart still slowly beat. A few minutes more. He appeared at peace and in control of his destiny. Hospice called “the time.” We cried and kissed and hugged and when I asked her is she wanted time alone with Bill, she said yes. Our grief and our memories remain. Spouse’s heart is a columbarium – one more of his close friends has passed.
He was a Good and Decent Man. Like Ozark Hillbilly. Both unique, unreplaceable and memorable.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
I just found out yesterday that I need to go in a week from today to have surgery again to fix a side-effect of my major surgery this past spring. Only this time the artificial part is going into my throat, and what’s worse, I need to be conscious so they can test it. That’s right, they’re going to either cut my throat or stuff something down it to get it positioned properly, and I need to be wide awake through the whole thing.
There are several persons in positions of power who I’d wish to experience no more than the pain I’ve been through in 2025. That is not me being kind to them, not by a long shot.
hueyplong
@Baud: I probably do in fact have Trump “winning” a made-up FIFA award on my bingo card. Not even sure it lowers my opinion of FIFA so much as it confirms it.
Ruckus
@Ironcity:
Your balance is as old as you are. And yes it sometimes/often does not work as well when you are old as it did when you weren’t. But then most everything doesn’t work as good when rather old than rather young, for any living creature. Most things with lots of miles under their belt don’t work the same. Take it from this old fart who has worn out his share of vehicles and years.
Scout211
Me either. Especially a Republican County Sheriff for Governor.
I just hope some of the Democrats drop out because Chad Bianco should not be running first. But so many Democrats are running and are splitting the Democratic votes and there only two Republicans so they are way ahead of where they should be.
CaseyL
@Scout211: @WTFGhost:
I appreciate your concern, but these weren’t out-of-nowhere for no reason falls. I earned ’em both!
One happened when I was looking for a train station entrance and didn’t see the curb I was about to step off of/ trip over. The other happened while going up and down a rain-saturated creek bank while doing water quality testing and losing my footing on mud and wet leaves.
Both were preventable if I had been paying better attention. I was startled by how fast they happened – which, thanks to the info shared by Scout211, appears to indeed be an age thing (which sucks).
Juju
I’m thinking of my mother. She died two weeks ago today. Her death has hit me a lot harder than I thought it would, and that I would be a bit prepared for her death given her age and that she had dementia. It turns out that I am not prepared much at all. With the dementia I missed what she had been most of my life and watching her deteriorate for a number of years was incredibly difficult, but now I just miss her presence and the fact that I will only see her in pictures from now on. I am happy most of my life was spent with my mom when she was one of the smartest women I knew, and that I could be there for her when she needed me most.
hueyplong
@laura: That is at the same time one of the sadder and nicer stories I’ve read lately. Condolences and wishes for happy memories to all who knew him.
Jackie
@Scout211: Even weirder; the 1st Hep B vaccine is only postponed until infants are two weeks old. I watched a blurb on CNN. A recorded interview of one of the MAHAs appointed by Sec. Brainworm said words to the effect that Hep B was being brought into the US by immigrants from “certain countries” carrying the disease, and once these immigrants were banned from the US, the vaccine wouldn’t be necessary anymore. (I’m paraphrasing) Dana Bash and her guest speaker – a physician – were literally speechless after that clip was played. I was stunned, myself.
Baud
@Juju:
My condolences.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Geminid:
Echoing the concerns of others, should it be concerning that a right-wing GOP county sheriff is running first, if only by a slim margin in a crowded field?
I suppose all of the Dems running are splitting the vote and it’s still early days, with 31% still undecided
CaseyL
@laura: I am so sorry! I admire the hell out of Bill, going out on his terms while he still could. Much love to you all for the love and grit it took to see him on his way.
Glioblastoma is a bitch’s bastard. Besides the famous people who’ve died of it (like Beau Biden), it killed my 12-year-old first cousin back in the mid-1980s.
Belafon
@Jackie: Racism solves all problems. //
Belafon
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Isn’t it a top-two runoff?
Scout211
My mother died of Alzheimer’s and I have so much sympathy and empathy for your loss. I had the same feeling, we went through so many years of her deterioration that I assumed I was prepared. It’s like you have already been grieving for so many years, so you should be prepared. But it’s a totally different kind of grief. And we are most definitely not prepared.
My thoughts are with you. ❤️
laura
@Juju: I am so sorry for you Juju. Even when her death means the end of her suffering, even when you may have believed you had pre grieved her loss as her dementia stole her away, it is a loss so profound. No matter how old we are, we are never prepared to be a motherless child. I wish you Grace, comfort and solace.
Juju
@Scout211: Thank you. You are right about the rest. I agree completely.
narya
I also miss OH . . . thank you for that pic in the sidebar.
Lately, though, I’ve been really missing my sister. She died in 1983 when we were in our mid-20s (I’m 18 months older); details would identify her (and therefore me). Suffice to say it was just awful. Our family has always missed her, of course, but lately what I really miss is the time (and therefore memories) that I shared only with her, her perspective on things, wondering what she would have done with her life, etc. Just . . . sadness at that hole where her life should be. You may remember that my dad died almost two years ago, but the sadness is just not the same. He was 93 1/2 when he died, he had a full life, and he was no longer having any kind of fun or enjoyment. He was done with this life. My sister, though, was just starting.
Kelly
Missing my first wife. She died of cancer 24 years ago. She stopped treatment in November, to enjoy the holidays. After Christmas she said she’d had enough. Five rounds of chemo, four surgeries, one round of radiation. She’s been gone longer than I knew her. My current beloved is also an artist and loves all the work I saved and could tell which beautiful shirts and sweaters the first Mrs. Kelly gave me.
Tony Jay
@Baud:
Ah, misleading headlines. Where would modern journanimalism be without your rage-baiting charms.
To really inhabit the story, it should read
Old School
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Baud:
What a great fucking look while the Trump administration has murdered people in the Caribbean in international waters and is trying to instigate a war with Venezuela.
ETA: While the Nobel Prize Committee likely awarded it’s Peace Prize to the Venezuelan opposition leader to appease Trump, at least they still had the integrity to not award it to him personally
Captain C
@JoyceH:
“So why don’t you tell the Republicans who are responsible for the vast majority of the violent and hateful political rhetoric we’re experiencing?”
“Are you kidding? They’ll kill me! No, everything is your fault and you’re the only one who needs to change! That’s what both sides and fairness means.”
lowtechcyclist
@geg6:
I can relate to that. I kept a journal for 21 years, from my early teens until about six months after my wife and I became a couple. My journal had been my ultimate confidant for all those years, but then it just kinda died on its own: its place had been taken.
WaterGirl
@dnfree: Getting back to this thread later, I had a meeting.
What a story.
Marleedog
@Old School:
That’s not funny.
Ruckus
@hueyplong:
An actor and a cop are two widely varying jobs, in a lot of different ways. Yes an actor has to follow a script and a cop has to follow the law, and yes there are bad actors and bad cops. But neither of those remain bad and stay in those jobs. And a police chief is a job that has a at least seemingly strict rules/laws/paths. A reasonable actor can make or brake a role but braking that role is often seen up close by those in charge and changed before damage is done and can’t do the level of damage that a cop can do, and can be replaced before the rest of the world sees it. IOW the 2 jobs are exceedingly different, in how and what they do. I worked for decades making things out of metal. Some things had a tolerance that was easy to meet and some things had a tolerance that could barely be measured it was so small. But it could be measured and had to be met to make the whatever it was work. Same concept of work, make things out of metal, but hugely different level of skill required. Same of an actor – follow the script and concept of the part, or get fired/not hired. Completely different processes between the actions/work required but the rules of tolerance still exist in both.
Now the difference is that HOW the process gets a final product and that the final product is very well defined or has an aspect that not following the script exactly may actually make the end result better.
WaterGirl
@Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq): I have confidence that you’ll get something good.
Raoul Paste
@Ohio Mom: If you have money to burn, it is a novelty. It’s not for young kids as much as adults. The technology displayed is pretty high, and it is planned for the exhibits to change periodically.
Since they are new, they are trying to learn which ones interest people and which don’t. I wouldn’t go back in the near term, I would wait for it to become more mature. But I hope it survives in the meantime.
Old School
@Baud:
Awww. He looks so happy.
WaterGirl
@lowtechcyclist: hahaha
that was so good, it’s almost as though I could hear music playing in my head as I read what you wrote.
WaterGirl
@WTFGhost: I bet somebody somewhere has studied hugging.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
Speaking of FIFA: FIFA ordered European football clubs to ignore Russia sanctions, investigation finds
Captain C
@hueyplong: It’s going to be hilarious if Trump demands that FIFA move all the games to janky, inadequate stadiums in ‘non-blue’ cities. Between that and ICE probably going to town on any fans (and teams) who aren’t lily-white, this World Cup could be one of the funniest sporting disasters ever (except for any victims).
Possible newsflash: “World Cup contenders France withdrew from the competition today after stars Kylian Mbappe, Ngolo Kante, and Hugo Ektike were disappeared by ICE yesterday and sent to whereabouts unknown. Stephen Miller, the newly appointed American Soccer Security head, said when asked about this, “Those n[deleted]s didn’t look French to me. Those criminals got what they deserved.” Most of the other contenders are considering exiting the competition as well, at least as long as games are scheduled in the US. When asked for a comment on the crumbling World Cup, President Trump refused to wake up, though he did change his snoring pattern.
(Note that the FTFNYT would replace Miller’s slur with either “(people)” or an ellipsis and not mention the actual slur.)
geg6
@Belafon:
That would be great if I was a good writer. I’m a just the facts kind of person and can write explanations of things and analysis in my area of expertise but I can’t do fiction. I wouldn’t even know where to start.
Captain C
@Jackie: Is it wrong that I think RFKjr and his sick band of health destroyers deserve to be used for medical experiments when this is all over?
WTFGhost
The voices in my head, they say:
(begin quote)
What are you talking about, they fooled the god emperor into thinking it was a fine suit of clothing? He just grabbed two massive handfull to spread his fat-ass cheeks and took a dump in someone’s cereal bowl, of course he knows he’s buck-ass nude! He’s just getting a stiffy – yes, you should feel gross – at all the people pretending he’s wearing a fine-ass suit of clothing, who then insult insult the cereal-eater for having a culture where their cereal smells like shit.
(end quote
ETA: yes, I fear the THC needed to keep me (ahem) this sane is extensive.
ETA: Yes, ref: emperor’s new clothes commentary.
Belafon
@geg6: Another thought would be to find a writer who would take it on, or find an agent and see if would make a good Hollywood story.
CCL
@lowtechcyclist: Odd – just yesterday my partner and I were discussing why I stopped writing within a few years of meeting each other. I said that it was because I became happy.
p.a.
Lots of youtube videos by actual PTs on balance exercises. As always, run it by your doc.
WaterGirl
@geg6: What a treasure that was. I felt lucky to find the autobiography my mom had to write for school when she was 10.
I can’t figure out why I thought you had a very fraught relationship with your mom. Maybe that was someone else and my brain filed it under you?
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Old School: John Oliver must be having an aneurysm.
Belafon
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Participation trophy
Baud
Supreme Court will decide birthright citizenship by July.
Gin & Tonic
Supremes agree to hear the birthright citizenship case. Who’s going to bet they’ll find some novel way to “reason” that the 14th Amendment doesn’t mean what it plainly says?
ETA: Waves fist ineffectually in Baud’s direction.
WaterGirl
@laura: sobbing.
It was good of you to be there for them.
Captain C
@Gin & Tonic: When Baud is President, I want to be in charge of denaturalizing the Shitty Six and deciding where to send them. I’m thinking the Great Pacific Garbage Gyre. They can make houses from the various floating trash scraps to be found there.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Belafon:
According to Wiki it is:
So it sounds like some Dems are going to need to drop out before the first round
Belafon
@Gin & Tonic: We find that the lack of clinical trials on birthright citizenship offers little proof of its actual effectiveness.
WaterGirl
@Bruce K in ATH-GR: oh my gosh, that sounds horrible. is that a strong enough word? Maybe the blessing is that you don’t have more than a week to know that’s ahead of you.
What can we do to help distract you?
Baud
Soprano2
This time of year is still hard. I think about my father, gone since 1982. I still miss him sometimes. I miss my sister a lot; it’s hard to believe she’s been gone 13 years now. This is my 4th Christmas without my mother; I have more mixed feelings about her, but I still miss her.
WaterGirl
@Juju: It’s almost incomprehensible that the person who was here from the very second you came you came into this world can be gone. You know it’s true but your still incomprehensible.
Even when you know it’s coming, you are not prepared. It’s one of those things you can’t know until you know.
It can take a long time to get your bearings after that. I’m so sorry.
Miki
@CaseyL: This happened to me four times last year. Three times I hit my head/jaw/hip when I fell; one time I was able to break my fall by grabbing a door. Turns out my orthostatic hypotension was horribly aggravated by too high a dose of magnesium citrate (prescribed dose, btw). Each time it happened I had been sitting on my couch for a while with my legs curled up. Took some time (for me) to figure it out, but it hasn’t happened since I stopped the magnesium.
frosty
deleted
2liberal
My dad passed a couple weeks ago. He made to 101 but his body just gave out. It was just a few days from the Dr. recommending hospice care until he breathed his last. He didn’t suffer and they kept him comfortable. He had vision and hearing problems but he was still sharp. I live on the other side of the country but we kept in touch with biweekly zoom meetings with my sisters on the call also. He embodied a century of family history, was a leading citizen in the retirement home, and even remarried a young woman (she was only 96). He’ll be missed. We knew it would happen, just not this week was the mindset for us kids.
Old School
FIFA pulling out all the stops. Not only does Donald get a “peace prize”, but they brought out the Village People to perform “Y.M.C.A.”.
Alas, the fans will still get detained by ICE.
Baud
@2liberal:
My condolences.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@2liberal:
Sorry about your dad’s passing
WTFGhost
@WaterGirl: Oh, many have studied touch and happiness, which strikes me as the kind of thing I maybe should have done for my doctoral thesis, if I wasn’t already (ahem) damaged goods who only thought staying ahead on tech would keep me going to until I finally collapsed to a heap in my mid-50s.
Have you ever thought about how powerful happiness is, and how amazing touch can be at conveying it? If you care about someone, and just lay a hand on their shoulder, they know you care about them, they feel that confidence you have in them . Imagine a harassment free workplace, where you could give a male co-worker who is having a rough time a gentle, relaxing, “no, I’m still not interested in a date, and you caught the hint, and ran with it,” backrub, or, believe that he might do the same, without any ill intention?
If I had my way, it’d be nothing for me to ask if you mind me letting my fingers walk across your back, man or woman, just to look for a tight muscle, where I can apply empathy and pressure, to make you feel better, and your smile is my reward, except it hurts too much to stand up, so, I don’t actually get to do this.
Damn are my emotions all over the place today.
Touch is magical, and the active desire to spread happiness is magical. It’s like, the moral economy, right, only, instead of the money economy, where there’s only so much money to spread, we can all strive to make everyone happier, each in our own ways, so the moral economy can spread further and more fulfillingly than the dollars ever could.
That’s the secret the Republicans can never understand. They think you need an enemy, and, you don’t. You can have some crazy folks, you have to deal with at arm’s length, maybe having to put a lot in prison, but… you don’t need an enemy. Just, spread the happiness, spread the joy, and soon, you see people demanding we spread justice to even the most marginalized.
Damn shame I couldn’t record this – it’s all a translation from speaking in tongues.
(No, I’m not lying. I’m sometimes funnin’, but I ain’t funnin’, I know my speaking in strange tongues.
ETA: Also, I does my speaking in strange tongues *silently*. There’s a trick to that. It really pisses off the charismatics, especially when I “mistranslate” the speaking in tongues as “this leader does not speak for any but himself!!!”
(That gets said a surprising amount, when a tongues-translator decides to riff.)
Ohio Mom
@CaseyL: I second the suggestion you go to your primary care doctor ASAP. Or, if you have an option to send a message through your My Chart, do that first. Just repeat what you said here.
I’m guessing you’ll first get a computer-generated “We’ll get back to you within three business days,” followed by a telephone call commanding you to come to a hastily scheduled apointment.
Keep us posted!
Ruckus
@CaseyL:
As someone over 3/4 of a century old I can honestly say that life as an old fart is different than life as a child. As a child one has to learn how to stand up and how to walk. And yes some have a medical problem of some sort and have to learn those things again. But if you aren’t one of those you still have to, as you age up into that being that old fart, learn how to walk, say slower or how to still stand up when your body does not respond the same way or same speed as it did for decades. Now for me this hasn’t been a big issue but it is an issue that old farts have to learn how to work a body that has lived for decades. And yes it is life, at least I can say that it’s better to be an old fart than no fart. And sure most of us, on a small measure have changed. For one I’ve learned to type faster and with both hands. I’m not perfect with the results but I am better. And no it wasn’t a recent start to learn this I just had other things in my life to do so this wasn’t as important. I mean I’ve been typing for decades, it’s just that I’ve gotten better, faster. And yes I still, OF COURSE, make mistakes, just fewer and I can fix them faster. Now if I could run faster or run at all……. at least I can still walk, slower…. Oh well, the oldfartitus life IS far better than none.
cain
@Josie: I’m sorry for your loss. :(
Citizen Alan
@dnfree: I literally freeze when I get unexpected hugs. I don’t know why. I don’t recall any trauma from childhood that would provoke a fear of touch like that. I am simultaneously touch-starved and touch-phobic.
WTFGhost
@Old School: I’m not sure there will be fans. Is Trump so bad, that he will Nazify the World Cup? All I can say is, I can’t rule anything out.
I mean, he still has time, doesn’t he? To make people even more disgusted and unwilling to come here? Maybe enough that soccer fans will come to us (tears in their eyes!)saying “we’re going to go away with all the footballers unless you come back from the brink!” as a trumpified caricature of Uncle Sam says only “MASS.
“DEPORTATIONS.
“NOW!”
Okay, it probably wouldn’t happen that way, which is a shame, because if it happened in my weed-infested imagination, everyone would get stoned and stop being such sticks-in-the-ass, and realize the moral economy of… shit, wrong response. Time to change brains, careful clutch into neutral….
Citizen Alan
@Omnes Omnibus: I think most conservatives view “A Christmas Carol” as a nightmarish horror tale, in which a successful man of business is attacked by evil spirits who terrorize him into becoming charitable against his will. They probably consider it Socialist propaganda.
Hoodie
@Old School: That presentation sounded pathetic, like they were giving a plastic trophy to a kid for selling the most chocolate in the band fundraiser. I’m beginning to wonder if he’s got some terminal disease they’re not disclosing and all these things, e.g., tearing down the East Wing, renaming the Institute for Peace, etc., are him desperately trying to create a legacy before he croaks. Could be incipient dementia or something quicker.
JGreen
@Baud: Hell, he didn’t win it. It was created for him. It probably won’t be awarded again until 2034 when the World Cup will be in Saudi Arabia. You can easily guess who will win it then. And after that, it will never be awarded again unless FIFA chooses to have the finals in North Korea or some place like that.
geg6
@WaterGirl:
Nope, you’re right. I resent a lot of how she treated me. But it was never from a bad place and certainly not abusive. I was the black sheep in her eyes until about 1990 or so. My dad, OTOH, was my guy. We were very close.
WaterGirl
@geg6: Glad you had that with your dad. I was daddy’s girl, for sure.
WTFGhost
@Citizen Alan: Some do – some pretend that Scrooge doesn’t want his debtors to default. Of course he did – he wanted to seize the collateral. That was the point of money-lending; that’s why money-lenders were so hated.
But at least a spendthrift moneylender makes sure there’s more coin flowing, right? You might pick up some of that coin, hopefully enough to pay your debt, to avoid losing your own collateral.
Scrooge, as a usurer, and a miser, was the worst of all worlds, because all of the interest, and all the cash-value of the collateral just vanishes, into the miser’s possession. It leaves the area poorer, with less cash flow and less available capital.
I can see a modern conservative defending his right to be a miser, but, a good money lender, who cares about the community, will often end up making a lot more money… it’s almost like the banking industry can be useful, or something, you know, but only once they care about those around them, including poor kids with no real chance to live (unless they get expensive doctoring, and all). And not only did Scrooge make bank (hah! See what I did there?), he made friends.
It’s actually a grand old-time (as in “still sane” ) “conservative” message.
Also: I like the Director’s Cut of It’s A Wonderful Life where two bank tellers noticed that Potter seemed to touch something of another fellows, and then, that other fellow started looking around in desperation. Noting the strangeness of Potter depositing two wrapped sums of money, one, similar to the average daily deposit from the Baily Building and Loan, they informed the police, who inform the FBI (did that exist?), who arrive to arrest Potter for bank fraud, since he filed a false report against the Baily B&L, triggering a false investigation….
But does anyone listen to me? Well, no one in Hollywood, but, in their defense, my voice isn’t that loud.
Geminid
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): After looking at more details of the Emerson poll, I’m not concerned about this race. Eric Swalwell announced only 2 weeks ago and he’s already pulled ahead of Katie Porter. Porter, Villagairosa and Becerra have campaigned for months.
Democrats have a big registration advantage in California. Of those polled, 49.9% were registered as Democrats, 26.% Republican and 23.2% Independent/Other.
Villagairosa and Becerra haven’t broken out yet and are unlikely to. Porter dropped 4 points since Emerson’s October poll, and her temprament has become an issue.
So I expect Swalwell to pull ahead of the other Democrats unless he screws up, and he strikes me as a disciplined politician. I’m pretty sure he’ll make it past the top-two primary. He just to pull ahead of Porter and Hilton.
Steve Hilton dropped 2 points since October. He has unusual biography for a California politician. Hilton was born in London to Hungarian immigrants originally named Hirscák. He was raised by his mother after his parents divorced, under materially challenging circumstances.
Hilton was a smart, hardworking kid and he won a scholarship to a decent university. Then he got into the communications side of politics, eventually working for Tory leader David Cameron. Hilton was known as an idea guy, very creative and “a little wacky.”
So Hilton was a perfect fit for Fox News: a creative, conservative thinker with an English accent. He started contributing to Fox during the last decade, and five years ago got the hell out of the UK and found a nice home in Huntington Beach.
All this is to say that Hilton is somewhat of a novelty candidate who has likely peaked. So I think it will be Swalwell and Bianco in the runoff, with Swalwell for the win.
@Geminid: Correction: I got the Riverside County Sheriff’s name wrong. He *is* a Chad, but he’s a Bianco, not a Blanco.
Baud
@Geminid:
Why are you concerned? That it won’t be two Dems?
Ruckus
@Juju:
First, I’m sorry for your loss.
I was a mental health counselor for a few years, long ago and part time, because I wanted to be a doctor and doctor/patient relations seemed to me to be rather important. My point is that I’ve seen what you describe before. Very few humans feel good about those around them dying. I sat in my father’s hospital bed with him, with my arm around his shoulder when he passed away. My sisters were there and when I told them that he’d passed away they didn’t believe me, because he was still sitting there, eyes still closed. But I could feel his heart stop and his body relaxed – just a bit, small enough that sisters couldn’t see a difference, but I could feel it. They went and got the doctor who confirmed that he was gone. I’m telling this story because it is something that more of us might be in this situation than we ever want to admit. My father had Alzheimer’s and couldn’t speak for his last 5 years and for 5 years prior to that often couldn’t speak rationally. He’d recognize the words coming out were not realistic nor what he was trying to say, but couldn’t fix it.
My point is that no matter who or what we know, we have a lifetime. That lifetime can be minutes, hours, decades, and we very rarely know how long or how it will turn out, other than it will have a beginning, middle and end. I say live it well, don’t hurt others, enjoy what you can, respect what and who you should, and as someone one in the retirement zone, enjoy that as well. It’s nice rarely having to set an alarm, and doing jack and the other half of that saying. Sure we still have to eat and shower and so on, but I still enjoy life after working for over 60 years.
Geminid
@Baud: Sorry, my proofreader was laying down on the job. I caught the error though, and added a “not” in front of “concerned.”
Ed. My preference is for a Democrat and a Republican to make it to the runoff. It will save donor money.
That was one reason I was glad Katie Porter came in third in last year’s Senate primary, behind Schiff and Garvey. A Porter/Schiff runoff would have been a big money sump, and Schiff would have won anyway.
Scout211
I’ll answer that for me.
Yes, I am concerned that it won’t be two Democrats but even more concerned that if at least a few Democrats don’t drop out or one Democrat rises to the top and is an obvious front-runner, we could have two Republicans win the jungle primary.
Likely? Not really. Possible? Yes.
Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq)
@geg6: That is amazing.
I am trying to write down all I remember of family tales I was told. Things like Gram dating a Chilean naval lieutenant in Portsmouth (UK) inn1914: he was waiting for his destroyer, which got acquired by the RN when war broke out. Also, Dad’s reminisces of when his destroyer was Kamijaze’d in WW2. Not to mention all the funny family tales.
Geminid
@Scout211: So I am curious, and would like the opinion of a California Democrat if you would care to give it. What is your appraisal of Eric Swalwell as a candidate?
And what kind of governor do you think he’d make?
Ruckus
@Bruce K in ATH-GR:
I’ve had a number of medical situations in my lifetime and have been awake when I really didn’t want to but there is always a reason they need you awake if they say there is. One reason I know that is that someone under sedation does not normally move and often that is one of the most necessary sides of surgery, your inability to move, if for no other reason that you will ALWAYS do so at the exactly wrong time. Sedation takes away movement, something we often do even when asleep. Cutting into a living being often requires sedation, for your safety and for pain mitigation, which easily causes movement. I’ve been through a bit of surgery and studied medicine, so while I’m no doctor, I understand it a fair bit.
Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq)
@Juju: [[[hug]]]
Mine has been gone 15 years now and a) I still miss her and b) I wasn’t prepared like I thought either.
Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq)
@WaterGirl: There’s this one job that everyone and his mother reach out to me for, thinking it’s a good match. VDI Administrator (I’m a server guy and AD architect). Onsite every day, 90 mins away across the DC beltway which is hell on a good day. Why, yes, I’m thrilled at the prospect of driving three-plus hours (or sitting on trains for four-plus) every day to reset user passwords and restart virtual desktops (/s).
But after six months of fruitless searching it may be the necessary thing.
Matt McIrvin
@Jackie: That was one of the things they said about COVID too, early on, that the problem was Chinese people coming in (but calling every white American home before they shut the borders would be just fine). They’re always going to make it about people of the “wrong” ethnicity coming into the country, as if germs cared about that.
WTFGhost
@Juju: Oh, friend, I’m so aware of your grief.
I joked with you earlier – there is no right way to grieve. And one of the things you mentioned – you watched the deterioration – you know, that must have really hurt. It’s like you lost every mom moment from the beginning of that deterioration, to the very end, knowing all along that it would never get better. But… we’re human, we hope even when there’s none, so we expect it to get better, and then, the final awful conclusion…
it’s no wonder you’re carrying a heck of a heavy load. I wish you healing and health, mental, physical, and spiritual, if you’re into that spiritual stuff.
Be good to yourself, however best you can, and be kind to yourself… sometimes, grieving folks start blaming themselves, or beating themselves up, and… no one, no one, no one, who has just lost a parent deserves to have anyone beat them up emotionally… least of all, the orphan him/herself.
Karen Gail
The last time I spent with Grandpa I noticed that he was still keeping a journal; he started when started working at papermill (age 14 in 1907) because he could get ends from rolls of paper. I asked him if he kept them for the years I lived with them, before starting school; he said something to effect that I did so many things that he went through a journal every few months. I asked after his death what happened to his journals; no one would own up to taking them; I remember he stored them in attic behind Christmas and since someone had those ornaments someone had to have taken the journals. I just wanted to know what my life had been for the first few years as I don’t have any childhood memories until my measles quarantine at age 7.
Scout211
@Geminid:
I guess, like most of the Democrats on the list, I really don’t know enough about Swalwell to understand how he would manage California. I know of him from his statements against Trump and his participation on the J6 committee. But since I don’t live in his district, I don’t even know how he represents his district, let alone the state of California.
And this is why, at this point at least, I don’t favor any of the candidates who only have national experience. But there is a long way to go and none of the candidates have started actively campaigning.
At this point in time, I’m favoring Xavier Becerra because I know the most about him. But that could change as I learn more about all of the candidates. But Katie Porter is a no for me.
Geminid
@Scout211: Thanks. I’m watching this race from 2500 miles away, and I value on-the-ground reporting.
I can see why you might favor Becerra. He has a solid record in both state and federal office.
One aspect of this race that may or may not be a factor: Swalwell is the youngest of the four leading candidates. He’s 45 years old, while Porter is 51, Hilton is 56, and Blanco is 58. I think Becerra is 66 years old, and Villagairosa 72.
laura
@Scout211: Same! I favored Xavier B because he’s has a solid record in state as the AG and then federal office. Porter is a show pony and has a lot of “don’t you know who I am” and publicly shitty to her staff. Kiss up and kick down? No way you get my vote. Swalwell has a good record of constituent services, so his staff is well placed. He’s likely to get my vote in the primary.
A fresh new face has just announced- Christ, what an asshole! Get a look at this tool: sfgate.com/politics/article/former-wework-executive-announces-run-california-21225763.php
Also, too, fuck Antony Villaraigosa rusty implements and whatnot.
Scout211
Ugh. At least the Republican vote will be split three ways now and being a tech bro, he will most likely surge ahead of Bianco.
Yikes, this race is a circus.
Thanks for the more local information on Swalwell.
Geminid
@laura: So the WeWork guy voted against Trump three times, but now he thinks Trump’s brilliant. WeWork Guy ought to use Boy George’s “Karma Chameleon” for his walk-on music.
WaterGirl
@Baud:
Pretty much everyone is concerned if it’s not two Dems!
WaterGirl
@Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq): I hope it doesn’t come to that!
Life’s too short to spend 3-4 hours commuting every day.
*Although those 3-4 hours may move so slowly that they feel like a lifetime. Every. Single. Day.
Madeleine
Replying late after a long day out: thank you for the photo of Ozark. His loss is still very painful.
WaterGirl
@Madeleine: That it is.
Ruckus
@Hoodie:
Being human, we all have a terminal disease.
Life has a beginning, a middle, an old, and then that never ending terminal nap. We all end up in the nap segment, some just skip a segment or two getting there. With the advent of the last 75-80 years of medical knowledge, the parts often last longer, but not always. We all go when it’s our turn, we just don’t know how far that is for any single one of us. Modern medicine has made the total trip longer on average. But it still always has an end.
Ruckus
@Baud:
I agree. I have pictures of the family but as the youngest and now well into old fart my own self, I saw most of the family dynamic over time. I still remember a trip we took to Canada when I was still a rather young kid, something around 6 yrs old. I haven’t been 6 for more than a while now.
Ruckus
@Denali5:
I guess people are who they are.
This. And people are also what they want to be, and what they are taught. Pompous – or not. Arrogant – or not. Decent – or not. Hateful – or not. And on and on.
What we can do, how we do it is partially how we are brought up and partially how we want to be, and what we are capable of. For some an experience may change what they were taught and what they learned. Many are taught that being good, decent, rational is what counts. But, many don’t really get that chance to grow into that. And some refuse to. Some get abused, and in a multitude of ways. And some are good no matter what. It’s humanity, in all its levels, ways, great, good, bad, intolerable. And it’s changeable, growth is possible but not always appreciated or accepted.
Gloria DryGarden
@Raoul Paste: can we get a hug dummy in my town? I think a lo5 of places might enjoy having one.
Gloria DryGarden
@Tony Jay: that is so choice!
(Coming in late to a dead thread.). But is that too long for a rotating tag?
could you repost it on blue sky?
…needy glitzophile… a made up prize..
So good.
Gloria DryGarden
@WTFGhost: Late response, dead thread
your description is so vivid, the squeeze, tmj, being shaken, the moments of parts unwinding and realigning, that give you hope you hardly dare to believe in.
I’ve had tmj issues turn my whole body into concrete, in a week. A visit to a dentist to correct a slightly high filling made it so I could clear that steel-like tightness, but it took 3 massages to get things back to normal. And it had just gone on for a week or so.
being a tiny bit off in a crucial place like your jaw, can affect your whole body. Back when it happened, nobody thought to get you to a cranial osteopath, probably just thought, it’s sort itself out in a few weeks. A huge percentage of what you physically go through could be from the tension patterns, compiled and compounded and compensations thereon. Including subluxations, and potential nerve impingements.
The fascia can get twisted up, and stuck, adhering to itself. The fascia wraps your whole body, layer by layer, and to describe how it can get stuck, imagine putting on pantyhose, but you get the leg on backwards, and your legs are wet. Things get twisted, you try to twist them back, it’s difficult.
You have given me hope, for you. These kinds of things can be unwound to a great extent. Even if they occurred when your bones were more cartilage. There are several kinds of practitioners who work with exactly these things. I used to go some of that work.
I wonder what is possible.
Paul in KY
@raven: Good to hear that! Stay strong and rock on!
Paul in KY
@Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq): Best wishes on getting that job ASAP!!
Paul in KY
@WTFGhost: Add
Paul in KY
@CaseyL: I’m 66 and have pretty bad arthritis in right knee. It has gotten worse over past year. See a cane in my future.
Paul in KY
@geg6: That’s pretty cool. Glad you found it!
Paul in KY
@Juju: My mom passed back in July at 99. Had dementia last year or so. The slow deterioration is so hard to watch. She had several physical things wrong and had hospice in for last 2 months. Had great caregivers also.
Sure missed the ‘old mom’ from when she was basically OK. She did have a wonderful life and for that my family and I are so thankful.
Paul in KY
@2liberal: Amazing he made it to 101 and was still sharp. One in 10 million there!