My fake-MAGA, nepo-baby GOP bagman congress-critter held a “tele-townhall” yesterday. My prediction for it came true:
Heads-up if you’re in FL-12: Our rat-bastard congressman will be lying his ass off via teleconference at noon today.
— Betty Cracker of Florida (@bettycrackerfl.bsky.social) December 8, 2025 at 10:22 AM
I’ll give the lying windbag a tiny bit of credit for holding a townhall at all. Unlike most of his corrupt caucus, my rep doesn’t flat-out ghost constituents. In fact, he brags a lot about how accessible he is.
That said, he does minimize pushback by making it hard for working people to attend events. For example, constituents who subscribe to and read his nauseatingly self-congratulatory newsletter were notified on Sunday about Monday’s townhall, which seems like an obvious ploy to suppress attendance.
He pulled a similar trick for an in-person event several months ago. Constituents had to sign up well in advance on a “first-come, first-served” basis to get an opportunity to ask a question. The event was originally described as a mid-week townhall in my town, location to be announced.
The day before, when the location was announced, it turned out to be in another county altogether. I went anyway because I am determined to be a pain in his ass and have a more flexible schedule than most folks. But attendance was low, so mission accomplished!
In yesterday’s tele-townhall, the congressman had minions pre-screen caller questions, so good luck getting the floor if you’re going to ask about your (shitty!) health plan costs more than doubling next month because Repubs have (thus far) refused to extend ACA subsidies.
The ACA subsidies did come up via a comment from what I am convinced was a ringer. This person urged the congressman NOT to extend the subsidies because “it would cause inflation,” which, what the fuck lady? That’s not how this works!
Anyhoo, the congressman used that “question” to reiterate his opposition to “Obamacare.” But he did indicate some anxiety about “middle-class” constituents’ premiums rising on January 1 and claimed he and his shithead House colleagues are working on a fix to avert that.
I interpreted his response to mean other constituents are contacting the rat-bastard about their soaring healthcare premiums too, probably after they see bills double or triple during open enrollment. Even in safe districts, House Repubs are squirming about that. Good!
My rep also deviated considerably from Trump’s lies about inflation being gone since 1/20/2025 and gas costing less than $2 per gallon now. Piggy mostly gets away with that since he’s surrounded by ass-kissers. My rep isn’t important enough to be that insulated.
Finally, I will acknowledge that the worthless shit-stain has a difficult “constituent relations” job. He represents many crackpots, and they tend to be persistent enough to show up at live or teleconference events despite whatever roadblocks he throws up to suppress attendance.
The crackpot questions explored topics like wandering cows, ne’er-do-well relatives hired to perpetrate roofing scams and a demand for the rep to personally bring MN House Rep. Ilhan Omar to justice for “un-American” activities. Jesus, no wonder this country is such a goddamn mess! There are so many deeply stupid voters, and I don’t know how to fix that.
Open thread.
Tuesday Morning Open Thread: You Can’t Always Get What You Want…
Baud
I’m interested in the story about the cows.
jonas
Yep. Far too many Americans consider it their goddamn birthright not to have to know anything or give a shit about anything (except football).
Betty Cracker
@Baud: The cows are staring at golfers and sometimes mooing during a backswing. I mean, obviously that requires federal intervention!
Mr. Bemused Senior
@Betty Cracker: it’s probably cows the immigrants brought with them.
jonas
@Baud: In rural America, there’s always one guy who doesn’t keep his fencing repaired and the cows get out and get in trouble. Most people just call the sheriff who can usually identify where they belong, but sometimes you have to kick it up to your Congressperson.
jonas
Did you know they eat them? People are saying…
Spanky
@jonas: Cow kicking is frowned upon these days. I blame DEI.
Shalimar
When I was growing up in Mobile, Alabama 45 years ago, we had just one town crackpot for our several hundred thousand people. She was retired and devoted all her time to writing letters to the editor and attending public meetings, just being a general pest. Everyone in politics knew who she was.
Now we no longer have a newspaper and politicians try as hard as they can to avoid anything public, because there are thousands of her.
Shalimar
@Betty Cracker: When my cousin’s daughter was young, I used to tell her the cows next door hated me because all night they would harangue me and say “moooovvvee, moooovvvee.” She did not think that was funny. She is still scared of cows decades later.
RevRick
@jonas: I live in a swing district and our first term ( and hopefully only) GOP Representative is suddenly on board with extending some form of subsidies for the ACA. The Philly TV stations are running ads that brag about his wonderful work of supporting the Big Beautiful Biil (vomit).
Professor Bigfoot
So you admit that you’re driven by pure spite.
PLEASE, come sit by me!
Ironcity
@Mr. Bemused Senior:
BellaPea
Betty, I just love how plain-spoken you are. I share your outrage at these worthless congress critters. My rep is Tim Burchett, so you can guess how I feel about that moron.
Central Planning
@Mr. Bemused Senior:
Probably brown cows.
jonas
@RevRick: What they’re “on board” with is probably something like the shit proposal David Anderson posted about yesterday. People are starting to see what’s going to happen to their premiums next year and the eagle shitting some spare change in your HSA ain’t going to do anything about that.
Baud
Ooh, I see the grey banner on the bottom of my phone screen.
Baud
@Central Planning:
How now?
Chief Oshkosh
Identify. Isolate. Take-off and nuke them from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.
mrmoshpotato
@Betty Cracker: Sounds like the golf course should be turned (back?) into pasture.
Baud
@mrmoshpotato:
When you’re a cow, you go where the grass is.
coin operated
@Baud: Same. iPad running Brave browser.
Central Planning
@Baud: I’m trying to think of something that rhymes, like “Via plow” or “ship bow” but I’m not a fan of either of those. Still workshopping it.
MattF
@Baud: Me too. White translucent banner, iPad running Safari.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@Central Planning: har gow?
JoyceH
@Baud: When we were very small we’d visit my grandfather who lived out in the country. There were cows in the field in back and we’d go to the fence and they would come over and we’d feed them grass. We thought we must be very charismatic that the cows would come right to us, not realizing we were wearing very eye-catching orange jackets.
frosty
@Baud:
It’s here too; never saw it before. Lenovo laptop, Win 11, Firefox.
WhatsMyNym
@Baud: @MattF: Brave is blocking it for me on Android and Windows.
Scout211
In the downstairs thread we all assumed it was testing for the ad coming soon.
I actually saw it on two other occasions in the past few days but it disappeared after about 10 seconds. I asked, but no other commenters saw it. This time it’s been up for an extended period of time and will likely be how the ad is placed on the site.
ETA: We were told the ad would be below the footer but this placement sits below our screens and moves up or down as we scroll. I don’t mind the placement but I guess it depends on the ad.
Dagaetch
I am also seeing the grey banner at the bottom of the page. Firefox, Win11.
Ramona
Christopher Armitage in this substack open.substack.com/pub/cmarmitage/p/if-you-steal-our-elections-you-dont?r=4bdvj&utm_campaign=pos… warns of Trump’s executive order regarding certification of voting equipment and advocates for Blue states to pass a trigger law for all employers in the state to redirect federal income tax collected to a state escrow fund if the Governor and state legislature determine that the state election process has been subverted.
Melancholy Jaques
Totally unrelated to anything going on right now, but relevant to communication with voters.
I communicated with my senators, Padilla & Schiff, urging them to hold the line on the shutdown, using the contact thing on their respective webpages.
Senator Padilla’s office replied the day after the deal was announced. Schiff’s office got back to me today. Dude. This is the 21st century.
Melancholy Jaques
Opposition to Obamacare is how he expresses his racist bona fides.
mrmoshpotato
@Central Planning: Basketball jonesing cow.
Librettist
That’s… that’s nitpicking, isn’t it?
Curtain rod, sparrow, ad nauseaum.
azlib
Yes, there are lot of deeply stupid people. Here in AZ two parents were arrested for the murder of one of their infant children and the malnutrition of the child’s two siblings. Turns out the parents bought into all the anti-vacs and alternative diet garbage on the Internet. The County Prosecutor is indicting them for 1st degree murder. I wonder if their defense will be RFK Jr told them to abuse their children.
Andrew Abshier
At least your guy had a town hall of sorts. My ‘Critter, the ever-useless Greg Steube (FL-17) has never had one since being elected to the House. Considering that his media appearances are always on safe spaces (Newsmax, OAN, Fox) me thinks he’s afraid of pushback.
lowtechcyclist
@jonas:
“They’re eating the cows, they’re eating the sheep!”
WTFGhost
There’s a translucent bar on the bottom of the BJ screen. Is this the new ad-space? It’s weird and annoying, but, nothing I can’t deal with. What’s weird, is, it’s ghosting (HAH!) the letters in the bottom bar, until they come on screen.
Again, it’s an annoyance – no questions asked, it’s annoying – but it’s not a usability issue. DDG 0.193.3. Sorry if other people have whined about it, for all I know, there’s a thread, “Hey, you annoying people, especially WTFGhost, don’t complain about this because we warned you, you entitled (30 word description involving parentage, excretion, and sex inappropriate for children, and most adults, of any age!)es! (<-that’s the ES to pluralize the 30 word description.)”
But I got up late, so I would have missed that thread.
lowtechcyclist
@Baud:
Life is rough for those poor cows. There’s no fair way for them to get fed. And once they’re trying to munch some green, the bogeymen chase them away.
p.a.
NDD at bonddad has some good news in this Trumpside-Down universe: Oct JOLTS job report the worst since the pandemic. Gotta hit the normies in their wallets, they sure as fuck don’t care about
quaintcomplex (for them) concepts like “democracy”, civil society, progress…And the bust has to be big enough that even MAGAts can’t stomach the Kool-Ade and stay home election day.
Josie
@WTFGhost:
Like you, I arrived late, and, like you, I have the translucent bar on the bottom of the screen. It is not a problem, but it is sort of confusing. Not complaining, just reporting. I hope the coming ad will not look like this.
stinger
@JoyceH: Sweet story!
Actually, domestic cows like people, especially people who feed them and stroke them, and I’ll bet they’d have come over out of curiosity if nothing else, no matter the color of your clothes.
So you can justly keep telling yourself you were/are charismatic!
TheOtherHank
My Congress critter (Sam Liccardo) is Democrat, so that’s nice. But he keeps posting on BlueSky about how he’s working so hard on bipartisan legislation to do something about housing costs. Again, that’s nice, but A) it will never pass and B) Dude, you’re signalling that you’re OK working with fascists. I really hope someone reasonable primaries him.
Oh, and he voted for the crypto bill when that was a thing. I mean, he does represent Silicon Valley, but that’s not a good enough reason to vote for the money laundering, drug dealing, and bribery law
Ramona
@Chief Oshkosh: Mock them! I inadvertently discovered recently that they dislike being labeled “hypnotized”. I was saying in a genuinely distressed way, “you’re too hypnotized to see that if ICE can kidnap brown people, they can kidnap you…” and after a long while, my interlocutor said gravely after a bunch more sentences, “… and I am not hypnotized.”
I’m already prepared for when they label me “hypnotized”. I’ll say, “Indeed, I am hypnotized by logic, history and good sense.”
Furthermore, as early as Trump’s term, accusing one of getting all their information from Fox News was immediately understood for the slur it rightfully is and instead of defending FOX as “fair and balanced”, they would say they also watch the BBC.
It is to me a tiny victory for us good guys that the accusation of “Fox News watcher” is viewed near universally even by Fox News watchers as synonymous with misinformed.
Belafon
@lowtechcyclist: The rich even ruin grass. What’s the point of the stuff if we can’t walk on it and cows can’t eat it?
Central Planning
@mrmoshpotato: Thanks for making me think of Cheech and Chong’s Basketball Jones song.
Jeffg166
Why is there a white band across the bottom of the iPad screen? Is this new?
Belafon
@Jeffg166: If we keep asking about it they’ll make it ten centimeters higher.
jonas
@azlib: I’ve come across several of these tragic stories recently where parents insist on a steady diet of woo and bizarre fringe bullshit rather than recommended nutrition and vaccines for their children and end up killing or severely maiming them. I don’t know if they’re really more common or we just hear about them more nowadays because of social media and stuff.
Ignorance and stupidity can be lethal.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@Baud: me too! I was wondering about it. What’s the story?
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@MattF: I am using a Samsung Galaxy 25+ cell phone (running Android). Is this new this morning?
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@Scout211: thanks for the probable explanation!
Scout211
Deleted.
jonas
@Belafon: The original golf courses of Scotland were sandy hillocks and natural patches of beach and salt grasses (“links”-style courses) that first gave birth to the noble game of Whackfuck (aka golf). These immaculately-groomed flatland country clubs with perfectly trimmed greens, tree-sheltered fairways, and broad golf-cart paths these days are, to quote Al Czervik, “the biggest wastes of prime real estate!” (Along with graveyards — “Lots of dead people!”)
Betty Cracker
FWIW, I don’t know why there’s a translucent bar at the bottom of the screen.
Scout211
@Betty Cracker: See my #28.
Most likely testing for the future ad.
Baud
Via Reddit
TONYG
“so many deeply stupid voters”. Yeah; about 40% of the “adults” in this country are getting exactly what they want and deserve. If Donald Trump didn’t exist, they’d be supporting somebody equally bad.
Citizen Alan
@jonas: Bear in mind that when Isaac Asimov wrote about America’s “Cult of Ignorance” in 1980, Reagan had not been elected yet.
Baud
Via Reddit, grokipedia
Belafon
@Baud: I can’t reddit at work, so what does “above wikipedia” mean?
Baud
@Belafon:
It’s appearing about Wikipedia in some people’s Google search.
MattF
@A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan): Apparently.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@Belafon: I’m guessing Google reports it as the first hit
[as usual, I’m not the fastest]
Josie
@Belafon:
Lol.
WTFGhost
@TONYG: Well… lemme push back.
What if, in 1994, Republican Senators had said “fuck no, we won’t block legislation for purely partisan reasons. The American People did not send us here to try to win re-election, they sent us here to do our fucking jobs!” and they’d done the whole “Contract On America” but they hadn’t done the whole “we’ll block everything Clinton does, because he’s a D.”
If that had happened, Trump never arrives. But it did happen, Republicans chose to be corrupt, to say “we’ll only do our jobs in service to ourselves, not in service to the American people!” and it’s a STRAIGHT FUCKING LINE.
I say that for any Republicans in the audience. Once you choose corruption in service to yourself, it really is a buttered non-stick slope with warm salt pork strapped to your boots – you’ll never get an honest footing under you again. Soon, you’ll swear impartial justice, and refuse to hold a meaningful trial, and still be able to look yourself in the mirror. (I’m not sure you’ll still cast a reflection, but….)
Where was I? Right: you’re correct, a lot of people would vote for someone as bad as, or worse than, Trump. But only because a huge percentage of the nation is willing to lie shamelessly. Had they shame, had they a sense of duty, had they any honor or decency, the world would be a different place.
ETA: Anyone else kinda hope we’re in Newt Gingrich’s “Christmas Yet To Come” and we’ll suddenly remember how one day he changed….
Steve LaBonne
@TONYG: Republicans are busy destroying public education to insure that it will be even worse in the future.
WTFGhost
@Citizen Alan: So too did Heinlein predict the Crazy Years, and I’m a smug little bastard, being a liberal watching his “side” be the ones going crazy :-).
Scout211
In disgusting news, Nick Fuentes was interviewed by Piers Morgan and Daily Beast reported on the interview. (archive.ph version)
The title of the Daily Beast article is a good summary:
So is he a real incel or is he a fake incel stirring up misogyny to capture all the real incels who follow him?
Oh and he says he is Catholic, so he’s saving himself for marriage (to one of those hated women out there who would actually marry a virgin who hates women).
So is he a real Catholic virgin or a fake Catholic virgin joining the religious right-wing purity thing to capture those MAGA followers?
WTFGhost
@Mr. Bemused Senior: When you’re senior, you don’t have to be fastest, just most effective.
@Betty Cracker: AHA! Your denial reveals the truth! You decided what’s good for the gander is good for the goose, and are walking around pantsless, aren’t you? THAT is why there’s the bar! To hide your shame! (Well… I’m not saying it’s shameful, but I’ll keep my eyes averted until my gaze is invited. Just an expression, ‘shame’ is stupid about nakedness.)
raven
@Scout211: The Loophole
Nowhere safe at work!!!
Rudi666
I wish Bilirakis would do something about the Amazonian squirrels. Sherman’s Fox Squirrel
sxjames
FWIW, I also have a white translucent bar at the bottom of the screen. Windows 10, on a PC
(Why yes, I’m an old fuddy duddy. I even have a land line! :) )
Booger
@mrmoshpotato: Yes, pasteurize it!
Scout211
@raven: LOLOL! That was great.
Spanky
@sxjames: Don’t worry, it’s also there on my Windows 11 laptop.
Aziz, light!
Yes, but they are what plants crave.
Melancholy Jaques
@WTFGhost:
Are there any Republicans in this audience?
jonas
@Citizen Alan: It’s not a new thing, to be sure. I recall the quip attributed to Adlai Stevenson when he was on the campaign trail and a woman approached to tell him, “Mr. Stevenson, every thinking person in America is behind you!” He supposedly replied, “Thank you, ma’am, but I need a majority.”
Today that would be politically fatal to say out loud (for a Democrat, at least). The unspoken rule is that trying to make people think about something or change their minds is being “elitist” and “snobby.” Again, unless it’s a stupid, orange-faced Republican billionaire, or one of his equally billionaire stooges, telling them that high grocery prices are all in their heads. That’s apparently fine.
WTFGhost
@Scout211: You can get a delightful handjob or blowjob, and might have to say a bunch of Hail Marys and Our Fathers for penance after a jealous priest hears your confession, but, you are still a virgin. Either he is a total klutz, unable to stop being aware OMG WOMAN NEARBY, or, he’s gay. A catholic desire not to have sex until marriage does not make for an incel, especially these days with safer sex and “outercourse” and other delightful teachings. It’s something else.
Now, me, when I could not calm down around women, and was a weirdo (those are two independent events, mind), I developed some bitterness toward women who didn’t take the lead in calming me down and kindly helping me interact in a more positive way. “They could be more friendly, goddammit!”
But I wanted to get laid, and I was intelligent, so I listened, and I realized, however much I hated it, no one else had a job of helping me. Some might choose to, but no one had that as their job. And my weirdness meant that they didn’t understand what my problem was. So I had to find a different approach.
I got laid surprisingly quickly after that, by listening to what women complained about, even when I didn’t understand it. (I am a bit too innocent to understand rules meant to restrain animalistic urges.) Then I wasn’t afraid of breaking the obvious rules, and knew I could handle truly accidental missteps along the way. If some b-word couldn’t handle a sincere, honest-to-goodness, misstep, someone-else-eff her, it’s not my problem. Well, it will be – neurology can make it feel, to me, like actual trauma. But it’s not my fault!
I seriously don’t have much sympathy for any angry incel, ever. I have exactly enough sympathy to try to point out the truth, if they keep getting turned down, maybe their approach is wrong… same thing I needed to learn. And in my case, with my neurology, I don’t want to hear how it’s hard to learn to change one’s approach, and wimminfolk is so confusing, etc., from anyone who can work 8, sleep 8, and have 8 hours of leisure (obviously, in a WFH situation). *I* figured it out, because I loved women and wanted to have long, squirmy, hours of fun with them. If someone else can’t, maybe they’re not trying that hard!
CaseyL
OK, I gotta share this because it’s so crazy and wonderful: The Indianapolis Colts, having lost every QB in their depth chart, have signed Philip Rivers to their practice squad. Rivers was an NFL QB for something like 17 seasons: a damn good QB, but he RETIRED in 2021. The last time he took a snap was in 2020.
He is 44 years old. A grand-dad.
And the Colts have signed him to their practice squad.
If you follow the NFL, you know this season has been bonkers all across the board. Philip Rivers coming back to play is another delightful slice of chaos. If he manages to win a game, and get the Colts into the playoffs, it has to be a sign of… of something.
Ben Cisco
@Shalimar: The Press Register is out of business? Wow!
I grew up two hours away and that was the nearest paper of record (on our side of the state line anyway)…
zhena gogolia
Is anyone else getting a white band across the bottom of the blog?
WTFGhost
@Melancholy Jaques: I like to imagine one coming by to hate-read, and getting struck to their very core. I also like to imagine my fairy godfather coming to grant me three wishes.
lowtechcyclist
@Jeffg166:
It’s just an average white band.
frosty
I don’t care, do U?
frosty
@zhena gogolia:
That’s the subject of about 1/3 of the comments.
zhena gogolia
@frosty: Haha, a little pressed for time so didn’t read, sorry.
Dan B
@stinger: We stayed at a grand modern (Earthy Frank Lloyd Wright inspired) house on the slopes of Volcan Poas in Costa Rica. We were plunked in a trailer by the side of the drive. It happened to back onto the pasture. We had cows poking their heads in the windows much of the night.
Captain C
@Betty Cracker: If your swing is thrown off by a cow watching you I think the problem is not with the cow.
lowtechcyclist
@Captain C:
@Dan B:
That would have certainly thrown off my, um, swing.
mrmoshpotato
@Central Planning: 😁 Happy to help.
BlueGuitarist
@lowtechcyclist:
👍
youtu.be/Tdy9tdCF9WM?si=HxRiurtL0mnNMB7W
WTFGhost
@zhena gogolia: There are theories, but I prefer my own, from comment: @WTFGhost:
@Jeffg166: We all agreed not to talk about it, and see how long it took you to notice.
@Captain C: Wait, who’s a swinger, and has cow exhibitionism? Or is it that the cow is voyeuristic?
TerryC
@mrmoshpotato: Sounds like the golf course should be turned (back?) into pasture.
Better yet – turn it into disc golf. I’ve done it to three former TradGolf courses.
Ben Cisco
@WhatsMyNym: Brave for the win!!
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
Nope. Just you.
Dan B
@lowtechcyclist: They were shocked, I tell you. “Shocked!”
That we weren’t eating delicious grass, or smoking it.
Montanareddog
@Betty Cracker:
Enshittification!
zhena gogolia
@Baud: 😂
zhena gogolia
It’s like the ones the NYT has at the bottom of their screens, but you can dismiss them with a little X.
Another Scott
Afternoon, everyone.
Dunno if this has been mentioned yet. RollCall.com:
Tom’s a great guy (I don’t know him personally); I was quite disappointed when he lost the governor nomination to Northam. (Northam (and Spanberger) are probably a better fit for VA – it’s probably going to take a few more cycles of VA heading blue before a real lefty can win a big statewide seat.) It would be a great thing for him to be back in Congress representing Charlottesville and the surrounding areas.
Forward!!
Best wishes,
Scott.
Miss Bianca
@zhena gogolia: Not I, but apparently everyone else is.
Scout211
@Miss Bianca: Do you use an ad blocker and if so, which one?
Asking for a friend.
chrome agnomen
@Citizen Alan: he also wrote one of the most famous SF short stories in 1941, ‘Nightfall’, which perfectly described today’s right wing cult of ignorance.
Miss Bianca
@Scout211: I’m on my ancient Samsung, and I honestly don’t remember whether I have an ad blocker on my phone or not. I use AdBlock on my laptop.
However, the thing driving me crazy is the salmon-pink “Word Press Link FAIL” messages that pop up every time I comment. Fuck you WP!
caringandsensitive
@CaseyL: They were playing Indiana Jones. Now it’s going to be Old Man Rivers
mrmoshpotato
@zhena gogolia: Getting the white band on Chrome, Firefox, and Duckduckgo.
NotMax
@CaseyL
So they restored his snap benefits?
:)
Old School
Where’d the bar go?
I miss it.
Professor Bigfoot
As well to report— I see the band in Safari on iPad Pro 11.
But mostly this thread has me listening to Average White Band again. ;^)
ETA: damn, I forgot how *tight* they were
ETA ETA: the band disappeared! But AWB is still kickin’ it.
Trivia Man
@coin operated: I see no banner. Iphone on firefox browser
zhena gogolia
@Old School: Yeah, it’s gone now for me too (Chrome).
hueyplong
@CaseyL: Knowing that the 49ers typically struggle against mobile, running QBs, I approve of the Rivers signing as we near the IND-SF matchup.
pluky
@JoyceH: Think again. Cows are profundly colorblind (only have cone receptors for blue light).
jonas
@Scout211: There was a literary trope in the Middle Ages known as “clerical misogyny” wherein (supposedly) chaste clerics and monks wrote the most vile things about the female sex in order to validate their own vows of celibacy (“Sure it takes a real man to go without sex, but it’s a lot better than going anywhere near the horrid, slimy gates of hell between a woman’s legs whence no man returns with his wits or salvation intact!”)
Dorothy A. Winsor
@jonas: I am in awe of how esoteric that fact is.
Trivia Man
@Trivia Man:
Macbook, Firefox 109.01.1 – no bars here ether
Melancholy Jaques
@mrmoshpotato:
I’m not seeing anything on Chrome on my MacBook Air.
Tony Jay
@jonas:
When I’m feeling particularly glum about the state of the world and the seeming vastness of the challenge facing decent people, I recall how the eternal, unchanging Church went between 700 to 1000 years (depending on how you calculate the birth of ‘The Church’) without the eternal, unchanging tradition of clerical celibacy. Sure, there was some voluntary celibacy, but it wasn’t compulsory, it wasn’t a rule. That only came in after what is best seen as a millennial revolution and the capture of the heights of the Church by a centralising tradition that wanted the priesthood to be seen as something different, apart, purer than the mere laity. The creepy misogyny you mention comes out of the rhetorical underpinning of that seismic change in the role of the Church and its priesthood in the world.
Things change. Big things. Nothing lasts forever.
Geminid
@Another Scott: Tom Perriello did run in the “progressive” lane, to the left of Ralph Northam, in the 2017 governor primary. He was very much a moderate though, when he represented the 5th CD 2009-2011.
That actually tripped Perriello up a little in 2017. He had a couple “bad” votes on abortion rights and gun control that were used against him. I thought these votes were minor matters, but NARAL and various gun control advocacy groups ran ads against Periello and cited them.
Ralph Northam, on the other hand, had a strong record in these areas which is why pro-choice and gun control groups were solidly behind him. Northam also did well among among Black Democrats which I think accounted much of his 7 point margin of victory.
The Charlottesville Democrats I know really like Perriello. I just forwarded that Roll Call article to my friends Joan and she came back with, “Praise Allah” a minute later.
I’ll be interested in how Perrillo runs this time. There’s an Albemarle County donor couple who were behind Perriello’s earlier runs and who are quite liberal. I expect they’re backing him again.
At least, the woman is quite liberal. They were kind of famous in 2017 as “the House Divided.” She was a big Perriello backer while he backed Northam. I think they were each in for at least $100,000.
Another Scott
@Geminid: Thanks for the on-the-trail report! It’s appreciated.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Scout211
Yes, people, our long 4 hour night nightmare is finally over (for today). The place holder for ads has been removed. Breathe.
It is probably moving forward though, because I saw it twice before over the past few days. WaterGirl asked me to send her a screen cap but the first two times it only lasted a few seconds. This time I was able to send her a screen cap but the place holder was up for several hours.
But you can relax now, people. It’s over (for today).
TIL that most commenters (and some front pagers) don’t read the comments. ;-)
Jackie
@CaseyL:
They’re coming to Seattle. I hope our defense helps Rivers remember he’s a grandpa LOL <fingers crossed/knock on wood>
Geminid
@Another Scott: The “donor couple” I spoke of also back the push to get Democratic candidates to forgo contributions from Dominion Energy. She doesn’t just write checks either. Sonia S. is an attorney and makes herself available Election Days in case there are any irregularities that need court action..
I lived in the 5th CD for a couple years after I moved to Greene County from the Valley (I had been in the 6th CD before). Then Greene County was shifted into the 7th CD in the last round of redistricting,* so now Eugene Vindman is my Representative now. Abigail Spanberger was for a cycle
* The 2022 round of redistricting returned the 5th CD to a configuration similar to when Tom Oeriello won it in 2008. Charlottesville and Albemarle County are the Northern apex of a triangular district running south to the North Carolina border.
Trivia Man
@Tony Jay:
And on a completely unrelated topic, unmarried clergy have no legitimate children and thus no potential heirs to any (cough) assets they may have accumulated during a life of service. I guess it has to stay with the church.
CaseyL
@hueyplong: Yeah, one comment I keep hearing is that he was an immobile QB even back in his day. He made up for it with a quick release – but that assumes his receivers are in position to make a catch.
@Jackie: I very much want the ‘Hawks to win, but I hope that can be accomplished without turning Rivers into Delta Silt.
Trivia Man
@Tony Jay:
As a recovering mormon – I am quite familiar with the subject of ETERNAL TRUTH!
Polygamy? Once it was made a condition of statehood MIRACULOUS REVELATION FROM GOD!
No melchezidec priesthood for dark skinned* males? Until the SEC and potentially the NCAA overall made plans to shun all BYU sports teams. GOD SPEAKS AGAIN! All Worthy males may fulfill ALL priesthood obligations.**
* I am a little hazy on who exactly was excluded. African Americans for sure, probably Africans in Africa as well. Mestizos, light skinned men who could pass, Brazilians, Native Americans? I was too young and not directly involved in the details.
** In the ~45 years since I believe they have had 2 General Authorities with dark skin. The photo gallery of those authorities is striking. About 100, the few darker than ruddy stand out like a sore thumb.
satby
@Montanareddog: truer statement than you intended
HopefullynotCassandra
@jonas: sometimes the escaped cow gets hit by a car. Sometimes this happens more than once. This is no laughing matter. It usually kills the cow, totals the car and results in human injuries.
Thinking golfers distracted by mooing cows is critical, on the other hand, is laugh out loud funny. Priorities
HopefullynotCassandra
@Spanky: what about cow tipping?
Jackie
@CaseyL: I’m honestly surprised Russell Wilson hasn’t offered to be traded to Indianapolis… or maybe he did and the Colts rejected his offer.
WTFGhost
@Trivia Man: Re: Black people, there was no change in the ETERNAL TRUTH. It still contains the Cain Heresy, that Cain was turned Black for the crime of murder, but, it said his descendants were only cursed for 1000 generations, and, it was revealed that those 1000 generations had passed. This is per my memories of a professed Mormon, who was posting on Usenet with this information.
WTFGhost
@HopefullynotCassandra: 23%, and don’t be cheap! YOU have more than a couple-three years to spend your tips!
ETA: unless you’re tipping a milking cow – that was what I was told for beef “cows” (technically, “cattle”).
Matt McIrvin
@Trivia Man: There was a Mormon kid on my school bus who I had a really revealing conversation with juuuust about a year or two before that second miraculous revelation in the late 70s. Up to that point in my child brain I had imagined that racism was just, you know, an irrational dislike for people with certain skin colors. Didn’t realize it was a whole ideology where you insisted they were no good and were inherently criminal and always at “mob scenes”. But this kid was a true believer, he went on and on.
lowtechcyclist
@Old School:
If you’re too wasted to find the bar, it’s time to get an Uber to take you home.
cmorenc
@Scout211: Maintaining one’s virginity as a principle is its own punishment.
Scout211
It’s baaaaaaaaaack!
lowtechcyclist
@Geminid:
I remember Perriello was one of the Dems in marginal or GOP-leaning districts who knew they were probably sacrificing their Congressional seats by voting for the ACA, but were willing to pay that price. I have a great deal of respect for him on account of that.
HopefullynotCassandra
@WTFGhost: I meant the juvenile kind of cow tipping where you push the poor heifer over and run like the wind to escape the now enraged bull. Was quite the exciting thing, cow tipping was once upon a rural evening.
HopefullynotCassandra
@WTFGhost: how did these folks explain away Noah and his flood? There were no more sons of Cain left after that.
lowtechcyclist
@Scout211:
Well then, I’m gonna go have a drink. :-)
cmorenc
@Scout211: Maintaining one’s virginity as a principle is its own punishment, for either such self-righteous stupidity, or else as an excuse for one’s incompetence at attracting the opposite sex.
WTFGhost
@HopefullynotCassandra: I always thought *that* kind of cow tipping was a cross between a snipe hunt, and “watching submarine races,” as Ritchie Cunningham and his friends would use as a euphemism, on some Happy Days of the past.
(My only snipe hunt, I convinced the Chief Hunter to climb a tree, in case of Real Danger, then started making kissy-noises with an imaginary girl named Laura. Poor bastard sprained his ankle coming down. Maybe I shouldn’t have watched my two-year-older sister’s slumber party, to get the sound effects right.)
Omnes Omnibus
@HopefullynotCassandra: Never top a bill. Only cows. Sexist? Maybe.
Mr. Bemused Senior
Autocorrect strikes again?
HopefullynotCassandra
@Omnes Omnibus: a bill might be ok to tip. A bull would kill you just for coming close.
dnfree
@WTFGhost: He could actually be asexual and/or aromantic.
jonas
@Tony Jay: Oh, indeed. And when medieval popes like Gregory VII tried to enforce universal clerical celibacy, shit hit the fan like you wouldn’t believe. Eventually things settled down and everyone decided to pay lip service to the ideal of celibacy for all clerical orders going forward, but for a few decades there, bishops brought up the subject in regional synods only if they had good security around them.
Paul in KY
@jonas: My cousin used to have a steer from Africa somewhere. Was a domesticated bovine, but quite tall at shoulder, sorta rangy, and with big longhorn type horns. He had 5 foot fence topped with 2 or 3 strands of barbed wire. If that animal saw some grass on other side of fence he wanted to eat, he’d just jump the fence, do his grazing, and then jump back over into his property.
Paul in KY
@HopefullynotCassandra: I thought ‘cow tipping’ was like ‘snipe hunting’. Something to get ignorant dumbasses to do and then laugh at them when they figured out it was a scam. Happened to me once when I was a kid.
Cows can kick backwards and sideways…
Kayla Rudbek
@Belafon: golf is a perfectly good walk spoiled by a small white ball, as the saying goes
Kayla Rudbek
@jonas: sometimes I wonder if they really didn’t want kids and so they neglect them to death
Kayla Rudbek
@Scout211: he’s probably gay or ace and so far in the closet that his mail is delivered to Narnia