Back in the Morning of America, when the Moral Majority ruled the land (or at least the cable news networks), a Repub pol looking for cheap publicity could count on Newt Gingrich or Jerry Falwell to provide attention-catching scare topics for every election. Alas, the dogs bark but the caravan moves on. The situation has gotten so far out of GOP control that godless sophisticates like Ed Kilgore can ask, “Are Republicans Falling Into a Democratic Trap on Transgender Bathrooms?”:
I first began to suspect Democrats of throwing chum into troubled waters on transgender-bathroom labeling upon reading reports that conservatives were determined to launch a platform fight at the Republican convention to make sure “bathrooms” were an important part of the GOP agenda. Yeah, bathrooms. Ridiculous, right? Not if you are a conservative religious activist who believes LGBT rights opened the gates of hell and are ushering in the End Times. I’m sure more than a few Christian Right folk heard about criticisms of the North Carolina bathroom access law and thought: This is what we’ve been talking about all these years…
It’s unlikely a whole lot of swing voters care that much about this issue one way or another, and those who think about it for five minutes probably figure the administration’s approach was a reasonable solution to a small but unavoidable problem. But even as they (and the schools, and the country) move on, conservative activists will remain transfixed, fighting for new bathroom labeling laws in the many states they control, fighting for platform planks, fighting with Republican politicians who are embarrassed by the whole thing, and maybe even fighting with each other on how to fight this new exotic import from Sodom and Gomorrah. This could even become a Terri Schiavo moment, wherein many Americans discover once again that the Christian Right and the political party in its thrall just don’t look at the world the way the rest of us do.
If you look at the NYTimes article Kilgore cites, it’s actually (surprise!) revanchist Ted Cruz supporters sniffing to be sure that Potty Patrols remain enthroned in the RNC’s 2016 platform — i.e., it’s not so much this election they’re targetting, but future ones (not least Sen. Cruz’s 2018 senate re-election and 2020 WH run). Unfortunately for Failgunner Ted, barring some very weird social changes, it looks like 1970s-style anti-ERA rallies against unisex toilets! can no longer be counted upon, outside of an angry rump.
Even more wounding for the feelings (and the cheap votes) of Amurka’s True Conservatives, legacy Congressman Duncan Hunter just tried a similarly time-tested plan to derail equal opportunities for women in the military, per the Washington Post:
“Right now the draft is sexist,” said Rep. Duncan D. Hunter (R-Calif.), who filed an amendment to the House’s annual defense authorization bill to require women between the ages of 18 and 26 to register for the Selective Service, the government agency that keeps records of who is eligible to be conscripted.
Hunter, who is against the Obama administration’s recent policy change allowing women to serve in all combat roles, said he proposed the measure only to start a discussion about the draft. He voted against his amendment, arguing that anyone who favored it would be siding with the administration.
But Hunter’s gamble that committee members would shy away from forcing women into the draft backfired when a slim majority — including five Republicans — opted to endorse the measure by a vote of 32 to 30…
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) said he is open to the idea…
The measure was approved this week by the Senate Armed Service Commission. Shortly after Donald Trump “snubbed” early supporter Rep. Hunter, and his ungrateful hometown media discussed “Hunter’s questionable outlays of campaign funds.” No respect for the time-tested methods of the founding forefathers…
Hey, I wonder if Hunter’s ill-timed ‘protest’ will have any effect on Tammy Duckworth’s attempt to take over Mark Kirk’s Senate seat?
The Republic, Blah Blah Blah...
And what’s really annoying, sad, and even scary is that they’re getting away w/ selling that ridiculous shite to the idiots that follow them.
PaulWartenberg2016
There’s a current poll that shows a majority of Republicans believe that unemployment is up, the stock market is tanking, and that the overall economy is a disaster since 2009… which is complete BS compared to the facts.
And there’s no way to burst that bubble. Present all the facts to them, and those Republican voters will accuse you of faking all of it. THEY know the truth, which is that Obama is a failure who’s wrecking this country. You can take them to every god-proven expert in economics, with certified verifiable documentation with solid eyewitness testimony, and they’ll still deny it three times before the rooster crows.
amk
@The Republic, Blah Blah Blah…:
No need to look further, just look above.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@PaulWartenberg2016:
We really are in an existential battle for reality with a huge and growing bunch of delusional kooks.
amk
@PaulWartenberg2016:
USAToday cited a recent army times poll where majority of military said they would vote for the short fingered vulgarian. Talk about death wish.
NotMax
Wouldn’t be at all surprised if to the lava-Tories it’s also viewed as a jobs creation program, moving ‘the coloreds’ back to positions as wash room attendants.
Adam L Silverman
@srv: Are you saying that a video game character is going to be president?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_Law_(Tekken)
SiubhanDuinne
@srv:
Is that anything like the post-WWII Martial Plan?
NotMax
@Adam L. Silverman
Also an American superhero parody comic book series (albeit with one less L).
(srv: it’s martial law.)
Anoniminous
Someone is off their meds again.
Adam L Silverman
@NotMax: Never read that one. But close enough!
Adam L Silverman
@SiubhanDuinne: If it means we’re going to deploy Civil Affairs Teams – Alpha (CAT-As) and Corps of Engineers units to rebuild our infrastructure, I’m willing to consider it.
Anoniminous
No doubt the exist draft is sexist and needs to be changed. I’m grinning with glee it will end up being done via a big fat Republican FAIL.
sylvainsylvain
@PaulWartenberg2016:
The problem w. dismissing their certainty out of hand is that for them, it IS bad.
Their income is stagnant & precarious, their taxes are too high, their opportunities are limited. Of course, the fact that the people they vote for only make it worse is beyond them, but understanding process, or cause and effect, is beyond them at this point. They’ve been lied to for so long, they can’t recognize the truth.
In this respect, Trump is the symptom, not the disease.
Anoniminous
@SiubhanDuinne:
Maybe NASA’s 3 stage Martian Plan?
Miss Bianca
@Adam L Silverman: “Bring democracy to America!”
ETA: OK, apropos of absolutely nothing…why am I finding *this* so goddamn funny right now…https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtCTWn6HCSI
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
They’ve done it for years, of course:
– Red Menace
– Bomber Gap
– Missile Gap
– ABM Treaty
– Flag Burning
– Balanced Budget Amendment
– Cubans in Angola, Nicaragua, SW Africa, etc., etc.
– Daesh
– Ebola
etc., etc.
I suspect one of the reasons why they’re refusing to do anything about Zika so far is that they’re hoping it’ll blow up as a breakout in the US sometime in the fall. :-(
The Teabaggers have no accomplishments. They have nothing to run on but Trump-ed up fears.
I hope Hillary’s people are looking at how they tried to scare everyone in the past and are ready to counter it. They should review Joseph Welch’s approach in handling McCarthy, if they haven’t already done so.
Cheers,
Scott.
sigaba
@amk: I have a feeling there are more than a few people in our armed forces who would rather die in an awesome war than live through a mere Police Action. Idealism!
Mike J
Good news today. My parents are of an age where there is always something wrong. My father’s doctor was concerned enough by his recent weight loss that he ordered a full body scan. The results came back today, and there was nothing but a benign cyst that would have never been detected otherwise because it’s not doing anything bad. So I’m pretty happy about that.
Also, I just grilled some herb encrusted salmon and drank a bottle of pinot. I’m gonna watch the España F1 P2 replay at 10:30 and go sailing tomorrow.
seaboogie
@srv:
Who is this Marshall, of whom you speak? Points for a troll using the correct version of “there/their/they’re”, though.
NotMax
On topic (if one squints) mood lightener.
Forward Into the Past
(The Vault of Mindless Fellowship is an apt description of the elephant party.)
trollhattan
@srv:
And here I thought you couldn’t get drunk on Bud Light. Will wonders never cease?
Wag
@sylvainsylvain:
So what you’re saying is that Trump n Furter wants to remove the cause, but not the symptom?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Oo-oWc4uEPE
Wag
Trump n Furter will remove the cause, but not the symptom.
Wag
So is there a reason that comparing trump to the Tim curry character from RHPS triggers moderation?
scav
@trollhattan: Isn’t that America Light (as in Light on equality, tolerance for others or anyone different from the white male Eeeeevangelicals?)
ArchTeryx
@amk: They vote their tribe, same as anybody else nowadays.
Mnemosyne
@Mike J:
Time to invest in a case of Ensure for the folks. It’s not uncommon for elderly people to stop cooking for themselves, which is why things like Meals on Wheels exist.
Adam L Silverman
@Wag: I have no idea. I have freed you!
Adam L Silverman
@Miss Bianca: Something like that.
Mike J
@Miss Bianca: Does it sound like all the instruments are playing unison or octaves? I appreciate the idea, but I think they need an arranger.
benw
@Miss Bianca: probably the hats.
I love how into the song the musicians get as they play. The banjo player seems like he REALLY wants to bang his head.
Vhh
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: err, the missile gap was the trope JFK used to win a debate with Richard Nixon.
Regnad Kcin
@NotMax: how CAN you be in two places at once… ?
Wag
@Adam L Silverman: thank you!
Adam L Silverman
@Wag: You’re welcome.
amk
@trollhattan:
hey, bud is awesome murka now. so everyone can get high.
Mike J
@Adam L Silverman: Can you edit wag’s comment? It was supposed to have a video linked in the comments, but it only shows up when you click reply. Probably why it got nuked.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@Vhh: Touche’. It looks like he started the popular use of the term in his Senate re-election in 1958. It was a little before my time and I was going on what I thought I remembered. ;-)
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
Origuy
Could it be the word symptom?
ETA. Guess not.
NotMax
@Regnad Kcin
I’d like to order a pizza. Hold the anchovies. (Yes, ‘get’ your nym. :) )
Now, about those throngs of aliens.
Adam L Silverman
@Mike J: Should be fixed now. I couldn’t even find it until I went into the comments tab on the dashboard. There it was greyed out. When I hit edit it had all sorts of additional coding around it. If I had to guess, Wag used the link button and something in the youtube link info and the info provided using the link button didn’t play nicely together. So I just copied the actual link, deleted everything that was within the link coding. Then pasted it back in.
As a heads up: I never use the link button when I put links in. I just copy and past directly in and then hit return. I’ve never had a comment go into moderation, nor have I had a problem with the link showing up.
Origuy
Tbogg claims this is the dumbest prediction of the election season:
There are still six months to go, but it will be hard to top that.
amk
@Origuy: carly, carly, carly.
Mike J
@amk: Marco Rubio.
divF
@Regnad Kcin:
You fade your voice out and cue the organist!
@NotMax: Although I remember them from my childhood, I’ve never been able to find the original public service announcement about alien registration that the first bit in that series was spoofing.
FlyingToaster
@Origuy: Bill Kristol is still alive, so no, I expect less than a week until an even dumber comment turns up…
RaflW
Unisex toilets! would be terrible, but not for the reasons Christianist wingers believe. I mean, what woman wants to deal with us gross men? Heck, I don’t even want to be in a men’s room half the time.
Do women take a crap and simultaneously talk to their friends/business associates on the phone? Gosh I hope not. I wish men would f’king stop that.
I don’t care how important you are or how soon your flight takes off for the big time. Hang up and poop! (Kinda like don’t text and drive, seems like common sense but we gotta point it out.)
Amir Khalid
@Origuy:
Halperin is one of them pundits who specialise in out-there, eye-popping predictions that defy common sense, isn’t he? As I recall, most of his predictions don’t pan out.
amk
@Mike J: will do one better. tundra twit.
Calouste
@Origuy: I think Bill Kristol’s prediction that Marco Rubio would win every primary is still in the lead. I’d say it’s a good contender though.
Mike J
@Calouste: Be sure to check out Ralph Douthat on twitter. Ross Douthat quotes illustrated with scenes of Ralph Wiggum.
https://twitter.com/ralphdouthat
opiejeanne
I thought Duncan Hunter was in prison. I must have him confused with some other California Republican Congresscritter, that guy from San Diego whose household goods were auctioned off as he went off to serve time for bribery or something.
Oh, that was Duke Cunningham.
NotMax
@divF
It was a promotional 45 distributed primarily to radio stations.
rikyrah
The GOP are running out of people to “legitimately” scare you with. They are now down to transgender people.
Sad ?, ridiculous ? and pathetic ?
CONGRATULATIONS!
@opiejeanne: Randy “Duke” Cunningham, my home district embarrassment.
divF
@NotMax: In that case, I would think that someone would have put it up on youtube by now.
FlyingToaster
@srv: What med did you forget to take tonight?
reality-based (the original, not the troll)
@Mike J:
also – and I’m deep in the elder-care weeds, myself – check out their teeth. Mom’s were hurting her for a couple of weeks before I noticed it! also, failing jaw strength makes it just plain tough to chew,
The trouble with Ensure is that there’s lots of sugar in it – and my mom already pours WAY too much of the white poison in her tea.
So I make up 10 or 12 baked custards, deviled eggs, etc, for her to snack on, and make sure theirs always cottage cheese and individual yogurts in the fridge. Also, I’ve become a big fan of home-made split pea soup with lots of chopped up ham in it – It’s a reliable way to get protein in her –
and I still have trouble keeping her weight above 105 lbs!
I swear, we should start an elder-care group – like the virtual book club thing we had for a while. So many of us are struggling with it.
Geoduck
@RaflW: I have heard it claimed on more than one occasion that when it comes to behavior in public bathrooms, at least in terms of hygiene, women actually tend to be worse than men.
NotMax
@divF
What I linked to on YouTube was what was on the 1969 promotional disc, which after a little researching was not a 45 but a 7″ EP.
Side A was “Forward Unto the Past”
Side B was “Station Break”
Mike J
@reality-based (the original, not the troll): I like to take him sailing with me, and there’s nothing I like better afterwards than a chocolate malt from Kidd Valley. Sadly, while he may need it, I don’t. Still, I may sacrifice for him.
Aleta
@reality-based (the original, not the troll): A funny thing I found with my mom is that she was more able to eat if she had smaller amounts of food on her plate. (She also ate more when someone was sitting with her as she ate.) Perhaps both those things helped her focus, or increased her appetite, esp the social component, which is biological I suppose. Oddly have found the same thing to be true of old or ailing cats–less food in the dish encouraged them to eat.
divF
@NotMax: I actually have the vinyl for the Firesign Theater ad. What I can’t find anywhere is the original US INS PSA.
Villago Delenda Est
@Anoniminous: Is there any evidence he’s ever been on them?
Glad to see the Juicitariat is all over “Marshall Law”.
MomSense
@RaflW:
Oh gross. Pooping while talking on the phone??? I hope nobody here is pooping while blogging.
This whole bathroom thing is soooo bizarre. I used to have to drag my boys into public women’s rooms with me and at some point they are a bit too old to be in the ladies room but not old enough to go to the men’s room alone. Still I don’t remember anything bizarre happening except one of them trying to escape under the stall door while I was waiting for the other one.
I must have only frequented really boring public bathrooms. Usually women go into the stalls, close the doors, and don’t reemerge until they are ready to move on to the hand washing and drying station.
Are there exciting bathrooms someplace? Is there a list or a tour I should know about?
Villago Delenda Est
@MomSense: North Carolina apparently has the most exciting public restrooms on the planet. Makes Paris seem absolutely staid.
MomSense
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet:
Zika is a legitimate concern so of course the Republicans have been ignoring the Obama administration’s requests for emergency funding for three or four months now. If this blows up into a crisis they will shamelessly use it to scare up votes.
MomSense
@Villago Delenda Est:
I have visited a few Turkish toilets in my day where I didn’t want to take a wrong step if you know what I mean. I can’t imagine NC has anything that precarious. It wasn’t a fear of seeing naked parts but more of an “oh shit I hope I don’t fall in”.
Mike J
@MomSense:
I’ve peed at CBGB, thought by some to be the most horrible bathroom in the western world. To be honest, I thought my home town punk club was worse. Both are gone now.
RadioOne
GOP sharks, this is not the chum you’re looking for…
MomSense
@Mike J:
The bathrooms at CBGB are storied! Haven’t we all had to deal with a gross bathroom at some point in our lives? I potty trained three little boys and let’s just say I wish I had someone to clean for me.
Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class
Last full day and night in Italy. Leaving Siena (lovely place) for Rome for a nice day of short walks and glorious meal at a Michelin rated place.
It’s hard to leave this room – we have a terrace with a view of the Siena Duomo. The sunset photos were amazing. Also, back in Florence, I lit a candle for Galileo – lots did (in Santa Croce, there are markers and tombs for many Italian titans of art and science. Michelangelo is buried there, and there are me memorials to Dante, Galileo, Marconi and the like.
trollhattan
@MomSense:
Mabuhay Gardens in SF might have achieved similar status, at least as compelling awful as anything I’ve seen in Tijuana or Mexicali.
opiejeanne
@CONGRATULATIONS!: I am so sorry. And that seat has been in the hands of both Duncan Hunters, father and son. The son is currently in possession.
The former fire chief of Anaheim retired to San Diego out in the county and was appalled to discover that the cheap Republicans in San Diego had underfunded firefighting programs. He himself was a Republican and he was so pissed that he yelled about it in the newspapers and called the county supervisors out because of it.
I lived in Anaheim at the time and enjoyed the heck out of that part of it.
NotMax
@divF
To the best of my knowledge, was never released as a standalone, only as a segment on the EP (and years later on the compilation LP). Some college radio stations may have put that segment onto a cartridge to run as a humorous PSA.
opiejeanne
@Mike J: Does Kidd Valley make real malts, with malt powder?
DivF
@NotMax: the aliens spot was on one of the “Dear Friends” radio shows (the released album of the same name was a “best of” compilation and doesn’t have the aliens spot). KALX had the complete shows on vinyl (12 lps) and I taped them at some point when I worked there in the 70’s. I think the full set of shows are available on DVDs from the FT website.
PurpleGirl
Just finished watching a showing of the first of four new Endeavors. WNET, Channel 13.
Mike J
@opiejeanne: Yup. And I haven’t had one since last summer, but I seem to recall vanilla ice cream and chocolate syrup rather than chocolate ice cream.
opiejeanne
@Mike J: That works as long as they use the malt powder, which comes in chocolate and vanilla.
opiejeanne
@PurpleGirl: did you like them?
NotMax
@DivF
The compilation album I was referring to was the 1976 double-LP titled “Forward Into the Past” which does include the aliens segment.
DivF
@NotMax: thanks.
hamletta
@Mike J: Cantrell’s in Nashville. Oh, my Lord, that was nasty.
Major Major Major Major
?? up late watchin’ cartoooons ?
PurpleGirl
@opiejeanne: Have only seen the first new episode. When I looked up the TV listing, TWC had the comment that it was the first of four.
I liked it but I missed the first 15 minutes or so, so I need to watch the whole show to connect it to the previous series of shows.
NotMax
@Major Major Major Major
Food for thought while cartoon watching –
Andy Warhol made a Batman movie.
Major Major Major Major
@NotMax: Thanks for that.
Major Major Major Major
“You can’t just leave a kidnapping to go shopping. This isn’t Florida!”
I love Bob’s Burgers.
ThresherK (GPad)
@Major Major Major Major: Tina is my wife’s spirit animal.
That episode had a shout out to Brendon Small’s “Metalocalypse”. Did you catch it when Gene said “We should get a motorcycle with four sidecars”?
Major Major Major Major
@ThresherK (GPad): Ahh, that’s what that was about! I think that was a different episode I watched this week though?
ETA: That’s so funny, I tweeted that Tina was my spirit animal last week.
bystander
@NotMax:
With repubs in charge, we could end up with a second TSA, the Toilet Surveillance Administration (outsourced, of course, because bidness), and lines like the airport.
BTW, just returned from Italy. After seeing how the rest of the country is run, I dreaded airport security. Surprisingly, they have adopted the El Al model of employing professional security people to meet and speak with everyone entering the departure areas. We went through at least 3 further security checks, besides metal detectors. Yet, it moved like clockwork. This week’s discussion about the mess TSA should remind everyone what low balling the task and removing responsibility for results to privateer cronies will get you.
BillinGlendaleCA
I spent the evening unlocking my old Note 3 and installing a S7/Note5 Marshmallow ROM on it, seems to work.
Didn’t get my ink yesterday, too long a wait.
Steeplejack
@reality-based (the original, not the troll):
I got a crash course in liquid nutrition when my mouth was wired shut for eight weeks after a broken jaw. Agree with you about Ensure—way too much sugar. I would try your mother on a good protein powder mixed with milk. If you want to get fancy, cut up a banana and blend it in a blender. It has the “treat” (dessert) value and convenience of Ensure but is much better. If she doesn’t like milk, or can’t handle it, mix the protein powder with water but be sure to add ice and a banana or some other fruit to sex it up a bit. Maybe try almond milk. (I didn’t do that when I was wired, because I like milk and my system can handle it.)
I think a lot of old people start to lose their hunger for specific things as their taste buds fade out, so convenience and “no hassle” are important. My mother (age 86) often says something like “I cooked for 50 years; I’m done cooking.” So she “snacks” a lot and, I suspect, doesn’t eat enough. It’s a struggle, as you said.
Punchy
Seriously, Kilgore, it’s all Cleeks all the time. Its the new norm. It explains everything.
Keith G
Regarding the cartoon that the top of this thread, I am old enough to be aware of the skeletons in the Democrats closets with regards to non-existent threats during a campaign season.
They are used because they work. Kennedy proved that by making up something he called the Missile Gap in 1960 – a total Trump-worthy lie.
My concern is that some on the Democratic side spend too much time laughing and pointing fingers at the Trump-led Republican Party. That political party will for the most part lock-in behind Donald Trump and his total of the popular vote will end up not being a lot different than other Republican candidates in the last few decades. My worry is that all the humorous comments aside, Donald Trump will end up a reasonable chance of winning the Oval Office.
This is why it is so important for Hillary Clinton to launch a campaign based on new and engaging ideas that deal with the tough issues we are facing. She just can’t be the old DLC Hillary. It certainly will be interesting to see if after the convention Hillary stays in a leftward profile or turns toward the center to try to compete for some of those folks who are being Trump-curious.
Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class
@bystander:
The train stations are being VERY professionally patrolled right now. Not a lot of regular carabinieri, but plenty of military, and these guys aren’t just strolling – they’re scanning. I’m on the train to Rome at this moment, just left the station at SMN Firenze.
satby
@Aleta:Meals on Wheels is as much about providing some social interaction for the seniors as it is about providing food. At a time in their lives when they have often outlived old friends and many their age don’t get out much, a volunteer visiting for a few minutes can really brighten the day.
@Steeplejack: an alternative for the lazy is Glucerna, Ensure for diabetics. It’s got the same convenience and less sugar.
Schlemazel Khan
@reality-based (the original, not the troll):
When I was going through throat cancer the nutritionist suggested I mix as much powdered milk as is required to make a quart of milk with a quart of milk and a couple of scoops of whey protein. I’ll look around and see if I can find the exact recipe for you. If I find it when would be the best time to post so you will see it? BTW – the nutritionist had nothing good to say about the store-bought supplements like Ensure
ONE HUGE CAUTION! The protein stuff is basically powdered cheese and it has the same binding abilities as cheese. Constipation, really really bad constipation can be a side affect.
tybee
the last oyster expedition of the spring begins anon. season usually closes june 1 and reopens around october 1st.
different-church-lady
@PaulWartenberg2016:
Have they polled internet progressives on these same items yet?
Raven
@tybee: this time next week I’ll be on the red snapper hunt!
different-church-lady
@Punchy: I believe the proper form would be, “It’s Cleeks all the way down.”
BillinGlendaleCA
@Raven:
So that’s what the kids call it these days.
Raven
@BillinGlendaleCA: They call it that the red snapper season is on in Florida state waters (9 miles) for weekends in May. This only applies to the gulf, not Tybee’s AO on the Atlantic. I’ll spend way too much dough on an 8hr trip but it’s what I do!
Chyron HR
@different-church-lady:
Oh, you. Internet progressives think the stock market is soaring, because Obama and Clinton are sellouts.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Chyron HR: Stock Market == Millyanairs and Billyanairs.
ETA: What’s worse, is they are probably ALL BOOMERS sucking the blood out of the innocent X’ers and Millennials.
satby
@BillinGlendaleCA: yeah too bad us olds don’t just do our patriotic duty and die already. Even if the majority of us aren’t at all wealthy, or even financially secure.
bystander
@Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class: Considering the streets in Rome make NYC’s look like hospital corridors on state certification day, I was more than happy to see they did have a hand on security.
Now, if I could just figure out why some guys had William Tell hats rather than berets or helmets…
Booger
@Mike J: That’s the best mashup EVER.
cmorenc
@MomSense:
Well, we talk shit all the time.
Joey Maloney
@MomSense: I was in Bulgaria shortly after the Wall came down and holy smoke, the public toilets there were a whole new level of horrifying. Turkish style, mostly, and apparently hadn’t been sluiced out throughout the entirety of Communist rule. “Hey, they’re the State’s toilets, let the State fucking clean ’em.”
…And, oh, yeah, that’s also where I was introduced to the German-style “shelf toilet”, in a private home. That was edifying.
debbie
@RaflW:
They do where I work. And they don’t care who hears it.
Chris
@amk:
@sigaba:
It’s considered unpatriotic and disrespectful to point this out, but there is a demographic of people who join the police and military essentially for the same reason that people join violent right wing militias.
No idea how widespread that is; the Air Force Academy being infested by Focus on the Family types can’t help, and neither can the fact that the (political) national security establishment in Washington is such a Republican club and that promotion in any field of work comes with an element of saying what the boss wants to hear. Certainly the ROTC cadets I knew at Georgetown fit every last anti-war stereotype of the dumb knuckledragging right wing jock, although the ones at Howard absolutely didn’t.
ThresherK
@Chris: The Air Force Academy’s becoming a bunch of God-squadders is a criminally underreported. Glad you mentioned that; it’s a bit more problematic to me than other things simply because it’s not good for my country (and my tax dollars) and it’s not doing religion any favors either.
Central Planning
@Origuy: Lindsay Graham?
Matt McIrvin
@PaulWartenberg2016: Part of the problem with countering the economic message is that being accurate involves subtleties that are too refined for heartfelt political rhetoric. The recovery has been weak and unequitably distributed, and a lot of people are still hurting–so if you tell them unemployment is down, you’re right, but it’s still a slap in the face, and sounds like a lie. The distinction between the value of a function and its first derivative is hard to make in a stump speech and not sound bloodless and uncaring.
Which is why we get a lot of talk about how the unemployment rate is a cooked number and something else is the real unemployment rate. To some extent this is true… but the measures that include discouraged workers, underemployed workers, etc. have also been getting better, albeit at a higher absolute level.
So then people go to the labor-force participation rate, which actually is getting lower, and argue that 100% minus that is the real unemployment rate. I am suspicious of that, personally: the main reason being that if you separate it out by gender, you find that the LFPR for men has been declining since the 1950s, and all the increase up to 2000 was because women were starting to get and keep paying jobs. Now the difference between men and women is smaller and women are starting to see the same kind of decline as men. But the rate of decline for both sexes has also increased, for whatever reason, so that’s not the whole story. Some of the decline is probably because people can’t find work.
I think that part of this is that the population is aging into brackets that are more likely to be either retired early, or in the trap of being too young to retire and too old to get a job (though one has to be careful about this: the LFPR for those higher age brackets is actually increasing, it’s just that people are aging into them faster than the value increases).
And part of it seems to be plummeting LFPR for young people, who are postponing entering the workforce in the first place. Some of that is probably involuntary.
(And then there are things like the ShadowStats numbers, and numbers that Donald Trump states off the top of his head, that are just completely made up.)
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@Steeplejack: J’s father had scoliosis and it eventually got to the point that he couldn’t eat without aspirating (food going into his lungs), so he had to get a feeding tube. At that point, his “meals” became special cans of liquid food. It worked out Ok, but one has to be careful that electrolytes, etc., don’t get too far out of whack. Oldsters absorb nutrients differently than young people and things like medications can build up in funny ways, also too. Add to that, issues with the pH of urine changing, and you can end up with UTIs that can cause weird mood changes and even halucinations.
Geriatric medicine is still too much of a black art rather than a science.
Good luck, everyone!
Cheers,
Scott.
p.a.
Fixt
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@Matt McIrvin: Yup.
Dean Baker at CEPR, and IIRC, Brad Delong, have made the point that the plummeting of the LFPR during the Great Recession makes it seem unlikely that it’s just demographics that has caused the slow recovery in that statistic. But Bill McBride as CalculatedRisk has been dispassionately saying for years that a big portion in the drop in the LFPR is due to the demographic trends you point out.
We should remember, though, that a lot of the demographic trends are a result of policy decisions we make. If people don’t have to work until they’re 65 to get guaranteed health insurance, then some will retire/drop out of the employment market sooner. Similarly, when the government doesn’t do enough to get back to full-employment after a giant recession, then people won’t try to find work and will go back to school (or stay in school) or do other things instead.
Almost nothing in the macro scale of our economy is inevitable. Our policy decisions have a huge impact on how things turn out even when there are real forces acting. Yeah, we’re not going to be burning fossil fuels and digging up coal in 250 years, unless someone decides to blow up the world, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t going to be people working in energy industries then.
Cheers,
Scott.
Chris
@ThresherK:
I mean, it’s very bad for the country, but I’d say the blatant politicization is as well, and that they’re sides of the same coin. Being apolitical, or at least non-partisan, is something the officer corps used to take seriously. My grandfather never registered a party affiliation in his life because he thought it would violate the spirit of his obligations as an officer, if not the letter. Some people in his day apparently took it even further and abstained from voting altogether. Nowadays, I’m told, Fox News playing on the radio is commonplace and the officer corps (if not as much the enlisted) is basically a Republican fraternity.
It’s really not healthy for a military to become that tied to a particular faction in its own homeland (be it evangelicals or Republicans), and it’s especially worrisome when it’s a faction that’s as aggressively hostile to everyone else as evangelicals and Republicans are.
mellowjohn
@srv:
didn’t Marshall Law pitch for the old Seattle Pilots before they moved to Milwaukee?
Matt McIrvin
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: Also, whether you regard being voluntarily out of work as a good or a bad thing depends on your prior values. Conservatives tend to regard voluntary non-employment as just as bad or worse than involuntary unemployment (and they tend to believe that a lot of it is voluntary, so you get the complaints that the government is making unemployment worse by providing unemployment insurance and food stamps).
Woodrowfan
for those commenting on gross bathrooms and taking their kids in to do their business, I present “Fowl Language.” (yes, it is safe for work)
http://www.fowllanguagecomics.com/comic/touch-nothing/
frosty
@Mike J:
Back when I barhopped, every bathroom in Fells Point (Baltimore) had that wonderful aroma of stale beer, urine, and Lysol., combined. I expect it’s fairly standard nationwide, though, in a certain level of dive.
El Caganer
@Matt McIrvin: I hope I’m not repeating anybody’s post, but I think this goes a long way to explaining the conservative mindset (sorry if it’s a bit off-topic):
http://evonomics.com/how-bad-biology-is-killing-the-economy/
Uncle Cosmo
@bystander: BERSAGLIERI. They’re BERSAGLIERI!
This is the THIRD FUCKING TIME I’ve posted this for you!! And since you’ve ignored the first two, I’m not about to post links again for your convenience. Google it yourself, you lazy mofo!
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
Speaking of grackles, there’s one out front now that is moving a dead sparrow back and forth between our birdbath and the top of J’s car, apparently trying to soften it up to make it an easier meal. I didn’t realize they were carnivorous, but I guess they really will eat anything given the chance… :-/
Cheers,
Scott.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: Whoops. Wrong thread. ;-)
Cheers,
Scott.
The Other Chuck
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: I dunno, pushing a dead sparrow back and forth might be a metaphor for the Sanders campaign ;p
germy
http://www.rawstory.com/2016/05/texas-republican-backing-trans-bathrooms-is-the-issue-that-will-cost-hillary-the-election/
The Lodger
@germy: Trans women WITHOUT VOTER ID!!!!
(Just to mention another class of people whose names don’t match the ones on their birth certificates.)
Shell
@reality-based (the original, not the troll): That sounds good to me. Im in the thick of it myself.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@The Other Chuck: rofl.
Cheers,
Scott.
jl
I dunno it if’s will turn out to be a trap by the Democrats or not.
Seems to me that the Dems did not set the trap. NC GOP did when it passed an absurd law that required people carry around a birth certificate to avoid pissing and shitting themselves as they went about their daily affairs in public.
I saw a youtube of cops pulling a woman out of a public bathroom to the protests of seems like all the other women in the bathroom, and cops seemed to have no reason other than the women looked maybe a little to L-y.
Duncan Hunter has to hack around on the women in the draft issue because out here ins godless California, most big cities have a transgender potty policy and so far fake transgenders causing predator problems does not seem to occur at all, at least that I have heard.
Karen
@srv:
Wouldn’t that be Zikanzi
nutella
Listening to Firesign Theater, there’s a line we could revive for this election where they introduce “our generated, veneered leader”. Heh.
“And without a doubt we have enthusiasm. All for one and all for one!”
Texasdoc
@Aleta: This actually worked for my mom. With less food on the plate, she didn’t feel overwhelmed, but confident she could eat it, and sometimes asked for seconds.