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You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Tuesday Evening Open Thread: Somebody’s Gotta Keep the Lights On…

Tuesday Evening Open Thread: Somebody’s Gotta Keep the Lights On…

by Anne Laurie|  October 10, 20176:36 pm| 140 Comments

This post is in: C.R.E.A.M., Immigration, NANCY SMASH!, Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat, Republican Venality, All we want is life beyond the thunderdome

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Pelosi doesn't rule out a government shutdown if Republicans don't pass a law protecting DREAMers. https://t.co/JlseC2bezb

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) October 10, 2017

Funding the government is Ryan’s job but he is too weak to do it, so he will have to ask Pelosi to do his job for him. That won’t be free https://t.co/E8uyhEq8Fj

— Dan Pfeiffer (@danpfeiffer) October 10, 2017

While the NYTimes dutifully attempts to weave a dark romance around “powerful survivor” and nativist bigot Steven Miller, Nancy Pelosi is out there fighting to defend the DREAMers (not to mention the rest of us). From the original Washington Post article quoted in the top tweet:

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) dismissed President Trump’s new hard-line immigration proposals as “a complete non-starter” Monday, adding that her caucus may withhold support for must-pass spending bills later this year if Congress can’t reach agreement on how to protect “dreamers” from deportation.

“I fully intend to use every possibility” to strike a deal on the status of young immigrants protected by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, Pelosi said. But, she added: “We’re not at that place yet. Right now, we’re trying to get Republicans to vote on what we believe.”…

On Monday, Pelosi dismissed the fresh immigration policy ideas unveiled by the White House. Based on documents released Sunday night, the Trump administration is demanding full construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, restrictions on legal immigration and a plan to curb young migrants from leaving Central American nations to cross illegally into the United States. The new proposals came after Trump last month decided to end DACA and gave Congress six months to pass a solution he could sign into law…

Pelosi said that the administration’s new plan is “un-American” and that “there’s nothing in it to negotiate because it does not have shared values of who we are as Americans. As long as we understand that, let’s go on with what we can agree on.”…

***********

Apart from cheering NANCY SMASH!, what’s on the agenda for the evening?

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Reader Interactions

140Comments

  1. 1.

    lamh36

    October 10, 2017 at 6:38 pm

    Got some interesting employment news today guys.

    Ok…back story, I work of a local hospital (let’s call it Every Job General Hospital). It WAS the last “privately” managed hospital in the NOLA area. In the past they were trying to sell the hospital to a larger local hospital management company (there are now 3 hospital corp in the NOLA area that “owns”/manages the various hospital in the system. The two biggest are 1) LCMC & 2)Oschner systems. The third is HCA hospital systems. In the past their had been bids to acquire EJGH but they fell through due to outside forces. Folks at EJGH had though it was over, but their had always been rumours that EJGH was still looking for a bid and that there was actually an agreement, but all those rumours were proven incorrect at the time they were circulating. Today though, a hospital wide email was sent out with the news that EJGH has accepted a bid of acquisition from the HCA hospital system. The next step is approval of the bill by the Parish Government, but barring some last minute issues, the approval is gonna be likely. So long story short…our little private hospital is soon to be a part of a larger hospital conglomerate.

  2. 2.

    lamh36

    October 10, 2017 at 6:38 pm

    @lamh36: So what does that mean for me…

    Well, EJGH being a small privately managed hospital, had contracted out a number of their departmental workload, like housekeeping, clerical, laboratory, and even nursing.

    The lab, where I work, is contracted out to a national lab company that manages the lab for EJGHh. We are considered “contracted” EJGH employees, but we are paid and managed by the national lab, who pays our checks and lists us as employees. In the discussions with EJGH, HCA agreed to “absorb” EJGH employees into the system based on seniority, so nurses, nursing assistants, clerical workers, that are actually listed EJGH employees many will likely be able to be absorbed into the new HCA-EJGH system. The same may not be said of the “contract” employees.

    The entire merger/bid/incorporation into HCA is expected to be complete by Feb!
    The contract for the lab ends in 2019. HCA will have to decide whether to honor the contract until then, or break the contract and have to pay off the remainder of the contract, which also includes clauses about “expected loss of revenue” that they will have to pay to the contract company to break the contract.

    So by Feb we will know if we will have to be looking for another company or applying to the new HCA-EJGH or trying to transfer to another Quest lab and becoming a full-fledged Quest employee or if we’ll have until the contract ends

  3. 3.

    SiubhanDuinne

    October 10, 2017 at 6:39 pm

    Steven Miller is a “powerful survivor”? Because someone hurt his feefs in high school?

    Please.

  4. 4.

    Major Major Major Major

    October 10, 2017 at 6:40 pm

    I look forward to the BOTH SIDES! reporting if Pelosi refuses to cooperate with the terrorists.

    So far the best part of mandatory teambuilding week at work has been the sexual harassment training, the speaker was hilarious.

  5. 5.

    debbie

    October 10, 2017 at 6:40 pm

    Wish Pelosi had also said that anyone with the IQ of a child would have known those demands were a non-starter.

  6. 6.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    October 10, 2017 at 6:44 pm

    Nancy = Iron fist, in a velvet glove

  7. 7.

    SiubhanDuinne

    October 10, 2017 at 6:44 pm

    @lamh36:

    Sounds like a somewhat fraught time. I hope whatever eventually happens will prove to be good for you, but I don’t envy you the next few months of bouncing around. Keep us posted with whatever transpires, including rumours.

  8. 8.

    lamh36

    October 10, 2017 at 6:45 pm

    Also, don’t konw if I’ve mentioned it, but my current supervisor stepping down to take a bench position as Lead Tech. So a supervisor position is open. This is the 2nd time in like 2/3 years that I’ve had a supervisor step down to a bench tech.

    The other techs in-house, want someone in house to step up to supervisor…like the current one did. she took the supe job cause they wanted someone within and the other techs convinced her that she was the best one to step up. So she did and apparently has hated it EVER SINCE.

    Now I got these folks lobbying me HARD to apply for the position. Literally EVERY other tech has asked me about it at one time or another since the announcement was made.

    “hey you should do it”

    “you ever thought about being a supervisor”

    “you would be good as supervisor”

    ???mahn…FUQ THAT SHIT!!!

    Really….the current supervisor is telling us how much she hates it and now we got to deal with this new acquisition shit!!!!
    And ya’ll trying to get me to step into this shit.

    Shiiidddd! I ain’t bout to let these folks use me like folks try trying to do Obama (did I mention I’d be the FIRST African American person to EVER hold the position)…fix shit they broke and then throw me under the bus after all the dust settles

    NO SIR!

  9. 9.

    debbie

    October 10, 2017 at 6:45 pm

    @lamh36:

    Good luck. I’ve been in an industry with lots of M&A action, and I know how stressful the uncertainty can be. Keep your head down and do what you do every day!

  10. 10.

    debbie

    October 10, 2017 at 6:46 pm

    @lamh36:

    It’d look good on the résumé though…

  11. 11.

    gbbalto

    October 10, 2017 at 6:47 pm

    @lamh36: That all sucks. Wish you the best of luck. When the Magic Hand performs a feat of “creative destruction” the destruction mainly falls on ordinary folk.

  12. 12.

    Baud

    October 10, 2017 at 6:47 pm

    WHY WON’T PELOSI MAKE A STATEMENT ABOUT WEINSTEIN???

  13. 13.

    comforter runner-up

    October 10, 2017 at 6:49 pm

    The Times sure spend a lot of words and column inches to tell us what we already knew about Miller: he’s a total asshole who shouldn’t be anywhere near the WH, let alone running anything there.

  14. 14.

    lamh36

    October 10, 2017 at 6:52 pm

    @debbie: bleh…resume’…speg-ume’…LOL.

    My resume is pretty darn good already. Besides which as I said…this acquisition IS happening. So the next supervisor will be bogged down with so much rigmarole…you’re just as likely to stroke out as pull your hair out. NOPE…I knows what I’m ready and willing to do… and that AIN’T a situation I have ANY desire to put myself in.

    Besides, there is at least 1 tech who has been w/the organization for like 25 years…longer than the last supe…and she already saying she doesn’t want the hassle/stress and was integral in convincing the current supe to apply for the position years ago…

    So…NOPE…sometimes ya gotta be able to read a room, and the room at this place while ok as a lowly bench tech…is NOT for me to test my supervisory waters!

  15. 15.

    Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)

    October 10, 2017 at 6:52 pm

    @lamh36: That sounds like a stressful situation. Uncertainty is the worst.

  16. 16.

    condorcet runner-up

    October 10, 2017 at 6:53 pm

    @comforter runner-up: and that’s what i get for typing my nym while running autocorrect and then not being able to edit it because FYWP.

  17. 17.

    debbie

    October 10, 2017 at 6:53 pm

    @Baud:

    Did I tell you I used to know him back in the days before he found success and started with his power bullshit?

  18. 18.

    SiubhanDuinne

    October 10, 2017 at 6:53 pm

    @comforter runner-up:

    The Times sure spend a lot of words and column inches to tell us what we already knew about Miller: he’s a total asshole who shouldn’t be anywhere near the WH, let alone running anything there is garbage.

    Fixed it for you. No problem, you’re welcome.

  19. 19.

    NotMax

    October 10, 2017 at 6:54 pm

    Could this elevation be equivalent to being North Korea’s Ivanka?

  20. 20.

    Corner Stone

    October 10, 2017 at 6:55 pm

    I guess we didn’t learn anything from the last govt shut down.

  21. 21.

    Baud

    October 10, 2017 at 6:56 pm

    @debbie: WHEN WILL DEBBIE SPEAK TO THE WEINSTEIN ISSUE???

    Any stories?

  22. 22.

    Miss Bianca

    October 10, 2017 at 6:57 pm

    But tell us all again, oh Best Beloved Lefty Betters, that Nancy Pelosi doesn’t care anything about DACA or the DREAMers, or that she ought to just step aside because her old lady ladyparts just make her so not progressive enough for you.

  23. 23.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    October 10, 2017 at 6:57 pm

    @Baud: not a single republican was asked to make a statement about BillO or Roger Ailes.

    Hell, not a single republican was asked to make a statement about the Carl’s Jr CEO who beat his wife so badly, he nearly crippled her.

    Funny how the corporate media works.

  24. 24.

    Baud

    October 10, 2017 at 6:57 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: Nice job, Subaru.

  25. 25.

    debbie

    October 10, 2017 at 6:58 pm

    @Baud:

    LOL, no. My best friend was his assistant. He didn’t like assertive women even then. I’m sure he didn’t make any advances back then; he’d just acquired a trophy wife. I can’t imagine how his straight-arrow brother is taking this though.

  26. 26.

    Baud

    October 10, 2017 at 6:59 pm

    @David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: The media knows that right wingers are all lone wolves.

  27. 27.

    SiubhanDuinne

    October 10, 2017 at 6:59 pm

    @Baud:

    Nice job, Subaru.

    Please. We’ve known each other for years. Call me Diane.

  28. 28.

    lamh36

    October 10, 2017 at 7:02 pm

    @Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady): I guess it could be, but I’m not much of a stresser. I know I’ve got at least until Feb and maybe until 2019. So there is time. In fact, the only thing I really need to worry bout is that when I accepted the position, I accepted a 2 year sign own bonus that is split into 2 parts. The 1st part when I started and the 2nd part after my first year. I need to check out that contract to see if there is any language about it. If I don’t have to pay back the first, and I don’t have to worry about the 2nd…and they decide NOT to renew our contracts, then I can start looking for work without the burden of worry about the sign on bonus.

    Still, I find that I’m not stressing

  29. 29.

    Kathleen

    October 10, 2017 at 7:03 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: I. Just. Couldn’t. Bear. To. Click. That. Link. I. Didn’t. Even. Try.

  30. 30.

    Kathleen

    October 10, 2017 at 7:05 pm

    @lamh36: Hoping all turns out well for you, though being a contractor myself I know how nerve wracking limbo can be.

  31. 31.

    SiubhanDuinne

    October 10, 2017 at 7:05 pm

    @Miss Bianca:

    There, I knew I wasn’t the only Just-So Stories fan on this blog! (I love Schrödinger’s Cat very much, but I think it disturbs her that I grew up on a diet rich in Kipling.) But I will hang out with anyone who can accompany me to the High and Far-Off Times.

  32. 32.

    lamh36

    October 10, 2017 at 7:07 pm

    @kylegriffin1
    Obamas: “Any man who demeans and degrades women in such fashion needs to be condemned and held accountable.”
    twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/917886446098317312

  33. 33.

    Kathleen

    October 10, 2017 at 7:08 pm

    @lamh36: In my opinion you’ve made a very wise decision. Besides, you need to make sure you can schedule plenty of Zooey/Maddie time!

  34. 34.

    Mike in NC

    October 10, 2017 at 7:08 pm

    That sniveling little shit Steven Miller watched “Schindler’s List” too many times and came away wanting to be a Kapo. He’s a real Dreamer!

  35. 35.

    condorcet runner-up

    October 10, 2017 at 7:08 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: heh. that too.

  36. 36.

    raven

    October 10, 2017 at 7:09 pm

    @lamh36: All my friends who retired from the local hospital lost their health insurance when Piedmont bought them out. Apparently the retirement agreements didn’t transfer to the new joint.

  37. 37.

    lamh36

    October 10, 2017 at 7:09 pm

    @ASlavitt
    BREAKING: Trump 2 sign his Executive Order as part of ACA #SyntheticRepeal Thursday.

    Result will break Americans’ pre-ex protections.

  38. 38.

    A Ghost to Most

    October 10, 2017 at 7:10 pm

    My job news is I called a vendor pathetic after wasting an hour of my time doing UNIX find commands for some script *startup* (* being wildcard).

    After an hour, we finally learn from a 3rd source that the script was actually named systemctl.

    So, I may have retired. Yay!

  39. 39.

    Baud

    October 10, 2017 at 7:10 pm

    @lamh36:

    Obamas: “Any man who demeans and degrades women in such fashion needs to be condemned and held accountable. Any. Man.”

    Fixed.

  40. 40.

    Roger Moore

    October 10, 2017 at 7:11 pm

    @lamh36:
    If you like bench work, the worst thing you can do is move “up” to being a supervisor. Every professor I really respect misses lab time and tries to come up with excuses to get back to the bench once in a great while. I remember how happy a former boss was when he got to the point he’d never have to write another grant and could spend the rest of his time until retirement getting his hands dirty in the lab. I think it must have been one of the happiest days in his working life.

  41. 41.

    SiubhanDuinne

    October 10, 2017 at 7:13 pm

    Enraged and bereft. Just this minute learned that one of the greatest baritones in modern operatic history has died at the insanely early age of 54 of brain cancer.

    R.I.P., dear Dmitri Hvorostovski. You gave incredible pleasure. I am saddened beyond words that this man will sing no more.

    Fuck. Shit. This is terrible news. FUCK CANCER, GOD DAMN IT.

  42. 42.

    a thousand flouncing lurkers (was fidelio)

    October 10, 2017 at 7:14 pm

    @lamh36: Good luck working your way though this, and may you have the best possible outcome with the least possible anxiety!

  43. 43.

    hueyplong

    October 10, 2017 at 7:15 pm

    To anyone with eyes and ears, Steven Miller is a churlish douche. Period. No other spin is credible.

    More importantly, why won’t Nancy Pelosi call Weinstein’s actions “radical Islamic terrorism?”

  44. 44.

    lamh36

    October 10, 2017 at 7:17 pm

    @raven: That was one of the things mentioned in the departmental meeting about it. What was said was those folks who had been with the EJGH company before the lab contract and was grandfathered into the new lab contract position, would not “LOSE” those funs, but will be able to either take a smaller annuity payment for a longer time, or they would be able to get a lump sum, TAXED amount that will pay more, but for obviously a likely shorter time depending on what you do with ur lump sum.

    I don’t have that problem, since I’ve never been an EJGH employee

  45. 45.

    A Ghost to Most

    October 10, 2017 at 7:18 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: Like Tom Petty last week. We feel your pain.
    Music has a way.

  46. 46.

    raven

    October 10, 2017 at 7:19 pm

    @lamh36: Good.

  47. 47.

    Corner Stone

    October 10, 2017 at 7:19 pm

    @A Ghost to Most:

    My job news is I called a vendor pathetic after wasting an hour of my time doing UNIX find commands

    An hour! An hour!! What are you, King Canute?

  48. 48.

    ThresherK

    October 10, 2017 at 7:20 pm

    @lamh36: Countdown to my FernieFroze shoving that tweet (figuratively) in Hillary’s face and demanding she go back in time and never meet Harv, in 3…2…1…

  49. 49.

    Miss Bianca

    October 10, 2017 at 7:20 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne:You know what I love about this place? It’s that I can count on someone to smoke even the most obscure literary references.

    PS, please don’t tell our S’s-C that I was determined I was gonna *be* Mowgli when I grew up. Or Tarzan. One or the other other. Never mind the bollocks, here comes the Sex (Change) Pistols!

    ETA: Sorry to hear the sad news about your opera singer. : (

  50. 50.

    SiubhanDuinne

    October 10, 2017 at 7:21 pm

    @A Ghost to Most:

    Very much the same. Thank you for understanding the parallel, and the huge sense of loss.

    My Met Opera FB group is going berserk. Hvorostovski was a huge favourite, and ever since his illness was announced a couple of years ago, we’ve all been pulling for him. This is just devastating.

  51. 51.

    Mike in NC

    October 10, 2017 at 7:21 pm

    @lamh36: My first job out of college was as a lab tech. Enjoyable enough but sort of a dead end, even if you got a Master’s degree. Supervisors shuffled papers at a desk all day long for very little more money, so really nobody in the lab wanted that career route. This was way back in the 80s.

  52. 52.

    lamh36

    October 10, 2017 at 7:22 pm

    @Roger Moore: Yes. I enjoy being a bench tech. My ideal job is a lead tech position, NOT supervisory…but in the clinial lab that are a bit hard to come by.

    Also, I’m not adverse to being a supervisor, but I thought long and hard about it and I decided that I just don’t want to be a supervisor in a HOSPITAL lab setting. You are too beholden to different doctors proclivities and desires, esp the current place.

    I’d be more interested in a reference lab position…in that case your are NOT beholden to the particular proclivities of different doctors.

  53. 53.

    NotMax

    October 10, 2017 at 7:23 pm

    Movie on in background on TCM (a generally acknowledged crappy one from 1964) actually has a character named Gaye Swinger.

    *snicker*

  54. 54.

    Roger Moore

    October 10, 2017 at 7:23 pm

    @A Ghost to Most:

    After an hour, we finally learn from a 3rd source that the script was actually named systemctl.

    So they switched from sysvinit to systemd and your pathetic vendor didn’t know. He’s the one who ought to be polishing his resume.

  55. 55.

    Mnemosyne

    October 10, 2017 at 7:23 pm

    @lamh36:

    Since you know there’s a hard deadline for the acquisition, I would check to make sure they can’t weasel out on the other half of that bonus and then go into savings mode so you have a nice financial cushion in place before February. Good thing you already did the big D.C. trip!

  56. 56.

    SiubhanDuinne

    October 10, 2017 at 7:25 pm

    @Miss Bianca:

    Assume you have, at some point in your life, read Anne Rivers Siddons’ Peachtree Road, with its many, if somewhat baroque, Jungle Book references?

  57. 57.

    A Ghost to Most

    October 10, 2017 at 7:25 pm

    @Roger Moore: I’ve spent 42 years as a techie, and never once regretted not going into management. Tempermentally unsuited to kiss ass. YMMV.

  58. 58.

    lamh36

    October 10, 2017 at 7:27 pm

    @Mike in NC: It’s pretty much the same, but you also have to deal with ALOT more red tape…and if you enjoy the bench work, then yep…you DEF won’t be doing it.

    My supervisor who’s stepping down now, has to basically be re-trained on bench work. I mean she’s not a “student” by any means, she’s been doing it long enough, but she’s been on the non-bench en for over 4 years so she’s basically starting with basic training, but has to retrain her brain back to day to day bench work. It’s why majority of folks who take on the supervisor position in clinical labs tend to be older and already having many years in the field, so that they truly have reached the end of their desire for bench work.

    She was fairly young in that regard (the youngest to hold that position) and so I’m not surprised she ultimately hated it. I am self-assured and confident enough in myself to try to avoid things I know I won’t like or that I’ll be STUCK in with no way out

  59. 59.

    MomSense

    October 10, 2017 at 7:28 pm

    I need a mental health break tonight. Anyone have a good streaming series or movie suggestion?

  60. 60.

    Roger Moore

    October 10, 2017 at 7:29 pm

    @lamh36:
    This is the kind of thing that makes me take the unpopular neoliberal sellout position that defined contribution retirement plans (i.e. 401k, 403b, etc.) make more sense for many employees than defined benefit plans. Defined benefit plans were great back in the days of lifetime employment with a single employer, but they aren’t very helpful for people whose employer keeps changing faster than Trump changes policy positions. I want retirement money my employer can’t lay their grubby little hands on, even if they get bought out by vulture capitalists.

  61. 61.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    October 10, 2017 at 7:29 pm

    Speaking of Tom Petty. There’s a pretty funny Reddit comment section about him and Obama (link)

  62. 62.

    ThresherK

    October 10, 2017 at 7:29 pm

    @NotMax: I did a search for Gaye Swinger and now the librarian won’t let me use the internet.

  63. 63.

    Schlemazel

    October 10, 2017 at 7:29 pm

    Pelosi? you mean that useless over the hill sellout not really a Democrat? Gad, why has she not retired yet so Bernie Sanders could appoint a real Dem to the job?

    Yeah, I guess I’m still bitter

  64. 64.

    Miss Bianca

    October 10, 2017 at 7:30 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: I have not, but it’s on my list now!

  65. 65.

    raven

    October 10, 2017 at 7:32 pm

    @MomSense: Master of None

  66. 66.

    A Ghost to Most

    October 10, 2017 at 7:32 pm

    @Roger Moore: Their product depends on tomcat and apache, but apparently they don’t know how to start them. I’m an Oracle DBA (now), and those products are not in my area of control.

    When we finally found the script, I learned that it needed to be run as root, so I couldn’t run it anyway.

    We’ll see about the ramifications, but my pockets are completely devoid of fucks.

  67. 67.

    NotMax

    October 10, 2017 at 7:33 pm

    @Miss Bianca

    Ever read Philip José Farmer’s Lord Tyger? Or his ‘biography’ of Tarzan?

  68. 68.

    MomSense

    October 10, 2017 at 7:33 pm

    @raven:

    I’ve been wanting to watch that one but keep forgetting. Thank you.

  69. 69.

    Schlemazel

    October 10, 2017 at 7:33 pm

    @A Ghost to Most:
    I have been a techie for about the same length of time. I just got railroaded into managing techies this year. The only redeeming part is I’m 65 and have a job not a career and I work for an organization that can’t fire me for honesty so I have told my sr management exactly what I think with no fear.

  70. 70.

    Roger Moore

    October 10, 2017 at 7:36 pm

    @A Ghost to Most:
    I’m not a Linux guru by any stretch of the imagination, but I know systemctl is systemd’s command for managing processes, so it sounds to me as if the underlying OS changed and the vendor didn’t realize it.

  71. 71.

    lamh36

    October 10, 2017 at 7:37 pm

    @Mnemosyne: IKR…I was planning a trip for my birthday in November, but now I’m thinking of nixing that unless some really great deal happens

  72. 72.

    SiubhanDuinne

    October 10, 2017 at 7:38 pm

    @Miss Bianca:

    It really is quite wonderful if you don’t mind somewhat overwrought modern Southern Gothic novels. I used to love Anne Rivers Siddons until five or six years ago, but her last several books have been laughably unreadable. But in her prime, she was really good!

  73. 73.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    October 10, 2017 at 7:38 pm

    @Baud: WHEN WILL BAUD SPEAK TO THE WEINSTEIN ISSUE???

  74. 74.

    Another Scott

    October 10, 2017 at 7:42 pm

    I was just flipping channels and saw that a New Jersey Governor’s debate was happening. I listened for about 15 seconds.

    Guess what the GOP governor was talking about. Just guess.

    Yup. Donations from Harvey Weinstein. :-/

    They’re shameless.

    We have to fight them every single day.

    Grr…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  75. 75.

    NotMax

    October 10, 2017 at 7:42 pm

    @MomSense

    Also too, Still Game or Traffic Light. If you don’t mind subtitles, Club de Cuervos (don’t let the opening scene in first episode throw you – it’s germane to what follows but not indicative of what is shown thereafter) or Rita.

    For a lighter movie, the original British Death at a Funeral, if for nothing else the multi-faceted Peter Dinklage.

  76. 76.

    raven

    October 10, 2017 at 7:44 pm

    So Lil Bit has Laryngeal paralysis and I’m struggling to figure out what to do. After ultrasound and a thoracic X-ray the advice from the vet and vet tech was to let her be. The only “cure” is a tie off procedure where half of the larynx is tied to the side to open the airway. She’s as voracious as ever and that seems to be part of the problem I’m having. When she gets warm or excited her breathing increases and she starts to make a high pitch squeak and pants even more. Any thought of food and there she goes! I guess I need to call the vet and ask for more guidance on what to expect and when to panic. She’s on her pillow and snoring away right now but I just don’t want the little girl to suffocate to death. UGH.

  77. 77.

    Major Major Major Major

    October 10, 2017 at 7:44 pm

    @A Ghost to Most: ah, good ol systemctl.

    @Roger Moore: I think ubuntu somewhat recently switched to it by default.

  78. 78.

    Jeffro

    October 10, 2017 at 7:45 pm

    Oh man…crockpot beef ragu’ is really good on the first night and REALLY GOOD on the second…

    The beyond-irony of Nancy Smash being able to credibly threaten a government shutdown when the Repugs control all three branches of government just kills me. DO IT NANCY!

  79. 79.

    ThresherK

    October 10, 2017 at 7:46 pm

    @Schlemazel: A “Real Dem”? That right there is the definition of a sellout. Bernie gets to appoint someone whose Dem license plate is still the temporary cardboard one.

  80. 80.

    pinacacci

    October 10, 2017 at 7:46 pm

    I knew it! dang those Russkies

    ETA sorry, I have messed up the link, WaPo story about Israelis hacking Kaspersky and telling the NSA that yes, they’re bad actors

  81. 81.

    zhena gogolia

    October 10, 2017 at 7:47 pm

    @raven:

    I’m sorry. I know that feeling you’re having. I hope she can be comfortable for as long as possible.

  82. 82.

    zhena gogolia

    October 10, 2017 at 7:48 pm

    @Mnemosyne:

    OT, but I see Ron Chernow has a new biography of U.S. Grant out. LMM better get cracking!

  83. 83.

    Roger Moore

    October 10, 2017 at 7:50 pm

    @Major Major Major Major:

    I think ubuntu somewhat recently switched to it by default.

    Yes, they did. It was a big deal because they were the ones who wrote upstart, and they’ve been reluctant to give up on in-house projects like that. IIRC, they were pushed into it when Debian decided to make systemd default.

  84. 84.

    Baud

    October 10, 2017 at 7:52 pm

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: I have not accepted a dime from Weinstein.

    @Another Scott: How’s the Dem candidate handling it?

  85. 85.

    Josie

    October 10, 2017 at 7:54 pm

    I despise Steven Miller as much as I admire Nancy Pelosi. I hope at some point she gets to crush him somehow. I know, I know, it’s not likely to happen, but a girl can dream.

  86. 86.

    debbie

    October 10, 2017 at 7:54 pm

    @MomSense:

    Triplets of Belleville.

  87. 87.

    MomSense

    October 10, 2017 at 7:54 pm

    @NotMax:

    Thank you! Death at a Funeral is one I have watched many times because it is funny and I have a crush on Matthew McFayden. Rita is on my list but I forgit about that one, too.

    @raven:

    I’m really sorry, Raven. I hope the vet can give you good advice. Please give lil bit some skritches for me.

  88. 88.

    ThresherK

    October 10, 2017 at 7:55 pm

    @raven: I hope you can reassure her no matter what happens.

  89. 89.

    Omnes Omnibus

    October 10, 2017 at 7:56 pm

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: When will Baud speak to the Baud issue?

  90. 90.

    Major Major Major Major

    October 10, 2017 at 7:56 pm

    @Roger Moore: yeah, that’s right.

  91. 91.

    Mnemosyne

    October 10, 2017 at 7:57 pm

    @NotMax:

    You also get an early look at why Alan Tudyk is doing so well as a voice artist — his British accent in that film is impeccable.

  92. 92.

    raven

    October 10, 2017 at 7:58 pm

    @MomSense: We’re stuck in the bedroom while the princess has her last Dog Parade meeting before the event this Sunday. Just before the folks started to arrive she found a snake on the sun porch and that was it for meeting out there!

  93. 93.

    NotMax

    October 10, 2017 at 7:59 pm

    @MomSense

    One more which popped into the noggin. If you can find it (and it’s admittedly difficult to track down), White Rice is a dear little gem of a film.

  94. 94.

    debbie

    October 10, 2017 at 7:59 pm

    @Josie:

    Stephen Miller is the true Cosmopolitan.

  95. 95.

    Mnemosyne

    October 10, 2017 at 8:00 pm

    @zhena gogolia:

    I think he said that he’s already chosen his next project, but we all need to be patient because it takes him on average seven YEARS to write something from scratch. Sigh.

  96. 96.

    raven

    October 10, 2017 at 8:01 pm

    Whoa there is no one at the USA-Trinidad Tobago World Cup qualifier.

  97. 97.

    lamh36

    October 10, 2017 at 8:02 pm

    @MomSense: Oooh… The Birdcage on STARZ! I swear ya’ll this may be my FAV Robin Williams and Nathan Lane film!!!

  98. 98.

    Mnemosyne

    October 10, 2017 at 8:07 pm

    @MomSense:

    In case you need a film that will allow for a good, heartwrenching cry but still be okay in the end, I highly recommend The Descendants, with George Clooney and Shailene Woodley. It starts with a tragedy but the family is at peace with each other by the end.

  99. 99.

    Mnemosyne

    October 10, 2017 at 8:09 pm

    @lamh36:

    I love that one, though it annoys me that they made the son a jerk without needing to. But that’s a fairly minor flaw when you have Williams and Lane playing off each other.

  100. 100.

    Brendancalling

    October 10, 2017 at 8:09 pm

    I woke up with clear symptoms of one of my occasional depressive spells, and by day’s end I hit my wall with the Internet and humanity. It was, in fact Cillizza’s “HITLERY AND OBUMMER SILENCE ON WEINSTEIN”, that pushed me over the edge.

    I eschewed a run for a walk, and I’m going to a pickin party tonight, which may help.

    It is days like this -when Trump is challenging his SOS to an IQ test while his wives fight over who’s First Lady and the media is flapping its collective gums that Hitlery has to apologize (?) for taking money from Weinstein- that I wish I was completely ignorant of politics.

  101. 101.

    lamh36

    October 10, 2017 at 8:12 pm

    @Mnemosyne: I was gonna watch it, but then realized Finding Your Roots was back on PBS…I own Birdcage on DVD, so I’ll watch that one another time!

  102. 102.

    NotMax

    October 10, 2017 at 8:12 pm

    @MomSense

    My bad. Misremembered the name above, it’s White On Rice.

    And another (much easier to find) – Le Chef.

  103. 103.

    M31

    October 10, 2017 at 8:16 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    hey, it looks like Hvorostovsky is actually not dead — it was real-live fake news, not sure who did it

    (my FB feed is full of musicians and they were devastated, then livid but glad)

  104. 104.

    Roger Moore

    October 10, 2017 at 8:17 pm

    @Major Major Major Major:
    FWIW, I’m a bit more than a casual Linux person. I mostly use it at home, but I’m a subscriber and regular reader of LWN. I’ve even been there for long enough to have a 2 digit user ID*.

    *This basically means I’ve been reading since they switched to a user ID system and happened to sign up quickly on the day they started handing them out.

  105. 105.

    schrodingers_cat

    October 10, 2017 at 8:20 pm

    @Miss Bianca: @SiubhanDuinne: Don’t let me stop you from enjoying the works of Mr. White Man’s burden.

  106. 106.

    raven

    October 10, 2017 at 8:24 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: Have you seen My Boy Jack?

  107. 107.

    Mnemosyne

    October 10, 2017 at 8:26 pm

    @schrodingers_cat:
    @Miss Bianca:
    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Since we are all friends here I will re-post the link to this great essay, How to Be a Fan of Problematic Things. It’s good advice.

    Also, SC, I emailed you earlier.

  108. 108.

    SgrAstar

    October 10, 2017 at 8:28 pm

    @debbie: ack! For a minute I thought you were talking about Steven Miller, not Harvey Weinstein. But then I realized that there is no way in hell that a super creep like Miller could have amassed the financial resources to acquire a trophy wife at such a young age. Weinstein’s wife must be absolutely hollow. Miller has always seemed to be a person whose familiarity with the opposite sex is extremely limited, if not non-existent. I think total lack of sexual success could explain his reflexive meanness and malice. Heh.

  109. 109.

    Brachiator

    October 10, 2017 at 8:29 pm

    @Brendancalling:

    ..It is days like this -when Trump is challenging his SOS to an IQ test while his wives fight over who’s First Lady and the media is flapping its collective gums that Hitlery has to apologize (?) for taking money from Weinstein- that I wish I was completely ignorant of politics.

    Hell, sometimes I think that more days of raging Trumpism will leave us all completely ignorant, period.

  110. 110.

    Mnemosyne

    October 10, 2017 at 8:34 pm

    Speaking of self-care, I just ordered stupidly expensive pajamas in this pattern. Because I wanted them.

  111. 111.

    debbie

    October 10, 2017 at 8:35 pm

    @SgrAstar:

    Scumbags are easily interchangeable. ?

  112. 112.

    schrodingers_cat

    October 10, 2017 at 8:43 pm

    @Mnemosyne: Thanks, I will check. When I didn’t really know what an odious tool and a sympathizer of the brutal regime in India that Kipling was, I did enjoy some of his literary works. But now I cannot unread what I have read about him. All the pretty words in the world don’t make up for that.
    He called Reginald Dyer, the butcher or Jallianwalla Bagh.

    A man who saved India

    And raised money to rehabilitate him. A Gofundme of the last century.

  113. 113.

    SiubhanDuinne

    October 10, 2017 at 8:44 pm

    @Mnemosyne:

    I would love to see them, but I am not going to click. Last night (or the night before, I can’t remember) you offered a link to a dog costume. I clicked on it briefly to see what it was, and ever since have been suffocated with ads for that dog costume. I don’t own a dog, and if I did I would not dress it up. Shit, you would think these super-smart algofuckingrithms would be able to figure that out.

    I do not want you on a dog,
    I do not want you on a blog.

  114. 114.

    Mnemosyne

    October 10, 2017 at 8:46 pm

    @schrodingers_cat:

    Yeah, there are times when you find out something about an artist’s background that makes you nope out of there, but it’s different for everyone. I haven’t watched a Woody Allen movie since the Soon-Yi thing, and I can’t enjoy his older ones, either. And that was consensual and they’ve been married for over a decade now! But, squicky.

  115. 115.

    mai naem mobile

    October 10, 2017 at 8:48 pm

    @lamh36: I have a friend who works at a lab and because Banner was allowed to SonoraQuest in Phoenix, there are essentially only two labs for lab workers – Lab Corp and SonoraQuest which depresses wages. She said she would make a third more if she moved to Florida. Florida,I am guessing,has, similar if not a lower COL than AZ. This was under the Obama admin. Not sure why it wasn’t stopped. It’s anti competitive.

  116. 116.

    raven

    October 10, 2017 at 8:49 pm

    @Mnemosyne: Warren Zevon was a fucking asshole lunatic and, after you read his bio, it amazing no one killed him. Still

    Darkness in the morning
    Shadows on the land
    Certain individuals
    Aren’t sticking with the plan…

  117. 117.

    Mnemosyne

    October 10, 2017 at 9:01 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    It’s an image of the print from the pajama company, but you’re probably right that the algorithm will show you pajama ads for the next ten years if you click on it.

  118. 118.

    Roger Moore

    October 10, 2017 at 9:01 pm

    @mai naem mobile:
    Contemporary antitrust enforcement has been dominated by a focus on effects on consumer prices. If consolidation doesn’t drive up consumer prices, it’s seen as not a problem. There hasn’t been enough focus on how excessive market power hurts suppliers and employees.

  119. 119.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    October 10, 2017 at 9:14 pm

    @debbie: I can’t imagine how his straight-arrow brother is taking this though.

    Somebody tweeted out yesterday that Bob is somehow involved in this becoming public

  120. 120.

    J R in WV

    October 10, 2017 at 9:14 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Sorry to hear the bad news. I admire their skills, the opera performers, even though I don’t really enjoy listening to their work. Attending the performances, on the other hand, is a real and wonderful experience. When we go to NYC every decade or two, we sometimes get tix for the Met, eat dinner and drink champagne at intermissions, and are amazed at the enthusiasm of the crowd, which comes from all over the world.

    Wife overheard a group from Milan applauding wildly, while commenting in Italian that it was very good, but not as good as back home! Wildly amusing that they didn’t have a clue Americans might understand their secret foreign language!!!

    Of course, Milano is the home of Italian opera, if I’m not greatly mistaken.

    Again, sorry for your loss, our loss. Talent is precious and rare.

  121. 121.

    Jinchi

    October 10, 2017 at 9:20 pm

    When did the minority leader in the House get the power to shut down the government?

  122. 122.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    October 10, 2017 at 9:20 pm

    Cy Vance has an opponent

    Marc Fliedner ?
    @ MarcForDA
    Civil Rights Lawyer ?Proud @ DemSocialists member. First Out Gay Man To Run for DA anywhere. #EndCashBail #BlackLivesMatter #AkaiGurley #NicholasHeywardJr

    This is everything I know about him, but bail reform in Manhattan? Sounds like it could be the start of something good

  123. 123.

    A Ghost to Most

    October 10, 2017 at 9:22 pm

    @Schlemazel:

    I have a job, not a career

    Man, if I only had a dollar for every time I said that.

  124. 124.

    Miss Bianca

    October 10, 2017 at 9:23 pm

    @NotMax: no, have not, oh so many wonderful reading suggestions on this yere full-service blog!

  125. 125.

    Omnes Omnibus

    October 10, 2017 at 9:23 pm

    @Jinchi: The moment Democratic votes were needed to pass a budget or CR.

  126. 126.

    raven

    October 10, 2017 at 9:26 pm

    The US is in peril of missing the World Cup!

  127. 127.

    CapnMubbers

    October 10, 2017 at 9:26 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: @M31: Cannot find any confirmation of Hvorotovsky’s death; twitter says an hour ago +/- that he is alive if not well…I’m sorry he’s still dealing with cancer. His return to the Met stage in Il Trovatore thrilled me in the 2015 Live in HD broadcast.

  128. 128.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    October 10, 2017 at 9:26 pm

    @Jinchi: Paul “Crossfit” Ryan isn’t strong enough to pass a spending bill with his own caucus. It’s taken as a given in Washington that he’ll lose the “Freedom Caucus”

    (Holy god, I just heard the Weinstein audio from Rachel Maddow. The police, and NBC, news passed on that. Good christ)

  129. 129.

    Miss Bianca

    October 10, 2017 at 9:27 pm

    @raven: oh, raven, feeling your pain. My big old girl Stella is dealing with age-related issues, and i am having to take it one day at a time monitoring them. : (

  130. 130.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    October 10, 2017 at 9:28 pm

    I got moderated for soshlists– repost

    Cy Vance has a write-in opponent

    Marc Fliedner ?
    @ MarcForDA
    Civil Rights Lawyer ?Proud @ DemSo ill ists member. First Out Gay Man To Run for DA anywhere. #EndCashBail #BlackLivesMatter #AkaiGurley #NicholasHeywardJr

  131. 131.

    raven

    October 10, 2017 at 9:28 pm

    @Miss Bianca: Yea, it’s what we signed up for I guess.

  132. 132.

    J R in WV

    October 10, 2017 at 9:36 pm

    @Roger Moore: I can’t argue with you that under current laws and regs defined contribution plans are a better deal. But the law and regs should make defined benefit plans iron clad and transferable, like IRAs, 401Ks and the other 4nn plans allowed. Mine was a 457 plan as I worked for state government.

    I get a defined benefit pension, that will never go up no matter what inflation does to us. But I also put away as much as was allowed into the 457 savings investment account at all times. So when I retired the end of 2008, it dropped more than a third in the Bush crash. I was able to wait and allow the investments to regain their value.

    Now I’m not sure what to do as I expect a trump depression to hit any day now.

  133. 133.

    Gretchen

    October 10, 2017 at 9:49 pm

    @lamh36: I’m a lab tech too. I stepped down from being a supervisor a year ago to be instrumentation tech. Glad to hand it to the new girl who loved having an office (and kicked me out of it), and let her find out how fun it is to write people up for playing with their phones or being late too much or making stupid mistakes over and over.
    Quest is huge! We have one here in Kansas City – lots of people I work with eventually end up there.

  134. 134.

    Gretchen

    October 10, 2017 at 9:58 pm

    @lamh36: Quest here does some reference lab stuff. Maybe you can transfer to another Quest facility. Is there one there?

  135. 135.

    barb 2

    October 10, 2017 at 10:46 pm

    @Mnemosyne:

    Really great local Hawaiian music and fantastic scenery. Good casting and acting — great location and story. “The Descendents”.

  136. 136.

    Kayla Rudbek

    October 10, 2017 at 11:17 pm

    @Mnemosyne: sounds like Craftsy (no link as otherwise y’all will see ads for yarn and fabric forever)

  137. 137.

    scott alloway

    October 10, 2017 at 11:38 pm

    @Miss Bianca: Nancy doesn’t put up with bullshit and that’s why she’s a great leader. Age has no meaning. Experience does.

  138. 138.

    SWMBO

    October 11, 2017 at 3:40 am

    @scott alloway: Competence helps too. Ryan has youth, no real experience and is incompetent at his job. I swear Nancy Smash could herd cats, uphill,in the dark.

  139. 139.

    low-tech cyclist

    October 11, 2017 at 9:02 am

    Earlier this year, there was a lot of talk about Pelosi being a liability for the Democratic Party. How’s that again?

  140. 140.

    Jinchi

    October 11, 2017 at 9:17 am

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Paul “Crossfit” Ryan isn’t strong enough to pass a spending bill with his own caucus.

    So that’s the Republican caucus shutting down the government.

    Democrats aren’t obligated to vote for a Republican bill just because Ryan can’t get his caucus in order. If he can’t get a majority through Republican votes, he’s obligated to negotiate with Democrats.

    This attitude that Democrats have to be the responsible party, even when they don’t have the votes or the power to put together a budget bill, is absurd. It just puts the blame on Democrats for Republican bad behavior.

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