Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

How stupid are these people?

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

Finding joy where we can, and muddling through where we can’t.

“Until such time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin on.”

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

Compromise? There is no middle ground between a firefighter and an arsonist.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

They want us to be overwhelmed and exhausted. Focus. Resist. Oppose.

The republican caucus is covering themselves with something, and it is not glory.

Let the trolls come, and then ignore them. that’s the worst thing you can do to a troll.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

I’m more christian than these people and i’m an atheist.

Beware of advice from anyone for whom Democrats are “they” and not “we.”

If rights aren’t universal, they are privilege, not rights.

There are more Russians standing up to Putin than Republicans.

Relentless negativity is not a sign that you are more realistic.

No Kings: Americans standing in the way of bad history saying “Oh, Fuck No!”

Radicalized white males who support Trump are pitching a tent in the abyss.

GOP baffled that ‘we don’t care if you die’ is not a winning slogan.

If you don’t believe freedom is for everybody, then the thing you love isn’t freedom, it is privilege.

The lights are all blinking red.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Well, that’s unfortunate…

Well, that’s unfortunate…

by | 209 Comments

This post is in: 

I just…well:

Get your JesusWeens at Party City! But seriously, y’all — do these people not have teens, siblings, coworkers, hairdressers, grocery clerks, anyone who can clue them in when they come up with something ridiculous like this?

Oh well. Anyone got fun plans for the weekend?

For the past month or so, we’ve taken advantage of unusually high water levels in the river to explore upstream past the dam. Water levels have dropped a bit, so now it would be more of a hassle to go upstream (there’s a spottily attended lock at the dam).

But temperatures are plunging into the low 80s this weekend, so we may cruise downstream further than we’ve ever gone before on Sunday. Should be fun!

Open thread.

Reader Interactions

209Comments

  1. 1.

    zzyzx

    This weekend? No.

    However mid next week I have some. The one advantage to getting and recovering from Covid is that at least I don’t have to worry about getting it again in the next few months.

  5. 5.

    Jerry

    This weekend I shall be spreading the good news of JesusWeen! How wonderful for all of us! JesusWeen is the truth and the way! Except for my left wing Christian friends. Y’all keep on doing what y’all do. The world is much better with you in it.

    Also this weekend, I shall be heading to a vintage motorcycle swap meet in Durham. Should be fun. And maybe hit a few record stores while in town? Perhaps. We shall see.

    Not sure what to watch. May end up perusing Shudder for some old horror movie that I’ve never seen before. I wish they had the over the top Lucifer’s Satanic Daughter. It’s a low budget Aussie horror flick that has a soundtrack provided by Electric Wizard and features lysergic evil witches that kill a bunch of kids looking for a secret satanic drug stash in the woods. What’s not to love?

    One thing’s for sure, I will keep making my way through Gene Wolfe’s novel, Peace. Hopefully I’ll be done with it by weekend’s end. I’m a super slow reader though, so probably not.

  8. 8.

    MattF

    Dune, the movie, is coming to my neighborhood next week. It’s gotten pretty good reviews.  So, I’ll go see it, but now considering the details… see it at a daytime showing… or maybe the week after…

  9. 9.

    RSA

    How It Started – In 2002, Pastor Paul Ade requested 300 copies of New Testament pocket size Bibles from the Bible Society to use for personal evangelism. A few days before Halloween, a word came to him to give out bibles to everyone knocking at his door expecting candy. On that day over 40 bibles were given out without him stepping out of his house. All it took was putting a bible into every bag as they opened each bag with a smile.

    Just what kids want in their goodie bags.

  11. 11.

    laura

    I predict that jesusween will be a strain of top shelf indica at the cannabis dispensaries faster than you can say rat ran over the roof of the house with a piece of raw liver in his mouth.

  13. 13.

    Ksmiami

    If they come for the Halloween goddesses, they best not miss. Seriously fuck these Christian posers.

  14. 14.

    Baud

    Jesus: I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God (Matthew 19:23).

  15. 15.

    Baud

    No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despite the other. You cannot serve both God and wealth (Matthew 6:24).

  16. 16.

    cope

    Are celebrants of Jesusween known as Jesusweenies? Just curious.

    ETA: No plans for the weekend as usual. Good luck on the river trip.

  18. 18.

    Baud

    41 Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. 42 But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents.

    43 Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. 44 They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.

    Mark 12:41-44

  19. 19.

    Rob

    Jesus”Ween” makes me think of the song “Pollo Asado” by the group Ween.

    The high here in DC is going to 83 today. Tomorrow’s high for my part of town could be 78, but that depends how early the cold front moves in. Tomorrow’s morning low is supposed to be 64. Sunday’s high is currently pegged at 63 (from a low of 49). That is going to be a big adjustment.

  24. 24.

    Roger Moore

    But seriously, y’all — do these people not have teens, siblings, coworkers, hairdressers, grocery clerks, anyone who can clue them in when they come up with something ridiculous like this?

    No, they really don’t. This kind of mistake happens because they’ve given up on the people they know who aren’t Christianists. Many of them have deliberately cut themselves off from everyone who doesn’t believe the same way they do. The ones who do maintain contact either don’t listen when the ungodly tell them something they don’t want to hear, or they have antagonized the ungodly until they deliberately withhold that kind of information because they want to see the god botherers step on their own dicks.

  25. 25.

    mrmoshpotato

    @germy:

    “A Christian Gift Giving Festival”

    Retailers will love this.

    Fine, be a weirdo with two block quotes, WP!

    Anyway, I guess they can’t wait 4 weeks to trample others for a few bucks off of bullshit.

  26. 26.

    geg6

    Showing their stupid uneducated asses in public again.

    Here in Western PA, I’m happy to say that our weather reports seem to indicate that fall is finally here after today. It’s been so unnaturally hot that we were in my sister’s pool in October, a first for all of us. But it’s supposed to drop into highs in the sixties this weekend and I can finally pull out my sweaters, hoodies, fleece and corduroys. My favorite season has finally hit!

    I’m thinking autumn comfort food for the weekend and will be heading out to the long trek to Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods with my shopping buddy girlfriend tomorrow. Found a recipe for poached cod with potatoes, red peppers and saffron in my Food Network magazine I want to try and Trader Joe’s has saffron in small amounts for a not-too-crazy price, so the trip will be worth it just for that. I really wish they’d build a Trader Joe’s and/or Whole Foods around here so I wouldn’t have to drive 20-25 miles to get to one.

  27. 27.

    NotMax

    “No, we don’t have any candy. We’re handing out goody bags, each with a pack of crackers and and a mini bottle of wine….”

  28. 28.

    emmyelle

    In, like, early 2018, I had to stop watching Handmaid’s Tale because it felt like the wall separating the fictional Gilead from the US of MAGA was just to thin and in danger of being breached.

    I got back to it a few weeks ago and binged half of season 3 and all of season 4, minus the final episode. I figured it was now safe to go back to it, remind myself that it is fiction.

    That was a mistake. I remain traumatized. Seeing stuff like this causes my PTSDs to flare up. The wall remains thin. Breach can happen at any time.

  30. 30.

    Derelict

    These people are really true Christians who understand their faith and beliefs on a deep, deep level. That’s why they are completely unaware that “Halloween” is actually “All Hallows Eve”–the evening before All Saints Day.

    But I guess having even a vague understanding of your own religion is considered elitist.

  31. 31.

    Almost Retired

    I, for one, am tired of trying to come up with an original costume every year.  Therefore I applaud the organizers of this holiday alternative for encouraging participants to wear a “white top” when greeting (and presumably blessing) trick-or-treaters.   Easy enough.  Insofar as they had nothing to say about pants, I simply won’t wear any – thus putting the “ween” in “Jesusween.”

  33. 33.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    Plans for the weekend?

    The kids and grandkids are coming over tomorrow for a pumpkin-carving party. BYOP.

  34. 34.

    Kelly

    Fun plan for today, leaf peeping at Silver Falls State Park under beautiful blue sky. Leaving as soon as
    I finish this cup of coffee.

  35. 35.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @germy: We have an ongoing joke about the nature of my True Religion. I think you’ve just spotted one of the Holy Books.

  38. 38.

    James E Powell

    I’m in Maryland for a wedding. I got a little radical last night in a local sports bar called Glory Days. First, they couldn’t even say whether anyone even asked for Bruce Springsteen’s permission for the name of the place. Second, they were out of crab cakes. In Maryland! That’s like being out of carne asada in Los Angeles. Third, they had like thirty screens around the outer walls. One and only one had the Dodgers game. One!  Fourth – and this was the worst – top of the 7th they start shutting the TVs off. I stand up and yell, “What are you doing? Turn that back on!” My brother & sister were mortified. Bartender says, “We’re closing!” I said, “Closing? It’s only the 7th inning! Doesn’t anybody care about baseball? Doesn’t anybody care about America?” My brother & sister were moving to the car at this point. Some of the other people in the bar started to agree with me. I gave up and left before brother & sister left without me.

    We got back to the hotel in plenty of time to watch the fantastic finish on the TV in the lobby with some of the other family.

    Bad call you say? That’s baseball. Take a look at these for perspective.

  41. 41.

    Tony Gerace

    My guess is that a lot of them associate only with like minded people.  The most depressed person I know grew up in a midwestern evangelical family.  A pretty toxic culture

  48. 48.

    MissWimsey

    Sleeping. Lots and lots of sleeping. I got back from my trip to Iceland on Saturday and headed straight to work on Monday. I’ve been struggling to stay awake every afternoon.

  52. 52.

    Keith P.

    Crap, now I have to get rid of all that candy I bought and buy a bunch of bread and fish. I assume that handing out wine is still a no-no.

  56. 56.

    Benw

    Wait until these geniuses get mad in December that we’ve “taken the Jesus out of Christmas” and insist on celebrating Jesusmas.

  57. 57.

    gvg

    @Derelict: When I was little my mother disapproved of Halloween because she associated it with bad people. she grew up on an isolated farm with very religious family and neighbors. Halloween was when malicious teenagers set farm haystacks on fire and dumped really smelly messes around peoples houses. The fires were dangerous and hay was the feed that kept livestock alive over the winter. Those were really family farm and poverty was really close. So her dislike of the holiday was understandable and yet alien already to my little urban kid brain where “everyone” got up in costumes and went out for candy.

    50 years later my sister adopted a boy and Grandma made it very clear that buying the costume was grandma’s privilege, if anybody else dared buy the costume, feelings were hurt and gentle polite grandma was actually snappish. My sister and I still find this weird but funny.

    I think it is way too late for Evangelicals to change this holiday back. Kids love costumes (nephew had many capes and swords when little) and grandma’s love taking pictures of kids in costumes.

  60. 60.

    Cermet

    @zzyzx: Don’t count on it – in as little as three months one can get covid again; vaccines are far better than the immunity from covid; however, after covid with a single dose vaccine is excellent protection. Of course, the normal double dose is even better. So, get vaccinated ASAP!

  63. 63.

    germy

    @WaterGirl:

    Not get to make love to.  Not get to put his little thing into her little thing.

    It’s old (and odd) slang for conventional lovemaking.

  64. 64.

    Anomalous Cowherd

    Bleh. They tried to blot out Samhain by making it the eve of All Saints’ Day and renaming it “Hallow Eve” but the pagan practices continue to this day. “Jesusween” is, indeed, cringe-worthy.

  65. 65.

    Amir Khalid

    Jesusween? it’s like when the RWNJs started out by calling themselves Teabaggers, but times elebenty bazillion.
    Incidentally, I can’t help but wonder if some pervert out there has a website by that name for really, really sacrilegious porn …

  66. 66.

    Kay

    A top Southern Baptist Convention administrator is resigning after weeks of internal division over how best to handle an investigation into the denomination’s response to sexual abuse reports.
    Ronnie Floyd, president and CEO of the SBC’s Executive Committee, announced his departure Thursday in a statement critical of recent decisions related to the third-party review that is getting underway. He said he will leave the post at the end of the month.
    “Due to my personal integrity and the leadership responsibility entrusted to me, I will not and cannot any longer fulfill the duties placed upon me as the leader of the executive, fiscal, and fiduciary entity of the SBC,” Floyd said.

    This is a big sex abuse scandal. I’ve wondered why it hasn’t gotten as much attention as the other abuse scandals in churches or religions.
    I first read about the abuse allegations years ago on a site for women “recovering” from fundie churches. I was reading the site because we had a big child (and animal) abuse case that involved women leaving a fundie church and testifying against others in the church and I was trying to get some sense of what leaving is like – “difficult” is the answer. It’s difficult to get out. Our women weren’t Southern Baptists though.

  70. 70.

    Another Scott

    @James E Powell:

    Second, they were out of crab cakes. In Maryland!

    When I moved to NoVA in the late 1980s lots and lots of restaurants had “bucket of blue crabs for $10” specials and the like. I never had one, but it was clear to me (even as naïve as I was about such things) that it wasn’t sustainable.

    And it isn’t.

    Too many people overfishing, too much runoff from farms and the like, mixing of storm water and old sewer systems, too little work done to clean up the Bay. Things are turning around slowly, but not fast enough.

    "Freshwater mussels could use the help. They represent the most endangered class of organisms in the country."t.co/beJ6oYfHsZ@WhitneyPipkin @PotomacRiver @ssurovell

    — Potomac Conservancy ? ? ? (@TheNationsRiver) October 10, 2021

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  71. 71.

    Matt McIrvin

    @gvg: It seems to me as if Halloween is growing in significance in our culture. It’s not even a day most people get off from work. But when it comes to re-theming the entire appearance of the world, it’s second only to Christmas and arguably more fun.

  73. 73.

    Bill K

    @Jerry: Neil Gaiman said you have to read it twice – once as memoir and the second time as horror.  It’s just too subtle to catch everything on the first read.  You should probably take notes.

  75. 75.

    MomSense

    I got the cold from my kid so I’ll be trying to rest this weekend and maybe do a little yard work.

  78. 78.

    Captain C

    @RSA: I was waiting for the “how it’s going” kicker:

    “For the 19th year in a row, Rev. Ade’s house was by far the most TP’d in town.”

  79. 79.

    Barbara

    @James E Powell: ​Unless Springsteen trademarked Glory Days the bar (isn’t it a chain?) shouldn’t have a problem. Titles generally don’t receive copyright protection. I am sure your mind is now at ease.

  80. 80.

    Raoul Paste

    At least I won’t have to change one of my Halloween decorations for Jesusween
    It’s a yard sign that says “I’d go back if I were you”

  81. 81.

    Barbara

    @Keith P.: ​If you start a church and offer sacramental wine you might get away with it. They would have to drink it then and there, making your house quite a popular spot with the older trick or treat kids in the neighborhood.

  82. 82.

    way2blue

    Huh? They already have All Saints’ Day on November first. A national holiday in some parts.

  83. 83.

    scav

    In Texas, on Jesusween, do their school districts have to give equal textbook time to Sataneen?

    Does handing out bibles count as attempts to indoctrinate innocents and interfere in parental control in what their precious children are exposed to?  Or, is it just garden variety spam and a fundamental cheapness.  Hard to say.

  90. 90.

    Comrade Colette

    Around here, Halloween has devolved into one of those experience-maximizing rich-parent things where people drive their kids to a few popular, upscale neighborhoods that in response go all out on decorations and candy while most neighborhoods see no trick-or-treat action at all. The ‘in’ spots get more ‘in’ every year, and folks in the rest of the City don’t bother to put out anything since kids don’t come around – not even their own neighbors’ kids. We used to get anywhere from a dozen to 50 costumed miscreants; for the past two years, there have been none. It’s sad.

    ETA: pretty much all neighborhoods in SF are walkable, so there’s no reason to drive kids anywhere.

  95. 95.

    Peale

    @Comrade Colette: I live in an building with 100+ units and never get a knock by scamps on their way home any longer. That’s when I used to get them. Last stop before going home.  So my holiday is now November 1, buying up all the sales candy for my personal use.

  96. 96.

    Ohio Mom

    Everyone can relax, I was at our local Party City a mere two hours ago and I can report that I saw no sign of Jesusween, just the usual Halloween stuff. Some of it creepy, most of it silly.

    I went to pick up disposable plates, etc. for the reunion dinner tonight that Ohio Dad’s cousins decided to hold at our house. That’s not quite fair of me, it was supposed to be at Ohio MIL’s but she couldn’t pull it off. I ended up being at the bottom of the crack things fall through.

    Supply chain issues were on full display, lots of big empty spots on the shelves. Couldn’t find exactly what I wanted — and no plastic wine glasses — but I came close enough.

  97. 97.

    MoCaAce

    @Amir Khalid: Incidentally, I can’t help but wonder if some pervert out there has a website by that name for really, really sacrilegious porn …

    Only one way to find out.  Best I not try on the work computer though. :)

  98. 98.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @gvg:I think it is way too late for Evangelicals to change this holiday back.

    The whole vicious prank tradition is because Halloween is the Celtic New Year and the cursed dead come into town and bother people. That’s why all the severed heads as decorations.

  99. 99.

    Baud

    @Ohio Mom:

    Everyone can relax, I was at our local Party City a mere two hours ago and I can report that I saw no sign of Jesusween

     
    I’m pleased that the War on Jesusween is going well.

  101. 101.

    Roger Moore

    @gvg:

    If Evangelicals want to take Halloween back, maybe they can start by dressing up as biblical characters.  It’s something that’s in the spirit of the holiday as it is celebrated that would let them put a Christian spin on it.

  102. 102.

    The Moar You Know

    Due to my personal integrity

    @Kay: If I ever hear someone say that in my presence I’m calling the cops on the spot because they have a basement full of trafficked minors.  NOBODY says that about themselves, at least not anyone who is not just absolutely depraved.

  103. 103.

    Comrade Colette

    @Roger Moore: Sexy Virgin Mary! Sexy St. Anne! Sexy Mary Magdalene! Sexy Martha and Mary!

    Sorry, Jew here, that’s all I know from the New Testament. Are there any other women in it?

  104. 104.

    Kathleen

    I’m running 5K tomorrow sponsored by Cincinnati Reds which benefits Urbam Academy, which gives kids in the city core a chance to get play baseball. Joe Morgan started it. The last .1 miles we come into the stadium on the warning track and see ourselves on the Jumbo Tron. Great event

  105. 105.

    narya

    A 5K beer run each day. A friend’s art opening tonight. Food: tonight is cast-iron-pan pizza. Tomorrow is cod, Sunday is venison. I’m also making two pots of beans, and some of the black ones will be used to make colorful hash (roasted purple potatoes, roasted butternut squash, black beans, and some frozen summer corn). Probably going to make lava cakes again, though with hazelnut paste in the center. Also: some kind of apple dessert, as I got apples in the farm share. And pears, which I’ll poach for later inclusion in a pear tart. So, not doing much, really.

  107. 107.

    VOR

    There are existing Jesus-related holidays on these dates so they don’t need to invent new ones.

    • October 31 – All Saints’ Eve
    • November 1 – All Saints’ Day
    • November 2 – All Souls’ Day

    Collectively known as Allhallowtide. Not every Christian denomination celebrates these holidays, or celebrates on these dates.

    Heck, even the name Halloween comes from a Christian holiday. Per Wikipedia:

    The word Halloween or Hallowe’en dates to about 1745 and is of Christian origin. The word “Hallowe’en” means “Saints’ evening”. It comes from a Scottish term for All Hallows’ Eve (the evening before All Hallows’ Day). In Scots, the word “eve” is even, and this is contracted to e’en or een. Over time, (All) Hallow(s) E(v)en evolved into Hallowe’en. Although the phrase “All Hallows'” is found in Old English, “All Hallows’ Eve” is itself not seen until 1556.

  108. 108.

    artem1s

    do these people not have teens, siblings, coworkers, hairdressers, grocery clerks, anyone who can clue them in when they come up with something ridiculous like this?

    yea, except ideas like this are what they do to guarantee they don’t ever have to acknowledge the real world exists outside their Jesusee Bubble.

  109. 109.

    Roger Moore

    @Kay:

    This is a big sex abuse scandal. I’ve wondered why it hasn’t gotten as much attention as the other abuse scandals in churches or religions.

    The big difference is the organization.  The biggest scandal in the Catholic church wasn’t the individual priests being pedophiles; it was the church leadership deciding to cover for them rather than protect children in the church.  The SBC doesn’t have the same kind of hierarchy, so it isn’t open to the same kind of scandal.

  111. 111.

    brendancalling

    It’s a somber weekend. I’m playing some songs  at a life celebration for someone who passed way too young.

    JesusWeen: a lot of contemporary Christian music sounds very much like barely suppressed homoerotic yearning for exactly that.

  113. 113.

    Elizabelle

    Biden could not afford child care for Beau and Hunter once he was widowed.  Even though he was making a very good salary at the time.  It’s why he took the train to and from DC.

    His family stepped up to help with child care.

  114. 114.

    zhena gogolia

    @Baud: If you’re going to cite all the passages where Jesus condemned the focus on wealth, you’re going to run out of pixels. This is the subject he devoted the most words to.

    Hardly anything on sex and nothing on homosexuality or abortion.

  115. 115.

    schrodingers_cat

    This should come as a surprise to no one that the vilest propaganda against Muslims by the ruling BJP and its surrogates was not enough for them to be deplatformed from Force Book.

    You can read more about it on Article 14

  117. 117.

    Betty Cracker

    I used to look forward to Halloween in our old neighborhood. I’d carve a pumpkin (you do it the day of in Florida or risk having it rot in the heat) and sit out on the porch with a cocktail or glass of wine handing out candy to costumed children and trying to keep the dogs calm.

    Now that we live in a swamp with a gated driveway, we don’t get trick or treaters. No Jehovah’s Witnesses or canvassing salespeople either! But the lack of trick or treaters is sad. Oh well. We get to keep the candy…

  118. 118.

    debbie

    @zhena gogolia:

    What about compassion and kindness? I know that was spoken of a lot, and I probably paid more attention to those passages than the ones about wealth.

  119. 119.

    mrmoshpotato

    @germy:

    I think this is why American Republican politicians are afraid to speak the truth to crowds of angry Trump fans. 

    It’s almost like the bastards created a monster that they can no longer control. ?

    Oh, and here it wouldn’t be a stabbing…

  121. 121.

    scav

    @VOR: That whole eve thing also made me wonder if they’d noticed that most of us absolutely ignore All Hallows Day while going all in one the eve, so do they really want to follow suit where the ween is prioritized over the Jesus?

  123. 123.

    zhena gogolia

    @debbie: There’s quite a bit about that. I’m relying on one of my ministers who said somebody counted up the actual words devoted to different subjects, and money came out #1. And not in a good way.

  124. 124.

    debbie

    @Kay:

    I doubt there’s an organization around that doesn’t have some sort of sexual abuse problem they’re trying to hide or not deal with.

  127. 127.

    Mike in NC

    I used to attend an annual event in Chicago held in the middle of October. Those people really take Halloween decorations seriously, as many of the rest of us decorate for Christmas.

  130. 130.

    mali muso

    Apropos of the wine for the grown-up set during trick-or-treat, there is a local tradition in a few neighborhoods here called “tots and shots”. The kids get a candy, the adults get a shot of liquor. Good times.

  135. 135.

    Kay

    @Elizabelle: @Elizabelle: 

    I’m interested in how it plays politically- how it’s promoted and how the Right attacks it. I don’t think we know because no one has ever done it before. The Family and Medical Leave Act was a long time ago.

    I wonder if the Right will take this approach:

    Fox News host Tucker Carlson mocked Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on Thursday for taking paternity leave following the birth of his adopted twins.
    “Pete Buttigieg has been on leave from his job since August after adopting a child. Paternity leave, they call it. Trying to figure out how to breastfeed, no word on how that went,” Carlson said on his prime-time show.

    Make taking care of children work that should be mocked and denigrated – not “real” work. “Female” so therefore worthless. Democrats could do a lot with that.

  136. 136.

    Kay

    Buttigieg goes on Fox, has smart, civil debates with the multimillioniare Fox goons where he extends them the assumption of good faith and wholly engages with them and this is how they treat him.
    Just terrible people. Rotten all the way down.

  137. 137.

    gvg

    @Comrade Colette: It is more random here. some of the extreme decorated neighborhoods aren’t poor, but they aren’t the richest either. The richer neighborhoods often have huge yards and long driveways and are a pain to trick or treat in. It seems to be where some neighbors got into it and the rest followed. then it becomes a tradition. The most popular around here is the neighborhood next to ours. Pre Covid there were traffic jams. The first year my nephew had dinner with me, then we walked over without dealing with traffic into the back entrance linking the 2 neighborhoods. Had a great time. My neighborhood doesn’t do much. Gossip is we used to, but people got tired of it and went dark. There are decorations this year. I wonder how it will go after Covid. Adults on nextdoor seem to really miss giving candy and trick or treaters maybe as much as the kids.
    Unfortunately the nephew says he is too old (12 almost 13).​
     
    The local community college has a zoo, and they do Boo at the Zoo. Fund raiser canned good donation to enter and kids see the zoo at night and get candy. Popular with parents who don’t live in a neighborhood that works well for tickortreat.

  138. 138.

    germy

    WASHINGTON (AP) — US Capitol Police officer indicted on charges he helped rioter hide evidence of involvement in Jan. 6 insurrection.

    — Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) October 15, 2021

  139. 139.

    geg6

    @NotMax: ​
     
    I know for a fact that Trader Joe’s is the real deal. I had some that a chef friend had given me and it was definitely the real deal and he showed me how to identify it (the end of the thread flares out). The little bottles at Trader Joe’s are not expensive because they only give you a very small amount instead of a whole jar full. I think it was about $6 or $7 for about 1/8 teaspoon of threads. That works for me because I don’t use it enough to make it worthwhile to get a whole jar of it and end up spending $100 on a spice that I’ll end up having to toss out because it went bad.

  140. 140.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: Agreed — that’s a nice fat, slow pitch right over the plate.

    From the clips I’ve seen, Buttigieg is great on Fox News, but IMO, this illustrates why he’s wasting his time there and why no Democrat should give that network the time of day. Because doing so is also giving an imprimatur of respectability to a vile propaganda outfit.

    Fox is able to sell ad time to sponsors in part by claiming they’re a respectable news outlet with a conservative slant but they present “both sides.” They’re not and they don’t. Fox News is poison and should be avoided accordingly.

  141. 141.

    germy

    apnews.com/article/riots-capitol-siege-indictments-obstruction-of-justice-36f12a272f9b955e6524aa1d8e…
    WASHINGTON (AP) — A U.S. Capitol Police officer has been indicted on obstruction of justice charges after prosecutors say he helped to hide evidence of a rioter’s involvement in the Jan. 6 insurrection.
    The officer, Michael A. Riley, is accused of tipping off someone who participated in the riot by telling them to remove posts from Facebook that had showed the person inside the Capitol during the Jan. 6 attack, according to court documents.
    Riley, 50, appeared virtually in federal court in Washington and was released with several conditions, including that he surrender any firearms and not travel outside the U.S. without permission from a judge. He was ordered to return to court later this month.

  142. 142.

    gvg

    @Matt McIrvin: ​
      It is growing. The decorations are much more elaborate.
    I have been picking up furniture at estate sales lately and I have noticed that most people have a lot of decorations. Christmas, Thanksgiving, Halloween and Easter all have their own things and many an estate has a whole spare room full of the decorations for holidays. I am sure that didn’t used to be common. The well off have more but the more modest houses have it too.

  143. 143.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    FMLA:

    This week will mark twenty years since the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) was signed into law by the newly inaugurated President Bill Clinton on February 5, 1993 after years of bitter opposition by the Chamber of Commerce and other business lobbies. Clinton said that it was time for employers to make basic commitments to American workers so that during those critical times when we must put our family’s health first, we shouldn’t have to give up our livelihood — and job — to do so. He claimed that, “we all bear the cost when workers are forced to choose between keeping their jobs and meeting their personal and family obligations.” The new law, he said, would mean that “American workers will no longer have to choose between the job they need and the family they love.”

    No reason we can’t use that again.
    Bill Clinton doesn’t OWN it :)

  144. 144.

    geg6

    @Matt McIrvin:

    I’ll argue that.  Halloween is the stupidest “holiday” there is.  I didn’t even like it as a kid, though I enjoyed the candy.  I never understood why I had to dress up in a dumb costume.  If my neighbors wanted to give me candy, I was fine with them doing so any day of the year without a costume I hated wearing.  I despise it even more now that we have one of those stupid fright trails across the street from our house that ties up traffic and sends it’s idiotic sound effects into our home and keeps our dogs on edge every goddamn weekend night in October.  It’s arguably worse than the firecrackers and fireworks of July 4.  It is meant to benefit the local Humane Society and I get that they need to fundraise but I wish they’d find another way.  I hate how Halloween has seemingly become such a huge deal.  I don’t participate.

  145. 145.

    Betty Cracker

    @germy: I read that article earlier. Infuriating. I hope the sumbitch gets fired, loses his pension and gets jail time. The scumbag knew exactly what those people did to his colleagues!

    Gotta say I did enjoy the AP’s description of the rioters’ dawning realization that they were in trouble and frantic efforts to scrub their accounts after they’d bragged about their crimes all over social media. Stupid fucks.

  146. 146.

    geg6

    @FelonyGovt: ​
     
    Not to mention that, based on my experience with fundies, I am already much more educated about Jesus than they will ever be. Fuck these assholes.

  147. 147.

    Ruckus

    @Barbara:

    Older kids? Mom told me once that the first time I got drunk was when I was 3. They had a party, people set down glasses, I emptied them. I don’t remember a thing.

  148. 148.

    Kay

    In 2002, California was the first state to create a paid family leave insurance program.

    Because of course they were. Because they’re really a country, not a state :)

  149. 149.

    smith

    @debbie: I doubt there’s an organization around that doesn’t have some sort of sexual abuse problem they’re trying to hide or not deal with.

    I always assume that any strongly hierarchical organization has at least some of its most privileged members abusing the less-privileged sexually, and that the organization will in almost all cases try to cover it up to protect those members. That’s pretty much the meaning of privilege, after all.

  150. 150.

    James E Powell

    Off the subject, but what the hell is going on in Virginia that the governor election is in doubt? I’m reading at Nate Silver’s place that independent voters don’t approve of Biden. Are they fucking blind or stupid? Do they really think he’s not doing a better job than any Republican?

    There is something very fucked up about that and it’s something we can’t seem to overcome. Democrats are supposed to solve every problem in six months or less while Republicans are just not expected to be good at anything. I’m thinking back to Obama’s first year and how the multi-layered disasters that the Bush/Cheny Junta created were all Obama’s fault within a year.

  151. 151.

    Elizabelle

    @Kay:   They are horrible, rotten people.  Deplorable people.  Hillary should have stood her ground on that very accurate description.

    Kay:  the WaPost has a big article on some Karens disrupting school board meetings:  it’s the Moms for Liberty.   And the Post has been kind enough to photograph some of these long-haired white wimmens in the style of religious iconography or Soviet posters.  Which appalls me.  The Post may have meant it as a snide comment, but some may not see it like that.

    But time to connect the dots.  Who is really organizing and funding these groups? They seem to be foot Karens for DeSantis, but they’re going national, too.

    You have got to check them out. They look like the Real Housewives of School Board Riots. Long article; worth the click.

    WaPost: Moms for Liberty has turned ‘parental rights’ into a rallying cry for conservative parents

    MELBOURNE, Fla. — The three-dozen women who showed up at the Brevard County school board meeting last week wore identical “Moms for Liberty” T-shirts, declaring they don’t “Co-PARENT with the GOVERNMENT.”

    They snickered and jeered their way through a board member’s defense of the district’s classroom mask mandate, eventually getting kicked out of the room.

    Afterward, a gaggle [love that word!] huddled under an oak tree nearby, listening to the proceedings via cellphone. When the board voted to keep the mask ordinance in place, Jody Hand, a 52-year-old mother of three, jumped to her feet. “I am going to be spending every minute making sure parents know they don’t have control over their children anymore,” she shouted.

    Hand’s anger offers a window into Moms for Liberty, a controversial organization looking to play a major role in next year’s elections. Launched initially in Brevard County to support “parental rights” in public schools, Moms for Liberty chapters have spread nationwide. Its leaders hope to convert brawlish pandemic-era cultural divisions into lasting political power.

    …. In 10 months, Moms for Liberty has grown to 135 chapters in 35 states, with 56,000 members and supporters, according to the organization’s founders. The group hopes to one day have chapters in all 3,143 counties or equivalents in the United States.

    Gary Shiffrin, head of the Brevard Association of School Administrators, who has been involved in public education since 1971, blames Moms for Liberty for the most disruptive educational environment he has seen, besides the lingering opposition to desegregation early in his career.

    They have been personally harassing and stalking the School Board member who defeated one of their founders, by 10 points, in a majorly Republican county. They’re at her house, writing threatening letters, and even called county social services to report her as an unfit parent.

    Here’s a CNN clip on the harrassment of Brevard County school board member Jennifer Jenkins. I’d suspect looking into this may be what brought the “Moms for Liberty” to the Post’s attention.

  152. 152.

    RandomMonster

    JesusWeen celebrates when, on the third night, Jesus rose from the Great Pumpkin Patch.

  153. 153.

    Poe Larity

    @RSA: What if we made a sugar coated chocolate bible?

    Is there a Saint for chocolate? Like someone stabbed I could dress as and scare the kids while throwing chocolate bibles at them?

  154. 154.

    Betty Cracker

    @James E Powell: I’ve been puzzled by the polling on that race too. I hope it’s just wrong, which is always possible, or that if it really is close, people wake up and get motivated to vote as they did in the California recall election.

    I didn’t follow the primary race in VA. I wonder if there was some sort of spat that caused lingering hard feelings? No idea. I have a vague and mildly unfavorable impression of McAuliffe based on the ancient history of the 2008 primary, but my understanding is that he did a decent job as gov, and I’d sure as hell swim through a sewer pipe to vote for him over a Trump clone.

    In short, I don’t get it either!

  155. 155.

    zhena gogolia

    @geg6: It’s very disturbing.

    I loved it as a kid, but my God, our neighborhood has been decked out with demonic cats and witches splatted up against trees and frontyard cemeteries since about Sept. 20. It’s sick.

    A friend of mine said yesterday, “You’d think with all the Covid deaths, they wouldn’t regard fake cemeteries as some kind of joke.”

  157. 157.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Kay: Not only that, Republicans think KIDS are worthless. Spending time with your children is not something men should do.

    Really pound that in there. Republicans hate your family. They hate that you care about your kids.

  159. 159.

    Elizabelle

    @James E Powell:   I suspect the “independent” voters are Republicans who do not want to call themselves that.

    Lot of money in this race, and it’s right next door to the DC press corpse.  Many of them probably live in Virginia.

    National GOP/oligarchs hope that a defeat of McAuliffe can be tied to taking down Joe Biden.  I don’t have TV, but hear the negative ads against Terry Mac are horrendous.  Maybe they are working. Club for Growth; lots of major GOP organizations opened the $$$ spigot.  (Thanks, John Roberts Court!)

    Mystifies me.  McAuliffe was a good and popular governor, if you weren’t a Republican.

  160. 160.

    Kay

    @Elizabelle:

    I think they know who is funding it. 

    They actually don’t deny that it is coordinated and funded by far Right orgs- instead they insist the far Right activist funding and training followed a grass roots movement.

    IMO Virgina is the big test. If they can’t win with it in Virginia they’ll drop it, because Virginia is the epicenter. The group- “Parents Defending Education” has 5 board members, 4 are long term DC/VA Right wing acivists. I actually recognized the name of the single non-VA activist- she’s a long time anti-public school Right winger from New Hampshire.

    But it does make the stakes in the VA governor’s race higher, IMO, because they’ll see it as a winning issue if it flworks there, which would be really, really bad for public schools and public school students.

    So tell Virginia Democrats they won’t just be saving Virgina- they’ll be saving public schools nationwide.

  161. 161.

    MisterForkbeard

    @James E Powell: It’s the media. It really is.

    Democrats are presumed to know what they’re doing and be competent at everything. When you don’t immediately fix a problem that means you’re doing terribly. If your solution is imperfect, that’s your fault and you’re doing terribly. If the Republicans block you for no reason, that’s your fault and you’re doing it terribly.

    When Republicans fuck up, it’s par for the course and not news. Trump literally abandoned our allies with no warning? Mildly concerning. Biden accomplishes the withdrawal he and his predecessor both agreed on and our ally there collapses immediately, at least partially due to Trump’s horrible agreement with the literal enemy there? Biden’s fault and weeks of ridiculous coverage.

    This extends to every single Democratic official. We don’t get a fair shake, and the media uses us to prove that they’re serious professionals who take things seriously. But only, apparently, when a Democrat is in office.

  162. 162.

    Elizabelle

    @Kay:  The Post story let some “mom” say they were funded off of membership fees, but come on.

    Important information not broached enough in an otherwise good article. But, maybe it will inspire more reporting on these deplorables.

  164. 164.

    Kay

    @MisterForkbeard:

    If I were doing it I would make every appearance and every promotion about fathers. If they succeed in “feminizing” it- making it a “women’s issue”, we’ll be working uphill.

    Horrible to say but true, IMO. If they make this about women and children we won’t get it. Men have to be in it.

    I think it’s a great issue for Democrats. Go crazy with it. Get the Right wing talking about it. They’ll fuck it up and say awful, demeaning things about caring for children. I don’t think they can help themselves.

  166. 166.

    Kay

    @Elizabelle:

    It’s so funny because they don’t even bother to hide this shit. They launched a huge, dog whistle Right wing public school panic in Virginia the year after a Presidential election.

    Nah. Not at ALL political. It’s insulting that they deny it.

    Just beat them in Virginia. If they win on this fake, bullshit racist campaign they’ll double down. Stop them there. The Kochs won’t put more money in if it turns out to be a bad investment in Virginia and the grifter “parents” will have to find honest work.

  167. 167.

    Elizabelle

    @Another Scott:

    (And I’ve seen no signs that Democrats aren’t turning out.)

    Meanwhile:  the fuck the fucking NY Times.  They have a story up today about Democratic voter apathy in Virginia.

  168. 168.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @smith:

    Adam Klasfeld @KlasfeldReports 2h
    “‘Just Wanted to Give You a Heads Up’:
    U.S. Capitol Police Officer Charged with Obstruction in Connection with Jan. 6 Breach” Indictment inside, with this line: “im a capitol police officer who agrees with your political stance.”
    DEVELOPING

    that’s a reporter for something called, “LawCrimeNews” so FWIW, but I wouldn’t be at all surprised.

    My cousin in Chicago told 50% of the CPD voted for trump. I told I’m surprised if it’s really that low. I think cops overall are probably one of the trumpets demos in the country

  169. 169.

    Geminid

    @James E Powell: Youngkin’s only path to victory is to carry the independent vote, and he has calibrated his messaging to appeal to them. Youngkin is a skilled communicator without a record to defend.

    I haven’t looked at the numbers  Silver has, but I would observe that Nate Silver is overrated, and likes attention. Local radio recently had on Bob Roberts, a levelheaded poli sci professor at James Madison University. Roberts belief is that McAuliffe has a 3-4 point lead, not at all a safe lead.

  170. 170.

    smith

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:  I’m wondering about the stories of cops who apparently aided and abetted the insurrectionists at the time, not afterwards as in this case. As I recall, those suspended/investigated cops were suspected of actually helping the rioters get into the building. I’ve never heard of any followup.

  171. 171.

    Kay

    This leads to the ugliest moment of the night. After twenty minutes of diatribes from angry adults, a sophomore at Westlake High gets her turn to speak. “Increasing diversity education is important in a district that is becoming more diverse,” she says. “It’s important to make clear we’re making an active effort to move forward.” Before long, her time is up, but she keeps going. The crowd, unhappy with her message, starts jeering. “One minute! One minute!” they holler over her. “I’m sorry, your time is up,” a voice calls out in a mocking tone. “If they don’t get the time, she doesn’t get the time!” A nearby woman grabs for the mic, attempting to wrest it away from the student.
    The roomful of ostensible grown-ups drowns out the student. She’s choking up as she steps down from the mic. The kids are all right, probably. They usually are. These parents, though . . .

    Just really earnest education supporters who are very concerned about students. Yup.

    Once again, as with the masks, the children behave much better than the Right wing adults. They should stop worrying about public schools and start worrying about how this political Party has become 100% composed of screaming, spoiled, poorly raised adults.

  172. 172.

    Martin

    To be clear, I don’t know anything about Bill Clinton, other than there are only a few Covid patients in the ICU there, so he should be getting excellent care. Thankfully he wasn’t in Idaho or Texas. Can you imagine a former president rolled through one of the hospitals that has people stacked in the parking garage?

  173. 173.

    Ken

    @scav: Or, is it [handing out Bibles on Halloween] just garden variety spam and a fundamental cheapness.

    I’ll go with that option.  It’s like the little cards that look like a folded $20 on the outside and inside have some religious message, which are left instead of a tip by some Christians. Though they tell themselves “It’s better than mere money,” I’m sure.

  174. 174.

    Martin

    @Kay: Just reinforces my point that all of this shit – Trump, anti-Covid stuff – all of it is just backlash from those accustomed to a white Christian run nation to losing their dominance. It has nothing to do with science or anything else – it’s just the loss of cultural authority, something the kids aren’t invested in because the kids live in a different environment than their parents did 2-3 decades ago. Not only demographically open and diverse, but they live in social media where white network and studio execs can’t shape what’s ‘Must see TV’. It’s an entirely different world there.

  175. 175.

    germy

    Twice a month I drive to the town of Ballston Spa to buy cat food.  I don’t see them anymore but there used to be a bunch of signs along the street:  UNMASK OUR KIDS!

    Well, today I see this in the news:

    dailygazette.com/2021/10/14/bus-driver-shortage-results-in-remote-learning-in-ballston-spa-on-friday…

    Bus driver shortage results in remote learning in Ballston Spa on Friday

    “Each day, as I suggested, we have two to three drivers out. We have drivers who have tested positive (for the virus), we have drivers who are quarantined, we have drivers who are ill, non-COVID related – and we have drivers who have funerals to attend. All of these things came together in one day, unfortunately,” the school chief said.

  177. 177.

    Another Scott

    Meanwhile, in Virginia… BlueVirginia.US tells us about the latest happenings at the Virginia redistricting commission:

    Basically, the “Democratic” and GQP consultants made a map that give the GQP a 6:5 House district advantage (in a D+10 state based on Biden v. TFG). When Democrats easily could have gerrymandered it to an 8:3 map…

    It’s not over, but it shows how terribly flawed this process is. The state constitutional amendment was and remains bad news…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  179. 179.

    Ken

    @Roger Moore:  The SBC doesn’t have the same kind of hierarchy, so it isn’t open to the same kind of scandal.

    Trying to remember the book with a similar conversation about war. The punch line was something like “Instead of  indiscriminate mass killing, they have carefully-curated designer murders.”

    Might have been one of the Crowley-Aziraphale exchanges in Good Omens.

  185. 185.

    lowtechcyclist

    @James E Powell: ​

    I’m in Maryland for a wedding. I got a little radical last night in a local sports bar called Glory Days. First, they couldn’t even say whether anyone even asked for Bruce Springsteen’s permission for the name of the place. Second, they were out of crab cakes. In Maryland!

    Was this in Edgewater (just south of Annapolis)? If so, I’ve passed it often, wondered if it was part of a chain (it’s got that sort of look to it from the outside), and whether Springsteen was getting paid for the use of his song title.

    I’ve never been in there (and now I won’t bother), but it’s always amused me because that song is about as much an ode to those ‘glory days’ as “Born in the U.S.A.” is an ode to patriotism.​​​​

  186. 186.

    raven

    GO DAWGS. I no longer have season tix so I decided to just pick one two I wanted to go to and pay whatever it took. Two 6-0 teams will do it.

  187. 187.

    Kay

    @Martin:

    I think white people are invested in the idea that progress on civil rights for black people reflects well on white people, so if black people say there hasn’t been enough progress this “gift” that white people gave black people, progress on civil rights, is diminished. They take it personally because to them progress on civil rights was never ABOUT black people- it was about how great and generous white people are. Just further proof, as if more was needed.

    The civil rights story I learned in public schools was only tangentially about black people. What it was really about was “look at how generous, you, white students are, in allowing these people some rights”

  189. 189.

    Elizabelle

    @ Kay:  Agree with you.  Democrats need to win Virginia also to nip this school board disruption shit in the bud.

  190. 190.

    neabinorb

    I thought the day before the Feast of all Saints was observed as the Feast of All Souls, at least by Catholics. But I suppose that’s both too Catholic  and too socialistic and lacks the ‘Jesus’ branding.

  191. 191.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay:

    Once again, as with the masks, the children behave much better than the Right wing adults. They should stop worrying about public schools and start worrying about how this political Party has become 100% composed of screaming, spoiled, poorly raised adults.

    Yep, that’s really the only story because it threatens public education, public health, the economy, national security and everything else.

    I was reading a NYT opinion piece on Senator Sinema’s journey to self-actualization today that suggested she should go independent. Just paragraphs and paragraphs analyzing the risks and benefits of pirouetting between party orthodoxies. Not one goddamned word about the absolute lunacy that is the modern GOP. Just astonishing.

  195. 195.

    smith

    @Rob: I am really puzzled as to what Sinema’s endgame is here. Flaky as she is, even she must realize that she’d never win a Republican primary in AZ. People talk about her looking to John McCain as a role model, but her real role model is Joe Lieberman. Surely she knows that Joe Lieberman is a hero to nobody, and he became completely irrelevant once he left office. The only way I can explain it is that the oligarchs who currently own her have guaranteed a nice sinecure in the near future  if she just kills tax increases this one time.

  198. 198.

    Dan B

    @geg6: Saffron freezes perfectly.  I have a tin I bought at an Indian market for $25.  It’s a full ounce.  Must have come from black market.  20 years later It’s half used and still fantastic.

  200. 200.

    StringOnAStick

    Halloween is our wedding anniversary, how dare they make it into some tawdry religious festival!

  202. 202.

    boatboy_srq

    If (all actual evidence be damned) Jesus was indeed born December 25, wouldn’t JesusWean be sometime between May 1 and July 1?

  203. 203.

    J R in WV

    @Shana: 

    I can get saffron at Kroger’s, or at any of the local Asian markets, which is a little cheaper, not quite as good as Kroger’s, which is by Hemisphere, some sort of Italian foods brand. Glass jar with a small bundle of tiny golden threads in it.

  206. 206.

    Jerry

    @Bill K:Neil Gaiman said you have to read it twice – once as memoir and the second time as horror.  It’s just too subtle to catch everything on the first read.  You should probably take notes.

    I fully plan on re-reading the book some time in the future. However, I am also listening to the book discussion on the Gene Wolfe Literary Podcast. It’s been helpful, but somehow, someway, I’ve been able to follow along Gene’s paths pretty well so far. I’m most of the way through and am feeling good about it. I’m afraid that I can’t say the same thing about my first read of Book of the New Sun and Urth of the New Sun. The second reading of those books went much better and I can say that I truly enjoyed that experience. The Alzabo Soup podcast deep reading and discussion of those books helped quite a bit as well. Those guys are great.

  207. 207.

    Ruckus

    @Betty Cracker:

    It should be a law that only those over 125 yrs old can watch or listen to faux news. And faux news has to pay the government $1,000/per person younger – per day. That should cut down their audience by at least 35% and make their bank account a bit smaller.

  208. 208.

    Miss Bianca

    @gvg: long-dead thread, but just wanted to say I don’t think elaborate holiday decoration is a particularly ‘modern’ thing. My mother was a holiday decorating *fiend* – she put displays up for everything, but particularly Christmas, Easter, and Halloween. This was back in the ’70s.

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