John Cole Presents “This Fucking Old House”

So I was in a hot tub today with an older lady (and I know I should pause for a while to savor all the ways this story can go before remembering who is writing this), and she started talking about politics. I was at the gym, and as I like to do after walking, using the machines, and swimming, I soak a little in the hot tub before hitting the dry sauna and then taking a cold shower. And she started talking about politics and said a couple of mostly inoffensive things about the tragedy and then said “But I am glad we got Biden out of there.” And I was polite, but stood my ground and said “I’m not. Trump is an awful human being and I would take Biden back in a heartbeat.” And then we talked about something else- I think we started babbling about how the tub wasn’t hot enough or how the food sucks and the portions are too small, but I wonder if that is the first time someone has ever pushed back, even though it was ever so polite.

At any rate, just another day here in WV. got some work done early, moved for a few hours, went to the pool for a few hours, and am now watching season 2 of the Bridge. OH WAIT DINNER:

We are rapidly approaching the time of year I have to buy chapstick because I give myself sores on the sides of my mouth from eating too many tomatoes and peaches.

Back to the Bridge- I am really enjoying it. Of course I love Ted Levine (known to many of you as Captain Leland Stottlemeyer from Monk, know but the rest of you sickos as “It puts the lotion on its skin” from the Silence of the Lambs), and Diane Kruger is great, and I have always always always liked Matthew Lillard (you know he was in Serial Mom?), but one performance that has really stood out is Ramon Franco as Faustos Galvan. I didn’t like the casting at first but man he has really changed my mind. Really great performance of an amoral scumbag. And Stephanie Sigman may be one of the most beautiful people on the planet.

Good show.

Be kind to each other please.

Monday Night Open ThreadPost + Comments (70)

This seems like something the media should be covering, but they are too busy with other things, like, in the instance of the NY Times, they are asking eugenicists whether or not Mamndani passes(fails?) the one drop rule.

I’m sure we’re all super fucking excited about this:

The tattered bromance between Republican President Donald Trump and his main campaign financier Elon Musk took another fractious turn on Saturday when the space and automotive billionaire announced the formation of a new political party, saying Trump’s “big, beautiful” tax bill would bankrupt America.
A day after asking his followers on his X platform whether a new U.S. political party should be created, Musk declared in a post on Saturday that “Today, the America Party is formed to give you back your freedom.”

“By a factor of 2 to 1, you want a new political party and you shall have it!” he wrote.

The announcement from Musk comes after Trump signed his self-styled “big, beautiful” tax-cut and spending bill into law on Friday, which Musk fiercely opposed.

Musk, who became the word’s richest man thanks to his Tesla car company and his SpaceX satellite firm, spent hundreds of millions on Trump’s re-election and led the Department of Government Efficiency from the start of the president’s second term aimed at slashing government spending.

The two have since fallen out spectacularly over disagreements about the bill.

Musk said previously that he would start a new political party and spend money to unseat lawmakers who supported the bill.

He could be in a tropical paradise right now surrounded by rescue animals and he’s not and that makes me hate him even more.

Really enjoying the Bridge and was excited to learn there is a second season. So that is what I am up to tonight. Nursing this chest cold/sinus thing and watching tv. Yay.

Saturday Night Open ThreadPost + Comments (128)

I feel like I am living in a simulation or an alternate reality like the Man in the High Castle. A day after deciding to throw tens of millions off their healthcare and taking away their food stamps, wealthy american communities will gather together to gorge on burnt tubes of processed meats, alcohol, and spend billions blasting warlike objects into the air to noisily explode

Happy 4th, we’re surrounded by sociopaths.

Happy 4thPost + Comments (127)

I was on my way to mow today and caught a glance of myself in the car window and thought to myself “I need to take a picture of that ensemble” and forgot about it but fortunately for you all much later on, I remembered:

I am not sure what my favorite part of the outfit is? The crooked glasses? The massive over the ear headphones on top of a pink do rag? The beard hairs firing in every direction? The bird shit on the right shoulder? Or the way the dust and the grass clippings have combined to create a lime green sludgy sweat stain around the collar?

Such a good look for me.

So the big beautiful bill passed, because of course it would. They don’t even know or really care what is actually in it or how fucking devastating it is going to be, they just wanted to WIN and OWN THE DEMS and KICK THEM LAZY BROWN PEOPLE OFF THE DOLE. They have no fucking idea what is going to happen. It will be a god damned miracle if dozens on dozens of rural hospitals do not close. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. I know in budgetary terms 45 billion or so does not sound like a lot of money compared to the trillions in the budget, but that is an absolute fuckload of money now being dumped into ICE with no oversight and little to no boundaries for behavior. It’s going to be terrifying. The scope of the bill is so massive it is going to be a major disruptive force and there will be mass layoffs and widespread harm and suffering. This is the kind of thing that will cause so much pain it could drive the people who voted for Trump to violence. And we all know who Fox News is gonna have them target.

This time last year we had the hope and optimism of the Harris campaign and the Kendrick beatdown of Drake and there was so much potential. And now this.

I sometimes really hate white people.

On a personal note, had a great swim and workout today after finishing mowing, and had the trainer check my BP, and I was at 146/70 with 99% oxygen and a resting heart rate of 58, which I think is pretty good for a 55 year old guy with way too much excess weight. Regardless that means whatever this upper respiratory thing is making me sneeze and cough and have an itchy throat is probably just a bug or allergy, which can wait until my physical in a couple weeks and I can stop giving myself panic attacks. If your heart is beating and your lungs are pushing oxygen and yer not bleeding or puking/pissing/shitting blood, yer doing all right. I gotta get rid of this weight. I’m gonna get serious about that now. I mentally have never thought or acted like I am fat (even though I know I am), if that makes sense. And part of the reason I have bruises and cuts everywhere is I still charge around like I am 18 and 155 lbs. I bet I apologize to a doorway at least once a fucking day after bumping into it.

Currently watching the version of the Bridge with Diane Kruger (not the one in Denmark and Norway) who is really quite fetching. I am curious how people with autism and other disabilities view her portrayal. At any rate, that is it for me. My 4th of July plans are to go over to Gerald’s and grill meat and hang out with his family. Try to do something positive for your mental health this weekend.

Thursday Night Open ThreadPost + Comments (112)

First off- Happy Bobby Bonilla day for those of you who celebrate. For those of you not in the know:

The first day of July marks Bobby Bonilla Day, an annual celebration of one of the strangest deals in the history of Major League Baseball.

Bonilla, a six-time All-Star who played his last game in 2001, has been receiving a $1.19 million check from the New York Mets every year since 2011, the result of a decision 25 years ago to delay paying the $5.9 million they owed him.

Looking to dump Bonilla after the 1999 season, the Mets opted to defer his payment – with 8% interest – giving him $1,193,248.20 annually on July 1 from 2011-2035 – adding up to nearly $30 million.

“It’s bigger than my birthday,” Bonilla told USA TODAY Sports. “When that day comes, I get texts all day long, and couple of days after and maybe a day or two before. Everybody just seems to love that day and have fun with it. It’s become a pretty big thing.”

His agent should be in the Hall of Fame before Pete Rose. At any rate, Bobby Bonilla was part of the reason I gave up on Pirate baseball long ago- when we lost Bonilla (who was originally a Pirate), over the span of two years we lost two twenty game winners and two one hundred rbi hitters, losing Doug Drabek, John Smiley, Bobby Bonilla, and Barry Bonds. And of course Sid fucking Bream in the 1992 NLCS.

So the Senate Republicans passed the big beautiful bill, as we all knew they would, and it is going to be devastating:

Millions of low-income Americans could experience staggering financial losses under the domestic policy package that Republicans advanced through the Senate on Tuesday, which reserves its greatest benefits for the rich while threatening to strip health insurance, food stamps and other aid from the poor.

For many of these families, the loss of critical federal support is likely to negate any improvements they might have seen as a result of slightly lower taxes, experts said. That reality could undercut Republican lawmakers and President Trump, who insisted anew this week that their legislative vision would benefit the entire economy.

The latest evidence arrived in the hours before lawmakers finalized their signature legislation. Studying a since-amended version of the Senate bill, experts at the Budget Lab at Yale, a research center, concluded Monday that it would parcel out its benefits disproportionately.

Americans who comprise the bottom fifth of all earners would see their annual after-tax incomes fall on average by 2.3 percent within the next decade, while those at the top would see about a 2.3 percent boost, according to the analysis, which factors in wages earned and government benefits received.

On average, that translates to about $560 in losses for someone who reports little to no income by 2034, and more than $118,000 in gains for someone making over $3 million, the report found. Martha Gimbel, the co-founder of the budget lab, described the Senate measure as “highly regressive.”

I have no idea how the process in the House will play out, with reports it is dead on arrival, which I think are complete bullshit. They’ll lie, cheat, steal, bully, and blackmail their way to passing something there.

Fuckers.

I am under the weather and have had a dry hacking cough for a couple of days so I went and got some mucinex dm but at any rate because I am nuts I have now convinced myself I have Barret’s Esophagus, lung cancer, and emphysema. Maybe a hiatal hernia, too. And of course, because of that, I have been going through anxiety attacks all day long, having had to pull the car over for thirty minutes earlier today. I had another one halfway through writing this and went and took a cold shower then got dressed and listened to the birds for a while. Had a rose breasted grosbeak. I also had a marvelous little tufted titmouse scurrying around on the porch rail just three feet away from me.

Although my self-loathing is both deep and wide, one thing I really wish I could dispense of is this fucking hypochondria. I can handle physical pain like a champ. Fall off a roof? No problem, walk it off, go home, and go get the broken foot treated tomorrow. Shatter your shoulder in 18 pieces? No big deal. Use a doorknob to try to pop it back in place and when that doesn’t work, drive yourself to the hospital using your left arm. Fuck it. Why not?

But cough twice and I turn into Howie Mandel and Richard Lewis and Fred Sanford combined. It’s cancer. It’s a heart attack. You finally got the stomach cancer form the gulf war that several of your buddies got. YOU’RE DYING. It’s fucking brutal and I do it to myself every fucking time. I have not allowed myself to visit WebMD for over fifteen years- at least since I got diagnosed with generalized anxiety, depression, and ptsd. Back then I convinced myself I had MS because every time I had an panic attack my hands and feet went completely numb and I lost peripheral vision.

After you decide you have cancer and are dying then you work yourself into a froth after convincing yourself you have cancer or whatever to the point you have a full blow panic attack, and then you can play your favorite fucking game, only available in the middle of a panic attack, called Is this a panic attack or a heart attack. “It feels like a panic attack, but what if it is a heart attack? Should you go to the hospital? No? Ok we are staying here. Is there anything out you don’t want the first responders to see when they find your corpse? Gerald knows to get rid of anything that would upset mom and dad. Alright. This is it then. We’re riding out this panic attack and if we’re wrong we’re dying in our sleep. Let’s start the breathing exercises. Oh, cool, time for the profuse sweating and drymouth. I wish Lily was here.”

There is a reason I used to drink. Man, the human mind is something. And if you just read these paragraphs and none of it makes any sense to you, good, you lucky bastard. To the rest of you, if you are not seeking therapy, do so, it makes it easier, and for the rest of you in the same boat, I get it.

I’m very much struggling to understand what the Republicans think they are accomplishing. They really can’t be stupid enough to think these things are only going to impact people they don’t like- poc, lgtbq, urban, educated, etc. Like I said last night, they are like Stannis Baratheon burning his daughter at the stake for the promise (against all current knowledge) that it might be good for the country. It’s like these fuckers are Heaven’s Gate cultists.

It’s really a crazy era we are in. It’s so hard to lose your bearings because there are just so many shenanigans going on. All the guiding principles and things you believed in and trusted your whole life are just gone or failing miserably and you keep watching the elites kowtow to or join the dark side. It’s really fucking bonkers, but I suppose the last 80 years of relative peace is kind of unheard of in historical terms.

Up is down.

Tuesday Night Open ThreadPost + Comments (96)

As I write this, the Senate is working up to or actually voting on that evil clusterfuck of a bill. The pundits have begun the usual “are they a yes- they’ve spoke against it” bullshit, like Susan Collins or Just Hawley are going to save the day. I don’t have the fucking energy to play along and then be surprised that Susan Collins’ concerns didn’t matter a hill of beans. And if I am wrong, I will be pleasantly surprised. I called my Senators. They don’t care it is going to crush West Virginia and will vote for it anyway. So that’s where we are. I’ve done what I can short of going Cassian Andor.

The NY Times has released the top 100 movies of the last century, some of which we can all agree on, some of which are just pretentious but whatever, some that make less sense, and then there are some egregious omissions like the fact that neither Ex Machina nor Napoleon Dynamite appear on the list. I personally find it a little egregious that Little Miss Sunshine is only at 63 and the fact that City of God is not in the top five. I think I have talked about City of God here before, but it was probably a decade or so ago, but it really is, for me, at least, a remarkable piece of film-making that made me feel more deeply than before I watched it. It is at times a deeply sad and disturbing movie. At any rate, here is a gift link to the list (I have a free account).

In other pop culture news, I saw this the other day and thought it would go over well with this audience:

I’m waiting on yet another massive rainstorm tonight. We can’t cut anything right now because it is just so wet. Normally if it rained tonight by tomorrow at 10 am it would be fine. But we have just had so much rain that the ground is so saturated no more can be sucked up. The wells and aquifers have to be near capacity after all the water we get just goes rushing wherever it goes in the flash floods. And Wheeling’s lowlands are about wiped out after the past couple weeks.

At any rate, off until tomorrow. Here’s to hoping our calls and everything work and the bill fails.

Saturday Night Open ThreadPost + Comments (137)

I didn’t get a damned thing done today. I honestly have no idea where the day went. I remember taking a trip to the pharmacy and a couple other little things, but that only sucked up about 2 hours. I mean, I did things, just nothing major and I end the day feeling no accomplishment of anything major. Which is fine, I suppose, for a hot humid, and sometimes rainy summer day.

I did go to pick up a cheap small metal outdoor garbage bin to store birdseed since the chipmunks and squirrels, those magnificent little fuckers, chewed right through the plastic bin I have had for years. I was at Menard’s, and they had some pretty reasonably priced refrigerators. I mean they’re all expensive as fuck, but I have not priced them in a while (we gave up on a new one at Joelle’s until we re-do the whole kitchen or hers dies)+, and was terrified to find out how much they run. Fucking Trump and his fucking tariffs. Yeah, just raise the goods on all appliances. You know we don’t make 90% of them here any more and no one is going to run out and spend hundreds of millions building a plant to make sub-par fridges from scratch especially when the plant won’t be constructed until you are out of office in 2028 and then they won’t pay enough to make a profit so no one will work there and oh by the way you are rounding up all the cheap labor and sending them elsewhere. Nothing anything these fucking guys do is ever thought out at even the most superficial fucking level. I’d kill for like William Weld competent Republicanism right now. Jesus fuck.

That’s just *chef kiss*.

I see the Supreme Court has been up to more fuckery, with reports ranging from the “it’s not as bad as you think” to “this is really fucking bad.” I don’t know what to think about the degree of badness, and I have given up trying to understand the legal reasoning because there is no philosophy at work here other than Cleek’s Law. It’s not a political court in the sense of competing political/legal philosophies or guiding ideologies, it’s a fucking partisan court with a majority composed of ethically and morally compromised (and at the very least in Thomas’s case, to the point of open criminality) partisan hacks.

Sotomayor’s dissent was on point.

So from my standpoint, the ruling changes nothing, the priority is to throw all of these maga senators and reps out of office, win the presidency, and expand the court.

I’ve mentioned before of my love for orange roughy, and I found some at the grocery store frozen and with pretty decent sized filets, so for dinner I made parmesan encrusted orange roughy that I pan seared in a teaspoon of olive oil, some green beans, and some rotelli with a red sauce. It was very good.

About to go binge watched Steve just stepped on my keyboard and published this before I was done. So hi from Steve, everyone.

As I was saying, I am about to go binge watch the last couple episodes of Day of the Jackal. Curious how they are going to wind this down without killing people off because there is a second season coming.

Friday Night Open ThreadPost + Comments (99)