John Cole Presents “Stories from the Road”

Had the first really hot day of the summer, altough I have to say by really hot I am talking WV standards, not Arizona, so it was closing inon 90 today. Little muggy and not much a breeze, so I had to break down and turn on the portable unit in the home office to keep things cool. Starting to get around that time of year when you have to do all the outdoor stuff either in the morning or figure out what you can do later in the shade.

Coincidentally, I had to drop the Honda off at the dealership for an appointment I made two weeks ago to get my AC fixed. It actually died prior to my trip to Arizona last fall, but I didn’t want to spend the money to fix it and figured I would not need it over the winter, even in Arizona, and I was right. I still don’t want to spend the money to fix it, but I kinda will need ac this summer, I suppose.

In other news, I see the Republicans are living out their dreams with the Hunter Biden trial, which I am not even going to bother following because honestly I don’t care. Go after the Trump kids next for all I care. Other than that, the news all looked shitty, although I did see a headline that Nigel Farage was pied by an onlyfans model, and I am cool with that.

What’s up with you all?

Tuesday Night Open ThreadPost + Comments (186)

Oh noes, an elderly Republican has a sad:

Despite all the talk that Joe Biden killed the Commission on Presidential Debates this week, there’s at least one objection.

“We ain’t dead yet,” says Frank J. Fahrenkopf Jr.

He’s the co-founder and co-chair of the commission, and he sat down for an interview with the Playbook Deep Dive podcast this week to discuss whether this really is the end of his organization’s 36-year run producing 33 general election debates.

Fahrenkopf had harsh words for senior members of the Biden campaign, which stunned the commission on Wednesday morning with a letter declaring the president would not participate in the commission’s fall debates. The Biden team described the commission’s debates as “noisy spectacles” that occur too late in the process to accommodate early voting, and which were too easy for Donald Trump to hijack in 2020 by breaking rules that went unenforced.

Fahrenkopf called the Biden campaign’s allegations “false” and said the campaign “didn’t do their homework” on early voting. He blamed the blowup on Biden advisers Anita Dunn and Ron Klain’s hostility to the commission.

Some quick background- Fahrenkopf is the former head of the RNC from 83-89, during the Reagan years, before most voters today were even able to vote, and according to his wikipedia entry, he is 84 years old. So no, he and the Presidential Debate Commission are not technically dead, but if you look at the actuarial tables he’s got one foot in the grave the other on a banana peel and the commission is in the same boat.

Having said that, thank FUCKING GOD Biden’s team managed to secure the debates outside this shitshow. Here’s the deal- it’s not 1988 anymore and we are long past pretending that the old rules of genteel debate still hold. In fact, the biggest impediment to Democratic success in the last twenty years or so are the idiots in the Democratic party, now mostly gone, who believed in the old way and treating Republicans as serious people who should be given the benefit of the doubt. The stupid centrist fuckers who think they can negotiate with terrorists because in their mind Tip O’Neill is still smoking cigars and having drinks with Reagan.

Those days are long gone, and the simple fact of the matter is the institutions we relied on for decades and centuries are crumbling in this new era, because much of government and civil life requires people acting in good faith. Republicans tossed that aside in the Gingrich era and have become worse with every passing years, and have in many instances either fully co-opted institutions or simply ignore them and do what they want because they realized there are no repercussions.

The same thing happened to the Sunday shows and much of the media- Republicans realized that there is no down side to just flat out lying, and they did that until they just stopped showing up. In addition, the media bent over backwards to be “fair and balanced,” so we were then and now treated to the grotesque spectacle of treating things like Obama agreeing with Henry Louis Gates as a scandal on par with Donald Trump blackmailing Ukraine. Biden’s dentures slip and he mispronounces a name while Trump shouts out “MAGNETS DON’T WORK UNDERWATER AND HANNIBAL LECTOR WAS A GREAT GUY” and the headline the next day is “both Presidents have issues with their age.”

This serves no one, of course, except Republicans. It doesn’t help the country, it doesn’t help inform the public, and it certainly doesn’t build faith in institutions.

So Mr Fahrenkopf can fuck off into the wilderness for all I care. After the deceits and abuses they let Trump get away with the last few times around, I see no need to include the commission this time around.

In other news, this happened in Congress:

Jasmine Crockett is the Queen, of course. But Jamie Raskin’s reaction has me howling. pic.twitter.com/yjmKYbgja6

— Jane of the North (@JaneotN) May 17, 2024

Two thoughts- Raskin deserves credit for not breaking out into a full laugh, and I hope that Crockett is around for a long time.

My legs are very sunburned and ouchie, so I am going to do nothing but watch Caprica tonight and stay out of any sun tomorrow. I guess I have nothing else to say, really.

Friday Night Open ThreadPost + Comments (76)

Another absolutely foul rainy day today, which is to be expected, because any time there is any sort of lunar or solar event, it rains. Period. I bet I actually see one out of every 10 full moons. It was cold, too, with the temps going down to around 48 degrees at one point.

In other news, my front porch has five bird nests- four in the ferns, and one up at the top of a column, and today I noticed that the little babies had their heads out of the nest wailing for food. There are at least two, but only one posed for me:

No luck on the job front, but I only looked for an hour or so. There really is nothing unless you want to work fast food for 9 bucks an hour. No wonder people are fleeing the state. I’m tired and burnt out, so that’s it for me. Have a good one.

Saturday Night Open ThreadPost + Comments (110)

I am struggling to make it to nine o clock before going to bed. Thought I would check in and say hi, but not much to say. Just really tired.

Tired Old ManPost + Comments (51)

Today was another long day, and it is so weird. I keep having flashbacks to when I was back in my old apartment 20 years ago when I went through this the last time. I actually woke up this morning and walked into the wall because I was walking in the dark using the path to the bathroom in my old apartment I lived in two place previous to this. I hit the wall and was “wtf” and realized what had happened.

I guess what I want most to say (other than thanks for the well wishes) is that if you are currently on anti-depressants and decide that you want to raw-dog life and get off them because you are feeling better, don’t. Unless a doctor comes to you and says “I really think you need to go off this” and then you check with a couple other doctors, STAY ON YOUR FUCKING MEDS. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. You fucking moron (and this is directed at me).

For those of you who have gone through this or are going through it, you know what it feels like- to some extent. I’m sure it manifests in different ways in different people, but for me it’s just a number of different things- a general sense of twitchiness and nervousness. Sometimes I’m reading something and notice my hands or as I am typing this I feel like someone else looking through my eyes- “there’s someone in my head but it’s not me.”

Anything that presents a minor cognitive challenge can almost bring me to tears. I wanted to check my email but could not remember my password because my password manager was locked and I would need to find my phone to authorize the account and it was all just too much- “Welp, that’s not going to happen.”

Rolling waves of fear. You know how sometimes when you sneeze or you get asmr from music and the hairs on your arms and legs stand up and you get a tingling pleasant feeling roll over your body- like that, but it feels cancerous and rotting and evil.

Heightened awareness of anything going on with your body- this hurts, is it a heart attack? I coughed- do I have lung cancer?

The fear that this is never going to go away. You know it is, because you have been here before, but will it end this time? Can I go on like this? What if the meds do not work? What if this isn’t my head but some horrible disease that is undiagnosed and there is poison running through my veins.

For me, a loss of appetite. I’ve eaten a can of soup in the can, a couple bananas, and a bowl of cereal in the past 48 hours. I wasn’t even hungry to eat that, but made myself.

Just a horrifying sense of fragility. Just the whole sense of “I can not do this today” whenever the idea of an interaction with another person not in my close circle tries to interact or talk with me. The fear I am forgetting something important. And on and on.

For those of you who have gone through this, does any of this sound familiar? I didn’t really talk about this much the first time it happened because I was ashamed and felt weak and that I was letting the people who counted on me down. This time around my attitude is fuck them they can all wait I’ll be there when I am well.

Light sensitivity.

We’re All Mad HerePost + Comments (128)