(Pickles via GoComics.com)
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(Get Fuzzy via GoComics.com)
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Political actors come and go, but pet behavior remains eternal.
Apart from getting out the cleaning supplies (again), what’s on the agenda as we start the first “real” week of 2016?
OzarkHillbilly
More reading.
OzarkHillbilly
‘Like Jarvis in Iron Man’: Zuckerberg unveils 2016 plans for AI butler
I will know he succeeded when we have our first ever case of “ropatricide”.
BillinGlendaleCA
[Reposted from the end of the last thread]
To celebrate the first full week of the new year, I’ve put up not one but two new Flickr albums:
Happy New Year,
and
Seoul – From the Archives.
Phylllis
Back to work after a two-week break. 555 days till retirement.
raven
@BillinGlendaleCA: Charlie Block, Munsani, 1967.
BillinGlendaleCA
@raven: I’m going to do additional albums for Korea: the DMZ, Cheajudo, Soraksan…
Gimlet
The Oregon right-wing armed militia “sit-in to the death and overthrow the government” has vague similarities to John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry.
Patricia Kayden
@Gimlet: You mean in terms of effectiveness? John Brown had a good heart but messed up actions. Cannot say the same for these rightwingers.
raven
@BillinGlendaleCA: Things changed a lot on 48 years!
Tokyokie
I’m beginning the new year with a colonoscopy Wednesday, so I’m loading up on barbecue today before going to an all-liquid diet (ICE CREAM!) Tuesday.
BillinGlendaleCA
@raven: Most of those pics are from 1989.
Satby
Back to school for the girls today, and we got the first measurable snow in over a month last night. Looks to be about two inches, which is way better than the 6 that were potentially expected. Off to clear the car and bring the two zombies to school. It’s going to take a day or two to get back into the swing of thing it seems judging by the way they look right now ?
Mustang Bobby
@Phylllis: 955 for me.
Elizabelle
Morning Joe is studiously avoiding any mention of the rancher standoff. I could have missed a little bit, being out of the room.
But all I have heard is the usual horserace politics on Iowa and now a serious person discussion about dealing with extremist groups in Iran and Saudi Arabia and their neighboring countries.
Extremist groups in this country?
Do we have any, other than Black Lives Matter or those Occupy Wall Street misguided souls?
NBC News product says — nothing.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Elizabelle: Ya didn’t miss anything, no coverage, none at all.
ETA: The only coverage I’ve seen is a short report on the local NBC news.
Elizabelle
@BillinGlendaleCA: Interesting, no?
Not kidding about the NBC News product. They have their fingers so hard on the scale. NBC is treacherous.
Also, have they said anything about Obama doing a town hall on executive action against gun violence, to be held this Thursday on CNN?
Don’t think I heard that little tidbit either.
Elizabelle
@Satby: The snow sounds pretty. Best to you and the girls. Have enjoyed hearing about their holiday season here. Am sure they are getting LOTS out of staying with you, and will be great ambassadors when they return home.
Phylllis
@Mustang Bobby: Working on not slipping into short-timer-itis. Trying to get interested in what reauthorization means for the Title programs. Meh.
Schlemazel
I took a week vacation so its back to work & see what hasn’t gotten done while I was not there to do it. Going to a different urologist after the previous one refused to treat an active UTI. 64th will be this week and I have an estimated of 2555 days to retirement.
greennotGreen
This week I’ll spend preparing for Next Week when I move after 28 years at the same address. Coordinating the safe transfer of ten dogs, six birds, and two cats is going to a bit like the riddle of crossing the river with a fox, a chicken, and a sack of corn. I’d have a panic attack, but I don’t have time.
debbie
@Elizabelle:
No, they’ll probably cover the 61st (or whichever) vote to repeal the ACA. Certainly more crucial for American security!
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@Patricia Kayden: The more accurate comparison would be between the militia’s plan and how the Harpers Ferry raid actually went down. Brown had no intention of occupying and waiting for martyrdom.
debbie
And in regard to the Oregon brouhaha, has anyone expressed concern for the wildlife in the refuge? Someone last night said to cut off access, electricity, food, etc., but I fear what those clowns will do to sustain their lithe physiques.
JPL
CBS news led with the takeover. They are interviewing Bundy now.
BillinGlendaleCA
@debbie: One commenter on a thread last night said the most of the birds have migrated, so there’s not much risk there.
Mustang Bobby
@Phylllis: I can send you the 3-hour webinar from FLDOE on the new Uniform Guidance. It’s fascinating.
OzarkHillbilly
@greennotGreen: So long as it does not devolve into the parable of the tortoise and the scorpion.
eta: in the version I am familiar with, the scorpion stings the tortoise and as they slip beneath the water the tortoise cries “Why’d you do that? Now we both shall die!” and the scorpion replies, “I am a scorpion. It is my nature.”
debbie
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Thanks. I hadn’t thought of that. One of these guys was interviewed this morning and said they were prepared to stay put for years, so this could turn out to be an issue.
I blame Glenn Beck for this. I don’t know of another talk radio clown who touts himself as a student of history (but then I haven’t listened to many). It’s these half-truths and false conclusions that are causing so much trouble.
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
My favorite parable! I especially like this version set in rhyme by David Rackoff.
Phylllis
@Mustang Bobby: At least your DOE has done something. Don’t laugh (aw hell, go ahead and laugh)– can you email a link? Send it to paover1 @ yahoo. Thanks.
ed_finnerty
@Phylllis: calendar days or work days ?
OzarkHillbilly
@debbie: I suspect it is safe to say the building is surrounded such that nobody goes in or out with out permission.
Iowa Old Lady
Do these loons in Oregon not have jobs to go to or ranches/farms to tend? The lazy moocher jokes write themselves, but really, as we all contemplate the end of vacation, I wonder how they have time to do this.
amk
as long as we are talking about toons.
Kay
I wish they would follow the money on this. Not re: this particular group of idiots, not that they’re hired, but follow the money behind the larger “movement” because it’s about privatization:
One can really not over-estimate the greed factor behind any and all privatization efforts. These people literally want to suck every dime of value out of the public trust and put it into private hands. They want everything “we” own.
I heard a lawyer for one of these Right wing/libertarian lobbying groups on C-Span denying that it was about privatization, a denial he issued before the interviewer mentioned privatization.
Mustang Bobby
@Phylllis: Sent. Good luck.
raven
@BillinGlendaleCA: I know.
Elizabelle
@greennotGreen: Good luck to you!
I’m packing to move too, but don’t (unfortunately) have such a marvelous pet menagerie to move.
Also for pet lovers, in NYC:
Laurie Anderson is giving a concert for dogs in Times Square tonight, 11:30 to midnight.
Short and sweet. Wish I could see it. Here’s more info, from the NY Times:
So: they’re doing this through month’s end, although not always with Laurie. I would imagine your pet is welcome at most of them ….
The Thin Black Duke
@Kay: Thank you, Kay. Now this nonsense makes sense. Never mind the puppets, it’s always the puppet masters we have to worry about.
Phylllis
@Mustang Bobby: Thanks. I’m sure it’s illuminating.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay: It’s always about the money. They may wrap it in the flag, or the robe of religious freedom, or the constitution, but it all boils down to money.
Botsplainer
All that Western farmers and ranchers want is the following:
1. To continue to operate on land given to their ancestors for free by the USG after it was stolen off from native Americans;
2. Their water use provided courtesy of massive federal subsidies for hydro projects;
3. Their grazing rights provided by the USG for a small fraction of market rates; and
4. To lecture all of us about their superior morality and self-reliance.
Elizabelle
@Kay: Prezactly. Thanks for the head’s up on that. How surprising, hmmm?
Got to get back to packing, but here’s an interesting NY Times op ed piece about the sad state of American politics. Might be fun for some of you to comment on it here, or at the NY Times link.
Trump Did Not Break Politics, by Mark Schmitt, director of the political reform program at New America, a think tank in Washington.
(You can be forgiven for thinking so, if you’ve been following the MSM and cable news world. They believe fervently in those GOP centrists and moderates. They present Trump as an aberration, and a freak show to entertain and get ratings. They present very little other useful to citizens/voters information, unless they can’t avoid it.)
Schmitt: it’s because of the hyperpartisanship, and that Congressional incumbents are returned to office 96% of the time.
Botsplainer
One other thing – can we start talking about Westward Expansion as welfare for failed white farmers?
Kay
@The Thin Black Duke:
They’re rolling out the academics- the “learned lawyers”- to argue that states will do a better job “managing” public lands and “managing” in Right wing lawyer-land always means extracting value- money. They cannot bear the idea that there is some publicly-owned asset somewhere that hasn’t been sufficiently tapped for profit.
I wish liberals would make an asset argument- “this is YOURS- you own it- and they want to sell it”. It’s not high-minded, not “our national trust”- but that’s so abstract. I think people would “get” the idea that they have this thing of value and there are people who want to convert it to private ownership. Transfer title, change the deed, use all that asset ownership language.
ThresherK (GPad)
@Elizabelle: Part of me wants this to be a prank made up of “music in the canine-only audio spectrum”, ergo actual silence, because how would we humans know?
Elizabelle
@ThresherK (GPad): That’s funny.
She is a performance artist.
Kay
@Elizabelle:
I took a long car trip after Christmas and I was listening to right wing radio- all AM radio in rural areas is essentially right wing radio, even the local anchors- and the way they perceive Obama is amazing if you mostly read on the liberal side. They think he has had virtually complete run of the place- that he’s made huge changes and conservatives have been hapless (and helpless) in “stopping” him. Republican voters think they have Congress and STILL conservatives can’t “stop” Obama, so they blame conservative politicians. That’s what they’re mad about.
Baud
@Elizabelle:
If we had had more vice versa, the country would be in a much better place.
Elizabelle
@Kay: Republican voters are so quick to scream about ISIL, and it is Republicans themselves — particularly the conservatives — who have been radicalized.
That is as much a threat to our security (speaking of economic and social, not just physical) as foreign radicals (whom we call terrorists).
Elizabelle
@Baud: You caught it.
Author also threw the National Education Association in as a “special interest” on a par with the NRA.
Cuz we all know how teachers have taken Congress hostage.
It’s more of the both sides do it stuff. Poisoning the message, so it’s not too unpalatable to Republicans and their funders.
Elizabelle
@Kay: Conservatives are ruining this country. They’re unhinged, and funded by deep pockets.
One NY Times reader coined “poligarchs” to cover the Adelsons and Kochs (and Soroses — both sides!)
ThresherK (GPad)
@Baud: I stopped reading after the crap about how Both Sides means that Dem candidates also posit winning the WH as “winner take all”.
gene108
@Kay:
What the Bundy types seem to not be willing to realize is if Federal lands are auctioned off they will go to big money interests and not the local ranchers, who will be worse off than now.
I almost feel sorry these morons are so easily conned.
Amir Khalid
Facebook bans a Danish politician’s photo of the Little Mermaid statue in Copenhagen. The grounds? Nudity.
Baud
@Amir Khalid: Why was the Danish politician nude?
Amir Khalid
@Baud:
Your sharp mind and quick grasp of the facts will stand you in good stead when you assume the presidency.
Baud
@Amir Khalid:
My constant nudity will also lead to a societal reexamination of how we view the human form, which will cause Facebook to revise its currently restrictive policies.
Paul in KY
@greennotGreen: Best wishes on a successful & not-stressful move!
Satby
@greennotGreen: I haven’t been here as long, only 8 years, but since it was supposed to be my final home, at least until I was unable to live alone, I accumulated lots of stuff to set it up. Now I’m moving too, and feeling completely overwhelmed by the thought. And I have less animals to move too, only 9!
@Elizabelle: Thanks for the kind words. I hope they are getting a lot out of their time here. Where are you moving?
Paul in KY
@Baud: OK. Awaiting your nude presidency. Any particular figure of artwork that you resemble? Say Michelangelo’s David or something like that?
Amir Khalid
@Baud:
It will also read to a radical and long-overdue revision of protocol for ceremonies of state.
Woodrowfan
no Pets of Balloon Juice calendar this year? awwwww
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: Just the thought of that has me reexamining how I view the human form or if I even want to.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone :)
OzarkHillbilly
Oldman Cat has his own Facebook page. That would almost make Facebook worth while.
Satby
And in other news, 33 years ago about this minute I gave birth to my first son. He’s 6’5″, and was 10 lbs and 22″ at birth. For scale, I’m 5’1″.
Phylllis
@ed_finnerty: Work days/school years. Will be June of 2018-end of 17/18 school year.
Poopyman
@OzarkHillbilly: Just try picturing the State of the Union address.
Or maybe don’t.
japa21
@OzarkHillbilly: Wanted to thank you for the help on getting around St. Louis last week. As it turns out, 44 opened just before I got there so the detours weren’t necessary. But still saw a lot of the flooding. Coming back Sunday the waters had receded a lot, but looks like it will take a while before everything is back to normal for a lot of folks and businesses.
Satby
@Baud: This won’t be mandatory for Cabinet members, will it? I may have to rethink accepting the post of Secretary of Intense.
Eric S.
For the love of everything pasta, I just logged on to email at work and discovered that our datamart system that was built in 1999 is not Y2K compliant! They builders did a work around and that work around stopped working on January 1, 2016.
Paul in KY
@Satby: Congrats to you & him!
Paul in KY
@Eric S.: Well…now you’ll have something to occupy your time!
Satby
@Eric S.: They assumed the world would have ended by now, I guess.
Satby
@Paul in KY: Thanks!
MomSense
Ugh. Work. Can’t we come up with a better way?
WaterGirl
@Elizabelle: Are you moving from one house to another or embarking on a grand adventure move to another place?
Satby
@MomSense: I wouldn’t mind working so much if it didn’t involve driving somewhere else to do it. It took me 1 1/2 hours round trip today to just drop the girls at school after the snow we had, which was only a few inches. But no salting of roads, so slow and slippery all the way.
WaterGirl
@Satby: Ouch! Totally worth it, of course!
OzarkHillbilly
@Poopyman: With all of Congress nekid too??? GAAAAAACCCKKK!!!!
Punchy
Just wondering how much willy pete and VX they’da deployed on said bird house had these protestors had slighly darker skin and were protesting the lack of mosques in that part of Oregon.
sherparick
@Patricia Kayden: Actually, they have more in common with the ‘Fillubuster” activities of white southerners like William Walker and George Fitzhugh where the Federal Government semi-tolerated armed invasions by private armies into Central America with the goal of founding new slave states. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filibuster_%28military%29 If the Nez Perce took over this land, they would have far better legal and moral claim then these nuts. But of course Fox News goes nuts and shouts “ISIS,” whenever non-whites exercise their Constitutional Rights.
OzarkHillbilly
@japa21: No problem, tho I don’t think I helped much.
OzarkHillbilly
@Satby: And my 5 foot nothing mother complained about 8 lb me. (but not until I was 2)
MomSense
@Satby:
It is really cold here today. Hard to leave the house when your eyeballs freeze from the cold!
Satby
@WaterGirl: @OzarkHillbilly: The girl in the next bed had this adorable little doll of a 6lb baby girl, and every time they brought my baby to me I felt like I was nursing Godzilla.
He was a good kid and grew up to be a great guy. I’m very proud of him.
Satby
@MomSense: true. Was 31 when we left, was 28 when I got home, will be 21 by the time I go get them and going down to 8 overnight.
Amir Khalid
@Punchy:
No minority community would have the overdeveloped sense of entitlement needed to launch a protest like this.
Patricia Kayden
So hopefully BJ does a front page about how Rightwingers are now accusing President Clinton of rape and trying to use these false accusations against Secretary Clinton.
Funny how Rightwingers never speak about their own politicians who spent time hiking the Appalachian trail and running around in diapers with prostitutes.
Linnaeus
Flying back to the Emerald City today. Not looking forward to the flight.
NonyNony
@Amir Khalid: Also – only a group of very angry, very stupid white guys would even get to the stage where the occupation of a visitor’s center sounded like something that would help them achieve their goals. It reminds me of the worst ideas that a lot of the college radicals in the 60s used to come up with (and, no surprise, those guys were mostly very angry, very stupid young white guys).
Amir Khalid
@Patricia Kayden:
I’ve been wondering about something. In these allegations that they’re bringing up, Bill was at fault and Hillary was, if anything, a wronged party. How do they make her look bad?
rikyrah
quiet as church mice pissing on cotton
………………
Republican candidates stay quiet on events in Oregon
January 3 at 10:09 PM
Republican presidential candidates are staying mum as an armed group has taken over part of a national wildlife refuge in Oregon — even those who supported the father of at least one of the group’s leaders, who had his own standoff with the government in 2014, and have called for limits on federal control over Western land.
Some of the issues involved in the standoff — constitutional rights, allegations of federal government overreach and individual liberties — have come to the fore in the GOP primary race. And as Western states are poised to play a larger role in the contest, so has the issue of property rights in a region where the federal government controls about half of the land.
But few candidates seemed willing to wade into any of these issues Sunday as the leaders of the group said they are standing up against government overreach and are prepared to remain there for “as long as it takes.” The group said it is protesting the case of two Oregon ranchers who were convicted of arson in 2012 and are scheduled to report to federal prison Monday. The ranchers were convicted on a broad terrorism charge. Many ranchers and land users in the West lease public land.
OzarkHillbilly
@Satby: Heh. Reminds me of another “pregnancy” story my mother told on herself many times:
Had her first child in ’51. 7 pregnancies later she had my little brother in 1970. When leaving the hospital with an infant child for the last time, she was wheeled on to the elevator with another new mother. My mother was 42. The other new mother was younger than her daughter at 18. “There is something wrong here.” Ma thought to herself, “very wrong.”
Gin & Tonic
@Amir Khalid: I’ve also been wondering how Donald Trump, of all people, is making an argument about someone else’s marital fidelity.
Keith G
@Patricia Kayden:
@Amir Khalid:
Well, this is very expected and expect this to get worse by unimaginable orders of magnitude.
What. Else. Do. They. Got?
The GOP political messaging pros know what is facing them and they know what they have/will have to work with. In their mind, their only rational choice is to go scorched earth and destroy the reputations of all things Clinton.
Strap in. This is just the beginning.
ThresherK (GPad)
@Amir Khalid: I guess that Brussels statue of the little boy urinating is a no-go too, because water sports?
@OzarkHillbilly: I will follow that.
WaterGirl
@rikyrah:” quiet as church mice pissing on cotton”
I have never heard that before. That’s a good one!
JPL
@ThresherK (GPad): My son took a picture of Mannekin pis boy, which I framed and hung over my toilet.
catclub
I think Matt Levine is an insightful writer on the finance world – Bloomberg View.
stock market circuit breakers
I was amused.
Big Picture Pathologist
In a TODAY.com comment thread about the Oregon standoff:
” I hear that they hope to get martyred so they will be awarded 72 cousins in the afterlife.”
Heh.
Gin & Tonic
@ThresherK (GPad): The “Piss” statue next to the Kafka Museum in Prague is even better, IMO.
JPL
@Big Picture Pathologist: nice!
catclub
@JPL:
Did I miss all the times that Occupy Wall Street and Black Lives matter activists got interviewed so they could tell their story on the TV or radio – without interruption?
catclub
@Amir Khalid:
Yeah, I am not seeing it.
Hillary can say that if SHE is elected, there will be no affairs with 24 year old interns in the Oval Office.
Can Trump, when he is not sure about hitting on his own daughter?
Elizabelle
@WaterGirl:
@Satby:
My stuff is going into storage, and I am embarking on either a great adventure, or possibly the beginning of a great debacle.
Don’t mean to be too mysterious, so will tell you about it and pick some brains on the other side of moving boxes upon boxes to storage (temporarily, pretty much). Have the cargo van rented for tomorrow through Thursday; will be scarce in the meantime.
I wish I had Suzanne’s good qualities of not being sentimental about stuff and being ruthless about discarding.
That is an aim for 2016.
ThresherK (GPad)
@Gin & Tonic: “The mere fact”* that you have,an opinion about which pissing statue rules means you’re not ready to have one of these in your home yet.
Dork
“quiet as church mice pissing on TOM Cotton”
Fixed for better GOP comeuppance
Scout211
@Satby:
My daughter, in 1980, was 10 lbs, 6 oz and 21 inches. She will be 36 in March and is 5′ 8″ now. Back then I was doing the “earth mother” thing and only used Lamaze–no drugs. Okay, yeah, ouch!
When she had her babies, they now use drugs . . . smart people.
catclub
@rikyrah:
huh? Is Iowa considered western? Have western states ever had much to do in deciding races? I think they threw that in just to make it looks like it might matter.
FlipYrWhig
The site maintenance perma-thread is closed. How best do I convey something about site design and functionality?
WaterGirl
@Elizabelle: You are being just the right amount of mysterious. Can’t wait to hear what you are up to! :-) In the meantime, good luck.
catclub
@Eric S.:
so their checks all cleared.
jake the antisoshul soshulist
Don’t if this was noted elsewhre, but our own Tom Levenson got some love from Gizmodo.
http://gizmodo.com/the-discovery-of-the-solar-system-included-some-dead-en-1750790670
danielx
Today’s win for the intertubes.
@Kay:
Can’t hardly blame them, since Rush and the rest of the flying monkey brigade frame every single issue as one further step towards the apocalypse and the triumph of totalitarian soshulism. Universal health care and worker protections? Next thing you know people with ten figure incomes will actually be asked to pay an additional five percent in taxes, and it’s all downhill from there. Which serves as useful distraction from that ever useful question ‘cui bono’, or in modern terms, ‘where’s the money?’
A while back a guy named Mike Lofgren condensed a lot of things in a very useful and concise fashion…
JCJ
@Gin & Tonic:
When my daughter was six years old we were in Brussels and saw the Mannekin Pis. Her insightful comment said with disappointment in her voice upon seeing it was, “Is that it?”
Love the Kafka Museum.
Gin & Tonic
I am not a good enough person that I fail to get some amusement out of the story about four guys who seem to have drowned in a lake in Wisconsin because they took a canoe or canoes out between 2:00 and 3:00 am Sunday morning. According to police “alcohol may have been a factor.” Really? You think? Four guys aged between 20 and 23 staying in a rented lake house over a holiday weekend might have been drinking too much?
It’s probably Al Gores’ fault, because in a more normal winter the lake would presumably have not been in a drowning condition.
danielx
@Gin & Tonic:
I blame Obama.
Woodrowfan
Good luck Satby. congratulations. Maybe in 2017 we’ll have a babies of BJ calendar??
Paul in KY
@Punchy: A shitton, I guess.
Punchy
@Gin & Tonic: A canoe in December/Jan? Holy sheeot that is The Stoopit. Unfortunately, I was just about that reckless at that age and likely woulda been in on the gig myself. Of course, I’m a damn good swimmer, so there’s that.
Sucks for the families though…..
benw
@danielx: Krugman’s article today points out that the tax rate for the top 1% went up more than 4 percentage points in 2013, when the Bush cuts expired and the ACA went into effect. So I guess it has been all jackbooted socialism since then. And I wasn’t even paying enough attention to get my black arm band when they were on sale!
Germy
Our elected GOP representatives in action:
Gin & Tonic
@Punchy: I go out in my sea kayak pretty much year-round, but a) I am an experienced paddler, b) I don’t go out drunk, c) I always wear a PFD, d) if the water is below mid-50’s I wear a wetsuit and e) if I’m going offshore I carry a marine-band radio.
Punchy
Billgahzi?
Gin & Tonic
@Germy: If I’m not mistaken, New Hampshire has the largest state legislature in the country in absolute numbers; given their population, the per-capita number is ridiculously high, so pretty much any loon can be elected.
Germy
Every time I read an online article about the ongoing Bill Cosby drama (no matter where) the comments section invariably features one or two comments saying “What about the Other Bill who attacked all those women?”
Charles Pierce was right. The closer HRC gets to the White House, the more discussion I see about Clenis.
Face
@Gin & Tonic: I can say with 100% absolute certainty, knowing my Wisconsinites, that precisely none of your 5 safety actions were employed by the newly entombed. I wouldn’t be surprised if all 4 of them attempted to ride in the same canoe. #Paddlefail.
Punchy
#Canoebies
#rowthrowtheregoesyourboat
#MilwaukeeRiver’s Best
#Oar-acle of Derpi
#The4Oarsmen
#MuskieBuffet
Gin & Tonic
@Face: Yeah, according to other reports, four guys in a 14-foot canoe, no PFD’s. Darwin Award nominees.
Joel
Just an aside, the Vasamuseet is pretty awesome.
Amir Khalid
@Gin & Tonic:
400 states reps is almost as large as the House of Reptiles in DC. does New Hamster have a Senate too?
Gin & Tonic
@Amir Khalid: Indeed it does, but more sensibly it has 24 members.
JPL
According to Weigel’s twitter ….. Oregon, Cruz says no one should use or threaten force to protest gov’t. Wants situation resolved “peaceably”
Cruz will probably clarify his opinion soon.
Origuy
@Paul in KY:
Probably more like Rodin’s Balzac.
@Eric S.:
I’m guessing they did that as a quick patch, figuring they’d get assigned to do a proper fix. Then they got laid off and management forgot all about the problem.
ThresherK
@Punchy: Do you swim in cold water? I can go nicely in the summer, but I really don’t want to test my limits in January in Wisconsin. My wife doesn’t even want me to try a polar bear dip.
@Gin & Tonic: As a radio amateur, I want to know how well those work when you’re holding it at arms’ length four feet above sea level compared to, say, 16 feet above (like in an average Long Island Sound lost/drunken boating story on the news).
Anoniminous
@Gin & Tonic:
Vague recollections of reading the NH House was created when they thought having a low number of representatives to population was a way to get people to move to the state.
Gin & Tonic
@ThresherK: Luckily I’ve never had occasion to test it. As I’m also licensed, I understand the limitations, but still better to have it than not. Although as the prices have come down, I’m seriously thinking of a small EPIRB.
Oh, and since my freeboard is about 2 inches, there’s no way I’m getting four feet above sea level.
Felonius Monk
From the article:
ETA: Letting your avowed enemy control the logistics of your supply line certainly isn’t what they teach at West Point. Or is this the New Army?
Gin & Tonic
@Amir Khalid: Looked up some of the 2014 election results, and there are legislative districts in NH you can win with fewer than 1,000 votes.
J R in WV
@Kay:
So I retired after a career mostly with West Virginia state government. Now, just 2 years ago, Republicans runing against President Obama took over the state legislature!! They have already nearly ruined the Public Employees Insurance Agency. Fortunately I just qualified for Medicare, which might protect me from Republican fraud and theft at the state level.
But what about Republican fraud and theft at the national level?
Also, too. I was eventually a fairly highly paid (for state government) software developer, so I have a nearly decent pension… How long before the Republican state legislature steals that too??
I’m a peace-loving person so they are safe from me.
But this is West by-Gawd Virginia, and those Republican con artist thieves had better watch out who they steal from, as there were a lot of ex-Marine Viet-Nam war veterans working with me. Stealing from those guys could get a fellow dead, if they don’t manage to blame the theft on the party no longer in power…
And what about fraud and theft from the Social Security system at the national level? ‘Cause that was part of the calculation about when I could afford to retire!!
Keeps me awake at night, it does. Back when I retired everything looked rosy for retirement, and now, a few short years later… oops~!!~
Mike E
Why is it that every time I consider giving to my employer’s matching retirement account the stock market tanks? I’ll start it in Feb, anyway… thanks, Obama!!1!
Amir Khalid
@Felonius Monk:
Isn’t there some postal regulation against sending stuff meant for use by parties engaging in armed rebellion against the US government?
peach flavored shampoo
Fixed for the much more likely scenerio.
CaseyL
@NonyNony: I often wonder how many of the angry young white guys in the anti-war movement grew up to be RWNJ. I think a lot of them did. Especially when I look back on my (fading) memories of the time, and realize how many of them were misogynistic creeps.
ThresherK
@Gin & Tonic: Oops. I thought it would be an HT, so holding it in your hand gained you some height. If this is a device with 20-50 watts output that would make me feel better about the elevation.
J R in WV
@peach flavored shampoo:
This! I’ve been there and watched this…
@Punchy:
Also, too, no one can swim very well in water that’s 35 or 40 degrees. You can’t really even breath once that temperature hits your core. Probably relatively pain-free compared to a fire-works accident, though…
benw
@Mike E: actually, the best time to put money into the stock market is at the lowest point, so yay tank! Also too, if your employer has a matching retirement benefit, you should max that sucker out as much as you can. That’s free money, right there!
Mike J
@ThresherK:
I’m taking my sailing instructors cert next month (february). Have to swim 50 meters without a pfd, tread water two minutes, tie a bowline, put on a pfd, and swim 50 meters back. While wearing clothes that would be worn while instructing (ie, no wet/dry suits).
Matt McIrvin
@Amir Khalid:
When I’ve seen Republicans try to do this, it’s really dark, sexist stuff: they’re knocking her for not being able to please her man.
Most likely the respectable version will be to criticize her for not divorcing or otherwise rejecting him. But I think the idea that Bill slept around because Hillary was a sexually inadequate wife is there right under the surface.
ThresherK
@Mike J: Shouldn’t I have the right to choose a self-certified Libertarian sailing instructor?
Svensker
@Patricia Kayden:
Yup. All our right wing cousins are facebooking about how Bill was WORSE THAN COSBY so how do you excuse that, libtards!!??!! Also, too, this proves that liebruls are the real racists.
Miss Bianca
wow…so Burns now has the “Harney County Committee of Safety”.
I suppose trying to tell these clowns that invoking images of the Jacobins is probably not a winning strategy for them but…since neither they nor their followers are likely very well-read in history (not even their own), they probably wouldn’t even get it…
ThresherK
@ThresherK: Ugh, edit timeout. Seriously, as kids we zipped around a salt-water harbor in all sorts of AMF devices (Sunfish, Sailfish, etc) and PFDs were a must, and Dad taught us enough common sense from his Navy days. The limit to how much trouble we could get in was that one of our parents had to drive the boat down to the landing.
benw
@ThresherK: I’m pretty sure that *all* Libertarians are self-centered, not just the sailing instructors.
Anyway, I tried one of those Libertarian sailing instructors, and he wouldn’t teach me anything, just kept saying I had to pull the sail up by my own bootstraps just like he did.
And the assigned coursework was just “The Fountainhead”! Boom!
I’ll be here all week, folks. Tip your waitstaff.
peach flavored shampoo
@Gin & Tonic: God damn. Just how shitfaced does one have to be to decide to a ride in a canoe in ~35F waters, knowing certain death awaits should they flip the boat? It’s not even probable death, it’s certain death. And all 4 grown men in the boat means it was probably only barely afloat, just wanting to capsize. Must have been one hell of a lot of booze.
It would have been better survivability odds, statistically, for those drunks to wander around an Interstate or consume stangnant water. Darwin Awards, pronto.
Felonius Monk
@Amir Khalid: There probably is some federal regulation like that. But, I would guess that anything that arrive at the Bend, OR post office addressed to these loons at the Wildlife Refuge would be marked addressee unknown and returned to sender after the sender’s name and address were duly recorded for possible prosecution.
VFX Lurker
@Amir Khalid:
For some people, a woman is not a real person. Her husband defines who she is, not her own actions.
Mike J
@Patricia Kayden:
There were Bernie supporters here the other night talking about how Hillary needed to appoint Gennifer Flowers and Monica Lewinsky to cabinet positions.
They seem to think women aren’t actually individual people, merely extensions of the man who owns them.
VFX Lurker
@Mike E:
Go for it! You’ll thank yourself 20 years from now.
Mike J
@Felonius Monk:
Metadata collection!
NonyNony
@Felonius Monk:
Jeebus – are these the dumbest group of terrorist wannabes that this country has ever produced? Am I missing a dumber group?
Hell thinking that you can have an occupation against the Feds and have things delivered to you by the Postal Service has to rank you as the dumbest occupier in the history of occupations, doesn’t it?
JPL
According to TPM, Rubio came out against the militia crew in Oregon.
“Let me just say, first of all, you’ve got to follow the law,” Rubio said on Iowa radio station KBUR. “You can’t be lawless. We live in a republic. There are ways to change the laws of this country and the policies. If we get frustrated with it, that’s why we have elections. That’s why we have people we can hold accountable.”
We’ve heard from Rubio and Cruz. It’s time for Trump to tweet his response.
Origuy
Soonergrunt retweeted a post from a wanna-be supporter who can’t make it to Oregon until his government check arrives.
Kay
@Amir Khalid:
They probably can’t get parcels delivered but they can open a PO Box and go pick them up. I worked at small post offices and we tried to work with people. We would have 2 or 3 people at a time who would ask for special services- “general delivery” is one- that’s where the post office accepts mail addressed to the post office with the person’s name. We weren’t required to do it, but if they called and told us the mail was coming and they would be by to pick it up we would store it. You just date it and if they don’t show up you send it back.
It’s usually people who are somehow between addresses- waiting for a lease to begin, or a home to be built, or en route somewhere else. Larger post offices can’t do it because they would be inundated with requests, but it works in small offices.
MomSense
@Origuy:
The tyranny! He has to wait for his government money.
Amir Khalid
@Kay:
I think I see a problem here. Once you pick up the goods from the Bend post office, how do you get them past the Federal siege and into the, ahem, liberated premises?
Felonius Monk
@Kay:
A rather unlikely scenario in these circumstances.
Frankensteinbeck
@Amir Khalid:
It may make no sense to you, but to a very, very large number of Americans, a man’s infidelity is as much the wife’s fault as his. There doesn’t have to be a reason. It’s not even ‘her fault’ exactly. A stain of untrustworthiness and being a bad person somehow connects both parties. I have heard this kind of reasoning from even very liberal female relatives who were raised in conservative environments. Not to mention that to even the mildly misogynistic, the wife is an adjunct of the husband. The theme that you can look at Bill and know Hillary is common on both sides of the aisle.
@danielx:
Assumes facts VERY MUCH not in evidence. If there is anything that has been proven over the last forty years, it’s that you don’t have to be smarter than a brain damaged toad to stay rich and get richer, if you started out rich. You can waste incredible amounts of money and be as insane and assholish as you like, because you have a safety cushion the poor do not have.
catclub
@benw: well pointed out.
benw
@Amir Khalid: I think I see a clever plot by the Feds: “Hey, Billy Bob, go pick up the mail!”
The next day: “Hey, Billy Bob, never came back! Cletus, go get the damn mail!”
The next day: “Hey, where’s Billy Bob and Cletus? Eddie Ray, go and fetch the ever-lovin’ mail!”
…
catclub
@J R in WV:
I would worry least about this. The state pension fund is the one I would be concerned about.
If the national one – we are all fucked. You’ll have company! Not so the state one.
catclub
@Amir Khalid:
Given all the news reports interviewing the perpetraitors, I have my doubts about any Federal siege. We may be expecting one, but that and $2.50 will get you a small coffee.
Paul in KY
@Origuy: I think his non-answer is the answer…
Paul in KY
@Origuy: Murica!!! Yeehaw!!!
Kay
@Amir Khalid:
Absolutely, it’s a problem, but I don’t see the Postal Service delivering a parcel addressed to “Sovereign Citizen, @ federal park”. I think they have to use PO BOX or “general delivery” pretty please, Ms. Postmaster.
They should use FedEx, anyway. That’s the wingnut carrier. They’re non-union and rely on bullshit “independent contractor” classifications to save on labor :)
Mike J
@Kay:
If they had ever read any Eudora Welty they could have seized a PO and written about why they live there. And CNN could interview Stella-Rondo to get her side of it.
Brachiator
@Frankensteinbeck:
Yeah, and I guess this is especially the case if the wife doesn’t dump the husband right away when the infidelity is discovered.
This kind of stuff is just stupid, and just ignores the complexity of human relationships.
This is not true at all. It is especially not true of many entertainers, athletes and lottery winners. It is also not necessarily true of people who have inherited wealth.
And somewhat similar to the infidelity thing, I know people who get furious if you point out examples of people who have lost or squandered wealth. There is a persistent myth, especially among Americans, that there is some mystical level of wealth that absolutely immunizes you against most forms of financial ruin.
Kay
@Mike J:
Fully half of my conversations at the Post Office were with older wingnuts who complained about inefficient government. There were large stretches of the day where we had ONE employee in there. I would tease them- “you realize if I walk out of here I lock the door and your post office is closed, right?”
Frankensteinbeck
@Brachiator:
‘Absolutely’? No. ‘Makes it much, much harder to lose everything’? Yes. You are correct that people who suddenly come into money are the ones who most easily lose it all. They don’t have the investments, acquired capitol, and contacts that provide the insulation and guarantee financial growth barring anything but the most outrageous and suicidal stupidity. They are not, say, Mitt Romney, whose family friends got him lucrative jobs with ‘cannot fail’ actually written into the contract when he got out of college, or George Gush, who destroyed everything he touched but had his family’s wealth and contacts to not only bail him out, but give him new toys to destroy. Case in point: If the Koch Brothers spend a billion dollars on politics, and get absolutely nothing whatsoever in return, how will that affect their standard of living? It won’t. The cushion exists, even if it’s not 100% totally absolute. The rich are not more canny than the poor. We sure as HELL do not live in a meritocracy.
Brachiator
@Frankensteinbeck:
It’s sometimes simpler than this. Many of these people don’t know what to do with their money and are unwilling to learn how to make safe investments. And they are often set upon by weasels who take them for everything they’ve got. This is particularly true of athletes.
But again, even those with family wealth often dissipate their wealth. People talk about “the rich” as though there is an identifiable group of permanently wealthy people in America or other countries. But there are very few families in this country that have maintained their wealth over centuries.
I agree with you that the cushion exists, but I don’t know what the percentage of effectiveness might be. But it is much less than you think.
And yeah, we don’t live in a meritocracy, but we do not live in a society in which you are permanently barred from success just because you do not already belong to the club.