@darth I hope you’re having a good Saturday. I thought you might like to know our cat brings us flowers about five times a day. Not sure why I had to show you this but I did. Happy Saturday pic.twitter.com/yE1jVHkkJe
— ??? ??? (@TTSFDCC) March 31, 2018
Weekend flowers are always welcome, but isn’t Monday when we really need them?…
Yes, there is plenty to post about, but none of it seems appropriate before readers have had the chance to armor up & ingest their adult beverage of choice (that would be Diet Coke, in my case).
Ted Nugent, Roseanne Barr, and Laura Ingraham walk into a bar. They had to — it was the only place they could find to publically escape the 18 year olds about to haunt their asses.
— Phil (@CelticWombat) March 31, 2018
Reboot with Barron at the White House when his father forgets to bring him to Mar-a-Lago. The wet bandits are John Bolton and Stephen Miller. pic.twitter.com/MK8ycp9l0b
— Schooley (@Rschooley) April 1, 2018
.
Finally, in the name of companion animal fairness:
reminder that saltwater can cause your dog’s electronics to malfunction. pic.twitter.com/PnxiBOvu7A
— Clint Falin (@ClintFalin) March 29, 2018
HeleninEire
Happy Easter Monday, morning crew. Last day of a fabulous 4 day respite from work. Next 2 weeks at work are going to be intense. Huge proposal due the 17th but then I can breathe.
Rainy and grey here in Dublin, but no complaints. Had some visitors from America Thursday and the last 3 days have been sunny.
OzarkHillbilly
It ain’t just salt water that causes dog malfunctions.
rikyrah
Good Morning,Everyone???
satby
Wow, Happy Monday, or as it’s known in South Bend, Dyngus Day!
Can’t believe I slept past 4am for once!
Sab
@OzarkHillbilly: My dog malfunctions all the time, pretty much a permanent state for her. She is just nutz. Seven years old and still hasn’t settled down.
TS
Morning Ho still attacking Hillary – and then attacking the GOP for doing the same
eclare
@Sab: My dog is nine, and I’m still looking for the “off” switch.
Immanentize
@satby: good morning. I saw last night that you captured the stray cat without a garage spelunking. Congrats!
satby
@rikyrah: Good morning ?!
OzarkHillbilly
@Sab: The Woofmeister can go into total spaz mode first thing in the AM. Or not. When I take him out to throw frisbee in the evening, he will shake his head violently back and forth smacking himself on both sides of his face with the floppy frisbee (the floppy ones last a lot longer than the hard ones, he chews them up) Even now with his congestive HD he acts just like a puppy as often as not.
satby
@Immanentize: yes, thank you! I had taken up the food bowls I left out to make the humane trap more attractive and I saw her waddling back to my shed later in the afternoon, still hugely pregnant. I grabbed a food bowl and the remaining bait salmon and went out to reopen the shed, put the food down and put the salmon into a cat carrier, she crawled 1/2 way in and I pushed her the rest of the way. She was upset but not psychotic, and started to settle into the cage at my friend’s house fairly quickly. I’m now pretty sure someone dumped her, she’s not a true feral. And she should give birth any day.
She seemed relieved to be in a safe spot, and I’m relieved we got her.
Now I’m going to try to trap a younger cat I see running around, that one probably is really feral.
OzarkHillbilly
@Immanentize: @satby: con poquito gattos?
LAO
Good morning all from NYC where’s it’s snowing which means there is zero chance my dog will go outside. I must say, for a rescue mutt, she has surprisingly delicate sensibilities.
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: with little cats? Any day now… Her roomie in the “maternity ward” has 3 six day old babies.
satby
And if Skepticat is around, I think a lot of jackals would love to see pictures of your feral colony and hear about your trap/fix/release work. Please share!
Kay
I was thinking about organizing and why these high schoolers got more traction than anyone else and it’s partly because “schools” are really unique in that almost every kid goes to one. There’s no large group of people who spend all day every day in “malls” or “movie theaters” or “concerts” and then stay there long enough to organize anything. It’s easy to spread because there are so many of them and they are everywhere. There’s nothing else like the K-12 system in the US. All the rest of the mass shootings are one-offs, here an airport, there a concert, but schools are a specific place and they have so many commonalities that they’re really the only place where organizing like this COULD happen so fast.
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
NotMax
FYI for any fence sitters, noticed the other day that in the new line-up of Roku devices, the price for the basic box is now an astoundingly low $29.99.
Billcoop4
Dang, the words are right ones for a true apology.
BC
LAO
@Kay: I see that the tweeterverse hasn’t accepted Frank Stallone’s apology but, unlike the “sorry if you were offended” variety of apology his is an actual apology. not that it really matters.
OzarkHillbilly
@satby: Yeah, I don’t know the Spanish for kittens. :-) sheepishly
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: little cats gets the idea across ?
Kay
@LAO:
It’s a good apology but I don’t really believe it. I think what he said the first time is his actual opinion and what he (probably) still believes. There’s a huge group of people who think kids should be beat up for all kinds of things. They’re always proud of it too- like it’s this contrarian “truth” that can’t be said except so many people say it.
I’m more interested in the fact they believe they have to apologize. They never apologize for anything.
Lapassionara
@LAO: the words are definitely an apology, but why, if he would never in a million years wish someone harm, did he send the tweet he is apologizing for?
Good morning, everyone.
BruceFromOhio
@LAO:
Actually I think it kind of does matter. Being graceful in your own way means acknowledging when someone genuinely apologizes for a mistake, if even that someone remains a shitty human. The tough part is evaluating if the guy is really on the up & up about it, and only the person (or people) he is apologizing to can make that call.
Kay
@LAO:
They so clearly want them to shut up and go away, which I get, in a way. Gun nuts were running the table there for a while. They won every round. They must be shocked.
LAO
@Kay: I couldn’t agree more. These kids have absolutely changed the national conversation about guns. And I’ve been thinking about your original comment and I think you’re correct. The RW really doesn’t understand how appealing these children are.
LAO
@Kay: So true!
satby
@Kay: a great many people who apologize don’t mean it I would imagine. But, he apologized in a real way and will probably keep his ill-considered thoughts to himself after the blowback he got, and that’s progress. That there’s beginning to be a cost for hate mongering give me a tiny bit of hope.
BruceFromOhio
@Kay:
“Is our children learning?” =)
The Ingraham lesson was a good one – forget the RWNJ and the bullshit that spews out of the Twatter, go after the money. If Frankie is looking for any kind of work, that shits gonna follow him around.
Kay
@Lapassionara:
The part about wanting someone to beat him up doesn’t bother me- that’s ordinary manly-man bragging. What bothers me is “too big for his britches” – they’re mad he’s speaking at all. Why do they get the stage all the time? Why is a multi-million dollar Fox pundit a more worthy speaker than a 17 year old? I reject that. We hear PLENTY from Ted Nugent and the rest. They never fucking shut up. It’s weird- it’s like celebrities get to speak and everyone else has to “earn” the right to share the stage with them.
satby
@LAO:
They do, that’s why there was a rush to dismiss, discredit and minimize the kids. The RW realized the danger immediately. The difference is that these kids aren’t backing down.
ixnay
@satby: Ooh, well done!
NotMax
61% to 39% victory.
Kay
@satby:
I agree and I know it’s ungenerous to question his apology but Frank isn’t really directing that to me- I’m not an advertiser or someone in a position to hire him, so it doesn’t really matter what I think :)
It’s funny that they only thing that DOES get to them is “markets”- when money people reject them. Trump said all during the campaign that he was great for ratings- he’s good tv- and that’s true. I think it made people squirm because it WAS true. All the huffing and puffing about his behavior and they all gave him a huge platform, way back to his birther days.
satby
@satby: and the other difference is that there’s finally a critical mass of people who have just had enough. Too many people have had their kids experience a school lockdown. For a lot of people, politics is some theoretical crap that doesn’t affect their lives, until it suddenly becomes personal.
Lapassionara
@Kay: too true. It is impossible to escape the Ted Nugent’s of the world. These kids are a breath of fresh air. So far, they have been pitch perfect.
Amir Khalid
@Lapassionara:
I guess Sylvester’s Brother harboured that unsavoury sentiment all his life. He got schooled only after he tweeted it, and the disapproval from all sides was an unexpected shock to his system.
Baud
@NotMax:
Costa Rica 1-0 USA
LAO
@satby: You’re right. What I’m trying to say is that the RW didn’t understand that these children (and their supporters) are immune to their attacks. Standard smear campaigns aren’t working, I’m slightly sick at thought of what they’ll try next.
satby
@NotMax: OT, but congrats on the stand mixer. For an avid cook it’s one of the best gadgets ever! So how was the cake?
Ceci n est pas mon nym
Somebody posted a Nugent apology yesterday, but it turned out to be an April Fools joke. Does anyone know if he’s feeling any pressure or getting any backlash?
gene108
@LAO:
The Parkland kids said, when initially interviewed, what most folks think: Never Again. Get the big guns that enable these mass killings off the streets. And they have a credibility that is hard to deny. Plus, they are on social media and are good at it, as well as more articulate than adults expect from the average 16-17 year old.
It really is a lightning in a bottle sort of thing. There’s a lot of pent up demand, especially after Sandyhook, to go after the gun nuts and their guns everywhere philosophy, but people lacked something to give them the same focus as the gun buts, and there’s a new wave of civic engagement post-Trump.
The gun nuts thought they could bully the majority forever, but they are finding out that when the majority gets any level of focus on gun control, gun nuts are not as strong as they thought they were.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay:
Only the “right” celebrities tho: “Shut up and dribble.”
Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)
@satby: That is progress. Make it unacceptable to say and by extension think the kinds of things Ingraham and Stallone said. Many people do learn to govern their racist thoughts, for instance, even if they still have them.
LAO
Pupdate: first refusal to go out. (It took significant treats to get winter coat on). I could cry. Will winter never end?
rikyrah
@Kay:
They are totally shocked. And, they are stunned that these kids won’t go away. They can’t argue the merits, so they go about doing what they usually do. But, this time, they are being exposed in all their hideousness.
Anne Laurie
@satby:
Alternate possibility, depending on her age: She ‘matured’ sooner than her first owners expected, ran away looking for a hot date, and couldn’t find her way back home afterwards…
Idiot teenagers getting themselves in trouble: not just a human problem!
satby
@Kay: if you think about it a little less as “markets” and more as “tribes” it makes better sense. Stallone and Ingraham expect to piss off liberals, they intended to. They wanted to.
They were used to doing that with impunity because only the politically connected and aware would even know about the slap fight, and those people are very tribal, on both sides. What they didn’t count on was the mushy, usually inert middle getting involved and coming down against them. And when that happens, it opens up “their” tribe to damage. Can’t have that.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@LAO: “He/she is no angel”.
So far I’ve seen a photo of Emma Gonzalez blowing smoke in someone’s face, and hints of a #MeToo sexual harassment victim ready to make a complaint against David Hogg.
No idea if there is any tiny speck of reality behind either. But at any rate it’s clear a lot of sleazy people are probably being paid a lot of money to do oppo research.
If they get Putin interested, I guess we’ll see an increase in the sophistication and diversity of those attacks.
OzarkHillbilly
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: Read somewhere this morn that nobody at or affiliated with the NRA wants to even acknowledge what he said. They appear to be running scared and hoping that if they just STFU it will all go away. So far anyway.
Brachiator
@Kay:
There have, sadly, been school shootings before. And in the past, a lot of focus has been on the parents’ grief, and then politicians moved in to pretend to do something.
But here, some critical mass was reached. Some spirit of resistance rose up, and the kids threw off the old responses and spoke for themselves.
I hope they keep on keeping on.
NotMax
@satby
Shall have to get back to you on that. The linguini with clam sauce for din-din was so filling that even a sliver of cake was out of the question.
Did realize once it was already in the oven that I’d spaced out adding nutmeg to the batter. So long since last made it that had to organize a pantry safari to locate the jar of molasses hibernating way in the rear.
rikyrah
@Kay:
These kids are Barack Obama kids. They grew up with 44. They know something is very wrong with Dolt45. And, like so many of us, they are trying to make normal of the abnormal. This is what has been consistent since Dolt45, and has pissed off the RW. We refuse to go along with the program. Now, it’s hit the gun issue.
Amir Khalid
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
Is the Nooge still famous enough to get backlash? He hasn’t had a hit since before the Parkland kids’ parents were teenagers.
ETA:His fame these days, such as it is, is for being a right-wing asshole.
Gozer
@LAO: Fucking winter, amirite?
I’m staring at ~5 in of heavy, wet snow. And nary a plow in sight on my street. I’m a day away from vacation so seriously thinking of calling out…but that makes me feel shitty.
OzarkHillbilly
@satby: Both tribes share the commonality of children and the instinct to defend them. So I’m pretty sure more than a few on the right find these types of comments abhorrent.
Baud
I’ll say this about the kids, they never whine that Trump’s (and the NRA’s) base will never be convinced.
eclare
@rikyrah: I also wonder about the Obama effect, he was a very optimistic president: yes we can, etc. That had to have had an effect on these kids’ opinions about whether their actions can make a difference.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Kay:
I have to admit that’s a real apology from Stallone—none of that “if your feelings were hurt” bullshit.
satby
@Gozer: do it! You’ll get over it by noon. ?
Anne Laurie
@Kay:
There’s a tipping point, mid-Boomer, where the percentage of ‘normal’ Americans who grew up thinking spanking-or-worse was how kids should be disciplined switched. The front-edge Boomers remember being spanked (or beaten); those younger than that, if they remember it happening, think of it as a rare exception, not The Usual. There was a lot of hitting in my family, but my parents *knew* this was a failure on their parts, even though most of the neighbors thought they were just overeducated sissified liberals. And every generation since, there have been fewer parents thinking it was “normal” to physically discipline their kids.
The Frank Stallones — and of course people like Mike Flynn, who’s at least one generation younger — resent that they can’t “manage” their kids the way they were managed, or at least the way they believe kids should be managed. That’s why “They want to send you to jail if you spank your kids!!!” is part of the Agenda 21 anti-UN conspiracy theory. It’s one more way the world has changed, and they hate change. Especially since it’s a change that implicitly questions the ‘hierarchy’ where some people (grownups) are superior to others (kids), the way their God intended!
debbie
@Kay:
Why? Because these assholes are paper bullies.
bystander
@TS: Their idiocy about Hillary is followed up with a discussion about the guy who investigated a blow job when tasked with finding financial impropriety saying that the guy tasked with investigating interference in the election should not be investigating potential election contribution violations. And just how does Mika jettison her Wonder Woman cuffs to praise the guy who got fired for covering up for rapists?
Baud
@bystander: I know that show isn’t the worst of the worst, but I don’t understand how people tolerate it.
debbie
@satby:
There are a few orange “Enough is enough” yard signs in my neighborhood. I’d like to see more, but it is a start.
NotMax
FOR SALE
One cave, suitable for entombment. Barely used. Substantial security features, valley view. Original occupant suddenly decided to vacate. Ideal for small family. Contact Peter, JErusalem 5-4321.
Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)
@Anne Laurie: Trevor Noah talks easily about being hit as a kid. It always startles me.
debbie
@satby:
I think they also wanted to be cheered on by their own tribe. Double win!
ixnay
@Anne Laurie: I have spayed 4-1/2 month old cats (going by teeth) who were already pregnant. So, yes, there are often unpleasant surprizes.
rikyrah
The ? bringing the flower is too cute ?
satby
Love you all, but you’re all over thinking it.
Remember that one of the things neighbors say after some horrific murder in suburbia or rural areas is “things like that don’t happen here”?
That’s magical thinking, people use it to retain a sense of order and control after frightening events.
But the last many years and slaughters have finally taught enough people that nowhere is safe, they and their children aren’t safe. The Parkland kids statement about the adults failing them is true, and shameful for many people. I think that’s the difference this time, the magical thinking has been stripped away (it never existed in the cities),and people are finally making a semblance of sanity in gun control an issue. No modern person wants to live at constant risk of being in a shootout at Krogers. The gun nuts pushed too far, pushback has begun.
Patricia Kayden
@Kay: The Parkland students are also very poised, well spoken and intelligent. They come from an affluent background and the school is located in a wealthier suburb. If they were from a different high school, the way they are treated by the media could be much different.
I love that they’ve made their movement inclusive of kids who aren’t as privileged as they are. Kudos to them for being so passionate and determined despite the ugliness of the opposition.
OGLiberal
@Amir Khalid: Funny story about Ted. Worked at a concert hall in the early 90s, unloading trucks and doing backstage security. Damn Yankees (yes, I know) played there. When we unloaded the truck there was a styrofoam deer. Later, pre-show, Ted walks out with a high powered bow and starts shooting arrows at the deer target. Our mild-mannered boss, the production manager, came out to politely suggest to Ted that maybe shooting arrows with people around – crew and, yes, some kids – wasn’t a great idea. He proceeded to yell, “Eff you! Eff you! You shoot your drugs, I’ll shoot my bow!” Some local crew members were like “whoa!” while my boss stood there incredulous. At the same moment the promoter’s accountant – dude was like 65, at most, 5′ 5″ –
walked out with his money briefcase and said, “no, eff you!”, and kept walking, right out of backstage. Ted walked back to the dressing room with his bow, grumbling some crap.
What a d-bag. I will, though, give him some credit for using a bow…takes skill. Who the eff hunts with an AR-15 and considers themself a sportsperson.
WereBear
This is how we got Sir Tristan.
Young cat, abandoned, got pregnant, can’t hunt, had to abandon the runt at 3 weeks and the stronger kitten at 6 weeks. We trapped the mom and her second litter, and you could almost hear the sigh of relief.
OzarkHillbilly
@OGLiberal: Trust me, the only reason nugent hunts with a bow is because it allows him to legally kill more animals than he could if he only hunted with a rifle. (gun season most places is 1-2 weeks with only 1 tag. bow season typically 3-4 months with multiple tags)
Elizabelle
Good morning, jackals.
I’m glad the world has turned on the guns, guns, guns situation. These kids are not going away, and neither are all the adults that support them.
rikyrah
@Patricia Kayden:
And, they know and acknowledge their privilege. I also think that is part of the RW rage. How dare these kids not follow the GOP script. THEY should know better.
Amir Khalid
@OzarkHillbilly:
I presume that where Nooge lives there are grocery stores that sell meat he can afford. What does he want all that extra for?
Elizabelle
@Patricia Kayden: I think the Parkland kids are good for property values. If that is the local public high school! …. just, wow.
satby
@ixnay: our one mom cat who was moved to make room for the one I just captured is very young, barely six months we think, and her entire litter didn’t survive in spite of attempts to bottle feed to help. They were premature and couldn’t swallow.
The cat I captured isn’t particularly young, she’s fully mature and a good size. Well over a year old if not more. She’s been hanging around for at least six months, so if she was dumped and not a runaway they never knew she was pregnant. After I trap the young cat (or before, who knows) I hope I can get the tom cat that “belongs” to the negligent ass across the street. Not neutered, never vaccinated, and highly likely to be the daddy. He’s a beautiful Siamese mix, and his owner doesn’t take care of him.
debbie
@Patricia Kayden:
I’d bet they’ve also benefitted from classes for public speaking like my nieces and nephews have had in their school. I know they’re far more better-spoken than I could ever be!
NotMax
@satby
One might say you’ve got cat patch fever.
;)
donnah
I’m sixty and I have three adult sons, 30, 26, and 25. They didn’t grow up worrying about being shot at school. These kids, highly tuned in and connected via the network of the Internet, DO worry about it. They’ve seen it happen all over the country. Many, if not most, have gone through weekly drills on what to do in case of an active shooter. And some have seen a kid shooting their friends and teachers.
This is real. These kids are not fragile, hypersensitive babies. In the back of their minds, they wonder if today is the day when an angry kid comes to their class with a gun. And they know a bucket of rocks ain’t gonna stop him.
I have to remind myself that this is real, that these kids need to be listened to and protected. It’s not our world they are afraid of, it’s theirs.
satby
@NotMax: ?
Anne Laurie
@OzarkHillbilly:
Ted’s also one of the pioneers of “canned hunts” — not just exotic overseas once-in-a-lifetime safaris, but paying to kill farm-raised deer and black bear in enclosures. Minimum exertion, maximum bloodlust. (I know very little about hunting, but the Spousal Unit’s family was in the archery hunting business; Nugent had made himself wildly unpopular even with other hunters by the 1980s, if not earlier. His “schtick” is being a major putz, because that’s his one talent.)
Baud
@debbie: Probably what the GOP will cut next out of the education budget.
OzarkHillbilly
@Amir Khalid: He’s not in it for the meat. He’s in it to prove what a manly man he is. Seeing as he shit his pants when he showed up at the draft board he’s got a lot of catching up to do.
Baud
@Anne Laurie: Isn’t that what Cheney did with pheasants when he shot that guy?
Immanentize
@Steeplejack (phone): Yes, Stallone made a real apology. But why did he do it in the first place? He fails to explain how that happened. Was he drunk? Or is that what is in his heart and he is just sorry he let it out.
I agree training people to keep this shit to themselves is what civilization depends upon. Trump let all those internal editors take a vacation. I wonder if these kids, with our assist, can make it shameful generally to say such shit.
ixnay
@satby:Sadly, toms will travel very long distances. The guy in your neighborhood may have been keeping others out. There are some who think vasectomies help by keeping the territories intact.
Anne Laurie
@Amir Khalid:
Making things die is manly. Real Men Kill Stuff! More or less a quote from the guy, as I remember a mid-1980s interview. Father-in-law, nice respectable center-right Republican, rolled his eyes and said, “Well, I guess Ted needs as much help in that department as he can get.”
MomSense
@LAO:
I keep thinking of that Bowie verse.
OzarkHillbilly
@Anne Laurie: Canned hunts are big money makers.
MomSense
@gene108:
I also think these kids have pulled in adults who may have been on the fence or leaning against gun control because culturally adults are so accustomed to supporting school projects. We go to car washes, band booster bake sales, trash pick up projects, bottle drives, etc. There is a strong desire to support student organized community projects because we enjoy seeing young people engaged, and demonstrating good citizenship. We may turn around and destroy the budget for their teachers but we like to see young people doing things.
Anne Laurie
@Baud:
Yup (though I think it was quail, not pheasants). But that’s a much older (European) tradition of hunting “preserved” (raised on protected estate lands) birds behind “beaters”… so at least it has the (slender) virtue of history. Also — fortunately for the poor bastid who had to apologize for not getting out of the way fast enough when (a probably drunk) Cheney peppered him — birdshot is a lot less dangerous than an arrow or crossbow bolt to the face!
OGLiberal
@Amir Khalid: Pretty certain he’d tell you that bowhunting saved him from drugs and booze. He’d also probably say that shooting the arrows backstage before a show is akin to shooting heroin…it’s his fix. Too me it just looked like manly man d-bag extraneous show-off self-righteous BS…”look at me, I have a bow…and if you criticize me for it I’ll call you all drug addicts.” Almost like he did it expecting a reaction. (which he probably got in multiple venues)
I wll say that while he was a grade-A dick to our boss and shouted a blanketed criticism on the local crew (half of whom were school teachers and likely not drug abusers) he was exceedingly nice to me and my friend who did security outside the band’s (it pains me to call them a “band”) dressing room. But he’s still a d-bag.
debbie
Trump’s rants about DACA have been more uninformed than usual, and they seem to have been sparked by a similarly uninformed report on Fox. I wonder what Sinclair will come up with in response.
Elizabelle
@MomSense: They had buttons with that Bowie quote at the DC March for Our Lives.
satby
This sounds like it was a bad time for a Sunday drive.
Elizabelle
And, in the moms over the cliff story out of Mendocino, police reporting airbag data shows car was stopped at turnout over cliff, and then accelerated.
Anne Laurie
@OzarkHillbilly:
One of Nugent’s income streams used to be — probably still is — getting paid by canned-hunt entrepreneurs to talk up their particular “game ranches”. One hand washes the other; The Nooge tells gullible dentists who were teenagers in the 1970s that killing a farmed whitetail will make them feel young again, and his paid gig as a spokesmodel for the industry helps promote his suburban-clubs-and-county-fairs “musical” career, such as it remains.
Immanentize
@Anne Laurie: I thought Cheney was not on a canned hunt but was shooting dove at a hunt lease. That is a pretty normal hunting exercise in Texas. Some leases (which are just sections of otherwise huge ranches) will stock quail, but there are plenty of dove to go around. And, as you said, if they were shooting anything other than small guage bird shot, Cheney would have had a dead friend.
Anne Laurie
@Immanentize: You’re probably right. I just remember thinking how “lucky” it was only birdshot, not something more lethal!
Elizabelle
@Immanentize: Hunting in Texas just reminds me that Scalia is dead, dead, dead, so thank you for that connection.
Now we get to wonder if that bashful Anthony Kennedy will retire.
debbie
@Elizabelle:
I didn’t know until just now:
Just horrible.
OzarkHillbilly
@Anne Laurie: There is a variant where the birds are kept in cages. The “hunters” are guided to the proper location for the shot and the birds are released (they nearly always fly in the same direction as instinct tells them where to go). Then on to the next location. Do not know if Cheney was hunting at one of those or if it was just a preserve that was managed to maximize the bird environment.
The latter is much desired as quail (and other game birds) have been under increasing stress due to climate change and modern farming techniques that maximize crop potential at the expense of cover and feed plants for game birds
satby
@Elizabelle: sounded to me before like a family annihilation situation, maybe a murder/suicide pact. What they’re finding seems to confirm it. Those poor kids.
Immanentize
@Elizabelle:
I don’t think he will retire. But I admit this is my experience mixed with hope. Unless he is sick, Kennedy cares too much about the country to let Trump pick his successor. Justice Marshall once said, when asked when he was going to retire: “I was appointed for life and I intend to fulfill my appointment.”
OzarkHillbilly
@satby: An armed society is a polite society.
LFC1964YNWA (--bd)
@Baud: Dammit, Baud! We finished fifth out of six in World Cup qualifying. Did you have to phrase it that way?
raven
@Immanentize: My brother had him as a prof at McGeorge.
FlipYrWhig
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
Can a person in high school “sexually harass” somebody? IMHO there’s a difference between being creepy or pushy with a similarly-aged friend/partner/hookup and harassment per se, because of that whole aspect of power imbalance.
Immanentize
@OzarkHillbilly: Cheney and Whittington and friends were hunting on a lease near Kingsville. That town is surrounded by the King Ranch for scores of miles in all directions. Something over 800,000 acres. Yes that is 8 with five zeros. I am sure they have all sorts of hunting options there from deer, dove, and wild pig (the normal Hunter fair) up to exotics. But I think Cheney and crew were doing plain old dove/quail hunting.
PS a friend in Austin had lunch with Whittington about a month after the accident. He is an irracible old style attorney and thought it was a good bunch of bullshit to be worrying about his injuries….
Immanentize
@raven: Every one says he is a good teacher. I never saw him in the classroom, myself.
Elizabelle
@Immanentize: I hope that is true. When you get this rumor-mongering about retirement, you wonder if it’s a slow news day, or if rightwing is trying to cheer up its moron base, since they’re getting pantsed on guns in schools and assault weapons.
WRT the moms plus kids at Mendocino: whole tragic thing sounds like a novel. I hope it’s another nail in the coffin of unsupervised homeschooling. This case was curious, because mom Sarah was accused and convicted of hitting a daughter enough to draw bruises when they lived in Minnesota. A schoolteacher noticed the bruises and followed up.
So, the family moves out of Minnesota and takes all six kids out of school at some point. Moms are able to control adult access to the kids, and how the family presents.
Interesting in the stories: Mom Sarah confessed to the spanking with bruises, and took the punishment, but child had actually accused mom Jennifer. Who was at the wheel, in Mendocino. Mom Sarah worked outside the home (Kohls). Mom Jennifer ran the household and schooling.
Child protective services shows up; family does not answer door, and flees south sometime Friday. Although some reports said they were northbound on coastal highway just before the accident. I hope cops can find witnesses to the several hour/day travels.
Kids were two sets of three siblings from sad backgrounds. That alone, to me, says six being homeschooled is too much. Those kids had needs (and may have acted out in ways) that may have been beyond the capabilities of two parents, no matter how committed and loving.
Whole thing looks like a cautionary tale, and you’ve got the added problem of maybe it was actually a terrible, tragic accident.
LAO
@MomSense: me too! Mixed in with Dylan’s The Times They Are A Changing.
schrodingers_cat
@Anne Laurie: I lost all respect for Anthony Bourdain after he did that show on Nugent’s “ranch” where he all but drooled over the guy. Not cool.
ETA: That was the first time I heard about TN.
OzarkHillbilly
@FlipYrWhig:
Yes.
bystander
@Baud:
They go on friendly websites to spew their reactions to the bothsiderist, fatuous nonsense.
Best part is listening to Mika “Gams Ahoy” Brzezinski sneer at nothing nobodies reciting Sinclair propaganda on Fox.
JMG
Trump has invited Putin to the White House. Classic sitcom setup. “Melanie, the boss is coming over for dinner tonight!”
bystander
@JMG: An episode of I Love Lucy, complete with burnt pot roast, but starring Ethel and Julius Rosenberg.
TS
@bystander: I think it is as well I missed all that while making coffee
tobie
I mean no disrespect to the Parkland students. They are smart, passionate, and media savvy. Kay’s right that school children are part of an organized institution in a way that mall-goers and concert-goers are not. But there’s something else going on here. The cable networks have given these kids a leg-up in a way they haven’t done with any other group. How much attention did the women’s march receive? How many glowing portrayals of Black Lives Matter have aired? None–because those are considered partisan or interest group events. March for Our Lives by contrast is supposed to be universal. Again–I mean no disrespect to the Parkland students, who have been nothing short of amazing. What I’m trying to point out is how the media and especially cable can make or break a movement.
laura
@raven: I’m a McGeorger. One of my classmates went to Kennedy’s Summer in Salzberg sessions and her takeaways was jeez, he thinks highly of himself. And that his friendship with Gordon Schaber was/is the reason for his opinions regarding LGBTQ rights.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@tobie: There are plenty of other kids who are energized and ready to talk to the media, especially kids of color who have something to say about the disproportionate dangers in their schools. But I read a tweet this weekend that says they’re finding reporters uninterested in them. “They only want to talk to kids from Parkland.”
Same old media. Parkland is the shiny object, not the movement. So many reporters missing the real story. As an old proverb I believe I’ve heard somewhere goes, villago delenda est.
OzarkHillbilly
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
And mid western trump supporters.
SiubhanDuinne
@raven: @Immanentize:
Looks as though you could maybe do a summer seminar with him! In Salzburg!
You should do this thing :-)
ETA: Posted before seeing Laura’s comment @ 124.
Mel
@Anne Laurie: Spent Easter with my nephew and niece and their two beautiful kiddos, 2 years and four years of age. It was wonderful to watch these two young parents with their little ones, who were by that time totally tired from holiday excitement, but still worked up from the thrill of the Easter activities.
Within two minutes, a 4 year old’s brewing “tired tantrum” was turned into giggles and calm. It takes such effort and commitment to consistency / calm to make verbal discipline and behavioral teaching effective and positive, but this generation of kids seems to be, at least in many cases, finding that balance after the yo-yo-ing between authoritarian spanking, to “rules are bad for kids” to the helicopter smother parenting that the past several generations have struggled through as they adjusted to changes in cultural mores about and understanding of the psychology of child discipline and nurture.
This scene played out after dinner:
Little One: But I WAAANT to keep making beads!! I HAVE to!!! (lip trembling, fat tears ready to roll of the eyelashes, neck muscles pulsing).
Smart Momma: (picks up Little One, puts her on her lap facing her, hugs her, and then holds her hands and lets her roll back and “hang” her torso upside down. Arms get tickled until Little One bresks down and laughs through the frown.)
Smart Mom sees the shift and opportunity window, and gently hoists her back up, kisses her cheek, and says, “Do Mom and Dad always get exactly what we want, every time we want something? Remember when Daddy wanted to go to the movies but you wanted to go to the park? Where did you go?”
Little One: The park. To the swings!
Smart Momma: Why do you think Daddy decided to go to the park when there was a movie playing that he was very excited about seeing?
Little One: (buries face in Mom’s shoulder): So I could swing on the swings…
Smart Momma: And you know what? That was okay, because sometimes it’s really nice to take turns picking what to do for fun, so that everybody gets a chance to do something they really like, right? And that way, nobody gets left out or misses their turn to play and have fun.
But how do we make sure that you have fun, Mommy has fun, Daddy has fun, and baby brother has fun?
Little One: We take turns…
Smart Momma: So, if you’ve played for a hour with your favorite stuff, what should happen now?
Little One: It’s somebody’s turn to pick?
Smart Momma: That’s absolutely right! Would you help Baby Brother learn how to play with one of his new toys? He could really use your help learning how. It’s good that he has such a smart big sister! Then, we’ll settle in and read your new books before a little nap.
The woman is a glory to behold!
MomSense
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
To their credit, The Parkland kids are telling all of their followers and reporters to listen to what these kids have to say.
The Moar You Know
@FlipYrWhig: Hell yes. Not that I think this kid did it, not for a second, but the level of harassment at the high school level would blow your mind and not in a good way.
MomSense
@LAO:
Oh hell yes to Dylan! Did you see Jennifer Hudson sing that song to close the March For Our Lives? It was striking how relevant the lyrics are today. It helps to sing like Hudson, too.
Aleta
I notice that directly before his apology he wrote “The L Ingr situation shows why you should be very careful about apologizing to the Left. Even if you were wrong. Their demands for an apology are insincere. They demand the apology because they want you to submit to them, not because they want to forgive.”
and retweeted a B/ bart quote about “un-American McCarthyism, a partisan witch hunt in which the establishment media is an active participant”
(March 31).
Yesterday’s Sinclair attack. “media use their platforms to push their own personal bias.” “This is extremely dangerous to our democracy.”
Yo Bannon. You back?
Aleta
@Aleta: Frank is getting lots of coverage, with some that repeats his deleted insult. And the stuff S inc said is being repeated too.
Mnemosyne
@MomSense:
Iman (Bowie’s widow) posted a meme of that in support of the Parkland kids. ?
MomSense
@Mnemosyne:
She’s amazing.
Uncle Ebeneezer
@Kay: I dunno if I would rank it as “good”:
The 6 elements of a sincere apology
In addition to the three elements Ryan included in his apology, there are three that have varying degrees of significance. Here are all six, in order of importance.
Stallone gets points for acknowledging that it was his irresponsible words that are the problem but that’s about it.
• No acknowledgement of how those words would be damaging to Hogg.
• No explanation of how he made the mistake.
• No explanation of how he would avoid that same mistake in the future.
• No concrete offer of repair.
• Strays into defensive intent putting the focus on himself “I would never wish…” rather than the victim.
• And then he acts like he’s entitled that everyone “accept his apology.”
Most importantly there is no exploration of how politicized words can encourage violence (and how common this is on the Right) so that he can commit to avoid doing it again in the future.
Brachiator
@tobie:
Hmmm. The media “made” the civil rights movement and the 60s anti-war movement. Discuss.
Just says that it is up to the kids, and those who support them, to make as much of the opportunity as possible.
Ruckus
@Kay:
This.
I think he made the actual apology only after getting roasted for his first bullshit non apology. And this one sounds like a mop up crew was hired to do it for him as I’d bet he’s incapable.
Ruckus
@Brachiator:
These aren’t little kids, elementary school age. They are very close to adults and they speak like adults. Have you heard a lot from their parents? No, these kids can and are using their own words, their own voices. I think the shooter has a bit to do with this as well, that he was obviously a very troubled/angry kid, and their age. And while all the adults may have done most everything possible, no one did the one thing that could have prevented this, remove the guns. And that’s what these kids are saying, everything else possible was done, the one thing that would work wasn’t and it’s way past time to do that one thing. We can’t stop people from having crazy thoughts, we can’t predict with accuracy what someone will do with those crazy thoughts, only possibilities. But we can predict with 100% accuracy what will happen if they do act on those thoughts and have weapons to carry them out. Take away the guns and those thoughts are much, much harder to carry out. It’s not difficult to understand this unless one refuses to understand it. Most people are not refusing to see the logic, only the people who think only guns is the answer are. Hell even the NRA understands, which is why they don’t allow guns at their conventions. They are just craven assholes who get well paid to be craven assholes. I’d like to know who pays them that well.
Shell
Hey, there are times Ive been that happy just to be at the beach.
Brachiator
@Ruckus:
I think we are largely on the same page here. When I write about them, I call them kids because that’s what they are to my old eyes, but more often just as activists. I commend their intelligence and their courage, and their ability to speak up for themselves, for their elders, for the entire damn nation (at least the part of the nation that is willing to think and move beyond 2nd Amendment platitudes).
I got nothing but praise for these activists, and agree with everything positive that anyone says about them.
Boris, Rasputin's Evil Twin
@Amir Khalid: What? Frank Stallone is still alive? It was just his career, such as it was, that died. Glad to have that cleared up
stinger
@Mel: What a lovely story!