I am now performing voodoo rituals and whatever black magic is necessary to put the kaibosh on Hurricane Florence:
Best case scenario is for it to die at sea. Next best case is for it to turn sharply north and die down. Best case scenario FOR ME PERSONALLY is for it to turn south and take out Florida, but that would be horrible (although let me check the polling on the Nelson/Scott Senate race).
SHOO FLORENCE.
God damnit. I have the insurance but I really want a week in the sun.
Baud
Flo responde: Kiss my grits, Cole!
#ClassicSitComs
Baud
Responde = Responds (unless you’re French).
debbie
Even if Florence doesn’t land where you’re going, she’ll be dragging plenty of clouds along with her.
John Cole
@debbie: change your nym to debbie downer
rikyrah
Linda Homer
@LobsterPilates
Follow Follow @LobsterPilates
More
.@SenatorCollins says she’s not hearing from her constituents, and now I know why. Today in her Bangor office we witnessed the interns taking many phone calls, but NOT writing down any of the constituents comments. They just said “I’ll pass that on to the Senator.” Then hang up.
9:04 PM – 7 Sep 2018
Jeffro
Cole, it ain’t just you…I’m supposed to attend a conference at a pretty swanky resort from Sept 11-14 near Jacksonville, FL. Yay.
Still pales in comparison to folks who are gonna get flooded out, etc, of course.
Anonymous At Work
Name someone for whom the elimination of Florida isn’t for the best, Floridians included…
rikyrah
I am with you, Cole.
schrodingers_cat
Florence is too close to the willow.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Anonymous At Work:
No
Jeffro
Washington Feels Like the Capital of an Occupied Country
eemom
Don’t despair! Nobody knows what it will do.
Also, stormy seas are fun to watch.
Corner Stone
Alright, The Very Reverend Crimson Fire of Compassion. Where are you now, assface?
Corner Stone
@Jeffro:
Meth hookers provided, or on tap?
WereBear
@Jeffro: I keep hearing “don’t want to start a Constitutional crisis” but we’ve got one now.
trollhattan
@John Cole:
Think of how much you’ll save on sunscreen.
Major Major Major Major
@rikyrah: oh, shit
NotMax
Pedant mode, activate.
Wouldn’t mention it except it’s been repeated throughout several posts.
It’s kibosh, not kaibosh.
Belgium Put the Kibosh on the Kaiser
Pedant mode, deactivate.
Also, TCM alert.
Sunday, 2:00 a.m. – Ship of Fools. Dripping with Stanley Kramer’s signature in-your-face portentousness, yes, but also chock full of bravura performances from the likes of Vivien Leigh, Lee Marvin, Jose Ferrer and the redoubtable Michael Dunn.
Also also too, hoping everyone weathers Florence okay. We’ll most likely be greeting Olivia face to face around the same time.
Corner Stone
@Anonymous At Work: Poo Hurto Reekans?
Jeffro
@Corner Stone: Eww.
HeleninEire
Hey Cole,
1. Why would you want a week in the sun? You’ve been bitching all summer about how fucking hot it is. I think many of the bitchings started with “It’s 100,000 degrees here with 150% humidity.”
2. You really have vacation insurance? Everyone in Europe gets it but I had never heard of it until I moved here.
3. Fuck Florida (with of course the exception of Adam, Betty, and any other Juicers who live there).
Jeffro
@WereBear:
I know, right? I’m like, “I very much DO want a constitutional crisis, yesterday if possible.” Way, waaaay too much enabling and covering up going on, which benefits the Kochs, Mitch McConnell, Russia, and frickin’ Fox News. No. Thank. You.
We’ve been in a crisis since the summer of 2016, imho.
Mary G
Fingers crossed for you and Lily, John. Are Rosie and Thurston going too? That should provide some great stories for us.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@rikyrah:
Are there pictures/video to back this claim up? If so, this goes to show how low Republicans as a whole have sunk. Staffers of a Senator are taking upon themselves to hide constituent complaints from their elected boss for their ideological agenda. That’s fucked up and I don’t know how to fix that other than to vote R officeholders out.
maeve
Check out the site windy.com to see the current winds. You can also play a movie of future days but it is very speculative (don’t know what model they are using). There’s another storm in the Atlantic that looks serious but the projections says it turns North and only the Azores have to worry.
Anonymous At Work
@HeleninEire: I live in Florida and think I speak for Juicers in Florida when I say that no one likes Florida enough to make any exceptions.
Yutsano
@trollhattan: Uhh…you can still get sunburn even when it’s cloudy out. And this is our esteemed bloghost. If anyone can pull off that feat it’s Cole.
Elizabelle
John: can you slide the reservation a week later or even two weeks from now? Am sure you have thought of that; hope you can. The Atlantic is still swimmable in late September, as I recall, and especially after this summer … I had a great time at the beach on September 21 one year ….
NotMax
Saw a Jeep equipped with these the other day when shuttling landlady to eye doctor.
Cute.
Barbara
Oh shucks. All I can say is, at least you haven’t yet driven down there only to be forced to turn around two days later and evacuate to not nearly as nice digs in Virginia Beach. That happened to my sister two years in a row! I hope you get your vacation — even if it’s a few weeks later, OBX stays nice well into October.
Mike in NC
Too soon to be concerned about the storm that might be heading our way. I was sent to the store to stock up on bottled water. Hoping it stays well offshore. Like Fat Bastard is fond of saying, “We’ll see”.
Mary G
Crowdfund “Be A Hero” campaign raising money for whoever runs against Susan Collins in 2020 had a goal of $200K. They are currently at $635, 673, which is almost half her current campaign chest, and have raised their goal to $1.3 million to match her stash. I plan to start donating after the midterms are over.
I hope she will think long and hard about her Kavanaugh vote.
HeleninEire
@Anonymous At Work: LOL. Well good luck anyway. Stay safe.
OldDave
@Anonymous At Work: Wait. If we’re talking hurricanes, I’ve seen my fair share over the last 20+ years. Would rather somehow make it through this season without another 7..10 days sans power. The care and feeding of a portable generator gets old after awhile, especially standing in a gas line for over an hour.
Mnemosyne
@rikyrah:
The senator and her aides probably instructed them to do that. Gives her plausible deniability when she votes for Kavanaugh in a couple of weeks.
I’m wondering if some of Collins’s constituents don’t need to do a few sit-ins at her Maine offices. Maybe tweet the photos to her (and to the press) so she can’t pretend she doesn’t know.
Mnemosyne
@Jeffro:
I do find it weirdly ironic that the very mechanism that was designed to protect us from electing a demagogue actually ensured his election.
eemom
I think the travel insurance is better than it used to be — i.e., there doesn’t have to be an evacuation for the coverage to apply. Read your policy. If the coverage is as broad as I think it is, and the storm does land there, you’ll get your money back and can reschedule the trip, as folks have suggested.
eemom
@Mary G:
HuffPo is reporting that Murkowski’s native Alaskan constituents on whom she depends for reelection are after her big time to vote no, because Kav would fuck them, specifically, over seven ways to Sunday.
sukabi
@Jeffro: the crisis is that the fuckers whine about a constitutional crisis WHILE REFUSING to do their fucking jobs and FOLLOW the constitutional remedies.
debbie
@John Cole:
Downer or not, just being a realist. A friend in SC says the governor has declared an emergency. They’re predicting a Category 4 when it lands.
Jeffro
However, this makes me happy: even Mulvaney thinks Cruz is so unlikeable that he might not beat Beto!
Yup. Also, Twitler still doesn’t seem to understand why Roy Moore lost…that’s encouraging. NOT.
Doug R
@John Cole: The one place you don’t want to be is on the friggin beach or ANYWHERE in the STORM SURGE.
Mnemosyne
@Jeffro:
This makes me suspect again that the purpose of the anonymous WaPo op-ed was to make sure that Republican donors don’t close their checkbooks or — worse! — donate to the Democrats instead.
Litlebritdifrnt
Land of Hope and Glory, I am in a bloody snot puddle on the floor.
JPL
It is not to make landfall until Thursday evening. Lots can happen between now and then.
NotMax
@Litlebritdifrnt
Can’t spell Proms without m-o-p.
;)
Humdog
@Litlebritdifrnt: Well, that doesn’t sound good at all. Can you get help?
Barbara
@Mnemosyne: Well that would be desperate and pathetic. Why would anyone trust an anonymous source like that?
CliosFanBoy
@Anonymous At Work: New Yorkers. where would they retire??
Mnemosyne
@Barbara:
The Trump administration in a nutshell. ?
It’s meant to reassure them that they’ll keep getting what they want out of a Republican figurehead president without all of that messy pretending to care about the Constitution. And quite a few Republican donors are greedy and/or stupid enough to buy the con.
The Very Reverend Crimson Fire of Compassion
@Corner Stone: Fair cop. Not sure I’m in the same emotional intensity as I apparently was the last time I went off on this topic, but you’re damned right. Let me see what I can whip up. Ahem . . .
M31
@Yutsano:
come on, don’t sell our esteemed bloghost short — he could get sunburned at night if he wanted
Yarrow
I hear you. I had to cancel my first vacation in about three years, which was only going to be for a few days but damn did I need it, because my dad had a health crisis and we went to the ER, then he was admitted for observation for two days, then moved to rehab, and then I spent a day vomiting my guts out (ate something bad it seems) and that delayed everything I needed to do to get him settled so I’ve spent today doing that despite being weak and unable to eat a lot. And no, there is no one else to help because there isn’t. I’m completely alone for all of this.
I doubt I’ll ever have a vacation again. Enjoy them while you can.
OzarkHillbilly
Since you posted this John, Florence’s track has shifted a little north. Sucks to be you.
Mnemosyne
@Yarrow:
Google “respite care” for your area, or ask the hospital’s social worker if they can make a referral. Even having someone to watch him for a few hours while you nap will go a long way.
Yarrow
@Mnemosyne: Doesn’t qualify.
The Dangerman
Hold the hell on,
You have that level of voodoo and black magic…
…and you’re wasting it in a hurricane? Dude, don’t forget Donald. TYVM.
Corner Stone
@OzarkHillbilly: You, sir, continue to be a bucket of joy. Salute!
Mnemosyne
@Yarrow:
You mean your insurance won’t pay for it? You should still be able to find a private company that will send someone to sit with him for a bit. Most areas have some type of private elder care agencies that you can hire.
OzarkHillbilly
@Corner Stone: It’s a dirty job, but somebody’s got to do it.
JPL
@OzarkHillbilly: Debbie Downer.
Rob
John: The 5 pm update from the National Hurricane Center seems to have shifted the landfall site a little further to the north, and closer to your vacation site.
The Very Reverend Crimson Fire of Compassion
Attention, Brer Cole: I know you don’t mean it this way, but the “voodoo” references have got to go, homes. You’re using minstrel show language about African diaspora religions that are thousands of years older than any damned religious tradition you may practice, way more complex and diverse than you have the slightest clue about, and absolutely NOT appropriate fodder for the kind of cultural appropriation that privileged white people are engaged in when they use “voodoo” as a jokey synonym for sorcery. I love and respect you, dude, but it is absolutely NOT okay for non-initiate white folks to wipe their rhetorical asses with other cultures’ religious traditions that way, especially when said traditions have been the focus of more than 500 years of racially motivated persecution.
Mnemosyne
@Yarrow:
Also, if you’re comfortable saying what general metro area you’re in, there may be some jackals who would be able to volunteer to help you for a bit. The front-pagers would be able to get you all in touch via email. Jackals have done hospital visits and suicide interventions before, so don’t forget about us.
chopper
note also, flo is likely to loiter for a few days around the east coast, so even if you’re not looking at landfall ensemble your location you could be in for some big flooding. be careful.
Yarrow
@Mnemosyne: It’s not MY insurance. It’s his and he doesn’t qualify, despite the best efforts of the hospital social worker.
I’m going to shut up about this because the only things I hear are what I’m doing wrong and what else I should do that I’m not doing despite puking my guts out and hardly being able to stand, let alone function. So…
Good luck with your trip, Cole.
The Very Reverend Crimson Fire of Compassion
With that said, and in spite of the warm glow I get from thinking “Aww, Corner Stone called me assface!”, I hereby resign from my apparent self-appointed position of defender of African religious tradition. At least until I get triggered again . . .
Uncle Cosmo
@Jeffro: Jeebus H. martyr-frackin’ Cripes on a jet-assisted Segway – has anyone here actually read Section 4 of the 25th Amendment for comprehension??
It really only functions in a situation where either POTUS agrees s/he cannot discharge the duties & powers of the office or is in no physical or mental condition to dispute the assertion. Once POTUS announces that s/he does not agree & intends to continue discharging the duties & powers, the process of Section 4 becomes a Rube Goldberg contraption if not an outright clusterfuck. It contains many vague declarations (e.g., who exactly are the “heads of the executive departments”?) and procedures that can be used to gum up the works & form bases for endless litigation. The Congress (not to mention SCOTUS) would have to sweep a lot of issues under the table or simply overlook them to get the process going at all.
Frankly it would be simpler for Congress to impeach & remove the President. Not just because it takes fewer votes (majority vs. 2/3 in the House) but because they’d only have to finesse one issue – what constitutes a “high crime & misdemeanor.” They could declare something like,”The nature of the President’s actions warrant impeachment even if no specific laws have been violated, as it is the judgment of Congress that they constitute a failure to live up to his oath of office and thus place the Republic in mortal peril.” (They could even make a Bush-v-Gorean just-this-once declaration to the effect that “we take this step more in sorrow than in anger, but the extraordinary situation requires an extraordinary measure” – & then proceed to propose one or more Constitutional amendments to define & clarify the situation.)
That’s what I would suggest to Congresss, anyway.
Mnemosyne
@Yarrow:
And, lastly, because I am very concerned about you right now, even if the very worst does happen, many of us have been there already, and we can help you talk through your feelings about that, too.
Mnemosyne
@Yarrow:
Email me. Mnemosyne dot muse at gmail. You can vent to me, because I’ve been there.
Major Major Major Major
@Yarrow: oh jeez, that’s awful.
HinTN
@eemom: Cole could body surf twenty foot breakers.
Elizabelle
@Yarrow: Yikes. Email Mnemosyne! Anything I say will be platitudes, but this will pass and you will get a vacation again. I’m sorry about your dad’s health crisis.
Crossing my fingers you get the respite care. And stop throwing up. That would be good.
Leto
@debbie: I offered my parents a place to stay if they need to evacuate. We went through Hugo in ’89 (fun), I managed to evacuate the family the day before Katrina hit (I was essential personal and got to ride it out on Keesler AFB/more fun), so if Flo does smack SC again it won’t be bad for them to be up here in PA. Plus the puppy hasn’t seen them in years and she’ll absolutely lose her brain if they visit.
sukabi
@HinTN: I guarantee that if he did it wouldn’t be on purpose.
Mnemosyne
@Elizabelle:
If he doesn’t email me, I’ll have Adam do a wellness check.
/saying a serious thing in a joking way
Mary G
@Yarrow: You’re going through a really hard time. Sending you virtual hugs – {{{Yarrow}}}
HeartlandLiberal
Here in south central Indiana it has been raining since the wee hours of Saturday morning. The remnants of tropical storm Gordon. Past 36 hours, total rain about five inches. Flash flooding. I was going to go to home opener of Indiana University football tonight at 7:30, but I talked this morning with friend who was going, and we decided neither of us wanted to sit in constant and possible torrential rain at 62 degrees predicted for game start time. I just checked the outdoor temp: 62 degrees at 7 pm.
I am too old for that crap anymore. A double scotch and a movie or some series we are watching on Netflix or Acorn TV for me.
If any of you subscribe to Acorn TV, check out the six part “Mystery Road” from Australia. Powerful acting and story, and absolutely brilliant photography of the barren land of western Australia. The repeated time lapse sequences of the night skies are incredible.
Gin & Tonic
@HinTN: I’d pay real cash money to watch that.
Humdog
@Yarrow: I am sorry you are in such a rotten place. Puking sucks.
Shell
Well John, lets just hope it skirts the coast and heads northeast, loses power and ends beating up on Long Island. The usual track.
Elizabelle
@Mnemosyne: Give Yarrow our best! I’m glad Adam does wellness checks. He’s a mensch.
Anotherlurker
@HeleninEire: After I flee Florida, then your malediction can take effect. Except for Betty C., Adam S. and the other good Jackles.
Dan B
@Jeffro: The new documentary Active Measures about Putin’s disruption of democracies seems like a corollary to what’s happening in DC. There’s an interview of the director, Jack Bryan, by Build on You Tube that’s quite good at outlining the connections between Russian meddling and the current state of our government. It intuitively makes sense and it provides another window into the present.
One shocker for me is that Homeland Security provides no oversight on real estate transactions, the number one way to launder money from overseas. Real estate was exempted from the Homeland Security act. That and Citizens United put a highway through our security.
debbie
@Leto:
My friend isn’t sure what she’ll do yet. She lives in an almost-tiny house, so I’m hoping she moves inland to stay with family.
Anotherlurker
@Shell: As a former LI who lived thru a Superstorm, I wish you could have chosen another destination for Florence. (somewhat kidding, bur please, LI still isn’t recovered from Sandy)
dexwood
@Yarrow:
In sympathy and support – tick tock, motherfuckers.
Barbara
@Yarrow: Not sure of the detailed situation but sending you lots of good thoughts and hope that things get better for both of you.
catclub
@eemom: wow, that would be a big deal, because it would take 2 GOP defections before kavanaugh does not make it. only one and Pence breaks a tie ( at best).
what is the latest with all the wobbly democrats in the senate, such as Joe manchin and others? Any definitive words?
Mart
@HinTN: Wife and I tried body surfing on the Florida Panhandle after Hurricane Andrew left Homestead on its way to N.O. At one point I was standing on sand and she was next to me on a wave twenty feet in the air spinning like a top. My 80 something father was intrigued when the ocean pulled away from the shore for many hundreds of yards, and he could pick critters up off the seafloor. First I heard the roar, but I could not get to him. When the wave hit him I was trying to think how I will explain his death to my siblings. He was OK, just blew snot for a while. After the wife and I were body slammed a few times we decided maybe it was not a good day for body surfing, the lady at the park entrance was right, that the red flag was right, and we better get the hell out of there.
Corner Stone
@Mart: All offense intended, you’re a bunch of fucking idiots.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Mary G:
I’ll believe it when I see it, but if there are any surprises the Dems have to drop, say on a Sunday morning show, this could get interesting.
What wouldn’t make sense to me, if the money is scaring Collins, is that she wouldn’t use the revelations about his flexible opinion on Roe to walk back her support– and like I say, I’ll believe she’s reconsidering when and if she votes ‘no’.
DCrefugee
Hey, John, not for nothing, but if you make the housing arrangements I’ll *fly* your happy ass (and a guest of your choice) to/from Florida, no charge. Be fun to get to know you en route…
You not going to get a better transportation deal, and Florence isn’t coming here…
Emerald
@rikyrah: Has to be under her instructions. She decided long ago. The only remedy now is for Mainers to vote her out in 2020. Sadly, the deed will be done by then, and women will be injured or dead.
Mart
@Corner Stone: Totally not our fault. We are from Missouri, so besides a few trips to the ocean, our only other experience body surfing was in narrow channels of the Current River after heavy rains. (That’s good family fun!) Andrew was 250 or so miles south, it was a beautiful sunny day, the wind was normal. The waves looked so awesome. Had no idea of the chaos within them.
(I just typed this so you all can jump in on “we are from Missouri” jokes.)
maeve
@Mart:
I doubt it
Amir Khalid
@Mnemosyne:
As I recall, the anonymous op-ed was in The New York Times.
Sister Golden Bear
@Yarrow: I’m so sorry. I’ve been there myself not too long ago, and I know how completely overwhelming it can feel.
FWIW, people were just offering suggestions, since it sounded sudden and you might not been aware of them. (When my mother had cancer, it took me and my brother a couple days to figure what services were available.) No one thought were doing it wrong.
Please make use of us jackals if there’s any way we can help.
But her emails!!!
@catclub:
I suspect wobbly is probably a misnomer. If Democrats can find 2 Republicans to oppose, then all Democrats will oppose as well. On the flip side, if those 2 Republicans can’t be found, then several of the “wobbly dems” will also vote to confirm based on their political calculus.
Fair Economist
@catclub:
None of the “wobbly democrats” have ever defected on a vote when it mattered. If there are 2 Republican defectors, none will vote to confirm. If there aren’t, it won’t matter how they vote although between the perjury revelations and the sham McConnell has made of the process, they have very easy “no” votes and I expect all will take them.
Skepticat
@rikyrah: Interestingly (and surprisingly and depressingly) Angus King’s website doesn’t respond when you hit Send to email him, but his phones are busy.
Bill Arnold
@The Dangerman:
DJ Trump is being protected by praying Christians:
Alabama pastor asks church to pray for Trump, against witchcraft attacking him (Aug 22, 2018. Also)
Hurricanes are easy, in comparison. :-) No Christian defenders (one hopes), though there are probably some praying that it turn North and hit some godless (aka Democratic) state.