There are so many outrageous and stupid things to write about today, but honestly, I don’t have the heart. Courtesy of Senator Murphy of Connecticut, here’s a cute little girl going gaga over a choo-choo instead:
The world doesn’t always suck. https://t.co/byqVqeScxM
— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) September 1, 2019
Open thread.
Gravenstone
Loved her joyful enthusiasm.
And also from a more innocent time, yet also a bit of a metaphor for today. The train reminded me of my grandfather taking me for a walk along the remains of a derailed train in their town when I was maybe 5 year old. He had worked on the railroad (among so many other past jobs) so I got some fun commentary to accompany our little stroll.
Today we’re all walking past/through the train wreck of our world, but the commentary isn’t nearly as pleasant or educational.
germy
Valerie Plame’s campaign ad (“Undercover”):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICW-dGD1M18
“I’ve got a few scores to settle!”
HeleninEire
Thanks Betty. I needed that.
@germy:
Really? You can’t wait 3 minutes?
Dorothy A. Winsor
I have a guest blogger today, Clare Stevens, who shares my publisher. She writes about how and why she came to write her debut novel, Blue Tide Rising. She was thinking about it, and then was diagnosed with breast cancer. She decided she’d regret not doing it. Her story has a happy ending so far.
Omnes Omnibus
I was just listening a song by The The, This Is The Day, and a line from the lyrics comes to my mind, “All the money in the world, couldn’t buy back those days.” If only it could.
japa21
@germy: Hmm, 2.3K likes and 34 dislikes.
@HeleninEire: I know, but what the heck. Is an open thread.
japa21
@Omnes Omnibus: Wouldn’t help me if it could. I can’t afford going back two minutes. Badgers looked good, nice Packers’ win and The Brewers aren’t out of it yet.
rikyrah
UVA has ruined us’: Health system sues thousands of patients, seizing paychecks and putting liens on homes
Jay Hancock, Elizabeth Lucas 1 hr ago
SiubhanDuinne
That little girl is adorable. So excited!! I hope she loved her first train ride.
Omnes Omnibus
@japa21: And, as long as we are being parochial, Sean Duffy is still resigning. I don’t know if a Dem can take the 7th (they moved Stevens Point, Wisconsin Rapids, and Eau Claire into Ron Kind’s district a few years ago which makes it tough), but getting Duffy out helps.
John Revolta
@Omnes Omnibus: I Always loved Stevie’s line “Until the day that is the days that are no more”.
Elizabelle
I loved this article in the LA Times. Totally worth a click. On living the neighborhood life, at a dog’s pace.
Opinion: A dog, a neighborhood and a different way of seeing
We just can’t pay those dogs enough.
SiubhanDuinne
@germy:
I like that! I might send her a little money. She’d be pretty effective in Congress, I think.
trollhattan
A-DOR-able! So many first-evers and then they basically stop happening (or we stop noticing). Miss them.
Leto
@SiubhanDuinne: From downstairs about my PT (didn’t see we were moving threads!):
Hopping off the bike and back to exercises ? Also that little girl is waaaay too cute!
Elizabelle
@rikyrah: I saw that. Horrendous. One of the “richest countries in the world,” and this stuff is going on.
Michael Hiltzik in the LA Times a few days ago: Column: Medical bankruptcy is an American scandal — and that’s not debatable
What a surprise. The WaPost factchecker fucked his take on this up. (It was not the execrable Glenn Kessler. It was someone named Salvador Rizzo, formerly of NJ/NY publications) although kudos for appending a letter from the study’s authors calling him out on his column.)
Hiltzik:
Article has some good links embedded.
JPL
@Leto: That’s amazing but don’t try that at home. That’s the mother in me.
Jeffro
@Elizabelle: “…had trouble even understanding the question.”
Kind of amazing. Would work pretty well in a campaign speech or debate sound bite, I would think…
?BillinGlendaleCA
Hmmm, I’m like that waiting for Metrolink going to Downtown LA…speak of trains…
Elizabelle
Breaking from the LA Times: criminal investigation now underway into the tragic fire aboard the Conception diving boat last weekend, 34 dead below deck. [My wording; not their headline]
Article does not mention that current Coast Guard regulations apparently allow you to pack 46 humans into one chamber with bunk beds below deck. That seems excessive, and a problem with USCG standards.
I would not like my chances getting out in a fire on land in those circumstances. This fire was a tragedy waiting to happen.
swiftfox
Sweet little girl seeing DT leave the WH between now and 1/21.
Elizabelle
@Jeffro: I know. Our lack of a functioning healthcare system for too many, and the bankruptcies that ensue, angers me. Frightens me too. Can’t believe more Americans don’t have the imagination to see that it very likely could happen to them, too.
It’s not right that it’s happening to anyone.
Ohio Mom
@JPL: The mother in me is relieved to see from Cole’s twitter that he is finally seeking medical attention for his stab wound.
I am scratching my head, trying to think if I have any news worthy of an open thread. Life here in OhioFamilyville is blessedly quiet.
SiubhanDuinne
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Do you widen your eyes, clap your hand over your mouth to keep the wonderment from escaping, and breathe “Oh my goodness” like a common Shirley Temple?
gene108
@rikyrah:
And people are scared of “socialized medicine”.
SiubhanDuinne
@Leto:
Glad to hear it! Can’t believe it’s been nearly a year, though!
Litlebritdifrnt
Todd Palin is filing for divorce! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!
satby
@germy: @HeleninEire: I was coming here to post it too, but germy beat me to it!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Litlebritdifrnt: Bwa ha ha ha ha ha ha!
Elizabelle
@Litlebritdifrnt: Todd Palin filing for divorce? On what grounds? Does he need grounds, in Alaska?
LOL.
debit
@Litlebritdifrnt: Mine is an evil laugh.
ETA: It occurs to me that it’s small minded and petty to find hilarity in something like this, but I can’t help myself.
gene108
My nephew was a train aficionado at that age (thanks Thomas & Friends). He loved watching trains.
The little girl reminds me of him, at that age. He’d get that excited about trains.
germy
Rich Lowry will have little starbursts running up his pants when he finds out Sarah Palin is… newly single.
trollhattan
@Elizabelle:
If he throws fish guts on Sarah’s pumps three times, in Alaska they’re divorced.
Dollars to donuts he’s dumping her for one of their kids’ friends.
Jeffro
@rikyrah: @Elizabelle: @gene108: The whole thing is really unbelievable – that tens of millions of Americans are uninsured, that additional tens of millions have such basic insurance, and that EVERYONE is paying about twice as much per capita as the other Western democracies while getting the same (or worse!) health care outcomes.
Now we’re down to the GOP (Hawley, Cornyn, others) outright lying about who’s really fighting to keep those with pre-existing conditions covered, and who’s trying to take away that coverage. Flat. Out. Lying. And it’ll only get worse until they pay the price at the ballot box. I hope the Dems stay almost annoyingly on message about this, ‘cause it’s so easy for the Repubs to get the media turned around on this one.
germy
@Elizabelle:
And to think, he’d be First Husband today if that meddling kid Obama hadn’t gotten in the way.
trollhattan
@germy:
Suspect Richie’s starbursts are reserved for the 2008 model Sarah ™.
satby
@SiubhanDuinne: That’s who that kid reminded me of, Shirley Temple! Good catch.
trollhattan
@germy:
How is it we ended up worse off?
Elizabelle
@Jeffro: Healthcare is a big issue in Democratic campaigns, despite GOP and their media mouthpieces trying to make the Democrats all about Trump. Uh, no.
raven
Choo Choo Ch’ Boogie – Asleep At The Wheel
germy
@trollhattan:
[Sob]
trollhattan
@raven:
Take me right back to the track
Jack
trollhattan
@germy:
IKR?
gene108
@Jeffro:
This is progress, from where our healthcare system was 10 years ago.
dmsilev
So, another turn on Hurricane Sharpie: FTNYT reports that
Any guess as to who that “senior administration official” might be? Too lucid to be Trump himself. Mulvaney perhaps?
Yarrow
@Litlebritdifrnt: Oh, that is hilarious. It’s been an open secret their marriage has been a trainwreck. I guess he finally decided he’d had enough.
Elizabelle
@germy: I was looking at a picture of the Palin family, with all their grown kids, and thinking what a good looking family they are.
If only we did not know that many are capable of such vile behavior. I think it is sad for the kids that they had to deal with all the existing issues they had, in the spotlight. They’re used to gaslight us, yes, but the Palins as individuals have a lot of problems.
No thanks to Sarah for dragging them into a circus.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@SiubhanDuinne: Yes.
prostratedragon
@John Revolta: As … if (only)!
Punctuation.
“Under Pressure,” Catherine Russell and Everett Bradley
Back in her backup singing days, Ms. Russell regularly toured with David Bowie.
RAVEN
@trollhattan: Did you catch the kickoff show for the Ken Burns Country Music doc? ASW was part of it. Ray and I are dopplegangers and I’m thinking about growing my hair out now that I’m not beholdin to anyone.
Yutsano
@Leto: Inb4 I get jealous. The rhabdo really did a number on my left leg. And now my right knee is cranky! But we’re both in for long hauls. I just keep getting set back! We’re gonna get to our new levels. Just a matter of time!
Uncle Cosmo
@dmsilev: Reinhard Heydrich’s Mini-Me – Stephen Miller.
Spanky
@Yarrow: Ah, so Sarah’s open for business now. Does her milkshake still bring all the GOP boyz to the yard?
Does she still have a milkshake?
Gin & Tonic
@Elizabelle:
Looking for my violin here…
randy khan
Well, after seeing that, my support for high speed rail has gotten even stronger.
Yarrow
@Spanky: She’s not the hot young thing she was in 2008, that’s for sure. Remember her last big time in the spotlight where she brought the crazy at a Trump rally in some sparkly dress? That was, what, three years ago now? Four?
Yarrow
@Elizabelle: Don’t be fooled. They pay a lot of money and have a lot of work done to look like they do. They’re like Political Kardashians. Half plastic and botox.
trollhattan
@RAVEN:
Will have to chase it down, haven’t seen any yet.
I’m a sucker for ’70s country revival or counter-country or whatever the heck you call it. Commander Cody, New Riders, Old and In the Way, Kinky Freedman, Dan Hicks…. Good times.
Origuy
Speaking of trains, I got hooked on a YouTube series about the trains in the British Isles. A London blogger and his bubbly girlfriend undertook to take trains to all the railroad stations in Great Britain. They followed that up with all the stations in Ireland and Man. It’s oddly addicting.
No link at the moment, having network issues at work. Search for All The Stations in YouTube.
SiubhanDuinne
@germy:
I. Am. Never. EVER. Going. To. Get. That. Image. Out. Of. My. Head.
p.a.
So. Got a blowout yesterday, called AAA, and the donut spare rim didn’t fit. Got it towed home thinking “wrong rim on the donut”. Have snows on the OE rims, tried to put one on to drive to the tire shop. Same issue! Rims hit calipers: can get nuts on lugs for all of 2, 4 threads. Not driving it that way. Had the oe rims on until March. Since then had brakes/rotors, tierods, alignment done (July). Friend works for AutoZone, the parts he ordered are supposed to be for my car. Any shadetree mechanics have any ideas? No issue with the aftermarket rims, been driving with them since before the work was done.
Raven
@p.a.: I had a similar issue when my sister’s boyfriend split the draft to Canada and I drove her up there. We had a blowout that wrecked the rim and were stuck in the boonies. I found a rim at a gas station that didn’t quite fit so I filed out the wholes with a rat tail file until it seated. Not ideal but, hey,I did it.
trollhattan
@p.a.:
To clarify, did you have the rotors replaced?
It sounds like the new rotors are larger diameter than the OEM rotors and your OEM wheels and donut spare do not clear them. What diameter and width are the wheels you had the blowout with and what diameter and width are the OWM wheels?
If it’s not a different diameter, maybe the offset is different than stock and you need spacers.
Raven
@trollhattan: You’ll want this
Cosmic Cowboys and New Hicks: The Countercultural Sounds of Austin’s Progressive Country Music Scene
Goat Roper Radio! I saw Michael Martin Murphy at the Armadillo and Frieda and the Firedogs at the Broken Spoke around 73.
RAVEN
@trollhattan: Have you read “Star Making Machinery? about the Commander with a bit about Asleep at the Wheel?
Elizabelle
@Origuy: Thank you. Bookmarked your idea, and sent a link to their 1 hour plus documentary to a friend who embarks tomorrow on a 24-day trip around the northern US and Canada.
p.a.
@trollhattan: Sounds right abt rotors; oe rims are bog-standard steel wheels and the new are cast alum, with just the eyeball test showing more clearance to them. Everything ordered was supposed to be = to oe.
J R in WV
I still recall my first train ride, back in the mid-1950s. My brother is 3.75 years younger than I, and still a babe in arms, so I was probably 5 and a half that summer. The occasion was that local train passenger service in rural WV was ending. We rode from Eccles WV to Mullens WV and back, on the Virginian RR line, through many many tunnels. That line is gone now!
It was a steam train, and the passenger cars were probably built around 1900. There may have been electric lights, but they were not on, There was no A/C of course, but the windows were open, which was interesting when going through a tunnel, given the coal fired locomotive pulling us through those tunnels.
The seating was cast iron, with oak boards between the iron uprights for the actual seat surface. My aunts and grandma undertook the trip with all the kids, to partake in local history. It was fabulous. I love trains to this day, all of them.
So little cute girl hits my sweet spot, old family memory from when nothing was more important than family.
ETA tweak a memory…
debbie
Thanks, Betty. This makes my day!
LivinginExile
I would love to see Plame smack the arrogant right out of Cheney’s daughter.
MichaelF
I think I’d react about the same if they ever restarted train service in my town…and I’m 54 years old.
p.a.
Dead thread, but: sadly Amtrak is treated so poorly (Rethugism) it aspires to be treated like a red headed step child.