In 18th century English, the period around Christmastime—and in particular, the days between Christmas Day and New Years—were known as the ‘Daft Days’. pic.twitter.com/YWXBl2kS2w
— Haggard Hawks ?? (@HaggardHawks) December 28, 2019
What if the overt cretinism of the TrumpCelebs is a deliberate flex — a sort of “fuck you, we’ve got our crowd so locked down that we can use total imbeciles as our leaders and still keep our fans cheering, they’re that loyal” https://t.co/70ehTrjhGG
— TwoArticleHat (@Popehat) December 28, 2019
It's also a way for the in group to signal their commitment. By publicly embracing stupidity they demonstrate their willingness to abandon their dignity for the group. Kind of like how you have to kill someone to join the crips.
— Fyodor (@Fyodor32768) December 28, 2019
My teenage brothers and their friends used to challenge each other to stunts like mooning drivers on the Major Deegan Expressway from an extremely rickety overpass. But they were teenagers, and mostly working on imagined future careers as alcoholics. They expected to be ‘rewarded’, if caught, with a smack upside the head — the stupid stunting was bonding over their self-professed goals of being public losers. They weren’t highly-educated professional political operatives.
At the risk of offending everyone (because, you know, it's been a couple of hours), if Biden did this there is half a chance that Trump would tweet out a picture of his balls. That might be enough for a bunch of GOP Senators to say "fuck this, it's time for President Mike Pence." https://t.co/oPuAjeDxNp
— Liz Mair (@LizMair) December 28, 2019
If there's one thing you can say about Mike Pence, definitively, it is that he will never, ever tweet a picture of his balls. Trump? Totally possible on any given day.
— Liz Mair (@LizMair) December 28, 2019
… And such is our degraded politics, I can envision the possibility. Except that Trump would, under such challenge, order his tweet-maker to find pics of someone else’s balls, massive balls, the best balls, that Trump would claim to be his own. And every little larval office drone would be crawling around the West Wing hallways, checking out each other’s undercarriages.
Butter Emails
Liz is incorrect. Pence would show his balls if Trump demanded it of him.
mrmoshpotato
I want to laugh at this, but it’s a definite possibility.
Fuck everyone who made this shitshow possible.
West of the Rockies
Hannity is a stupid man. Oh, he has a certain cleverness and knowledge, but he’s an example of stupid and powerful.
CaseyL
My worry, a worry that is always with me and approaches panic, is that they are correct: the (voting) systems ARE so locked down in their favor they can let their stupid flags fly, and still stay in power.
If the GOP wins in 2020, I will give serious consideration to finding an off-grid dwelling somewhere near a fresh water supply with enough land to grow my own veggies and raise chickens.
Yes, I would infinitely – infinitely! – prefer to emigrate. But I’m an Old with Not Much Money.
Ruckus
They weren’t highly-educated professional political operatives.
Seemingly neither are many of the right’s political operatives.
They are however easily classified as self serving assholes, many with certificates of completion. Higher education takes all kinds to fill the rooms. Not all of the occupants of said rooms actually learn anything.
danielx
The images arising from this thread are…just…too much.
chris
Trump’s Balls?!! Nope.
satby
And hoping to have the honor of being ImPOTUS’s ball stand-in.
satby
@CaseyL: I’m an old with not much money, and it can be way cheaper to live overseas, as long as you live a similar lifestyle as the natives. And it doesn’t have to be some third world existence either.
Ruckus
@satby:
I’ve looked into emigrating and I don’t see too many places that don’t have restrictions and/or large costs as a deterrent to emigration.
You got locations? The two I know of are Costa Rica and Panama. Have an acquaintance who lives in Panama, he’s told me to come on down.
sukabi
@Butter Emails:
Pence would have to ask Mother if he could retrieve them from her purse.
M31
Trump totally would show his balls, but he’d have to ask Nancy Pelosi very nicely for them back first.
Ruckus
@sukabi:
@M31:
This might be too much information. I just checked, yes it is.
CaseyL
@satby:
Please tell me more. I’ve checked out various websites, and it seems my choices are limited to Asia (where I don’t speak the language) or Slovakia (I’m Jewish, so MittelEurope is out).
Bill Arnold
@CaseyL:
Then why the 2018 election where the Democratic Party won control of the House of Representatives?
To be clear, I suspect that there is some ability to fix elections put in place by or for Republicans (e.g. Florida and a few Midwestern states, and perhaps Pennsylvania) , but if the polls are pointing to a blowout Democratic Party victory in 2020, a more likely scenario is that election fraud/hacking will be “found” (perhaps “Chinese” or “Iranian” or other not-Russia) and that Republican Party operatives (and the POTUS, who is in it for himself, not the Republican Party) will attempt to invalidate the election “until we find out what is going on”. At which point civil unrest starts, may it remain non-violent except for unavoidable false-flag shit. (Calling out such scenarios in advance is one way to reduce the probability that they are instantiated.)
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Butter Emails: Only if Mother approved.
JPL
@Ruckus: Especially since we have rules of decorum.
Baud
I don’t understand this tweet at all. Their fans aren’t fans despite the imbicility. They’re fans of the imbicility.
CaseyL
@Bill Arnold: Because since then there’ve been news stories about state voting machines, or components of the machines, being supplied by companies owned by Russia or China.
Plus, as happened in Georgia, the GOP simply doesn’t deploy enough functioning machines so people can show up, but they can’t vote. Not to mention the entire stink of corruption from the very start: The Secretary of State, which manages the voting apparatus, also happened to be the GOP candidate.
CaseyL
@Ruckus: I would love Costa Rica, but heard it was just too expensive.
germy
germy
God, this is horrible.
Richard Guhl
@CaseyL: While the thought of escape is appealing, I’d feel a moral obligation to stay and fight.
My parents both served in the American embassy in Berlin before the war and saw where all this ugliness was heading up close and personal.
My mom, a naive eighteen-year-old, fresh out of high school, went with two other secretaries to a Nazi rally to try to understand what was going on. She said that what she heard made her hair stand up on her neck and when they got to the final Sieg Heils, which they refused to do, the crowd turned menacing, and they only escaped violence, because someone identified them as Americans.
So, I’d stay to fight and blow up bridges, if need be.
Tenar Arha
For a complete change of pace: Universal Hub’s local Boston wildlife sightings masterpost.
Baud
@germy:
Sorry but I don’t feel like clicking through. What’s the best evidence for the “in order to” allegation?
JPL
@Richard Guhl: That’s a good story for all of to heed to.
germy
@Baud: You’re boycotting the New York Times?
Yutsano
Because it’s never the guns…
CaseyL
@Richard Guhl: Well, I’m certainly the correct demo for that sort of thing: no kids, no anchors,* and not averse to violence.
*Other than my kitties, who I would need to rehome. You’d be amazed how often their well-being has kept me on the straight and narrow.
Richard Guhl
@JPL: Thank you.
Yutsano
@germy: I am. They really locked down their paywall and I ain’t giving them my information for a “free” account. So really: FTFNYT.
Baud
@germy:
(1) I didn’t see a NYT link in your tweet, and (2) yes.
germy
@Yutsano:
“[T]he team around Mr. Rockefeller, a lifelong Republican with a dim view of Mr. Carter’s dovish foreign policy, collaborated closely with the Reagan campaign in its efforts to pre-empt and discourage what it derisively labeled an ‘October surprise’ — a pre-election release of the American hostages, the papers show.”
https://www.axios.com/newsletters/axios-am-ff948cbd-c63e-465e-a785-9c2e152d50f7.html
Ruckus
@CaseyL:
What I’ve heard follows Satby’s concept. Live in the expat enclaves and yes it’s not all that cheap but still not horribly expensive. But live as a native and it’s not that expensive, and a good life.
I know someone who lived in Nicaragua for 5 yrs, started a small bank that loaned money mostly to women who would borrow enough to purchase a sewing machine, which would allow them to make a lot more money by avoiding the sweat shop scammers who would hire them at pennies on the dollar. Average loan $350, with 100% payback last time I talked to him. The bank has grown along with the customers.
My friend in Panama says it’s as nice as Costa Rica but costs less.
But my Espanyol isn’t the greatest and I’m not all that sure I could learn it well enough. And heat/humidity is not my friend. And I have health issues and the VA.
I’m sort of stuck with the life that I’ve ended up with, it seems past time (and bank account) to look for another one.
But one never knows what one will find over the next rainbow.
Baud
@germy: Thanks. I appeciate it.
John Revolta
@Bill Arnold: This is only too plausible. They’ve been setting us up for it for twenty years, and it’s worked every time……….
2000: Supreme Court rules “Bush wins, y’all, so shaddup”
Public: *shuts up*
2016: “Obama doesn’t get to do a Supreme Court thing ’cause reasons”
Public: Well, all righty then
2019: “You don’t have to see the Mueller report because we already did and it says we’re good”
Public: Whaddayagonna do?
2020: ?
hells littlest angel
Pence doesn’t have to show his balls. They’re on permanent display in a jar on a shelf in Trump’s office.
Baud
debbie
@Richard Guhl:
Did you ever read Erik Larson’s In the Garden of Beasts? It’s about the American Ambassador who served in Germany beginning in the early 1930s. It sounds like your mother was more astute than many of the diplomats who found Hitler either charming, eccentric, or a nothing who would soon fade away.
schrodingers_cat
I am loving it, that Indian political Twitter is calling out phony-baloney ass of Padma Lakshmi who will enthusiastically attack Tom Nichols for the sin of generalizing about Indian food but will not use her platform to highlight the atrocities BJP is committing against its citizens.
debbie
@germy:
If you’re surprised, I’m surprised you’re surprised. He was a banker; this is what they do. There was money in it for him by helping the Shah, just like there was money in it for him by helping Reagan. Do you know why FDR wouldn’t accept the refugees on the St. Louis? Because the bankers were afraid the Germans would stop repaying all the money they’d loaned them.
Baud
Based on my feed, conservatives are making a coordinated push to blame anti-Semetic attacks on liberalism and identity politics.
Citizen Alan
@debbie: Do you have a cite for that? I’m not doubting you. I’d just like to know more about that side of it.
Mallard Filmore
@CaseyL: My primary retirement destination is Thailand. There are moderately large neighborhoods of English speakers. Some on the beach, some in the mountain foothills.
You can rent a Motel-6 type of apartment for about $10 a day (with a small fridge and wifi), local food might be as much as $10 a day. Your Social Security check should cover normal living expenses, and then some. I have no health issues so never had to investigate health insurance over there.
You will need a modest sized bank account or retirement fund, so if you are living close to the edge this will not work.
Richard Guhl
@debbie: Yes, I did. My parents graduated in 1937. My dad went to Berlin to attend the Berlin Institute of Technology in September; my mom came with her dad in May 1938, and got a secretarial job at the embassy. My dad ended up as an aide to the Naval Attache.
My mom was evacuated the day after Hitler invaded Poland. My dad was kept on until April 1940.
debbie
@Citizen Alan:
It’s been so long since I read about the St. Louis, I don’t remember. Sorry. I’m sure, though, that for most of the antis, it was about anti-Semitism.
Jinchi
I’m sure Trump could convince the guy who photoshopped his head onto Rocky Balboa’s body to work on it.
satby
@Ruckus: Costa Rica, Panama, and central Mexico around Aguascaliente are places I’ve considered. The city in Mexico is where my exchange sons come from. I wouldn’t mind Thailand near Chiang Mai either, but it’s too hot most of the year for me, and way too far from my kids.
Bill Arnold
@germy:
Still reading that but it seems very much like treason[1]. He’s dead but has children and grandchildren that could be
executedshunned. That makes at least 2; Nixon and Reagan. (Perhaps Trump, though not solidly proven yet.)[1] or something reasonably close semantically.
Dan B
@schrodingers_cat: It’s very good that there are some bright spots in the midst of the BJP’s horror.
satby
@CaseyL: Well, Belize and Ecuador are options too. I don’t speak any other languages very well, just a smattering of words here and there, but it’s not been a huge impediment when I’ve gone overseas, even when there hasn’t been a translator. And nowhere is cheaper unless you live more like a local and not like a tourist.
This magazine is overpriced, but there’s stuff you can read on the website.
JPL
@debbie: Thank you for mentioning that because I could not remember the name. An excellent read about that time period.
Jinchi
I absolutely believe that this time next year, FOX will be debating whether Trump truly lost in a blowout, and agitating it’s viewers into civil disobedience to invalidate the election.
Trump will not concede. This was literally his plan when he thought he would lose to Hillary in 2016.
John Revolta
@germy: Not the first time they pulled this shit. Nixon collaborated with the North Vietnamese in 1968 to scuttle LBJs peace talks.
raven
Fuck LBJ
MomSense
@CaseyL:
I see you and I have the same back up plan.
MisterForkbeard
@satby: I have friends that moved to Puerto Rico and highly recommend it. It’s much cheaper, technically still in the U.S…. though it does get hit by hurricanes :/
mrmoshpotato
@Jinchi: Conceding isn’t a legal matter. If Dump loses, once the electoral college votes are cast on January, he can suck the bigliest bag of salted donkey balls while he tries to flee to Moscow to escape NY’s AG and whatever else is going to come down on the Soviet shitpile crime family’s fucking orange fascist pumpkin heads. And then get punched in the fucking face by Lady Justice.
patrick II
@CaseyL:
you might consider Uraguay in South America. It is a stable liberal democracy.. They speak Spanish, with some English for business. Anthony Bourdain did a show on it. I watched on CNN on demand not long ago. It may still be on netflix.
danielx
@Butter Emails:
Pence would offer his balls on a golden platter if Trump demanded them.
Kay
@Baud:
Guffaw. I don’t even think that counts as “sparring”. Klobachur would rip their heads off. Which is what I like about her.
germy
“You go Uruguay and I’ll go mine.”
germy
@John Revolta:
And it probably won’t be the last. Party before country, always with them.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@patrick II:
Montevideo was my favorite of the cities we visited last month. The cruise director said she’d considered settling there. There’s a good sized ex-pat community.
Patricia Kayden
A fool’s errand
Steeplejack (phone)
@germy:
Is that you, NotMax?
A Ghost To Most
@Richard Guhl: Congratulations. I’ve been waiting a long time for someone here to show the courage to stand and fight. Most talk of running away.
Kathleen
@Richard Guhl: That is fascinating. I would love to hear their stories.
germy
@Steeplejack (phone): No, just another old movie fan.
schrodingers_cat
@Kay: and she would do it with a smile and without raising her voice.
Baud
@Kay:
If Klobachur wins the nomination, Biden and Bernie can star in a wacky Odd Couple remake together. I’d Netflix that.
Kathleen
@debbie: Thank you! I was trying to remember that book title while reading Richard’s post. I’ve been wanting to read it for a while.
germy
Another Scott
@Baud: Likewise. Too much of an Illuminati and TriLateral Commission vibe for my taste.
YMMV.
Cheers,
Scott.
BBA
@mrmoshpotato: if he loses. There’s no guarantee. In fact, going into 2020 with a significantly weaker candidate than we had in 2016 and none of our dystopian prophecies having come true, I’d call Il Douche the favorite.
Mike R
@raven: Yes, Fuck LBJ, but fuck Nixon also, had a kind first Sargent not intervened and sent me as liaison on a NATO exercise it was going to be my second go in Vietnam. So how about a rousing eat shit to both of them.
satby
@Richard Guhl: TBH, I wouldn’t be a permanent expat, more of a long term reverse snowbird (I hate hot weather). And fighting for most of us as citizens means voting, which expatriates can do easily. After a lifetime of struggling, some of us elderly and nearly elderly just want to spend our remaining years not worrying about random violence, freezing, starvation, and denial of medical care.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@A Ghost To Most: I ain’t going nowhere.
germy
They’re issuing corrections now for the latest bedbug op-ed:
Baud
@germy:
May 4?
raven
@Mike R: 5×5
germy
@Baud: He changed his mind?
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Mallard Filmore:
I’ve figured I could live really comfortably somewhere on the coast between Hanoi and Danang. My other thought is to bite the bullet and move to Beijing, where I can teach idiomatic Sourhern and Appalachian English dialects to PLA civil government cadres in order to make for a somewhat smoother occupation.
In other words, a syrupy sweet “bless your heart, Captain Xi” will be met with a truncheon to the face….
Baud
@germy: I don’t know. But it doesn’t mean we can’t update the conversation.
John Revolta
@raven: But of course
WaterGirl
Has the bar fallen that low? I guess we’ll know for sure if the Des Moines Register starts asking the question.
WaterGirl
Nominated for the coveted “Cracker” award:
germy
@Baud: Yes, I agree. Joe first.
yellowdog
@CaseyL: I don’t think there is any question that the voting machines will be corrupted/hacked. They only need to flip maybe a couple of dozen precincts in targeted states. Not difficult at all, especially in states with a red legislature. There is NO election security. It is true that all these GOP scum KNOW that they will come out on top and the shitgibbon will be reelected. Papa Putin has promised them, and he delivered the last time.
BruceFromOhio
My folks looked at Costa Rica, Panama, and northern Italy. What brought that exploration to a close was healthcare. While there certainly are options in all of the above, access to well-liked providers in relatively close proximity made “age in place” the conclusion. That and a standing 3-month rental every winter by a nice beach in FL. The chickens and freshwater option is close behind. I’m with
@Richard Guhl
on this one. MrsFromOhio would never leave her family, and I’d want the TeensFromOhio to go with, and none of us could afford it for long. While always, always wishing, hoping, praying for the sunlight, I plan for the shittiest rainstorm.
germy
@yellowdog: I hope our turnout is so great that the Democratic nominee (whoever she or he is) wins in a landslide. I’m still impressed by the midterms and I’m hoping that spirit continues.
WaterGirl
@sukabi: @M31: @Ruckus: I have to respectfully disagree with the honorable gentleman from California.
I thought these were both perfect!
WaterGirl
@JPL: Someone should publish one of those “all empty pages” books and call it:
Balloon Juice Rules of Decorum.
Baud
@germy:
That’s between you and Joe. I usually expect tweets to be new material instead of recycled news, which is why I questioned the date.
germy
@WaterGirl:
or
Balloon Juice Criticisms of Nancy Pelosi
An Appreciation of LBJ, by RAVEN
Website Re-Design Made Easy
JPL
@germy: How does that help? He used that source to help justify his column, so now has no source. Is it there way of saying, whoops, he might be wrong but we are keeping him.
satby
@A Ghost To Most: aww, blow it out your ass. I began my political activism gathering signatures on the petitions for allowing 18 year olds to vote in 1970, the 26th Amendment allowing that was ratified in 1971. I was 15. I’ve done GOTV, poll watching, acting as an election judge almost every year there’s been an election since, as well as march in most of the demonstrations (anti-war, anti-gun, civil rights) that occurred since then. If I want to drop back to being an informed voter while living a slightly less financially fraught life I think I’ve earned it. If no one else picks up the baton to run with it it’s not a sustainable race.
Richard Guhl
@Kathleen: My dad died in 2001; my mom in 2010. I only have fragments of stories. I wish I had asked more, but after I graduated seminary and got a call to a church several hundred miles away, I only saw them on visits and the grandkids were the focus of conversations.
germy
@JPL: I don’t see how it helps. I think they (and Brett) just want to distance themselves from the white supremacist.
NotMax
@WaterGirl
A funny thing happened on the way to decorum…
;)
germy
@satby:
I nominate for rotating tag.
satby
@germy: I share raven’s skills at diplomacy.
Baud
@satby:
I knew someone out there was picking up my slack. Thanks!
Richard Guhl
@A Ghost To Most: At age 70, I would want to fight for those who have a life ahead of them to live, whether that be against Nazis or climate calamity.
WaterGirl
@germy: One book, with 5 chapters!
We have to come up with 3 more, though, ’cause I’m not a fan of your last one. Personally, I thought the redesign part went really well. It’s FYWP and it’s f-ing ass backward queries that I have a beef with.
Perhaps one of the chapters could be: Things I Love About WordPress. Now we just need one more.
yellowdog
@Yutsano: Just erase your cookies.
satby
@Baud: ?
@NotMax: I started watching a new series on Prime and thought you might like it: Inspector Falke. German w English subtitles. Apologies if you’ve already recommended it ?
Baud
@yellowdog:
Another nominee for rotating tags.
WaterGirl
@germy: Normally you would have to actually nominate it with the form, but since I have the spreadsheet from this week and I haven’t shared it with Cole yet, I add this directly to it.
Kathleen
@Richard Guhl: I’m sorry you lost your parents. I wish I had spent more time asking my parents/grandparents about their lives when they were alive.
germy
@WaterGirl:
John Cole’s Guide To Safe Household Chores
JPL
@satby: Do you have to sign up for PBS passport?
WaterGirl
@John Revolta: You caught each one so perfectly that it makes me want to cry.
Gin & Tonic
@satby:
I met a woman on a ski lift in New Zealand who did just that. Originally from Philadelphia, she was retired, and didn’t like summers. So she’d go to New Zealand in April or May and return to Philly in October.
Kathleen
@Baud: Baud 2020:
“He’s Got Your Back And Will Pick Up Your Slack”
WaterGirl
@germy: That could work!
mrmoshpotato
@germy: Epilogue: The Willow Was Always Too Close To The House
patrick II
@CaseyL:
In case you missed Dorothy’s comment on Uraguay’s capital city Montevideo .
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
yellowdog
@germy: I believe I read somewhere that Dems would need about a 15 percentage point lead to overcome the hacking. We need about an 8 percentage point lead just to overcome gerrymandering.
WaterGirl
@Kathleen:
Baud 2020! “Beating Treasonous Motherfuckers since 2020!”
REJECTED: (I knew I should have run those by Baud first!)
“
Up Against the Wall, You Treasonous Motherfuckers!”Baud 2020! “Trumps Balls, or Bust!”Baud 2020! “Trumps Balls on a Platter”hitchhiker
In a bold attempt to reclaim what’s left of my time, I zorked my twitter account this morning.
That’s it. That’s the comment.
(Also removed reddit from my phone and logged out of it on my laptop, but I’m hanging on to that one for now. No fb for years, no instagram ever, most of the podcasts unsubscribed.)
Wake me up in 2021, if the news is good … I can’t stand to watch anymore.
tomtofa
@CaseyL: Chile is another option. Fairly loose restrictions on moving there, not too expensive, great variety of climates and cities, European-class health care, etc.
https://www.escapeartist.com/chile/retire/the-why-and-how-of-retiring-in-chile/
germy
@yellowdog: You’re probably right. Which is why my wife and I have been helping young people register to vote. And why, despite all my complaining about Mayor Pete or Joe Biden, I’ll vote for the Democratic nominee. I don’t want to fall into pessimism.
mrmoshpotato
@WaterGirl: Ewww.
Ewww.
They deserve their upcoming American Nuremberg trials, and hanging’s less messy.
Kathleen
@JPL: Shorter NYT: “The source may be racist but at least Bret didn’t talk about Hitler’s dreamy blue eyes.”
Baud
@Kathleen:
@WaterGirl:
I’m uncomfortable talking about slack and balls in the same context.
debbie
@CaseyL:
Hasn’t HeleninEire said the cost of living in Ireland is far better than here?
Kathleen
@WaterGirl: Baud 2020! Trump’s Balls To The Walls!
Kathleen
@Baud: I will amend it to “slacks” with subtext being you will pick up people’s slacks at the cleaners. Is that better?
Baud
@Kathleen:
No. Clothing is worse.
sukabi
@germy: the wealthy have a very different definition of treason than the average person.
Kathleen
@Baud: Then I think my work is done here.
Baud
@sukabi:
The average person is 45% Trump supporter. So, no.
WaterGirl
@mrmoshpotato: Fixed.
edit: On the plus side, I have never really known how to spell Ewww, and now I do.
WaterGirl
@Baud: Laughing.
WaterGirl
@Baud: As long as you don’t say:
No clothing is worse.
Punctuation is everything!
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
Star Wars Day!
Just got back from Rise of Skywalker – it was much better than I was expecting!
sukabi
@Baud: not true. He may have gotten 45% of the vote but 63mm is less than 45% of 300mm.
Baud
@Formerly disgruntled in Oregon:
Low expectations works!
WaterGirl
Is it take a nap day today? BJ is very quiet.
Baud
@sukabi: Still too high to crow about.
Baud
@WaterGirl: Didn’t you take a nap today?
mrmoshpotato
@WaterGirl: Single ‘E’ followed by 2+ w’s.
Eww.
Ewww.
Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!!!!!!!! Gross!
sukabi
@Baud: it’s about 21%
Ruckus
@JPL:
Did those rules of decorum come with the new site?
Cause I don’t recall them prior.
mrmoshpotato
Great, now I’m singing ?We punch Trump’s balls into the wall!?
Apologies to Accept.
John Revolta
@WaterGirl: There, there?
(I’m bad at this. Cheer up, for Chrissake!)
satby
@JPL: um, not sure? I added Masterpiece as a channel on Prime Video. I watch most of the PBS stuff through that. It’s an additional 4-5$/ month, but I watch it often enough for it to be worth the cost. I cancelled both Britbox and Acorn until they have something I just can’t get anywhere else.
NotMax
@satby
New one on me. Shall make a point to peek in.
Currently have an extremely creaky British comedy from 1933 running in the background. Don’t think I’ve ever seen such a collection of people with bad teeth in one film.
Reticent about giving a mention as it is such a cornucopia of over the top bloody violence mixed with gratuitous nudity that wouldn’t want it taken as a tacit recommendation, yet some of the characters are fascinating case studies and the regular cast doesn’t miss a beat in laboring to give them presence and multiple facets. Hoon Lee as “Job” deserves special mention for managing to simultaneously underplay and dominate in his scenes. All four seasons of the (originally Cinemax) series Banshee, on Prime.
Baud
@sukabi: A little higher. Voting age population in 2016 was 250,000,000.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voter_turnout_in_the_United_States_presidential_elections
WaterGirl
@Baud: I did, and now I’m back, ready to go. Of course, all the important people are already here. :-)
Richard Guhl
@Kathleen: When my older brother died five years ago, I became the custodian of family archives of letters and papers. I am now in possession of my paternal great grandfather’s work papers when he was 17.
WaterGirl
@mrmoshpotato: Wait, you said it was the first one, but then you included two more options.
Is this like Good, Better, Best?
Or alternate options than can be called upon when necessary?
satby
Arranged in ascending order of revulsion.
WaterGirl
@John Revolta: It’s nice to have options. I’ll take Door #2, thank you.
John Revolta
@Kathleen:
Baud 2020:
“He’s Got Your Back And
Will Pick Up Your Slack”Plenty of Sack!”Theme of the thread and all……..
WaterGirl
@satby: Guessing that was intended for me?
Baud
@John Revolta:
We have a winner!
JPL
@Ruckus: John posted a few things before the launch about respect and such. We are all respectful, so it wasn’t really necessary.
JPL
@WaterGirl: DIL could not come to the X-Mas eve festivities because of the stomach crud. X-Mas day she was feeling better and the grans went over to watch the little one open presents. Anywho DIL opened her present from me and was so excited she jumped up and gave me a big hug. Yup.. Thursday like clockwork, I got it. It zapped me.
edit to add that I was thankful it was not the viral cough that is going around.
Baud
@JPL: Fuck you.
@JPL: Feel better.
JPL
@Baud: lol Ozark needs the virus I had since I slept all day Friday. It’s a cure for insomnia.
Ruckus
@WaterGirl:
My job here is done.
I’ve snark infested the waters with no one the wiser.
mrmoshpotato
@WaterGirl: 1. That’s up to the individual.
2. Yes.
Kathleen
@Richard Guhl: Have you had time to read them? Have you thought of compiling family history for your children? I’ve been thinking about doing that for my grandsons. I have some documents my dad’s sister (who just died recently) gave me about her mother and father. My mother’s mother kept meticulous notes in her bible which I now have. My dad wrote an unpublished manuscript about his early life and his start in radio when he was 14. The more I type the more I think I should do this. Thank you for sparking this train of thought.
mrmoshpotato
@NotMax:
Whatever. Don’t care.
It’s not Famous Boners. :)
WaterGirl
@JPL: Stomach crud is the worst!
Kathleen
@Baud: I was also going to suggest “Plenty of Snacks”.
WaterGirl
@Kathleen: Sounds like you are in possession of a treasure.
Kathleen
@John Revolta: See comment 168. I couldn’t figure out how to add a reply to you and Baud at the same time.
Ruckus
@satby:
This.
We are a diverse group and we should be. Not everyone is capable of constant electoral warfare. Nor is everyone desirous of it. Even if it is necessary. I’m 70 and have been working, with a SS account for over 57 yrs now. I started working before Medicare. I’m not sorry that I’m tired – and still working, on my feet in a physical job, because of republican economic bullshit.
Everyone deserves a restful retirement. And there are only a few places I could escape/run to anyway as I lost everything in the last republican recession and am just making headway to being able to retire in 12-18 months. I want someone younger than Biden, democratic – unlike BS, prefer a woman because too many old white men have fucked up the place for so long and I figure that she wouldn’t be a chickenshit when it came to telling the truth instead of going with the money answer every damn time. But it looks like once again I’m not getting the better life we all deserve.
Ruckus
@satby:
Don’t ever lose that skill…..
Kathleen
@WaterGirl: Thank you and yes, I believe you are correct, WG. What saddens me is both of my parents and all their siblings have passed on so I don’t have them to talk to anymore. I took that for granted for too long, that they would always be here with their stories.
Kathleen
@JPL: I hope you feel better soon.
Ruckus
@Kathleen:
You get to your 70s and you’ve most likely lost your parents as they are likely to be in their 90s or above. I’m the youngest and my dad has been gone for 18, almost 19 yrs, mom has been gone for 7 and she was 94. That’s the way it goes for most all of us at this age.
John Revolta
@Kathleen: It’s trickier than it useta be…………….
Bill Arnold
@Ruckus:
“Snark Infested Waters is a German Schwarzbier style beer brewed by Rocket Frog Brewing Company“
WaterGirl
@Kathleen: To reply to more than one person at once:
click Reply on the first comment, click X to close the box.
click Reply on the second comment, you’ll see that the first @nym is still in there.
If I want to say the same thing to everyone, I take out the extra spacing between the @nyms, and then type my comment.
If I want to say “yay!” to satby and “I don’t blame you” to someone else, I leave the spacing and type each comment next to their @nym.
You can have up to 7 links in a comment, so you can reply to way more than two people in one comment if you want to. asiangrrl was the queen of that!
Does that makes sense?
WaterGirl
@Kathleen: Yep. We learn so many things out of order in terms of when we learn them vs. when it would have been helpful to learn them.
In one sense, moms are totally wasted on the young, who don’t have the slightest idea of what they’ve got. Either that, or we need moms at two or three points in our lives.
And some things we need to learn the hard way because they’re not learnable any other way. Life is complicated.
LongHairedWeirdo
All of what is being said about stupid twits is true, group identity, and mass acceptance, and repetition making for reasonableness; it’s also intended to waste time. Sure, argue against the stone-cold stupid position – it gives it more airtime when they *want* it to have airtime.
Strategically, consider that the trick is, as always, time, and context.
“Y’all remember Katrina? Remember the GOP’s big complaint? Good old Ray, School Bus, Nagin. Yeah, he didn’t take school buses, drive people out of New Orleans, and LEAVE THEM BY THE SIDE OF THE ROAD IN THE PATH OF A FRICKIN’ HURRICANE! Seriously, here are the tweets! “Then, they wanted to debate school buses, “why weren’t they used?” Now? Not only do they not want to discuss it, it would be a sucker punch – they don’t even remember how the heck anyone could be stupid enough to think the school buses were anything but a distraction, and you’ve already pointed out the rank *stupidity* that is so *obvious* when people aren’t screaming “what about the school buses?”Retweet some of the “Dear Leader” Trump-fan twits, asking how anyone could worship the man like this, just because he’s disrespectful enough to dry hump the flag in front of an audience (include video). Retweet some of his twits about who the REAL criminals are. Retweet some of his twit-fans that are hateful – “this is what we’re fighting against.” Or, just remind yourself you have a life; do something fulfilling and return to the battle when you’re feeling better, ignore the tantrumy hooligans for a bit.
lexilis
@Mallard Filmore:
I am 65, retired, living in Chiang Mai, Thailand. You need more money here than you indicated. The Thai government is making the visa requirements much stricter now to prevent older expats from coming here attempting to live on the cheap. You need a minimum foreign currency transfer into Thailand every month of more than US$2200.
SPN in CO
@John Revolta: you just happened to leave out the 2008, 2012, and 2018 elections? Not worth mentioning?
Miss Bianca
@A Ghost To Most: Yeah, those Jews, Communists, and others deemed undesirables who fled Nazi Germany were just fucking cowards, all of them. Why didn’t they all just stay and fight?
Maybe because, unlike, say, you and me, they didn’t spring from Master Race stock and they would have ended up dead. If you feel like running away is your best option for staying alive, well…sometimes it *is*.
@satby: Or what you said.
Sasha
See: birtherism
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
TrumpBiden won’t be President forever.A new generation of leadership is on the way.
Gammyjill
@tomtofa: Well, they have those pesky earthquakes in Chile…