.
I had cheesecake for breakfast because I'm an adult with access to cheesecake in the morning and I can do that.
Texted mom that decision & she replied:
"Crust = cereal
Cream cheese = milk
Fruit on top
Cheesecake = breakfast of champions"Cheesecake 4 breakfast = mom approved
— Normality Failed (@NormalityFailed) November 27, 2020
Pie passes the donut test.
Donuts are acceptable breakfast.
Is <<insert name>> as nutritious as a donut?
If yes, it passes the donut test and qualifies as breakfast.
— Jim Gon (@DrJamesJTeeth) November 27, 2020
SHAMELESS BIPARTISAN PANDERING:
And now some breaking news on #SundayMorning…
President-elect @JoeBiden and his wife @DrBiden won’t just be bringing their German shepherds, Major and Champ to the White House. The Bidens tell us exclusively that soon they’ll be joined by a cat. #sundaypets pic.twitter.com/KCkNV6jNpH
— CBS Sunday Morning ? (@CBSSunday) November 28, 2020
NotMax
Me likey. Hope you will too.
OzarkHillbilly
I miss donuts.
Baud
Haha. That was my thought. Funny how he didn’t reveal his during the campaign. He sold us out!
PsiFighter37
Curious what folks think of Clyburn’s not-so-subtle displeasure with Biden’s appointees (so far). I get that Clyburn helped him a lot, but Clyburn also doesn’t get to call all the shots now. He’s not the one who got elected president.
I also think the fight over SecAg seems to be highly misplaced. I sure don’t mind a reorientation of priorities, but the dismissive ness of rural / farming concerns would be a mistake IMO. We do need to start rebuilding our credibility with parts of the country that have been vastly voting against both us, and by extension, their own self interests.
OzarkHillbilly
Yet more proof that God has a wicked sense of humor:
So recounts in heavily DEM areas turns up more votes for Biden. Who’da thunk it?
Baud
@PsiFighter37:
Can’t find the story in my feed.
OzarkHillbilly
@NotMax: That was great.
RSA
Awkward Bill Cosby vibes for people over a certain age.
RSA
@OzarkHillbilly:
Nice. Also, when it was suggested that Democratic votes were being paid for, no one expected it to be Trump’s money. :-)
Baud
@RSA:
Trump donors’ money.
RSA
@Baud: Oh, of course… Not as much justice after all.
OzarkHillbilly
Visitors track down mystery desert monolith in Utah
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: I thought it was his money. At least, that’s what he says.
Amir Khalid
@OzarkHillbilly:
“The recounts were rigged!” You just know Trump is going to say this.
Aleta
@NotMax: I do likey. Thanks!
From your link, another: Sit Down, Stop Counting the Vote.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
MagdaInBlack
Mom and I are in agreement about cheesecake.
(Pizza passes the test as well : dairy, meat, veg, cereal.)
OzarkHillbilly
@Amir Khalid: Chalk up another victory for the Deep State.
Brachiator
@OzarkHillbilly:
This is a pathetic waste of time, although I enjoy watching Trump throw his money away. You cannot uncover any Democratic Party fraud because there was none.
But Republican attempts at voter suppression? All over the place.
Oh well, the clock keeps ticking.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: Just between you and me, I fully expect him to attempt to pocket just as much of that money as he can. Maybe funnel it thru a few shell corporations to a couple of bank accounts in the Cayman Islands.
ETA because not paying his debts is pretty much his M.O.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
word is Biden’s cat will be wearing a hat.
Geminid
Looks like trump is doing another road show. The plan is for a Georgia rally supporting Loeffler and Perdue next Saturday, Dec. 5. According to yesterday’s Atlanta Journal-Constitution article, Georgia republican officials are expressing some ambivalence about the prospect. But the show must go on.
trump is also calling Georgia Secretary of State Raffensperger “an enemy of the people.”
Baud
@Geminid:
Georgia GOP thinks they’re better off without Trump?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@OzarkHillbilly: Kind of reminds me of the Amboy Guardian Lions.
germy
germy
@Geminid:
Anyone Trump doesn’t like automatically becomes an enemy of the people.
If I were like Trump, my boss and one or two coworkers would be an enemy of the people.
Immanentize
@NotMax: Loved it. It’s (from) my absolute favorite song/scene in Guys and Dolls. Thank you.
Baud
@germy:
OzarkHillbilly
@?BillinGlendaleCA: That is cool shit, I love stuff like that. I did not know of them but now have them bookmarked for a visit should I ever get that way.
Thanx.
Geminid
@Baud: It seemed that on balance, the republicans thought they needed trump to mobilize the base, but they recognize downsides. They know that trump is a potent GOTV resource for Democrats as well. And Perdue is starting to push the idea that he and Loeffler are needed to prevent a Democratic Vice President from deciding legislation in a tied Senate; this conflicts with trump’s narrative that he can still win. And no one knows what trump will say. He’s a loose cannon.
Betty Cracker
@PsiFighter37: From what I’ve read, something like half of the incoming admin’s picks are POC and/or women, so I’m not sure what Clyburn is going on about.
Immanentize
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
A Cat in a Hat?
In French: Chat — Chapeau.
In Spanish it’s a Gatto in a Sombrero
RAM
Donuts, of course, are healthy in a major way that, say, a cherry or cheese Danish are not. The secret is the hole that allows all the calories to fall out.
Amir Khalid
In the English Premier League’s lunchtime kickoff match, no score between hosts Brighton & Hove Albion and vsitors Liverpool. But Brighton’s Neil Maupay sent a penalty wide and then Mo Salah had a goal disallowed on a very close offside call.
germy
@Betty Cracker:
Can you imagine if AOC was the one saying this? Commenters Chyron and Cosmo would be blowing their tops!
JMG
@Betty Cracker: Clyburn has a bee in his bonnet because he deeply feels that Vilsack, who was AgSec under Obama, ignored specific complaints of black farmers. Being a city boy, I have no idea if this is a legit beef or not.
Immanentize
@Betty Cracker: I think the real question is what is psi-phighter going on about. No link, and like Baud, I haven’t seen any such Dems in disarray info.
TS (the original)
@OzarkHillbilly:
will cost – I sure hope they got the money up front
Immanentize
@RAM: Some idgit at LGM was dissing pumpkin pie. They are dead to me because it is a perfect dessert (with ice cream) or breakfast (with whipped cream).
Yum. Gonna get me some!
Benw
@Baud: they probably just don’t want a superspreader event in GA
different-church-lady
@OzarkHillbilly: Didn’t you hear? A few days ago Amir told us we could make homemade doughnuts at home.
TS (the original)
@Aleta:
@NotMax:
And another one
Fifty Ways to leave the White House
Immanentize
@Amir Khalid: A while back, we had a discussion about lego stadiums. I heard a story on NPR last weekend about some Brit kid who is making all the German League stadiums. I thought of you.
Baud
@germy:
Actually, that’s much milder than I was led to believe.
Besides, how many picks have here been? Six?
OzarkHillbilly
‘Why did it take nine hours to go 130 miles in our new electric Porsche?’
I suspect that here, it is much worse in some locations but better in others.
germy
Cory Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand and Elizabeth Warren are sponsoring the Justice For Black Famers Act. It would enable Black farmers to acquire up to 160 acres apiece at no charge through a USDA system of land grants.
OzarkHillbilly
@TS (the original): I think that is the law there, I know it is in some states.
germy
@Baud:
The villagers always magnify every mild conflict between Democrats.
Punchy
Im sure Im the 194th person to mention this, but Don Dick walked back his “yeah I’ll bolt” comment about Jan’s upcoming eviction and seemed to imply he aint going willingly. I cannot envision the optics of one of the world’s leaders being physically dragged out of the Westy by the SecServ bouncers. The thought of such an action on an adult by adults is just insane.
different-church-lady
@Immanentize: The moment Biden’s hand is on the bible I’m swearing off my LGM hate-read addiction. They’re so addicted to sneering that they’ll sneer at the dumbest tiny little things and then be absolutely relentless about it.
different-church-lady
@germy: What, no mule?
germy
It would get a sharpy, raspy laugh out of me.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@OzarkHillbilly: They were featured in the August 26th OTR on this here blog(photos by yours truly). Here’s the photos on my site.
Immanentize
@germy: It’s true people would be angry!
It’s funny, but the more radical black women I follow haven’t been pushing this type of representational appointment.
Biden is considering Admiral (ret.) Lloyd Austin for Sec. Of Defense, but there are some barriers — mostly he hasn’t been out of service long enough to serve so Congress would have to pass an extra bill allowing it. There are still many seats to go.
ByRookorbyCrook
So the question is , who was Clyburn pushing for a position that was rejected?
Baud
@ByRookorbyCrook:
Total speculation, but my guess is press secretary.
ETA: Not rejected, but yet to be filled.
OzarkHillbilly
@different-church-lady: I can make them, I just can’t eat them. Sends my blood sugar thru the roof after which comes the debilitating crash. I’ve been this way for decades now.
40 years ago I lived across the street from World’s Fair Donuts up in STL. Their fresh glazed donuts were literally melt in your mouth good. I swear, other than the bite I never had to chew. I got me some (or an apple fritter, damn damn damn) most every morning. I really miss their donuts.
Amir Khalid
@different-church-lady:
I did?
Catherine D.
@germy: Does 160 acres mean 4 mules? ?
different-church-lady
@Amir Khalid: Perhaps I am old and mixed up.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@OzarkHillbilly: This is one of those chicken/egg questions. You need enough electric cars on the road to justify the charging stations, but you need the stations for people to feel safe with the cars.
Mr DAW is an automotive engineer who spent his career working on emissions, fuel economy, etc. When he was in grad school, he was on the U Mich team for the Clear Air Car Race. They had to carry their own unleaded fuel because you couldn’t buy unleaded most places.
Immanentize
@germy: ALSO. Word is that Biden is going to again elevate the position of UN Ambassador to Cabinet level.
Immanentize
@different-church-lady: I have my G-Mom’s doughnut recipe and once I get finished with the pies, I’m gonna fry some up.
OzarkHillbilly
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Nice, Roy’s looks like a “must stop for a burger and fries” place. (kinda reminds me of my Aunts’ and Uncles’ roadside diner/motel in Clearmont WY) That shot is pretty cool, makes me wonder what you could have done with the sign lit up.
Gabe
Well you see there has been this rodent problem in the White House for the past 4 years, they need to bring in a professional to deal with it
A
@Amir Khalid: pretty obviously offside even before it went to VAR.
Gin & Tonic
@Amir Khalid: I recall a comment about grammar, not culinary technique.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Exactly, when I got my Prius, folk asked “why didn’t you get an electric car?”. Well, I live in an apartment, so I have no place to plug it in and I travel to remote location with few places to charge it along the way(it would also take longer to charge than to get gas).
germy
@Catherine D.:
I was going to make the same joke. You beat me to it.
arrieve
@OzarkHillbilly: Why did you have to mention apple fritters? Now that’s all I can think of….
sab
@PsiFighter37: Ag department has a long and very ugly racial history. When white farmers were getting subsidies etc black farmers were getting nada, ever. And more recently, even under Obama, their treatment of Shirley Sherrod. Also too, foodstamps is under them.
We will never get white farmers on our side. There are no fences mendable there. But there are black farmers who have been ignored forever.
Immanentize
@different-church-lady: sneer is the right word. They are sneery.
OzarkHillbilly
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Yep, we have a charging station in the Sullivan Walmart parking lot. I suspect whoever put it in there has put one every ? miles down I-44 from STL to OKC. Hopefully when we are next in the market we can afford a used one. If we can I’d like to put in a solar powered charging station.
Aleta
@TS (the original): nice, thanks
WereBear
Yay! Cat in the White House again! It’s been too long.
Geminid
@ByRookorbyCrook: Clyburn wants Congresswoman Martha Fudge (D-OH), I think, to be Agriculture Secretary. Biden has not yet announced his pick. Former Senator Heidi Heidcamp is in the mix also.
OzarkHillbilly
@arrieve: Evil chuckles…
Matt McIrvin
@Dorothy A. Winsor: With electric cars, I presume the early buyers (at least in the US) are mostly people in families/couples who are getting them as a second car that they’ll use as a daily commute vehicle. They wouldn’t use it for long road trips. So that means that the foot in the door is to have decent infrastructure for home charging. But not everyone can do that–people who have a suburban house with a garage and a washing-machine outlet in there are in good shape, but I suspect that for me, personally, it would require significant upgrades to my home wiring to do Level 2 charging. And most apartment-dwellers are out of luck.
I assume the world will come around, since it’s actually easier to build all of this in than to get to the gas-station network we already have. Most of the infrastructure already exists–it’s not even the last mile that’s the problem; it’s more like the last twenty feet. But it does take time.
Aleta
@Immanentize: Have to agree. There’s a local place open since 1920, 3 generations of same family. Same waitresses and pie maker for decades. Pumpkin pie year round. In the winter I’d get some at night to have for breakfast. (The pie maker aged out and the year-round pp stopped a year or two ago.)
Fraud Guy
Cat and dogs living together–a sign of the apocalypse!
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Matt McIrvin: I wonder if govt regulation needs to play a role. Mr DAW loved it every time a new set of emission regulations went into effect. He called it job security. But also, he made the point that auto companies would never have increased fuel economy on their own because they couldn’t afford to unless their competitors were doing it too.
Betty Cracker
@sab: Good point. Not sure Fudge is the right person, but it does make sense to put someone there who could begin to ameliorate the historic injustices. Clyburn is playing hardball to get what he wants, just like people to Biden’s left do. Not surprised the outrage is selective, but that’s politics for you.
There’s a drive I take through the countryside on a fairly regular basis, and out in the rural part of the state, there are of course tons of Trump signs. In one little farming community — so small there’s not even a store, just a couple of churches — I was mystified by all the Biden-Harris signs until I happened to be passing through when church was letting out. Black farmers! :)
Tony Jay
@Amir Khalid:
0-1 Jota
That boy is on form.
Matt McIrvin
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I need a new car for when all this is over, and I’m looking at hybrids rather than electrics for more or less that reason. I want greater efficiency but my home charging situation is unpromising.
Spanky
@different-church-lady: Yeah, my thought as well.
I am neither Black nor a farmer, but the optics of 3 Northeastern Senators crafting a bill for what is primarily a Southern population strikes me as a bit … fraught, I guess you could call it.
The devil is in the details, of course. Is lack of sufficient land really their worst issue? Is the land they’d get adjacent to where they currently are? How does this thing work?
Not looking for answers here. just doing some fact-free opining. Seems to be a popular pastime.
Amir Khalid
Diogo Jota scores! Brighton 0-1 Liverpool. Assist by Mo Salah.
Ramalama
@PsiFighter37:
I watched some old stand up clips of Kathleen Madigan who talked about a newly-elected Obama. She joked about him telling everyone to – now that he’d gotten into office – to help him even more by contacting their congresspeople. She was not amused by having to do more work. What if Clyburn’s just doing the work in the way politicians do? Calling in his big chit, too. Clyburn saved Biden’s derriere.
Ramalama
@Spanky: Liz Warren is from Oklahoma. Dust bowl territory.
Spanky
@Ramalama: She is a Northeastern Senator nonetheless.
Honus
@OzarkHillbilly: well, this is about the difficulty riding the new Harley Livewire 500 miles in a very charger-friendly region:
https://jalopnik.com/i-took-a-harley-davidson-livewire-on-a-road-trip-and-ev-1845749463
OzarkHillbilly
@Honus: An electric Harley? The end really is near. ;-) Now back to the piece.
Barbara
@Matt McIrvin: This is why Tesla has invested like crazy in supercharging infrastructure.
Sloane Ranger
@Dorothy A. Winsor: The UK needs to get its act together and fast with regard to charging stations because the government has announced it is banning sales of new petrol/diesel vehicles wef 2030.
Amir Khalid
Oh dear. Milly
and Adam Lallana areis off injured for Liverpool. Brighton substitute Lallana is off again after just a few minutes in the pitch.Betty
@Betty Cracker: I understand he is very conservative. He repeatedly said he didn’t care if the VP were a POC. Don’t know if that’s what’s going on.
debbie
@RSA:
This administration will end with a karmic bang. Nice!
Ceci n est pas mon nym
I love that the Sheneman cartoon has “Under Management” instead of “Under New Management”.
debbie
@Geminid:
It won’t help because he will make it all about his grievances. It will not help Perdue or Loefler in the least. Whine on!
Betty Cracker
@Spanky: Well, given that rural Southerners are mostly represented by white Republican douchebags, someone had to step up, so good for those Northeaster senators.
Betty
@Punchy: You threw me off there for a minute because I have a cousin whose name is Don Dick. He is a very nice man, ordained minister.
Amir Khalid
@Honus:
How will Harley’s electric motorbikes make that trademarked potato-potato-potato sound without the traditional factory-mistuned internal combustion engines?
Matt McIrvin
@Barbara: Yeah, though theirs is all proprietary–everyone else is converging on industry-wide standards.
zhena gogolia
@NotMax:
Yes, it’s great — saw it last night.
Punchy
@Betty: Thats a very unfortunate name IMO.
Geminid
@Ramalama: One of the things a liked about Warren’s plan to combat climate change was her proposal for a ten-fold expansion of the Ag Department’s Soil and Water Conservation Program. That would promote clean water, CO2 reduction through afforestation, and create jobs.
There is a lot to be done regarding current agriculture policy, but I don’t think the choice of a particular Agriculture Secretary will make any substantial difference so far as policy goes. I think Clyburn mentioned a desire for a more robust SNAP program as a reason he backs Fudge, but it could be that he is just loyal to her as a friend and colleague.
Gabe
@Matt McIrvin: I recently got the Suburu plug in hybrid for just that reason, it was a reasonable compromise. It charges in about 5 hours on just a normal home outlet (I ran an extension cord out) and gets 17 miles all electric which does my local trips. Then it goes Hybrid and gets 35 which is decent if not wonderful.
The car is made of compromises on everything you can imagine so nothing stands out but nothing is terrible either. Plus I live in the northeast so for winters having the Suburu AWD is important
debbie
@Geminid:
Fudge is considered qualified for that?
Gabe
@Geminid: we think of Ag secretary as about farmers but the biggest part of their portfolio is actually good assistance. SNAP, School Meals, government cheese, am run out of Ag so a good or bad secretary can have a huge impact on poverty assistance
Gvg
@Spanky: the quality of the land makes a huge difference. I personally doubt any “free land” left is worth being given. I have never farmed but my mother’s side do in Wisconsin for over a century since they homesteaded. I have read some on the history of the government land give always. There were problems. The further west things move, the bigger the plot needed to make self sufficiency was because of the water being scarcer. The government didn’t know that at first. Nowadays there is also an ideal size to make it based on the full use of whatever machinery is used for that kind of agriculture so that they can make the payments. In Wisconsin the milking machines and other economics worked out to the ideal profit size was 3 of the traditional 80 acre homesteads and a certain number of cows. So the remaining families were consolidating and some of the prior houses were empty. This was my uncle explaining it 20 years ago….also many families children were leaving for the cities and wages. Each kind of farming has its own economics and you need enough others producing the same thing nearby in order to have canning factories and buyers. So I don’t think a generic bill is going to do much but it does show an interest which wasn’t there before.
Ag secretary needs to be an actual expert, not a random Congressman or connected person IMO. It’s an elected official in my state and I haven’t been impressed.
debbie
@zhena gogolia:
Wish I’d seen that last night instead of all the retweets of the SUV hurtling down the freeway which was filled with young women shrieking at the tarantula crawling around inside and on the car’s ceiling. Ick.
MagdaInBlack
Apropos of nuthin: Pearl the Squirrel is here having breakfast. The Gang of 8 (sparrows) have joined her.
Amir Khalid
Brighton equalise with an injury-time penalty. 1-1. Feh.
Quinerly
@OzarkHillbilly: best donuts in the world!
Immanentize
@Betty: Clyburn said a lot of things about VP. What came through for me is that he was not high on Stacy Abrams. I would love to know that backstory.
Immanentize
@Betty Cracker: this. This has been true since the 50s.
Ken
Audio track and speakers? Seriously, I have heard that one (possibly feigned) concern about electric vehicles is they’re too quiet, so might need such a thing to alert pedestrians. As long as it’s not that obnoxious beeping that so many vehicles use for backup warnings, I’m OK with that.
Gabe
@Gvg: That goes in to the general American disdain for expertise on anything. Just remembering bring in Germany one day when there were heavy rains and instead of some random political commentator or untrained “weatherman” they turned to a panel of Herr Doctor Professor A, PhD in meteorology, Herr Doctor Professor B, PhD in civil engineering, and Herr Doctor Professor C, PhD in fluid dynamics to basically explain this was all normal and within the tolerances for what the city storm drain systems had been designed for so there should not be any flooding
Ken
Judging by the progress on Brexit negotiations, that should be in place by 2130. Actually judging by the progress on Brexit, and more particularly the reactions in Scotland et al, they’re being optimistic in assuming there will still be a UK in 2030.
Amir Khalid
It ends 1-1 after a frustrating match: missed penalty for Brighton, two goals disallowed for Liverpool. Several players off injured. Harrumph.
debbie
@Ken:
In my many years of walking around the neighborhood, I try to always be aware of my surroundings, including traffic, because I walk on the edge of the street since there’s less chance of tripping there than over uneven sidewalks, plus I’m usually listening to music or news. I have been surprised only once, when an electric Civic zipped by me from behind, much closer than usual. Wish they did make some sort of noise.
Geminid
@Gabe: I think that whoever Biden picks will be a good Agriculture Secretary. Generally speaking, I rely on Biden and his people to make good personnel selections. I don’t let others tell me how to do my work, and Biden doesn’t need me telling him how to do his.
Immanentize
Random news for vinyl lovers. I just ‘gave’ my Audio Technica USB turntable to the Immp, which made me pull out the Yamaha PX-3 linear tracking table I have been getting back into fighting shape. That sucker weighs over 25 pounds! Original feet all busted (of course) so I invested in some new isonoe isolation feet. Now I just have to put in the new cartridge and pray the belts still hold.
Then listen to some Miles.
Geminid
@Immanentize: Clyburn may have downplayed Stacey Abrams as Vice President because he knew how much good she can do as Georgia Governor.
Ramalama
@Geminid: Did not know that about Warren. After reading a comment somewhere calling her “Professor Zero F*cks” I started using it myself. In my mind.
As for Fudge, I just read this:
Sounds like a good fight to have. Policy! Ideas! Helping!
Betty Cracker
@Gvg: Do you mean Fried? I’m not all that impressed with her either and am hoping that being the only statewide elected Dem isn’t enough to catapult her into the nomination to oppose DeSantis. Given how utterly dysfunctional the state party is, I could see that happening and the disastrous DeSantis getting reelected. We can’t afford that. Our state party needs to be burned to the ground and rebuilt, IMO.
Barbara
@Matt McIrvin: There was an industry wide standard when they started but it was based on cars with a much lower range. I drove from DC to NM in a Tesla, and you can’t do that based on chargers with existing industry standard parameters.
Quinerly
@Immanentize: ?
Immanentize
@Geminid: I don’t think it was that, because he was pushing the Atlanta Mayor as a better candidate.
Ramalama
@Immanentize: I had to sell my Technics SL 1200 many years back for cash. I was a DJ for 5 very fun dances. I kept all of my vinyl. I have actually been shopping and mulling over what to get. My partner wants new. My scorn filled the room and pushed her out the door. I can’t afford 12K for a turntable. But something in the $1K range for a vintage piece babied by a stereo nazi should work.
OzarkHillbilly
I think Clyburn is just reminding folks that Biden owes some political chits and he needs to come thru for black voters. He is not getting into specifics publicly, tho I am sure he has conveyed a few in private.
Chyron HR
@germy:
How delightful to be officially declared an Enemy Of The Revolution. Can you imagine if Clyburn declared that the American people had to be punished for denying Bernie’s divinity in two consecutive primary races–I’d go nuts!
Geminid
@Immanentize: I don’t think anyone thought of Atlanta Mayor Bottoms as a serious prospect for VP. I thought Clyburn put her name out there because he thought of her as an up-and-comer, and wanted to get her some recognition. But Clyburn knows how much Georgia needs a good governor, and Stacey Abrams could be a great one.
Sloane Ranger
@Ken: Boris – elected on the basis of his cheery optimism that everything will work out for the best in the best of all possible worlds.
Oh, and the idea that foreigners are basically figures of fun who just need to be be spoken to loudly and slowly before they accept the natural superiority of the British.
Citizen Alan
Frankly, I disagree and I live in a rural, farming state. The last twelve years have persuaded me that there is nothing Democrats can do to win over rural Red State farmers short of becoming as blatantly racist as Republicans. And since those rural farmers were perfectly fine with Trump lavishing money on them to help them survive the trade war he started while denying disaster relief to blue states that voted against him, I wouldn’t mind a bit to see Biden zero out the federal farm budget expenditures of every county in the country not represented by a Democrat in either the House or the Senate. I have no more patience for Welfare Farmers.
Gin & Tonic
@Immanentize: Which period?
raven
@Immanentize: So What
Betty Cracker
@Geminid: Seriously or not, Clyburn allegedly said Abrams lacked experience but then mentioned Bottoms as an alternative. He’s a pol who promotes his network to extend his leverage, just like they all do. I think it’s as simple as that.
WaterGirl
@Baud: Perhaps this is some pre-working of the refs? That would be the smart move. Once a position is filled, the outcome is set.
JPL
I just read that Melania is going to write a book about her time in the White House. Apparently she’ll name it Festivus. (okay I just made up the Festivus part, but I’m she’ll be writing about grievances. )
Citizen Alan
@Spanky:
Fraught for whom? Which Southern senators do you think give a single shit about black farmers? I’m sure my own Senators will disparage this Bill as “slave reparations.”
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Ken:
I have a Fusion hybrid that’s a reliable 45-55 mpg over the past 5 years. I kind of treat cars like shit, too, but it hasn’t missed a beat. When it’s on battery, it’s a spooky non-sound.
On the Harleys, I’ve been harboring this urge to get an older one if/when the economy picks back up. Frankly, I’d be unlikely to ever buy an electric – I want the thrum.
Gin & Tonic
@raven: 1959 was arguably the greatest year of all for jazz.
frosty
@Gabe: I get 35 in my all gas Mazda 3. My brother has a Volt which I think is the best hybrid layout. One electric drivetrain, the gas engine drives a generator not the wheels.
Amir Khalid
@Ramalama:
Back in the day I owned a very cheap, low-end linear-tracking turntable. It had a plastic body (I stuffed Plasticine in the cavities on the underside to keep it from resonating), a lightweight aluminium platter that couldn’t have weighed as much as half a kilogramme, and it used a commensurately cheap P-mount cartridge and styli. But it sounded surprisingly good.
WaterGirl
@Immanentize: Jealousy perhaps? Someone stepped on someone else’s toes or didn’t show the “proper” deference?
Chief Oshkosh
@JMG:
Farming requires cyclical loans. Where I grew up, the racism was personal and structural. Very few black farmers (like, maybe one in the entire county) ever got loans. This goes back generations, most likely though our entire history.
Clyburn is right that more needs to be done to help black farmers. Heck, just ensuring equal access to loans would be enormous. I don’t know what Vilsack did or didn’t do, though I know of at least one black farmer who was able to cobble together a lot of loans that had gov’t backing and that derived from policies intended to encourage what I think of as speciality farming like hydroponics.
Skepticat
I did read a spot-on comment at some point saying that under Chump, there wasn’t a dog in the White House, but there was a cur. Dogs and cats living together in the White House is the most apt metaphor ever.
artem1s
@JPL:
planning on supplementing the alimony already? obviously won’t be enough to support her in a means to which she’s become accustom.
WaterGirl
@Betty Cracker: What you suggested rings true.
Frankensteinbeck
@Geminid:
Interesting. Well, Trump is depressed and still can stage his therapy sessions on someone else’s dime. It makes sense that he’ll try to squeeze some in. He’ll still have enough fans to do it until he’s out of office, because they just don’t want the ride to be over, so that tracks. Odds are high the message will have nothing to do with voting in the runoff and will instead be a whinge about how the election was rigged. That might backfire on the Republicans. Hard to say.
germy
@Chyron HR:
To the re-education camp with you.
Ten years of chopping wood and picking lettuce will bring you closer to our correct way of thought.
https://rolcats.wordpress.com/2009/02/06/149/#comments
Amir Khalid
@JPL:
As FLOTUSes go, she’s been exactly at the level of the Trump White House.
WaterGirl
@Frankensteinbeck: What I think will backfire is the attack on the new SOS who gave Georgia residents the most access to voting in Georgia, ever. With a paper trail!
Please please please let all their bullshit backfire.
WaterGirl
@Amir Khalid: They are indeed a perfectly matched couple.
zhena gogolia
@debbie:
Glad I missed that one!
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: Now listening to it. Thanx.
germy
@Spanky:
Lots of farms in upstate NY. Lots of Black farmers up there, too.
zhena gogolia
@JPL:
I hope she includes the part where she didn’t give a fuck about Christmas decorations or kids in cages.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone???
zhena gogolia
When I start to worry about Drumpf not going quietly, I imagine Champ and Major staging a replay of The Boys from Brazil:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7q880Sbobk
sab
@Geminid: Martha Fudge has a weird gerrymandered district that actually has lots of farmers. More of the locavore variety than the agribiz ones. Also water issues are big- mostly pollution and runoff than availability. She was mayor of Warrensville Heights before she became Stephanie Tubbs Jones chief of staff. A lot of boxes get checked with her career. Big skill set. I think she might be very good.
germy
https://rolcats.wordpress.com/2009/01/30/111/#comments
OzarkHillbilly
@JPL: @zhena gogolia: Working title: “I don’t care. Do U?”
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Immanentize: I have learned from the Great British Bake-Off that pie is one of the biggest things that separates us from our cousins across the pond. Enough that it might arguably lead to another war.
For one thing, it seems to be rare to serve them in the pie tin. Their pies are free-standing things.
For another, one day they were all agreeing that American pies were terrible and pumpkin pie is especially inedible.
To the barricades, mes amis!
Chief Oshkosh
@germy: That article does a great job of pointing out the structural racism and the real problem: the need for cyclical loans. USDA denied them to black farmers for decades.
The bill that Booker, Gillibrand, and Warren have put forth does not appear to address that. Instead, as presented in the article anyway, the bill is aimed at _giving_ land to black farmers. While this may well help, it sure seems problematic to me. It sets up the entire Justice for Black Farmers initiative for failure if the need for long-term, cyclical loans is not addressed (I predict the new farms will fail within three seasons if loans are not available), plus it provides an easy target for white resentment (I mean, shit, the gubmint didn’t GIVE this land to my great-great-grandpappy! Fuck no! He had to kill a bunch of ‘Injuns’ and run off the other riff-raff before he could stake his claim!).
Hopefully the bill does address USDA discriminatory lending (maybe Warren will ding them as hard as she does private banking). However, maybe they should get input from Testor and other actual farmers, and of course, from Clyburn.
Hildebrand
Regarding the Premier League – I am thrilled that Newcastle won yesterday, nice to see them back on form (well, at least in the last few minutes – but I’ll take it!).
Immanentize
@Quinerly: C’mon over. It’s a scene. Miles, Chet, Clifford Brown and me.
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
Immanentize
@Quinerly: C’mon over. It’s a scene. Miles, Chet, Clifford Brown and me.
JanieM
@rikyrah: I usually miss the good morning greetings, because they tend to happen at what is the middle of the night for me.
So….good morning! :-)
Immanentize
@Ramalama: a 1200! Fine fine table. Have your scoped out local hifi/repair shops? That, eBay and garage sales — you can still find the fine vintage made to last forever pieces.
Chief Oshkosh
@sab:
Senator Tester is on line one for you…
MagdaInBlack
@raven: I know zip about jazz, other than names. In looking this up, I stumbled upon Ben Webster: Soulville. Its on now. Did I do good?
Immanentize
@Gin & Tonic: Earlier blues/be bop. I am mostly a Pacific Coast cool jazz and Brazilian guy.
Sketches of Spain now spinning.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: Have you ever seen any of the “Irish People Try” videos on YouTube? Here’s one where they try Krispy Kremes.
sab
@Chief Oshkosh: Yes. Exactly. Lots of black farmers used to have land, acquired during Reconstruction, but they couldn’t keep it without the assistance that white farmers got.
Ramalama
@Amir Khalid: I love hearing stories like these but I am also jealous. What luck!
I’ve been driving myself crazy with reading up on plinth and weight and arms. I want to have a massive dance party after this Covid nightmare presuming I make it out. But then I think about the town I’m in with mega wealthy peeps who vacation here. Their speedboats, helicopters, Teslas that blare out music in the summer, and it’s usually sub sub par music. Horrible. My only hope is the french and while I love Daniel Belanger, and I have a healthy range of the kinds of music that I love, not sure I can do a whole set of just French music.
For my imaginary dance party.
It’s just occurred to me that… I might be a stereo nazi.
Frankensteinbeck
@Sloane Ranger:
I understood how Brexit and Boris Johnson happened a great deal more when I realized that Terry Pratchett’s jokes about stupidity and xenophobia in Ankh-Morpork are meant to be commentaries on British culture.
Immanentize
@raven: I just listened to that! This friggin table is fab. Still needs a bit of adjust — the arm is too light on the record. Even with the isolation feet, it’s bouncing a tad.
Reminding me of the HOURS I used to spend just listening to a whole album, reading liner notes. Time well spent.
germy
@Ramalama:
Your comment reminded me of this:
https://www.newyorker.com/cartoon/a19180
Immanentize
@Gin & Tonic: Then I was born and I guess I fucked it all up.
Chief Oshkosh
@Ramalama: A long time ago. Not that that means she doesn’t have some experience to draw from, but I agree with Spanky that a none of the three Senators who’ve authored this bill appear to have any actual experience with the topic, and they certainly aren’t pushing the bill due to a natural constituency.
Still, there is a big problem here, and if those three are willing to try to fix it, more power to them. Sure would be good if they could add someone with experience and a constituency that is more directly affected, though.
Just One More Canuck
@Immanentize: I think it was OO who used the phrase ‘pre-disappointed’ – a different context, but it fits
Ramalama
@Immanentize: Tumbleweeds roll through our town. The repair guy was one of the last solid businesses, and he packed it up right before Covid came knocking. It’s a weird town right now. Used to be popular. Dying a slow death. I do look online at lespac.ca and craigslist. But those people know how to google the values of the stereos. Which then makes me think about just going to the nerds thinking they’ll be more honest about the gear. Hahaha. https://www.canuckaudiomart.com/
Other MJS
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: I was thinking “that’s a strange error”, but now I get it; thanks.
Immanentize
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: I faht in their general direction!
Chief Oshkosh
@Sloane Ranger:That Porsche-owning couple must be very unlucky or rather thick (or maybe this was a hit job?). The UK has tons of charging stations.
If you want to have fun wasting some time on YouTube, check out The Fully Charged Show. Great fun and informative:
https://www.youtube.com/user/fullychargedshow
Ramalama
@germy: Guilty! But no digital version of anything ever made me feel that Nina Simone was singing to me in my living room. Vinyl did that, with great gear. Totally impractical, vinyl.
Ken
In fairness to Boris, he didn’t invent that, just inherited it from a line stretching back to 1820 or thereabouts, if not Magna Carta. Though I get the impression that the Tory platform used to have ideas other than that one.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@JPL: I hear it’s gonna be a Christmas book.
Another Scott
@Gvg:
Dunno.
The FY21 Agriculture budget request is $146B. 29 agencies, around 100,000 employees.
Huge agencies like that need good managers. People who know what they know, know how to get the best out of people, know when they need to rely on professional staff, know when they need to fight to the last ounce of strength and when to compromise, know how to communicate effectively. It’s great when a policy expert also has those attributes, but it’s not often that someone does.
Cheers,
Scott.
germy
@Ramalama:
I remember hearing Ritchie Valens’ Donna on a 78 rpm record, played on a system with a tube amp.
Such a warm sound. I’ve never heard that record sound so good before or since
I’m also one of those freaks who doesn’t mind a little surface noise. The pops and crackles from an old record don’t bother me, as long as they’re not too overpowering.
Omnes Omnibus
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: All pies matter.
sab
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Thank you. I needed to see that. In my distant youth we used to go to the only Krispy Kreme in town in the wee hours before we went home. Everything else was closed, but Krispy Kreme was cranking out donuts at 3 a.m. The glazed ones, and also the long thin powdered ones with creme filling.
I believe my town in Ohio had the first Krispy Kreme north of the Mason Dixon line.
ETA We could watch through the window while they filled the creme filled ones. Stuck them onto a machine that pumped them full of creme.
OMG. I want one now.
Ramalama
@Chief Oshkosh: You’re probably right. They should get Willie Nelson on board. He was running Farm Aid for a very long time. Star power and street cred. Soil cred? I used to see a friend who worked for the org every summer at Newport Folk Festival. I think they set up a table at every music venue they could.
rikyrah
Daryl Sturgis✊? (@darylsturgis) tweeted at 8:29 AM on Sat, Nov 28, 2020:
Trump got 58% of white voters. That’s one point less than Romney yet he still lost the election by 6.1 million votes. Instead of endlessly focusing on how Dems can’t attract WWC voters anymore why not ask why working class white voters have turned to fascism.
(https://twitter.com/darylsturgis/status/1332693088796602368?s=02)
zhena gogolia
@Ramalama:
You want to feel as if someone’s in the room singing to you, try Chaliapin played on a 1910 gramophone in Moscow with the lights out at 1 in the morning.
sab
@Another Scott: Yes. Vilsack was a good guy, but he sucked as ag sec.
Immanentize
@Ramalama: Here is the table I’m working on. You can get one in good order for 600 or less! One of the best tables ever made.
Linky
Ramalama
@germy: Tubes! The tubes from a McIntosh receiver I co-owned before a breakup, that made Nine Simone sing “Wild is the Wind” to me personally.
We bought a little cottage here in Quebicstan owned by famous Quebecois singer and comedian couple. We inherited their 78s. My very intricate musings over a turntable has me bothered / amused about getting something that will play them.
Frankensteinbeck
@rikyrah:
It was finally offered.
germy
@zhena gogolia:
Back in the 1970s I had a very nice sound system. Good turntable, receiver and speakers.
Every time I’d play the Beatles I Am The Walrus my cat would meow loudly at the end of the song. Apparently, they’d added a high pitched frequency I couldn’t hear, but she could. And she’d provide accompaniment every time.
I miss that cat so much. One of the smartest and most vocal felines I’ve ever known.
Ramalama
@Immanentize: Ohhhhhh that’s a beaut.
That your pawnshop?
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Omnes Omnibus:
Ive been detecting a strong current all over of the “pies and cheesecakes for breakfast” phase of Thanksgiving weekend. Guessing it’s exacerbated by smaller gatherings, which equal a greater quantity of leftovers.
OzarkHillbilly
@Chief Oshkosh: Unlucky, but If you read the article you’ll see they had no problems finding charging stations, they had problems finding charging stations that worked.
raven
Miles recorded the music for “Elevator to the Gallows” while watching it on the screen.
Booger
@germy: How long until that devolves into a morass of strawmen, of any color?
Omnes Omnibus
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Pie as a breakfast food has been discussed here before with no connection to Thanksgiving. I am pro-pie (as a food not as a filter).
raven
@germy: I bought my Akai system at the PX in Vietnam and sent it home complete with a nice load hidden in the speakers! I ended up having to give it to my parents when I flunked out of school and had to make up the money I’d paid to live in a fucking dorm.
Immanentize
@Omnes Omnibus: Pie was the sammich of the early American farm families.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Omnes Omnibus:
Pumpkin pie+vanilla ice cream is one of the finest breakfast foods known to man.
germy
@Ramalama:
Apparently, choice of needle is important when listening to old 78s.
There’s a few youtube channels of people who collect old jazz and classical 78 rpms. They’re very fussy about the proper needle. The wrong kind will dig into the grooves too aggressively. Lots of discussions and recommendations in their youtube comments.
rikyrah
Love it????
Immanentize
@raven: Akai was a great brand. Their tape decks were way better than Sony. But maybe not as good as Harmon Kardon. What the hell am I gonna do with that cassette deck?
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Dorothy A. Winsor: No, I never heard of that. Thank you so much for the new YouTube rabbit hole. Putting on the earbuds and diving in…
(Update: I’m laughing out loud here and having such fun with how they enjoy those ridiculously sweet things. Europeans are not always fans of icky-sweet American goodies.)
Krispy Kreme finally made it to the Philly area for a couple glorious years some time back. And then the franchisee (for some reason they have this arrangement where one person controls an entire region) ran into some sort of financial difficulty and every Krispy Kreme in the Delaware Valley closed simultaneously.
frosty
@germy: Great cartoon. Speaking for myself, if you grew up with vinyl, why would you want to go back? The records were warped before I even played them, dust, dirt, scratches, skips … and I couldn’t play my own music in the car!
I’m stuck in the CD era – I want to have something tangible if I’m paying for music, not just a download. Sort of a post-modern Luddite, I guess.
germy
For some reason, three large pumpkins grew in our yard this summer. We didn’t plant them, so we don’t know why they grew. But we harvested them and my wife made two delicious pies. The rest of the pumpkin we serve as a mashed potato substitute, or add cream to make pumpkin pudding.
germy
@frosty:
I ended up selling about 99% of my vinyl. I kept a few for sentimental reasons, although I have no way of playing them now. The turntable is long gone.
I like physical media. I own a bunch of CDs. But I listen to lots of music nowadays on youtube.
sab
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Pumpkin pie for lunch. Husband can have the turkey slices for sandwiches.
We gave half our meal away, and it was smaller than usual, but we will still be nibbling on leftovers through December.
Inventor
@Ramalama: I have 1000+ records, hundreds of cassettes, and three reel to reel decks. Nothing sounds better that a superbly recorded factory tape at 7.5 or 15 i.p.s. When my nephew asked why I still use all this gear as I was mounting a tape on my magnificent Crown SX-824, I told him “the convenience”.
burnspbesq
@Tony Jay:
The best left-back in the PL is out for two months. I guess we’re about to find out if young Mr. Nkounkou is up to standard.
Yes, I did just say that Digne is better than Robertson.
Michael Cain
My son’s girlfriend has a year-old Nissan Leaf with the 62 kWh battery pack. Pre-virus she drove me around to show me all the things it could do. I’m not sure which was the weirdest thing about the trip around: the lack of noise, or that when we got done and popped the hood nothing was hot enough you couldn’t touch it.
I want one.
laura
@JMG: Not only is the beef against Vilsac legit- he’s the fella that made Shirley Sherod resign in a roadside phone call when she was Breitbarted. I’m firmly on Team Clyburn re Agriculture a d the failure to address the concerns of rural American farmers. We can do a hell of a lot better than Tom Vilsac.
frosty
@germy: I’ve had plans to sell the vinyl for awhile but haven’t gotten around to it. I think it’s amusing that it’s worth more than the CDs – which I kept buying because they’d have resale value when the downloads wouldn’t.
Kathleen
@Baud: In the pockets of Big Litter!!!!
Ramalama
@zhena gogolia: That’s a scene. I’d love to hear it.
Apropos of nothing, sometimes I listen to jazz on youtube when I’m working on certain things, and the Al Gore rhythm suggested I listen to this Russian Federation music by some monks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADit6G8MW6k
Which reminded me of the monks at a Benedictine Abbey where my father once lived (as a monk) before he left and married and had children. We used to attend Mass there with his old buddies on high holiday. Good enough choir and pipe organ. I made my siblings listen to the Russian monks and they were not transfixed.
Which led me to this Hymn of the Cherubim, which I can’t get enough of sometimes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPlK5HwFxcw
gene108
@germy:
1. Clyburn’s endorsement helped deliver SC for a struggling Biden campaign
2. Clyburn’s been a loyal Democrat longer than AOC has been alive.
He’s earned his right to make demands of fellow Democrats, with the expectation they will be given fair consideration at a minimum.
That’s the difference.
Ramalama
@Inventor: Aside from the awesomeness of your stock, that is a fully fleshed out and perfect joke. Bravo.
germy
@gene108:
This is true.
J R in WV
@OzarkHillbilly:
So the relevant math is to divide Trump’s $3,000,000 by the net gain in Democratic votes, 132, to find that Trump paid $22,727.27 for every extra Democratic vote found in the recount!
Astounding!!! Wonderful~!!!~ Of course, the Magats won’t learn this, won’t believe it if the hear of it. But there it is, a hard cold cash fact… the stupid, it burnz.
Thanks for the news.
raven
@Immanentize: Mine was reel to reel.
Gvg
@Betty Cracker: I don’t mean anyone in particular. I have not been impressed with any Ag person in my adult lifetime. They have all been not very expert and too involved in being liked and not enough do work. The position should not be elected. They are not able to offend anyone, and thus don’t do anything.
this state has a huge agricultural industry. There are always problems that need solving.
Monala
I am an occasional poster, usually a lurker, but I want to ask something of this community if anyone is able to help.
We just lost everything in a devastating apartment fire that was an act of arson. We are fine, and had renters insurance so will be able to rebuild. Our dog was injured, however, so I would like to ask for good thoughts/prayers for her, and whatever advice you have about helping a traumatized pet.
What I’d really like to ask is whether anyone can help my two neighbors, an immigrant family, and a single woman who was injured in the fire. They don’t have many resources.
Here’s a news story about the fire. My teenage daughter is the one being interviewed (we are among the people who jumped from the second floor and were caught by neighbors), and the injured dog mentioned is ours.
https://www.king5.com/mobile/video/news/local/university-place-apartment-fire-suspected-to-be-domestic-violence-arson/281-4a942075-3dcc-4161-9fad-1f124cfe222a.
I’ll reply to my comment with the GoFundMe links for my neighbors, if anyone would like to give. Thank you.
MagdaInBlack
@raven: I knew quite a few guys that shipped back some really fine equipment. Baby sat for a guy with reel to reel. “DO NOT TOUCH” read the sign on it…. for us nosy baby-sitters, no doubt.
Monala
@Monala: here are the GoFundMe links for my neighbors:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/house-fire-recovery-for-rosemary-and-family?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=m_pd+share-sheet&fbclid=IwAR3huTxB-sfUEV5hi1OmyftCOHxbctqD1MVLgFylEbq_js6m4yQ0TTY9ph0
https://www.gofundme.com/f/fire-crime-victim-emergency-fund-chantelle-turner?fbclid=IwAR3pRqE_Rr-5QxZez0js2xBL_r6SnNUIrjGEcXVUl5eh2_c5l-VlZxK6Pts
raven
@MagdaInBlack: I had a “do not touch ” for what was inside the speakers!
laura
@JMG: Not only is the beef against Vilsac legit- he’s the fella that made Shirley Sherod resign in a roadside phone call when she was Breitbarted. I’m firmly on Team
@Immanentize: ? I’ve unearthed my 80’s Technics close and play linear tracking record player to pair with my late dad’s last stereo system and a new receiver. Never a skip or a scratch, nothing but sweet, buttery hiss and music.
MagdaInBlack
@raven: ????
Emma from FL
@frosty: Thank God I’m not the only one. Streaming and playlists and all — feh.
mad citizen
Installed a new printer scanner late yesterday after living 3+ years without a printer. This morning no bluetooth available on the home PC–toggle switch wasn’t even there. 2.5 hours later, downloading drivers, looking at tons of advice (“Show hidden icons” in Device Manager View–what kind of sadist invents these things?–just show me ALL the damn icons–bluetooth is either on my PC or not); discovered I had installed a copy of the new printer, so deleted that.
A final fix from the IT Crowd “Did you turn it off and back on again?” fixed it. Streaming tunes again. I love computers.
Was so preoccupied I didn’t even read this morning thread…
OldDave
All this talk about stereos and turntables has me wanting to get my Sota Sapphire up and running again. Every so often I think “I want to listen to XYZZY” only to remember I only have that album on vinyl.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Immanentize:
I had an Akai deck in 81. Paid a fortune for it ($250) at the AAFES. It was really great….
zhena gogolia
@Ramalama:
I love Russian liturgical music. No time right now, but I will check these out later.
Ramalama
@Monala: That is harrowing and awful. Jumping from the 2nd story like that? With the dog? Good grief, people. A Molotov Cocktail. Will donate as soon as I get up.
jonas
Yeah, people with recreational watercraft and $60,000 jacked-up pickups to parade around in all the time probably aren’t working two minimum-wage jobs over the weekend to make ends meet.
Immanentize
@raven: Mr. Customs Man….
Immanentize
@laura: Close and play! Memories.
raven
@Immanentize: There it is. . .
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
Regarding the Biden cat, if it’s like one of ours, they’ll need to put sticky bases on every shelf item, as much joy would be had in pushing them to the floor.
Kathleen
@Immanentize: Did you see Don Cheadle’s movie Miles Ahead? It was not a biopic but more like a Jazz cinematic poem that covered a few years in his life when he was down and out. Not a popular pic but I enjoyed it. Filmed in Cincy which is frequently chosen for period films set in New York. I saw a few of my favorite local stage actors featured.
trollhattan
Even before reading this post I had my breakfast pumpkin pie. Pretty sure there’s egg in there somewhere.
Immanentize
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: That’s right about when I got mine — ’82 or ’83. It was/is a fine deck. I had this amazing collection of live reggae music from a friend who put on shows in NYC, New Haven and Boston. In 89 my apartment was broken into. The guy left all the equipment, but took all my cassettes. Hundreds. I assume those were easy to resell/tape over. What a loss!
MagdaInBlack
@jonas: Yup. I said that all along.
mad citizen
I loved the Miles Ahead film–very well done and conceived; like you say, not the traditional biopic, but a slice of time in his life.
Still haven’t read the thread but can say I’m still using (after many years of inactivity) my 1980s Technics turntable.
Barbara
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: This season they had a technical bake of a steamed pudding consisting of a whole lemon in the middle of a suet crust. I will take my pumpkin pie over that any day!
Immanentize
@Kathleen: Did not! But I will now. Down and out Miles makes me sad.
Monala
@Ramalama: thank you for that.
this is my dog: https://www.flickr.com/photos/191238938@N06/50656354168/in/dateposted-public/
I know this group knows and loves dogs, so any advice about helping her with the trauma is appreciated.
patrick II
This sums it up. 13 Wives, 14 deferments, zero military service
trollhattan
@OldDave:
I resisted the temptation to dump/cull my LPs on making the CD switchover and I guess that means I now have an “instant vinyl collection.”
I did a 2-channel system makeover maybe 15 years ago and availed myself of a newer design table and cartridge. They sound better than ANYTHING back in the day and importantly, don’t have the inherent direct drive table rumble. Any LP I played revealed music I never heard before.
Fascinating to learn LPs outsell CDs today. Of course we have a generation entering adulthood who can’t be bothered with either. (TBF the kid has bought a few LPs at thrift stores–I can’t tell if she’s doing it ironically.)
NotMax
@raven
Reel to reel decks rock. Still have two Sonys (one stereo, with standing speakers and built-in amp), one mono. Best of the bunch was a rack mount Teac, which I lent to an audiophile friend a few years ago who thenceforth – somehow, some way – lost it.
sab
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: We know the world isn’t flat because the cats haven’t pushed everything over the edge. Forgot where I heard that, but it does resonate.
Mary G
@Monala: What an harrowing experience for you and your poor pupper! I agree with your daughter; somebody needs to go to jail. Will donate and bless your neighbors who helped you escape.
Gabe
@frosty: I agree on the Hybrid mileage not being the best. The key limiter for me was a requirement for AWD which cut my choices to the Subaru or the Rav 4 Prime in terms of plug-in hybrids
jonas
@MagdaInBlack: Trump’s base is what one might call the white petite bourgeoisie — non-college educated white men who own their own small businesses, yet aspire to be what they see in Trump: incredibly wealthy (supposedly) with an arm candy wife and a NFLTG kind of arrogant braggadocio. They often make plenty of money, but also deeply resent the cultural capital possessed by artists, intellectuals, and other elites who they imagine “look down on them”.
Kathleen
@mad citizen: I’m hoping it becomes a cult classic. It’s too good to just disappear.
Sloane Ranger
@Ken:
It is indeed a truism of British culture dating back a long way that foreigners are funny.
It is also true that, before Brexit, the Tories did have other ideas. Bad ones under Thatcher, some reasonable ones previously, e.g.
Parliamentary Reform Act 1867 – doubled the size of the electorate and gave some skilled working class men the vote.
Conspiracy and Protection of Property Act 1875 – legalised peaceful picketing by Trades Unions.
Trades Union Amendment Act 1876 – Protected Trades Union funds from forfeiture.
Public Health Act 1904 – required all new houses to have running water and an internal drainage system plus set money aside for sanitation infrastructure.
More in the 20th century. Where have those Tories gone?
Kathleen
@Immanentize: I knew nothing about Miles but came away from the movie with an appreciation of his music. If I hear a jazz piece I’m not familiar with I can recognize if it’s Miles. That haunting trumpet is so distinctive.
OldDave
The Sota is belt drive, so no cogging rumble. Now, if someone wants very old school, try and find an old Gates broadcast table. Sonically perhaps not the best, but brick shithouse construction and the only turntable on the block featuring a gear shift knob.
Sloane Ranger
@Barbara: To be fair, the bakers weren’t impressed with it either!
MagdaInBlack
@jonas: I have the pleasure of working with some of those. This is why I said those folks aren’t hurting financially. I know what they make, I know what their toys cost.
bemused senior
@raven: my dad brought me one of those when he was stationed in thailand flying ecm missions in 1968. It was a great device, but stolen when my house was burglarized. So sad to be left with a ton of self recorded tapes.
debbie
@raven:
Compared to what?
CarolPW
@Monala: That’s ghastly, I’m so sorry. I think the best help for your pup is for her to be with you. A lot of trauma seems to show up as separation anxiety, so adjusting your schedules to keep her from being left alone would help. Rescue Remedy and/or CBD might help on the non-prescription end.
If she was a reasonably care-free girl pre fire, I bet you guys are more traumatized about her than she is in psychological trauma herself. Are the physical injuries going to have any permanent effects? Poor sweetheart. Get her a soft cone of shame, that thing bumping into her injured paws is sure to hurt.
CaseyL
Remember, Trump broke apart DeptAg and sent it from DC to satellite offices. I think he also closed its Research Office. So there is another large batch of career professionals with “institutional knowledge” gone.
Like every other damn department, Biden will have to rebuild Agriculture.I’m sure he’s taking this into account when choosing the Cabinet Secretary.
raven
@bemused senior: My step mom still has my amp and speakers.
patrick II
@bemused senior:
There are reel-to-reels on ebay. Depending on your budget and how bad you want to hear those tapes, they are a few hundred $.
different-church-lady
@mad citizen: Windows is an abomination. Nuke it from space, rebuild on the rubble.
different-church-lady
@rikyrah:
Because we already know?
Ruckus
@RSA:
Might even be sweeter justice. All that money that they paid to keep shitforbrains in office was absolutely wasted. They likely think they stole that money fair and square and now, they don’t have it any longer. Can’t even brag about it because they lost!
Ruckus
@Baud:
Georgia GOP thinks?
Show your work young man…..
VeniceRiley
Woke to watch the 2nd half of PL Man Ciry scoring 5. Good to see them back in scoring form. Mrs. Riley watched via my phone camera because every Man City fan is mad at BT Sport and refuses to subscribe. So, yes, I held my phone in front of me for 48 minutes for a sport I had no previous interest in. It’s true love. <3
Ruckus
@Betty Cracker:
They aren’t his picks?
Inventor
@patrick II: Very risky. I recommend using Craig’s List. The only way to ascertain condition is in person. Reel to reel decks have about doubled in price since I first got into them about eight years ago. The pre-recorded tapes issued from the record companies have exploded in price. Jazz labels and classic rock get premium prices.
trollhattan
@OldDave:
Your Gates description reminds me of the Rek-O-Kut broadcast tables we had at the college radio station. The engineer demonstrated their torque by standing on one and letting it spin him around. Was sooooo tempted to duplicate the stunt at some point but somehow kept myself in check. :-)
Using a Rega today and am very happy with it. If you want to change it to 45 rpm you have to remove the platter and move the belt to the second pulley level. Sophisticated! OTOH who has 45s? I may have three or four–“audiophile” 12-inch pressings.
cain
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
This is where Tesla has done an amazing job. I used to own a Tesla and was able to easily go without any fear of charging from Portland to San Francisco. Now this is helped by the fact that Oregon already has an “electric highway”. In general, the infra for electric cars has been expanding and growing.
I think Tesla has a fairly good network in the UK as well. As demand increases competitors will be aggressive in building out and the govt will help just like it has in the west coast.
The only issue is that it takes about 45 minutes to charge your car – and I usually end up at a bar having food and what not. But you gotta do that every 3 hours or so.
Aleta
@Monala: I know there are different kinds of pain and types of anxiety, and I only have one experience. I’m surprised how well CBD oil has worked for anxiety and pain for my dog. Extra gentle touch also seems to help him (at whatever place my hands are drawn and if I feel him relax in response). Also, being gently toweled off along his sides (as though drying him even though no bath)– there’s something about the feel of a big towel gently along his surface that seems to soothe him. Beyond that, for my dog, having a dependable period of quiet after each outing of any kind; and us remembering not to raise our voices around him, and to stay calm ourselves, seem to have the biggest effects.
Would you consider putting up a gofundme so someone(s) could donate to your pup’s expenses and a few of your daughter’s needs? (And in another thread as well so more people see.)
Take care. I’m so sorry for the horrible experience. What a shock and trauma for all of you.
Ruckus
@Punchy:
It’s OK, he’s not one of the worlds leaders. His position should make him one, but his personality, his legendary defects as a human, they make a joke out of the position. That 70 million of us voted to keep him in the WHITE House, says many things about this country and human beings. I can’t see that any of those things are good.
cain
I’ve been told that in the black community is a bit of a mixed bag at least that is what one woman told me that I’m friends with. She works in politics. She isn’t impressed by Kamala either. While progressive, she thinks the Democratic party is racist since she works with them a lot on pro-choice stuff.
trollhattan
@cain:
The West Coast will have adequate EV infrastructure well ahead of the rest of the country and in tandem with the big gains in range I’d expect them to comprise a decent fraction of the vehicle fleet before anywhere else. It’s still a very small portion overall.
The air quality improvements alone make the pain of switchover worthwhile.
Ruckus
@Amir Khalid:
Thankfully they won’t.
Ken
@Barbara: @Sloane Ranger: Adds a whole new layer to “If you don’t eat your meat, you can’t have any pudding.” On the other hand, that traditional pudding would help with another old British tradition, scurvy.
Tony Jay
@burnspbesq:
Sorry. I would have replied earlier but I had to replace my keyboard after your joke kaboomed it and then I totally disappeared down a Black Friday molehole.
I belatedly salute your bravery. Changing careers at your age takes major cojones, but with material like that I think you’ve got a real shot.
Kent
I’m guessing this is partly age-based. The core Trump constituency is the 45-65 age group which should be at their peak earning years compared to both younger voters who trended to Biden and very older retired voters who may have wealth, but likely less reported income
I’m in the middle of that age range and I know a depressingly high number of my peers who went all in for Trump. Something about being this age makes you at peak risk to be a MAGA asshole or a “Karen.” At least if you are white. I’m not sure why, but race obviously has a lot to do with it.
WaterGirl
@sab: Excuse me for a minute while I pick up my blue pen from the floor…
WaterGirl
It’s a quiet Saturday.
Kent
Yes for sure. We have a Prius. Will drive it until it is dead and then replace with something electric.
Biden can definitely accelerate this trend through Federal purchasing, even without the help of Congress. The Federal government buys large fleets of vehicles. Mail trucks ought to be a perfect candidate for electrification, for example. It’s endless stop and go driving and the routes aren’t enormously long. And that’s just one small example.
cain
@Monala:
How awful! I’ve donated. I hope they can get back on their feet. What a terrible thing to happen.
cain
@Monala:
awwww.. poor pup! I hope pup gets better.
Suzanne
@rikyrah:
Relative social status. That’s always the answer.
Who do they want to outrank on the social status ladder? Black people, women who went to college, people who suggest that they change careers and go into a caring or service profession, white-collar workers (who they call “elites”). Take your pick.
Trump behaves in familiar ways, so they like him. Tells us everything we need to know about them.
Another Scott
@Monala: That’s horrible. :-(
Best of luck to you, your pup, and everyone.
Donated.
Best wishes,
Scott.
PsiFighter37
@cain: I would say that it is interesting that Tesla, according to the latest Consumer Reports data, is the second-lowest car brand on the list (above Lincoln). It seems, like many companies, they coasted on their initial success (here, on the Model S) and have been constantly skimming and cutting corners ever since. While I think Tesla is ahead of its time, the sheer ridiculousness of how much Tesla stock is worth makes me think that the whole thing is just a booster for inflating Elon Musk’s wealth, random speculative investors who view investing as gambling on instinct, and little else.
cain
@trollhattan:
Add amazing train infrastructure and you’ll have the beginnings of an economic zone that would blow past most of the nations in the world. I go to SFO for work at times – and being able to hop on a train and then work from the train would be pretty sweet especially if it is something like a hyperloop – going at 300 miles an hour, you can reach SFO in about 3.5 hours (including a stop at Eugene I reckon)
Geminid
@Kent: UPS and Amazon plan to purchase large fleets of electric delivery vehicles. UPS also is ordering hybrids for longer runs. I thought of hybrid vehicles as an innovation when they first came out. They were as cars, but someone pointed out to me that railroad engines have long been hybrids, with diesel engines, generators, and electric motors to power the wheels.
mad citizen
@cain: I have to question this person’s opinion of Kamala Harris. I read Kamala’s book. What I really like about her is that she has done things as a prosecutor, etc., is a hard worker and generally knows her shit. I guess we’ll see because the spotlight is about to get brighter.
cain
@PsiFighter37:
I got bought mine before it became a status symbol. I honestly wanted to encourage electric cars, and they were like the Apple of cars as far as I was concerned. As it got popular the status seekers showed up replacing a congenial group of enthusiasts with a haughty, privilege set – I feel like at that point it shifted.
Stocks like Tesla, Google, and others have had outrageous stock value. I remember when Tesla was 50 bucks a share, and I still thought it was a absurdly high. I suppose I should have bought it at that point – but everything in the stock market has become overly speculative. It’s annoying.
cain
Well, yeah – I think you’ll always going to find PoCs who have certain objections based on her behavior. You’ll never please anyone. I wasn’t on the Kamala train either, being a ewarren-stan. Even though she’s literally half me.
scav
People might need this.
Olive and Mabel – still taking a paws.
stay till the end.
Jim Appleton
@Geminid:
RR locomotives are diesel powered, with electric transmission.
Uncle Cosmo
Brilliantly put. One need look no further than this blog to view those “elites” in their unnatural habitat, sneering at and mocking those other folks for daring to have tastes and favorites that differ from those soi-disant “elites”.
Monala
@Aleta: thanks for the offer. We have a GoFundMe that has reached its goal, so I’m trying to help my neighbors with theirs.
Thanks for the dog advice. She’s shaking a lot, but I notice when I pet her gently for a while, the shaking temporarily stops.
Ruckus
@Another Scott:
I wonder how many actually know how big the federal government actually is? How many people work in differing departments? I’ve owned a business for a few decades and the number of small things it takes to make it work, really is difficult to list in the aggregate. But they have to be done or it starts to fall apart. And while they affect many other parts, they rarely seem all that by themselves. And mostly you hire someone to tend to the individual pieces because otherwise you keep denting the wall, running your head into it. And after you hire them, you keep denting the wall till they learn how they fit in and actually attempt that. When it’s working it’s good, when it’s not…… Our government is that on steroids. A huge amount of moving pieces, some more important than others, but all the pieces have relevance because of our size and diversity. Farmers are important because we all need to eat, but farming is only what 5% of our population, but that’s over 6 million people and doesn’t account for all the parts that come after the food is grown/raised.
frosty
Same layout as the Chevy Volt. I can’t believe it’s been discontinued and no one else has made the same thing. It’s a serial hybrid, not parallel – one drivetrain, not two. Makes so much more sense to me.
Barbara
@Kent: 45-65 means born between 1955 and 1975. It means that all the way up until 1970, you could and most likely would have voted for Reagan. The Republican lean of voters trails off after that. That cohort is among the most likely to vote Republican (among caucasian voters). It is offset in many states by non-white and younger voters. In many states, like the mountain states, it isn’t.
NotMax
@Ruckus
According to the RWNJs 125% of the federal budget goes to foreign aid.
//
germy
Yarrow
@WaterGirl: Longer threads are harder for people to navigate. If a new thread goes up it might be less quiet.
Barbara
@cain: We bought ours 7 years ago because we really wanted to encourage electric vehicles and we were thrilled that the extended range made it a car for every purpose. Yes, agree that the status seekers have taken over to some extent, which means that a lot of people don’t seem to understand the trade offs of owning a Tesla (or any electric vehicle). It helps to like math and be able to think ahead. Gone are the days of staying at KOA campgrounds to get a charge and the various other tricks we used to cross the country when there were not nearly as many superchargers as there are now.
To a certain extent, though, the market has to move from enthusiasts to elitists to ordinary car owners, and there are clear downsides to the cohort of owners not expanding enough. For that reason, we have always been electric vehicle evangelists. And just think how annoying it is when you like something only to run in to people who turn up their nose and say something like, “well I’ve liked it for at least a decade before it was cool” or, even worse, “well, I like the super duper exotic organically derived version of it.” So there!
LuciaMia
Yeah, there were some uniquely British bakes this season. Custard slices? Walnut whorls?
Immanentize
@trollhattan: I gotta disagree softly. My ‘spensive Audio Technica table did not sound better than the Yamaha PX-3. As good, perhaps, but I think the PX3 still delivers fuller sound. It could be the cartridge which is a moving coil type?
cain
@Barbara:
Yeah, it was a fun community – we’d flash our lights or honk at each other. I was one of the first 500 in Portland. Just such a fun time. Yes, and we would discover all the tricks for better range, sharing “recipes” so to speak.
I think soon we will be able to see the full switch to electric and that is going to help the climate quite a bit as the world switches over. Especially in crowded metro areas around the world. Scalability will be an issue but we will figure it out.
PsiFighter37
@cain: TSLA makes no sense. GOOG – there is a better argument to buy it.
gwangung
@cain: She’s not wrong.
Dems are nowhere near as bad as Republicans, but they have their share of Karens….
Barbara
@LuciaMia: I was going to try to make those walnut whirls. Gosh, they looked good, and I love homemade marshmallows. The custard slices seemed like a less refined millefeuille, and they looked really good too.
CaseyL
@PsiFighter37:
I thought that’s what investing always is. Even the old standbys, like Muni stocks, aren’t a sure thing anymore (or so I’ve heard). My grandmother loved to play the stock market – until the 1980s, when P&E ratios were thrown out and she no longer understood (or trusted) how value was calculated.
Suzanne
@Uncle Cosmo: Typically, “looking down on them” is really only not wanting the same kind of life. These people have this insatiable desire to be envied.
Immanentize
@Kathleen: Check out Clifford Brown. Just so cool.
Tenderly
NotMax
@LuciaMia
Unhappy when those appear. Nothing wears out a loofah faster than scrubbing them away.
:)
/silliness
patrick II
@cain:
I have Ben wondering whether the charging stations from different companies will be compatible. Can other cars charge at teams stations. How much standard is needed? On the connector, certainly.
Immanentize
@debbie: one of the best songs ever.
cain
Oh I totally agree – there are definitely racists/karens in the Democratic party at the local level. My friend has certain people she will never meet alone or even at all and this is in urban blue portland.
It will take time to sort all this stuff up, it was always going to be incrementalism.
patroclus
The next 4 days or so are going to be crucial for the EU-UK negotiations on Brexit. There are several possible outcomes: (1) they reach no deal and the transition expires on 12/31 and the UK crashes out with no agreement – meaning WTO rules for everything, a possible hard border in Ireland and utter chaos in supply chains across multiple industries; (2) they reach a “skinny” deal on a few items and pretend that it’s a lot bigger than it is and the same chaos happens in all industries not covered by the deal; (3) they reach a broad mutually-acceptable all-encompassing deal (not very likely) and everyone emerges happy; or (4) they punt and extend the transition period for more negotiation.
Amazingly, just like before, the Opposition is in disarray and the speculation is that they will either support whatever deal BoJo negotiates because the alternative of chaos would be worse or frickin abstain (where did you stand on the biggest issue of the day? – oh, I abstained). As before, there is literally no one who has argued for opposing everything and arguing the case for staying in the EU. The future of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland (and the Good Friday Agreement) weighs in the balance – not to mention the English economy – and all the alternatives look bad. And the Tories now have a 80+ majority in the Commons…
The U.S. appears to be at least trying to overcome and reverse our stupid 2016 mistake – the UK just seems to be sliding further into the abyss…
cain
@PsiFighter37: The stock price for GOOG right now $1,713. Seriously – I don’t think they are worth that much.
Omnes Omnibus
@Uncle Cosmo: Oh, yeah, you blend.
Baud
@gwangung:
Yep. But I’m tired of the “Dems are imperfect” excuses people come up with. We’re not perfect, but we’re a whole lot better than most other large groups of people.
Kent
Technically true. But the term “transmission” doesn’t imply a gearbox of the sort that is in an ordinary car. The transmission is what powers the locomotive. There is no mechanical connection between the diesel engine which generates electricity, and the electric transmissions that drive the wheels, which are essentially electric motors.
They do this because the enormous torque required to start and move trains and electromagnetic power is much better suited to producing high-torque at low speeds than combustion engines.
Omnes Omnibus
@Baud: It is odd, isn’t it, that a political party made up of human beings would have flaws.
Immanentize
@Jim Appleton: thing I learned going down a prepper research hole — US military consolidated it’s fuel sources — jet fuel and diesel. All vehicles have to run diesel. So, they designed a diesel motorcycle! That’s what the serious preppers want/get
CaseyL
@Suzanne: I know someone who loves to be envied, and very often recounts how people envy her for her house, her talent, etc. She’s actually a very good person, but I think has a lifelong chip on her shoulder because she was poor growing up. Another person I know, who was also poor growing up, hungers for status within her milieu – the problem being, she is a good but not gifted practitioner within that milieu.
I know that’s not universal, but it does seem to be a common driver. People who came from poverty, genteel or otherwise, and achieved middle- or upper-middle class status, demand to be, not merely acknowledged, but envied.
To quote Gore Vidal:”It is not enough for me to win. You have to lose.”
gwangung
@Baud: It’s always a process of perfecting…it is not possible to be perfect.
I will support people who know they are imperfect but are working on it. And that crosses party lines….
WaterGirl
@Omnes Omnibus: Come on Omnes, I suppose next you’ll be saying relationships are hard.
Shakti
There’s a very interesting post from July 2020 by Dr. Tressie McMillan Cottom called The Meltdown Crisis. She suggests class anxiety is tied up with racial anxiety:
If you are at the peak of your earning power but you have nowhere to spend money and lord it over people, what are you going to do? Trump is the special jag-off many of them have fantasized about being.
Baud
@gwangung:
I wouldn’t know about that.
Omnes Omnibus
@WaterGirl: I find them very easy. I just expect people to cater to my needs and whims.
Immanentize
@Omnes Omnibus: In other words, “relationships are very easy, they just don’t last long.”
NotMax
@Immanentize
“That relationship has sailed.”
:)
Ruckus
@Kent:
And who is then going to keep those 30-50 yr old mail delivery trucks running? Know a guy who 20+ yrs ago was working on getting new engine blocks from China and getting them machined because the trucks were OK other than the engines and the mfg was long out of business. The start/stop part of their usage had worn them out, with nothing to replace them in right hand drive.
Monala
@cain: thank you!
Monala
@Another Scott: much appreciated!
Omnes Omnibus
@Immanentize: How did you know?
WaterGirl
@Immanentize: I was already composing a comment with that exact sentiment in my head when I got to the next comment, yours. Now I don’t need to write mine.
Jim Appleton
@Kent:
Yes,
@Kent:
Well aware of this, thanks for clarifying.
I learned more about rail than I wanted as fire chief in Mosier, OR for the oil train derailment.
cain
My friend has to navigate the field of imperfect Dems because they exist and she’s trying to work on women health issues with the party but runs into these people time and time again. That shapes her emotional and professional opinion of the Democratic party.
Ruckus
@Monala:
So sorry for all of this.
It sounds like the pup is afraid that things have changed for ever and that she might have to jump again. I’d bet time and those soft strokes are what she needs, to assure her that you are still here and she is still safe, even if she wasn’t for a while.
Being a geezer, this feels a bit familiar. Life changes, it passes you by, that’s the nature of it, but that doesn’t mean it’s gone, just changed in a way one can experience but probably not really understand until it happens. It’s new, it is probably scary for her, her world is smaller than yours and no one is there to explain it.
ballerat
@Citizen Alan: Totally agree with this, and also live in a rural place.
There is nothing dems can do to win their votes. They will take that dem bluestate urban money and pocket it as their due and still vote against them.
Take care of blue state urban people instead. Or spend that effort to win bigger in the suburbs.
I do disagree strongly that they are voting against their best interests. They are indeed voting to the detriment of their economic future, their health, and their children’s education. But that is not among their best interests else they would be voting dem.
They’re racist whites who vote to keep their white privilege and to hurt the people they don’t like. That is their overriding interests and their voting very much does align with those interests.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@Ken: THis is true. I know a woman who was hit by an electric car after she stepped out in front of it because she didn’t hear it coming. They are VERY quiet. Of course, she probably should have looked both ways before stepping out into the street, but I think it was turning a corner or something.
Suzanne
@Shakti: Yeah for sure. The thing is that social status or cultural influence or whatever you want to call it is not directly linked to income, and I think that realization sucks for a lot of people. On a thread a few days ago, we were discussing Ford F-150s. Those things are expensive. Like, I can’t imagine ever buying one. Ever. But there are a lot of people who make a lot less than I do who buy them. I don’t “look down on them” for buying them…. but, even if my income increased by a factor of ten, I wouldn’t buy one. To me, they’re coded as the kind of car driven by people I don’t really want to be. That’s not the same as “looking down on them” because I’m not on a higher perch, but if you are the kind of person who wants to be envied for your big pickup, then I am not likely to be the kind of person you want to consort with. Which is totally okay.
I think the Nike ad with Kaepernick was a perfect example of this dynamic. That ad was specifically designed by Nike to get certain people to stop wearing their stuff. Not even along financial lines. In fact, they probably alienated more people with money. But for people who are used to seeing themselves as catered to, as aspirational, to see that a brand doesn’t want your freely given money because you are toxic to them probably felt pretty bad.
That’s why the obnoxious douchebag contingent likes Trump more than any of the other Republicans: he makes them feel seen and catered to. He wants their votes and doesn’t make them feel bad for being douchebags.
jeffreyw
@Ruckus: I live on a rural mail route, at least three of the delivery peeps have a RH drive Jeep. I think they buy them themselves, not sure if or how they are expensed to the USPS.
Chris T.
You might already mean what I’m about to say, but in case you don’t, I’ll say it. :-)
The great thing about electric power is that it’s fungible. You can use any old electrons. They’re all the same. (OK, not 100% true, but easy to convert voltage and current and so on.)
The terrible thing about electric power is that it’s incredibly hard to store. You have just a few options, such as batteries, and pumping water uphill.
The result is that a standalone solar powered charging station is not so great: you either need huge batteries to store the solar power when the sun is shining but no car is charging, or you just waste the electric energy. Connect it to “the grid”, though, and any “wasted” energy goes to offsetting some other usage. Maybe you power the neighbor’s oven and TV, for instance.
If you follow this through to its logical conclusion, the right thing to do is just put the panels up and feed whatever you can from them, e.g., put them on your roof and use net metering if you can. Put the charger on the same grid. It all comes from the same pool in the end.
Ruckus
@NotMax:
So among other things they aren’t good at, maths is on the list…..
Suzanne
@CaseyL: I have an ex-friend like that. We were friends when we were in school, and she would always brag about fill-in-the-blank. We stopped being friends because she was just insanely fucking jealous when we got older and she never took those trips she bragged about, never got that job she bragged about, etc etc etc. I also have a cousin who just became a State Senator in CT who has the same fucked-up dynamic…. always always always needs praise. Always needs to feel special. We were on a group text on Thanksgiving and we were talking about our grandfather, who would have turned 100 years old this year. She bragged that she was his favorite grandchild. It’s incessant with some people.
Ruckus
@patroclus:
Admitting a mistake is the first step. More than half of the US knew it was a mistake when he was running, let alone when he “won.” How many in Britain know or will admit it was a mistake? Are they thinking it is the Britain of 2-3 centuries ago? Like many of our conservatives do here, tri-corner hats and all.
Ruckus
@Kent:
Also the mechanicals required to connect the engines to the wheels wears out, has to be replaced at a rather often schedule and cost, with a breakdown to operational ratio that isn’t cost effective.
Chris T.
Well, mostly: a 30A 240V outlet (standard electric dryer setup) is fine, but will only power one of the two items: the electric dryer, or the car charger. And even then you can’t charge at a full 7.2 kW because for some reason (I don’t know what the reason is, does anyone here know?) an “X amp” outlet is really a 0.8X amp outlet for continuous draw; the X-amp level is only for a few seconds. That is, you have to multiply all ratings by 0.8 (or divide by 0.8 and round up when installing), so you need a 40A outlet to charge at 7.2 kW.
(Charging at 3.6 kW, which is what I have, you can use the old 30A outlet. But then it can take a long time to get a full charge. In practice it’s fine, as I don’t drive a long way every day. In fact, I’m currently getting by just fine with the 120V convenience charger. We moved, and the new place doesn’t have a 240V outlet in the garage. The old one didn’t either until I had an electrician install one, so this is nothing new….)
Chris T.
There are standards.
The trick is, there are multiple standards, and then there’s Tesla.
Tesla have their own private standard. You can’t use it unless you have a Tesla. They make their cars accept everyone else’s (via adapter connectors) though, so if you have a Tesla, you can charge anywhere.
Other than that, there are:
The CCS is like a J1772 with a lump at the bottom, which means if you have CCS you can plug into either the old J1772 chargers, or the new CCS chargers. CHAdeMO is now the odd-man-out, as it were.
CCS is becoming standard here in the US and in Europe.
Martin
Late the to game here, but grandpa taught me pie for breakfast is 100% acceptable. He grew up on a farm in Pennsylvania, so I consider this advice authoritative.
Martin
@Chris T.: Yeah, CCS has won. The main thing I would look at when buying a new BEV is what the vehicles charging capability is. Ideally you want a vehicle that supports fast charging at 800V 350-kW. That should get you about 50+ miles in about 4 minutes, or 80% charge in about 15 minutes.
That’s inconvenient but not so much that it requires significant planning for long trips. That fast charging network is being built nationally, but first in CA. Basically the settlements from Dieselgate are mandated to be used to build the network. CA also allows fuel producers to build EV charging network in CA to offset emission penalties under LCFS, which is also not a small sum.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@Uncle Cosmo: I want to thank you for that hilarious parody of “The Road to Mandalay” you posted a couple of weeks ago.
Martin
@Geminid: FedEx has been using EV vehicles here in SoCal for years. Most of the endpoint delivery vehicles around me are EVs. Talked to our regular delivery person at work a bit back about it and he loves them. Better than their old vehicles in every way.
Kathleen
@Immanentize: Oh thank you! I had never heard of him before. So sad he died so young. His music is exquisite.
Martin
@Chris T.: We have a 40A 240V charger in the garage. It’s on a 50A breaker. So it delivers 40A, but it can safely draw up to 50A. The vehicle may be throttling the draw. Our plug-in hybrid can’t draw anywhere near 7.2kW, so we’re not using the full capabilities of the charger, but we will at some point in the future.
When we had solar installed we needed a new panel so we now have tons of space to add circuits. We added that circuit, and after the cost of getting the circuit in place, the cost of the better charger was trivial.
We have another 40A or 50A circuit for the new electric water heater we added.
I will also note that a 30A 240V outlet will very proudly power a good table saw, jointer, and surface planer, among other things. Big torquey motors that don’t draw a ton of current relative to the benefits of the higher voltage.
Chris T.
@Martin: That’s more or less the same thing I did at the previous place. Was going to add solar PV (and did), needed new circuit for car charger, had electrician add new box with room for everything. This made the solar PV installation much simpler. I had them put in a 40 or 50 amp circuit “just in case” but never bothered to upgrade my old 3.6kW EVSE unit.
(In Calif, there’s extra incentive to get your car recharged on low-cost power. Here in WA state, it’s all low-cost power: under $.12/kWh, vs averaging over $.36/kWh where we were. I include city taxes in that because it’s what I pay: if you knock those out it’s “only” about $.35/kWh in PG&E-land.)
Shakti
@Suzanne:
This ad? It’s mild, really.
Some white people expect businesses give them special preferred treatment and to treat other customers badly as part of “good customer service.”
They get ENRAGED that businesses even want the money of people who aren’t them.
I wouldn’t believe it if I didn’t see it firsthand.
Sister Golden Bear
@Sloane Ranger: At the risk of Yankee-splaining, I recently watched a BBC documentary on the British monarchs from 1066 present. One of the interesting takes they had was that Brits never had the “divine right of kings” attitude—unlike most of Europe—because when the Normans conquered Britain, they didn’t understand the language nor local customs, nor did they have the military power like the Romans to impose their’s, so by necessity they ended up doing power-sharing deals with the locals, and let the Brits keep most of their local laws and traditions.
Which is a long way of wondering the “funny foreigners” attitude in part traces back to that. I.e. it was a bit of defense mechanism against feeling inferior to the Normans who’d conquered the country, but were still “alien” and not quite powerful enough to feel fully subjugated like the Romans (Nor did the Normans have the goodies that the Romans had, which enticed some Roman-era Brits to be willing to trade self-rule for much improved quality of life.)
Miss Bianca
@Uncle Cosmo:
“Dear Kettle, you are so very, very, black. Shame on you! Signed, Pot.”
Miss Bianca
@CaseyL:
Sounds like Donald Trump to a “T”.
Uncle Cosmo
Yeah, as in, Well, **I** wouldn’t live/eat/shop/work like that, said with an obvious sneer. IOW a pretty goddamned elitist attitude.
Disagree vehemently. i grew up with these people, & in my experience they would mostly just like to be left alone to enjoy what they enjoy. No one is forcing yinz to watch NASCAR or eat at Mickey D’s.**
Maybe we should all try not crapping on people for their “lifestyle choices,” so long as those choices aren’t directly harming others, hm?***
– – – –
** Disclaimer: I like the occasional Filet-of-Fish, and it runs in the family. After Dad died, when my cousins who grew up down the block came to visit Mom they would bring a bag of them & that would be supper – & she loved it. (She also lived past 102, so no smarmy comments.) FTR I also like an occasional Whopper with small fries and a Diet Dr Pepper. Sue me.
*** I have a sneaking suspicion that what most of yinz find so objectionable about Mickey D’s and BK vs your beloved “taco trucks”**** is that the former are franchises owned by rich people, and the idea that the rich get richer by giving the common people pretty much what they like really pisses you off.
**** Considering that the hot & heavy spicing of Mexican food originated from the need to render meat that was well past its “best by” date palatable, I would guess it’s slightly more probable to get an upset stomach from the products of those trucks – but yinz will ignore it while screaming bloody murder about any twinge you get from one of the eebil-capitalist franchise chains.
Omnes Omnibus
@Uncle Cosmo: I guess it’s a good thing that we have a tribune of the people like you here to learn us about these things.
Uncle Cosmo
@Omnes Omnibus: And you can fuck right off, Oh-Oh.
Suzanne
@Omnes Omnibus: The ultimate irony? I actually worked at Mickey D’s, back in the day. I unapologetically love Egg McMuffins. And tacos.
I would believe that people just want to be left alone to eat fast food and watch NASCAR in peace, but then they go and call arugula elitist and imply that if you don’t like sports that you’re gay or at least pretentious and then they refer to themselves as Real Americans so I stand by my assessment.
Uncle Cosmo
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: You’re quite welcome, and I’m glad you enjoyed it, but FTR I had no role other than to recall it from Mad magazine ca. 1959 and hunt down/piece together the text. No creativity involved.
(Now if you want to see the parody of Wallace Stevens I worked up around a line that reads something like “The only tyrant is the tyrant of hash brownies,” it may take me awhile to dig up….)
Uncle Cosmo
@Omnes Omnibus: Even though the sarcasm oozes from you, Oh-Oh, you just by accident happen to be abso-fucking-lutely correct for a change. Suck it.
Omnes Omnibus
@Suzanne: About sports, how can you not love something that gives you the glorious insanity of this interview?
As far as the rest goes, UC’s faux-regular guy schtick is boring. And the idea that food truck are automatically some kind of bougie/hipster thing is absurd. Also, the idea that a hamburger is more American than a burrito is a bit telling as well.
Suzanne
@Omnes Omnibus: That’s some crazy shit. I’m not a big team sports person, though I do enjoy a couple of NBA games every year, but it is incredible how some people react when I say that, for example, I’m not a football fan. I honestly think that if I told people I worshiped Satan and punched kittens that people would be less aghast. And yet…. I’m not hungry for those people’s approval.
It’s not the coastal elitists who are thirsty.
Side note: I find it a strange relic of our fucked-up politics that there are Coastal Elitists and Real Americans, and that I personally identify more with the former…. despite not living on the coast, attending state schools on scholarships, and bringing my lunch to work every day. It’s nothing but an inferiority complex.
Origuy
@Ramalama: When I went to St Basil’s in Moscow, there was a male quartet named Doros singing there. The voices echoed throughout the cathedral. Here’s a sample:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9YDlPAF82E
Mary Ellen Sandahl
@Ken:Noiselessness in a fast-moving vehicle is a problem. I live in a neighborhood which has recently-established bike lanes in the main through street, and none too soon. At least a couple of times I’ve nearly been mowed down by a cyclist approaching fast on the sidewalk from behind. The bike tires aren’t audible until they’re only a few feet away, and if for some reason I had stepped slightly to one side (I had my dog on a leash), it would have been too damn bad for all concerned. If electric cars are comparably quiet, that’s a concern.