I heard there was a secret cord
you plug it in
and you meet the Lord https://t.co/rZKR82HSW5— Dune (2021) hate account ? (@duns_sc0tus) November 2, 2021
but you don't really care for safety do ya?
— Dune (2021) hate account ? (@duns_sc0tus) November 2, 2021
I screenshot and texted this to my husband and got a line back. pic.twitter.com/dvxjb3arqO
— Spooky Mantilla ?? (@PunkyMantilla) November 2, 2021
The sign was there but you needed proof
You plugged the cable on the roof
The voltage and the current overthrew you— Daniel Feldman (@d_feldman) November 4, 2021
======
Elsewhere… Cole & MajorMajorMajorMajor already shared the good news about the infrastructure bill. So that’s a pretty good step forward!
Woke up this a.m. reading stories about the mess that Biden & Dems had made of this year. Then came news of more job growth–5.5 million new jobs in 9 months. Then, tonight passage of a $1.2 T infrastructure bill and a commitment from House Dems to pass the $1.75 T BBB package.
— David Rothkopf (@djrothkopf) November 6, 2021
…and appointing more judges more quickly than his predecessors & reversing damaging, dangerous Trump decisions & restoring US approval rating in the world to near record levels (after Trump's record lows) & doing all this despite relentless, irrational GOP opposition.
— David Rothkopf (@djrothkopf) November 6, 2021
But those of you who are reading this…you know the real story. And starting tomorrow, it is up to all of us to make sure everyone else knows, too. Because the stark, startling truth more than anything else is what will drive a Dem victory in 2022…and save our democracy.
— David Rothkopf (@djrothkopf) November 6, 2021
Baud
?
NotMax
Things you’ll never see at the Smithsonian.
Spanky
I’m LOLOLOLing at those lyrics! Maybe I’m too much of a geek, or too big a fan of the Darwin Awards, or maybe just Hallelujah-ed out.
Ten Bears
Might be a good time to turn “Thank You Brandon!” back into their faces …
debbie
I was too busy yesterday trying to get myself fired to hear about the jobs reports. That’s wonderful! Six Democrats voting against the infrastructure bill? Definitely not.
More locally, the GOP-engineered Ohio redistricting maps would have Gym Jordan representing a very progressive neighborhood (Clintonville). I’d like to think this is the beginning of his end, but I know I’d be wrong.
germy
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/11/fbi-probes-project-veritas-over-ashley-bidens-stolen-diary.html
FBI Probing Project Veritas Links to Biden Daughter’s Stolen Diary
Baud
@germy:
Wow. I missed this story completely.
debbie
@germy:
G. Gordon Liddy: “Punk ass kids.”
Ken
Dunno why you’d need to buy one of those adapter cords, they’re easy enough to make with two lamp-cord kits and some duct tape for insulation…
Baud
@debbie:
Did you succeed in getting fired?
OzarkHillbilly
maybe i’m just feeling overly pessimistic but facts not in evidence.
debbie
@Baud:
No, but there’s always Monday.
MagdaInBlack
I saw that diary thing percolating on the edges yesterday, and now wingnut twitter is starting to bitch about it.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
There are no facts when it comes to predictions.
prostratedragon
@germy: So that’s where all that cussing I heard in the air the other day was coming from. Imagine being a serious professional investigator and having to chase down some James O’Keefe stunt.
Baud
@debbie:
Good luck!
debbie
@Ken:
I know nothing about hanging lights on houses, but why wouldn’t you make sure you had the plugs correctly matched up before you even climbed the ladder? It seems crucial.
Baud
@prostratedragon:
I would love to be the one to put the Project Veritas folks in cuffs.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: yep. facts didn’t keep trump out of the WH in 2016.
Betty
@NotMax: Paging Howard Wolowitz.
germy
@Baud:
@debbie:
This is the first time I’m seeing this story. I had no idea Biden’s daughter had her diary stolen and posted online.
I don’t know what was revealed, but I’m glad the MSM didn’t run with diary excerpts at the time.
Ken
@debbie: I’d say “doesn’t check plugs before hanging lights” and “thinks of male-male plug to fix it” are part of a larger pattern, perhaps linked to lead in gasoline.
Betty
@Baud: Because it wasn’t reported?
germy
@prostratedragon:
I hadn’t heard anything. Lately I’ve been consciously uncoupling myself from lots of news.
Baud
@Betty:
I guess it didn’t trend on social media either.
Suzanne
@Spanky: I’m totally over the song. I know it’s lovely, so I tried to not hear it for ten years. But it finds me!
prostratedragon
@Baud: There is that. But the amount of bullshit to wade through getting there would make it a costly pleasure.
prostratedragon
@germy: So have I. I just keep my windows open;)
Spanky
@debbie:
Because one is an idiot. Ol’ Saint Darwin is busy at Christmastide.
debbie
@Spanky:
Having three brothers and having watched Red Green for years, it’s no surprise, but at what point do the stupid die off?
Suzanne
@Spanky: Seriously. Why not check the plugs? Because you lack foresight. I’m sure the Venn diagram of “people who don’t check their plugs” and “people who voted for Trump” has some significant overlap.
OzarkHillbilly
@Betty: i read of it. didn’t bother with the details.
Suzanne
Speaking of which, that reminds me that I need some new strings of lights for the tree this year. I am trying to be merrier this year, because I was really fucken not into it last year.
NotMax
@Suzanne
Stock up now, you never know if Glass Wax will be on the shelves come late December.
;)
MagdaInBlack
@NotMax: I remember that commercial (or one like it ) and yes, I had to have it. ?
evodevo
@Spanky: I know…and what is preventing one from just using one of those multi-head extension cords where you can plug in several things?
Gin & Tonic
@Ken: I dunno, might just be linked to the bourbon in the egg nog.
Anne Laurie
What I’m reading is that, after Pelosi had corralled a sufficient number of Republicans (lucky 13) to ensure passage, she gave the hardcore burn-it-all-down Progressives a choice to vote no. Which six of them chose to take advantage of, if only to preserve their ‘credentials’ concerning the de-linked, still-to-come BBB bill.
I’m disappointed about the second bill myself. That’s why I’m not a legislator — old & out-of-shape as I am, I’d have to be physically restrained from punching some of my colleagues out at least once a week…
evodevo
@evodevo:
Oh, wait…all you have are …female ends? Never mind…
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Anne Laurie: I confess I might have voted with the Progressives. I don’t trust that BBB will now pass the Senate. Maybe it never would have and we have to take what we can get, but it pisses me off
germy
OzarkHillbilly
@evodevo: just the other day i learned how easy it is to turn a male end into a female end.
Spanky
Ya know, things were simpler back before we had electrickery at Christmas. We just hung burning candles on our Christmas trees, and we LIKED it!
germy
I’m glad Pete B. and Biden are open to fixes and solutions that don’t revolve around cars. I love trains and I’m glad we’ll be improving alternatives to driving.
Ken
@Spanky: And that was when we had proper trees, real trees packed with resin and dropping dry needles everywhere.
zhena gogolia
Rothkopf has been sterling.
sab
@OzarkHillbilly:Ouch. How are you doing?
Spanky
@NotMax: Do you suppose Glass Wax is flammable?
ETA – Asking for a friend.
OzarkHillbilly
@sab: hanging in there.
Immanentize
@OzarkHillbilly: They say the ends justify the means.
OzarkHillbilly
@Immanentize: hmmm… that’s just what the nurse said.
schrodingers_cat
@debbie: The performance artists known as the Squad. They vote against the Dems and with the Republicans with an alarming regularity.
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone ???
Immanentize
@OzarkHillbilly: One must listen to Nurse Ratched!
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
NotMax
Partially through the free for the month of November first season of Magellan (original title Commissaire Magellan) on Prime.
Watchable enough and likeable cast, although stretching each episode to 90 minutes exposes a plenty of padding; also more red herrings than in a Soviet cannery. The eponymous detective is a textbook study in equanimity.
Also somehow wasn’t aware that the second season of the Icelandic noir Trapped popped up on Prime. If the first season spouted your geyser, check it out.
Baud
@schrodingers_cat:
I noted earlier that I was pleased to see Jayapal voted for the bill. She took on a leadership role in these talks, and voted consistent with that role.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@OzarkHillbilly: Hope you’re feeling better
Immanentize
@Anne Laurie: Of course this is what happened — it’s called releasing votes and happens all the time. It is just that in this Congress there are too few Dem votes to release, in most cases. Historically, it has been the moderates or blue dogs that have been allowed to be released on votes. I have no doubt that if they needed them this group would have voted for the bill. Jayapal was clearly involved in counting votes, too.
ETA what Baud said at 57.
OzarkHillbilly
@Immanentize: i had nurse wretched. at least ratched gave out good drugs.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: Good on her for not voting like the Green Tea ? party.
Since the Bernier-than-thou Squad members are all about symbolism what message does this all-or-nothing approach to politics, convey?
Immanentize
@OzarkHillbilly: Mmmmm. Juicy Fruit. I do hope you are on the m-end?
sab
@schrodingers_cat: If they want to virtue signal when it doesn’t matter I am okay with that. They still have their own constituents to deal with. The important thing is they didn’t actually try to tank the bill like progressives used to do. Incremental progress might get us somewhere this time. They gave up a lot to get this bill through. I think they are entitled to vote their frustration so long as they didn’t tank the bill. And they didn’t.
OzarkHillbilly
@Dorothy A. Winsor: better than what, is the question.
OzarkHillbilly
@Immanentize: time will tell.
Immanentize
Mike E
Finally! Something to celebrate during plague times. Now we can get back to crying about gas prices and
supply chainsthe war on Xmas!Immanentize
Schrodinger’s law!
schrodingers_cat
@sab: I don’t buy this cover story that they are doing this for their constituents. They are doing this to build their own brand.
gene108
@OzarkHillbilly:
I think this is going to be a throw the bums out election. The most surprising result from 2021 is NJ Senate President, Steve Sweeney (D) lost to Ed Durr a delivery truck driver, who ran and lost in a couple elections the last few years, has no political experience, and was significantly out spent.
Sweeney got things done for his district, and was one of most powerful politicians in NJ.
I think the narrative’s been set after the scenes from the August 15 withdrawal from Afghanistan, and Congressional Democrats squabbling over BIF and BBB that Democrats are in disarray, and are pushing a radical liberal agenda.
Immanentize
@OzarkHillbilly: ??fingers on both hands crossed.
schrodingers_cat
Shorter Squad apologists, the Squad is never wrong they can only be wronged.
Immanentize
@gene108: Change election is how I read the Terry Mac loss. But we can also present change candidates! Terry Mac was the opposite.
sab
@schrodingers_cat: Whatever. If they don’t hurt our efforts in the process I am okay with it. When we need their votes we have them. In contrast to Ted Kennedy blowing up the Clinton health plan in the nineties, a vote he regretted for the rest of his life. Lost us a generation of incremental improvements.
Baud
@gene108:
If that’s the case, then at least we can stop blaming Obama for the stimulus being too small in 2009. It wouldn’t have made a difference anyway.
Baud
@gene108:
And the fact that NJ reelected their first Dem governor since 1977 should also be taken as unprecedented.
sab
@schrodingers_cat: You’re in Massachusetts. I am in Ohio. Obvious progressivism just doesn’t work here. Incremental improvements do. Sherrod Brown is as progressive as almost anyone in Congress, but he always goes incremental because that might work. If Congresspeople need or want to signal more progressive and vote against a bill that wil pass I am okay. They had Pelosi’s back through the whole proces this time, which is a huge change in their approach.
OzarkHillbilly
good news
Frankensteinbeck
@Immanentize:
What should be the narrative here is “Holy shit, Pelosi got 13 Republicans to cross over.” The woman is a legislative god, and does not get enough credit for it. Pity she can’t control the Senate.
OzarkHillbilly
@schrodingers_cat: we get it. you hate them. there is no talking to you about them. it’s past tiresome.
trnc
“Couldn’t get done” implies he actually tried, but he didn’t since he couldn’t figure out a way to personally profit.
Baud
@Frankensteinbeck:
Agreed.
germy
OzarkHillbilly
speak for yourself. ;-)
sab
@Frankensteinbeck: Yes!
japa21
@OzarkHillbilly: Yep. Also, hope you are doing a little better. I remember that after my rather extensive neck surgery, I had a catheter for 3 days. Of course, I was pretty much limited to the hospital bed but I still ended up begging the nurse to remove it. Can’t imagine a week dragging it around.
OzarkHillbilly
@germy: ever day? that’s ambitious.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
Excellent. What also works is electing a Dem governor so we don’t have to deal with right wing cancel culture.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
It’s like Linneus’s blanket.
germy
germy
sab
@Baud: Obama started with a stimulus dthey thought the other side could accept. Eventually they did. So he gets blamed for not asking for enough (which he would not have gotten.)
Biden did the opposite, asked for everything within reason and then allowed them to whittle it down to what they could stand to vote for. Criticized severly for givimg in.
Who knows? I think Biden’s approach got us more but who knows. The political context was different. And I think we were on the brink of overall economic catastrophe in 2009. But we saved the macroeconomy and let all the individuals in the microeconomy flounder.
Snarki, child of Loki
@Baud: “I would love to be the one to put the Project Veritas folks in cuffs.”
After an extended taser-ing, of course.
Hey! I found a use for the male-to-male extension cord…
Baud
@sab:
I’m not redebating policy. I’m saying policy or the economy may not matter if the dire predictions prove true.
gene108
@japa21:
I’m going through a plasmapheresis treatment, because my transplanted kidney’s going into rejection. I have a catheter in my chest, which was put in on Monday and comes out next Friday. I’m under orders not to shower. I can’t get the catheter wet. Finding ways to bath, still feel clean, and keep the catheter relatively dry has been a challenge.
I have Saturday, November 13 circled on my calendar as the next day I can shower. I’m going use up all my hot water.
Immanentize
@Frankensteinbeck: Tru dat!
sab
@Baud: I agree wholeheartedly.
OzarkHillbilly
@gene108: i think i’ll shut up now about my minor travails. good luck.
Gin & Tonic
@Baud: I’m trying to think of a good taxonomy joke here but coming up empty.
Close, though – I once had a real Army surplus blanket that had a sewn-on label saying “Blanket, bed, wool, O.D.” Is that proper taxonomy?
Baud
@gene108:
Oh man. Get better soon.
sab
My husband’s best friend for 60 years, when they were both ten, went into the hospital with seizures and a possible stroke yesterday. He has been on an EKG ever since to detect any brain activity. Quick for him. Devastatimg for his wife. She hasn’t worked since they got married, so her only income is Social Security (the wife’s half share.) He is/was a really wonderful man.
We are all devastated, and very worried for his wife.
JML
Here’s my concern today about Democratic politics: Mpls had a ballot measure regarding a substantial change to policing (ending the MPD as it stands and creating a new department of public safety). It was voted down handily, failing in 10 out of 13 wards in the city. The most common response I’ve seen from the people pushing “Yes” on that question has been that it was voted down because people are racist.
North Mpls, which is the blackest ward in the city and has experienced some of the most difficult challenges with policing directly, voted it down.
I’m sure that race had something to do with it going down (race impacts most things in Mpls elections), but was it voted down because a majority of voters were racist and influenced by racist appeals, or did the Vote Yes contingent fail in their communications? Literally going up to election day you had the same people saying Vote Yes on 2 would eliminate the Minneapolis Police and saying it wouldn’t end the Minneapolis Police, depending on who asked and how they asked the question.
It was an utter fail in communications, and I’m concerned that the lesson they’re taking away from it is the simplistic (and mostly wrong) response that Mpls voters are racist and that’s why they lost.
trnc
@gene108:
Sorry to hear all of that, but maybe this is an opportunity. You have a reason to stop bathing, so wait a few more days and then go visit some annoying people you haven’t been able to get rid of.
Another Scott
@gene108: That’s rough. :-(
Hang in there and keep the faith.
Best wishes,
Scott.
sab
@JML: Everyone Black that I know in my city wants police and more police The kids all seem to have guns these days. They just don’t want police that kill their innocent children and husbands.
We don’t seem to be doing that (killing Black men at random) in my little city. I hope I am not just naive about it. I am not naive about the unjustified random traffic stops. Those are real and ubiquitous.
debbie
@Anne Laurie:
Not sure that’s the best way to build their cred. It certainly puts a larger target on their backs which will be helpful to the GOP’s electioneering lies.
And if they don’t like BBB, pass the fucking thing, keep Dems in the majority in 2022, and then come back with additional social programs.
debbie
@schrodingers_cat:
My regard has lessened. There must be a connection to this quicker, ADHD-riddled world, but what’s happened to the long view? ??♀️
Ken
You remind me of Eric Frank Russell’s “Allamagoosa”.
“Inscribed collar, leather, brass studded, dog, for the use of.”
schrodingers_cat
@OzarkHillbilly: I don’t hate them and have nothing personal against them but I do think their insistence on ideological purity and their rhetoric are unhelpful to our cause. Which is I see first and foremost as keeping the Republicans in the minority. YMMV.
I hope you feel better soon.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud:
Predictions are probabilities not certainties it is up to us not to let them become certainties.
MattF
I see it’s catheter day. I’ve had a few rounds of bladder stone surgery, so I’m familiar with a particularly uncomfortable case of that sort of medical device. Most recent time they wanted to send me home with one— but since I live alone, that sounded like an extremely bad idea, and I just flatly refused. All sorts of “you’ll regret it” warnings, and… it actually wasn’t so bad.
Freemark
@sab: So sorry to hear that. His wife will get his full Social Security but will lose her half if he passes.
schrodingers_cat
@gene108: Keeping my fingers crossed for you! I hope you feel better soon.
zhena gogolia
@schrodingers_cat: FWIW, at dinner with some “normies” last night, the irritation was more at Jayapal than at Manchin. Sinema was not popular either, though.
sab
@Freemark: That is actually a huge relief. That is all she has.
schrodingers_cat
@debbie: Its all about the clicks and likes. And hating on Ds is a booming business. Gets you on TV, that’s for sure. They also voted for visas for Afghan refugees.
And the Squad members are legislators I have not seen any bills they have gotten out of committee that lays out their vision since the one Ds offered is unacceptable to them. Obstruction is not progress. They should call themselves Obstructionists.
Fair Economist
@schrodingers_cat: They’re not opposed to the BIF; the point is that by passing it *before* the BBB, there’s now no leverage to get the BBB passed. The progressive caucus as a whole was levered off with a promise from Biden that he could get Manchin and Sinema to agree to a meaningful BBB. If they don’t, the squad will be the only progressives that don’t end up looking gullible.
O. Felix Culpa
@zhena gogolia:
Hmm, one of these things is not like the others.
schrodingers_cat
@Fair Economist: I have heard the arguments. I don’t find them convincing. Also a vanishingly small minority of the electorate cares about this inside baseball.
schrodingers_cat
@O. Felix Culpa: Misogyny is alive and well.
zhena gogolia
@schrodingers_cat: They feel they understand where Manchin is coming from.
I report, you decide.
schrodingers_cat
@zhena gogolia: There is some truth in that. Without Manchin blood red WV would have an R senator. Whereas Sinema is from a purple state and Jayapal from a deep blue district
Also people are harder on women, that is true as well.
JML
@sab: I think there’s a lot of that in Mpls too. People want better police, they want fewer scared people in the role that want to shoot first and ask questions later, and they want fewer police who see every black person as a potential threat. But they want more police overall and safer city, and they don’t understand how these major reforms are going to get there, especially when the people pushing them are also screaming “defund the police”.
The messaging on all of this is terrible, even from the well-meaning.
schrodingers_cat
@JML: Defund the Police slogan has the popularity of Ebola.
lashonharangue
@schrodingers_cat: This video talks about targeted interventions to reduce homicides that have evidence behind them, are more than slogans, and are likely to have community support. I think this is what you try to message about.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3j4SpLZoN3s
JML
@schrodingers_cat: no kidding. the video of Ilhan Omar shouting “defund the minneapolis police” was christmas morning for people wanting to maintain the status quo.
Soprano2
@schrodingers_cat: I don’t care what the activists say, the “Defund the police” slogan is terrible, and it doesn’t help them achieve their objectives. It’s the kind of thing people come up with when everyone in the room has the same viewpoints and experiences. I will always believe that you make better decisions as a group when the people in it have different viewpoints and experiences. People who are the same have the same blind spots.
Quiltingfool
@Anne Laurie: Oh, don’t punch anyone, you’ll hurt your hand. I hear Amy Klobuchar might have a stapler she’d let you borrow!/s/
Speaking of Senator Klobuchar, is it wrong of me to gleefully imagine a scenario whereby she beats the crap out of several Republican Senators with her trusty stapler? I’d pay to see that.
Bill Arnold
@debbie:
It is a “one-bit-error” – easy to make when there are bunches of other unfamiliar decisions requiring simultaneous focus and no/insufficient planning was done. (The lack of a plan is common for DIY-ers.)
Kayla Rudbek
@NotMax: correction: they did have some (unused ones) in a display case at the Udvar-Hazy Air and Space annex when I went last week with my sibling and family.
Cermet
@gene108: Very much hope for the best on that issue!
laura
@gene108: Shower Towels! These are really effective and may be just what you’re looking for:
https://onthegotowels.com/
schrodingers_cat
@schrodingers_cat: *voted against visas for Afghans who helped the US
J R in WV
At our little house in the Arizona mountains, off grid, we have a bank of solar panels, a bank of batteries, and a small Honda generator. On the outside of the house, beside the battery bank, there is a 30 amp twist female connector plug to plug the Honda generator into if the battery bank cannot provide electrical power to the circuit panel inside the house.
To connect the generator to the house, we needed a heavy cable with male plugs on both ends, 30 amp twist plugs.
When that special cable is plugged in, neither the house side NOR the generator side has (should have) any power. After it’s plugged in, and you start the generator, the house lights up, the fridge gets cold, etc.
Being off the grid, there isn’t much power consuming equipment installed. Sat dish, fan to move air around, fridge, microwave, some low watt LED lamps is about all. IIRC the generator is about 2200 watts. I have a multi-meter to check the house voltage, but basically in the battery bank isn’t charged up nothing works.
They aren’t always a do it yourself disaster, sometimes in a special purpose installation they are exactly what you need…