Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

Let there be snark.

The willow is too close to the house.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

Four legs? good! two legs? we’re not so sure…

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

All your base are belong to Tunch.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Everybody saw this coming.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

We are aware of all internet traditions.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

Just a few bad apples.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

Tuesday Evening Open Thread: The Mills of (Murphy the Trickster) God Grind Slowly…

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I keep setting posts about the 1/6 Investigation aside, because there are so many moving parts involved. And we’re handicapped, because Democrats by definition are not the ‘Punishment First, Verdict Afterwards’ party. But I continue to hope for retribution…


From the Moscow Times:

… The Russian billionaire also reportedly had close ties to Paul Manafort, the former campaign chairman for Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential bid, and his name surfaced during the probe by special counsel Robert Mueller into Russian election meddling.

During the 2016 campaign, according to court filings, Manafort offered Deripaska briefings and polling data on the presidential race, making the offer through Manafort’s former business partner and suspected Russian intelligence operative Konstantin Kilimnik.

Manafort was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison for financial and other crimes but was pardoned by Trump before he left the White House.

As always, Ryan J. Reilly’s twitter feed is an excellent source for the latest updates on the Insurrection prosecutions:

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BJ Pet Calendar for 2022 – Let’s Get Started!

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Have you gone through your photos?

Selected your pics for the 2022 BJ Pet Calendar?

Site Update: We Made ANOTHER Change, Please Check Your Devices and Report In
Tucker biting Henry’s head off. (not really)
Henry modeling the lovely sweater that MomSense made him.

We are using the same  system as last year. 

It’s a 4-step process, start to finish.  (for you)

  1. Start the process by sending an email message
  2. Use the link we supply to upload your files
  3. Check for your nym and names of your pets in the spreadsheet we’ll post later on BJ
  4. Notify us if anything is incorrect

…..

To start the process, simply send email to pet-calendar or to watergirl.  If you need more info about the exact email addresses, check out Contact Us in the white bar up top, for details.

Your message should include:

  1. your nym
  2. the names of all your pets that are going to be in the calendar

…..

Details will be sent to you by email once you send the email with your nym and pet names.

We have zero pet names for the calendar so far!

…..

Calendars will be available to order by December 1.

Beth needs time to work with the pics on the design, so fair warning: we are going to have to be firm about deadlines in order to have the calendars available to order by December 1.

Please let us know ASAP that you plan to send photos in, and the names of your pets.  Even without all the pictures, knowing how many entries there will be allows Beth to get started on the design!

The we-really-mean-it-last-date for submitting your pictures is Nov 1.  For real.

Oh, and all calendar posts are Open Threads.

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The Patience of Joe(b)

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Even if your workday includes scrubbing toilets at the site of a recent chili cookoff or Febrezing Steve Bannon’s double-decker shirts, rejoice that you don’t have Joe Biden’s afternoon schedule (via TPM):

[Senator] Sinema is expected to meet with Biden separately at the White House today prior to the President’s meetings with the moderate and progressive wings of the Democratic caucus.

Here’s the list of who’s also heading to the White House:

Progressives (2 p.m.):
Reps. Katherine Clark (D-MA), Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), Mark Pocan (D-WI), Ritchie Torres (D-NY), Debbie Dingell (D-MI), Ro Khanna (D-CA), Barbara Lee (D-CA), Jared Huffman (D-CA) and Jimmy Gomez (D-CA).

Moderates (4:30 p.m.):
Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), Suzan DelBene (D-WA), Ami Bera (D-CA), Tom O’Halleran (D-AZ) and Mike Thompson (D-CA) as well as Sens. Jon Tester (D-MT), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) and Mark Warner (D-VA).

Between viewing an interpretive dance intended to convey Senator Sinema’s position on the reconciliation package and patiently listening to Josh Gottheimer’s anguished cries about the duplicity of Nancy Pelosi, the president will probably beg his schedulers to convene a Middle East peace summit. I mean, c’mon man!

Meanwhile, earlier today, Pawpaw Black Lung spoke unfavorably about a carbon tax. That’s what policymakers had turned to after he asphyxiated the Clean Electricity Payment Plan.

According to TPM’s reporting, Senator Markey is now talking about executive action on climate, which is what Obama had to do to meet Paris Accord goals when Republicans controlled the senate. On climate, it appears they still do, so add another item to Biden’s very long to-do list.

Open thread.

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Open (Speculation) Thread: FaceBook Wants Us to Pay No Attention to Those Grubby Scriveners

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I find it hard to imagine a better way to get everyone’s attention focused on the proposed Big Upcoming Story! But then, if I were smart like Mark I’d be rich like him, at least according to the many highly-paid Mark minions…

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Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Working Towards the Future

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Manchin’s only interested in Joe Manchin, but is there any lever the rest of us can use to convince him that being the guy who took food out of childrens’ mouths for the benefit of Mitch McConnell isn’t really in his best interest?

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COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Monday / Tuesday, Oct. 18-19

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show full post on front page

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On The Road – JanieM – The Barn, #3

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JanieM

My old camera was retired last winter first and foremost because it didn’t take RAW images. But in fairness, it could have done more than I ever asked it to; only rarely did I try anything beyond “point and shoot.” Once or twice I used the macro setting to take pictures of flowers, and occasionally I activated the flash, though I didn’t know how to make good use of it. Now and then I focused the camera to get a certain exposure, then moved it to get the composition I wanted. Tricking it that way didn’t get me far, but at least it made me pay attention to exposure at a rudimentary level. (Not that I knew it was called exposure.) Other than that, I ignored the camera’s more sophisticated capabilities.

Then Steve from Mendocino came along and pointed out, in effect, that though I took some nice pictures, I could take better ones if only I would consent to learn a few photographic concepts and techniques.

I was retired, there was a pandemic on, I didn’t have much to do for fun. I thought, Why not?!

Little did I know.

It was a deep plunge into a new and confusing world, especially for a former math nerd who likes problems with clear answers. Algebra, for instance, can be lovely that way.

Steve edited a whole OTR post of fall color pictures the day WaterGirl put us in touch, explaining what he was doing via email. When I didn’t understand the explanations, he (and Google) clarified the vocabulary. Over the next few weeks I learned about clipping and burning and hot areas and filters and deliberately directing the viewer’s eye in certain ways. It seems obvious enough now, but it took a while for that idea to sink in, even though I knew that a written text does something like that, so why not pictures?

The process is ongoing. I’m learning to think more consciously about exposure and depth of field, and that it’s a good idea to walk around a subject before taking out my camera, to think about how I might want to shoot it. I’m starting to notice the difference between eye-catching patterns and pictures that tell a story. Lately I’ve started using the flash a bit and taking pictures of people, which I had mostly been avoiding.

And then there are the Lightroom and Photoshop lessons. New information doesn’t stick in my brain as readily as it did when I was young, but fortunately, fun and friendship are part of the package, keeping frustration mostly at bay.

On The Road - JanieM - The Barn, #2 15

Light, geometry, sky.

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