Tuesday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Tuesday, August 10, 2021
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166 comments
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a Professor of Political Science and a College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored
A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog).
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My relationship is off again and on again repeat cycle and looks likely to ultimately fail. Off for now. I hate to pull the plug too soon, but it is the adult thing to do. It is better to admit defeat rather than trying fruitlessly to make something work that maybe should not work.
That was the last personal hold here. I am seriously eyeballing Duluth. Who wants to buy a house in Des Moines? Let’s find out.
Beauty thing is I can afford both for a good long bit if it comes to that. They say it is a seller’s market.
Low is a slow-core trio indie band out of Duluth. Kinda shoe-gazer. Great singer. If Patsy Cline took a shit ton of thorazine she would totally sing for Low.
Think Sigur Ros. Only slower.
Donald Trump has personally designed a new version of the MAGA hat! You can be the proud possessor of one for the low, low price of $40.
@CSK:
Googled it. Hideous.
@de stijl:
Hang in there. In a similar boat.
@de stijl:
Sorry to hear this. Even when it’s the right thing to do, it’s seldom the easy thing to do. Hope things improve for you.
@Kurtz:
When do you pull the plug? I have never been able to figure that puzzle out.
I think I need to. The cycle is not healthy. Does neither of us any good. Well, beyond make-up sex.
There should be a guidebook for this stuff. Maybe an on-line class. Why is it so hard?
@HarvardLaw92:
It’s cool. These things happen. Adapt and adjust.
On the positive note Duluth is back on the table. I frickin love Duluth. Yes the winter is pretty radical, but the summers are blissful. A big ole temp sinkhole is just down the hill. I can deal with hard-core winter no problem.
1:30 pm. On a Monday. (Yesterday)
Teve pulls in to the Health Department parking lot. Teve’s never been here before, but needs a certified Birth Certificate to get his passport. Teve walks in, and finds himself in a room the size of a walk-in closet with 5 other people. There’s a woman in her 20s, arguing with the lady behind the counter.
Woman: you don’t understand. I Can’t Miss Work.
Lady: Take. This piece. Of paper. To your Boss. You can’t work for a week.
Woman: You Don’t Understand. I work at Popeyes And Wendy’s. I can’t miss work.
Lady: You tested positive. You need to stay home from work. Take this and show your bosses and they’ll give you time off.
Woman: Whatever I Ain’t Even Sick!
Woman storms out. Teve looks at closest person.
Teve: “Covid?”
Closest Person “Yeah.”
Closest Person’s Acquaintance: “I ain’t goin’ to Popeyes for awhile.”
Been there done that, I know it isn’t easy. It sounds to me like you’ve already figured out what is wrong and what needs to be done about it, but that last little bit of letting it go is the hardest part. I know how I did it but I won’t tell you how to do it.
https://twitter.com/DrEricDing/status/1424975829939990534
https://twitter.com/AkivaGoldsman/status/1424821175125872647
@CSK: @Kurtz: from a design perspective it’s not horrible. It’s actually better than the hats that spelled out MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN because it’s more readable at a distance.
Revolt of the Vaccinated rolls on.
Top Dallas County official files legal challenge to Gov. Greg Abbott’s ban on mask mandates as coronavirus rages in Texas
Gov. Greg Abbott’s order banning mask mandates in Texas schools faces lawsuit, defiance by big-city districts
@Scott: I guess even Texas wants to protect their children. Who’da thunk it?
@Teve:
I love Popeye’s! Damn you, Covid!
My friend V and her boyfriend E camped out for a few hours in the parking lot of the first Popeye’s in town before opening day.
We were their very first customers. I hold that as a badge of honor.
I ate like a fiend. Like a woodtick.
Eight-year-old becomes youngest person charged with blasphemy in Pakistan
Rod Dreher is salivating.
@OzarkHillbilly: We have to deal with Ted Cruz, of which there are not enough negative adjectives created to describe this insincere, oleaginous weasel. He keep demanding no COVID related mandates at all. All the while, his children attend St John’s School, a $30K/year liberal Episcopal school that has mask mandates. The hypocrisy of this man creates fissures in the fabric of the universe.
Headline on CBS4 Miami:
The fact that nobody yet has burned DeSantis’s house to the ground is a mystery.
The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing Texans that Ted Cruz was Texas thru and thru.
@Scott: The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing Texans that Ted Cruz was Texas thru and thru.
sigh… no edit function when I need it.
@Scott:
Trump publicly humiliated Cruz and his wife during the 2016 campaign. Cruz rolled over and begged for mercy.
I would not trust him to collect my mail if I was out of town for a week. He would find a way to fuck up even that simple task. I would never trust him with my key.
Arkansas is Down to 8 ICU Beds
https://twitter.com/VeraMBergen/status/1424812210161864709
https://twitter.com/slhamlet/status/1424814852485226496
I’ve been waiting for Bruce Schneier to comment on Apple’s iCloud-photo-known-child-porn-hash-searching issue, and this isn’t the definitive piece about it, but so e preliminary comments he just made on the subject.
https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2021/08/apple-adds-a-backdoor-to-imesssage-and-icloud-storage.html
Blerg
https://twitter.com/nowthisnews/status/1423371971329470467
Talked to my mom yesterday. Tried to get through to her that she needs to get vaccinated. I told her I know hundreds of people–co-workers, friends, relatives, my wife’s co-workers, friends, relatives–who have been vaccinated with no significant side effects. “But what about a while down the road?” I told her no vaccine has ever shown a side-effect more than eight weeks post-vaccination. Then I told her the reason she hasn’t seen us yet is because she isn’t vaccinated and we could be carrying the Delta variant without knowing it and pass it to her. Then she brought up God and even though I’m an atheist I just said “God helped us create this vaccine” and she said “no He didn’t” and I said “who do you think gave the scientists the brains that created it?” Anyway, nothing I said made any difference. She’s listening to people who don’t even know her and don’t give a shit if she dies, but her own sons (my brother is on the same page as I am) can’t get through. I can’t even express how frustrating and infuriating and saddening that is.
I don’t know what to do at this point. I guess I could travel but stay distant and wear a mask and not hug the mom I haven’t seen since 2018. Or I could just resign myself to the possibility I’ll never see her again. It makes me want to cry.
Nebraska no longer reporting COVID dataBanana Republicans trying to make the US into a Banana Republic.
Any vote for any Republican is an active harm to the health, safety and integrity of your city, state or country.
@Mikey: You could try telling her the fable of the man in a flood and a canoe, a boat, and helicopter stopped to rescue him and each time the man said, “No thanx, God will provide.” And then he drowned.
When he gets to the pearly gates he says, “Wait a minute, how did I get here? You were supposed to provide fore me.”
“I provided you with a canoe, a boat, and a helicopter and you refused all 3. What more do you want?”
There is also the old saying that, “God helps those who help themselves.” but I suspect neither will do any more good than everything you and your brother have already tried.
@MarkedMan: I guess they truly believe ignorance is bliss.
@de stijl:
Hope things come good, one way or another.
Not going to offer any advice; I’m just about the last person to offer advice on relationships.
(Even worse than my record as a political forecasting pundit LOL)
@charon: I would like to believe the catastrophe surrounding me here in Florida is ending DeSantis’s career. Then I remember that Trump got more votes in 2020 than in 2016 and I miss getting blackout drunk.
@Mikey:
It’s hard, I know. I’ve had to cut anti-vaxxers and MAGAts out of my life over the last few years and it doesn’t get any easier. However, there comes a point when you have to prioritize what you can save and what you can’t….. and if your relationship, health and safety isn’t a priority for them, they shouldn’t be one for you. Self-care requires self-esteem. We are worth more than the constant anger and worry they needlessly put us though, just expecting us to take it for the privilege of their presence. If our leaving when we can’t take anymore doesn’t matter enough to affect their behavior, then we mattered very little to them in the end and that’s one hell of a bitter pill to swallow. One of the harshest lessons in life is someone we love may not love us back with the same intensity or level of priority we give them… or even at all.
There’s courses and groups online to help you deal with the emotions and process of cutting ties if it comes to it. You’re not alone – so many of us have had to go through this pain.
@KM: I don’t want to cut ties. I want to see my mother. I haven’t seen her in three years. I don’t want her to die of a preventable disease. Thank goodness she isn’t a full-on COVID denier and adheres to all the other safety measures, but that only goes so far.
Not that it would help against antivaxxers, but Moderna and Pfizer began the phase 3 trials a year ago. Meaning some people have lived with the non-consequences of the vaccines for a year, and those who got them in the smaller phase 2 trials for some months longer.
If there were any real long term side effects, some would have showed up by now.
@de stijl:
Tough times, even if it’s the “right” thing to do. Music clearly resonates with you. As does place (present and possible). In that vein, I recommend the song Alone by Trampled by Turtles. Duluth band. Be well.
https://twitter.com/ParkerMolloy/status/1424861297028603904
https://twitter.com/emilymiller/status/1424777140948643843
@Teve:
People tend to get seriously annoyed at people who endanger their children, it’s hard for me to imagine the school stuff not biting him in the butt, Gregg Abbott too.
From June 7:
https://twitter.com/GregAbbott_TX/status/1402022555960086531
https://twitter.com/BradMossEsq/status/1424922746111332357
@charon: the replies to Emily Miller exhibit way more brain power than her tweet did.
@charon:
How fortunate for Abbott that no other states are experiencing rises in COVID cases and hospitalizations, leaving them a surplus of healthcare workers who can flock en-masse to Texas to lend a hand.
Oh, wait.
@charon: “People tend to get seriously annoyed at people who endanger their children, it’s hard for me to imagine the school stuff not biting him in the butt, Gregg Abbott too.”
In 500 years, people will be quoting the ancient saying, “the more you beat a MAGA, the happier he is”.
Probably also the parable “one MAGA saw another MAGA offer his child up as a burnt offering to Trump. The first MAGA was shocked, and chastised himself for not doing it first.”
‘Karen’ called out for approaching Black neighbor over ‘Tigger’ flag: ‘We have rules’
This right here is peak Karen “logic” – I don’t like something so it must be “against the rules” somehow even if I can’t be bothered to know if there even *are* rules and now I will go harass a random stranger with my opinion because I think I matter. Kudos to the TikTokker for not giving in and starting the argument the old woman really seems to want. It’s a cheap Disney flag for God’s sake, something mass-produced and and designed to be harmless unless you’re looking for something nefarious /conspiracy theory or you’re just being a jerk with opinions on what’s “classy” or “acceptable”. Who goes over to bother a stranger over a garden Disney flag??
@charon: I hope this new surge will be a bridge too far for DeSantis’s COVID denial. But a lot of people down here think making them wear masks is the real threat to their kids. They believe this because… Well I can’t think of any reason they believe this that doesn’t sound stupid if you write it down, and people keep telling me I’m supposed to respect them.
Reminder; only 3 days until the former guy is reinstated as POTUS.
@charon:
It’s going to hurt him but not as badly as you’d think. Remember, this is a state that saw a terrible school shooting with the students beg for change and got mad at the students. It will be hard to hide the kids that die – social media for a school will light up for any hospitalizations or deaths since kids kinda can tell when one of their own goes missing. Concerned parent groups might start to scream when they realize lil’ Jonny might cost them a fortunate in hositpal bills because lil’ Danny’s parent are anti-vax and won’t mask. Perhaps when their beloved offspring injuries themselves doing basic kid or Florida Man stuff and suddenly there’s no space in the medical system to care for them.
However, it will be treated as isolated incidents that can’t possibly be part of the larger GOP government’s incompetence. The Bad Thing that happened to be me was just bad luck, not the direct result of the people I choose to put in power and the political / cultural beliefs I hold. Unless hundreds of kids a day start dropping like flies, it will pin his career but not kill it. The death knell will be health care systems deprioritizing or even turning away unvaxxed patients as a triage method; they have to choose between keeping COVID patients or the many, many seniors with medical issues, frequent Florida Man antic victims and just plain normal patients alive shortly. He can either fight it (piss off the donors and sane people) or side with the medical system (lose the anit-vaaxxers and nuts). Either way he’s screwed.
@KM:
Everything will be blamed on immigrants.
@de stijl: My test on ending relationships was summed up in the song title Nothing Compares To You. When I could get to the point where having no relationship at all was a reasonable alternative to continuing the one I was in, it was time to get out.
Well, my City of San Antonio is done playing:
City, County seek to regain emergency powers usurped by governor
@Kathy:
The party line that committed partisans use to virtue signal to each other, not persuasive to anyone who is not already an immigrant basher playing on Team Red.
@Teve:
I called it when I was there a few weeks ago. Nailed it.
Sadly.
@Daryl and his brother Darryl:
Mike Lindell says now that the reinstatement may not happen till September. The Supreme Court will need that time to consider the weight of evidence with which his cyber-symposium will present them.
@charon: What gets me is the hashtag #ScaredVaccinated insinuating the only scared people get vaccinated. This is the same BS nonsense that was spread about masks: only scared people wear masks. So if you’re a “fraidy cat” go ahead and wear a mask.
Like everything with these people, it is always projection. Because basically they are afraid of looking stupid wearing a mask and getting a vaccination.
@charon: Yeah, they are blaming it on immigrants. All you half to do is point to the border counties in Texas which show a lot lower case rate than much of the rest of Texas.
@Scott:
Sounds like Trump. He wouldn’t wear a mask because he thought he’d look “stupid.” All he did was prove that he is, in fact, stupid.
SC is at 55/100K new cases at the NYT website, putting SC at #6 behind FL, LA, MS, AR and AL. (That number has been growing really fast last few days).
https://twitter.com/Bexnoell/status/1425065534475878404
@CSK: You know the strangest thing about Lindell? Compared with just about any other whackjob Trumpist, he seems to make a genuine effort to make his claims sound warm, welcoming, and friendly–the idea that all of us, Democrat and Republican alike, are about to come together and sing kumbaya in support of Trump. Trying to put a face of sunny optimism on a movement so filled with hate shouldn’t be too hard when you’re making up everything as you go–it’s just striking that anyone has even tried. He is truly the Ed Wood of the Trumpists.
@charon:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E8bvJHpWYAI7qU5?format=jpg&name=medium
@Teve: I read that article you posted yesterday about how the anti-covid vaxxers are less a suicide/death cult and more of a murder cult… as sickening as it was, I think it was right on the money. It squares with the whole “Trump is going to hurt our enemies” vibe that trump’s most ardent supporters had.
@Mike in Arlington: Lately I’ve seen quite a few tweets of the genre “If you libtards are all vaxxed, why would you care if other people aren’t???” The unstated premise being that concern for another human being is an alien concept.
@de stijl:
From very early on my wife and I designed our relationship not to fail. I was a 24 year-old HS drop-out and newly-minted fugitive. She was about to graduate from UT Austin, but had plenty of her own issues.
Rule #1: Fight and fight fair. When we fight, we fight toward truth, not victory. The goal can’t be ‘I win!’ it has to be, ‘OK, that’s true.’ There are mean things you can say, and much meaner things you can’t. Because, again, what do insults have to do with getting at the truth? It is infinitely better to argue something out til 3 AM than to add it to some list of unresolved grudges. Grudges are slow poison, fights are just tiring.
Rule #2: It’s not about sexual fidelity, it’s about love, duh. In the early years we both knew we wanted to be together forever, and we also both knew we weren’t done fucking around. The occasional one night stand? Meh. A date with another person? No, no, no. A few times each in the early years then predictably it became more trouble than it was worth. But this only works if the core bond is strong and the trust goes deep.
Rule #3: There’s a bubble, and only two people are inside that bubble (until you have kids.) It’s the two of you on one side, and the entire human race – including extended family and lifelong friends – on the other. Nothing changes that. Two warriors standing back to back, swords drawn, shields raised and fuck anyone who fucks with us.
Of course every relationship is unique. But so far it’s been 43 years through everything from fear and despair and wretched poverty to success and money and all that good stuff. We’ve lived on ramen in dumps that smelled of piss, and we’ve eaten thousand dollar meals in five star hotels. No kids, then kids. Zero status jobs, high status jobs. I’ve seen my wife on her knees cleaning urinals and I’ve seen her on stage accepting prizes.
Fight. Fight fair. Fight to an objective point. Resolve things. Get over the chicken shit. And your partner outranks every other person in your life by 1000%. YMMV but for us it worked.
@Mikey:
This is awful for you and your brother. You have my profound sympathy. I wish I could think of something helpful to tell you. What about her own doctor? People will listen more to their personal physicians.
@charon: It ain’t SC, but..
https://twitter.com/skoczela/status/1425115552306040834
@Kylopod:
Lindell is, at base, a salesman. He’s practiced at sounding warm and friendly. As George Burns said of sincerity, “If you can fake that, you’ve got it made.”
I also think it’s true that Lindell is crazier than a shithouse rat.
@Kylopod:
Really good point
@de stijl:
Did you get a gift card for being the first customer? I know that sometimes the first handful of folks in line get some goodies when a new location opens (I think In and Out did this at a location they opened in Mountain View, CA several years back).
I occasionally go to Popeye’s because pre-covid they were easy to walk into being in the shopping hub across from my apt complex. Other than normal checkout lines, I did stand in an extra long line in the early days of their spicy chicken sandwich rollout, and yes, I felt it was worth it (folks were plenty sociable in line and it went by fairly fast for being a well out the door line).
Also, I see that us vaccinated folks are finally pushing back against the fools that are helping to prolong the pandemic, finally. The ignorant have been able to freely run rampant with their dangerous speech regarding Covid for far too long, better late than never to start taking them to Court.
Finally, I am getting ready to read an article in the NY Times that has many European countries asking why the U.S. has not opened our borders to their visiting citizens when they have opened many of their borders to ours. My have not yet read the article knee-jerk response was are you sure you want us to open our borders? Your citizens will get sicky-sick if they visit many locations in the United States. I am less like to get sick if I visit your Country though, and thank goodness for that.
@CSK: my thoughts exactly.
Huh. Cuomo just resigned. I wouldn’t have guessed that.
Cuomo caged is giving up
@Jen: Exactly the message I was going to post, word for word.
First part of his speech sounded like he was digging in for a long fight, then he just pivoted — said he was innocent and misunderstood, but government is too important right now to let it be distracted by him.
Which is both true, and an honorable thing to say.
I still think he’s a despicable thug, but this showed class.
@wr:
I may be a bit more cynical than you, but perhaps he was afraid (or was told) that worse would come out if he didn’t bail, or he’d find himself criminally prosecuted if he cling to office.
@Jen:
I would, and did. Just hours ago I wrote on another forum that he’d be gone by the end of the week at latest. The signs were there, including his top advisors quitting. There’s also a long history of officials claiming they’ll never resign right up until the point that they do.
@Jen:
I felt like it was a foregone conclusion once Biden called for his resignation in front of the White House press corps. Became a question of when, not if.
I just called my wife to tell her about Cuomo and she said “yeah, I saw him come on the TV and he started talking and I just said ‘blah blah blah go away’ and changed the channel.” So she didn’t see the plot twist at the end…LOL…at least I got to be the one to tell her.
Whoa…apparently Cuomo’s resignation WON’T stop any civil or criminal litigation.
@CSK: Presumably Governor Kathy Hochul isn’t going to pull a President Ford.
@CSK:
It might not even solve CNN’s prime time branding problem.
@Kylopod:
I hope to hell not.
@Kathy:
We’ll see.
@wr: I think it’s less class and more of an understanding that the Democratic Party has withdrawn all (or nearly all) support. I think it was his only move.
@Kylopod: I really thought he was going to cling on for a while longer, in fact, as @Mikey: noted, that’s how it sounded when he started talking. I’m sort of in the surprised but not that surprised category, more of a sort of astonished he bowed to reality type thing.
@Jen: I suspect that when this controversy first broke earlier this year, he looked to the Ralph Northam blackface controversy as his model–that if he resisted calls to resign it would just blow over. The crucial difference, of course, is that Northam broke no laws. The Matt Yglesias rule (the secret to surviving a sex scandal is not to resign) only works if there’s nothing impeachable.
Marjorie Taylor Greene has received yet another suspension from Twitter for promoting vax misinformation–in this case, that the vaccines are “failing.”
@Teve:
Awww, ya beat me to it.
@Teve: You reminded me of something I thought about the other day when I was reading about the Dixie fire (CA’s latest wildfire). It’s in Lassen County, which is remote, and deep red.
And you know, when there’s a wildfire there, we send Cal Fire to fight it. Because that’s how things should be.
@CSK: 😀
https://www.thedailybeast.com/floridas-death-toll-now-exceeds-desantis-margin-of-victory
FWIW, I don’t believe the bipartisan infrastructure deal is done yet. Yes, Mitch let it get out of the Senate. But it remains to be seen if that was because of some kind of covert deal with Manchin, Sinema or someone else to tank the reconciliation bill. If any Democratic jumps ship, the reconciliation bill is dead, and Pelosi is left with the choice of killing both bills in the House or letting the bi-partisan bill pass on its own. Either would be a defeat for the Dems and the American people, but a victory for Mitch and the traitor caucus.
@MarkedMan: I may be overly optimistic (hey, Lindell’s vibes are infectious!), but I don’t think it is in Manchin’s or Sinema’s interests to tank Biden’s agenda, and nothing they’ve done so far has suggested that has been their goal.
@CSK: “I may be a bit more cynical than you, but perhaps he was afraid (or was told) that worse would come out if he didn’t bail, or he’d find himself criminally prosecuted if he cling to office.”
Oh, I’ve got no doubt about that. I’m sure his first instinct was to fight — and I suspect that only began to change when his chief aide quit on Sunday. He doesn’t have a friend in the world, and no plausible way forward.
My words of admiration were only for the way he phrased his resignation — this state is more important than me. Find a Republican who will say that.
@Mike in Arlington: “I think it was his only move.”
Maybe I’m just jaded after the last few years, but of course it wasn’t. “Really bad people have framed me and I call on all real Americans to fight until I’m reinstated. Let’s all walk to the state capitol and show those corrupt bastard who the real Americans are.”
And yes, I am giving Cuomo credit for not being as awful as Donald Trump. It’s not nothing.
@wr:
Well, Trump’s position was essentially “the state IS me,” so does that count?
@Joe:
Sinead version?
@wr:
I see your point.
@Joe:
I went through the collapse of my first marriage and initiation of divorce when that song was at its peak popularity. It was EVERYWHERE at that point. To this day I cannot stomach even a few seconds of it. I have tried, but even 31 years later I just can’t. The mental trauma I suffered is just too intertwined with the song.
@CSK:
She’s not listening to anyone except some people in her fucked-up cult of a church. That’s one thing that really pisses me off.
And thank you for the sympathy, it’s appreciated. I just feel kind of …lost.
Vox:
The fight over cage-free eggs and bacon in California, explained
The act of giving up is freeing.
It’s such a total cliche, but giving up lifts a figurative weight off you palpably. That thing is no longer an issue I need to concern myself with or think about or worry about anymore. I’m done.
Aimee Mann has a very adult take on this with Wise Up. The coda is pretty heartbreaking:
So just give up
Man, that song breaks my heart.
@de stijl: Dude, all you need is cigarettes and
Red Vinesa good, non-licorice candy, like Crunch bars, Starburst jelly beans, those little individually-wrapped caramels….@wr:
True. But only because he knew no one would come.
@Mikey:
I know exactly what you mean. You’re helpless. That’s an awful feeling. You want to protect her, and she won’t let you.
@Teve:
@Kurtz: @CSK: Gee, I dunno. I don’t think it’s any uglier than previous ones.
Meanwhile in MAGAland, leaving the doctor’s office today, the receptionist was telling me that her daughter just got her keys to the new school and will begin setting up her Kindergarten classroom. I noted that Teve had said that school in his part of Florida starts next week with the state ordering schools not to have masking. To which someone behind me commented “good!” To which I replied “with the highest infection rate in the nation, maybe not the best plan available.”
Then I turned around and saw that the person behind me was wearing nursing scrubs and a badge that appeared to be an ID for the hospital a block away. She also was not wearing a mask despite having walked through a door declaring “masking is still required in this clinic.”
I think the motto probably should be MAD–MAKE AMERICA DEAD. ETTD!!
I was raised by a bi-polar parent. Well, I’m not a pro so my diagnostic skills are sketchy at best, but it looked like a duck and walked like a duck and she was def bi-polar.
I learned to rely on unreliability. Unreliability was the constant. The background assumed state.
Kids cope pretty well. Resilient. It’s kinda built in. I figured out how to cope soon enough.
It taught me many skills most folks don’t learn until later in life. Cooking, cleaning, basic self-maintenance stuff, but good stuff to know.
I anticipate a ringing defense of this patriotic American woman from the MAGAs:
http://www.rawstory.com/lauren-witzke-flat-earther/
@de stijl: @Kurtz: At some point, a person has to decide whether their better with someone or on their own. The answer varies, but one needs to know. After that, “how capricious am I” is the next question.
For me, and an amazingly unhappy marriage (overall) later, I realized I was comfortable with my own company and have never looked back. YMMV, but it is a possible alternative (even though society keeps telling me it’s not 🙁 ).
A time-honored way of dealing with uncomfortable facts–and a significantly more gentle method than its cousin–Shoot the Messenger. (But if ignorance is really bliss, more people should be happy. 😐 )
@Teve:
I gave up cigarettes a few months back. I cheated a few times when I was shrooming hard.
Myself, I am a big fan of Heath bars. Specifically, the fun-sized ones where the ratio of chocolate to toffee is optimal.
I love the little Red Vine chunks. The ones that look like extruded bits of sugar and wax and starch and red food coloring. Not Red Vine – the other brand.
@Teve: I go with a more reductionist approach–when I see a red hat…
It’s not really that unreasonable of an approach here. Few regional schools have red as the dominant school color, so most hats here are various shades of blue or black. A few maroon leaning crimsons, but no cherry/fire engine reds except MAGAots.
@OzarkHillbilly: Anyone who doesn’t want to go to a funeral featuring a 4-foot coffin?
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
I decided long ago that I was not gonna procreate. No kids. Ever. I am of a bad bloodline. I don’t want to introduce new vectors into the whole.
Basically, my family tree is we go nuts or we get dementia. Sometimes both. Not a good gene package to be spread.
@Just nutha ignint cracker: my alma mater is NC State, so if I were the baseball cap-wearing type I’d have to go with a white or black model, with red trim, instead of the standard bright red cap. 😛
Today I learned… There’s a Third Amendment Lawyers Association.
Umm… wha?
(The entire premise of the article is quite silly)
@KM: Well, I’ll certainly agree with Qaren that the flag is tacky, but not my yard + no HOAA = not my business.
One would think that the “up” part of the bipolar cycle was the cool part.
No. No, no, no. Mania is capricious and often cruel. Anything can happen and usually very bad.
“Down” is way preferred. She would just hole up and sleep for most of the day. Way easier to deal with.
Medium was best but so short-lived.
@Daryl and his brother Darryl: Recycling an old Jay Ward cartoon joke:
@Kathy: “Everything will be blamed on immigrants.”
I wish that weren’t the case, but it works so damn well. It’s the other go to behind blaming “the poor”–which happened last night at a dinner party I went to where the hostess praised some people in the community who had given their Covid recovery checks to a local charity she volunteers for while criticizing the government for “giving so much money to people that they don’t want to work anymore” a few minutes later. It’s bone deep.
@Scott: Isn’t that happening because Biden is sending all the immigrants away from the border counties to infect other people in other places, though?
@KM: I think you hit on an underlying theme. Self-esteem. In my neck of TrumpVille the visceral appearance of the population is frankly, pitiful. Lots of people limping, dragging oxygen tanks, morbidly obese, and in need of dental care. And thats just at Wal-Mart.
I don’t think many of these people are invested in politics. They are too stressed from the daily grind of making a living. They are ripe for a message of punishment of the “elites” that did this to him.
I still stand by my thought that there’s persuadable margin here to help Democrats. But even winning elections here aint an end all be all.
The larger problem here is market forces and how opportunity in this country is mostly aggregated to a handful of Metro areas.
@Teve: I like Coffee and Parfait Nips myself, and Luddites wife gives me fruit flavored Tootsie Roll minis (so I won’t eat all of hers when I visit them), but I’ve never done break up eating. I’ve had too many episodes of Prednisone eating over the years.
Mostly though, I suspect that it’s just that I haven’t been in a relationship that I cared about since college. That breakup was sad, but it’s the only one.
@Mimai:
Trampled By Turtles is entirely new to me. Wow! That is great song.
I use music to process life. Not hyper reductive as in this = x, but as a wrapper to better understand and to cope. Plus, it is super fun too.
Alone is a damn good song. Thanks! Great tip.
I have aged out of hanging out in bars, but the drag and pull is still there. The thrill of meeting another soul brother or sister serendipitously. Day drinking in a shitty bar and shooting the shit with the regulars is a gas and a half. Love it dearly. I still feel the pull of that.
Stopping smoking cigarettes was a really big deal for me. All of my heroes smoke. And if they don’t, they should. It was a core identity issue for me as well as a physical addiction. I was lopping off a pretty big chunk of me.
@Teve: Yeah, we don’t have any school caps that type of color here. (Well, the two-year college might have a similar color–Red Devil mascot–but the students don’t wear school caps for some reason.)
Nobody noticed my Aimee Mann joke. 🙁
@de stijl: My preference is Prince, but I like the Sinead version a lot too.
@de stijl: “The act of giving up is freeing.”
Or as Jules Shear sang back in the glory days of Jules and the Polar Bears — “the nice thing about true hopelessness is that you don’t have to try again.”
Orwell’s take on diet and poverty seems relevant to our current social dilemmas. Replace the bits about diet with stuff about informational sources, conspiracy theories, shared delusions, etc. And replace the poor man with a man whose (perceived) social status is being quaked. It’s not a perfect 1:1 but I think it captures some of it. Or not.
“Would it not be better if they spent more money on wholesome things like oranges and wholemeal bread or if they even, like the writer of the letter to the New Statesman, saved on fuel and ate their carrots raw? Yes, it would, but the point is that no ordinary human being is ever going to do such a thing. The ordinary human being would sooner starve than live on brown bread and raw carrots. And the peculiar evil is this, that the less money you have, the less inclined you feel to spend it on wholesome food. A millionaire may enjoy breakfasting off orange juice and Ryvita biscuits; an unemployed man doesn’t. Here the tendency of which I spoke at the end of the last chapter comes into play. When you are unemployed, which is to say when you are underfed, harassed, bored, and miserable, you don’t want to eat dull wholesome food. You want something a little bit ‘tasty’. There is always some cheaply pleasant thing to tempt you.”
@Jim Brown 32:
That’s unfortunately how capitalism works. They go where the money is and the money’s always in population. You go where the customers are and that’s cities. Thus if that’s where the jobs and the good stuff is, people tend to flock there – why live in an area with lesser services and choices with no jobs with good pay? Who’s gonna pay to lay cable and road out to where less than a thousand people live when that money can be reinvested in keeping hundreds of thousands happy and spending? The cycle intensifies as those who can gather and reinforce that market market pressure.
You aren’t making bank servicing a continent’s worth of wide open space that has less consumers than a single large city. It makes no sense in any sort of economic way unless you are demanding a human component of decency to the math….. and we don’t do that here in corporate America. That’s “socialism”, expecting all people of a nation have a decency quality of life and certain benefits or opportunities everywhere.
@Mu Yixiao:
Is there a Fifth Amendment Lawyers Association?
“We asked them for a comment, but…”
🙂
@Teve:
No, no, no.
Belgian chocolates and XO Armagnac.
🙂
Trust me.
@Teve:
Your aimee was off.
@Mimai:
Of course the great irony there is that “real” food is overall less expensive than junk food.
@de stijl:
Have you ever come across Larkin Poe?
@Mikey:
What to say?
Maybe, best to try to keep putting the argument across, not to give up.
I lost my my mother five years ago; pneumonia developed, as it so often does.
This was two years after my father died in similar circumstances.
Towards the end I was spending hours while she was more or less delirious from painkillers, oxygen deficiency and other effects, trying to persuade her to keep the oxygen mask on.
Not much fun.
But, if I’d copped out, I’d regret it now,
All you can do is your best as you see it.
Best wishes to you.
@Kylopod: The crucial difference was black VA voters stuck with Northam. They decided it was one of the frivolities of youth and to accept his apology.
Cuomo’s transgressions were far more recent and ongoing. He never apologized or accepted responsibility and women were not about to “forgive and forget”.
The credit goes to DEMs who will not accept gross criminality and are nowhere near as awful as GOPs who vote for criminality in their leaders.
I identify, and empathize.
@CSK:
Yes indeed. Social media and increasingly isolated bubbles have allowed us to consume the least nutritious but highly palatable “food” stuff 24-7. We don’t even have to shop for or prepare it ourselves. It’s all there waiting for us when we’re ready. Hell, we don’t even have to bother phoning in for delivery. Whether we’re hungry or not, the “krispy kremes” are shoved into our mouths. Progress!
@de stijl: When I finally walked away from my marriage, I was stone cold broke without a pot to piss in or a roof to lay under, with thousands of dollars of unpaid bills to pay (drugs were more important doncha know) child support, a mortgage payment, school tuition, etc etc etc.
I also felt like the weight of the world had been lifted from my shoulders.
@Teve: And the pork producers who adjusted their systems to be in compliance with the new law? Will make out like bandits. Free (regulated) Market Baby!
@Just nutha ignint cracker: The absolute worst thing in the world. Anyone who’s been to one knows this for a fact.
@Michael Reynolds:
I cannot imagine non-monogamy. I am built towards it. My mileage does vary on that. Not a ding or criticism, but I cannot. If I am into someone I am thereby also monogamous. Like dawn follows dark.
My mom had temporary boyfriends. I have no stable relationship I can model successful behavior off of. TV and movie bullshit is bullshit. No where even close to real life. Idealized bullshit.
I had to figure out romance on my own without a net.
—
Once when I was wee lad of 19 or 20 I was wooing two different women at once. Utter disaster! Swanky dudes do this all the time I told myself.
They knew each other. There was a party and a series of unpleasant confrontations where it all fell apart like a house of cards. Painfully. I am not comfortable with confrontation at all. It spooks me. Least fun party ever.
I am not a swashbuckler. Utterly unsuited. I am way more comfortable with being monogamous. Way fewer moving parts. Bad call on my part to think I was capable of pulling that scheme off. Hubristic. Plus, I felt kinda shitty about myself too then. Sketchy. I was on a bad path for me.
I am simple. I need an infographic to spell this shit out.
Anyway: @de stijl:
Sharing cigarettes was such a great way to meet people!
Or even the old “have you got a light” thing.
Damn, I miss scuzzy bars so much sometimes!
The sort where if you stood still too long your boots got stuck to the floor.
Anyway, here’s 3 Colours Red: Beautiful Day
Anyway, music that may, or may not, improve:
@JohnSF:
Or comments that may, or may not, be editable.
Grrr.
🙁
@charon:
They think they can share that ICU bed and respirator with someone else? Someone who didn’t actively court their disease?
@Mimai:
Is that from Down And Out in Paris And London?
I was a few months homeless when I was 17-18. In winter. In Minnesota.
It is both utterly terrifying and also almost liberating. You literally have nothing to lose.
I had a shitty job. I had friends. I had a boombox / radio.
I knew of a place where no one ever goes. An indoor place to sleep. I could “borrow” it for a spell.
My shitty job got me access to water and quasi bathing. A place to poop.
I’ll be taking time off from work (accumulated vacation time), just in time to miss half of a project which would have been so tedious to make. Usually nothing comes up when I leave. This time I felt I scored a respite.
The plan is to waste the rest of the week resting, then buckle down and write something next week.
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
I’d have counterattacked — “Wait, someone who dresses like that has an opinion about what’s tacky?”
@JohnSF:
Good call! That was a pretty awesome song. Thanks!
@Kathy:
Resting is never a waste.
@de stijl:
No, this is from The Road to Wigan Pier. Similar themes though.
Winter in Minnesota without stable shelter! That’s intense. “A place to poop” may sound trite to the unfamiliar, but it is deeply important…..as you know. Glad you made it through.
@DrDaveT:
Ooh, I’d so love to have been Qaren’ed over that .
Time for a rousing chorus:
The wonderful thing about tiggers
Is tiggers are wonderful things!
Their heads is made out of rubber
Their legs is made out of springs!
….
But the most wonderful thing about tiggers is
I’m the only one
I never voted for the tiggers to eat my face!
@DrDaveT:
I saw exactly this statement made today–that the unvaccinated have NO negative effect–and I literally had to step away from my computer so that I wouldn’t get drawn into a Facebook time-suck.
It’s unfathomable, but they really do think that not getting vaccinated is the least problematic path, and that they are not doing anything wrong. It’s infuriating.
Take a map of the vaccinated areas, and put it next to a map of the places where delta is running rampant. Then tell me being unvaccinated has no effect.
I have just about lost faith in fellow humans.
@Jen: i seriously need to get a tattoo that says 47%. As a reminder that Trump got 47% of the vote. Not a majority. People got to that voting booth, and coulda picked Donald Trump or Joe Biden, and the majority hit the button for Diamond Joe.
@Teve: Fun fact. Biden’s 51.3% of the popular vote is the largest for a challenger to an incumbent president since 1932, and second-largest since 1840.
@Teve: Ha! Every time my phone battery says 47%, I think of Mitt Romney.
I’m fairly certain the Edit button has a 9-5 EST workday, and has been requesting a lot of time off lately. 😉 I was gonna add Mitt Romney and “binders full of women”.
In retrospect…..after 4 years of Trump, I would’ve hated everything Romney did, but at least he wasn’t trying to burn the country down.
@Jax:
It’s currently in the process of completing some renovations and deep cleaning. Stay tuned…
@Mimai: ROFLMAO!!! It’s hard times around here, man, one bar’s shut down for sudden, immediate renovations, the library, the rec center suddenly “can’t find enough people to work because of Biden Buck$$”.
I’m not a bar person, but I sell eggs there, so them shutting down affects whether I need to go pick those eggs up and burn them or not.
Meanwhile, in chicken chicken land, my chickies have discovered the joys of fishing for minnows in the pond I made for them. One minnow trap ain’t doing it, they cleaned them all out of the pond in 36 hours. 😛
@Jen:..I have just about lost faith in fellow humans.
It took you this long?
@Mimai:
I appreciate a working faucet and a furnace that kicks on at the temperature pre-set. A light switch that works and if I flick it I can get illumination. And, yes, a functioning toilet that flushes. Much more so than normal folks.
You appreciate the little infrastructural details of basic life much more so when you have had to manage without them for a bit.
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
“Not my business” is my preferred way of dealing with folks.
@Teve: But only because I haven’t the slightest idea of who Aimee Mann is. If I’d known THAT, whole different story.
@OzarkHillbilly: Never had the “pleasure;” hope to keep it that way, too. My condolences to anyone here who has had it.
My first love was a pretty close doppelganger to Aimee Mann back from the ‘Til Tuesday era. Not exact, but close enough. Kinda spooky. Shave the left side of her head and without glasses she looks like S dead on.
I loved her. I had said the three magic words and that makes everything perfect. Right?
There was a part of her that was essentially Loki. A 1% percent part of her that wanted chaos and strife and she found gleeful joy in releasing it out into world to watch what unfolded as a result.
The three little words do not make everything better in saying them out loud. It’s not magic. It isn’t a spell.
Instead you may find yourself bonded to a person that might be a little bit sociopathic. Can you live with that 1% of her and still look back when you shave?