Merry Christmas suckers, from the heart of Trump-voter's land.
I think things will be pretty different for me and a lot of people I know, because the composition of the Supreme Court and federal administrative boards will have a big impact on our jobs (including, possibly, whether we continue to have them), or in the case of my sister and some of my friends, because they work directly or indirectly for federal agencies.
As for everyone else, I dunno, you don't think life will be different inside that nuclear bunker?
People don't know how to categorize the effect of government on their life. So your kid's curriculum comes from a for-profit company and the school no longer has enough staff for kids with special needs because it used to come from a block grant. So your college kid gets a summer internship with a company pushing an agenda in its chemical research instead of a politically neutral research group. You're right that it's not salient.
Of course, the DNC should launch a giant messaging campaign consisting of every tangential effect of a funding cut on people's lives. "Republicans cut 25 jobs at the Des Moines branch of the IRS, and it takes four weeks longer for the average Iowan to get their tax return." etc, relentlessly.
Make hibernation impossible! Force every person to connect the dots!
That should be the tagline: "Connect the dots." E.g., "Trump and the RNC cut X, and now you have to deal with Y getting worse. Connect the dots."
"I don't read the news anymore and it's great."
It should be microtargeted for every single county that went red. Doesn't even need to mention the Democrats. Just relentlessly peg republicans to their destruction. Also at the state and local level.
That's a good idea. I wonder how one would make the estimates. Like, what would you use for baseline data?
But instead, the Democrats will phrase it in some needlessly complicated egghead language. "Did you know the IRS has had its budget reduced by 8%? While that may not sound like much, it has a wide array of impacts, from assessing marginal tax increases to reviewing seasonal fluctuations. Connect the dots!"
Naturally, this is getting some discussion. I reject completely the frame that Democrats turned their backs on WWC folks in the heartland, but that's apparently like Knut yelling at the tide.
Repealing Obamacare and declining to replace it will make the government's presence or absence felt in the lives of a great many people who don't think voting for the GOP made any difference. Maybe the problem is that too many people already are sequestered from the news.
Also, spending the Social Security trust fund on gold-plated nukes will likely have some impact.
(Give the gift of a subscription to The Atlantic to your loved ones this holiday season!)
14 Ronald Reagan proved that that shit doesn't matter. So long as the cuts are going to felt by the undeserving other, there's no limit. To the extent that Trump supporters get hit as well, that's likely going to be the Democrats' fault, for insisting that the cuts affect everyone. Rather than just the waste fraud and abuse that Trump says he wants to go after.
I basically did this other than dropping by here every few weeks or months, where I sometimes get a dose of news-related rants.
I used to spend a couple hours a day reading political blogs, newspapers, and periodicals and I've shifted most of that time into programming and programming-related activities. I think that's had a small positive impact on the world since being informed about news and politics had no impact on the world and my work has a very minor and diffuse but real positive impact on the world.
It seems entirely plausible that the changes over the next four years will be large enough to have a noticeable impact on my life. If NAFTA gets canned, there will be large scale economic impacts that I may or may not attribute to policy changes if I don't follow the news, but if all of my TN-visa holding co-workers leave the country, that will be a pretty obvious change that's directly attributable to having their visas revoked. Ditto for changes to other visa processes like H-1B, EB-1, etc.
But instead, the Democrats will phrase it in some needlessly complicated egghead language.
It's not that, it's just that none of the major news outlets will report the actual statements. Fox news will have some screed about how, "recent statement proves that Democrats don't understand how budgets work." And then the NYT will write an article about how there's bickering over the effect of IRS cuts.
Unsurprisingly I'm with Carp in 12. Dems might be clunky and awkward, but they didn't lose the presidential election.
That said, they'll piss away all the hay that the Republicans will create over the next four years, which is an unforced error.
18: but a marketing campaign shouldn't need media coverage, exactly. You're right, I mean I have the same criticisms of the worthless MSM, but that shouldn't sink a messaging campaign.
18: but a marketing campaign shouldn't need media coverage, exactly.
I was recently trying to think of any example of a political party running a non-election specific marketing campaign (including official mailings, etc . . . ) and couldn't think of any.
I wonder if there's a reason why that isn't practical, or if it's just not how the organizations are configured. But, I also stand by my point, that the message not only has to be clear it has to be decisive enough that it will still be convincing to people after they've seen a counter-article saying, "ha, ha, liberals, that's not how budgets work."
Speaking of messaging however, I have to give credit to Kevin Drum for a fabulous headline today: http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2016/12/ironic-twist-conservatives-win-war-christmas-kill-santa-process
The Republicans ran tv ads in favor of passing the FISA amendments, which went through the Democratic-controlled Congress in 2008. The Republicans have run "up or down vote" ads on judicial nominees in the past.
The Democrats barely said anything about Merrick Garland.
||
On the local mothers FB page:
We as admins know it is our duty to help you all in any way possible. In saying that, when it comes to making anonymous post, a "please" & "thank you" would be greatly appreciated. Anyone asking us to make anonymous post, that do not say "please" or "thank you", will go UNNOTICED. Thank you, Team Admin.They seem very worked up!
|>
Were there no Merrick Garland ads in Wisconsin or Pennsylvania? That's a mistake. Running them here would have been a waste of money. Money that instead got spent re-electing our governor.
The Democrats barely said anything about Merrick Garland
The fucking Merrick Garland thing. WTF.
Running them in Kentucky would also have been a waste of money. Procedural arguments don't do much for people who don't give a shit about procedure, and I can't imagine any McConnell (or Paul) voters changing their minds on the proven charge that they've been unfair to Obama in hopes of reducing abortion and same sex bathrooms etc.
There were Garland ads in PA. I don't recall if any mentioned him by name, but they certainly ran bunches of ads attacking Toomey for not holding a vote on the Supreme Court nominee.
Dear admins,
If it be your will, could you please post this anonymous message telling your readers to go fuck a beehive.
Thanks for your consideration.
Anon.
You people are pretty far-flung -- which is not to say that you're necessarily rootless or cosmopolitan -- so I have a question for you: did Clinton run ads scaremongering about the fate of Social Security? Such ads were, in the past, staples for Democrats running national races. But I didn't see any this time -- either while we still lived in PA or, for obvious reasons, after we moved back to CA. I also haven't found any online, but I'm pretty bad at the internet, so maybe I'm just looking in the wrong place.
I don't recall any of those. Possibly because Trump was also running on that.
The Democrats do as well as they do because they're right(ish) on policy. That's enough to stay competitive, but not win reliably.
They are shitty at politics, though. They should be on TV constantly saying that the election proved we're a divided country, and that the Trump administration should appoint a cabinet of national unity.
And the total inability to make an issue out of Garland is embarrassing.
And the total inability to make an issue out of Garland is embarrassing.
Make an issue out of, or, you know, not lose control of the Supreme Court for at least another decade.
I like heebie's thinking. It wouldn't even need to be the Democratic Party itself running the ads, and it actually would probably be better if it wasn't.
I think the best medium would be billboards. Hard to ignore, hard to refute, extremely specific geographically. Probably cheaper than TV ads too, but I'm not totally sure.
Dens won't be able to run on the destruction of health insurance, it will be blamed on them because people are stupid and fall for obvious lies. The Republicans will say, "See? Obama ruined health insurance, we told you the program would fall apart eventually." Half the people who lose insurance won't even know that Republicans passed any changes to the law and the other half will think Democrats passed the repeal.
39: I don't think that's true. The voters are morons, and they vote whoever is in the White House for everything -- the economy, the outcome of the Super Bowl, the weather, everything.
I'm on board with using billboards.
I'm sure the northern northern California billboard spaces that used to have Where's the Birth Certificate? billboards will be available.
Reading 29 out of context was a little surprising.
I also read it out of context and thought "I don't understand, anyone can comment anonymously. Do they want it to be a guest post?"
oh, whoops. Over on FB. The moderators there are whiny whiners.
39:VW- when did you move back to CA? Same place as before or somewhere else?
39:VW- when did you move back to CA? Same place as before or somewhere else?
39:VW- when did you move back to CA? Same place as before or somewhere else?
Lalalalalala I'm not noticing you!
Where's your Christmas spirit, Team Admin? Let's fuck a beehive, every one!
If you fixed fucked every beehive, you'd cause colony collapse.
Marisa Tomei is really good in My Cousin Vinny. I feel like somebody should have acknowledged that.
Trigger warning: Home Alone 2. although otherwise a fine Christmas movie for boys with sadistic tendencies who finally tired of the original, features a cameo by the next President of the United States.
Trigger warning: Home Alone 2. although otherwise a fine Christmas movie for boys with sadistic tendencies who finally tired of the original, features a cameo by the next President of the United States.
53 I have been Mona Lisa Vito for Halloween every year for like the last five years. It's a hit at parties and stuff but when I'm just staying home giving out candy to kids it really doesn't connect.
But more importantly was there ever even any question that she was good in my cousin vinny? I thought that was consensus.
Also she financed the movie of a bartender I liked which made a bartender I didn't like really jealous so she has that going for her too.
Whatever, that movie is literally perfect.
I have always taken Tomei's well-deserved Oscar for MCV to be evidence of the paucity of decent women's roles at the time. Things have improved since then, and she's done a lot of nice work, too, but it's a shame she was never really given a good role.
I don't dislike MCV, but I've never been clear on what elevates it above benign vague good status.
It's no Rat Race, my favorite underrated movie.
Keep in mind that I stopped watching movies last decade.
63 nah MCV. The bartender's movie was apparently not very good.
We're doing Christmas in the rehab unit tomorrow and are trying to decide on a movie. I'm gonna put in for MCV. My mom is trying make us watch The Battle of Algiers AGAIN.
If you want to change that, there's a new Underworld sequel.
65 aside from featuring my moon and stars Mona Lisa Vito, MCV is surprisingly accurate about law. Procedurals or whatever I kind of flinch my way through like, ugh that's not how you DO it, but MCV is spot on.
69 to 67, but really nothing says "family holiday" like Kate B, dressed in skin-tight leather and firing guns.
71 spent a minute trying to figure out which Kate Bush video that was until I realized it wasn't one.
I mean actually it probably is, but not one that comes to mind readily.
I didn't want to spell her name wrong out of respect.
Have we done an under-rated movies thread? I remember Mars Attacks showing up on a lot of bottom ten lists, and Rotten Tomatoes puts it at 52%, but I loved that movie. It came out the same summer as Independence Day and was a perfect parody.
I do recognize that "accurate about law" is not really selling MCV to anyone but myself.
Also when I was online dating everyone said their favorite movie was Blade Runner which I have never seen and totally thought was the same as Cool Runnings, and was just like ugh, MEN.
If they ever said Underworld, you'd have known to wear skin-tight leather and carry a gun on the date.
77: You should have been like ugh, MON.
I've been told that Cravath used MCV in trial training.
Also, nothing is funnier than Tomei saying "little deer lips."
I missed that part. I just saw the end.
Spoiler Alert:
The Karate Kid is acquitted.
Do southerners love it as much as northerns? Is it as authentically southern in a way that they love? I mostly don't remember it very well, but I would have been more attuned to the accuracy of the south than the yanks, unless they were very specifically Yanks like my family.
My memory is that it had the sort of hokey Hollywood south, sort of like Radiator Springs (which isn't the south but still has that yokel feel).
I like MCV a lot, but it's definitely a Northern version of the South.
I can spot an inauthentic Gator in under fifteen seconds.
89 sure I guess but it's not like Vinny or Mona Lisa are nuanced portraits of working-class Long Islanders.
MCV has Nero Wolfe as the hick who makes magic grits. It's pretty great and my dad loves it.
91: Sure, it's definitely a Hollywood caricature of both. But clearly from a Northern perspective.
Herman Munster is clearly authentic southern.
Am I the only one who keeps parsing MCV as Military Assistance Command, Vietnam? Because that's super annoying.
First hit on Google for MCV is "mean corpuscular volume," which is surely a better phrase than whatever yinz are talking about.
Watch the closing credits of Blade Runner for a nice look at Glacier National Park.
Have I mentioned a million times yet that I was hiking here when they filmed this? I must be close.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3l1iUUq_fE
Dammit
I thought it was some game I never heard of, like Metal Clear 5.
Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah you reprobates!
I camped adjacent to the set of Spy Kids 2. Seriously.
I see Heebie's opened up with the first salvo.
And I am Spartacus.
I am, like, Spartacus?
65: I believe that MCV's popularity was largely due to riding the brief Joe Pesci wave that was set off by Goodfellas.
OT: food poisoning, a lousy was to spend Christmas eve!
SPARTS 'Я US
112.last: My dad spent the night having his digestive tract chemically emptied in preparation for a colonoscopy so urgent it's being done today.
114: Jesus, I was a little mopey, but that sounds awful. I hope he is OK and that it's an abundance of caution.
That's terrible Gerry, hoping for the best.
having his digestive tract chemically emptied in preparation for a colonoscopy so urgent it's being done today.
An even lousier way to spend Christmas eve!
Hope all goes well. I'm still holding a grudge about the pardon, though.
The colon is non-lethal. The other issues are still in the air.
So sorry, Jerry.
Festive greetings to all, hope everyone manages to spread a reasonable amount of joy about the day.
Best of luck to you, Gerald. I hadn't yet read the thread.
It's a good thread, that has very little defense of Communist dictatorship.
Just wait until Opinionated Soviet Tank Commander/Lactation Consultant shows up.
Goodbye George Michael.
Does anybody else suspect Carrie Fisher's family is keeping her on life support in order to not ruin people's Christmas?
And GF I'm sorry & fingers crossed. This has been a bad year for dads.
If I were Paul McCartney or Mick Jagger I'd wrap myself in bubble wrap and hide in a nuclear bunker until this year is finally over.
Sorry! Should have kept that to myself.
It isn't grim here actually. We're just hanging out making blood orange trifle & the kid is providing commentary on the absurdities of the magic flute plot. The enlightenment was a weird world. I love the René Jacobs recording except for I miss those adorable boys in the proto steam punk flying machine from the Bergman and you do have to hold on to your hat against the speed. But I cannot give up the singspiel now that I have it.
Actually pretty bad year for dads. My father-in-law passed away last night in the hospital where he'd been for a few weeks; it could have happened any time, and unfortunately we're visiting my parents right now, so scrambling is going on. Meanwhile my dad is hunching over and taking tiny shuffling steps and has developed a hand tremor but has an agreeably lackadaisical doctor who is just "eh, age", which maddens the rest of us.
Sorry about your father and father-in-law.
Anyway, I'm GF. Thanks for the well wishing. Not sure why I went presidential there. Because colonoscopies are undignified?
I'm so sorry, Nathan.
My dad's been quite himself in many ways--a couple of days ago we spent the afternoon talking about Keats and listening to Baden Powell--this is after expectations he wouldn't live, or wouldn't speak, after weeks on a fucking ventilator, after a bunch of brain surgeries, two ICUs where his neighbors died, ugh. He's beginning to understand what happened. It's hard to talk about how traumatic and destabilizing everything is without sounding ungrateful for the progress we've made and the expectations we've defied.
I don't know anything about Keats, he was doing the talking, really.
The lesson is everyone wear a helmet wherever you go because gravity is always out there, trying to injure your head.
132 yeah gotta maintain dignity around here.
That's so good to hear. And reassuring as my dad is on a ventilator now. He's expected to get off it tomorrow, but still it worries me.
Oh man, Nathan Moby & Clytie much sympathy. Wish I could fill you all with delicious trifle.
I tried to invent Seven & 'Su, but I can't recommend it.
At the very least, don't mix in the lady finger part.
I'm sorry to hear about everyone's dads.
Maybe if I had one of those muddling sticks like for mint julips.
Sympathies Clytie and Nathan.
I had tiramisu and Bailey's last night. Too rich but it felt right for Christmas. Now off to work...
135 I found the last days on the ventilator hardest because that's when he was most aware/distressed by being on it. Don't be discouraged if he doesn't come off right when scheduled, they're too conservative about taking people off, but it's usually not worth a fight with the doctors unless they're talking about a tracheostomy.
I'm someone with opinions about prevailing deintubation protocol now I guess.
And thank you all for your kind words but if you REALLY care you'll take my advice and wear helmets literally all the time.
Oh, yikes. Healthy wishes for everyone's dads and dads-in-law. Moby, so sorry you're having to deal with this at Christmas (not that there is a good time). Clytie, I'm glad to hear he's defying expectations. I am always surprised at how willing doctors are to be definitive (good and bad) when my experience is that they often just don't know and can't reasonably predict.
Nathan, I'm awfully sorry. We have gone through the same sort of thing with my dad and have not been able to talk him away from his primary care Dr. Lackadasical, though in recent years he has also been seeing a cardiologist who is much more on top of things.
Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah, everyone!
In happier news, the 5-8 year-old sobrinos had a rip-roaring Nerf-gun (or whatever the modern equivalent) battle with their fathers, uncle, and aunt to round off Christmas night. One has never heard such delighted shrieking, nor such glee at successfully plonking a parent in the forehead with a thankfully puny foam bullet.
The exact same scene played out here.
She's my future (as in less than a month) sister-in-law. It will be interesting to see if she continues participating once she is officially part of the family.
She also documented part of the fray using her new Snapchat spectacles, which I did not know existed until today.
She also documented part of the fray using her new Snapchat spectacles, which I did not know existed until today.
Huh, me neither. I bet Google is going to be pissed if they catch on.
I'm actually having a hard time with Christmas this year, in ways that are hard to talk to people about because I don't want to be a total buzzkill. Of my friends who have died in the past six months, both had children, and I can't stop thinking about how hard it is for the kinds and their surviving parent to handle this first Christmas.
AISIHMHB, an unusually high number of my closest pre-cancer friends also have cancer. One found out a few days ago that yet another drug has failed to halt her metastatic breast cancer. Another fellow cancer camper has spent the last month in the hospital. My father-in-law's brother has also failed another chemo regimen. My mother-in-law has an MRI-guided breast biopsy on Thursday.
Then, of course, there's politics.
Basically, I have no reason to believe 2017 will be any better than 2016, and it's likely to be worse. There's a strong chance that a couple of people I know will die too young. It's hard to know what to do with any of that.
Ooph. That's a lot; I'm sorry. I can see why that'd be weighing you down.
My grandfather (102) is in hospital. He was in on Christmas Day. He's looking really not well and seems to be in pain. I took xelA to see him today and we couldn't wake him.
xelA is quite a sensitive wee soul (when he isn't hurtling around crashing into the world) so he's been asking about Grandad's tubes, and when he's getting better, and if an ambulance took him, and so on. So I kind of wish I hadn't taken him today as he (grandfather) looked pretty shockingly bad.
Sorry to hear that ttaM, and JR.
Deepest sympathies, JR and ttaM. That's a lot to contend with.
Sympathies to all. That sounds really tough.
I'm sorry everyone. I suppose a lot if it's just the people I know aging but what the FUCK.
There's no way 2017 will be *better* I'm sure and yet finding the idea of renewal really powerful in flaky hippie crystal ways to which I'm normally adverse.
Like, I'm going to a New Year's Day soundbath. The last one I went to was pretty incredible and they brushed everyone with turkey feathers and spoke of the magic of the turkey which is the magic of abundance and replenishment and I was like ok, sure, sounds good, guess I am in a turkey cult now.
Idk pretty sure this turkey cult will prevent death and frailty, seems promising.
Probably. Getting into the good turkey cult isn't easy.
I was going to say that this thread has become even more depressing than the Soviet atrocities thread, but 163.3 redeemed it.
We had a bunch of turkeys in our yard yesterday. Interviewing us for membership, I now realize. Left without accepting anyone.
So sorry about your peeps, JR and ttaM. Best of luck to you all in the coming year.
You guys should all just come to the soundbath. It's run by this stupidly attractive couple who most certainly have sex that's insane in ways I can't even imagine and they make you breathe funny then ring gongs really loud in your ears. They'll start with kind of acceptable hippie stuff like "we are all full of a life force that can be replenished or diminished by our choices of food and attention to breath" and then they'll add on "and the amount of light we take in through the porous spots on our foreheads. With enough of this force you can live for 200 years and rocket through the seven dimensions after death."
I mean really give me one good reason NOT to join a turkey cult.
What daring! What outrageousness! What insolence! What arrogance!... I salute you.
I bet the turkey cult throws a mean Thanksgiving bash.
Or they'd murder you for suggesting they eat a turkey. One or the other.
Somebody is on Nextdoor asking for leftover bones so they can make a soup to cure a hernia. I don't know if they only want turkey bones but I'm not about to ask. They know where I live.
173: You can't have a fertility cult without some blood sacrifice.
As long as I'm evangelizing, fucking SALTIES. I've been warning people about them FOREVER.
Possible saltie apocrypha but I remembered hearing they sometimes ended up in rivers that tourist rafts went down so the guides would send a raft with a pig ahead of the convoy so that if there were displaced salties they would eat the pig and the humans could turn back.
True story: a little over 10 years ago, partner and I were standing on a beautiful beach south of Cairns, considering a swim, but decided against it based on the stories of sharks, crocs, and various other things-that-want-to-eat-you that were rumored to frequent the area (oddly enough, there were no "No Swimming" signs).
A month after we got back to the US, CNN reported a tourist getting killed by a salt water crocodile on that same beach.
True story: I was in Bangkok and walked into this dilapidated temple compound that included a crocodile in a concrete pit. A monk in saffron robes hopped in and started poking the beast with a broomstick, prompting it to open its mouth and reveal a jaw from which all teeth had been removed. I'm not sure what he accomplished. I guess he was doing Buddhism.
Late, but I'm so sorry your grandfather is ailing, ttaM. My own beloved grandfather died at 93 a few years ago, and I miss him terribly. Amazing what a difference serious illness makes to appearance.
J, Robot, I'm so sorry your world looks like that. So much illness and loss and no sign of improvement. Good wishes for 2017 ring hollow every time I utter them, so I'll spare you. Cancer sucks, treatments are barbaric, and looking over your shoulder and worrying over friends is awful.
NMM to Vera Rubin.
I guess this puts an end to any further "Will they eventually give Rubin the Nobel Prize?" speculation.
One night in Bangkok and the gum-dile mumbles.
A few weeks back I was SUPing around the mouth of a nearby river and a guy called to me from his patio up on the bank and said that I better not fall in because he's seen an alligator around there that morning. I think he was bullshitting and that it was a caiman, not an alligator.
It's very satisfying when you get back the revision of an article your were the reviewer for and you see that one of the other reviewers raised basically the same issues as you did. Very calming on the whole imposter syndrome front.
Sympathy for everybody dealing with friends and family in poor health. I came done with a stomach bug today but comparatively, that feels minor. It will pass.
Thanks everyone. I think I usually put unwarranted weight on the idea that the next year might be better than the last, and for all the obvious reasons I'm not feeling that right now.
re: 181
Yeah, it's striking how much difference 18 months or so make. At 100, he was pretty hale and hearty, and could have passed for his early 80s. And while he had mild dementia, it wasn't really obvious, just occasional forgetfulness. Now, he really looks very ill, and tbh, I don't think his quality of life is anything at all.
I'm OK with it, it's not a surprise that he's old, or that he might get unwell. It is a bit distressing for xelA, though.
189: It was my first Christmas without Dad. It was somewhat odd. I certainly missed him, but we all kept it to oblique references and celebrated the family that remained.
It was an odd holiday, though--my first real sense of true superfluousness at the holidays. We joined my aunt and her family down to new grandchildren on Christmas and it was lovely, but my wife and I just supplied grandkid presents and watched, as we'd opened our gifts to each other the night before. (In large part to spare transporting them.) After a nice brunch, we drove a few hours down to a hotel.
Yesterday, we had a nice visit with my brother, and enjoyed seeing the tar pits together. But again, his "real Christmas" had been the day before, with his kids and grandkids, etc.
It's not terrible, just a fierce reminder that I'm a dead end. I knew it was coming, but didn't expect to transition to such a removed role for another decade or two.
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