Continuing the theme of earlier this week: I don’t know about you guys, but just looking at the news these days is either enraging or depressing. Biden at last night’s White House Hanukkah party, ignoring the elephant in the room. (On edit: Yes, there was a shift in tone today.) Tommy Tuberville, the idiot senator with the cartoon-mouse name. Trump collecting resumes for his next reign of terror. J.D. Vance, helpfully spreading the nation’s cheeks for a giant screwing by Vladimir Putin. The Texas abortion case alone about sent me through the fucking roof.
Fortunately, I have some diversions.
This afternoon, in our very own backyard:
Fuzzy pic, but you can watch the sharper short video here.
That’s a Cooper’s hawk, I believe, and lunch was an unlucky mourning dove. But boy, that raptor didn’t waste a bite — there’s a pile of feathers there now, and not a hint of flesh. Alan captured this moment of nature drama, and said the hawk started on the breast and went straight through to the guts, gobbled the whole thing up.
I find birds a solace at times like this. They’re up there in the sky and trees, living their lives, and so far they haven’t elected Donald Trump president. Maybe one will shit on his head in a public place sometime soon.
Otherwise? Check out these girls:
New Shadow Show rekkid (as they say on the east coast) in February! Is there a taste? Yes there is, another video. Which you can watch here. Girl-group psychedelia.
Anything else? Sure. Guess where I read this interview with Johnny Rotten:
The AARP Bulletin, that’s where.
And is there more? There is more! Another paywalled story, but the gist: A Metro Detroit local, described as an “amateur porn personality” was charged in the January 6 Capitol attack. Tee-hee:
The case against Paul Caloia, 33, shows him wearing a Detroit Red Wings hat and a white mask inside the Capitol during the siege and include screengrabs of surveillance footage of Caloia and a video he posted online showing him inside the Capitol, talking about being in the “wrong room at the wrong time.”
The Caloia case describes the colorful backstory of a Macomb County man who is among approximately 25 people from Michigan — and more than 1,100 nationwide — charged with crimes related to the siege that involved supporters of former President Donald Trump breaking into the Capitol, ransacking offices, overwhelming and assaulting police officers and sending lawmakers into hiding as Congress tried to certify the 2020 Electoral College vote count. The group includes former Republican gubernatorial candidate Ryan Kelley, who is serving a 60-day federal prison sentence in a low-security prison in Wisconsin.
While I had hoped that being a porn personality meant you were an extra who maybe stood around while the stars provided the action, maybe the guy who waves a feather fan in the Roman-orgy scene, but I guess he just does some amateur porn. Alan found a picture of his testicles online. Not very impressive.
And now it’s just past 5 and the sun has set. Cocktail hour, I’d say. Fortunately, Alan has mixed up an excellent margarita. Talk later, eh?
Jeff Borden said on December 12, 2023 at 5:44 pm
A peregrine falcon feasted on a fat pigeon in our neighbor’s window box and was not as neat as your raptor. Feathers and guts in two yards and Cosmo is absolutely driven mad when we walk past the spot. Nature ain’t pretty.
I fear for the safety of the woman from Texass. I can’t imagine her returning to cowboy boot Gilead, but she’s a native. A pox on Greg Abbott and the entire Texass QOP.
My guess is Peter Thiel has a stake in letting Vladimir Putin crush Ukraine, so he’s using his hand puppet, J.D. Vance, to carry his water. And the House QOPers are fully on board with letting a struggling democracy die if it offends that orange sack of offal they worship like Baal.
What a change since St. Ronald of Reagan. If the conservatives of his day had been told they could degrade and demolish Soviet forces without losing a single American life (Russia has lost 90% of those it has sent into battle, according to Reuters), they’d have danced in the streets. But our modern-day quislings want to give Putin a helping hand by undercutting Ukrainian men and women far braver than any of the whiny little worms in Congress. They make me vomit.
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brian stouder said on December 12, 2023 at 8:44 pm
Jeff, I was thinking precisely the same thing a day ago. I was a Reagan guy, absolutely, back in the day. My mom, a life-long Democrat, figured she just raised me wrong…..but I outgrew those days (reading lots {and lots} of nonfiction will have this effect!!) and I’ve been a proud D since Barack came along. As you said, the general American response to the Russian war of aggression in the Ukraine encapsulates our internal flip-flop
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Ann said on December 12, 2023 at 9:15 pm
When I saw the “guess where I read this” question I immediately thought the answer was going to be “on the toilet.” Perhaps I’m revealing too much.
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brian stouder said on December 12, 2023 at 9:50 pm
Ann, for Thread Win!!!
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alex said on December 13, 2023 at 12:15 am
I’ve never read the AARP newsletter, but I would have expected to see a feature on Lawrence Welk and ads for Sansabelt pants.
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Dorothy said on December 13, 2023 at 8:05 am
Ann that was my assumption too – the throne would be a perfect place to read that. My AARP newsletter currently sits on the back of the toilet in my basement, so when I need a break from sewing I can go look for Lawrence Welk promos and Sansabelt ads.
Any of you from Chicago see the news about a guy using a knife on a CTA Red Line train to attack someone? He was arrested. Someone I used to know from when we both worked at Kenyon College (she works at the University of Illinois Chicago now) posted on Facebook that she was attacked in her car by a knife wielding nutjob. She’s all right – he put a crack in her windshield and shattered a side window. (She shared pics)She had some small cuts to her hands but for the love of all that is sane, what the F is this world coming to?!
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Ann said on December 13, 2023 at 11:12 am
Dorothy, that’s terrible. I’m glad your friend is okay but have no answer to your question.
You would all be terribly wrong about the AARP newsletter. It’s usually articles about some celebrity who has just turned 55 surrounded by ads for hearing aids and walk-in tubs (the articles that is, not the celebrities).
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Julie Robinson said on December 13, 2023 at 12:38 pm
Gosh, what am I missing? We don’t belong to AARP.
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diane said on December 13, 2023 at 1:44 pm
We only belong to aarp because their Medicare supplement insurance could not be beat in our area. I will have to take a look at the magazine instead of pitching it straight into the recycling bin now.
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Deborah said on December 13, 2023 at 5:08 pm
When I turned 50 I started getting junk mail from AARP. I have avoided it ever since.
So our first attempt to decorate cup cakes was a fail, one would expect that for the first try but mainly even without mangled icing the cupcakes are inedible. They’re way too sweet, because the boxed cake mix and canned icing I used have ridiculously too much sugar or whatever is in them to make them taste like you could have a diabetic incident even if you don’t have diabetes. Whenever I make baking recipes I usually cut the amount of sugar because I always find them to be way too sweet. I should have known better. We will try this again sometime (a long time from now) when we have the gumption and energy to make the cake and icing from scratch. Live and learn. Now I have to figure out what to do with the coma inducing cupcakes, probably will have to throw them in the garbage. Oh well, at least we got to experiment with the squeezy bags and tips for decorating, our attempts were pathetic but I figured that would be the case for the first time.
We are having visitors at our cabin tomorrow and on top of making inedible cupcakes which I was going to serve as dessert I made creamy potato leek soup and LB is making bread for our guests. Now I have to come up with a different (much better) dessert, I think I’ll go to the French bakery and just buy something. The soup turned out fabulously, it will be quite tasty and cozy to have on a snowy afternoon tomorrow.
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Dorothy said on December 13, 2023 at 5:45 pm
I was kidding around about the AARP magazine. We’ve gotten it since i think we both turned 60. It’s pretty good actually. Lots of articles about stuff we seniors weren’t paying attention to until we became seniors. Might as well face facts. It’s what we are now – senior citizens! (those of us who recently became one – I know some of you have been there for awhile!)
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Julie Robinson said on December 13, 2023 at 6:41 pm
Deborah, the cupcakes would probably be okay if you scraped off the nasty canned frosting and stirred up a little buttercream instead. We just finished 250 cookies for the living nativity this weekend. Frozen dough, but with homemade frosting they’re quite good. I’ve never piped anything; I’m in the get it done club. Slap on some icing, shake on some sprinkles, done.
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brian said on December 13, 2023 at 7:27 pm
I became a retired guy this past year, and Pam and I sold the house and took up residence in rural Cass County (near Logansport)…a very refreshing (and comprehensive!) change of pace. Honestly and truly, I’ve no real idea how Pam ever made the transition from this lifestyle and environment, to the (much) more urban lifestyle in Fort Wayne, when she was the other side of 20!
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Charlie Zone said on December 13, 2023 at 8:24 pm
Deborah, I’m sorry the cupcakes didn’t come out great. I also think some desserts are too sweet but I’m always careful about cutting the sugar because in some recipes it is important to the texture. Not enough sugar in a cake and I get something like bread, not enough sugar in cookies and I get little cake balls. If you are interested in less sweet buttercream, you might want to look up French buttercream which uses egg yolks. The richness cuts the sweetness. I also sometimes make ermine frosting which uses flour and milk. It’s a bit less sweet and has a nice silky texture.
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Deborah said on December 13, 2023 at 9:06 pm
Julie and Charlie, thanks for the advice, I will keep those in mind. The reason we used boxed and canned was because we wanted to save our energy and enthusiasm for the decorating not the homemade making of the cake and frosting. For that it was a good experience, basically we suck at it, but there’s always time and space for improvement, so I’m not giving up. I probably shouldn’t have started this experiment during the holiday season when there’s a lot of general anxiety, and the depression from the darkness. We will try it again, just not any time soon.
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alex said on December 13, 2023 at 9:16 pm
Might as well face facts. It’s what we are now – senior citizens! (those of us who recently became one – I know some of you have been there for awhile!)
Might as well face facts. Our parents’ Lawrence Welk is our Johnny Rotten.
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Julie Robinson said on December 13, 2023 at 9:44 pm
When I think of old-time Christmas music I think of Bing Crosby and Julie Andrews. My daughter’s version of old-time Christmas music is Amy Grant.
Forgot to say we had a young friend assisting with cookies, and the talk got around to what we were reading. She wants to kickstart her reading mojo, and Sarah was telling her about a favorite from when she was that age, Maus. She walked over to the banned book library* and pulled out a copy. “You mean it wasn’t banned back then?” For this Florida 7th grader, banned books are the norm.
*We were baking down at church because our oven crapped out on us. We host a banned book library there.
Also, both Zieglers (of the Florida throuple) have been asked to resign their positions but are refusing to do so. Wags are calling them the new Three’s Company.
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basset said on December 13, 2023 at 9:44 pm
I’m no bird expert, but that looks more like a red-tailed hawk to me.
Project as deer season winds down: make soap from deer fat. Have some in the shower right now, works fine.
I try to avoid Christmas music but we do have one connection… the original singer of “Jingle Bell Rock” was Bobby Helms from Bloomington, his son was a pallbearer in Mama B’s funeral.
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LAMary said on December 13, 2023 at 10:22 pm
Not too sweet, super easy, very tasty cookie recipe? NYT Flourless Cocoa Cookies. Trust me.
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Dorothy said on December 14, 2023 at 6:17 am
I had to Google Cooper’s Hawk, and then Red Tailed Hawk, clicked on images. They are very similar but I’m pretty sure Nancy is correct.
You have piqued my curiosity, Mary, and will look into those cookies. I’m planning to make some Russian tea cakes, peanut blossoms, fudge, cinnamon refrigerator cookies and chocolate chips in the coming week. So I can have a small tin of cookies for a bunch of my neighbors. We really do have nice neighbors and I want to show my appreciation for them.
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Dexter Friend said on December 14, 2023 at 7:26 am
As an old rocker, I noticed a channelling of The Byrds from 1965 at the start of the tune, then halfway through I realized I would believe I was listening to The Go-Go’s if I didn’t know it was Shadow Show. This stuff by them is really, really good. It’s getting better exponentially every time I hear them or see a video.
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Joe Kobiela said on December 14, 2023 at 8:54 am
Agreed Dexter shadow show while not exactly my type of music seems to improve with each new release.
Pilot Joe
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4dbirds said on December 14, 2023 at 9:33 am
Sorry about your cupcakes Deborah. I am a bit of a snob when it comes to cooking so I do everything by scratch. I can tell immediately if something is ‘prepared’. I make basic meals but they mostly turn out yummy if I do say so myself. My husband grew up in a house where nothing was fresh. To this day, if he cooks, he relies on pouched seasonings, canned ingredients and even prepared soup/stew starters. He buys the precut stew meats even though I tell him buying a roast and cutting it up himself is superior. I eat it since I don’t want to hurt his feelings, but his offerings are mostly poor to fair. He loves them since it is a taste he grew up with and considers comforting. His leftovers usually go into the fridge to await disposal since he doesn’t touch them again. My meals never have leftovers since he goes for seconds and even thirds every time. Again, I am no great cook but when everything is fresh and flavors are allowed to meld, it is so much better.
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Heather said on December 14, 2023 at 10:21 am
I’m in AARP. I get free MAX (formerly HBO Max) with my phone plan through them and you get discounts on rental cars and hotels. It’s only like $14 a year so it pays for itself. Also the TikTok account is pretty funny (geared at GenX, my cohort). I’m not old enough to take advantage of the Medicare and other health-related stuff yet.
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Mark P said on December 14, 2023 at 11:33 am
If you’re not a fan of Christmas music, try “I believe in Father Christmas” by Emerson, Lake and Palmer. I also like “2000 Miles” by the Pretenders. Neither is a traditional Christmas song (“And they told me a fairy story
Til I believed in the Israelite”).
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susan said on December 14, 2023 at 11:38 am
It’s not easy to distinguish a Cooper’s hawk from a sharp-shinned hawk. Just looking at the end of the tail (straight across, not rounded), I’m thinking that is a sharp-shinned hawk. But, it’s complicated!
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susan said on December 14, 2023 at 11:42 am
My favorite xmas piece of music
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4dbirds said on December 14, 2023 at 12:36 pm
My favorite Christmas song is Oh Holy Night. It sends a warm shiver down my spine every time.
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Suzanne said on December 14, 2023 at 1:55 pm
I love O Holy Night, too. Also, I adore In the Bleak Midwinter.
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Dorothy said on December 14, 2023 at 3:25 pm
Just today my son had I Believe in Father Christmas (ELP) on his playlist in his truck! And I love all versions of O Holy Night. The Judds did a pretty great one. And the absolute best is Darlene Love’s version of Christmas Baby Please Come Home!!
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Julie Robinson said on December 14, 2023 at 3:56 pm
Those are all good ones! My favorite Christmas music is whatever I’m listening to as long as it’s not country. Our son usually sings O Holy Night at the Christmas Eve service. I brag, but he’s good; tears are shed by many of those listening.
I’m in bed with the ice pack, having managed to hurt my good shoulder. I tell you, getting older is one indignity after another.
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nancy said on December 14, 2023 at 4:23 pm
Red-tailed hawks have, um, red tails. Cooper’s have banded tails.
The photo tells the story.
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Jeff Borden said on December 14, 2023 at 4:34 pm
An unconventional choice, but it’s especially timely this year.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9jbdgZidu8
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Deborah said on December 14, 2023 at 5:41 pm
Every Christmas season LB and I take the Drummer Boy challenge. If you hear that song played over the speakers in stores you lose. Now that my hearing has degenerated I can’t hear piped in music as well so I think I win, LB is not amused.
I’m out at the Abiquiu cabin and we’re expecting guests any minute, but when we first got here we had a flood to clean up. The drain outside the back doors is clogged and water came in over the threshold. The water is from the melting snow on the roof. We were scrambling around screaming at each other but we did manage to get the water inside scooped up and the concrete floor is dry now because of the wood burning stove.
I’m not sure how we’re going to get the 2 or 3 inches of water in the space between the doors and the stairs up to the sleeping loft drained, we’ll probably have to bail it into a galvanized tub and flipping outside somehow. I’m sure my explanation of all this makes no sense but it’s a complicated design of indoor/outdoor space, hard to describe.
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basset said on December 14, 2023 at 7:02 pm
Some of the coloration on the red-tail’s, um, tail is pretty hard to see unless the bird is flying. My contact with the state fish & game dept said it was “hard to say,” but ruled it probably a Cooper’s due to its size.
Me, I’m just pleased I got some responses.
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LAMary said on December 14, 2023 at 10:00 pm
Check out the Nutella brownies on the NYT Cooking site too.
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Jeff Gill said on December 14, 2023 at 11:05 pm
This version includes Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull as a bonus, plus in St. Bride’s Church in London.
https://youtu.be/U6-PAKOt7sM
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Dorothy said on December 15, 2023 at 7:23 am
Oh Jeff that was lovely! Thanks for finding it and sharing it.
How’s your father-in-law doing?
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Jenine said on December 15, 2023 at 9:45 am
Juveniles, Red Tail / Cooper’s / Sharp-shinned, can also have different coloration and look like each other. But I always love to see a raptor!
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Deborah said on December 15, 2023 at 11:10 am
After our flood fiasco yesterday we got it all cleaned up before our guest arrived. The water was still 2” deep outside the door last night, but it drained during the night and it’s almost all gone.
The peak of the Geminid (spelling?) meteor shower was between 2 and 4 this morning. Without even trying I happened to be awake and saw 6 meteors just from casually looking out the windows up in the sleeping loft. I’m sure if I’d gone outside up onto the roof I would have seen lots but it was too cold and I was lazy. The skies cleared up after a dreary day and the stars were glorious out here in Abiquiu.
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Alan Stamm said on December 15, 2023 at 11:11 am
Aloe plant does well at that window (far better than the late mourning dove).
Kate’s video is great . . . and trips me back to “oh wow” days, always an enjoyable memory.
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brian stouder said on December 15, 2023 at 1:52 pm
Deborah, that is very cool! I know bupkis about astronomy, but after 3 decades of living next door(literally) to a television station – very well lit, 24-7 – the night sky in rural America (Cass County, Indiana, in this case) is nothing short of astounding.
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basset said on December 15, 2023 at 1:54 pm
That is indeed an impressive video.
Meanwhile, did you know that you can sing “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” to the tune of (Johnny Cash voice on) “Folsom Prison Blues”?
Years ago and in a former life I briefly lost my voice & went to Vanderbilt for treatment, they said they’d put me with Johnny Cash’s voice doctor… “hold on a minute, not sure that’s the result I’m looking for”… turned out fine though
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Sherri said on December 15, 2023 at 4:08 pm
My favorite sing-a-like is that you can sing most any Emily Dickinson poem to the tune of the Yellow Rose of Texas.
Because I could not stop for death,
He kindly stopped for me,
The carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality.
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David C said on December 15, 2023 at 4:40 pm
When they try to shove sick, sappy patriotism down your throat during the seventh inning stretch, you can sing “Take me out to the Ballgame” to the tune of “God Bless America”. It gets a little wobbly in places but it’s the thought that counts.
Tehe. Rudy was hit with a $148 million judgment.
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Julie Robinson said on December 15, 2023 at 4:58 pm
As late as Monday Giuliani was standing on the courthouse steps, continuing to tell lies about Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, and that we should stay tuned for the proof. Funnily enough, he neither presented witnesses or testified himself, so just when will that proof be arriving?
I’m sad only that he is so broke they won’t likely get much, if any, money out of him. I thought maybe his Cameo value would increase, like George Santos. Alas, he is “temporarily unavailable”.
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susan said on December 15, 2023 at 5:02 pm
David C… Blood from a turnip. No way Rudy Patootie has that kind of moola. But I sure hope Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss get everything he does have.
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David C said on December 15, 2023 at 5:18 pm
Yeah, I know he doesn’t have it but Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss were asking the jury to find Rudy was at $43 million on the asshole scale. To have a Georgia jury say he’s an asshole three times bigger than even his victims thought he was is good for the soul. Plus, they’ll probably find plenty of stuff to put him in jail when they start looking at what assets he does have. I want to see him so broke he’s standing on the street corner with a cardboard “Will work for shoe polish” sign.
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Suzanne said on December 15, 2023 at 6:41 pm
I do not understand Giuliani. All he had to do was keep his mouth shut and stay out of the limelight for a few more years and he would have forever been fondly remembered as America’s Mayor.
But he just couldn’t do it.
If he’s waiting for his pal Trump to bail him out, he’s gonna be waiting a very long time.
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Deborah said on December 15, 2023 at 8:49 pm
All these guys will be expecting pardons from their savior Trump. If he gets elected it’s all over for Democracy and then some. Life as we know it now will be in the rear view mirror. I hope more and more people realize that as we crawl closer and closer to zero hour.
I had a recent email exchange with my rightwing sister about Ukraine, thinking surely she was supportive of offering them more aid to save Democracy, but nope, she’s drinking the koolaide and buying into the Republican talking points about taking care of our own before we help them blah, blah, blah emigration yadda yadda yadda Iran, trans groomers, killing babies etc etc etc. I don’t know why I bother exchanging emails with her, she’s down the rabbit hole head first.
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LAMary said on December 15, 2023 at 9:28 pm
I took the afternoon off to go to the DMV because California requires a new, full DL application at age 70. I the test online. Aced it. Left work three hours early to get to my DMV appointment. One block from the DMV a car hit my car at an angle on the passenger side. That car was pushed there by some idiot pulling out from a parking spot. The idiot took off. The other driver and I were pretty shaken. It was a hard hit. I went into the DMV. They said they had no record of me taking the test online. I took it there and failed. I have to start over, pay another 45 bucks, get my car fixed and for fuck’s sake I don’t need this BS right now. Diverticulitis is literally a pain in the ass and it’s still in full force. This other stuff is figuratively the same. It’s also a pain the shoulder and neck.
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Sherri said on December 15, 2023 at 11:40 pm
“Aid to Ukraine” does not mean that pallets of dollars are sent to Ukraine. It means that money is handed over to US defense contractors to send stuff to Ukraine. Most foreign aid is in fact, money spent in the US.
I only talk with my right wing relatives about the weather and who has died.
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Sherri said on December 16, 2023 at 12:18 am
Here’s a gift link to that big NYTimes article on SCOTUS and Dobbs.
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David C said on December 16, 2023 at 5:54 am
Even weapons have a shelf life and a lot of the weapons being sent to Ukraine are near their “use by” dates and would have needed to be replaced soon anyway.
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Julie Robinson said on December 16, 2023 at 10:30 am
Mary, I’m so, so sorry. Misery upon misery.
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tajalli said on December 16, 2023 at 11:50 am
LAMary, you have my deepest sympathy. Although seniors can take the online test drivers test, it is not accepted; they all have to be done at the office. This past year I made 5, count them (5), applications for a senior ID as my Real ID since there is no charge to seniors, and every single one of them has incorrect weight and eye color although I’d submitted the proper data each time and have screen shots of the entire process to document it. Totally FUBAR. A passport will probably be the answer and may be valuable to moving to Canada.
For the 5th attempt on the Real ID, I went to the Oakland DMV rather than my local office since the clerks at the local office were instantly abusive and actually scuttled my first application by obscuring the data access code by deliberately writing over it. I noticed quite a number of folks using their phones to document similar issues. There was no problem getting the change made on my driver license and the clerk waived the written and driving test.
A pro tip for taking that test on the DMV’s computers: be sure of your answer and do not attempt to change it – changes do not register at all for any data submitted – tests, address changes etc. There’s something totally funky about the whole process to the point of appearing as though they want to eliminate senior drivers.
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Carter Cleland said on December 16, 2023 at 3:03 pm
That John Lydon/Johnny Rotten interview in the AARP newsletter chronicles the onset, decline and death of his wife Nora from complications of dementia, and JL’s commitment to her care. A worthwhile read. ~ This song from Nick Lowe is a seasonal favorite. https://youtu.be/egWjiPdmaT4?si=sWuvD9ZTeOzR-rM_ ~ I’ll be doing my annual Xmas show on WNUR 89.3, with my colleague Lou Berkman, on Tuesday the 19th, from 2:00 – 4:00, and will certainly include something from the excellent Jethro Tull Christmas Album of 2003. ‘NUR’s on the World-Wide-Web, too, of course.
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Sherri said on December 16, 2023 at 3:22 pm
This is a very good article for understanding how casualty counts are determined, including in Gaza. Of particular note is that the estimates for civilian deaths in Gaza of around 61% exclude all men age 18-59 as “military age men”.
https://goodauthority.org/news/gaza-casualty-data/
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Deborah said on December 16, 2023 at 5:26 pm
I don’t know what any of these lyrics are, as they’re sung in Ukrainian, but I thought this was beautiful, a mother and daughter singing and playing a Ukrainian song. I think it’s a traditional Christmas song, but I’m not even sure https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J28x8hrBEAQ&t=160s
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Jeff Gill said on December 16, 2023 at 10:07 pm
LAMary, so sorry. Hope things get better for you heading into the holidays.
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4dbirds said on December 17, 2023 at 10:17 am
I am so sorry for your troubles Mary. It so sucks getting older.
One of the many jobs I had in the army was guarding an ordnance depot. Ammunition certainly does have a shelf life and I was able to use the fact of being an ammo guard to up my disability claim with VA. No telling what I breathed in during those years.
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LAMary said on December 17, 2023 at 7:25 pm
Tajalli, thank you for letting me know they don’t accept the online test. No one there bothered to mention that to me and I was about to do it again. Aside from all the DMV and charming intestinal issues my employer is having two holiday “retreats” that I am supposed to attend. One involves a hike. Hikes and intestinal issues should not be combined. No amount of trying to
tell my supervisor that I might shit my pants on a hike has made any difference. I asked a coworker who is an RN to intervene on my behalf. She understands completely why I need to opt out of the holiday fun and she will have a talk with my boss. I should have made up a lie to get out of it. The other “retreat” is at the regional office, an hour drive away. No hiking but it’s the same day as the last DMV appointment I could get before my drivers license expires.
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tajalli said on December 17, 2023 at 7:42 pm
LAMary, IIRC there is a grace period for renewing your license beyond the expiration date.
My experience is that calling the DMV and discussing your situation with a human will unveil all your options – the phone clerks are amazingly knowledgeable.
There is also an ombudsman (-person, whatever) if you get super snarled up. I’m ready to follow that option in one last ditch attempt to resolve my Real ID situation. Someone should at least know how non-functional the application and testing software is.
I also think that given that they will not permit persons 70 and over to take the online test (pretending they’re too befuddled by computers?), they should permit them to take a paper-based test rather than the crappy online computer test at the DMV office – same test, same software issues, blah, blah, BS.
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tajalli said on December 17, 2023 at 8:34 pm
Also, LAMary, if you have an established diagnosis with your doctor, just get a note to excuse you for medical reasons and be done with it. If not, try for a critical care appt for the note.
Personally, I hate HR team building exercise activities – a bunch of non-professionals attempting to engage social-/therapeutic activities with no training, just some package provided by a “management consultant” with questionable credentials and no provision for cleaning up the social and psychological messes they create.
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LAMary said on December 18, 2023 at 8:26 am
I’m with you on BS team building. There are always one or two alpha dog types who make things miserable or uncomfortable for others who are just trying to get through the BS.
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