I guess I’ve been gone a while. No reason. There are times when the well is empty and must be refilled, especially when you’re making a concerted effort not to think and write about a particular person more than is necessary, and/or part of our patriotic duty of being well-informed Americans.
Then I read about the Great Gatsby-themed party the president threw at Mar-a-lago on Halloween, on the literal eve of millions of Americans losing their SNAP benefits, and I get a goddamn facial tic. Fortunately, there are good people in the world:
That’s at the Eastern Market Saturday. I can’t wait until this motherfucker dies. The whitewashing of JD Vance’s marriage in preparation for that event, we’ll save for another day.
I’ve been walking around woolgathering on a subject that floats in and out of my headspace — transgender…ism? Is that a word? Dunno, but the issue keeps surfacing in connection with terrible crime, and I’m alarmed for the trans people I know, all of whom are not criminals and may end up suffering as a result.
A kid in Indiana, arrested while planning a mass school shooting. Nashville school shooter, maybe transgender. The person just sentenced for plotting to kill SCOTUS Justice Kavanagh? Transitioning.
Anyone with half a brain knows that being transgender makes one far more likely to be the victim of a violent crime, not the perpetrator. Yet, we can always count on the New York Post, Rod Dreher and, well, most of the right wing to amplify every incident, and most people don’t pay attention beyond that.
Transitioning is such a huge step to make, I hesitate to suggest anyone does it on a whim. But the sort of people who commit mass shootings or targeted assassinations are not mentally healthy people.
It made me think of the ’80s, and this guy I used to work with. His marriage was clearly not meant for the long run. Every talk show – and there were a lot of them on around that time, from Phil Donohue to Jenny Jones to Oprah – was talking about repressed memories and/or Satanic cults, and especially repressed memories of Satanic cult abuse. And soon enough, she was accusing him of Satanically abusing their kids, or her, or that she was recovering memories of all of the above. I think she may have thrown multiple personalities in the mix, too.
A troubled woman, yes. But not one crazy enough to be committed. Subclinical, as the shrinks say. It made me think about people who believed, once upon a time, that incubi and succubi entered their bedrooms at night and penetrated them sexually, sometimes impregnating them. I saw “Agnes of God,” both on stage and in the movie. Now those people are more likely to believe aliens do the same thing. There are no incubi, succubi or aliens. I feel pretty confident in this.
My point is that every era in history, especially in this media-soaked age, has its high-profile mental issues, and I wonder if the people in that link-filled paragraph are truly trans, or have simple seized on it as a way to explain the static in their own heads. Next year, we may be back to incubi and succubi, who knows.
A passage from the story I linked above:
“They hate your guts. They despise everything you stand for, and we’re running out of time to stop them,” a somber looking Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears says in a recent campaign ad. “This election, don’t let radicals decide what kind of man gets to undress next to your daughter at school.”
Earle-Sears, a Republican, poured millions of dollars into this ominous advertising blitz attacking her Democratic opponent for governor, Abigail Spanberger, as a radical on transgender issues. She blanketed the airwaves with warnings to Virginians that mimicked Donald Trump’s successful campaign against Kamala Harris last year (“Kamala is for they/them, Trump is for you”).
But as Tuesday’s election approaches, the line of attack does not appear to be working as well for Earle-Sears as it did for Trump, according to data, raising questions about how potent the issue will be in the future for a party facing voter anger over high prices. Spanberger is leading Earle-Sears in recent polls.
So we may have already passed Peak Trans Panic. Let’s hope so.
It’s the return to standard time this weekend, so expect a tsunami of complaints. It gets dark so early now, etc. I will repeat my twice-yearly opinion about this: Changing clocks in spring and fall is a useful adjustment to the way we live our lives, at most a minor inconvenience, and some people should stop complaining about it.
I see the Free Press – the one in Detroit – is making a fuss over the upcoming 50th anniversary of the loss of the Edmund Fitzgerald. We will inevitably hear the Gordon Lightfoot song over and over in the next week. I’m taking this opportunity to echo something I believe Eric Zorn once wrote, and he may have been quoting Peter Sagal, I’m not sure: That Lightfoot’s song is only the second-best song about a shipwreck. The best is this one. Listen and see if you agree. It’s certainly a good anthem for times like these.
And with that, I’m back in the saddle. Have a good week ahead.
Suzanne said on November 2, 2025 at 9:55 am
The incongruity of so many MAGAs is that they come down with the vapors at the thought of a trans person undressing in the locker room next to their virginal pure daughters but don’t have much issue with the gender police doing genital inspections to make sure that someone’s stated gender matches their [ahem] parts down there.
(https://www.wfyi.org/news/articles/gop-kills-amendment-to-prohibit-genital-inspections-under-collegiate-transgender-sports-ban)
And anyone want to start a betting pool at how long it takes for Vance to initiate marriage annulment proceedings?
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Mark P said on November 2, 2025 at 10:34 am
A neighbor, who is a nice guy that brings us food every once in a while, brought some fried fish yesterday. We talked for a long time. He said he and his wife will lose their health insurance if the ACA subsidies are not replaced. Then he said the only news he watches is Fox because they are the only ones who tell the truth. Then he showed me a chart that showed how illegal immigrants receive free health care, free food, free iPhones, free everything, while he and his wife can’t afford health insurance. Of course he voted for Trump.
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ROGirl said on November 2, 2025 at 12:49 pm
This isn’t new, but in case you haven’t seen it…
https://mastodon.world/@jeffowski/112096335027676437
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apocalipstick said on November 2, 2025 at 1:47 pm
Vance doesn’t need an annulment. MAGA is fine with good old-fashioned divorce.
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alex said on November 2, 2025 at 4:18 pm
As long as Vance is maintaining the pretense of being hetero, he’ll continue his Catholic charade as well, so annulment it will be.
He’s just trading his brown beard for a white one in anticipation of running in 2028.
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David Cook said on November 2, 2025 at 4:40 pm
The best thing this week was AOC telling Riley Gaines, the world’s most famous fifth place (tie) swimmer/Fox News whiner, to get a real job.
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Deborah said on November 2, 2025 at 4:46 pm
It’d be just like Vance to dump his brown wife and kids for power. He has no shame. They’ll say she dumped him, anything they can think of that will increase his chances to get elected in 2028 or whenever.
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FDChief said on November 2, 2025 at 4:46 pm
The fuss over the DST/Standard time change is always sort of excessive, since the simple answer is “clocks”.
Us humans are diurnal; we’re active in daylight, sleep at night. Meaning our lives are more-or-less regulated by the sun. Sunrise, human day begins. Sunset, human day ends.
Cheap artificial light means we can extend that on both ends, but the basic pattern is still in place.
Before industrial/mechanical civilization the human day changed a tiny bit every morning. Sunrise got earlier, sunset got later towards the summer solstice, then the opposite in fall and winter.
But then along came clocks.
It isn’t practical to reset the clock “6am” (i.e. sunrise) half a minute every day. So we do it twice a year. Yeah, it’s a big annoying to lose an hour of sleep once a year, but, honestly…the amount of fussing around it is kind of disproportionate.
And Valdimir Futon trading his starter wife for a leaner, whiter model? That’s as Peak Trump as ever was. Just like his daddy!
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David Cook said on November 2, 2025 at 5:09 pm
Someone remarked about the photo of Vance snogging with Charlie Kirk’s widow that they’ve waited longer for a Hot Pocket to cool off.
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Jeff Borden said on November 2, 2025 at 6:00 pm
Alex,
The gay couple across the street told me Vance was gay during the campaign. They didn’t offer any evidence beyond trusting their gaydar. I wouldn’t trust Vance any farther than I could throw him. He’s a soulless martinet who will say and do anything to get ahead.
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Colleen said on November 2, 2025 at 7:26 pm
I am with The Proprietress on the complaining around clock changes. People spend more time complaining about changing clocks than it takes to change them.
Heading into the work week as a Crabby Appleton. Along with the careening of our civilization toward ultimate destruction, various other issues, financial and personal, are conspiring to sour my mood. Thank God for my yoga and meditation classes which are helping me hold onto the last filaments of my sanity…
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Julie Robinson said on November 2, 2025 at 7:48 pm
Please will all you logical people come here and explain this to my mother? We’re on day three of heavy time change fretting here, and it’s not pleasant. Rope, reaching end.
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Suzanne said on November 2, 2025 at 8:34 pm
Usually in the fall, I have to explain to at least one person that if DST didn’t exist, the sun would go down the same time as it does now because we are now on “normal” time or standard time or the time it would be if no one had ever thought of DST.
I am also always amazed by those who claim it takes them weeks and weeks to adjust. I get a day or two, but weeks and weeks?
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Brandon said on November 2, 2025 at 8:39 pm
Every talk show – and there were a lot of them on around that time, from Phil Donohue to Jenny Jones to Oprah
Jenny Jones started her show in the fall of 1991, along with Jerry Springer, Maury Povich, and (a few months earlier) Montel Williams. Geraldo outdid everyone with his October 1988 special Devil Worship: Exposing Satan’s Underground.
As for standard time, Hawaii has had it for decades, and we’ve done well with it.
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Ann said on November 2, 2025 at 9:21 pm
Living on Lake Superior I would be more than delighted if I never had to listen to that song ever again. But it’s inescapable.
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basset said on November 3, 2025 at 2:42 am
Time situation could be worse, at least we don’t have eleven time zones like the Russians.
Meanwhile, our new part-time, home visit carer for Mrs. B starts next week.
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basset said on November 3, 2025 at 2:54 am
And China, wide enough for four or five time zones, has only one.
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Jeff Gill said on November 3, 2025 at 7:34 am
Cheap artificial light, and caffeine!
Time change is how we democratize jet lag. Everyone gets to experience a little of it every year.
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Richard said on November 3, 2025 at 8:01 am
RE: Time change, and time zones.
Exactly *whose* natural circadian clock are we worried about?
I’m on Cape Cod, Eastern Time Zone. Sunrise was at 6:15AM EST
South Bend Indiana is also Eastern Time Zone. Sunrise was at 7:20AM EST
So, same time zone, more than an hour difference in sunrise.
Chicago is on Central Time Zone. Sunrise was at 6:26AM CST
Chicago and South bend are less than 100 miles apart: nearly an hour difference in sunrise.
I guess if you want to experience a ‘natural’ sunrise and sunset, you could spend half the year on Chicago and half in South Bend.
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Jeff Borden said on November 3, 2025 at 8:34 am
Did anyone watch Lumpy on “60 Minutes” last night? I’m trying to avoid his Queens braying as much as possible. But I read today the interview lasted 73 minutes, but only 28 were used. Gosh. Edited like they edited the Kamala Harris?
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Dave said on November 3, 2025 at 9:52 am
I’m struck by memories of how my mother hated the time change. Growing up in central Ohio, we didn’t have DST for many years and this was also in the days when some parts of states would have it. Google tells me it was 1970 when it was more standardized. Northeast Ohio was on DST long before the rest of the state, I only know this from being a loyal listener of KYW in Cleveland, which became WKYC, playing music that the local rocker, WCOL, didn’t play and you could get the station pretty well in the daytime. But I digress.
I don’t know what the setup was for time during the WWII era but my mother used to talk about living on War Time, growing up in southern Ohio.
No, Jeff Borden, we didn’t watch it, it was probably more of “Many people are saying”, and “People always ask me, sir, how do you do it”.
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alex said on November 3, 2025 at 10:18 am
I watched it and Tubby totally bulldozed over Norah O’Donnell. He talked over her, didn’t really answer her questions, and told blatant lies that she let go unchallenged. Not that you’d expect any different. I imagine the bulk of the interview that didn’t get aired probably made her look even worse.
Of course, he’d have stormed off the set if O’Donnell hadn’t been so obsequious, but the whole exercise was a fool’s errand and gave him a free platform for his grandiose delusions, lies and insults.
I’m regretting having wasted the time. I had clicked away from a very good local PBS production about Lindenwood Cemetery. Hoping I can catch that one again.
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Dorothy said on November 3, 2025 at 11:26 am
Does anyone suppose CBS let the interview air as it did so it could show that jerk as he really is? Reinforcing what we already know and showing that his decline is getting worse? I hate to be a Pollyanna about it but I do wonder if that was their thought process.
I have only read lots of other people’s impressions of the interview. There’s not enough money in the world to pay me to listen to or watch anything that he’s involved in. I mute the tv every time there’s a clip of him talking. EVERY time.
Had an unpleasant experience over the weekend with some dipsh** ringing our doorbell just before 1 AM Sunday morning. He had a scary mask on. Turns out this guy lives in the same subdivision. A Book Club friend ratted him out to me in a private message on Facebook. She said he was bragging about it in August when he paid his stepson to come ring out bell one night around 10 PM. This time he did it himself, and tried to say he was drunk and confused our house for his parents, who live 3 doors away from us. This is a bald faced lie because his parents keep their cars in the garage; ours are in the driveway. Our houses look NOTHING alike; we have a Ring camera, they do not. The friend who told me it was probably him said in August he was talking about how much he hates me. I’m confident it’s because of the occasional stuff I post about the aforementioned guy, DJT. So I messaged the neighbor and he apologized and told me his made up drunken behavior tale. He’s lucky I didn’t get the police involved because he left a fingerprint on the Ring camera button. I’d have filed harassment charges against him but hubby shut that down. Still, I’m angry about it and will be for a long while.
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Julie Robinson said on November 3, 2025 at 11:27 am
Nope, I will do almost anything to avoid listening to the man’s voice.
Growing up in the central time zone of Illinois, Indiana being on eastern time always seemed like a poor fit. The legislature took it up one year and decided it was better for businesses to align with
the east coast.
There seemed to be no recognition that to most of the east coast, Indiana was nothing but a flyover zone.
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Heather said on November 3, 2025 at 11:46 am
I haven’t had the courage to look at the 2026 rates for my insurance options with the ACA yet, but my friends are about my age, similar incomes, and have had plans with BCBS, and they say the premiums are running about $1500/month. And then of course the deductibles are still huge. WHO CAN AFFORD THAT. I may be a health insurance refugee sooner rather than later (I never intended to retire here) because I will not be able to afford basic healthcare in this country.
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Jeff Borden said on November 3, 2025 at 11:58 am
Just walked our dog to a chorus of whistles. The ICE brownshirts are all over Lincoln Square this morning. Fritzel and I saw four goons in a black Chevy Tahoe with tinted windows. A Cadre of bicyclists were following them at a distance tooting warnings. Many neighbors were out on the sidewalk. We despise ICE and they’re doing nothing to make us safer. Rather, they’re making everything worse. And Kristi Noem is a lying P.O.S. More than 100 U.S. citizens have been taken by these thugs in the Chicago area alone.
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Julie Robinson said on November 3, 2025 at 6:40 pm
Heather, our daughter’s in the same situation and is considering dropping her coverage completely. She has a silver plan and it’s crap, but no insurance makes me nervous.
Has anyone heard of Potempkin Limited? They sent Mom a tender offer for some stock she owns. She’s gotten similar offers before and she knew not to take it because it’s about a third lower than the stock is currently going for. But why would anyone trust a company named Potempkin?
They are UK based and specialize in these low-ball offers, trying to get a little less than 5% of a company, which is where SEC reporting kicks in. What scum!
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Peter said on November 4, 2025 at 7:20 am
Apparently Dick Cheney’s had enough of Trump. And here they say that something that evil never dies….
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alex said on November 4, 2025 at 8:09 am
I renewed my ACA plan already. It’s going up $250 a month per the web site. I’ve been very happy with it and I only need to limp along on it for ten months next year until I can get Medicare and (hopefully much less expensive) supplemental coverage.
Yesterday we roadtripped to Grand Rapids to pick up an eBay purchase — a Little Wonder industrial leaf blower. It’s a 2022 model, brand new, still in the box, but had overstayed its welcome in a store’s inventory, and I got it for cheap. I’ve seen these things in action and they can clean a yard as big as mine in just a few passes, and I’ve got a yard where it can get ass deep in leaves if you don’t keep up with them.
Today I have a muskrat trapper coming to investigate the numerous burrows I discovered when the water level receded on our lake. The ground is getting quite soft on my shoreline so we’ve got a problem here. When a tree fell and smashed our dock to smithereens a couple of years ago I had my suspicions that it had been undermined by muskrats and now I have no doubt about it.
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ROGirl said on November 4, 2025 at 10:50 am
Dick Cheney, the man who didn’t have a heart, was the recipient of a heart transplant. It kept him alive well past his expiration date. Who will the Grim Reaper call on next?
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susan said on November 4, 2025 at 12:13 pm
Dick Cheney, war criminal
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