Fucking Fuck XX - Fucking Dos Equis March 1, 2019 7:37 AM Subscribe
Surely this, right?
Here is your March home for all of the fucking fuckery and nonsense that is going on in the government(s) and our lives. Fuck away!
People like Chris Grayling, the anti-Midas who turns everything he touches into shit, move from UK government department to department, screwing up things on a fantastically epic scale. But he doesn't get sacked or demoted. Just moved on to the next building in central London, like a contagious flea on a rat during the great plague. Worryingly, possibly, he's never sacked as there's no-one as good in the 'governing' party who can take his place.
Just from today there's this and this. The latter of which is connected to a ferry company with no ferries, getting a contract after consultants were paid, to sail in and out of a port that can't handle ferries, in a few weeks time.
That's just for today; he has a long history of disasters (as many millions of UK rail commuters, still suffering, will tell you). Of some of the others, banning books for prisoners as they were apparently a luxury or perk, was an eye-catching one.
Thankfully he's unlikely to be the next Conservative leader and almost-by-default Prime Minister. The current favourite for that is this man (more)
We, on this island, are so fucked.
posted by Wordshore at 9:23 AM on March 1, 2019 [6 favorites]
Just from today there's this and this. The latter of which is connected to a ferry company with no ferries, getting a contract after consultants were paid, to sail in and out of a port that can't handle ferries, in a few weeks time.
That's just for today; he has a long history of disasters (as many millions of UK rail commuters, still suffering, will tell you). Of some of the others, banning books for prisoners as they were apparently a luxury or perk, was an eye-catching one.
Thankfully he's unlikely to be the next Conservative leader and almost-by-default Prime Minister. The current favourite for that is this man (more)
We, on this island, are so fucked.
posted by Wordshore at 9:23 AM on March 1, 2019 [6 favorites]
We, on this island, are so fucked
*Ahem* These islands... we're very much fucked on this one beside you too. Plus our ruling* party is the DUP so technically we win at being fucked.
*If by "ruling" you mean "paid to not actually be in government for a world-record-beating period of time"
posted by billiebee at 9:30 AM on March 1, 2019 [5 favorites]
*Ahem* These islands... we're very much fucked on this one beside you too. Plus our ruling* party is the DUP so technically we win at being fucked.
*If by "ruling" you mean "paid to not actually be in government for a world-record-beating period of time"
posted by billiebee at 9:30 AM on March 1, 2019 [5 favorites]
Thank you. I watched part of the Cohen testimony and while I hope it will move us towards getting rid of the Vile Orange One, it was super-stressful to hear how screwed up things really are I mean, I knew, but it's such a smack in the face.
And Brexit, really, what an idiotic decision and I'm sorry you're going through it.
posted by theora55 at 9:58 AM on March 1, 2019 [6 favorites]
And Brexit, really, what an idiotic decision and I'm sorry you're going through it.
posted by theora55 at 9:58 AM on March 1, 2019 [6 favorites]
A list of things to fuck (a to-fuck list?)
Nastygrams from my kid’s school
Finding out in adulthood that my dad’s worldview includes “the civil war was worse than slavery” and “Nixon was wronged”
March weather forecasts borrowed from my lab’s -80 freezer
Cancer
posted by eirias at 10:02 AM on March 1, 2019 [8 favorites]
Nastygrams from my kid’s school
Finding out in adulthood that my dad’s worldview includes “the civil war was worse than slavery” and “Nixon was wronged”
March weather forecasts borrowed from my lab’s -80 freezer
Cancer
posted by eirias at 10:02 AM on March 1, 2019 [8 favorites]
My husband, my 15 month old and I all got a stomach bug and starting puking yesterday. Add six diaper blowouts on top of that and we're basically elbow deep in pooh and vomit over here.
posted by carolr at 10:18 AM on March 1, 2019 [13 favorites]
posted by carolr at 10:18 AM on March 1, 2019 [13 favorites]
basically elbow deep in pooh
← the blue is that-a-way
posted by prize bull octorok at 10:21 AM on March 1, 2019 [24 favorites]
← the blue is that-a-way
posted by prize bull octorok at 10:21 AM on March 1, 2019 [24 favorites]
I'm organizing a panel on sexual harassment and assault in international fieldwork and now I'm trying to figure out how to keep one of the panelists from blaming me for my rape without explicitly telling her that's what she's doing. I think it's going to be a "end the day curled up in blankets talking to nobody" sort of day.
posted by ChuraChura at 10:32 AM on March 1, 2019 [38 favorites]
posted by ChuraChura at 10:32 AM on March 1, 2019 [38 favorites]
ChuraChura, gimme her number and I'll set her right grrrrrrrr
posted by wellred at 10:33 AM on March 1, 2019 [9 favorites]
posted by wellred at 10:33 AM on March 1, 2019 [9 favorites]
The massive new IT project at work--with which I and my coworker/boss are expected to integrate our little corner of the software world--is a massive fucking clown car of delays and missed deadlines and overpaid consultants who don't actually do all that much and developers/analysts who don't actually talk to the people who maintain and develop for the fucking existing systems.
So there's that. A cavalcade of fuck.
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 10:50 AM on March 1, 2019 [5 favorites]
So there's that. A cavalcade of fuck.
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 10:50 AM on March 1, 2019 [5 favorites]
*Ahem* These islands... we're very much fucked on this one beside you too.
Fair point, yes. Though for escape destinations, there's always Cana... {notices TV news out of corner of eye} ffffffuuuuuuuu
posted by Wordshore at 10:52 AM on March 1, 2019 [6 favorites]
Fair point, yes. Though for escape destinations, there's always Cana... {notices TV news out of corner of eye} ffffffuuuuuuuu
posted by Wordshore at 10:52 AM on March 1, 2019 [6 favorites]
Check your Twitter DMs, billiebee.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 11:18 AM on March 1, 2019
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 11:18 AM on March 1, 2019
Though for escape destinations, there's always Cana...
Sometimes I think the only two things that keep me from going full Island Hermit are my deep and abiding love for electricity, and my profound disgust at the flavor of seafood.
posted by aramaic at 11:22 AM on March 1, 2019 [8 favorites]
Sometimes I think the only two things that keep me from going full Island Hermit are my deep and abiding love for electricity, and my profound disgust at the flavor of seafood.
posted by aramaic at 11:22 AM on March 1, 2019 [8 favorites]
Check your Twitter DMs, billiebee
he is eminently more qualified to run the place than our shower of gobshites
posted by billiebee at 11:28 AM on March 1, 2019 [1 favorite]
he is eminently more qualified to run the place than our shower of gobshites
posted by billiebee at 11:28 AM on March 1, 2019 [1 favorite]
Wait holy fuck how are we at 20 of these already?
Here's something: in the first fucking fuck thread, I shared some of the sorrow I was feeling over a lost pregnancy, in the time approaching what would have been the due date. Since then I have got pregnant again, endured a difficult pregnancy, had a baby, and watched that baby grow into someone amazing and funny who gives sloppy kisses, crawls on the floor, grabs my nose and attempts to say "beep," and throws crackers at the cat.
So, I know the world is getting worse in so many ways , but it's also gotten better in that small way, at least. And through it all Mefi has been a beloved source of information, entertainment, and support. Thanks for being here, mefites.
posted by beandip at 11:32 AM on March 1, 2019 [100 favorites]
Here's something: in the first fucking fuck thread, I shared some of the sorrow I was feeling over a lost pregnancy, in the time approaching what would have been the due date. Since then I have got pregnant again, endured a difficult pregnancy, had a baby, and watched that baby grow into someone amazing and funny who gives sloppy kisses, crawls on the floor, grabs my nose and attempts to say "beep," and throws crackers at the cat.
So, I know the world is getting worse in so many ways , but it's also gotten better in that small way, at least. And through it all Mefi has been a beloved source of information, entertainment, and support. Thanks for being here, mefites.
posted by beandip at 11:32 AM on March 1, 2019 [100 favorites]
Maybe this goes in the Embarrassing Moments thread, but -- I was staffing a table at a prospective students event today, and traffic had slowed way down, so I was noodling around on Metafilter, and of course happened to have this page open when an admissions counselor zipped up behind me with a student, and I didn't have the presence of mind to quickly close the tab, so I was desperately trying to keep the student focused on the catalog webpages I was showing her in order to keep her eyes off the totally visible tab saying "Fucking Fuck XX--Fucking Dos Equis."
Sigh. That is what I get for fucking around on MeTa during work hours.
posted by Kat Allison at 12:15 PM on March 1, 2019 [16 favorites]
Sigh. That is what I get for fucking around on MeTa during work hours.
posted by Kat Allison at 12:15 PM on March 1, 2019 [16 favorites]
Step daughter is having a fucking lump removed from her lower jaw for a biopsy -- might be fucking bone cancer of some fucking kind. Wife is having a fucking mole gouged out of her face next week because it's fucking skin cancer. 2 of my best friends in the world keeled over fucking suddenly dead in the last 10 days and I'm fucking sick of people dying on my all fucking ready.
posted by Devils Rancher at 12:33 PM on March 1, 2019 [36 favorites]
posted by Devils Rancher at 12:33 PM on March 1, 2019 [36 favorites]
A friend from high school died of fucking ovarian cancer last week and a friend from college was fucking diagnosed with stage fucking 4 lung cancer (collateral damage from fucking chemo and radiation from his Hodgkin's disease in the 90s) this week. Both fucking 42 years-old.
posted by Pax at 12:34 PM on March 1, 2019 [25 favorites]
posted by Pax at 12:34 PM on March 1, 2019 [25 favorites]
Fuck that shit, Pax, I'm so sorry.
posted by Devils Rancher at 12:36 PM on March 1, 2019 [6 favorites]
posted by Devils Rancher at 12:36 PM on March 1, 2019 [6 favorites]
Thanks - fingers crossed for a clean biopsy and sorry about that other fucking shit.
posted by Pax at 12:39 PM on March 1, 2019 [5 favorites]
posted by Pax at 12:39 PM on March 1, 2019 [5 favorites]
Individual 1 net approval across 50 states is down by over 50% to 17 states from original 38 on inauguration day. (cite) My state of Oklahoma still has a 53% net approval.
Fuck these fucking redneck, brain-dead zombies and their elected republican fuck enabler/overlords.
posted by HyperBlue at 12:45 PM on March 1, 2019 [9 favorites]
Fuck these fucking redneck, brain-dead zombies and their elected republican fuck enabler/overlords.
posted by HyperBlue at 12:45 PM on March 1, 2019 [9 favorites]
HyperBlue, that's not great news about, like, your faith in humanity. But it's also a sign that Trump is headed for trouble in 2020. It looks like his approval has gone down in every one of the swing states he will need if he wants to hold on.
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 12:48 PM on March 1, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 12:48 PM on March 1, 2019 [1 favorite]
Fucking hell. Hugs to Pax and Devils Rancher if they want the fucking things. Everyfuckingbody else, too.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 12:58 PM on March 1, 2019 [4 favorites]
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 12:58 PM on March 1, 2019 [4 favorites]
Agree Jpfed...just tired of being surrounded by ignorance when I love most everything else about my state. Well-meaning republicans are still republicans just the same as really nice racists are still racist. Long after the republican party is irrelevant Oklahoma will still be electing them.
posted by HyperBlue at 1:03 PM on March 1, 2019 [4 favorites]
posted by HyperBlue at 1:03 PM on March 1, 2019 [4 favorites]
Pax and DR. Sorry to hear this. I was going to fuck something but I forgot.
Best wishes you two.
And you too.
U2.
posted by clavdivs at 1:09 PM on March 1, 2019 [6 favorites]
Best wishes you two.
And you too.
U2.
posted by clavdivs at 1:09 PM on March 1, 2019 [6 favorites]
I have been feeling really shitty lately, physically. Just dragged out and tired, and waking up too early every day. I know it's partly winter blues, and being isolated a lot, and minor medical issues like diabetes and thyroid problems (under control), but so, so tired.
Last weekend, my husband took a laxative before bed and didn't make it to the bathroom on time at 3:00 a.m. I mean, I gave it to him, but I guess I bought the wrong kind? He can't bend over due to mobility issues, and tried to clean it up, but it was me who had to clean the bulk of the mess on Sunday morning. Who the hell chooses brown stick-down tile for a bathroom anyway? Some masochistic idiot from hell.
This was a week after I'd been scraping stray cat poo off the floor in front of the litter box (also on the dreaded brown tile). Someone hung their butt over the edge of the litter box and then dropped a bit here and there, randomly, while exiting.
Normally I'm okay with this stuff, sort of, but I was getting over a crappy cold and still tired. Ugh.
I was pushing myself this morning, cat blaring in my ear at 2:30 a.m., fell back asleep and woke promptly at 5:00 a.m., which is better than 4:30. It sucks, but I have to get up, and then I'm awake and get wiped out by 2:00 or 2:30 p.m. Got all the icky chores done, cleaned the gross cat food dishes, and swapped out the litter for fresh, cleaned out the fridge, etc., stuff I'd been unable to get to when sick.
Finally sat down to watch a mindless TV show, and a little after 3:00, a giant bald eagle landed on the tree directly in front of our picture window. I jumped up and started snapping pics with my new camera, which was sitting on a tripod on the desk in front of the window. I've been wanting a bald eagle pic for YEARS. And I've seen them, through binoculars, sitting around ice fishing holes, and flying around, but never one that close. This guy or gal was really close. I just stood there and snapped pic after pic and watched it through the lens, eating a fish. It even looked at me a few times, which was thrilling.
Bald eagles were almost extinct when I was a kid, and I am still amazed when I see one. I saw 7 or 8 today, sitting around the ice holes and scooping up fish. But to see one so close up, I am still shaking. It was really amazing.
So tho' things are shitty sometimes, life can be full of good things, and I am sending you all bald eagle energy!
posted by Marie Mon Dieu at 2:25 PM on March 1, 2019 [42 favorites]
Last weekend, my husband took a laxative before bed and didn't make it to the bathroom on time at 3:00 a.m. I mean, I gave it to him, but I guess I bought the wrong kind? He can't bend over due to mobility issues, and tried to clean it up, but it was me who had to clean the bulk of the mess on Sunday morning. Who the hell chooses brown stick-down tile for a bathroom anyway? Some masochistic idiot from hell.
This was a week after I'd been scraping stray cat poo off the floor in front of the litter box (also on the dreaded brown tile). Someone hung their butt over the edge of the litter box and then dropped a bit here and there, randomly, while exiting.
Normally I'm okay with this stuff, sort of, but I was getting over a crappy cold and still tired. Ugh.
I was pushing myself this morning, cat blaring in my ear at 2:30 a.m., fell back asleep and woke promptly at 5:00 a.m., which is better than 4:30. It sucks, but I have to get up, and then I'm awake and get wiped out by 2:00 or 2:30 p.m. Got all the icky chores done, cleaned the gross cat food dishes, and swapped out the litter for fresh, cleaned out the fridge, etc., stuff I'd been unable to get to when sick.
Finally sat down to watch a mindless TV show, and a little after 3:00, a giant bald eagle landed on the tree directly in front of our picture window. I jumped up and started snapping pics with my new camera, which was sitting on a tripod on the desk in front of the window. I've been wanting a bald eagle pic for YEARS. And I've seen them, through binoculars, sitting around ice fishing holes, and flying around, but never one that close. This guy or gal was really close. I just stood there and snapped pic after pic and watched it through the lens, eating a fish. It even looked at me a few times, which was thrilling.
Bald eagles were almost extinct when I was a kid, and I am still amazed when I see one. I saw 7 or 8 today, sitting around the ice holes and scooping up fish. But to see one so close up, I am still shaking. It was really amazing.
So tho' things are shitty sometimes, life can be full of good things, and I am sending you all bald eagle energy!
posted by Marie Mon Dieu at 2:25 PM on March 1, 2019 [42 favorites]
To everyone having a bad day, take a moment of self care for yourselves.
We have to go to a funeral for my ten year old son's good friend, who was killed in a car crash, a long with his mother, last saturday. It's been a rough week for him. He keeps asking, "I don't know if (friend) believed in Heaven, but if he didn't, will he still go? What if he didn't believe in anything?" I don't know how to answer him. (We're not Christian - the memorial is at a church).
My other son is still being bullied and harassed in middle school. It's been going on FOUR months now, and we're still not making headway with the district.
Hug your loved ones tight.
posted by alathia at 2:43 PM on March 1, 2019 [22 favorites]
We have to go to a funeral for my ten year old son's good friend, who was killed in a car crash, a long with his mother, last saturday. It's been a rough week for him. He keeps asking, "I don't know if (friend) believed in Heaven, but if he didn't, will he still go? What if he didn't believe in anything?" I don't know how to answer him. (We're not Christian - the memorial is at a church).
My other son is still being bullied and harassed in middle school. It's been going on FOUR months now, and we're still not making headway with the district.
Hug your loved ones tight.
posted by alathia at 2:43 PM on March 1, 2019 [22 favorites]
I just spent 2 glorious weeks of vacation in Australia. I saw penguins, and sea lions, and the Daintree rain forest, and the Great Barrier Reef, and the Port Arthur penal colony museum, and the Great Ocean Road, and the South Australia museum, and the backstage of the Sydney Opera House. It was 97 degrees in Adelaide. (Sorry I couldn’t meet up with any Mefites! :( )
I’m now sitting in SFO waiting for my flight to BOS, which may be delayed or cancelled due to snow. I am reading work emails where people are bickering because I’m not there to keep the peace. There’s at least 12” of snow on my car that I will have to dig out. At least I missed half of February!!
posted by Melismata at 2:44 PM on March 1, 2019 [7 favorites]
I’m now sitting in SFO waiting for my flight to BOS, which may be delayed or cancelled due to snow. I am reading work emails where people are bickering because I’m not there to keep the peace. There’s at least 12” of snow on my car that I will have to dig out. At least I missed half of February!!
posted by Melismata at 2:44 PM on March 1, 2019 [7 favorites]
I have semi-debilitating paperwork anxiety and am trying to finalize a rough divorce, buy the house I’ve been renting, keep up with eight active bills in the state legislature, and do my taxes in the same week. I want to go and hide. Also: I listened to the beginning of the fucking Cohen hearing in fucking traffic on the way to work and was hoarse from yelling at the radio by the time I got there. I feel so, so, so apprehensive about 2020.
posted by centrifugal at 3:59 PM on March 1, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by centrifugal at 3:59 PM on March 1, 2019 [3 favorites]
Also: this is pretty trivial compared to some of the horrible shit that’s been thrown at others. Internet hugs to those of you who are dealing with grief and illness and Brexit.
posted by centrifugal at 4:01 PM on March 1, 2019
posted by centrifugal at 4:01 PM on March 1, 2019
The company I work for was just bought up by the Death Star. So we got a full staff meeting today, to meet the new Executive VP of bullshit and two new HR drones. He (naturally) spent 45 minutes trying to explaining how nothing would change, but only revealed he didn't have a clue about what we did. Even the drones looked embarrassed. Mentioned about a dozen times that there were no layoffs "anticipated." He may have been a master of bullshit, but even he couldn't sell that coprolite. Happy Friday!
At home I continue to wade through the paperwork to get mom on Medicaid. I swear the plan is to keep delaying her until she dies.
Tomorrow is the towns St. Patrick's Day parade, the weather is supposed to be 33° and rainy. Oh joy.
At least the heat works and the roof doesn't leak.
posted by Marky at 4:22 PM on March 1, 2019 [4 favorites]
At home I continue to wade through the paperwork to get mom on Medicaid. I swear the plan is to keep delaying her until she dies.
Tomorrow is the towns St. Patrick's Day parade, the weather is supposed to be 33° and rainy. Oh joy.
At least the heat works and the roof doesn't leak.
posted by Marky at 4:22 PM on March 1, 2019 [4 favorites]
I missed going on vacation with my sis and boyfriend because I was sick with some sort of two-week-ish crud. Mercifully there was very little cost associated for car/AirBnB but the flight "change fees" were punishing. I thought I was being all smart flying out on one airline and back on another. NOT SO. Boyfriend had a great time. On his own with his mom. Anyhow, a lot of my other fucking fuckity fuck stuff is a little improved. Mental health attention has happened and I have a mostly-plan in place and I am sleeping at night for the most part for which I am supremely grateful.
posted by jessamyn (retired) at 6:26 PM on March 1, 2019 [14 favorites]
posted by jessamyn (retired) at 6:26 PM on March 1, 2019 [14 favorites]
This has been a rough week at work. A student killed herself, and while I didn't know her, I know people who did. Then there was a racist incident, and because of the racist incident, a lot of students have been speaking out about their bad experiences, which is necessary but painful for the people speaking out. And I feel like I'm part of a fucked-up system, and I'm complicit, but I don't know if I have any power to fix it. Bleh.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 6:39 PM on March 1, 2019 [9 favorites]
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 6:39 PM on March 1, 2019 [9 favorites]
I used up all my sick time and all my vacation time for the year by the third week of February. This is not feasible. It seems obvious that I'm too sick to be working anymore, but I still don't know what exactly is wrong with me. What I do know is that my 40th birthday trip is no longer an option. A family vacation, which we haven't done in three years because of my health, is no longer an option. Fulfilling Kid Ruki's wish to spend her 18th birthday at Disney is no longer an option. Passover with the in-laws, whom we haven't seen since Thanksgiving because they moved to Florida, is no longer an option.
In an epic case of bad timing, the mister is on his annual buddy trip to Vegas right now. He was going to cancel, but I insisted he still go.
I'm on a medical leave right now as I recover from flu complications, but I'm really dreading going back because I'm going to constantly be on edge about inevitably getting fired. I love my job. I just wish I could do it more often. And, I don't know, maybe be healthy for a while.
posted by Ruki at 6:53 PM on March 1, 2019 [12 favorites]
In an epic case of bad timing, the mister is on his annual buddy trip to Vegas right now. He was going to cancel, but I insisted he still go.
I'm on a medical leave right now as I recover from flu complications, but I'm really dreading going back because I'm going to constantly be on edge about inevitably getting fired. I love my job. I just wish I could do it more often. And, I don't know, maybe be healthy for a while.
posted by Ruki at 6:53 PM on March 1, 2019 [12 favorites]
I am over at least the third hill. But all my friends are still alive, and their children. I am sorry for the worries and upset, and loss for you Mefites. Hugs all around, and quantum long distance good vibes, primordial deep good vibes as best as I can wish for you. It will soon be spring.
posted by Oyéah at 7:16 PM on March 1, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by Oyéah at 7:16 PM on March 1, 2019 [3 favorites]
we fucking put our fucking old dog fucking down about ten fucking days ago. he fucking got fucking lung cancer the last fucking week of fucking january and the fucking seattle snowpocalypse and our fucking two-week fucking flu crud combined to mean we couldn't get him to the fucking vet for like a fucking week after he started fucking coughing. We fucking lay in bed fucking coughing listening to him fucking coughing and would occasionally look out the window at the fucking impassable icy fucking hill and fucking wonder if we should fucking do something. it fucking sucked. we will fucking miss him. This winter has fucking sucked.
today it was fucking nearly fifty and fucking sunny. There were fucking flowers and fucking birds and fucking squirrels and shit. i'm fucking glad to see the back of this fucking winter.
posted by mwhybark at 8:05 PM on March 1, 2019 [30 favorites]
today it was fucking nearly fifty and fucking sunny. There were fucking flowers and fucking birds and fucking squirrels and shit. i'm fucking glad to see the back of this fucking winter.
posted by mwhybark at 8:05 PM on March 1, 2019 [30 favorites]
Add six diaper blowouts on top of that and we're basically elbow deep in pooh and vomit over here.
Just to be clear: You can't / shouldn't eat that.
posted by Nanukthedog at 8:34 PM on March 1, 2019 [3 favorites]
Just to be clear: You can't / shouldn't eat that.
posted by Nanukthedog at 8:34 PM on March 1, 2019 [3 favorites]
The HVAC died. A week before March, so we are on the tail-end of the bad weather this winter, right?
This is a joke, right?
So, the good news is that my beloved spouse has been planning for years to cut down the nearest pecan tree in the backyard, a nefarious lurching beast that is hard to mow beneath without almost gouging an eye -- it is now a single squat digit, pointing sadly to the heavens. Its days are numbered.
So we get to see if a fireplace insert in the living room can heat a three-bedroom house, when the temps won't get above freezing at night until next Thursday.
Freezing rain and snow is forecast for the weekend. Nighttime temps will be in the single digits Monday.
Oh, dear.
Somebody hunt down and kill that groundhog already.
posted by TrishaU at 9:36 PM on March 1, 2019 [3 favorites]
This is a joke, right?
So, the good news is that my beloved spouse has been planning for years to cut down the nearest pecan tree in the backyard, a nefarious lurching beast that is hard to mow beneath without almost gouging an eye -- it is now a single squat digit, pointing sadly to the heavens. Its days are numbered.
So we get to see if a fireplace insert in the living room can heat a three-bedroom house, when the temps won't get above freezing at night until next Thursday.
Freezing rain and snow is forecast for the weekend. Nighttime temps will be in the single digits Monday.
Oh, dear.
Somebody hunt down and kill that groundhog already.
posted by TrishaU at 9:36 PM on March 1, 2019 [3 favorites]
I am pretty sure I've been both apathetic and low-level furious for the past three years.
posted by aspersioncast at 9:37 PM on March 1, 2019 [17 favorites]
posted by aspersioncast at 9:37 PM on March 1, 2019 [17 favorites]
Everything still sucks.
posted by gingerbeer at 10:07 PM on March 1, 2019 [20 favorites]
posted by gingerbeer at 10:07 PM on March 1, 2019 [20 favorites]
I’ve given notice, and the conversation that I had with the owner was shockingly pleasant. We talked, over beers, for nearly five hours, and it felt like he was apologizing to me for things not having worked out how either of us would have liked. It was a pleasant talk, and it did change how I feel about leaving (I’m still leaving, I just no longer feel like I’d never set foot in the doors after).
Still, I’d tried to make a deal with myself, that I’d stick it out. I’ve still never had a single job longer than three years, and this one I didn’t even last that long. I feel like the walking, breathing example of “if you run into one asshole, you’ve run into an asshole, but if everyone you meet is an asshole...”
Topping it off, I’m leaving working in a kitchen, which is a thrill like I’ve never felt (on the rare occasions where it’s been a kitchen full of competent people working towards a singular goal), and I’m going back to being just another English teacher in Japan. I left that five years ago to try to start my own restaurant, and I’ve been fighting to stay away from teaching for essentially the whole time since my business died, but, well, there I am. It’s better, in that it’ll be less hours for the same pay, and I’ll actually have time off to rest and recuperate, but it’s still teaching English in Japan, and I can’t feel anything other than I’ve taken a giant step back.
posted by Ghidorah at 6:45 AM on March 2, 2019 [7 favorites]
Still, I’d tried to make a deal with myself, that I’d stick it out. I’ve still never had a single job longer than three years, and this one I didn’t even last that long. I feel like the walking, breathing example of “if you run into one asshole, you’ve run into an asshole, but if everyone you meet is an asshole...”
Topping it off, I’m leaving working in a kitchen, which is a thrill like I’ve never felt (on the rare occasions where it’s been a kitchen full of competent people working towards a singular goal), and I’m going back to being just another English teacher in Japan. I left that five years ago to try to start my own restaurant, and I’ve been fighting to stay away from teaching for essentially the whole time since my business died, but, well, there I am. It’s better, in that it’ll be less hours for the same pay, and I’ll actually have time off to rest and recuperate, but it’s still teaching English in Japan, and I can’t feel anything other than I’ve taken a giant step back.
posted by Ghidorah at 6:45 AM on March 2, 2019 [7 favorites]
Hugs to all having a fucking fuckity kind of week and double super duper hugs to beandip and their baby, because FUCK YEAH for the universe turning shit around and dealing out better cards sometimes.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:28 AM on March 2, 2019 [4 favorites]
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:28 AM on March 2, 2019 [4 favorites]
There was an article in yesterday's NY Times I could not read. I just read the headline and was so disgusted, as if the workplace weren't bad enough for an absolute cacophony of atrocious reasons, atrocious not being a strong enough word. So on top of everything else I have read about the American workplace, the NY Times, admonishes men, not to suck their beards at work. I got to the sentence about sucking the remains of luncheon soup...this is where I had to stop. I still kind of prickle just writing this.
posted by Oyéah at 8:32 AM on March 2, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by Oyéah at 8:32 AM on March 2, 2019 [3 favorites]
the number of times I've reported a fucking incompetent doorman for leaving the entry unattended, unlocked and wide open (a good percentage of these late at night) is now in the double digits and the super and management STILL won't fire him.
posted by brujita at 12:21 PM on March 2, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by brujita at 12:21 PM on March 2, 2019 [1 favorite]
The fascists advance. Police in Bela Horizonte the capital of our neighbouring state of Minas Gerais, of failing Vale mining dam infamy, has just banned 3 carnival blocos from taking to the streets because of "Political Content".
Meanwhile the rabid hateful rightwing followers of the Bolsonazi clan are celebrating the death of Lula's 7 year old grandson. Celebrating the death of a 7 year old. Fucking Vermin.
It gets a little more difficult to be here every week.
posted by adamvasco at 1:07 PM on March 2, 2019 [11 favorites]
Meanwhile the rabid hateful rightwing followers of the Bolsonazi clan are celebrating the death of Lula's 7 year old grandson. Celebrating the death of a 7 year old. Fucking Vermin.
It gets a little more difficult to be here every week.
posted by adamvasco at 1:07 PM on March 2, 2019 [11 favorites]
I can't fucking get momentum going to fucking finish this fucking dissertation. Wish I had time (and money) to take a fucking month off from work and fucking do it.
posted by MultiFaceted at 4:48 PM on March 2, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by MultiFaceted at 4:48 PM on March 2, 2019 [2 favorites]
So the other day I was clearing out some files on my old computer and came across some long-forgotten bookmarks for a geopolitical role-playing forum I was part of in high school way back in 2006. An offshoot of NationStates.net, it was like a tiny model UN for politics nerds, and I fondly remember stuff like proposing an online voting system, amending the group constitution, being elected to run their recruitment office, and even creating a satirical newspaper thread inspired by the Onion. I think it was even the first place I used this username at. So I was eager to revisit it all.
It had been hosted on one of those free forum platforms that were popular before the rise of Facebook and Reddit, and on first visit it appeared the board still existed, albeit hosted on a successor platform called Tapatalk. But poking around, it didn't seem to have any content before 2008. After a little investigation with Archive.org, I found that the group had restarted itself on a new forum under the same name for obscure reasons -- and when I tried loading up the original URL, I was dismayed to find:
Reader, it was too late. Less than one week too late, nearly thirteen years after I last posted there. (And of course Archive.org, despite recording 170 pages from the old site, didn't capture a single thread I participated in.) It's not a huge loss in the grand scheme of things, but it really stung to miss out on saving such a unique part of my experience on the web by such a minuscule amount of time.
posted by Rhaomi at 5:28 PM on March 2, 2019 [12 favorites]
It had been hosted on one of those free forum platforms that were popular before the rise of Facebook and Reddit, and on first visit it appeared the board still existed, albeit hosted on a successor platform called Tapatalk. But poking around, it didn't seem to have any content before 2008. After a little investigation with Archive.org, I found that the group had restarted itself on a new forum under the same name for obscure reasons -- and when I tried loading up the original URL, I was dismayed to find:
InvisionFree has now closed. All active forums were preserved, and all inactive/abandoned forums were granted a six month grace period to request a restore after the servers were taken down back in August 2018.August 2018? Six month grace period?! I rushed to their support page to plea for them to save this cherished site before it was too late.
If you see this message, it means that you are attempting to visit an abandoned forum for which no restore request was made within the six month grace period.
Any forums not restored at this time, can no longer be restored.
Please accept our apologies for any loss of data this might cause.
Reader, it was too late. Less than one week too late, nearly thirteen years after I last posted there. (And of course Archive.org, despite recording 170 pages from the old site, didn't capture a single thread I participated in.) It's not a huge loss in the grand scheme of things, but it really stung to miss out on saving such a unique part of my experience on the web by such a minuscule amount of time.
posted by Rhaomi at 5:28 PM on March 2, 2019 [12 favorites]
Just got a follow-up from their tech support: the last day to migrate the board was Wednesday... and I emailed them about it this morning. Three days too late, out of thirteen years. GAH.
On the bright side, it was a trip seeing all the old screen names I hadn't thought about in forever on the pages that did get archived, and I even found this amusing off-site blog chronicling the group's chaotic political machinations.
posted by Rhaomi at 6:13 PM on March 2, 2019 [2 favorites]
On the bright side, it was a trip seeing all the old screen names I hadn't thought about in forever on the pages that did get archived, and I even found this amusing off-site blog chronicling the group's chaotic political machinations.
posted by Rhaomi at 6:13 PM on March 2, 2019 [2 favorites]
You wouldn’t even believe the fucking fucked up fuckery I’m going through right now. 28 years of being a hard core uncompromising idealist down the drain. I fucking stuck it out through an evil corporate takeover with a firm commitment to the idea that Being Good always wins, that my stoic example would win them over, that the hundreds of lives saved, the thousands of marginalized people I’ve served and whom I’ve told are worthy of redemption — don’t worry I told them, it’s all going to be ok, because I’m here and fighting for them, that I have good people around me who are fighting for them.
Leadership in the safety net is incompetent and good people are fleeing in droves and for three years I told myself these idiots making $300,000+ a year are on an unsustainable path, they don’t understand what they’re doing, their incompetence means they’ll be gone soon. In the meantime, I’m going to school to learn how to do this shit right, I’ve marshalled my allies who believe in the mission and created systems and work arounds to protect people who can’t protect themselves.
There are people with fancy suits and German cars who are threatened by all this and have engineered the perfect trap for me and it’s checkmate. I’m on “administrative leave” as though I’m a danger to patients and I’m called to a meeting with the executioner on Tuesday. I will tender my resignation, before I’m given a termination, to a group of wealthy white people who’ve never even spoken to a homeless person or an undocumented immigrant or a drug addicted person, because they are tired of my complaining that their actions are harming the people they have been charged with helping. I’m tired. I can’t fight the good fight anymore. The haves win.
28 years of sacrifice to serve my neighbors who are freezing to death in tents down the street from me down the drain because I called the asshole who told me not to treat them an asshole.
I have a lot of support from lots of other doctors and professors, lawyers, community activists, and politicians who are telling me I’m doing the right thing and I know there will be another chapter, but the organization I work for which has lots of glossy brochures about how committed and caring and inclusive they are in order the attract corporate donations are forcing me out for bullshit reasons because advocating for patients is inconvenient to them.
I’m still in school learning the finer points of effective leadership and health system management and my professors and cohort are incredibly supportive, but in two days I’ll be on my own, unable to practice and left to figure this shit out on my own. I accept that it would come to this eventually, but I’m not ready. And I feel like a fool because of the sacrifices I made to work with the corporate assholes.
I’m tired. I don’t know where hope comes from.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 11:22 PM on March 2, 2019 [52 favorites]
Leadership in the safety net is incompetent and good people are fleeing in droves and for three years I told myself these idiots making $300,000+ a year are on an unsustainable path, they don’t understand what they’re doing, their incompetence means they’ll be gone soon. In the meantime, I’m going to school to learn how to do this shit right, I’ve marshalled my allies who believe in the mission and created systems and work arounds to protect people who can’t protect themselves.
There are people with fancy suits and German cars who are threatened by all this and have engineered the perfect trap for me and it’s checkmate. I’m on “administrative leave” as though I’m a danger to patients and I’m called to a meeting with the executioner on Tuesday. I will tender my resignation, before I’m given a termination, to a group of wealthy white people who’ve never even spoken to a homeless person or an undocumented immigrant or a drug addicted person, because they are tired of my complaining that their actions are harming the people they have been charged with helping. I’m tired. I can’t fight the good fight anymore. The haves win.
28 years of sacrifice to serve my neighbors who are freezing to death in tents down the street from me down the drain because I called the asshole who told me not to treat them an asshole.
I have a lot of support from lots of other doctors and professors, lawyers, community activists, and politicians who are telling me I’m doing the right thing and I know there will be another chapter, but the organization I work for which has lots of glossy brochures about how committed and caring and inclusive they are in order the attract corporate donations are forcing me out for bullshit reasons because advocating for patients is inconvenient to them.
I’m still in school learning the finer points of effective leadership and health system management and my professors and cohort are incredibly supportive, but in two days I’ll be on my own, unable to practice and left to figure this shit out on my own. I accept that it would come to this eventually, but I’m not ready. And I feel like a fool because of the sacrifices I made to work with the corporate assholes.
I’m tired. I don’t know where hope comes from.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 11:22 PM on March 2, 2019 [52 favorites]
Oh Slarty Bartfast, that is awful. I'm so sorry--it's not fair that someone who really cares about the needs of marginalized people like you do is being punished for it.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 1:44 AM on March 3, 2019
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 1:44 AM on March 3, 2019
Well it’s preety low-key compared to governmental seppuku but: it’s been stinking bloody hot here for the last few days, and I have been enjoying that with a bloody cold. A “cold”. Who names this shit?
posted by pompomtom at 2:44 AM on March 3, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by pompomtom at 2:44 AM on March 3, 2019 [1 favorite]
I have talked with the Cosmic Muffin about trading Micheal for Leonard. She says no, it doesn't work that way. She Likes Leonard, enjoys his company, and besides, Michael has to wait in line for a cot in her personal hell, so he'll be here with us on Earth for at lest the term of his sentences. I begged, but she was intractable.
So don't impeach the orange guy--because, Pence. Let him not get reelected then throw his sorry ass in jail and confiscate all his money under RICO. wouldn't it be funny if he flew AF-1 to Moscow and sent it back empty? Ha ha. They could put him up in the same hotel where Snowden lives, and Snowden could neener him until he ran screaming down the street.
Dream ends. Crap.
We got 31 inches of snow here in Lewiston this past month. I love it.
posted by mule98J at 5:17 AM on March 3, 2019 [1 favorite]
So don't impeach the orange guy--because, Pence. Let him not get reelected then throw his sorry ass in jail and confiscate all his money under RICO. wouldn't it be funny if he flew AF-1 to Moscow and sent it back empty? Ha ha. They could put him up in the same hotel where Snowden lives, and Snowden could neener him until he ran screaming down the street.
Dream ends. Crap.
We got 31 inches of snow here in Lewiston this past month. I love it.
posted by mule98J at 5:17 AM on March 3, 2019 [1 favorite]
Oh, Slarty Blartfast. I identify with you so hard on "stoic good-faith professionalism in the face of massive incompetence gets rewarded with boot to the rear end". You sound like a paragon of integrity and incredible work ethic, and I'm so terribly sorry.
On a semi-related note I am working my sixth straight fucking weekend to try to pick up the pieces of the massive organizational chaos I've wandered into and which my boss seems to expect me to fix singlehandedly as a junior PM. Whilst surrounded by people with 20+ more years' experience than i have, who can neither figure their shit out nor take direction from a woman who's younger than they are. I've worked nights and weekends and Christmas (in a country where you're actually legally entitled to insist on your right not to have to do those things) since being hired and frankly am still expecting to find out tomorrow morning that I'm being canned so my boss can cover their butt for past poor hiring decisions. On one level I'm panicking, but another part of my brain is too tired to fucking care.
A beloved friend dropped dead of a fucking heart attack three weeks ago, her family are destroyed and I can do nothing for them. I'm realizing that this is only the tip of the fuckin iceberg on the "friend death " front as I enter my thirties.
It is still cold enough here that one needs a comforter/lots of blankets to sleep, so naturally I woke up at midnight to discover my cat, no doubt distressed by my fucking bonkers work schedule, had fucking peed on it. I'm gearing up for yet another 70 hour week whilst sleeping (badly) under fucking bath towels because the new comforter hasn't arrived yet and I have zero time to trek out to an IKEA to go physically buy one that costs less than 200 fucking bucks.
Also my grandmother broke her hip and my family are furious that i can't fly fucking home.
Hang in there y'all.
posted by TinyChicken at 6:26 AM on March 3, 2019 [4 favorites]
On a semi-related note I am working my sixth straight fucking weekend to try to pick up the pieces of the massive organizational chaos I've wandered into and which my boss seems to expect me to fix singlehandedly as a junior PM. Whilst surrounded by people with 20+ more years' experience than i have, who can neither figure their shit out nor take direction from a woman who's younger than they are. I've worked nights and weekends and Christmas (in a country where you're actually legally entitled to insist on your right not to have to do those things) since being hired and frankly am still expecting to find out tomorrow morning that I'm being canned so my boss can cover their butt for past poor hiring decisions. On one level I'm panicking, but another part of my brain is too tired to fucking care.
A beloved friend dropped dead of a fucking heart attack three weeks ago, her family are destroyed and I can do nothing for them. I'm realizing that this is only the tip of the fuckin iceberg on the "friend death " front as I enter my thirties.
It is still cold enough here that one needs a comforter/lots of blankets to sleep, so naturally I woke up at midnight to discover my cat, no doubt distressed by my fucking bonkers work schedule, had fucking peed on it. I'm gearing up for yet another 70 hour week whilst sleeping (badly) under fucking bath towels because the new comforter hasn't arrived yet and I have zero time to trek out to an IKEA to go physically buy one that costs less than 200 fucking bucks.
Also my grandmother broke her hip and my family are furious that i can't fly fucking home.
Hang in there y'all.
posted by TinyChicken at 6:26 AM on March 3, 2019 [4 favorites]
Watching the national DSA rip off its leftist mask and reveal that they're entirely lead by obnoxious Bernie Bros with no sense of perspective has been the most disappointing fucking fuck of the last month. I wrote off the old DSA as irrelevant, cowardly T-shirt salespeople back in highschool. It's clear my poorly informed intuition was right. What a stupid, pointless shit show. If Bernie had any integrity, he'd withdraw and become a campaign manager for a candidate who isn't a punchline. But, I guess, old arrogant white dudes gotta white dude.
Nobody can seize defeat from the jaws of victory like the American left.
Also, the geese are back, which means summer is coming. I hate summer. We got 3 days of real winter this year, which is better than last. But, it's still disappointing.
(To be clear, the fascists running the US government are far worse than either the national DSA leadership or summer. But, less surprising.)
posted by eotvos at 8:12 AM on March 3, 2019 [6 favorites]
Nobody can seize defeat from the jaws of victory like the American left.
Also, the geese are back, which means summer is coming. I hate summer. We got 3 days of real winter this year, which is better than last. But, it's still disappointing.
(To be clear, the fascists running the US government are far worse than either the national DSA leadership or summer. But, less surprising.)
posted by eotvos at 8:12 AM on March 3, 2019 [6 favorites]
A well meaning friend shared this with me today:
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 12:30 PM on March 3, 2019 [16 favorites]
The Paradoxical CommandmentsFeels like advice for suckers to me, but maybe it’s helpful to some.
by Dr. Kent M. Keith
People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.
Love them anyway.
If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.
If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.
The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.
Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.
The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.
Think big anyway.
People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.
Fight for a few underdogs anyway.
What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.
People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.
Help people anyway.
Give the world the best you have and you’ll get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you have anyway.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 12:30 PM on March 3, 2019 [16 favorites]
Wow, Slarty, that reads like my work life these last two weeks. I'm still not sure what my reaction is going to be to being stabbed in the back by a group of folks I thought were my friends and supporters. I waver between the "anyways", and quitting with a big giant fuck you. Either way, everything has changed.
To all of you who have really suffered losses, I'm raising a glass of wine in your honor.
posted by SuperSquirrel at 2:12 PM on March 3, 2019 [2 favorites]
To all of you who have really suffered losses, I'm raising a glass of wine in your honor.
posted by SuperSquirrel at 2:12 PM on March 3, 2019 [2 favorites]
Slarty & SuperSquirrel I'm sorry that your toxic workplaces don't appreciate the light you bring.
posted by biggreenplant at 3:13 PM on March 3, 2019
posted by biggreenplant at 3:13 PM on March 3, 2019
"Economic growth" is still as dominant in the public vocabulary as it ever has been. What have we learned? Nothing. The insects are disappearing, the oceans are dying, the climate something something, and still here in Canada I read about the latest GDP print, which was "only" flat (roughly). It was highly disappointing to the talking heads, this "lack" of "economic growth". It is never good enough to sustain a certain pace (somehow, even into weakening demographic trends, it's still not good enough). The way that the socioeconomic macro-climate is presented to us by the powerful and wealthy has not changed at all, and we will continue to drive toward the cliff. Ffffffffffff
posted by sylvanshine at 3:35 PM on March 3, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by sylvanshine at 3:35 PM on March 3, 2019 [3 favorites]
Damn, Slarty. If you want to get a drink and vent some more, just raise a flag.
posted by the agents of KAOS at 5:38 PM on March 3, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by the agents of KAOS at 5:38 PM on March 3, 2019 [1 favorite]
On actually reading the thread: my complaints are so minor compared to TinyChicken and Slarty Bartfast! (I guess I should feel good about that?) Best wishes to you both, and everyone else dealing with real, personal shit.
posted by eotvos at 5:58 PM on March 3, 2019
posted by eotvos at 5:58 PM on March 3, 2019
I have no one else I can tell this to but I'm staying at an air b&b so I can be closer to work for a few days to do a bullshit 3 month project in 3 days because they're mad at me for saying my other project was delayed for bullshit reasons. I have never stayed in one of these before, I guess I'm the last millennial who prefers hotels, or maybe the last millennial who could afford them (this is out of pocket) but guess what this room smells like cat pee. And I was supposed to be doing work on my other delayed project tonight but I was just on the toilet for 2 hours and I can't even go out and get some pepto cause I don't want to excite their dog. So it smells like pee so I have the window open so it's fucking cold in here. I'm never not staying at a hotel again.
posted by bleep at 9:33 PM on March 3, 2019 [8 favorites]
posted by bleep at 9:33 PM on March 3, 2019 [8 favorites]
I was also thinking lately about how I wish I had a nicer car so I could sleep in it instead of needing a place to stay and then I was like hold on now were ASPIRING to sleep in your work's parking lot???? That's now a life improvement huh? And I was like look I know it's sad but you can't deny it would save us money and make work easier. And I was like yeah I know, what a fucked up situation.
posted by bleep at 9:45 PM on March 3, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by bleep at 9:45 PM on March 3, 2019 [1 favorite]
Oh and all my clothes for the week are hanging in this closet where the pee smell is coming from.
posted by bleep at 9:48 PM on March 3, 2019
posted by bleep at 9:48 PM on March 3, 2019
That really sucks bleep I'm so sorry
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 10:02 PM on March 3, 2019
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 10:02 PM on March 3, 2019
I guess I'm the last millennial who prefers hotels, or maybe the last millennial who could afford them
Not a millennial, but I don't want to stay in an AirBnB with someone I don't know/trust to put me up either. A friend of mine had really shitty stories of when she tried it (getting double charged, getting dumped out of the room early, the lady threatening to call the police....) but pee clothes ain't no joke. That really sucks.
posted by jenfullmoon at 10:12 PM on March 3, 2019 [1 favorite]
Not a millennial, but I don't want to stay in an AirBnB with someone I don't know/trust to put me up either. A friend of mine had really shitty stories of when she tried it (getting double charged, getting dumped out of the room early, the lady threatening to call the police....) but pee clothes ain't no joke. That really sucks.
posted by jenfullmoon at 10:12 PM on March 3, 2019 [1 favorite]
Ok update I'm bundled up, rewatching Russian Doll, I took the clothes out the closet and closed it so the smell is less and I'm feeling relaxed from sleep med so things are looking up.
posted by bleep at 10:23 PM on March 3, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by bleep at 10:23 PM on March 3, 2019 [2 favorites]
1) Brexit, and all the associated worries (The small company I work at is very reliant on international suppliers and customers, and extensively staffed by non-British EU citizens with rare skills. My SO is from elsewhere in the EU, and should easily get "settled" status but hasn't been here long enough for e.g. indefinite leave to remain. This all *should* be survivable in a competently-executed Brexit, but hoping for competence from this government does not feel like a winning strategy.)
1a) Have all my fellow Brits noticed how the government and most of the media keep casually using "EU citizens" to mean exclusively non-British EU citizens, erasing the fact that we're all -- for a few weeks more at least -- EU citizens, alongside all the others? Fuck that bit of manipulative bullshit.
2) I just moved in with my SO (yay!) and discovered that in our clean-looking newly rented flat the heating doesn't work (this is Scotland in the winter, heating is not a luxury add-on), the shower only works for ~30 seconds, and that the washing machine's drainage trap was clogged solid with a mix of fishtank gravel (?!), algae, and fungus. The latter, of course, I discovered when I had to manually drain the flooded washing machine leaving me with my sopping wet clothes -- and kitchen floor -- stinking of sewage.
2a) When I spoke to the letting agent this morning, polite but annoyed that her company had signed a contract, taken our money, and then given us a flat where the advertised utilities don't work, she said "checking these things isn't our responsibility". WTF? They're a lettings agency, exchanging functional flats for rent is their entire job.
posted by metaBugs at 6:01 AM on March 4, 2019 [3 favorites]
1a) Have all my fellow Brits noticed how the government and most of the media keep casually using "EU citizens" to mean exclusively non-British EU citizens, erasing the fact that we're all -- for a few weeks more at least -- EU citizens, alongside all the others? Fuck that bit of manipulative bullshit.
2) I just moved in with my SO (yay!) and discovered that in our clean-looking newly rented flat the heating doesn't work (this is Scotland in the winter, heating is not a luxury add-on), the shower only works for ~30 seconds, and that the washing machine's drainage trap was clogged solid with a mix of fishtank gravel (?!), algae, and fungus. The latter, of course, I discovered when I had to manually drain the flooded washing machine leaving me with my sopping wet clothes -- and kitchen floor -- stinking of sewage.
2a) When I spoke to the letting agent this morning, polite but annoyed that her company had signed a contract, taken our money, and then given us a flat where the advertised utilities don't work, she said "checking these things isn't our responsibility". WTF? They're a lettings agency, exchanging functional flats for rent is their entire job.
posted by metaBugs at 6:01 AM on March 4, 2019 [3 favorites]
I don't generally post in these threads, because my suck is your suck, and we all know what that suck is, right?
But I legit have a "this really fucking sucks" right now, in that my youngest sister died on Saturday. We weren't close, her drug abuse and mental illness led to our estrangement a decade ago. She had a bad ticker from all her years of abusing cocaine and its byproducts, so about five years ago she had a pacemaker/defib device implanted. She continued to abuse her body, and on Friday, she had her pacemaker/defib device turned off, I guess it's really unpleasant when that thing shocks you, and she died quietly in the hospital the next morning.
There is an entire book I could write about the family dynamics at play, but why bore you with the particulars? My sister died. She was only 35. What else matters now?
So there's my fucking fuck entry. The end.
posted by msali at 9:12 AM on March 4, 2019 [36 favorites]
But I legit have a "this really fucking sucks" right now, in that my youngest sister died on Saturday. We weren't close, her drug abuse and mental illness led to our estrangement a decade ago. She had a bad ticker from all her years of abusing cocaine and its byproducts, so about five years ago she had a pacemaker/defib device implanted. She continued to abuse her body, and on Friday, she had her pacemaker/defib device turned off, I guess it's really unpleasant when that thing shocks you, and she died quietly in the hospital the next morning.
There is an entire book I could write about the family dynamics at play, but why bore you with the particulars? My sister died. She was only 35. What else matters now?
So there's my fucking fuck entry. The end.
posted by msali at 9:12 AM on March 4, 2019 [36 favorites]
msali, I am so sorry. That's just beyond "fucking sucks."
posted by Pax at 9:34 AM on March 4, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by Pax at 9:34 AM on March 4, 2019 [1 favorite]
IT JUST KEEPS FUCKING RAINING. Today it's sort of sunny but DC has been so goddamn shitting wet for the last 8-9 months. My sump pump is always going. The basement got wet three or four times.
posted by aspersioncast at 10:43 AM on March 4, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by aspersioncast at 10:43 AM on March 4, 2019 [1 favorite]
I'm so sorry msali
posted by daybeforetheday at 11:25 AM on March 4, 2019
posted by daybeforetheday at 11:25 AM on March 4, 2019
Oh, msali. I'm so sorry.
posted by TinyChicken at 11:51 AM on March 4, 2019
posted by TinyChicken at 11:51 AM on March 4, 2019
I know this isn't that big a deal, and certainly not compared to other's pains here, but... My oven is dying, and I need to shop for a new stove. Last year had to buy a new fridge to replace the two year old fridge I had. I *just* replaced my old toilet which leaked and I had to run it with a stick.
Granted, my stove is old enough to be a Kenmore with wood paneling on it, but still. And I need to live with my dying stove for a while yet, until the snow melts and I can have the front door open for extended periods of time. I just want the things in my house to keep working, to not have to buy major appliances for a while. Can we do that? Thanks.
Fuck.
posted by Capt. Renault at 12:00 PM on March 4, 2019 [2 favorites]
Granted, my stove is old enough to be a Kenmore with wood paneling on it, but still. And I need to live with my dying stove for a while yet, until the snow melts and I can have the front door open for extended periods of time. I just want the things in my house to keep working, to not have to buy major appliances for a while. Can we do that? Thanks.
Fuck.
posted by Capt. Renault at 12:00 PM on March 4, 2019 [2 favorites]
I really do not want to go see my doctor tomorrow but there is a worrying symptom. Fuck.
Love to those who are grieving.
posted by wellred at 12:25 PM on March 4, 2019 [3 favorites]
Love to those who are grieving.
posted by wellred at 12:25 PM on March 4, 2019 [3 favorites]
I’ve been working part-time at a job I really like since I lost my f/t job this summer. I have prior exp at this position and I like the people. 5 weeks ago the manager told me a full time position was opening up and “don’t apply for any other positions.” Today I was told they went with someone else.
I hate job hunting and I really hate being misled. Back to searching. Job hunting is soul sucking.
posted by bookmammal at 1:20 PM on March 4, 2019 [7 favorites]
I hate job hunting and I really hate being misled. Back to searching. Job hunting is soul sucking.
posted by bookmammal at 1:20 PM on March 4, 2019 [7 favorites]
Fuck capitalism. Fuck the totally inadequate access to mental health care and chemical dependency treatment. You go along happily in denial about these things until it stomps on your own face. I think the only thing worth anything is reaching out to each other not just in times of need but *all* the time.
I’m so sorry msali. I don’t know how you go on but I guess shit heals over time or something. But I am really sorry you are hurting.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 4:43 PM on March 4, 2019 [7 favorites]
I’m so sorry msali. I don’t know how you go on but I guess shit heals over time or something. But I am really sorry you are hurting.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 4:43 PM on March 4, 2019 [7 favorites]
msali, I lost a sibling too, about when yours was born, and she was also too young to go. It fucking sucked then and it fucking sucks now. you're still here, and you knew her better than anyone, most likely, and what she left inside of you is the most she left inside of anyone, most likely. As long as you're still here, so is she. Cherish her. I am so sorry for your loss.
posted by mwhybark at 6:57 PM on March 4, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by mwhybark at 6:57 PM on March 4, 2019 [2 favorites]
Since this is where I've been posting my updates about stuff, I figured people would want to know that I'm recovering from the pneumonia. I didn't even realize how sick I was last week until I started feeling better; let me tell you, I was insanely sick. Fortunately, as of today, I finally feel like I'm approaching my normal energy levels, and I finally feel a little more clear-headed. I still have a cough, but that's expected to last a few weeks, and at least now it isn't making me nauseous all the time.
Of course, now that I'm feeling better, I'm going to have to start confronting the realities of life, like money and work and not going crazy living with my mom. But man, I don't even have the energy to vent about that right now. At the moment, I just need to say that pneumonia sucks.
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 7:31 PM on March 4, 2019 [4 favorites]
Of course, now that I'm feeling better, I'm going to have to start confronting the realities of life, like money and work and not going crazy living with my mom. But man, I don't even have the energy to vent about that right now. At the moment, I just need to say that pneumonia sucks.
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 7:31 PM on March 4, 2019 [4 favorites]
Last week one of my regular patients came in to the clinic I work at, on a day trip out from the rehab where he's recovering from a fall. I knew from notes that he had had some mental changes at the facility, and I knew the facility he was at is kind of terrible, but I was not prepared for what I saw. My previously lucid, mild-mannered patient going on at length about how someone had shot him at the rehab and how the staff were in conspiracy to take all his money. He cried and looked so scared and said that he wanted a psych assessment. The staff at the rehab didn't even fucking bother to send him out with shoes on. While he clearly had not been shot there, something definitely happened, and his family had been saying about that for weeks. Given the sudden change I saw, I decided to send him out to the hospital for more evaluation.
And the whole time I was mobilizing people to get him ready to go out, I told everyone, do not tell my managers. They will be so adamant that he just needs more care at shithole rehab. They want to insert themselves in every medical decision I make just to save a few bucks. Telling us to bring people to our bare-bones overcrowded primary clinic for assessment first with symptoms where, if they do signal a serious problem, time is of the essence.
I acted decisively and he was admitted to the hospital and then sent to a much nicer rehab, and the whole time I did it with no support from the people who should allegedly support me. That's fucking with my head in a big way.
One of my co-workers literally stormed out the door and quit today, just took his things and left with no plan. One of the primary providers, who only had a few months to go anyway, left because she's several months pregnant and the management was still working her into the ground. We are working with two part-time providers, one of whom I swear has early-stage dementia, for hundreds of patients. I am a contractor, albeit one with full-time hours, and they still won't fucking hire me for real because health care managers (with the exception of Slarty once he finishes his degree) are cheap bastards with no empathy. I am afraid to go anywhere else because this is just the state of healthcare in America, and what if anywhere else I go is just as negligent and micro-managey? I came into healthcare relatively late in life after a lot of drifting and I can't see myself doing anything else, but the system I work in is untenable everywhere. I feel like I'm only providing meaningful care when I do volunteer work with folks staying in shelters or on the streets. Those situations are even more bare bones than my paid work in terms of equipment, I do end up sending some folks to the hospital, but at least I can make people validated and valued and not be bound by insurance.
In an effort to try and make some positive change, I talked to two different unions about my workplace last week. Even though I'm a contractor and therefore couldn't be in a union myself, my coworkers have expressed interest and I'd love to help get the ball rolling. When I told one of my mentors outside work about this she warned me not to even try, that being a known agitator could get me blacklisted from other contract gigs because "healthcare is a small world," that even co-workers who seem supportive initially could turn on a dime and report me. This woman is a strong leftist, who knows I'm a good provider, who believes in unions, who's written recommendations for me before. If she doesn't believe who does? What the hell can I do?
Also my house is a fucking squalid mess and I haven't felt like cooking for weeks, but that's mostly related to my anger about the state of healthcare in America, seriously.
posted by I am a Sock, I am an Island at 12:21 PM on March 5, 2019 [11 favorites]
And the whole time I was mobilizing people to get him ready to go out, I told everyone, do not tell my managers. They will be so adamant that he just needs more care at shithole rehab. They want to insert themselves in every medical decision I make just to save a few bucks. Telling us to bring people to our bare-bones overcrowded primary clinic for assessment first with symptoms where, if they do signal a serious problem, time is of the essence.
I acted decisively and he was admitted to the hospital and then sent to a much nicer rehab, and the whole time I did it with no support from the people who should allegedly support me. That's fucking with my head in a big way.
One of my co-workers literally stormed out the door and quit today, just took his things and left with no plan. One of the primary providers, who only had a few months to go anyway, left because she's several months pregnant and the management was still working her into the ground. We are working with two part-time providers, one of whom I swear has early-stage dementia, for hundreds of patients. I am a contractor, albeit one with full-time hours, and they still won't fucking hire me for real because health care managers (with the exception of Slarty once he finishes his degree) are cheap bastards with no empathy. I am afraid to go anywhere else because this is just the state of healthcare in America, and what if anywhere else I go is just as negligent and micro-managey? I came into healthcare relatively late in life after a lot of drifting and I can't see myself doing anything else, but the system I work in is untenable everywhere. I feel like I'm only providing meaningful care when I do volunteer work with folks staying in shelters or on the streets. Those situations are even more bare bones than my paid work in terms of equipment, I do end up sending some folks to the hospital, but at least I can make people validated and valued and not be bound by insurance.
In an effort to try and make some positive change, I talked to two different unions about my workplace last week. Even though I'm a contractor and therefore couldn't be in a union myself, my coworkers have expressed interest and I'd love to help get the ball rolling. When I told one of my mentors outside work about this she warned me not to even try, that being a known agitator could get me blacklisted from other contract gigs because "healthcare is a small world," that even co-workers who seem supportive initially could turn on a dime and report me. This woman is a strong leftist, who knows I'm a good provider, who believes in unions, who's written recommendations for me before. If she doesn't believe who does? What the hell can I do?
Also my house is a fucking squalid mess and I haven't felt like cooking for weeks, but that's mostly related to my anger about the state of healthcare in America, seriously.
posted by I am a Sock, I am an Island at 12:21 PM on March 5, 2019 [11 favorites]
I let Meg go at noon today.
She'd been in so much pain for so long. And now she had a new diagnosis that complicated her other three diagnoses. I couldn't put her through any more. I talked with the vet about how her quality of life would be from now on, and it was clear that if I held on, it would only be because I couldn't bear to let go.
So I held her as she died, and felt her relax for the first time in months.
I miss her.
posted by MrVisible at 1:32 PM on March 5, 2019 [18 favorites]
She'd been in so much pain for so long. And now she had a new diagnosis that complicated her other three diagnoses. I couldn't put her through any more. I talked with the vet about how her quality of life would be from now on, and it was clear that if I held on, it would only be because I couldn't bear to let go.
So I held her as she died, and felt her relax for the first time in months.
I miss her.
posted by MrVisible at 1:32 PM on March 5, 2019 [18 favorites]
I am a Sock, I will say that my union organizing activities were a factor in my dismissal. Not the only factor to be sure, but it was A Thing. The moral is unionization scares management to death and they will do all kinds of things that are morally and legally wrong to squash it and they *will* hire lawyers who will tell them how to cover their tracks. So my best advice is if you decide to proceed, let *no one* who might get back to management know and otherwise, keep your nose completely clean — no complaints, no mouthing off. You have to be a model employee because when shit gets rolling they’re going to get rid of anyone who looks like they care about the work they do.
I’m also not sure that unionization is going to solve the larger structural issues you talk about. I mean workers deserve basic contractual protections and we routinely saw our employment rights violated. In our case it was literally the only alternative to mass exodus. Union and non-union health care organizations go under all the time. A union gives you basic transparency and black and white work expectations. In your case this may or may not translate to better patient care.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 2:33 PM on March 5, 2019 [4 favorites]
I’m also not sure that unionization is going to solve the larger structural issues you talk about. I mean workers deserve basic contractual protections and we routinely saw our employment rights violated. In our case it was literally the only alternative to mass exodus. Union and non-union health care organizations go under all the time. A union gives you basic transparency and black and white work expectations. In your case this may or may not translate to better patient care.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 2:33 PM on March 5, 2019 [4 favorites]
Slarty, I suppose it won't impress your suits that you showed up in my ICU room to check on me when I was homeless and had my collapsed lung incident, even though you weren't my doctor and were just showing up as a friend from the internet.
Nah, they'd probably use it against you, the fuckers.
Damnit, you are one of the good ones who gives a shit.
posted by loquacious at 3:55 PM on March 5, 2019 [8 favorites]
Nah, they'd probably use it against you, the fuckers.
Damnit, you are one of the good ones who gives a shit.
posted by loquacious at 3:55 PM on March 5, 2019 [8 favorites]
Everything I said in my last Fucking Fuck comment, plus some shithead stole my wallet on March 3rd. I've been struggling financially for years (I''m not earning a living and am living partly on borrowed money), and now I've got to somehow buy a new wallet and pay replacement fees for my ID and worry about someone stealing my identity all because some disgusting excuse for a human being decided they were entitled to rip me off for their own gain. It's sitting especially badly with me because I've been burgled twice in the past, I have sociopathic tenants who refuse to move out of my house, I've been subject to so much abuse and shitty treatment from others so many times in my life and there's never been much I can do to fight back or protect myself, and I feel like I just can't bear one more incident of some fucking asshole hurting me because they happen to feel like it.
posted by orange swan at 5:04 PM on March 5, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by orange swan at 5:04 PM on March 5, 2019 [3 favorites]
Apologies, I haven't read all of the back scroll, because ugggggh, I have the flu, and it sucks.
Feeling very vaporwave over here.
posted by limeonaire at 6:04 PM on March 5, 2019 [3 favorites]
c h i l l sFeeling very vaporwave over here.
posted by limeonaire at 6:04 PM on March 5, 2019 [3 favorites]
I just saw this report:
It costs less than $60 to have a baby in Finland. How?
Finland's healthcare system has helped give it the lowest maternal death rate in the world -- and it's available to everyone for next to nothing.
The how? part of the headline is rather simply explained: they make rich people pay tax.
Four months paid maternity leave.
And every new mom gets a gift hamper full of stuff they're going to need on Day Zero, so they're ready for anything. The actual box it comes in doubles as a cot. I was curious what was in it and found this imgur gallery. It's so fucking adorable I want to scream. One thing of interest, right beside your free digital thermometer are some condoms. Can you imagine the riots if the government were giving away free condoms to moms in the US?
They call it a baby box, which reminds me of the super depressing suicide note of a poem The Arrival of the Bee Box by Sylvia Plath.
I ordered this, clean wood box
Square as a chair and almost too heavy to lift.
I would say it was the coffin of a midget
Or a square baby
Were there not such a din in it.
Which has nothing to do with anything except square baby boxes but this is the fuckity fuck thread so gimme break.
Now take a look at those onesies and booties, and the plush toy. The government will give your baby a plushie.
That's what filthy fucking socialism looks like. And you could have all this for the price of, dunno, a stupid fucking wall and some of those stupid jets that don't even fly right.
posted by adept256 at 7:26 PM on March 5, 2019 [20 favorites]
It costs less than $60 to have a baby in Finland. How?
Finland's healthcare system has helped give it the lowest maternal death rate in the world -- and it's available to everyone for next to nothing.
The how? part of the headline is rather simply explained: they make rich people pay tax.
Four months paid maternity leave.
And every new mom gets a gift hamper full of stuff they're going to need on Day Zero, so they're ready for anything. The actual box it comes in doubles as a cot. I was curious what was in it and found this imgur gallery. It's so fucking adorable I want to scream. One thing of interest, right beside your free digital thermometer are some condoms. Can you imagine the riots if the government were giving away free condoms to moms in the US?
They call it a baby box, which reminds me of the super depressing suicide note of a poem The Arrival of the Bee Box by Sylvia Plath.
I ordered this, clean wood box
Square as a chair and almost too heavy to lift.
I would say it was the coffin of a midget
Or a square baby
Were there not such a din in it.
Which has nothing to do with anything except square baby boxes but this is the fuckity fuck thread so gimme break.
Now take a look at those onesies and booties, and the plush toy. The government will give your baby a plushie.
That's what filthy fucking socialism looks like. And you could have all this for the price of, dunno, a stupid fucking wall and some of those stupid jets that don't even fly right.
posted by adept256 at 7:26 PM on March 5, 2019 [20 favorites]
you could have all this for the price of...
...for the price of extinguishing/removing/imprisoning/silencing fully one-third of your population.
Fuck.
posted by aramaic at 8:43 PM on March 5, 2019
...for the price of extinguishing/removing/imprisoning/silencing fully one-third of your population.
Fuck.
posted by aramaic at 8:43 PM on March 5, 2019
ah, er, that is, please expound. I don't follow.
posted by mwhybark at 9:17 PM on March 5, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by mwhybark at 9:17 PM on March 5, 2019 [2 favorites]
Sara Romweber. Heard it on the radio last night. Lots missing in the trade obits cause she really didn't care about that. Everybody loved her. She'd get embarrased and awkward if a stranger figured out who she was. Ouch.
posted by Mr. Yuck at 3:49 AM on March 6, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by Mr. Yuck at 3:49 AM on March 6, 2019 [3 favorites]
aramaic, what? Expound.
I hope it’s not a comment on how baby boxes naturally go hand in hand with Stalin or Mao.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 8:37 AM on March 6, 2019
I hope it’s not a comment on how baby boxes naturally go hand in hand with Stalin or Mao.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 8:37 AM on March 6, 2019
I think it has to do with America's crazification factor aka the 33% of American's who supported Nixon even after everything? Like, the third of American's who are straight loons would never support free baby boxes so in order to get them they'd have to go away and that's messed up because they're messed up.
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 10:41 AM on March 6, 2019
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 10:41 AM on March 6, 2019
Rang the therapist about a cancellation (after my email went unanswered, which is really unusual) due to a difficult, time-eating bathroom renovation, choked up when she picked up as I'd mentally composed a tidy, non-neurotic voicemail message, and wound up BLOWING HER A KISS while hanging up.
I hope that sounded like the call disconnecting. For fuck's sake, Gambol, get it together, staple it in place.
posted by Iris Gambol at 11:05 AM on March 6, 2019 [9 favorites]
I hope that sounded like the call disconnecting. For fuck's sake, Gambol, get it together, staple it in place.
posted by Iris Gambol at 11:05 AM on March 6, 2019 [9 favorites]
I want to say something about that Sylvia Plath poem. There's a reason I remember it, I had to study it in high school. And then explain what it meant.
What I learnt was that Sylvia had schizophrenia, and heard voices. In the poem she describes how her head is full of a swarm of angry bees and that was why she was going to kill herself. She did kill herself. This was more profound to me than any Morrissey lyric. It really hit me in the heart, this brilliant woman was tormented to death by a disease no one could see, but she left us this clue to help us understand.
This is what great art does. It certainly changed my attitude toward mental illness. We would call people 'schizo' as a playground taunt, and that stopped when I learnt what that really meant.
Anyhow I didn't want to sideswipe you with Plath with no explanation. I know there is a line of thought like, studying the arts is ultimately useless, but I think it's more important than ever. Make the kids read poetry. Demand that your politicians support arts education.
posted by adept256 at 2:36 PM on March 6, 2019 [1 favorite]
What I learnt was that Sylvia had schizophrenia, and heard voices. In the poem she describes how her head is full of a swarm of angry bees and that was why she was going to kill herself. She did kill herself. This was more profound to me than any Morrissey lyric. It really hit me in the heart, this brilliant woman was tormented to death by a disease no one could see, but she left us this clue to help us understand.
This is what great art does. It certainly changed my attitude toward mental illness. We would call people 'schizo' as a playground taunt, and that stopped when I learnt what that really meant.
Anyhow I didn't want to sideswipe you with Plath with no explanation. I know there is a line of thought like, studying the arts is ultimately useless, but I think it's more important than ever. Make the kids read poetry. Demand that your politicians support arts education.
posted by adept256 at 2:36 PM on March 6, 2019 [1 favorite]
Mr. Yuck: Sara Romweber
Hooo yeah, me too. I know many of us Gen Xers are sad about Luke Perry, but at least in my particular sub-generation/sub-culture, it was losing Sara that really felt like having a hole torn out of our memories.
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 11:25 PM on March 6, 2019 [1 favorite]
Hooo yeah, me too. I know many of us Gen Xers are sad about Luke Perry, but at least in my particular sub-generation/sub-culture, it was losing Sara that really felt like having a hole torn out of our memories.
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 11:25 PM on March 6, 2019 [1 favorite]
...AND... in another twist to the “I was told I’d be getting a full time position at my job 5 weeks ago and then was told this week that they went with someone else” story... a very good friend who I gave a reference for just got hired full time at the company(different position). I’m really happy for her, but I didn’t even apply for that position because of the verbal commitment I was given. Shame on me for believing it without anything in writing. I really just hate everything right now.
posted by bookmammal at 6:48 AM on March 7, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by bookmammal at 6:48 AM on March 7, 2019 [2 favorites]
Everybody needs a hug from another human. A very select few also need to be hugged by a boa constrictor; others, by an iron maiden (the alleged torture device, not the band).
posted by ZeusHumms at 7:00 AM on March 7, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by ZeusHumms at 7:00 AM on March 7, 2019 [2 favorites]
5 Crucial Things To Remember About Our Wretched Hellscape
posted by jenfullmoon at 8:19 AM on March 7, 2019 [7 favorites]
posted by jenfullmoon at 8:19 AM on March 7, 2019 [7 favorites]
I guess on some level it's a good thing that Facebook has let me know which of my co-workers have hangups about Jews?
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 8:22 AM on March 7, 2019 [4 favorites]
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 8:22 AM on March 7, 2019 [4 favorites]
I know we're not supposed to get angry at low-information voters and the like, but the idea that the Democrats or anyone else should have to tip-toe around the fact that Trump and his children and relatives and associates and virtually anyone who has spent more than half an hour in his presence have almost certainly committed innumerable serious crimes spanning decades because it might annoy these morons *infuriates* me. People like this are a big part of the reason Trump is President and now we're supposed to hold their hands and speak softly and gently guide them through this process, lest they stamp their feet and huff and puff and stay home or vote for Trump again out of spite? Fuck these people.
posted by The Card Cheat at 9:52 AM on March 7, 2019 [9 favorites]
posted by The Card Cheat at 9:52 AM on March 7, 2019 [9 favorites]
The fucking Manafort sentence makes me so fucking angry. Fuck.
posted by Doktor Zed at 5:23 PM on March 7, 2019 [5 favorites]
posted by Doktor Zed at 5:23 PM on March 7, 2019 [5 favorites]
That Psychology Today article makes my head want to explode, specifically this sentence: “While wives might regard their husbands as unhelpful, uninvolved, or uncaring, it might be the case instead that they’re not able to identify when their wives are having problems because they tend to pay less attention to such things.” Who write this sentences and why did they think it made sense.
posted by bq at 5:30 PM on March 7, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by bq at 5:30 PM on March 7, 2019 [3 favorites]
Last Fall, a week after we had to put one of our cats down, our house burned down. Our dog escaped ok, our other cat ran off and we haven't seen her since. Today we learned our dog has cancer and won't probably last another two weeks. This is the busiest two weeks of the year for our work. Fuckitty fuuuuuck
posted by Cookiebastard at 8:05 PM on March 7, 2019 [5 favorites]
posted by Cookiebastard at 8:05 PM on March 7, 2019 [5 favorites]
I don't want to derail fucking fucks, but @fluttering hellfire, I watched L.O'D too and I believe they said that Duncan was not the holdout. This article says "She would have convicted him on all counts, she said, but she and 10 other jurors were stymied by a lone holdout."
It remains impossible to reconcile a juror who still supports Trump finding Manafort guilty because Evidence, but being completely blind to the corruption and amazing stupidity right in front of their eyes every day with DJT. The Leaving Neverland documentary about Michael Jackon's victims was an excellent reminder for me that mass willful ignorance stretches back in the US to at least ... the 1990s!
posted by sylvanshine at 8:50 PM on March 7, 2019
It remains impossible to reconcile a juror who still supports Trump finding Manafort guilty because Evidence, but being completely blind to the corruption and amazing stupidity right in front of their eyes every day with DJT. The Leaving Neverland documentary about Michael Jackon's victims was an excellent reminder for me that mass willful ignorance stretches back in the US to at least ... the 1990s!
posted by sylvanshine at 8:50 PM on March 7, 2019
Everyday I feel a little more hopeless at the state of my life and existence in general, but this Manafort verdict has really taken the cake.
I don't know how much of this I can take before I just never use the internet or read the news again.
Everything is such a farce and nobody is even pretending anymore. I almost look forward to catastrophic climate change.
And it's waaaay too early to start drinking.
posted by SystematicAbuse at 6:32 AM on March 8, 2019 [2 favorites]
I don't know how much of this I can take before I just never use the internet or read the news again.
Everything is such a farce and nobody is even pretending anymore. I almost look forward to catastrophic climate change.
And it's waaaay too early to start drinking.
posted by SystematicAbuse at 6:32 AM on March 8, 2019 [2 favorites]
I work for the federal public defender, I've seen so many people in federal court get just unbelievable sentences under the guidelines, 30 GODDAMN YEARS for non-violent drug offenses. The judges have absolutely no fucking problem sentencing within the guidelines 90% of the time. The other 10% of the time, when you can present facts that show just how fucking egregiously hard the defendant's life has been, the judge might throw him a bone and give him a 20% reduction in his sentence--going from a guideline range of 120-130 months and getting a 100 month sentence is a big fucking win for us, and that's when every goddamn thing is working in the client's favor. Going from 240 months to 47 months for a motherfucker who kept on lying to the government about his conduct after his conviction? The judge says the guidelines were excessive??Unfucking believable. How about the 25 year old mother of two with no previous record who recently got a goddamn 7 YEAR sentence for a few thousand dollars worth of forged prescriptions. She was working 40 hours a week for $12 an hour and now she won't get to see her goddamn kids grow up--she got a fucking four month variance from the guidelines. Or the motherfucking 18 year old with no record who went on a drug-delivery trip with her boyfriend--she never touched the drugs, wasn't getting a cut of the profits, but still gets a sweet 24 month sentence, three whole goddamn months below the guidelines--guess she should have just said "no" to her boyfriend who literally rescued her and her two year old daughter from either homelessness or a return to a sexually abusive home, I'm sure we all would have had the strict moral sense to obey the law in her situation. Those guideline sentences weren't excessive, but Manaforte's was. I struggle so mightily to find a reason the judge might have been more sympathetic to this rich, white, elderly, entitled asshole.
posted by skewed at 7:05 AM on March 8, 2019 [18 favorites]
posted by skewed at 7:05 AM on March 8, 2019 [18 favorites]
My appointment with the doctor went generally well, and more investigation will take place, but I am currently adjusting to splints on both wrists and my elbows and shoulders ache so badly with the adjustment. It's just put me completely off-kilter, like bumping into things and breaking nails off-kilter (so I just cut my fingernails completely off last night, bye bye). Fingers (figuratively) crossed that it is carpal tunnel causing all this.
posted by wellred at 7:09 AM on March 8, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by wellred at 7:09 AM on March 8, 2019 [1 favorite]
This fucking place sometimes. My boss, his boss, and his boss approved my going to a (free!) two-day conference/expo next month, but because the whole thing hasn't been approved by some committee I've never heard of, the people who arrange travel and accommodations are yelling at me. Oh, and they won't approve a hotel for the first night since the thing starts at 9:30 AM the next day.
This is the same place that's spending tens of millions on their massive boondoggle of a new records system, but won't pay for fucking milk in the kitchens so everyone brings in their own and the fridge always looks like a goddamned industrial dairy with no room for anyone's actual fucking lunch.
FUCK.
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 7:30 AM on March 8, 2019 [1 favorite]
This is the same place that's spending tens of millions on their massive boondoggle of a new records system, but won't pay for fucking milk in the kitchens so everyone brings in their own and the fridge always looks like a goddamned industrial dairy with no room for anyone's actual fucking lunch.
FUCK.
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 7:30 AM on March 8, 2019 [1 favorite]
Today I was shopping at Wal-Mart when I heard the sound of the regulator on an oxygen tank activate. An older gentleman walked by the end of the isle, his cart filled with cranberry juice, frozen dinners and an oxygen tank. That click/hiss sound of the regulator is something I haven’t heard for more than a year now and one I associate with taking my mom for chemo or emergency trips to the hospital. For the last two years of her life she was on oxygen, a generator at home and tanks for travel. She didn’t like the tanks because she sometimes had trouble triggering the regulator. It got so she hated leaving the house, she was terrified of not being able to breath. She’d wanted to go to the ocean one more time before she died and I tried to get her a portable oxygen generator but there was a waiting list, additional approvals/hoops to jump through and we just ran out of time. I broke down there in the paper towel isle, biting my tongue trying not to sob. I pushed my cart down the back wall and hid out in the hardware section, trying to think of anything other than my mom or that old guy shopping by himself so I could stop crying. After that I got out of there pretty quick. It was early so the store was pretty empty and self checkout let me avoid an awkward cashier encounter. I wasn’t prepared for that kind of reaction while shopping and cried most of the way home. Still some raw nerves there I guess.
posted by Tenuki at 7:53 PM on March 8, 2019 [14 favorites]
posted by Tenuki at 7:53 PM on March 8, 2019 [14 favorites]
Tenuki, please consider yourself gently tele-hugged, if that sounds like something you would welcome right now.
posted by Too-Ticky at 2:58 PM on March 9, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by Too-Ticky at 2:58 PM on March 9, 2019 [2 favorites]
All right, I've got to write this down somewhere because it's been haunting me. It's such a tiny thing...
I was out for a walk this afternoon, and I saw a couple of lumps in the road ahead. As I got closer, I could see that there were two dead chipmunks lying there. And then another chipmunk came out of the brush by the curb and went over and lay down with the others.
It lay down with them. As if it could join them somehow. As if they could be together again.
I've never seen a more eloquent expression of grief.
Then it saw me, looked at them, then ran back into the brush.
And since then I keep thinking of that little creature, alone, stunned, terrified, the world suddenly become strange and violent and gigantic around it, and all it wants is just another moment with the ones it cared about.
There are times that I just don't like the world much, you know? When you think about how much hurt is really out there, it's just overwhelming sometimes. Such tiny creatures to carry such weight.
posted by MrVisible at 10:38 PM on March 10, 2019 [17 favorites]
I was out for a walk this afternoon, and I saw a couple of lumps in the road ahead. As I got closer, I could see that there were two dead chipmunks lying there. And then another chipmunk came out of the brush by the curb and went over and lay down with the others.
It lay down with them. As if it could join them somehow. As if they could be together again.
I've never seen a more eloquent expression of grief.
Then it saw me, looked at them, then ran back into the brush.
And since then I keep thinking of that little creature, alone, stunned, terrified, the world suddenly become strange and violent and gigantic around it, and all it wants is just another moment with the ones it cared about.
There are times that I just don't like the world much, you know? When you think about how much hurt is really out there, it's just overwhelming sometimes. Such tiny creatures to carry such weight.
posted by MrVisible at 10:38 PM on March 10, 2019 [17 favorites]
(bursts into tears)
posted by aramaic at 11:22 PM on March 10, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by aramaic at 11:22 PM on March 10, 2019 [3 favorites]
22 years living in these parts and never saw a skunk until yesterday. 3 kids shooting paintballs at me from the creekbed and I dove behind a fallen tree to return fire and waah!
It was beautiful as slowly, it turned. Glistening dessert-like coat. Black cake and creme.
I was blind for about two hours. Kids had to help me back to the barn and that got it on them, heh-heh.
TIL that skunk is genus Mephitus and the kids said they were sorry for shooting me 7 times when I was trying to scrabble away from that Mephites anal glands.
Fuck Mephifilter.
posted by Mr. Yuck at 5:27 AM on March 11, 2019 [7 favorites]
It was beautiful as slowly, it turned. Glistening dessert-like coat. Black cake and creme.
I was blind for about two hours. Kids had to help me back to the barn and that got it on them, heh-heh.
TIL that skunk is genus Mephitus and the kids said they were sorry for shooting me 7 times when I was trying to scrabble away from that Mephites anal glands.
Fuck Mephifilter.
posted by Mr. Yuck at 5:27 AM on March 11, 2019 [7 favorites]
Today we learned our dog has cancer and won't probably last another two weeks. This is the busiest two weeks of the year for our work. Fuckitty fuuuuuck
cookiebastard, I'm seeing this far too late. but I just have to send you hugs if you want them. We lost our kitty to a swift cancer at Christmas, which is the busiest time at my job. I was lucky to work a lot of hours from home, but it breaks my heart to remember all the meetings I sat through when I should have been snuggling that sweet girl. I am so sorry for what you're going through.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 10:08 AM on March 11, 2019 [2 favorites]
cookiebastard, I'm seeing this far too late. but I just have to send you hugs if you want them. We lost our kitty to a swift cancer at Christmas, which is the busiest time at my job. I was lucky to work a lot of hours from home, but it breaks my heart to remember all the meetings I sat through when I should have been snuggling that sweet girl. I am so sorry for what you're going through.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 10:08 AM on March 11, 2019 [2 favorites]
now if you all will excuse me I need to go lie down with some chipmunks.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 10:15 AM on March 11, 2019 [9 favorites]
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 10:15 AM on March 11, 2019 [9 favorites]
My ex texted me yesterday to ask how I was recovering from the pneumonia. She also sent a picture of the cat and said "this cat misses you." I have complicated feelings about my ex, but I miss my cat. I've been a lot sadder since yesterday.
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 9:33 PM on March 11, 2019 [4 favorites]
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 9:33 PM on March 11, 2019 [4 favorites]
Former Vice President Joe Biden hinted at a 2020 presidential bid on Tuesday, telling a crowd in Washington to save their energy because he “may need it in a few weeks.”
OMG STAAAAHHHP. STOP. STOP. STOP!!!! SHIT OR GIT OFF THE POT ALREADY. WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS, JOE?
Ok. Sorry folks, I just had to let that out.
posted by dnash at 8:13 AM on March 12, 2019 [5 favorites]
OMG STAAAAHHHP. STOP. STOP. STOP!!!! SHIT OR GIT OFF THE POT ALREADY. WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS, JOE?
Ok. Sorry folks, I just had to let that out.
posted by dnash at 8:13 AM on March 12, 2019 [5 favorites]
can I crash in "from" the Brexit threads?
FUCKING SHITING MACFUCKKNUCKLES MY COUNTRY IS FUCKED
thank you.
posted by runincircles at 2:44 PM on March 12, 2019 [7 favorites]
FUCKING SHITING MACFUCKKNUCKLES MY COUNTRY IS FUCKED
thank you.
posted by runincircles at 2:44 PM on March 12, 2019 [7 favorites]
She also sent a picture of the cat and said "this cat misses you."
I do not know the details of your breakup at all, but I can think of very very few scenarios in which something like that is said that does not reflect very poorly on the person who sent it.
posted by jessamyn (retired) at 3:01 PM on March 12, 2019 [8 favorites]
I do not know the details of your breakup at all, but I can think of very very few scenarios in which something like that is said that does not reflect very poorly on the person who sent it.
posted by jessamyn (retired) at 3:01 PM on March 12, 2019 [8 favorites]
What runincircles said above. That. Fuck.
posted by Ilira at 3:39 PM on March 12, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by Ilira at 3:39 PM on March 12, 2019 [2 favorites]
So, on the heels of my partner’s Mom’s dying from cancer back in January, I find out today that my cousin has overdosed and left this world at age 37 - she’d had substance abuse troubles for years, and made multiple attempts to get clean, but she never really came to terms with her own mother’s death back in 2010.
2019, I’m not really liking you very much just now.
posted by tantrumthecat at 9:49 PM on March 12, 2019 [3 favorites]
2019, I’m not really liking you very much just now.
posted by tantrumthecat at 9:49 PM on March 12, 2019 [3 favorites]
Nick Cave, as always, lately, has some beautifully expressed thoughts on living with loss and grief thatmight be of comfort. This thread has been full of loss this month.
"We become the living vessels that carry their spirits, out of that dark and shuttered place, and release them into the heavens."
posted by mwhybark at 5:28 AM on March 13, 2019 [3 favorites]
"We become the living vessels that carry their spirits, out of that dark and shuttered place, and release them into the heavens."
posted by mwhybark at 5:28 AM on March 13, 2019 [3 favorites]
So I am being a cranky jerk about my choir music this spring, which is the most incredibly white take on swing/jazz you can imagine (seriously, how can you put on an entire concert of "American music" with no black songwriters? It takes actual effort) and also the fact that "Sing Sing Sing" reminds everyone under 40 of a Chips Ahoy commercial more than anything, but, I digress.
So I am doing my best trying not to be an eyerolly jerk and we're singing "I'll Be Seeing You", an old jazz standard, and I look it up online and it was the last message we sent to the Opportunity rover, and fuck if that doesn't make me absolutely bawl my eyes out. So I guess stay open to being unexpectedly touched by shit you don't really like, friends.
I'll find you in the morning sun
And when the night is new
I'll be looking at the moon
But I'll be seeing you
posted by nakedmolerats at 8:22 AM on March 13, 2019 [6 favorites]
So I am doing my best trying not to be an eyerolly jerk and we're singing "I'll Be Seeing You", an old jazz standard, and I look it up online and it was the last message we sent to the Opportunity rover, and fuck if that doesn't make me absolutely bawl my eyes out. So I guess stay open to being unexpectedly touched by shit you don't really like, friends.
I'll find you in the morning sun
And when the night is new
I'll be looking at the moon
But I'll be seeing you
posted by nakedmolerats at 8:22 AM on March 13, 2019 [6 favorites]
I'm still pretty fucking angry about the fucking Manafort sentencing. Fuck.
posted by Doktor Zed at 11:01 AM on March 13, 2019 [4 favorites]
posted by Doktor Zed at 11:01 AM on March 13, 2019 [4 favorites]
What runincircles said above. That. Fuck.
Same country too?
posted by ZeusHumms at 1:21 PM on March 13, 2019
Same country too?
posted by ZeusHumms at 1:21 PM on March 13, 2019
I am angry that so many people are married to the idea that Pelosi just has to be dumb and/or humorless, despite all evidence to the contrary, and that apparently it's valid to argue about whether she's capable of using sarcasm.
posted by prize bull octorok at 11:08 AM on March 14, 2019 [7 favorites]
posted by prize bull octorok at 11:08 AM on March 14, 2019 [7 favorites]
She's shilling "Patron Saint of Shade" merch based on her sarcasm, fer cryin' out loud.
posted by Iris Gambol at 1:17 PM on March 14, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by Iris Gambol at 1:17 PM on March 14, 2019 [2 favorites]
Snow melt and rain combined to flood the hallway outside my apartment, resulting in water seeping into my unit from an internal wall. Dang it.
posted by ZeusHumms at 4:51 PM on March 14, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by ZeusHumms at 4:51 PM on March 14, 2019 [2 favorites]
Something really terrible just happened in New Zealand, and I'm thinking about how the point of terrorism is to terrorize, and so many people I know are going to be more scared tomorrow than they already were. I really hate the world we're living in right now. I really hate that no place seems safe.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 7:56 PM on March 14, 2019 [10 favorites]
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 7:56 PM on March 14, 2019 [10 favorites]
Something really terrible just happened in New Zealand
My condolences.
.
posted by ZeusHumms at 8:06 PM on March 14, 2019
My condolences.
.
posted by ZeusHumms at 8:06 PM on March 14, 2019
Re: Christchurch-
Yeah. I just want to say: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA FUCK HAVEN'T WE ALREADY LITIGATED THIS FUCKING SHIT FOR TWO GODDAMN CENTURIES AT LEAST.
For people screaming "you shall not replace us", they sure are making an awfully persuasive case for exactly why they should be replaced.
Earlier on the blue we had that thread about the Critique of Pure Niceness and this. This is what it is. Those jokers on 8chan are planning to massacre us and post the livestream so their bullethead friends can crack wise. I do not owe a fraction of civility to the people who would gladly exterminate everyone that I love.
We need a mass denazification for the entire west. Though giant meteor/ awaken Cthulhu/ summon Godzilla from the depths, I dunno, those also have their appeal in moments like this.
posted by LeRoienJaune at 10:40 PM on March 14, 2019 [8 favorites]
Yeah. I just want to say: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA FUCK HAVEN'T WE ALREADY LITIGATED THIS FUCKING SHIT FOR TWO GODDAMN CENTURIES AT LEAST.
For people screaming "you shall not replace us", they sure are making an awfully persuasive case for exactly why they should be replaced.
Earlier on the blue we had that thread about the Critique of Pure Niceness and this. This is what it is. Those jokers on 8chan are planning to massacre us and post the livestream so their bullethead friends can crack wise. I do not owe a fraction of civility to the people who would gladly exterminate everyone that I love.
We need a mass denazification for the entire west. Though giant meteor/ awaken Cthulhu/ summon Godzilla from the depths, I dunno, those also have their appeal in moments like this.
posted by LeRoienJaune at 10:40 PM on March 14, 2019 [8 favorites]
There are forces that are trying to turn this world into a giant prison yard. Lots of idiots (young and old) have been convinced that their gang will come out on top.
posted by bonobothegreat at 6:34 AM on March 15, 2019 [10 favorites]
posted by bonobothegreat at 6:34 AM on March 15, 2019 [10 favorites]
LeRoienJaune: We need a mass denazification for the entire west
I would propose mass de-fascist-ification/de-extremification of the entire world. This got me thinking of young women abducted for the "crime" of getting an education, and I'm furious at the world. Again.
And it may be as obvious as investing in the personnel and tools to purge so much hatred from the internet. I'm reading Shrill, Lindy West's memoir-cum–call-to-arms (Slate review), where she talks about Dan Savage saying that to clean up comments on The Stranger would drive away viewers, and I'm screaming "WHY DO YOU WANT HATE-READERS?"
And then I appreciate MetaFilter and its moderators all the more. Seriously, I experience lots of the internet through this filter, and it makes my life so much better for it. I look for interesting things to read, and I follow more political news because of MetaFilter, but there are huge swaths of the internet I don't interact with at all (namely, social media, and news/events at large) except as presented by other MeFites, so the fact that so much of the internet is considered a known hazard for the potential presence trolls, assholes, and trash people.
posted by filthy light thief at 8:48 AM on March 15, 2019 [3 favorites]
I would propose mass de-fascist-ification/de-extremification of the entire world. This got me thinking of young women abducted for the "crime" of getting an education, and I'm furious at the world. Again.
And it may be as obvious as investing in the personnel and tools to purge so much hatred from the internet. I'm reading Shrill, Lindy West's memoir-cum–call-to-arms (Slate review), where she talks about Dan Savage saying that to clean up comments on The Stranger would drive away viewers, and I'm screaming "WHY DO YOU WANT HATE-READERS?"
And then I appreciate MetaFilter and its moderators all the more. Seriously, I experience lots of the internet through this filter, and it makes my life so much better for it. I look for interesting things to read, and I follow more political news because of MetaFilter, but there are huge swaths of the internet I don't interact with at all (namely, social media, and news/events at large) except as presented by other MeFites, so the fact that so much of the internet is considered a known hazard for the potential presence trolls, assholes, and trash people.
posted by filthy light thief at 8:48 AM on March 15, 2019 [3 favorites]
There are forces that are trying to turn this world into a giant prison yard. Lots of idiots (young and old) have been convinced that their gang will come out on top.
Whoa.
This idea really stitches together several dozen otherwise-seemingly-disconnected threads in my brain, and the more I sit here and think about it the more right you are.
Yikes.
...this angle needs to be more widely known, because it strikes me as an extremely compelling explanation of several different strains of shit, all across the world. Ties in rather neatly to a resource-constrained future, climate disruption (and climate denialism by, uh, certain types of people) etc. etc.
posted by aramaic at 8:59 AM on March 15, 2019 [2 favorites]
Whoa.
This idea really stitches together several dozen otherwise-seemingly-disconnected threads in my brain, and the more I sit here and think about it the more right you are.
Yikes.
...this angle needs to be more widely known, because it strikes me as an extremely compelling explanation of several different strains of shit, all across the world. Ties in rather neatly to a resource-constrained future, climate disruption (and climate denialism by, uh, certain types of people) etc. etc.
posted by aramaic at 8:59 AM on March 15, 2019 [2 favorites]
News of Christchurch has me full-on panicking. I didn’t read the news all morning, and then I saw this. I’m trying not to openly despair, but it’s hard. I’m deeply scared for what the future holds. Everything feels so fragile, from our bodies to our societies, to the environment we live in.
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 9:18 AM on March 15, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 9:18 AM on March 15, 2019 [2 favorites]
I used to poke fun at tankies for their support of militant armed leftist defense organizations, advocacy of heavy state internet censorship, and demands for the mass imprisonment of the politically malevolent and their influencers.
posted by Rust Moranis at 9:30 AM on March 15, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by Rust Moranis at 9:30 AM on March 15, 2019 [1 favorite]
I’m worried that my comment in that thread was insensitive in way I didn’t realize. I should get off the internet for a while this afternoon.
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 9:37 AM on March 15, 2019
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 9:37 AM on March 15, 2019
Making a concerted, conscious effort to keep away from the news today, to maintain a level of calm. I mean, yes of course I read about the New Zealand horror right when I woke up, but I don't want to be bombarded with it constantly for days - you know what I mean?
So of course some rando coworker waiting for the elevator near me asks me "did you see the news about New Zealand?" Grrr.
posted by dnash at 11:10 AM on March 15, 2019 [1 favorite]
So of course some rando coworker waiting for the elevator near me asks me "did you see the news about New Zealand?" Grrr.
posted by dnash at 11:10 AM on March 15, 2019 [1 favorite]
Oh, New Zealand, my heart aches for you.
I'm sorry you guys, but I have zero faith that anything Mueller is doing will have any effect whatsoever on the corrupt assholes that have taken over the US government. I think they will continue to run roughshod, steal elections, and do whatever they please with no consequences.
I wish I didn't feel that way, but maybe 9 days with the flu has just taken all my hope.
posted by yoga at 3:09 PM on March 15, 2019 [2 favorites]
I'm sorry you guys, but I have zero faith that anything Mueller is doing will have any effect whatsoever on the corrupt assholes that have taken over the US government. I think they will continue to run roughshod, steal elections, and do whatever they please with no consequences.
I wish I didn't feel that way, but maybe 9 days with the flu has just taken all my hope.
posted by yoga at 3:09 PM on March 15, 2019 [2 favorites]
In Stephen Fry's recent retelling of greek myth Mythos;
And Narcissus? Day after day he lay by the river, passionately and hopelessly in love with his own reflection, gazing at himself, filled with love for himself and longing for himself, with eyes only for himself, and consideration for no one and nothing but himself. He drooped down over the water, pining and pining until at last the gods turned him into the delicate and beautiful daffodil that bears his name and whose lovely head always bows down to look at itself in puddles, pools and streams.
You can choose to think of the characteristics these doomed young people have bequeathed us and our language as common human traits or as problematic afflictions. Narcissistic personality disorder and echolalia (the apparently mindless repetition of what is said) are both classified in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, which medically and legally defines mental illnesses. Narcissistic personality disorder, much talked about these days, is marked by vanity, self-importance, a grandiose hunger for admiration, acclaim and applause, and above all an obsession with self-image. The feelings of others are railroaded and stampeded, while such considerations as honesty, truthfulness or integrity are blithely disregarded. Bragging, boasting and delusional exaggeration are common signs. Criticism or belittlement is intolerable and can provoke aggressive and explosively strange behaviours.
Narcissistic personality disorder, much talked about these days? Whoever could he be talking about?
Thanks Stephen.
posted by adept256 at 1:03 PM on March 17, 2019 [2 favorites]
And Narcissus? Day after day he lay by the river, passionately and hopelessly in love with his own reflection, gazing at himself, filled with love for himself and longing for himself, with eyes only for himself, and consideration for no one and nothing but himself. He drooped down over the water, pining and pining until at last the gods turned him into the delicate and beautiful daffodil that bears his name and whose lovely head always bows down to look at itself in puddles, pools and streams.
You can choose to think of the characteristics these doomed young people have bequeathed us and our language as common human traits or as problematic afflictions. Narcissistic personality disorder and echolalia (the apparently mindless repetition of what is said) are both classified in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, which medically and legally defines mental illnesses. Narcissistic personality disorder, much talked about these days, is marked by vanity, self-importance, a grandiose hunger for admiration, acclaim and applause, and above all an obsession with self-image. The feelings of others are railroaded and stampeded, while such considerations as honesty, truthfulness or integrity are blithely disregarded. Bragging, boasting and delusional exaggeration are common signs. Criticism or belittlement is intolerable and can provoke aggressive and explosively strange behaviours.
Narcissistic personality disorder, much talked about these days? Whoever could he be talking about?
Thanks Stephen.
posted by adept256 at 1:03 PM on March 17, 2019 [2 favorites]
Our dog died today. We were able to make his last days good for him. He was a good boy. Fuck everything all to fucking hell.
posted by Cookiebastard at 5:15 PM on March 17, 2019 [13 favorites]
posted by Cookiebastard at 5:15 PM on March 17, 2019 [13 favorites]
One of my coworkers passed suddenly and unexpectedly this weekend... he was a really sweet guy, fantastic sense of humor, and always had a smile and a hello. He had just hired someone who would be dotted-line reporting to him, whose first day is today. He literally got here an hour before the announcement was made. What a weird and crappy way to start out at a new job.
I'm so sorry to hear about your dog, Cookiebastard. I'm sure he knew he was loved.
posted by Fig at 8:07 AM on March 18, 2019 [4 favorites]
I'm so sorry to hear about your dog, Cookiebastard. I'm sure he knew he was loved.
posted by Fig at 8:07 AM on March 18, 2019 [4 favorites]
Woke up this morning to see a bunch of Facebook threads asking a friend to check in (and each thread dutifully receiving acknowledgement that said friend is OK) and ran to the news to discover *today's* right-wing lunacy, the Utrecht tram shooting, which happened about 10 miles from her.
Fucking fuuuuuuuuuck.
posted by hanov3r at 8:57 AM on March 18, 2019 [4 favorites]
Fucking fuuuuuuuuuck.
posted by hanov3r at 8:57 AM on March 18, 2019 [4 favorites]
So the suspect in the killing of the Gambino boss appears to be a QAnon follower.
how childish
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 11:37 PM on March 18, 2019 [1 favorite]
how childish
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 11:37 PM on March 18, 2019 [1 favorite]
Finally, a definite time for when the Mueller report will be released, according to sources with direct knowledge
posted by growabrain at 11:27 AM on March 19, 2019
posted by growabrain at 11:27 AM on March 19, 2019
Rhetorical and potentially ignorant/misguided question: Would it be worthwhile making efforts to start treating white supremacy like a mental illness? Certain people always try to blame these massacres on "mentally ill" individuals, but what exactly is the mental illness they're implying when they say this? If they can't come up with one, I sure can.
Because you would have to be disturbed to think one group of people is genetically (or otherwise) superior to all others, or somehow more deserving of privileged treatment like not being shot to death. It is an antisocial mindset by its very definition, and poses a significant risk to others when left untreated. Clearly, the unwillingness to accept long-established scientific evidence that all members of the human species are genetically equal is a failure of critical thinking.
If body dysmorphic disorder is the obsessive belief and/or delusion that an individual's appearance is flawed and must be corrected (even by extreme measures), then perhaps "society" dysmorphic disorder would be the obsessive delusion that a society's appearance is flawed and must be corrected (even by extreme measures). Essentially an externalized version of all the symptoms and behaviors—including violence—normally internalized by BDD, or otherwise extending the locus from one's own body to entire groups of people.
I don't mean to trivialize anyone's life experiences with mental illness by posing this, but I do want to explore rhetorical jiujitsu techniques if people are going to continue using the concept of mental illness varyingly as a sword or shield depending on how it suits their current talking points. I just don't know whether this would effectively result in the desired catch-22 of "Now you have to either treat mental illness with the same support you provide white supremacists, or you have to treat white supremacists with the same disdain you've shown to mental illness." It's a far cry from getting "white supremacy" to show up on a background check that disqualifies someone from purchasing a firearm, but maybe even just changing the discourse options would alter the playing field to some meaningful degree.
posted by Arson Lupine at 12:48 PM on March 19, 2019 [2 favorites]
Because you would have to be disturbed to think one group of people is genetically (or otherwise) superior to all others, or somehow more deserving of privileged treatment like not being shot to death. It is an antisocial mindset by its very definition, and poses a significant risk to others when left untreated. Clearly, the unwillingness to accept long-established scientific evidence that all members of the human species are genetically equal is a failure of critical thinking.
If body dysmorphic disorder is the obsessive belief and/or delusion that an individual's appearance is flawed and must be corrected (even by extreme measures), then perhaps "society" dysmorphic disorder would be the obsessive delusion that a society's appearance is flawed and must be corrected (even by extreme measures). Essentially an externalized version of all the symptoms and behaviors—including violence—normally internalized by BDD, or otherwise extending the locus from one's own body to entire groups of people.
I don't mean to trivialize anyone's life experiences with mental illness by posing this, but I do want to explore rhetorical jiujitsu techniques if people are going to continue using the concept of mental illness varyingly as a sword or shield depending on how it suits their current talking points. I just don't know whether this would effectively result in the desired catch-22 of "Now you have to either treat mental illness with the same support you provide white supremacists, or you have to treat white supremacists with the same disdain you've shown to mental illness." It's a far cry from getting "white supremacy" to show up on a background check that disqualifies someone from purchasing a firearm, but maybe even just changing the discourse options would alter the playing field to some meaningful degree.
posted by Arson Lupine at 12:48 PM on March 19, 2019 [2 favorites]
Thank the fuck for the mods who are keeping as much of the pre-primary frippery out of the damn megathreads as they have been. I honestly DGAF about who/what/where/when right now. They're all flawed, they all have some valid positions, they're all better than the current dumpster fire in chief. Let's help the process take place in a nominally constrained timebox by not playing into the feckin' horse race a year before the horse race starts.
Maybe it was a rough patch of thread, but there was a moment where every fifth comment or so is a mod comment re: cut that shit out or take it to its own thread. The current situation is dire enough, I don't need to fuel my anxiety with the idea that we're all being botted with divisive, infighting crap posting sponsored by nefarious, extra-national interests...which is what this feels like to me.
posted by Fezboy! at 1:04 PM on March 20, 2019 [8 favorites]
Maybe it was a rough patch of thread, but there was a moment where every fifth comment or so is a mod comment re: cut that shit out or take it to its own thread. The current situation is dire enough, I don't need to fuel my anxiety with the idea that we're all being botted with divisive, infighting crap posting sponsored by nefarious, extra-national interests...which is what this feels like to me.
posted by Fezboy! at 1:04 PM on March 20, 2019 [8 favorites]
Q: what's @DevinCow's favorite Pink Floyd album?
A: Dark Side Of The Moo
posted by growabrain at 5:32 PM on March 20, 2019 [2 favorites]
A: Dark Side Of The Moo
posted by growabrain at 5:32 PM on March 20, 2019 [2 favorites]
I'm continually amazed by my own ability to be amazed at how much the actual president is both an idiot, and a dick.
posted by aspersioncast at 8:52 AM on March 21, 2019 [10 favorites]
posted by aspersioncast at 8:52 AM on March 21, 2019 [10 favorites]
I just came here to say that it's really hard not to talk about primary candidates in the megathread. The people need my hot takes on Biden/Abrams! They are burning me up inside. The mods should give me a special reward for restraint and self control.
posted by diogenes at 9:51 AM on March 21, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by diogenes at 9:51 AM on March 21, 2019 [2 favorites]
I am having a bit of a low moment. As I have written before, in the last 5 months,both in-laws died, husband was laid off due to company bankruptcy, I was laid off starting May 1. I have been looking for a job since I was notified 2 weeks before Christmas and despite 28 years in HIV research and pretty excellent reviews and references, I have yet to find work. I interviewed for a job that I really, really wanted last week and they chose someone else, I thought, until this morning, I saw the same job reposted on the site. I've started new meds that are working so I'm not devastated, but I know the patterns and I'm tempted to spiral into them right now. I think the new meds are frankly the only thing keeping me above water. That and the bag of Hershey's kisses I'm currently devouring. Fuck I really hope I find a job before May 1 or we're well and truly screwed.
posted by Sophie1 at 8:50 AM on March 22, 2019 [13 favorites]
posted by Sophie1 at 8:50 AM on March 22, 2019 [13 favorites]
A couple of days ago, I reported two really antisemitic tweets on twitter. One of them included the 14 words, and the other said "expel the Jewry" and was directed at a Jewish person. Today I was told that neither violates Twitter's terms of service. And now I'm wondering what exactly a person would need to say about Jews in order to violate Twitter's terms of service.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 11:14 AM on March 22, 2019 [9 favorites]
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 11:14 AM on March 22, 2019 [9 favorites]
That NY Times article about Trump's Deutsche-Bank "loans" is utterly insane, they just keep throwing money at him. The magical world rich people live in. What the fuck.
posted by lucidium at 12:07 PM on March 22, 2019 [4 favorites]
posted by lucidium at 12:07 PM on March 22, 2019 [4 favorites]
Just saw all the headlines that the Mueller report has been handed in, and now I feel sick to my stomach because whatever is about to happen is gonna be a new round of hell.
posted by dnash at 2:25 PM on March 22, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by dnash at 2:25 PM on March 22, 2019 [2 favorites]
Didn't know if I should go to the hyuck thread or the fuck thread now that the report has been handed in.
posted by nubs at 2:38 PM on March 22, 2019 [4 favorites]
posted by nubs at 2:38 PM on March 22, 2019 [4 favorites]
He's going to get away with everything and I just can't take it.
Plus Supernatural's been cancelled.
Fuck everything.
posted by greermahoney at 3:09 PM on March 22, 2019 [5 favorites]
Plus Supernatural's been cancelled.
Fuck everything.
posted by greermahoney at 3:09 PM on March 22, 2019 [5 favorites]
Multiple people, including Trump, obstructed justice. We saw it happen in real-time. None of that is indictable? Just, what the everloving fuck.
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 3:40 PM on March 22, 2019 [5 favorites]
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 3:40 PM on March 22, 2019 [5 favorites]
To be fair to Supernatural, it's 15 years old and those dudes are probably exhausted by now.
But yeah: all the Trumps are gonna get off scot free, as usual.
posted by jenfullmoon at 4:47 PM on March 22, 2019 [1 favorite]
But yeah: all the Trumps are gonna get off scot free, as usual.
posted by jenfullmoon at 4:47 PM on March 22, 2019 [1 favorite]
I'm not an American, so the stakes on this idea don't affect me as much - but no fucking justice, no fucking peace.
posted by nubs at 4:57 PM on March 22, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by nubs at 4:57 PM on March 22, 2019 [2 favorites]
I had a bad feeling when Trump came out saying 'go ahead, release the report', or something just like that. I was feeling like he got a heads up. Now that the report has dropped just a couple of days later, I'm even more convinced. Fucking cretin's going to get away with all of his corruption, gaslighting, lies and general assholishness.
I remember feeling this way on election night 2016. Early on, I had a bad feeling that it was going to go for Trump. I have that same feeling of dread now. I'm already dreading the gloating.
I hate him so much. I have never hated someone with this much intensity in my life.
This whole timeline is just so goddamn unfair and just fucking wrong.
posted by sundrop at 6:55 PM on March 22, 2019 [7 favorites]
I remember feeling this way on election night 2016. Early on, I had a bad feeling that it was going to go for Trump. I have that same feeling of dread now. I'm already dreading the gloating.
I hate him so much. I have never hated someone with this much intensity in my life.
This whole timeline is just so goddamn unfair and just fucking wrong.
posted by sundrop at 6:55 PM on March 22, 2019 [7 favorites]
I think various people posted a few hundred times at various points, "Mueller won't save you."
Yep.
posted by paper chromatographologist at 7:30 PM on March 22, 2019 [5 favorites]
Yep.
posted by paper chromatographologist at 7:30 PM on March 22, 2019 [5 favorites]
New Hyucking thread successor is Political Humorizing Thread, if anyone needs it.
posted by ZeusHumms at 7:39 PM on March 22, 2019
posted by ZeusHumms at 7:39 PM on March 22, 2019
Merry Fitzmas!
posted by MrBadExample at 8:30 PM on March 22, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by MrBadExample at 8:30 PM on March 22, 2019 [1 favorite]
Hi Fuckerinos! Best wishes to all y'all who are getting the ass-end of things right now. To those of you who have lost pets recently; take it from some rando on the Internet - those were some lucky pets. You clearly gave them good, loving, lifetime homes. Well done, and thank you.
Spring is coming. Ridiculously left-field fact: trees, as it turns out, are responding less to the amount of light than to the angle of light to know when to start releafing. At least I think so. Those suntangles are gonna start creeping back onto the floor and North American cats will rejoice imperiously and rather snoozily.
Anyway, My Man Mueller (cue TV theme) has submitted what he's found and will be indicting those people he can prove beyond reasonable doubt did the evil things. Which isn't the same standard for proving Trump cheated on his taxes or Jared played finanical footsies with the Bone Saw guy. Everyone else is referred to the DOJ, the States, the CIA, etc. and so on. Spring is coming.
That bald eagle from Marie Mon Dieu's post above is friggin' gorgeous, y'all. Take 'em where ya got 'em.
Remember that everything is accelerating and that's includes the good stuff too. Somebody's viral video could crack this sucker wide open in a weekend. In the meantime, drink clean water and enjoy the sunlight. Play that Journey album like no one's watching. Eat something fun. Spring is coming.
posted by petebest at 9:06 PM on March 22, 2019 [5 favorites]
Spring is coming. Ridiculously left-field fact: trees, as it turns out, are responding less to the amount of light than to the angle of light to know when to start releafing. At least I think so. Those suntangles are gonna start creeping back onto the floor and North American cats will rejoice imperiously and rather snoozily.
Anyway, My Man Mueller (cue TV theme) has submitted what he's found and will be indicting those people he can prove beyond reasonable doubt did the evil things. Which isn't the same standard for proving Trump cheated on his taxes or Jared played finanical footsies with the Bone Saw guy. Everyone else is referred to the DOJ, the States, the CIA, etc. and so on. Spring is coming.
That bald eagle from Marie Mon Dieu's post above is friggin' gorgeous, y'all. Take 'em where ya got 'em.
Remember that everything is accelerating and that's includes the good stuff too. Somebody's viral video could crack this sucker wide open in a weekend. In the meantime, drink clean water and enjoy the sunlight. Play that Journey album like no one's watching. Eat something fun. Spring is coming.
posted by petebest at 9:06 PM on March 22, 2019 [5 favorites]
Robert Mueller is a lifelong Republican and we, including me, were suckers and fools to ever imagine that he'd conduct an actual investigation.
I feel confident now that the "report" is given without a single fucking person named Trump even gently interviewed, that Mueller recognized from day one that his job was to help mute anti-Trump work by convincing people that an investigation was being undertaken and that if we'd just be patient the slow wheels of justice would turn and deliver us from Trump. We were chumps, we believed it.
Like Comey before him, Mueller proves that you can never, **EVER**, trust a Republican.
He had one job, and he's done it fucking perfectly. He wasted our time, blunted outrage, stopped other (real) investigations from being called, and now he's given Barr a perfect opportunity at a perfect time to decree that the "report" proves Trump is 100% innocent and anyone claiming otherwise is a witch hunting liberal.
Trump will be out there tweeting about how even 47 angry Democrats couldn't find dirt on him because he's so pure.
There is no report. there was never a report. The reason for the silence from Mueller was not some masterful stopping of leaks, but because there was never anything to report. He sat in his office and goofed off for the past two years, that's all.
The "report" is a single sheet of paper that says "Barr, we got away with it, fuck the Democrats tell 'em whatever you want and I'll back you up! Hail Trump!"
Never trust a Republican.
posted by sotonohito at 4:37 AM on March 23, 2019 [7 favorites]
I feel confident now that the "report" is given without a single fucking person named Trump even gently interviewed, that Mueller recognized from day one that his job was to help mute anti-Trump work by convincing people that an investigation was being undertaken and that if we'd just be patient the slow wheels of justice would turn and deliver us from Trump. We were chumps, we believed it.
Like Comey before him, Mueller proves that you can never, **EVER**, trust a Republican.
He had one job, and he's done it fucking perfectly. He wasted our time, blunted outrage, stopped other (real) investigations from being called, and now he's given Barr a perfect opportunity at a perfect time to decree that the "report" proves Trump is 100% innocent and anyone claiming otherwise is a witch hunting liberal.
Trump will be out there tweeting about how even 47 angry Democrats couldn't find dirt on him because he's so pure.
There is no report. there was never a report. The reason for the silence from Mueller was not some masterful stopping of leaks, but because there was never anything to report. He sat in his office and goofed off for the past two years, that's all.
The "report" is a single sheet of paper that says "Barr, we got away with it, fuck the Democrats tell 'em whatever you want and I'll back you up! Hail Trump!"
Never trust a Republican.
posted by sotonohito at 4:37 AM on March 23, 2019 [7 favorites]
I mean except for those convictions of the highest levels of the campaign apparatus, the indictments of Russian actors and all those referrals to state AG/FBI.
Nothing's in the report that he doesn't have a smoking gun for. There's a forest fire's worth of smoke, but that's not something a prosecutor would move on because reasonable doubt is a thing.
At the end of the day, this is prosecuting the entire mob, not the boss; the entire billionaire global structure of the (Russian-ish) mob. No, that's not in the report. It has less to do with "can we boot his ass out" though, because, uh, YEAH Virginia we can boot his ass out. Always could.
posted by petebest at 8:57 AM on March 23, 2019 [5 favorites]
Nothing's in the report that he doesn't have a smoking gun for. There's a forest fire's worth of smoke, but that's not something a prosecutor would move on because reasonable doubt is a thing.
At the end of the day, this is prosecuting the entire mob, not the boss; the entire billionaire global structure of the (Russian-ish) mob. No, that's not in the report. It has less to do with "can we boot his ass out" though, because, uh, YEAH Virginia we can boot his ass out. Always could.
posted by petebest at 8:57 AM on March 23, 2019 [5 favorites]
This report has given everyone who didn't already have ADHD some kind of ADHD. For the love of all that is MetaFilter, please take care of yourselves. We will eventually know what is in the Mueller document. That dude already had documented, charged, and delivered a host of scoundrels. Consider taking the weekend off from screens (or, at least, megathreads), news, politics, and worries about impending disaster. As my elderly dad says, "Don't borrow worry. You can always worry later when you need to."
Things are not qualitatively more fucked than they were before the Mueller report dropped, right? For sure uncertainty is a form of torture, while self-care is a form of sanity. I love you all here. I know this feels super sucky. I am locking myself out of here and Twitter for 24 hours to take care of myself. If you don't need to do that and venting here helps, then forgive me, please, for suggesting otherwise. Sophie1, I am so sorry that you did not get that job you wanted. I have been there. That feels horrible. Sending you and everyone here dealing with shitty health, financial woes, brain quirks (me!), and other things all the virtual hugs I can. Please hang in, and write me if you need to vent in more detail. Just don't expect an answer until tomorrow, Euro time.
:-)
posted by Bella Donna at 9:28 AM on March 23, 2019 [9 favorites]
Things are not qualitatively more fucked than they were before the Mueller report dropped, right? For sure uncertainty is a form of torture, while self-care is a form of sanity. I love you all here. I know this feels super sucky. I am locking myself out of here and Twitter for 24 hours to take care of myself. If you don't need to do that and venting here helps, then forgive me, please, for suggesting otherwise. Sophie1, I am so sorry that you did not get that job you wanted. I have been there. That feels horrible. Sending you and everyone here dealing with shitty health, financial woes, brain quirks (me!), and other things all the virtual hugs I can. Please hang in, and write me if you need to vent in more detail. Just don't expect an answer until tomorrow, Euro time.
:-)
posted by Bella Donna at 9:28 AM on March 23, 2019 [9 favorites]
What's got me pissed is the group that was going to take to the streets if the AG was fired not doing a damn thing now that the report is done and buried. If people aren't actually going to protest en masse, what's the point?
posted by 922257033c4a0f3cecdbd819a46d626999d1af4a at 10:12 AM on March 23, 2019 [6 favorites]
posted by 922257033c4a0f3cecdbd819a46d626999d1af4a at 10:12 AM on March 23, 2019 [6 favorites]
I'm shocked, simply shocked, that the man who likely authorized FBI surveillance of Quakers and antiwar groups during the bullshit Dubya administration war on terror has failed to save the republic.
posted by mostly vowels at 11:05 AM on March 23, 2019 [4 favorites]
posted by mostly vowels at 11:05 AM on March 23, 2019 [4 favorites]
petebest He didn't even **INTERVIEW** anyone named Trump. That's a clear deriliction of duty.
All this time, up until now, we'd been told it was too early for him to interview Ivanka, or Jared, or Uday an Qusay, or even Trump himself. Well, I guess it's too fucking late now, isn't it?
Look, his job, if he was an actual patriotic American doing what America desperately needed, was to do unto Trump what Ken Starr did unto Clinton and dig, and dig, and dig, and dig, and chase every possible lead into anything that looked even faintly like it might involve Trump and crime, and then to trumpet that from the rooftops.
Even if we go for the most charitable possible explanation, that Mueller took his extremely narrow mandate extremely seriously and chose to never divert from it even a millimeter, that still means he saw a clear need for a through and comprehensive investigation of Trump and choose not to undertake it.
I mean Jesus Fuck, Trump told him where the bodies were buried not once but on many occasions when Trump kept yammering about how his finances were a "red line". No competent investigator could fail to see those statements from Trump as an admission that all the evidence of wrongdoing was in Trump's finances.
Either Mueller is incredibly stupid and utterly incompetent, or he deliberately sabotaged himself to avoid finding evidence of Trump's crimes. The latter is clearly the more likely explanation.
Yeah, yeah, he found a few minor functionaries and threw a few minor and pathetic charges their way. Big fucking deal. He didn't nail Trump and that was the one goddamn thing we needed him to do. Either he missed on purpose or he's incompetent.
And we know he's a Republican, which makes an active coverup of Trump the most likely explanation for this "failure" to do jack shit.
posted by sotonohito at 11:16 AM on March 23, 2019 [1 favorite]
All this time, up until now, we'd been told it was too early for him to interview Ivanka, or Jared, or Uday an Qusay, or even Trump himself. Well, I guess it's too fucking late now, isn't it?
Look, his job, if he was an actual patriotic American doing what America desperately needed, was to do unto Trump what Ken Starr did unto Clinton and dig, and dig, and dig, and dig, and chase every possible lead into anything that looked even faintly like it might involve Trump and crime, and then to trumpet that from the rooftops.
Even if we go for the most charitable possible explanation, that Mueller took his extremely narrow mandate extremely seriously and chose to never divert from it even a millimeter, that still means he saw a clear need for a through and comprehensive investigation of Trump and choose not to undertake it.
I mean Jesus Fuck, Trump told him where the bodies were buried not once but on many occasions when Trump kept yammering about how his finances were a "red line". No competent investigator could fail to see those statements from Trump as an admission that all the evidence of wrongdoing was in Trump's finances.
Either Mueller is incredibly stupid and utterly incompetent, or he deliberately sabotaged himself to avoid finding evidence of Trump's crimes. The latter is clearly the more likely explanation.
Yeah, yeah, he found a few minor functionaries and threw a few minor and pathetic charges their way. Big fucking deal. He didn't nail Trump and that was the one goddamn thing we needed him to do. Either he missed on purpose or he's incompetent.
And we know he's a Republican, which makes an active coverup of Trump the most likely explanation for this "failure" to do jack shit.
posted by sotonohito at 11:16 AM on March 23, 2019 [1 favorite]
He didn't even **INTERVIEW** anyone named Trump.
Does the written test count? Plus Uday has his perjury-filled Congressional testimony in the files already, etc?
I mean, yes he should have kicked open the doors to the East Wing and gone Mike Tyson on Twitler, but I don't believe for a minute that there aren't significant aspects to his investigation that won't be front and center in their obstruction/bribery/laundering/intimidation/conspiracy charges. He doesn't have to bring them himself, although it's nonetheless disheartening that it didn't happen from minute 1 of the drop.
No Mueller charges, Nancy's ascared of im-im-im-im-p-p-peaching, and Republicans are compromised to their tiny turtle teeth. Not sure how that's not setting the stage for some fucked up shit. "Yeah we just steamrolled over your pathetic librul America. Ha ha. The Democrats will totally save you. Bwahahaha."
posted by petebest at 11:44 AM on March 23, 2019 [1 favorite]
Does the written test count? Plus Uday has his perjury-filled Congressional testimony in the files already, etc?
I mean, yes he should have kicked open the doors to the East Wing and gone Mike Tyson on Twitler, but I don't believe for a minute that there aren't significant aspects to his investigation that won't be front and center in their obstruction/bribery/laundering/intimidation/conspiracy charges. He doesn't have to bring them himself, although it's nonetheless disheartening that it didn't happen from minute 1 of the drop.
No Mueller charges, Nancy's ascared of im-im-im-im-p-p-peaching, and Republicans are compromised to their tiny turtle teeth. Not sure how that's not setting the stage for some fucked up shit. "Yeah we just steamrolled over your pathetic librul America. Ha ha. The Democrats will totally save you. Bwahahaha."
posted by petebest at 11:44 AM on March 23, 2019 [1 favorite]
I'm just exhausted. I had a rough week that was just full of exhausting drama. My job is getting more and more soul sucking because everyone is in panic and fear all the time and it's contagious. And that's not even factoring in the rest of the world's drama that's contagious for us all. We don't have enough people here to try to limit how much anyone deals with the drama all day so it is neverending panic for all of our service hours. I am so tired of being asked questions, especially the same questions, over and over and over and over again. I am tired of the same shit.
But as was pointed out during work as well, all the other jobs out there are HIGHLY COMPETITIVE (400+ people applying for one) and frankly, all seem to have the same issues of too many people, too much drama. Even if a miracle occurred and I got another job, they all seem to be having the same problem.
I am a night owl. I went to bed at like 8:45 on a Friday night. I have been waking up and going back to bed for hours and hours. I wanted to go to something today and did not do it because it was in the morning and I was basically all "can't move." The only reason I am prepared to move out of my house at all today is because the Yard Guys are likely to come soon and drive me out with all the racket, and I am all "where can I go to just lie down?"
I just don't feel like I can ever get myself out of this. I don't have the energy to keep trying and it feels like banging my head against a wall.
As for Mueller, I wonder if he just didn't bother with the Trumps because ain't no way any of them are getting busted no way, no how, and going after them just gets him and all of his relatives down to the fifth cousins death threats.
posted by jenfullmoon at 11:53 AM on March 23, 2019 [4 favorites]
But as was pointed out during work as well, all the other jobs out there are HIGHLY COMPETITIVE (400+ people applying for one) and frankly, all seem to have the same issues of too many people, too much drama. Even if a miracle occurred and I got another job, they all seem to be having the same problem.
I am a night owl. I went to bed at like 8:45 on a Friday night. I have been waking up and going back to bed for hours and hours. I wanted to go to something today and did not do it because it was in the morning and I was basically all "can't move." The only reason I am prepared to move out of my house at all today is because the Yard Guys are likely to come soon and drive me out with all the racket, and I am all "where can I go to just lie down?"
I just don't feel like I can ever get myself out of this. I don't have the energy to keep trying and it feels like banging my head against a wall.
As for Mueller, I wonder if he just didn't bother with the Trumps because ain't no way any of them are getting busted no way, no how, and going after them just gets him and all of his relatives down to the fifth cousins death threats.
posted by jenfullmoon at 11:53 AM on March 23, 2019 [4 favorites]
To everybody who had been waiting for institutions to save us: now's the time to make that hard left turn.
posted by Rust Moranis at 12:38 PM on March 23, 2019 [10 favorites]
posted by Rust Moranis at 12:38 PM on March 23, 2019 [10 favorites]
Is it wrong to want Trump to read sections from Mueller’s report out loud?
posted by ZeusHumms at 1:23 PM on March 23, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by ZeusHumms at 1:23 PM on March 23, 2019 [1 favorite]
Why have conspiracy theories about Mueller being a Trumpist all along? It seems just as likely that he found stuff, but couldn't issue indictments from it. Like, I'm not happy about the news either, but I feel like everyone is making things worse than they already are. He was never going to be the left's Ken Starr.
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 3:36 PM on March 23, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 3:36 PM on March 23, 2019 [3 favorites]
No one should be anyone's Ken Starr.
*ptui*
posted by petebest at 3:41 PM on March 23, 2019 [3 favorites]
*ptui*
posted by petebest at 3:41 PM on March 23, 2019 [3 favorites]
Sorry, I shouldn't be dismissing people's frustration. I just worry about this becoming a greater source of unhappiness than the unfiltered news needs to be; like when someone doesn't call you back and you go through all this mental anguish trying to figure out why. I don't want to be unfair and assume that's what people are doing, but I can say it has the same feel to me.
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 3:41 PM on March 23, 2019
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 3:41 PM on March 23, 2019
If Trump sticks around I will expect the next journalist who investigates Jared to get Khashoggi'd.
posted by benzenedream at 8:10 PM on March 23, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by benzenedream at 8:10 PM on March 23, 2019 [2 favorites]
Here's what I said a little more than a year ago:
There was a powerful little depth charge down near the bottom of that Washingtonian article:
Simple, the capstone of his career at the FBI was declaring, all appearances to the contrary notwithstanding, that the FBI should 'stop wasting your time with something like the Russian intelligence', and that's exactly what the people who picked him expect him to do again.
And he probably will.
posted by jamjam at 5:01 PM on February 21, 2018
But I was hoping for more.
posted by jamjam at 8:43 PM on March 23, 2019
There was a powerful little depth charge down near the bottom of that Washingtonian article:
By the time Rochford and his colleagues learned the truth about Yurchenko, the battle of wits between the American agencies and the KGB appeared to be over. When Robert Mueller took over as FBI director in 2001, he continued a downsizing of the counterintelligence department that his predecessors had started. “I was in the meeting when he told us: Stop wasting your time on something like the Russian intelligence,” recalls David Major, at the time an FBI counterintelligence leader and a former National Security Council staffer under Reagan. Major argued that it was only a matter of time before the lack of attention was “going to bite us on the ass. And it has, hasn’t it?”Wondered, like me, why Robert Mueller was chosen to lead the investigation of the Trump/Russia connection?
Simple, the capstone of his career at the FBI was declaring, all appearances to the contrary notwithstanding, that the FBI should 'stop wasting your time with something like the Russian intelligence', and that's exactly what the people who picked him expect him to do again.
And he probably will.
posted by jamjam at 5:01 PM on February 21, 2018
But I was hoping for more.
posted by jamjam at 8:43 PM on March 23, 2019
Unrelated to politics, I just discovered that I mixed up application dates and missed the deadline to apply for a job at the Library of Congress. That’s a real moment of “fuck” right there.
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 11:29 PM on March 23, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 11:29 PM on March 23, 2019 [2 favorites]
That sucks, Shapes. Why not see if there's someone you can talk to there just to talk to them? Deadlines are often arbitrary inside an organization, you never know - plus they may give you additional 'memory points' next time.
(not)Speaking of poll numbers - can we please ban all discussion of polls from the MegaThread™? No poll about anything matters, period. Why not discuss Bernie's Lucky Astrology Mood-Watch numbers while we're at it.
posted by petebest at 8:51 AM on March 24, 2019
(not)Speaking of poll numbers - can we please ban all discussion of polls from the MegaThread™? No poll about anything matters, period. Why not discuss Bernie's Lucky Astrology Mood-Watch numbers while we're at it.
posted by petebest at 8:51 AM on March 24, 2019
petebest Does the written test count? Plus Uday has his perjury-filled Congressional testimony in the files already, etc?
No, and no.
My problem isn't that nothing happened immediately, but that nothing happened. It was the standard way things work for Republicans, a few peons got a slap on the wrist, none of the big movers and shakers were even inconvenienced by Mueller begging them hat in hand for a moment of their time to testify.
We saw the pattern in Nixon, we saw it in Reagan, in Bush II, and now again with Trump: when a Republican President commits crimes that Republican President will not even be called on to testify so we can get them on record committing perjury.
Meanwhile Bill Clinton shows the counterexample: if the Republicans think they can get anything at all on a Democratic President that President will be immediately called on to testify under oath and impeached for perjury.
The fact that Mueller decided, apparently from day one, not to even bother trying to find anything on the Trumps proves the entire "investigation" was a sham.
Maybe I'm wrong, maybe the report is chock full of evidence implicating the Trump family in a multitude of crimes. But I don't see how it could be since he never actually interviewed any members of the Trump family.
Mueller is a Republican. He's proven where his loyalty lies, and it isn't to America.
posted by sotonohito at 11:43 AM on March 24, 2019 [5 favorites]
No, and no.
My problem isn't that nothing happened immediately, but that nothing happened. It was the standard way things work for Republicans, a few peons got a slap on the wrist, none of the big movers and shakers were even inconvenienced by Mueller begging them hat in hand for a moment of their time to testify.
We saw the pattern in Nixon, we saw it in Reagan, in Bush II, and now again with Trump: when a Republican President commits crimes that Republican President will not even be called on to testify so we can get them on record committing perjury.
Meanwhile Bill Clinton shows the counterexample: if the Republicans think they can get anything at all on a Democratic President that President will be immediately called on to testify under oath and impeached for perjury.
The fact that Mueller decided, apparently from day one, not to even bother trying to find anything on the Trumps proves the entire "investigation" was a sham.
Maybe I'm wrong, maybe the report is chock full of evidence implicating the Trump family in a multitude of crimes. But I don't see how it could be since he never actually interviewed any members of the Trump family.
Mueller is a Republican. He's proven where his loyalty lies, and it isn't to America.
posted by sotonohito at 11:43 AM on March 24, 2019 [5 favorites]
Here’s that fucker Barr’s fucking summary letter of the fucking Mueller Report.
“[W]hile this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him,” the SCO concludes.
Fuck.
posted by Doktor Zed at 12:52 PM on March 24, 2019 [5 favorites]
“[W]hile this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him,” the SCO concludes.
Fuck.
posted by Doktor Zed at 12:52 PM on March 24, 2019 [5 favorites]
*sob* a Well, that was the worst possible outcome, huh?
I mean, I guess Mueller could have concluded that Clinton did it all, so I guess it could be worse...
I’m trying to decide how much alcohol this requires and I’m leaning towards “all of it..”
posted by greermahoney at 12:53 PM on March 24, 2019 [4 favorites]
I mean, I guess Mueller could have concluded that Clinton did it all, so I guess it could be worse...
I’m trying to decide how much alcohol this requires and I’m leaning towards “all of it..”
posted by greermahoney at 12:53 PM on March 24, 2019 [4 favorites]
He just won reelection today.
posted by T.D. Strange at 12:55 PM on March 24, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by T.D. Strange at 12:55 PM on March 24, 2019 [3 favorites]
I think I need to shut off my news alerts for the rest of the day. Or year.
posted by greermahoney at 12:57 PM on March 24, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by greermahoney at 12:57 PM on March 24, 2019 [3 favorites]
In retrospect, I guess I don't know how the SCO report would have NOT sent the country further into chaos. I guess I thought it would say GUILTY and the whole country would go GUILTY and the 27% could go jerk off to Fox News and hopefully not blow anything up.
But of course it's gasoline on fire. This is so demoralizing. I thought our institutions would help us, if not save us.
posted by angrycat at 12:58 PM on March 24, 2019 [5 favorites]
But of course it's gasoline on fire. This is so demoralizing. I thought our institutions would help us, if not save us.
posted by angrycat at 12:58 PM on March 24, 2019 [5 favorites]
Endless screaming.
I am so tired already, for so many other reasons. This doesn't help!
posted by ubersturm at 1:27 PM on March 24, 2019 [2 favorites]
I am so tired already, for so many other reasons. This doesn't help!
posted by ubersturm at 1:27 PM on March 24, 2019 [2 favorites]
It is demoralizing to keep coming back to the bare fact that a huge amount of Americans voted for, and are probably planning to vote for again, a guy who openly and publicly did terrible things. We keep looking for a simple way around that big chunk of the population or a shortcut to changing their minds (and who could blame us) but instead we’ll have to try rolling the boulder up the hill again.
posted by sallybrown at 1:51 PM on March 24, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by sallybrown at 1:51 PM on March 24, 2019 [1 favorite]
interesting comment in the megathread about how somebody's older white colleagues had greater faith in Mueller than the young ones. Wonder if something happened maybe in the Bush years where we went to war on a giant lie where people grew up with that and sort of said nah to the idea of faith in institutions.
I don't want to start a Bernie war here, but I do fear that this is going to be divisive in terms of the Democratic primary. In that there will be a greater divide between the establishment Democrats and I don't know what you call the non-establishment guys, socialists? Things were getting ugly enough between the two groups pre-Mueller-anticlimatic/rage/depression/confusion
posted by angrycat at 2:08 PM on March 24, 2019 [2 favorites]
I don't want to start a Bernie war here, but I do fear that this is going to be divisive in terms of the Democratic primary. In that there will be a greater divide between the establishment Democrats and I don't know what you call the non-establishment guys, socialists? Things were getting ugly enough between the two groups pre-Mueller-anticlimatic/rage/depression/confusion
posted by angrycat at 2:08 PM on March 24, 2019 [2 favorites]
Did I believe the "report" would turn out this way because I'm a pessimist, or am I a pessimist because the world sucks so hard that it was obvious that the report would come out like a nice wet fart.
Trump is going to win re-election. The bullshit will go on like before because this is the bad place.
posted by dis_integration at 2:21 PM on March 24, 2019 [1 favorite]
Trump is going to win re-election. The bullshit will go on like before because this is the bad place.
posted by dis_integration at 2:21 PM on March 24, 2019 [1 favorite]
I'm trying real real hard here to not lose all my shit.
I mean, didn't we all literally see the guy talk about all the obstruction he was doing on television? Happily and proudly because he's too stupid to know what it even is? I'm fairly certain I didn't hallucinate that. He's been committing crimes and gross ethics violations in front of everyone's faces every single day, I am having a hard time understanding what's happening here.
This American Life last week was about Alex Jones and it was, before today, the most depressing thing I've heard in quite a while. Jon Ronson found all these people Jones went to high school with and they were all like, "Oh yeah, he was a bully and a liar and a shitty, violent little asshole that everyone hated." And then, after telling all those stories, they all also said that they are totally down with the shit he spews today, they see no reason why they shouldn't totally believe him when he says that Obama is a Muslim terrorist and Sandy Hook was a hoax.
I'm not real sure what to do with any of this.
posted by soren_lorensen at 2:22 PM on March 24, 2019 [5 favorites]
I mean, didn't we all literally see the guy talk about all the obstruction he was doing on television? Happily and proudly because he's too stupid to know what it even is? I'm fairly certain I didn't hallucinate that. He's been committing crimes and gross ethics violations in front of everyone's faces every single day, I am having a hard time understanding what's happening here.
This American Life last week was about Alex Jones and it was, before today, the most depressing thing I've heard in quite a while. Jon Ronson found all these people Jones went to high school with and they were all like, "Oh yeah, he was a bully and a liar and a shitty, violent little asshole that everyone hated." And then, after telling all those stories, they all also said that they are totally down with the shit he spews today, they see no reason why they shouldn't totally believe him when he says that Obama is a Muslim terrorist and Sandy Hook was a hoax.
I'm not real sure what to do with any of this.
posted by soren_lorensen at 2:22 PM on March 24, 2019 [5 favorites]
Now I'm wondering if the Deadwood movie will have an even darker ending than the series.
posted by bonobothegreat at 2:23 PM on March 24, 2019
posted by bonobothegreat at 2:23 PM on March 24, 2019
And on top of it all, Antwon Rose's murderer was find not guilty and that didn't even make it into my post above because it has become so expected that my sadness and anger levels can't even get any more severe in that regard. They're already maxed out.
posted by soren_lorensen at 2:42 PM on March 24, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by soren_lorensen at 2:42 PM on March 24, 2019 [2 favorites]
I said it before, and now Barr has confirmed it: never trust a Republican.
Lifelong Republican Robert Mueller twiddled his thumbs for two years, didn't even bother fucking interviewing anyone named Trump, and gave a report that will allow Trump to crow and strut that there was "no collusion" and massively up his odds of reelection.
Two fucking years of wasted time when other, non-Republican stooge, people could have been investigating.
Fuck **ANYONE** who ever trusts, appoints, or in any other way empowers a Republican ever again. If we do somehow win the Presidency in 2020 and that new President decides to have any Republicans in any position at all in their administration, they need to be removed by the 25th amendment for obvious insanity.
Literally the only reason Trump is President is because Obama, Mr. Bipartisanship himself, decided it'd be a nice gesture of bipartisan comity to appoint lifelong Republican James Comey to run the FBI. And the result of that was President Donald John Trump.
You cannot trust a Republican. Mueller has proven it yet again.
posted by sotonohito at 2:53 PM on March 24, 2019 [7 favorites]
Lifelong Republican Robert Mueller twiddled his thumbs for two years, didn't even bother fucking interviewing anyone named Trump, and gave a report that will allow Trump to crow and strut that there was "no collusion" and massively up his odds of reelection.
Two fucking years of wasted time when other, non-Republican stooge, people could have been investigating.
Fuck **ANYONE** who ever trusts, appoints, or in any other way empowers a Republican ever again. If we do somehow win the Presidency in 2020 and that new President decides to have any Republicans in any position at all in their administration, they need to be removed by the 25th amendment for obvious insanity.
Literally the only reason Trump is President is because Obama, Mr. Bipartisanship himself, decided it'd be a nice gesture of bipartisan comity to appoint lifelong Republican James Comey to run the FBI. And the result of that was President Donald John Trump.
You cannot trust a Republican. Mueller has proven it yet again.
posted by sotonohito at 2:53 PM on March 24, 2019 [7 favorites]
All the people talking about seeing the "full report" are missing the point. The full report is written by Mueller so that it can be released without hurting Trump.
posted by sotonohito at 2:55 PM on March 24, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by sotonohito at 2:55 PM on March 24, 2019 [1 favorite]
sotonohito I get where you're coming from but I don't see how that approach doesn't get us into Civil War II Boogaloo territory. There has to be some way for Republicans to come out of the cold. I don't know what that way is YET but
posted by angrycat at 2:56 PM on March 24, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by angrycat at 2:56 PM on March 24, 2019 [3 favorites]
How many Democrats are in the Trump administration? Seems like it's working out pretty fucking well for them.
posted by T.D. Strange at 3:26 PM on March 24, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by T.D. Strange at 3:26 PM on March 24, 2019 [1 favorite]
Republicans had their way out of the cold. It was "not being republicans in the age of trump". It was country over party. It was rule of law over supporting trump. Plus, they're not exactly in the cold, what with holding the presidency and the senate. And the supreme court. And having a huge fucking structural advantage electorally.
Sorry. I'm not mad at you, I'm just mad, and this is the fucking fuck thread.
posted by mrgoat at 4:11 PM on March 24, 2019 [8 favorites]
Sorry. I'm not mad at you, I'm just mad, and this is the fucking fuck thread.
posted by mrgoat at 4:11 PM on March 24, 2019 [8 favorites]
The United States of America is now a shithole country.
posted by porpoise at 4:50 PM on March 24, 2019 [4 favorites]
posted by porpoise at 4:50 PM on March 24, 2019 [4 favorites]
The best time to radicalize was 20 years ago, the second best time is now.
posted by Rust Moranis at 6:16 PM on March 24, 2019 [7 favorites]
posted by Rust Moranis at 6:16 PM on March 24, 2019 [7 favorites]
fluttering hellfire, did you get some of that nice ozone smell and that pre-storm energy? Those are some of my favorite walks.
posted by mmmbacon at 6:36 PM on March 24, 2019
posted by mmmbacon at 6:36 PM on March 24, 2019
I just...I don't know, guys. They have everything. SCOTUS, the media, the gov't, the treasury, the courts. Hell, they even have religion. Well, just that ONE religion.
It's enough to make me not even vote, because IT DOESN'T FUCKING MATTER
posted by yoga at 5:41 AM on March 25, 2019 [2 favorites]
It's enough to make me not even vote, because IT DOESN'T FUCKING MATTER
posted by yoga at 5:41 AM on March 25, 2019 [2 favorites]
angrycat sotonohito I get where you're coming from but I don't see how that approach doesn't get us into Civil War II Boogaloo territory. There has to be some way for Republicans to come out of the cold. I don't know what that way is YET but
Which approach? The never trusting Republicans approach and the end to the self inflicted damage of Democratic Presidents appointing Republicans to critical offices? We must continue to be suckers and hurt ourselves or else civil war? If I'm understanding you properly that's an odd position to take.
You and Sun Tsu are correct, it's always best to leave your opponent an avenue of retreat (and, ideally, one you've picked to direct them where you'd like them to be). But the idea that this avenue of retreat must include seats in a Democratic President's cabinet seems to be a bad one.
Ultimately either the country will truly fail, or either we or they must surrender our ideals totally.
posted by sotonohito at 6:08 AM on March 25, 2019 [1 favorite]
Which approach? The never trusting Republicans approach and the end to the self inflicted damage of Democratic Presidents appointing Republicans to critical offices? We must continue to be suckers and hurt ourselves or else civil war? If I'm understanding you properly that's an odd position to take.
You and Sun Tsu are correct, it's always best to leave your opponent an avenue of retreat (and, ideally, one you've picked to direct them where you'd like them to be). But the idea that this avenue of retreat must include seats in a Democratic President's cabinet seems to be a bad one.
Ultimately either the country will truly fail, or either we or they must surrender our ideals totally.
posted by sotonohito at 6:08 AM on March 25, 2019 [1 favorite]
Scott Walker died. The cool one, not that asshole from Wisconsin.
posted by paper chromatographologist at 7:14 AM on March 25, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by paper chromatographologist at 7:14 AM on March 25, 2019 [1 favorite]
First, the good news: Just finished reading a book about europe in the late '30s. Shit was crazy fucked up then, mostly with Germany shaking a bloody handful of threat at everyone. In this book the Germans the regular day to day germans were active participants in all the hell and insanity. The government was run by people who believed in the Nazis, or at least Nat.Soc., I don't think the whole government believes in Trump. I think the majority of the people who work in the gov think he's a wit-less shit-stain. On his best day, a felonious creep with the cunning of a rat and the fore-sight of a beetle.
The bad news: the guy has no respect for the nation as an entity made up of laws. If the Senators on the Republican side aren't brought into check, that's all she wrote. I don't know if thats really true but goddamn does it feel that way. Until we can see the actual report the SCO wrote, who the fuck knows which ways things will shake out. But a second term of this asshole.
posted by From Bklyn at 7:25 AM on March 25, 2019
The bad news: the guy has no respect for the nation as an entity made up of laws. If the Senators on the Republican side aren't brought into check, that's all she wrote. I don't know if thats really true but goddamn does it feel that way. Until we can see the actual report the SCO wrote, who the fuck knows which ways things will shake out. But a second term of this asshole.
posted by From Bklyn at 7:25 AM on March 25, 2019
Oh my dear lord. I just heard a CBS correspondent on NPR and I am literally nauseous.
I cannot understand why we're pretending that the single quote we have on this question from the actual report -- that they couldn't *establish* conspiracy with the Russian *government* -- means that the report itself will contain no evidence whatsoever of cooperating with Russia. Like, I understand why Republicans are saying this, but the fact that actual journalists are saying it is making me question my grip on reality. Do you not remember any of the things that have been published in YOUR OWN PAPERS?
posted by gerstle at 7:37 AM on March 25, 2019 [2 favorites]
I cannot understand why we're pretending that the single quote we have on this question from the actual report -- that they couldn't *establish* conspiracy with the Russian *government* -- means that the report itself will contain no evidence whatsoever of cooperating with Russia. Like, I understand why Republicans are saying this, but the fact that actual journalists are saying it is making me question my grip on reality. Do you not remember any of the things that have been published in YOUR OWN PAPERS?
posted by gerstle at 7:37 AM on March 25, 2019 [2 favorites]
Does the Russian mob equal the Russian government? In this context I mean.
Yeah, exactly.
posted by petebest at 7:42 AM on March 25, 2019 [2 favorites]
Yeah, exactly.
posted by petebest at 7:42 AM on March 25, 2019 [2 favorites]
The Dems should have had a subpoena and session ready to go for Mueller the minute the report dropped. Now these fuckers have had a weekend with of propaganda on full repeat thanks to the laziest reporters on Earth.
posted by benzenedream at 9:50 AM on March 25, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by benzenedream at 9:50 AM on March 25, 2019 [2 favorites]
This is BULLSHIT.
posted by petebest at 10:42 AM on March 25, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by petebest at 10:42 AM on March 25, 2019 [2 favorites]
I just can't deal with today. I feel like I've been tensing every muscle in my body for the last 2 years, waiting for something meaningful to happen, to undue some of the nightmare, and it just doesn't happen. I could deal (just barely) with every horrible decision and action he took because I felt that at some point, we would take action, our institutions would save us and we would begin do undo the damage. This feels just like when people would tell me that my abusive narcissist of a father wasn't actually so bad, because he did a good thing or showed remorse, or they just liked him. And just like back then, I want to yell "No! Bullshit! He's fucking evil! Please, someone, make him stop"
posted by arwulf at 11:33 AM on March 25, 2019 [9 favorites]
posted by arwulf at 11:33 AM on March 25, 2019 [9 favorites]
So yeah....came out of hospital visiting hours for one of my kids yesterday...to not one but three bullshit reports.
The first is obviously the Barr summary report (enough said). Fuck that.
The second was a draft IEP report by email from my kid's school saying they want to remove all special ed supports as, according to them, my kiddo no longer has Autism(!), despite the fact of kiddo been medically admitted to a secure behavioral hospital unit for the last few weeks with increasingly disturbing behavior - and two independent neuro-psychologists have reassessed same kiddo as being Autistic (among other exciting diagnosis') in the last few weeks based on prolonged 24x7 observation. Oh and our ABA provider has let us know the Autism related behavioral issues are so significant they are no longer qualified to help us and they are stopping services. But I'm sure the school's little multi-choice assessment they use, in which the teacher marked that our child is - and I shit you not - "perfect in every way", is far clinically more relevant /s. Dear reader, the IEP meeting this week will not spark joy. It may however spark litigation. So fun times.
And the third was the explanation of benefits reports that just told me the insurer is randomly denying some claims for pre-approved services to the same hospital because one of the Dr's is "out of network". Good times.
Extra bonus. Someone scrapped and damaged the side of our car last week in the hospital parking lot and didn't leave a note. Not badly enough I'll ever likely claim on it. But visually bad enough it pisses me off every time I see it. Nice.
So fuckity fuck fuck this week.
posted by inflatablekiwi at 1:54 PM on March 25, 2019 [5 favorites]
The first is obviously the Barr summary report (enough said). Fuck that.
The second was a draft IEP report by email from my kid's school saying they want to remove all special ed supports as, according to them, my kiddo no longer has Autism(!), despite the fact of kiddo been medically admitted to a secure behavioral hospital unit for the last few weeks with increasingly disturbing behavior - and two independent neuro-psychologists have reassessed same kiddo as being Autistic (among other exciting diagnosis') in the last few weeks based on prolonged 24x7 observation. Oh and our ABA provider has let us know the Autism related behavioral issues are so significant they are no longer qualified to help us and they are stopping services. But I'm sure the school's little multi-choice assessment they use, in which the teacher marked that our child is - and I shit you not - "perfect in every way", is far clinically more relevant /s. Dear reader, the IEP meeting this week will not spark joy. It may however spark litigation. So fun times.
And the third was the explanation of benefits reports that just told me the insurer is randomly denying some claims for pre-approved services to the same hospital because one of the Dr's is "out of network". Good times.
Extra bonus. Someone scrapped and damaged the side of our car last week in the hospital parking lot and didn't leave a note. Not badly enough I'll ever likely claim on it. But visually bad enough it pisses me off every time I see it. Nice.
So fuckity fuck fuck this week.
posted by inflatablekiwi at 1:54 PM on March 25, 2019 [5 favorites]
> email from my kid's school saying they want to remove all special ed supports as, according to them, my kiddo no longer has Autism(!)
I want to believe that this is some paperwork glitch, because if not, WHAT THE FUCKING FUCK?
posted by RedOrGreen at 2:34 PM on March 25, 2019 [3 favorites]
I want to believe that this is some paperwork glitch, because if not, WHAT THE FUCKING FUCK?
posted by RedOrGreen at 2:34 PM on March 25, 2019 [3 favorites]
I want to believe that this is some paperwork glitch, because if not, WHAT THE FUCKING FUCK?
Yeah...and honestly we can't believe it either, but, and I quote from their report (and yes there is always nuance and carefully chosen weasel words involved):
"...within the school setting it appears that (kiddo's name) no longer meets eligibility criteria for Autism."
So kiddo is apparently not Autistic for 6 hours or so a day he's it school I guess. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I got a totally legit and well-deserved elbow to the stomach from Mrs Inflatablekiwi when I read it and suggested the solution is clearly to have kiddo at school 24x7 then and we should push for that.
Oh forgot to add...apparently my tax return from last weekend broke a large tax provider you'd know by name's tax system, and they can't figure out why or how to do my return at the moment. I mean sure there is a W2 for NY state taxes which means I need to add a non-resident NY tax return for the 3 days I attended meetings there..but...really...should it be down to me finding and explaining the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance's TSB-M-02(3)I guidelines to one of the largest tax providers in the world.......this week can go eat a bag of dicks....thank the $deity_of_your_choice for being able to binge watch Letterkenny over the last week to keep me sane. Pitter patter, back to choring I suppose.
posted by inflatablekiwi at 3:25 PM on March 25, 2019 [3 favorites]
Yeah...and honestly we can't believe it either, but, and I quote from their report (and yes there is always nuance and carefully chosen weasel words involved):
"...within the school setting it appears that (kiddo's name) no longer meets eligibility criteria for Autism."
So kiddo is apparently not Autistic for 6 hours or so a day he's it school I guess. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I got a totally legit and well-deserved elbow to the stomach from Mrs Inflatablekiwi when I read it and suggested the solution is clearly to have kiddo at school 24x7 then and we should push for that.
Oh forgot to add...apparently my tax return from last weekend broke a large tax provider you'd know by name's tax system, and they can't figure out why or how to do my return at the moment. I mean sure there is a W2 for NY state taxes which means I need to add a non-resident NY tax return for the 3 days I attended meetings there..but...really...should it be down to me finding and explaining the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance's TSB-M-02(3)I guidelines to one of the largest tax providers in the world.......this week can go eat a bag of dicks....thank the $deity_of_your_choice for being able to binge watch Letterkenny over the last week to keep me sane. Pitter patter, back to choring I suppose.
posted by inflatablekiwi at 3:25 PM on March 25, 2019 [3 favorites]
Christ, the BBC US news page might as well be a mirror of /r/T_D today, it's utter, pathetic garbage. I'm trying to formulate a complaint that isn't just a pile of screenshots and rage.
posted by lucidium at 3:39 PM on March 25, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by lucidium at 3:39 PM on March 25, 2019 [2 favorites]
This is fucking bullshit right here. That fascist pig is dirtier than shit. If there was two years of digging and ALL THE COLLUSION and Obstruction we've already seen in Plain Fucking Daylight! - That he's ADMITTED TO ON LIVE TELEVISION! and to the Russian ambassador, but hey no bigs isn't accounted for then what the g-ddamned fuck is the fucking point fuck.
Oh hey look here comes respectable Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren to tell us there's no conspiracy, just one lone nut who happened to be trained by the CIA and went undercover in Russia for years. Thank goodness that got all sorted out. Nasty business, what.
Fuckin' BULLshit man. That is g-ddamned wrong as hell.
posted by petebest at 4:34 PM on March 25, 2019 [3 favorites]
Oh hey look here comes respectable Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren to tell us there's no conspiracy, just one lone nut who happened to be trained by the CIA and went undercover in Russia for years. Thank goodness that got all sorted out. Nasty business, what.
Fuckin' BULLshit man. That is g-ddamned wrong as hell.
posted by petebest at 4:34 PM on March 25, 2019 [3 favorites]
I'm not real sure what to do with any of this.
It would suggest that Alex Jones, despite being a social outcast, did not grow out of a void but out of the cultural environment of Rockwall, Texas, which is a place probably not unlike where many of AJ's listeners also hail from. It suggests there are a lot of social bubbles in this country.
posted by Apocryphon at 5:14 PM on March 25, 2019
It would suggest that Alex Jones, despite being a social outcast, did not grow out of a void but out of the cultural environment of Rockwall, Texas, which is a place probably not unlike where many of AJ's listeners also hail from. It suggests there are a lot of social bubbles in this country.
posted by Apocryphon at 5:14 PM on March 25, 2019
Twitter thread about the un-ironic nihilism of the Nazis. It's almost enough to make a case for twitter being worthwhile. Also, a tonic to the last couple of days.
tl/dr: don't forget, the nazis want to fucking kill you.
posted by From Bklyn at 1:31 AM on March 26, 2019 [1 favorite]
tl/dr: don't forget, the nazis want to fucking kill you.
posted by From Bklyn at 1:31 AM on March 26, 2019 [1 favorite]
I don't know about y'all, but the dawning knowledge that we've been gaslit by Barr and the White House and the media is oddly comforting after the sort of black hole of the speculation and disappointment over the weekend.
It's like, for one minute there I was like holy shit am I conspiracy theorist so thanks for successfully gaslighting me, fuckers.
posted by angrycat at 4:29 AM on March 26, 2019 [4 favorites]
It's like, for one minute there I was like holy shit am I conspiracy theorist so thanks for successfully gaslighting me, fuckers.
posted by angrycat at 4:29 AM on March 26, 2019 [4 favorites]
I'm starting to feel like I'm losing my mind. Everybody I know is saying well, Mueller won't save us, we'll have to save ourselves! Which like ..... that was always true, y'all. That doesn't mean that we shouldn't even SEE HIS REPORT.
I can't understand how I read that letter and thought, this sounds like an obvious snow job, and everybody else apparently read that letter and said welp, this sounds conclusive, I guess it's over.
posted by gerstle at 6:39 AM on March 26, 2019 [6 favorites]
I can't understand how I read that letter and thought, this sounds like an obvious snow job, and everybody else apparently read that letter and said welp, this sounds conclusive, I guess it's over.
posted by gerstle at 6:39 AM on March 26, 2019 [6 favorites]
Rule of Law never really applied in this shithole country. I'll be proud to live in the US when we finally send our first war criminal to the Hague (no doubt Admiral Don Jr in 2036).
posted by benzenedream at 8:38 AM on March 26, 2019 [4 favorites]
posted by benzenedream at 8:38 AM on March 26, 2019 [4 favorites]
And they're trying to kill the ACA. Again.
posted by still_wears_a_hat at 9:05 AM on March 26, 2019
posted by still_wears_a_hat at 9:05 AM on March 26, 2019
This is as bad as I've felt since election night, though Kavanaugh was close.
I feel total despair. And everyone saying don't despair just makes me despair more. Because what is there to hope for? 2020? Are you fucking shitting me? To me that's like 'Well, when we win the lottery' or 'when we live in our luxury space condos.'
Bullshit. We'll get all jacked up about 2020 and Donald Trump will win and then I think I really will die.
posted by A Terrible Llama at 10:22 AM on March 26, 2019 [9 favorites]
I feel total despair. And everyone saying don't despair just makes me despair more. Because what is there to hope for? 2020? Are you fucking shitting me? To me that's like 'Well, when we win the lottery' or 'when we live in our luxury space condos.'
Bullshit. We'll get all jacked up about 2020 and Donald Trump will win and then I think I really will die.
posted by A Terrible Llama at 10:22 AM on March 26, 2019 [9 favorites]
Everybody I know is saying well, Mueller won't save us, we'll have to save ourselves!
I never know what that means. Like if nothing will save us, and we have to 'save ourselves' the only thing that I can think of that's left is buying a gun or moving, and there are too many of us and no country would have us and who can blame them.
posted by A Terrible Llama at 10:24 AM on March 26, 2019 [1 favorite]
I never know what that means. Like if nothing will save us, and we have to 'save ourselves' the only thing that I can think of that's left is buying a gun or moving, and there are too many of us and no country would have us and who can blame them.
posted by A Terrible Llama at 10:24 AM on March 26, 2019 [1 favorite]
It's enough to make me not even vote, because IT DOESN'T FUCKING MATTER
This is how I feel also. There's no point.
posted by A Terrible Llama at 10:26 AM on March 26, 2019
This is how I feel also. There's no point.
posted by A Terrible Llama at 10:26 AM on March 26, 2019
Sitting at work. Can't focus on anything. Constantly refreshing megathread. Afraid of being fired for caring more about the country than some dumb job that benefits no one but the rich. Trying to quit cigarettes this week was a bad idea...
posted by downtohisturtles at 1:18 PM on March 26, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by downtohisturtles at 1:18 PM on March 26, 2019 [3 favorites]
There is no way in hell we can save ourselves.
posted by jenfullmoon at 1:41 PM on March 26, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by jenfullmoon at 1:41 PM on March 26, 2019 [3 favorites]
My 16 year old is going through a moral absolutism nihilistic phase. I said something about him needing to do something because future, and he laughed the darkest laugh and said “why bother”? He’s said there’s not going to be anything left for us but the glowing craters left by old white men who figured out they were going to die and decided to take it all with them. There is no future.”
And I tried to explain that his grandparents felt that way about civil rights, and I felt that way when I was chaining myself to the gates of nuke factories, and that only by resistance can we keep the monsters at bay, and he just shook his head and said “The monsters already won,” as he walked away.
I’ll be honest, I don’t know how to refute that. I cannot comprehend the evil that has wrapped itself in the GOP brain. Short of exorcism, I don’t know how we fix it.
posted by SecretAgentSockpuppet at 2:02 PM on March 26, 2019 [8 favorites]
And I tried to explain that his grandparents felt that way about civil rights, and I felt that way when I was chaining myself to the gates of nuke factories, and that only by resistance can we keep the monsters at bay, and he just shook his head and said “The monsters already won,” as he walked away.
I’ll be honest, I don’t know how to refute that. I cannot comprehend the evil that has wrapped itself in the GOP brain. Short of exorcism, I don’t know how we fix it.
posted by SecretAgentSockpuppet at 2:02 PM on March 26, 2019 [8 favorites]
I feel like my adult life has been marked by disbelief that x event is happening. Beginning with Bill Clinton's impeachment. Then the election of 2000. Then 9/11. Then Iraq. Then Trump. The disbelief that snarling possum Kavanaugh is a supreme court justice. And then this.
I didn't think I was naive about impeachment; the Senate math is what it is. But I did think that the kids were going to jail. I thought that Mueller would lay out obstruction of justice beyond a reasonable doubt, because we all have seen the obstruction of justice play out on our screens. I managed to forget that Barr had written that motherfucking memo. I am somehow completely astonished that the main media narrative is what it is.
I may still be naive, because I think that memo is going to be released. There are good reasons to release it, and then there are people who are leaking for whatever reason. There is no discipline to this administration.
Meanwhile, how many people at this point hate Trump at this point so much they would dig a hole through a stone wall with a spoon if that would cause him pain? SO MANY PEOPLE. So many people with motivations to slip a journalist a copy of the report. And Trump is still going to get hit, regardless of what Mueller says. Leticia James has got an entire career ahead of her of torturing Trump.
I feel like what's being presented now is a hostage situation: do you still want to talk about Russia? Because your precious health care is about to get it in the neck. And someway we need to be able to keep the accountability discussion going.
Secret Agent Sockpuppet the nihilism in the eighteen-year-old in my life is very strong too. All he wants out of life at this point is a job that will pay him a good wage doing shit he likes (great!) and will give him the time to game. And on the one hand I want to be all JFK/RFK soaring oratory to him and on the other hand I get it. Get a job, keep your head down, play your game until civilization falls apart. I wonder how many kids see that as a life course these days.
posted by angrycat at 2:06 PM on March 26, 2019 [7 favorites]
I didn't think I was naive about impeachment; the Senate math is what it is. But I did think that the kids were going to jail. I thought that Mueller would lay out obstruction of justice beyond a reasonable doubt, because we all have seen the obstruction of justice play out on our screens. I managed to forget that Barr had written that motherfucking memo. I am somehow completely astonished that the main media narrative is what it is.
I may still be naive, because I think that memo is going to be released. There are good reasons to release it, and then there are people who are leaking for whatever reason. There is no discipline to this administration.
Meanwhile, how many people at this point hate Trump at this point so much they would dig a hole through a stone wall with a spoon if that would cause him pain? SO MANY PEOPLE. So many people with motivations to slip a journalist a copy of the report. And Trump is still going to get hit, regardless of what Mueller says. Leticia James has got an entire career ahead of her of torturing Trump.
I feel like what's being presented now is a hostage situation: do you still want to talk about Russia? Because your precious health care is about to get it in the neck. And someway we need to be able to keep the accountability discussion going.
Secret Agent Sockpuppet the nihilism in the eighteen-year-old in my life is very strong too. All he wants out of life at this point is a job that will pay him a good wage doing shit he likes (great!) and will give him the time to game. And on the one hand I want to be all JFK/RFK soaring oratory to him and on the other hand I get it. Get a job, keep your head down, play your game until civilization falls apart. I wonder how many kids see that as a life course these days.
posted by angrycat at 2:06 PM on March 26, 2019 [7 favorites]
At least Stephen Colbert is calling out Barr's report for the bullshit that it is, and looking like he will continue to do so until Mueller's actual report is released, at least.
A bit of levity in dark days.
posted by porpoise at 3:09 PM on March 26, 2019 [1 favorite]
A bit of levity in dark days.
posted by porpoise at 3:09 PM on March 26, 2019 [1 favorite]
snarling possum Kavanaugh
On the upside, that was a pretty awesome characterization.
I guess we'll be taking what we can get.
posted by A Terrible Llama at 3:47 PM on March 26, 2019 [2 favorites]
On the upside, that was a pretty awesome characterization.
I guess we'll be taking what we can get.
posted by A Terrible Llama at 3:47 PM on March 26, 2019 [2 favorites]
Why the fuck aren't Schiff and the others subpoenaing Mueller today and having him summarize the report himself? Also answer the question if he got a direct order from Barr to shut it down?
posted by benzenedream at 4:14 PM on March 26, 2019 [6 favorites]
posted by benzenedream at 4:14 PM on March 26, 2019 [6 favorites]
At least that would let us know how much of the DOJ to burn down
posted by benzenedream at 4:17 PM on March 26, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by benzenedream at 4:17 PM on March 26, 2019 [3 favorites]
My 16 year old is going through a moral absolutism nihilistic phase.
I read Camus’ The Myth of Sisyphus at that age and it blew my mind (and in some ways changed my life). It’s a short story—it might be incomprehensible for a teenager, but it got through to me way back when.
posted by sallybrown at 5:57 PM on March 26, 2019 [3 favorites]
I read Camus’ The Myth of Sisyphus at that age and it blew my mind (and in some ways changed my life). It’s a short story—it might be incomprehensible for a teenager, but it got through to me way back when.
posted by sallybrown at 5:57 PM on March 26, 2019 [3 favorites]
WaPo: Trump surprises Republicans, pleases Democrats with push for health-care battle
Why the fuck wouldn't he? So far God has handed him everything on a fucking platter.
posted by paper chromatographologist at 6:05 PM on March 26, 2019 [1 favorite]
Why the fuck wouldn't he? So far God has handed him everything on a fucking platter.
posted by paper chromatographologist at 6:05 PM on March 26, 2019 [1 favorite]
I've about had it. If it weren't for my children, I think I'd join a hedonistic end-times cult and just party my way off this bus.
posted by j_curiouser at 6:46 PM on March 26, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by j_curiouser at 6:46 PM on March 26, 2019 [3 favorites]
snarling possum Kavanaugh
come on metafilter, we can do better than slandering hardworking critters among us. possums at least eat tons of ticks thereby saving lots of people's lives unlike Drunk Bro Justice who will no doubt end up shortening many people's lives during his time on the bench.
posted by mostly vowels at 6:52 PM on March 26, 2019 [6 favorites]
come on metafilter, we can do better than slandering hardworking critters among us. possums at least eat tons of ticks thereby saving lots of people's lives unlike Drunk Bro Justice who will no doubt end up shortening many people's lives during his time on the bench.
posted by mostly vowels at 6:52 PM on March 26, 2019 [6 favorites]
Snarling used-to-be frat-boy red-faced cryin' man-baby who really really likes his beer Kavanaugh, then?
'Rabid drunken possum' Kavanaugh is shorter, though.
posted by porpoise at 8:14 PM on March 26, 2019
'Rabid drunken possum' Kavanaugh is shorter, though.
posted by porpoise at 8:14 PM on March 26, 2019
How bout rabid drunken honey badger, whom as we know, don’t give a fuck about anything but themselves?
Re teenage nihilist readings, he’s currently working his way through Dante and 1984. He just finished a Russian phase. I can’t seem to interest him in Camus, which surprises me, as I find him more accessible than many of the Russian greats, but I have it and Derrida and most of the existentialists on a shelf, waiting.
posted by SecretAgentSockpuppet at 7:36 AM on March 27, 2019 [1 favorite]
Re teenage nihilist readings, he’s currently working his way through Dante and 1984. He just finished a Russian phase. I can’t seem to interest him in Camus, which surprises me, as I find him more accessible than many of the Russian greats, but I have it and Derrida and most of the existentialists on a shelf, waiting.
posted by SecretAgentSockpuppet at 7:36 AM on March 27, 2019 [1 favorite]
(I love my job but) NOBODY fucking talks to anyone here, and they all do their own thing. Every time I pop into a departmental meeting (or shockingly get invited to a project meeting), I am surprised. Buying multiple new forklifts? Machinery? An entire new production line?!? You think the Environmental/Safety Manager might want to know about that?? Before it gets here?
(the answer is YES. THEY DO.)
posted by Fig at 8:08 AM on March 27, 2019 [6 favorites]
(the answer is YES. THEY DO.)
posted by Fig at 8:08 AM on March 27, 2019 [6 favorites]
Well, fuck. I work for a non-profit, and we got an ominous sounding email from one of our funding sources last night, inviting us - along with a few other organizations - to a meeting in a couple of weeks to "learn more about the 2019 investment strategy and approach to balancing the ever-growing social need in our city with current financial realities".
So, I guess my department's budget - which, coincidentally, just got board approval last night - is about to get a major revision.
posted by nubs at 8:28 AM on March 27, 2019 [2 favorites]
So, I guess my department's budget - which, coincidentally, just got board approval last night - is about to get a major revision.
posted by nubs at 8:28 AM on March 27, 2019 [2 favorites]
I'm so busy at work right now, and so busy with just life, that I actually took two hours off this morning so I could fold laundry, clean my kitchen, and vacuum. And I went for a run with the dog in the daylight.
The slow encroachment of "can't-cope" is really becoming a problem. Not quite sure where it's coming from, but the political situation certainly isn't helping.
posted by suelac at 12:23 PM on March 27, 2019 [5 favorites]
The slow encroachment of "can't-cope" is really becoming a problem. Not quite sure where it's coming from, but the political situation certainly isn't helping.
posted by suelac at 12:23 PM on March 27, 2019 [5 favorites]
come on metafilter, we can do better than slandering hardworking critters among us. possums at least eat tons of ticks thereby saving lots of people's lives unlike Drunk Bro Justice who will no doubt end up shortening many people's lives during his time on the bench.
This is true. I made mention of one eating a pomegranate from the compost in a comment the other day, which I think must have just seemed like a magical journey for a possum. 'What is this? So wondrous, so magical! Yet so difficult!'
There's a possum advocacy group on FB that is really sweet and gives a lot of factoids about how they eat ticks and they're perfectly nice animals and don't be mean about them just because they're not as cute as raccoons and who says they're not as cute as raccoons?
Still, that's a good line.
I've about had it. If it weren't for my children, I think I'd join a hedonistic end-times cult and just party my way off this bus.
Hiding my despair from kid is really painful. It hurts. I have to fake it about 60% of the day. The rest of the time I'm like a zombie. I have to put on my smile and sunny voice in about twenty minutes. Sucks.
posted by A Terrible Llama at 1:28 PM on March 27, 2019 [4 favorites]
This is true. I made mention of one eating a pomegranate from the compost in a comment the other day, which I think must have just seemed like a magical journey for a possum. 'What is this? So wondrous, so magical! Yet so difficult!'
There's a possum advocacy group on FB that is really sweet and gives a lot of factoids about how they eat ticks and they're perfectly nice animals and don't be mean about them just because they're not as cute as raccoons and who says they're not as cute as raccoons?
Still, that's a good line.
I've about had it. If it weren't for my children, I think I'd join a hedonistic end-times cult and just party my way off this bus.
Hiding my despair from kid is really painful. It hurts. I have to fake it about 60% of the day. The rest of the time I'm like a zombie. I have to put on my smile and sunny voice in about twenty minutes. Sucks.
posted by A Terrible Llama at 1:28 PM on March 27, 2019 [4 favorites]
Barr would not promise that “an unredacted full report with the underlying documents, evidence, would be provided to Congress and to the American people,” Nadler said. “We’re not happy about that, to put it mildly."
Smokey, this is not 'nam. [T]here are rules.
posted by petebest at 4:45 AM on March 28, 2019 [1 favorite]
Smokey, this is not 'nam. [T]here are rules.
posted by petebest at 4:45 AM on March 28, 2019 [1 favorite]
This is some pretty sweet viewing, if you don't think all of this is okay.
posted by A Terrible Llama at 8:26 AM on March 28, 2019 [4 favorites]
posted by A Terrible Llama at 8:26 AM on March 28, 2019 [4 favorites]
magical journey for a possum
Now that's a good username.
posted by asperity at 11:24 AM on March 28, 2019 [1 favorite]
Now that's a good username.
posted by asperity at 11:24 AM on March 28, 2019 [1 favorite]
May I offer for consideration: SC Justice beligerant-drunk possum Kavanaugh. Cause rabid possums (possa (?) ... no) are just shambly unhappy creatures while Kavanaugh (spit-fleckle shouting) WENT TO YALE!
Rep. Schiff in the other hand is what I needed.
posted by From Bklyn at 9:47 PM on March 28, 2019
Rep. Schiff in the other hand is what I needed.
posted by From Bklyn at 9:47 PM on March 28, 2019
I've been following the Brexit stuff a lot the last couple weeks - I think partly because it's a mess that I, as a Yank, can't really do anything about so the distance makes it easier to observe. But anyway - it led me to vent on Facebook about something at work becoming "a clusterfuck of almost British Parliamentary proportions."
My friends responded that they hope they never have an occasion to use that phrase, but they're making a note of it just in case.
posted by dnash at 8:16 AM on March 29, 2019 [2 favorites]
My friends responded that they hope they never have an occasion to use that phrase, but they're making a note of it just in case.
posted by dnash at 8:16 AM on March 29, 2019 [2 favorites]
This is what political scandal in Canada sounds like. On one hand, it's a private conservation that sounds 100x more intelligent than anything you get in public now from the American GOP machine. On the other, it's a female cabinet member telling a male aide-to-PM (or whatever) about ten times that she isn't even comfortable having this conservation, and he keeps going! Bonus content: she asks if the PM even understood the gravity of violating prosecutorial independence?--If it came out it would be really bad for him! (Narrator: He didn't, and it was.)
posted by sylvanshine at 10:13 PM on March 30, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by sylvanshine at 10:13 PM on March 30, 2019 [2 favorites]
From the British politics thread, a trio of pig-farming sisters (sounding almost like a front-page topic in themselves) on why they decided to vote Leave:
When asked they said they thought it would make British people 'more patriotic' and thus they would buy more of their pork.
I just think back to all the scolding that went on about not considering Leave voters a gaggle of imbecilic bumblefucks who couldn't tell a good idea from a bad one if the creator of the Universe itself gave them a pamphlet in Basic English outlining the differences, and...
Well. Just... well.
posted by entity447b at 3:48 AM on April 1, 2019 [3 favorites]
When asked they said they thought it would make British people 'more patriotic' and thus they would buy more of their pork.
I just think back to all the scolding that went on about not considering Leave voters a gaggle of imbecilic bumblefucks who couldn't tell a good idea from a bad one if the creator of the Universe itself gave them a pamphlet in Basic English outlining the differences, and...
Well. Just... well.
posted by entity447b at 3:48 AM on April 1, 2019 [3 favorites]
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Happy Friday folks!
posted by billiebee at 8:13 AM on March 1, 2019 [23 favorites]