“Oh, were you planning on wearing these sparkly flats again? SO sorry. I have eated them.”
Evictions, from both sides:
These days, evictions are too commonplace to attract attention. There are sheriff squads whose full-time job is to carry out eviction and foreclosure orders. Some moving companies specialize in evictions, their crews working all day long, five days a week. Hundreds of data-mining companies sell landlords tenant-screening reports that list past evictions and court filings. Meanwhile, families have watched their incomes stagnate or fall as their housing costs have soared. Today, the majority of poor renting families spend more than half their income on housing, and millions of Americans are evicted every year. In Milwaukee, a city of fewer than a hundred and five thousand renter households, landlords legally evict roughly sixteen thousand adults and children each year. As the real-estate market has recovered in the wake of the foreclosure crisis and the ensuing recession, evictions have only increased.
But there are other ways, cheaper and quicker than a court order, to remove a family. Some landlords pay tenants a couple of hundred dollars to leave by the end of the week. Some take off the front door. Nearly half of the forced moves of renting families in Milwaukee are “informal evictions,” which, like many rentals, involve no paperwork, and take place in the shadow of the law. Between 2009 and 2011, more than one in eight Milwaukee renters were displaced involuntarily, whether by formal or informal eviction, landlord foreclosure, or building condemnation. In 2013, nearly the same proportion of poor renting families nationwide was unable to pay all of their rent, and a similar number thought it was likely that they would be evicted soon.
Nikki’s friend introduced John Cho as a speaker at her university and read him a chunk of If John Cho Were Your Boyfriend AND THEN (please shower her with your congratulations):
America’s quiet crackdown on Indian immigrants:
In 2013, the year Buta Singh arrived in Texas, 83% of Indians facing deportation were imprisoned — a far larger percentage than for immigrants from any other country, including Mexico, which had the highest overall rate of detention between 2003 and 2014. (BuzzFeed News obtained the data through a Freedom of Information Act request from the Executive Office for Immigration Review, or EOIR, the branch of the Justice Department that operates the country’s immigration courts.)
New Dyatlov Pass Incident article alert:
In 2014, Discovery Channel produced a documentary titled Russian Yeti: The Killer Lives, a two-hour program presenting evidence that not aliens but the Yeti was responsible for the deaths of Dyatlov and his hiking crew. Quoth the channel of discovery: “Following the trail of evidence, [Director] Mike [Lebecki] finds proof that the hikers were not alone—a photograph, taken by one of the hikers a day before they died that suggests that they encountered a Yeti. But just how far will they go to find the answers?”
The 100 Jokes That Shaped Modern Comedy (early/silent comedy is UTTERLY LOST ON ME, so I had to wade through a few decades before the good stuff kicked in):
“They waited ten minutes, 15 minutes, 20 minutes, half-hour, 45 minutes. Finally, the cucko, you know, oozed out. Had his dark glasses on. Looked at him and said, ‘Man, what time is it?’”
At a time when most comedians of color were relegated to finding success only on the Chitlin’ Circuit, thanks to killer appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show and The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, mainstream audiences welcomed a “dirty old lady” stand-up named Moms Mabley into their homes with open arms. It’s unclear whether Mabley’s cuckoo-clock bit preceded her as a stock joke that she made her own or whether she originated the joke that would later be covered by comedy greats such as George Kirby and Redd Foxx, but Moms was the one to put the joke on the map. Mabley’s unmistakable cadence and uniquely gravelly timbre took a piece of unquestionably hilarious writing on a subject (successfully hiding marijuana in a cuckoo clock during a police raid, after which time the cuckoo gets high and forgets or neglects to coo for hours) that at the time would have been considered indelicate at best, and elevated it from just a solid joke to something that wouldn’t be out of place performed on the bluest comedy show you could find.
don’t be this person:
The attorney for Naruto, David A. Schwarz suggested that a ruling in favor of the macaque would be a progressive step forward similar to women’s emancipation, or the liberation of the slaves. He analogized Naruto’s supposed inability to own a copyright to an enslaved African-American’s inability to own a patent prior to the adoption of the 14th Amendment.
I truly loved Infinite Jest, which is now 20 years old, and, like this writer, I remember very, very clearly the experience of reading it for the first time (I don’t want to re-read it, because I suspect being 19 at the time added to the experience):
As I read “Infinite Jest” in the dark early mornings before my Uzbek language class, I could hear my host mother talking to the chickens in the barn on the other side of my bedroom wall as she flung scatters of feed before them. I could hear the cows stirring, and then their deep monstrous mooing, along with the compound’s approximately 10,000 wild cats moving in the crawl space directly above my bed. What I am trying to say is that it should have been difficult to focus on the doings of Hal Incandenza, Don Gately, Rémy Marathe and Madame Psychosis. But it wasn’t. I read for hours that way, morning after morning, my mind awhirl. For the first few hundred pages of my initial reading, I will confess that I greatly disliked “Infinite Jest.” Why? Jealousy, frustration, impatience. It’s hard to remember exactly why. It wasn’t until I was writing letters to my girlfriend, and describing to her my fellow Peace Corps volunteers and host-family members and long walks home through old Soviet collectivized farmland in what I would categorize as yellow-belt Wallaceian prose, that I realized how completely the book had rewired me.
no, come on now, just buy cheaper ones, this is like buying used underwear:
Exchange sites like Craigslist don’t boast many listings for used sex toys (and eBaydoes not allow used sex toys to be listed on their site), but there are at least a couple in every city. For the brave, great deals can be had. One listing for a WeVibe 4 plus, which retails for $179, is just $75 in one Craigslist listing, which specifies that it is “washed and disinfected but still USED.” Another lists a 9″ dildo for $25, “used only one time, still in the package. I can’t have in the house.” One seller offers a selection of “moderately used, like new” dildos for about the third of the price as they are new.
How to look excellent for Black History Month:
3. These earrings that show off Her Royal Flyness, Diana Ross.
Sarah Galo interviewed Molly Crabapple and it was pretty cool:
My friend Melissa Gira Grant had this amazing line. She said that perhaps the greatest and most subversive truth that sex workers possessed was the realization that a dick was just a body part, like an elbow. It isn’t something that could destroy your soul, it isn’t something that you should bow down to. It’s just a body part.
OMG JOHN CHO NICOLE YOU LUCKY JERK SQUEEEEEEEEE
I feel such joy on her behalf, as well as unchained jealousy.
I COULD BARELY SLEEP LAST NIGHT. I kept waking up at odd hours and wondering (a) when will our water be turned back on? (A water main in our town broke yesterday) AND (b) when will my John Cho autograph arrive in the mail???
Unrelated to anything, but I got Harry P cursed child tickets! For April 2017. Can someone remind me to go please, I’m bound to forget by then.
!!! OH WE’LL REMIND YOU, NEVER FEAR. Please be prepared to tell us everything.
OH MY GOD, JOHN CHO CONTINUES TO BE PERFECT
RIGHT?? He is SO KIND, I think he must be!! WHAT A GOOD EGG.
This has always been one of my husband’s and my favorite stories of his:
http://www.vulture.com/2012/09/video-john-cho-mee…
And the phrase “get to the terminus of the conversation as quickly as possible” is a key component of our lexicon.
Not LR-related, but: NYC toasts! Does anyone know the details for the next meetup? I’m still waiting for a response to the fb group, but I’m determined to break out of my winter cocoon this month!
ETA: HOW had I never heard of the Dyatlov Pass incident? Goodbye productivity for the next two hours!
I would certainly recommend the Thinking Sideways podcast ep on the Dyatlov pass.
I would certainly not recommend the 2013 movie, The Devil’s Pass to any but the most hardcore B-horror enthusiasts (so, me. I will just watch any crap.)
Generally the last Friday of the month for NYC meetups!
Awesome, thanks! Do you know where it is? (I remember know this once upon a time, but I have since forgotten)
* a:hover{cursor:pointer;}
I don’t have an answer for you right this second because I also forget, but if you were to post about it on the open thread the day of I would bet someone (me? quite possibly me) would be able to tell you then!
RPM Bar on Broome!
NIKKI HAS TRANSCENDED THIS MORTAL COUL AND IS CLEARLY NOW BOUND FOR A SPHERE OF EXISTENCE BEYOND OUR COMPREHENSION
one week until new hampshire you guys i just want to lie down and be oblivious to politics until super tuesday is over
Oh god yes can we please please plzzzz. My social media has erupted into full-time sniping about how dare we not vote for (X) and I’m ready to skip ahead to the conventions at least.
Last night I attempted to explain how caucusing worked to some of my housemates, and, like, I knew it was dumb, but actually trying to explain it. Out loud. To other people just shows how incredibly dumb it is.
American politics are just so dumb, and I’m so tired. I will join you for political nap time.
Confession time: moved to a new state, oh, eight months ago, and missed the deadline to register to vote in time to be eligible to vote in the primary (because I still haven’t gotten around to getting a new driver’s license, obviously) and I’m secretly relieved because my new state is a caucus state and caucusing sounds like my personal hell and now I don’t have to participate in a caucus and it’s out of my hands but I still get to say “caucus” a lot and cackle childishly to myself.
I’m so grateful to be in a state where our primary is late enough that it usually doesn’t matter.
Same here.
IF JOHN CHO WERE YOUR BOYFRIEND HE WOULD ONE DAY ACKNOWLEDGE YOUR EXISTENCE
If John Cho were to BECOME your boyfriend we would start by one day acknowledging your existence *significant forward head tilt*
my friend who introduced him said he gives VERY GOOD EYE CONTACT
I AGREE CAN IT BE PAST SUPER TUESDAY AND OVER AND DONE WITH?
My primary (NY) doesn’t matter because it’s so late in the game and I am TIRED and yet I am still going to watch Thursday’s debate, because no more waste-of-space O’Malley and MADDOW MODERATING but I am SO TIRED.
Well, I’m off to petrify myself reading about Dyatlov Pass. See you guys in a bit!
I am at work despite really just wanting to be at home doing a jigsaw puzzle while drinking tea and listening to stand up comedy, which is what I did last evening. Alternately, I would like to be reading an article about Stephen King’s treatment of female characters like we talked about in yesterday’s links because I haven’t stopped thinking about it AT ALL. Someone write that. I’m not familiar enough with his stuff to do it, I just really want to read it and discuss.
Two things:
(1) I am ready to drop EVERYTHING to talk with you/anyone/everyone/but not a yeti about that Dyatlov Pass article so, you know, just holler.
(2) I gave up on Stephen King years ago, in the middle of “The Tommyknockers,” after reading a sentence that said something like, “she masturbated furiously on the bed,” and I thought, “Okay, Stephen King. Genug.”
Oh my god the actual only thing I remember about The Tommyknockers is someone getting a Niagara-Falls-esque period IN THE FIRST TEN PAGES and hey, guess what, I never finished that book
To be fair, King admits he was incredibly high on cocaine while writing that book and that it shows.
Yeah, I feel like the fact that The Tommyknockers was King’s last book before getting sober is the only thing that makes it interesting (I couldn’t finish it either, but more because of the bonkers plot than anything else).
I read a lot of King as a teen and I like him/would need to revisit his work to comment meaningfully on his treatment of women (beyond a teenage boy oversexed mentality in his early books that felt benign to me), but… Madder Rose, guys. That book REALLY put me off.
I haven’t read Rose Madder since I was a kid, so maybe I missed stuff, but I remember really liking it! Norman was fucking terrifying. What put you off about it?
I am unfamiliar with that one, and just read the plot synopsis on Wikipedia. All I can say is, WTF, Steven? WTF?
This makes so much sense.
It is a terrible book, you are better off (and I like his work.)
I would love to read such an article! I really like horror writing, in theory, but have trouble finding good stuff that doesn’t turn me off via skeeziness. I’ve tried to read Stephen King a few times and within pages have to stop, because I find his male characters so loathsome (there’s so much causal DV, you guys) and cannot stand his ubiquitous use of the “nagging wife” trope. So I’d be totally into an article analyzing that, especially if it came with recommendations for alternative authors!
One of his best stories ever had to be a Good Marriage, which is in the collection Full Dark No Stars, and is about a situation like the BTK killer, where the wife is a genuinely sympathetic, fully drawn, normal character. It’s well worth reading in comparison to the rest of his stuff, which so frequently goes from “ok” to “well. …” to “wait wtf???”
That’s the movie with Joan Allen, right? And she’s married to Anthony La…Pa…glia? I think? I remember mostly that she was unrecognizable and then that the movie was bonkers.
I…maybe? I had no idea they even made it into a movie to begin with, but every King movie adaptation is batshit anyway
Heartily agreed. I went through a Richard Matheson phase in grad school because the local library had a ton of his stuff and…blegh. It is especially hard to be into haunted house stories because SO many authors try to gritty it up with unnecessary ghost rape scenes. Looking at you, Hell House.
I have recced this before, but The House Next Door by Anne Rivers Siddons is definitely one of the most memorable and effective horror novels I’ve read in a long time. It’s real WASPy, which I found sort of delightful.
Thanks for the rec! I will gladly take any and all recommendations of good horror by women.
No problem! It has such a bland title and she only really wrote the one horror story and I think it gets overlooked.
In the interests of forewarning, it is very much of its time (70s? I think?) so some of the social politics tend to reflect that. I didn’t find it too egregious on that front although maybe I was overly charmed by the pitchers of martinis people in the book kept making.
I liked Dean Koontz’s Odd Thomas books which kind of fall into a horror/thriller niche for me? You might try those.
I do not have an article for you, but the most recent episode of Worst Bestsellers was about a baffling Stephen King book called “Gerald’s Game” and it was a great episode (trigger warnings for discussion of many unpleasant things, but a great episode, which makes sense because Worst Bestsellers is always great.)
I missed that discussion yesterday but I have to say: of all the books I read “too young” I really think the only one that still sticks with me unpleasantly is Firestarter, which I read when I was in seventh grade, and there is one THOROUGHLY UNPLEASANT SCENE that still bothers me over a decade later.
The sexualization of Charlie, or the um garbage disposal? Or ignore this if you need to.
I don’t remember the sexualization of Charlie distinctly (probably didn’t make an overt impression on me at that age). IT’S THE GARBAGE DISPOSAL THING THOUGH, BECAUSE THAT IS SEXUALIZED AND WEIRD AS SHIT.
Rainbird (the assassin) fantasizes a lot about Charlie’s lips, and about killing her. The tone is “erotic.” And she is 7.
And yeah, the garbage disposal is…oy. King has said he was really into Freud in his early work. (See also, The Long Walk. Or don’t.) And weird trivia: there is a character with the same name in IT. (Also a revolting death.)
Hmm, maybe I just blocked that out? That seems overt enough that I would have picked it up even at that age. But yeah, I have never really wanted to read King again after that.
Wait sexy garbage disposal? WAT?
omfg Gerald’s Game. Speaking of thoroughly disturbing shit that stays with you for years.
I haven’t re-read The Dark Tower books in a long time since it had the worst ending of any book series ever in the entire world, but I remember Susannah as not awful, although there were parts that were not great. The Dark Tower always felt to me pretty different overall from King’s other stuff, though, and it was clear by the end that he was working out some personal issues by writing it, so I’m not sure how representative those books might be of his writing overall. Obviously Roland’s mother was not represented in the best way. But the entire village of women who were crazy discus warriors or whatever was neat!
Oh my god the ending was the worst. The absolute worst. It’s really a bummer because I love to re-read my favorite books and even though I loved the entire journey of the Dark Tower, the ending makes me not want to go through all that again.
Braintwinz! I’ve said pretty much this, word for word, every time someone talks to me about Dark Tower.
I tweeted about the Dyatlov Pass incident in the “things you’d find out in heaven” convo and now Nicole has included it in a roundup, I feel v special.
(I know it had to just be hypothermia but it’s so creepy to read about!)
ugh come on everyone knows Dyatlov Pass was an MKULTRA experiment that got out of control jfc
In all seriousness I just learned from that link about the Sverdlovsk anthrax leak, which I think is scarier than Yetis!
that is only because you probably haven’t heard about Anthrax Yetis yet
This is how the world will end; not with a bang but with an Anthrax Yeti.
so can we now and forever refer to him as Official Boyfriend of (Nicole of) The Toast John Cho?
The monkey selfie case is legitimately fascinating — it seems clear that the human photographer does not own the rights to the photo. But does the monkey? Copyright protects the creative expression of an idea — so in order to argue that the copyright belongs to the monkey, you have to be able to argue that the monkey can understand that he is creating something, right? Similarly, could you argue that elephants own the copyright to the paintings they make? Do they understand that they’re creating something? Copyright law is pretty clear that the bar for “creative expression” is pretty low, but of course, that assumes that a human mind is doing the creating.
That said, PETA is involved here, so I guess we shouldn’t be surprised at the racist and sexist tone of their argument.
There’s also an issue of standing – does a monkey have the right to bring a suit in a US court? I believe that was actually the point the judge made. The US copyright law does not specifically give animals the right to sue under it, and any humans suing on behalf of the animals would have to prove their standing – which is what PETA may amend the claim to try and do. You can’t just sue as a third party.
(Caveat: it’s been years since law school and I’m no longer practicing.)
Obligatory UGH, PETA. Hate them. HAAAAAAAAAATE.
They likely don’t give a damn about the monkey anyway; they just want the monkey selfie for themselves to exploit for their cause.
If I couldn’t afford a new one, I would purchase a used Lelo. Judge me all you want. Those things are fucking amazing and worth the price tag, but if you don’t have the money you still deserve amazing orgasms (and hoo boy, Lelos, man). I don’t know of any germ or bacteria that can’t be cleaned off undamaged silicone given enough toy cleaner and a thorough scrubbing. Although…if there’s one out there, maybe someone let me know?
I’m holding off for a used Jimmyjane Little Platinum Eternity, which is platinum-plated and is encrusted with diamonds.
That just sounds like it would lead to unpleasant abrasions.
that’s my fetish and it is against the law to kinkshame me
No shame, just gentle concern for your delicate mucous membranes.
Yeah, I don’t get the judgement either. Most toys that are expensive enough to need to buy used are also fully sterilizable – and its not like people have an issue with using other people’s sterile sex toys when you’re sleeping with that person.
I had a pair of terrible roommates that left behind all their stuff when we kicked them out, and included in that was a rather large sex toy collection with some nice silicone and glass cocks. Of course we threw away everything cheap and plastic, but there was no sense in throwing away perfectly good silicone, so we boiled them and rinsed them with bleach and kept them. Its not weird at all.
We need Ask A Clean Person up in here. I’m fairly certain the Jolie covered this at some point but I don’t really want to google it at work…
I’m sure that’s true from a microbiology standpoint, but I think that would be a psychological non-starter for most people regardless.
(I agree that Lelos are totally awesome, though).
I once knew a woman who refused to use plates/silverware/etc. from a thrift store because it grossed her out, which is a totally legit feeling, except she also slept on a mattress that she’d found on the sidewalk.
I’m sorry, but she found a mattress on the sidewalk and decided ‘gosh, how convenient, something to sleep on’ and dragged it home? I don’t understand. Why would you do that? Why?
Like, I could maybe somehow get over used sex toys provided they were sterilized to death, but I draw the line at soft furniture found on a sidewalk.
I’m pretty sure that was it? Combined with “mattresses are expensive, but this one isn’t!” I’m certainly not going to judge sidewalk furniture – I’ve furnished about half my apartment that way – but for soft furnishings, I like to be reasonably sure that they haven’t spent time outside.
Sidewalk furniture is fine right up to the point where fabric becomes involved. I think I’d rather sleep on the floor than on a mattress I found outside because I’m not sure I could get over the thought of bugs making their home inside it during its adventure outdoors.
Hell yeah, but also *before* its adventure outdoors! The only people I know who have trashed mattresses had BED BUG REASONS. Madness!
I took a sidewalk mattress once when I was 21, completely broke and the air mattress I had been sleeping on deflated. It was the floor or a sidewalk mattress (also it was from my neighbors so I knew it was probably OK). Wouldn’t do it now that I can afford at least a cheap IKEA mattress, but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I can’t. I just can’t. I know the pain of the deflated air mattress but I honestly think I’d start imagining bugs crawling on me with a sidewalk mattress.
That said, I’ve never been desperate.
As a person that weigh(s|ed) somewhere between 220-240 and slept on an Ikea Sultan Hurva for several years: there are a lot worse ways to spend two hundred bucks.
Omg bedbugssssssssss gahhhhh nope
Did she go to restaurants?
No lie, when we were much younger and a bit poorer, my wife and I found a king size mattress and box spring next to an apartment building dumpster and took it home. It was clean! It was free! The building security guard said they had just brought it down, so we took it without any second thoughts and happily used it for about 5 years.
I’m waaay to spooked about bedbugs to do that (and yet I buy 50% of my clothes from charity shops. I could be smarter.)
(shudders)
I’d definitely rather opt for the used sex toy. At least you don’t have to worry about bedbugs with those…
And the high-end ones can be gently bleached!
Eh, we reuse the body parts with different partners, and those can’t be sterilized. (Or nearly sterilized, no I don’t think you need to autoclave your Lelo.) The undamaged is crucial though–cracks in silicone can harbor ooky stuff. If you wanted extra protection, use a condom.
And now I just parsed your first sentence. Oh well, someone might find it useful.
I am genuinely pleased to find out there actually is a secondhand toy market, I bought a Sqwheel and hated it.
I do have a Forme 2 vibrator and it is the most expensive sex toy I have ever owned and was worth EVERY DAMN PENNY, considering I’m a woman who managed to burn out a Hitachi Magic Wand. (But daily use for two years will do that.)
The whole Star Wars cast is my fave, but today John Boyega is my fave among faves.
I love him for so many reasons at this point, but I keep coming back to him continuing to refer to Harrison Ford as his best friend.
I haven’t seen the movie, but have encountered that meme and find it adorable.
He’s lovely.
I also read Infinite Jest for the first time when I was 19! I got it for Christmas and then read it entirely on a trip to visit my brother in Tokyo. I think that sort of added to the experience of the whole thing, reading it in coffee shops where I couldn’t understand any of the surrounding conversations and in my brother’s freezing cold kitchen at his 6″-12″ table. I loved it but I’m also afraid to re-read it or to recommend it to anyone my own age.
Still love DFW’s essays, though, those have endless re-read potential.
Especially ‘A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again.’ I’ve read it so many times and always enjoy it.
I started it on a plane and read most of it while in bed with a cold. I feel like being basically captive to that book was key to the experience. (Now I wish I’d had it when I did study abroad; I would gladly have read David Copperfield one less time…)
“I feel like being basically captive to that book was key to the experience” yes yes yes, you’ve captured it exactly. Feeling intensely isolated was a big part of it.
I think I must’ve read “Tense present” at least half a dozen times. I think my copy’s actually still loaned out to a colleague right now, must get that back at some point…
I keep waiting for my book group to read this (it keeps getting brought up as something to pick up soonish, but not getting picked). I feel like I’ll probably like it if I get to have conversations about it throughout the process of reading, but probably get bored/find it tedious if I just pick it up on my own.
So, I’m way late on catching up on Link Roundups, but I was only able to get through Infinite Jest (which I did ultimately enjoy) by participating in Infinite Summer, which was this incredibly awesome online book club for Infinite Jest, and all the posts are still online, if you want to follow it on your own: http://infinitesummer.org/
Friends if anyone would like to talk about the Iowa Caucuses, maybe this is a good place? I am sure people have strong opinions.
I don’t personally like this Sanders-Clinton war, I think there’s a lot of acrimony going around, but I am pretty happy to see Sanders doing well. For a long time, I thought that one of the major problems with the Progressive movement was that we never couched our policies in a strong moral framework — that all the Democrats were trying to do was fight a holding action against an increasingly deranged GOP (respectable enough, but in my opinion not a strategy for long-term victory). I expect that Clinton is going to win the Dem nomination, but I want Sanders to do well enough that everyone can see that there is a strong margin that is going to come out for “Socialism” where “Socialism” is defined as “what about a government that is even slightly responsible for wealth inequality?”
So.
I’m not USian, so to a certain extent I wonder why I even care but: I agree with you. I think Hillary may be a better president because, well, she’s a boss bitch. But the better Sanders does, the more leeway she gets to be uncharacteristically “socialist” in US terms (I mean, we have right wing parties that are more “socialist” than US Democrats)
I’m a flaming liberal; I <3 Bernie and I can’t stand Hillary. Beyond all else, she’s an egomaniac and will do or say anything to get the presidency. She changes her opinion as often as she changes her underwear. I have other reasons for not liking her but won’t go into them.
I don’t know about acrimony–Bernie only seems to address the controversial issues (the emails, Bill Clinton’s affair) when he’s asked about them. He can’t exactly say “I have no opinion.” But even then, he keeps it pretty concise.
Before all the precincts were in last night I was looking at the individual county results, and I noticed that Hillary lost Clinton County. That amused me more than it should have.
Does Bernie Sanders flip flopping on guns impact your view on him? When you look at Bernie on guns, he seems just as much a politician who changes his mind based on who he is trying to win over as any other politician. I might very well vote for him, but yeah.
From what I’ve read, I don’t think his shifts in tone are so drastic. He has mentioned that a lot of people in Vermont hunt and he doesn’t have a problem protecting their right to hunt because overall gun violence in the state is really low. But he has supported background checks.
The fact that he’s willing to re-evaluate his stance to some degree on one issue is not the same as changing positions weekly on almost every issue.
which issues has Hillary flipped on? I can think of a couple, particularly if we blame her for Bill Clinton’s policies which I am leery of because I don’t know how I feel about blaming Michelle Obama for Barack’s policies I disagree with.
(not trying to troll, feel free to ignore, but I am genuinely curious)
Iraq War and Patriot Act (and Patriot Act re-upping) are the big ones for me.
The Iraq war vote was bad, and she’s acknowledged it, but was that a case where she flip flopped a ton? She’s genuinely more pro-intervention than some Dems (something I wish Sanders would criticize her on), though more than half of the Dems in the Senate voted for it.
Yeah, that’s one of my biggest reasons for not wanting her to be President.
I do not find her beyond reproach by any stretch of the imagination, but these are two areas where I’m very glad she flip-flopped rather than holding her ground. Admitting when you’ve been mistaken is crucial in a leader, I think.
Gay marriage.
As late as 2004, she stated openly that she believed marriage was between a man and a woman. Then in 2007 she said she was opposed to same-sex marriage but was in favor of civil unions. She didn’t officially “approve” of gay marriage until 2013.
I don’t think that was as much a flip flop as political pragmatism, though. I mean, you can definitely see that as cowardice, but the general attitude towards gay marriage changed really quickly. You could even say the US flip flopped on that one.
Okay, though, but that’s kind of my issue with her all summed up.
She is politically pragmatic. She goes with the slightly-left flow. She often appears to be saying what moderate-liberal campaign strategists think is the right thing for her to say w/r/t poll numbers, rather than what she actually believes (whether or not that’s true is in large part irrelevant to me; perception is reality, and she’s coming off as fake to me). So is it possible her views evolved? Sure, I guess so, but in combination with all these other things it just seems to fit the pattern of going for polling rather than actually believing in a thing and that really bugs me.
Note that this is definitely not exclusive to Hillary, BUT it is also super less apparent in the Sanders campaign and I think that’s a large part of his appeal.
And also on top of this paragraph about why I’m uncomfortable with her – do we really want a series of family dynasties in the presidency?
My distaste for having ANOTHER Clinton after having nearly back-to-back Bushes is so strong. It would be 24 of 32 years (minimum – maybe 28 of 36!) headed by 2 distinct families. I’d be equally upset if Michele Obama decided to run in the next election cycle, as much as I admire her.
I don’t know, I do think she’s a good politician even if I wish she were less long-game up-her-sleeve about things (as described in the other comment below), but I have such a kneejerk No to any more family members in the presidency. (I don’t even care if it means we lose an FDR.)
Did you have this issue with Obama? He said as early as 1996 that he was for gay marriage, then for years he opposed gay marriage. In 2008 he was officially opposed to gay marriage. Then in 2012 he finally came out for gay marriage, only after Biden did.
Sanders has consistently been better than both Obama and Clinton, just Clinton’s approach does mirror Obama’s in many ways.
I did, actually, have that issue with President Obama re: gay marriage.
I also feel like he was under such heavy attack from day one of campaigning that he had to make some pretty awful choices, and that was the one that gave; when he was able to come up for air, he did.
I agree with Sanders on more issues. But he can be as pragmatic as anyone. Look at how he handles questions about reparations, http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/…
By the way, I think that kind of pragmatism is a good thing, though of course we all disagree on where the line should be (which we should, this shit is hard). I think Obama and Hillary were too pragmatic on gay marriage, cause I doubt it would’ve swung the race in 2008. Then again, California voted for prop 8 so who knows.
FWIW, I am close to someone who worked with Hillz when she was our senator back in 2001, and she was ON IT re: gay rights. She knew. And she worked in secret to make shit happen & kept her mouth shut to stay in power. It’s her way. It’s about positioning things even outside of policy, making incremental changes that can happen, so that when the policy can catch up, it’s the right thing. DOMA was always supposed to be overturned. It was written to be overturned. But it was a step to move out of a system that was even more actively discriminatory. There wouldn’t have been a foundation to maintain the right move if those laws didn’t shift to say: It’s unethical to even ask. Look at Obamacare–it didn’t go down in the right way, and people are constantly looking to overturn it (and it isn’t the ideal law anyway). You make a little shift, you make a little shift, and boom, down the road, real change has something to fall back on, that makes it harder to go back to the shit it was before. That doesn’t work if say, Bernie goes and upends our tax code, the Koch Bros use their mouth pieces to undermine it, and Wall St. doesn’t back him up. With Hillary, you have increment increment increment, side step, increment BOOM. So when the real change happens, enough people are on board, and Wall St can’t go back. There’s sweeping right change and lasting change.
And yes, she’s a power hungry nut, but SO IS BERNIE. Anyone running is a power hungry nut. He just wears it like an old white guy and Hillary makes no apologies or concessions about her ambition to rule the world. Don’t get me wrong, my end game sincerely lines up with Bernie, my ethics are all on board. But I deeply, deeply fear who will be packed in congress during the 2018 midterms, because the fearmongering around his policy gets the tea party vote out for congress.
sorry, i haven’t talked about politics for a while and it all came out now.
Thank you for jumping in! That’s some excellent insight into how Hillary works, which I suspected, but it’s great to get that validation.
The other thing is that I don’t really want an honest president? I want a president who looks at Putin or Assad or the Koch Bros with inscrutable dead fucking eyes and does what needs to get done. I mean, Fox news and the GOP field are pretty great at picking on Clinton when she isn’t in the room, but when she sits down and gives them that power stare, they shut the hell up. How good was she at that Benghazi hearing. I think those freshmen tea party guys who are packed in congress are genuinely afraid of Hillary in the best, bad ass bitch kind of way.
And also, she raised Chelsea. I mean, Chelsea is smarter than both her parents and is set up to really change the world in the best way. In many ways, I feel like Bill & Hillary and to an extent Barack and Michelle have worked to make a world in which Chelsea can thrive. Long game. I’m all about the long game. My grandmother is the only person I actually talk about politics with (who is the most liberal human on the planet), so I apparently have feels that I need to express outside!
Ahahaha, you are describing my DREAM candidate. I am here to talk politics to you anytime. I don’t know much about Chelsea, but am happy to learn.
All these Republicans have been shitting on her for decades, just picture their faces if she actually becomes President of the United States of America, with all that power. And yeah, I just think it would be sweet justice if for once in her life she doesn’t have to put up with a certain amount of shit, she can dismiss anyone in the room who crosses a line.
You know that Bernie bro at the town hall who stood up and basically asked her why she was untrustworthy and disliked? The Daily Show did a funny bit where they supplied closed captioning for the subtext of her response (a super-withering and profanity-laced version of what she was saying), but I really do think she looked at that guy and thought, Suck. My. Dick before responding in a smooth, unruffled, politically appropriate way. And THAT, too, is what I want.
Ha! You can come drink tea with me and my grandma. She always says, “We live in a post-J Edgar Hoover world. We need someone who knows how to play their game and mostly be on the side of the people. It’s the best we can ask.” She’s 83, blonde, still runs a lab out of a medical school, and hasn’t given a fuck since 1945. #heroes
I LOVE your grandmother, oh man. Please work with her to record her insights for posterity.
yup yup yup this is a big part of my indecision. My views line up with Sanders’s better, sure. But personality! Is! Relevant! It’s a dang job skill!
I’m also here for any Chelsea links or info that you have, if you feel up to it.
Did you read this?! What a great mind for policy! What a great mind for organization and leadership! What ethics! I mean, she’s 35. That’s insane to me that a 35 year old is this eloquent, incisive. And ah! “Please do not forward this in whole or in part attributed to me without asking me first – happy to be an invisible soldier. Mainly hope this is even marginally helpful. ” Thanks Freedom of Information Act for for letting me read how splendidly brilliant Chelsea Clinton is. Oh, and now Citizens United are trying to sue Chelsea over emails. So whatever…Bring it.
https://foia.state.gov/searchapp/DOCUMENTS/HRCEma…
I hadn’t before, but I am now all tingly at the thought of her future leadership. So focused and organized, using her ire at the incompetence of the people running the show to develop a plan to fix shit. Thanks, and I’m off to read more!
It made me kinda sad that Bernie flip-flopped. The presidential race CHANGED HIM.
I do think there’s something to the idea that a hard fought primary is good for Dems, since it forces both candidates to hone their messages and gets Dems engaged.
There are genuine disagreements between Dems and a presidential primary is one of the best times to litigate them. That in no way makes it less annoying at times, so I’m not saying you should like it, but I do see some value in it.
I definitely agree in the value of a hard-fought primary — I wanted Sanders in this even when I thought he wasn’t going to do better than a solid 20 or 30%, just to show everyone that he could — I guess it’s just inevitable that in this kind of primary some people are going to be dicks about it, and I don’t like that part very much.
I hope it ends up being a good thing, too! I worry that if Bernie loses the nomination a lot of his supporters will disengage and not vote in the general due to how much vitriol I see about Hillary, but I hope the intervening months would soften that a little.
I have a friend who has sworn to not vote at all if Bern doesn’t get it, which I find upsetting. I want Bernie in there myself, but I’ll take Hillary over every single Republican candidate, and I’d do it happily.
Indeed! That’s why I was sad to hear Martin O’Malley dropped out last night, even though it made no sense for him to continue. The Democrat party has room for more voices than Hillary and Bernie.
My issue with O’Malley was that he was doing very little that I saw to differentiate himself from Hillary’s positions. Like, he apparently was excellent on immigration, but I don’t remember him really pounding that home at either debate I watched, http://fusion.net/story/263040/martin-omalley-mos… But maybe if Iived in Iowa I would have.
Oh yeah, he didn’t do enough to stand out, I agree. But I wish we had more than two candidates after just one voting round, jeez.
I think he did a lot of face-to-face outreach in the Latino community, and as a result ended up getting 15-20% of the vote in a couple of counties (there are a number of small towns in IA where industry has drawn a considerable Latino population). But that strategy obviously doesn’t scale well.
Reporting in from Iowa to say Nah, not much differentiation felt from O’Malley here, either.
Late to this, but after reading through I saw that I have an original observation! The thing about Bernie is that he’s channeling a lot of support from disaffected REPUBLICANS. Libertarian types who can’t stand Trump and Cruz who VOTED AND SUPPORTED MITT ROMNEY. Like, what the actual fuck!? There’s a guy who is literally diametrically opposed to Romney at the most fundamental level (economics), and yet there are supporters who want the “honest guy” and not a “power hungry bitch.” This is real. I know people who feel this way! It’s BANANAS.
And on the other hand, there are the disaffected Wall Streeters who don’t have a candidate because all the GOPers are loons who are all going to vote for Hillary in the general.
So the GOP is a self-cannibalizing in really ways! Who’d have thunk??
I HAVE A COWORKER LIKE THIS. Super libertarian, but loves Bernie. I was genuinely startled when I found out.
That doesn’t surprise me actually, and I bet there are people the other way around – generally pretty leftwing) – who are pro-Trump. The “not really a politician politicians” always pick up people who think they’re voting for not-really-a-politician regardless of policies. Nigel Farage, Boris Johnson and Ken Livingston pick up people the same way in the UK.
Also, Ted Cruz is a goddamn fucking monster, and his victory over Donald Trump isn’t going to make things better for any of the rest of us, except for how it’s paving a way forward for Rubio.
I learned on Sunday that my father has donated to both the Cruz and Rubio campaigns. I wasn’t remotely surprised, but I experienced very strong internal disappointment in him.
Yeah, every day I feel lucky that both of my parents are active progressives. (I know that Sanders has got a reputation for being popular primarily with white dudebros, but the biggest Bernie supporter I know is my mom.)
My dad had a libertarian phase a couple of years ago, but I think I successfully talked him out of it.
I come from a family of hardcore Tea Party Conservatives and I am . . . about as far from that as you can get. (My younger brother has these silvery metal “Don’t Tread on Me” license plate frames. My mother listens to Rush Limbaugh pretty much every day and watches Fox News nightly. It’s that kind of house.)
My parents have a suspicion that I don’t agree with them, but they really really don’t want me to confirm that, so I generally stay quiet while they talk politics at length.
Weirdly, for them, they’ll talk about how terrible Hillary is, but I don’t think Bernie even exists to them. So that always seems like an interesting insight into how they read the Democratic primaries, I guess.
So many things about him are scary! I mean, if it was just his fervor for the death penalty, but then he’s ALSO against abortion in any and all cases, and then there’s even much more.
He wants to straight up get rid of a shitload of government departments, including the department of education!! How is he real!!
He went to the Supreme Court to keep a man in prison for sixteen years when he knew it was wrong just to get the Supreme Court to decide a question of whether or not the guy had the right to appeal.
The guy is a fucking ghoul.
Lol, I just dug up in my tumblr a prediction I made two years ago:
“seriously, do you know what would happen if Ted Cruz was ever elected president? The night of his inauguration, he would ceremoniously set fire to every government building, thus fulfilling all of his campaign promises”
Cruz won because so many evangelicals turned out, but that doesn’t seem to bode well for him going forward. It’s not like it helped Santorum that much in 2012. Though we’ll see if Trump starts losing supporters if they go to Cruz or someone else.
Evangelicals and olds are going to ruin it for us all.
There are a ton of older progressives, and we need them. In my liberal Midwestern city it seems like the most enthusiastic Bernie supporters are baby boomers. Millennials are talking about him, but the over-fifty progressive set are putting out lawn signs and making phone calls.
Yeah, I work in a retirement home, and one of the residents wears a Bernie pin every day and used to work on all of his campaigns–and we’re in Oregon.
I focus on my hatred for Donald Trump because thinking about Ted Cruz legitimately terrifies me. I mean, Ted Cruz also fills me with unspeakable rage, but also terror. Donald Trump just pisses me off.
Paving a way forward for Rubio is not a good thing, he’s a worse monster than Cruz.
Interesting! I haven’t heard anything that would make him more monstrous than Cruz, what have you heard?
I think Cruz is truly dangerous, and wholly evil, and unfortunately I am certain he will never stop running for president until he wins. My husband sees Rubio as worse because he stands for nothing and has risen only as a puppet for the wealthy and powerful. I do think he would be a more threatening candidate than Cruz in this election because he is young and telegenic, plus has almost no record in need of defending. IMO he is out of his depth, but it’s gotten him pretty far already.
“I am certain he will never stop running for president until he wins.”
Or dies, or goes broke because everyone hates him and he can’t file the paperwork to put himself on the ballot!!! I see lots of realistic alternatives there.
I agree with your assessment of Rubio, but I still think “puppet for the wealthy and powerful” is less scary than Cruz’s anarchy and puritanical fire. I mean. It’s good to remember we did survive the Bush years, though they inflicted serious damage on the country. I don’t know what would happen after four years of Cruz (well, probably a steadfastly blue Congress, for one).
To be clear, I agree with you completely – it’s my Mr. who thinks Rubio is worse. I think he has a better chance of being elected, but I see him as something of a Romney, just a political opportunist. Cruz really terrifies and horrifies me, and I would love nothing more than to see his dearest ambitions blighted decisively due to his being uniquely loathsome on all levels.
“I would love nothing more than to see his dearest ambitions blighted decisively due to his being uniquely loathsome on all levels.”
Wholly in agreement. That reminds me of that delightful quote supplied by his former college roommate:
Glorious. Someone get this man on all the talk shows.
I took some kind of quiz recently on who I should vote for, and it turns out I agree with Rubio on exactly 0 things, including whether abortions should be legal and if women should get equal pay. His foreign policy is also bananas and is not going to work, ever. Cruz is horrible in an off the wall way, Rubio is horrible in a more fake-benign way, but his presidency has the potential to be just as bad as a Cruz presidency, imo.
I’m curious, did the survey tell you that you actually agreed with Cruz on something? (lol, no judgment if it did)
Maybe like one thing, but Rubio was dead last. I think Cruz was 0.5% and Rubio was 0.
Yes! Rubio is so fake-benign! Like, he reminds me of the attractive right-wing leaning guy in high school social studies who didn’t actually say anything, but did so in a reasoned and level tone that it made him sound smart to others. And suddenly more than half the class is nodding along while only a crazy punk girl and Tracy Flick (a-hem, Hillary Clinton) are trying to hold him accountable, both of whom are dismissed as “unlikable” “bitchy” and “power hungry”. Meanwhile, Bernie is out in the quad playing hackie sack, and when someone is like, “Yo, did you hear what Rubio said?” He’s like, “What the fuck man? Shit is fucked up”
I worry, in the same way I worried about Bush, that Rubio is just going to fill his cabinet with the most evil he can find. Ugh, these guys. Every GOP candidate is running on their own fear–fear of losing, fear of the party, fear of losing their power/station in society (except Trump who is basically America’s Id & has no stake in actually being president). They look like rabbits trying to cross a busy intersection. None of them are fit to be world leaders, and they all know it deep down. You can catch it in their eyes. It’s the dark money that foisted them, that’s determining their policies for them. Very weird to watch. All cracking under the pressure.
CAN I JUST SAY I LOVE HOW YOU TALK ABOUT POLITICS. Please make an IntenseDebate/Wordpress account so I can track everything you say.
I don’t so I can’t be tracked! (it’s important for my job to have a certain kind of personal privacy/very limited social media, but I have to be a toastie for my soouuuulllll. and i’m not a spy.) But thanks!!
WELL, I suppose that is wise and reasonable of you. 🙂 Thanks for contributing to the discussion anyway, I’m really enjoying it.
On 95% of domestic policy, Marco Rubio is the same as Ted Cruz. On women’s rights, on the role of religion in society, on health care, etc, etc he is Ted Cruz. Where he differs from Cruz is on issues related to national security. He may be a bit less of an open Islamophobe than Cruz, but he’s not a lot less interventionist and he is a LOT more inclined to use the NSA to spy on Americans.
A choice between the two of them is a choice between an angry faced dominionist who doesn’t want to spy on you and a happy faced dominionist who wants to know what you’re doing and who you are talking to at all times. There’s absolutely no reason to be relieved at the prospect of Marco Rubio overtaking Ted Cruz at some point in the future.
Thanks, that’s the policy specs I was looking for!
All the same, I’m taking into account Cruz’s ruthlessness, his brinkmanship, his willingness to stoke up extremist factions — and that’s why, all else considered, I still prefer Rubio as the GOP nominee.
The Sanders-Clinton tie did nothing to alleviate my total bewilderment as to who to vote for. I am like Iowa – split right down the middle.
MSNBC was broadcasting live from the Field House in Iowa City, and there was this great discussion between this group of young 20-somethings on Sanders v. Clinton that gave me hope for the next generation (she says at 32 feeling so old).
Hey! I’m bewildered too. Can we form a club of bewildered liberals?
I share your bewilderment over Clinton v. Sanders. I supported Clinton pretty hardcore in the last election, but I’ve already donated to the Sanders campaign just because it is so damn refreshing to hear a major candidate saying progressive things.
I feel like for most of my lifetime (I’m an old 20-something), I’ve been so far left of common political debates that no one from either party espoused my view. All of my votes for the dems have been *pragmatic* votes for the less bad option, rather than a positive vote for someone promoting policies with which I agree.
Oh I feel you, and I am 56 this year. The last joyful vote I cast was for Geraldine Ferraro and what’s-his-name. Primaries can be fun. Generals, much less so.
I’m registered democrat because ages ago (it feels like ages ago) I wanted to vote for Kucinich in the primaries. I knew damn well he wasn’t gonna get the nom, but I wanted to make it clear to the democratic party that there were people further to the left. I was registered Green before that.
Agreed, this is one of the first times I actually feel genuinely undecided? For…good reasons? Weird! (And also terrified to admit that in any other forum because uuuuuugh.) I was pretty excited about Sanders as someone I could vote *for*, rather than voting *against* the other guy, but I’m not quite there yet.
Me too! (also having trouble admitting it other places, and finding the pitch of discussions too much for me to deal with). They both have things I like and respect, and they both have some spots that make me wince.
yes! I simply can’t see the huge differences between them that others seem to be seeing. At least not to the point of getting really excited about one without getting equally excited about the other (replace “excited” with “cringey” as needed).
Not only hopeful, but saying “fucked up” on live television, something which appeared to unsettle Brian Williams to no end. DEMOCRACY!
Actual caucusing Iowa Citian here, and it was pretty awesome. But the town is an anomaly in Iowa.
<3 Iowa City. I moved there for school in fall of 2004, but I still voted in Illinois, so I mostly remember sitting with my British professor who kept buying us drinks and being appalled.
EVERYBODY at my precinct was student-y age. (Not literally. But I saw ~8 seniors in a crowd of hundreds.) The lines of people registering went out into the street and down the block.
It should have been obvious before but last night it became SUPER OBVIOUS that many Sanders supporters are not going to vote in the general election if Clinton is the dem candidate, and it’s making me frustrated and kind of sad. I’m glad he did so well and I love the fact that he’s a viable candidate even if I might not vote for him, but I hope the Clinton campaign already has a rock solid strategy to get the Sanders people to vote for her if she wins the primary because right now a bunch of them seem to have given up already!!
Yeah, though I’m not sure that a lot of those people wouldn’t have voted anyway; the thing about Sanders is that he seems to be picking up a lot of people who were otherwise checked-out of national politics, while Clinton was trying to sort of build a coalition from the engaged middle. So, I don’t know — I’m not sure that even a 50% defection from Sanders to “nobody”, if the rest of them vote for Clinton, I’m not sure that isn’t still a net gain for her.
Yes, that’s very true. It was just disappointing to see a handful of people on social media who were previously really excited about Bernie basically be like “well I give up now!!” but it was probably idealistic of me to expect them to stay so involved. (There are 49 more states though guys, Iowa is not the only one that gets to vote).
Yeah, that’s why it’s risky to build a campaign on people who are less likely to vote – they may not actually, you know, vote.
Is there a possibility that there could be a Hillary/Bernie ticket? Like President/Vice President? Would that help?
I’m not American, so I don’t quite understand your electoral system.
Sure, it’s possible. I don’t know that either of them would accept a VP slot if offered.
Dream ticket: Sanders/Warren.
I saw Sanders/Warren and my heart started fluttering. That is truly a dream ticket.
My dream ticket would be more Warren/Sanders, but yeah.
I was hoping Warren would run, but alas, we have to live within our current reality *sigh*
Yes, but a dream ticket is a DREAM ticket!
NO YOU DON’T GET MY SENATOR YOU STAY AWAY FROM HER GODDAMMIT!
…sorry, I am a little defensive. But she’s doing great work and I do not want to lose Warren to the grinding maw of a presidential campaign.
YES. Warren knows that she can be most effective as the Jiminy Cricket of the senate. This is a really really valuable place to be. My dream is for Bernie to go back to the senate with Warren with our pragmatic centrist madame president, and get the vote out for the #feelthebern kids in the midterm so we can get a really progressive congress. a progressive president means little if congress is just a bunch of teabaggers because progressives suck at midterms. Just imagine what we could accomplish!
Yes, plus I’m not entirely sure what the VP even does. Unless you’re a Machavellian Dick Cheney-type character driving from the backseat, the VP doesn’t seem to do much? Whereas Warren can do good things in the Senate.
Biden was amazing as VP at diving into the Senate at key moments to get shit done, because he had history with the Senate (which is why he was such an excellent choice for Obama, who left his first term to run for president).
So yeah, it’s up to what the VP’s personal strengths are.
thank you yes
my senator also,
and I LURVE her
Make that Warren/Sanders and you got my vote. (In the mythical universe where that was an option.)
Once the presidential nominee has been established, that person can choose anyone they want to run as VP. It can be someone who was in the presidential race, but it doesn’t have to be. So really anything is possible (*cough* Sarah Palin *cough*).
I don’t think Hillary’s a big enough person to choose Bernie; she’d want someone who had never challenged her authority. I think Bernie would be open to choosing Hillary if he’s in that position, but I wouldn’t put money on it.
I’d be shocked if Hillary accepted a VP slot any way. (I don’t mean that as a slam against her, really, either.)
I agree, she would never even consider being VP.
Why not? She accepted a position under Obama. Potentially Sanders and Clinton’s different political styles might make her refuse, but I don’t see any personality impediment to being VP.
yeah – especially since it wouldn’t actually win her any power. She’d be better off lobbying for Sct’y of State again. Or Supreme Court.
Huh. That would be interesting.
I would love to see Obama on the Supreme Court.
The thing is, she’s not seeking any form of power she can get her hands on. She specifically wants to be POTUS.
I read an account of the wrap-up after the 2008 election, when Obama first reached out to her with the offer of Secretary of State. She didn’t want it at first — had to be talked into it over a period of time. So I really don’t think she’d take the position a second time.
Cool – I did not know that. So yeah, probably not a second time.
I think it’s all going to come down to identity politics, as usual. My prediction – you’re hearing it here first: Clinton v. Rubio. And Clinton will name a young, hot Latin guy as her running mate – she’s already rumored to be vetting Julian Castro. And if Rubio is smart (highly questionable), he’ll choose Nikki Haley as his running mate.
::::::::(((((((((((((((((((( Clinton v. Rubio scares me, though I know it’s trueeeeeee. I heard Julian might be too inexperienced, but is likely the VP nom. Nikki Haley is a piece of shit.
I got to admit, I don’t prefer a Clinton/Sanders ticket (or a Clinton/Warren ticket for the same reason), because VP doesn’t really do anything, and if Sanders isn’t going to be president, then I’d much prefer keeping him in the Senate.
That’s one of the reasons Warren isn’t running for Prez, and why I highly highly doubt she’d accept a VP nomination – she feels like she can get way more done in Congress.
I think part of the reason I personally am having trouble getting excited about this presidential election is that Congress is such a dysfunctional and obstructive mess. Let’s at least keep as many good Congress members as we can!
The one thing the VP does is balance the ticket: bring in support from a group or a region where the Presidential candidate is weak. Which is why Elizabeth Warren, despite being a lovely potential candidate in her own right, is a lousy VP choice for either Clinton (also female, also white, also from the northeast) or Sanders (also lefty, also white, also from the northeast). Whereas either of them would be balanced well by Julian Castro (Latino, Texan), and he could help Clinton pull in youthful voters who tend not to like a candidate who they see as standing for the status quo. Though Sanders would be better served by choosing a woman, I think.
Yeah, I like Julian Castro as a VP candidate, and I think there’s a pretty hard push behind the scenes to set up him down the line for bigger stuff in the Democratic party. We’ll see, I guess.
man, that dude’s name is Joaquin Castro, what am I talking about dannnnnng
You’re talking about his twin brother, so it’s kinda hard to be mad at you. 😛 And they’re both winsome Democrats that would look equally good on the VP ticket (because, lol). I’m sure they have specific strengths — one of them has been on the cabinet (for HUD, I believe), the other is in the House of Representatives.
oh thank god I thought I was just being a huge asshole
NOPE, you did not pull that name out of a Mexican-sounding Name Jar.
I was OK with Obama winning last time even though at the time I was pro-Hillary, but hoo baby was I not happy with the men-children slamming her for being, like, a frigid bitch and a stick in the mud mom figure and yadda yadda and if I didn’t acknowledge that she was AWFUL I was only being a sexist and voting for a woman not a true progressive why would you do that a woman president is not progress.
I’m mildly pro-Bernie this time and yep, there are those guys again and no, Obama did not turn out to be a wildly progressive President who changed everything (surprise) and nice work, guys, turning me off the candidate because you are such annoying star-struck fuckers and only YOU are allowed to have idealistic dreams about your candidate, anyone who has them about Hillary is deluded.
Gnargggh.
AMEN. I pointed out to a friend yesterday that Hillary would be (was) the first woman to win the Iowa caucuses and got a very snarky response back. Which is fine, but like I’m allowed to point that out as an interesting fact without “making it all about my gender” or whatever. Those guys are everywhere!! some of them are girls!
I overheard my moronic (female) coworkers talking this morning about how they have disliked Hillary since the ’90s, because of Bill’s infidelity. So…that makes me hate them even more. I’m guessing they don’t dislike Bill for his infidelity.
I tend to just vote based on issue alignment, and I align more with Clinton than Sanders, mostly because of gun control. But I really do not understand the absolute vitriol toward Hillary. Sure, she is calculated and she is slippery. In the same way Bill was/is. In the same way 99.8% of politicians are. But people totally hate her in a way that I think can only be because she’s a woman who is calculated and working very hard to get what she wants. It makes me sad.
Thank you! One of the commenters above mentioned Clinton’s egomania and all I can think when I hear that claim as a point/unique thing about her, is that ANY ONE who thinks they should be president has a very strong ego!!
On the flip side, I’m not going to vote for Hillary solely because we’re both women. I’m a Bernie supporter, and if Hillary gets the nomination I’ll vote for her over a Republican, but I don’t relate to anything about her.
This, yes.
The Bernie Bros kill me. I have been feeling really sad about it this morning. They claim to be so liberal and progressive, but I think they are embodying misogyny by refusing to consider Clinton (not because she is a woman but because she is an outspoken woman).
I am just so disappointed. I like Bernie, I like Clinton better, but the attitude of the Bernie supporters is shutting down my ability to even consider him. I think they’re hateful.
The Bernie Bros are so self-defeating, too, like, their candidate absolutely cannot win without Democratic women’s support. You can’t neg someone into voting for you!
Oh I am stealing the last sentence of your comment for future debates (let’s help there are very few)!
I have to admit that last line made me snort…
I feel like that’s more of a problem with Bros in general than Bernie supporters. I have several kind, feminist guy friends who are also Bernie supporters.
I feel like saying the Bros are putting you off of Bernie is equivalent to a guy saying he wouldn’t consider Hillary because she’s the soccer-mom candidate or what have you.
True, but the only vocal Sanders supporters I know (and view on social media) are of the Bro variety. I’m not writing off Bernie nor all of his supporters, but I just cannot with the vindictiveness.
I keep seeing people say this so it must be a thing, but it is so far removed from the experiences I’ve had/am having with Bernie supporters that I legitimately have a hard time wrapping my head around it.
Bernie is Reddit’s candidate of choice (by far) and they HATE Clinton so you might imagine what kind of garbage is spewed as a result of that. Obviously Reddit is trash and those douches are not representative of all Bernie fans, but if you’re looking for where the asshole Sanders supporters are, go on literally any politics thread on Reddit and there they will be.
Ah. I avoid reddit like any number of plagues, so that probably has something to do with it. The guys I know who support Bernie are super-chill, and rarely (if ever) have anything negative to say about Clinton, and it’s easy to extrapolate one way or the other.
I did read a really interesting piece the other day here that drew some interesting parallels between the Sanders campaign and the BernieBro “thing” and what happened to Jeremy Corbin in the UK. I have little knowledge of how the Corbin campaign went down but it was interesting, at any rate.
I don’t read reddit very often but when I do… like of course that’s the go-to place on the internet to find rage about a female presidential candidate. It is funny though because they lean heavily libertarian which makes me think there are some things they misunderstand about the Sanders campaign???
yeah, wasn’t Reddit all over Ron Paul as a 3rd party candidate last time? A lot of the things I read about *him* over there made no sense with his actual positions, either…
I think Reddit is in a weird place politically where “don’t tax me, don’t touch my guns, and don’t fund services for marginalized people!!” meet “I want free healthcare, free tuition, and robust social services that fit my own personal needs” with a side of “screw those rich establishment jerks, take their money and give it to me.”
So they end up talking about libertarians (Ron Paul) as if they’re going to espouse any sort of social safety-net policies when they’re in office, which they won’t, and then talking about progressives (Bernie Sanders) as if they’re going to enact a lighter version of their real agenda that somehow raises taxes only on the rich establishment jerks and gets all the “good” social services stuff done but doesn’t infringe on anybody’s “liberties.” Whatever that means.
R/politics is so weird.
Of course, last time they were also all over Ron Paul because of weed…
I can’t remember what Bernie has said about weed, but yeah most of their enthusiasm seems to be pot/free college/not a lady. which ignores a lot of his other views!!
I am a Hillary supporter but I don’t get this criticism. You definitely don’t win Iowa on the power of college-aged dudes alone. My parents were leaning towards him til I got to them, and the caucus for their unhip, baby-boomer neighborhood went for him by a good margin last night.
Clinton’s campaigns have always favored this kind of messaging, whether officially or at the grassroots, and the sneering about ‘Bernie bros’ and ‘liberal & white’ is pretty funny in light of her supporters’ 2008 race-baiting which spawned, among other notables, the Birther movement. I guess you can’t accuse Bernie of being too black, so ‘man’ it is.
It seems very close to the Republicans’ “oh man pocs hate our policies, I know! Let’s run a Hispanic guy!” view of how people work
Honestly, it feels more like the Dawkins/Hitchens New Atheist assholes putting me off identifying as an atheist.
Actually, I do think there’s a salient difference between being put off by a candidate’s identity vs. being put off by the behavior of a significant number of the people supporting a candidate. I don’t think being put off by Bernie’s more misogynistic supporters is equivalent to being put off by the fact that Hillary appears to fit a stereotype, at all.
Oh, I didn’t mean Hillary fits the soccer-mom type. I meant that soccer-mom types would vote for her.
She’s actually not really a soccer-mom type at all.
Back in ’08, I wasted at least 15 or 20 minutes I will never get back explaining to some Obama fanboy that speeches about “hope and change” aside, his candidate of choice was actually more centrist than either Clinton or Edwards. Sanders has drawn these douchebags out of hiding again and I am already heartily sick of them. They won’t admit that they cannot support a woman; she could offer them a pony, free healthcare, and forgive every student loan ever, and they would still sulk because OMG she looks and sounds like Mom reminding you to clean up your damn room.
People have been complaining about Hillary since the 90s. There were Hillary nutcrackers you could buy (you probably still can) where she cracks walnuts with her thighs, horrible ‘jokes’ and cartoons about what a shrew she was, etc etc etc. She’s not my favorite candidate but it’s SO sickening to hear her slammed for over 20 years now for stuff that has nothing to do with her ideas or policy. Try bringing up the obvious sexism though and it’s a firestorm of even worse hate.
It’s rage inducing and tedious at the same time how little it changes.
Yeah; I think anyone under, maybe 25, doesn’t remember how BAD it was. They mocked her for using her maiden and married names, starting the narrative of a power-hungry cold career woman that is still there. I remember people complaining that she wanted to set up her office in the West Wing, and that wasn’t what first ladies were supposed to do. There was a lot of comparing her to the normal bland politician’s wife that we got next in Laura Bush, about whom I can remember literally nothing. This was just a few years after people skewered Anita Hill for ‘causing trouble’ and not having a sense of humor about being sexually harrassed. I remember around the same time as the first Clinton term (mid-90s), my mom complaining that telemarketers/the phone company would call our house and ask to talk to her husband. She was single, and pretty capable of deciding which long distance company to sign on with, thx. This was during my lifetime, that people were literally like ‘is the man of the house available?’. Crazy. The sexism against any woman who challenged a sort of benign housewife role was soooo much worse than it is now. And those criticisms just seem to cling to Hillary in ways I can’t comprehend, even after people have largely moved on.
Yes, yes, all of this. The negativity barrage is not coming from nowhere — it has a real history.
Literally my first realization as a child that sexism was still A Thing was my neighbor telling incredibly nasty jokes about Hillary and Chelsea’s appearances. Chelsea couldn’t have been older than 14 then.
I remember hearing about that! Was it Limbaugh or someone else who compared her to a dog? Ugh.
YUP http://www.pensitoreview.com/2014/12/02/flashback…
I was a teenager when Chelsea Clinton was in the White House. People said very many ugly things about her based solely on her appearance. Being an awkward teen is bad enough without being hugely famous or having your parent’s infidelity splashed across the universe. I don’t know enough about her to say one way or another what she is like, but she has survived some shit.
In 2008 there were also the PUMAs. All those racist “if I can’t vote for a white woman I’m gonna go Republican”s. They infected comment sections and Facebook pages everywhere. Clinton never said a word about them or tried to shut them up. I didn’t blame her for them (and I won’t blame her if some similar anti-Sanders group shows up this time around), and I don’t blame Sanders for the bros (though I wish he would give them one “if you think you are speaking for me you are wrong, wrong, wrong!” moment).
But I don’t hold the candidates responsible for the vile people who attack others in their name. Well, maybe Ron Paul. But nobody else.
I guess that’s what happens when a major contingent of one candidate’s supporters aren’t old enough to remember voting for John Kerry.
That was my first presidential election. It was so painful.
My first voting experience was Gore v. Bush. So…I have very low expectations for things turning out ok in the end.
My first was for Obama, so I’ve set myself up for a lifetime of disappointment. 😀 At least I know that, though?
Yeah, you’re more self aware than most! I honestly think a lot of people who are young enough that they haven’t voted, or haven’t voted for anyone but Obama, don’t realize how good they’ve had it. After 8 years of Bush, voting for Obama was like so happy, so cathartic. But, the majority of the time, it really is picking the lesser of two mehs. If people are going to give up on voting when they aren’t 100% entranced by the candidate, turnout is going to be really low. And the GOP will probably win in that scenario.
I am self-aware because I DRINK political commentary in as though it were my LIFE-BLOOD.
Back in 2008 I was just a devoted Jon Stewart junkie, I never felt strongly about Hillary one way or another. But after the election, I started watching (that is, reading) politics, including political history, in earnest. I like to be as knowledgeable and aware as possible (or healthy).
So yeah, I feel pretty damn certain that my first president is also going to be my best president, and from here on out it’s just going to be a series of pragmatic judgments, which I’m honestly fine with. Anyone who gets into politics is going to have some issues (though at least women are less likely to yank their dicks out). I have deep respect for Machiavelli and am far more skeptical of any “pure,” ideological candidate.
Oh god, people turning 18 this year were in elementary school when Bush was president.
People turning 18 this year are too young to remember what life was like before 9/11 and probably don’t remember the event itself, either.
Ha, right?
First semester of sophomore year and I was taking a class called “American Politics and Elections.” Professor threw out the syllabus in the second week of November and just told us to write a page on the day’s news for every class session.
(Coincidentally, I was in an upper-level international relations class literally when the Twin Towers fell, as in that very minute, at which point the professor also threw out the syllabus and told us to read up on Reagan’s “splendid little war.”)
Oh god. I voted for Nader. [sad trombone]
ME TOO. But in a state I knew would go for Gore anyway, and it did, so I still don’t feel bad.
Sanders himself is pretty clear that if he loses he will be pushing hard for Clinton to win. We’ll see.
Let’s hope he can carry his followers with him.
More than that I’m hoping that some of his momentum can push into governors’ races. That’s where his politics could actually make a difference!
YES, this.
yeah. I see a lot of Bernie supporters who HATE Hillary with some serious vitriol, while I feel like most Hillary supporters are more like “Hillary is better but Bernie is also cool and if he wins the primary I’ll support him”
I am weirdly satisfied that Ted Cruz won because Marco Rubio is an actual contender who could get us a GOP president and that is truly my worst nightmare. I know it’s just the early stages, but at least Ted Cruz has enough fucking nutjob craziness in there that it wouldn’t be difficult to smear him into oblivion. Also if you know any young people or progressives, please get on their ass now to get out and vote.
Much like the vote, I’m still on the fence re: Hillary and Bernie because I’m not sure of the two who could actually get more done. My emotional response to Hillary is 1) she’s a woman, and it’s time, 2) she made some huge missteps in the past and I think she wants to make them right, and 3) I really loved her as Secretary of State. Bernie, on the other hand, 1) he’s a socialist and it’s time, 2) he shoots from the hip and I RELATE to that, and 3) he’s the best kind of crotchety old man we’re gonna get.
I agree with this, and would have like Rubio to have had a poorer showing in Iowa, since I don’t think either Cruz or Trump have a ghost of a chance in the general.
I guess what I really hope is that Cruz or Trump pulls out just ahead in the primaries, but then the RNC overturns it and gives the nomination to Rubio, provoking large-scale defection and finally cracking that fault that runs through the middle of the GOP.
(I’d have preferred they do it with Jeb, since there’s no way anyone was going to take him seriously, and his legacy credentials would have made it even worse, but I don’t think that’s going to happen.)
lol, if Jeb had won the nomination the country would’ve done a collective shrug and said “Okay. Hillary it is then.”
Do you really think it would provoke large-scale deflection? I think there would be a lot of outcry about rights and policies and what not, but eventually they’d come together and realize the best man got the nomination and if they want to end this godforsaken libtard bullshit they’d better vote for their party.
What really worries me about Rubio is his kinda-maybe support of immigration reform. Whoever gets the Dem nomination needs a Latino VP whose parents are immigrants.
I really do; I think there’s a strong nihilistic streak in a portion of the GOP base — a sort of impending-apocalypse crowd that is exactly the crowd that’s going for Trump and Cruz, and who might say, “Screw it, let them have a libturd president, this country is going to go to hell and I’m going to be ready for it” that would spoil Jeb’s chances. (And it doesn’t even have to be very large; Mitt Romney lost by four percentage points, and the demographics of the electorate this year are going to be even tougher.)
I don’t think Rubio’s immigration position is going to help him; he’s been running from it for months now, and in order to maintain favorability with an increasingly jingoistic base that’s already inclined to mistrust him based on his ethnicity, he probably won’t be able to pivot back to it in the general — and, even if he did, now he’s on record supporting immigration, then opposing it when he got push back, then supporting it again, all in the space of, what, two years? I think that even if there’s a large population of Latino voters who are single-issue on immigration, there’s little chance that they’d trust him over it.
I was listening to some GOP bigwig on the radio the other day who says he and many of his friends are pulling for Trump– they know he’d lose the general and make a mockery of the party, but it would all be worth it if it means Cruz gets cut out of any position of influence within the party.
well, I agree, in that case
I’m VERY in love with your hope about the GOP earthquake.
I actually would prefer Rubio as the nominee, because whoever the GOP candidate is, he’s automatically going to have a very good chance at winning — just because we’ve had a Democrat president the last eight years, and that’s how the country tends to swing with its short-term memory of the Bush years.
So Cruz as the nominee would scare me shitless. Yes, he’s a right-wing lunatic and his own party hates his guts, but I also feel like they’d be berated to get in line behind him, just so the Democrats don’t win again — and there’s no denying he’s awfully smart, so he will do whatever he can to sound good in the general.
And yeah, there’s that apocalyptic element of the country that will think he’s awfully attractive, with his shut-down-the-government ways.
I really do believe the country needs at least two sane, healthy parties to have a sane, healthy democracy. A reasonable GOP would strengthen the Democrat party as well. Obviously the GOP are nowhere near that goal right now, but if they can swing toward a more moderate candidate like Rubio, I breathe easier.
tl;dr I can imagine a future America under President Rubio; not so much under President Cruz.
I don’t see that Cruz and Rubio are as far apart as you seem to think they are. Plus Rubio wants to spy on everyone. No thanks, for me.
They’re different enough in their personality, their political styles, how they express their ambitions. Rubio plays it safe more, Cruz is willing to burn everything down (including his relationship with fellow GOP senators).
What I learned from the Iowa Caucus is that I will be absolutely devastated if Hillary is not the nominee. I knew I supported her, and I voted for her in ’08 and attended campaign rallies and all that jazz, but I was not prepared for how disappointed and…just…SAD I got as her lead dwindled and dwindled last night. I don’t remember being that upset when she lost to Obama!
This is gonna be a rough primary season.
In my precinct, she earned one delegate (to Bernie’s 6) by 1 person. It was hard.
well, whatever else happens today, I am proud that I have successfully put up a comment in the open thread that a lot of people are interested in discussing! I feel like this was a positive contribution on my part, thank you all very much!
I would like to see best deleted comments of this thread, personally.
This whole thread has been calm and well-reasoned! It’s a thing of BEAUTY. I have never loved the commentariat here more.
The Society 6 artist who made the Zora Neale Hurston tote has a TON of Illustrated Women in History products. The Sojourner Truth and Alison Bechdel ones are particularly great.
Dyatlov Pass incident, yusss.
Nikki please stream your impending nuptials to J. Cho so we can all attend/writhe with beneficent jealousy.
Man, I should be inclined to support PETA (vegetarian for eighteen years!), but they always lose me when they start saying that stuff that happens to animals is the same as stuff that happens to people. Factory farming is terrible, but it is not like slavery. Why? Because slavery happened to people. And it really sounds like they’re degrading the humanity of those people when they make that comparison.
They also quite frequently degrade the humanity of women, so….
For various reason PETA is probably the worst thing that could have ever happened to Animal Welfare. Any sensible animal person see’s what idiots they are.
If you want to support animal welfare, you’re far better finding organisations that want to improve factory conditions and regulations and that educated the public about responsible pet ownership. Instead of an organisation that bangs on about how every animal is precious, takes in loads of money, and doesn’t achieve anything apart from promoting itself.
(Sorry. PETA induces rage in me.)
I was just gearing up for my PETA rant but you beat me to it. They are bananas.
PETA RAGE!
Apparently I’m a horrific abuser because I give my horses a job and am selective about the ones I give my limited resources too. I’d be much better off hoarding every horse I find in a field until I can’t afford to feed them all and they starve to death.
I feel bad for the people who don’t understand the difference and get swept up in PETA’s bullshit. Most of them are probably good people who just want to help animals, but they want the animal world to be all Disney and Roses instead of the brutal land of animals that get sick and die.
Are we not horrific abusers just for having horses (and any pets) at all, or have they moved on from there?
TBH I stopped listening and get most of my info about PETA from that South Park episode.
My understanding is that, like, no one can, like, *own* and animal man, they are, like, their own, like, people? You can like, share your life with an animal, and like, be its guardian like? (My impression of a PETA representative)
Basically I think its ok to have pets so long as you take in any animal that needs a home, regardless of time, resources, space, or medical conditions. And never do any training or give the animal job, because that’s cruel. No matter how much they pretend they like it. (And I totally agree with this because none of the horses or dogs I’ve ever known have gotten bored and started a reign of destruction just for fun. None of them. Not even that pony that destroyed all of my electric fencing. He wasn’t bored at all.)
No, see, you’re supposed to pay thousands of dollars for enrichment to put in their pasture. Give them a fake job so they can enjoy themselves without benefiting you at all. if you benefit, you’re exploiting them.
Do these PETA folks not realize that horses are VERY self-destructive animals? *rage face*
The equine digestive system is basically designed to kill a horse. Let’s not even get started on the many ways a horse can find to injure itself in a perfectly safe (i.e. no barbed wire ect.) paddock. I could go on about this for hours…
PETA is the wooooooorst. Also weren’t they basically running a huge kill shelter in NYC or something?
I’m actually not against kill shelters entirely, Kill/NoKill are far to emotive titles though (No Kill sounds great in theory, but in practice what are they planning on doing with all the animals no one wants? Are they just going to hang on to them? Then what about all of the other animals they could be helping, but they’re full?)
But the hypocrisy of PETA over it all is ridiculous.
Yeah the kill/no-kill thing is a thorny issue. I think anyone who loves animals wishes all shelters were no-kill, but that has to come with some sort of initiative to lower the overall stray population so that there aren’t too many overflow animals.
I like what Best Friends is doing in LA with the “No Kill LA” thing, where they’re making a big push for adoption in the area while at the same time offering free spay/neuter services (and catch-neuter-release for stray cats) and giving grants to smaller local shelters so that they can house more animals. But Best Friends has a ton of resources, so while it’s great that they can mount this effort it’s not exactly feasible for most other organizations.
Such sense! Promote adoption and educate people not to breed their animals and you will have less unwanted animals! I don’t understand why people don’t get that.
It’s a real problem with horses, because unlike cats and dogs, where they’re usually just breeding by accident; a lot of people breed horses deliberately assuming they can make money on it, but they don’t breed an animal that would be useful or worth any money or their breeding for an already saturated market (Racehorses); and there’s the the cowboys who just allow their horses to run wild and multiply, and of course can’t afford the vet fees and care associated with breeding healthy animals.
If only more people would adopt dogs. My friend was telling me about her brother in law, they wanted to adopt a puppy for the kids, and they found a lovely 8-ish week old puppy in a shelter, but he said that by the time they got the dog home (2-3 weeks) it would be too big and not a puppy any more, so they should buy a puppy instead. WHERE THE FUCK IS TH SENSE IN THAT. You’re going to turn down a perfectly lovely dog that’s going to live for at least the next 10 years because of two weeks where its going to be an annoying puppy? People are stupid man.
I definitely hear you on the horse thing. The whole racing industry is so ridiculous now, and yeah California Chrome was fun and all but now everyone’s gonna think they can backyard-breed the next triple crown winner. And things were already bad before that! Ugh. I have so many feelings about this, but my feelingest feeling is that the off-the-track thoroughbred I rode for many years was a very lovely, lazy dude, and I’m so thankful my farm could give him a good home.
The story about your friend’s bro in law ENRAGES me. I wouldn’t want that family having any pets at all if that’s the attitude they’ve got!! And I feel terrible for whatever dog they did end up with.
I have a sentimental reason to be against them: my two lovely cats were at the shelter for six months before we adopted them. A kill shelter would have euthanize them way before then. But if the stray population is really out of control, and it’s the only way to keep going, I can see the sense in it.
I know I probably don’t need to say this at the toast, but: adopt, people! They even have puppies and kittens looking for homes, so that can’t be an argument. And there ARE advantages to getting an older pet, for example that you can gauge their personality much better.
I have the same sentimental reason. My dog was in the shelter for a while before I found her. She’s a great dog but she can’t use one of her legs and I imagine maybe that made her a little harder to adopt out. I’m so glad the shelter was no kill!
Me too, my senior dog siblings were shelter residents for 3 months, and it wasn’t looking good for them. (And now they make excellent foot-warmers–so fluffy–and protect me from pedestrians everyday.)
My cat was in the shelter for 9 months, and was very unhappy there. That’s why I adopted her instead of a really affectionate cat that tried its best to act like a fur stole, actually.
My boyfriend and I eventually plan to get a dog, and when we do we’re getting a young adult. I do not want to deal with a puppy. And I want to know the dog’s temperament before we adopt.
I confused a resident where I work recently, though. She asked “what kind of dog are you going to get?” and I said “small and fluffy and lazy and probably a little stupid.” Turns out she meant what BREED. I….don’t really care? It’s gonna be from the humane society. I mean, we love corgis, but we don’t have the space or time for a dog that smart and active.
Virginia, too: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/05/pets-she…
A 1% adoption and 99% kill rate, and their response statement was
“It’s easy to point the finger at those who are forced to do the “dirty work” caused by a throwaway society’s casual acquisition and breeding of dogs and cats who end up homeless and unwanted, but at PETA, we will never turn our backs on neglected, unloved, and homeless animals — even if the best we can offer them is a painless release from a world that doesn’t have enough heart or homes with room for them.”
They kill so many animals and when I used to live in Virginia I was mad about it all the time. I worked briefly at a restaurant where PETA employees would frequently send in one intern to pick up takeaway lunch for their whole team and my boss learned very quickly that “lemonack can’t be front of house when PETA gets here because she’s going to start an argument that puts everyone off their meals.”
Thank you for this. Now I can tell myself there was one time they called for delivery, and lemonack doesn’t work there anymore, due to the incident.
I’ve only been a vegetarian for 14 years, but I agree, PETA is awful.
I went vegetarian in 2003 and have been vegan off and on since 2005 and PETA ARE THE WORST. I swear nobody hates PETA as much as other animal rights/welfare people.
nah, I am certain PETA only stands for two causes: 1) the promotion of PETA and 2) the meat industry, which funds PETA to make veg*ns look ridiculous, you can’t convince me otherwise.
PETA the ultimate propaganda tool for Big Meat. I love it and I’m stealing it.
PETA is terrible, they don’t support no kill shelters because part of their extreme vegan beliefs are that animals should not be pets and that a pet animal is better off dead or free. I’m vegan and find them morally reprehensible
wait they don’t support no kill shelters????????? I hate PETA for their racist/ sexist ads and stuff, but that’s bonkers.
ETA: I have done little to no thinking on the ethics of kill vs. no kill shelters, that just surprised me.
PETA is the worst and I’m also a vegetarian/mostly vegan for ethical reasons. A lot of people deep into animal activism reaaaally lose sight of why the holocaust/slavery comparisons are incredibly troubling and offensive for 99.9% of the world. Hurts way more than it helps.
My kids were in 4h and showed goats, rabbits, and chickens. I had to teach my 5 year old how to talk about her animals at the fair, because anybody asking her questions could be from PETA. One year they “set free” all the kids bunnies. Nobody who hasn’t done 4h knows that the fair is the reward for an entire year of hard work. I was livid.
Also, those poor “freed” bunnies probably died soon after because they couldn’t take care of themselves. Good job, PETA.
OMG I’m so sorry. Were the bunnies ok? My spouse’s coworker just rescued a pet bunny whose people were letting run around the neighborhood because house buns are not really equipped for fending for themselves outside in a neighborhood full of cars, dogs, foxes, and occasional coyotes.
No, a bunch were lost, and some ran into the horse arenas and spooked the girls on the horses…it was bad, bad, bad. I hate them.
Oh my god, I’m so sorry. What a mess, and what a thing to have to try to explain to a bunch of kids who were just showing off all their hard work.
I have a horse that is very reactive to other horses spooking/freaking out…this is one of my worst nightmares. If I was a mother of a young rider and my kid got dumped and injured over freed bunnies, HEADS WOULD ROLL FULL STOP.
That is dreadful.
WTF, that’s horrible. How would a bunch of house bunnies survive outdoors? For people who claim to love animals they sure don’t understand them at all.
Anyone else remember when they “released” minks from a fur farm? And most were promptly run over on the highway…
They’ve also “set free” lab animals on a number of occasions. Even if you don’t agree with animal testing, mice that have lived inside their whole lives aren’t exactly fit for survival in the wild, you’re just dooming them. There was also a case (which I’m not 100% sure was PETA) where protestors switched all the cage cards in an animal facility so researchers couldn’t tell which animals were which. Spoiler alert: if you destroy a bunch of people’s research by making it impossible to identify the animals, they don’t end up freeing the animals in a fit of regret.
Oh lord, I’ve had pet rats, and they’ve all been adoptions/rescues, and I can just imagine PETA getting mad at me for having caged animals. Domesticated rats can’t fend for themselves and also have very visible fur markings.
They also believe people should not have pets, even though they can IMPROVE quality of life. And they’re connected to the Earth Liberation Front (one has monetarily supported the other), which is considered a terrorist group. And they kill an average of 90% of the animals they rescue (petakillsanimals.com). You’re way better supporting a local no-kill animal shelter. (At least IMO.)
And yeah, comparing factory farming to slavery is incredibly racist.
There is a Kickstarter running to finish a documentary about Ursula Le Guin. That is Toast-relevant, right? https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/arwencurry/w…
The attorney for Naruto
BELIEVE IT!!!
Thanks to all of you who responded to my query yesterday. Your insights, experience, and support was so incredibly helpful. <3
you need to watch some Harold Lloyd, is what.
He analogized Naruto’s supposed inability to own a copyright to an enslaved African-American’s inability to own a patent prior to the adoption of the 14th Amendment.
noooooo (This sort of argument is much less awful when it’s coming from Herc Shipwright in Cabin Pressure.)
(I do have conflicting feelings about this sort of thing sometimes, because when I sit down and try to think about why humans are more important than animals and things that happen to animals are less bad/important I don’t think I can actually justify it. But comparisons between enslaved African-Americans and animals are a terrible, terrible idea, and also no, animals cannot own a copyright.)
I don’t have an answer to why humans are more important than animals, but we just are. Animals don’t live on the same level of consciousness, they don’t have an awareness of their own mortality or the abstract thinking that has allowed humanity to grow as much as we have.
I will fight anyone who says animal welfare isn’t important. They feel suffering and pain and they have a right to comfort, care and good health (for domesticated animals) and a right to their habitat and to be left alone (for wild animals).
But animals don’t have a concept of intellectual property, and PETA just want the publicity and money this case could bring them. If they actually wanted to help the monkeys they would be using the image and the story to raise awareness and funds for conservation, not pissing money away on a stupid lawsuit.
Repeat after me animal lovers: Animal Welfare is important, Animal Rights are a stupid distraction.
I certainly agree with you about animal welfare being the highest priority and stuff like “should animals have intellectual property rights?” as being nonsense that just gets in the way of more important stuff. But I struggle with the “humans are more important because we just are” argument when applied more broadly than in this case – I think it’s what I feel, but I don’t think I can intellectually justify it. And it’s used for things like “this is why it’s okay to eat meat” and “this is why it’s okay to carry out animal testing”, and I don’t feel strongly enough to disagree, but the argument that humans are more important than animals and therefore it’s okay to test stuff on animals for human benefit makes me feel uncomfortable.
Oh totally. I more meant, I can’t articulate why; but people care more about people than animals, but animals deserve dignity and respect, just not the same rights as a person. Does that make sense?
I do not agree with people using ‘animals aren’t as important as humans’ to justify cruelty to them, and I do think that its a comparable mindset to the ‘Other people aren’t as important as my tribe/country people so its ok to kill and torture them’ mindset (although not on the same level and no where near slavery, just that there’s a crossover of people who think this way)
I don’t know how to justify eating meat or owning animals, other than its just ok because they’re not people; but I don’t think that just because we can eat them and own them we’re allowed to inflicted pain and suffering on them. We have a responsibly to the animals in our care, and in our food chain, to see that they live as comfortably as possible (until we kill them, and eat them obviously.). And wild animals have just as much right to this planet and we do, we all live here and we don’t get to remove their home just because we’re smarter or ‘better’ in some way.
My dad grew up on a farm, and has told me about their steers (Simon & Garfunkel), who roamed around freely (except when it was too cold and they had to stay in their nice warm stalls), received ear skritches, and then were taken quietly away from the other animals and quickly shot in the head before they had any notion of what was happening. This is my platonic ideal of ethical carnivorism.
I kind of justify eating meat as “this animal was raised for the specific purpose of being eaten.” I try to buy organic as much as possible because I want that animal to have been comfortable, but at the end of the day, it was bred for a purpose. I would eat a farmed dog that had been raised with the intention and expectation that it was meat; I would not eat my neighbor’s labrador, because it was raised for a different purpose.
I almost missed my bus stop this morning because I was re-reading “If John Cho Were Your Boyfriend,” and it totally would have been worth it to trek an extra three blocks in the snow, because John Cho.
John Cho is going to be so heartbroken when he finds out that Nikki is married.
His wife probably won’t be, though.
Polyamory is an option
Iowa hero refuses to acknowledge Ted Cruz rally happening in his gym.
That link led me down a rabbithole that ended with an article about how horny Diane Keaton is.
Life is a rich tapestry.
Ooo, since silent comedy is lost on you, more seats at Second Saturday Silent Cinema for me!
(BTW, while they aren’t technically comedy, Hitchcock’s silent films are hilarious.)
There was a Dear Prudie letter (before Mallory’s rule) in which a widower wanted to know whether it was wrong to give his new girlfriend his wife’s old vibrator. It was just gently used, he said, and it was expensive enough (“it’s a Jopen!”) that he didn’t want to simply throw it away.
Now I’m wondering how many used-sex-toy questions Mallory’s gotten so far.
I meeeeeeeeeean, that’s pretty different from making your own decision to purchase/obtain a used toy. I remember that letter, but I don’t remember how he intended to give it to her – whether it was to be presented just as “used” or as “used by my first wife.” Neither is great.
“Here’s a brand-new vibrator I bought just for you! I took it out of the packaging to save you the bother and the trash was already picked up today but trust me on this one.”
Last night I had a dream that I was complaining to a friend that all the books coming out recently were twee and hipster self help books. My dream friend helpfully pointed out a book that was not. It was in fact “Body Horrors with Gilbert Gottfried.”
Thank you subconscious, that was seriously weird to wake up from.
That title needs to be used for something immediately.
I would read the ever-loving shit out of that tbh
Obviously we need to get in contact with Mr. Gottfried’s agent and start up a kickstarter immediately!
I had a dream last night about baby monitors that ran on paraffin. Possibly the worst invention of all time.
You know, there are just some things that you shouldn’t steampunk…
– That piece about the evictions was a disturbing counterpart to the one from the other day about the woman who couldn’t afford to retire. My landlord did a “curb” eviction some months ago, and it was just the saddest sight, because there were a lot of kid things out there–like, toddler-sized toy car stuff. It sat out for a few days, getting picked at by passers-by until someone hauled the rest of it to the dumpster. It’s something that I thought about when I got a notice from my landlord recently that I had five days to pay that month’s rent or face eviction; I had, in fact, paid it weeks before, and the apartment manager was somewhat apologetic when I informed them of this (they somehow misplaced the check), but yeah, they’re that fast to move.
– Ugh, not PETA again. They’re like Martin Shkreli in that they do and say things that seem deliberately designed to make people dislike them.
– So many great things in that Molly Crabapple interview:
“The thing that I hate is that Nicholas Kristof style of writing where it’s like, ‘I saw the poor, they made me so sad. What can I do about sadness? I am so brave.’ It’s just like, shut up, man, shut up.”
‘And you know what’s funny? So many people have said to me, ‘I like Donald Trump because he just says what he thinks, he doesn’t give a shit.’ This is essentially the appeal of other people like Putin, Netanyahu or Erdogan. Besides, it’s the appeal of fascism: it’s replacing where your political thinking should be with a sexual fantasy of someone who’s big, strong, and tells you what to do and doesn’t ask a lot of questions.”
“The truth is, the vast majority of medical care for lower income people in America is shitty.”
Really, just read the whole thing. For someone who’s such a gifted visual artist, she has a remarkable talent for sharp, pithy verbal observation as well.
Did you make sure the landlord didn’t report you to credit rating agencies? Might be good to just double-check.
Tenant protections vary so much state by state. I’d love to see a breakdown sometime. I used to live in MA, where the tenant protections are very strong, and it took my landlady years (not months) to finally evict a tenant who had been living in the building for decades and stopped paying rent for the last few years. They also had a special department in city hall for people whose landlords were not properly heating the building in winter. Don’t know what it’s like in my current state, but I’m guessing the tenant protection is going to be a little less robust!
Sansa is a fuzzy menace.
There is a Kickstarter running to finish a documentary about Ursula Le Guin. That is Toast-relevant, right?
Fuck PETA guys, this animal photo story is much better. What a miserable lot.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/rosebuchanan/the-on-going…
Oh man. These people!
how does a person get more than like three words into that before stopping themselves and thinking ‘wait, what the hell am I doing’
Here’s a piece of absurd Ted Cruz humor to hopefully brighten your days:
Ted Cruz has yet to deny that he’s the Zodiac Killer
YES YES YES
Is there an infinite Jest audiobook? Is that even possible? Has anyone listened to it?
There is! Without footnotes, however.
seriously?! what even is the point.
Dyatlov Pass? You mean DyatLOVE Pass. I went down the rabbit hole with this podcast a few weeks ago: http://www.astonishinglegends.com/portfolio/ep023…
The so-called “Yeti picture” is on the page for episode 2.
(then scare yourself shitless with “Shadow People” episode).
Yesssssssss new mystery podcast
Guys, the Food52 Piglet Tournament of Cookbooks is back! https://food52.com/the-piglet/2016
I am a big fan of food politics and last year inspired some pretty interesting discourse on sexism and class privilege (ETA: another great piece), so I’m excited for what this year will bring.
From the 100 Best Jokes:
Burns: Do you like to love?
Allen: No.
Burns: Like to kiss?
Allen: No.
Burns: What do you like?
Allen: Lamb chops.
Burns: Lamb chops. Could you eat two big lamb chops alone?
Allen: Alone? Oh, no, not alone. With potatoes I could.
I submit that we make Gracie Allen a matron saint of the Toast posthaste.
Co-signed. I <3 her so! (Also, she reminds me of my late beloved grandma).
I’ve been reading their Wikipedia pages. I love them and I worry about the possibility of anything making me rethink that.
From Wikipedia: “In later years Burns admitted that he had a very brief affair. Stricken by guilt, he phoned one of his best friends, Jack Benny, and told him about the indiscretion. However, Allen overheard the conversation and Burns quietly bought an expensive centerpiece and diamond ring and nothing more was said. Years later, he discovered that Allen had told one of her friends, Mary Livingstone (Jack Benny’s wife), about the episode, finishing with, “You know, I really wish George would cheat on me again; I could use a new centerpiece.””
That is a quite healthy attitude to have, I must say.
NICOLE ARE YOU GETTING THAT FRAMED HOLY COW
multiple copies, framed and displayed in every room of the house. I don’t think it’ll be weird for visitors or family at all.
On the subject of sparkly flats, I went and got pricey fancy new balance sneakers, since my old sneakers were from high school? And thus 15ish years old?
And they did that foot measuring thing, found I had collapsed high arches, and steered me over to “shoes more expensive than the ones I came in to buy” and I wanted to be all cynical only…once they were on my feet it was like a light shone down and Ave Maria started playing and the very clouds of heaven parted.
So I bought them and it’s been two weeks and now I’m wearing them every day, and I tried to wear my normal pretty flats over the weekend and I couldn’t hack it .
So now I think I have to renounce my sparkly flats forever, is what I’m saying…
Comfy shoes are the most glorious thing in the world and once you’ve fallen prey to them it is impossible to go back. I do not know how other women where even the slightest heel every day.
See, & I don’t even wear heels. I have created and curated a large collection of beautiful cheap ballet flats over the last few years if working with kids and hiking all over a museum campus. And now all my work is for naught.
So i guess I’m planning to wear sneaks from now on until someone yells at me about professional dress. I may also be leaving skirts and tights behind? I don’t know, this is all new and confusing.
Ballet flats are the worst! I cannot walk in them for any length of time, even the walk to the train station is too much, so I don’t wear them to work.
Come to the land of leggings and comfy shoes, its the best place to be! ‘Professional’ clothes can suck it, why do people think I can’t do my job if I’m not wearing horribly uncomfortable clothes!
I have been wearing these flats at work lately: http://www.crocs.com/p/womens-marin-colorlite-fla… (sorry my linking skills suck)
They have been great. A+, would buy crocs again
Thank you! A+ linking, this wouldn’t have occurred to me 🙂
I have several pairs of Crocs–including some flats and my rain boots. A+
INSOLES. I have found that a pair of Birkenstock insoles can be placed in many other (cheap, crappy) shoes and make them 100% more comfy.
Ooh, I’m continually confused how women can stand to wear most of the shoes that are out there. This might be because for most of my life my main form of footwear was sneakers+inserts, so the bar is set pretty high.
Congrats on your comfortable shoes!
I also have fucked-up arches and long ago accepted that flats just hate my feet. It’s actually better for them if I wear low heels because there’s more arch support. (I don’t waste time with heels though. Boots and Oxfords 5ever.)
Oxfords, you say? I see I have good options as I (slowly, paycheck permitting) rebuild a shoe collection
Oxfords! They’re popular enough that I’ve had luck finding ones that still have a pretty toe and feel right to me with dresses or ankle pants, I especially like my blush suede pair for bare legs. I’m not going to pretend that they are as comfortable as tennis shoes, but they’re still fairly supportive and adding in an orthotic insert is a real option.
Very low wedge heel. Best of both worlds.
my dream is to go to a place like this and find work shoes this way.
I have an urgent Hamilton question, Toasts. My sister and I are thinking about going to see a Sunday matinee on June 5th, for which tickets are miraculously still available at all price points. They’re also available the Sunday after that. The Sundays before and after those two weekends, though, are business as usual: all sold out, resale only.
Is something weird going on with the show those two weekends, or is it just a happy coincidence? I called the theater, and spectacularly unhelpful man said that nothing odd was going on as far as he knew, but … he didn’t seem to be putting his whole heart into answering my question.
It seems too good to be true, and thus I am extremely suspicious.
I think that the Tony Awards are on June 5th, so I think a lot of the original cast would be at those?
No, they’re a week later, on the 12th.
Might have something to do with the Tony awards.
I know the Tonys are June 12th–that might have something to do with it? I feel like that would mean people were more interested in seeing a show, and not less, though…hmm.
It’s the Tonys. But it is VERY un-kosher for nominees to call out of their shows for Tony awards day – usually everyone does the show as usual and just has a terribly long day. However, I would check the site and see if those are Javier days instead of Lin days – that might be why there are tix left.
The management might have been holding more seats back than they normally do for those performances (for a group, for the producers, for some kind of promotional event) and only recently released them. Go for it!
Y’know, I appreciate the jokes article and it is very good, but couldn’t they have just called it “The 100 American Jokes That Shaped Modern Comedy”, since that’s what it is? I certainly understand putting that limiter on it — there would be an awful lot of comedy, a great deal of it probably unfamiliar to the writers, if they opened it up to the world stage — but it always drives me nuts when titles like that assume that since they haven’t specified, obviously it’s American.
Toasties! I have a question for y’all. My doc just prescribed me a generic xanax-like thing, and I haven’t taken it yet (am medicated for depression already, this is for periodical spikes in anxiety). Any tips or experiences you’d like to share?
(sorry, this is more of an open-thread thing, I know)
Be prepared for an unpredictable response the first time you take one. Be home, somewhere comfy. The first time I took a benzo, I had to travel on the subway afterwards, nearly nodded out before I got home, and ended up with a few minutes of retrograde amnesia. Your brain will adjust quickly, but that initial dose can have quite the effect. (Or it might not at all! But better to be prepared.)
Your doctor probably told you this already, but: DO NOT MIX WITH ALCOHOL OR ANY RECREATIONAL DRUG. That is, if you like breathing and would prefer to go on doing so.
My doc gave me generic xanax for my pre-surgery jitters, and I explained to her I was nervous about it but needed something to help me calm down and sleep. She gave me the lowest dose possible, and I started off with 1/2 of 1 pill. I take anti-anxiety meds (buspirone) before bed too, so I staggered them — took the buspirone about an hour before the xanax. I found if I took them too close together I had some weird sensations before falling asleep, but other than that, the effects I noticed were mostly just a physical calming down, followed by sleepiness.
What praemunire said: the first time you take it, make absolutely sure that you have someone to watch over you in case you have a weird reaction or it hits you stronger than expected. And don’t have plans to drive or anything until it wears off, if possible.
Also, keep in mind that when you have a spike in anxiety, your pulse and blood pressure and so on are going up, and that pill will likely cause them to drop back to normal rates faster than if you calmed down naturally, so you might feel a bit lopsided(?) from that on top of any weirdness from the pill.
Also also, it’s possible that you won’t feel these things! Sometimes I took a klonopin and was like yep, we’re good, and sometimes I’d feel like I was three whiskeys in.
I’ve taken it for panic attacks and the dosage prescribed basically just knocks me out for a few hours, so hopefully yours is lower… I would echo what others have said: Definitely have people around and be in a comfortable place the first time so you know how you react. Don’t mix with alcohol or other drugs. And, I would add, don’t take it unless you absolutely have to. (Which probably comes from my experience of a highish dose and a lot of lost time from sleeping/ being zonked out… YMMV.)
Can I ask if anyone has had experience with depression caused by anemia/low hemoglobin? My daughter is suffering terribly right now: she has a chronic GI disease that’s been worse recently and has caused very low hemoglobin levels, we just did a big round of lab work that the lab utterly f’ed up and now we have to do it again, and over the past four months she’s gone from the happiest 17-year-old in the world to a sad shell of herself. I’d love to know if it’s possible the depression is caused by the anemia or if it’s a separate issue altogether.
On a semi-related note, I don’t comment often but love this community so much; there’s nowhere else on the internet I can go where people are as kind, as inclusive, and as obsessed with Hamilton as I am. 🙂
Just two cents from a Crohnie: I can’t definitively say if the anemia contributes to depression. But having a chronic illness, especially one as debilitating and life-interrupting and painful as a GI disease, very commonly causes depression. It’s really frickin’ hard to cope, especially when you’re 17. The pointlessness of fighting it can be hard to overcome, especially when you have a setback like the one you’re describing. If it’s in the budget, a therapist who specializes in chronic illnesses would be worth a look into. It certainly has helped me when I’ve had flares to fight through.
She asked me yesterday to set her up with a therapist which was a VERY big step for her, she’s been completely resistant to that in the past. But your comment made me realize I need to find one that understands the somewhat special circumstances of chronic disease, so thank you!
Good luck! This is SO TOUGH, and it’s totally normal to feel in the dark about it. Tell her an internet stranger who has been there is rooting for her.
Thanks! Internet strangers are the best kind of strangers. 😛
I can’t speak exactly to your daughter’s situation, but I spent about two months with untreated anemia and I truly thought I was losing my mind. NOPE. Just missing blood. I’ve stabilized and it’s like I’ve come back to myself. Hopefully your daughter will get a solid diagnosis and treatment plan, and all will be well.
I had untreated anaemia from July through November last year up to the point where I ended up having two weeks off work. I also felt like I was literally loosing my mind as I couldn’t think straight and had permanent brain fog.
Feeling soon much better now after 3 months and of iron treatment, though not 100% as my ferritin level is taking a while to recover.
I hope your daughter feels better soon. I’m 29 and would have hated feeling as I did even more when I was 17 and had school work to do etc.
These comments make me feel so much better, you have no idea. Thank you, and I’m glad you’re getting better!
I have had very bad anemia (I should have had a transfusion but the doctor I had didn’t believe in them).
I tried for a while to up my numbers with the iron supplements and it didn’t work. My midwife told me to take chlorophyll capsules. As many as you can 2 or 3 times a day until you poop green/black. The idea is that chlorophyll is a cell with copper in the center, and all your body has to do is swap out that for iron and boom, you have hemoglobin. This keeps your body from having to build it from scratch. I dunno, but I do know that I went from barely able to walk to almost functional in less than two weeks.
If she has allergies/hayfever, avoid chlorophyll made from alfalfa, and get the chlorophyll made from spirulina/blue green algae. Also, it doesn’t make you constipated like iron pills do.
I hope she feels better soon and that the counselor is a good fit.
Thanks–we just started her on spirulina but I was on the fence about it, so your comment helps to confirm that was a good choice.
Late as usual, but as both someone with chronic anemia and a hematology-adjacent job, yes, anemia can lead to depression. Or, maybe it makes sense to say that anemia can make you feel tired, drained, without focus, and irritated, which then makes you feel depressed. It’s one of the first things I keep a look out for, actually: if I’m super exhausted and meh about doing anything, it often means I need more iron.
Keep in mind, too, that reference ranges are great but she might feel best outside of them. My iron has always been low, from what historical data I can get. I feel good at a hct around 34-35 and a hemoglobin around 110-115. Most labs will put me as deficient at those levels, but trying to raise my iron intake after that isn’t worth the effort: I feel the same at 110 as I do at 130, only with more stomach upset from iron supplements at 130. If she finds a point where she’s not symptomatic and is happy, don’t stress too much if it puts her slightly outside the references. They’re guides, not absolutes.
Dear Prudie was awesome today, fyi.
My aunt is Mrs. Bennet, however. My sister and I are TERRIBLE UNMARRIED WOMEN AND HOW DARE WE NOT HAVE 2+ KIDS. College is apparently where you go to get a spouse and since my sister and I both went to grad school, that means we just didn’t make it during undergrad.
Mallory never fails to be on point. The Star Wars response, though, was next level.
My favorite bit was “You have a wonderful opportunity here to not care about something that doesn’t matter to you. Please don’t miss out on it.” I think I may have that embroidered on a pillow.
I trust there will be a picture of Sansa heading the Link Roundup from now til the end of the Toast.
A little bit Open Thready, but does anyone want to talk about last night’s X-Files?
It’s an instant classic that stands up next to Jose Chung’s From Outer Space. I really missed Mulder drolly going over folklore for minutes at a time that no rational human being would ever know in the first two episodes. Rhys Darby is perfection.
YES I ALWAYS WANT TO TALK ABOUT THE X-FILES.
“This is the Mulder I like”
The X-Files theme is Mulder’s ringtone!!!!! AAAAAAHHHHHHH, what even is this world?
The return of the stoners. Mulder’s red speedo. Another dog named after Moby Dick. A lovely tribute to Kim Manners.
Without even talking about story or acting (great and great), there were so many wonderful things about this episode. And Rhys Darby was perfectly cast as someone who just has no idea what he’s doing or why.
IT WAS SO GOOD. Darin Morgan is still so good. Kumail Nanjiani living the dream. The complete blend of absurdity and sincerity that was the X Files at its best. The heel clicking of the lizard man at the end.
If you have watched it before, it’s time you watched it again, and for those who were unaware of this masterpiece’s existence, you are welcome. https://www.facebook.com/markiplier/videos/978295…
I just need to say that this week apparently I am officially the Before Lady in an informercial, as zippers stick, keys and cards get mislaid, piles get tipped over, documents mysteriously vanish from Dropbox, staplers jam, cats literally stick their paws underfoot, coffee spills. . .
On a related note, has anyone ever hired a professional declutterer? On the one hand, this feels ridiculously decadent/wasteful; on the other, I’m working a regular job, teaching two composition classes, having my winter fibro slump, and trying to push through to the finish line of the goddamn novel, I think I might feel better if someone came in and could help me in one big swoop, instead of inch by inch in a losing battle?
I’ve never used a professional clutterer but if it helps you and brings you peace of mind how could it be wasteful. I think sometimes it helps to have an uninvolved third party to be the rational voice of throwing things away because part of the issue of clutter is how objects become intertwined with our memories and thus our emotions.
Jolie Kerr wrote an excellent column for the hairpin on doing a big clean in manageable small steps- http://thehairpin.com/2012/01/ask-a-clean-person-…
She also more recently did a podcast on decluttering where she spoke with professional declutterers that might be helpful both for figuring out what qualities you would want from a declutterer and about mentally preparing for decluttering. It was episode 7 of Ask a Clean Person.
Good luck!
I guess the big question here is, are you ready to change? A friend who was trying to get an organizing business off the ground offered me a free declutter in one area, in exchange for photos/testimonial, so I said “Heck yeah!” A few weeks later I had slipped back to my old ways because (mostly) I wasn’t ready to invest serious energy into the project and also because her solution wasn’t really in line with the way I do things overall. I discovered later that a GOOD professional will talk with you at some length to find out how you use the space and what some of your personality quirks are before they start recommending changes.
Things I’m angry about today: they changed the title of this news article but it’s still there in the URL and just–can we stop, maybe, with talking about the bright futures of murderers? I don’t see why it’s relevant to the article to talk about how “ambitious” and “focused” they were in school.
““We had no reason to think he would be unsuccessful in his goals because he was very focused,” LeMon said”
OMG that is so messed up!
eta: I hadn’t heard about this story at all and it makes me want to cry.
Murderers: sometimes their goals are murder.
Hi Toast! I am alive, but my internet still is not, and it is beginning to become a problem. However, I am happy to see Sansa is continuing to grow, and I would totes buy a used sex toy–very different animal than used skivvies IMO. Please pray for AT&T to get their ever-loving act together before my livelihood and Toastihood is any further compromised. I’m serious. Pray for it.
Offering intense thoughts for your internet connectivity. And Toasthugs because you deserve the best.
You know, the number of times I’ve heard family members and Indian acquaintances of Sikh heritage talk about moving to Canada has increased greatly since Trump starting campaigning. They’ve also increasingly turned from “LOL Let’s move to Canada!” to actually looking up the visa process. We’re here, we’re scared, and this. sucks.
I am currently attempting to figure out just how demoralizing it is to apply for a job for which I am well-qualified and to receive the automated rejection letter a mere 15 hours later.
Job hunting is the worst. Always.
It is indeed the worst. Unless you have a specific reason to believe otherwise, I would bet that they filled the position before they had a real chance to see how qualified you were, if the turnover was that fast and generic.
AMEN. I am sorry about that stupid rejection letter. Robot letters are cowardly.
OMG OMG OMG really I have to jump in even though it’s not open thread yet!
Posting because I talked to the other professor who is working on the project I’ve been accepted into the PhD program to work on:
First, not only is it a really cool project, IT HAS NOT BEEN DONE. Ever. I am agog.
two: it might have insight on understanding genocide, which means I will be doing “Useful Work”
three: basically prof said, I’m excited about the project, I know you’ll be able to provide the piece of the research I can’t, and of course you can choose anything in that (geographical) area that interests you for your dissertation work, it doesn’t have to be related, WE CAN COVER IT (research and travel).
And handed me a book on Angkor Wat.
I am so excited, I almost don’t care that I got the stomach flu from my daughter.
That's great and I'm really glad!
To clarify, I was talking about things like friends, extracurriculars, hobbies, and the like as well. Sometimes those things seem less important, so they become less of a priority when you're sick, but they can make a big difference on how fun or interesting your life feels. 🙂
I hope things become more stable for her soon and that she feels less depressed in the near future.
I take sertraline (zoloft) daily and have a clonazepam (xanax) Rx for spikes in anxiety too. I don't take it often at all, because my anxiety is usually caused by traveling alone and I don't do that too often… but when I do take it I notice that it lowers my heart rate and makes me feel a bit sleepy. It doesn't completely rid me of any anxiety or make me stop thinking about the trigger(s) (I mean it's xanax not opium), but it does make it easier to deal with and seems to block some of the physical symptoms and mental hamster-wheeling, which helps me talk myself down mentally. If you end up not liking the way it makes you feel, I was also once prescribed beta blockers (propranolol) on an as-needed basis for the same reason, which block adrenaline (and are often used for high blood pressure). These work exclusively on the physical symptoms.
So, I'm way late on catching up on Link Roundups, but I was only able to get through Infinite Jest (which I did ultimately enjoy) by participating in Infinite Summer, which was this incredibly awesome online book club for Infinite Jest, and all the posts are still online, if you want to follow it on your own: http://infinitesummer.org/
I'm sure we'll be VERY HAPPY together.