By David Futrelle
Sorry I’ve been AWOL for a couple of days; I’ve been taking care of some personal stuff (nothing dramatic, just very time-consuming). But there’s so much going on in the world I thought I’d put up an open thread.
Talk about Trump’s shittiness, the shutdown, the dueling Fyre Festival documentaries, the blizzard here in the US, or maybe those snot-nosed racist high school students harassing Native American elder Nathan Phillips, a veteran conducting a ceremony to honor the war dead in DC
On that last point, here are some videos; watch only if you are ready to be enraged. The students, from a Catholic high school, were in DC for the “March for Life,” evidently ran into Phillips by chance, and decided to harass him for being Native American, I guess.
On a somewhat lighter note, there was the whole Ben Shapiro/Baby Hitler thing. Here are several , er, enhanced versions of his remarks at the March for Life on the classic time-travel quandary — “would you kill Hitler when he was a baby?”
Despite Ben’s qualms about killing baby Hitler, he doesn’t actually give a shit about babies and other civilians from enemy countries killed in wars.
In other news:
Speaking of crappy food:
@ Cornychips
Some of my own treatment relies on exercises designed to co – opt remaining neuroplasticity in the brain. Slow going but worth it.
I’m re-reading some Discworld* right now to stay occupied during recesses in court (I’m on a jury** currently.) It’s a great palate cleanser; not that the trial is horrible or anything, just a bit technical in places.
*The Last Continent, right now. I’m almost finished and am searching for the one where Captain Vimes meets Lady Sybil for the first time.
**Off for the MLK holiday today. Happy MLK day, everbody!
Since it’s an open thread, I’m going to vent about the shutdown.
My SO works indirectly for the government (contractor). We’re really lucky he was not sent home right away, like so many other government employees, since his project was funded up to a certain date. (I REALLY feel bad for the people who are expected to show up to work without a paycheck in sight. This is a terrible situation for them.)
Anyway, if the shutdown keeps up much longer than another month or so, my SO will likely be out of a job he really really likes because the money for the project will run out.
Now, I’ll still have my job, but our income will be pretty much cut in a bit over half. Money will be tight until he can find something else or the shutdown ends. So that looming out there is way fun. (/sarcasm)
I realize he’s still one of the “lucky” ones, so I feel bad for venting. But the longer this drags on, the more people it is going to effect, because there are many many other government sponsored projects and government contractors whose funding will eventually run out, and then they, too, will be out of jobs.
I’ve been wavering between fuming anger and depression about the whole thing. (The National Parks situation has me in a rage, in particular.) I especially love it how the administration keeps calling people back to work unpaid so that the general populace is not “inconvenienced” by the shutdown.
President Orange Assface and Mitch McLapturtle are determined to drag this on, it seems, until the wall (his fucking monument to racism and xenophobia) gets funded. I’ve written more than a few letters to our senators, but we’re in Texas, so…. *sigh*
Hambeast: So Guards,Guards the first citywatchnovel.
faerie bard: I am very pesimistic about it, because Trump is not going to give in until he gets his bloody wall.
And if the Democrats do give in, we will have shutdowns every time, he wants something.
@Faerie Bard:
As someone pointed out recently, the thing is that this is just what a certain swathe of guvmint-is-evil Republicans wants. It’s not just starving the beast, it’s “Look! We can survive perfectly well without the government! Who needs any of the things that are shut down in the first place?”
They’re wrong, but ideologically this makes perfect sense, because it’s the perfect propaganda for their cause. They’re not going to apply any pressure to bring this to an end, because to their minds the longer it lasts, the more their point will be made.
@Rabid Rabbit:
Pretty much. Another blog I read posted a link to this 2017 article which describes the con. It’s not a total government shutdown: all the services that the rich and powerful rely on remain running as a matter of course, while those that the poor and marginalised depend on are disproportionately hit. This is of course by design:
Pay no attention to that whistling noise, I’m absolutely certain it’s not the sound of guillotine blades being sharpened. Well, mostly certain, well quite certain…
Re Discworld (tl;dr warning)
I just recently learned about a historical figure (or rather, a father and son) who made me think of a particular Discworld character: the infamous inventor Bergholt “Bloody Stupid” Johnson.
https://wiki.lspace.org/mediawiki/Bergholt_Stuttley_Johnson
Particularly this part:
The following is based on scattered Finnish language sources
In 1793, a young fellow named Johan Torenberg was hired as organist at the Cathedral of Turku, southwestern Finland. His father Karl Torenberg was an organ builder by trade, and an eccentric cosmopolitan personality. He was originally from Pori, southwestern Finland, and lived in many countries before settling in Turku with his son. He built some of Finland’s historical organ sets at the turn of 19th century.
Citizens of Turku were reportedly frequently complaining that Johan was both prone to mishaps at playing, and chose “inappropriate” pieces to play. (Oddly enough, several previous organists at Turku had had similar issues all the way since the 1720s, sometimes even escalating to violent arguments with coworkers.)
In addition, Karl and Johan had a garage project of building a bizarre instrument they called “Orchestre Mechanique”. It contained sound effects imitating “Turkish bazaar music, voices of men, women and many birds, thunder, hailstorm and rain, gunfire and artillery fire etc.”
Johan began passionately playing experimental music with this machine, sometimes performing to paying audiences in Turku and later in Stockholm. Reportedly, the public was enthusiastic and the critics horrified. The instrument seems to have since disappeared.
Johan died in his late thirties in 1809, by drowning in the River Aura in Turku. This year marked Finland’s annexation by Russia, a major historical cornerstone, as well as an end to the streak of infamously unprofessional organists at Turku Cathedral.
@wwth
Oh man… that freakin’ stupid tomahawk chop.
1992 was a hell of a year for me. That was the year that I was diagnosed with Crohn’s, but it was also when the Blue Jays won their first World Series over the Atlanta Braves. Being seven years old, I had only a superficial understanding of what the “tomahawk chop” meant, but I did know that it was the opposition doing it, so I instinctively resented seeing the Atlanta fans doing it all the time. It was only many years after that I learned that it was actually a recent arrival in Atlanta in 1992 due entirely to Deion Sanders, as apparently it was a thing that was done at Florida State football games (FSU being the Seminoles).
I gotta admit, one of my favourite moments of the 1992 World Series was Kelly Gruber catching the final out of Game 2 and doing a mock tomahawk chop for the Atlanta fans.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceCbhpm5YLM
So thanks Neon Deion… you got this dumb ball rolling.
@Who?: Yes, I’m not optimistic either. He’s in it for the long haul. If the Democrats cave in to his demands, it will set a dangerous precedent. I just hope the con of trying to blame it all on the Democrats is not successful.
@Rabid Rabbit: Yeah, they’re anti-government until it comes to legislating their own agenda. Funny how that always works.
@Cat Mara: Yep. Food stamps? Housing loans for low income families? The backlog of immigration hearings? *collective shrug from the administration*
I especially am loathing the 7 Republicans who voted against giving back pay to the furloughed workers. I mean, how much of a heartless out of touch asshole can you be?
Katamount,
It was around in 1991 too. There were protests by Native Americans and allies at the Metrodome when the Braves cane here to play the Twins in the world cities.
Sorry for the double post, my first one isn’t showing up yet so I can’t edit.
I forgot to add how fucking annoying and awful the stereotyped chant Braves fans do with the tomahawk chop.
My mom got to go to one of the World Series games and she called out a pair of Braves fans sitting behind for engaging in that chant and doing the chop. Now you all know where I get my not putting up with bullshit attitude from!
I saw a cartoon the other day, showed a group of MAGAts.(hmmm… MAGAts… maggots…), and the captions below were listing things not available during the shutdown, with the MAGAts all saying “we don’t need that…”. in each panel.
As each panel continued, there would be one or two MAGAts who weren’t saying “we don’t need that…”, but standing with wide-eyed horror, e.g. one was food stamps, and another was WIC.
I couldn’t get it to copy/past, i think it was on Atlantic, but now I can’t find it
@Nequam
Murray’s work has been almost entirely debunked, but it does make for an interesting alternate history.
Lately I’ve mostly been reading gaming books, including the new editions of Necromunda and Malifaux (which is currently in open beta).
@Weird Eddie:
A finance/services verson of “first they came for the trade unionists…”?
… what the heck do we do about this, anyway?
I have nothing to add to the continuing proof that regular commenters here are some of my favourite people and I love reading their take-downs.
So, as it’s an open thread and I’m on my way home from a funeral, here are some random thoughts.
@ Weird (and tired of trumplings) Eddie
First time I saw this iteration of your name, I got very confused. I tried not to judge you, and tried to remind myself that people are allowed opinions and feelings, and they don’t have to be the same as mine. But it seemed unnecessarily harsh. Towards dumplings. I need to work on my reading skills.
Re recent books, my favourite recently has been the latest in the Rivers of London (RoL) series by Ben Aaronovitch, which is called Lies Sleeping. The first in the series is called RoL (or, possibly in non-UK places, Midnight Riot – no clue why). It’s about a lowly police officer who one night finds himself interviewing a ghost and so gets drawn in to a bit of London he never knew. Lots of nerdy and fantasy references, but good fun even if you don’t know about a certain drinking venue called Biers, where regulars are readily identifiable (see next paragraph for hints).
I also want to say that, quite apart from the similar politics and sense of humour, what I love about hanging out here is I feel I’ve found my tribe. We’re all different, but I can’t help feeling there’s a high number of Pratchett readers here. Those of you who are won’t be surprised to hear I’m one. Those of you who aren’t, that’s fine too.
Anyway, train’s nearly home. Take care all.
When I look at that kid smirking, all I can see is another future Brett Kavanaugh.
The T.Pratchett novel where “Vimes meets Lady Sybil” the first time was “Guards! Guards!” It’s got dragons in it.
re: Native American culture as a sports mascot
It’s really telling, to me anyway, the amount of blowback from the public on this — right-wingers, sport/team fans, even people who don’t care about sports. There’s almost never even an attempt made to advance a legitimate argument as to WHY the team even needs this symbol, let alone a coherent argument as to why they’re entitled to it.
“It’s always been this way”, “we have the ok of the local tribe of …”, “it isn’t meant as an insult” (and it’s corollary, “it’s actually an honor”), “who cares, it’s no big deal (to me)”…
When the government steps in (North Dakota U.), the organization using the symbol throws a tantrum and sez “FINE, we just won’t HAVE a mascot!” (… fine, don’t). It all seems full and bubbling over with “don’t tell ME i ‘can’t’… I’M WHITE, I can do whatever I want!!”
No one involved on the sports organization wants to say OUT LOUD, “Yes, we did try to wipe these people out, and we succeeded is all but the loosest interpretation of the word.” If they DO say it, it’s followed by some version of “… and now we’re gonna steal their sacred imagery and use it for our PROFIT…. But it’s all in honor, of course….”
And then, the Native people who raised the objection get death threats from high school kids who likely look VERY MUCH like the smirking jerk in the original post….
@faeriebard:
Food assistance recipients in Ohio (and perhaps elsewhere) have already received their February allotment–normally issued on the first of the month–and been advised to husband it carefully, because who knows what’s going to happen in February proper, or March, or beyond, because WALL.
National security is, of course, the flimsiest of pretexts–what Agent Orangereally wants is a great big tangible territory-pissing thing to plop across the landscape: look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!
(Think he’d fall for a Potemkin Village mockup of the Walliest Wall that ever was Walled?)
@Weatherwax
Eee! The Rivers of London series is awesome – I was talking with Alan about it on here when I first started reading it.
(And yes, I’m a Pterry fan as well.)
Maybe put one of these around the White House until the shutdown ends. He can live off leftover hamberders.
oh, @faeriebard, please take care of yourselves, and if you need help, please – ask. You and yours are being used as a hostage by this pompous, preening blowhard, but you aren’t alone. Nor are others in similar circumstances.
This wall is a golden calf for Trump and his ilk. It wouldn’t change anything, it wouldn’t do anything positive, it’s meaningless as a solution to the problems people face. Trump wants it because he wants to win, and that’s the only reason.
Specifically, he wants to win against you, against us. Us being, y’know, people who aren’t waving his banner.
All the best for you and yours. I hope it’s over quickly, and that things settle out for you folks soon. <3
Here’s a different video of those kids and it definitely doesn’t exonerate them.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1087401351246761984
hell if I know….
@Scildfreja Unnyðnes Thank you. We’re okay for now. I feel bad for the people who have it worse than us. It’s really stressful, though. He may be looking for work soon. I hate the thought of him loosing a job he really likes (finally!) because of that orange asshole, too. =/