Hope you all are having a lovely day today, whatever this day means to you (or doesn’t). Consider this an open thread, to discuss whatever, from presents to politics to cats to whatever holiday stress you might be feeling.
And here’s some stuff I found on the Twitter.
— David, who is hanging in there
Merry Christmas, everyone! 🎄🎅 pic.twitter.com/YfyTsQ95de
— Maggie Serota (@maggieserota) December 25, 2017
At this time of year, take a few moments to remember who Christmas is truly about… pic.twitter.com/TQ9tSP5EED
— Larry the Cat (@Number10cat) December 24, 2017
I haven’t laughed this hard in a while. I needed this. pic.twitter.com/2aQFpugdis
— deray (@deray) December 7, 2017
Brian Eno, Paris, 1973 (with Christmas 2017 augmentation) pic.twitter.com/hRwMDTOUKv
— Brian Eno (@dark_shark) December 25, 2017
“Fun” pic.twitter.com/tsAdsZeez8
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) December 24, 2017
#MerryChristmas 🎄🤶🏻 pic.twitter.com/IahMZhf5gc
— Melania Trump (@FLOTUS) December 25, 2017
Same. pic.twitter.com/kcNPdrLy6R
— Dave Cactus (@dave_cactus) May 24, 2017
🎈🐾🐅🎈🐾🐅🎈🐾🐅🎈🐾🐅🎈🐾🐅
All of a sudden …
🐾🐾🐾🐾 pic.twitter.com/fza8NZioI0
— The Cult Cat (@Elverojaguar) December 25, 2017
Human: My cat has an easy life
Me: pic.twitter.com/e8kvlVhUdR— Curious Zelda (@CuriousZelda) December 20, 2017
This is good. I did good. Good me. pic.twitter.com/jO5rBHIE32
— Aww Club (@awwcuteness) December 25, 2017
@opposablethumbs
Thank you for asking – I were wondering (Scildfreja is one of my favorite commenters) 🙂 David has been tweeting today, so he’s about and at least semi-functional.
Speaking of – anyone seen PoM?
@Pie:
“Police blame prankster for Wichita shooting”
And, in the process, absolve themselves of any blame for being too fucking trigger-happy.
There’s plenty of culpability to go around here, no need for the “prankster” (read: violent felon) to get all of it. You didn’t need to be the murderer’s tools.
@Dormousing_it:
A single year? Given what it results in, and can result in, swatting should be charged as assault with a deadly, and voluntary manslaughter up to 2nd degree murder if anyone dies as a consequence of it.
@opposablethumbs:
Scildfreja posted on or a bit after Christmas. There’s at least one person who’s really MIA though: Policy of Madness! I haven’t seen anything from them in months.
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/366869-civil-rights-activist-erica-garner-dies-from-heart-attack
I call BS. She was only 27, and she had ticked off the white-supremacist state. Full investigation needed. Normally I’d say FEDERAL, but with Trump in charge at that level, maybe it should be international …
In better news, we have this:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/3/17/1644618/-The-photo-of-a-regretful-Trump-supporter-is-going-viral-on-Twitter-on-Donald-s-own-playing-field
I’m a little frustrated by the praise being heaped on that guy who admitted he made a mistake voting for Trump. No, very concerned DailyKos writer, I’m not going to “attack” him. But my question for any regretful Trump voter is “Great. Now what?” It’s not enough to just say that they made a huge mistake. Their vote has done so much harm to this country and the whole world that I hardly know how to begin to catalog it. Amends are required. If regretful Trump voters aren’t going to vote for Dems in the midterms, vote for Trump’s 2020 opponent, campaign for those Democratic candidates in some capacity, talk to their friends and neighbors who are still supporting the GOP and pushing back against Trump in every way they can think of, I don’t really want to hear it.
Maybe that’s mean. But a vote for Trump was not the electoral equivalent of spilling a drink on the carpet or stepping on someone’s toe. It’s more like the equivalent of driving drunk, getting into an accident and killing someone. Saying it was a mistake just doesn’t fucking cover it.
And don’t read the comments. Unless you want to read a bunch of people scolding progressives who are still angry at Trump voters and blaming Hillary Clinton for Trump because she stole the primaries from Bernie Sanders.
WWTH: 100%. Bernie wouldn’t have done better than HRC, and probably would have lost in a landslide, would have helped elect more Republican’t Senators*, and contributed greatly to the total repeal of Obamacare.
I understand that progressives were disappointed with Hillary, but in my view she was about as far left as a candidate can be and still have a good chance in this anti-socialist brainwashed country. Now the SCOTUS and the lower courts will be packed with right-wing ideological nincompoops for a generation. If Trump’s lucky he might create a SCOTUS that would find SS and Medicare unconstitutional government overreach.
* For example, McCain and Graham’s hawk buddy Kelly Ayotte would have held her seat here in NH.
HRC and Obama’s politics are pretty much identical. So anyone who likes Obama or at least doesn’t mind him but didn’t think Clinton should be president because she’s too conservative gets a pretty hefty side eye from me.
That’s not to say the Democratic party shouldn’t be pushed further to the left. It should. But sitting out a presidential election where the alternative to Hillary Clinton was someone like the Cheeto Monster does nothing to accomplish that. That’s a bottom up job.
I’m reiterating points I’ve made here about a hundred times now, so I’m shutting up about it, but it just astounds me that there are still people saying that a Hillary Clinton presidency wouldn’t be much different than Trumps. I can only hope they’re faux progressive trolls. They probably aren’t though. I’m just glad these people have stopped coming here. I’m really, really out of patience with them and have been for a long ass time.
Just watched ‘USS Callister’, the first episode of the fourth season of Black Mirror. Jesus H. Tapdancing Christ, was the entire episode scary as fucking hell. Gonna be having nightmares on my first night of 2018. Easily the best episode of the series thus far.
Watch it, folks. The commenter base of this website ought to love it. Lots of relevancy in light of such issues as Gamergate, “Nice Guys”, tech bros, overzealous sci-fi fanboys, and so on.
@Surplus to Requirements:
That’s what I remember from the news article. This was about 2 years ago. I’m a layperson in regards to legal or police terminology…I think that was the actual time he wound up serving in prison…a year. I remembered it, because I was so shocked.
Sweet story.
OTOH, I must caution you that Walmart is owned by the Beelzebub family. (Why else would their other business be called Satan’s Club? Think about it.)
Oklahoma community surprises Walmart greeter with new car for Christmas
Yolanda Crawford’s cheerful greeting inspired shoppers to gift her with 2014 Nissan Versa
By
thegrio –
December 27, 2017
WWTH: I was screaming for a couple of years that — with the GOP in control of Congress — ANY Republican’t President would be a disaster. JEB? or Rubio probably would have been worse on domestic affairs if not as scary on foreign affairs. As time goes on I become more and more convinced that the Hillary scandals were mostly an excuse not to vote for a woman. Note the recent idiotic, hideously condescending Vanity Fair article encouraging her to take up knitting. She worked her butt off for 30 years, and then to be treated like … Sarah Palin?
Imagine if the murderer (not prankster) had been a person of color or a Muslim. Trumpelthinskin would be tweeting his fingers off. But it’s a white dude, so it’s all cool.
I found this photo on the Interwebz:
Here’s the ad text:
I thought that maybe “panda-sized” everything was all the rage. Panda-sized ice cream cones? Panda-sized umbrellas? Panda-sized bedroom slippers? But my search engine says no.
So I’m left scratching my head.
@abars01: What channel is this on? I’ve never seen it in my local listings that I can recall. And would one need to have seen the previous three seasons to understand it?
WWTH:
It’s so perfectly MRA because there’s initial sympathy then proof that he deserves none of it.
S4E6 will make people mad who deserve to be mad online as well.
@Surplus to Requirements, Observer of the Vast Blight-Wing Enstupidation
It’s on Netflix. And it’s an anthology series – every episode is completely independent and unconnected to any other – so you can watch them in any order and don’t need to see any preceding ones in order to understand anything.
Black Mirror
I recommend starting with S1E1 but it’s a tough episode to get over. No other is like it thematically, but it introduces the tech focus and lets you know to strap the fuck in mentally and morally because you’ll be tried.
If you want a soft, friendly intro that’ll probably still make you cry some people start with San Junperio
I don’t have Netflix. I do have an actual television, and cable. What channel is it on? Or do a lot of the whippersnappers these days not even know things like that? 🙂
I illegally streamed it all off certain sites where you can “watch series”, but I won’t post those links since legally David is suppose to remove them if they get posted
@Surplus to Requirements, Observer of the Vast Blight-Wing Enstupidatio
No clue, sorry. I don’t even know if it’s been broadcast anywhere other than Netflix. Been literally years since I’ve watched anything on TV as opposed to the computer. That’s Millennials for you.
@Kat, ambassador of the feminist government in exile:
That’s bizarre. I can’t imagine where that came from. Why not mastodon-sized? Or sperm whale-sized? Or, best of all, mammoth-sized?
I’ve been posting so much today, because I’m in the grip of procrastination. I must get my shit together, once and for all.
RE: Black Mirror
Netflix specifically commissioned the third season of Black Mirror; I presume that the fourth season is the same. It’s almost certainly a Netflix exclusive, like OitNB. You can probably find it streaming online elsewhere if you don’t have Netflix (and don’t mind some shady websites), but I doubt you’ll find it on any TV channel.
I’ve been meaning to watch Black Mirror for ages, and the posts here have convinced me. I’m thinking of starting with this new episode – if anyone wants to scream “NO! start from season 1!!!” please do so 🙂
We have a physical TV, because the big screen size is great, but we only use it for Netflix and Crunchyroll (and gaming). Watched quite a bit of regular TV when the boy was little, as the national broadcaster has fab kids’ shows, but it’s been ages now.
That reminds me of a joke. There’s a list going around the Internet of unintentionally funny things doctors wrote about their patients. One of them was:
@Catalpa:
Well, then it’s not TV. It’s some sort of web video that will stutter, glitch, and blow up your data charges. 🙂
@Mish
Eh, aside from a handful of blink-and-you’ll-miss-them references/nods to other episodes (sometimes there are, like, headlines about characters from other stories), there’s no continuous storyline between the Black Mirror episodes, or even a shared universe. Start wherever you please.
Though I haven’t gotten to the fourth season yet, so I can’t yet speak to how representative of the show this new episode is.
@Surplus
Call it as you please, I suppose. I haven’t owned a physical TV or an kind of cable service for almost a decade now- my only TV is internet TV. Plus, no commercials. :p (Well, on Netflix at least. Other places sometimes have ’em, but a good adblocker can solve that.)
Walmart greeter getting car story…
Yeah, it’s wonderful for the greeter, but Walmart doesn’t pay them much. I could easily see most any Walmart employee deciding a 15 minute walk was the best tradeoff for having food and housing.
If you work there long enough, it does eventually get over 13$/hr. But the policies for sick time? Better be ready to file FMLA paperwork if you tend to catch more than one cold in 6 months.
Recent experience is “there is no such thing as an excused absence unless the store is closed, or there’s a store-declared storm emergency”.
@Catalpa:
Wow, you must live somewhere with real, actual broadband service and maybe even real, actual competition among the providers. Here, everything is capped, slow, and expensive and owned by a telco/cable duopoly.
@Surplus
Eesh. That’s awful. Yeah, I live in southern Ontario, Canada. According to findinternet.ca, there are 54 different internet providers available in my area. So a fair amount of competition (though Bell, Telus, and Rogers do tend to dominate the market). I’m sorry that you live in a place that’s under a chokehold by telecom monopolies. :C
@Surplus
Ah, another Australian! =P
JS:
There must be some detail I’m not getting about this story, such as Oklahoma weather, or health issues, because a fifteen minute walk is nothing. I commute to work by train, but the walk to/from the stations at each end total a little over fifteen minutes, and it’s never occurred to me that that’s bad. Hell, your doctor probably wants you to walk further than that every day.
@Moggie
Oklahoma? It’s ultra cold in winter (well below freezing as I’m typing this) and – it’s America. They don’t believe in such nonsensical fripperies as pavements or footpaths. The car is god, and pedestrians are the sacrifice. 🙂
Walking the shoulder of a motorway isn’t fun.
Still, agree with you that a 15 minute walk is nothing – do that just for the post office. 😛
Great. Chunk of sentence disappeared. 🙁 It should have said:
Oklahoma? It’s ultra cold in winter (well below freezing as I’m typing this) and usually has several feet of snow to deal with. Don’t forget – it’s America.
Hrrrmmm. Have now watched the remainder of season 4 of Black Mirror and I gotta say, compared with the devilish masterwork that was ‘USS Callister’, I found the remaining five episodes to be pretty… underwhelming. ‘Arkangel’ started out interesting, but then failed to take its premise to the level of horror it could have. ‘Crocodile’, ‘Hang the DJ’ and ‘Metalhead’ all struck me as bland, especially ‘Crocodile’. ‘Black Museum’, finally, was too heavy-handed and sensationalist, with the final segment almost bordering on campy. Much of the season, furthermore, was too derivative of earlier episodes.
Looks like the first course of this meal was the tastiest. Disappointing. I hope the second half of the season is better.
@Catalpa – thanks for the info!
@SFHC
Our internet (with Optus) has been pretty patchy lately, but there’s no way in hell we’re switching to the NBN (thanks, Talcum Murmball!). For streaming, it’s usually fine if we use an ethernet cable.
It’s New Year’s Eve here – not usually a big deal for me, but 2017 has been … interesting (as in “may you live in interesting times” type interesting). I want to wish everyone a happier and less terrifying 2018, particularly our Fearless Leader Mr David Futrelle. You all rock 😀
@Mish
You rock too!
Echoing your wishes for a much better year in 2018 for all and sundry Mammotheers. David, best wishes for improved health in 2018 — or, what the heck, improved health in 2017 would be fine.
I also wish a clear mind and good health for Robert Mueller.
And I wish good health for our planet.
Resist!
Mish,
❤❤❤❤❤❤
Happy New Year, darlin’.
I’m going to have a super boring NYE this year. It’s currently -13 with a -31 windchill and the warmest it’s going to get is -5. I can’t say I have any particular desire to go out. Plus, I hate big crowds of people who are trying really, really hard to have fun. NYE can be so forced. I only ever go out if a friend is having a party and I know I’ll be in a house with just people that I like. As far as I know, no one is having anything this year.
We played a game in the car this morning: tell all the hopeful news we heard in the past year. Whenever despair arrived, we’d groan “hopeful, hopeful!” and get the discussion back on track.
Mostly we talked about hopeful environmental things: getting off fossil fuels now seems achievable. We neglected the Weinstein et everybody else thing for some reason, but I take it as hopeful that sexual harassment is starting to be taken seriously.
I’ve seen a couple of places/people doing a sort of round-up of the year’s gooder news stories like that – it kind of helps to keep your nose above water :-s
two-ish hours to midnight in the UK, so let me just take this opportunity to wish all the best for the new year to WHTM and all the Mammotheers.
<3 <3 <3
@Moggie
Yes, that is exactly how I felt when I pulled up those K’s Choice CDs! Guess cleaning has sooooome benefits lol.
@Artic Ape
Lol you write plenty. :p
@Dormousing_It
Hope your snowblower keeps working. Supposed to be a bigger snowstorm hitting the NE Thursday(?). Plus, I think it’s supposed to warm up a little (well in my neck if the woods it is), so I’m sure it’ll be that heavy, wet snow that’s just so fuuuuuuuuunnnnn to shovel.
@WWTH
“…but it just astounds me that there are still people saying that a Hillary Clinton presidency wouldn’t be much different than Trumps. I can only hope they’re faux progressive trolls. They probably aren’t though. I’m just glad these people have stopped coming here.”
People not only thought that, but actually came in here and said that? Man, I want whatever they’re smoking. And that’s coming from someone that thinks far too much of the fuckery is bipartisian.
I’ve never been happier that democrats are pissed off and fired up. Hopefully it means that people will be keeping their politicians on their toes, since all politicians of any party needs it. The government needs to be scared of the people.
I get to spend NYE in my favorite place in the world – at home. This morning’s dream happened at a big awards ceremony (like the Academy Awards, except entertaining) and I spent most of the time at the pre-event banquet. Enormous quantities of food and drink, without the indigestion or hangover. Apparently my subconscious mind wanted to throw a party
The year 2018 is here. See you all soon!
A bit of silly news, that still made me feel happy. Despite the renovation works, they’ve turned Big Ben back on so it can ring in the new year. Wouldn’t seem right without the old sod.
Happy new year to everyone, and may 2018 be peaceful.
Happy New Year, everone!
Shadowplay:
I liked the campaign to replace it (on broadcasts) with the clock on Rochdale Town Hall, but it was not to be.
I called up Radio 4 while I was working (damn this spreadsheet), but the delay on Internet radio makes this a bit pointless: the bongs were well late.
Here’s to 2018, and let’s hope for a change in the political tide.
Happy 2018 everyone. Let’s hope it’s better than 2017 or 2016.
New Year’s Eve here mostly revolves around keeping the dogs from freaking out over fireworks.
Here’s to hoping the big one climbing into the bathtub is the worst we have to deal with.
Scildfreja has been around on the discord. She’s been rather busy with family and surprise babysitting duty. 🙂 I’ll let her know you all were asking after her. I don’t have any news on PoM, though. 🙁
beep beep!
Hello everyone. Sorry I haven’t been on the thread much as of late. This holiday has been a weird mix of stresses and nice things, and the combo has kept me away. I keep Discord up in the corner of my screen though, so if you ever boop me there I will probably reply!
Thank you so much for asking, @Shadowplay and @opposablethumbs! Work will begin again soon and with that I should be around more. Here’s hoping at least! I do hope PoM returns soon as well. Perhaps when David is able to post more.
I hope you all have a lovely new year. I have very high expectations for 2018. “Better than 2017” ain’t gonna cut it, new year. You have work to do to make up for your elder sibling. Get to work!
I will write more! But probably tomorrow. This evening is not being kind to me. Have a great new year my ducks!
Happy New Year! May all of us have a better year and those suffering find relief.
I stayed home eating fancy grilled cheeses and chocolate. 🙂
Oh! And I finally graduated college! It’s a wonderful! 🙂
—
re: Oklahoma: Yeah, been there. In OK oil is God and the car is Jesus. Heaven help you if you don’t have a vehicle. Public transit certainly won’t/can’t.
Everything is super spread out even in the cities (I believe OKC is in the top 10 for largest cities in the US by land area) and different types of things (homes, stores, etc) often NOT conveniently together.
The weather is a contender for worst in the country. If you don’t have allergies, you’ll get them. They get huge, quick temperature swings, fires, earthquakes, very large tornadoes, hail, flooding, black ice and ice storms, you name it. Walking at night in winter is not a good idea.
Not only can it get below freezing (not like the North, but still) and the wind makes everything a thousand times worse, it’s also not very safe, especially for women. IIRC Oklahoma is ranked near the bottom for women (there is an actual publication that ranks the status of women in the states), and has a known human trafficking problem (everywhere does, but OK has a lot of poverty + interstate highways).
But, uh, the people are generally friendly and helpful. So… there’s that.