Good morning! I hope everyone had a good weekend. I’d hoped to have enough time to do a post but the party ran late and I did the ‘fall asleep on my computer’ thing…again!
Talk amongst yourselves!
Monday Mood [DOT 18/12/23]
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I’ll go first. I am still processing the last and final installment of “The Crown.” In particular, when we aren’t focusing on Wills and Hazza, Princess Margaret in her final years enters the picture. I so sympathize. I didn’t have a mild stroke in Mustique nor did I scald the soles of my feet so badly that I could barely walk or talk but she did it. Say what you will about the Royals, but their devotion to duty, as they understand it, is remarkable. She is my spirit animal, if that’s not an offensive way of putting it.
I’m very impressionable when it comes to language and accents. Two days in Canada and I start sounding like Justin Trudeau. Southern California? The inner Valley Girl in me emerges. Lately, and I have to snap out of this, I have emulated Princess Margaret, who was a notorious snob but exceptionally fun-loving. Just last night BH said, “I was thinking of ordering in Chinese. What do you want?”
“A good, stiff martini, for starters, and maybe some of their cold sesame noodles. One would hope that they cut back on the salt. Who are they hiring these days? Their food used to be so—”
“When did you join the Royal Family?”
“I’m sorry. You know how I am. Remember when we used to go to that nightclub in Queens and it was mostly Spanish-speaking performers and clientele and I was into it and by the time we left you used to call me Ricky Ricardo? You can now call me Your Royal Highness.”
Have you perfected your Royal Wave?
You know I have.
There’s a video that BH took of me in the hospital. I was finally being released back to the phys rehab place, and I kind of did the royal wave. I lost Bertha and there was this total lying bitch who took Bertha’s place. She, the total lying bitch, used to call BH and tell him one thing but then tell me another. So much so that BH kind of moved into my (non-private) room with me for the last day to ensure that things moved along. So as a final “fuck you,” once the ambulette came to transport me out of that Seventh Circle of Hell and move me up to the Fourth or Fifth Circle, I ran into the woman, I should stop calling women and men bitches, and her henchmen/henchpeople if that’s a word, and I gave them the Royal Wave and said, “I really hope that I never see any of you again. Have a happy life.” But the male nurse was there, and the EMTs were trying to move me out as fast as possible, and still I said, “You all have my contact info. My niece is not married yet. You can contact me or [Better Half ] if you become interested.” I may have been a little overly medicated. Plus I had contracted Covid, always a fun time, asymptomatic or not.
Weird, what happens in hospitals and other medical facilities.
We never, never should have broken from the Crown. The Revolution was the most idiotic revolt —well, the secession of the Southern states, the Civil War, but I think we should have let them go.
I don’t care how nutty some of the Royals seem. Better them than this revolving carousel of idiots that we and the British have to put up with. The British have had what, seven PMs in the last four years or something? Still, the monarchy (maybe somewhat creakily) persists. There’s a very poignant moment in The Crown where QEII says to someone, something like, “Charles is going to be a very old man by the time he succeeds me.” But then there’s Wills waiting in the wings, and then after him Prince George, and on and on it will go. At least as an arch-monarchist I hope so, but King Charles III may outlive me, and Wills certainly will.
Hey there, me again. I’m just getting ready to interpret for not one but two different court hearings in not one but two different jurisdictions – one of which is in Jefferson County, which you may have seen brightersider go on about here. (Strangely, I’ve still never interpreted in court there before today.) I was led to believe that the first hearing was part of divorce proceedings, only to find out – through an e-mail chain that mostly didn’t concern me – that there’s an order of protection, with the petitioner and respondent reversed, as well. So, yeah, that’ll be fun. I just hope I have time for a damn lunch break before the other one.
And, yeah, the other jurisdiction is just adjacent to the first one at least, and everyone there has always been unfailingly polite and accommodating to me, which is the kind of thing that I’m learning more and more not to take for granted. But on the drive down there, there’s a field on the other side of the highway that I guess is private property, and set next to an outbuilding are two billboards. The first one is standard highway size and says TRUMP 2024 TAKE AMERICA BACK. For good measure, there’s a small, seemingly homemade sign on top of that says JESUS in black against a white background, with the letters strictly in solid right angles, in a way that resembles . . . well, you know. And right next to it is another commercial grade billboard that says, Pregnant? You have options. (Uhhh. . . .)
I have to wonder if the guy who owns those also owns the two TRUMP/PENCE 2020 billboards that used to be positioned on the way back until . . . about a year or so, if memory serves. Probably not, but there’s probably a non-zero chance that he owns the Mike Lindell – AUDIT ALL 50 one that’s still up further on down the road.
I’m going to guess the Trump side of that sign tried to burn down the Pence side of that sign.
Well, the Pence side of it was positioned directly underneath the Trump side of it. But I mean . . . it’s not like logic or consequences or thinking things through all the way would’ve exactly hindered things, sure.
Okay but the shithole Missouri billboard trifecta is to see in close succession:
Also good luck in JeffCo. Don’t drink the water if you can help it.
You really are doing the Lord’s work. I’m not being snarky at all here. I’ve also served on a State grand jury, in just a regular role, that lasted a month, and several people were called to testify about various crimes, mostly robberies and drug deals gone awry. Many spoke Spanish and claimed not to understand English. That seemed kind of implausible because we all speak a little Spanglish, and I can speak some Yiddish, and German of course but you never hear that unless you’re in the presence of tourists…where was I?
Right. The interpreter would sit next to them and do their work. Occasionally the Spanish would carry on and the court reporter and the prosecutor would interrupt and ask that the proceedings continue in English. I once forgot myself (over-caffeinated) and said, “Why? She [the interpreter] just repeated the question, and Mr. [whatever his name was] said that he didn’t really remember much about [the crime] but he did remember [some details about the assailant.]” I almost got thrown off the grand jury for that little outburst.
In 2000, Clarence Thomas complained to a GOP congressman that he needed more money and was thinking of resigning. He was in six figures of debt after buying a luxury RV that cost more than his annual salary.
Shortly after, the spigot of gifts from billionaires opened up.
https://www.propublica.org/article/clarence-thomas-money-complaints-sparked-resignation-fears-scotus
Hah! I was coming here to post the same thing. It’s a very good breakdown of how Thomas went on the take.
But it’s not bribery, no sir.
How is it not? Man, god forbid Sotomayor takes home an extra batch of cookies from the Xmas party, R’s will have a field day.
What’s extra ironic to me is the verbal beating these elites dole out to other people “living beyond their means”. But crickets when we hear of this fucking guy buying a 265k RV.
Checks and balances indeed.
Here we go again. Remember, kids, only old Republicans answer their phones.
Biden said to be increasingly frustrated by dismal poll numbers
Come to Florida to scam & spread conspiracy!
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/inside-the-russian-propaganda-mill-beaming-out-of-a-florida-strip-mall
Why we can’t have nice things?
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2023/12/how-leonard-leos-dark-money-network-orchestrated-a-new-attack-on-the-voting-rights-act/
Good question.
As people who know the ultraright rhetoric have pointed out, he’s talking about Jews.
He’s using the longstanding terminology of neonazis claiming Jews are out to replace white Protestants, both with their own immigrants and by secretly orchestrating Blacks, Asians and Hispanics to move here.
This is why right-wing assholes hate math (well, also because they’re too stupid to grasp it). Worldwide, Jews represent 0.2 percent of the global population. I’m pretty sure they’re outnumbered by practicing Jedis. They are vastly outnumbered by Hindus, Buddhists, and Muslims. Christians are almost a third of global population (31.6%). Hell, folk religionists are 5.4% of the global population.
But Jews are going to replace everyone else and take over? Uhh, sure.
There is literally nothing stupider than a right-wing zealot.
Murder rates in 2023 are on track for the sharpest decline on record.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/12/low-crime-rates-public-opinion/676365/
Here’s the part where the wannabe smart contrarians would interject that was only a sign that crime was crazy high the previous year, and it’s still impossibly high now. Because that mindset doesn’t actually care about evidence, or even know how to find it.
“The quarterly data in particular suggests 2023 featured one of the lowest rates of violent crime in the United States in more than 50 years”
One of the standard excuses that defenders of the press make for blowing outlier stories out of proportion is the old saw “Dog bites man isn’t news, but man bites dog is news.” Telling the same old same old just doesn’t play.
Except what has been going on with crime reporting is continuing to tell the same old story over and over again. There’s a ton of news value in going against the grain. It’s not happening.
@Loveshaq Just stumbled into the music of Eli Smart. His parents own Hanalei Strings. His grandmother is in all-girl geriatric punk/psychedelic band Ace of Cups. He calls his sound Aloha Soul, and attended the UK Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts. I thought of you when I heard him, and fell down the background rabbit hole.
@elliecoo that’s a great song & back story. I love that vibe. I haven’t heard of him or even Hanalei Strings before but will have to ask my sister if she has. She takes her family to Kauai every year for Thanksgiving with some of her ex-husband’s family who are from there. I do love Hanalei Bay, an amazing beach.
Many great Hawaiian songs about Hanalei, this one is the most famous…
I missed the Giuliani ruling on Friday as we were working our way up to a backcountry yurt (the same one as last year). Nice to see that ass-hat reaping what he’s sown. I realize that the victims are unlikely to see the money, but at least there’s a judgement against little Rudy.