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Sunday Late-Links & Open Thread

Oct 02, 2016
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Via Unicorn Riot

Via Unicorn Riot

Gary Johnson, Numb-nut Extraordinaire, has become a one-man wrecking-crew for the idea of voting for the Libertarian party.

“Obamacare”- WAI: Working As Intended.

Film Review: “‘Do Not Resist’ is a chilling look at the normalization of warrior cops.” This is a must-see movie and the trailer and review are also must-see/must-read.

Der Spiegel has an excellent interview with Julian Assange.

The Commission on Presidential Debates issues a cryptic statement acknowledging “some audio issues.” Shorter Version: Yeah, we fucked with Trump’s Mic.

You remember Carolyn Mangham, who was recently locked in a hotel freezer and froze to death? Here’s what’s happened since.

Here’s the thing about the Transfer of DNS from US government hands, to a private,  international corporation: Other countries more routinely and vigorously censor their media, including the Internet than the US does. The US has an incentive not to, other countries? Not so much. Expect more un-routable-around censorship now that a private, international corporation will have control.

Did you know that human beings have a second brain, and it might control you far more thank you could think: Your gut and some of the bacteria that live in it, also known as the Enteric nervous system. Check it out!

In DAP news, Water Protectors stages an action at the Minnesota offices of Enbridge Gas.

While the Democrats and Media go on about “The Death of the Republican Party” one of it’s most successful tools, A.L.E.C. gets even stronger.

You may be interested

Open Thread
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Monday GIF-a-thon

UnkaWillbur - Jul 10, 2017

I've been AWOL, sorry about that, big things in life, big things afoot here. More Later. In the meantime, what's your favorite GIFs?    

Keep Them Doggies Rolling
Open Thread
2751 views95
Open Thread
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Keep Them Doggies Rolling

UnkaWillbur - Jun 05, 2017

America's 2017 Derangement Tour continued this week. Starting of with Kathy "PLEASE LOOK AT ME!" Griffith proving that Democrats can be as eliminationist as their fellow conservatives…

Your Weekend of Weekends.
Daily Links
3641 views179
Daily Links
3641 views179

Your Weekend of Weekends.

UnkaWillbur - May 26, 2017

Here' some links to nosh on, to start of your weekend. I hope everyone's weekend is great; me, myself, I'm planning on jumping out of a perfectly…

  • Here’s your Sunday theme song!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvCng7-za1Y

    • Ann Watson

      Is this a vision of the future, the past, the never will be, or where we are now? ; )

      • towerofbabel

        This is too much to unpack without coffee. True Stories by the Talking Heads came out several years later, which is interesting.

        • Talking Heads were, at the time this came out, producing much more musically dense, intellectual work. Work I love dearly, but that’s just not as self-effacing and fun as the B-52’s work.

          • towerofbabel

            I agree. I still love the Talking Heads.

          • They are one of the best bands of the 20th century, and I don’t say that lightly!

          • towerofbabel

            I wooed my wife by faxing her Talking Heads lyrics:

            Don’t Worry About the Government

            I see the clouds that move across the sky
            I see the wind that moves the clouds away
            It moves the clouds over by the building
            I pick the building that I want to live in

            I smell the pine trees and the peaches in the woods
            I see the pine cones that fall by the highway
            That’s the highway that goes to the building
            I pick the building that I want to live in
            It’s over there, it’s over there

            My building has every convenience
            It’s gonna make life easy for me
            It’s gonna be easy to get things done
            I will relax alone with my loved ones

            Loved ones, loved ones visit the building,
            Take the highway, park and come up and see me
            I’ll be working, working but if you come visit
            I’ll put down what I’m doing, my friends are important

            Don’t you worry ’bout me
            Don’t you worry ’bout meeeee

          • Edwin

            😀

          • towerofbabel

            Here’s “Road to Nowhere.” It seems prophetic in light of what is happening today:
            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWtCittJyr0

      • To paraphrase Fred Schneider, it’s a “cynical take on the vision of the future we were sold, as kids in the 60s.”

        😀

        • Ann Watson

          The years of innocence and optimism when all good things seemed possible, will we ever see their like again.

          • Sadly, I think not for thousands, maybe tens of thousands of years. Climate change is going to be hard to get through.

          • Ann Watson

            Endless unnecessary warfare has distracted mankind from the real dangers we all face, we need to learn to co-operate before it is too late.
            Even at this late stage the ingenuity of humanity can still save us from our fate if we work together, it will take all of us as a species to solve our collective problems, none of us can survive alone.

          • That is the only solution, for sure!
            Unfortunately somewhere along the way our story of ” we are great” became the singular focus of “aren’t.. I great”.

          • Ann Watson

            We have yet to learn collectively how lonely and impotent ‘I’ alone can be.

      • MsPythia

        The Buzzcocks called it Nostalgia For An Age Yet To Come 😀

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4L4aR-Kr3xs

    • towerofbabel

      Kate Pierson was hot, there is norther way to put it.

      • There’s no arguing that. But, I’ve always been more of a Cindy kind of guy. She’s got that devilish look she throws…

        See this her in the black wig, making fish noises with Kate, in the Rock Lobster video…

        https://youtu.be/ofkzvM7Skxg?t=2m58s

      • Or even better, just all over the “Legal Tender” video!

      • Or even better, just all over the “Legal Tender” video!

        https://youtu.be/mBRr_TqLDf4

        • towerofbabel

          I think David was channeling some of the aesthetic–with much more sophistication granted.
          (Probably mostly coming through Warhol.) The spinning heads with “modern” backgrounds looks like “Love For Sale”, sort of. “I can love ya like a color TV.”

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoU09xdPkbs

  • MsPythia

    Good article in Counterpunch:

    The Democratic Plot to Privatize Social Security
    http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/09/30/the-democratic-plot-to-privatize-social-security/

  • Good Morning Lovelies :^)

  • 17

    The right to vote should be restricted to those with knowledge

    Agree? Disagree? Why?

    http://qz.com/796962/the-right-to-vote-should-be-restricted-to-those-with-knowledge/

    • I keep waffling on that topic.

      The idea of somebody who hasn’t paid attention to the issues, cancelling out my vote. Pisses me off.

      However who is going to quantify somebody’s knowledge or how much knowledge a person has to have to be eligible to vote? That is a disaster in the making.

      Afternoon 17:)

      • 17

        A major question is what counts (and who decides what counts) as
        political competence, or basic political knowledge. We don’t want
        self-interested politicians rigging a political competence exam in their
        own favor. One might use widely-accepted pre-existing tests; the Unites
        States citizenship test, for example, or the same questions that the
        American National Election Studies have used for 60 years. These
        questions—Who is the current president? Which item is the largest part
        of the federal budget?—are easily verifiable and uncontroversial, plus
        an ability to answer them correctly is strongly correlated with the kind
        of political knowledge that does matter in an election.

        • “Which item is the largest part of the federal budget?”

          Is not all that uncontroversial, due to political propaganda, and the same goes for many of the items on Citizenship tests and the Election Studies questionnaires. And, we’re right back to “Who Decides?”

        • Shohanna

          I don’t agree per say. We need an educated electorate, with a 4th estate that is mandated to share all the facts, and nothing but with NO personal opinion. Following in the foot steps of great investigative journalists. (Edward R. Murrow) comes to mind.

          With both of those, the electorate will have the information necessary to make good decisions. The reason we are in this fucking quagmire is because repukes decided to decimate our education at the local level all across the US and no one fucking stopped them. EG the school book commission who decides what “facts” go in our school books. They base it off of TX who orders the most books. Shutting out everyone who isn’t a fucking slave state.

          Then they attacked our 4th estate and demolished it. And demolished regulations that kept the corporate elite in line. It has NOTHING to do with the people, unless you want to blame them for being fed lies and we get to the point where the Elites are in power b/c of the consent of the IGNORANT.

          Being ignorant is not the same as being stupid. Ignorant people can be informed and taught to not be ignorant. But brainwashed stupid people can not be because of their religious dogma that they have been “trained” like a Pavlovian dog. Brainwashing isn’t the same as being ignorant or stupid. Plenty of intelligent, hard working people CAN be brainwashed. I turned off the tv 26 fucking years ago. Why? I saw the narrative going the wrong way and decided that TV was not a healthy thing to watch on a regular ongoing basis.

          Now who else would be NON brainwashed to do that? The people on this forum. And others who knew there were subliminal messages in the fucking commercials. They are there, it just takes serious technology to find it. How did I know? Possibly because every damned time a commercial came on I heard a high pitched beep that drove me up a wall. I can’t sleep with the tv on. I can’t even listen to it in the back ground. It’s only gotten worse when I accidentally hit a commercial.

          OR when I am forced to listen to the bullshit sitting in a doctor’s office. I will go ask they turn it down. It’s obvious, it’s blatant and yes it’s partly the people’s fault, but it stopped being their fault when we lost our power to change it.

      • 17

        BTW…Good afternoon, Steph 😉

    • towerofbabel

      Social collectives have their own knowledge that should not be overruled or cancelled out (tyranny). They also have their pathologies which is where individualism play’s its important role. IMHO, these are always best held in an elastic relationship because either one by itself is disastrous but together they can often correct each other.

    • Who decides what knowledge is required? Who writes the tests?

      Now you see why I can’t support such a poll-barrier.

      • MsPythia

        Same.

      • Yep… exactly.

      • 17

        See my reply to Steph below.

      • towerofbabel

        Who decides what knowledge is required? Who writes the tests?

        You and I won’t.

        • Edwin

          And sometimes “stupid” people have really amazing common sense. They may not be able to articulate it well, but they get it.

          • towerofbabel

            I agree. An education is not necessarily a indicator of a person’s humanity.

    • panem et circenses

      Despite often employing some scientific techniques, sociology and economics aren’t sciences themselves. They’re philosophies with different schools of thought. Who’re the experts in economics? Keynesians, Marxists, Austrians or neoliberals? Or are the true experts the most successful capitalists? What if the current economic system isn’t the most logical or efficient system, but all the “experts” are those trained in that system? Who decides who’s “enlightened”? Those who most closely align themselves with what comes closest to a historical consensus? How exactly does a citizenship test have anything to do with voting for what someone personally desires? Even if you narrow it down to politics, is the US a shining example of what a country should be?

      “Of course, any epistocratic system would face abuse. It’s easy to imagine all the things that might go wrong. But that’s also true of democracy. The more interesting question is which system, warts and all, would work best. In the end, it’s a mistake to picture epistocracy as being the rule of an elite band of technocrats or “philosopher kings.” Rather, the idea is: do what democracy does, but better. Democracy and epistocracy both spread power among the many, but epistocracy tries to make sure the informed many are not drowned out by the ignorant or misinformed many.”

      Any system that can be corrupted, will be. Adding more layers to the paltry democracy already in existence doesn’t improve it, it simply opens up more avenues for exploitation. “Keep it simple, stupid” is as good a rule of thumb for government, if you must have one, as anywhere else.

      • Excellent reply.

      • Just a small note: Neoliberals are creatures of the Austrian School of Thought. No light between their economic philosophies.

        Beyond that (and a couple nit-picks not worth mentioning), I largely agree.

        • panem et circenses

          The distinction is principle versus practice, or theoretical laissez-faire capitalism versus crony-capitalism, which is essentially a distinction without a difference. Economic/political hierarchies and empire building are inevitable either way.

      • towerofbabel

        We already have an epistocracy, or at least that’s what the plutocrats and neoliberal managers believe. And, therein lies the rub. The fact that the DNC casually installed Clinton against the majority vote is all the evidence we need that there is no commitment to this democracy by this elite. The sheer incompetence and lack of imagination of this “knowledgeable” elite, not to mention their misanthropy, should scare the hell out of anyone that believes in political expression. I have to admit these articles are really disturbing. It seems like the intellectual legitimization of the anti-democratic autocrats is going into high gear. We shouldn’t be fooled by this. There is no happy ending with authoritarianism, at least for the average person.

    • Ann Watson

      Who be the judge.
      You be the judge.

  • towerofbabel

    File this under: What are you gonna do? When someone posts a video of a rabbit eating a banana everything comes to a halt and the world seems like a wonderful place, just for a moment.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9_ED2hG6_U&feature=youtu.be

    • I don’t know Tob, that grosses me out just a little bit…lol 😉

      • towerofbabel

        It is a HUGE rabbit.

        • With the biggest tongue on a rabbit, I think I have ever seen..lol

          • towerofbabel

            Once you’ve seen it you can’t un-see it.

    • MsPythia

      Aw! Bunny!

    • MsPythia

      is this the same Bunny eating a dandelion?

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1f9J9-tdT0

    • Cracks me up

    • Dosido3

      I didn’t think about rabbits having tongues. Of course they have tongues! XD

  • Here is my Sunday Afternoon movie that I’m going to watch. I thought I would post it in case you guys wanted to watch it too :^)
    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fiSjeLhg25w

    • MsPythia

      I love that movie! It’s one of my favorite screwball comedies — in fact, I have it on DVD.

      • So do I…I haven’t seen it in ages, so I’m really enjoying my find. Some of my other favorites are Arsenic and Old Lace, The Out-of-Towners and North by Northwest.

        • FaunaAndFlora

          Don’t forget Bringing Up Baby. 🙂

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49bvHwpprMI

          • Oh my gosh, that is hilarious that you mention that movie. For that is my ex-husbands favorite movie, he also liked the Long Long Trailer with Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz.

            I absolutely love Katharine Hepburn, and that made me think of another movie that she did, that is one of my favorites. Desk Set. Here’s a clip in case you aren’t familiar with it, although I have a feeling you would know it.

            https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZK3zmPUxblk

          • FaunaAndFlora

            That’s another good one.

  • OK, let’s get stupid!
    Stupid as hell, with “Pen-Pineapple-Apple-Pen/PIKO-TARO”

    https://youtu.be/0E00Zuayv9Q

    • lol.. yep that is a little on the odd side :^)

    • towerofbabel

      Now I need a lobotomy.

  • panem et circenses

    Fake News and False Flags
    How the Pentagon paid a British PR firm $500 million for top secret Iraq propaganda

    http://labs.thebureauinvestigates.com/fake-news-and-false-flags/

    “The CDs were set up to use Real Player, a popular media streaming application which connects to the internet to run. Wells explained how the team embedded a code into the CDs which linked to a Google Analytics account, giving a list of IP addresses where the CDs had been played.

    The tracking account had a very restricted circulation list, according to Wells: the data went to him, a senior member of the Bell Pottinger management team, and one of the US military commanders. “

  • The hotel that I’m staying at, is probably hating me presently. I am running a laptop, my phone and Roku all at the same time :/ I wonder when hotels start to have problems when guests run multiple streaming devices.

    • They mostly contract that stuff out, these days.

      • I just feel like, I am taking more then my fair share? I hope it’s not causing any problems.

        • Don’t worry, the Hotel’s ISP is gouging them anyways, you might as well get them their money’s worth. Other people won’t suffer.

          • Ty:) that does make me feel better.

  • 17

    Facebook, Twitter, Western Media Attempt to Reassert Monopoly Over “Truth”

    In a surreal and stunning example of 21st century propaganda and censorship, Google has cobbled
    together a coalition it is calling “First Draft” to tackle what it calls “misinformation online.”

    First Draft’s “founding partners” include News Corporation’s (parent company of Fox News) Storyful and NATO think tank Atlantic Council’s “Bellingcat” blog, headed by formally unemployed social worker Eliot Higgins who now fashions himself as a weapons expert and geopolitical analyst despite no formal training, practical real-world experience or track record of honest, unbiased reporting. In fact, between News Corporation and Bellingcat alone, Google’s First Draft appears to be itself a paragon of, and nexus for “misinformation online.”

    http://anotherdayintheempire.com/facebook-twitter-western-media-attempt-reassert-monopoly-truth/

  • 17

    When US Congress chases votes and not the law

    The United States Congress’ historic vote to defy the president’s veto, thereby passing into law the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA), may spark new hope for victims of state violence in general.

    The new legislation – sharply opposed by Obama and the diplomatic establishment, which fears an onslaught of retaliatory suits against the United States – apparently strips the Saudis, and perhaps other foreign powers, of sovereign immunity in cases where terrorism has occurred in the United States, and can be tied to an overseas governmental actor.

    Yet many aspects of this new legal position remain to be understood, raising interesting questions.

    http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2016/10/congress-chases-votes-law-161002100213962.html

  • Dosido3

    I think I need that second brain after the last debate!

  • Okay they absolutely did not know my age, based on the food that I hate. They guessed my age at 30.

    See if they can guess your age wrong too.
    https://www.buzzfeed.com/agh/yucky-food?utm_term=.ooOOyEakel#.sydoZr7j6D

    • cathyx

      i’m 18. That test is really accurate. 😉

      • * chuckle* :^) Hi Cathyx

        • cathyx

          Hi Stephanie. I tried the other 2 foods that i hate, and i got 27 and 30.

          • I tried all the foods and I think the highest age they had was 43. I’m 47. They would have been better off if they had said we could guess your age group. However even in that case they would still be wrong, for the food that I chose, which was liver.

          • cathyx

            oh, i’m way younger than you then. I love eggs, eat them every day.

          • I think you meant to reply to D3, for I love eggs.
            In fact other than liver there isn’t anything on that list that I don’t like.

          • cathyx

            yes, sorry. my 3 are celery, liver, and licorice. i picked licorice, that made me 18.

          • MsPythia

            I’m 13, 18, and 30. Anchovies, black licorice, and liver are the three I hate.

          • cathyx

            If cilantro were on that list, i”d have picked that one. Then i’d probably be 10 years old.

          • Yep..same here. Taste like dish soap to me.

          • MsPythia

            I love it – but I know tons of people who hate it and think it tastes like soap!

          • It’s just one of those foods, that you either love or hate.

            I can handle a small amount in guacamole. Some cilantro is more tolerable to me, than other kinds, but for the most part, not taste bud approved :^)

          • MsPythia

            I have a friend who hates it so much that if I serve Mexican food at a dinner party I have to leave it out and serve it in a bowl separately. She won’t touch anything that has it in there!

          • It’s very traumatic when people put soap in your mouth 😛

          • MsPythia

            😀

          • cathyx

            that’s me too.

          • I’m that way. For me, Guacamole adulterates any food it touches. The taste of it infects other foods.

          • So I guess if we ever meet up as a group.
            I’ll leave off the margaritas, guacamole and chips, on the menu 😉

          • Good chips are like a good life. But they must be absolutely fresh, and they must be accompanied by a fine salsa, or all if for naught.

            😉 😀

          • I can live with all of that 🙂 I’m still making guacamole though, we’ll just keep it far away from you…lol.

          • Really don’t like avocado in any form, especially guacamole.

          • Oh no.. they are so good for you, very healthy fat 🙁 I love avocado and guacamole.

          • Shohanna

            I LOVE Avocado!! **sniff sniff** I was eating guacamole when I was diagnosed as allergic to latex. 🙁 I haven’t had an avocado since 2011. **sniff sniff** I miss it SO MUCH!!

          • SmotPoker

            Yeah, me either. One would be hard pressed to tell the difference between fresh guac, and a bowl of baby shit without a taste test, and I’m not your huckleberry….

          • cathyx

            I’ve described it as a taste that you immediately know does not belong in your mouth. It would be like putting something like gasoline in your mouth. The moment it hits your tongue, all you want to do is spit it out.

          • MsPythia

            Hahaha! I think it delicious!

          • cathyx

            Yeah, that’s really weird to me.

          • Shohanna

            There was a time in my life where I CRAVED those chicken livers from KFC. I could not get enough and I tried to even do it at home. **BARF GAG**

            I eventually got over it. (I was anemic) but damn did it take awhile. LOL (Can NOT stand liver!!)

          • 17

            I love liver with Fava beans and a nice Chianti.

          • Edwin

            not surprised

            ^_^

          • Shohanna

            LOL Of Course you would.. **I got that reference**

          • SmotPoker

            When the hell did KFC have KF chicken livers? I’ve never heard of such a thing being on their menu. Wouldn’t matter, I hate liver. fried or otherwise.

            I’m a meat eater that’s kind of funny about ribs too. I love them cooked right, but if I even for a millisecond remember where they came from, it spoils it for me. I’ve got ribs, you’ve got ribs, and it hits home…..barf

          • Shohanna

            It was a franchise just across the bridge in New Albany, IN. They weren’t on the menu, my bf at the time had always ordered them (ewww) and he got me to try one. I was anemic and it tasted SO fucking good. O.O I ate them until they tasted horrible. Which took about 3 or 4 months at once a week. I couldn’t handle more then that.

            I like the boneless so I am not reminded of what I am eating. /nod

          • Dosido3

            I hate peas, liver, and eggs (at least the hard boiled ones they show). I’m 18-32. A millennial!

      • EdgarHF

        It said I was 18 too. Only 44 years off, not bad.

      • 17

        Yes it is. I’m 17.

        • Dosido3

          lol.

        • cathyx

          What was your food? Knowing you, you hate blue cheese, mushrooms, brusselsprouts, and probably anchovies.

          • 17

            Only Bleu cheese.

          • Say it ain’t so…? Blue cheese is the best. I guess it’s ok, as long as you don’t say you hate chocolate.

          • 17

            Mmm. Choklit. 😉

          • cathyx

            17, choklit is fake chocolate, that chocolate flavored crap that’s not real. Chocolate is real chocolate.

          • 17

            Blasphemy!!

          • 🙂

          • Shohanna

            I hate blue cheese so much, if they have those “samples” out at the store, I will detour to the other side of the store. It makes me nauseous.

            BLECH!

          • I don’t know what to make of you two 😛

          • Shohanna

            It just smells wrong to me. No idea. I love cheese. Just this one is not my cup of tea. lol

          • cathyx

            I love blue cheese, and every cheese there is. Yum.

          • Same here. I was watching Rick Steves for anybody who is familiar with the show, and he was going in a cheese shop in Italy. The person who was with him picked up a wedge of cheese and said “smells like the feet of angels.”

            Cracked me up, goofy but true 🙂

          • cathyx

            This is a cheese store in Amsterdam.
            https://flic.kr/p/MDJsp9

          • And that cheese is still alive! (unlike here, where we kill our cheese, before we can buy it)

          • Another reason to go to Amsterdam. Now I want to go to really good cheese shop.

          • The couple times I’ve been to Europe, I’ve found myself gorging on cheese, it’s just so much more tasty, over there.

          • I haven’t been, I’ve always wanted to go.

            Ireland, Scotland anywhere in Italy and Istanbul, are my desired destinations.

    • Shohanna

      It only let me click on one. Said my age was 13. O.o ROFLMAO!!

    • Shohanna

      Clicked on the others and got 18 for Brussel sprouts, 30 for liver, and 28 for blue cheese. They really don’t know my age. I love black licorice, eggs, celery, mushrooms. There is just a few there I can’t stand.

      • SpiffyTheValiant

        Sho 🙂 Stephanie 🙂

        • Yay Spiffy ♡ 🙂

          • SpiffyTheValiant

            <3 yay me. always at chatzy if you can't find me anywhere else and i'm home.

          • *Hugs the Spiffy* Have been really busy lately.

          • SpiffyTheValiant

            awe <3

        • Shohanna

          That’s such a SPIFFY greeting. **giggle** <3

          • SpiffyTheValiant

            <3 I was wondering where you went.

          • Shohanna

            Been here, got my meds all messed up because I developed an intolerance to metapropolol, felt like I was drowning after 1 dose. Then the neurologist thought it was a great idea to put me on a water pill. Yes, makes sense. However, I can’t handle water pills it does the opposite of what it’s suppose to do, and even after peeing every damned hour for 24 hours, I could NOT fucking sleep on it. 36 hours before it left my system. My heart racing like I was in a marathon and labored breathing.. /sigh

            THEN this smart ass decided to add a FLU shot on top of this mess….. Yeah haven’t been feeling too hot the past 4 days. 🙁

          • SpiffyTheValiant

            oh no <3

          • Shohanna

            <3 I be oki soon. I need to call my doctors tomorrow and let them know the affects it had on me and play Russian roulette again to find another BP med.

          • SpiffyTheValiant

            awe

          • I hope this works out better, this time around <3

          • Shohanna

            So do I. I end up with migraines in my cortex and they run down my spine and spread out at my shoulders and then just sit there, pounding in rhythm to my heart when I don’t take my BP meds. I might end up in the hospital again to find another one. I have gone through 9 now. I can’t tolerate them that allows me to live comfortably. If that makes sense?

            Like the side affects are too much for me to handle. And I can handle quite a bit. Except pulmonary edema. Dude that shit sucks and I been dealing with that since April last year.

          • Yes makes perfect sense to me, I’m very sensitive to medication as well. God sorry hon:(

          • Shohanna

            Thank you, hopefully there is another med I can take. I don’t know if there is. lol

          • I’ll keep you in my thoughts Sho <3

          • Oh sorry sho *hugs*

          • Shohanna

            **hugs** Thank ya. I needed that. 😀

          • :^)

          • [hugs]

          • Shohanna

            **hugs**

      • Sho ♡ 🙂

        • Shohanna

          Hey Stephanie! 😀 <3

          • How is your day hon?

          • Shohanna

            Better then it has been the last 4 days. 😀 Check my reply to Spiffy to see why. lol

    • Edwin

      I’m 13.

      I like all the other food (except maybe liver, but I can eat it if I have to.)

      • Hello Edwin :^)

        • Edwin

          Hi, Stephanie.

          I got stuck over there doing other polls. 😀

          • I hope they were better, then the one I linked you to ;^)

          • Edwin

            They were OK. I stayed, didn’t i?

          • Guess so 😉

      • Shohanna

        Anchovies are the bane of everything! OH god. I had to deliver anchovy pizza’s and the 3 or 5 of drivers we would fight over it. Mostly b/c the one who ordered them never fucking tipped. But MORE SO because your car was left stinking of the damned thing for hours later. Had to roll down all the windows in the middle of winter just to get there. **shiver** It’s the most disgusting food ever! I would eat blue cheese before I ever touch Anchovies again. ** Yes the first time I tried them and spent the entire night puking anything up! **

        • Edwin

          I don’t really like fish so extra-pungent, extra-salty fish is just plain sick. I like blue cheese. Yum. Try it on an apple or a pear. Double yum. Blue cheese dressing. Yum.

        • SmotPoker

          Escargot or anchovies, you must choose one…..

          • Shohanna

            I choose neither! **shivers in disgust** I would never eat an animal that dies b/c of salt. O.o Really? It wasn’t meant to be eaten. Maybe if I was starving, but dude, I would find something other then a snail or anchovy. EEWW

    • Annaleigh

      Missed it by 10 years (I got 25)! 😛 It was a tough choice though…hate mushrooms and liver, and peas take me back to when I was 5/6 years old and wasn’t allowed to leave the table unless I ate some of em… :S

      • Edwin

        red wine vinegar helps the peas go down

      • Ha…we had a three bite rule at my house, when the kids were little. I tried to make food.. even veggies tasty so there wasn’t to many problems over food. I do have one that hates mushrooms and another that hates onions, it drove me nuts, for I love them both. Here is the trick when and if you need to sneak certain hated foods pass kids. if you can make it small enough, the more likely they won’t notice. I’m sneaky that way.

        • Shohanna

          OMG that’s the same with my kids! One hates mushrooms the other hates onions! O.O I made them eat it anyway. (Onions always in meat fixing) and Mushrooms in my favorite dish. (Mushroom soup, homemade).

          I sneaked it in too. Mushrooms didn’t get past one of them though, she always picked them out and gave them to her sister. lol

          • The things moms have to deal with….lol

          • Edwin
          • Shohanna

            Those are adorable. I heard about them. But I am not that talented. LOL

          • Edwin

            Hey, it only takes about 1 1/2 hours to make a lunch that can be eaten in 3~4 minutes. Repeat tomorrow morning.

          • Shohanna

            Well that depends on if you are “creating edible art” and if you are just fixing food. LOL

          • Edwin

            In video 2 she got out the deep fryer for a little strip of pumpkin and a small piece of chicken.

            You can buy stuff similar to that ready-made in shops in Japan. It’s surprisingly good too.

          • Shohanna

            Bah, I made about 2 weeks worth of lunches for my girls in that time. I use to layer pb&j on suran wrap and pop it in the freezer. Same with Ham / cheese, turkey/ cheese, and tuna/cheese. Freeze it all up. then I would have apples, bananas, pears, some other fruit they liked sliced and sealed frozen in the freezer. Then I would have either cookies, or brownies, cubed up and frozen too.

            Then in the morning I just grabbed the pre-frozen popped on the bread put the different pre-wraped stuff in a paper bag. By lunch it was defrosted and they had a balanced meal. 😀

            Twins, single mom, worked 7am to 7pm depending on the project. I was up at 5am every morning, out the door by 6 and drop off daycare and to work I went. I missed a lot of their younger years. However, they learned to socialize where other kids didn’t. So there is that.

          • Too late now. I’ll keep that in mind for my grandkids when and if I get them :^)

          • Edwin

            I would like them. I’m 56.

          • SmotPoker

            Doesn’t matter if you pick those shitty things off the food, it still infests the taste of everything it was cooked with. Yuck.

          • Shohanna

            Yeah, She complained a lot. Very vocal about it. /sigh

          • SmotPoker

            As well she should you fucking monster….. : )

      • Shohanna

        I did not battle with my kids over food. My ex did. I let him have the hate and anger that comes with it. The problem? He fed them as adults when they were 10. So both my daughters are obese, and have issues with using food as a coping mechanism. I have no idea how to fix it either. So I didn’t battle, what I did do, was keep serving them the same plate until I was eaten. They could go hungry..(wouldn’t hurt them in the least.)

        I didn’t portion out their plates. I let them do that. I had 1 rule. You eat what I fix. I do not have the money to feed you separate from me. I didn’t have snacks, candy or chips, etc etc. I fixed them healthy food as best as I was able. (Single mom working 40+ hours a week to support them.)

        So it didn’t take long for them to get the message. You eat what I fix or go hungry. lol

        • Edwin

          Like Mommie Dearest. She got out the wire hangers when the kids messed up.

          (I swear every gay man who flocked in to see that movie threw out their wire hangers the very next day… in utter shame.)

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOILKHmZBwc

          • Shohanna

            My ex didn’t use physical abuse. I would have been able to retain full custody had he done that. No he used emotional and mental abuse to hurt the girls. I couldn’t sufficiently prove it to take custody. 🙁

          • Edwin

            I’m just teasing ya.

          • Annaleigh

            🙁

      • SmotPoker

        My dogs took lots of peas off my plate over the course of my childhood. Green beans too….

    • panem et circenses

      30 also, though I can’t see myself ever liking liver or anchovies.

  • Shohanna

    It’s very important to keep an eye on the connections to your network. Even more so to check each item for any Firmware update if you can. Otherwise keep it unplugged until you need to use said device. This is why.

    http://arstechnica.com/security/2016/10/brace-yourselves-source-code-powering-potent-iot-ddoses-just-went-public/

    • Thanks for the FYI Sho.

      I just changed my clothes with my laptop on and open, afterwards I thought what the hell did I just do.

      I just watched Snowden for Pete sakes.

      • Shohanna

        You gave someone a nice lap dance! lol What I mean is accessories like Mics, cameras, your tv, printers etc. They can be used to help support the botnets for the attacks. So best to disconnect them or turn them off unless you need to use them.

        • Yeah I know my thought, was a bit off-topic from what you were communicating. I just couldn’t believe I did that, usually am so good about that.

          For years my kids thought I was down right paranoid about the camera on my laptop.

          Then we learned about people hacking into baby cams, and I reminded them again after I saw Snowden.

          • Shohanna

            OH it’s definitely on topic. I don’t even have a camera after some serious breach of privacy years ago. But I do have printers, microphones, tv, and a PS3 and an Xbox 1 on the network. Which all can record. So even I need to disconnect some accessories.

      • 17

        And we thank you. Nice Tattoo, btw. 😉

  • towerofbabel
    • Hmm..home. Have a good night Tob :^)

    • Edwin

      Is that your place? You live in a palace!!

      Good night.

      • towerofbabel

        Nope. In my (bad) dreams. Goodnight.

        • Edwin

          Just think of the heating bill.

  • We have Poll Sign!

    Thanks to a suggestion by @disqus_xAULd4Kghg:disqus, I’ve added a poll feature to the site. You can find it on the right-hand side-bar, after you reload the page! Give it a try!

  • Shohanna

    Oh so not only are we being inundated by more then racism, sexism, etc now they are attempting to say that there is a new code!! WTF?! Why would you announce it unless you wanted it to spread?! Fucking idiots. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6f6df6fb6a4c4cfafb29c7c813219863fec774f7c7866ec8d1dd93bfc17d02b1.png

    https://www.buzzfeed.com/alexkantrowitz/racist-social-media-users-have-a-new-code-to-avoid-censorshi?utm_term=.ctGk8gOR2#.nwjQ6jOmG

  • kreskin

    “The Death of the Republican Party” ? Hardly . It’s the Democratic party that has died. We’re about to get a Republican President named Hillary Clinton.

  • OH FUCK!!! Why didn’t you guys tell me “Ash Vs Evil Dead” season two premiered tonight! [JOY]

    EDIT: Oh Fuck²! Blunt Talk season 2 as well!
    https://dyncdn.me/static/20/tvdb/309239_banner_optimized.jpg

    • Edwin

      No idea what that is.

      • Ash Vs. Evil Dead is a TV series based on the classic, much lauded horror film, starring the original star and written and produced by the original writer/director.

        Blunt Talk is Patrick Stewart’s new TV show.

        • Blunt Talk sounds promising.

          • I thought the first season was absolutely brilliant. Patrick Stewart at the top of his form.

          • Thanks for the heads-up.

          • Shohanna

            I want to watch that. But I am not paying 140.00 a month to reinstall cable. Not happening for just 1 show.

          • You might be able to eventually stream it, without adding Starz

          • Well, there are ways around that. Starz streams some episodes for free, maybe them all.

          • Shohanna

            I will look around to see if I can find it on a streaming network. 8 bucks is a lot cheaper then cable. lol

          • Check the Starz site itself.

          • Shohanna

            I will do that! Thanks!

          • Shohanna

            WOOT, I got Starz now, I get a lot more goodies! I just watched Inside Out. One of my favorite movies. 😀 I bawled like a baby of course. haha

          • Shohanna

            Blew every perception I had of Patrick Stewart. It was “oki” (watched ep. 1 and 2) not for me. 🙁

          • Hmm.. It kind of looked like Breaking Bad, and that was never my cup of tea.

          • Shohanna

            Naw, it’s raunchy and I just found it tasteless. I don’t like watching people snort coke, pop pills without knowing what they are and think they can still do their job. it’s so unrealistic I couldn’t get into it. AND it shattered my shakespearian / star trek view of Patrick Stewart and pissed me off.

          • Yeah, that doesn’tsound like my thing.

        • Edwin

          I don’t often watch horror films and don’t know many either. Last one I saw at the theatre was probably Amityville Horror, when It came out.

          • Evil Dead is a classic for a reason. You should seek it out. It makes Amityville look like a comedy, and yet, it’s full of comedic moments.

          • Shohanna

            That’s probably why I wasn’t interested. Horror films give me night terrors and anxiety. I don’t like having to change the bed sheets because I was scared so bad I piss in my sleep. (the difference between nightmares and night terrors. Night mares you wake up, terrors you can’t.)

            So I avoid horror everywhere. Blood and guts? No big deal. Mental anguishing horror? I avoid like the plague.

          • Lots of blood and guys, not so sure on the over-drawn attempts at creating anguish, a la Amityville (which, even in the day, I thought was a dumb movie, though I was only 10.)

          • Shohanna

            Amityville never bothered me. It was children of the corn and Freddy from Nightmare on elm street. Halloween, DAMION! omfg I hated that movie with a passion of 7 suns. I was so religious back then. **SHIVER**

            My mom started taking me to fucking horror movies when I was 3. I remember fucking grizzly and the fear that followed. I am STILL afraid of the fucking dark because of her. 🙁

          • 🙁

            Well, I won’t recommend you see it, as I don’t want you to suffer, but you might like it. There’s certainly A LOT of gory scenes, but comedy is intrinsic to the movie and Bruce Campbell can make me pee my pants laughing, all by himself, alone in a scene.

          • Shohanna

            From my point of view as a child, I was in deep PTSD when she did this. As in I had already stopped talking. The only sound I made is when I cried. No one really understood my fear, or what exactly happened. It was conjecture based on my injuries. I couldn’t tell anyone what happened. I don’t remember it even to today. That portion of the trauma is blocked and no therapist has been able to unlock it. I think my fear of horror films is a manifestation of my inability to control my surroundings. If I have a choice I won’t willingly suffer it. If that makes sense. It does to me. 13 Ghosts set me off on 12 or more weeks of nothing but terror dreams. That was recent. Well relatively compared to the last time I watched a horror film. So I would just rather pass and listen to people talk about it.

            Sorry..

          • The Omen scared the crap out of me too.

          • Shohanna

            Glad I am not the only one! hahaha

          • :^)

          • Here are my two most favorite horror movies of all time Sleepy Hollow and the American Werewolf in London.
            http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ry-_MF6TEFU
            https://youtu.be/Hb7zhYzenhY

          • American Werewolf is an absolute classic. Another great Horror Film that relies on comedy to drive the scares.

          • Shohanna

            I agree, that was more funny then scary. lol

          • Edwin

            I liked Sleepy Hollow because visually they got everything right. Not sure if I saw the other one.

          • They really did.

    • Shohanna

      I read about it, but not interested. I had no idea that you were. My bad!!

    • all_hail_the_hypno_toad

      Too busy watching. Also Red Dwarf 11.2 is up.

    • panem et circenses

      I love that show but I never pay much attention to TV schedules. I much prefer to watch in blocks sometime down the line.

  • notisaidthepig

    Gary Johnson reminds me of that quote from…..Twain. Better to be silent and be thought a fool than to speak up and remove all doubt. Or something like that. Idiot!

    • Hey Noti :^) Johnson’s an idiot, but Libertarians usually are.

    • SmotPoker

      Lincoln, not Twain, although as I understand it, that is a very common error, and has even let to some debate….

      http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/a/abrahamlin109276.html

      • notisaidthepig

        Oh, I almost typed Lincoln and then corrected myself. I should have gone with my first instinct. Oink!

  • I’m off to bed, gotta get up early. Everybody have a great night, and a wonderful day tomorrow :^)

  • doubleplusliberal

    http://househippo.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/richpeoplecryng.jpg
    Wealth therapy tackles woes of the rich: ‘It’s really isolating to have lots of money’
    It’s tough at the top. As one psychological counsellor to the 1% says: ‘I am not necessarily comparing it to what people of color have to go through, but …’
    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/oct/17/wealth-therapy-tackles-woes-of-the-rich-its-really-isolating-to-have-lots-of-money

    From the Bible to the Lannisters of Game of Thrones, it’s easy to argue that the rich have always been vilified, scorned and envied. But their counsellors argue things have only gotten worse since the financial crisis and the debate over income inequality that has been spurred on by movements like Occupy Wall Street and the Fight for $15 fair wage campaign.

    “The Occupy Wall Street movement was a good one and had some important things to say about income inequality, but it singled out the 1% and painted them globally as something negative. It’s an -ism,” said Jamie Traeger-Muney, a wealth psychologist and founder of the Wealth Legacy Group. “I am not necessarily comparing it to what people of color have to go through, but … it really is making value judgment about a particular group of people as a whole.”

    The media, she said, is partly to blame for making the rich “feel like they need to hide or feel ashamed”.

    • Damn it Dpl…that was barf Worthy. What a great bit of stupid to start the morning.

    • Edwin

      lf it really bothers them they can give their money to the poor.

      • No..no, the idea here is they don’t want to feel bad, for taking way more than their fair share.

        I just love the idea that they have to pay somebody to tell them that it’s okay:/

      • doubleplusliberal

        They’d never do that…money is their precious! Plus they need the poors just as they are, vulnerable and easy to exploit…their bottom lines depend on having cheap, captive labor.

    • panem et circenses

      Good old Guardian, trying to get people to sympathize with those responsible for the majority of suffering in the world. Pure reactionary trash. If these people can’t live comfortably on a small fraction of their stolen capital, they’d all be doing the world a massive favor by removing themselves from it.

      • doubleplusliberal

        The media, she said, is partly to blame for making the rich “feel like they need to hide or feel ashamed”.

        This part really stuck out because they’ve never had any problems with poor shaming or compounding the misery of poor people. They’ll gladly see programs that benefit poor people be demolished for the sake of another tax break. These greedy rich assholes should be ashamed…all through history they’ve been a blight on humanity.

  • SmotPoker

    Talking with my dad yesterday while trimming plant number 4 of 6 about how I’ve been having that need to withdraw creep up on me, and he told me that he had noticed it. I told him I thought a lot of it had to do with the anniversary of my mom’s death along with the fact that my kid brother who got paralyzed is coming back home this week on Wednesday, and it turns out he’s dreading it a bit as well, and he too has had mom on his mind. That in itself is kind of odd since he won’t be living with either of us, but I think it’s because we can both see the future, and it’s going to involve us doing a lot of shit we’d rather not be doing. The kid brother is still delusional as fuck, and it’s difficult to deal with someone like that, someone who refuses to acknowledge fuck ups or reality. Think Donald Trump without money, and it paints a pretty good picture of him.

    Fuck. I wish my mom were still alive, but at the same time I know that his injury would have driven her crazy with concern. She dies, I go deaf, he goes to prison, gets out of prison, then gets paralyzed….

    I just hope he can stop with his Peter Pan nonsense, and grow the fuck up now.

    • Shohanna

      The only thing I can recommend. And why I would. My brother the center of my parent’s universe. Never ever acknowledged any sin he committed, even when he was on house arrest for 2 yrs for boosting cars. (he was the narc and got off light with a plea deal). He was doing drugs (hard ones) but his blood test was clean when he died. I think the hardest he did was coke once? Maybe? I know he had an allergic reaction (Psychotic even) when he took that banned medicine Ambian CR. He was put on a hold in the hospital for 3 days. Even then we thought he was just crying for attention. That was his thing. His life was so hard and blah blah, he would threaten to kill himself just to piss everyone off. He started this at around 15 or so. He was 36 when he took his life.

      IF your brother is anything like mine, when he STOPS threatening is when you need to BE there. Mine stopped 6 months before he did it and NO one noticed. Not my parents, not my kids, not me. Not even the fucking therapist he had to see to get his kid back. (You would THINK they would have had a clue)

      Moody, turns inward, insults himself, and closes you out. That’s when you need to be there. That moment. Take away anything that he could use to kill himself. His girlfriend/fiance at the time didn’t realize how serious it was and she fell for his story to clean her double gauge shot gun. You wouldn’t think someone could do this with a shotgun. But he did and he managed to do it TWICE with half his head gone. Closed casket was no question. There wasn’t anything left to “dress up”…

      So if you don’t want to lose your brother, which in this time he is fucking BLUFFING you. I promise you he is. He is aware of the burden he has created and it will multiply the longer he can’t get better. His personality will do a complete 180 when he makes up his mind. BE there for him. You do NOT want the guilt I carry. You don’t. It’s not a fun guilt knowing you could have changed it. God hit me with multiple warnings over and over and INCLUDING a goddamned dream of shooting my OWN head off and the TIME and DATE he died. You do not want that. I promise you if I had done what my conscience was telling me he would still be here.

      I was angry and mad at him. He was angry and mad at me, for stupid reasons. I hadn’t talk to him since Thanksgiving. He was dead March 8, 2011.

      And now everyone knows my shame.

      • SmotPoker

        Listen kiddo, there is no shame in doing what you thought to be the correct move at the time. Shame would come if you knew better, and did the wrong thing anyway. We can’t control other people. As a parent of adult children you know this. I’m sure my kid is fucking up someway, somehow, but I can’t do a fucking thing to stop it or correct the behavior of a 23 yr old adult.

        So drop the shame for your own mental health. It’s a burden you no longer should be carrying with you through life. You can remember your brother, but leave the burden of guilt behind.

        • Shohanna

          I am trying. It’s a long process. Still grieving. If I had solved some of the issues between us, it wouldn’t have taken me this long. But those issues never got solved and will never BE solved. I am still holding anger and I have tried to release it. I sometimes managed it. And sometimes I start screaming at the air b/c of how mad I get.

          I wanted kids so bad. The biological clock ticked so bad. But I am not a nurturing mom. 🙁 I hold guilt from that too. I have been shown what a REAL parent is, and what a real parent isn’t and I never matched up even at my best. I was never shown. I didn’t know until my girls got married. I feel like I shorted them so much. I couldn’t teach THEM what a real mom is. All I could do was to love them and stop myself from beating on them in a moment of anger. I concentrated on everything I had to keep from abusing my kids, in deed or thought. I respected them as people. I let them have decisions my parents balked and yelled at me over. I started teaching them about life at 3 yrs old. and told them if someone touched them inappropriately including FAMILY to tell me and I would make sure it never happened again. THAT was my version of being a mom and I left them both with anxiety and depression.

          So when they dropped my nephew in my lap after my “Job” was done; I was so angry I knew I was going to hurt this child. He wasn’t mine, and I hadn’t had a chance to even KNOW him. He was a stranger to me. Which added to the grief and the guilt. AND the knowledge that if he stayed with me until he was 18, one of us was not going to make it. I had no experience with boys much less a boy with serious PTSD, night terrors, and learning disability.

          I am reminded of my guilt every time I lay eyes on my nephew. He is an absolute spit image of my brother at that age. You couldn’t get a better duplicate unless they were identical twins. He is even starting to SOUND like his dad. **fucking scary if you ask me**

          Reminding yourself every time you see him gets damned fucking annoying. Treating him without the Bias I have for my dead brother, is the hardest thing I have ever fucking done. Beyond not abusing my kids. (You prolly don’t care why. and I really don’t want to post that here. But let’s just say there was sexual assault included with my brother and leave it at that.)

          So I am fighting my OWN PTSD every time I see him. I cried for months after he moved in. It wasn’t grief for my brother. It was grief that I lost my “REWARD” for being a good MOM. I was HAPPY when they moved out and on their own. Then planning a head and losing another 10 yrs?! Are you fucking kidding me? It was punishment as far as I was concerned and I even bitched to my dad. To hear him tell me it’s Him or Me and he will disown me and kick me out if I don’t.

          So I have a lot to heal from. The story is a little bit deeper then I post. Sentiment is the same and that guilt I will always live with.

          • SmotPoker

            I really need to get you on some cannabis to help with your PTSD, and emotional issues. I know you think you allergic, but the odds are very high against it, and as you noted yourself the stuff you did try back in the day was laced which is no bueno.

            I think for you that cookies made with cannabutter might be a good thing if you don’t like smoking.

            Seriously, I credit cannabis for my calm, even demeanor in the face of a shit storm. I don’t get mad, and start yelling. I take in the information, dwell on it, and hopefully find a solution that doesn’t involve angry words or feelings.

            You’re still here so that makes you a survivor more so than a victim. It might help if you try looking at it from a different angle….

          • Shohanna

            SENDING EMAIL. Please check it.

          • SmotPoker

            Read, and replied.

          • Shohanna

            replied.. You should check your email at least once a day. That’s what I do. Which is why it took so long for me to answer. I answer on my time. lol

            I get so much damned spam if I didn’t I couldn’t open the damned thing. that’s WITH spam block. *smdh*

  • 17

    Edwin, are ya still here?

    • I saw him this morning, at about 3:30 or there about.

  • towerofbabel

    File this under: How They Do It

    This is how your values are used to engineer an intended result. Today’s top headlines on the Guardian:

    ‘It’s not right’: mothers and daughters see own struggles reflected in Hillary Clinton

    ‘The timing is revealing’ Racist graffiti on historic black school shocks Virginia

    Back to the future: economy becomes battle between Reagan and Bill Clinton

  • Monday Links and Open Thread post is up!

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