stillshimpy

Haleth, yes, he does, but the answers to that are contained in the chapter I keep talking about: I think you're referring to Number 9 Dream? Yeah, ugh, I didn't finish that one because whatever he was going for, Mitchell kind of lost me by putting me in the head of that serial killer, pretty much right away. Back to this, I agree, that's why I like intersecting characters in a novel. I never like short stories as much as I do long form because it takes me a while to invest in characters. Mitchell is usually good at drawing very vivid and often appealing character traits, right off the bat. So I don't find his characters to suffer from that "I don't care about you...yet" as much. Although Ghostwritten has a couple of those characters: the art dealer, for instance. Ghostwritten does have pitfalls, including a few too many plot elements, the hackneyed stuff with the Zookeeper and the Irish Physicist who is essentially on an avoidance walkabout the entire time we're around her. It really is kind of weird that I think of Ghostwritten as a comforting book but I guess I just appreciate the ability to find hope in the ways that he does. I'm a sucker for hope.

I agree, some really were wonderful and some weren't, but it wasn't in the concept, it was in the execution. In an almost unrelated note, just within the last page or so I've been in here, complaining about why I don't dig the Klingons and concluding that it's because I just hate "Yells A Lot" as a defining sociological characteristic. Having established that, something at least vaguely amusing to me (and maybe to others, or not, you know how these things go) last night we had the finale playing in the background. I was starting to fall asleep (due to fatigue, not boredom) when B'Elana started yelling while in false labor and the Doctor ticks it off as yet another symptom "misdirected inappropriate anger" and that made me laugh but I was also sleepy enough that we had the following exchange, "I kind of hate that about the Klingons, though." "Why?" "Because anger is the first thing you learn to emulate in acting class because it's the simplest thing to convey, so any hack can act the hell out of a standard yelling scene" and I surprised myself so much, I snapped myself dead awake. And ....there it was. All these years reacting to the Klingons, or any drama that runs to "and now people start screaming" ....I used to complain about that on BSG, pretty much on a loop for two years, whenever EJO was onscreen because ...wow...did he abandon dramatic restraint in the later years. Pretty much for close to two decades, I've complained about loud acting choices and I never once remembered that was the reason, the thing it was niggling in my brain. The reason I just can't take it seriously: It's the easiest thing to convey at the simplest level, almost any person can act angry if all it entails is making a lot of noise and using big gestures. It's easier to play things broadly. Not that I'm some great acting critic or anything, it's just accidentally saying that half-asleep is the thing that made me remember that from classes lo those many years ago. It takes more skill to play something with an and attached, "I'm ANGRY but I'm also really hurt and afraid that you'll think that's weak...." Real emotions have complexity and layers. When dealing with actual people, there's always more than one thing going on with them. I say this over and over, and I apologize for that, but in real life situations, more than one thing can be true at once and almost always is. Again, the toothpaste cap fights that are never just about the cap being off the toothpaste. In relationships, those kind of fights are about a lot of things and also, power dynamics are at play. Some of the actors who played the Klingon characters in the Treks were amazing. They had that kind of range. They had that kind of complexity, even when yelling. It's just that because they were representing a society they almost always came with other Klingon, background characters. Some of whom were day players and fated to be so for the rest of their lives, because without seeking to be unkind, not everyone has the kind of talent it takes to bring layers to that kind of scene. I actually found the actor who played B'elanna, Roxanne Dawson, had that kind of talent and complexity. As did Michael Dorn. There are absolutely standouts in those performances hwo just...freaking...brought...it. But not everyone can and it showed too often in the Klingon stories. By the way, the thing that made me laugh is that, really in a departure for her because of the script setup for comedy with the Doctor's awesome delivery, Roxann Dawson dialed up the cliche'd yelling and took out anything resembling complexity because it's a funny moment and she's supposed to be embodying a symptom. She goes through a list of things that are just like that, very one note, "Pregnant Klingons do this...." and are meant to do so. It was the contrast to her regular performance style that finally helped me figure out what the hell is with my reaction to the Klingons. Sorry to have gone on about it, again, at length, but for me it was a real "Oh crap, talk about epiphanies ....how many times have I written about this thing I have with Klingons, trying to figure it out?" light bulb moment and it's always bothered me that the Klingons irk me...I don't mean just in the "Hey, Klingons irk me, let me tell you why in 8472 words! Conjunctions don't count, do they?" I mean because I have a genuine respect for a lot of the performances, absolutely the actors, and I never realized it's because when they are bad, they are acting class 101 stuff. Exaggeration to cover for ineptitude in craft.

Hey, Haleth, I'm so glad you read that :-) I'm glad you enjoyed it. That isn't what I got out of that but that's a really interesting take on it and must have made for a thought-provoking moment or eighty at the very end. I don't think that was the author's intent (which really only ever matters if "great, that's what you intended, but did you actually execute that intent?) but it's also....if that's what you took from the book...it's as valid as anything else, since the story really does more than a few "choose how you will feel about this as you go...." points. Here's what I got out of it: It's not a perfect book, but it has an emotional core that just stayed with me all these years. I'm sure everyone in here will get this: after a certain point in an adult reading life, there aren't that many plot twists one will fail to see coming. And man, I did not see anything about that key storyline coming, at all. Particularly in the end. It really didn't seem like a book, at the midway point, that I envisioned, "Oh, I'll sit here crying because this is ultimately the most hopeful....in the least sugar-coated way....book that I've read in ages." I think that's what makes it a good book. It is ultimately a hopeful story but that hope is not gained by putting on rose-colored glasses and steaming ahead, damn the reality! It's not about obscuring the world so that you can pretend to have hope via "I will LA LA LA my way to hope" ....instead, it's this often really brutal look at the world ...that then chooses hopes at the end in way that's earned. So it's like a fairytale but it's the most clear-headed "this is what the world is....and we can still hope" sort of fairytale. Grim, grim ride to get to the light at the end of the tunnel and that light even includes thinking about the freaking heads down the well -- a detail that is both jarring as hell but the kind of thing the ending needed to include -- before choosing hope.

You know, for what it is worth, I think that's the right call and I can completely understand why you all made it. It's not worth making the mods lives tougher, it's just not. You all are a volunteer squad and we all know it. Thank you though, it really did help while it was here but I support the decision to close it. It's all going to be all right somehow, guys. We may not know how yet but it will be. I have a lot of respect for a lot of you and the mods and David have my thanks for trying for as long as you did. Good call, overall. Life is short, let's talk TV and have fun again. Big hugs to you all. Remember, I run an offbeat rat re-homing service if anyone needs it :-) Seriously. Big hugs.

Oh man, be safe Ft. Lauderdale. I, fortunately, have to get out of here without reading the details on that. But in passing, for one shining moment, back before the world went to complete poo, Paul Ryan made me think, "Wow, is there any chance I'm going to come out of this with something resembling grudging respect for Pau..." and before I could even get my brain to accept the thought, he had reverted to type so thoroughly that I think he now may classify as an actual invertebrate vs. a figurative one.

Truly, I'm glad we live on a relatively normal size lot here because there are an awful lot of lizards around here and I'm not really down with the "Next? A Reptile Sanctuary!" that would be bound to result if we were on more property. It was bad enough that my husband was jealous of me for a year after I glanced out a window and saw a giant black snake boogying toward the woods at that house. Since it was not coming at me, I called for my husband, but he got there too late to make the snake identification team. My skills run towards, "It was black. It also slithered. It was bigger than you'd like a snake to be, but that might just be me." Friday furry fun, an oldy but a ....well, it's old at least :-)

Oh boy, it's going to be a long day judging by all the news pieces on what horror the GOP is trying to visit upon our democracy, isn't it? *waves to absent friends* We'll try to hold the fort, but if we're all drunk as lairds by the time you get back, you'll know we gave into despair and gin. I might just skip the despair and hit the gin. Actually, thank goodness, I have a volunteer shift this afternoon and can do something other than bounce off of the walls, with my anxiety, getting increasingly stranger in my humor. Call and offer your support via voicemail. It actually does help. For the opposition, I will actually call and leave a voicemail supporting their actions when they are trying to get anything decent done and I don't even mention, "Hey, technically dislike most of your viewpoints" and just leave my name, what state I'm a registered voter in (without mentioning party affiliation and if they look it up, I'm actually a registered independent ....which helps since it helps sort of leave it foggy if they give enough of a damn to look) because for the very few Republicans who are fighting back (Lindsay Graham won't have a bridge to stand on after he's done torching everyone he's ever crossed) whereas I don't like his politics, I appreciate that he's trying to be a patriot). I have written letters and mailed them to opposing, out of state representatives, but I keep it incredibly civil and simply ask them to reconsider their positions, as the will of the people on this matter is not being upheld. I have no idea if it does anything, but it at least makes me feel like I'm doing something (see weird frog posts for why I need to keep myself occupied because my anxiety goes through the roof when I'm entirely idle) . I do that on the "it might be a waste of my time, but I'm going to do it anyway" because even if this all ends in the ashes of our republic, I figured I'd at least know I tried something, anything". Again, others may do things in a different fashion, but the true twerps ....like that lunatic talking about how Jesus got to face his accusers, so why should an anonymous tip-line be part of Ethics investigations?....I never go anywhere near. They are impervious to facts, uninterested in their duties and are so corrupt it's not even worth the calorie burn getting het up would afford me for all the good it would do. I log a new call, send a new email per issue, even for the poor patient souls who keep hearing from me. I keep those short and supportive. Elizabeth Warren is trying her damnedest, too, so whenever she's preparing a bill or anything, call and email of support (just what I do, no clue if it's from the "get stuff done" person's handbook or anything). I guess I'd rather risk doing too much than too little but I never have seen the point in trying to communicate with people who are clearly unethical. I also don't nastygram anyone no matter how tempting it might be to give them a piece of my mind because the only thing that holds true is that as soon as people start shouting, no one gets heard above the din so there's no point. Then lastly, as hard as it is to believe, I can actually edit things down to a concise form....I just suck at it as a practice....so I try to keep it brief and to the point. Hope that helps. We're into the weeds here, so whenever an important bill comes up, I'll place a support call to whoever is supporting it, regardless of where that person was elected. ETA: Yeah, there's something about the sensation that "something that should not be blinking, just blinked at me...HOLY GONZO! What the hell?!" of that unexpected moment of finding something that shouldn't be there. In my case, the extended dance had to do with....I had no idea if that rat could get into the car with me...and I was very much against that concept but abandoing my car and running swiftly away seemed a bad plan, so rat was my copilot and all that. Then I did the appropriate "Aaaaiiiiieeeee" dance. Did you end up yelling, "Honey? Heat up the broiler instead!!"

Hehe, sounds like if I ever let my husband near your place, I'd have to send you funds for his care and feeding, as he'd constantly be wandering around, finding something to befriend. By the way, we seemed to have the local "let's pitch some woo!" hotspot for turtles at that house. Way back at the back of the lot, under a paw-paw tree (I know, it's starting to sound a little Candylandish but they were paw-paw trees back there) we were constantly finding turtles busily trying to make more turtles when it was the season. We'd make the worst chaperones for any kind of event as our reactions always ran towards, "Don't interrupt them! They're endangered! Maybe we should light some candles and put on some music to get the others to similarly make turtle eyes at one another." We did not run that google search, by the way.

Ooooh, now with all my heart, I want to give Puddles a banana and see if she will eat it like that because she is long-bodied and stubby legged, so I'm sure I'd nearly perish from cuteness. Unfortunately, she's also super food motivated, so I'm sure it would just be a flash of jaws and then I'd be googling, "Is banana peel bad for dogs?" walnutqueen, that must have been incredibly cute and not a little nerve-racking. Honestly, when we lived on a couple of acres in Missouri, hardly a day passed when we weren't doing something daft for the animal population. We hatched two separate turtle clutches by protecting them through the winter with weighted milk crates. Our lawn guy thought we were absolutely nuts but mowed around them cheerfully enough. Here's a picture from the first clutch, they're in my husband's hand for scale. We actually had six from that clutch altogether and then carefully put them in areas of the woods where they'd be less likely to be picked off (at least we told ourselves that): Fun(nish) story about that. So, starting with the sad part: we lived in an area that was secluded, but not remote, everyone was on a couple of acres and there were woods everywhere. As a result, there were box turtles and they take a really long time to grow. One day our mailman ran over one at our mailbox and we were both depressed about it for a week because it had taken the poor guy decades to get to that size. The next week? My husband glances out his office window and directly in his line of sight is a box turtle, digging and digging and digging...and then laying her eggs for what felt like ever (it took most of the day) and then taking almost as long to cover them back up. This gave us plenty of time to find the blog of a Star Trek fan (unrelated detail) who had hatched a clutch of box turtles, had pictures and advice. We did battle with a toad that tried to eat them and by battle I mean, "we lured it away with treats and made it kind of a pet in a garden well area, where it grew to very large toad sizes and is probably there to this day, helping to eat some of the million insects and burping contentedly). The turtles were all named after Star Trek characters in that blog. We were so excited because it was all very "Circle of Life!!" without any cliffs. We decided to be thoroughly unoriginal and call all of ours "turtle....and other turtle....and still another turtle" because to be honest? Not that easy to tell apart. One was lost to the toad battle but other than that, our turtle mortality rate was low. That was a funky house. Between our negotiations with woodpeckers, hatching things, finding out that Wild Turkeys nest in trees and then drop down like EZ company in the morning was one of those hilarious things. We were out working on the pool and hear "fwoop, fwoop" turned around: Oh, two of the wild turkeys. Interesting. Also, what was that noise? "Fwoop." Huh, there's another....what the? "fwoop, fwoop, fwoop" all of the turkeys were apparently alarmed by my husband dragging a branch around (not as a hobby) and called revelry or something....and then proceeded to run as only Wild Turkeys can: Like canned hams with legs and feet, only very quickly despite the ungainly shape. Also, there was Scritchy's last stand, but I'm not sharing that story as ....implied by the title....Scritchy went on to his next incarnation. Then we got Oscar, who we speculate must have lived on a farm and we stopped having so many "here's a bunch of creatures that we're protecting" places because....well, we had to protect things from Oscar, who is 100 pounds and since he'd been abandoned on a highway was an adept thing hunter. We've since broken him of that habit but part of the Gopher Resettlement efforts of '16 and '17 have to do with "Uh, you all might want to listen up, he's hardly ever out of our sights, but we can't guarantee his good conduct when he is....Uhaul to Tarantula Hill via watering can, anyone?" Instead, they are moving, as a group, slowly up the hill in our backyard. I'm sure the neighbor's back there think we're a splendid addition to the neighborhood. We tried planting things they allegedly don't like to eat and I swear, my husband had no sooner gotten a plant in the ground that we were told would give them the "flee, flee for your actual lives!" sort of hint....then one popped out of a hole, looked my husband dead in the eye like they were reenacting something from Caddy Shack, ran over and tore a big leaf off of the "Gophers hate this" plant, looked right at my husband again, and disappeared down his hole. It is somehow fitting that we have the contrarian gophers. The cod liver oil capsules do appear to get them to migrate.

Yeah, at the time, we actually couldn't figure out where in the world the rat had emigrated from if you will, so we did actually discuss the "well, now he'll be a displaced rat" and then, my husband caught a gopher in the backyard and put him in an empty watering can for safe keeping, as opposed to drowning or anything horrid, and then we had a long discussion about how his mate was almost certainly there in our backyard....and how that was sadly the problem and why we'd set the humane traps in the first place. So we drove him to a spot on a nearby hill, hiking area that we thought would be relatively free of predators and if we ever catch another one, which you'd think would be likely seeing as there is a village of them out there and maybe it could be like he was the lead gopher, going out to establish the new homestead, we'll take them there too. We are, however, it turns out, really quite bad at trapping gophers, so at present I hope uprooted gopher found someone nice and that gophers don't frown on polyamory. It's nice that we found each other because we're probably too darned weird for anyone else at this stage. Oh good lord, edited! It literally just occurred to me, I meant, it's good that my husband and I found each other, because....shortcut: I wasn't calling you weird, Bastet, by the way.

The rat was kind of cute. I admit it. Probably because he was so stunned he just stood there endlessly, looking alarmed and super confused and his expression reminded us of our dog Puddles. Who is fully continent, by the way, just prone to looking like, "Oh lord, today's the day you've decided to stop loving me, isn't it?" levels of anxious sometimes.

For real, you have to know Trump has to be even less popular in Vancouver B.C. than he would naturally be anyway. They're all likely, very politely, getting ready to pummel us all with hockey sticks while screaming, "Control that Thing!! You made it!! It's your Gollum, keep it in your backyard! At the very least stop letting him attempt to piss off places that will totally bomb Seattle because we're three hours away from there and it will be, at the very least, really bad for Stanley Park, and the Earth that Stanley Park is on."

I was just going to say, we saw what happened when the only setting were space ships in the reimagined Battlestar Galactica. Do not wish for such a thing. It is truly not desirable. Oh god, the claustrophobic, melodramatic feel to those last two seasons where they rarely saw anything other than that ship. It's like how people will say they are distracted by the lack of realism in a show, every time a woman raises her arm and you can see a clean shaven/waxed armpit because "Who would take time shave at a time like that?? It's the apocalypse. So distracting!" Then someone decides to go all gritty with details like that and you quickly discover, "Oh yeah, realism is related to the concept of reality...which I'm currently trying to escape by watching TV and ....BASIC HYGIENE STANDARDS PERIMETER BREACHED....can't unsee! Can't unsee!" So you find there's a reason for suspending some reality that actually benefits the show. Unless they become a planet of the week scifi show it gets really boring, really quickly to only have a few sets to work with and they clearly knew that would be a problem on the "we're primarily just trying to go home, so shouldn't be stopping willy nilly...." premise and added a fix that had new settings they thought the audience would get attached to. Some worked better than others in that capacity. So hey, I found the most awkward writing decisions in the entire series. In the last handful of episodes, we have yet another episode about the Doctor, as season seven was pretty Doctor heavy, not always doing the character any favors, like when he confesses his love to Seven and says the creepiest line ever uttered, "having to avert my eyes during routine maintenance...." Hey, way to attain personhood recognition, Doctor! By being a creeper about wanting to ogle his patient during exams. Yes, you get into "yup, you're a life form, no doubt, no question...." by getting your first "only sentient life is capable of being that inappropriate in so many different ways, at once." Then he doesn't get downloaded into oblivion and everyone, including the audience sort of gets to stand around for a moment going, "So are we going to acknowledge the Giant Ew in the room? " and kind of delightfully, all the characters have a moment of clearly deciding that as part of the script, "Yup, we all know it's there, but let's step around this one, shall we? All together now! Leap!" conveyed via expression best read as "groups decides to politely ignore unfortunate digestive events from crew member."

It happens to me in Chrome pretty much all the time if there's an imbedded link in the page I'm trying to view. About the Wall/Fence/fucking whatever from the Tribune: I swear, all he needs to do is take a picture of a wall, photoshop it in repeat along a border, pretty much any border and then say, "It's built" and judging by nearly every picture I have ever seen of people enthusiastically wailing for the thing, they'll buy it. They'll be all "Oh, look there's our Wall!! Let's get back to discussing how Sandy Hook was a liberal conspiracy! After that we'll get giddy over the returning coal jobs and slap each other silly over how great it will all be, then we'll go scream at a Mosque because Jesus wants us to. Hey Earl? Let's buy some beer!" and that's when they'll realize they still have no money, power or voice and start having specialized fits with a limited vocabulary because heavens forfend that a person sounds in any way different when they open their mouths, so they are only allowed about thirty words to be used in an endless loop. I can't really take the article that seriously because it's never really going to matter and speculating about "how could he do it?" is probably pointless also. The people who scream about that wall don't have the best relationship to facts, so they can be easily fooled into thinking it was blocked by the ghost of JFK because crooked Hillary hired a medium to bribe him to do it or whatever else he chooses to do. They'll buy it, if he doesn't build, he'll blame us because we're all up to some conspiracy again. They'll buy that too. When figuring out ways to build this fantasy wall really, all he needs to figure out which way to not do it. Perhaps he'll claim that he never said that and he'll just stick to that. Hell, he could probably just say that he's working on something bigly that will be even better, then they'll be whatever passes for happy when apparently you move through the day propelled by antipathy towards others as your default setting. ETA: Oh, I see that it seems blaming Congress is the adventure game he's chosen this time? Gosh, I wonder which party in Congress he'll primarily blame when they don't pass it.

Thank you for the dog posts, as always, Lantern. My dream for humanity is that someday we will actually deserve how wonderful our pets are. It could happen. You don't know. [/Angels in the Outfield] Rats Holding Teddy Bears, New Digs. And when I got done with my "oh my god, let me out of this car so that I can dance around screaming" fit and my husband opened the hood, he asked me, "Is it wrong that I think he's kind of cute?" And he was.

For real, I like Joe Biden, but his archaic view of whether or not it is okay to just affectionately touch women is just not okay. He has been a champion of causes that protect and help women, that does not mean he has an all ladies pass to touching any woman in his vicinity, though. I get that he thinks it's harmless because it isn't meant to be sexual on any level but dude, catch up. Learn the consent rules. He's kind of an old white guy and he sometimes behaves way too much like an old white guy, who thinks that because he means well, it's okay. He is a big-hearted guy, so I don't doubt his intent or assign it to anything creepy or sexual. Just cut it out, dude. Particularly after the national dialogue surrounding consent that surrounded issues within the campaign. I like Michelle, I just didn't care for the piece much, but that's mostly because it was so unappealing. He doesn't intend anything gross but those poor women and girls are stuck in an impossible position. Pull away, step back, hold up a warding hand and then that's what the camera ends up seeing and whereas it would be a perfectly reasonable thing for anyone to do, who the hell wants to be interviewed over and over and over again about, "Why did you...." It really is putting women in such a difficult position because either they allow it, or they become the town crier on an issue that they might not wish to have define their lives, even briefly. I liked the author but the whole, "I have faith in the system of checks and balances" ....well, here's hoping he's right.

That's entirely true, I don't want anyone to be held back by inequality in any area. If this had happened ten years ago, I think you'd have a shot at being dead right. That she'd eye the mid-terms and say, "Screw that, I want my voice to be heard, I still want to make a difference....and I'm going to." She's never really lived a private life, I can't see her deciding to hang out and play with brio trucks with her granddaughter as a full-time commitment. I agree that because she's married to Bill Clinton, for good or ill, that she can still make a big difference without having to go through campaigns any longer. I even think that Bill Clinton is kind of itching to try and upstage Carter's defining role of "what you can do with your life after you're president" so I hope she gets to do a lot of things that she finds fulfilling. If you're right and that's hitting the campaign trail in two years, I'd do nothing but cheer her on. However, I do think that with her body of work, she is now really contemplating what her legacy will be. Trump ran the filthiest campaign anyone has ever seen in this country. Hillary actively chose not to. I don't know how much of that had to do with, "give him enough rope...." which should have worked....and how much it had to do with "I really cannot stoop to that level because the kind of campaign I run matters to the women who come after me and will, like it or not, be compared to me for their good or ill." It's kind of like how Obama had to be an absurdly good man, pretty much never stooping except he called Kanye West a jackass once, but I think we can pretty much all concur, deservedly so. He didn't just man the desk and do what he wanted, he respected democracy to a degree that was almost superhuman because he knew that his presidency will be judged differently. I don't know what Hillary will do, I think I understand what she might not do and why, but she is made of steel and things stronger than that, whenever she needs to be. She might decide, "I can take it, do your worst, again....some more...." and head to the smaller stage again. But I think of her walking out to that graphic of a shattered glass ceiling and I think she'll have a pretty close eye on how she will also be viewed historically. Someone who is actually pretty freaking kickass, with a strong record of helping women and children. That's that part that makes me wonder if maybe you're right. She ran for the White House, thinking she had at least 8 more years of fight in her to get stuff done. Maybe she'll just swerve and do it all a different way. Admittedly, that was before she lost to the least qualified creature to ever run for the presidency. You know, mainly, I would like that poor woman to stop being the kickball of the Republican party and the American public. She's never deserved it and I guess I'd love to see her be able to do something to help people, without constantly being abused for the temerity of trying to do so. When I think of it that way though, it's been the defining animating force of her life, so yeah, she may very well continue to steam ahead with a battlecry of "don't let the bastards get you down!"

I think the pure evil part starts with abducting an innocent, disabled man and torturing him. Bringing up Trump in connection to their actions is also just evil as hell. Seeking to justify their actions in any political fashion is just adding to the unadulterated evil of it all. I am sure that woman's grandmother is experiencing some extreme denial at the moment. I'm not trying to excuse her, I'm just saying, it would be pretty natural to have a really hard time bouncing seamlessly into the reality in which someone you thought you knew and loved did that.

Because she's already been secretary of state, Padma. She took two runs, eight years apart, at the highest elected office in the land. If she runs for a lesser office, as the only woman to have ever actually stood a chance of winning the presidency, after holding a globally important appointment * it can be too easily interpreted as accepting the limitations of gender. She might want to because she has spent her entire life in public service. Her best bet would be another high-level appointment. It's also complicated by the fact that she's married to a former president so having Bill Clinton be the first dude of a state, rather than a country after that is problematic for legacy reasons also. It would look too much like defeat, on many levels. Like downsizing for politics. If we'd already had a bunch of serious women contenders for the presidency, I agree, she could do it. If she hadn't already been secretary of state she could do it. If she wasn't the spouse of a former president in combination with those things, yeah, it's still not likely after being secretary of state * and she will be judged by the fact that it was an appointment and then there are other concerns with that. But anything she runs for now, will be because she could not be elected president and viewed that way. Nixon did not have anywhere near the kind of complicated and "I'm making historical points and setting precedents" kind of stuff to deal with and neither did the multiple run Reagan. Then there's one more thing, she can't fucking risk another loss. She just can't without destroying everything she was trying to prove. And before anyone thinks, "Oh this would be a guarantee...." Dude, this election the DNC practically anointed her. She was running against....that...Thing....and if anyone has learned there are no guaranteed wins, it is poor Hillary Clinton.

Yeah, I can't bear to think of what that perambulating spray tan will say to people as they grieve. Or when he has to meet the families of fallen soldiers. Or when he's called on to do anything other than brag. Allegedly, he's famous for being charming one-on-one (and presumably as long as he wants something) and that is the only hope upon which to hang our hats. I cannot believe I'm about to say this, but maybe he'll have Ivanka meet with victims. She is at least capable of not behaving in a repulsive fashion, directly to people's faces. I could just cry over the need to type that sentence, but here we are: "Hey, don't despair! Maybe he'll let that person who wasn't elected to any office handle the more delicate official duties? I mean, for the sake of the victims, I'm reduced to hoping for something that is horrifying in and of itself. Yeah, that's actually the piece of news I ran right into as I went off to hopefully check on "maybe something good might happen today? It's possible....oh dear god." They live-streamed it on facebook. The victim was white, none of the assailants were and they did scream things about Trump and white people. The perpetrators are all 18-years-old, an age when empathy hasn't developed for many and they clearly don't have any themselves, and all already in custody. Aside from the insanely horrific nature of the crime (and please, enjoy prison for a good long time, you all fucking deserve it) they could not possibly have picked a worse things to yell to arm detractors of real live movements, what have nothing whatsoever to do with those little fucking sadists. So I went looking for good news and discovered the "Wow, are you EVER not helping" gang, a crime that made me start the day out in tears and the horrible knowledge that the Piece of Shit Elect will doubtless spin this to his advantage. WASF. That poor young man. I have no sympathy, whatsoever for those little shits. I do have sympathy for the possibility that they have family that is horrified beyond the telling of it by their actions. What they did is horrible, but it is only indicative of who they are as individuals (as I said, glad you're all over 18, and enjoy being incarcerated because no one is getting plea on that one). Any person with an ounce of sense will understand that. Therefore, batten down the hatches, because it's going to be a bad Tweet day because you know who doesn't have any sense? Trumpletwit and his easily stirred up base are not known for their measured and considered approach. Fuck. It's going to get slightly worse here because, oh god, this is the part that makes it even worse: they live streamed it, but apparently no one reported it at the time? It was only when they found the poor man wandering around in shorts, in the Chicago winter, bleeding and confused, that they were able to start piecing it together. So we're about to experience a test of the "How will Trump handled a potentially volatile situation?" emergency response system here shortly.

Thank you, candall, I sincerely appreciate that. There is one other hope: Since it has become abundantly clear, that people don't even understand what "Repeal Obamacare Immediately" entails and have convinced themselves that they'll get to keep the parts that benefits them (and fuck everyone else, as is the party mantra) there is one thing that might make them hesitate. Since repealing it immediately without a plan in place would actually fuck people over -- many people who don't apparently understand that they voted giddily for something that will actually hurt them -- they may be willing to come to some sort of interim compromise with the Dems. The only reasons they'd have an interest in doing that is that it stops being possible to blame Obama for any resulting damage and the shit would stain their party this time. So self-interest might stop them. The democrats have an actual interest in helping human beings, so that might help too. These are all hypotheticals. It is just really unlikely that they'll rip to shreds something that their voters actually are depending on, even if many don't understand the ways in which they do, they sure as shit will when it's gone. And these are the happy folks who really like guns so.....? So there's a possibility that they'll all go to the table and emerge with something. Even Trump gets that maybe it's not a good idea to start a presidency with a giant disaster that will have people, heavily armed people, screaming in their direction for a change.

You're welcome, sistermagpie, the only reason I remembered was Jon Stewart actually did an extended bit on Gretchen Carlson pretending not to know things. I will give her this, she was at least good at seeming to be dim enough to pull that off. "I'm not a fancy lawyer like Obama, so I looked that up...." and if you didn't know her bio, it would be possible to believe she didn't know. She had that wide-eyed thing going and the midwestern accent and she just tried to sell the hell out of "I can't keep many thoughts, in my generically pretty blond head, as befits us girl folk...." as an act. Stanford. That woman graduated from Stanford. She also spent a year at Oxford studying Virginia Woolf. There are people who smash glass ceilings and then there are women who try to make sure the ladder will always fall short, such is Gretchen Carlson.

That was Gretchen Carlson, sistermagpie. For real, here's a link to that schtick she pulled, apparently she was in a hostile work environment at the time, so maybe that explains why a woman who was cultured enough to play classical violin and is a graduate of fucking Stanford had to look up the word Czar. And, just because it should be said, just because I dislike Gretchen Carlson almost as much as Megyn Kelly, no one deserves to be sexually harrassed and the way she was treated at Fox News is appalling. She just happens to be appalling also.

I find her to be entirely despicable and have ever since she sat there sneering about how a public school teacher's life sounded pretty opulent to her because the teacher had a car and a house. A very modest house, by the way, and an SUV of some sort that hadn't even been purchased new and was still being paid off. This was at the same time as Fox News was talking about how percentages of poor people who had access to refrigerators, ovens, air-conditioning, TVs, etc. etc. like it was proof that they were living the dream and bilking a system. All along the entire study was worded to conceal that they were talking about access provided via the properties they rent since poor people seldom own property. It's part of the reason washers and dryers aren't mentioned anywhere in that study. So they stirred up their denture clutching base with outrage over the fact that laws protect poor people from slum lords whenever possible, therefore, yes, fridges are considered part of decent livable rental standards even for the poor. As is heat and water but even Fox News figured out that if they framed it like that (as in, correctly) that people wouldn't be up in arms about what wonderful lives people live, where they might not freeze, or starve, so let's make sure they do! During that time period, Megyn fucking Kelly sat there and gave her sour-faced pronouncement about how that sounded like a pretty good life to her, therefore, teachers unions should be abolished. During Fox's disgusting campaign to criminalize poverty, she sat there decked out in designer wear, judging the life of a teacher as being good enough from where she sat. She did this with a completely straight face, as a woman who makes millions, judging someone trying to get by on a public teacher's salary -- who drove an SUV and therefore, was being overpaid (seriously that was the fucking implication -- and steal yourselves: Kelly's father was a college professor. Her father died when she was fifteen. That's how much she was willing to sell her fucking soul. She shit on the importance of the very thing her father did. My dad was an educator also, he similarly died (of the same damned thing, heart failure) when I was fifteen and as far as I'm concerned, she is the antichrist. I could not dislike her any more than I do. She's living excrement. I don't know how any of those people ever look in the mirror without puking over the ways they have tossed away anything resembling integrity but Kelly has always struck me as being the worst of them. Mainly because she could have chosen to leave Fox News but it's now something like six years later and she's just getting around to it....not over "well, I sold that part of my soul and now I'm rich, maybe I should take my talents and do some good...." because the amount of harm she has actively participated in, while misleading people with faux "studies" that "proved" that poor people weren't suffering enough by Fox News standards. As if there would be something wrong with someone owning a fridge -- forget about the study just talking about what poor people have in rental units -- or being able to live in something resembling comfort. I think Stephen King accidentally conjured her from the air and made her flesh or something, she's that evil in my eyes. ETA: Heh, I just read NinjaPenguins' post, thank you for the laugh. Well done!

I keep hoping that this "We're keeping our word, repeal the ACA! But first...a poll...." thing is actually the GOP searching for a way out of this because for people who are sick right now or have pre-existing conditions that are disqualifiers under the archaic, draconian system, it feels tantamount to lining them up for a firing squad because without a word of exaggeration, some people will die without treatment. They actually have to be aware of this. Maybe it's the last shred of my idealism that has yet to die, that has me still hoping that they won't actually vote to do something that could kill people, or make them sicker or any number of terrible fates. I know I'm wrong. I've watched the GOP try to do as bad and worse. A particular moment of shame on the GOP was trying to dictate what people on food assistance programs were allowed to buy like they were on some sort privation diet as a punishment. Treating people who need help, like they've done something wrong and need to be put in food prison. This is very specifically why I am on such high alert. I know I'm bouncing off the walls in here and unspooling with weird humor and all sorts of things, and I do apologize for that. I know it's got to be incredibly obvious that I am freaking out over here. I've done everything I can, made every call, logged my opinion through every official channel that I can but I'm like this because I can't figure out anything else to do. It's just hardwired into people -- or I thought it was -- to try and protect others when they aren't able to do that themselves. Sick people, the GOP is fucking menacing sick people and I'm losing my bird over here because I'm super solution-oriented and now, all I can do is hope that these people, who have given me no reason to believe they have a conscience, will suddenly manifest one. The majority of voters for all sides do not want the ACA repealed. This is against the will of the people, even if some of them are so damned daft they voted to repeal "Obamacare!" without understanding it was the same as the ACA or by telling themselves "they won't really do that because ....who would?" You will all be relieved to know, that the holiday break I took from volunteering, after I'd filled in for two other people, for two months prior to the holidays, will be over tomorrow afternoon and at least I'll be able to feel like I'm doing something to try and help. The break seemed like a good idea at the time, when I booked it, not realizing that it would coincide with "Oh, look, the GOP is terrorizing people who are sick and should only be worried about getting healthy, and bullying other people who now have to be frightened about what will happen to them if they get sick!" period in history. Yup, I need to go mainline chamomile or something because I thought, "I should look at this morning's news now, maybe something good will have happened"....and that was something of a vain hope.