Getting mine tomorrow, so embarassed about being so late, but I had a cold in December and I knew they wouldn't stick me if I was coughing and sneezing (no excuse for the January delay however)
“ West Virginia up with the worst anti-trans bill in the country to date: No care for minors (defined as up to 21) and all social workers and therapists now have to try to “cure” them.”
Gee, aren’t these the same people who complain that bans on conversion therapy, aka, pray the gay away, are an infringement on “therapists’” free speech rights? I guess it doesn’t work the other way around. Forcing real therapists to employ quack therapy is just okay.
I’ll say it again: women dying as a result of their policies is a feature, not a bug to republicans. Especially if the women are poor, nonwhite, or just not “Christian” enough for them.
Of course, wealthy white Christian women will always have to resources to “visit their aunt” in a blue state for a few days and return home with an empty womb.
Republicans are in an impossible spot. Trump is going to implode in an orgy if convictions and civil judgments this year. None of the legal news is going to good for him except for the possibility of the supreme allowing him him to stay on the ballot. And when it becomes clear that their front runner is a convicted felon, they won’t have any alternative. Who are they going to put up? DeSantis or Haley? Neither of them are ready for prime time.
I know the whole Darwin award jokes about not getting vaccines are stale, but at this point if you're not getting vaccinated fuck you. It's not funny or stupid or anything except straight fuck off assholery.
First of all, fuck every Republican for their active endorsement of needless, cruel, preventable death.
Second, from personal experience Accession hospitals suck. The 3 times in 10 years my mom was taken there for emergencies were just horrible, half assed experiences in misery and lack of care. She also was for insurance reasons scheduled for surgery there once. Her early morning 1 hour surgery kept getting pushed back, to the point they were closing down the outpatient surgery for the night when they realized they had forgotten her!! This despite me bugging them every 30 minutes about her damn surgery. Getting records from them is damn near impossible also. After her week long emergency stay last June, none of her doctors have received her full file. Oh, and despite her having Medicare, they sent her a bill for her entire stay without billing Medicare first. They suck. I want to say more, but do not want the banhammer. That they are closing maternity wards and ob\gyn departments across the board, risking lives, because they want more money, does not surprise me at all. Who cares who dies? Its only women. Provide proper care, including abortion care when needed and appropriate? Oh, fuck no. That would violate some precious principle somewhere.
TL:DR: Fuck Republicans and fuck Accession Hospitals.
On the Small Wins side of the ledger: I am heading off for work in about an hour, but first I will put on pants [gasps!] and go outside (which is why pants, about -10F) and bring in the next batch of firewood, about three toboggan loads, and stack them in the inside wood rack so that they will warm up for later use.
The victory is that today is January 12th, and I will be tapping into the January pile for the first time. Which means that I will have plenty of wood for January, and I have a full rick for February, and another full rick for March, and after that, it will not be winter! Ha! Granted, we may still have snow and cold, but it will be spring snow and spring cold.
Also, the wool blend tights I found for sale and ordered a month ago are out for delivery. Warm butts for the win! Also legs! (This is a Big Deal.)
Also! I slept all night long and awakened refreshed. First time since mid-November when I slipped on the ice and went down hard, and I have had the gradually-diminishing achy-but-thankfully-no-breaky blues since. I am on the mend.
Wood is in and stacked, and the floor is swept, so that chore does not await me when I get home, and the cat who came out to help me with it is back inside. Head start on the weekend.
Remember when our pal Sinema was destroying Biden's accomplishments (or trying to) and we all tried to console ourselves with the fact that at least she would be a reliable vote for judges.
Well, she's burned that bridge too. She voted against Biden's nominee in CO (per Daily Kos). Sinema is now completely and totally irrelevant and should be treated accordingly. This has been a Public Service Announcement.
I don't think she is officially running. She might be planning to jump ship and join the republicans but I assume if she really wanted to, she would have done that by now.
Oh she'll never run as a Republican; she'd get shredded in the primary. She'd place 5th in a 3 person race...
If she was going to join a 'party' she'd go for No Labels...which is now a registered party on the ballot, but is in a fight right now, because someone registered as No Labels, filed to run, and promptly demanded to know who was funding 'their' party.
I believe they're in court right now trying to keep their donors secret.
And that tells you all you need to know about Traitor Joe's party
Good Afghanistan read from TPM. Joe certainly deserves credit for ending our occupation of Afghanistan but nobody on either side wants to acknowledge it. The Taliban taking over 5 minutes after we left and everybody acting surprised shows how ignorant we are about Afghanistan in general. The Taliban has done away with any of the policies and plans implemented by the West and of course returned to being an Islamic Emirate. One thing they have accomplished is cutting opium poppy cultivation by 90% in 2023. Taliban supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada banned the crop in 2022 and it will continue through 2024. They also banned the processing and trade of opium. Myanmar has taken over the #1 opium producer position.
"The Taliban taking over 5 minutes after we left and everybody acting surprised shows how ignorant we are about Afghanistan in general."
Gee, I wonder how that happened...oh yeah Mango Mussolini negotiating with them alone to end the war, then putting in an impossible timeline for Biden to meet.
The poppy crop thing probably isn't great news for Afghans since poppy is one of the few plants that really thrives in Afghanistan's harsh landscape. Or at least I read that in an article criticizing the US for destroying poppy fields instead of just buying poppy crops since we need them to create morphine anyway.
I've read a few articles already complaining that the poppy ban will destroy the Afghan farmers and economy for various reasons. Apparently they think it's ok to be in the opium business if you really need the money. There are many untapped natural resources in Afghanistan. The Taliban are not interested in being a narco-state.
I listened to a fabulous program on BBC World News about this. Afghani poppy farmers and their families are starving and are PISSED about this. They obviously cannot fight back against the Taliban, but destroying the cash crop that people rely upon to survive hasn't helped the people who ... need to survive.
The Taliban is facing a challenge to help transition the farmers and producers into other crops and enterprises. That will need to happen for the ban to be effective.
Off topic but I need some help. Is there any way that the font used on Wonkette can be darkened? These very old eyes are failing and the light blue on the white background is really causing me problems. All guidance appreciated.
I'm not seeing light blue on white, just the standard black. That might be a setting on your own device. Are you trying to read this on a phone, tablet, laptop?
Thanks for the reply. I’m having the most difficulty on my PC laptop. I’ll keep trying to change the font or do something. Enlarging the font size doesn’t help because the lack of contrast still causes severe eye strain. Nuts to growing old.
HP Model 17by4 running Win 11. As an oldz I cling to AOL which has served me reasonably well since I started using it back in the 1980s. One of my sons refers to it as America Off Line but it works for me; old dogs and new tricks, etc.
I'm sure that my problem is the continued degradation of my eyesight due to the ravages of glaucoma and dry-eye problems--one eye about gone completely, the other sliding slowly in that direction. Probably darkening the type face won't make a dime's worth of difference.
OMG it finally happened. Wordle in 1. Now I can stop using the same (decent) starting word I've been using since the beginning. Maybe 20 times out of 937 I used something else. (yeah, I even went back and played the archives from day 0 with this word, just to check that it never came up before).
Now I am finally free and I can have fun with new starting words!
Speaking of covid, I got a bill for $5.73 for the telehealth doctor I used to get an antiviral prescribed. It was only that amount because I have Medicare, with no insurance you can add another $500. That seems like it could be a huge barrier to accessing care, but that's the truth for all healthcare.
Header gif info 🕶️
https://open.substack.com/pub/martiniambassador/p/far-out-man?r=angu9&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcome=true
That's mesmerizing!
Hey, Martini. Planning to move to France in the near future and would love to get your insights, Will share my email if you're around. Thanks. o
PS - Groovy header
Sure, you can email me from my page (I think).
🎶The room was humming harder
As the ceiling flew away
When we called out for another drink
Hooper said we'd have to wait.🎶
Chef's kiss!
Gorgeous psychedelia.
Groovy baby.
Far out man.
Once again, great job on todays header gif.
#3-D Trippy Kitty w/ da Whip!
It's like the view is from inside the lava lamp.
You mean 'The Dungeon'. You total pervert.
That was deep -
Thanks for the reminder. I have scheduled my covid shot.
Getting mine tomorrow, so embarassed about being so late, but I had a cold in December and I knew they wouldn't stick me if I was coughing and sneezing (no excuse for the January delay however)
The Hawaiian princess didn’t leave anything to George Clooney?
“ West Virginia up with the worst anti-trans bill in the country to date: No care for minors (defined as up to 21) and all social workers and therapists now have to try to “cure” them.”
Gee, aren’t these the same people who complain that bans on conversion therapy, aka, pray the gay away, are an infringement on “therapists’” free speech rights? I guess it doesn’t work the other way around. Forcing real therapists to employ quack therapy is just okay.
I’ll say it again: women dying as a result of their policies is a feature, not a bug to republicans. Especially if the women are poor, nonwhite, or just not “Christian” enough for them.
Of course, wealthy white Christian women will always have to resources to “visit their aunt” in a blue state for a few days and return home with an empty womb.
Republicans are in an impossible spot. Trump is going to implode in an orgy if convictions and civil judgments this year. None of the legal news is going to good for him except for the possibility of the supreme allowing him him to stay on the ballot. And when it becomes clear that their front runner is a convicted felon, they won’t have any alternative. Who are they going to put up? DeSantis or Haley? Neither of them are ready for prime time.
It's ironic we left Afghanistan just as massive lithium deposits were discovered. From an imperialist standpoint.
The stuff is mostly in Australia. You gotta fight kangaroos for it, but that's not as bad.
It's the emus you really have to worry about
I know the whole Darwin award jokes about not getting vaccines are stale, but at this point if you're not getting vaccinated fuck you. It's not funny or stupid or anything except straight fuck off assholery.
My son has it right now. He's only the 2nd covid victim I've known. He just thought he had a cold.
First of all, fuck every Republican for their active endorsement of needless, cruel, preventable death.
Second, from personal experience Accession hospitals suck. The 3 times in 10 years my mom was taken there for emergencies were just horrible, half assed experiences in misery and lack of care. She also was for insurance reasons scheduled for surgery there once. Her early morning 1 hour surgery kept getting pushed back, to the point they were closing down the outpatient surgery for the night when they realized they had forgotten her!! This despite me bugging them every 30 minutes about her damn surgery. Getting records from them is damn near impossible also. After her week long emergency stay last June, none of her doctors have received her full file. Oh, and despite her having Medicare, they sent her a bill for her entire stay without billing Medicare first. They suck. I want to say more, but do not want the banhammer. That they are closing maternity wards and ob\gyn departments across the board, risking lives, because they want more money, does not surprise me at all. Who cares who dies? Its only women. Provide proper care, including abortion care when needed and appropriate? Oh, fuck no. That would violate some precious principle somewhere.
TL:DR: Fuck Republicans and fuck Accession Hospitals.
It's almost as if calling yourself Catholic doesn't prevent a company from being run by the usual greedy, monstrous ghouls.
You'd think West Virginia would do more for their miners.
They never did before.
On the Small Wins side of the ledger: I am heading off for work in about an hour, but first I will put on pants [gasps!] and go outside (which is why pants, about -10F) and bring in the next batch of firewood, about three toboggan loads, and stack them in the inside wood rack so that they will warm up for later use.
The victory is that today is January 12th, and I will be tapping into the January pile for the first time. Which means that I will have plenty of wood for January, and I have a full rick for February, and another full rick for March, and after that, it will not be winter! Ha! Granted, we may still have snow and cold, but it will be spring snow and spring cold.
Also, the wool blend tights I found for sale and ordered a month ago are out for delivery. Warm butts for the win! Also legs! (This is a Big Deal.)
Also! I slept all night long and awakened refreshed. First time since mid-November when I slipped on the ice and went down hard, and I have had the gradually-diminishing achy-but-thankfully-no-breaky blues since. I am on the mend.
Happy Hooperday, everywonk.
So much good news in one comment!
And even more!
Wood is in and stacked, and the floor is swept, so that chore does not await me when I get home, and the cat who came out to help me with it is back inside. Head start on the weekend.
Remember when our pal Sinema was destroying Biden's accomplishments (or trying to) and we all tried to console ourselves with the fact that at least she would be a reliable vote for judges.
Well, she's burned that bridge too. She voted against Biden's nominee in CO (per Daily Kos). Sinema is now completely and totally irrelevant and should be treated accordingly. This has been a Public Service Announcement.
I do not know if she is even officially running for re-election, but I do know that Reuben Gallego will kick her and Krazy Lakes butts handily.
I don't think she is officially running. She might be planning to jump ship and join the republicans but I assume if she really wanted to, she would have done that by now.
Oh she'll never run as a Republican; she'd get shredded in the primary. She'd place 5th in a 3 person race...
If she was going to join a 'party' she'd go for No Labels...which is now a registered party on the ballot, but is in a fight right now, because someone registered as No Labels, filed to run, and promptly demanded to know who was funding 'their' party.
I believe they're in court right now trying to keep their donors secret.
And that tells you all you need to know about Traitor Joe's party
Good Afghanistan read from TPM. Joe certainly deserves credit for ending our occupation of Afghanistan but nobody on either side wants to acknowledge it. The Taliban taking over 5 minutes after we left and everybody acting surprised shows how ignorant we are about Afghanistan in general. The Taliban has done away with any of the policies and plans implemented by the West and of course returned to being an Islamic Emirate. One thing they have accomplished is cutting opium poppy cultivation by 90% in 2023. Taliban supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada banned the crop in 2022 and it will continue through 2024. They also banned the processing and trade of opium. Myanmar has taken over the #1 opium producer position.
"The Taliban taking over 5 minutes after we left and everybody acting surprised shows how ignorant we are about Afghanistan in general."
Gee, I wonder how that happened...oh yeah Mango Mussolini negotiating with them alone to end the war, then putting in an impossible timeline for Biden to meet.
The poppy crop thing probably isn't great news for Afghans since poppy is one of the few plants that really thrives in Afghanistan's harsh landscape. Or at least I read that in an article criticizing the US for destroying poppy fields instead of just buying poppy crops since we need them to create morphine anyway.
I've read a few articles already complaining that the poppy ban will destroy the Afghan farmers and economy for various reasons. Apparently they think it's ok to be in the opium business if you really need the money. There are many untapped natural resources in Afghanistan. The Taliban are not interested in being a narco-state.
I listened to a fabulous program on BBC World News about this. Afghani poppy farmers and their families are starving and are PISSED about this. They obviously cannot fight back against the Taliban, but destroying the cash crop that people rely upon to survive hasn't helped the people who ... need to survive.
I will have to look for that program.
The Taliban is facing a challenge to help transition the farmers and producers into other crops and enterprises. That will need to happen for the ban to be effective.
We (the USA) tried this and it did not work.
Look, the Taliban are the Republicans of Afghanistan...why would they bivr a flying fuck about poor people either?
*Tazmania has entered the chat*
Off topic but I need some help. Is there any way that the font used on Wonkette can be darkened? These very old eyes are failing and the light blue on the white background is really causing me problems. All guidance appreciated.
I'm not seeing light blue on white, just the standard black. That might be a setting on your own device. Are you trying to read this on a phone, tablet, laptop?
Thanks for the reply. I’m having the most difficulty on my PC laptop. I’ll keep trying to change the font or do something. Enlarging the font size doesn’t help because the lack of contrast still causes severe eye strain. Nuts to growing old.
What kind of laptop, and if applicable, what browser are you using?
HP Model 17by4 running Win 11. As an oldz I cling to AOL which has served me reasonably well since I started using it back in the 1980s. One of my sons refers to it as America Off Line but it works for me; old dogs and new tricks, etc.
I'm sure that my problem is the continued degradation of my eyesight due to the ravages of glaucoma and dry-eye problems--one eye about gone completely, the other sliding slowly in that direction. Probably darkening the type face won't make a dime's worth of difference.
What about using the narration function? I get that it is an irritating option, but it's an option.
Getting old: not for sissies.
OMG it finally happened. Wordle in 1. Now I can stop using the same (decent) starting word I've been using since the beginning. Maybe 20 times out of 937 I used something else. (yeah, I even went back and played the archives from day 0 with this word, just to check that it never came up before).
Now I am finally free and I can have fun with new starting words!
Wordle 937 1/6
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
Still trying for mine. It's like Lotto, you can't stop. What if it was a day I missed?!
Exactly!!!
Wordle in 1!*
*not organic 1, it was inevitable. Still waiting for an organic one.
Speaking of covid, I got a bill for $5.73 for the telehealth doctor I used to get an antiviral prescribed. It was only that amount because I have Medicare, with no insurance you can add another $500. That seems like it could be a huge barrier to accessing care, but that's the truth for all healthcare.