Sunday I’m An Asshole Links

by | Jul 3, 2022 | Daily Links | 268 comments

This is really more appropriate for GlibFit, but who the hell knows what I’ll be doing this afternoon. I mentioned recently that I’ve been using Apple’s Fitness app on my watch and iPhone. Not being content with tracking my progress, I found out that I can use it to compete with others. So naturally, I ended up in challenges with WebDom. She has the distinct advantage of being half my age, but I have the advantage of not having to manage a crowd of idiot kids minute by minute. And I’m not a girl (ducks).

Of course, that made my competitive nature kick into high gear, and much like the tranny skateboarder who has recently been taking glee in defeating 13 year olds, I was determined to crush her spirit. And to really rub it in, I set my fitness goals to be more than double hers.

So now, with this new technology in place, she keeps receiving screenshots of how far ahead I am and how hopeless is her quest to overtake me. Her mother had a certain imprecation which she would continually direct at me, a three letter acronym with the first two letters being FY and the last being my initial. Somehow, this has been genetically inherited.

Oh, and speaking of genetic inheritance, there are birthdays today, including a composer who lived on the knife’s edge; a guy who was born one day too early; a guy who asked what “is” is; a guy who woke up as a cockroach; a guy who was very bored; a woman who was very hungry; a woman who got too close to the truth and paid the price; an heir who was something of a mixed bag to us; Mark Kelly’s spirit animal; a piece of shit who still inflicts himself on us; an attention whore who gives attention whores a bad name; a guy who recognized a dumbass when he saw one; a guy who is ridiculously accomplished; a piece of shit who strongly contributed to the enstupidation of America; a famous midget actor; and a guy who should have been given a Medal of Freedom instead of being persecuted.

Let’s have some Links, then.

 

This is guaranteed to be honest and aboveboard.

 

Here’s some useful (((info))).

 

Perfectly selfish link. This is what I’ve been doing this weekend.

 

Tentacle porn.

 

OMG, PEOPLE I DISAGREE WITH ARE BEING PEACEFUL!

 

Why TikTok is the biggest threat to SETI.

 

By request of Gender Traitor, Old Guy Music is a bluegrass cover of one of the very best Rolling Stones tunes, featuring the late, great Vasser Clements on fiddle, Jerry Garcia on banjo, David Grisman on mandolin, and Peter Rowan on guitar and lead vocals.

About The Author

Old Man With Candy

Old Man With Candy

Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me. Wait, wrong book, I'll find something else.

268 Comments

  1. Count Potato

    “a guy who was born one day too early”

    LOL

  2. straffinrun

    A large group of people carrying flags and shields marched along downtown Boston’s Freedom Trail Saturday

    FBI shields.

    • Trigger Hippie

      Glowies gonna glow, yo.

  3. juris imprudent

    Ha, you think SETI has problems – the Army’s vaunted Future Combat System (rests in pieces) required 100% of the unallocated spectrum (circa 2004) in order to have the bandwidth for the network it envisioned.

    • hayeksplosives

      HA!

      I still have an FCS “challenge” coin from back in the day…

      • juris imprudent

        FCS had many challenges, reality first and foremost.

      • Ted S.

        I’ll always think of it as Division I-AA.

  4. Gender Traitor

    Thank you, Old Man! (And thanks for making it a link, so I can comment and refresh the page without interrupting the tune!) TT says he’s familiar with this cover, but his own version is just muddling through the original as best he can, since he doesn’t really know what he’s doing on a banjo. 😆🪕

  5. Count Potato

    “A Spanish company is pushing forward with plans to open the first commercial octopus farm in the Canary Islands; research continues apace in places such as Japan and Mexico to raise and domesticate the animal for profit.”

    The writer needs an editor. That article is way too long.

    Anyway, I noticed a few years ago the canned pulpo is now octopus style squid.

    • straffinrun

      Octopus is “Taco” in Japanese hence the reason my first two dishes at kaiten sushi is always that and tuna.

      • Count Potato

        So a pulpo taco is a taco taco?

      • straffinrun

        One in the pink, two in the ink.

      • Trigger Hippie

        [golf clap]

      • Pi Guy

        The Ocker

      • Sensei

        No chestnuts and squirrel?

        クリとリス

  6. juris imprudent

    Herbert has some Korbyzski influences in Dune as I recall.

    • db

      I’m pretty sure that Heinlein referenced General Semantics in several stories.

  7. straffinrun

    Why did you put your watch on your shlong?

    • Sean

      O.o

    • Tres Cool

      I do it so Jugsy can see if Ill be late for work.

    • slumbrew

      Ugh, I can’t unsee that now.

  8. CPRM

    Trying to figure out if I’m hungry enough to grab breakfast. Then I gotta decide if the hotel brefast will suffice. Decisions decisions.

    What the hell kind of Sconnie bar closes at midnight on a Saturday!? If I were a Karen I’d complain on their Yelp! page.

    • Tulip

      How are you all doing after killing that bottle of rye?

  9. Grummun

    Old Man music sounds better than the Stones ever did.

  10. straffinrun

    Sitting here outside my neighbor’s bathroom window as she’s scrubbing down. Neph left the zoom open all weekend and you all are missing out.

    • slumbrew

      You really have gone native.

      • Tres Cool

        He’s in Japan. He’ll just want to watch another one in an hour.

      • straffinrun

        It’s either Dad’s or daughter’s turn next.

        *crosses fingers*

      • Tres Cool

        pretty sure Ive seen your pr0nhub channel

    • Tres Cool

      I asked 100 women what their favorite shampoo is.
      The top response was “why the fuck are you in my bathroom?”

      • Chafed

        Lol

    • Tonio

      Zoom, you say?

  11. Tres Cool

    I’ve got nearly 6 lbs of “choice” Flank Steak I aim to do something with. (Kroger had it marked down to 3.99/lb)

    Grill, oven, pressure-cook? Marinade? Rub?

    Im open to ideas.

    • slumbrew

      Marinate, grill, tacos.

    • trshmnstr the terrible

      Marinade. Should help break down some of the fibers and tenderize it a bit.

      Pressure cook sounds interesting, I’ve never done it that way.

      • Ownbestenemy

        I would think pressure cooking it would decimate it into a goo

      • Tres Cool

        On some cuts of meat it’s the opposite- it galvanizes it into saddle-leather.
        And I dont use a faggoty, digital, pressure-cooker like the one in the video. Mine is a (likely) 50 year-old Presto stove-top.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        *hides faggoty Insta-Pot*

      • Tulip

        Presto with the rocker counterweight for the win.

      • Tres Cool

        Thats my jam.

    • Count Potato

      London broil?

      • Tres Cool

        Good to know but I stopped at “2. Roast the walnuts in the oven until they are fragrant, about 5 minutes.”

        If I ever get caught doing that, it will be after butt-chugging White Claws and playing “Elton John/George Michael sing “Boxcar Willies Greatest Hits””.

      • Sean

        😂

      • Tulip

        That looks really good.

      • Sean

        Yup. I’d crush that meal.

    • Not Adahn

      Sous vide, then sear/broil/grill

      • Not Adahn

        I sous vided a top round roast some weeks back and threw it in the freezer. Tomorrow, I think I’ll roast it with some cauliflower.

  12. trshmnstr the terrible

    Daily Quordle 160
    9️⃣7️⃣
    3️⃣5️⃣

    QB
    4 5
    3 7

    • The Hyperbole

      Daily Quordle 160
      7️⃣4️⃣
      3️⃣5️⃣

    • rhywun

      Daily Quordle 160
      7️⃣6️⃣
      3️⃣5️⃣

    • Sean

      Daily Quordle 160
      7️⃣5️⃣
      3️⃣6️⃣
      quordle.com

    • JG43

      Daily Quordle 160
      9️⃣6️⃣
      8️⃣5️⃣
      quordle.com

    • Grummun

      6 4
      3 7

    • Grosspatzer

      Daily Quordle 160
      4️⃣7️⃣
      3️⃣6️⃣
      quordle.com

    • kinnath

      Daily Quordle 160
      8️⃣5️⃣
      4️⃣7️⃣

      My two seed words produced no hits on one of the words for 3 of the 4 corners today. Ouch.

    • one true athena

      Daily Quordle 160
      6️⃣9️⃣
      4️⃣7️⃣

    • TARDis

      Promising start, overconfidence.
      Daily Quordle 160
      8️⃣5️⃣
      2️⃣6️⃣

    • Dr. Fronkensteen

      Daily Quordle 160
      7️⃣5️⃣
      4️⃣8️⃣
      quordle.com

    • grrizzly

      Daily Quordle 160
      6️⃣4️⃣
      3️⃣7️⃣

    • MikeS

      7️⃣9️⃣
      4️⃣🟥

      😥

    • Grumbletarian

      Daily Quordle 160
      8️⃣5️⃣
      3️⃣6️⃣

    • Ozymandias

      Daily Quordle 160
      8️⃣5️⃣
      3️⃣6️⃣
      quordle.com

    • Cannoli

      Daily Quordle 160
      5️⃣7️⃣
      3️⃣6️⃣

    • Tres Cool

      I count 20 of the yellow things in that pic.
      And- I found Waldo!

      • slumbrew

        Even 9 shots would be a lot, given police marksmanship

      • Tres Cool

        Unless your dog is nearby.

      • Pat

        9 out of 90 would be about right though.

    • Gender Traitor

      Wait – how did the dude lose her 90 times in the back while he was fleeing? 🤔

      • slumbrew

        Thank you – that really irked me as well.

      • cavalier973

        At the store, she was always, like, “I’ll be at the sales rack, in the back!” but when he went there after browsing the toy aisle, she was never there.

  13. Ownbestenemy

    Morning. Hotel breakfast is bad. Pretentious travels eating it and complaining are even worse.

    • Tres Cool

      So you’re actually dumber for staying at Holiday Inn Express ?

      • Ownbestenemy

        How did you know!

      • R.J.

        Hiltons are worth it for the breakfast.

    • Gender Traitor

      However, if you’re eating them, at least they’ve stopped complaining. (Does the breakfast bar include fava beans?)

    • db

      I used to spend a lot of time traveling for work–became a bit of an expert at it–and I can’t stand listening to people who expound loudly in public on the petty annoyances of travel. Yeah, we all get it. STFU and enjoy your meal.

  14. Scruffy Nerfherder

    Thanks for the gorilla glass link. I had forgotten most of the history.

    IIRC Corning doesn’t make borosilicate kitchen wares any more. All the new Pyrex is something else and not as durable. But there are some other brands out there that do use it.

  15. Count Potato

    “EXCLUSIVE: How California’s legal cannabis dream became a public health nightmare: It’s a class B drug in the UK – but in the US state it’s led to spiralling addiction, psychotic illnesses and hospitals facing a deluge of poisonings

    In California, hospital admissions for cannabis-related complications have shot up – from 1,400 in 2005 to 16,000 by 2019. In California, and the other 18 states that have legalised cannabis, rates of addiction are nearly 40 per cent higher than states without legal cannabis, according to research by Columbia University.

    A study published on Thursday suggested recreational marijuana users were 25 per cent more likely to end up needing emergency hospital treatment. And, according to data from the US Fatality Analysis Reporting System, the risk of being involved in a cannabis-related accident is significantly higher in states where the drug is legal

    here are other concerns too, not least about the black market that has grown by nearly 100 per cent since cannabis laws were relaxed, as bootleggers sell products at a lower price, undercutting the registered shops.

    Experts say these problems are mostly down to record levels of cannabis use – with roughly 40 per cent of Californians now saying they’ve dabbled at least once, according to a California Department of Public Health survey.”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-10976437/How-Californias-legal-cannabis-dream-public-health-nightmare.html

    More people admit using because it’s legal.

    • rhywun

      40 per cent of Californians now saying they’ve dabbled at least once

      OMG BAN IT!

      • Tres Cool

        They need to colorize “Reefer Madness” and start playing it at DARE meetings.

    • Pat

      I’ve been using a 5:1 THC:CBD tincture to get to sleep for the last couple of years, and it works better than any prescription or OTC sleep aid I have ever used. I wonder if I’m a hopeless junkie now.

    • Don escaped Texas

      I’ve never used an illicit drug, but I don’t care what you do……….at your house.

      Memphis doesn’t prosecute pot, which is good, but that has turned every park and public way into a smoke fest. This tragedy of the commons means it’s a big part of my life now because I live in a desirable neighborhood on the river, so parking all over has turned the public roads into crazy gauntlets of indifferent bumpers jutting into the way as underclass losers while away their lives in their indifferent happy hazes. People don’t smoke just at home any more; their lifestyle has become an imposition that to some degree I’ll learn to live with.

      Public ways aside, my contiguous neighborhood is private streets, and the nonsense has started to bovinely migrate onto our property. I don’t want cops involved, but this shit is getting ridiculous. Messages will be sent until other neighborhoods are relatively more attractive. The gambit is whether the same constabulary that refuses to enforce our noise ordinances or state drug laws or squelch the catalytic converter “recycling” industry or prosecute grand theft auto will suddenly get medieval on my ass for criminal mischief…which is certainly going to happen and will probably be captured by the odd zoom doorbell cam.

      • Pat

        Recreational weed is legal where I live, but it’s strictly illegal to smoke or consume it anywhere in public, to the point where even business establishments where patrons are allowed to smoke tobacco and drink to their heart’s content may not allow their patrons to smoke pot. On the one hand, just like with the tobacco smoking bans, I think it’s bullshit that the businesses aren’t allowed to make that decision for themselves. On the other, it does cut down on irresponsible fuckheads ruining the “commons”. Then again, I live in the kind of place where you’d probably lock your doors and hit the gas if you drove through, so a happy pothead in the park would more likely be a refreshing change of pace from the panhandlers and junkies.

      • Old Man With Candy

        Interestingly, here in control-freak NY, it’s legal to smoke it any place where it’s legal to smoke tobacco.

      • Trigger Hippie

        ‘Then again, I live in the kind of place where you’d probably lock your doors and hit the gas if you drove through, so a happy pothead in the park would more likely be a refreshing change of pace from the panhandlers and junkies.’

        Amen.

        /pothead who keeps it at home.

      • DEG

        In Amsterdam, it’s illegal to smoke tobacco indoors at bars and restaurants, but you can smoke marijuana at those places.

      • Tonio

        Sorry you’re going through that, Don. Good luck.

        If your streets are private your neighborhood ass’n could hire private security to move the stoners along, but that opens a whole ‘nother can of worms about free riders, HOA busybodies and control freaks, etc.

    • db

      Wait, what? I was told that it’s impossible to become addicted to cannabis and that it has only beneficial effects on its users. Also, that psychotic breaks after cannabis use are a fiction.

    • Lord Humungus

      Even with the 10% tax, weed here in Michigan is cheap. Paid $20 for a store brand1/8th (okay – 3.5g), $35 for a more “upscale” organic brand, and $5 for a pack of 10 gummies. That’s a deal even versus alcohol.

      • Old Man With Candy

        Yeah, with the increased consumer pool here in Glibs Gulch, I think it would probably be a net benefit to make a bimonthly mass purchase run over to MI.

      • Lord Humungus

        I’ll host a smoking (and drinking) party – anytime!

      • Pat

        Even with the 10% tax, weed here in Michigan is cheap.

        10%? Shit, our regular sales tax here is 8%. Of course we don’t have a state income tax either. Between sales and excise it’s something like 18.5% on weed here.

  16. slumbrew

    This is some bullshit: still positive for Covid.

    Guess I’m not going to family vacation on Block Island. Today, anyway.

    On the plus side, my wife could use the room in the car – There is So. Much. Food.

    • Count Potato

      How accurate are those things anyway?

      • slumbrew

        AFAIK, a positive result for the rapid test is a pretty good indicator that you are contagious.

        I’m still coughing occasionally, though the sore throat is pretty much gone and the slight fever hasn’t shown up since day 1/2.

        I would not GAF except vacation is with my 72 y.o. MIL who is not the picture of health.

        I’ll hop a train to RI and grab the ferry in the next day or two, hopefully.

      • Pat

        Speedy recovery to you, although I don’t think you’ll need it given how relatively innocuous these most recent strains are.

      • slumbrew

        Thanks, it is indeed innocuous.

        Just annoying timing.

      • slumbrew

        Ah, very cool.

        It’s a neat little island, pretty sleepy, even in summer (granted, I haven’t been in a couple of decades, but I don’t think it has changed much).

        I’m really hoping to make it, as I have fond memories of it; sailed there, once, with my dad and did a boy’s trip with my brothers once. Good memories both times.

        For the flying glibs, I understand it’s a popular destination; my old co-worker would sometimes fly there for brunch on the weekends.

      • DEG

        For the flying glibs, I understand it’s a popular destination; my old co-worker would sometimes fly there for brunch on the weekends.

        I had some former coworkers who did the same thing.

      • slumbrew

        I’m now consumed with jealousy, watching a helicopter that left from NYC land on Block on ADS-B Exchange.

    • DEG

      Get well soon!

  17. Pat

    And I’m not a girl

    What are you, a biologist?

  18. Scruffy Nerfherder

    In other stupid Apple features, my phone tells me my average screen time every week. I still haven’t figured out how to turn it off.

    I was barely on any electronic devices for the majority of the week and it is reporting an average of over four hours a day. Stupid devices are s stupid.

    • Toxteth O'Grady

      Mine is off in Settings (iOS 15.5). If I turned it on, would I be unable to turn it off?

    • rhywun

      Settings, search “Screen Time”

    • Steve

      I think it includes time used for navigation or media streaming. With effort, I was able to get my average time down to under an hour last year. With drive time, fitness tracking, and Spotify, my average stays between four and five hours.

    • Trigger Hippie

      Those are the hours your phone was actively watching you.

  19. Don escaped Texas

    This other curvy thang was added to our household five years ago. NewWife consented.

    • whiz

      Was expecting a young housekeeper — am disappoint.

      • Chafed

        Seconded

  20. Pat

    Some of you may remember that my mom was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer in August of 2020. Unfortunately, she passed away on the 12th of last month. Actually, that’s a shitty euphemism. In the #3 trauma bay at the emergency room, where she’d been helicoptered in with low O2 saturation, she began panicking and pulling off her oxygen mask, and while I was cradling her head with one hand and trying to keep her mask on with the other while calling for her nurses and physicians, she had a seizure, her pupils dilated, she stopped breathing, and officially died a few minutes later. I’ve been such a fucking head case since then that it literally feels as if this happened just a day or two ago.

    Despite the fact that she was suffering from cancer, her death was completely unexpected. She had a PET scan in late April, which was discussed at a followup appointment with her oncologist on May 3rd. Her oncologist was so pleased with her progress that he described her as “basically in remission” with the targeted drug she’d been taking, and said he would like to start seeing her every 3 months instead of every 6 weeks. So we were actually quite encouraged, and she appeared to be doing very well. Then in late May she began having persistent migraine headaches. We went to the local ER to have her checked out on June 8th, and they got her stabilized and sent home. She had an appointment for a bone strengthener infusion on June 16th anyway, so we had planned on just waiting until then to discuss it with her oncologist, assuming it was probably rebound headaches from her pain medication or possibly a side effect from one of her medications. In the wee hours of the morning of the 12th she was feeling so nauseated and ill that I had to call an ambulance to bring her in to the local ER again, and her condition just deteriorated until she had to be choppered to a larger facility in the nearest city, and the rest I already described.

    I’ve already shared the story and my grief with my few close personal friends, but I still feel like shit so I wanted to vent about it somewhere.

    • straffinrun

      My condolences, Pat.

    • Pat

      Oh, the actual cause of death ended up being post-obstructive pneumonia, which led to sepsis. My dad (step-dad technically) died of sepsis in the same fucking hospital 7 years earlier. After he died I told my mom “We’ve gotta get out of this part of the country before one of us ends up dying like that in one of these shitty hospitals.” I failed to get that done for her.

    • Pat

      Also, I quite literally just found out about SP as I haven’t been to Glibs in quite a while. I am so very, very sorry to hear of her passing. The few interactions I had with her she was always so kind and eager to help others. My very belated condolences to OMWC and WebDom.

    • Count Potato

      So sorry 🙁

    • Gender Traitor

      Oh, I’m so sorry, Pat!

    • Ownbestenemy

      Really sorry to hear that Pat.

    • slumbrew

      So, so sorry to hear that, Pat.

      There’s no good way to lose a parent but that sounds especially traumatic.

      Don’t be so hard on yourself re: getting out of that part of country. Sepsis pops up even in the best of hospitals, I’m sorry to relate.

      • Pat

        Long story with my dad, but he actually got sepsis from a UTI that was first mis-diagnosed and then not properly treated by no fewer than 3 shitty Medicaid doctors over the course of a couple of months before his death. So the idea was more about trying to move some place with better medical care and health care infrastructure. Southern Nevada has a reputation for not being a great area that way. We have a cheeky saying here, what’s the best place to go for medical care in southern Nevada? McCarran (fuck Harry Reid, it’s always McCarran to me). We were actually a week or two away from listing her house, as we’d been preparing to move to Texas. Had I worked a little harder at it, we almost certainly could have effectuated that move 5-6 months ago, so I’ll carry guilt about that around with me for a while. The upshot is that once I’ve gotten soaked for a few g’s by a probate attorney, Medicaid Estate Recovery will most likely end up with a lien on the house for several times more than its value. Which was also something she desperately wanted to avoid.

        Thank you all for the well-wishes and kind thoughts – consider this a mass thank-you as I don’t want to clutter up the thread replying to each of you individually.

      • db

        Medicaid Estate Recovery

        I had no idea that was a thing.

        It seems especially evil for the politicians and bureaucrats to tout government health assistance as a free benefit for all and those who need it, and then go after the estates of those who have been in its care.

      • Ted S.

        One of the first things Dad did after Mom died back in 2015 was get the house put in a family trust, so that Medicaid can’t recover it after five years.

      • slumbrew

        Yeah, my parents moved things to a trust long ago for similar reasons.

        On my TODO.

      • R C Dean

        Well, Medicaid is needs-based, and not supposed to be a way to prevent you from spending down your assets so you can keep them/pass them on because the state paid your medical bills, so I actually don’t have a problem with it in principle.

        I’m sure the execution is terrible, though.

      • Pat

        From an objective standpoint I would basically agree, although from the perspective of someone whose parents both had to get care inside that system, they’ve basically got you over a barrel, and especially if you have a relatively short but sudden illness, you end up losing a lot for relatively little. Especially in light of the Medicaid expansions under Obamacare, it really does become a stealth tax on poverty. Like db said, they certainly don’t pitch it to the public that way, and a lot of people don’t realize until too late how it affects your estate.

        In my case it’s a piss off, because I unofficially put down a not huge, but respectable bit of cash to help my parents get this place. Which I don’t regret for even a second, but it’s disappointing that I’ll never see the money again and that I’m gonna have to move out of this place at the close of probate just so the state can sell it.

      • Ted S.

        My Mom had long-term care insurance that in theory would have paid for a little over four months out of a year before hitting the annual cap, and Medicare supposedly pays for the first 60 days while Medicaid is adjudicating things. Combine that with Mom’s SS/pension paying for about five days of each month, and somebody should have been able to cover the 57 days from when she went into the home until she suffered a massive heart attack and died (in some ways a relief since she had dementia and likely an undiagnosed mental illness). Unsurprisingly, everybody tried to dick Dad over regarding who should pay.

      • Pat

        They give you paperwork on it when you sign up, but if you’re poor enough to qualify for Medicaid it’s not like you’re really in a position to say “Oh, no thank you then.”

        Each state implements their Medicaid Estate Recovery Program a little differently. There is a minimum federal standard which states that each state must try to recover long-term care costs (nursing home or private home care) from the probate estate of Medicaid recipients 55 or over. But the states are free to go further than that standard as well, and almost all of them have. So for example, in most states, even if your house is deeded such that it passes outside of probate, and would therefore not be considered part of your legal “estate” in any other context, Medicaid still gets their shot at it. This is called an “expanded estate definition”. MERP is also privileged over most other classes of creditors if you have other creditors to satisfy in a probate proceeding. In addition, the states can expand their recovery programs for costs beyond those incurred for long-term care or for recipients 55 or over. Our state has the broadest expansion of MERP allowable. They pursue recovery from all assets, including personal property, even if they pass outside of probate, and they pursue recovery for all costs of care provided to recipients of any age, not just long-term care costs for those 55 and over. The only restrictions are those built into federal law so that recovery is delayed (not forgiven, just delayed) if there is a surviving spouse or minor child.

        It sucks, but it is what it is. That was one of the reasons we were endeavoring to move. You can easily protect your home from MERP in Texas, as well as a handful of other states. I get the idea behind the program, especially since it was originally designed to only recover the cost of inpatient nursing home care which is typically not covered by private insurance and is never covered by Medicare. You freeloaded in a $8k/mo nursing home for 10 years, we’re gonna want some of it back, and in order to qualify for Medicaid typically your only valuable asset that was exempt for Medicaid qualification is your house. Cool trick too, if you put your house in a trust or give it away to try to avoid MERP, you trigger a Medicaid disqualification period of 5 years, or until you have “spent down” the value of the home, whichever is first. So you either plan well, well in advance for going broke and getting sick, or you basically sign away your house in exchange for treatment.

      • R.J.

        I add my condolences as well.

    • Grosspatzer

      So sorry, Pat.

    • Toxteth O'Grady

      Condolences indeed. That sucks.

    • Sean

      Sorry, Pat.

    • Tonio

      I’m sorry for your loss, Pat.

    • db

      Pat, so sorry to hear this. I can’t offer anything but my condolences and wishes that you’ll find the trauma melting into good memories of your mom, and find peace.

    • juris imprudent

      Condolences Pat, and grieve, but don’t please denigrate yourself so mercilessly.

    • grrizzly

      I’m very sorry, Pat.

    • Draw Me Like One of Your Tulpae, Jack

      So sorry Pat. That’s very traumatizing. Take your time processing it.

    • Old Man With Candy

      Holy shit, Pat, you just got nailed from every angle. I can’t imagine how you’ve managed to cope.

      • Pat

        Thanks OMWC, I don’t know if you saw my post earlier, but I just today found out about SP and I am so very sorry for yours and WebDom’s loss as well. I almost feel like an asshole for dragging my self-pity in here, under the circumstances.

    • Lord Humungus

      Condolences, Pat – friend of mine (fellow pot smoker and audiophile) is getting hammered with this end-of-life stuff; his dad has been slowly dying from stage 4 cancer for the past 4 years. Some miracle medicine has been keeping him alive but the side effect is dementia. I don’t know if I can call that a quality life.

      And now his mom is going into a nursing home, having been diagnosed with Parkinsons. They will lose her income – SS and teacher pension – on top of $20k a year for this facility. He’s been unemployed for the past few years, taking care of his parents so he has to find some way to make $$$. His mom comes from a local very wealthy family but. over the years, that pool of money for her has dwindled to almost nothing.

      I only pray that my parents – now both 80 – pass quickly when their time comes 🙁

      • Pat

        Some miracle medicine has been keeping him alive but the side effect is dementia.

        Fuck. That’s a Morton’s fork stuck in a toaster. I can’t even imagine. My mom was on a targeted drug, and thankfully experienced basically no side effects. Her oncologist was fairly surprised that she didn’t even get any skin rashes, which are by far the most common side effect of the drug she was on. My mom, in spite of her Christianity, was 100% OK with assisted suicide and euthanasia, and I had actually hoped we’d be able to send her to Dignitas in Switzerland when the time came. Wasn’t expecting it to be so sudden. If I had a diagnosis like your friend’s dad, I’d be making some plans.

      • Zwak, who swallowed your pain, and is asking for more.

        My dad hung on for a decade with Alzheimer’s, getting progressively worse. My MIL had something that just ran her down over the same time frame. I just grinds the family down, watching the loved ones decline so much. My FIL, on the other hand, dropped dead in a Costco.

    • Trigger Hippie

      Sorry Pat.

    • DEG

      Sorry.

    • Zwak, who swallowed your pain, and is asking for more.

      I am so, so sorry Pat.

    • westernsloper

      Damn, sorry Pat.

    • Sensei

      So sorry to read, My condolences.

    • Pat

      A final big mass thank you to everyone for the condolences and support. I know I haven’t been around here much these last couple of years, but believe it or not, this place has been an important part of my life over the years. For those of you whose parents are still living, hug your mom at the soonest opportunity.

      • MikeS

        My condolences, Pat. I understand what you’re going though. Hang in there.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        Sorry for your loss Pat

    • Chafed

      That’s an awful string of events. Sorry Pat.

    • Gustave Lytton

      I’m sorry Pat. Condolences.

    • Tulip

      So sorry, Pat.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Almost talking about real money now…but seems legit.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Also..
      Biden said. “I don’t know how it’s going to end but it will not end with a Russian defeat of Ukraine in Ukraine.”

      That’s the kinda talk that Baby Bush gave

    • rhywun

      I sure hope that is a mis-print.

      • slumbrew

        You know it’s not.

      • slumbrew

        OK, I’m too cynical:

        8×10^8, not 8×10^11

        (trying to get ready for our coming hyperinflation)

      • straffinrun

        Odd that this hasn’t made bigger waves. You’d think pledging 1/25 (approx) of your GDP to a foreign country would make bigger news.

      • db

        When you put it that way, you realize that that’s two whole *states’* worth of GDP (if GDP were evenly distributed, of course).

      • juris imprudent

        Yeah, million not billion – our entire defense budget isn’t quite $800B.

      • straffinrun

        Reuters and NYT reporting the same number.

      • Grosspatzer

        A few million billion trillion here, a few million billion trillion there, pretty soon you’ll be talking about real money.

    • Tonio

      Junior Varsity HIV?

      • Q Continuum

        If they work hard they can make the first team!

      • Pat

        That made me chuckle like a retard as it jogged an old memory of mine. My (then-closeted, gay) step-brother was part of the drama/glee club at his evangelical Christian high school, so I was forever getting dragged to one of their performances. During one of the recitals they did a short skit they had scripted themselves about a high school jock giving his girlfriend AIDS. This being, what, 1994, 1995 or so, it was supposed to be this very, very somber, serious, controversial (AIDS?! In our Christian school?!) dramatic piece about teen sex. But being performed by a small troupe of mostly straight-laced Christian high school students in this overly-earnest, Shatner-esque style of overacting it was just riotously funny.

  21. The Late P Brooks

    Also..
    Biden said. “I don’t know how it’s going to end but it will not end with a Russian defeat of Ukraine in Ukraine.”

    Failure is always an option.

    • Grosspatzer

      Option, guarantee. Po-tay-to, Po-tah-to.

    • rhywun

      Portland? I can see it but yeah I could go either way fake/real.

  22. Count Potato

    “Readers, especially white readers, are *not* entitled to footnotes / explanations / direct translations of non-English words that a BIPOC author chooses to use in their books with intentions of not translating.”

    https://twitter.com/isabellawangbc/status/1543237409197793282

    I don’t think she understands the purpose of writing.

    • Q Continuum

      OK. If you don’t want me to understand what you’re saying that’s your prerogative I suppose.

    • slumbrew

      Her appeal will become more selective, so she’s got that going for her.

      I did like the guy(?) who replied in Finnish(?).

    • Toxteth O'Grady

      “When I think I’m English”?

      • slumbrew

        I’m -> in

      • Toxteth O'Grady

        Yeah, I gathered that. But so much for the thinking in English part.

    • db

      The meaning of art is up to the mind of the viewer, who interprets it in his/her own way.

      Authors don’t get to dictate how readers, much less critics, interpret their product.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Why do these racially obsessed bigots need to be such douchebags too? What an asshole…

    • rhywun

      Sorry, I don’t give clicks to crazy people.

  23. Count Potato

    “Oregon health officials explain why they delayed a meeting: “We recognize that urgency is a white supremacy value that can get in the way of more intentional and thoughtful work.”

    https://twitter.com/Heminator/status/1543335932023263235

    WTF?

    • Q Continuum

      White supremacy: is there anything it can’t do?

    • cavalier973

      I bet they have to do a lot of laundry.

    • rhywun

      😂🤣

    • rhywun

      I’m going to have to try that with some of my meetings. “Sorry, I’m late – I was being thoughtful.”

      • Zwak, who swallowed your pain, and is asking for more.

        Just say “I was trying to not be white.”

      • rhywun

        Sadly, some of them know what I look like so I can’t pull the BIPOC card.

      • Count Potato

        Try fabulously thoughtful?

      • Muzzled Woodchipper

        But you’ll get extra points for actively denying your whiteness by denying white supremacy values.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      The bigotry of low expectations. If you can’t show up on time for appointments then fuck you.

      • slumbrew

        But that’s rayciiiist!!!!

    • Ted S.

      In that case I’ll make a point of not being urgent in responding to any of the Black Lives Matter bullshit.

    • Pat

      So colored people time is actually a thing when they need it to be.

  24. cavalier973

    They’re harvesting octupusses *from* food?

    • Pat

      There is a not-insignificant portion of women whose labia would not fit in this.

      Lia Thomas comes to mind.

      • juris imprudent

        What you did there, I would really prefer to have not seen it.

    • Muzzled Woodchipper

      Who doesn’t want to see a roast beef sandwich walking around?

  25. The Late P Brooks

    Hearts and minds

    Gavin Newsom and Ron DeSantis aren’t just avatars for the different futures of their parties, but also for the separate realities blue and red Americans are living in – two people of opposing viewpoints looking at the exact same set of facts and coming to vastly different conclusions.

    They’re both governors, rising stars and speculated soon-to-be presidential candidates, building out micro-ideological models in their sunny capitals.

    In ever-blue California, Newsom, the son of a state appellate judge, has rebooted from his start as a flashy progressive hero around quieter legislative pushes. Meanwhile, in reddening Florida, there’s DeSantis, the son of a Nielsen box salesman, who in public cleaves less to his two Ivy League degrees than to the anti-elitist, reactionary politics that have consumed the GOP.

    Newsom now is going on the air against DeSantis in Florida – with what he says is not the first ad of the 2024, or even the 2028, presidential race – with the goal of trying to get Democrats to reclaim a sense of collective identity that could enable them to beat Trumpism in the long term.

    With $105,000 on Fox News, Newsom’s new ad, first provided to CNN and set to air on July 4, is a mashup of a classic campaign spot, business investment pitch and one of those California tourism commercials full of celebrities saying how much better it is there, wrapped in the existential terror that’s wracking progressives these days.

    “It’s Independence Day – so let’s talk about what’s going on in America,” Newsom says in the ad, standing in the California sun, tieless, as “America the Beautiful” fingerpicks in the background. “Freedom is under attack in your state.”

    Those last words flash across the screen in red, followed by a photo of DeSantis shaking hands with former President Donald Trump, and then another of the Florida governor as Newsom ticks through Florida laws to ban books and restrict voting, speech and access to abortion.

    “I urge all of you living in Florida to join the fight – or join us in California, where we still believe in freedom: Freedom of speech, freedom to choose, freedom from hate, and the freedom to love,” Newsom says as the images proceed from an aerial shot of the Santa Monica Pier to a rainbow flag waving in the hands of two women with arms around each other. “Don’t let them take your freedom.”

    The bombing will commence shortly.

    • db

      Yes, please, go join Newsom in California–keep the craziness bottled up out there.

    • slumbrew

      Wait, it’s airing on Fox?

      Who is he aiming for?

      the son of a state appellate judge

      Huh, mention the judgeship but don’t mention the fact he was a Getty family attorney and manager of the Getty family trust.

      No siree, just regular folks, dedicated public servant.

      • db

        And Biden is the son of hard working Scranton working people who worked alongside other workers.

      • creech

        Don’t mock out Dr. Jill’s husband. How would you like to have spent your youth working down in a coal mine, getting lashed by cruel overseers, and then dodging Pinkerton goons every hour you were allowed above ground?

    • rhywun

      rAcTiOnArY

      I know what the code-word means.

  26. The Late P Brooks

    “He’s running for president,” Newsom told CNN last week. “I care about people. I don’t like people being treated as less of them. I don’t like people being told they’re not worthy. I don’t like people being used as political pawns. This is not just about him, but he is the poster child of it.”

    “We’re as different,” Newsom said of both the governors and their states, “as daylight and darkness.”

    Saint Gavin the dragon slayer will save you, America! He will preserve your freedom to unquestioningly obey the government.

    • slumbrew

      He’s such an amazing sleezebag.

      Every word out of his mouth is a lie, including “and” and “the”.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        He just oozes sleaze doesn’t he?

      • slumbrew

        A man ‘oleaginous’ was invented for.

      • rhywun

        Yeah, I don’t think he is going to have the nation-wide “appeal” that he seems to think he will.

      • Count Potato

        Yes, there is no way he can pivot to the middle.

      • Pat

        Who needs nation-wide appeal when you’ve got “voting reform”.

  27. The Late P Brooks

    Newsom insists he’s not taking digs at President Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi when he says he’s trying to prod his party into getting angrier and more activated. He called the hearings held by the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol a “master class” but said Democrats need to be looking past Trump and toward how Trumpism is evolving. After spending much of the pandemic watching and reading right-wing media, Newsom said he’s grown more and more alarmed to see how much is taking root.

    “My expression is one of frustration, watching now for many years, in many ways predating the current climate and the current administration,” Newsom said in the interview. “The success of the right to define the terms of the debate, the success of the right to dominate the narrative … they’re winning in ways that are alarming to me.”

    The ad, he promised, will be the start of much more to come.

    “Things have changed, rules of engagement have to change,” Newsom said. “You’ve got to take the fight to them.”

    They shouldn’t be allowed to point out the glaringly obvious practical failures of our grandiose progressive fantasies.

    That’s not fair.

    • juris imprudent

      Fairness Uber Alles… hey, FUA? Yeah, about right.

      • Zwak, who swallowed your pain, and is asking for more.

        Fairness Uber Progressive Alles!

        FUPA.

    • hayeksplosives

      What. A. Dick.

    • rhywun

      he’s trying to prod his party into getting angrier and more activated

      A can’t-lose strategy. America will eat it up!

    • Muzzled Woodchipper

      The right determines the terms of debate and dominates the narrative?

      This isn’t even remotely true.

    • JasonAZ

      But the school system needs MOHR MONEY!!! And student debt forgiveness!!! There is NO OTHER SOLUTION!!! – every progtard I hear ranting online

  28. The Late P Brooks

    Here- have some slobbery fanfic

    In fact, RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel’s desperation to sully Cheney’s reputation mirrors efforts by Trump, McCarthy, Stefanik, and many other Republican leaders who are awaking to the realization that Cheney is now more powerful than ever before, while the GOP brand continues to weaken with each successive round of damning testimony.

    The lone congresswoman from Wyoming has a new lease on political life that realistically could go in one of three directions.

    On one path, she’ll overcome the odds and win the August GOP primary, and then lock down re-election in November. The latter step might prove difficult, especially if Hageman decides to run as an independent. But if Cheney makes it through this gauntlet, she would return to Congress with an eye toward rebuilding her reputation from the inside, hoping to outlast MAGA and help rebuild a more traditionally conservative party — one that she can lead.

    ——-

    A third path puts her on a trajectory for a presidential run in 2028 or 2032 … or 2024? If you think that’s outlandish, consider that 85 percent of Americans believe the country’s headed in the wrong direction. Trump might very well announce another run, setting up perhaps the bloodiest GOP primary since, well, ever. And Democrats are agonizing over the possibility of unpopular President Joe Biden running for re-election.

    ——-

    As I wrote last year, Cheney is built differently. Her fearlessness makes her heroic to some, dangerous to others, and at times, reckless to the electorate. But it is who she is. And whichever path she chooses, and whether she fails or succeeds, her unflappability continues to separate her from the pack.

    Maybe she can be Gavin Newsom’s running mate on the 2024 Bipartisan Consensus! ticket. She earned it.

    • Pat

      I’m not sure if the political prospects of a senator from the second-least densely populated state behind Alaska are really a national bellwether, but I wish B.J. Rudell all the work in the world trying to make it one.

      • Pat

        Er, luck in the world.

    • slumbrew

      the realization that Cheney is now more powerful than ever before

      Wut?

      She’ll shortly be an ex-congresswoman, toxic to her own party and no longer useful to the Dems.

      Strange definition of ‘powerful’.

    • juris imprudent

      outlast MAGA and help rebuild a more traditionally conservative party

      WAR-WAR-WAR!!!

      • rhywun

        traditionally conservative

        For the love of all that is holy, no.

    • Trigger Hippie

      ‘…awaking to the realization that Cheney is now more powerful than ever before’

      lol

      Wut? She’s about to get primared out of office by her own political party. She’s the last desperate grap by the left to show bipartisan support for the demonizing of an administration that nobody outside the social media circle-jerk gives two fucks about anymore.

      She’s clown shoes.

    • JasonAZ

      It’s truly unbelievable the ignorance of the MSM. I’m old enough to remember how the MSM painted Dick Cheney as LITERALLY Hitler and Darth Vador and Satin all wrapped into one. How, they’re fawning over his daughter for the single fact that she has terminal TDS! What a bunch of dipshits.

      And fuck Liz Cheney for being stupid enough to trust the Democrats over Trump. They’ve used her up like the POS that she is. One less war mongering, establishment RINO makes this world slight better.

  29. Lord Humungus

    Hello y’all –

    Gas prices and inflation have been hurting my business, along with everyone else at this new antique store. Sales started out strong but – weather, recession – has weakened considerably. And this is the evil of such (in this case government induced) cycles. Since I’m not making any money, I’m not spending either – shopping for my booth or buying goodies for myself.

    My local watering hole has raised prices on everything. This is a middle class bar but $12.50 for a hamburger? (Fries are extra too!) and $6 for a Perrin Black? Needless to say we’ve been doing a lot more cooking & drinking at home.

    In the world of cats. we had our old Mrs. Miggens put to sleep. She was getting so thin and sick that it was time to let her go. In happier days:
    https://imgur.com/D2AYghV

    And, not enough time had passed, but this Ragdoll kitten, now named Lady Meow, was too good to pass up:
    https://imgur.com/m3rzVX4

    It’s been so long since we’ve had a kitten that I forgot how destructive they are. It’s like letting a toddler with a baseball bat run around a museum.
    .

    • Pat

      My business is also scraping the bottom. I’m gonna need to pick up something part-time here to cover expenses while I deal with the probate.

      And welcome home Lady Meow. Cats are great. After my last one I decided to take a break for a while though. Trying to have pets when you’re poor sucks, and I can’t watch another one die for a while.

    • creech

      Seeing my retirement portfolio down by a couple six figures since January has sure cut down on my discretionary (unnecessary per Bernie S.) spending. Losing a real estate transfer tax appeal, for $8,400, the other day hasn’t put me in a better mood. Let’s go, Brandon!

      • Muzzled Woodchipper

        Yep.

        Our portfolio is down significantly as well. And to top it off, I need to buy a new $12k mower because ours caught fire. We got some insurance out of it, but it’s mostly gone towards just living normal life under Bidenomics, like having to pay $400 for 10 days of groceries, and $110 for a tank of gas.

    • Lord Humungus

      Oh and I thank my lucky stars that EF and I got rid of the Infiniti M35 and last year bought a new 2021 VW Jetta base of base-ist S model.

      It gets something like 45mpg on the highway and 30 to 32 around town. It’s reduced my exposure to the gas prices but I sure miss the performance of the Nissan VQ engine 🙁

    • R C Dean

      Glad to see you, Lord H! You did Mrs. Miggens one last favor – its so hard, and I always puss out and let it go too long.

      For pure destructive mischief, I’ll see your rag doll kitten and raise you one pit bull puppy.

    • rhywun

      Wow, Lady Meow is gorgeous.

    • Zwak, who swallowed your pain, and is asking for more.

      Pretty kitty. We are up to 4 cats now, with one past 20 years at this point. Who woulda thunk? She doesn’t hid, she jumps around, and although she moves slowly as she has arthritis, she has lost no personallity and gives no sign she is ready to go.

    • Mojeaux

      I’m doing a medical coding course to widen my skillset. No shortage of jobs in medicine.

    • Sean

      Nice kitty.

  30. The Late P Brooks

    Silly Chinaman- Joe Biden is not a capitalist

    The White House has also pointed the finger at oil companies, accusing them of artificially restricting supply by refusing to drill on leasing sites approved by the federal government.

    In response to Biden’s demand that oil companies lower their prices, the president was trolled by Chinese state media.

    “Now US President finally realized that capitalism is all about exploitation. He didn’t believe this before,” wrote Chen Weihua, EU Bureau Chief and columnist for China Daily, an English language media outlet owned by the Chinese Communist Party.

    During an appearance on CNN Thursday, National Economic Council director Brian Deese defended Biden’s assertion that Americans will have to suffer high costs at the pump until Russia is defeated.

    “What you heard from the president today was a clear articulation of the stakes,” Deese said. “This is about the future of the liberal world order and we have to stand firm.”

    Now, if the Chinese government suggested an adjustment in prices, they’d be taken seriously. We just need to be more persuasive.

    “Nice little oil company you got here. I wonder who’d take over if something were to happen to you.”

    • rhywun

      I’m so glad the adults are in charge again.

  31. DEG

    A large group of people carrying flags and shields marched along downtown Boston’s Freedom Trail Saturday, according to the Boston Police Department — and video footage of the group obtained by CNN shows the flags bearing the symbol of the White nationalist Patriot Front group.

    Why do I think this is a false flag?

    • westernsloper

      Because odds are it is?

    • rhywun

      How many of them are wearing khakis?

  32. db

    Today I learned what the acronym “TIL” means.

    • slumbrew

      What you did there is seen.

      • db

        ISWUI

  33. The Late P Brooks

    She’ll shortly be an ex-congresswoman, toxic to her own party and no longer useful to the Dems.

    Strange definition of ‘powerful’.

    A regular slot on Morning Joke to whine about Trump’s robot army is power. Honest. All the right people will nod and cluck their tongues when she comes on.

    • juris imprudent

      The author – and recent North Carolina Democratic Party operative – yeah that says it all.

    • R C Dean

      I will enjoy her desperate flailing for relevance and attention when she is out of office.

      • JasonAZ

        I’m sure CNN and MSNBC will give her the slot of “real conservative” on their talking shows. She’ll rail against Trump, support Dems war mongering and she’ll lick the assholes of the Dems that used her for their political needs and deposed of her like a used tampon. Basically, a female version of John McCain with less idiots in AZ to keep voting for him.