Well, I've already sacrificed two goats to B'aal that the dems don't whiff on this hanging curve. They do have a reputation, ya know.
On the day of this mighty Republican clusterfuck, I'm proud Jon Stewart is using the phrase "casually cruel". I picked up on that last year when I first read actress, Charisma Carpenter use it in reference by fuckwad, narcissistic, misogynistic "Buffy" creator Joss Whedon.
It's such a perfect phrases when coupled with, "willfully stupid".
One could almost enjoy these victories if the Republicans were not so intent upon hurting innocent Americans in retribution. Such a childish bunch. As usual we Democrats can only buckle down and do the hard work of governance.
I had forgotten the Adlai Stevenson quote. The more things change the more they stay the same. Sigh….
I especially love your line regarding same sex marriage: “It is under direct threat by the Clarence Thomas-Samuel Alito rogue sham masquerading as a ‘Supreme’ Court.”
You said it all in paragraph 8. McConnell is apoplectic because he got outwitted, and just like an angry toddler, he’s lashing out at the nearest target. Jon Stewart was right, motherf***ing cowards.
TC & TAFM friends, Joseph replied 'YES' when I ask if I could share this gem of his with others. Take note politicians and Republicans in particular.
Joseph Nemeth (CA)
I remember a fifth-hand story about a diplomat dealing with a potential massacre: a group of insurgents surrounded and and trapped in a building. There was a language and cultural barrier between the two groups. The insurgents could not surrender: it went against their culture. But they did not want to die. So the diplomat, being fluent in both languages, came up with a chant for the insurgents that sounded to them like, "We shall overcome," but in the language of their captors, sounded like "We surrender." The insurgents emerged with their honor intact, and were not killed.
I also recall a story about Senator Edward Kennedy, dealing with some intransigent Republican Senator. Kennedy had just returned from an official visit to Cuba, and had brought back a box of Cuban cigars, which he placed on the table between himself and the Republican, who was an avid fan of the cigars. During the negotiation over a bill, Kennedy would fiddle with the box, and every time the Republican gave a little, Kennedy would push the box closer to the senator. Every time he hardened, Kennedy would pull the box back toward himself. Kennedy eventually got most of what he wanted, and the Republican got the cigars.
Politicians are venal, unprincipled, and on-average, pretty damned stupid. Republican politicians are trapped in a machismo culture of predatory dominance behavior, mixed with Libertarian dogma and Christofascist religion. They are bullies, and then cannot stand to lose face. They will -- literally -- burn down the Capitol before losing face.
The unfortunate side-effect is that, to the masses, this makes the Democrats look "weak," and encourages people to vote for Republicans.
As I repeatedly say, “dumb” is on an IQ curve, “stupid” is a choice. So, Republican fake corporate sponsored thugs…being casually cruel is stupid. And you’ve made a big mistake. Go sit by a tar pit while you are in the process of reneging on your June support of the “Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics” Act of 2022. Oh that’s right. You narcissists stupidly think the PACT Act might cancel your toxic asses. Shame and disgrace upon you.
Watch them.........hoisting, hoisting, hoisting themselves on the petard of their blind ambition and Republican hubris. They are poking all the wrong bears! If they had wanted to erode their so- called "base" they couldn't have done a better job, esp with the Veterans ( who now face some conflictual feelings if they are of the MAGA ilk.) Thanks, TC.
How come Republicans fight so hard to not raise the debt ceiling ( our collective money), but offer no limits, no ceiling to campaign spending ( just their money)?
Yup. It’s not just a obstructive tactic anymore. Obstructionism is now a destabilizing weapon against majority rule and democracy. Many of the claims to support obstructionism are also part of the cyber weapons ( identity, division, fear) being deployed by enemies into our civic conversations poisoning all social media platforms.
whenever you quote Adorno or Hofstadter, a few things happen to me. the first thing is that feeling we all got as kids when, at the end of the western, the good guy wins the gunfight. the second thing is that I wonder how many fewer living people have any idea who those guys are. but on top of that, STEVENSON! his name in my house was a little bit like a dead god's. dead, but still a god.
yeah, scumbags being scumbags. but so TRANSPARENTLY scumbags....no shame gene at all.
Millions of Americans were glued to their television sets on that fateful day in October 1962 as Adlai Stevenson, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said he had "one simple question" for his Soviet counterpart: "Do you, Ambassador Zorin, deny that the U.S.S.R. has placed, and is placing, medium- and intermediate-range missiles and sites in Cuba? Yes or no -- don't wait for the translation -- yes or no?"
Valerian A. Zorin, the poker-faced Soviet ambassador, squirmed in his chair. The Kremlin had failed to inform him about the deployment of Soviet missiles to Cuba. He had no instructions from Moscow. Trying to wiggle out of the trap that Stevenson had set for him, Zorin equivocated. "I am not in an American courtroom, sir. . . . You will have your answer in due course."
Stevenson, an intellectual politician who usually shied away from confrontation, twisted the knife. "I am prepared to wait for an answer until Hell freezes over, if that is your decision. I am also prepared to present the evidence in this room." After waiting for the laughter over Zorin's discomfiture to subside, Stevenson proceeded to unveil a series of poster-size black-and-white photographs putting the lie to Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev's claim that the Soviet Union did not have offensive weapons deployed in Cuba.
"Terrific," President John F. Kennedy murmured to his aides in the Oval Office as he watched the live broadcast. "I didn't know that Adlai had it in him."
I remember that exchange very well. it shocked people (even, obviously, JFK, who's never been one of my favorite politicians at all) because they'd all thought Adlai was "too much a gentleman" or something. but he was a third-generation Illinois political animal, which would have indicated to me that he knew how to fight, if he had to.
Or was it that they saw Stevenson as more of an intellectual than politician. While we don't know the answer to that, perhaps, a bit of each and stronger than JFK on both fronts.
TC, The Democrats are rarely with the people. Howard Dean tried to get the Dems to go local big time. Grow Dems where they are. It's been their greatest failure. Biden does feel us. He has got COVID again. So much of the country is out of it. The people have been through so much, many truly cannot see straight. Logistics, TC, … through this nightmare.
In terms of racial equality, Stevenson was hardly a bright light.
During the 1956 presidential campaign, Democratic Party candidate Adlai Stevenson attempted to win this black vote by voicing support for the 1954 Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education, outlawing segregated schools, a ruling incumbent President Dwight D. Eisenhower had refused to approve. Stevenson’s appeal to black voters, however, was muted by his opposition to using Federal funds or troops to enforce desegregation, a position he adopted to avoid alienating southern voters. In addition, in the 1952 race, Stevenson had selected as his running mate a segregationist Senator from Alabama, John Sparkman. In October, African-American Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., announced his support of the President, and on election day, more than 60 percent of black voters also chose Eisenhower. This marked a shift in party allegiance by blacks who had voted overwhelmingly Democratic since the 1930s, when many changed from the party of Lincoln to support Franklin D. Roosevelt. Although Eisenhower’s rout of Stevenson was attributed more to foreign affairs than domestic, the black vote continued to be a major factor in national politics. (Theodore H. White, The Making of the President)
Democrats had a long way to go in learning to deal with The Solid South more realistically. Stevenson had followed "the common knowledge" of the time - FDR had never thought of any of his VPs as being more than a "place filler." Like John Nance Garner said after FDR dropped him in 1936, the vice presidency wasn't worth "a bucket of warm spit."
You've delivered more than a historic footnote, TC, along with having a spectacular memory.
'In more than four years as the nation's chief spokesman at the United Nations, he gained the same sort of admiration from the world statesmen for his ready tongue, his sharp mind and his patience in dealing with the grave issues that confronted the world organization.'
'As chief United States delegate, with the rank of Ambassador, Mr. Stevenson was in the thick of debate and negotiations during the Bay of Pigs and Cuban missile crises, disarmament talks, upheavals in the Congo, the war in South Vietnam and the revolt in Santa Domingo.'
'One of Mr. Stevenson's greatest satisfactions was the signing in 1963 of the treaty banning all but underground testing of nuclear devices. He was a member of the United States delegation that traveled to Moscow to sign the document.' (NYTimes)
They, Republicans really have no clue what is coming for them in November. Here’s Alito hiding out in his bubble speaking at a Rome, Italy event. “Some cling to present, that is already dying”-RFK
True colors. It's the party of death, destruction and denial. The sink hole of the planet. Black hearts. Blank space instead of souls. As Louis Giglio said below of Collins: "Useless creature wallowing at the public $$$$ trough!" The same can be said of the entire R side of the aisle.
I remember reading a year or so back that her reputation as a "moderate" Repug is almost entirely based on an article that appeared someplace not-so-authoritative (was it New York Magazine?) when she first came to DC, talking about how she didn't seem to talk like a typical member of her party...she talked a little bit "nicer," and that this one garbage article gave her the reputation she still keeps, but not--never--for any good reason. she likes to goose this bullshit along by talking as if she were ever the person described in the article. you know...pathetic bullshit like "I think he's learned his lesson" or "we met and he TOLD me he'd never vote against Roe." lots of very hollowed-out people in politics, but she's one of the worst.
It's way too bad she didn't keep her promise from her first senatorial campaign: "I don't think senators should serve more than two terms" - now on her fifth.
YES. Outraged, left-leaning Maine women tried to pry her out of her cushy little Senate office, but her re-election committee here in Maine do know their business and they scored a brilliant campaign ad for her. That and her self-promoting visits to Bath Ironworks, bragging about all the money she could bring to them by being senior on the very important Senate Appropriation Committee and on two important sub-committees under Appropriations; one for Defense and the other for military construction. It was that and the Maine xenophobia gene kicked in when another of her ads harped on the fact that her Democratic opponent was "from away".
It was not a pretty campaign and she crushed her opponent and I hope to goodness she finally retires after over-staying her own "promise" by 18 years.
Another piece of Suzie's mask as a moderate was that she was junior Senator under a TRUE moderate, Olympia Snowe. Senator Snowe was NOT a follower of the Republican leadership and thought for herself. Suzy--ever a follower--was left adrift when Snowe retired and she latched onto the corrupt old men who have been propping up the Repub power in the Senate. She's been virtually useless ever since.
CONFESSION: with particular attention to TC, David Levine and Judy Clay.
Family background and personal experience caused me to shun expletives as signs of violence, misogyny, prejudice... I have overcome much of my bias on this score, and I read a piece that lifted by heart and absolutely turned my thoughts upside-down. It good stuff for all of us.
'How I learned that swearing can be good for the soul'
'I was once a cautious curser, but living with multiple sclerosis taught me that it can be freeing to be foul-mouthed'
Perspective by Elizabeth Jameson
'When I still had the use of my hands, I used to load up my paintbrush and hurl a glob of paint against my studio wall, as a way of releasing frustrations. I didn’t ask permission. I just did it.'
'When I lost the use of my hands — not to mention the rest of my body — because of the progression of multiple sclerosis, even that release was gone. Then one day, after I’d gone to work out at a rehabilitation center for people with spinal cord injuries, and was sitting and waiting for my caregiver to get the car, I stumbled upon another welcome release. One I could use even in my quadriplegic body: swearing.'
'Living with multiple sclerosis has meant that my life is perpetually governed and controlled by people who make decisions on my behalf. I desperately need these people, and I deeply appreciate them. But it’s still sometimes frustrating that I need someone else to do just about anything.'
'I cannot drive my own wheelchair or hold a cup of coffee. I can’t scratch the itch on my nose or quench my thirst unless someone lifts a cup and straw to my mouth. I have to be fed by others, who don’t necessarily know to offer up the right thing at the right time. Words only go so far, and I don’t want to seem too difficult. If crumbs fall while I’m being fed, I’ll often just resign myself to the mess. Would it be nice if someone noticed and intervened? Sure. Is it worth having to make yet another dreaded ask? Probably not.'
'It has taken a long time, but I have found ways to use my voice beyond everyday requests and niceties: cursing with abandon.'
'Some time ago, I was waiting for my ride at the rehabilitation center. A man I had seen a few times before rolled up in his wheelchair to wait alongside me. He genially asked my name, and I told him.
“Hi — I’m Ted,” he said. Then, with a huge grin, he added, “I don’t mean to offend you, but f--- you, Elizabeth!”
'To someone else it might have been unnerving. But the way Ted was smiling at me, it seemed less like an insult than an invitation — to play, perhaps? To be defiant? To not have to be on my best behavior, for once?'
“Well, f--- you too, Ted!” I beamed. (WAPO) See gifted link below.
Well, I've already sacrificed two goats to B'aal that the dems don't whiff on this hanging curve. They do have a reputation, ya know.
On the day of this mighty Republican clusterfuck, I'm proud Jon Stewart is using the phrase "casually cruel". I picked up on that last year when I first read actress, Charisma Carpenter use it in reference by fuckwad, narcissistic, misogynistic "Buffy" creator Joss Whedon.
It's such a perfect phrases when coupled with, "willfully stupid".
One could almost enjoy these victories if the Republicans were not so intent upon hurting innocent Americans in retribution. Such a childish bunch. As usual we Democrats can only buckle down and do the hard work of governance.
I had forgotten the Adlai Stevenson quote. The more things change the more they stay the same. Sigh….
Excellent overview!
I especially love your line regarding same sex marriage: “It is under direct threat by the Clarence Thomas-Samuel Alito rogue sham masquerading as a ‘Supreme’ Court.”
You said it all in paragraph 8. McConnell is apoplectic because he got outwitted, and just like an angry toddler, he’s lashing out at the nearest target. Jon Stewart was right, motherf***ing cowards.
TC & TAFM friends, Joseph replied 'YES' when I ask if I could share this gem of his with others. Take note politicians and Republicans in particular.
Joseph Nemeth (CA)
I remember a fifth-hand story about a diplomat dealing with a potential massacre: a group of insurgents surrounded and and trapped in a building. There was a language and cultural barrier between the two groups. The insurgents could not surrender: it went against their culture. But they did not want to die. So the diplomat, being fluent in both languages, came up with a chant for the insurgents that sounded to them like, "We shall overcome," but in the language of their captors, sounded like "We surrender." The insurgents emerged with their honor intact, and were not killed.
I also recall a story about Senator Edward Kennedy, dealing with some intransigent Republican Senator. Kennedy had just returned from an official visit to Cuba, and had brought back a box of Cuban cigars, which he placed on the table between himself and the Republican, who was an avid fan of the cigars. During the negotiation over a bill, Kennedy would fiddle with the box, and every time the Republican gave a little, Kennedy would push the box closer to the senator. Every time he hardened, Kennedy would pull the box back toward himself. Kennedy eventually got most of what he wanted, and the Republican got the cigars.
Politicians are venal, unprincipled, and on-average, pretty damned stupid. Republican politicians are trapped in a machismo culture of predatory dominance behavior, mixed with Libertarian dogma and Christofascist religion. They are bullies, and then cannot stand to lose face. They will -- literally -- burn down the Capitol before losing face.
The unfortunate side-effect is that, to the masses, this makes the Democrats look "weak," and encourages people to vote for Republicans.
***
Thanks for re-posting this Fern! Excellent!
Your read "GREEN SHOOTS". Quite a planting...or re rooting!
Yes, I love Joe's pieces. They are often political operettas.
As I repeatedly say, “dumb” is on an IQ curve, “stupid” is a choice. So, Republican fake corporate sponsored thugs…being casually cruel is stupid. And you’ve made a big mistake. Go sit by a tar pit while you are in the process of reneging on your June support of the “Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics” Act of 2022. Oh that’s right. You narcissists stupidly think the PACT Act might cancel your toxic asses. Shame and disgrace upon you.
🗽
"Collins once again demonstrates that she cannot be trusted farther than one can see her with their eyes closed."
Good one!
The entire Republican party is garbage from top to bottom, and should be wiped from the planet.
Watch them.........hoisting, hoisting, hoisting themselves on the petard of their blind ambition and Republican hubris. They are poking all the wrong bears! If they had wanted to erode their so- called "base" they couldn't have done a better job, esp with the Veterans ( who now face some conflictual feelings if they are of the MAGA ilk.) Thanks, TC.
How come Republicans fight so hard to not raise the debt ceiling ( our collective money), but offer no limits, no ceiling to campaign spending ( just their money)?
Your question answers itself with the last three words.
Repubs cared little about the debt ceiling during trumps incompetent reign of terror!
Yup. It’s not just a obstructive tactic anymore. Obstructionism is now a destabilizing weapon against majority rule and democracy. Many of the claims to support obstructionism are also part of the cyber weapons ( identity, division, fear) being deployed by enemies into our civic conversations poisoning all social media platforms.
whenever you quote Adorno or Hofstadter, a few things happen to me. the first thing is that feeling we all got as kids when, at the end of the western, the good guy wins the gunfight. the second thing is that I wonder how many fewer living people have any idea who those guys are. but on top of that, STEVENSON! his name in my house was a little bit like a dead god's. dead, but still a god.
yeah, scumbags being scumbags. but so TRANSPARENTLY scumbags....no shame gene at all.
“I offer my opponents a bargain: if they will stop telling lies about us, I will stop telling the truth about them”
― Adlai E. Stevenson II
The event I always remember him for:
Millions of Americans were glued to their television sets on that fateful day in October 1962 as Adlai Stevenson, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said he had "one simple question" for his Soviet counterpart: "Do you, Ambassador Zorin, deny that the U.S.S.R. has placed, and is placing, medium- and intermediate-range missiles and sites in Cuba? Yes or no -- don't wait for the translation -- yes or no?"
Valerian A. Zorin, the poker-faced Soviet ambassador, squirmed in his chair. The Kremlin had failed to inform him about the deployment of Soviet missiles to Cuba. He had no instructions from Moscow. Trying to wiggle out of the trap that Stevenson had set for him, Zorin equivocated. "I am not in an American courtroom, sir. . . . You will have your answer in due course."
Stevenson, an intellectual politician who usually shied away from confrontation, twisted the knife. "I am prepared to wait for an answer until Hell freezes over, if that is your decision. I am also prepared to present the evidence in this room." After waiting for the laughter over Zorin's discomfiture to subside, Stevenson proceeded to unveil a series of poster-size black-and-white photographs putting the lie to Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev's claim that the Soviet Union did not have offensive weapons deployed in Cuba.
"Terrific," President John F. Kennedy murmured to his aides in the Oval Office as he watched the live broadcast. "I didn't know that Adlai had it in him."
I remember that exchange very well. it shocked people (even, obviously, JFK, who's never been one of my favorite politicians at all) because they'd all thought Adlai was "too much a gentleman" or something. but he was a third-generation Illinois political animal, which would have indicated to me that he knew how to fight, if he had to.
Or was it that they saw Stevenson as more of an intellectual than politician. While we don't know the answer to that, perhaps, a bit of each and stronger than JFK on both fronts.
Yes indeed.
TC, The Democrats are rarely with the people. Howard Dean tried to get the Dems to go local big time. Grow Dems where they are. It's been their greatest failure. Biden does feel us. He has got COVID again. So much of the country is out of it. The people have been through so much, many truly cannot see straight. Logistics, TC, … through this nightmare.
In terms of racial equality, Stevenson was hardly a bright light.
During the 1956 presidential campaign, Democratic Party candidate Adlai Stevenson attempted to win this black vote by voicing support for the 1954 Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education, outlawing segregated schools, a ruling incumbent President Dwight D. Eisenhower had refused to approve. Stevenson’s appeal to black voters, however, was muted by his opposition to using Federal funds or troops to enforce desegregation, a position he adopted to avoid alienating southern voters. In addition, in the 1952 race, Stevenson had selected as his running mate a segregationist Senator from Alabama, John Sparkman. In October, African-American Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., announced his support of the President, and on election day, more than 60 percent of black voters also chose Eisenhower. This marked a shift in party allegiance by blacks who had voted overwhelmingly Democratic since the 1930s, when many changed from the party of Lincoln to support Franklin D. Roosevelt. Although Eisenhower’s rout of Stevenson was attributed more to foreign affairs than domestic, the black vote continued to be a major factor in national politics. (Theodore H. White, The Making of the President)
Democrats had a long way to go in learning to deal with The Solid South more realistically. Stevenson had followed "the common knowledge" of the time - FDR had never thought of any of his VPs as being more than a "place filler." Like John Nance Garner said after FDR dropped him in 1936, the vice presidency wasn't worth "a bucket of warm spit."
You've delivered more than a historic footnote, TC, along with having a spectacular memory.
'In more than four years as the nation's chief spokesman at the United Nations, he gained the same sort of admiration from the world statesmen for his ready tongue, his sharp mind and his patience in dealing with the grave issues that confronted the world organization.'
'As chief United States delegate, with the rank of Ambassador, Mr. Stevenson was in the thick of debate and negotiations during the Bay of Pigs and Cuban missile crises, disarmament talks, upheavals in the Congo, the war in South Vietnam and the revolt in Santa Domingo.'
'One of Mr. Stevenson's greatest satisfactions was the signing in 1963 of the treaty banning all but underground testing of nuclear devices. He was a member of the United States delegation that traveled to Moscow to sign the document.' (NYTimes)
💙
💙
💙
Thanks, TC, and here's to a good weekend!
They, Republicans really have no clue what is coming for them in November. Here’s Alito hiding out in his bubble speaking at a Rome, Italy event. “Some cling to present, that is already dying”-RFK
https://www.instagram.com/reel/CgnXqILpgMy/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
Grrrr. Go Dems!
True colors. It's the party of death, destruction and denial. The sink hole of the planet. Black hearts. Blank space instead of souls. As Louis Giglio said below of Collins: "Useless creature wallowing at the public $$$$ trough!" The same can be said of the entire R side of the aisle.
Please stop mentioning the ethically bankrupt Suzy Collins in your posts! Useless creature wallowing at the public $$$$ trough!
I remember reading a year or so back that her reputation as a "moderate" Repug is almost entirely based on an article that appeared someplace not-so-authoritative (was it New York Magazine?) when she first came to DC, talking about how she didn't seem to talk like a typical member of her party...she talked a little bit "nicer," and that this one garbage article gave her the reputation she still keeps, but not--never--for any good reason. she likes to goose this bullshit along by talking as if she were ever the person described in the article. you know...pathetic bullshit like "I think he's learned his lesson" or "we met and he TOLD me he'd never vote against Roe." lots of very hollowed-out people in politics, but she's one of the worst.
It's way too bad she didn't keep her promise from her first senatorial campaign: "I don't think senators should serve more than two terms" - now on her fifth.
YES. Outraged, left-leaning Maine women tried to pry her out of her cushy little Senate office, but her re-election committee here in Maine do know their business and they scored a brilliant campaign ad for her. That and her self-promoting visits to Bath Ironworks, bragging about all the money she could bring to them by being senior on the very important Senate Appropriation Committee and on two important sub-committees under Appropriations; one for Defense and the other for military construction. It was that and the Maine xenophobia gene kicked in when another of her ads harped on the fact that her Democratic opponent was "from away".
It was not a pretty campaign and she crushed her opponent and I hope to goodness she finally retires after over-staying her own "promise" by 18 years.
Agreed
Another piece of Suzie's mask as a moderate was that she was junior Senator under a TRUE moderate, Olympia Snowe. Senator Snowe was NOT a follower of the Republican leadership and thought for herself. Suzy--ever a follower--was left adrift when Snowe retired and she latched onto the corrupt old men who have been propping up the Repub power in the Senate. She's been virtually useless ever since.
CONFESSION: with particular attention to TC, David Levine and Judy Clay.
Family background and personal experience caused me to shun expletives as signs of violence, misogyny, prejudice... I have overcome much of my bias on this score, and I read a piece that lifted by heart and absolutely turned my thoughts upside-down. It good stuff for all of us.
'How I learned that swearing can be good for the soul'
'I was once a cautious curser, but living with multiple sclerosis taught me that it can be freeing to be foul-mouthed'
Perspective by Elizabeth Jameson
'When I still had the use of my hands, I used to load up my paintbrush and hurl a glob of paint against my studio wall, as a way of releasing frustrations. I didn’t ask permission. I just did it.'
'When I lost the use of my hands — not to mention the rest of my body — because of the progression of multiple sclerosis, even that release was gone. Then one day, after I’d gone to work out at a rehabilitation center for people with spinal cord injuries, and was sitting and waiting for my caregiver to get the car, I stumbled upon another welcome release. One I could use even in my quadriplegic body: swearing.'
'Living with multiple sclerosis has meant that my life is perpetually governed and controlled by people who make decisions on my behalf. I desperately need these people, and I deeply appreciate them. But it’s still sometimes frustrating that I need someone else to do just about anything.'
'I cannot drive my own wheelchair or hold a cup of coffee. I can’t scratch the itch on my nose or quench my thirst unless someone lifts a cup and straw to my mouth. I have to be fed by others, who don’t necessarily know to offer up the right thing at the right time. Words only go so far, and I don’t want to seem too difficult. If crumbs fall while I’m being fed, I’ll often just resign myself to the mess. Would it be nice if someone noticed and intervened? Sure. Is it worth having to make yet another dreaded ask? Probably not.'
'It has taken a long time, but I have found ways to use my voice beyond everyday requests and niceties: cursing with abandon.'
'Some time ago, I was waiting for my ride at the rehabilitation center. A man I had seen a few times before rolled up in his wheelchair to wait alongside me. He genially asked my name, and I told him.
“Hi — I’m Ted,” he said. Then, with a huge grin, he added, “I don’t mean to offend you, but f--- you, Elizabeth!”
'To someone else it might have been unnerving. But the way Ted was smiling at me, it seemed less like an insult than an invitation — to play, perhaps? To be defiant? To not have to be on my best behavior, for once?'
“Well, f--- you too, Ted!” I beamed. (WAPO) See gifted link below.
https://wapo.st/3QdQU0i
Hurrah for Fern! Welcome to PottyMouthworld!! :-)
LOL! I'm a better listener now as for the rest 🥁🎺🎷🎶😉 !