TNOCs crew, I know I have not been the most consistent in my contributions. It is no secret that 2020 has been a hard year for everyone, and that has been doubly so in the Bix/GBear household. It started on the 2nd of January, when GBear ended up in the ER. Little did we know that he wouldn’t be home for good for 7 weeks.

During that time, GBear lost 50 pounds, only building his strength back with help from his therapists. There have been other things that happened this year, many well documented in here, and all along the TNOCs crew has helped me maintain my sanity, thank you.

Things have improved, maybe 2020 coming to an end plays into it. GBear’s appetite has returned, along with it the weight. Looking at old pictures, he seems to have returned to what he looked like a few years back, nothing like the pictures I took of him in care facility. On that subject, we are lucky he left the care facility before the pandemic.

So, what do you get a husband for Christmas when the two of you need nothing? The Beatles and LEGO gave me an unexpected answer. LEGO has Beatle art sets where you can make a LEGO portrait of one of the four Beatles. I looked at the box and thought, why not make a portrait of GBear in LEGO.

I was limited by the color of the dots in the set, but I think I captured him. He liked it so much he suggested I make one of myself, it’s my new user icon. Anyway, it lifted his spirits and his self-esteem. It was definitely the most unique Christmas gift he’s ever received.

Happy 2021 everyone. Let’s make it better than 2020, as if that will be hard to do.

I know a lot of people here like his music, but I’ve never been able to get into it, and always kind of felt like he’s a scum bag loser. Good to know my intuition was correct, and now I don’t have to feel weird about thinking his music sucks.

Grandpa, I know you’ve become pretty disillusioned in your old age, but a percentage of this group just committed a literal act of terrorism on the nation’s capital. You gotta stop acting like this difference in political opinion is the same as you and Tony debating your favorite soups down at the bingo hall on Tuesdays.

See also: Kid Rock, a native of exurban Detroit who got into hip-hop and black culture to piss off his Bircher/Reaganite car dealer father, but ended up right back at his father’s political views, and has become one of the leading figures on the shitkicker right.

Marx wrote about the fascination of the rebellious scions of the haute bourgeoisie and rentiers with the lumpenproletariat. It happens that the lumpenproletariat got a lot whiter over the past 30 years, for a variety of reasons that I could go into here if I didn’t have the pesky interruption of actual paying work to distract me.

I am not John Roderick of Long Winters.

Thanks for sending. I am not reading all of that (Bean Dad). However, it looks like nonsense.

— Dionne Warwick (@dionnewarwick) January 3, 2021

There’s juuuuuuuuuuust a bit of a difference between “I support eliminating capital gains taxes” and “I want to prevent the peaceful transfer of power between my party and one with which I disagree,” you know.

Solid way to torpedo your careers i guess.

Back when right-wing terrorists took over the Michigan Capitol and were later found to have been plotting to kidnap the governor and take over the state legislature, the usual Cletus whisperers were prattling on about “we need to understand how Economic Anxiety™ is driving these people!” My friend the USC public policy prof, who actually grew up working-class (read: hanging on in quiet desperation) in small-town Iowa was having none of it. The ringleader of the Michigan plot had a pickup truck in the driveway that cost almost as much as two years of Ivy League tuition, and that was the tipoff: Actually economically deprived people don’t have the disposable income for AR-pattern rifles and “tactical” clothing, and they sure as shit can’t afford to take off work for days to go fulfill their cumstain vigilante fantasies of shooting BLM rioters. No, it’s your failsons of rural/exurban car dealership and gravel pit owners who are the ones engaging in violent LARPing.

Ariel “Pink” Rosenberg is the failson of one of Los Angeles’ most prominent proctologists. (“Only Son of the Ass Man,” perhaps?) He grew up rich in Beverly Hills. That he’s rejected this life on the surface is irrelevant; his whole bohemian lifestyle was financed by his parents’ money, as has been the case with a depressingly large percentage of bohemians since the term was coined in pre-WWI Paris. It’s pretty obvious that what draws him to fascism is the desire to crush his perceived inferiors and those who call him on his bullshit, and not any legitimate grievance.

“left of the left of the left.”

if you turn left three times…

the self congratulatory back patting begins. cool story inthedeadofknight

Well, time to break out the cancel button.

yr upvoters are cringe af

1) I am not a Trump supporter. In 2021, because of the rabid insanity of anti-Trump people, I feel the need to say this.

2) The writer of this article knows his audience. If you can not be completely obtuse for half a second, you would admit that this is an attempt to shame these people.

3) Neither of these mentioned people at this event had anything to do with the person who got killed.

4) I do find hilarious the jokes about my online identity as a grandpa being poked fun at. In reality, I am much younger than this.

5) Here’s to a much better 2021. When they go low, hopefully we go much higher, instead of trying to kill all of them.

Big fucking deal. So their political views differ from yours. Move on. Shaming people who don’t agree with you is such a great look.

Happy New Year, TNOCS Commenters!  Back in 1986, a 10-year-old me bought his first blank 60-minute cassette tape, got out his new cassette-radio boombox, and, for the first and only time, recorded a 40-second audio clip where he counted down his top 10 favorite songs. 
 
Circa ’86, “Venus” was a 10 and number 5 on my list of top 10 favorite songs. Circa 2021, it is still a fun, catchy song, but I haven’t exactly missed hearing it in the years since it was popular. I give “Venus” a 6.

“Venus” is the last reveal from my 1986 top 10. To hear 10-year-old me and the full top 10 in all its glory, here is the original audio recording with some internet photos in the background. Enjoy!