Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

You can’t love your country only when you win.

Everybody saw this coming.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

Nothing worth doing is easy.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

If you are still in the GOP, you are an extremist.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

Putin dreamed of ending NATO, and now it’s Finnish-ed.

“I never thought they’d lock HIM up,” sobbed a distraught member of the Lock Her Up Party.

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

People are complicated. Love is not.

Republicans in disarray!

Jack Smith: “Why did you start campaigning in the middle of my investigation?!”

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

White supremacy is terrorism.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

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34Comments

  3. 3.

    AAA Bonds

    man, it sure does suck that we’re in all these wars! They just seem to be poppin’ up everywhere… wonder what causes ’em?

  4. 4.

    AAA Bonds

    Must be those dictators getting us into all of them! Nasty motherfuckers that they are

  5. 5.

    AAA Bonds

    Welll, I’m not in favor of a war, perrrrrrr se…..

    But when there’s a Muslim dictator oppressing HIS OWN PEOPLE! That’s a DIFFERENT STORY!

  7. 7.

    Mark S.

    AAA Bonds

    I’m not saying we should go to war with North Korea, especially since they got nukes and even without them they could blow the shit out of Seoul. I’m just saying I wouldn’t mind seeing the end of the N. Korean government.

  8. 8.

    Uncle Clarence Thomas

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    @4 AAA Bonds

    Must be those dictators getting us into all of them! Nasty motherfuckers that they are

    Ya, those dictators don’t even have to declare war. Have they no honor or decency?
    .
    .

  9. 9.

    scav

    sigh. I’m just going to wander off and gloat in solitary glee somewhere. It was such a solid joy to listen to that first “guilty” roll out on the web-cast today, knowing that more would undoubtedly follow like cute little baby ducks making for a pond. I’m stealing just a tiny little evening of delusion here. Oh, and there were fireflies tonight. So that’s two good things.

  14. 14.

    Villago Delenda Est

    If the North Koreans use their nukes, they’ll lob them at Japan, not the ROK.

    They’ve got that much left over anger for the first half of the 20th Century.

  15. 15.

    General Stuck

    neff

    Jon Walker is one of the worst lying assholes on the FDL Borg mothership. When dems held the House, Pelosi, or her designated negotiator were certainly at the table. But most of the grappling and arm wresting was with the Senate, as it always is because they have the filibuster.

    The House is different being a majoritarian body. You are either the party in the majority there, and with all of the power of the House of Reps, or you are the minority, without any power at all. And either way, the legislative process is always an end product of drama by the Senate, and everyone else kind of has to dance to it’s tune. Dipshits like Walker, likely know this, but stoke the outrage machine for the red meat affect that there be democrats to bash, because, like they are all outraged and shit, and it’s more fun than bashing the wingnuts.

  16. 16.

    jl

    Now for something completely different, and probably ought to go in one of the food or gardening posts, but…

    County Fair season is staring in California!

    Hoo ray!

    I have not been to one in a couple of years. Lot to choose from in California. I want to go to more than I have time for.

    My favorites from memory, sometimes from long ago:

    Monterey: nice fair grounds on rolling grassy hills. Good produce and livestock, great food. I remember a lot of horsy stuff going on, very high toned horse shows.

    Mariposa: scruffy but pretty fair grounds that wind around some hills (I like that for some reason). You like critters? Mariposa has the most complete collection of critters: fancy rabbits, fancy chickens, fancy goats. I remember very interesting garden and rare plant section. And I think a fake gold mine you can wander through with old machines. I recall that it is a great fair for curiosities, which probably fits idioscyncratic folks collecting curiosities out in the hills.

    Marin: yeah, snooty Marin. But the old Marin comes out in the fair. There was a Marin county before rich snooty snoots moved in. Good local food.

    Napa and Sonoma: same as Marin. I do not care for all the snooty Wine Country stuff, except when I am thirsty or hungry. Probably because some of my family come from there from when it was mostly Swiss and Italians making wine out in the boondocks. But great produce, great livestock.

    Central Valley fairs: Madera, Merced, Stanislaus, San Joaquin. As I remember these are all held in dusty flat fair grounds. All about the same. But if you like produce and livestock, they are great. horse and jalopy races. Destruction derbies. I did not like the jalopy races because they were too loud, but tolerated it for the destruction derbies, because they were so much fun to watch.

    And I almost forgot: cool old fashioned farm equipment. Huge steam tractors. And humongoid new farm equipment you can climb around on. One year, one of them had a demonstration of old time twenty horse team wheat threshing operation.

    Stanislaus I remember because the local 4H club would make weird stuff that I thought was cool when I was a kid. One year they made different flavors of milk soda pop. That’s right! Carbonated milk with soda pop flavors. Another year they had some contraption that would make instant custom ice cream to order! That’s right. I could pick out my custom ice cream flavors and gulp it down a minute later, even if it was only a little dollup. I guess the technology for that has been around for awhile, even if only a couple of snooty SF Bay ice cream joints are starting to do it.

    Carnivals: all pretty much the same, as I remember.

    Edit: by carnivals, I meant the ride and junk food midway at each fair. I kept hearing on the news about rides that crashed an hurt people last year at the fairs. I do not remember hearing about it so often ever before. I hope that changes. But I was never big on the rides. Probably the midway junk food, which I do love dearly once a year, hurts more people.

  17. 17.

    Roger Moore

    @Sarah Proud and Tall:
    If it’s an open thread, you can’t complain when people want to piss, bitch, and moan. If you’re going to be meta and complain about other people complaining, maybe you should focus your bitchiness on the people who derail productive conversations, not open threads.

    Or was that a meta-meta complaint? Who cares! If it is, than anyone complaining about me would be making a meta^3 complaint, which would be even worse than mine. Suck on that, bitches.

  18. 18.

    Suffern ACE

    I try not to bitch. But really I can’t help it. I’m no good at turning my frustration into poetry and song. I do wicked extemporaneous dance when I’m not on blogs though; but that’s really a private performance art for my eyes only. The language and beauty of my body in motion is not recognized by many outside the Suffern Ace Estate. Misunderstood, actually. Children have fled.

  22. 22.

    Suffern ACE

    @jl – what we could probably use is a good demolition derby, or a game of chicken shit bingo.

  23. 23.

    Sarah Proud and Tall

    @ Roger Moore:

    I apologize, I should have been more specific.

    Amended version:

    @ AAA Bonds and Uncle Fucking Clarence Thomas:

    You mindless trolls have to turn every fucking thread into a mindless one-sided fucking bitchfest, don’t you?

    The rest of you – bitch and moan all you want.

  24. 24.

    MikeJ

    Mike Kay: Yeah, but in this case he didn’t really do anything to start a pie fight. He reported something he saw and the fucking Yankees didn’t like it.

    Lie down with dogs you get fleas. Why would anybody want to associate with the fucking yankees anyway?

  25. 25.

    No one of Importance

    Sarah, I recommend more pie in dealing with the aforenamed. Your thighs may spread, but so will your mind (as the actress said to the bishop.)

  26. 26.

    Comrade Kevin

    @MikeJ:

    Olbermann can be an ass, that’s for sure. I’m inclined to believe his own story on it, though, on his MLB blog, which is conveniently linked to in the post to which Make Kay linked. Consider the main source: the New York Post, a Murdoch property, who have had it in for him for years.

    As for why anyone would associated themselves with the Yankees, I suspect it’s inevitable, considering how many people live in New York.

  27. 27.

    englishmajor

    They were playing Nina Simone in the mall the other day. I wanted to put needles in my eyes. I don’t think you should even put her up on Balloon Juice. Some things are sacred – that woman was goddess not to be trifled with. Shiva. And now we just play her in the elevator. Leave her the fuck alone. Or be prepared to piss yourself when she comes back on Judgement Day.

  28. 28.

    Yutsano

    Why would anybody want to associate with the fucking yankees anyway?

    Wake me when Derek Jeter comes out. Then I might think about glancing at them with less than disdain.

  29. 29.

    Sarah Proud and Tall

    @ No one of Importance:

    Sadly I have to refrain from pie-ing anyone, just in case someone says something exceptionally offensive that needs to be deleted.

    A power, I might add, that I have not yet had to exercise, and hope that I never will.

  31. 31.

    Yutsano

    A power, I might add, that I have not yet had to exercise, and hope that I never will

    I need to try harder.

  32. 32.

    MikeJ

    Sarah, I thought of you this weekend when reading the NY Times book section. In a review:

    “Daisy Buchanan’s Daughter” opens, she is in her 80s, waiting for a birthday call from President George W. Bush, during which she intends to blow her brains out to protest the Iraq war. While waiting, she blogs. Through a suicide note that eventually becomes an autobiography almost perfectly contemporary with “the American Century,” we learn that Pam has been many things: rich mother’s regret, successful author, war correspondent, diplomat’s wife. She was on the beach at Normandy, saw Dachau liberated and knew the Kennedys.

    Also, reviews of two books about Hüsker Dü. But that reminded me not of you, but of my misspent youth.

  33. 33.

    bonkers

    Can’t thank you enough for sharing this video of the amazing Ms. Simone. I had not seen that performance before, and I now think it’s one of the my all-time favorites and will be watching it for inspiration the rest of my life. My whole family has watched it several times over the last few hours and everyone leaves with tears in their eyes. Thanks again!

  34. 34.

    englishmajor

    Sarah – I don’t know. I was feeling pissy last night and scathed by the mall experience. I so hate the trivialization of great artists. There’s plenty of music made these days expressly for being played in malls.

    Anyway it sounds like bonkers got a lot out of it so… Whatever, you don’t need MY permission to post anything. And, of course, it’s not wrong to share music in any medium – and Balloon Juice is not exactly a mall. It’s fucking complicated, this mass digital complex.

    Just saying, I have worshipped her for so long. Grew up with her, sitting next to the turntable, feeling up her albums which seemed like a piece of her (unlike a iTunes download). She was a force of nature (probably still is) which she shaped by her mean-ass mind. I’m not kidding when I say she was a goddess and that the only proper way to approach her is on your knees. And she had nothing but TOTAL contempt for popular music. It feels wrong to see her splayed out all over the internets.

    Take pity: I’m a lifelong atheist – great/real art is all I’ve got.

    But, in the interest of contradicting myself, have you seen the whole film that this clip comes from?

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