Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

They spent the last eight months firing professionals and replacing them with ideologues.

Hey hey, RFK, how many kids did you kill today?

The willow is too close to the house.

A tremendous foreign policy asset… to all of our adversaries.

Democracy is not a spectator sport.

The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.

When we show up, we win.

One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

Is trump is trying to break black America over his knee? signs point to ‘yes’.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

Tide comes in. Tide goes out. You can’t explain that.

Balloon Juice, where there is always someone who will say you’re doing it wrong.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

America is going up in flames. The NYTimes fawns over MAGA celebrities. No longer a real newspaper.

So fucking stupid, and still doing a tremendous amount of damage.

This chaos was totally avoidable.

I am pretty sure these ‘journalists’ were not always such a bootlicking sycophants.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. keep building.

I like political parties that aren’t owned by foreign adversaries.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

“Just close your eyes and kiss the girl and go where the tilt-a-whirl takes you.” ~OzarkHillbilly

One lie, alone, tears the fabric of reality.

Mediocre white men think RFK Jr’s pathetic midlife crisis is inspirational. The bar is set so low for them, it’s subterranean.

At some point, the ability to learn is a factor of character, not IQ.

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Reader Interactions

90Comments

  2. 2.

    Brad

    Driving across the country and I just saw this billboard in Missouri.

    “Hope and change? How’s that working for you? Vote for the AMERICAN in November”

  3. 3.

    Yutsano

    That blew up my FB feed of band geeks like no tomorrow. It’s an excellent show to be sure.

  4. 4.

    TooManyJens

    @Brad:

    “Hope and change? How’s that working for you? Vote for the AMERICAN in November”

    “Not too badly, thanks for asking! And I will! You do mean the guy who was born in Hawaii, right?”

    Sigh.

  6. 6.

    Arm The Homeless

    Just getting around to playing Mass Effect 3. I decided the first go round to import my ME 1 & 2 character as an Adept. Wow is all I can say, they finally got around to making Biotics useful, instead of just an after thought to your firearms.

    I have also seen the tidal wave of butt-hurt over the ending, and while I have been careful not to delve into spoilers, may I kindly offer some advice to the kvetchers: Suck it up folks

  7. 7.

    Persia

    I’d give five American dollars to anyone who asks Romney how we identify Syrian rebels who ‘share our values.’

  9. 9.

    PurpleGirl

    So, JG, are you now back among the living? Have your guests gone home? Was the weekend a success?

    How are Tunch, Lily and Rosie?

  12. 12.

    Jewish Steel

    Last night:

    Thank God Cisco warned us in time! He balked and ran into me, hackles up. For there on the sidewalk directly in our path: The Shaolin Assassin Basenji! So serene and centered, he will bite you 100 hundred times before you can open your mouth. So still and calm, he will pin you with one deft swipe of his paw. So watchful and silent and…a traffic cone.

  17. 17.

    Svensker

    I swear I spotted Cole in the stands during the WVA game this weekend. Wearing a straw hat.

    It would be irresponsible not to speculate.

    Also, marching band is awesome. Completely pointless and silly but completely awesome. Humans do weird stuff for fun.

  18. 18.

    blingee

    That video is a tribute to all the stupid shit Americans waste their time on when they are not voting and therefore letting any stupid moron with money run things.

  20. 20.

    gbear

    Update on cat Edward. He threw up last night. He didn’t destroy his room. I may try to make some changes to his food. That it for now.

  24. 24.

    ? Martin

    Very cool. I’ll show that to my son. His school won their marching band tournament on Sat – he’s a freshman so it was his first. I didn’t go to the tournament, but several parents noted how much smaller the other marching bands were and seemed to be getting compared to previous years. The cuts in K-12 funding, particularly around music, are steadily killing high school marching bands. My son’s is still large (about 240 members – almost as big as Ohio State’s there) but it’s due to a LOT of parent commitment, and more than a few students switching schools to the one HS that didn’t cut funding for marching band.

  27. 27.

    Felinious Wench

    That was freaking awesome. Anyone who ever marched across a parking lot in 100 degree heat to practice after school for a UIL band competition and wished they could do something cool instead of stupid interpretations of some 3rd rate Broadway musical will understand how freaking awesome.

  28. 28.

    Yutsano

    @? Martin: Tell him to hang in there. If he’s enjoying it now wait until college. It’s a completely different (and infinitely more fun!) animal. Also: OSU marches 330 all brass (last I heard, that could have changed) and that makes for a more assertive sound.

  29. 29.

    Comrade Mary

    Yes, that was great, and the horse was exactly what made me yell in glee (ca. 1 AM today when I first saw it). My neighbours already have some odd ideas about me, so that’s OK.

  33. 33.

    Violet

    @Felinious Wench:

    Anyone who ever marched across a parking lot in 100 degree heat to practice after school for a UIL band competition and wished they could do something cool instead of stupid interpretations of some 3rd rate Broadway musical will understand how freaking awesome.

    Ha! Describe my high school late summer and fall. Parking lots are HOT in the south in the afternoon.

    Really cool. Marching band was a lot of fun. It’s a bummer it’s getting cut out of school budgets.

  34. 34.

    The Snarxist Formerly Known As Kryptik

    The horse was definitely awesome, and I loved the castle take at the end. The boos when the Michigan flag came out, just before they realize what they’re doing with it, is priceless.

    Also, John, that’s one hell of a hangover from Saturday. Celebrate the Texas win THAT much?

  36. 36.

    Shawn in ShowMe

    @Brad:

    That’s Sullivan/Cuba country so, yeah, I can see a billboard like that appealing to the 98% white working-class enclaves that live there. A black man who gives orders to white men must seem like a space alien to them.

  38. 38.

    rlrr

    @TooManyJens:

    I went ahead and started that petition to Boehner and Pelosi asking them to set some goddamn standards for who can be on the House Science Committee:

    Having such standards would disqualify most, if not all House Republicans.

  41. 41.

    Chris from Arlington

    As someone who’s marched in a marching band, let me tell you that almost all of the moves they do in that show are tremendously difficult. That’s a real testament to the dedication of those band members. They hold the music together too, which is crazy hard to do when doing all those moves.

  44. 44.

    Yutsano

    @Chris from Arlington: There were so many times in college I was freezing my ass off in the stands but by the time halftime was over I was sweating my ass off I had worked so hard. Marching band is many things. Easy is not one of them.

  45. 45.

    scav

    Weird stuff for entirely fun indeed, Animated Nazca lines. With brass. I’m so behind, I yelled at Tetris.

  47. 47.

    ? Martin

    @Yutsano: He’s really enjoying it so far. I never did anything like that, so I don’t know, but his marching band has won national championships in recent years, so they’re pretty serious about it. I went to a football game on Friday and it was pretty clear most of the fans were there for the marching band and not the football team. The football team isn’t bad, but band is Cheerios and football is New Directions, not the other way around.

    I didn’t think OSU was that big. Wiki says 225 and they march 192. My son’s marches about 190. But he plays wind, and OSU is all brass as you note. My son’s also has a very strong percussion front ensemble which reduces the brass even more, but then they aren’t playing 80,000 seat stadiums. They’re pretty damn loud in the puny football stadium we have. We ain’t Texas out here.

  48. 48.

    bemused

    Amazing show. I can’t imagine how many hours of practice went into that.

    Randi Rhodes is playing clips of the Jon Stewart-Bill O’Reilly debate dustup. Stewart got some great licks in and some of the things Billo said surprised me. Now I am going to have to watch the whole thing when I get some time.

  52. 52.

    Soonergrunt

    @Violet: Yeah–got some kind of streptococcal pneumonia. I didn’t know that strep does that. Learn something new every day, I guess.
    I got the antibiotic Cefdinir for that, and she prescribed a cough medicine called Zutripro. The label says “take 1tsp by mouth. May cause drowsiness.” It ought to say “get comfortable, because you’re going to sleep in 3…2…1…”

    EDIT–The Google tells me that Zutripro is made of a mix of chlorpheniramine, hydrocodone and pseudoephedrine. No wonder I feel like I could be on fire and I wouldn’t notice or care.

  53. 53.

    Elisabeth

    I’m going to be seating in the ‘shoe in about a month likely freezing my ass off and having a fabulous time!

  54. 54.

    Shawn in ShowMe

    @Shawn in ShowMe:

    That’s Sullivan/Cuba country so, yeah, I can see a billboard like that appealing to the 98% white working-class enclaves that live there.

    Oh hell, why sugar coat it? These folks are po’, alright? Maybe not East St. Louis po’, but pretty damn close. They’ve got plenty of reasons to be resentful. The presence of the Kenyan Usurper gives them a convenient target to focus their hate.

  55. 55.

    Felinious Wench

    @Chris from Arlington:

    As someone who’s marched in a marching band, let me tell you that almost all of the moves they do in that show are tremendously difficult. That’s a real testament to the dedication of those band members.

    I was drill team, and we marched with the band. The marching alone was hard enough. As Violet said, the Texas heat didn’t help either.

    God, I don’t miss that. I do sometimes miss the crazy drummers and saxophone players. What is it about those areas that leads to sheer insane goofiness in the band? And the tubas would horrify the flutes every game.

  56. 56.

    blingee

    Good to see Cole is doing what he does best. Blogging about anything other than politics or things that require a brain.

  57. 57.

    Higgs Boson's Mate

    Gaming Question: Has anyone played Skyrim? I’ve been playing strat sims forever and I’d enjoy a change of genre. Don’t have the dedication for an MMORPG.

  59. 59.

    lamh35

    Saw Looper today. I’m not really sure how I feel about. I liked it, but man my brain hurts.

  60. 60.

    Bostondreams

    @Higgs Boson’s Mate:

    Skyrim is great, but I still like Morrowind, one of the earlier Elder Scrolls games that helps set this one up, better.

    You might consider one of the Fallouts if you don’t want dragon-related fantasy.

  62. 62.

    Higgs Boson's Mate

    @Bostondreams:

    Thanks for the suggestions! I just ordered The Elder Scrolls Morrowind Game of the Year Edition from Amazon. After playing Civilization, among other sims, since 1991 I’m ready for swords,sorcery and dragons.

  64. 64.

    McWaffle

    Morrowind was great because it didn’t scale enemies to your level and it was way more open-ended, I feel. Plus it just felt really huge at the time, before most games did. Skryim and Oblivion both scale enemies, but I feel like it’s less obvious. In Oblivion you’d be running into stupid highway bandits with mithril armor or whatever.

  67. 67.

    Raptorfence

    This may have come up already but anyway…

    If Mitt Romney loses, does that mean we have to live through 4 years of bi-monthly exclusives with him on “Meet the Press”?

  68. 68.

    ThresherK

    My streaming is broken now. Please, please tell me “PacMan Fever” is on that clip. None of these kids were born when that song was released, it made the Billboard top 15, and we need to warn these kids.

    It holds its own next to any baby boomer’s most loathed hit of the ’60s. (I should know, my spouse has a special place in hell for “Yummy, Yummy, Yummy”, but that does qualify as an actual song.)

    @Raptorfence: I’d say, No, we don’t.

    Mitt has no core consitutency, doesn’t need to keep in “broadcasting trim” like Newt (sic), or requires a drip feed from the wingnut welfare spigot.

    Should he lose, he will disappear like the Enron plane from tarmac photograph of George W. Bush during Campaign 2000.

  70. 70.

    Violet

    @Soonergrunt: Glad you’re under a doctor’s care and getting the treatment you need. That’s stuff you don’t want to mess around with. Rest up and take care of yourself.

  71. 71.

    R-Jud

    Ah, marching bands. Reminds me of my high school boyfriend, a sousaphone player nicknamed “the Hobbit” who was 5″ shorter than me.

  72. 72.

    Raptorfence

    @Yutsano:

    Good point. Hasn’t considered that they’ll have to pry McCain’s cold dead corpse off the set. (And even then he’ll get one or two more “exclusive interviews”…)

  73. 73.

    Bostondreams

    @McWaffle:

    Agreed. I loved the storyline far better as well, especially with the two add-ons. And the theological elements were simply fascinating to me.

  75. 75.

    RossinDetroit, Rational Subjectivist

    I’m stuck in Virginia Beach for 2.5 days. Should have been headed home by now but events intervened. I’d be out walking on the beach but it’s raining so all I can do is sit here on the balcony and watch it from 6 floors up. It’s still a cool view. It’s an ocean.

    Some romantic has etched a huge marriage proposal to ‘Christina” in the sand.

  77. 77.

    RossinDetroit, Rational Subjectivist

    @Maude:

    Thanky, Ma’m. I may drop in for a look. If the rain stops I’ll be off down Atlantic Ave to a joint called The Raven. It’s recommended by an old pal who insists I not mention his name.
    IOW, I’m bored, and might look for some night life rather than another evening staring at pixels.

  81. 81.

    RossinDetroit, Rational Subjectivist

    @ThresherK:

    Apparently. I just looked again and I see a ‘YES’ in the sand by the proposal. Good luck, kids!

  83. 83.

    Finn13

    Why isn’t Balloon Juice talking about Obama’s plans to cut Social Security benefits in the lame duck? it says it right there on his campaign website.

  85. 85.

    Suezboo

    May I agree with whoever said Americans do weird stuff?
    This was a brilliant display, to be sure, but my first thought was : These are students? This must have taken hours and hours of practice – when do they like, study?

  88. 88.

    Chris from Arlington

    @Felinious Wench:
    Heh heh. I was, and still am, a Sax player. My buddy and I used to have “Loudest single thing in the room” contests between his Bari and my Tenor (a very loud, easy-blowing Mk VI) at Basketball Games. Ahh good times.

    I played a cruddy student model in marching band, and, to my great sadness, went to a school without a marching band (or football team). However GW did have two good basketball teams when I was there, so all the engergy that could have gone into marching band shows, went into basketball band. Man that was fun. The good horns didn’t go outside, too expensive to repair all the pad damage.

  90. 90.

    TBDBITL

    No drill team, no woodwinds – just lots of brass and percussion. This band memorizes all their music, too. As an OSUMB alum, I would estimate they took about two weeks of rehearsal time to put that show together. And yes, they are also students! Go Bucks! WB!

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