Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

This fight is for everything.

Live so that if you miss a day of work people aren’t hoping you’re dead.

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

How stupid are these people?

How any woman could possibly vote for this smug smarmy piece of misogynistic crap is beyond understanding.

Baby steps, because the Republican Party is full of angry babies.

Books are my comfort food!

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls 2 years from now.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

If you thought you’d already seen people saying the stupidest things possible on the internet, prepare yourselves.

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

Republicans: The threats are dire, but my tickets are non-refundable!

T R E 4 5 O N

Let’s show the world that autocracy can be defeated.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

A norm that restrains only one side really is not a norm – it’s a trap.

We need to vote them all out and restore sane Democratic government.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires.

… gradually, and then suddenly.

You are here: Home / Balloon Juice / Meetups / Take a look around, see which way the wind blow

Take a look around, see which way the wind blow

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There’s a Balloon-Juice meet-up in LA this weekend:

Date: Friday, May 10th

Time: 7:30 PM

Location: Golden Road Brewery (http://goldenroad.la/), 5410 West San Fernando Rd, Los Angeles, CA 90039

They do not take reservations, but I plan on being easily identifiable by wearing a gray “I am not drunk, I’m awesome” t-shirt while waiting near the front entrance.

Thanks!

PsiFighter37

And here’s a pic from the San Diego meet-up (not sure what the Absolut Vodka insignia is there for but I dig the black-and-white):

SanDiego

Reader Interactions

45Comments

  1. 1.

    PIGL

    Such a friendly welcoming wholesome-looking group of nice people. Except for the waitress…I would not want to talk to her at all.

  2. 2.

    gbear

    I was looking up the town of Montevideo, MN this morning to see if that stupid trailer park mad bomber was in Michelle Bachman’s district (He isn’t – too far south and west), and I discovered there’s a town named Minnesota, Minnesota. Never knew that before.

    I guess that if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere.

  3. 3.

    the Conster

    Wow – everyone gets their own Absolut bottle? That’s one way to tie one on fer sure.

  6. 6.

    Central Planning

    There should be one in Rochester. At least 2 front pagers are in the area, as well as a number of posters.

  10. 10.

    Seanly

    Anyone for a Boise meet-up? [crickets] Anyone?

    I know we’ll never get any FP out here, but could still be fun.

  12. 12.

    PsiFighter37

    We should also do one in NYC at some point. I will point out I do not live in LA, so this is a super-duper extra-special occurrence! Hope to see y’all in a few days!

  13. 13.

    Origuy

    Anyone going to Netroots in San Jose June 19-23? I can try to find a place downtown for a meetup.

  16. 16.

    catclub

    OT: Conservatives who represent the 1% hate the new $6.3Tr Heritage study. Funny. Jim DeMint is making his mark at Heritage.

    It was very strange to realize I was reading a Jennifer Rubin article. And agreeing with much of it.

  17. 17.

    Roger Moore

    @catclub:

    It was very strange to realize I was reading a Jennifer Rubin article. And agreeing with much of it.

    That’s what happens when we’re the ones working the wedge issue. We get to watch the other guys engage in internecine fighting for a change, and we wind up with some unexpected people taking our side. More of this, plz.

  18. 18.

    catclub

    @Roger Moore: I posted on another thread that Heritage was speaking for the 1% elites of the GOP. It looks like that is no longer the case. They are now the base.

    (Although I did mention that the 1% are pretty happy with cheap employees who can be abused, so many of them are fine with the status quo. I guess the different 1% that is elites of the GOP does not actually run that type of business.)

    Different villains with different motivations. Fascinating!

  20. 20.

    Comrade Dread

    I’d go, but that’s my birthday, and I imagine ditching my wife and family to go hang out with my fellow liberal reprobates would not be looked kindly upon.

    That said, have fun and stay safe.

  22. 22.

    Southern Beale

    Apropos of nothing but, damn, Kentucky, you’ve got a problem:

    MURRAY, KY. — A Murray State University student has died after he accidentally shot himself in the head with a handgun.

    Calloway County Coroner Ricky Harris said Clayton Law, 23, of Elizabethtown died early Sunday morning when he fired the handgun.

    Harris said the state medical examiner will perform an autopsy, and the results will be available in about a week.

    Murray State University vice president Mike Young told The Paducah Sun (http://bit.ly/15k7yDe) that the gun accidentally went off as Law, an Army veteran, showed it to a friend.

    Law was a member of Alpha Sigma Phi fraternity. Young, the adviser for the fraternity, said Law completed three tours of duty in Afghanistan. After serving, he enrolled at Murray State.

    i’m sure this one was all the fault of violent video games ….

  25. 25.

    Roger Moore

    @catclub:
    I’m not sure that this is an elites vs. base issue. I think this is more of a fight between realists and ideologues. The realists are worried about the party’s viability and see backing immigration reform as the best way to improve their standing with Latinos. The ideologues either don’t want to reward illegal immigration or want to preserve their pool of cheap labor, and either aren’t worried about the electoral consequences or see a pathway to citizenship as demographic suicide.

  26. 26.

    Roger Moore

    @Comrade Dread:

    I’d go, but that’s my birthday, and I imagine ditching my wife and family to go hang out with my fellow liberal reprobates would not be looked kindly upon.

    So bring the wife and family.

  27. 27.

    Hungry Joe

    Great fun, indeed … even if the Absolut rep spiked the (free!) vodka with (blechh!) grapefruit juice. Forced me into primo San Diego IPAs for the evening. Pity.

    I’m going to post this again in another OT, just because: Today, almost exactly a year after the hardcover came out, Simon & Schuster is publishing the paperback edition ($6.99!) of my middle-grade novel ANYWAY*.

  29. 29.

    imonlylurking

    Any interest in a Minneapolis/Twin Cities meetup? I’m currently getting over the world’s most obnoxious virus so my attendance will depend on how much my hacking cough has improved, but anybody who is interested should let me know.

  31. 31.

    JGabriel

    @gbear:

    I discovered there’s a town named Minnesota, Minnesota. Never knew that before.

    I was reading Wikipedia yesterday, and discovered a town I never knew of before, either — Fucking, Austria:

    It is believed that the settlement was founded in the 6th century by Focko, a Bavarian nobleman. The existence of the village was documented for the first time in 1070 and historical records show that some twenty years later the lord was Adalpertus de Fucingin. The spelling of the name has evolved over the years; it is first recorded in historical sources with the spelling as Vucchingen in 1070, Fukching in 1303, Fugkhing in 1532, and in the modern spelling Fucking in the 18th century, which is pronounced with the vowel oo as in book. The ending -ing is an old Germanic suffix indicating the people belonging to the root word to which it is attached, thus Fucking means “(place of) Focko’s people.” …

    The village is especially popular with British tourists; as a local tour guide explained: “The Germans all want to see Mozart’s house in Salzburg; the Americans want to see where The Sound of Music was filmed; the Japanese want Hitler’s birthplace in Braunau; but for the British, it’s all about Fucking.” Augustina Lindlbauer, the manager of an area guesthouse, noted that the area had lakes, forests, and vistas worth visiting, but there was an “obsession with Fucking”. Lindlbauer recalled how she had to explain to a British female tourist “that there were no Fucking postcards.” …

    In 2004 … a vote was held on changing the village’s name, but the residents voted against doing so. Tarsdorf municipality’s mayor Siegfried Höppl stated that it was decided to keep the name as it had existed for 800 years, and further stated that “[e]veryone here knows what it means in English, but for us Fucking is Fucking—and it’s going to stay Fucking.” …

    Kommandant Schmitzberger, the local police chief, also hinted at other avenues to stop what he calls “foreign criminals” from disturbing order in the village. Regarding these “other avenues”, Schmitzberger stated, “[w]hat they are, I am not at liberty to disclose, but we will not stand for the Fucking signs being removed. It may be very amusing for you British, but Fucking is simply Fucking to us. What is this big Fucking joke? It is puerile.” …

    In July 2009, it was announced that the village would be installing CCTV cameras in an attempt to deter summertime tourists from filming themselves having sexual intercourse in front of the Fucking signs. …

    Juergen Stoll, the operator of a guesthouse at Wank [apparently, there’s also a Wank mountain in Austria — JG], close to the Austrian-German border, stated that the residents of Fucking should be cashing in on its name, although Mayor Franz Meindl states: “We don’t find it funny. We just want to be left alone. We don’t harm anyone and just want to live in peace.”

    .

  32. 32.

    Roger Moore

    @JGabriel:

    I was reading Wikipedia yesterday, and discovered a town I never knew of before, either — Fucking, Austria

    With a name like that, you’d expect the population to be higher.

  33. 33.

    ruemara

    Want to go, but the bogus ticket I had to payoff to contest ated all my travel monies for the year. Sometimes things are very frustrating.

  35. 35.

    gbear

    @JGabriel:
    I read about that city recently. They were having a lot of trouble with people stealing their signs.
    @imonlylurking:
    Kay tried to have a Minneapolis event a couple years ago but she accidentally picked a place where the staff were jerks about facilitating the get-together. She was pretty mad. I’d be game and I’d like to suggest Shamrock’s in St. Paul because they’re not expensive and their burgers are so good. I would prefer to wait until you’re not hacking…

  37. 37.

    johnny aquitard

    @Omnes Omnibus: I believe TBOGG’s wife referred to his commentariat as his ‘weird little internet friends’.

    So yeah, spouse and family prolly see the meetup opportunity a bit differently.

    Especially if, like me you’ve read stuff aloud to the spouse, stuff you thought was outrageously funny. And all you get is silence. Or one of those ‘that’s not funny’ looks.

  38. 38.

    agorabum

    Excellent brewery, good food too. Try to talk them into giving you some of the tequila-barrel aged Hefewizen…

  39. 39.

    Shortstop

    I understand if people want to be all incognito and shit, but if not, who’s who in this photo?

  41. 41.

    FredW

    Sure, you finally have one in my town and it is when I am not there.

    I will in Bamberg, Germany visiting the many local breweries so I will at least be drinking good beer.

  43. 43.

    something fabulous

    Oooh, I hope I can get there too! Car-less, so will depend on sig other’s interest… or not. In any case, have a great time!

  45. 45.

    Steve V

    Wow, Golden Road is one of my semi-regular haunts. Wish I could be there.

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