Via Buzzfeed, a youthful Newt Gingrich being a pompous ass (a safe assumption) in an Elvis ‘do and sideburns:
You’re welcome. Please feel free to discuss your most egregious hair offense or whatever else you’d like.
by Betty Cracker| 201 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads, Assholes
Via Buzzfeed, a youthful Newt Gingrich being a pompous ass (a safe assumption) in an Elvis ‘do and sideburns:
You’re welcome. Please feel free to discuss your most egregious hair offense or whatever else you’d like.
Comments are closed.
Scout211
Open Thread PSA:
I called my bank this morning to ask what they recommended for debit cards that were used during the period of time (November 27-December 15) that Target stores had a credit and debit card security breach. I had used mine twice during the period of time.
My bank customer service person told me to close out my debit card and they would issue me a new one. Immediately. Right now . . . which I did.
I guess this breach is massive and involves every Target store nationwide affecting up to 40 million customers.
So just a heads up for all of you Target Christmas shoppers: Call your bank.
Immediately.
Right now.
Scotty
Newt was a hipster?
gogol's wife
Wow. I really didn’t need to see that.
Certified Mutant Enemy
What has been seen cannot be unseen.
Certified Mutant Enemy
@Scotty:
More like a dickster.
Jebediah, RBG
Nootvis! Nice!
I used to think maybe poor ole Newt just hadn’t aged well, that maybe, possibly, he had been an OK looker in his youth.
Nope. (Not that looks truly matter, but I think of Newt as a book that coincidentally can be judged by its unsightly cover.)
wasabi gasp
That dude likes his chocolate hot.
jeffreyw
We are going on an expedition tomorrow, we are after a whole fresh ham and also a skin on pork side to experiment with porchetta recipes. A reasonably nearby (one hour drive) meat processor has a good selection of such items.
raven
Ask him about his avoidance of “the wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time” for him.
cleek
so i guess he was the President of his school’s chapter of the Future Beet Farmers of America ?
Trollhattan
Backpfeifengesicht!!
Also, too, the Dwight Schrute prototype.
some guy
the Darrell Issa porn-stache photos are also hilarious.
schrodinger's cat
Its almost 5pm on the east coast, not too early to start drinking, so I present , Michelada with Rock Salt.
schrodinger's cat
How did this man get 3 or is it more women to marry him?
raven
Eric U.
@Jebediah, RBG: actually, you can tell it’s Newt, but he doesn’t really look all that bad if you gave him a haircut, shave, and got rid of the stupid glasses. Or maybe if you punched him in the neck
Trollhattan
Michigan judge does the right thing.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-25452765
Am guessing the defense will revolve around the contention she was threatening the well-being of Mr. Wafer’s shotgun with her face.
Certified Mutant Enemy
@Trollhattan:
Did Dwight Schrute marry his high school math teacher?
schrodinger's cat
@jeffreyw: How is your kittehs an goggies, you should try to get a photo of all of them together.
gogol's wife
@raven:
Which part of him is that?
Certified Mutant Enemy
@raven:
He would have been fragged.
MattR
@Scout211: I’ve been checking my AmEx statement to make sure nothing new pops up on it. I am hoping I don’t have to cancel it and get a new card (and change all my automatic payments), especially since my purchase at Target was a $6 pair of headphones.
raven
@Certified Mutant Enemy: A frag would have been more than he was worth.
Yatsuno
@raven: That would be uncivil. Dare I say it, shrill.
ranchandsyrup
Put this below but I’m in a FB discussion with a friend that is chummy with the Palins and the Heaths. I offered to explain to Sarah how the first amendment works and he replied:
I can’t get him to answer where this right to “free speech” comes from, other than the 1st. The best he could muster:
Betty Cracker
@Trollhattan: I read something about this case yesterday. The shooter is claiming the shotgun went off by accident — through a locked screened door.
Even if his version of events were true, wouldn’t it be negligent homicide? I’m not a lawyer, but how can they claim it’s self defense if the shooter has already said he didn’t mean to fire the gun?
khead
The Mullet. With a ponytail.
After that train wreck I went with the Heat Miser look for a while.
Now I just shave off whatever little bit sprouts.
MomSense
@Certified Mutant Enemy:
HAHAHAHA!
Betty Cracker
@ranchandsyrup: Ask him if she feels that way about Martin Bashir.
Also, if she’s going to drop her Gs (in writing!) to sound all folksy like, shouldn’t she be consistent about it?
scav
@Scout211: This “bag your own security” program really puts control of just how much privacy you want firmly in the hands of the individual Target consumer. Helps hold down the bottom line running costs day to day (admittedly with minor hiccups). Add the jewels in the heavenly crown of demonstrating purity of free market credentials and practice and a kick-ass possible advertising campaign? Choose to be a Target! Somebody found a nice year-end bonus in his stocking. . .
not surprised it happened, but rather peeved ($);6(;($);7(ugfugf6;h) at being repeatedly told these are the individuals and the system that will solve all problems if only unfettered from regulations, taxes or consequences.
Origuy
Pussy Riot members and Greenpeace activists to be freed.
raven
@Yatsuno: How’s it hangin?
Trollhattan
@ranchandsyrup:
Ugh. Tell friend to get (“GIT!”) away before he loses what’s left of his brain to the Palin-Heath intelligence singularity.
cmorenc
Newt looks like he’s auditioning to be an Elvis impersonator.
jeffreyw
@schrodinger’s cat: Everyone is fine, Katie is getting some time outside off the leash, though with Mrs J watching her closely. Getting all of them into one shot would be a challenge.
Petorado
Pareene has Mike Allen at the top of his hack list. After reading his takedown, it’s hard to argue with his assertion (even though there are so many other deserving contenders for the throne.)
SiubhanDuinne
If the only thing I knew about President Obama was what I just heard in a year-end feature on All Things Considered, I would never (have) vote(d) for him. All the guy’s done in 2013 is spy on people, get all inyourface with Syria, spy some more, fight with Republicans in Congress, listen to Angela Merkel’s phone calls, piss off the Prime Minister of Brazil, and fuck up the health care website.
Trollhattan
@Betty Cracker:
I keep thinking, “Hello, police, there’s a crazy person at my front door.” As spoken while exiting my back door.
Is that so hard?
Roger Moore
For the people earlier who assumed Brian Boitano is gay; he just came out of the closet, so there are now three openly gay members of the US Olympic delegation.
ranchandsyrup
@Betty Cracker: I sure did. He said that she felt awful about Bashir but didn’t say anything. I sent him the politico article with her comments on Bashir. He pivoted to me attacking her.
@Trollhattan: My old roommate from back in the early 90’s. Was a Madison and Boulder hippie until he married into an Alaska family and started snowmachining with Tawd.
Omnes Omnibus
@Petorado: At a certain level, they’re all winners.
Eric U.
@raven: I have seen statistics that the U.S. expended 250,000 rounds for every fatality. If Newt had been fragged, that number might be higher.
Renie
I’m a lurker; rarely post but after seeing that picture, had to say WTF!!!!
c u n d gulag
“The Portrait of the Young Conservative Doofus, at a Young Age.”
Trollhattan
@ranchandsyrup:
You’ll know he’s fully turned to the duh side when he refuses his oil check on accounta it makes him a moocher.
Mnemosyne
@Scout211:
My bank is usually super on-top of these things (they issued me a new card before the DSW debacle hit the news), but I should probably double check with them anyway and make sure the new card is on its way.
@Roger Moore:
To answer people from the other thread, I think lamh37 and I were confusing Brian Boitano and Brian Orser, but apparently Orser is also gay (a little unusual for a Canadian figure skater, actually, since quite a few of them come up through hockey).
Trollhattan
At long last the South PArk question, “What would Brian Boitano do?” is answered.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNJmfuEWR8w
gogol's wife
@Origuy:
Слава Богу!
KG
@Scotty: nah, that was just the style then. If he looked like this now, he’d be a hipster… back then, that was just standard issue
PurpleGirl
@jeffreyw: Lots of luck with your meat hunt. Awaiting pictures with recipes after Christmas day.
gogol's wife
@KG:
I don’t think those sideburns were standard issue. Not that they were hip, either.
ranchandsyrup
@Trollhattan: Heh. Never!
At least he finally admitted that she’s trolling and that she enjoys trolling.
Chuck Heath is super pissed at me for pointing this out on FB. VICTORY?!?
hilts
The 2 dumbest reactions to Phil Robertson’s comments
Ultimately There Will Be No Option for Silence or the Sidelines. You Will Be Made To Care.
http://www.redstate.com/2013/12/18/ultimately-there-will-be-no-option-for-silence-or-the-sidelines-you-will-be-made-to-care
Punish Phil Robertson but Defraud Amazon: The Dubious Ethics of the Left
http://www.mediaite.com/online/fire-phil-robertson-but-defraud-amazon-the-dubious-ethics-of-the-left
scav
@KG: Did all “normal” non-ambiguous hair look that plastic? Those perfect waves smell more of those big plastic hairdryers cradling bouffants than what I’m vaguely remembering. But then, I did live in an environment with, like, you know, actual wind.
Hill Dweller
@Petorado: How was Ron Fournier omitted from the list?
Amir Khalid
For those of you who follow the English football, or who like to hear about egregious examples of MOTU arrogance, I commend to your attention my countryman Tan Sri* Vincent Tan Chee Yioun.
*Vincent Tan holds a high-ranking peerage in Malaysia, which is restricted to 75 living holders at a time. Tan Sri is the title that goes with it. It doesn’t make sense to use the title abroad, where people don’t know what it means; but Vincent Tan does because that’s the kind of self-important, bullying dick he is.
raven
@Eric U.: Must depend on which fatalities they are talking about.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Hill Dweller: There was one guy I’d never heard of, and Erickson is to my mind too marginal for a list like that. I think Fournier really should have been in the top 5
MikeJ
@ranchandsyrup:
Ask him if it was ok when a church dumped the duck people because they started selling wine.
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2013/12/19/duck-dynasty-november-wines-december-whines/
Private entity, no government interference, decides they want a different spokesperson.
j
How about a young Karl Rove circa 1972?
He looked like a greasy weasel even when he was skinny.
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-october-22-2013/moment-of-zen—young-karl-rove
ruemara
@ranchandsyrup: linguistically, I’m not surprised he or she is an admirer. It’s only a First Amendment issue, until you teach what the First Amendment says,then it’s free speech until you remind them that that’s not without consequences.
Hill Dweller
@SiubhanDuinne:
The entire Village is singing the same tune. Obama had worstest 5th year evah!
Bill E Pilgrim
Don’t forget this.
The man obviously has some sort of force field that sucks all of the humanity and pigment out of not only him but anyone spending a lot of time near him.
Omnes Omnibus
@Bill E Pilgrim: Eek!
danielx
Would that there was an icepick to plunge into my mind’s eye after seeing that picture.
Also, too – under the heading of Republican douche rockets (yes, Newt and his Newticles™ fall under this heading also) we have Representative Jack Kingston (R-doucherocket – but I repeat myself) who clearly did not get that memo about how if Republicans want to win national elections, they should stop being complete assholes. Next up will be ‘are there no prisons, no workhouses’?
I get that he’s coming up on a primary against seven other Republicans, meaning that he’s in a competition for title of the biggest mean political asshole in Georgia, but did it ever occur to this fucking idiot about the optics, as pols say, of his pronouncement…a week before Christmas? Scrooge, thy name is Kingston.
PurpleGirl
@gogol’s wife: The sideburns might have been standard issue in the South and among Elvis impersonators.
WereBear
You can see why Newt passed up the Dorian Grey path.
Omnes Omnibus
@danielx:
I think not. Scrooge was redeemable and was in fact redeemed. These guys are Jacob Marley.
Anoniminous
In a unanimous decision the New Mexico Supreme Court Rules Gay Marriage Constitutional.
Trollhattan
@danielx:
Funny you should bring him up in this thread, because on reading Kingston’s super idea I immediately thought of candidate Newton’s suggestion that schools hire poor schoolkids to do their janitoring in order to teach ’em some worky ethics–you know, the kind that middle class kids come with automagically. Almost free labor & fire a union janitor: win-win!
scav
@Omnes Omnibus: Even Marley was trying to posthumously trying to work things out, after getting hit with the sentence in rattling chains and boxes. This lot would be stealing links from slow-moving wraiths and complaining that poorer (and less wanly invisible) ghosts got boxes at all.
lamh36
@Roger Moore: @Mnemosyne: I was just reading about Boitano. Read up on Brian Orser and it’s interesting that he thought being gay would be bad for his career…in figure skating…was/is being gay really frowned upon in figure skating? Go figure.
@Scout211: ok, I swear I haven’t been to Target in months because there just isn’t one near my house. If finally did go to Target, but it was just this past Tuesday, so I missed the theft window. I woulda been so pissed if I something had happened.
Omnes Omnibus
@Anoniminous: Unanimous decisions are such a kick in the teeth to the losing side.
oldster
Gingrich in that photo has the glassy, unreal look of the characters in the Thunderbirds cartoon. Kinda like this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Tracy
The horror!
Betty Cracker
@Bill E Pilgrim: That photo comparison has always freaked me out. He looks unchanged, but she appears to have been transformed into a wholly different creature in a way the mere passage of time cannot account for…
Omnes Omnibus
@lamh36: I would guess that the real money for skaters is in endorsements and being openly gay might keep an athlete from getting endorsement deals with so-called “family friendly” companies.
@Betty Cracker: Can you say Stepford?
Mnemosyne
@danielx:
Well, come on, we all know those six-year-olds wouldn’t be going hungry if they weren’t too lazy to work. I know I was trudging uphill in the snow both ways to get to my before-school job in the first grade. Weren’t you?
/wingnut
R-Jud
@Betty Cracker: Think of the things she’s had to see, and… and touch.
You’d apply the platinum bleach to your scalp, too, just to feel the cleansing burn. You might even drink it.
Omnes Omnibus
@R-Jud: Thanks. I was about to make dinner. Instead, I think I’ll head straight into drinking.
Short Bus Bully
Holy fucking fuck.
What did we do to deserve that pic???
Mnemosyne
@Omnes Omnibus:
Back in the 1980s and 1990s when the Brians were first famous, sure. I remember it being a HUGE DEAL when Greg Louganis came out, and he was basically forced to do it because he was diagnosed with AIDS.
These days, though, even “family friendly” companies don’t really care. As Fred Clark at Slacktivist said when JC Penney hired Ellen DeGeneres as their spokeswoman, most of the women who got the “alert” from Focus on the Family probably decided to read it after they’d watched that day’s episode of “The Ellen DeGeneres Show.”
Mnemosyne
@Betty Cracker:
Energy vampires. They do exist.
bemused
@Bill E Pilgrim:
That was shocking. It’s hard to believe it’s the same Callista, She used to resemble an actual human. How does anyone choose to hook up with Newt and choose to look like a frozen Cruella Deville? Very odd woman.
ranchandsyrup
@MikeJ: *tents fingers* EXCELLENT
lamh36
@Omnes Omnibus: ah…that’s true. I sure haven’t seen hide nor hair of Rudy Galindo in any advertising.
And honeslty, other than skating comps and his reality show, I don’t think I’ve seen much in terms of Johnny Weir endorsement deals, unless I missed them
JPL
@bemused: Someone has to say it.. I blame Obama.
Jebediah, RBG
@Eric U.:
I’ll go with neck punch.
Betty Cracker
@Omnes Omnibus: Me too. It’s now “Make Your Own Goddamn Dinner Night.” Mama’s headed straight to the bourbon.
Anoniminous
@Omnes Omnibus:
Unanimity was a minor surprise but there was no doubt the NMSC would rule in favor once they got a case properly briefed and presented. It’s just not that big a deal here for most people.
Having a great deal of fun calling all my Gay friends every ten minutes and asking them when they are going to stop living in sin.
Origuy
@lamh36: Figure skating judging has always been very subjective. During the Cold War, it was usually politicized. These days, it’s more personal. They tried to remove the subjectivity by separating the technical judging from the style judging, but style still counts. The judges tend to be former skaters and coaches who are very conservative and protective of the image of the sport as they want to see it.
Jebediah, RBG
@Petorado:
An embarrassment of riches. Or should that be an embarrassment of embarrassments?
hedgehog the occasional commenter
@Bill E Pilgrim: AIEEEE!
Mnemosyne
@lamh36:
I had to look it up, but Rudy Galindo never won an Olympic medal. He competed several times, and he won a lot of lesser championships, but he never won the Olympics. That reduces your chances of getting a good endorsement by a lot.
R-Jud
@Omnes Omnibus: @Betty Cracker:
What can I say? I’m a giver.
MomSense
@Bill E Pilgrim:
After: peroxide, plastic surgery, and a lobotomy!
Mnemosyne
@Anoniminous:
Now that Illinois has passed their law, I’m going to sit down with my brother-in-law at his next visit with my Serious Face on and say, So when are you going to meet a nice boy and settle down? You’re not getting any younger, you know.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@Betty Cracker: It’s the eyes. They look like the eyes in bad Poser dolls.
MomSense
@lamh36:
Whatever happened to that crazy figure skater from France Phillippe Candeloro? He used to rip his shirt open, gulp water and spray it on his fans, and other waaaaay over the top antics.
GregB
Let’s get into the wayback machine and check out how the good folks of Lousiana supported the first amendment rights of the Dixie Chicks in the run up to the Iraq War after lead singer Natalie Mains criticized President Bush.
Click here and enjoy the past.
R-Jud
@MomSense: Was he a consultant on Blades of Glory?
ffredpalakon
Just to give you an idea of how ubiquitous derp is, the linked list is courtesy of Benny Johnson, a creep who managed to make the #3 position on Alex Pareene’s hack list. He was also taken down already by BuzzFeed parody site FeedBuzz, “EXCLUSIVE! @BennyJohnson’s 20 Most YOLO Moments”. I think Pareene actually goes a little easy on him, and doesn’t mention his most disgusting moments at his former employer, Glenn Beck’s The Blaze: “Swamp People, Hippies, Hijabs, and a Gay Couple: See How the Obama Admin Is Branding America Abroad (& the LGBT Adviser Who’s Behind It!)”, where he goes after an Obama admin person just because they’re gay and “New Black Panther Field Marshal: Whites ‘Should be Thankful We’re Not Hanging Crackers By Nooses…Yet, Yet, Yet’”, a nice little bit of race baiting. He also worked for the virulently anti-gay Family Research Council. My own takedown is “Benny Johnson: Gorgeous Animus”. What I find astonishing is how someone who trafficked in such toxic stuff managed to get onto a mainstream, supposedly open and tolerant site like BuzzFeed.
jl
@danielx: But didn’t Lil’ Newtie himself want the poor kids to clean toilets for lunch in the late GOP primary? Seems to me Kingston is being pretty brave in going the compassionate conservative route (GOP scrooge-wise) before the primary.
As for BE Pilgrim’s pics, yeeowww! Besides horror of being a Lil’ Newtie mate, probably some of it due to ‘work’ done to keep herself Lil’ Newtie worthy.
Citizen_X
Fucking hipsters.
@ranchandsyrup:
Fucking hippies.
Kay
@ranchandsyrup:
I think you should explore it with him, though.
Say I work for Sarah Palin LLC. It’s a reality tv production company. If I give an interview where I say that white fundamentalist Christians are offensive to me, I just object to them generally, can Sarah Palin LLC fire me?
KG
@scav: ok, fine, I don’t really know, I was probably born a good 6 years after this Newtastic photo
sparrow
@Scout211: Thanks. For some reason I hadn’t read the articles yet and assumed it was about those Target cards they are always pushing. Then I figured “eh, I don’t go there much, but I’ll double check”… sure enough, I spent $70 there on 11/29. Damn! Calling to cancel now. :(
MomSense
@R-Jud:
He certainly was qualified to!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQkXjB70mRw
scav
@KG: Hey, I think I’m sublimating, so am asking for info. Anybody with stronger neuronal nets, possibly nets into self-harming?
Yatsuno
@Bill E Pilgrim: Not. Getting. Out. Of. The. Boat. To hell with your mangoes.
Trollhattan
Might want to jot down for future mention to the kids that you were there, in person, enjoying the planet’s hottest month of the Industrial Age.
After eyeballing the long-term forecast, California’s driest year on record looks assured. But there’s no connection here, so look elsewhere, you DFHs!
sacrablue
@lamh36: I shopped at Target for the first time in three years during the first week of December. My credit union is not sending out new card yet. They are tracking the situation and told me to keep checking my account for charges that aren’t mine. They want to limit the number of cards they have to reissue.
maya
So tell us truthfully, Newt, how many times were you pantsed and wedgied in high school?
ranchandsyrup
@Kay: Eventually he admitted that a world where the “shared value of free speech” prohibiting companies from firing people would lead to absurd results. It was a tough slog.
oldster
@Bill E Pilgrim:
Okay, you have made me waste the last ten minutes googling “Callista Bisek.”
But after that, I have to say: that photo from 1997 just isn’t her. It’s just some other woman. You can look at younger Callistas, and older Callistas, and that 1997 photo just is not on the trajectory. Different chin, different length-to-width proportions of face as a whole.
Check this high school photo of CB:
http://snakkle.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/calista-gingrich-yearbook-high-school-young-1984-red-carpet-2012-photo-split.jpg
she looks like her 2012 self (modulo face-lift of course) but the 1997 photo does not fit in between.
Just some other woman. Not that Newt is *not* a bloodsucking vampire, of course–that is entirely true.
Mnemosyne
@sacrablue:
That’s what my bank said as well. I think they also don’t want to cause problems for people right before the holidays when mail is going to already be very heavy and people don’t want to be without a credit or ATM card when they suddenly realize they have to go to a party at Aunt Milly’s that night and they forgot to buy her a hostess gift.
My bank advised me to keep a close eye on my account and let them know ASAP if I see anything wonky. They said that they haven’t seen any unusual activity yet, so they’re going to wait and see and if their customers start getting hit, they’re going to reissue cards.
Trollhattan
@ranchandsyrup:
OTOH if you’re a college professor you’d best not say bad things about the NRA on your book of faces.
http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2013/12/improper-use-of-opinion
ranchandsyrup
@Trollhattan: Missouri and Kansas are fighting hard to see who can become the Florida of the Midwest. Ancient rivals.
SiubhanDuinne
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism:
Callista was actually kind of cute in that early photo (that is, if you can overlook the Newtness sitting next to her). And if she had simply let Nature take its course, I imagine she’d be quite an attractive 47-year-old woman. It’s terrifying that, presumably, both she and Newt think the current version is any kind of improvement.
g
That’s a face just asking to be slapped.
g
@ranchandsyrup: It’s so nice to see conservatives coming to the defense of employees who suffer retaliation from their employer for expressing their views. Now, if the Duck Dynasty guys had only been trying to organize a union…..
GHayduke (formerly lojasmo)
@Omnes Omnibus:
Why the fuck would you cook without drinking at least a little? Have you no humanity?
SiubhanDuinne
@Yatsuno:
Don’t do it. Contraindication with your meds.
Villago Delenda Est
@raven:
Cowardly vermin who talks the talk, but is unwilling to walk the walk.
Maggots who are all for wars but refuse to put their own precious asses on the line deserve no quarter at all.
Villago Delenda Est
@g:
Very much like Sean Hannity’s, which is screaming to be rearranged with a Louisville Slugger.
GHayduke (formerly lojasmo)
@sparrow:
I have not shopped at target for six years. Ha ha.
ranchandsyrup
@g: Is conservatives supporting labor one of the signs of the
apocalypsewingnut event horizon?SiubhanDuinne
@Mnemosyne:
I don’t know if I can stand to go through all this again.
About a month ago I lost my debit card. Went to the bank, cancelled it, got new card, notified all the automatic payment folks, changed lots of online ordering sites that had my old card number as default.
Yesterday morning, I stupidly (although innocently) placed an online merchandise order for a few dollars more than my daily limit. Card was rejected, and once it triggered rejection, it was declined even for my inexpensive car servicing (fortunately, I’ve been a good reliable customer there for years, so they gave me the oil change and tire rotation as a free Christmas gift). But I spent a couple of hours at the bank going through all sorts of transactions until we got it cleared up.
Then to hear this Target news today. Am.Not.Happy. Especially if I have to re-notify all the accounts where I have automatic payment set up.
#firstworldproblems #specialsnowflake
j
@Bill E Pilgrim: Now that is just creepy and disturbing. Only 4 years? It’s like some reverse High School thing.
WereBear
@SiubhanDuinne: I sympathize though, because it is a bunch of crap to wade through, and the thought of doing it again makes one feel stabby.
I’m won’t be smug about not shopping at Target, because it could easily have been a place I do like.
skwerlhugger
Look, I detest the man as much as anyone, but… none of you were actually there, were you? Because everyone looked like that.
oldster
Guys, guys–it really ain’t her.
The woman in the 1997 just is not Callista. The captioning is incorrect.
If you spend some time looking at old photos of Callista (I don’t recommend it, but *if* you do), then you will see very clearly that she never looked like Miss 1997, whoever that is. Not at any age, not in any year.
Yes, the real Callista is a plastic surgery victim. Yes, the real Newt is a monster. But Miss 1997 in the photo is just someone else altogether.
West of the Rockies
Anyone mention the egrisious hair of George A. Tsoukalos yet?
Comrade Mary
Is it so wrong that if I lie to myself and say that it isn’t Newt, that he’s actually kinda sort a little bit maybe hawt?
/scrubs self with steel brush and Ajax
West of the Rockies
@Comrade Mary: Mary, say ten Our Fathers and a novena for your sins! Gingrich? Hot?
I know what you mean though… on some dark, horrible level, I find Sarah Palin physically appealing. (That is, until she speaks.)
johnny aquitard
@Trollhattan:
That’s the word! Perfect.
Bonus points awarded for coming up in one one word what describes this fucker to a ‘T’.
Look at his eyes. The glasses help obfuscate it but it’s there. It’s lurking behind the glasses.
There’s the dead-shark eyes of an amoral soul with a bit of the cornered-crazy wariness of Michelle Bachman.
The eyes of an ambush predator. He thinks it’s hidden behind the glasses, the way dudebros think their eyes are hidden behind their shades when they stare at the boobs or crotch of a girl at the beach. They think their eyes are hidden enough so they don’t keep the dead shark out of their eyes.
But you can make out just enuogh to tell.
g
@bemused: The odd thing is that she’s still a pretty youngish woman. She’s only 47. Yet she’s chosen to dress and coif herself as if she were in her 60s. Very very odd.
Matt McIrvin
TPM reports a “big blow to Obamacare”: apparently Republicans are opposed to it!! And it’s leading industry groups to give up on Medicaid expansion in the recalcitrant states.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/obamacare-medicaid-expansion-lobbying-2015
Well, we might as well repeal the whole thing now.
Matt McIrvin
@SiubhanDuinne: Yeah… I also just cancelled and replaced my debit card, because of my own stupidity (I’d misplaced it, turns out it was in my living room all along). Getting all the automatic payments and such reconfigured was a pain in the ass, albeit not a huge one.
someofparts
oh gag
debbie
Hopefully, the rains haven’t heard about your blooming peonies yet.
WaterGirl
‘@debbie
No kidding! My other peonies – the white singles – looked gorgeous for 2 days and then the rain wiped them out. Hoping these fare better! At least i have some great supports so they don’t get flattened by the rain.
Poe Larity
A holiday weekend full of grass, brush and branch cutting. I’ll show that asthma diagnosing dr a thing or two, thinking I have more than an allergy.
pat
Lovely photo.
Another day of crummy 50s weather here today, spending way too much time catching up on new developments in that indescribably horrible massacre in Texas, and then reading Rubin about the upcoming anti-abortion ruling from the “supreme” court and I think I need another glass of merlot.
Well I did have to laugh out loud at Tony Jay’s description of “where the men are lonely and the sheep carry mace.”
debbie
‘@ Poe Larity: Hope you’re joking. More than an allergy is no fun coming back from.
SiubhanDuinne
I love peonies, and those are absolutely beautiful! My grandmother used to grow them, in a small backyard patch in Oak Park, all mixed in with the rhubarb. I love the flower and I love the fruit (or is rhubarb technically a vegetable? I never can remember), but both types of plants for some reason attracted hundreds — okay, at least dozens — of ants! We always had to be careful about rinsing them off before we brought them into the house, and even so there were always a few escapees.
Gary K
After a massacre of schoolchildren, it seems so vain to continue with one’s own petty interests. My Senator Portman, maybe like your senator, is useless in solving the problem. Could we manage to vote in a better replacement this year?
And yet my petty life continues. As it happens, my 50th college reunion is happening this weekend. I’ve not stayed in close contact with my classmates over the years and won’t be attending, but the pending reunion made me a bit curious and I ended up getting in touch with a couple of folks with whom I acted in a production of Hedda Gabler in 1972 (gulp). As we discovered, there are still photographs of that production available through the university’s library.
Gin & Tonic
Showing something about their priorities, the first action taken by the russian occupation authorities in Melitopol — and I literally mean first thing, as in item 1 of their decree — is renaming the main avenue after Pavel Sudoplatov. He was the NKVD agent best known for assassinating Ukrainian nationalist leader Evhen Konovalets in Rotterdam in 1938. That would be like taking over DC and renaming Pennsylvania Avenue Lee Harvey Oswald Boulevard.
debbie
Boy, I miss embedding, but to get really pissed off, read this thread from a Navy vet relative of an injured student who is offered money to stand beside Abbott and say stricter gun laws aren’t needed. The representative was told what he could do with his proposal.
https://twitter.com/MyCancerJourne3/status/1529933105359753218?s=20&t=kn4R3ksxEzMhuKNmcIue0Q
debbie
‘@ Gin & Tonic May 26, 2022 at 6:38 PM
I think I tripped over a Twitter thread detailing what you implied you couldn’t bring yourself to share a day or two ago. There really are no words for these monsters.
Poe Larity
‘@debbie. I cough from March thru May. Every year. non-drs all think I have seasonal lung cancer, dr thinks I have asthma.
It’s fire season, it’s me or the fires. Still young enough to be a dumb unsurrender monkey.
WaterGirl
And the rain has started…
debbie
‘@Poe Larity: There’s a thing called allergy-induced asthma, FWIW. Just pace yourself.
trollhattan
Michigan Republicans having serial rake-step?
“May 26, 2022 at 5:22 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard
“Five Republican candidates for Michigan governor were disqualified by a state canvassing board on Thursday for submitting nominating petitions that officials said had contained thousands of forged signatures,” the New York Times reports.
“The decision sent the race, in a key battleground state, into chaos and dealt a serious blow to the party’s plans to challenge Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, the Democratic incumbent.”
Whitmer is a keeper in my book and should she be reelected that’s a thumb in Trump’s eye, too.
Van Buren
I think I commented last year that peony blossoms attract rain. We have a beautiful tree peony that gets wiped out every year.
trollhattan
Weather? Feh. I declare it “a great summer” if we don’t need to use the AC before July 4th and “good” if not before the first day of summer.
Tuesday was 100 and yesterday, 102. We know how this one plays out.
VeniceRiley
1) My UK VISA is APPROVED!
I am out of here end of June. Just in time, as that’s about 2 weeks after the mandatory water cutbacks start happening in California. No more ornamental ground watering is going to be allowed here.
I’ll be with my wife in a place where it rains and rains and rains.
Gin & Tonic
‘@debbie – I have a lot of that kind of material.
debbie
‘@ trollhattan: Doesn’t that just say everything about MAGAts, that they’d cheat so obviously? Those double voters in the Villages must be green with envy.
debbie
‘@ WG: Oh, no! I’m so sorry if I encouraged that stupid rain.
ETA: It’s been monsooning here for about two hours. Any peonies here are probably beaten into submission too.
Baud
‘@debbie
Sorry won’t cut it. You need to fix this now.
Gin & Tonic
By the bye, I received my “russian warship go fuck yourself” stamps today.
WaterGirl
‘@VeniceRiley
So happy for you! Long time coming.
WaterGirl
‘@debbie
Only a few of the peonies have totally opened yet, so fingers crossed.
Windpond
Our home away from home feels more connected, and thoughtful to me. Any chance of incorporating some of that when we get our roots back?
pacem appellant
‘@WaterGirl If you keep making it cozy here, I may never want to leave! Thanks for keeping the lights on!
WaterGirl
‘@Windpond wrote:
“Our home away from home feels more connected, and thoughtful to me. Any chance of incorporating some of that when we get our roots back?”
Can you say more about what you mean by that?
Baud
When the main site is back online, I wonder who will go back and who will stay in the colony.
Sure Lurkalot
Wish we could get some of that Midwest rain in Colorado. After the freak snowstorm last week, we are back to dry.
WaterGirl
‘@Baud
There can be only one Balloon Juice at a time!
brendancalling
Tomorrow, I pay the required fee, and I will be a licensed English teacher. I had a great interview last week, and have two more pending this week and next. In just a few weeks, I go on tour for 5 days, and I need to start practicing. By August I’ll be settling in Nashville or Philadelphia.
I need to transcribe interviews I did this past weekend with Deke Dickerson and Rosie Flores. Rosie was particularly awesome—a real highlight! Not a bad way to spend Memorial Day.
WaterGirl
‘@brendancalling
Wow, that’s a big Joe Biden deal!
UncleEbeneezer
Just got off the phone with the woman who is managing the VoteForward postcard efforts in our area and she said that she’s continually running out of them because so many people are eager to write them. This makes me VERY HAPPY!
There’s been a notable drop-off in meeting attendance since 2020 Election (and really since 2018 Mid Terms to be honest) and that scares the hell out of me, given the stakes of this November. But this sort of confirms that in addition to Covid, another reason for the decrease in Organizing turnout is simply because a lot of people are now content to just write a shitload of postcards to Register and GOTV in crucial states.
Also, I have a handful of new members interested in coming to our Indivisible meeting, Sunday, for the first time which is also a really good sign that people are ready to get to work.
PS: here is a good hour-long presentation/video that Field Team 6 did for managing activist burnout. Haven’t watched it yet but someone I trust said it’s excellent and I think it would probably be a good addition to the next BJ Organizing post:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TXW1MljhkhDRAp1fE_30UVbyKk-tptsz/view
Omnes Omnibus
‘@WG. Will there be sword battles like in Highlander?
Poe Larity
‘@debbie thx
@Baud I’m going back just to complain about the fonts, formatting and page load times.
Baud
‘@UncleEbeneezer
JPL
OMG The f..king Yankees and Tampa Bay are joining forces to fight for gun safety laws.
https://twitter.com/Yankees
I’m lost cuz I hate the f..king Yankees
Baud
‘@Poe Larity
May 26, 2022 at 7:28 PM
Some regulars haven’t made the transition to this site. I hope they return.
Spanky
Fun fact: Googling “Jackal action” brings up a ton of hits for action figures.
JPL
‘@Baud, Imma hasn’t and I hope he’ll post soon. With dozens of Supreme Court cases left, we definitely need LAO too.
WaterGirl
‘@Omnes
That’s not quite the picture I had in my head when I wrote that!
WaterGirl
‘@JPL
Imm commented twice on Saturday.
edit @Baud
Camping isn’t for everyone. :-)
Suzanne
I am going to Philly next week for three days for work. I won’t have time this time, but it would be nice to do a meetup. Maybe next time?
Looking for geg6….. we have been tentatively planning a Pittsburgh meetup, during the Three Rivers Arts Festival. Fun! Would love to have a crowd of jackals.
JPL
Water Girl.. thanks for update
Windpond
‘@WaterGirl I have been a longtime lurker, seldom commenting. Now with our vacation home, it has become obvious to me that we all have a stake in Balloon-Juice no matter the content, plants, or artwork on the wall as John was pointing out. I like the ‘stripped-down’ mobile home better. I really came to depend on the nightly posting by Alan on Ukraine and feel I don’t get that level of information anywhere else on the internet. Because of what happened, maybe we all woke up – I know I did!
SiubhanDuinne
‘@JPL 7:33?pm
I’m pretty sure Imm knows about the vacation cottage. He’s commented here one or twice, I think. (Someone please correct me if I’m wrong!)
CaseyL
Debbie – Unfortunately, that guy – according to the replies to his tweet – is a liar and a fake. He apparently pops up after every huge tragedy with similar stories.
WG – I’m not sure about Windpond, but the comments here are only one column (?) wide rather than going all the way across the page. That might make things look “cozier.” And the lighter font, with less of a contrast to the white background, also makes the screen seem quieter.
debbie
‘@ CaseyL: So I see now. Most of those comments came after I first saw it. Thanks. ♀️
Anotherlurker
I’ve been disconnected for quite a while, hamstring strain followed by a a busy work schedule, but I am very glad to see this cottage established while the big house is being brought back from a man made disaster.
I will be fishing next week. It looks like the Salmon and Halibut seasons here in the Bay Area are off to a torrid start. I need to get in on the action and bag some fine eating fish.
Quiltingfool
Gin & Tonic: Speaking of Russian warships, here is one of my quilt blocks…
https://pin.it/4dolhlw
WaterGirl
‘@Windpond
Thanks for saying more about that. So glad you are here. We are all better together. Glad you will be with us when we move back.
WaterGirl
‘@ CaseyL
The comments do the same thing on the regular Balloon Juice.
I moved the sidebar to the left here on a whim, but I think i like it better this way.
WaterGirl
‘@Anotherlurker
well, if you’re fishing next week without internet, i hope to see you back the week after that. i love that you called BJ ‘the big house”.
All these great ways to refer to it, and to all the names for our home away from home.
CaseyL
‘@WaterGirl – It’s been so long, I can’t remember what BJ looks like!
I think moving the sidebar to the left may be the trick: it makes the page look more “book-like.”
kalakal
As a distraction, England still leads the world in sillyness. *
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/gallery/2022/may/26/whitbys-record-breaking-vampire-gathering-in-pictures?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other
* I love Whitby. It’s a lovely place and the assorted Goths/SteamPunks/Vampires are a lot of fun
Auntie Anne
I agree with @CaseyL about loving the left sidebar – I’m a big reader, and the “book-like” observation is very apt – the site feels comfortable and cosy somehow, and I suspect the sidebar is why. I’ve been working lots so haven’t been vocal at all about our vacation home. Big thanks to you, @WaterGirl, and our esteemed host for all you did (and do)! I missed us.
Anotherlurker
Water Girl, I’ll remain online . The trip I’ll be fishing is a party boat day trip out of either Berkeley or Emeryville.
I’v scheduled a multi-day Tuna trip out of San Diego, for August. Gotta love fresh Bluefin!
WaterGirl
‘@ CaseyL
It does look like the page of a book!
WaterGirl
‘@ Anotherlurker
oh, good!
SectionH
WG: Your peonies are beautiful.
@VeniceRiley – CONGRATS!!! I’m really happy for you.
J R in WV
Open thread?
So on Google News, which we use as a gateway to other news sources, I see a story on Business Insider [ https://www.businessinsider.com/ex-google-staff-brags-iabout-trashing-female-coders-resumes-2022-5 ] about a Lead Programmer formerly for Google, then with Facebook/Meta
who tells us that he broke the law regarding discrimination in hiring:
“A former Google programmer bragged on Twitter this week about how he used to trash the résumés of female interviewees in front of them.
In his now-deleted tweets, Patrick Shyu recounted how he used to treat the women he interviewed.
“So when I used to conduct interviews for Google, I rejected all women on the spot and trashed their résumés in front of them,” Shyu wrote in a May 22 post seen by Insider.
“I told them, ‘Go have some kids. Don’t worry, I’m smarter than you, I know,'” Shyu wrote.”
In my opinion this guy has [ and had ] no business ever being in a position to review resumes, interview potential hires, opine on misogyny, or work in a managerial role in any role, anywhere, ever!!! Bigots need to be closely managed to protect their co-workers from their hate! I’m sure {NOT} he was a great genius at software development with a twisted mind like that…
And if your development schedule calls for more than 40 hours of work a week, you are not competent to manage a software project.
Pete Mack
I still have irises. Peonies will open RSN. But big score! My next door neighbor offered me a raised bed installed by her grandson when he lived there. It is now all weeds, but the bed is completely filled with potting soil(!) I am getting it tomorrow and sunday. Waiting for the Roundup I sprayed on lawn to kick in