Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

After roe, women are no longer free.

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

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

I was promised a recession.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

We still have time to mess this up!

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

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

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

All your base are belong to Tunch.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / Late Holiday-Weekend Saturday Night Open Thread

Late Holiday-Weekend Saturday Night Open Thread

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I fully agree with President Obama’s comments, per Buzzfeed:

… Speaking at a private Democratic fundraiser in Purchase, N.Y., the president told donors, “if you watch the nightly news, it feels like the world is falling apart … And I can see why a lot of folks are troubled.”

But, Obama said, despite recent unrest in the Middle East, Russia’s apparent invasion of Ukraine, and the explosive growth of ISIS, “the truth of the matter is, is that the world has always been messy.”

“In part, we’re just noticing now because of social media and our capacity to see in intimate detail the hardships that people are going through,” the president told donors…

“I promise you things are much less dangerous now than they were 20 years ago, 25 years ago or 30 years ago,” Obama said Friday. “This is not something that is comparable to the challenges we faced during the Cold War.”

I’d have used the “OLD MAN YELLS AT CLOUDS” tag, but you might have mistaken it as applying to the President and not just to me.

ETA: Because commentor Wasabi Gasp wanted music:

Reader Interactions

41Comments

  2. 2.

    Keith P

    I tried making hand-pulled noodles this afternoon. Failed miserably. Dough was too gluey (even though all the recipes said use 2-1 flour-water) and tore when I tried to pull it. I used sodium carbonate (baked baking soda) and AP flour. Next time, I may try bread flour. Anyone have any other tips?

  3. 3.

    Hunter Gathers

    The world’s been going to hell in a handbasket for as long as I can remember, yet we’re still here. The bitching is just louder these days.

  4. 4.

    magurakurin

    tan suit is so yesterday. Tomorrow the pundits and geniuses in the media will be telling us how out of touch Obama is and how dangerous it is to have him in charge with such little grasp of the awful dangers of the monster under their beds.

  5. 5.

    Another Holocene Human (now with new computer)

    Santorini Greek Restaurant in Deland, Florida has the best sit-down Greek food I have ever had in Florida, that includes Tarpon Springs (perhaps I ate at the wrong places? although that bakery across from the church IS primo) and St Augustine (it was meh) and Alachua County for sure (shudder).

    IT WAS DELICIOUS. Recommended: lemon potato, Greek salad, anything with feta in it, anything with spinach. Also they were très gluten free friendly, even brought gluten free bread to dip in the oil and vinegar. (Of course the moussaka, pasticchio and so on were not on the menu for me but that was kind of to be expected.) Flaming cheese and wine are available although I did not sample this time.

    Hell yeah Deland!

  6. 6.

    Arclite

    I read a few years ago that over the past 25 years violent crime had fallen by a third, but reporting on violent crime had increased threefold. It’s no wonder that 40% of Americans believe there will be an ebola outbreak in the USA.

  11. 11.

    Carolinus

    Here’s the actual DNC fundraiser transcript, without that patented Buzzfeed click-bait spin.

    http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/08/29/remarks-president-dnc-event-purchase-new-york

    Excerpt:

    Second reason people are feeling anxious is that if you watch the nightly news, it feels like the world is falling apart. Now, let me say this: We are living through some extraordinarily challenging times. A lot of it has to do with changes that are taking place in the Middle East in which an old order that had been in place for 50 years, 60 years, 100 years was unsustainable, and was going to break up at some point. And now, what we are seeing is the old order not working, but the new order not being born yet — and it is a rocky road through that process, and a dangerous time through that process.

    So we’ve seen the barbarity of an organization like ISIL that is building off what happened with al Qaeda and 9/11 — an extension of that same mentality that doesn’t reflect Islam, but rather just reflects savagery, and extremism, and intolerance. We’ve seen divisions within the Muslim community between the Shia and Sunni. We continue to see an unwillingness to acknowledge the right of Israel to exist and its ability to defend itself. And we have seen, frankly, in this region, economies that don’t work. So you’ve got tons of young people who see no prospect and no hope for the future and are attracted to some of these ideologies.

    All of that makes things pretty frightening. And then, you turn your eyes to Europe and you see the President of Russia making a decision to look backwards instead of forward, and encroaching on the sovereignty and territorial integrity of their neighbors, and reasserting the notion that might means right. And I can see why a lot of folks are troubled.

    But — and here’s the main message I have for you — the truth of the matter is, is that American military superiority has never been greater compared to other countries. Our men and women in uniform are more effective, better trained, better equipped than they have ever been. We have, since 9/11, built up the capacity to defend ourselves from terrorist attacks. It doesn’t mean the threat isn’t there and we can’t be — we don’t have to be vigilant, but it means that we are much less vulnerable than we were 10 or 12 or 15 years ago.

    And the truth of the matter is, is that the world has always been messy. In part, we’re just noticing now because of social media and our capacity to see in intimate detail the hardships that people are going through. The good news is that American leadership has never been more necessary, and there’s really no competition out there for the ideas and the values that can create the sort of order that we need in this world.

  12. 12.

    wasabi gasp

    I was not one in favor of trigger warnings, but next up is a strobe-lit, guitar-soaked, convulsivly-gyrated, full-frontal, clown-faced horror show. It is also nsfw.

    BSBE – DUEL
    [nsfw]

  13. 13.

    Hal

    Like the people who screech that Obama has destroyed the country. Oh really? You’re connected to the internet from what I assume is not a convenient ethernet port located under a bridge, and you are able to openly criticize King Obama! So no, the country is not destroyed. Health care has not been destroyed. Traditional marriage, if that ever even really existed, has not been destroyed. Fox News makes it’s money off of people who see America as a former and quickly fading paradise for straight, white, men and women who live in subdivisions and home school their kids.

    The media as a whole can’t fill 24 hours a day on CSI reruns, so of course it’s disaster all the time. Combine that with the willful ignorance of a large portion of America who seem shocked at something like Ferguson because racism is only something Al Sharpton uses to keep his heart beating and I can see why some people think the sky is falling.

  14. 14.

    Arclite

    @wasabi gasp: Mayumi isn’t bad. I typically can’t stand most Japanese music, since the musicians are usually chosen for their looks, not their musicianship. There are of course exceptions. There is usually an inverse relationship between looks and actual musical quality in Japan.

  15. 15.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @Hal: I chat with a conservative friend a couple of times a week. I mentioned tonight that my stepdaughter after her finals(they’re all on her b-day) has jury duty at one of the downtown LA courthouses. I mentioned that I had told her about some of the eateries within a few blocks of the courthouses that she could walk to during her lunch break. He was freaking out about it being unsafe for the kid. GAWD. I almost asked if he pissed in his pants everytime he left his apartment.

  16. 16.

    Carolinus

    Wow, I just clicked the Buzzfeed article link after previously having just read the part AL quoted. Their opening sentence is total BS and never actually happened:

    A day after saying “we don’t have a strategy yet” to deal with Islamic State of Iraq and Syria militants …

    The whole press conference was filled with a detailed, lengthy discussion of current IS strategy. What he pushed back on was any plans to bomb Syria being finalized yet. In response to a question about getting congressional sign-off on a Syria military campaign, he said going to congress would be putting the cart before the horse as no strategy is finalized yet.

    http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/08/28/statement-president

    This was the question:

    “QUESTION: Do you need Congress’s approval to go into Syria?”

    And here’s some of a later answer about the limits we’re placing on our current military involvement:

    we had been in communications with the Iraqi government for more than a year indicating that we saw significant problems in the Sunni areas. Prime Minister Maliki was not as responsive perhaps as we would have liked to some of the underlying political grievances that existed at the time.

    There is no doubt that in order for Iraq security forces to be successful, they’re going to need help. They’re going to need help from us. They’re going to need help from our international partners. They’re going to need additional training. They’re going to need additional equipment. And we are going to be prepared to offer that support.

    There may be a role for an international coalition providing additional air support for their operations. But the reason it’s so important that an Iraqi government be in place is this is not simply a military problem. The problem we have had consistently is a Sunni population that feels alienated from Baghdad and does not feel invested in what’s happening, and does not feel as if anybody is looking out for them.

    If we can get a government in place that provides Sunnis some hope that a national government serves their interest, if they can regain some confidence and trust that it will follow through on commitments that were made way back in 2006 and 2007 and 2008 and earlier about how you arrive at, for example, de-Baathification laws and give people opportunities so they’re not locked out of government positions — if those things are followed through on, and we are able to combine it with a sound military strategy, then I think we can be successful. If we can’t, then the idea that the United States or any outside power would perpetually defeat ISIS I think is unrealistic.

    As I’ve said before — I think I said in the previous press conference — our military is the best in the world. We can route ISIS on the ground and keep a lid on things temporarily. But then as soon as we leave, the same problems come back again. So we’ve got to make sure that Iraqis understand in the end they’re going to be responsible for their own security. And part of that is going to be the capacity for them to make compromises.

    It also means that states in the region stop being ambivalent about these extremist groups. The truth is that we’ve had state actors who at times have thought that the way to advance their interests is, well, financing some of these groups as proxies is not such a bad strategy. And part of our message to the entire region is this should be a wake-up call to Sunni,to Shia — to everybody — that a group like ISIS is beyond the pale; that they have no vision or ideology beyond violence and chaos and the slaughter of innocent people. And as a consequence, we’ve got to all join together — even if we have differences on a range of political issues — to make sure that they’re rooted out.

  19. 19.

    Marilynd..so

    @Arclite: and here I am….a 69-year old gramma-lurker on the west coast that just finished up enjoying SNL with Lady GA-GA! re-run….apreciating some great voice talents/acting talents she has, only to find I don’t have a clue about Japanese music!…still hoping to see some new talent finds in the likes of Gilda, Jane and Phil….an old lady can hope…

  20. 20.

    J R in WV

    About 20 years ago we hired a new guy, coder and developer, newly arrived from India. We mentioned that WV had one of the lowest crime rates in the US in the interview process.

    A few months after joining us, he asked how it was that if this was the lowest crime rate in the country, the TV news every night talked about a new murder. I explained that because they felt like they needed a murder every night for their headline impact, they would reach as far as they needed to find that murder.

    So you saw immediate, emergency toned coverage of a violent crime, every night, sometimes from 150 or 200 miles away!!!!!!! Crisis of violence, in Morgantown, 3.5 hours away at top speed. Zero time to download the video, though. Or over in rural Ohio, or Virginia, JUST South of Bluefield, WV.

    And there are people getting killed, shot behind a bar at 3 AM!! I used to go out to bars, and live the night life, getting off work at 1 AM and needing supper, and a beer. I never felt the need to gamble on pool and fight over who won and run out back to fight and get shot!

    Across the whole country this is multiplied, over and over. TV news NEEDS violent crime every news cycle, and so they find it, even if it was hundreds of miles away, or the day before yesterday, or weeks ago, revisited as if it was just the other moment, because there was a hearing, or new information released by the cops.

    I used to have time to kill waiting for Mom or Dad to finish up a task at their newspaper job, and would spend an hour looking at front page microfilm from the 1920s. Now there was a crime wave. Payroll trains held up, gambling dens shot up with the table stakes robbed.

    Whole families killed with dynamite set off under the house, dynamite that anyone could buy at the grocery store! Posses setting out horseback to chase the miner who blew up the company’s house with all his earthly relatives in it. Bootleggers killing and blinding people with lead and wood alcohol in their moonshine, from total ineptness in stilling their hooch.

    Children starving to death after their dad gets fired and they are evicted in January from the company town… the list of violence and tragedy was endless, daily, and right next door, everywhere. Typhus, Diptheria, Whooping cough, polio, diseases of all sorts ran rampant, with no treatment, just like Ebola, but right next door, today.

    We live in the best world mankind has ever created. Warfare is in general not anticipated with glee (except for a few Republican leaders who lie about their great plan). Crime is usually someone else, somewhere else. Freedom rings in most ways, even if there probably are secret conspiracies killing political leaders, toppling buildings, arranging public horror.

    Here in America, crime has plummeted over the past 50 years, to the lowest rate of violence in living memory, yet many people watch so much incandescent crime reporting about the little violence the rteporters can find that they ARE afraid to go downtown – even here in WV which has among the lower crime rates in a nation of low crime!

    Afraid they’ll get mugged by a black junky! Because someone, somewhere, got mugged, outside a bar. At 3 AM. By a black junky.

    Not at 3 PM. Not at a Mall.

  21. 21.

    Keith G

    Interesting juxtaposition of quotes:

    Speaking at a private Democratic fundraiser in Purchase, N.Y., the president told donors, “if you watch the nightly news, it feels like the world is falling apart … And I can see why a lot of folks are troubled.”

    But, Obama said, despite recent unrest in the Middle East, Russia’s apparent invasion of Ukraine, and the explosive growth of ISIS, “the truth of the matter is, is that the world has always been messy.”

    and

    European leaders last night warned that the presence of Russian soldiers in Ukraine represented a serious threat to the security of the whole continent, with some calling for a dramatic escalation of the EU’s response given Moscow’s “state of war” against Europe.
    …
    David Cameron went into the meeting condemning recent Russian actions in the east, where pro-Russian separatists have since April been taking over key cities in the industrial heartland. “We need to address the completely unacceptable position of having Russian troops on Ukrainian soil,” the Prime Minister said. “Countries in Europe shouldn’t need to think long before realising just how unacceptable that is – we know that from our history – so consequences must follow.”

    ‘Tis messy indeed.

  23. 23.

    becca

    My sister called me the other night, near hysteria. She said she had been crying all day.
    Of course, I asked why and she seemed surprised I could be so clueless, wasn’t I terrified of “crazy Muslims” what with our “open borders” and all the “lawlessness” going around here in the US. She made frequent negative references to Neville Chamberlain and how she was sick of being an appeaser. I realized I was in a minefield.

    To make a long story short, my sister and I did not speak for several years because of differing world views. Every conversation ended in anger and frustration. So we took a break and only started talking again after our mother had a major stroke this past spring. I steer clear of all things political when we talk now.

    Did I mention my sister and her husband keep their tv locked on Fox?

    The big thing about all this is that she had heart surgery recently and I ‘m afraid watching Fox is dangerous to her physical health. She may be a bagger, but she’s still my sister.

    The day after we spoke, Obama made that statement about the news scaring people. His words struck home to me, but my sister…prolly thought he tapped her home phone.

  24. 24.

    Keith G

    @Villago Delenda Est: On Fridays, I listen to KCRW’s Left, Right, and Center program. Robert Scheer, one of their commentators, is a 60s lefty who tends to minimize Russia’s intrusions in the service of combating fascism. I usually end up pulling out the earbuds for a bit until I think his turn at the mic is over.

  26. 26.

    Cermet

    Russian troops are in the Ukraine and sooooo f’ing what? The chicken little’s are screaming that the world will end … wait, until recently, the Ukraine was part of Russia as in the Soviet Empire and we cared at all then? Let’s see, those regions of the Ukraine have very large ethic Russian populations and the boarders were irrelevant until the Ukraine broke away. This isn’t only none of our concern but last I checked, we didn’t have any dogs in that fight.

    More to the point, Russia has a vast nuclear arsenal (massive nuclear tipped rocket system) and isn’t exactly our enemy any more nor really a threat to Europe. AS for the Russian near a board, we shitted brick’s because Cuba went over to the Commie’s and then we almost went to nuclear war over that place and we are judging the Russians?

    Frankly, for all I care the Ukraine can shift to page 23 of the NYT and I’d be more interested in the REAL crises of our world – energy; yes, that major issue that our entire system depends on – cheap, easy to use energy – yet it is a monster that provides food and comfort to maintain our wonderful lives and is killing our climate.

    As I recall from history, it was WW1- that insane war that empires used to provide money to the 0.01%+ – that used the dumb ass rest of the 99% to die for “god and country” or whatever … lets not repeat that stupidity and not let the new 0.0001% yell squirrel to take our attention from the enemy that really threatens to cause Global warming to take off: i.e. the vast reserves of carbon still in the ground that the 0.0001% own and want to exploit …fuck the news and these irrelevant bread and circus issues to entertain the masses from the real dangers facing us.

  28. 28.

    Thoughtful David

    @BillinGlendaleCA:
    They do live in constant fear. I think that is the most defining characteristic of conservatism now–fear. It explains the racism and desire for authority and nearly everything else.

    My daughter, now a college student, has a friend same age who has Tealiban parents. When they were juniors in high school, one time we suggested after school that the two of them walk down to the ice cream shop about four blocks from the HS, and we would pick them up there an hour later to go to some special event.

    Now, that meant walking past an apartment complex. To me, it looks like a typical middle-class apartment complex–it’s not even low-income housing or anything–but of course apartment dwellers aren’t home owners and there are some of Those People living there. The parents refused to allow their daughter to do this (keep in mind she’s like 17 years old). This was the middle of the afternoon, along a moderately busy street (with sidewalks), and where there are probably 100 other HS students walking by at about the same time. So the kids had to sit at school until we could pick them up. No ice cream.

    It’s that kind of fear that’s driving these wingnuts. Oh, and our little town here has an almost non-existent violent crime rate (what there is is almost 100% domestic disputes), and even property theft is really low. But the Tealiban are scared.

  29. 29.

    RaflW

    @magurakurin:

    the media will be telling us how out of touch Obama is and how dangerous it is with … the monster under their beds.

    Please, please, monster. Come out and eat the bad MSM kiddies.

  30. 30.

    LAC

    @becca: wow. That is tough when you deal with family members with radically different political views. It is a minefield. I am cautious about political discussions with my in laws. I do not think we got baggers in the family, but I think there is a couple conservatives. Of course, we got interracial marriage and Catholicism in the mix, so we are set. :-) (seriously,they are truly the most darling family to be married into)

    It is sad when an organization like Fox News can profit from being ground zero to fear and paranoia. And that goes for the awful cnn and sometimes awful msnbc. I pulled away from watching them, not because I want to be uninformed about the news, but because I can’t sit and feel my blood pressure rise and my heart pound with anxiety.

    I took my mom (still grieving over my brother’s untimely death) out yesterday for girl time. We got our hair “did”, had lunch, went shopping and talked. It was nice to hear her laugh again and be sassy with my dad when I dropped her off. Meanwhile, Putin is still a dick, Isis is still there, the world is still filled with troubles. But it was a nice day yesterday , complete with tastee diner onion rings.

    Forgive my indulgence. I feel you – I hope that your sister wakes up and turns that station off. It is almost as bad as smoking is to your health.

  32. 32.

    Keith G

    @Cermet: There is a lot to agree with in what you typed. And, I understand the concerns that others have about the situation becoming even more volatile than it already has been.

    This isn’t only none of our concern but last I checked, we didn’t have any dogs in that fight.

    Maybe not directly, but we have a lot of close associations with those who have a several dogs in this fight.

    Resurgent nationalism (in this case Russian) stoked by an authoritarian strong-man is a very well known cause of destabilization in the European continent. Yes, economically we are beginning to lean towards Asia, but our economic well-being is still tied to a stable and prosperous Europe.

    Additionally, nationalist fervor not pruned while in a nascent condition, has a tendency to grow even beyond the scope of the originators. The Baltic states also have large populations of Russians. If/As the clamor for a greater Russia increases, there will be even more talk about the possibility of Russian influence moving more strongly into those areas.

    Now would be a very good time to strongly and peacefully convince Putin and the Russians that they have reached the end of this avenue.

  33. 33.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    @Keith P: I remember seeing someone make Chinese noodles by hand on TV decades ago – it was fascinating the way they magically turned into noodles on their own, simply as a result of folding and stretching.

    Are you making egg noodles? This recipe might be worth a try. It has several tips near the end. (He says stickiness indicates too little flour.)

    HTH a bit.

    Good luck!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  35. 35.

    NotMax

    @Thoughtful David

    Linky fixed.

    Not fear so much as it it mindless panic.

    Back when was blogging daily, often referred to the previous administration as “government of the panicked, by the panicked, for the panicked.”

  36. 36.

    Cervantes

    @Cermet:

    Frankly, for all I care the Ukraine can shift to page 23 of the NYT and I’d be more interested in the REAL crises of our world – energy; yes, that major issue that our entire system depends on – cheap, easy to use energy – yet it is a monster that provides food and comfort to maintain our wonderful lives and is killing our climate.

    Is it your view that what’s happening in Ukraine is unrelated to, has no impact on, etc., world energy supplies? Just a yes or no will do; am not looking for details. Thanks.

  37. 37.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    @J R in WV: Well said.

    What often bothers me is that most of the problems we have now, we know how to solve. We solved them in the past. Vaccinations, clean water, clean air (getting lead out of gas), free education (to keep kids occupied and out of trouble if nothing else), good jobs at decent wages (with a national government to step in during recessions), sensible restrictions on predatory business practices, policies to reduce CO2 and methane emissions without “destroying the economy” but in fact helping it grow faster, etc., etc. All of those make us all safer, happier, and wealthier. We learned those lessons long ago. It’s not as if we need to figure out how to travel faster than light…

    But reactionary news and opinion outlets have managed to throw all that knowledge and history out in favor of fear-mongering and gut-reactions. It’s disconcerting, but fortunately not hopeless.

    I do sometimes wonder what the US and the world will be like, say, 25 years from now when Scalia, Alito, McConnell and Boehner are gone. Will we have moved forward, or backward…?

    Thanks again.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  38. 38.

    Keith G

    @I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: To your last paragraph: Who is in power 20 years from now maybe less important than the ton of crap that the people in power will be facing due to our inadequate decision making right now. It seems as if we are blowing by many important decision making points with each passing year. I don’t know how we will be able to recoup the lost opportunities.

  39. 39.

    Elizabelle

    @becca:

    Wow. Sorry to hear of your sister’s fear and health issues. Sounds like you are a loving sister who has analyzed the problem pretty well.

    Could you find an article, maybe in the American Conservative or another pub your sister would trust, about the perils of adopting a Fox News worldview? Something that might calm her and persuade her to step away from cable news?

    Because your sister is basically on the Poseidon and shrieking “we’re all going to drown” and she does not need to be.

    I have pretty much stopped watching cable news too, although I catch some BBC America.

  40. 40.

    Elizabelle

    @LAC:

    …that goes for the awful cnn and sometimes awful msnbc. I pulled away from watching them, not because I want to be uninformed about the news, but because I can’t sit and feel my blood pressure rise and my heart pound with anxiety.

    Me too. Life is short. I will tune in briefly if there is something I need to know.

    Otherwise, reading good newspapers and blogs keeps me updated, with a fuller picture, and less heartsickness and time lost to commercials.

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