If you are so inclined, I have found the Baltimore Sun’s updates to be useful.
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Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”
The Giant Orange Man Baby is having a bad day.
Damn right I heard that as a threat.
An almost top 10,000 blog!
Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.
Lick the third rail, it tastes like chocolate!
Impressively dumb. Congratulations.
We will not go quietly into the night; we will not vanish without a fight.
The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.
Fight them, without becoming them!
Not all heroes wear capes.
“Loving your country does not mean lying about its history.”
Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.
Trumpflation is an intolerable hardship for every American, and it’s Trump’s fault.
I swear, each month of 2025 will have its own history degree.
They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.
I am pretty sure these ‘journalists’ were not always such a bootlicking sycophants.
Since we are repeating ourselves, let me just say fuck that.
This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.
Consistently wrong since 2002
A tremendous foreign policy asset… to all of our adversaries.
It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.
The fight for our country is always worth it. ~Kamala Harris
“Facilitate” is an active verb, not a weasel word.
WaterGirl
Accountability NOW.
Pogonip
If you are so inclined, Water Girl and I have found pupdates to be useful.
I just saw a news story about big protests in Baltimore.
Tree With Water
People of a certain age (i.e., “old”) might be wondering if this is the beginning of “the fire next time” we once heard so much about.
WaterGirl
@Pogonip: Happy dogs and puppies as an antidote to all these murders of young men by the people who are supposed to protect us. Kitties, too.
@Tree With Water: Would it be possible for you to explain that reference in a few sentences?
Villago Delenda Est
@Tree With Water: Well, Michele Bachmann is utterly convinced that Jesus is coming soon.
I’ll leave this softball right here for people to riff on.
Thor Heyerdahl
@Villago Delenda Est:
What if he’s only breathing heavily?
Roger Moore
@Villago Delenda Est:
There are definitely times when I wish all the people who are so eager to meet Jesus got their wish sooner than expected.
Amir Khalid
@WaterGirl:
TwW may be referring to this old spiritual. (By the way, don’t Bruce and Patti have a nice living room?)
Mike J
@Pogonip: Would it be possible to have ten fucking comments about the government genocide of black citizens before people start whinging about dogs?
Tree With Water
@Villago Delenda Est: I seem to recall the Jesus had a temper, too. Looks like all bases are covered then.
greennotGreen
@Villago Delenda Est: What conceivable difference should it make to a avowed Christian whether Jesus is returning in a million years or next Thursday? If it’s the million years, does that give you time to sin and repent and be forgiven (repeatedly)? If it’s next Thursday, are you supposed to ignore your earthly responsibilities and pray 24/7? You close up your grocery store and live in the church, then Jesus descends from Heaven really pissed. “I told you whatever you did to the least of these, you do undo me, but you closed your store, so no one in the neighborhood could buy any food. I am famished!”
WaterGirl
@Amir Khalid: I was guessing that he was referencing the book by that name. I had never heard of the book before so I was hoping for a quick summary since I don’t have time to read all about it.
But you may indeed be correct.
Corner Stone
@Mike J:
Why reduce it down to citizens? We’re genociding two to three generations of browns all around the world.
Corner Stone
@greennotGreen:
No man knoweth the time of my coming.
/paraphrase
Corner Stone
@Thor Heyerdahl: It’s just the polite thing to do.
greennotGreen
In reference to one of the Baltimore Sun’s updates:
You think it just might be possible that Freddie Gray’s injuries came from when the police folded him up “like origami”?
Yatsuno
@greennotGreen:
Because in their hearts they’re afraid. They know already their scales have been found wanting, and in their estimation The Almighty will find them lacking. So they want to forestall what they should be welcoming if they are truly righteous souls.
Amir Khalid
@greennotGreen:
You know how some kids want to go to the candy store, NOW NOW NOW? Some religious people are like that too.
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
@Mike J: Even as we are slaughtered in our own country, few can face the horror without an avenue of retreat.
Yatsuno
@Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant): Discretion and valour and all that. There is a time and a place for checking up on pets. This MIGHT not have been the best time.
greennotGreen
@Yatsuno: Actually, that relates to what I see as a fear of death among many supposed Christians. If a person accepts that believing in Jesus and truly repenting for ones sins = salvation, then there’s nothing to fear; as a matter of fact, death should be welcomed because one will return to the bosom of the Lord. But instead there is gnashing of teeth and rending of garments. (Certainly not true for everyone.) I suspect a lot of “Christians” need to reexamine their beliefs.
I did. That’s why I’m a pagan.
Tree With Water
@Yatsuno: “We all got it coming, kid”. Clint Eastwood, in Unforgiven.
Yatsuno
@greennotGreen: The Cathars believed that death was a release from the sins of the world and therefore was something to be welcomed. Naturally the papacy had them destroyed. Mostly because they were also peace loving folk who were actually nice to their Jewish people, but also stopped sending that sweet sweet gold to Rome. The basis of Christianity is fear. If you truly believed you were saved from your sins the return of your Lord should be welcomed.
@Tree With Water: Never seen a hearse with a trailer hitch.
Renie
My local Sunday paper’s opening paragraph stated “thousands of protesters took to the streets yesterday in the largest Freddie Gray rally yet, and after hours of peaceful demonstrations, pockets of protestors smashed police car windows and storefronts.” The headline: Protest Turns Violent. Unbelievable.
Teddy's Person
@WaterGirl: Two cents from a longtime lurker:
In the Fire Next Time (1963), James Baldwin argues that there will be an explosion of violence across the country if white Americans don’t change their attitudes and behavior toward black Americans.
Here’s a short 1963 book review: partners.nytimes.com/books/98/03/29/specials/baldwin-fire.html
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
@Yatsuno: I admire your sense of understatement. Greatly.
Heliopause
@greennotGreen:
People like to be proven right in front of other people.
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
@Teddy’s Person: At which point we’ll be branded as a menace and it will become open season on us and…hey, waitaminute…
Steeplejack (phone)
@WaterGirl:
James Baldwin’s book on race in America.
Fridaynext
From the linked article I found this amusing:
Yea, that’s why one of Baltimore’s many colorful nicknames is “Mob Town”
HinTN
@WaterGirl: Alex Baldwin, I believe, circa 1968 ish.
HinTN
@Teddy’s Person: oops, James not Alex, and give years earlier. /should do research, memory fading…
opiejeanne
Could someone point me to an article about a woman who was trying to film something the cops/state troopers were doing, a shootout?, and the trooper slapped the phone out of her hand when she refused to move?
WaterGirl
@Teddy’s Person: Thanks for that information!
From this white girl’s perspective, when it’s not safe for young black men to be: in their homes, walking on the street, driving a car, riding a bicycle, jaywalking, or reaching for their license when a cop has just asked for it… there isn’t a lot of recourse other than rising up.
This is my hope, though – even formerly clueless white people like me who were oblivious to this issue before can no longer expect to wake up to a day where someone hasn’t been murdered by the police, so it’s my hope that it won’t just be the black people rising up against this slaughter.
opiejeanne
@WaterGirl: I think the title, “The Fire Next Time” refers to the promise that God made not to destroy the world again with water, and the belief that next time it will be fire.
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
@WaterGirl: Hear hear!
WaterGirl
@Steeplejack (phone): Thanks. I had googled and seen the book, but with some quick skimming of several links I hadn’t a summary that explained the original comment to me, which is why I appreciated the succinct summary from teddy’s person:
WaterGirl
@opiejeanne: I may have to get the book. thanks.
WaterGirl
@Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant): I always wonder when I see your nym, were you the Ben Cisco who was on the Obama blog before Barack Obama was elected president?
Teddy's Person
@WaterGirl: You should read it. The book is not long and is really 2 essay’s (in letter format) that Baldwin wrote reflecting on the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation. Plus, Baldwin is an exquisite writer.
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
@WaterGirl: I used a different nym at the GOS before finding my way here. If memory serves, I didn’t get to The Obama Diary, etc. until later. That said, my memory is not what it once was…
WaterGirl
@Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant): If you were the Benjamin Cisco that I remember from the Obama blogs (pre-Obama Diary) then I think you’d recall. “You” were quite active there :-)
In any case, I’m glad to see you here, even if you’re not the other Ben Cisco.