Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Republicans: “Abortion is murder but you can take a bus to get one.” Easy peasy.

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

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

“But what about the lurkers?”

Peak wingnut was a lie.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Republicans in disarray!

This country desperately needs a functioning fourth estate.

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

Bad people in a position to do bad things will do bad things because they are bad people. End of story.

Pelosi: “He either is stupid, or he thinks the rest of us are.” Why not both?

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

Consistently wrong since 2002

We will not go quietly into the night; we will not vanish without a fight.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

“The defense has a certain level of trust in defendant that the government does not.”

Celebrate the fucking wins.

In my day, never was longer.

Can we lighten up on the doomsday scenarios?

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

We know you aren’t a Democrat but since you seem confused let me help you.

Alternative history is always a weak argument. Always.

Putin dreamed of ending NATO, and now it’s Finnish-ed.

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Late Night Open Thread

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I posted a photo of a freshly baked loaf of bread earlier this evening. Here’s that same bread put to a higher purpose:

  

I’m not after TaMara’s Food Goddess Golden Spatula, nor am I qualified to wrest it from her buttery grasp since I didn’t even bake the bread or grill the sammich. (A man made it! For me!) Just thought I’d share.

Open thread!

Reader Interactions

95Comments

  1. 1.

    Lamh36

    Today was frustrating at work, I had to have a little discussion with my boss about the “bench assignments” I’ve been getting lately.

    I really hate feeling like I’m being used as a “day laborer”. I suspect it’s become of my height, size & build and I don’t like it.

    I didn’t go to school so I could loaf and unload boxes, move and carry larger boxes and basically working like some shipping dock laborer…

    It’s a complete waste of my 10+ years of experience as a Microbiologist

    I’m really getting tired of it.,

  2. 2.

    F

    Walmart has decided to stop selling AR-15s and “other semi-automatic weapons” because fewer people are buying them.

    I look forward to the inevitable wingnut conniption fit.

  4. 4.

    Betty Cracker

    Rand Paul continues his minority outreach:

    WASHINGTON — Republican presidential candidate Rand Paul said on Wednesday night that the Black Lives Matter movement should change its name.

    “I think they should change their name maybe, if they were ‘All Lives Matter’ or ‘Innocent Lives Matter,'” Paul said during an appearance on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show.

    Sweet babby Jeebus.

  5. 5.

    srv

    I’m presuming that’s some sort of Freedom Dip.

    Looks like Cory Booker is going to do the right thing and vote against that capitulation to iran.

    @Betty Cracker: Desperate cucks do desperate things.

  9. 9.

    Lamh36

    @Betty Cracker: I think he seemed to realize that I was unhappy.

    we’ll see next week when he does new weekly schedule. if I don’t see at
    east an effort, then I may just have to begin to reevaluate whether or not I want to continue working here

  10. 10.

    TaMara (BHF)

    That looks amazing. I haven’t made a decent loaf of bread since moving to high altitude. I look on in envy at every loaf Jeffrey W makes….and now your husband. sigh

  11. 11.

    JCJ

    @Lamh36:

    Good night Lahm! Hope your days at work improve!

    PS – I have a soft spot for microbiologists – that is what my daughter majored in!

  12. 12.

    Mnemosyne (tablet)

    @Lamh36:

    My friend’s husband is an RN and a similar thing happened to him when he was a psychiatric nurse — because he was the only guy on the floor, and fairly stocky, they kept making him help the orderlies wrestle with the problem patients. After he got a fairly serious back injury, he switched to cardiac ICU where it’s much less of a problem. How did your boss respond?

  13. 13.

    Amir Khalid

    @F:
    I take it the market for citizen-owned assault rifles is saturated by now. Or in other words, that everyone dumb enough to want one has got one.

    @srv:
    Governor Chris Harkonnen is urging Cory Booker to vote no. So is a celebrity rabbi. Not the same thing as Booker himself saying he’s a no vote.

  16. 16.

    Mnemosyne (tablet)

    Making some four-ingredient peanut butter cookies because I’m taking another stab at the low-FODMAPs thing. This spring and most of the summer was just too crazy with family shit to stick to a diet where I had to cook everything from scratch, but things have calmed down a bit.

    (The four ingredients are 1 cup of sugar, 1 cup of peanut butter, 1 egg, and 1 tsp of vanilla. Put heaping teaspoonfuls on a baking sheet covered in parchment paper, flatten with a fork in the traditional criss-cross pattern, and bake for about 6 minutes at 350 degrees.)

  17. 17.

    RK

    Is this site on dial-up? That’s a very good pic.

    I’m thinking of baking some Ronald Raven cookies.

  19. 19.

    srv

    Taliban fighters seized a district headquarters in Afghanistan’s Helmand province on Monday despite repeated U.S. air strikes to repel them, adding to the insurgents’ recent advances in a heavily fought over region of opium farms and trade routes.
    …
    Helmand’s Musa Qala district fell after the Taliban overran police and army posts to retake a district straddling smuggling routes that was wrenched from them by British and Afghan troops eight years ago.

    U.S. warplanes have been bombarding Musa Qala since the weekend, killing up to 40 militants, with two new air strikes on Tuesday. But they regrouped, chasing the district government out of town and confiscating weapons in what a spokesman for Afghanistan’s 215th Maiwand Corps called a “tactical retreat” to protect civilians.

    The dronings haven’t cramped some peoples’ summer.

  21. 21.

    Betty Cracker

    @Amir Khalid:

    I take it the market for citizen-owned assault rifles is saturated by now. Or in other words, that everyone dumb enough to want one has got one.

    I’m sure that’s it. If it was still a profitable line, they’d be selling it. Maybe one of our resident gun nuts will come along to criticize the nomenclature and inform us that there’s a new and improved instrument of death on offer at Wally World.

  23. 23.

    NotMax

    @Mnemosyne

    Real vanilla, one hopes.

    A little cinnamon in some of the batter might provide variety. Peanut butter cinnamon toast cookies.

  24. 24.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @Mnemosyne (tablet):

    Well, if he also drinks from the fountain it’s a win-win.

    The housecat loves her Drinkwell porcelain fountain after being suspicious of it the first day. And I have found the (very quiet) sound of falling water to be a nice background.

  25. 25.

    Thoughtful Today

    The important question:

    Is that butter or cheese on that bread?

    [I’m voting for American grilled cheese.-]

  27. 27.

    Mnemosyne (tablet)

    @NotMax:

    Real vanilla extract. Do they even sell vanillan anymore?

    I vaguely recall that I put a little brown sugar in the cookies last time, so I’ll have to do that again. It gives them a little more depth. I can’t use molasses because of FODMAPs, but cinnamon might work.

    @Steeplejack (phone):

    Success was had and drinking occurred once I casually seated myself by the fountain to show it was safe. I got mine from an online place called Glacier Point Cat Fountains. The guy makes them himself for about the same price as the big box store ones. I got the smallest one because the large ones just encourage me to put off cleaning it for too long.

  32. 32.

    Thoughtful Today

    Bernie’s toppings?

    Policies. “… his speech: full employment, the Citizens United decision, gay marriage, voter suppression, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, student debt, climate change, acidification of the oceans, access to abortion, energy efficiency, the criminal justice system, prison reform, mental health and crumbling infrastructure.”

    http://www.pottsmerc.com/opinion/20150827/david-shribman-battling-hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-is-on-fire

    ^ Hard to get that all on a plate, let alone in a serious media outlet.

  34. 34.

    Zinsky

    @Betty Cracker: Rand Paul’s comment is a stellar example of the sort of verbal judo that the right-wing tries to use to deflect criticism of their policies. Although Paul himself could give a damn about anyone other than himself, he avoids addressing legitimate grievances of the African-American community by asserting that “all lives matter “. Yeah, right, Aqua Buddha -like you really believe that! The man is a worm.

    Your sammich looks delicious, by the way.

  35. 35.

    Mustang Bobby

    Good morning from South Florida where we are keeping an eye on Tropical Storm Erika. For a while yesterday it looked like it might landfall on Miami as a Cat 1 hurricane, but the latest map has it trumping through the Bahamas and staying off shore from Florida this weekend.

    I hope it doesn’t do too much damage out in the Leewards.

  37. 37.

    tybee

    @raven:

    it’ll fall apart when it hits the sheer today/tomorrow or it’ll get pushed out to sea by the frontal system or we’ll all die.

  38. 38.

    raven

    “Hillary used the Virginia murders as cover to make a change in tone on emails.”

    Mika railed at “media outlets” for using video of the murders to boost rations just before Joe uses the murders to continue his email jihad.

  39. 39.

    Mustang Bobby

    @raven: I hope the eastward curve keeps it off shore. The 11:00 am ET reading should reveal more.

    A co-worker is hoping for it to stay far enough away to cause little more than a rain event but close enough to close the schools for the day.

  40. 40.

    Baud

    @raven:

    She’s probably behind the murders, just like Vince Foster.

    In a related note, an NYT article today suggests that Biden is not going to run. It seems he and his family are justifiably emotionally spent.

  44. 44.

    Another Holocene Human

    Damn, I’m having one of those moments where I wish I had posting privileges on LGM again because there is a thread that is relevant to my interests and somebody is wrong on it. (Dead thread, anyway.) Some guy was talking about how he didn’t see how misogynistic comment eta: oops! content (comment too) could trigger an anxiety attack. Dude, I still have a mad-on and want revenge on the prof who made me read “The Woman Who Ran Away.” Oh, and toss homophobia and transphobia on that pile, buckaroo. Doesn’t induce anxiety my ass, you stupid insensitive fuck.

  45. 45.

    NotMax

    @Mustang Bobby

    We’re keeping tabs on Ignacio, currently a tropical storm but projections universally (as of now) have it ramping up to a category 3 hurricane as it gets closer.

    Too early to gauge what kind of track it will take. Data will be more evident through the weekend.

  46. 46.

    Another Holocene Human

    @Baud:

    In a related note, an NYT article today suggests that Biden is not going to run. It seems he and his family are justifiably emotionally spent.

    They reported that, what, one, two weeks ago?

    And then ran speculation/wind ever since?

    “Emotionally spent”, huh? First by their personal family trauma. Then by media blowing up their inner circle.

    There are indeed voters who would love to see him run, but all of this nonsense has been 100% Village turd-mongering.

  48. 48.

    Another Holocene Human

    @raven: Oh, boost ratings, I thought Mika was begging Joe for an increase in rations because she’s wasting away in Camp Koffee King and please, sir, might I have some more?

  50. 50.

    Another Holocene Human

    raven, does Mika still make that face every morning like she’s having intestinal troubles and is struggling to keep her sphincter shut?

  52. 52.

    Another Holocene Human

    @Lamh36:

    Today was frustrating at work, I had to have a little discussion with my boss about the “bench assignments” I’ve been getting lately.

    Good for you. Having those sorts of discussions is very difficult for me, I suspect for most people, but that’s crazy.

    I hope your boss was tossing and turning when he went home after that.

  53. 53.

    Another Holocene Human

    @F:

    Walmart has decided to stop selling AR-15s and “other semi-automatic weapons” because fewer people are buying them.

    All bubbles have to burst sometime. I look forward to gunbabies crying about how they can’t sell their gun for more than 50% of what they paid for it, thanks Obama.

  54. 54.

    Mustang Bobby

    @NotMax: I’ve been watching Ignacio as well. When you live in the subtropics, it becomes a habit — for some — to check Weather Underground last thing at night and first thing in the morning.

  55. 55.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Another Holocene Human: I think that was me. I still don’t understand “triggering” in cases other than “it made me unexpectedly relive a traumatic experience such as rape, abuse, or violence.” misogyny, racism, homophobia or transphobia per se seem to me too generalized (in various meanings of the word) to “trigger.” But I could also be getting the whole concept wrong. I didn’t mean to be insensitive to an experience not my own and apologize for having been so. I’ll have to find out what “The Woman Who Ran Away” is about.

  56. 56.

    Another Holocene Human

    @FlipYrWhig: It’s about a closeted gay man (closeted so he could be more successful writing books–his green work with homoerotic themes didn’t go over so well) working out his Freudian urges to punish female sexuality for a) existing b) being in his face c) refusing to stop existing. He was I believe an upper class Brit who heavily exploited the women in his life, starting with mom. But he was such an amazing writer! Not that you’d know from that story, which is written in a ponderous, dull, slow-burning-anger fashion.

    Also, in the LGM thread somebody brought up that the term “trigger” in this sense actually derives from 2nd wave feminist literature and has only by convergence been associated with the PTSD sense, especially as you have vets returning and attempting to use their GI benefit.

    I have sub PTSD anxiety (one level down, ACES score at the max) and I do find that kind of stuff triggering … of anxiety. Anxiety which can be quite crippling. Anxiety which combined with depression led me to dropping out of school.

    So, yeah. Stuff like that should be introduced in context, not tossed raw at students. Somebody in the thread talked about the critical distance to material. Yes, yes, yes.

  57. 57.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    @Amir Khalid: Don’t know if it’s related, but the Wonkette widget on the right doesn’t seem to be working anymore, either. For me, it just seems like it takes forever to connect to B-J, then eventually starts sending the bytes across the string.

    IsItDownRightNow says it can’t reach the server, so something’s wrong somewhere. Maybe the packets have to go to Vladivostock on the way to Jacksonville, or something.

    FWIW.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  58. 58.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    I hope Bush gets just a little stronger to tamp down Kasich. With Walker fading and Bush so weak, that clears a path for Kasich. I think we need a big, low energy lump like Bush in his way :)

    The Koch brothers and that section of the GOP don’t like Kasich but they would just switch their focus to Senate races. They’re already starting on the Senate race in Ohio. It will be worse than Sherrod Brown and they went absolutely insane trying to beat Sherrod Brown. Strickland is the Dem candidate and he’s not as smart as Brown and he’s the challenger, where Brown was the incumbent. Strickland was ahead in June and he’s now even with Portman. Since I would bet 50% of voters have no idea who Portman is, and Strickland was a governor, that’s not good.

  60. 60.

    satby

    I could be crazy, but my reaction to all the xenophobia and bigotry was to decide to host 1 and potentially 2 Muslim exchange students for the next high school year. At least initially as a welcome family so they get the chance to come to this country. The exchange program is still lagging on placing Kennedy-Lugar YES program students and I decided to do what I ask others to do.
    I suspect that living with me may feel a lot like camping ;)

  63. 63.

    SFAW

    The Great Orange Satan (which I know is loved by all here) tells me that Governor LePage is considering running against Angus King for King’s Senate seat in 2018.

    My first thought was: “Could King break the 70 percent mark?”

    Then my second was: I hope King has some good bodyguards, because the only way LePage would have a chance against King was if King were dead. And it wouldn’t surprise me if LePage — being a man of action — felt he needed to “help things along.”

  65. 65.

    WaterGirl

    I was excited to see the beautiful photo of french toast and syrup this morning – I want some for breakfast – only to look more closely at the photo so I could figure out what the little scoop of something was in the corner of the plate.

    The photo is still gorgeous and the sandwich still looks great, but it’s 7:30 in the morning and I’m sad to see that it’s not french toast.

    I suppose this whole experience just supports the theory that we see what we want to see.

  66. 66.

    donnah

    I’m currently playing fetch with our six-month-old kitten. He’s adorable and very clever, and we play Fetch the Plastic Milk Carton Lid Ring several times a day. It’s good to wear him out so he sleeps part of the day. He’s like a little toddler: filled with energy.

    I have real work to do, but it can wait a while.

  67. 67.

    Kay

    @satby:

    My husband hosts “couch surfing” people. We don’t go anywhere because I don’t want to stay on anyone’s couch so it’s not reciprocal but it’s really been a lot of fun. We had a young woman from California who was running across the country and last week a (very) young man from France who is riding his bike across the country. I was really amused by the French person because he was kind of demanding- not in an obnoxious way, but in a “his mother probably waits on him when he’s home” kind of way. Our 13 year old, who is chatty and interested in everyone, gets a big kick out of the visitors. They don’t actually stay on the couch because we have lots of room so they stay upstairs which is deserted because that’s where our two oldest children lived and they’re long gone. Maybe we’ll host an exchange student when my son gets to high school.

  68. 68.

    WaterGirl

    @Mnemosyne (tablet): @Steeplejack (phone): I bought my kitties a fountain, too. (the one Steeplejack linked to). The kitties refused to have anything to do with it so I moved it to where the dogs could drink from it and they absolutely love it. The dogs are drinking so much more water.

    The kitties however, especially the one with chronic UTI issues, are not benefitting. :-(

  70. 70.

    Steve From Antioch

    I haven’t seen the writings myself, but supposedly the shooter who killed the people on camera yesterday was a gay black guy who got his firearm right after the SC shooting and intended his shooting as some sort of response.

  71. 71.

    satby

    @Kay: You probably nailed it on the French kid, many times you can tell if they’re waited on or the youngest in the family just by that kind of behavior.

    I haven’t hosted an exchange student for over 13 years but I started while I was still married and my son’s were small (3 and 6). For the exchanges that are only or youngest children in their own homes, it’s fun to be the oldest for a bit. I hosted right up until my youngest was in high school, then my job changed and I became a road warrior 90 % of the time.

    I’m excited and a bit nervous, this is a much smaller house so we’ll all be in close quarters. But exchanges are so much fun and give us so much more than we give the kid I’m happy to be able to do it again.
    Besides, I know how to cook halal, even have separate pots ;)

  73. 73.

    rikyrah

    Frank E. Petersen, First Black General in Marines, Dies at 83

    Frank E. Petersen Jr., who suffered bruising racial indignities as a military enlistee in the 1950s and was even arrested at an officers’ club on suspicion of impersonating a lieutenant, but who endured to become the first black aviator and the first black general in the Marine Corps, died on Tuesday at his home in Stevensville, Md., near Annapolis. He was 83.

    The cause was lung cancer, his wife, Alicia, said.

    The son of a former sugar-cane plantation worker from St. Croix, the Virgin Islands, General Petersen grew up in Topeka, Kan., when schools were still segregated. He was told to retake a Navy entrance exam by a recruiter who suspected he had cheated the first time; steered to naval training as a mess steward because of his race; and ejected from a public bus while training in Florida for refusing to sit with the other black passengers in the back.

    In 1950, only two years after President Harry S. Truman desegregated the armed forces, he enlisted in the Navy. The Marines had begun admitting blacks during World War II, but mostly as longshoremen, laborers and stewards. By 1951, he recalled, the Marine Corps had only three black officers.

    But in 1952, Mr. Petersen, by then a Marine, was commissioned as a second lieutenant and the Marines’ first black aviator. He would go on to fly 350 combat missions during two tours, in Korea and Vietnam (he safely bailed out after his F-4 Phantom was shot down in 1968), and to become the first of his race in the corps to command a fighter squadron (the famous Black Knights), an air group and a major base.

    Less confident men might not have persevered.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/27/us/frank-e-petersen-first-black-general-in-marines-dies-at-83.html?smid=pl-share&_r=0

  79. 79.

    Steeplejack

    @WaterGirl:

    Are the dogs and cats segregated? If not, the cats might still come around.

    Even after the housecat started drinking from her new fountain, she was very guarded for a while. She would sort of “I’m deliberately being casual” sneak up to it along the wall, and for almost a week she would drink only at one specific corner while positioned at a certain angle, I think to watch for the mini cayman that she suspected was waiting to surge out of the fountain and get her. I probably need to cut down her National Geographic viewing.

  80. 80.

    Kay

    @satby:

    I spoke with the French guy quite a bit and he was the youngest in his family, which didn’t surprise me at all :)

    My husband did the same thing they’re doing thru (parts of) South America when he was that age so he admires the travelers. I do too, really. I can’t imagine running from California to New York.

  81. 81.

    SFAW

    @NotMax:

    Who are all those rabble with Capt. Kirk?

    Who? Oh, you mean the old fat guy who looks like he just got done sucking on a dozen lemons? THAT Captain Kirk? From his expression, you woulda thought Takei was in the pic with him.

  82. 82.

    WaterGirl

    @Steeplejack: The fountain is on a stand that’s a foot high, but the pup drinks out of it, and he’s shorter than the kitties. Sometimes Mr. Bear used to drink from the regular dog water dish (on the stand) but he hasn’t gone near the fountain even after I moved it to the stand.

    I’ve had the fountain for 2 weeks now, so it’s still possible that they will warm up to it.

    P.S. I love your housecoat, she seems like a delightful companion. Hahaha on the national geographic worries.

  83. 83.

    Steeplejack

    @WaterGirl:

    The housecat is a good old girl. Her name is Stella. I’ve only had her three years, but she is supposed to be about 15 years old. I took her when a friend’s mother-in-law went into assisted living just at the time when I was moving into this apartment, which is big enough to have a pet. From what little I found out, the housecat had a sort of chaotic life—passed from several people before ending up with the old lady. And then she was insecure because the lady’s caregivers would bring their dogs when they came every day.

    Well, she hit the jackpot when she came to live with me. She’s got the fancy fountain, wet food on demand (she likes to eat three or four tiny meals a day), an occasional drop of cream, the heated microfleece throw at her workstation beside the computer (which is where she is now) and the faux sheepskin throw on the bed. Life is good. I hope she has a long and comfortable retirement.

  84. 84.

    Mike E

    @rikyrah: Apparently it wasn’t a Galaxy 6 since Michael Dorn (I think?) got cut out…the Shat must have Spiner’s foot up his ass, I mean, look at the expression on Data!

  85. 85.

    WaterGirl

    @Steeplejack: Poor thing, it does sound like she had a chaotic life. But she hit the jackpot with her forever family now.

    She’s got all the Steep-Love that’s behind all the good things you named. :-)

  87. 87.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @Elizabelle:

    Sighthounds are great. My brother has a greyhound and used to have an Italian greyhound, and my other brother has a greyhound and a whippet. I think whippets are the sweet spot.

  88. 88.

    Elizabelle

    These are little Italian greyhounds with their own pet door.

    Whippets are darling. The Emma Bovary dog.

  89. 89.

    Mnemosyne (tablet)

    @donnah:

    I’m not entirely sure why, but all of our cats have thought that the plastic milk carton ring was the Best. Toy. Ever. I guess it’s easy to bat around and carry in their mouths.

    Charlotte can still get very into playing fetch even at the advanced age of 6, but I don’t think she’s done it since we moved. It doesn’t help that most of her favorite fetching toys are still in boxes.

  91. 91.

    Mnemosyne (tablet)

    @Steeplejack:

    One of my co-workers adopted a 10-year-old cat under similar circumstances and absolutely adores her. Kitty rules the roost with a velvet paw, demanding her tribute of pets and scritches. Even the dog likes her. It has worked out really well for all concerned.

  94. 94.

    Another Holocene Human

    Okay, so I realized later this morning that the title is “The Woman Who Rode Away” which is what happens in the story. Anyway, I disliked it so intensely I was disinclined to google and check the title.

  95. 95.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    @Gravenstone:

    The amount of molasses in brown sugar is small enough that it shouldn’t be a problem the way a tablespoon of pure molasses might be. Fortunately, it’s a sensitivity (causes unpleasant digestive symptoms) rather than an allergy or autoimmune problem, so small amounts in recipes that don’t contain other FODMAP foods are usually tolerable.

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