Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

This fight is for everything.

Second rate reporter says what?

Usually wrong but never in doubt

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

Innocent people don’t delay justice.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

I really should read my own blog.

Come on, man.

Spilling the end game before they can coat it in frankl luntz-approved dogwhistles.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

Let’s finish the job.

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

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Accountability, motherfuckers.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

It’s time for the GOP to dust off that post-2012 autopsy, completely ignore it, and light the party on fire again.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

Republicans in disarray!

You are here: Home / Music / Funk to Wash Away That Trump FUNK

Reader Interactions

149Comments

  7. 7.

    JDM

    @Brachiator: I was reading his (Shuggie) wiki entry the other day. Started playing in his dad’s band when he was twelve, disguised with dark glasses and fake facial hair. Started whacking the guitar when he was two.

  8. 8.

    Iowa Old Lady

    The paperback of my YA fantasy Deep as a Tomb is now available on Amazon, B&N, and Indiebound. This is the book I was lucky enough to get Saladin Ahmed to blurb. It has murder, betrayal, and some smooching. I’ll let you know when the e-book becomes available, but other than that, I’ll try not to sound like Trump hawking his steaks.

    A bunch of juicers volunteered to proofread as much of the book as they could given how much or little time they had. Bigly thanks to SuperHrefna, Snarkworth the Short-fingered Bulgarian, Hitchhiker, Kropadope, Carl W, Karyn Olson, and JR. I have a feeling I missed someone, partly because I can’t match names on emails to names on BJ. Please let me know if I left you out. I was overwhelmed by the kindness. BJ is a good place.

  12. 12.

    Alain the site fixer

    @Dork: If you like Grenadine, try the Tessiere Grenadine syrup (French, the best). It’s amazing, so much more interesting than the normal domestic overly-sweet syrups. I used Amazon to get it. Their Citron (lemon) is also to die for.

    (or did I read that too literally? Either way, my advice is sage)

  14. 14.

    Brachiator

    @Major Major Major Major:

    An old classic: National Funk Congress Deadlocked on Get Up/Get Down Issue

    One thing is absolutely certain.

    Donald Trump has never got on the good foot. Shirley Temple, previously mentioned here, probably did, a few times, dancing with Bill Bojangles Robinson.

    Another classic: Make it Funky.

  17. 17.

    bystander

    @Dork: Well, sugar up for “Bright Eyes”.

    The Japanese scifi movie NotMax alerted us to on TCM the other day is excellent. Should be required viewing.

  18. 18.

    SiubhanDuinne, liberal mob enforcer bitch

    Here’s a Walter-related story (it is a bit long, but it is not a shaggy-dog story): You may recall that when John first found Walter, he put up a go-fund-me to help pay for vet bills and, eventually, transport to his forever home with Debit. And you may also recall that my bartender, Ryan, threw in $20 even though he had never heard of John or Balloon Juice, didn’t know any of the pet rescue history of this place, he was just moved and wanted to help — despite the fact that he and his fiancée, Emily, have a baby (Austin) on the way.

    Well, I told that story back in August, and a lot of commenters were touched by Ryan’s generosity. Valued commenter MomSense went further — she decided to knit a sweater for little Austin, who is due in about a month. She sent it to me, and last night I gave it to Ryan and Emily, extracting a promise that they would take a picture of the baby wearing it so I can send it to Anne Laurie for front-paging.

    Here’s a little wooooo: the sweater is a gorgeous blue (organic cotton), trimmed with adorable little buttons with sailboats on them. When Ryan and Emily saw that, they said “How did you know? How did she know?” Turns out their nursery is decorated entirely in a nautical theme, and blue, of course! So it really seems as though it was meant.

    And as if this comment weren’t long enough, the whole saga inspired me to write the following.

    This is the house that John bought.

    This is the dog
    That lived in the house that John bought.

    This is the vet
    That cured the dog
    That lived in the house that John bought.

    This is the bleg that raised the funds
    That paid the vet
    That cured the dog
    That lived in the house that John bought.

    This is Debit, who offered a home
    To Walter (subject of this pome),
    The Fund-Me bleg transported Walter
    (And bought him a leash, a collar, and halter)
    And paid the vet
    That cured the dog
    That lived in the house that John bought.

    This is the bartender, known as Ryan,
    Who heard about the dog who was dyin’
    And wept at the bleg that raised the quota
    That transported Walter to Minnesota.
    He gave some money to pay for the vet
    That cured the dog
    That lived in the house that John bought.

    Balloon Juice commenter Siubhan Duinne,
    Who fancies herself a poetry queen,
    Described the generous gift of Ryan
    Who heard about the dog that was dyin’
    Who wept at the bleg that raised the quota
    That transported Walter to Minnesota.
    He gave some money to pay for the vet
    That cured the dog
    That lived in the house that John bought.

    MomSense from Maine — that’s north of Boston —
    Knitted a sweater for baby Austin
    (Bartender Ryan’s baby-to-be,
    Due around November twenty-three),
    Thus does the saga of Walter the Dog
    Permeate every part of this blog.
    BJ community always comes through,
    For MomSense, here’s a big “Thank You!”
    She knit the sweater
    To thank the strangers
    Who gave some cash
    To online blegs
    To pay for the vet
    That cured the dog
    That lived in the house that John bought.

  21. 21.

    hovercraft

    Alyson Draper
    17 hrs · Midway, UT, United States ·
    I HAD A LATE TERM ABORTION. IT IS NOTHING LIKE DESCRIBED BY TRUMP. PLEASE DON’T BASE YOUR VOTE ON THE FEAR MONGERING HE IS DOING. PLEASE READ MY EXPERIENCE:
    I had to have a late term abortion. It was the worst moment in my life. What made it even worse was the State of Utah had made it illegal. I had one dead twin. The other had severe Spina Bifida, and would only have lived with life support, in great pain, for a few days.
    I lay on the hospital floor, bawling hysterically, for twelve hours, waiting for an ethics committee of the health care corporation to decide my case justified what had to be done. My health was in danger due to the dead fetus. My husband and I consulted our LDS Bishop, who assured me I needed to do what I had to do, that it was even within LDS guidelines to do so. He reminded me I had six kids at home who needed their mother to live.
    The abortion was terrible. It was done very gently, by Caesarean section, leaving the babies in their amniotic sacs. The living baby passed very quickly.
    It was horrific. I think it even affected my dear physician, as he had never had to end a pregnancy before. I developed PTSD for which I had to be treated for years, mostly because of the fact I had to have it at all.
    No woman should have to have the state have a say in the most painful decision she will ever make. Nobody is tearing babies apart in late term. They are always humanely done, only in situations where there is a non-viable or severely defective fetus and/or the mother’s health is at risk.
    Please don’t vote for a candidate or a party that would make these decisions for the women who will die or be forced to carry unviable fetuses to term. This is a decision that is so painful and so terrible. Only the parents of the baby and a physician should be involved in the decision.
    This post is public. Please share it.
    32K Likes6K Comments60K Shares

  27. 27.

    dmsilev

    The scientific journal Nature just endorsed Hillary: “Hillary Clinton will make a fine US president
    And not only because she is not Donald Trump.”     (link might be pay-wall blocked):

    In March 2011, this publication suggested that the US Congress seemed lost in the “intellectual wilderness”. The Republicans had taken over the House of Representatives, and one of the early acts of the chamber’s science committee was to approve legislation that denied the threat of climate change. As it turns out, this was just one tiny piece of a broader populist movement that was poised to transform the US political scene. Judging by the current presidential campaign, when it comes to reason, decency and use of evidence, much of the country’s political system seems to have lost its way.

    Is there anything left to say about the unsuitability of Donald Trump as a presidential candidate? Even senior figures of his own party have disowned him. The latest revelations about his sordid attitude and behaviour towards women only confirm what was obvious to many from the very beginning: Trump is a demagogue not fit for high office, or for the responsibilities that come with it.

    Will the centre hold? Will the United States elect its first female president, Hillary Clinton? It should do. And not just because she is not Donald Trump. Clinton is a quintessential politician — and a good one at that. She has shown tremendous understanding of complex issues directly relevant to Nature’s readers, and has engaged with scientists and academics. Take health: as first lady, she led attempts to expand health care in the early years of her husband Bill Clinton’s presidency. She supported the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which reaches millions of poor children. She championed women’s rights, and as secretary of state made global health a priority through the Global Health Initiative, a framework to coordinate various US programmes. Clinton may not have the outsider appeal of a newcomer. But few politicians with her degree of experience and pragmatism do. She is arguably the best-qualified presidential candidate for two decades.

  28. 28.

    liberal

    FUCKING SWEET. I’ve been wanting to know what song this was for decades, ever since hearing it on the schoolbus in the 1970s.

  29. 29.

    Bobby Thomson

    He put himself in a position where he was going to have to do ten years in prison lose the presidential election in a landslide, along with any ability to pay us back, that’s what he did.

  32. 32.

    guachi

    Ha! Obama is really slapping Trump around. If you can see the speech, give it a look. He’s really good at roasting people.

  34. 34.

    Jeffro

    @liberal: he is hammering the living crap out of Trump in FL right now, tying him quite firmly around the necks of Republicans.

    Obama hammers ’em while Clinton extends the hand to those willing to jump ship…smart!

  36. 36.

    SiubhanDuinne, liberal mob enforcer bitch

    @Iowa Old Lady:

    That’s terrific. Big congratulations! (And no fears, you could plug your books in every thread for a month and not come close to Trumpian levels of hucksterism.)

  37. 37.

    japa21

    There isn’t a Republican left unscathed by Obama right now. Rubio particularly should be feeling a deep burning sensation because his ass is getting roasted. Truly, Trump isn’t the focus of his speech, it is Republicans in general.

    Once again he is proving why he will be missed.

  43. 43.

    Ceci n'est pas mon nym

    Don’t normally see TV but just had a diner meal and couldn’t help seeing the TV playing silently in the corner.

    Trump was a big theme in the many ads, as in tying his ugly raging baby face to various down ticket races, showing him side by side with, e.g., Pat Toomey.

    Excellent. I hope he serves as a most effective anchor pulling them all down.

  44. 44.

    Jeffro

    I think the Democrats (especially Obama) should point out more often how when Clinton lost the nomination in 2008 she did not claim it was rigged – she doubled down, went to work for her opponent, learned from her previous campaigns and mistakes, and did what it took to win this nomination and this election.

  46. 46.

    Ceci n'est pas mon nym

    @Ceci n’est pas mon nym: Meanwhile they also had a radio playing and I heard a pro-Toomey ad talking ominously about ISIS, terrorists, and Katie McGinty wants to accept refugees from war-torn areas. Is that really supposed to sound like a bad thing to do?

    I want Toomey out. I want to stop hearing his name and seeing his face.

  47. 47.

    liberal

    @Jeffro: Yeah, well…even her detractors agree she’s an extremely hard worker. Unlike (cough) someone else I could name.

  51. 51.

    liberal

    @dmsilev:

    In March 2011, this publication suggested that the US Congress seemed lost in the “intellectual wilderness”.

    Fuck that, that train departed at least as early as the 1990s, when the right-wing f*cks got rid of the Office of Technology Assessment.

  60. 60.

    md S Oregon

    @gogol’s wife: I think it was you that wanted to know what Shirley Temple was like in her adult life. My sister did not work with her, but she knew people who did. She didn’t want to be remembered as a little girl, she wanted to be known as a serious, smart adult woman who got shit done. This of course is my interpretation of my sister’s words. And my very lefty 73 year old sister is still down Alice’s Looking Glass hole. But we live in Oregon, so I’m not too worried about the outcome.

  63. 63.

    gogol's wife

    @md S Oregon:

    People always remember Betty Ford for going public about her breast cancer, but Shirley was the pioneer on that. She was amazing. And her autobiography, *Child Star*, is a fantastic read.

  81. 81.

    liberal

    @gogol’s wife: Look, what LBJ did was evil, but it’s not like we weren’t involved in Indochina before him.

    By the end of the French-Indochinese War, we were footing 75% of the French’s war bill.

    I don’t remember the exact number, but IIRC there were ~ 20,000 US military “advisors” in Vietnam at some point under Kennedy.

    Now, we’ll never know…perhaps absent LBJ, we’d never have sent that many US troops to Vietnam. But it’s hardly like he had no support from the people who really run the country.

    My dad was against the war in the early 1960s, when a grad student in his department bragged that her family owned half the Mekong Delta. But it wasn’t until much later that broad numbers of people turned against the war.

  88. 88.

    Splitting Image

    One album I missed back in the day was Bruce Springsteen’s boxed set “Live 1975-85”. Really good stuff. I’ve been listening to that while waiting for the orange rash to go away.

    Also a lot of Creedence Clearwater Revival. CCR is pretty much always on the play list, but it’s been definitely improving my mood lately.

  89. 89.

    Aleta

    @dmsilev: Really glad Nature did this, since US elections affect world climate and energy policies. The opposition is out marching through their comment section too today.

  90. 90.

    Jeffro

    You know what’d be a cure for that Trump funk? Some good ol’ Garland…but only if it’s done before the election.

    After Nov 8th, NFLTG Obama should pull the nom and let President-elect Clinton seat that 9th justice…

  92. 92.

    Lee

    I’ve got some very heartening news.

    My daughter and her partner (who IDs as male) just won their homecoming vote! They are the juniors on the court.

    Not too notable except that this is in deep red North Texas.

    The kids tend to turn out better than some parents.

  94. 94.

    The Golux

    @Miss Bianca:

    I know people rag on Andrew Sullivan here, but he published a long series of posts from women who had undergone late term abortions. It’s one of the most agonizing collections of personal histories I’ve ever read. He clearly was greatly moved by these womens’ stories, which are way beyond the ability of SnuffleTrumpagus to acknowledge.

  96. 96.

    SiubhanDuinne, liberal mob enforcer bitch

    @Lee:

    That’s excellent news. Always glad to hear about moments of hope, happiness, and progress. Congratulations to both of them!

  98. 98.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @hovercraft: This is what drives me crazy about the fully invented concept of “partial-birth” abortion. Late term abortions are nearly ALWAYS about the life of the mother. Yet the crazies still want to punish a woman who is going through agony to begin with. It’s about forced birth, without regard to nuance or reality or anything else, because SLUTS MUST BE PUNISHED! Even if she’s a mother with six kids in a properly invisible sky buddy approved relationship.

  100. 100.

    Mnemosyne

    @Lee:

    When I was in high school in the late 1980s, they refused to seat one of the very popular senior girls who had won the election to be on the Homecoming Court because she was an out lesbian and they didn’t want to “encourage that behavior.” One of the runner-ups had to take her seat.

    This may be one of the reasons why so many people from that graduating class are still liberals to this day.

  101. 101.

    SiubhanDuinne, liberal mob enforcer bitch

    @Shell:

    Anybody gonna watch the live Rocky Horror Picture Show tonight?

    By which do you mean the Al Smith dinner? I’ll probably watch if I can stream it without having to register or subscribe to anything. For one thing, I want to see how Hillary does as a stand-up comic. I don’t have high hopes, frankly — her canned attempts at humour (“Trumped-up trickle-down”) are generally pretty leaden, although I expect she’ll be a good sport. As for Trump, I doubt that he’s capable of self-deprecating humour.

  104. 104.

    SFAW

    @efgoldman:

    Moby Dick. I won’t tell her the whale wins.

    Next time, can you give us a Spoiler Alert, please?

    Semi-related (well, not really): have you now relocated to be near your daughter? I remember you mentioned it a few months ago, but I haven’t been keeping up here very much, so I miss a lot of stuff.

  105. 105.

    redshirt

    @raven: Bears – Packers should be a great game, but alas, not this year.

    The Bears woe’s are clear; but what’s up with the Pack? They seem like a shell of themselves.

  106. 106.

    Gravenstone

    @Splitting Image: Fuck that fucking album. When it came out the only station worth listening to where I lived at the time played it, and only it, for a whole fucking month! I was so sick and fucking tired of Springsteen by the end that I still can’t really listen to him.

  109. 109.

    Gravenstone

    @redshirt: Both GB starting running backs are out. They’re down to a WR pressed into RB and a cast off they picked up from KC this week. Dire times indeed.

  114. 114.

    Immanentize

    @Tilda Swinton’s Bald Cap: So, one of the great facts I’ve learned about Steely Dan’s Peg is:

    Chuck Rainey, who played bass on this track, was specifically told by Fagan/Becker not to slap. He felt that the rhythm on the chorus called for it however, and set himself up in the studio behind a screen and in a low chair where he couldn’t be seen easily. During the chorus, he turned away slightly and slapped away.

    I for one love a slap bass

  116. 116.

    laura

    @Brachiator: I believe his last name is Leotis.
    His late GREAT father Johnny Otis, was amazing in so many ways. Had a weekly live radio show. He and my dad had been acquainted since the 50’s when San Francisco was the place to go and see the best jazz -from be bop to west coast cool.

  123. 123.

    Mike in NC

    Day One of early voting in NC. Stopped by the polling place around noon while running errands and saw about a hundred people in line. Decided to wait until 5 PM and the crowd was much more manageable by then. Were done in 15 minutes. Wife and I were happy to vote against the knuckle draggers — Trump, McCrory, Burr and the others — and headed home for Happy Hour.

  124. 124.

    debit

    @SiubhanDuinne, liberal mob enforcer bitch: I’m sitting here at work surreptitiously wiping my eyes. I look at him now and feel like he’s been a part of my life forever. But when I’m reminded of what he went through, how he sat there day after day, waiting for someone to come and no one ever did (until John) I break down in tears and really hope that it’s true that dogs live in the moment, and that if he does remember those days, they are dim and distant memories.

    Anyway, I digress. I love the poem and also want to see it front paged. Such beautiful work needs to be shared.

  125. 125.

    Temporarily Max McGee (Soon Enough to Be Andy K Again)

    @laura:

    I believe his last name is Leotis.

    Veliotes. Johnny’s given name was Ioannis Alexandres Veliotes.

  127. 127.

    SiubhanDuinne, liberal mob enforcer bitch

    @Gelfling 545:
    @WereBear:
    @Iowa Old Lady:
    @Betty Cracker:
    @jackmac:
    @chris:
    @WaterGirl:
    @Miss Bianca:
    @Paul in KY:

    Wow, thanks to you all for such kind words!

  131. 131.

    SiubhanDuinne, liberal mob enforcer bitch

    @Immanentize:
    @debit:

    Thank you both! Debit, you and John are the heroes in this. I am still of the opinion that Walter’s story would make a great book for (older) young readers. Would make a nice picture book, I think.

    I always share with Ryan the Bartender all the pictures you post. He adored, as I did, “Holding Paws in Front of the Fireplace.” I hope Walter can give you years of pleasure. He is one very lucky dog, for sure.

  132. 132.

    Aleta

    Today the janitor, life long Repub, retired career military, who likes to stop by to talk about outer space, came by to say he had just voted for Hillary. He wasn’t exactly happy, but he felt he had to vote against Trump.

  133. 133.

    Brachiator

    @laura: Johnny Otis was actually Ioannis Alexandres Veliotes. His younger brother became the U.S. Ambassador to Jordan.

    He was talented and promoted many other musicians. And of course it was wild that he was of Greek descent, but lived in the African American community and identified with the people and culture.

  134. 134.

    redshirt

    @Aleta: I know it’s anecdotal, but I keep hearing things like this, both here, elsewhere, and in real life. I feel as if it has to count for something on 11/8.

  135. 135.

    danielx

    @liberal:

    Untrue….besides, vinyl and turntables are retro hip these days, or so they tell me. Although the various nieces and nephews think I’m joking when I say that was the best way to listen to music, back in the day.

  136. 136.

    Splitting Image

    @Gravenstone:

    Fuck that fucking album. When it came out the only station worth listening to where I lived at the time played it, and only it, for a whole fucking month! I was so sick and fucking tired of Springsteen by the end that I still can’t really listen to him.

    Heh heh. I had a similar reaction to “Born in the USA”, which is why I was tuned out when the live album came out.

    I’ll offer you Caledon and the Scottish Fiddle Orchestra instead.

  142. 142.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    Late term abortions are nearly ALWAYS about the life of the mother.

    I just read an article about this by an expert–the really late ones are actually usually not about the life of the mother; they’re about not forcing the mother to carry a dead, unviable or short-lived fetus to term.

  145. 145.

    JAFD

    @Gravenstone: I messaged the folk at WBGO (wbgo.org – jazz fans might bookmark) that “_Autumn in New York_ is one of the classics of The American Songbook, and has been covered by many first-class artists, but you really don’t have to play it every eighty minutes from Labor Day to Thanksgiving”

    Seems to have been noted by their DJs this year.

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