Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The choice is between normal and crazy.

When you’re a Republican, they let you do it.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

People identifying as christian while ignoring christ and his teachings is a strange thing indeed.

People really shouldn’t expect the government to help after they watched the GOP drown it in a bathtub.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

Shut up, hissy kitty!

Ron DeSantis, the grand wizard, oops, governor of FL.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

President Biden is doing good where he can, and getting it done.

Every one of the “Roberts Six” lied to get on the court.

You are either for trump or for democracy. Pick one.

Wake up. Grow up. Get in the fight.

Democrats are back in array!

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

T R E 4 5 O N

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

Lick the third rail, it tastes like chocolate!

Nothing says ‘pro-life’ like letting children go hungry.

I desperately hope that, yet again, i am wrong.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

Good lord, these people are nuts.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

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Last 2016 Saturday Morning Open Thread

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I’ve discovered a new reporter I’ll be following in 2017 — Abigail Tracy, at Vanity Fair:

Six months after Donald Trump last held a formal press conference, during which he called on Russia to hack Hillary Clinton, the president-elect finally spoke with reporters Wednesday during two impromptu, largely fact-free press conferences outside his gilded Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida. In his signature stream-of-consciousness style, the president-elect—at one point flanked by boxing promoter Don King—offered up a series of misleading, disjointed responses, during which he falsely claimed to have created thousands of new jobs, dismissed alleged Russian interference in the presidential election, whitewashed his sprawling financial conflicts of interest, and offered up word salad in a rambling defense of Israel…

So I guess now I’ll be subscribing to Vanity Fair — and also Teen Vogue, for their political coverage.
***********
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What’s on the agenda for the last day of this can’t-end-soon-enough year?
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***********
Header photo for the Vanity Fair article, incidentally:

Reader Interactions

146Comments

  1. 1.

    Comrade Scrutinizer

    We’re in the last three weeks of the USA as we know it. The last great victim of 2016.

  2. 2.

    EBT

    I am listening to a podcast where people are reading a post someone made on the internet and making fun of it.

    The poster was going to “perform animal rekei” on a horse, but her spirit dragon told her the horse was part of a christian prayer bomb meant to attack her. It makes more sense than the real world now.

  3. 3.

    MikeBoyScout

    It’s 2 o’clock in the afternoon in Moscow Russia where the average Igor chuckles at Trump’s naivete and anxiously waits for its own Dear Leader’s new years Eve speech to hear what the next joke on Trump will be.

  8. 8.

    Zinsky

    Trump’s so-called “press conferences” are likely to be unwatchable riffs on his own poll numbers, how smart and wonderful he is and endless, cheap shot vendettas against people who have aggrieved Emperor Donald. They won’t resemble any cogent, meaningful interaction between an intelligent human being and a competent, thoughtful press corps. Why bother?

    People need to come to grips with the fact we just elected an ignorant, hyper-egotistical con man with a massive ego and a small penis, which causes him to try to prove how macho he is in everything he does on the planet.

    I’m with Kathleen – headed to the gym for an hour on the elliptical, some light weightlifting and then home for a quiet day of reading, eating and football. Have a Happy New Year everyone!

  9. 9.

    Derelict

    At this point, Trump could announce on January 21 that he is stepping down as president and turning the office over to Putin, and it would draw the following reactions:

    Horror from Democrats
    Praise and vows of unquestioning support for President Putin from the Freedom Caucus
    Chin-stroking think pieces on NPR discussing just how unconventional this move is
    Sermons from evangelical churches across the country about finally having a leader who will do something about those evil liberals.
    And a sincere promise from Ryan and McConnell to work with Putin to amend the Constitution to allow a foreign born person to become president without those pesky elections–just so long as Putin promises to sign off on all the upper-class tax cuts they put on his desk.

  11. 11.

    low-tech cyclist

    Has anyone asked the RNC or any national GOP leaders for their comment about the goings-on in NC? While I know that in truth they’re A-OK with this bit of banana-republic politics (don’t like a Dem getting elected Gov? We’ll just gut the powers of the office of the governor), I’m curious as to how close they’ve come to actually endorsing it. (I know they’re not gonna claim that the NC GOP has gone rogue or anything.)

  12. 12.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Zinsky:

    People need to come to grips with the fact we just elected an ignorant, hyper-egotistical con man with a massive ego and a small penis, which causes him to try to prove how macho he is in everything he does on the planet.

    I’ve come to terms with it and I’ve decided that I’m going to make the most of it. My mission for 2017 is to take truthful shots at the Hair Fuhrer that are irrefutable and laugh out loud funny, Joke ’em if they can’t take a fuck.

  13. 13.

    Hal

    I don’t get it. Conservatives see conspiracies in every fucking thing Obama and Hillary Clinton have ever said and done, but Trump’s ties to Putin and Russia are nothing to them?

    8 years of birtherism, benghazi, flag pins, marine salutes, IRS bullshit, plus email server, Clinton Foundation, Benghazi again, murders. All believable.

    But Trump’s potential links to a hostile foreign government? Meh. One more reason I say fuck Trump supporters. There is no value in reaching out to people who will go along with whatever Trump says and does.

  16. 16.

    Kay

    Kellyanne Conway’s husband could become the US government’s next top litigator.
    George Conway, a corporate attorney who is married to one of President-elect Donald Trump’s senior advisers, is on the shortlist of candidates to be nominated as US solicitor general, two sources familiar with the process told CNN.
    He was part of the team of lawyers in the 1990s who represented Paula Jones in her sexual harassment lawsuit against then-President Bill Clinton. He helped write the Supreme Court brief in the case that would establish a legal precedent for a sitting president to be sued in civil court.

  17. 17.

    Kay

    Maybe Trump and many Republicans like Putin because he runs a Right wing dictatorship:

    A Kazakh man was given a three-year sentence in a penal colony after he was found guilty of insulting Russian President Vladimir Putin on Facebook. Sanat Dosov, 46, is believed to have been arrested in August, which is when he stopped posting on Facebook.

  22. 22.

    Kay

    Tom Wright ‏@thomaswright08 13h13 hours ago
    Tom Wright Retweeted Thomas Hegghammer
    No one knows. All we do know is that he has been consistently pro-Russian authoritarianism since mid 1980s.

    Key word there, IMO. We all know these people admire bullies. It’s not a huge leap to “authoritarianism”. All the “strong leader” bullshit always had the capacity to get them there. I’m just hoping we’ll be spared photographs of Trump bare-chested, like the Putin propaganda. Gross.

  30. 30.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    There was a piece about how KelleyAnne Conway feels she was treated poorly by the admissions people in the fancy DC private schools she’s trying to get her kids into. The agonies of the white working class, perceived slights by egghead liberals! It’s heartbreaking.

  32. 32.

    Kay

    @efgoldman:

    Well, don’t worry too much about it. The conservatives on the court don’t recognize “precedent”. Time for new rules! A heretofore unrecognized “bedrock conservative principle” will be discovered.

  33. 33.

    Elizabelle

    @Kay: LOL. Would you want to deal with Kellyanne over issues dealing with her kids? That firehose stream of lies and spin? As a school administrator? With a vindictive lawyer for a husband?

    Good on the schools for not letting the kidlets in. Maybe Kellyanne’s reputation proceeded her.

  34. 34.

    magurakurin

    @Mustang Bobby:

    Hoping this new year will be all that much better than this one.

    yeah, well hope in one hand, shit in the other and see which one fills up first…Willie Bad Santa…but I’m hoping the same thing…

    about 90 minutes to go for it to be next year here where I am. I’ll let you know if it’s any better.

  37. 37.

    Peale

    @Kay: yes. That’s exactly why the right likes him. It’s the same reason they made peace with Franco, Pinochet and a whole bunch of Brazilian generals. The loopy foreign policy left likes him because he says enough anti US stuff that they always fall for when they crawl up the ass of any strongman who they think proves their point that the CIA controls the world. I doesn’t matter how bloody the leader is. As long as he uses the anti-us propaganda to maintain his own internal legitimacy, the lefty goons will lap up anything.

  39. 39.

    Kay

    I’m spending New Years fighting with my 8th grader over high school parties he was invited to because our school stupidly decided to put kids into classes according to ability and he’s fairly smart so he ended up in freshman classes.

    I was part of the majority who thought it was a groovy idea but I never considered that he’d end up with high school friends who are way older than him. Turns out they put kids in age groups for a good reason, and not just because they can’t think out of the box. I’m disappointed in myself. I usually resist fads regarding children because they’re almost always dumb and a bad idea, as a practical matter.

  40. 40.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Baud: When it comes to Trump, it is best not to think too much. Better to just expect the worst, which could well happen, and if by happenstance something less horrible is the result just thank the FSM and the touch of one of his many noodley appendages.

  44. 44.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:
    I did chuckle at that. after all, these are PRIVATE SCHOOLS , and don’t the GOP always believe that the Private SCHOOLS should be able to do what they want?
    Oh, to see her trying to”shame” them. Next, she will probably ‘leak’ the name, so that deplorables can threaten it.

  45. 45.

    magurakurin

    @rikyrah: yep. Fascists. I think they are most like the Falangist in Franco’s Spain…only substitute Evangelical Christianity for Catholicism.

  47. 47.

    magurakurin

    @Peale: that segment of the Left is authoritarian. Some of the world’s greatest dictators have been on the Left. The infatuation with Sanders as a savior…the shit with the bird, and the starry eyes. Even now they are intensely focused on the DNC chairperson…as if that was an actual position of power. They shun coalitions and look for a strong individual to lead the “revolution.” That’s why they hate Obama and Clinton and derided them as incrementalists. They want a my way or the highway guy…but from the Left. The political spectrum is a circle and the two ends are more alike than they are different.

  48. 48.

    bemused

    Liberals knew that most Republicans don’t actually believe in the “principles” (all of them Katie) they have forever claimed to revere. Even when they initially expressed some trepidation of Trump boasting and crudeness they quickly got on board when Trump “won”. I’m talking about local Republicans as well as Republicans in general. Approving of Trump picks is a big tell. They are authoritarian to their cores. When they accused Obama of being a dictator, they were just pissed off the president wasn’t their own dictator. The stupidity of Republican voters making a wage of under $60,000 a year who think a Trumpist dictatorship will be good for them is mindboggling.

  49. 49.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Kay: That’s a hard place to be. May Solomon bequeath much wisdom upon you as you try threading that needle.

  50. 50.

    Kay

    @efgoldman:

    I want the scruffy, chatty 13 year old friends back. These other people are practically adults. There’s this silent, glowering girl who walks in and out of the house without a word. I can tell he thinks she’s great.

  51. 51.

    magurakurin

    @efgoldman: He was married to Ivana, but I’m pretty sure he’s fucking Ivanka. Must be some Greek legend to help explain this fucked up family.

  53. 53.

    Elmo

    @efgoldman: My mom took a different approach with me. When I was in sixth grade, there was a program that would allow kids to attend HS level classes off campus (I’m not sure of the details cuz I didn’t go). Mom requested that my school allow me to participate, and the school said No.
    Mom protested that I wasn’t learning anything, and she might as well just keep me home then.
    School principal told her, very seriously, that he would do exactly that if I were his daughter.
    So she did. From 6th grade to 9th, if I didn’t feel like going to school, I didn’t. She wouldn’t make me.
    Played merry hob with my social development and work ethic, it did!

  54. 54.

    Betty Cracker

    @efgoldman: I’m pulling for Clemson and ‘Bama but mostly hoping for good games. The FSU-Michigan game was a lot better at the end than it seemed it would be after the first half. Cannot abide either of those teams, but I did enjoy the drama!

    It’s actually a little bit cold here, at last. It’s 40 degrees right now but supposed to get up into the 70s this afternoon. The mister and I will ring in the New Year at the backyard tiki bar, with a few neighbors possibly dropping by. I’ll have some prosecco in my great-grandmother’s fancy wedding champagne glasses, which I only use for holidays and special occasions. No one drank alcohol from them until the 1970s anyway, when my mom inherited them from HER teetotaling mother.

    We generally don’t go anywhere on NYE so as to avoid the many drunk drivers, but we’ll still be treated to the spectacle of idiots behaving idiotically — from a safe distance. There are many amateur fireworks enthusiasts in this neck of the woods, so we’ll have a display to watch. These people shoot off fireworks on the least provocation. Even Christmas! “Happy Birthday, Baby Jesus!” BLAM!

  56. 56.

    Kay

    @rikyrah:

    He’s really upset. He worships one of the boys, Corbin. There’s nothing really wrong with Corbin- I know his father and Corbin plays in the town band, which is an extremely nerdy thing to do, everyone else in that band are literally old people, but Corbin is 16 and reserved. Mine is emotionally about 11. He’s goofy. Smart but silly. He’s not a serious person :)

  59. 59.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Elmo:

    Played merry hob with my social development and work ethic, it did!

    Staying bored in school did the same thing for me.

  61. 61.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    @Kay: As one of the kids “held back” by age grouping, I can’t say I agree. Not only was I bored out of my mind at school, but I never made friends among my age cohort until we were split out by ability in high school. My friends outside of school were all older.

  62. 62.

    Spanky

    @MomSense:

    Kelly Anne Conway is a terminator. She’s made of liquid metal bullshit

    My heart goes out to the bull that had to poop that out.

  64. 64.

    Viva BrisVegas

    Happy New Year from Brisbane.

    It’s just gone midnight and 2017 is here.

    So to all a good night and a wish for everybody in Balloon Juice Land to stay safe and sane no matter what 2017 brings.

  65. 65.

    JMG

    For the first time in decades, I will be at a party tonight. One of our friends is a Jan. 1 birthday, so his wife is holding a combined New Year’s Eve/birthday party for him. They live about a quarter-mile away, so we will walk there and back, eliminating the driving problem.

  66. 66.

    Elizabelle

    @Kay:

    There’s this silent, glowering girl who walks in and out of the house without a word. I can tell he thinks she’s great.

    LOL. Let us know how you solve this one. Maybe he would not mind that much being at your home with his age cohort friends, and the insistence on attending the parties is border-setting?

  67. 67.

    NotMax

    Champagne a-chilling to toast another run around ol’ Sol.

    Broke in the recently purchased ceramic coated loaf pan yesterday. Gosh and golly, even cooking all around and through and nothing sticks to it. What a baker’s delight; puts the longtime workhorse Pyrex one to shame. Worth the extra shekels.

  68. 68.

    Spanky

    I have a theory on what Putin has on Drumpf, and it would be irresponsible not to speculate.

    He’s such a macho alpha male in public that I’ll bet you anything he’s got a sexual submissive streak a mile wide. Pooty probably has the video of Trump with his (Russian) dominatrix. Feel free to speculate on the particulars.

    That’s the only thing I can think of that would terrorize our Cheeto Benito. Apologies if this was discussed overnight, but it’s been and will be a busy weekend.

  69. 69.

    Elizabelle

    @MomSense: Poor Driftglass. Not only is Bobo still at the NY Fucking Times, there’s a whole new stream of unworthies flocking in.

    With less respect for the truth than Bobo.

    Mostly, how much do you all want to read about Trump and Kellyanne and that crowd for the next four years?

    For me: not very much.

    ETA: It’s the “aquarium with brown fish” problem.

  71. 71.

    Elizabelle

    @Spanky: I dunno.

    I think it’s that Russia/Russians hold a lot of Donald Trump’s debt, and thus his properties. That’s bad enough.

  72. 72.

    Hal

    King Baby as president

    Donald J. Trump
    Twitter › realDonaldTrump
    Happy New Year to all, including to my many enemies and those who have fought me and lost so badly they just don’t know what to do. Love!

  75. 75.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Elizabelle:

    Let us know how you solve this one.

    I have a friend who’s preteen son was exactly the same. Would ignore me until I walked up to him, got right in his face and said, “Hello Ben.” No kid, you do not get to pretend I don’t exist. It took a while but he finally got over what ever the issue was and became at first polite, then friendly, then conversational.

  77. 77.

    Elizabelle

    @Elizabelle: This is a confusing comment. Not speaking of Times journalists.

    Speaking of the awfuls Trump is filling his administration with. That they and the family are the brown fish that we may prefer not to read about.

    That driftglass has so many new targets, and they’re in positions of real power.

  78. 78.

    Botsplainer

    @Kay:

    Be blunt and truthful, drawing on your own experiences. Explain that at every high school party, there is someone with booze, someone with weed, a lot of feverish, clumsy, poorly performed sex happening, and that he’s not ready to deal appropriately with those pressures and temptations (or have those experiences) yet.

    And stay firm with your no.

  81. 81.

    Spanky

    @mai naem mobile: Some still do, and I’m not happy that it’s come down to the point where we need to rely on a couple of old, cranky Republican Senators to stop Trump’s depredations. But here we are.

  82. 82.

    Betty Cracker

    @NotMax: You’ve just given me an excellent present idea for the mister’s upcoming birthday! (He’s the baker in the family.) Thanks, and Happy New Year to you! :)

  83. 83.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Viva BrisVegas:

    Happy New Year from Brisbane.

    Happy New Year right backatcha from Atlanta.

    D’you know, in all the years I’ve seen your nym here, it never occurred to me that you lived in Australia. I thought you were a mohel in Nevada.

  86. 86.

    kindness

    Remember earlier in the fall when so many on our side were saying ‘you should get a NY Times or WaPo subscription’. Now, not so much. The Times is back fluffing the wrong people. The WaPo still has too many abhorrent columnists.

  87. 87.

    Betty Cracker

    @OzarkHillbilly: Having been a silent, glowering girl myself back in the day, I’ll speculate that the kid is merely shy. Could be wrong, but I know from experience that shyness can come off as aloofness/rudeness. My grandma was always elbowing me and hissing, “Say something!” when I was too mortified to make eye contact or say hello.

  88. 88.

    Elmo

    @Betty Cracker: You just reminded me of one of my favorite “jokes:”

    Ask, in all seriousness, “Hey, is the capital of Kentucky pronounced ‘Loo-ee-ville,’ or ‘Loo-uh-ville?’
    You will almost always get people to give you a pronunciation of one or the other.
    Then you get to be an asshole. “It’s actually pronounced ‘Frankfort.'”

    See above about my emotional development. ?

  90. 90.

    TheMightyTrowel

    Happy 2017 from down under! Had some excitement tonight – speed a trash fire burning at the size of the road on my way home from a nye party and had to call it in to the emergency services. Hopefully this isn’t a preview of 2017, but I’m not optimistic!

  94. 94.

    Starfish

    @Elmo: In fairness, those years are just THE WORST. They are trying to deal with that here by making more schools go K to 8. I am not sure it will help.

  95. 95.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Betty Cracker: That was my take but I never engaged much in armchair psychiatry and just did what I did in as fun and nonthreatening way as I could. As an inveterate introvert, I always respected his aloofness once he acknowledged my existence.

    On the ceramics thing, I gave each of my sons ceramic covered cast iron dutch ovens for Xmas. They are perfect for baking bread as they allow one to eliminate the steaming pan in the oven, making for a great crust finish. So easy to clean afterwards too.

  96. 96.

    germy

    Kelly O’DonnellVerified account
    ‏@KellyO

    Sources say George Conway is under consideration to serve as top US lawyer, Solicitor General. His wife is @KellyannePolls

  97. 97.

    Chris

    Well, the Greyhound was supposed to board at 8:55 and leave at 9:15. It’s 9:46 and we’re now being assured that the bus will be here in 20 minutes. THANKS, OBAMA.

  98. 98.

    JPL

    @Hal: I just read that to my son, and he had to go on twitter to verify it. Trump’s really bad and the next few years are going to be shaky at best.

    @Spanky: Maybe Putin will release the tape with 12 year old Natasha and her twin brother.

  99. 99.

    Betty Cracker

    @OzarkHillbilly: We’ve got a set of those Dutch ovens, and they are fabulous for all sorts of purposes. The mister does use the small one to make certain types of bread, and it turns out really well. Maybe a ceramic-lined baking sheet would be the thing for him. He makes baguettes, etc., on baking sheets. Isn’t partial to pizza stones.

  100. 100.

    hedgehog the occasional commenter

    Morning all. mr. h has a nasty cold so our plans to stay in tonight are now brilliant :) I’ve subscribed to Blue Apron (one of those food delivery services) and tonight’s dinner is steak au poivre with kale and potatoes. However, the potato we got from Blue Apron fermented. All I did was set it on the kitchen counter when we got the delivery on Wednesday. How the hell do potatoes ferment? Also need to go get bubbly for the humans and cat food for the overlords.

    I finally added TransLifeLine to my monthly donation list, in addition to Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains, Food Bank of the Rockies and the ACLU.

    We’ve got tickets to Sing tomorrow afternoon. Looking forward to something bright and cheery.

  101. 101.

    Botsplainer

    @Betty Cracker:

    Kudos on getting the pronunciation right.

    LSU will win by 2 touchdowns and a field goal – or more. Our D collapses like a cheap folding chair under a fat woman at the church potluck.

  102. 102.

    Ella in New Mexico

    @efgoldman:

    The kid is in eighth grade. “No” will leads to emotional blowup and an argument, no matter how good a parent Kay actually is.
    There’s a way you can get kids that age to come to the good decision on their own, but I don’t remember how we did it.

    If I knew the families and kids attending one of those parties, I’d consider letting him attend. Outside of that, I’d keep him home because even though the invitees are 9th graders, they probably invited older kids too. Too much risk for an 8th grader. As an alternative, I’d let him invite one or two kids over to our house where we could supervise the fun.

    I’d discuss my rationales and be firm but understanding about his disappointment, but if telling him no ended up with some uncomfortable emotional blowout so be it.

    Loved my kids and I was no authoritarian, but when push came to shove, I was their parent. Their health and safety were my jobs, uncomfortable as it may have been at times.

    Too many of my kids peers had parents that just said yes to everything to avoid fights. I’ve yet to see one of them not have had major trouble down the road when it got even more difficult to do anything about it, or worse, resulted in legal or serious health consequences.

    His time to be a teenager and go to parties will come. For now, let him be an 8th grader–@Kay: tell him no, Kay. ?

  103. 103.

    magurakurin

    Happy New Year from Japan. Off to the local Shinto shrine to drop a coin in for luck. Not that it will do any good…

  105. 105.

    NotMax

    @Betty Cracker

    Got one of those baking sheets as well at the same time as ordered the loaf pan, from the same company. Has a nice heft and expect to get many years of service out of it.

  106. 106.

    geg6

    @Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism:

    That was me, too. I hated school until college. I learned more from my own reading than I did in most classes, with a few exceptions (really, exceptional teachers).

    As for NYE plans, we almost always stay in and have a nice dinner at home. I’m making crab bisque, a mixed greens/carrots/pine nut/orange salad with champagne vinaigrette and filet mignon with Amish egg noodles (from a local farmer) and a stroganoff sauce. Cherry pie a la mode for dessert and a Pinot noir for dinner and a prosecco for dessert. Yum.

  108. 108.

    gene108

    @Botsplainer:

    Be blunt and truthful, drawing on your own experiences. Explain that at every high school party, there is someone with booze, someone with weed, a lot of feverish, clumsy, poorly performed sex happening,

    This is supposed to be a discouragement how exactly? Especially the sex part.

    I do not have kids. I do not know what to say.

    Just that if someone told me, in the eight grade, I’d be at a party where sexy time could happen, I would be dying to go.

  109. 109.

    Pogonip

    @Baud: I would like to see a law requiring the children of politicians to attend the local public schools of the district in which the politician spends the majority of his time.

  111. 111.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Betty Cracker: I was thinking of making some baguettes today with a new recipe (thankyou future DIL for the “Artisan Bread in 5 Mins a Day” book**) Does he use the silicone baking sheets? I got some a while ago and haven’t used them yet. Was thinking of trying them out for it.

    ** it is a good book and the recipes are simple and straight forward but their advice on rises, well I’m still tweaking those times and playing with the dough handling

  112. 112.

    jeffreyw

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    On the ceramics thing, I gave each of my sons ceramic covered cast iron dutch ovens for Xmas. They are perfect for baking bread as they allow one to eliminate the steaming pan in the oven, making for a great crust finish. So easy to clean afterwards too.

    Amen, brother

  115. 115.

    Woodrowfan

    @Spanky:
    @MomSense:

    Kelly Anne Conway is a terminator. She’s made of liquid metal bullshit

    My heart goes out to the bull that had to poop that out.

    it’s from that bull statue on Wall Street,

  118. 118.

    Steeplejack (tablet)

    @Kathleen:

    SVU all day from 1:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. EST.

    At midnight you can also start watching on USA. Their marathon goes until 11:00 p.m. Sunday.

  120. 120.

    Shalimar

    @Spanky: Trump doesn’t show any sign of being terrified of anything the Russians have on him. So far, flattery and a deep backing of his businesses is all they have needed. Putin says nice things about him, and Russians give him money every time he wants to finance a new property.
    If the shit ever hits the fan and they have to put pressure on him, I suspect the Russians will find that flattery was the only thing that actually works. Narcissists think they are bullet-proof to bad publicity, and Trump himself can point to a long line of devastating information not hurting him at all.

  123. 123.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @jeffreyw: Yum. Gonna do the sourdough thing soon. Unsure how well I will do as daily maintenance on anything is hard for me. When it comes to slicing the dough, I have used razor blades, steak knives, paring knives, and bread knives. Ain’t found the perfect tool yet.

  124. 124.

    Betty Cracker

    @Shalimar: I agree — it’s as simple as that. Look how he whipsaws on his opinion of Obama, depending on how recently he’s had a conversation with PBO. He interprets PBO’s civility as a signal of his (Trump’s) dominance and gets as close to behaving graciously as a creature with his disease can come. But then he turns on a dime and goes back to hostile tweeting the moment he thinks PBO has disrespected him. Putin knows this and will manipulate the shitgibbon accordingly, as will every other tinpot authoritarian on the planet.

  129. 129.

    Botsplainer

    @gene108:

    Gotta be clear and truthful about the reasons.

    Eighth graders are REALLY amenable to peer pressure, and will try anything.

  131. 131.

    Corner Stone

    Don’t know if Kay is still perusing the thread, but don’t let that kid go to that party. That’s not an entree into polite social society, that’s throwing him into Thunderdome.

  132. 132.

    TriassicSands

    What’s on the agenda for the last day of this can’t-end-soon-enough year?

    ? Trying to figure out a way to keep 2017 from ever starting. (Short of a global nuclear war — I’d accept an extinction-inducing asteroid. At least, Trump would never become president and evolution could get to reset. Maybe next time around it can come up with a dominant species that isn’t hell-bent on being its own asteroid.)

  133. 133.

    laura

    Me and the Mr. And some friends saw Henry Rollins last night in Sacramento.
    3-plus hours of righteous ranting, no breaks, no water. Henry began his monologue with an extended breakdown of Make America Great Again and how if Trump had left off Again, it would have been an inclusive message that any/everyone could get behind. But no. The Again is the tell and the message of who is entitled to greatness or privilege is a narrow, unjustified, well, you know.
    At the conclusion, he reminded all of us that we can’t go back and won’t go back and this is our Country and it’s our shared right and obligation to get to work reclaiming it for all and to support those targeted, LGBTQ, POC, women, the disabled, undocumented.
    It felt good to hear and he would have handed Humboltblue his ass.

  134. 134.

    ruemara

    @Kay: as a “smart“ kid always stuck being in classes with older kids, finding peers is hard. Even though he can and will make mistakes because of their influence, having people he feels connected to is a huge deal. You know your son. If you know he’s the type who knows his limits and won’t be conned or bullied into doing stupid shit, compromise with a 2-3 hour time limit where he can go, hang and then say family is having their own thing.

    If not, then, yeah you’re doing what you need to and he can think you’re ruining his life one more time.

  138. 138.

    laura

    @ruemara: it was great as usual. But that body! So distracting . . .
    Last night was a real tonic. I’m resting, and I’m getting ready for the next year’s of massive resistance.

  140. 140.

    laura

    @Elizabelle: here’s heading up the west coast into Canada and then Florida in mid-January.
    Mustang Bobby and Betty Cracker ought to check him out.
    I’m in Fort Lauderdale on business the day after his appearance, wish I could see him there.
    Check his website for tour dates and video.
    It’s good for what ails us.

  143. 143.

    opiejeanne

    @efgoldman: I guess we are old and boring too. I made a pot of chili yesterday for tonight and we’ll make fry bread for Navajo tacos. I need a tomato to dice up for the top of the tacos. They look like this

    Kind of proud that we grew the beans and the onions.

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