Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

We still have time to mess this up!

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

The revolution will be supervised.

If you are still in the GOP, you are an extremist.

I didn’t have alien invasion on my 2023 BINGO card.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

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

He really is that stupid.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

Infrastructure week. at last.

Republicans in disarray!

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

“Squeaker” McCarthy

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

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126Comments

  1. 1.

    smintheus

    Trump’s body language around foreign leaders speaks volumes about how anti-social the small man is.

  2. 2.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Matthew Dowd‏Verified account @ matthewjdowd 6h6 hours ago
    Trump got 46.1% of the vote, right after inaugural he had 46% approval. Today he has 40% approval. So he has lost 15% of his voters so far.

    dowd is one of those who helped Bush get elected, then spent the Obama years simpering about how divisive our politics have somehow become, right? There are three or four of them I think.

  4. 4.

    J R in WV

    So Chuck Berry, well spoken musical genius is gone, but Donald John Trump is still “President”… what did I do to deserve this, Dawg!??

  6. 6.

    germy

    @Eric S.:

    “Your music rocketed on Earth. Then it went interstellar aboard @NASAVoyager. #JohnnyBGoode #RIP, Chuck Berry.” — Astronaut Scott Kelly, via Twitter

  7. 7.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @smintheus: Seriously. Can you imagine Obama sitting with anyone like that?

    This is a petulant child who is inhabiting a 70 year old body.

  18. 18.

    Ruckus

    @J R in WV:
    I wish I knew what we did.
    Had the temerity to vote for a woman for president? Wanted to actually live in a manner responsible to our constitution and laws? Gave a shit about other humans? Actually considered people that don’t look like us to be human? Didn’t listen to fucking faux news and/or think that R Murdoch is a major fucking asshole?
    I could go on…….

  21. 21.

    SiubhanDuinne

    I simply can’t tell you how very much I want Trump to see that captioned photo. It’s all over the internets and twitters, so he likely will.

    ”’Tis a thing of sublime beauty.

  24. 24.

    greennotGreen

    BTW, I vote that we make this a strictly non-Orange Thing thread. I need a break. I think we all do.

  26. 26.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @SiubhanDuinne: i wouldn’t be surprised if he, on some sugar fueled long dark night of the soulless, has wandered all the way down to these threads to see what’s being said about him

    If there’s a sudden wave of IRS audits among BJers, we’ll know why

  27. 27.

    JMG

    Blending two themes on this comments post, it will be of interest to see how Trump reacts to Berry’s death. Even GW Bush would have had some appropriate tribute, platitudinous as it might have been. What will Trump (or his dopey press office) say, tweet, etc.?

  29. 29.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    If there’s a sudden wave of IRS audits among BJers, we’ll know why

    How can they find the time when they’ve been continuously auditing Donald for the past two decades?

  31. 31.

    MazeDancer

    Living til 90, helping create Rock ‘n Roll, and releasing one’s last album at 89, is definitely a good run.

    Every musician of note has been poignantly remembering Chuck Berry on Twitter. What a catalogue of work he had. Father of Rock ‘n Roll feels not overstated.

    And that dialogue cartoon of the Leader of the Free World and Trump is brilliant. Read it probably two dozen times. Love it every time.

  32. 32.

    germy

    @JMG: I remember when Reagan released some banal statement after John Lennon was murdered. I don’t remember what it was, but I knew I was in for a shitty decade.

  33. 33.

    smintheus

    @JMG: Trump can’t release anything publicly as long as the IRS is still auditing his tax returns.

  34. 34.

    greennotGreen

    When my nephew was quite little, from the age of two to five, but decreasing slowly after that, he was OBSESSED with dinosaurs. Not so uncommon in little kids, but he was really off the charts about it. One day when he was four we were having a conversation during which he explained to me how he manipulated his parents by how far he stuck out his lower lip. Then out of the blue he said, “I want to talk about dinosaurs.”

    Too many times now when the subject of President Circus Peanut comes up, I say to myself, “I want to talk about dinosaurs.”

  35. 35.

    Baud

    @JMG:

    “Chuck Berry is someone who has done a terrific job that is being recognized by more and more people.”

  36. 36.

    Mnemosyne

    Fucking Atlanta fucking airport. First I strained my knee so I could get from A to E while still having enough time to pee, and then there was a problem with the plane and we’re still sitting at the gate TWO HOURS LATER.

    And since the fucking Delta flight attendants couldn’t be arsed to bring me an ice pack after I asked for one, I am now laying flat on my back at the gate with my foot up on the chairs waiting for the harried gate attendant to call First Aid so I can get a goddamned ice pack.

    SD, if it looks like I’m going to be stuck here overnight, I’ll email you. Right now, we’re not supposed to leave the gate area.

  37. 37.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @MazeDancer:

    Father of Rock ‘n Roll feels not overstated.

    Well, step Father of Rock ‘n Roll. We all know he got the idea from Calvin Klein.

  39. 39.

    Certified Mutant Enemy

    @J R in WV:

    I used to think it was a terrible thing that life was so unfair. Then I thought, ‘what if life *were* fair, and all of the terrible things that happen to us came because we really deserved them?’ Now I take great comfort in the general unfairness and hostility of the universe.
    — Marcus Cole (Babylon 5)

  42. 42.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Mnemosyne:

    Yikes, let me know if you’re going to be here for hours. I’m about 40 miles from the airport but if you desperately need company I will get on MARTA and come down. Would love to meet you but would prefer better circumstances. Do you have my number? Check your email.

  43. 43.

    Mnemosyne

    @Baud:

    On the flight from Orlando to Atlanta, I found out that the best dog boarding place is called Camp Mimi. So there’s that.

  45. 45.

    Mnemosyne

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    I’m hoping not to be here for much longer, but since it’s a repair to the plane, it’s entirely possible they’ll have to get a new one. If I have to stay overnight, I’ll let you know.

  46. 46.

    jl

    Well, gee, don’t be too hard on Trump, I’ve seen other leaders of major nations act out like that in public meetings. You got W Bush…. and um… and Putin.. and…. and… um…. Ok, that’s not good.

    Edit: actually, that is a little unfair to Dub, I think he was actually trying hard to do it right.

  47. 47.

    greennotGreen

    @Certified Mutant Enemy: There’s no question that really shitty things happen to good people…and to bad. But I look at it like this*: If, when we pass from this mortal realm, we go to join the universe in whatever manner that may be, what was that tragedy that befell us in our physical life? In the universe entire galaxies collide, huge meteors may be destroying all life on a distant planet as I type, but on the scale of the infinite, it is a pittance, even less than that. In the universe new stars are born, new life springs up on young planets, and what wonders may be occurring in other dimensions? We are too small to judge whether the universe is fair, cruel, benevolent, or insensate.

    *Atheists may ignore this comment, or talk about dogs.

  48. 48.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Mnemosyne:

    Do. I’ll hope for the best for you. I’ve spent way too many hours of my life hanging around in airports to be sanguine about it. It’s a huge pain. At any rate, have emailed you my phone and will keep it turned on for another couple of hours. Even if you’re just bored and want to chat for a bit.

  49. 49.

    Lyrebird

    @Villago Delenda Est: SECONDED bc calling him “pond scum” is an insult to pond scum.

    If instead ya wanna read a non-fiction book by a Hungarian who lived through hell in WWII and writes about the experience with compassion, read Pogany’s In My Brother’s Image. May we remember him and his brother long, and soon get to forget Gorka.

  51. 51.

    germy

    @danielx:

    “The gateway from freedom, I was told, was somewhere near New Orleans where most Africans were sorted through and sold” into slavery, Berry wrote in his self-titled 1987 memoir. “I’d been told my grandfather lived ‘back up in the woods among the evergreens’ in a log cabin. I revived the era with a story about a ‘colored boy named Johnny B. Goode.’ ”

    Berry said he knew the song could have a wider appeal. “I thought it would seem biased to my white fans to say ‘colored boy’ so I changed it to ‘country boy,’ ” he added.

  52. 52.

    jl

    Last couple of days is where this Trump shit gets scary. Ol’ oilman Rex goes to South Korea and makes what is a de facto major policy announcement that we will actively consider a preemptive attack on North Korea if they continue on current path (sure, that is always ‘on the table’ but to pointedly remind people about that, is a de facto policy announcement). Then he talks like a dope and cuts the trip short. This morning I hear Trump blather on the radio. He thinks Germany is cheating us in some trade deal that doesn’t exist, he doesn’t understand how NATO is financed, and talks like a penny ante extortion bag man about raising our protection fee. Yeesh.

    Too many important institutions could get wrecked, Too much stuff wrecked. Too many people could die.

    This idiot is president. I don’t know what people can do. I guess keep scaring the crap out of the nearest GOP Congresscrud over 2018 and 2020 elections by contacting them telling them you are gong to personally do something to make sure they are out of their cush job after the next election. Hope they get scared enough to impeach or reign him in.

    Edit: And Ol’ Rex blathers about cutting State Dept. funding good news since we won’t need State Dept, since there will be fewer wars, while the US ramps up military spending and threatens war. Fucking idiot doesn’t know what he’s doing.

  53. 53.

    efgoldman

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    I will get on MARTA and come down.

    Would they even allow you into the gate area without a ticket? I haven’t been thru Atlanta in 25+ years, but they don’t at any other airport.

  54. 54.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @germy: I suspect that Chuck knew that “colored boy” would trigger rejection by radio station managers fearful of offending pristine white ears in the late Jim Crow era, and “country boy” would not. The fans just rocked out to the tune, and the lyrics were secondary.

  55. 55.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @efgoldman:

    I don’t know. When I worked for the Canadian Consulate I could usually get a diplomatic waiver, but it was a complicated process. Mnemosyne would probably have to leave the secure area. And I’d have to check the MARTA schedule to make sure I could get back before tomorrow morning. Even if I left right this minute to go to the nearest MARTA station, it would be at least 11:30 before I managed to get to the airport. It’s probably not the best idea, but maybe Mnem can phone me and vent a bit, which would be fine.

  56. 56.

    ruemara

    Filling out job applications for good old government jobs. Just when I thought I was out… on the plus side, if things go as I think they may, with me taking the fall for this project mess, I have a lot of people pledging housing. That warms the cockles.

    I also forgot how tiring being a singleton is. I finally went back to my apartment for at least today and between moving my stuff here, the mess my roommate made of the kitchen and trying to fill out these applications, I’m utterly shagged. And I’m almost out of painkillers so, that is also tiring.

  57. 57.

    Felonius Monk

    I first saw Chuck Berry live on Easter Sunday, 1958 at an Alan Freed Rock ‘n Roll show at the Cleveland Public Auditorium with my then girlfriend (later my wife). I remember it well ’cause I smacked up “my” car at 2 AM after I took her home.

    R.I.P. Chuck. I’ve loved your music ever since I first heard Maybellene and I still have the original 45.

  58. 58.

    Mary G

    I don’t know if anyone’s posted this yet, but I love Jason Kander. This is his response to one-of-the-few-people-who-deserved-getting-in-the-face Richard Spencer’s love of the song “Tomorrow Belongs to Me”

    Hey buddy, that song you love was written by my uncle. He's been married to my other uncle for 40 years. And he's a Jew. Sing it proud. https://t.co/yrL4242sl5— Jason Kander (@JasonKander) March 18, 2017

    I think this young man may just have a future in politics.

  62. 62.

    hueyplong

    Chuck Berry autographed the back of my Social Security card (it was the only non-laminated thing on me when I met him).

    Needless to say, I still have it.

  64. 64.

    Mnemosyne

    Hooray! We’re re-boarding! Hopefully we don’t all die a fiery death because they rushed the repair of the cargo bay!

  70. 70.

    Thru the Looking Glass...

    Just looked at a picture of chuck playing a Gibson ES-335… not sure I ever saw him playing anything else… I have one… they’re BIG farkin’ guitars… Chuck had yuuuuge hands… he could manhandle that guitar… just like Hendrix…

  74. 74.

    SFAW

    In my later high school years, my buddy and I wore a deep(er) groove in his copy of “Chuck Berry’s Golden Decade.” It was a double album, and a pretty low percentage of “filler” in it.

    For some reason, I’ve always been partial to “No Particular Place to Go” (which is not to say I don’t love all his other stuff).

    Sorry to see him go.

  76. 76.

    Mnemosyne

    The gate agent who finally sent someone for ice says she’s going to wheel me to the door. We’ll see. ?

  77. 77.

    Ruckus

    @jl:

    Fucking idiot doesn’t know what he’s doing.

    First of all QFT.
    Second, those seven words are doing a lot more work right now than pretty much any other seven words I can think of.

  79. 79.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Mnemosyne:

    For your sake, I hope it means you’re boarding and departing soon, even though it may do me out of a breakfast get-together with you! Keep us informed, okay?

  80. 80.

    Thru the Looking Glass...

    @Villago Delenda Est: Understandable…

    I do not think Donald can play guitar…

    Chuck and Jimi? Yes… Even Michael J. Fox was pretty decent… but Donald?

    Not so much…

  87. 87.

    debit

    @greennotGreen:

    *Atheists may ignore this comment, or talk about dogs.

    I’ve been looking at the dogs on the Humane Society website and I may head west to Buffalo tomorrow to see this little girl. I’m still feeling very ambivalent about adopting another dog. There are so many that need a home, and I could provide one, but I keep flip flopping on the pros and cons. Ellie has been down and maybe having a new friend will perk her up. But she’ll lose this one too, eventually. Should I get a younger dog? Should I not adopt anyone and concentrate on Ellie for a while? I don’t know.

  89. 89.

    Mike in NC

    Picture shows Trump is clearly ready for nap time and the sugar cookie and glass of milk that follow.

  90. 90.

    Ruckus

    @debit:
    Ellie seems like a dog that likes company. You seem like a person that likes dogs.
    I’d say go for it if you can.

  95. 95.

    Mary G

    @debit: I think Walter would cheer you on. But I also think about how hard it must be to get to know and love them and have them such a short time. Poor Kelpie. I wish I could take her.

  98. 98.

    geg6

    So I came home from the grocery store today and grabbed the mail on my way into the house. There was a big fat envelope addressed to me from the Federal Court in Pittsburgh. I’ve been called to jury duty. DO NOT WANT. They pay $40 a day and it will cost me almost that much to eat lunch if I have to go in. At least they pay for parking, which will be at least $20 a day in town. Shit.

  101. 101.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Mary G: I really really really hope Kander doesn’t turn out to be like Grayson and Weiner, the last two up-and-coming Democratic wits.

  103. 103.

    raven

    @geg6: My bride had it last week. She had to go in Monday, they told her she had a trial Friday and they let her off Thursday night. The last time I was on they had a group interview of 25 people. I was the only one who had ever been in a “physical confrontation”!!!!! The guy asked “can you tell us about that”. I said, “THAT? How much time you got”? They let me go.

  104. 104.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @FlipYrWhig: Having seen Kander’s ads, and also knowing a tad about his background, he doesn’t have the sleazemonster financier aura of Grayson, or the look at my jpgs little girl air of Weiner.

  105. 105.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @debit:

    Wow, Kelpie is a beauty, isn’t she? Must be hard to take on such a bundle of love knowing the time is limited — but she looks like someone who would bring great joy to you and Ellie, if you can bear the likely inevitable pain. And you seem like someone who is good at living in the moment. I say go for it, but obviously it’s not my call.

  109. 109.

    mike in dc

    His personal life was…problematic, but his contributions to music are both undeniable and indelible. RIP Chuck.

  110. 110.

    debit

    @Mary G:

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Buffalo is a fair distance away, so I’m going to call in the morning and get more details about her so I know what I’m dealing with. I wound up with Ellie when I went to look at a younger dog; we didn’t click and I saw her curled up in the back of her kennel, read her card with her age and said, “I’m taking her home.” No senior dog should be in a shelter.

  113. 113.

    Ruckus

    @debit:
    I was looking for a cat when I ran across Bud the cocker spaniel at a rescue org in the bay area. One of the best things I ever did was let him take care of me for a while. All I had to do was feed, walk and groom him. Such a deal.

  114. 114.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @FlipYrWhig: I think he and Seth Moulton may prove a bit further to the right for the comfort of a lot of people here, but neither strikes me as crazy or flat out stupid.

  115. 115.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I think they are a bit further left than you would think.

    ETA: A friend of mine who I am surprised is a Dem not a Green and lives in Salem was posting fanboi stuff about Moulton for a year before the election.

  116. 116.

    Another Scott

    @debit: It sounds like you’re going to go see her – good! I’m a firm believer that there should be some spark of connection when adopting a pet. Our first dog, “Colleen”, was very sweet and extremely submissive when we saw her in the shelter (rolled over on her back and peed), but I heard her bark once at us when she saw us taking another dog out. (That was the only bark we heard out of her for weeks afterwards.) She picked us.

    Maybe Kelpie will pick you too. :-) If not, don’t feel bad. Your next one is out there and will find you when it’s time.

    Good luck!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  117. 117.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Omnes Omnibus: Moulton was on the Obama Bros’ podcast last week and some of the things he said about foreign policy sounded a bit interventionist to me, a bit too much in line with those who think military force can resolve things, but it was all pretty vague and I might well be wrong

  121. 121.

    TenguPhule

    Still no pin point asteroid strike that wipes out the Trumpian gene pool.

    Next week marks the 2 month mourning period for the Death of the American Republic.

    I miss having a government that works and was not secretly trying to get us all killed for short term profits.

  122. 122.

    sukabi

    @TenguPhule: it’s really not a secret, is it? They are pretty openly mocking everyone. Drumpfs “budget”, the no health care bill, ECT…and their reasoning for these things is just >< this short of openly telling everyone to f off and die.

  123. 123.

    Mnemosyne

    Just to close the loop — made it safely back to LA, almost three hours late. Am currently laying on the couch with an ice pack on my knee before I go to bed.

  124. 124.

    Elizabelle

    @Mnemosyne: We expect traveling pics. Welcome back; good luck with the knee. Am sure the nieces will remember their trip forever.

  125. 125.

    Ithink

    @Felonius Monk:
    That’s amazing that you remember that performance and still have that original record! Your generation (I’m a twilight millennial having been a designated early 90’s baby) is as much a catalyst to that irreconcilable (musical) history as the artist themselves ate. What an incredible iconoclast to rock & roll we just lost!

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