Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The US Supreme Court is on the ballot in november.

There is one struggling party in US right now, and it’s not the Democrats.

People are complicated. Love is not.

Don’t expect peaches from an apple tree.

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

The Supreme Court cannot be allowed to become the ultimate, unaccountable arbiter of everything.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

He really is that stupid.

The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

Biden: Oh no. We’ve upset Big Pharma again.

Cole, when it comes to calico cats, restraint is overrated.

Innocent people don’t delay justice.

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

Please don’t feed the bears.

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

Republicans don’t trust women.

It’s not hopeless, and we’re not helpless.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

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

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Archives for April 2017

Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Priceless

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Apart from the usual Trump-related shenanigans, what’s on the agenda for the day?


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On The Road

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Good Morning All,

This weekday feature is for Balloon Juicers who are on the road, travelling, etc. and wish to share notes, links, pictures, stories, etc. from their escapades. As the US mainland begins the end of the Earth day as we measure it, many of us rise to read about our friends and their transient locales.

So, please, speak up and share some of your adventures, observations, and sights as you explore, no matter where you are. By concentrating travel updates here, it’s easier for all to keep up-to-date on the adventures of our fellow Commentariat. And it makes finding some travel tips or ideas from 6 months ago so much easier to find…

Have at ’em, and have a safe day of travels!

 

Should you have any pictures (tasteful, relevant, etc….) you can email them to [email protected] or just use this nifty link to start an email: Start an Email to send a Picture to Post on Balloon Juice

 

Finishing up..

show full post on front page

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Open Thread: Don’t Think of It As Plagiarism — Gorsuch Just Declared ‘Eminent Domain’ on Lesser Writers’ Words

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*Is* Neil Gorsuch a plagiarist? As an intro to the way Our Media works, the Twitter storyline is kinda fascinating…

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Late Night Open Thread: You Thought Mad Men Was A 1960s Remake?…

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The Dunning-Kruger effect, it’s not just the old man’s problem:

… “Nepotism is kind of a factor of life,” Trump told Forbes in an interview that took place in February.

Eric Trump said that he and his siblings “might be here because of nepotism” but would not have sustained that status if they “weren’t competent.”…

“You know the one thing, Don, Ivanka and I never let him down really in any factor of life,” he said. “And I think it’s one of the reasons that we’re as innately close as we are.”

Eric Trump said that eight years ago, he and his brother “would have been too big of question marks” for their father to do “the presidential thing” and turn over the family company.

“I think hopefully we earned our stripes,” he said. “And I think that’s ultimately why we’re in the seat we’re in.”

Dude, if you and Uday had never disappointed Daddy Dearest, he wouldn’t be leaning so hard on his Fortunate Son-in-Law. Who seems to be somewhat smarter than you two — not a high bar — but not smart enough that he isn’t showing his… exaggerated estimate of his own abilities, a mere two months into what he seemingly hoped would be a Kushner Regency.

How much does Steve ‘Alt-Reich’ Bannon love the way busy little Jared has made himself a target for every other aspiring thug in the Trump Oval Office Crime Cartel?

Remember, with Repubs, it’s always projection…

THANKS SO MUCH FOR GIVING THESE GONIFFS THEIR CHANCE, REPUBLICANS!

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4 April 1967: Dr. King’s Speech on Vietnam

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Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated on 4 April 1968 in Memphis Tennessee. He gave his final speech that day in support of striking sanitation workers. It was also one year to the day from his speech about the Vietnam War. MLK’s Beyond Vietnam speech was delivered 50 years ago today. Given all the tumult going on in general, and the events of the day in specific, it is important to stop, step back, and reflect on Dr. King’s life’s work and the words he spoke on two different April 4ths a year apart.

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North Korea Tests Another Missile

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From US Pacific Command (USPACOM):

U.S. Pacific Command Detects, Tracks North Korean Missile Launch

By CDR David Benham | U.S. Pacific Command | April 04, 2017

CAMP H.M. SMITH, Hawaii — The U.S. Pacific Command (USPACOM) detected and tracked what we assess was a North Korean missile launch at 11:42 a.m. Hawaii-Aleutian Standard Time, April 4. The launch of a single ballistic missile occurred at a land-based facility near Sinpo.

The missile was tracked until it landed in the Sea of Japan at 11:51 a.m.

Initial assessments indicate that the type of missile was a KN-15 medium-range ballistic missile (MRBM).

USPACOM is fully committed to working closely with our Republic of Korea and Japanese allies to maintain security.

The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) determined that the missile launch from North Korea did not pose a threat to North America.

An Administration official has issued the following statement:

A senior White House official issued a dire warning to reporters Tuesday on the state of North Korea’s nuclear program, declaring “the clock has now run out and all options are on the table.”

“The clock has now run out, and all options are on the table,” the official said, pointing to the failure of successive administration’s efforts to negotiate an end to North Korea’s nuclear program.
The senior White House official who issued Tuesday’s ominous missive also said North Korea is a “matter of urgent interest for the President and the administration as a whole” and emphasized that “all options are on the table.”
Those options could include stepped up economic sanctions — including against Chinese entities that do business with North Korea — cyberattacks or military action.
Earlier Tuesday, Gen. John Hyten, the commander of US Strategic Command, which oversees US nuclear weapons and missile defense forces, contradicted Trump, saying China was critical to solving the North Korea nuclear challenge.
As I wrote last week, the biggest issue here is that we have a dearth of expertise. While we do have a handful of really sharp subject matter experts on North Korea, we don’t have a lot. And most of the folks you’ll see opining on what to do are not these subject matter experts. And this deficit of knowledge is combined with a new Administration that is not properly or fully staffed. As a result Kim Jong Un, like Bashar al Assad and others, will continue to probe, prod, and push the new Administration to see what they can and cannot get away with.
Stay frosty!

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More Self Inflicted Wounds

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Red states, proving H.L. Mencken right over and over and over again:

The National Association of Rail Passengers, the premiere national organization speaking for the nearly 40 million users of passenger trains and rail transit, denounced the budget outline released today by the Trump Administration, which slashes investment in transportation infrastructure. These cuts to Amtrak, transit, and commuter rail programs, and even air service to rural towns, would not only cost construction and manufacturing jobs, but place a disproportionate amount of pain on rural and working class communities.

“It’s ironic that President Trump’s first budget proposal undermines the very communities whose economic hardship and sense of isolation from the rest of the country helped propel him into office,” said NARP President Jim Mathews. “These working class communities—many of them located in the Midwest and the South—were tired of being treated like ‘flyover country.’ But by proposing the elimination of Amtrak’s long distance trains, the Trump Administration does them one worse, cutting a vital service that connects these small town economies to the rest of the U.S. These hard working, small town Americans don’t have airports or Uber to turn to; they depend on these trains.”

On top of the jobs Amtrak provides (and those who service the tracks and provide security, etc.), you have to wonder how many other businesses will be hurt by these cuts- diners, motels, rental car companies, etc. And look where the cuts happen:

That ain’t the Acela corridor.

Wingnuts never cease to amaze me how much pain they are willing to inflict on themselves to make rich people happy.

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