Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

So many bastards, so little time.

This really is a full service blog.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

Everything is totally normal and fine!!!

She burned that motherfucker down, and I am so here for it. Thank you, Caroline Kennedy.

You cannot shame the shameless.

Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson is the bland and smiling face of evil.

Republicans firmly believe having an abortion is a very personal, very private decision between a woman and J.D. Vance.

Giving up is unforgivable.

I did not have this on my fuck 2025 bingo card.

Trump’s cabinet: like a magic 8 ball that only gives wrong answers.

Dumb motherfuckers cannot understand a consequence that most 4 year olds have fully sorted out.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

“I was told there would be no fact checking.”

It’s the corruption, stupid.

Trumpflation is an intolerable hardship for every American, and it’s Trump’s fault.

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

Mediocre white men think RFK Jr’s pathetic midlife crisis is inspirational. The bar is set so low for them, it’s subterranean.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

The rest of the comments were smacking Boebert like she was a piñata.

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

You are here: Home / Open Threads / The World is Flat

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93Comments

  1. 1.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    Wonder if they played Acheron’s Call back in the day….

  4. 4.

    pat

    OK, I was out of town when the flat earth thread was up. so this is where I will leave this:
    There is a Catholic crackpot who has written a book called “Galileo was wrong, the Church was right” proving that EVERYTHING REVOLVES AROUND THE EARTH, WHICH IS FIXED IN SPACE. Top that, flat-earthers.

  5. 5.

    Patricia Kayden

    @rikyrah: Everything that reporter said about Trump isolating the U.S. and abdicating leadership is so true though. And I see Princess Ivanka in that video. Is she his co-President? Feels like it.

  6. 6.

    debbie

    @rikyrah:

    According to the comments, that reporter is pretty conservative.

    In every video I’ve seen of the G20, Trump turns and looks off to the left. What’s up with that?

  7. 7.

    ProudGradofCatLadyAcademy

    Hello.

    Checking in after two months of the moves from hell. Not only did I move but I moved my sister and shut down my dad’s house, which we are turning the keys over to the new owners this week, so that is good.
    MY workspace is set up for work but not personal computer desk set up as of yet. Every time I want to use my personal computer I have to unplug and replug in various hardware. A KVM is on order and on the way which will help, and maybe my personal workspace will have a more permanent home. I thought my two and a half bedroom was small, but 550 so feet even for just a cat and I is really small and configuring it all is difficult for the spatially challenged.

    I do read the posts on my phone though! I didn’t know Green Not Green, and offer condolences to all her friends here on the recent loss.
    John Cole’s cat stories this week made me laugh in sympathy and then make a vet’s appointment for PBC(Princess Buttercup) she is slightly overweight and is actually due for a yearly anyway.
    Mr. Anderson’s healthcare posts in all their wonky glory make me look like a rock star at work, and people assume I am smarter than I am. I sense a promotion soon, which I am thinking of declining for personal reasons. I like punching in, doing my eight and then turning it all off and shutting the metaphorical door until the next weekday morning. It probably makes me a bad worker in today’s 21st century, but I can claim I am old status.

    Neighborhood notes:
    I decided to start to try to build a community here in my new home. It’s…challenging. I will say it dawned on me that I actually live in what some people would call a redneck ghetto? (Is that term for rural poverty -stricken areas?) . I organized a barbecue for the 4th of July, of which all the single men showed up for-(tasty brats from the family meat market helped) which was indeed surprising. I have a cast of characters here, and listening to these men, I can see where angry white working class /poor male Trump voter base meme comes from. My favorite of my neighborhood crew is a former meth (crank as he calls it ) cooker/dealer addict. Johnny has been clean and sober from meth for nine years, but he can’t say the same about alcohol. On the 4th he started drinking at 11 am, and our party was at 5:30 pm. Johnny is kind, funny, talkative and has that haunted look in his blue eyes that can only come from hard knocks and harder choices. The other day, he said he needed to get his application for MNsure in, as he was out of medicine and his legs had swollen up. I grabbed my laptop and we sat at the old school picnic table and filled out the application together. He’s solid, but like a lot of the men I encountered here on the Iron Range, one step from losing it all, emotionally, physically and mentally.

    Okay, more on this cast of characters, and they are characters and frightening and dangerous in many ways. it’s like I am sitting on a powder keg of anger and resentment sailing on the H.M.S. Hypermasculinity. More later if it’s interesting to anyone.

    .

  8. 8.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Open thread? Good.

    Question for the Balloon Juice hive mind. It used to be very easy to share a link to a YouTube video — I would just pull it up, click on the little curvy arrow, select “copy link,” and paste it in my email or blog comment or Facebook post or whatever.

    But in the past few days, that doesn’t seem to be an option. When I touch the screen, instead of bringing up the curvy arrow, everything just stops. I’ve tried clicking on every icon, but to no avail. Have also completely rebooted my iPad in case something was getting hung up internally.

    For those of you who care, I am on an iPad Air, using Safari as my browser. Any suggestions?

  12. 12.

    RepubAnon

    If the world is flat, are we sailing through the void on the back of a giant space turtle? If so, where’s Anhk-Morpork?

  15. 15.

    ProudGradofCatLadyAcademy

    @@SiubhanDuinne: @SiubhanDuinne:

    When you say curvy arrow on my Youtube it’s more like the Less than sign with dots on the triangle point and the two open lines. I can click on that and it gives me an option to share email, text, etc.

  24. 24.

    debbie

    Richard M. Nixon
    @dick_nixon

    I have two intelligent and capable daughters. If I ever had them take my place in public life I would be lazy. A shirker. A deserter.

  25. 25.

    ThresherK

    Baking fancy little blueberry puff pastry pies. Going into the oven they look barely more interesting than Pop-Tarts, but they come out looking like the gourmet treats they are.

    After making two sheet pans of them I still have six pints of blueberries left. Tomorrow night: A deep-dish pie.

  28. 28.

    Ohio Mom

    @ProudGradofCatLadyAcademy: Sounds interesting to me — can you refresh my memory about why/how you ended up in the hinterlands?

    About living small: the decorating blog Apartmenttherapy used to specialize in small spaces, though they have evolved into a more generic shelter mag. But their old annual Small Cool contest featured people making tiny spaces liveable and adorable, and there are surely ideas for you there with just a little goggling. Because 550 sq feet IS a challenge.

  29. 29.

    Aleta

    @debbie:
    Ted Lieu @tedlieu
    Based on Ivanka Trump example, I’m going to ask Speaker Ryan if my son can sit in for me at the next House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing

  30. 30.

    JPL

    hmmm
    The First Lady returned to US aboard Air Force One, but didn’t board Marine One for flight to WH.

  37. 37.

    JPL

    @chris: UK visit is soon, but not sure when. I guess she could take a limo to the WH but that involves more security. I assume he’ll be tweeting later, to share his thoughts.

  39. 39.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @SiubhanDuinne:
    @ProudGradofCatLadyAcademy:
    @SiubhanDuinne:

    I’ve figured out a workaround. It’s cumbersome and clumsy, but it works..

    They’ve put the little curvy arrow down below the video screen, just above the YouTube comments. When you click on the curvy arrow, you get choices such as Facebook, Twitter, email, and a couple of others. I tried Facebook but it sets things up in a new FB post rather than allowing you to plug in the link where you want it to go.

    So then I chose email, and sent an email to myself. Then I open the new email in my inbox, copy the YouTube link, and paste it where I want it. As I say, awkward and cumbersome, but for the moment it seems to work. But I don’t know why they couldn’t have left well enough alone. (Grump grump grump, whine and moan.)

  40. 40.

    chris

    @JPL: Don’t know where I got the impression they were going to stop off on the way home but maybe that’s too informal. Or he hasn’t been invited yet and won’t be soon.

  41. 41.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    DUUUUHHH.

    That’s what I used to do before they introduced the little arrow a few years ago.

    Boy, do I feel stupid now. Thanks for reminding me of the basics.

  42. 42.

    Jim Parish

    @chris: That theory was fairly popular in the 19th century. Remember Invictus? “Out of the night that covers me / Black as the pit from pole to pole”? If what I’ve heard is right, “the pit from pole to pole” is a reference to the hollow-earth theory.

  43. 43.

    a thousand flouncing lurkers (was fidelio)

    So there’s a company called Jas. Townsend & Son that sells gear to early American reenactors. This being the 21st century, they have a YouTube channel, and just finished a series at Mt. Vernon. In the last episode, one of the Mt. Vernon staff made a fancy custard called an orange fool from Hannah Glasse’s cookbook–an original 18th century cookbook.

    Townsend got, to his despair, blowback from people who apparently didn’t bother to watch the video.

  46. 46.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Aleta: Most of the trolley lines back then had tracks, they tore them out in the mid 50’s. We had the Red Car(Pacific Electric RR(Huntington)) and the Yellow Car(LARR). Haven’t you seen ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit”?

  47. 47.

    efgoldman

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    Since ef is off to dinner or his nap; it was a bit over 2 years from the Watergate break-in to Nixon’s resignation.

    You have learned well, Grasshopper.

    Whenever they tell you “it’s day surgery, completely routine”, that means completely routine FOR THEM!

  51. 51.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @efgoldman:

    “it’s day surgery, completely routine”, that means completely routine FOR THEM!

    You do know my step-daughter is a surgical nurse?

    You have learned well, Grasshopper.

    Actually, I’m old enough to remember it.

  54. 54.

    chris

    @efgoldman: I”m still trying to figure out how one profits from hiding the true shape of the world. If there’s money in it I sure can’t see it.

    Hmm, maybe it’s “over the horizon.”

  55. 55.

    efgoldman

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    You do know my step-daughter is a surgical nurse?

    I didn’t
    The nurses were all super nice and considerate; doesn’t help how I felt for the last couple days.
    Any it’s MY body – I can bitch and whine if I want to. I’m old enough.

  57. 57.

    efgoldman

    @Gin & Tonic:

    Like the definition of “minor surgery” – that means “on somebody else.”

    Isn’t/wasn’t as bad as your wrist. But you sort of did it to yourself.

  58. 58.

    Aleta

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Good point; I saw RR a long time ago and forgot about that. But recently I saw some 1930s LA pics of the trackless lines that I thought preceded the track ones. They looked beautiful against the buildings and skyline.

    In Toronto even in the 70s, my aunt would take us downtown and around on the streetcars.

  59. 59.

    Patricia Kayden

    @JPL: She and Trump are not in love and aren’t even trying to pretend anymore. Good thing the White House has so many bedrooms.

  61. 61.

    efgoldman

    @Aleta:

    In Toronto even in the 70s, my aunt would take us downtown and around on the streetcars.

    I’m barely old enough to remember having taken the (Type 5) trolley from South Station out to City Point and the old Boston Aquarium – to find out it had closed, permanently.
    Also, when my grandparents followed the migration from the West End to Blue hill Avenue, the trolley still ran (but not much longer) from Egleston Square when the Orange Line (which wasn’t designated that, yet) ran overhead the whole length of Washington Street from Dover Street to Forest Hills.
    The trackless trolleys still run from Harvard Square to Watertown and Belmont, and i think from Lechmere (or whatever it’s called now) out to Medford and Somerville.

  62. 62.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Aleta: Some of the tracked lines go back to the late 1800’s. LA had one of the finest and far reaching transit systems in the country and we tore it all up. Now we’re just starting to rebuild it.

  63. 63.

    chris

    @Matt McIrvin: What a great man! That explains so much! LOL

    Too bad ol’ Cyrus was born too early for talk radio, he’d have quite the following today.

  64. 64.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Tissue Thin Pseudonym:

    So, how do these flat earthers explain the phenomenon of time zones and the sun coming up at different times at different locations?

    They have explanations for those things, but they don’t make any sense. The most common claim is that the sun actually circles above the earth in a sort of flat orbit, and day and night happen in different places at different times because its light is directional, like a spotlight. Now, as to how that could cause the sun to appear to rise and set rather than sort of winking on and off, there they really start flailing and denying conventional optics, talking about how “the vanishing point” is a mere artifact of our limited senses. Trying to make sense of it will give you a headache.

  66. 66.

    Ruckus

    I have a question.
    How did drumpf fuck up so bad as to make the world flat and yet we can still breathe and communicate? I mean I know it has to be his fault, who else could fuck up that big?

  70. 70.

    ProudGradofCatLadyAcademy

    @Ohio Mom:

    Loved apt therapy’s small cool spaces! they do have good tips. What makes my apt not a studio is I actually have a door between my open space living area and my bedroom. I really like it though. I live in the Principal’s office of a former rural school building.

    I rented from Dad for a long time but had to do all the upkeep etc, myself. It just got to be too much for me, and my dad always wanted to sell. I don’t want to buy and be tied down to this area and dad wanted to sell the house. So, with rent in the closest bigger city being super expensive, (1k-2k for 1 bedroom) and rents 50-60 miles north of there being 400-600 less on average, I chose to rent here. $550 for everything.

  71. 71.

    Aleta

    @efgoldman: When my grandfather was a boy in Wilton CT, he and his brothers decided to find out how far they could get traveling only by trolley (or streetcar, I forget). I think they went in to NYC or somewhere else to start, but I’m not sure about the starting place. They got up to Maine before they turned back.

  72. 72.

    ProudGradofCatLadyAcademy

    @JPL:

    One of my neighbors, who I will write more about later, went from being a Bernie Bro to Trump, or so our other neighbor told me. I had my tablet down on our “man cave” patio- more on that later- and I keep a band-aid over the camera portion. He asked me why I kept the band-aid on the camera. and when I told him that it’s easy for me to “bump” my apps, I didn’t’ want it firing up accidentally. He then asked me if I knew who Alex Jones was and if I knew about InfoWars and when I said I knew of them, he turned to his best buddy and said “She’s one of us, I knew it!” . … yes. it’s going to be an interesting year.

  73. 73.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @ProudGradofCatLadyAcademy: My old high school has been turned into apartments. If I ever had to move back to Central Wisconsin, I would seriously consider that as a place. But only locations where i both enjoyed the class and got a good grade.

  75. 75.

    efgoldman

    @Aleta:

    he and his brothers decided to find out how far they could get traveling only by trolley (or streetcar, I forget).

    I was a train nut, or more an electric railway nut, and subscribed to all the magazines. I think I can remember articles that said you could ride trolleys, streetcars, or electric interurban cars from the East Coast at several starting points (including ME and VT) all the way to Chicago or St Louis. I don’t think you could get all the way to the West Coast over the mountains.
    For a couple of years in the late 80s/early 90s I was member of the Seashore Trolley Museum in Kennebunk, ME. I still love it, but now it’s not a convenient drive from RI.

  77. 77.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @ProudGradofCatLadyAcademy: Take care of what needs taking care of. My family has owned land in the Northwoods of WI for 75 years and we’ve known the year-rounders up there for that long. I know your neighbors.

  78. 78.

    ProudGradofCatLadyAcademy

    o@Omnes Omnibus:

    I poked my head out, and it’s stopped for now. Quiet building usually no one is out late like that, the bugs get to them.
    That would be awesome if you were in my area

  79. 79.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @ProudGradofCatLadyAcademy: Meant, of course, figuratively. Also, you need to put the bugspray on your hands and run them through your hair at least twice.

    I mention historical things and connections. I do not mention modern politics.

  82. 82.

    frosty

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    LA had one of the finest and far reaching transit systems in the country and we tore it all up.

    To be fair, you had a lot of help from Standard Oil, Firestone, etc.

  83. 83.

    frosty

    @Aleta: That sounds like the interurban, a city-to-city trolley system. They decided they’d compete with the steam railroads by paralleling their tracks and skimming off the passenger traffic. Which, as it turned out, was the railroads’ money-losing traffic. The interurbans pretty much all failed during the Depression, but they were a cool transit system when the lasted.

    And BillinGlendaleCA’s transit system, the Pacific Electric, was one of the biggest.

    Late to the thread again, if anyone’s listening.

  84. 84.

    a thousand flouncing lurkers (was fidelio)

    @Miss Bianca: My reaction could be summed up with one of those new-fangled acronyms I see on the twitters all the time: SMDH.

  86. 86.

    Brachiator

    @frosty:

    .

    LA had one of the finest and far reaching transit systems in the country and we tore it all up.

    To be fair, you had a lot of help from Standard Oil, Firestone, etc.

    People like to romanticize the old LA transit system. It was insufficient for the growing Southern California metropolitan area.

    People also falsely over-emphasize the role of the oil companies, etc in transforming the system. Many rail systems were turned into bus routes because the rail systems were costly and losing money. The rest is history.

    It’s interesting that people see driverless cars as a better long term solution than a return to rail.

    There are also these weird fantasies in Southern California that we can force people to live in massive residential blocks close to rail lines so that the public rail system will become more desirable.

  87. 87.

    Amir Khalid

    @a thousand flouncing lurkers (was fidelio):
    @Miss Bianca:
    I’m familiar with that YouTube channel. It’s all about educating viewers on how people lived in the early days of white settlement in America, what they ate (lots of recioe videos!), what they wore, and so on. No modern-day politics at all. The host is quite right to be upset.

  88. 88.

    frosty

    @Brachiator: True. Interurbans were a failing business and maybe National City Lines, trolleybuses and buses were the only way to get out from under the capital and maintenance expense. But nevertheless, look at the ownership.

    As for forcing people to live near transit, ain’t gonna happen. But look at Toronto and Arlington VA. They did a pretty good job of zoning and in incentives to maximize the usage and value of transit conne tions.

  89. 89.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    You might be better off going to YouTube via your browser rather than using the dedicated YouTube app. My tablet is Android, not an iPad, but I find that the YouTube app is clumsy to use. But perhaps that’s just my preference.

  90. 90.

    Ruckus

    @Brachiator:
    A big problem with the old LA rail system was the routes weren’t really getting people where they wanted to go. And building more was a non starter from both a financial, political and financial standpoint. So they used electric buses. Stringing wires was easy and adding another bus was a lot cheaper. Also that created more jobs.
    And the current Metro system runs on old right of ways, the Expo line from downtown to Santa Monica runs on the red line (the old system) right of way. (I know you know this but a lot of people don’t) But without the bus system it would not work because there just isn’t enough land left or politically available to add more tracks or stations unless they can use the same right of ways. That’s how the Expo line was extended all the way to Santa Monica and how the Gold line is being expanded to I believe Riverside. The Metro and Metrolink systems carry a lot of people every day and barely make a dent in traffic.

  91. 91.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym

    @Brachiator:

    There are also these weird fantasies in Southern California that we can force people to live in massive residential blocks close to rail lines so that the public rail system will become more desirable.

    Here in the Twin Cities, huge numbers of apartments are going up, or are already up, around the light rail metro stations. No force has been needed.

  92. 92.

    Brachiator

    @Ruckus: The most recent Gold Line extension was from Pasadena to Azusa. The second phase will continue the line for 12 miles east from Azusa to Montclair.

    It’s crazy. The extension to Azusa has been a success, but as you note, it makes barely a dent in traffic. And the most dramatic impact has been to dramatically reduce ridership on Foothill line 187 to a trickle. Also, sadly enough, tv and radio news pretty much ignores Metro and dying newspapers have not done much more than provide superficial coverage. But as a rider, I have noticed not only commuters, but groups of young people riding the Gold Line from Azusa and nearby stations into Pasadena or traveling on into South Pasadena or downton LA. Here, the travel is direct, a number of stops, but little need to transfer to get to fun places.

    Metrolink is another beast. Service has actually been reduced, in part because of the costs of lawsuits after a couple of major accidents. Also, the reduction or elimination of buses and shuttles from train stations to work locations dramatically reduces the benefits of commuting. And Metrolink also has to yield to freight service, which uses the same tracks.

    Anyway, a lot of interconnected issues make improving public transit here a hell of a challenge.

  93. 93.

    Brachiator

    @Tissue Thin Pseudonym:

    Here in the Twin Cities, huge numbers of apartments are going up, or are already up, around the light rail metro stations. No force has been needed.

    Southern California is a different animal, for a lot of reasons. We have adapted to and build around car culture. But also, dealing with the reality and possibility of earthquakes influenced building decisions. New technology has reduced some of the risks that moderate earthquakes might cause, but issues are still there. Also, even if you had massive residential building, people need to go too many different places with too many different travel times.

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