Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

“In the future, this lab will be a museum. do not touch it.”

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

I am pretty sure these ‘journalists’ were not always such a bootlicking sycophants.

America is going up in flames. The NYTimes fawns over MAGA celebrities. No longer a real newspaper.

Live so that if you miss a day of work people aren’t hoping you’re dead.

Oh FFS you might as well trust a 6-year-old with a flamethrower.

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

Donald Trump found guilty as fuck – May 30, 2024!

… gradually, and then suddenly.

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

“When somebody takes the time to draw up a playbook, they’re gonna use it.”

Books are my comfort food!

Disappointing to see gov. newsom with his finger to the wind.

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

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

The gop is a fucking disgrace.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

We can show the world that autocracy can be defeated.

A tremendous foreign policy asset… to all of our adversaries.

DeSantis transforming Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Afternoon Open Thread: What the Duck?

Afternoon Open Thread: What the Duck?

by | 105 Comments

This post is in: 

Looks like we are long overdue for an open thread.

When I was driving back home, stopped for a break and saw this. Made us laugh.

The ducks are still here. I’m evaluating their health at the moment. We may have found some good places for them, but I don’t want to move them until I’m sure they’re in good shape. Once they settled in, it was clear they were very stressed, but are recovering quickly.

Water is the best stress reliever for these guys. So they’re using Bixby’s pool and love to play in the sprinkler.

Open thread.

Also: recipe thread is planned for this evening, but since I have company in town and we’ll be gone all day tomorrow, I’m afraid no writing group.

Reader Interactions

105Comments

  1. 1.

    Keith P.

    I had a couple of ducks as pets growing up (white ones). I think we got them for Easter or something. Anyway, any time it would rain, we’d see them outside humping. Then the eggs came, and they never, ever hatched. Turns out, we had two females.

  3. 3.

    PsiFighter37

    I cannot wait to go on vacation and disconnect. Going to hike the Alps for almost 2 weeks. Will not read the news, will simply unplug and enjoy the simpler things in life. 12 days to go…

  12. 12.

    Mnemosyne

    @Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD):

    The Soviet era joke in this tweeter’s nym is pretty subtle if you scan it too fast like I did, but other people in the thread got it and expanded on her original joke:

    (((Yonatan Zunger))) @yonatanzunger
    ·
    20h
    @Kristinetweets, I think you may also have one of the most disturbing names on Twitter. :)

    BeriaWouldHaveWon!
    BeriaWouldHaveWon! @Kristinetweets
    ·
    20h
    Thanks. I try. For the people.

    clams onassis
    clams onassis @nemoklatura
    ·
    1h
    besides everyone knows Dzerzhinsky would have won

    BeriaWouldHaveWon!
    BeriaWouldHaveWon! @Kristinetweets
    ·
    54m
    Dzerzhinbots. And don’t call me a Lavrenbro.

  13. 13.

    Yarrow

    Glad the ducks are recovering well.

    I’m hiding with the shades drawn because the heat is relentless. I detest summer.

  14. 14.

    Susan K of the tech support

    I highly recommend this Frum piece, with a 10-point assessment of where the Republican are post-skinny repeal fail. Confession: I felt happy and lighthearted when I read it.

    Democratic constituencies have been mobilized to an intensity not seen since the worst days of the Iraq war.
    …
    Republican constituencies have been split and demoralized.
    …
    Donors are hearing that funds donated to the Republican National Committee and other party funds have been used to pay the personal legal bills of the supposedly super-rich Trump family

    Besides Dems staying focused, and also highlighting the downsides (Donate to the party, pay for rich scion’s lawyers!) to deepen fractures in Rep party, what other ways can we press the advantage here?

  16. 16.

    Yarrow

    @Susan K of the tech support:

    Donors are hearing that funds donated to the Republican National Committee and other party funds have been used to pay the personal legal bills of the supposedly super-rich Trump family

    That seems like it would have to piss off donors.

  19. 19.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Susan K of the tech support: word is that trump’s freak-out about Sessions is rooted in fear that Mueller has probably gotten hold of his tax returns. If Republicans were smart and even a little bit brave, they would put a leash on him by letting him know that they had them, too. They wouldn’t necessarily be made public, but it would be as effective a check on trump as they can muster, short of/until impeachment. I think we should start pestering R Senators to get hold of those returns. Then again, the Burr/Warner committee might well have done that already.

  23. 23.

    Redshift

    @Roger Moore:

    Trump does not like pizza; he was paid to endorse a pizza-like substance.

    So, trying to make a point in an idiotic way and lying about it. Trump spokesman in a nutshell.

  24. 24.

    Roger Moore

    @Susan K of the tech support:

    Donors are hearing that funds donated to the Republican National Committee and other party funds have been used to pay the personal legal bills of the supposedly super-rich Trump family

    How do you think he keeps his money? It isn’t by spending it when he can get somebody else to pay for stuff for him.

  26. 26.

    Mnemosyne

    I was trying to figure out what the really familiar music was coming from another apartment, and it turned out to be from Moana. Someone must be watching the movie with their kids. Right now, “How Far I’ll Go” is playing.

  27. 27.

    Roger Moore

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    Didn’t you see the pics of him and Snowbilly Snookie eating pizza with a knife and fork?

    Still not evidence that he likes pizza. And, BTW, I think a knife and fork is a reasonable way of eating the first slice of pizza when it’s still hot out of the oven. You cut it up into smaller pieces so it cools a bit faster and doesn’t burn the roof of your mouth. (Cue hipster joke)

  30. 30.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD): Except he wasn’t a Nazi. And he served 25 years in the Soviet Gulag followed by 5 years in regular prison after the was for being a member of the OUN, so perhaps some form of justice or retribution (depending on where you sit) had been served.

  32. 32.

    Frankensteinbeck

    Why do you think they cannot survive on their own? They look like ordinary ducks to me, creatures of spite, cruelty, and the most sophisticatedly evolved rape machines in nature. I guess if you caught them, they can’t fly?

  35. 35.

    ET

    I did something today I never have before- rescued a crow.

    I was going to the post office and this crow was just sitting in someone’s yard. Was awake and upright but didn’t move much when I got close and when two passing dogs whined loudly real close. It didn’t flap or make nose, or even much effort to get away. That just didn’t seem right.

    I called it in but when I passed by about an hour later it had jumped across a fairly busy two lane street and was having trouble jumping up on a curb. Went home and got the cat crate and a towel. Took me less than a minute to get it into the cage which just seemed too easy for a healthy bird. I took it to the city shelter which will get it to the people to look at it. It didn’t make a single caw or peep the entire 20 minute ride.

    Don’t know if it was too young to leave the nest – it was big but didn’t seem full grown. Or if it got banged around in the ghastly rain and win. Hope its OK.

  36. 36.

    Ohio Mom

    Thanks, now I want pizza for dinner.

    Wonder if I can talk Ohio Dad and Son into some. They may be developing their own yens.

  37. 37.

    Thoughtful David

    A response to something I thought of reading the dead thread below:
    Sessions’ ass is in a crack. He really, really needs that pardon, or else he’s spending some significant time in an orange jumpsuit. Even in the country-club prison they’d send him to, there would be some people who weren’t so happy to have an AG an there with them. Dropped bar of soap in the shower, etc.
    So he has to get that pardon. The options aren’t great:
    * Get fired? No pardon.
    * Resign without guarantee? No pardon.
    Leaving only option 3:
    * Resign after negotiating a pardon.

    My guess is that he’s trying to get #3. His not in a good place, though, for negotiating. He’s got Mueller breathing down his neck. And his boss hates him and wants him out, and his boss holds that all-important pardon card. His only card is to turn states evidence, and that still might end up with some time in an orange jumpsuit.

    I think his remaining political career is going to be measured in a few weeks at most.

    Whatever happens, he’s going to be spending a lot of funds on lawyer’s fees for the rest of his life. If he’s not having to pay them to defend him from charges, he’ll still have to be paying lawyers to make sure his testimony keeps him out of perjury. His dreams of screwing brown people for a few years then retiring to the wingnut welfare circuit is probably going to have to be scaled back quite a bit.

  40. 40.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Some pizzas require a knife and fork. The kind that are so limp that the toppings slide off into your lap if you pick them up, forex.

  41. 41.

    Yarrow

    So, about John Kelly and his new job…

    In May 1973, as the Watergate scandal deepened, Richard Nixon took the unusual step of making a general his new White House Chief of Staff.— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) July 28, 2017

  43. 43.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Yarrow: I was reading Twitter feeds of a couple of immigration lawyers and realized that Kelly has been mouthing the same rhetoric as his boss about America being under attack from hordes of “immigrant criminals”.
    He is lovely, that General.

  44. 44.

    sm*t cl*de

    @Redshift:
    The best part of that Beeb interview is where Scaramouch reminds the viewers of Trump’s contempt for the poors:

    “He knows how to operate in the elitist world and has unbelievable empathy for the common struggle that’s going on with the middle-class people and the lower middle-class people,” he said.

  48. 48.

    Yarrow

    Oh, yeah. This is going to go well.

    Donald J. Trump‏
    @realDonaldTrump

    Unless the Republican Senators are total quitters, Repeal & Replace is not dead! Demand another vote before voting on any other bill!
    1:36 PM – 29 Jul 2017

  52. 52.

    mai naem mobile

    @schrodingers_cat: He also looks similar to the COS on Madam Secretary so Dolt 45 cast him as a mid season replacement for Reince who wasnt playing well with the other cast members.

  53. 53.

    efgoldman

    @Mnemosyne:

    if you don’t like Disney musicals, you are in for a long slog with your granddaughter.

    I can’t hear them from 400 miles away.
    Actually I like most, especially the classic ones. They get out of the “again… again… again…” age pretty quickly.

  57. 57.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Quinerly: I took a look at the Twitter feed of that young, um, film star who you mentioned Scaramucci was following. It, how shall we say, leaves very little to the imagination.

  59. 59.

    efgoldman

    @Yarrow:

    Maybe it’s bossa nova he doesn’t like?

    The radio station where I worked made its actual profits by selling background music service (Muzak elevator music, but cheaper). It went out over a carrier under the classical music FM signal, and whoever was on duty was responsible for it along with the actual broadcast product. You get sick of it pretty fast.

  60. 60.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Gin & Tonic:
    The Mooch is also following Grumpy Skeletor on Twitter. I think The Mooch, in the manner of his ilk, is using an algorithm to follow people in the hopes of reaping huge numbers of Twitter followers for himself.

  63. 63.

    Quinerly

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: If you read the piece (rather head spinning), it’s pretty obvious that he left wifey of 23 years for wifey who is now leaving him. Seems he’s screwing around on her. We were speculating a few threads ago that he will be banging Ivanka and bragging about it to Daddio. Maybe we aren’t too far off.

  64. 64.

    PPCLI

    @Yarrow: since the Republicans have used up their One crack at reconciliation before the term, any further attempts to repeal Obamacare will require 60 votes in the Senate. good luck with that Donald

  67. 67.

    Miss Bianca

    It’s Saturday night – Let’s get ducked up!

    (come on, someone had to say it)

  68. 68.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Well, if we’re talking about rubber dough with a thin layer of rubber cheese-like substance….

    I was talking about pizza.

  69. 69.

    kindness

    I trust my dogs & cats with small domesticated animals when I’m with them. When I walk away, not so much.

  71. 71.

    Mnemosyne

    @Quinerly:

    Another person close to Anthony claimed that he was actually the victim of his wife’s verbal abuse: “She would say, ‘You’re a grifter, you’re this.’ She would mock him for being a Trump sycophant.”

    Apparently telling your idiot spouse truth is now “verbal abuse.”

    And the whole thing about his newborn son being in the neonatal ICU while he was yukking it up with Trump was pretty shocking.

  72. 72.

    The Very Reverend Crimson Fire of Compassion

    Politco’s reporting that the senate is now eyeing Lindsey Graham’s block-grant version of a health care bill, which allegedly retains ACA funding mechanisms. Can anyone here comment?

  74. 74.

    Mnemosyne

    @mdblanche:

    There was an avian trio on the lake near where I grew up: two Canada geese and a white duck that I assume had escaped from domestic captivity.

    They would all go paddling around on the lake as a family: Momma Goose, Duck, goslings, and Papa Goose.

  75. 75.

    germy

    Feisty Texas man Woody Harrelson is portraying feisty Texas president Lyndon B. Johnson in the upcoming biopic LBJ, and this true detective gave himself quite the thespian challenge for the role: Not only is he going to be acting through LBJ’s tumultuous life in the aftermath of John F. Kennedy’s assassination (pair’s well with Jackie, no?), but he’ll also take the reins of a young LBJ as he ascends the political world. It’ll hit theaters on November 3, with Jennifer Jason Leigh as his #1 lady, Lady Bird Johnson.

  76. 76.

    Ohio Mom

    @The Very Reverend Crimson Fire of Compassion: I can’t speak to the specifics but block grants are generally viewed as a back door way to reduce funding — once the state gets the money, they can play all sorts of tricks with it, instead of spending it exactly the way the Feds would have. That’s the history with other types of block grants.

    Also, all that stuff about the states being closer to the needs and so are better equipped to disburse funding:
    States ALREADY set up the eligibility rules for Medicaid, such as what disabling conditions will be included.

  77. 77.

    The Very Reverend Crimson Fire of Compassion

    @Ohio Mom: Thank you for the response. I know that part–I’ve been cofounder of an AIDS service community organization , former Ryan White delegate and GLAAD representative–about how block grants work, and their history as a tool of disenfranchisement. What I should have asked is for the your, and other commenters’, thoughts on the chance of such a bill’s chance of passage. Sorry I wasn’t clearer.

  80. 80.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Quinerly: Indeed it would be irresponsible. Looking at Jared, I just can’t imagine he’s all that hot in the sack. A guy like Mooch, who almost certainly plays for both teams, will probably know how to show a girl a good time, maybe a little kink, you know.

  82. 82.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Ohio Mom: Pretty much. Block grants let states spend the money they way they’d want to rather than on predefined costs. In practice, this means that many states will redirect funding into pet projects with at best tangential connections to health care. For example, I’m sure a ton of money would get directed to Pregnancy Crisis Centers or into Abstinence-only education, and that’s some of the more benign results.

    Block grants also don’t grow the same way direct funding does. If the feds say “Cover the following things for people at X% of the poverty level”, then it costs what it costs. If the feds say “Here’s $100 million, go nuts”, then the grant won’t grow at the same rate as medical costs, leading to large reductions in coverage and health outcomes.

  88. 88.

    cynthia ackerman

    @ET:

    I once “fostered” a juvenile crow in an urban park across the street from me. He found his way out of the nest before he could fly and was quite exposed on the ground.

    His parents were freaking out trying to protect from all the pedestrians and cars, raising one hell of a racket, and not managing to feed themselves or Junior (I knew him as Russell. Rimshot).

    So I brought them food scraps, scattered on the ground. They got quiet, Russel got quiet, and in a day or two he was flying confidently but only for short hops.

    I wish I could say this all ended happily, but sadly Russel met an untimely demise not due to poor health.

    Part of life in a big city …

  89. 89.

    Matt McIrvin

    @PPCLI: Is it true that they’ve somehow used up their one shot at reconciliation? The news stories about this block-grant business seem to imply that it’d only need 50 votes.

  90. 90.

    Groucho48

    FTFNYT…

    You Talkin’ to Me? Trump’s White House Gets Some New York Attitude

    WASHINGTON — “Let’s go get a steak sometime,” Anthony Scaramucci said, throwing his arm around a reporter who turned up at his West Wing office on Wednesday to make contact with the latest — and most profane, wisecracking, roguishly irrepressible — New Yorker to join President Trump’s staff.
    .
    .
    .
    “The Mooch is a New Yorker like me,” said Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former mayor and an adviser to Mr. Trump who has yet to find his way to a White House job. “He’s a purebred New Yorker. He’s lit a firecracker in that place. What you’re seeing in Scaramucci is the president’s style.”

    The rest of the story is mostly about the number of NY area staff Trump is brought in.

    It’s expected that Republicans will try to normalize Tony Scar’s behavior, but, can you imagine what it would have said if anyone on Obama’s staff had acted like he has? Roguishly irrepressible???

  95. 95.

    Quinerly

    Reply to Groucho48 @ comment 90 (reply button not working) I’m sure this is what all those economically anxious coalminers in PA and WVA voted for.

  98. 98.

    Another Scott

    @NotMax: I just saw that on the TV.

    Gad zooks the man just loves the sound of his voice. He simply would not shut up.

    He’s a pathological liar. And he wants everyone to think that being a hyped up brown-noser is what public service is all about.

    I wouldn’t trust anything the man says. Trump is too stupid to see that RNC PR BS was right – Scaramucci played him.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  99. 99.

    Brachiator

    @Quinerly: Wow. According to that article, the Mooch is just living the American Dream.

    ..Scaramucci regularly flies private, has a personal trainer at the chichi members-only club, the Core Club, off Park Avenue, dyes his hair and tans regularly, according to Braff. And, like any good multi-millionaire, he co-owns a restaurant, replete with his name engraved on a plaque by his favorite corner table.

    “That’s a male, Wall Street, testosterone thing where you need a restaurant, a sports team and art,” said the financial colleague. “It’s just part of the trappings [of] saying you’ve reached a certain level.”

    In 2010, he shelled out $100,000 to have the SkyBridge logo appear in the flick “Wall Street 2” (it also afforded him two brief cameos in the movie).

    “He likes to be around power players. And Donald Trump is that to a certain extent. Bo Dietl is to another extent. He likes to be at the Regency, at Rao’s, wherever you can hobnob with Wall Street and New York glitterati,” said the financial colleague.

    Trump certainly knows how to surround himself with the bestly people. This is not going to end well.

  100. 100.

    Quinerly

    @Brachiator:
    You can see why I said the piece was “head spinning.” I felt coked up just reading it…and I have never done coke.

  102. 102.

    Quinerly

    @Another Scott:
    Looks like the interview was done after his 5th child was born on Monday while he was at the Boy Scout Jamboree with Trump but before he actually saw the baby on Friday. Second wife who broke up his 23 year marriage (workplace romance) has filed for divorce…she just had the baby and he’s cheating. Evangelical Christians do love and trust Trump and cohorts….nothing to see here.

  103. 103.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Brachiator: In 2010, he shelled out $100,000 to have the SkyBridge logo appear in the flick “Wall Street 2” (it also afforded him two brief cameos in the movie).

    reminds me of what Ike Barinholtz said, The Mooch made him think of an extra who got fired from Wolf of Wall Street because he kept trying to get in the shot with Leo

  105. 105.

    Quinerly

    I’m “Mooched Out.” For all things Scaramucci…see the piece on the HBO movie he’s co producing (while in the WH). Posted the piece earlier. It’s about Joe Paterno (Pacino is playing Paterno) and Sandusky. The Mooch is going to take up all the oxygen at 1600 PA.

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