This is a crappy photo because it was misty out that morning, and I did a lousy job of framing the shot, but any picture with two shorebirds in it can’t be all bad:
Is the blog acting up on y’all, or is it just me? I’ve had trouble getting to the site (fails to load), and the back-end is FUBAR; I have no confidence whatsoever the photo referenced above will publish. Maybe it’s just a wee hours maintenance thing.
Anyway. When this damnable insomnia struck a while ago, I made the mistake of checking the headlines and was thus exposed to Trump’s lunatic ravings in Alabama. To sum up, Trump:
– Called on NFL owners to fire (black) players who take a knee during the national anthem
– Suggested that the KKKeebler Elf should get busy locking up Hillary Clinton
– Urged people to vote for Luther Strange primarily so he (Trump) won’t get bad press
– Denied Russian interference in the election
– Rambled bizarrely about “the wall” being transparent
Fuck anybody who voted for that buffoon.
Regarding national anthem protests: anyone who gives a shit about the First Amendment should support the right of the players to protest. The orange fart cloud’s authoritarian overreach on the issue should trouble us all.
The slack-jawed yokels cheering the shitgibbon on in Alabama have no fucking clue what the First Amendment is for; the Constitution is just a bundle of papers they occasionally hump for effect, just as they claim to be Christians while shitting on the poor and enthusiastically supporting a racist, sexist, xenophobic degenerate.
Again, fuck those assholes. But what should non-assholes do, aside from affirming the players’ right to engage in peaceful protest? Should white folks of good will take a knee too?
Suburban Mom
That’s some high quality ranting right there!
Schlemazel
Site has been normal for me FWIW
I hope for blood shed between GOP factions in Alabama, it would be good for the country if they shot each other for a while.
Schlemazel
@Suburban Mom:
Now who can argue with that? I think we’re all indebted to Gabby Trump for clearly stating what needed to be said. I’m particularly glad that these lovely children were here today to hear that speech. Not only was it authentic frontier gibberish, it expressed a courage little seen in this day and age.
Sloane Ranger
Site running same as usual for me too. The picture looks like it was taken in black and white, very atmospheric.
Betty Cracker
@Schlemazel: It’s working normally for me now too. Twas either a hiccup in my connectivity or a momentary pause of the WordPress gerbil exercise wheel.
Major Major Major Major
I think Alain runs the backup ’round now.
opiejeanne
There’s a white player on the Seahawks whose response is I think appropriate and supportive:
Bennett and Britt
opiejeanne
@Betty Cracker: Yeah, I reloaded and it’s fine now.
Major Major Major Major
@Betty Cracker: [overly simplistic] WordPress actually only does anything as a result of a page being requested, so if you’re the first person to use it after a big task has been scheduled, then you might very well have kicked off something slow and thread-blocking.
sukabi
Yay. Crappy ads are gone.
Betty, yes white folks should take a knee as well. It’s a human rights issue.
jl
I think the pic is beautiful. Looks like a Japanese print. Except Cracker is right about the framing. Maybe could crop it.
Edit: Naw, fine just like it is. Really nice pic. I’ll see if I can save it.
Thanks for heads up on loopy Trump rant. The guy is losing it. Didn’t know FLOTUS was standing six inches beside him at an appearance, as clip by Adam earlier clearly showed.
Now the interblogs have decided I need to hear the exact same Acura ad again and again and again and…. On every site I go to with ads.
barb 2
The photo with 2 shorebirds did come through.
The shitgibbon is sick in the head. He is an example of someone who got through college — not on his hard work. I don’t see much evidence of a college educated person. The simple government stuff that most high schools and colleges require to get a degree — the creep in the WH seems to be completely ignorant about basic facts. With enough money — tests and papers can be bought so the rich frat guys don’t have to waste their time doing the mundane studying.
Many people I’ve met in the Caribbean have a better understanding of how the US constitution works than shitgibbon does.
Major Major Major Major
An upcoming comic panel I finished tonight and am proud of. One wake-up call going off right before the other.
Betty Cracker
Trump really had the mob baying with his call for NFL owners to fire players who sit out the anthem. He also encouraged fans to walk out of the stadium and said something like “that’ll change things — BELIEVE ME,” insinuating that loss of revenue would force the owners to fire the protesting players.
I know I’m preaching to the choir here, but Jesus, that is disturbing as hell, to hear the highest government official in the land telling business owners to censor political speech.
David Evans
You could improve the picture somewhat by playing with the Curves adjustment in Photoshop, or the equivalent in whatever photo editing software you use. In Picasa, upping the shadows and highlights by 50% gives an effect I like, But it’s very much a matter of taste.
Amir Khalid
@Betty Cracker:
If the big-league sportsball bidness in America is like its equivalent on Earth, walkouts don’t get their money back. The team owner won’t lose one red cent that way. Come to that, neither will the players concerned. If for some reason Trump wanted
his fellowbillionaires to lose money, he should be telling sports fans to stay away from the stadiums and arenas, and to turn off the TV when the game is on. But he doesn’t think these things through, does he?Amir Khalid
On this day in 1949, Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen came into the world. Happy 68th birthday, Boss.
satby
Having my first coffee before I take the troops out and get ready to leave. I’m just rooting for mutual destruction of the warring GOPers in AL in the hopes the Dem can slip into office.
And yes, it’s been time for white people to support any black people who do a silent protest for a while. Don’t let the bully-in-chief get away with threatening any of them.
Rick O'Leary
We should have been the first to take a knee.
Amir Khalid
Auntie Beeb says London’s public transport authority has decided not to renew Uber’s operating licence. Transport for London said it was dissatisfied with Uber’s approach to carrying out background checks on drivers and reporting serious criminal offences. Uber has three weeks to appeal.
rikyrah
Been having troubles with the site loading on my phone for the past couple of days.
rikyrah
@Amir Khalid:
The Boss!??????
rikyrah
@Betty Cracker:
Uh huh ??
Betty Cracker
@David Evans: I need to learn more about filters, but to be honest, I’m still figuring out how to use the camera! :)
SectionH
@rikyrah: Oh yeah.
low-tech cyclist
Meanwhile, Hannity this morning was going on about how awful it was that pro-Trump people couldn’t speak at Berkeley without getting the students all upset. Especially awful during Free Speech Week.
Funny how he didn’t mention the football players.
(They had Hannity on in the breakfast room of our hotel. At a quarter to 6 in the morning. (I’d come down to surf the blogs without waking my wife and son.) I went to the desk and said I thought that was way too early to have to listen to right-wing propaganda. They let me change it to a mainstream news channel, thank goodness.)
Betty Cracker
@low-tech cyclist: Yeah, that vile toady Hannity is enough to make anyone toss their waffle! Glad they let you switch channels. I’ve started speaking up when I’m trapped in a commercial space with Fox News, asking them to change it. So far, no one has refused.
Ten Bears
Boycott football. Boycott its venues.
Barney
More assholishness from the dotard in Alabama: he called VA employees ‘sadists’ who ‘deserve to have their asses kicked’. Covered in the Washington Examiner, but they seem to like the remark, so fuck linking to them; Michael Cohen (the writer, not the asshole lawyer for the demented old beast) noted it:
https://twitter.com/speechboy71/status/911399817196294144
JimV
He swore to uphold the constitution. His disregard of that oath in a public speech should be an impeachable offense – ignorance is not an excuse.
White players should (and some do) support the right of black players to protest by kneeling. If they share the protest, they should kneel also.
Daoud bin Daoud
I’d crop a bit off the right side of the photo. Other than that, it’s perfect.
low-tech cyclist
@Betty Cracker:
Me too. And if anyone ever says something like “I guess you liberals need your safe spaces, huh?” my reply will be, “Since you’re against safe spaces, I hope you don’t mind my rebutting everything he says, right here next to the TV, in real time. Fair and balanced!”
low-tech cyclist
Also, apparently the reason the Trumpists coiuldn’t speak at Berkeley was that Milo Yappingdouchebag didn’t file his paperwork requesting the permits in time. He also claimed to invite a bunch of people who never got the word that Milo had ‘invited’ them to speak.
So a typical right wing “we’ve lost all connection with how to actually accomplish anything anymore” fuckup.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@David Evans: Most folk here don’t do post on photos, just post up the jpg.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
The Keebler Elf can’t lock up Hillary, because I guaran-god-damned-tee you the entire administration is using private emails to conduct official business and if he puts her in jail they all get to join her there for the same crime.
Don’t these slack jawed goobers ever get tired of the same old schtick? The dude is incapable of giving anything other than minor variations on the same theme. You’d think it would have worn thin by now.
cope
Your picture is classically framed as per the “rule of thirds”. Mist and fog are devilish to compensate for when shooting pics even in our digital age. When I was doing a lot of film photography in college, I went out one eerily foggy night with my girlfriend and shot a whole roll of Tri-X film thinking I was getting some great, artsy-farts, romantic shots. Boy was I wrong. After I developed the film, I tried all sorts of printing tricks to make some decent images, but, alas, it was not to be.
As for the site, no problems on my end with either my iPad or desktop.
Anne Laurie
Since the least busy commenting block is from ca. 3-4;30AM, that’s when Alain set up FYWP to run its daily update. As MMMM said, first person to ‘wake’ the blog after that update has to work through the ‘balkies’ !
bluefish
Trump is desperate. Good.
wvng
Miss Betty, your awesome wordsmithing won the coveted QOTD on my Facebook page: “The slack-jawed yokels cheering the shitgibbon on in Alabama have no fucking clue what the First Amendment is for; the Constitution is just a bundle of papers they occasionally hump for effect”
Thank you.
toocanAnj
@Rick O’Leary: Yeah, this.
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
I’ve been taking a knee (metaphorically; actually just sitting silently) for the Pledge since I was in high school – so for 40+ years. Since I often appear at public hearings, formerly as a consultant and now as a government employee, this has sometimes been a bit more conspicuous than I like, but it’s the least I can do. It was the “under G-d” part that used to bother me most, but now it’s the whole fucking hypocritical thing.
Ruckus
On the important matter, I have blog loading problems every night at 12:30 eastern, 9:30 pacific. It is wonky occasionally other times in the night but that must be the time that the hosting co does maintenance.
@Barney:
How the fuck would the shitstain know anything about the VA? At best he could visit but he’ll never be a patient. But then maybe he’s rather acquainted with sadism as he sure seems to have a lot of commonality with them.
Ruckus
@barb 2:
I’ve met people in a mental ward who have a better understanding of everything/anything than the shitstain does.
And I’m sorry, I may respect the office of president, but I have not one chinchilla of respect for the shitstain that is crapping all over every square inch of the place and the job.
J R in WV
Hi Betty,
This is a great photo you have posted. I recommend just going into an edit tool and turning up the contrast a little bit. That’s really all it needs, and perhaps a little more brightness after you see what shifting the contrast does for it.
I’ve recently found B-J to be much slower than other pages I visit regularly.
Best,
JR in WV