Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

He really is that stupid.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

The new republican ‘Pastor’ of the House is an odious authoritarian little creep.

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

Jack be nimble, jack be quick, hurry up and indict this prick.

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

T R E 4 5 O N

Bad people in a position to do bad things will do bad things because they are bad people. End of story.

Republicans don’t trust women.

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

Somebody needs to explain to DeSantis that nobody needs to do anything to make him look bad.

Republicans: The threats are dire, but my tickets are non-refundable!

This country desperately needs a functioning Fourth Estate.

Let’s finish the job.

Polls are now a reliable indicator of what corporate Republicans want us to think.

You can’t love your country only when you win.

Joe Biden can go out like FDR, not by dying in office, but by crushing the fascists.

I’m sure you banged some questionable people yourself. We’re allowed to grow past that.

You are here: Home / Politics / Domestic Politics / Lethargic Saturday Open Thread

Lethargic Saturday Open Thread

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I think this guy is onto something:

Booman calls our attention to a confession in plain sight by one of the Russian ideologues who allegedly played bad-faith profiteers to catapult a stooge into the Oval Office.

If these machinations are ever fully revealed and widely understood in their historical context, it will be simultaneously one of the most tragic and stupid scandals in US history. What credulous bumpkins so many of us are!

I’m going to shift gears to hang onto a semblance of normal life in these maddening times: It’s a perfect day for a BBQ in my neck ‘o the woods, so I’m off to the store to get supplies momentarily.

Today is Rivalry Day in college football. My crappy Gators are playing the perhaps equally crappy Seminoles at noon in the least consequential UF-FSU game in many years. Lots of better games on, but that’s what we’ll be watching first.

Hope you all are enjoying your weekend. Maybe it’s just me, but I feel like we’re reaching a tipping point, and perhaps soon, we American Juicers will have our own parts to play in trying to save our country. So rest up and get ready.

Reader Interactions

64Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    What credulous bumpkins so many of us are!

    Let it be noted that Balloon Juice was on the right side of history.

  2. 2.

    prufock

    Betty, you know how some contests are decided by “who wants it more”?

    FSU-UF is gonna be decided by who hates it least.

  3. 3.

    DCrefugee

    Tipping point? Maybe, but I’m not so sure. Even so, we may not be able to identify it…

    I rather anticipate a lot of ratcheting on both “sides,” with a slow, painful return to normalcy spread over a few election cycles. Every time our tribe makes progress, the other tribe does something even more horrible than their previous actions. 2018 and 2020 are critical to which way(s) the ratchet turns. I just hope I’m around to see “normal” again…

  4. 4.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Speaking of crappy rivalry games, the Fighting Fashion Nightmares and those guys from Moo U will be playing in Tracktown.

  5. 5.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Anyone who hasn’t figured out that Donald is utter, irredeemable scum by now is utter, irredeemable scum themselves.

  7. 7.

    debit

    I am currently cuddling a very sad kitten. She had her first shots yesterday and has been very lethargic and tender (cries when I pick her up). She’s still eating with enthusiasm, so I’m not worried, just hate to see her boundless spirit and energy so dimmed.

  10. 10.

    geg6

    Reveling in the Pitt win over Miami. Not being as successful at quitting smoking as I’d like but still trying. Trying to be patient with myself and with Robert Mueller. Doing a little laundry. Making an easy baked rigatoni with ricotta, spinach and sausage for dinner and realized I don’t have enough rigatoni. Decided that rather going to the grocery store, I’ll use the ziti we seem to have in vast quantities. I have some boar sausage my BIL gave me, so I seem to be all set.

    Oh, and completely ready to leap into action if we are at that turning point. Tired of these mother fuckers ruining my country.

  11. 11.

    japa21

    Penzeys has done it again. It seems like at least once a week the owner comes forth with another tirade. The latest:

    Maybe the time has come to stop scratching our heads about what on earth the Republican leadership can possibly be thinking and just admit the obvious. Where once both parties competed to win votes by trying to come up with the better plan to bring greater prosperity to a greater number of American families, unlimited political spending from special interests has put the Republican Party on a very different path. They’ve realized that rational, sensible, educated people won’t vote for the policies their donors desire, so they are now actively working to create the voters they need.
    Why would “successful” “business” people choose candidates to lead the Departments of Education and Housing that have no concept of the job much less the administration experience to head those Departments? If, in our inner cities, there can be no peace without justice, why would you place someone perceived as openly racist in charge of the Justice Department? If the recent changes that made health insurance available to more Americans have already reduced personal bankruptcies by half, why would you spend all your political capital for the year trying to outlaw health insurance for the poor?
    At some point it’s time to stop seeing these moves as a series of blunders and instead admit they are a plan. Their objection to sex education and limiting the availability of birth control is a part of this as well. I can understand and actually respect that there are differing views on where life begins, but if the goal is reducing abortions, the steps to do that are pretty logical. Mothers Against Drunk Driving are actually against drunk driving. As part of being against drunk driving they don’t pass laws against teaching bartenders how not to over-serve. They don’t work to ban taxis, Uber and Lyft from operating at bar time.
    Maybe the time has come to stop scratching our heads about why the Republican-Fundamentalist alliance is working to ban science-based sex education and working to restrict access to birth control, and admit that this too is on purpose. If your goal is getting votes for a party no longer for the people, or you need to fill pews in churches where the sermons are no longer in tune with the love of Jesus, you need people with the broken lives out-of-wedlock teen pregnancies set in motion. For the Republican Party and the churches that support it, prohibiting sex education and blocking access to birth control has become a recruitment tool, and the damage this causes an acceptable cost.

  13. 13.

    dww44

    I’d love to know if other BJ’ers have read stuff by Caitlin Johnstone who calls herself a ” rogue journalist, poet, and utopia prepper”?

    Methinks she’s not so much a rogue journalist as she is a deliberately disguised conservative or libertarian. And someone who obviously hates liberals and Democrats.
    Some of you may have more informed takes.

  17. 17.

    MattF

    Well, I can tell you that the T-day crew here in the Berkshires is unanimous in its contempt for Trump. FWIW, politics never came up at the Thursday feast or at the echo-feast on Friday.

    It would be good to have a way of talking about this without everyone getting immediately ill.

  18. 18.

    Immanentize

    @schrodingers_cat:

    We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

  19. 19.

    tesslibrarian

    @japa21: They’re also a good company: when my Chinese cinnamon arrived with a cracked lid, they sent me (for free, with just a call), a new jar of spice and a new lid “to save what’s left in the other jar.” I’ve never had a company do that.

    Go Dawgs!

  20. 20.

    japa21

    @Immanentize: That phrasing always bothered me. How can something be more perfect? If it is perfect already, how can it be more so? If it isn’t, than the attempt is to create a perfect union, not a more perfect one. Since the Constitution replaced the Articles of Confederation, did they consider that a lesser perfect union, and the Constitution made it more perfect?

  21. 21.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Immanentize: Indeed. The character in the movie says this with respect to India, where people in the privileged classes like to blame politicians for the state of affairs but refuse to take any responsibility for the state of affairs, themselves. It is true about pretty much any nation in the world, especially democracies.

  22. 22.

    japa21

    @tesslibrarian: We’ve been buying from them for years. Every time we visit family in the Milwaukee area, we always stop at their warehouse store. You get to see right into the warehouse with huge bags of their spices.

  23. 23.

    Immanentize

    @japa21: perfect did not mean “without flaw” then, it was more aligned with the rationalist view of the verb — to perfect. Like in “practice makes perfect.”. An unobtainable goal, but one worth striving toward.

    And yes they certainly believed the Constitution was a vast improvement on the unworkable Articles of Confederation.

    I just wish we would work a bit harder on establishing justice…..

  24. 24.

    Doug R

    Manifest Destiny? 54-40 or fight? The Spanish-American war? The Know-nothings? The roaring 20s?
    Blissful ignorance coupled with willful misinformation has been with us always.

  28. 28.

    clay

    @japa21: It’s an acknowledgement that a “perfect” union is not possible, but also a goal to always strive to make it “more perfect” than it was.

  29. 29.

    japa21

    Well, time to crawl through our way overcrowded storage room and pull out the holiday decorations. If I’m not back at some point this afternoon, send out a search party.

  30. 30.

    aimai

    Working on a paper about family therapy. Unable to decide on which model to botch in working with an actual family. This is a multi-stage paper. Would rather be spending time with my daughters who are here for one more day, but too panicked to stop working on paper. Perhaps will change my mind and just be with them. If they aren’t too busy!

  31. 31.

    dmsilev

    @japa21: I was writing something with a bunch of coauthors a week or two ago, and after the last iteration, one of my coauthors proclaimed it ‘more than perfect’. Several eyerolls were produced upon reading that. Granted, the final version stood head, shoulders, chest, waist, knees, and ankles above the first draft this guy had produced, so I guess it depends on your baseline…

  34. 34.

    Brachiator

    @aimai:

    Would rather be spending time with my daughters who are here for one more day, but too panicked to stop working on paper.

    Well, unless the paper is due tomorrow, you might want to just make notes or outline it, and spend time with your daughters.

  35. 35.

    Brachiator

    @schrodingers_cat:
    I was about to ask whether this upcoming movie might be shown outside India despite local controversy when I saw this breaking story.

    Amid escalating tension surrounding Bollywood epic Padmavati, India’s extremist Rajput caste group Karni Sena has threatened to burn down any British cinema that screens the film. This comes as the Deepika Padukone-starrer continues to face angry sentiment and threats against cast and crew.

    In another development on Friday, a body was found hanged near the site of one of the film’s shooting locations with a note reportedly referencing the movie. This is all before the film has been screened publicly.

    There are touches of madness and intolerance everywhere, I guess, which have to be opposed by the sane and decent.

  37. 37.

    burnspbesq

    @debbie:

    Interesting showdown looming at CFPB.

    I imagine Barney Frank and Rich Cordrey laughing their respective asses off. Trump and Mulvaney are totally fucked, by statute.

  40. 40.

    schrodingers_cat

    @schrodingers_cat: contd from #38 because WP won’t let me edit my comment.
    These protests are based on nothing. No one has yet to see the movie. The Censor board’s decision will determine the outcome. So far the Supreme Court has thrown out all the challenges against the movie.

  42. 42.

    J R in WV

    @clay:

    Perfect is one of the strange English words that has two meanings and different ways of pronouncing it without changing the spelling. Scientists work to perfect their understanding of their area of study. The emphasis in on the second syllable per-Fect’.

    But chocolate truffles are the perfect chocolate dessert – Per’-fect. Emphasis on the first syllable. I think in the Constitution the first meaning is what is intended. Our leaders are supposed to work to perFect our union, and some do that every day, and some don’t understand what I’m talking about at all.

  43. 43.

    Betty Cracker

    @Doug R: True. But I don’t think we’ve ever had a foreign autocrat sleaze a deranged buffoon into the White House before.

  44. 44.

    Steeplejack

    My on-screen program guide calls the Iowa State-Kansas State showdown “Farmageddon.” Funny! I had never heard that.

  52. 52.

    Brachiator

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    @Doug R:

    WTF is so offensive about Padmavati?

    There is a false rumor that there is a scene showing a romantic interlude between the Hindu queen and the Muslim conqueror.

    And, from a story in the Indian Express, vague outrage over history.

    The Bollywood film Padmavati, based on a poem about a Rajput queen written by 16th century Sufi poet Malik Muhammad Jayasi, has sparked protests across the country over “misrepresentations” and “distortion of facts”. Director Sanjay Leela Bhansali and actor Deepika Padukone have received several threats, the latest from a senior Haryana BJP leader who has offered a Rs 10 crore bounty for their heads.

    Some people are deeply invested over who gets to tell the story of Indian history, especially involving the relationship of Hindus and Muslims.

    As S Cat notes, the controversy seems manufactured to produce outrage.

    Ironically, there is not much historical evidence that the queen depicted in the movie ever existed.

    ETA. 1 crore is about 10 million rupees, or about $160,000 US dollars, if I’ve got current conversion right.

  54. 54.

    Brachiator

    @schrodingers_cat:

    But there is plenty of historical evidence of the Rajput defeat at the hands of Khilji at Chittor.

    True enough, but the movie is inspired by a poem written more than 200 years after the event, and which features a magical parrot that reads books.

  55. 55.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Brachiator: There are several versions of that myth we don’t know yet what is in Bhansali’s movie. There were 3 jauhars (self immolation by the royal women) at Chittor, once after the siege by Khilji, and the second I believe was after a siege by another Rajput king and third was after the siege by Akbar.
    Of course Rajputs, served Mughals from Akbar on and Aurangzeb had the highest number of top ranking Rajput military men in his armies of all the Mughal emperors. History in India is never black and white, or Hindu vs. Muslim. This is the narrative that BJP wants to impose.
    I checked the dates of the upcoming assembly elections and there are several important states up for elections. The first being Modi’s Gujarat. This is red meat to BJP base.

  57. 57.

    Brachiator

    @schrodingers_cat:

    There were 3 jauhars (self immolation by the royal women) at Chittor,

    The Indian Express article I read claimed the following.

    Three, there are no contemporary accounts of Alauddin’s siege that mention Padmavati. Satish Chandra, one of India’s most prominent medievalists, noted that Amir Khusrau, who accompanied Alauddin to chronicle the campaign, made no mention of jauhar at Chittor, and none of Khusrau’s contemporaries spoke of Padmavati. Khusrau did, however, refer to jauhar in his account of Alauddin’s conquest of Ranthambhore, which immediately preceded the Chittor campaign. The Padmini legend “has been rejected by most modern historians, including (the doyen of historiography on Rajasthan) Gauri Shankar Ojha”, Chandra wrote.

    I agree with all your other points, and also how this thing is red meat to BJP base. Angry nationalism is all the rage in too many countries.

  58. 58.

    schrodingers_cat

    @BrachiatorTimurid who posts here, and is a historian, mentioned the three jauhars at Chittor. Even if Padmini is fiction, jauhars are not, sounds pretty cruel to my twenty first century eyes. But then I guess being the spoils of war is not a great alternative either.

  59. 59.

    Bill Arnold

    @dww44:
    Very interesting. That link was broken, so
    https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone/latest
    (The comments in the profile tab are interesting and a little more free-form).
    Many of the angles in the arguments (read so far) appear to be deliberately be non-normative. Still digesting them (or rather, the shape of them, and their observed effects e.g. on my mind).
    Worth checking out for sure, just read with caution.

  60. 60.

    Bill Arnold

    @Bill Arnold:
    OK. Some nicely-crafted material, and well-curated. I’m just not clear on the agenda/motivations[?/actors], and some of the obvious gaps in the connected arguments (possibility graphs) piss me off a bit. (For reasons.) Also the arguments are lawyer-style which irritates me for other reasons. Would be nice to see another opinion from someone (e.g. Adam Silverman) who has more familiarity with the material.
    Anyway, an appeal in one of the pieces for people to rapidly improve their metacognitive skills warmed my heart:

    The answer is that their problem isn’t a lack of intelligence, it’s a lack of self-awareness. You can have a PhD and an exceptionally high IQ, but if you haven’t done enough rigorous self-reflection in your life, you often won’t have enough awareness of your own mental processes to be able to tell the difference between agendaless information and ham-fisted attempts to manipulate you. If you haven’t worked to become stringently honest with yourself, you won’t know the difference between an egoically comfortable worldview you’ve been given and an honest perception of what’s really going on. If you haven’t ever questioned your own narratives about what you are, what life is, and what’s really going on here, you won’t question the narratives you’re being given by confident-sounding pundits with assertive voices.

    That for sure is constructive, helpful advice. (Next steps include questioning the questioning process. Recursively. :-) )

  62. 62.

    Bill Arnold

    @schrodingers_cat:
    Just saying that I find it interesting. Not least because it makes a few alarms fire, some … arcane.

    JS will never escape that photo with V. Putin, M. Flynn and et al:
    http://www.motherjones.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/russia_dinner630.jpg
    That was a very dumb move on her part – America is not wired to trust the Russians. The Republicans (and their allies among the radical left) are making a valiant effort at adjusting the wiring, but they will probably not succeed.

  64. 64.

    dww44

    @schrodingers_cat: So, this is my take on her anyways. Bill, thanks for correcting my link and I went back via your links and reread some of her stuff. But as far as I am concerned, she’s not on my team and I find her arguments off-putting. She seems to fit quite well into the Glenn Greenwald camp of opinion writing.

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