Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

He really is that stupid.

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

Hey hey, RFK, how many kids did you kill today?

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

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

When they say they’re pro-life, they don’t mean yours.

Israel is using food as a weapon of war. Unforgivable.

Dear media: perhaps we ought to let Donald Trump speak for himself!

T R E 4 5 O N

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

Can we lighten up on the doomsday scenarios?

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

Battle won, war still ongoing.

Fight for a just cause, love your fellow man, live a good life.

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

Everything is totally normal and fine!!!

You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / All I’ve got is a photograph

All I’ve got is a photograph

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Look, I know that in Red America all the NASCAR dads are blackmailing their mistresses, and that’s just something liberal elites like me can’t understand. That’s why Trump won, right? Nevertheless, the latest Show Me State shenanigans are a good example of why this is true:

Democrats should contest every political office in the land, especially at this particular moment. A great many Republicans are very likely one unlucky comment or media discovery from being run out of town on a rail.

[….]

As Alex Pareene wrote (in an article that is an increasingly vital guide to modern politics), these are simply the kind of people who do conservative politics now, from President Trump on down. The great Republican grift machine has taken over the party, and all but destroyed its ability to protect itself from nonsense, conspiratorial paranoia, or outright criminals.

As a result, some of the worst people in the entire country have percolated throughout the whole party apparatus, from state legislative staffers to the presidency, and it’s causing the GOP severe political problems — particularly with regard to sex criminals.

It’s great the DCCC is now targeting 101 GOP-held seats, but I say why not target all 218? 238? There’s a lot of perverts and criminals out there in upper echelons of the Republican party and plenty of them represent districts that would otherwise be non-competitive. Why not give to the Balloon Juice fund that is split equally among the eventual Democratic nominees in all House districts currently held by Republicans.

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Reader Interactions

91Comments

  6. 6.

    Rand Careaga

    I am seeing random text strikeouts all over the site. Is anyone else?

    …Never mind. They’re gone once I posted, but it was the damnedest thing.

  10. 10.

    Mike J

    Much better song in the up next list: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAH1ioLiaHw

    While you were on the beach, were you dreaming all about your share?
    Planning to invest it all to cover wear and tear?
    We paid for all the phone calls
    The money’s off the shelf
    Don’t you know that while you’re gone away
    I’ve got to help myself?

    ETA: a song worth keeping in one’s back pocket for the next round of indictments just for the line, “The boys have all been spoken to, the writ has hit the fan”

  13. 13.

    Steeplejack

    A young, unibrowed Burt Reynolds is on Perry Mason tonight: “The Case of the Counterfeit Crank.” Minor part, not setting the screen on fire with his presence.

  14. 14.

    piratedan

    @Mike J: I always thought those guys were severely underrated, but thankfully there’s still enough power pop aficionados to remember them…. I thought they had a Coestelloish/Lowe way with their lyrics, clever bordering on snarky…

  19. 19.

    Steeplejack

    @prostratedragon:

    You bet. And I always laugh at the unstated subtext of a much smaller Los Angeles. Like occasionally Paul Drake might have to drive all the way out to distant and exotic Malibu.

  20. 20.

    piratedan

    @Steeplejack: agreed Steeplejack, if that’s not number 1, its gotta be in top 5.

    I’d even entertain other nominees like:

    Marshall Crenshaw’s Someday, Someway
    Bram Tchaikovsky’s Girl of My Dreams
    Shoes Tomorrow Night
    Spongetones She Goes Out With Everybody
    Mighty Lemon Drops Inside Out

    naturally ymmv

  21. 21.

    Calouste

    As see know there is a significant overlap between Evangelicals and Republicans. Evangelicals basically say that if you just say the magic words, all your sins will be forgiven. There are quite a few people who think that is a mighty good deal, and some of them will become Republican politicians.

  25. 25.

    Mike in NC

    Never paid much attention to the NASCAR bullshit, but it seems certain drivers have huge fan bases, just like professional wrestlers.

  26. 26.

    piratedan

    @Steve in the ATL: nah Steve… just another BalloonJuice Power Pop advocate… I was just trying to stop from being too obscure:-) but didn’t want to be the one to play the Big Star or Badfinger card because it seems everyone does :-)

  28. 28.

    frosty

    @piratedan: PowerPop eh? Another subgenre I wasn’t aware of, like alt-country (i.e. All the Jasons).
    I have some research to do. Loved everything the Bangles* did in the 80s, now I have to branch out.

    * OK maybe they weren’t PowerPop but how can you argue with a Rickenbacker 12 string and 3 part harmonies?

  29. 29.

    Steve in the ATL

    @piratedan: aside from my childhood in Memphis and buying our groceries at Big Star and knowing Alex, Big Star really invented the category, so it’s fair to drop the name!

  30. 30.

    Mike J

    @frosty: It was covered by lots of people. They Might Be Giants, Too Much Joy, Mötley Crüe, etc, etc. Everybody who ever got big enough to get a manager eventually felt screwed and then covered Starry Eyes.

  33. 33.

    piratedan

    @frosty: frosty… the genre is kind of nebulous, but the most common theme is a jangly guitar/power chord vibe without the guitar solos, lyrics that actually have a certain “honesty” about them…

    get yourself over to you tube and check out the songs I mentioned and see if they have any appeal… the standard bearers for the genre are generally considered to be the bands Badfinger, Big Star and Raspberries

  34. 34.

    piratedan

    @Steve in the ATL: always liked them (Big Star) but not as much as Raspberries or Badfinger, but the genre lives on, there are still LOTS of bands doing the power pop thang… I will say that my Poptopia discs are treated like artifacts these days, finding the old stuff is getting harder to dig up…

  36. 36.

    Steve in the ATL

    @frosty: also recommend:

    Let’s Active “every word means no”
    dB’s “Black and white” and “neverland”
    Jags “back of my hand”
    Rubinoos “I want to be your boyfriend”
    Primitives “crash” and “way behind me”
    Stone Roses “Mersey paradise” and “she bangs the drum”

    I better stop now. I have to get up in the morning.

  39. 39.

    piratedan

    @Steve in the ATL: definite fan of The Stone Roses, Primatives and Let’s Active… actually saw the db’s when they played the southern college circuit with guys like The Bad Brains, Pylon, Arrogance, and the B-52’s….

  42. 42.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    Sure, traffic now, but the vibe them was “Better take a sack lunch, Paul, and try to be back before dark.”

    I think they even mentioned driving all the way out to Glendale once or twice.

  43. 43.

    piratedan

    @frosty: Frosty… the genre definitely has its feet in New Wave genre (and back to the sixties to be honest and up through what people consider to be Alterntive music these days), but most of the folks that “define” (because people always gotta be pigeonholing something) Power Pop would exclude that one because the guitars are not driving that song, the horns and drums are (ymmv) but good pop music is good pop music and that’s a pretty good song imho…

  44. 44.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @piratedan:

    Good description. I also think of power pop songs as having a “soaring” quality, like the song itself is rolling along without any strained effort by anybody involved. Hence my love for “Go All the Way” as an example of the genre.

  45. 45.

    piratedan

    @Mike J: there was a real NC music movement back in the 70’s with guys like the db’s, Arrogance, Don Dixon, Spongetones that were all Power Pop dudes… think they had an influence on Let’s Active, The Rosebuds and SCOTS in their various fashion…

  46. 46.

    piratedan

    @Steeplejack (phone): I hear ya Steeplejack and my love for the boys from Cleveland really has no limit. Biggest regret is missing the reunion tour but the Live reunion performance disc is a MUST HAVE, the guys got together for a few weeks before they played and for a bunch of old guys, they sounded fantastic, flat out fucking amazeballs.

    The nuggets on all of the albums are pretty damn impressive imho… even have a vinyl copy of Side Three sitting around here…

  49. 49.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    I think we’re violently agreeing. The original point I was making is that they refer to places as being “other” or “away” that we now think of as just part of metropolitan L.A. The idea of L.A. was smaller then.

  50. 50.

    Mike J

    @piratedan:

    think they had an influence on Let’s Active,

    Peter, Chris, and Will were in a high school band with Mitch Easter.

    Stamey played in the Cossacks backing Alex Chilton.

  52. 52.

    MikeifromArlington

    The fraternal order of the police have been quiet. They used to get paraded out any time a dem disparaged them no matter how hanous the crime.

    I’d like to see CNN bring them out to defend police responses

  53. 53.

    Steve in the ATL

    @frosty: the guitarist, a dude named Kimberly, who was once one of Robyn Hitchcock’s Soft Boys, wrote “walking on sunshine” but, more importantly, also wrote “going down to Liverpool”

  54. 54.

    Steve in the ATL

    @piratedan: don Dixon! Great producer, but if “praying mantis” didn’t get you on the dance floor then you were either dead or had two broken legs

  56. 56.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Mike J: dare we mention Tav Falco and Panther Burns, or is that even more inside Memphis than antenna club? (Where I first saw Guadalcanal Diary)

  57. 57.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Mike J: and of course Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs teamed up on such classics as “BBC”. In the video at the end of “Austin Powers” she is playing the guitar solo, but by the sound it was clearly Matthew Sweet.

  59. 59.

    piratedan

    @Mike J: what I was alluding to was the internecine weaving of the connections which usually make up an awesome Pete Frame Rock Family Tree :-)

  64. 64.

    frosty

    @Steve in the ATL: Matthew Sweet, another one that I’ve got a few CDs from. WTMD in Towson played some good shit a few years ago. I haven’t heard anything as interesting as that in the last 2 or 3.

  65. 65.

    piratedan

    okay, I’ve got to hang it up and get some shut eye but perhaps we should exchange information or something and/or connect on facebook and we can trade our findings of bands that we may have discovered and keep on talking about my fave musical genre

    if you guys need to, you can send me an e-mail at [email protected], use a subject like power pop to make sure I don’t trash it…

  66. 66.

    Steve in the ATL

    @frosty: Lloyd Cole and the Commotions “rattlesnakes” and “perfect skin”
    Robyn Hitchcock “balloon man”
    Connells
    Hoodoo Gurus

    Ok I really have to go to bed now….

  69. 69.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    I hesitate to post something from the Stone Age, but as an oldster I find a lot of the stuff you guys are talking about—which I like—was in the second age of my music listening career. Hard to avoid hearing references or similarities to what went before.

    Anyway, for me, at least, this is where what would later become power pop first emerged from the primordial soup and started on the long evolutionary trail. Candidate for oldest known fossil: the Beatles, “She Loves You.”

  77. 77.

    M. Bouffant

    My favorite Perry Mason line: “You’d better not stay there tonight. Pack a bag & check into a hotel in Hollywood. Be at my office at ten in the morning, and bring that gun.”

  78. 78.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @Steve in the ATL:

    Agreed, but I try not to push the Liverpudlian Lads too much. Their influence is so vast that a lot of times there is pushback.

    My final entry, a psychedelic side piece that nonetheless meets the criteria, I think: big guitars, big drums, that soaring quality mentioned above. All done with the fuzztone turned up to 11 and a heavy side of patchouli.

    The Electric Prunes, “I Had Too Much to Dream (Last Night).”

  80. 80.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @M. Bouffant:

    Hey, she was just a waitress at a gambling club who fell in with a bad boss.

    Actually, Perry stashed hot chick clients in out-of-the-way motels a lot.

  81. 81.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @M. Bouffant:

    That remaster is sweet: preserves the original perfectly and doesn’t dick around with it. I hate that. It was surprisingly hard to find that recording of “She Loves You” that I used above, for the same reason.

  83. 83.

    M. Bouffant

    @Steeplejack (phone): I listened to it w/ headphones. Didn’t sound like that on the AM radio. The stereo panorama in those days cracks me up, vocals & drum/bass in the center & everything else on the left or right. Which we never perceived through mono radio anyway.

  84. 84.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @M. Bouffant:

    Ha! Times change.

    Another thing you see in that show that was already fading away was the “residential hotel.” “She has a room at the Dorchester.” Which could mean a bed-sit (what we would call a studio) or a small one-bedroom with no kitchen, just a sink and maybe a hot plate in an alcove.

  85. 85.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @M. Bouffant:

    Hey, I had the genuine stereo LP and listened to it on my little suitcase record player (similar to this). The song sounded as good as that video maybe twice before, uh, entropy set in.

    ETA: And, yeah, the engineers really explored the stereo space before they finally arrived at a consensus.

  87. 87.

    M. Bouffant

    This was the family stereo before I commandeered it for use in my room. Had an ancient (probably mono; been a while) turntable that plugged into it. Just did a bit more research, the thing was introduced in ’61 & still had tubes!

    I remember long ago thinking that one day I’d have a nice reel-to-reel, & would tape all my albums & play the tapes rather than entropize the discs.

  90. 90.

    Ramalama

    If only Def Leppard had a hit song out called “50 State Stretegeeeeee” then maybe people would rally around it, again, and not have to reinvent the bloody electoral wheel again. What, Howard Dean was too short? Too eager looking to drink beer with college dudes in Madison, Wisconsin? Why the Democrats continue to step on their peckers again is beyond me. Pardon my French.

  91. 91.

    JustRuss

    @khead:

    All I got = Ringo
    All I’ve got = Def Leppard

    So the band that can’t spell is grammatically correct. Is that irony?

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