Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

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

It looks like winning debates is a black job!

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!

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

Peak wingnut was a lie.

When you’re a Republican, they let you do it.

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

The willow is too close to the house.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

If you thought you’d already seen people saying the stupidest things possible on the internet, prepare yourselves.

You come for women, you’re gonna get your ass kicked.

We know you aren’t a Democrat but since you seem confused let me help you.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

The real work of an opposition party is to oppose.

Nothing says ‘pro-life’ like letting children go hungry.

It is possible to do the right thing without the promise of a cookie.

White supremacy is terrorism.

Balloon Juice, where there is always someone who will say you’re doing it wrong.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

You are here: Home / Politics / America / Floriduh! Something: Tales of Lust From The Mangroves Of Myakka

Floriduh! Something: Tales of Lust From The Mangroves Of Myakka

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Someone (cough, BettyC, cough) got’s some explaining to do…

Also, a traveler’s service dog had puppies at Tampa International Airport today. PUPPIES!!!!!

Stay lusty! And, if you’re in Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and/or parts of Georgia this weekend, stay dry and safe!

Open thread.

 

Reader Interactions

211Comments

  5. 5.

    NotMax

    Perhaps I don’t get out much and this is old hat. Anyhoo, saw this and thought, “Must post to B-J.”

    And, speaking of Floriduh…

    The heir-apparent to the first ever Latina elected to Congress could be someone who’s been on a space ship with aliens.
    [snip]
    Bettina Rodriguez Aguilera, a former city councilwoman from the west Dade suburb of Doral, has publicly discussed meeting extraterrestrials as a child. In a 2009 interview on AmericaTeve, she explained that three blond, big-bodied beings — two females, one male — visited her when she was 7 years old and have communicated telepathically with her several times in her life. She described “going up” inside the spaceship, which she said was steered by something that looked like quartz rocks. Source

  6. 6.

    Elizabelle

    In the first picture, give the heroine red hair and this cracker would be bothering Little Orphan Annie. A kinda busty LOA. Same dress.

    Great pulp covers.

  9. 9.

    Corner Stone

    @Adam L Silverman: My maternal grandmother, who was part Apache, believed in spirits and those who went before so much she would speak with them. Sometimes in my presence. I’m probably dead or maybe just shocked into conscious unconsciousness at the idea of a B Crack pulp fiction novel.

  10. 10.

    Cermet

    My daughter is up in the mountains of New Hampshire – she ran into a bear. It looked at her, sat down and just stared. I assume she followed my instructions about bear encounters when she got away from the bear. She is a bit shaken and then hiked to a camp site to stay the night (she has some limited WiFi there.) Not thrilled she is continuing but what can a father do 800 miles away and only able to text when she has some service?

  11. 11.

    MattF

    I’m still stuck at the concept of sea sponge drama. The babe on the cover seems irrelevant somehow.

  14. 14.

    Corner Stone

    @Cermet:

    I assume she followed my instructions about bear encounters when she got away from the bear.

    The bear probably just wanted directions to the closest bar that had Depeche Mode in the jukebox. Kind of rude, if you ask me.

  15. 15.

    TenguPhule

    FLORIDA PULP FICTION.

    If the answers frighten you, you should stop asking these scary questions.

  17. 17.

    TenguPhule

    @Cermet:

    she ran into a bear. It looked at her, sat down and just stared.

    I assume the bear was not white.

  18. 18.

    Corner Stone

    Why does “knuckle-hard” as a description not really sell me on when of these pulpers?

  20. 20.

    TenguPhule

    Via Wapo, Trump is DOUBLING DOWN on ZTE.

    So now we know what’s the price of Trump staying bought, $500 million.

  22. 22.

    Joyce H

    Maybe an ’emotional support’ dog, but I can’t imagine a service dog being unspayed – for the very reason shown here. Imagine a blind person whose seeing eye dog had puppies! Talk about divided loyalties!

  23. 23.

    Amir Khalid

    Also too, did the cover artists always show women in full make-up with bright red lipstick, push-up bras, and plunging necklines? Very unimaginative. Tsk, tsk.

  24. 24.

    Corner Stone

    About the best thing I can say of this thread is that FYWP always seems to remember my nym and commenting info.

  25. 25.

    Mary G

    I remember when you could buy paperbacks marked 25 cents used at the flea market for a nickel each. I’d bring home a grocery bag full and be in big heaven.

    Who takes a dog that pregnant on an airplane? Glad the help came through.

  26. 26.

    TenguPhule

    FBI says Russians hacked hundreds of thousands of home and office routers

    Does Alain already know about this?

    The FBI warned on Friday that Russian computer hackers had compromised hundreds of thousands of home and office routers and could collect user information or shut down network traffic.

    The US law enforcement agency urged the owners of many brands of routers to turn them off and on again and download updates from the manufacturer to protect themselves.

    The warning followed a court order Wednesday that allowed the FBI to seize a website that the hackers planned to use to give instructions to the routers. Though that cut off malicious communications, it still left the routers infected, and Friday’s warning was aimed at cleaning up those machines.

    Infections were detected in more than 50 countries, though the primary target for further actions was probably Ukraine, the site of many recent infections and a longtime cyberwarfare battleground.

    In obtaining the court order, the justice department said the hackers involved were in a group called Sofacy that answered to the Russian government.

    Sofacy, also known as APT28 and Fancy Bear, has been blamed for many of the most dramatic Russian hacks, including that of the Democratic National Committee during the 2016 US presidential campaign.

  29. 29.

    TenguPhule

    @Amir Khalid:

    Also too, did the cover artists always show women in full make-up with bright red lipstick, push-up bras, and plunging necklines? Very unimaginative. Tsk, tsk.

    Yes, everyone knows that those kinds of bras don’t belong in that era.

  30. 30.

    chris

    @NotMax: The hardhat diving suit made me think of Sea Hunt. Gawd, I’m old.

    ETAsk: Do people still dive for sponges?

  31. 31.

    Corner Stone

    @Cermet:

    I assume she followed my instructions about bear encounters when she got away from the bear.

    I have to follow up on this. Did she start softly singing country tunes? Or maybe bad rap? I’m guessing not hip hop or rap as it may anger the bear. But if she went with Lady Gaga or Beyonce it may pull the bear in to follow her. Not cool.
    Maybe Star Wars rants pre prequels? I am dying to know.

  33. 33.

    Mary G

    @Amir Khalid: I was probably eight when I asked my dad why the ladies wore less clothes and he turned bright red and went to tell my mom she wasn’t looking closely enough at my purchases (the great literature was always the top two layers of the bag.) She told him to relax, whatever I didn’t understand would go right over my head. I promptly set out to find out what it was I didn’t understand, figured out from a Bond novel, and was sad I had. Then I decided I must be wrong.

  34. 34.

    Cermet

    @TenguPhule: Correct. Likely why it was good natured – those white ones (polar) are extremely aggressive, as I understand it. A coworker did get knocked down by one but it continued on. He was armed but had the good sense not to use the weapon. He was not hunting anything but was out target practicing – he was worried about raccoons (rabid) but never suspected a bear would enter the picture. He was in up state New York..

  35. 35.

    Corner Stone

    @TenguPhule:

    Does Alain already know about this?

    He’s still dodging M4 over commenter box privileges. A little advice – don’t get between them.

  36. 36.

    Adam L Silverman

    @GregB: Not quite. But he’s still in trouble. Basically the Spanish Guardia provided, by request, their SIGINT of Torshin when they were building their organized crime case against him, though they were unable to arrest him because he appears to have been tipped off and cancelled his trip.
    https://www.yahoo.com/news/trumps-son-concerned-wiretaps-show-trump-jr-met-putin-ally-231215529.html

    The FBI has obtained secret wiretaps collected by Spanish police of conversations involving Alexander Torshin, a deputy governor of Russia’s Central Bank who has forged close ties with U.S. lawmakers and the National Rifle Association, that led to a meeting with Donald Trump Jr. during the gun lobby’s annual convention in Louisville, Ky., in May 2016, a top Spanish prosecutor said Friday.

    José Grinda, who has spearheaded investigations into Spanish organized crime, said that bureau officials in recent months requested and were provided transcripts of wiretapped conversations between Torshin and Alexander Romanov, a convicted Russian money launderer. On the wiretaps, Romanov refers to Torshin as “El Padrino,” the godfather.

    “Just a few months ago, the wiretaps of these telephone conversations were given to the FBI,” Grinda said in response to a question from Yahoo News during a talk he gave at the Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank in Washington. Asked if he was concerned about Torshin’s meetings with Donald Trump Jr. and other American political figures, Grinda replied: “Mr. Trump’s son should be concerned.”

    The comments by Grinda were the first clear sign that the FBI may be investigating Torshin, possibly as a part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Torshin — a close political ally of Vladimir Putin — had multiple contacts with conservative activists in the United States during the election, seeking to set up a summit between the Russian president and then candidate Trump. Although the summit never transpired, Torshin did meet briefly with the president’s son at a private dinner in Louisville during the May 2016 annual convention of the NRA. A member of the NRA since 2012, Torshin has been a regular attendee of the group’s conventions in recent years and hosted senior members of the group in Moscow.

    Grinda said that the FBI, in its request for the evidence to the Guardia Civil, the Spanish National Police, provided no explanation as to why it was interested in the material and he didn’t ask for one. “I don’t have to ask them why they want this information,” he said. But Grinda added that if Mueller or any other U.S. prosecutor seeks to use the material as part of a court case, they would have to make a second, more formal request to do so to the Spanish government.

    Spokesmen for the FBI and Mueller’s office did not respond to requests for comment. Alan Futerfas, a lawyer for Trump Jr., said he was in a meeting and was unable to comment when contacted by Yahoo News.

    More at the link.

  37. 37.

    Brachiator

    In “Blood of the Lamb,” the preacher keeps nine commandments…. Because he doesn’t know how to count to ten?

  38. 38.

    Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et Al.)

    I’m going to have to turn my wife on to these. She loves cheesy romance books.

  39. 39.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Mary G: Someone who either doesn’t know a lot about dogs or was hoping to get home before the dog went into labor. Of course this feeds back into the first issue as dogs go into labor about 24 to 48 hours before they deliver.

  40. 40.

    Manyakitty

    Good heavens! This post has something for everyone. Tarpon Springs will never be the same.

  42. 42.

    chris

    @Amir Khalid: Back in the day the bra strap slipped off the shoulder told you everything you needed to know about that woman. It’s just funny now.

  43. 43.

    Jager

    @MattF: Beneath the 12 Mile Reef made in 1953, with Robert Wagner, Terry Moore, J Carroll Nash, Gilbert Roland Richard Boone and Peter Graves.

    Love and adventure off the coast of Florida…Greek American families battled for sea sponge supremacy and a Romeo and Juliet romance between Wagner and Moore, they sex it up with fully clothed necking on the beach.

  48. 48.

    TenguPhule

    Trump signs executive orders cracking down on federal unions

    Donald Trump signed executive orders restricting the unions that represent many of the U.S. government’s 2.1 million employees, the White House said today.

    One of the three orders limits the amount of official time federal employees can spend on union duties to no more than 25 percent. It also requires the federal government to start charging union members rent for using space in federal buildings, stop paying employees for the cost of lobbying the federal government and more aggressively negotiate union contracts.

    Trump’s move to curtail the activities of federal unions follows a wave of laws signed by Republican governors over the past decade restricting public-sector collective bargaining and weakening government unions, moves that conservatives see as helpful in shrinking government and undermining political foes.

    Trump is already working against his political enemies.

  51. 51.

    Gelfling 545

    @Cermet: Walking the dog a night or two ago I was cutting through the school parking lot. We do “ around the school” at night instead of around the block. I spotted a dog somewhat bigger than Flora & I wondered whose dog got out & was on the verge of going to see when I realuzed I was looking at a FOX. A DAMNED FOX in Buffalo. I should hsve known something was up because Flora wasn’t doing her “ oo, look,,playmates” routine but seriously, who expects A FOX in Buffalo. Looked quite sleek and well fed too. In Buffalo. I don’t even know fox encounter protocol. We just got out of there.

  56. 56.

    Jager

    @NotMax: I saw it as a little kid, dragged to the drive in theater with my mom, her friend Betty and Betty’s kid Ginny. Ginny and I in the back seat of Mom’s 53 Merc convertible. About every 2 minutes Mom or Betty would turn around and say, “Would you two just shut up and watch the movie.” Neither one of us could see over the seats.

  57. 57.

    TenguPhule

    @Adam L Silverman:

    You can’t rewrite the Civil Service Reform Act of 1974 (CSRA) with an executive order.

    Apparently none of the parties involved is aware of this. Including the media.

  58. 58.

    Mike in NC

    We’re going to the Salvador Dali Museum in Saint Pete, Florida tomorrow. Should we get baked in advance? Thanks from Tampa.

  59. 59.

    TenguPhule

    Scott Pruitt’s security detail cost nearly $3.5 million his first year, agency reports

    Scott Pruitt is the very definition of government waste.

  61. 61.

    Adam L Silverman

    @germy: The collective bargaining agreement is up for renegotiation. I expect the player’s union is going to make this a huge deal during those negotiations.

  62. 62.

    sdhays

    I love how the woman on the “Blood of the Lamb” cover just seems mildly irritated at being bitten by a vampire rather than terrified. I mean, if some jackass was biting my neck, I think I would be more than a little annoyed. It’s like she doesn’t even realize that there’s a human-sized mosquito sucking on her neck and instead she’s just pissed that Larry took the pickup truck and she’s going to have to walk home. And that basket looks like it weighs nothing.

  64. 64.

    raven

    If you haven’t read the book or seen “Cross Creek” by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings it a worthy read. Rip Torn as the father in the “Yearling” segment is awsome.

  65. 65.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Mike in NC: I haven’t been since I was a kid. Do you all need some restaurant recommendations?

    Also, if you’re up to be down, the Holocaust Museum in St. Pete is one of the best regional ones in the US. And right now they’re running the Eichmann in Jerusalem exhibit.

  68. 68.

    Steve on St. Simons Island

    @Brachiator:

    In “Blood of the Lamb,” the preacher keeps nine commandments…. Because he doesn’t know how to count to ten?

    Not since he lost a toe.

    “Most folk’ll never lose a toe but some folk’ll
    It’s Cletus, the slack-jawed yokel!”

  69. 69.

    SiubhanDuinne

    If BCrack doesn’t start posting as “High Pressure Swamp Babe,” I’m not sure I want to come to Balloon Juice any more.

  73. 73.

    DanR2

    … and immediately ICE stepped in to take the pups away from the mother. For freedom.

  74. 74.

    SiubhanDuinne

    And, if you’re in Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and/or parts of Georgia this weekend, stay dry and safe!

    I am in parts of Georgia, and my toes are officially webbing. There’s at least another week of this in the forecast.

  76. 76.

    Mary G

    WaPo has a sweet story about a retired Air Force Colonel finding his birth parents.

    Hollywood, 57, of Vienna, Va., cherished the story of finding his birth mother and shared it with friends. He loved telling the part about how she didn’t want to let him out of her sight, and bicycled after him when he went on his daily run. They often stopped and just sat on a sea wall side by side, looking at the ocean, not talking.

  80. 80.

    Adam L Silverman

    @DanR2: They’re blonde and were born on American soil, so ICE and CBP did not get involved. Basically they’re anchor pups!

  82. 82.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @chris:

    ETAsk: Do people still dive for sponges?

    Sometimes I drop my sponge in the shower and then I have to bend down to retrieve it. That’s kind of like diving, but more dangerous.

  85. 85.

    NotMax

    Repeating for the night time crowd.

    DVR alert!

    TV premiere this Sunday, May 27, on MeTV of the documentary Wait for Your Laugh, all about the late Rose Marie. promo

    May have to check your local listing for time.

  86. 86.

    Corner Stone

    EU peeps going all out to fuck with DJT JR now. Shit’s getting real.

    edited

  89. 89.

    chris

    These Parkland young folk are so cool! Also Floriduh Man is not.

    Somebody just walked up to me and said “You’re lucky I don’t punch you in the face, Hogg.”This has happened several times. If anything, it shows that my diet is working.— Cameron Kasky (@cameron_kasky) 25 May 2018

  92. 92.

    Zinsky

    @Mike in NC: Mike: under the right circumstances, I am a big advocate of “wake and bake” procedures. Makes the day go by so much smoother. What was that Beatles song, Day Tripper…??

  93. 93.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Mary G: He’s rightly pissed he wasn’t able to make the arrest and bring charges. He believes Russian government officials tipped Torshin off. Since he can’t get the guy, this is his chance to try to make sure that the US can.

  94. 94.

    NotMax

    @SiubhanDuinne

    Ooh, was hoping to see you. Thought this might be of interest.

    TCM, Tuesday May 29, 4:36 PM

    “Caro Nome” (1926). Metropolitan Opera star Marion Talley sings Caro Nome from Verdi’s opera Rigoletto in this short film, part of the first program of shorts that accompanied “Don Juan”.

  95. 95.

    Another Scott

    @Adam L Silverman: You mean that Trump and his minions don’t understand how the federal government works? That he’s not a dictator?

    This is my shocked face.

    :-/

    Thanks.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  97. 97.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Mike in NC: My Mom docents at it. I also had a cousin who was part of the curation and archival staff at the national one. And you are correct: it is wrenching.

    If you want some restaurant suggestions, shoot me an email.

  98. 98.

    Steeplejack

    Haven’t read the comments yet, so maybe this has been covered, but what kind of idiot flies with a pregnant dog so close to delivery?

    Notes:

    A. I hope no one says, “Sarah Palin.”

    B. I hope I don’t read farther down in the comments that the person was racing to their aged parent’s dying bedside and absolutely couldn’t have made it without the pregnant dog. (Or equally poignant story.)

  103. 103.

    NotMax

    Prepositional faux pas above.

    Perhaps you’ll be lucky and win the prize for being the millionth person to walk in and say say “Hello, Dali.”

    ;)

  105. 105.

    J R in WV

    @chris:

    The hardhat diving suit made me think of Sea Hunt.

    Well, there were probably some hard-hat divers on Sea Hunt, but the hero mostly wore SCUBA tanks with a two-hose regulator.

    I had one like that, even got it rebuilt by a USN Dive-School Chief for parts money, but never used it. Had a newer also rebuilt single hose regulator that seemed smarter to use.

  106. 106.

    trollhattan

    A quarter used to go a lot further. Just sayin’. Mmm, Swamp Babe.

    Can anybody explain 2’6? Guessing 2 shillings 6 pence before currency reform but how should I know?

  108. 108.

    Corner Stone

    @SiubhanDuinne: <a href="@Adam L Silverman: “>Adam got there much earlier at #36. I blame napping.
    Mainly just Spain saying DJT JR needs to keep his shit tight because he'[s going down. But I will wildly speculate that every Western IC has all this on record. It’s going down.

    ETA, formatting sucks. I blame M4 mercilessly hunting down Alain.

  111. 111.

    Yutsano

    @Corner Stone: Good. Let’s get closer to the Orange Menace. I want Dolt45 to feel Mueller closing in behind him.

    @rikyrah: Racist old fuck. Where’s my fucking myocardial infarction?

  114. 114.

    NotMax

    @trollhattan

    Remember the Ace doubles? Two novels for a quarter, the second one printed upside-down in relation to the first, in order to have a second cheesy front cover.

  117. 117.

    chris

    @J R in WV: Yes indeed because SCUBA was new and shiny. But I remember the hardhat episode because the air pump was manually operated and the operator was one of the bad guys. You can guess the rest. The rest of the show has faded from my memory but that one stuck.

  119. 119.

    sdhays

    OT: What the hell is Kasich thinking?

    John Kasich says he wants to make Ohio the “wild, wild west” for self-driving car testing, regardless of the recent fatal crash involving Uber Technologies Inc.

    The Republican governor called the March 18 Uber incident “terrible,” but is plowing ahead anyway. The executive order he signed today allows companies to test cars on any public road in the state, including without anyone behind the wheel. A licensed driver will have to be monitoring the car remotely and have the ability to avoid accidents if the car’s system fails, according to the order.

    “You’ll always have to take risks,” Kasich said Wednesday while announcing the order. “If you don’t take risks, you die.”

    What a fucking moron.

  123. 123.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @trollhattan:

    Can anybody explain 2’6? Guessing 2 shillings 6 pence before currency reform but how should I know?

    You’re exactly right, “two-and-six.” I spent a fair chunk of time in Britain prior to decimalisation, then was there for a week or so in 1971, the year of the shift from £.s/d to pounds and pees. Only time in my life I’ve spent time in the U.K. and felt I knew what I was doing.

  126. 126.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @NotMax:

    Printed on paper so cheap one could practically see it yellowing before one’s eyes.

    And crumbling under one’s fingers.

  127. 127.

    NotMax

    @dexwood

    ¿Por que no los dos?

    (Then there was the rightfully forgotten second series of Sea Hunt, starring tall, tall Ron Ely.)

  129. 129.

    Steve on St. Simons Island

    @Corner Stone: “Alain donned his disguise and casually walked into the public library. Surely his arch nemesis M4 f/k/a M^4 f/k/a Major Major Major Major wouldn’t recognize him with the dog hair-covered overalls and bottle of mustard. He sat at a public computer and carefully logged in through a series of VPNs and, after updating his Florida Sponge Divers fan page, logged in to Balloon Juice to try to (not try AND, you freaking people) solve the comment box issue that Russian hackers had inserted to suppress liberal blogging. As he was chuckling over the brilliant dry humor of his favorite poster, Steve in the [redacted for security reasons], he heard a familiar voice behind him. ‘Excuse me, Madame Librarian, I’m looking for an old friend. Perhaps you may be of assistance.” Old?, thought Alain, zut alors—I’m not efgoldman or SiubhanDuinne! Subconsciously, he fondled the waxed tips of his glued on fake moustache while discretely looking for exits….”

    To be continued!

  130. 130.

    Yutsano

    @dexwood: @NotMax: Ricardo. Indubitably. The man had women fawning over him until he died in his 80s. And it wouldn’t shock me if he laid a nurse in the hospital for his last trip.

  131. 131.

    Mary G

    @rikyrah: @Adam L Silverman: He’s getting a lot more open about it, testing those limits. I may have to quit reading tweets, I saw that one and I could feel my blood boiling.

    @sdhays: Anyone who buys Kasich’s current act as the cuddly and reasonable Republican (cough, cough Jen Rubin) wasn’t paying attention back when he was in Congress carrying Gingrich’s water and demonstrating a serious need of anger management classes.

  135. 135.

    Mary G

    @Steeplejack: I almost mentioned you!

    I made the bread from your guy and it was scrumptious.

    ETA: Uh oh, somebody’s gone too far:

    I try to keep my tweets moderate, but this fucking guy is making us all miserable. Time to remove him. pic.twitter.com/LA3DQBNixE— Cheryl Rofer (@CherylRofer) May 26, 2018

    Don’t think I’ve heard that language from Cheryl before. Good on her.

  136. 136.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Mary G: Actually these are a sign of fear. The stuff with Cohen, especially Cohen’s former business partner turning state’s evidence, has him panicking.

  138. 138.

    Steve on St. Simons Island

    @Steeplejack: “‘Autocorrect pedantry is about to claim another victim,’ thought M4 as he screwed the silencer into the threaded barrel of his Walther PPK, while checking Steeplejack’s dossier for last known location….”

    ETA: “‘And let’t not forget that [expletive deleted] Mary G,’ thought the Bay Area’s 17th best liberal blogging assassin who would probably not break the top 200 in NYC….”

  139. 139.

    Steeplejack

    @Mary G:

    Glad the bread thing worked out. His method is super easy. Which reminds me that I’ve been wanting to do the version for a muffaletta loaf.

  142. 142.

    Ruckus

    @sdhays:

    What a fucking moron.

    What was your first clue? The R behind his name, the moronic things he does, the fact that he tries to prove it time and again – and succeeds?

  143. 143.

    NotMax

    @Steeplejack

    Produced a loaf of sage ‘n’ onion bread in the super duper bread machine the other day. Will go on the ‘keeper’ recipe list.

  148. 148.

    cain

    the laundress seems to be quite annoyed by being bitten and the vampire looks really bored and seems to be eyeing the basket of strangely well pressed shirts like it is next.

  149. 149.

    dexwood

    @Yutsano:
    I agree. Plus he had access to Corinthian leather. About a year ago, we went to a fund raising viewing of The Big Lebowski. My wife and I were three seats away from Jeff Bridges and T Bone Burnett. Judging from my wife’s reaction, who I thought I might need to restrain from sitting on Jeff’s lap, I’d say she thinks Jeff bridges would win the contest.

  151. 151.

    eclare

    @Mary G: Wow! As someone in the comments on that tweet said, “this fucking guy is making us all miserable” would make a wonderful article of impeachment. And yes, I know that won’t happen, 67 votes, etc., etc., just noted.

  152. 152.

    Steve on St. Simons Island

    @sdhays:

    I love how the woman on the “Blood of the Lamb” cover just seems mildly irritated at being bitten by a vampire rather than terrified. I mean, if some jackass was biting my neck, I think I would be more than a little annoyed

    This is nothing—she used to work for Harvey Weinstein

  154. 154.

    Ella in New Mexico

    @TenguPhule: I’m pretty sure the lawsuits that will ensue will shut this whole thing down.

    Federal employees have an incredible immune system and are highly resistant to Executive Orders. :-)

  155. 155.

    Corner Stone

    Want to make sure this gets out there:
    @Frankensteinbeck: Of course it was a cave. The meeting should have never been agreed to in the first place. Trump got everything he wanted from his “hereby demand” tweet. Proved that it’s his DoJ, they will do what he says or else, and got a reaction from them. The fact that CoS Kelly and personal lawyer Flood showed up at all, even to nod obliquely at the participants is the kind of expansion a bully will always demonstrate. There is no appeasing Trump.
    We had three different stories about this meeting before it happened and in the 24+ hours since we have had four more. I personally will wait for further reporting to determine what actually happened or didn’t happen and who attended or didn’t attend.

    Now Rudy is saying the WH is going to have a readout of the meetings next week.

  157. 157.

    Steve on St. Simons Island

    @eclare: merci. It’s been a bit dull with the wife as she is convalescing, and I may or may not have gotten into a couple of bottles of wine tonight. (Pro tip: “may or may not have” means “sure as hell did”)

    @zhena gogolia: you are clearly not sorry at all.

    @Lapassionara: jackals are a rich vein to mine!

  158. 158.

    Mary G

    Drum has a picture of the ex-Meghan Markle’s new coat of arms:

    I disappointed my sister by being unable to find an excuse last weekend to blog about the royal wedding, so I’m going to make up for it today by blogging about the new coat of arms for the Duchess of California Sussex, aka Meghan Markle. As you can see, it’s chock full of California symbolism. Once again, California leads the nation in mocking Donald Trump, who will never have a real coats of arms of his own.

    Even ex-Californians hate Twitler!

  159. 159.

    PaulWartenberg

    about Florida pulp fiction: I’m hoping to make it a comeback.

    I did not know there was a pulp novel about Tarpon Springs. NOBODY TELLS ME THESE THINGS (I did a Worldcat check for the book, by God it’s not in any Florida special collection the next closest place is Bowling Green U in KY (it has a pop culture collection)).

  161. 161.

    PaulWartenberg

    by the by:

    I AM EXTREMELY PISSED OFF THAT ICE LOST 1500 CHILDREN OVER THE PAST YEAR WHERE THE HELL ARE THE CHILDREN, trump? #WHEREARETHECHILDREN

    This should be a goddamn battlecry. Our government is intentionally destroying families and Gods help us they are killing kids (or shipping them off to human traffickers which is WORSE).

  162. 162.

    Steeplejack

    “The one known only as Steeplejack looked up from his papers and gazed out at the thin, gray rain falling on Threadkill Lane. It was all coming together: the slow degradation of the blog, the infighting among the developers, the gradual accumulation of tiny but telling errors among the ones benignly referred to as ‘commenters.’

    “Even the nym-shifting attorney had lost a step, his recent posts showing an uncharacteristic lack of rigor and a certain flailing truculence.

    “No matter. It would all be over soon. The quiet street, the dark night censed with the smell of the ocean. Then a quiet noise behind, the feeling of a presence.

    “‘Who’s their? Wait—they’re</em. No, goddamnit, there!’

    “But it would be a second too late to avoid the double-tap to the chest.

    “His last thought would be that it was stupid for him to die face down in the reign. ‘No, rain, damn it,’ he croaked, blood trickling from his mouth. Then darkness.”

  163. 163.

    Corner Stone

    Being a Librarian, or Data Archivist, as he liked to pretend, had never been an easy path. Pulling data memes from top 10,000 blogs had led to him thinking he could control the things that bothered him. They didn’t.
    But. There was a way out. Or, more correctly, a way through. He only needed to find the source of his pain.
    It was reigning slightly as he entered the old brick building.
    “Excuse me, Madame Librarian, I’m looking for an old friend. Perhaps you may be of assistance.”

  166. 166.

    Steeplejack

    @rikyrah:

    I did a spit-take when Hayes revealed (at least I had never heard it before) almost as an aside that ICE was separating children not only from mothers who are “illegal immigrants” but from those who are applying for asylum (and going through the official procedures).

  169. 169.

    Mnemosyne

    I found a copy of Burmese Days by George Orwell that had a pulp cover and bought it for G. You’d be surprised at how many innocuous classics had pulp covers in the 1950s — the ones for Frankenstein and The Great Gatsby are hilarious.

  172. 172.

    The Pale Scot

    @NotMax:

    The heir-apparent to the first ever Latina elected to Congress could be someone who’s been on a space ship with aliens

    Well fortunately they’re the Pleiadians, It’s seems the Reptilians only consort with the Treasians (aka rethuglicans). The Reptilians are really violent savage bastards (what a surprise I know right)

  173. 173.

    The Pale Scot

    @debbie:

    That chick up top does some excellent shirt folding!

    No shit, that’s like extra extra extra starch, on the clothes line before the iron gets involved.

  175. 175.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Mary G: Old news. I mean the footage from Albania is new. That the MEK has paid Bolton and Giuliani and Dershowitz and Ridge and Dean and a large group of others a ton of money to front for them is not. The more it is repeated, the better. As maybe it will finally stick. And yes, I agree with the guy Engel interviewed: there is no way that Bolton should have a clearance based on his connection to the MEK.

  176. 176.

    Peale

    @moonbat: well, you release them and then they hide. Thankfully Trump in his wisdom has opened army bases to cage them in, so they won’t be lost because they won’t be released to family members at all any longer. Plus, I’m sure that the outrage this is causing, we’ll soon be advocating to increase ICEs budget so that there can be a special force of child catchers.

  177. 177.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Corner Stone: Just like Rudy said Mueller told him the investigation would be completely done and the Special Counsel’s office closed by 1 September. And then the next day Rudy said he made the whole thing up. There’s nothing to read out to them. Rosenstein and Wray gave the folks in Congress nothing. And no one on the President’s legal team has a clearance. Dowd had one, and he was the only one. When he left, that was it. So not only is the legal team not entitled to anything from the DOJ as a matter of law or DOJ procedure, even if they were none of them can look at it because neither Giuliani or Sekulow or anyone working for them as the President’s external legal team have clearances.

  181. 181.

    Adam L Silverman

    @PaulWartenberg: @moonbat: Ask the Florida Department of Children and Families. Or almost any state’s that doesn’t fund these services properly and/or privatize them. Lots of at risk kids are lost every year. Unless one of them turns up dead or as part of a sex trafficking sting, you never hear about it. But they’re in the wind nonetheless.

  182. 182.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Steeplejack: Actually if it was up to me, Cole would let me make a call and it would be a Predator launched Hellfire. But he won’t. So you’re reign of pedantry will continue.

    For now…//

  185. 185.

    Mary G

    @moonbat: Kevin Drum suggested some of them had contacted family already here and been taken into hiding, but that doesn’t excuse taking them away in the first place, and there’s no way that traffickers haven’t gotten some of them.

    I can’t find it again now, but somewhere I read today that this might backfire on Twitler, because before the Civil War abolitionists had success swaying white Northerners, who were extremely racist themselves, with tales of separating mothers and children. There’s something viscerally horrible about it.

    If it was a commenter here, sorry. My brain is foggy.

  187. 187.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Peale: Just a note on the Army base thing. This is not new. It has been done before. Most recently by the Obama administration when there was a backlog in processing back in 2011 or 2012 if I’m recalling correctly. Doesn’t make it right now. Didn’t make it right then. But a lot of stuff happens, regardless of administration, that is less than optimal and less than ideal.

  188. 188.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Corner Stone: I’m tired of playing this game with you. Take the woe is us, all is lost crap somewhere else. Right now Rosenstein and Wray need to be able to bend, not break. And that’s what they’ve done. The strategic objective is time. Time for the midterm elections and, provided we all do our part, flipping at least one if not both chambers of Congress. And time for Mueller to finish and do what he has to do. It’s all well and good to scream that Rosenstein and Wray need to fall on their swords. The only problem is if you’ve misjudged, once you do so you can’t undo it and try it again. And I say that as someone who resigned a GS 15 equivalent senior staff position at a Geographic Combatant Command for professional principles.

  190. 190.

    Corner Stone

    @Adam L Silverman: Fine. You believe in your institutions. They have failed. There is no woe is me. This is a fight and you have repeatedly failed to recognize it. You have walked down a step ladder of responses, at all ways and times excusing what has been happening. I hold no brief for your garbage takes.

  195. 195.

    Corner Stone

    Gen John Kelly was it. Gen McMaster was it. Guess we see where that got us. Or I guess we could if we knew how to track the 1500 kids lost in the system.

  196. 196.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @ruemara:

    Go ahead and do it, the sooner the better. You have a green card, so you’re not on the radar (yet). And citizenship would be the ultimate protection.

  197. 197.

    Corner Stone

    Oh, wait. We can’t? Hmmmmm….Let’s keep waiting to see what happens next. I guess.

  198. 198.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Corner Stone: …Do you want to take a break or something? Like, go sip a whiskey and calm down, then come back here instead of leaving 4 of the last 5 comments?

  201. 201.

    NotMax

    @Mnemosyne

    Airport shops, and more important back then, train and bus station shops wouldn’t give them the preferential display space otherwise. Presume you’re familiar with the tale about Orson Welles and The Lady from Shanghai?

  203. 203.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Corner Stone: I hear good things. Though I would also recommend The Expanse if you haven’t seen it yet, or The Magicians. Altered Carbon, too. All good shows.

  205. 205.

    Yutsano

    @ruemara: I don’t blame you. But the fact you’re in an agreement helps. It sort of irritates me that half of this depends on the day the USCIS officer is having. But it’s better to try now.

  206. 206.

    Corner Stone

    @MisterForkbeard: I found The Magicians to be not all that interesting. I like Sense8 v 2 and am working my way through it.
    Sun Bak is the heart of that series, and it seems like everyone else is trying to catch up.

  208. 208.

    Barney

    That can’t be Floriduh – it’s got hills in the background. Nay, mountains!

  209. 209.

    Sm*t Cl*de

    @Corner Stone:

    The bear probably just wanted directions to the closest bar that had Depeche Mode in the jukebox.

    If it was looking for the Depeche Mode theme pub in Tallinn, it had a lot of travelling to do.

  210. 210.

    Shell

    That woman on the “Blood of the Lamb” cover has got kind of a Joan Crawford vibe going.

    Also, PUPPIES! Do we have a follow-up?

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