Here’s someone I’m extremely thankful for: Badger.
Isn’t he a handsome boy? Open thread!
On the Road and In Your BackyardReader Interactions
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Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.
Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.
You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.
This country desperately needs a functioning Fourth Estate.
I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.
Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.
There is one struggling party in US right now, and it’s not the Democrats.
Somebody needs to explain to DeSantis that nobody needs to do anything to make him look bad.
It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.
In short, I come down firmly on all sides of the issue.
If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.
Fuck these fucking interesting times.
Can we lighten up on the doomsday scenarios?
Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.
Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.
“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”
“Why isn’t this Snickers bar only a nickel?”
Bad news for Ron DeSantis is great news for America.
Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.
“And when the Committee says to “report your income,” that could mean anything!
Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.
You’re just a puppy masquerading as an old coot.
It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.
An almost top 10,000 blog!
Patricia Kayden
Happy Thanksgiving to Balloon Juicers and their furry family members!
feebog
My new boy Baloo is sitting on the porch outside my office surveying the backyard and keeping us all safe from squirrels. Good doggie.
Citizen Alan
Badger’s a lot taller than I’d thought. Usually, you do an overhead shot of him and he looks adorably squat.
Mary G
Badger is growing so fast. I am doing most of my baking over because certain members of the household ate the pie and half a loaf of pumpkin bread before I went to bed. Also, after years of going to a dear friend’s house for Thanksgiving, people are coming to mine as well, so my usual lazy day will not happen.
I am thankful for the jackaltariat. You guys keep me sane in insane times.
Humdog
Betty, whadayagot against tails on your doggos?
MobiusKlein
My cats escaped the house in dark of night somehow, and woke me up at 6am clawing on the window screens to be let in.
Now they are lap cats preventing t.giving preparations. Naughty!
Elizabelle
The little white booties. Badger is so cute.
Happy Thanksgiving to all.
zhena gogolia
How he’s grown! I wish I could give him snorgles!
Yarrow
Badger has such long legs! He is a handsome boy. He looks like he’s saying, “Yeah. Who’s gonna make me?” Heh. He must be a handful.
debbie
I’m hoping Badger doesn’t always look so worried. Maybe it’s all the strangers filling up his house?
Yarrow
@debbie: He just had to move, too. That’s stressful for anyone!
Sister Golden Bear
Reposting from the dead thread downstairs…
Happy Thanksgiving my fellow jackals!
I’m thankful that we finally got rain yesterday in NorCal that dropped the air quality index from the 160s (more than 3x the limit for “healthy”) down to around 10. Unfortunately, I’ve still got a sore throat and a tight chest. Hoping it’s just an after effect of the smoke and that I’ve not got a cold.
It’s the first Thanksgiving without Mom, but I’m doing surprisingly well. Partly because it’s the first time in years that I haven’t had to travel to SoCal for the holidays — something I’ve dreamed about for years. Because I was the spinster daughter, I always had to go to Mom’s, so this is probably the first time my adult life — at age 54 — that I’ve been able to celebrate Thanksgiving (and Christmas) on my own terms.
Getting together with friends for Femmesgiving — we’re gonna do high femme today and get all dressed up. Thankfully, my friends invited me before my Fox-loving uncle did, so I could truthfully tell him I already had plans.
tobie
Wow! Handsome Badger know’s he’s the Boss.
satby
Happy Thanksgiving to all!
The outside cats have gotten their warmed cat food, the birds suet and extra sunflower seeds, the herd inside is snoozing after the second outing of the morning, and my turkey is still frozen (not really a surprise) so I’m thinking tacos for dinner today. Which I love ? as much as I love all youse guyz.
Litlebritdifrnt
Badger always looks like he has a ‘tude. I love him. @Humdog: They outlawed tail docking in the UK years ago. You can tell the age of a dog now by whether or not they have a tail. My Mum’s rescue JRT has a docked tail so she is very old. However, with regard to Boxers their tails are absolutely lethal, they can clear a table with one swipe! I believe that you can still get a Boxer et. al. with a docked tail but you have to import them from the EU. They also outlawed ear clipping, and cat declawing. Good things I think.
Betty Cracker
@Humdog: Badger has all the tail he was born with; it’s just sort of…bunny-like. Someone cut Daisy’s tail off before we got her. I would never remove a dog’s tail nor trim the ears.
Aleta
He has a beautiful shape.
Major Major Major Major
What a dork!
Happy thanksgiving, everyone!
Betty Cracker
@Litlebritdifrnt: Our late Patsy Marie was a boxer with a tail, and it was deadly, like rebar wrapped in velvet. I still miss getting whacked in the shins with it though.
chris
Such a handsome fellow! Right now I envy y’all down there in Florida. Just in from a short walk with the dogs in an inch of new snow and windy 17F weather. I don’t usually air out the longjohns until the end of November but they’re out now.
Happy Thanksgiving from the great white north
Nelle
I’m mostly a lurker in the comment section but I want to thank all of youse guys for keeping me informed and entertained, especially through the last year and a half of chronic pain (now improving thanks to hip replacement). I’m thankful to you and for you. A little river of sanity running through the inter-tubes.
Manyakitty
Happy Thanksgiving! Badger is such a sweet, handsome boy!!!
Adam L Silverman
And now a Thanksgiving message from the President of the United States…
efgoldman
@Mary G:
What did you do w/the crazy RWNJ uncle? Chastised by recent events?
WereBear
He’s doing the teen-dog leg thing. Next, the filling-out.
Our four rescue cats are enjoying the lazy day, and we will set out treats before we gather with friends at a buffet next town over. It’s a resort hotel, so they stay open always, anyway. No guilt.
Nice and sunny and 5. No wind. Don’t even want to wear my parka!
Ben Cisco
Repost from Down Below:
Happy Thanksgiving Jackals! I’m home with my mom and niece, gathering with most of the rest of the family later.
Grateful to be here, and grateful for all of you.
Enjoy the day!
satby
@efgoldman: Good to see you efg! Happy Thanksgiving to you and the family!
I miss your fuckems.
efgoldman
@satby:
Scattered hither and yon. Too much low-hanging fruit.
The Dangerman
@Adam L Silverman:
I thought this was a sick attempt at humor. I only listened to that much of the quote and turned it off.
Ivanks, Daddy’s sundowning again.
Litlebritdifrnt
@Betty Cracker: My Boxer cross Skeeter had a tail and as you said he would smack your shins with it. I lost at least half a dozen tea mugs to it as well.
efgoldman
This game was going to be bad enough with a starting QB
efgoldman
@Litlebritdifrnt:
That’s like leaving them where the toddler can reach. Ooh pretty
Adam L Silverman
@The Dangerman: You need to watch it all the way through. The Navy officer corrects him, which then leads the President to switch positions and agree with the correction.
Here’s the actual Thanksgiving message. It is, perhaps, even worse than his conversation about steam.
Yarrow
@efgoldman: Speaking of kids, how are your grandkids?
Yarrow
@Adam L Silverman:
Nope. Not gonna ruin my Thanksgiving by watching or listening to him. Having to see his ugly face twice in this thread is two times too many for me. Makes my stomach turn. I literally put my hand over the screen when I see him and race to mute. He makes me physically ill.
efgoldman
@Yarrow:
Robust.
They have a new place, perfect in every way, still in Arlington
efgoldman
@Yarrow:
Doesn’t a negative level of ignorance amuse you?
Sun goes up sun goes down, nobody (least of all, orange fart cloud)) knows why
The Dangerman
@Adam L Silverman:
I’d rather (hmmm, no reason to enumerate the list of things I’d rather do; suffice, the list is lonnnnnng). I so look forward to the day Mueller brings the hammer down.
That’s my happy thanksgiving thought, Juicers; Muellermas is coming.
Yarrow
@efgoldman: That’s great. Do you get to see them at all?
@efgoldman: Not today. He physically makes me sick and I do not want that on a day of thanks.
geg6
@Yarrow:
Come sit beside me.
Happy Thanksgiving to all Jackals! Love you all and you’re what I’m going to be thankful for when asked to name things I’m thankful for.
And Badger is adorbs.?
efgoldman
@Yarrow:
xmas first time.
rikyrah
Badger is too cute for words??
cain
Happy Thanksgiving! Our family fight this year is between my mother and grandmother. The gist is that my grandmother is very religious and my mom is not and despite that my mom tries to help but my grandmother doesn’t understand that and is frustrated that the household is not more religious. She is also very angry about the drinking that happens and sees it as a example of low morals. On top of that she praises her daughter-in-law, who had kicked her out of the house and has no desire to take care of her after my uncle died. Which of course, pisses off my mother. Right now, my grandmother lives with my mom who is 70, and dad who is 80 for 6 months, and then stays with my dad’s brother and his wife who is already taking care of my 95 year old grandmother.. so they get to deal with two old birds who have all kinds of ideas, opinions and demands. They are damn saints. (my parents are first cousins, and so my grandmother is my other grandmothers sister-in-law)
ETA: politically, we are all Trump haters, and we generally fight amongst ourselves over stupid shit like why I hate Young Turks vs other stuff. Kind of hte same kind of fights we have on here.
rikyrah
@Yarrow:
Come sit by me
Mike in NC
@Yarrow: I’m with you about that. Happy Thanksgiving everybody. We are hosting 14 neighbors today and none are cultists.
Major Major Major Major
@efgoldman: reminded me of futurama:
?BillinGlendaleCA
@The Dangerman: No, he’s talked about this before. The Navy’s putting in electro-magnetic catapults in aircraft carriers replacing the steam ones. They’ve encountered some problems(it’s a new system, there’s always problems) and Trump wants to go back to steam catapults.
trollhattan
No matter what else happens today I’m thankful our AQI has plunged to 20 since rain and a wind shift has moved out the Camp Fire smoke. It hit 400 a couple times during the last nearly two weeks and seldom dropped below 200. Ghoulishly unhealthy.
Still feel dreadful for 14,000 families now homeless and the families of the dead and missing. So glad the president* has taken time to extol the Eastern cold snap. Sure fixed that climate thing, didn’t we?
BroD
I was wondering why it felt so cold out so I checked a weather site and discovered that it IS cold out. God, I hate cold weather!
trollhattan
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Launching coal-fired fighter jets, no doubt.
efgoldman
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Or maybe rubber bands, wound real tight.
Like he knows the difference.
efgoldman
Somebody else must be awake
Yarrow
@efgoldman: Awake but busy! Glad you’re getting to see the kidlets at Christmas. Happy Thanksgiving!
Betty Cracker
@cain: My maternal grandma and great-grandma were always catatonic with disgust at all the drinking at family occasions. They were Baptists and fanatics, the both of them, but it didn’t take in subsequent generations.
debbie
@Adam L Silverman:
I was so hoping those quotes were snark. There is no bottom to the depths of his idiocy.
debbie
@efgoldman:
So happy to see your nym here. I have missed your trenchantness.
efgoldman
@debbie:
Fucking amazing, isn’t it.
Bet he doesn’t know the WH street address
?BillinGlendaleCA
@efgoldman: The rubber bands worked for his little airplanes(went with his tiny hands) as a kid, should work for a F-18.
@trollhattan: Of course, nothing better than coal.
efgoldman
@debbie:
Left my trenching tool inthe trunk
Beautifulplumage
Thanks to all the folks who keep this place running! BJ has been my news filter for the past 3 years and, like others have written, it helps keep me sane. The love for animals, writing, growing things, and making things, plus the snark, makes for a perfect mix. Wishing a pleasant Thanksgiving to all who celebrate!
efgoldman
@Beautifulplumage:
Goddamned good thing the blogfather’s asleep
?BillinGlendaleCA
50 years ago, today, The Beatles released their new album “The Beatles”(aka “The White Album” since the cover was all white). I’m listening to the 50 anniversary deluxe remix.
Doug R
So is the Navy going from a cable style launch to LIMs?
The really fast launching coasters use a cable powered by multiple hydraulic motors.
LIMs are simpler but they don’t seem to be as powerful, maybe there’s some problems as you ramp up the magnetic fields.
debbie
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
My local NPR station had an hour show celebrating the remix. It sounds great.
Elizabelle
@efgoldman: Happy Turkey Day.
Is your new grandson born? If so, how old? All the best. Great to see you here.
efgoldman
@Doug R:
And mango malignant knows and can explain it.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@debbie: I got it 2 weeks ago, it’s pretty good, you hear things you never heard before. Listening to “The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill”, it’s good except for Yoko.
efgoldman
@Elizabelle:
We did this dance before. He’s a month old
Aleta
@Adam L Silverman: OMG.
“…because steam is very reliable.”
“Sir, Mr Prez. Sir, we do pay a heavy cost for transiting with steam around the ship. I would go with the EM.”
“Good. OK. I like to hear that. I’m actually happy about that answer.
Because–at least–uh heheh.”
Amir Khalid
@Adam L Silverman:
The words in that message are perfunctory and impersonal. Trump, having not bothered to learn them, is obviously reading them off a prompting device. He is squinting at it instead of looking at the camera, which as an experienced TV performer he should know to do. Better no Thanksgiving message at all, I think, than one so poorly prepared and presented.
Elizabelle
@efgoldman: Excellent.
efgoldman
@Amir Khalid:
Truer words….
Doug R
@Aleta: It is easier to move electricity around than steam.
efgoldman
@Doug R:
Which tuegid turkey knows and understands, right?
Miss Bianca
@Sister Golden Bear: Ha ha, that sounds like a stone gas, as the kids used to say maybe, oh, forty years ago? Happy TD, SIster!
Miss Bianca
@Adam L Silverman: Wait a minute…this is REAL??
Steve in the ATL
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Which is true of most things she was involved in, no?
Yutsano
@efgoldman: Someone is, but someone doesn’t want to be.
HAPPY TURKEY DAY FOLKS!!!
Gonna drift over to the ranch here soon. Just enjoying the peace of the apartment before I have to deal with three shrieking nephews.
waratah
@Adam L Silverman: I rarely watch him but I watched both for you. I am so glad we have some Einstein’s, in our military and knew the right way to answer. I just wish they could figure a way to remove him his Vice President and cabinet
Right now!
zhena gogolia
@Steve in the ATL:
You know, I actually went through a period where I enjoyed her contributions to the Double Fantasy album. I have no idea what I was thinking.
Miss Bianca
@Steve in the ATL: Y’know what, enough with the Yoko bashing, all y’all. It’s lazy, misogynistic BS. It amazes me how people can idolize John Lennon and so easily dismiss the work of a woman artist that he obviously respected. Whether or not her art is to our taste, it behooves us to remember that contrary to the usual lazy misogynistic BS myth-making, it was John’s idea to work with her, not the other way round.
otmar
As this is an open thread, a small thing which shows some of the differences I see between the Austrian and the US justice system.
Some time ago, a child was killed as its pram was sucked from the platform into a passing train, as the mother let go to grab her second child. Pure tragedy.
Now the court verdict is in:
* no blame towards the train driver, he passed the station according to his rules
* the mother was ruled to have acted negligently (by not engaging the brakes of the pram), causing the death. But not criminal negligence.
Sentencing: as “simple negligence”, a diversion is possible, i.e. no real conviction, only one year probation.
The prosecutor said: “„weil angenommen werden kann, dass es nicht der Verurteilung der Kindesmutter bedarf, um sie oder Dritte von einem vergleichbaren Versehen abzuhalten“.
That translates to “one can assume that a conviction is not necessary to deter her, or others, from committing a similar infraction”.
This is quite a different approach to what I’ve seen from US prosecutors.
debbie
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Yeah, her vocal contributions … leave something to be desired. A great human being though.
debbie
@Amir Khalid:
Who would have prompted to promote steam for the military? I can’t imagine anyone in the WH, not even Stephen Miller. Perhaps a coal lobbyist has a home at Maralago.
trollhattan
@Doug R:
Dad’s WWII CV stayed in service for decades and was refitted several times. During that period, this happened.
trollhattan
@otmar:
“Was the mother armed?”
“What race is the mom and does her last name sound Mexican?”
“Where is the baby daddy?”
debbie
@Miss Bianca:
It’s not lazy or misogynist. Her voice and musical vocabulary were at odds with Beatles music. It would be like listening to Jeanette McDonald belt out a child’s lullaby. It just doesn’t work.
cain
@Betty Cracker:
Yeah, my grandmother always has a scowl on her face and watches like a hawk. My parents and I wait till she is upstairs before taking out the bottle of wine. Its kind of funny watching my 80 and 70 year old parents acting like teenagers with the liquor cabinet. My mom usually drinks from a mug or something that hides it. Hilarious!
trollhattan
@debbie:
Who can say, but it’s not a stretch that this guy himself hatched the idea. I’ll bet little Donny had the bitchin’est train set in Queens.
Just One More Canuck
@?BillinGlendaleCA: listening to that (well, not the remix – don’t have it yet), then The Last Waltz
Luthe
I am thankful I will be in Paris in two weeks. Complete with 19th century opera glasses with which to watch the ballet at the Opera Garnier.
Mnemosyne
@otmar:
US prosecutors only show that kind of compassion when a child is accidentally killed with a gun that someone left laying around. ?
Happy Thanksgiving, jackals!
Gelfling 545
@Adam L Silverman: Will not watch or listen to THAT PERSON. Is the message about how we should be thankful for/to him?
Steve in the ATL
@Miss Bianca: I don’t care what John thought of her music; I think it’s fucking horrible. Not saying she’s a bad person, but definitely one of the worst singers ever.
Gelfling 545
@Luthe: Oh, how glorious! When we were there everything seemed to be at Opéra Bastille and sold out! ?
Ruckus
@The Dangerman:
Rather have another colonoscopy. If only the prep would do the same for all of us, clean out everything.
And seeing him is worse than listening.
JPL
@Adam L Silverman: I just started watching the videos of his phone call, and let me say he has no idea what he is talking about. It’s not just about steam, it’s about trade, it’s about everything.
sukabi
Badger’s legs are a size too long, must be in his gangly teenage years.?
HinTN
@Mary G:
Late to the party but
wins the day for me.
Happy Thanksgiving, jackaltariat.
HinTN
@Miss Bianca: Not just misogyny, it’s a cultural thing, too. Our scale is comfortable to our ear, the oriental scale not so much.
Steeplejack
@Betty Cracker:
Badger is a handsome boy! And he seems to be coming into his own. In a lot of the earlier pictures he’s looking over his shoulder with a look like “What did I do now?” In this one he’s all “I got this.”
sukabi
@Adam L Silverman: oh ferfucks sake…saw an article where retired general slapping back at him for spilling military secrets… Seems he’s going all in on being an idiotic moronitude.
HinTN
? Definitely a close second!
geg6
@Miss Bianca:
This. Thank you. I hate how people dismiss her as some sort of groupie. She is an artist, whose work her husband appreciated and respected. The least we can do is extend her the same respect even if we don’t appreciate her vision. John did and he would not have been the solo artist he was without her.
J R in WV
@debbie:
I have to point out that the steam in this long and odd story is generated by nuclear reactors, not by coal or fuel oil boilers…
Part of why new Aircraft Carriers cost many billions of dollars.
karen marie
@Litlebritdifrnt: I don’t think tail docking is in the same class as ear docking and declawing. Docking is done when puppies are 24 to 36 hours old, the bone in the tail is very soft – like cartilage – and it is done at the same time as dew claw removal, all with little clippers – snip, snip, snip, snip, snip. The dew claw removal is much more painful than the docking, because there are four of them and, to my untrained eye, seemed much stiffer than the tail bone. I went with my neighbor to his vet when he had the litter done that my second Cocker came from. The ear thing is very painful, done when the puppies are old enough to feel it, and it lasts for weeks, if not longer. Declawing is indeed horrific. But tail docking? It’s not even close to as painful as you might think it is.