Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

They punch you in the face and then start crying because their fist hurts.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

This country desperately needs a functioning fourth estate.

With all due respect and assumptions of good faith, please fuck off into the sun.

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

Innocent people do not delay justice.

Let there be snark.

Washington Post Catch and Kill, not noticeably better than the Enquirer’s.

Shut up, hissy kitty!

“Facilitate” is an active verb, not a weasel word.

The unpunished coup was a training exercise.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

Republicans: “Abortion is murder but you can take a bus to get one.” Easy peasy.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires.

“The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.”

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

“woke” is the new caravan.

You are here: Home / Archives for 2019

Archives for 2019

Counting Down to New Year’s Open Thread

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Yes, this is a deplorably Eastern-Standard-Time-centric blog…

Celebrate with all due caution!

Ain’t nobody gonna be sorry to see 2019 end. Including the whole continent of Australia…

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Best of 2019 (Open Thread)

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My daughter made a woodblock print thingy depicting Badger, and it’s a work of art that should obviously replace the Mona Lisa in the Louvre:

Best of 2019 (Open Thread)

In my little town, there are two Chinese restaurants, and both are terrible. So, I’m learning how to stir-fry, and tonight’s experiment turned out well.

Just trying to stay positive in post-optimism America (and optimism was all we ever had). What’s your best of 2019?

Open thread!

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Tuesday Evening Open Thread: In America, Even Kermit Has An Embarrassing Backstory

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And yet, per the Washington Post:

In June 1992, an unusual complaint was filed with the New York City Police Department. Jane Henson, widow of Muppet master Jim Henson, had allegedly thrown a punch while attending a trademark and licensing convention.

“One of my employees was physically attacked by Mrs. Henson,” a marketing executive named John T. Brady told the New York Times. “With her fist, she knocked her across the booth.”

What had so enraged Jane Henson, whose 53-year-old husband had died of pneumonia two years earlier? Well, it all goes back to some of the couple’s earliest creations: a pair of Muppets named Wilkins and Wontkins.

The two Muppets were used in ads for Wilkins Coffee, a firm founded in 1899 by John H. Wilkins Sr., who sold coffee, tea and spices at the corner of 14th and Wallach streets NW…

… [Henson’s] Muppets made their debut as part of a WRC show called “Afternoon” that featured Willard Scott and Mac McGarry as co-hosts. But it was on an evening show called “Sam and Friends” that Henson — assisted by his future wife, then-Jane Nebel — really came into his own. Making its debut was a character fashioned from an old felt coat of Henson’s mother: Kermit.

“Sam and Friends” was produced in a studio in the Sheraton Park Hotel. The show’s success enabled Henson to buy himself a white Ford Thunderbird. The show also caught the eye of Helen Ver Standig, who handled advertising for Wilkins Coffee. In 1957, she approached Henson and persuaded him to make ads for the company. One catch: The ads would be just eight seconds.

If anything, that focused Henson’s creativity. The agreeable Wilkins will drink Wilkins coffee, but when offered a cup, the grumpy Wontkins won’t. And because he won’t, Wontkins is punished in all sorts of creatively gruesome ways: shot with a cannon, thrown from a tree, run over by a train…

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Moving Into The New Year With Molotov And Ribbentrop

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In 1939, the Soviet Union formally allied with Nazi Germany and agreed on how to split up the countries located between them. Immediately after, Germany invaded Poland. It is generally thought to be the beginning of World War II. Russia did not acknowledge the existence of the secret protocol on dividing Europe until 1989.

Cartoon by David Low in the Evening Standard depicting Hitler greeting Stalin after the invasion of Poland, 

But that is not what Vladimir Putin wants you to believe. No, it was dastardly France, United Kingdom, the United States, and others who joined up with Hitler first at Munich, leaving the poor Soviet Union with no choice! Putin has mentioned this in several speeches, and in the last several weeks, Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has joined in.

And they’re dissing diplomats who disagree with them.

The nations Russia has accused of starting World War II are pushing back.

Even Germany…

And, of course, a lot more from amateur and professional historians on Twitter. If you ever wanted to learn more about the beginnings of World War II, this is your big chance.

It’s hard to know what is motivating this propaganda storm from Russia. Here’s a person I trust.

That’s a little unclear, but I think the second sentence is intended to say that when Russia wants to use WW2 to gain friends, it usually talks about its sacrifices rather than the war’s origins.

There is speculation, as you see in the Dalsjö tweet, that it’s in preparation for some sort of military action from Russia. I tend to doubt that – Russia doesn’t need that kind of trouble right now. OTOH, Putin has been feeling cocky about his new weapons designed to deter the United States.

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Here’s A Sweet Story

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Just to prove I have a heart that isn’t completely made of stone, this was just a nice story:

When Katie Webster began seeking help in her volunteer efforts to canvas for Democrat Nate McMurray in last year’s election for the NY-27 congressional seat, she sent out messages to everyone and anyone she thought could help.

One of those messages was to fellow Clarence resident Steven Harvey, whom Webster had never met in person, though the two shared a mutual friend, Adam.

“Steve very politely turned me down,” Webster says as she tries to control her laughter.

While Harvey told Webster he admired her work, he was in the process of building a business and couldn’t envision himself committing the time necessary to be of any real help.

Harvey’s sentiment soon changed.

Open thread.

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Jesus Wept

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White evangelicals are a fucking plague and scourge. Look at this fucking poll, just look at it:

I guess hating LGBTQ people, the poors, liberals and city dwellers isn’t enough hate for these hateful fuckers. Their hate has no boundaries, it is as deep as it is wide. They hate individually, and when they gather in their megachurches, they hate in unison. Today, they hate the immigrants. Tomorrow, who knows what their imaginary sky king and the fucking grifters who channel His message will tell them to hate. All I know is that when their pastor tells them who to hate, they’ll hate that person or group long and hard.

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